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

[User]
ELI5: Why can you feel the air blowing out of a hoover from about a meter away, but the suction on the end of the pipe can only be felt a couple of inches away?

Its the same quantity of air moving, so why the difference?

[Assistant] The suction isn't directional in the same way. The air just next to the pipe is sucked in, and air from all directions moves in to replace it. When air is blown out, it's being pushed in a particular direction and carries on in that direction rather than spreading in all directions. In that one direction, you can feel the effect over a longer distance.


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

[User]
ELI5: how did species like felines not overrun the Earth before we learned how to neuter?

I have personally known several housecats who had more than 25 babies in 12 months. I do not understand how that is sustainable.

[Assistant] Because they have a stupidly low survival rate and a ton of natural predators. It is a strangely common misconception that wild animals somehow survive as well as domestic animals. Of those 25 the expected survival rate is like 2-4.


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

[User] ELI5: What are the consequences for a country to declare bankruptcy?

[Assistant]
Unlike a person who goes bankrupt, a country which cancels its debts has one major advantage: an income stream. A country which has built up so much debt that it cannot repay it without serious fiscal consequences can cancel all its debts and start again. The banks can't repossess its house or car. Short of hiring a mercenary army (ahem, Cuba 1920s), they can't do much about it. What they can, and do, do, is factor the risk into their new loans.

All countries need to borrow money to pay their bills in between tax revenues. Therefore, they all need to pay interest - just like companies. This is why you may have heard of 'ratings'. The US Government is AAA+, Argentina is CCC-. All this means is that lenders are entirely confident tha, short a catastophic, species ending event, the US will, eventually pay its bills. Argentina, on the other hand has, due to corruption, influence peddling and a sole-resource economy, has a habit of just saying 'fuck it' and cancelling its debts.

In short, the US pays 1% interest, Argentina pays 15%. Every day.


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

[User]
[General] If I'm a vampire-cop, does a warrant count as invitation to enter a house?

On a related note: If I fired a vampire from a cannon at my (open) front door, what would happen? What about if I stapled a warrant to him?

[Assistant] A warrant is the legal right to enter the house, it is not an invitation to enter.  You'll still need to get an actual invitation from the resident.  It'll be pretty easy to word your presentation of the warrant such that you'll almost certainly get the invitation, but you do still need the resident to say the words.


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

[User]
[The Rock] Why did a civilian chemical weapons expert accompany the doomed Seal team during the raid on Alcatraz?

Surely the military has people who know how to dispose of chemical/biological weapons. Why not send one of them? Why did General Kramer tell FBI Director Womack to find his "best chemical/biological man?"

[Assistant]
Chemical/biological weapons are extremely rare and the army concentrates its resources on the the most direct and applicable threats. Their research into chemical warfare extends to how they protect themselves. Any chemical weapons used on soldiers will be speeding towards them in rockets already.

As was seen when weapons inspectors were sent into Iraq in the 1990s, the expertise lies in the civilian sector, scientists and people who devote their lives to understanding chemical and biological attacks and how to counter them. The FBI is more likely to be dealing with a chemical bomb, so it is more logical that they would have someone like Doctor Stanley Goodspeed on the payroll, who it should be noted had expertise across a wide field of topics.

When the army needs someone that can get in and disarm  VX gasarmed M55 rockets, they turn to the FBI as they have someone like Stanley on the payroll, he's likely studied that exact weapon and he's the person with the best chance of getting the job done.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Are Imperial Star Destroyers painted white?

Now in old canon there was a certain legendary outlaw fellow, named Booster Terrik. With some help from Rogue Squadron, this bad dude got himself a Star Destroyer. And the man had a dream - to paint his star destroyer BRIGHT RED. Unfortunately, it wasn't as easy as it sounds, since it turned out that it's somewhat hard to procure such quantities of red paint, and a remark was made that only paint that was produced on such massive scale was "ISD White".

But it might have been a joke. I can't tell. To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if Star Destroyers weren't painted at all, and are just bleached white by cosmic radiation.

[Assistant]
They're canonically painted grey/white, and in Legends it was called "Star Destroyer White".

On the Errant Venture, given the galaxy's manufacturing capability, it's more likely war time shortages and the New Republic's lack of resources to spend on such things than there actually not being enough red paint (the Republic put red all over their ships), seeing as Booster did get the Errant venture painted red in the end.


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

[User]
Is there a philosopher that engages with the idea of being remembered after death?

I vaguely remember there being some ancient philosopherRoman, I thinkengaging with this idea. I'm trying to mention it in an essay and I'm wondering if anyone can offer some philosophers/philosophies that are relevant here.

[Assistant] Rousseau was heavily concerned with how he would be viewed after his death. He became extremely famous during his lifetime, then many countries and religious institutions condemned him for his writings. He was exiled and vilified for decades and only made the situation worse by his behavior and likely mental illness. He wrote a number of books trying to convince the public and posterity of his innocence and goodness in the face of widespread derision. In many letters, The Dialogues, and The Confessions he tries to show why he has lived the life he lived and why he was not evil or malicious. Then in his last book before his death, The Reveries of the Solitary Walker, he abandons this project and he argues that being remembered is not central to happiness and the good life.


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

[User]
[The Legend of Korra] How does "platinum" work as an anti-metalbender defense?

For one thing, it's made plain that *all* metal is simply earth that has been purified and refined- therefore, platinum may still have leftover "impurities" from it that could still be bended. Second, platinum is an *utterly abysmal* metal to make for armor- it's roughly as soft as pure gold, which means a mech made of platinum could be dented not only by skilled earthbenders, but even ordinary citizens throwing rocks at it. Furthermore, it's also incredibly heavy, making its use as armor even more baffling as mechs constructed with it would logically be too heavy. Is this actually "platinum," or is it just some weird metal of the same name?

[Assistant]
>For one thing, it's made plain that all metal is simply earth that has been purified and refined- therefore, platinum may still have leftover "impurities" from it that could still be bended.

*In-universe*, it just doesn't. Platinum is purified and processed to such an extent that it does not possess the "earthen impurities" necessary for bending.

>All that other stuff

*In-universe* platinum doesn't have the same properties as *IRL* platinum. It's strong enough, hard enough, light enough, and plentiful enough that it can be used for armory and construction and whatever else it's been shown to be used for

**tl;dr Avatar universe Platinum  IRL platinum**


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

[User] Since the moon has no atmosphere to induce drag, can an object theoretically orbit at say, 1 meter above the highest landform on the surface if the velocity is correct? Would this orbit be stable? If so, what's the velocity?

[Assistant] No, and the reason is the Moon's gravity is not uniform, it has significant "mascons" (mass concentration). These perturb low lunar orbits, causing satellites to impact the surface typically within under 2 years. There are four orbital inclinations known as "frozen orbits" where things are stable because the effects of the mascons cancel themselves out in the long run, but even then a perilune 1 metre above the highest mountain is probably perturbed below that in the short term. You've also got perturbations from the Earth and Sun, and effects of solar radiation, to consider.


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

[User]
[MCU] Why didn't Tony Stark try to recruit anyone other than Spider-Man?

Seeking someone to help him fight Captain America (and join the Avengers), Tony Stark recruited Spider-Man. At this point, Spidey was only known from a few YouTube videos. Somehow Tony sussed out his identity and recruited him despite being just 15.

Why didn't he try to recruit anyone else? In NYC alone there's Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, Daredevil, and the Punisher. All of whom are older and more mature than Peter is, and guard their identities less secretively.

And then, who knows what other heroes there are across the USA that he could have recruited?

[Assistant]
Listen, Punisher is a lunatic with a gun, he wouldn't even care about the superhero scuffle. Same with Jessica Jones. Daredevil and Luke Cage likely wouldn't get involved either because it's a conflict amongst people, and those two are more concerned with helping the common man.

Truth is that Tony isn't in the business of starting up a superhero school, especially not for people who are fiercly individuals like those four. And an honest truth is that Peter was recruited because he's an impressionable young man. It has less to do with physical abilities and more to do with whether or not they can follow orders.

Not sure about Iron Fist though. He's not seen as the most mentally stable guy, so that might have something to do with it. Or maybe Stark was watching a bit of his story and stopped halfway through because it was so terrible and boring.


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

[User]
[MCU] If Mjolnir wasn't destroyed, could Thor have stopped Thanos by placing it in his open palm?

Would keeping his hand open stop him from using the gauntlet?  Could Thanos somehow lift Mjolnir?

[Assistant]
Thanos himself seems to think he needs to do physical gestures to use the stones, though the stones show enough knowledge of his intent that they can clearly pick commands out of his mind if he wants them to.  So pinning his hand probably doesn't stop him forever.

Which doesn't matter because a fully filled gauntlet is far more powerful that Mjolnir, and would be able to overcome Odin's restrictions.


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

[User]
[Comics] Super Strength in general... should that equate to being able to jump miles at a time...

So Im thinking about Thing, from the Fantastic Four.  According to some sources, hes strong enough to lift close to 30,000 Tons...  considering he weighs only the slightest of fractions of that, he should be able to leap as far as his strength can propel his weight, right?  But super leaping is something that I only see associated with Hulk...

Colossus... Juggernaut... Luke Cage

Even some DC characters that arent blessed with flight with their strength like Aquaman and Hourman...

Is this side effect of super strength ever explored or focused on in comics that maybe I just havent seen?

[Assistant]
(Some ELI15 for you)

There are, essentially, three types of muscle fibers in those "muscles" we think about when somoene brings up 'strong': Slow Oxidative, Fast Oxidative, and Fast Glycolitic. These are categorized mostly by the type of respiration they need to produce that power (aerobic or anaerobic), how relatively quickly they contract, and finally, how prone they are to fatigue.

Most folks have simplified this to the following:

Slow-Twitch/ST (Slow Oxidative): These muscle fibres take the longest to fatigue, and are usually the slowest to contract. These are the fibres that are used most in 'marathon' type activities, where endurance is key.

Fast-Twitch I/FTI (Fast oxidative): Contract faster than SO fibers, are more prone to fatigue, and can change between aerobic or anaerobic respiration.

Fast-Twitch II/FTI (Fast Glycolitic): Contract faster than the other two fibres, are the most prone to fatigue, and only use anaerobic (also called Glycolisis) respiration to work.

But muscles aren't everything! Keep in mind that the muscles are also fighting against their own weight, and the weight of the body using them! Some superpowered individuals are, relatively speaking, much denser than similarly sized individuals. In other words, it takes a lot less power to throw an orange that weighs normally, versus one that ways two tons!

So, depending on the superpowered individual, their own mass, and many times, how and where they get their particular powers from, it can mean that even though a single individual can lift a M1 Abrams tank, they may not have the right muscle fibres, or a low enough mass, to enable a jump that's higher than an average non-powered individual.

In short, physiology and anatomy, combined with physics, will always be a limiting factor in how well a super-strong individual can actually use that strength.

As an aside, this is also why some of our strongest individuals tend to have non-human, non-standard, or mechanically (via technology, magic, psionics, gengineering, et al.) augmented physiques. There is a natural limit to what nature can accomplish all on its own, even if some very skilled, gifted, or lucky humans have near-superhuman capabilities.


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

[User] Why is it whenever you see powerful lasers used in labs or other areas they are almost allways green? Is this due to how they are produced or is green light a better wavelength for sensors to pick up?

[Assistant]
A Nd:YAG laser is often used as as it can make \~10 nanosecond pulses at low frequency. (so it compresses all your power into a few short burst of very high power). Example: A 4W laser pulsed at 10Hz with a 10 ns pulse gives a 40 MW intensity during the pulse. Incidentally, this is why pulsed laser are so dangerous compared to continuous lasers.

A Nd:YAG produces 1064 nm light (near IR). High power 1064 nm is very dangerous to work with as you cant see the beam, or reflections etc easily. So, if the wavelength isn't particularly important to the application, most applications will convert to the second harmonic of 1064nm.  The second harmonic of 1064 (nonlinear optics) is 532 nm light (green!) Thus you often get green lasers for very high intensity applications.


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

[User]
[Warhammer 40k/Warhammer Fantasy] What would the Imperium of Man think of the inhuman races in the Warhammer Fantasy setting?

The rules of the Imperium of Man include death to all alien species. But a dwarf or elf is not an alien: they're as much natives to the Warhammer planet as the humans are. My question is: would the Imperium regard them as Xenos?

[Assistant]
Yes. Dwarfs and Elves deviate from the Holy Human Form so being native to the planet means nothing to a religious zealot. The Adeptus Biologus would probably say they're Aeldari and Squats and mark them for exterminatus as a matter of course. Elf magic marks then as psykers so the Ordo Xenos and Hereticus would demand them wiped out as well.

The humans themselves might even be subject to extreme testing to make sure they're not an abhuman substrain.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does a person become angry/moody when they're tired?

[Assistant]
All of the chemicals in your brain (neurotransmitters) that normally make you feel happy are tied to your body's natural internal clock (circadian rhythm). Aside from your body producing less of those when you are tired/usually sleeping, this is also the time when your body repairs itself.

If you force yourself to stay awake for a long period, all of the "unnecessary" functions usually managed by a healthy, well-maintained brain not required for immediate survival are partitioned away or outright shut off. This sort of process occurs for almost every system of the body - digestive, energy production, brain chemistry, etc.

You becomes dull, your reaction time slows down, critical thinking goes out the window, emotional sensitivity disappears, and your body gradually starts to wear down faster. This is why people can - eventually - die from a lack of sleep. It impacts everything down to the folding of protean strands in your DNA and cellular water retention.

I can ELI10 for more detailed stuff on stages of sleep and situation awareness if asked, but that's only tertiarily related to the main question.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are there so many abandoned cities in China?

[Assistant] China has a problem; they have a lot of citizens and not nearly enough jobs to keep them all employed. One of their solutions has been to invest heavily in construction resulting in the building of cities for a population they just don't have.


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

[User]
is it possible to synthesize proteins chemically?

so i mean like can we take individual amino acids and ligate them togather to form proteins. and so can we engineer new enzymes and protiens by using discovered enzymes as a base , without rna or dna.

[Assistant]
Yes, but it gets tricky to scale up purely chemical processes for protein synthesis (making small quantities is easy, making larger quantities gets expensive and complicated) -- and the problem gets worse, the larger the protein gets.

As already mentioned -- protein expression in bacteria is usually more efficient.


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

[User]
ELI5 How does the WiFi in the new Chevy cars work? I mean they have to be using a wireless network right?

Who pays for the data? Is it built into the price of the car or does the dealership or manufacturer have a deal with the carriers?

[Assistant] The car has a computer that connects to the cellular data network.  This computer then acts as a router and shares the connection out over wifi.  The wifi is locked down so only people you want to connect can connect.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do I feel tired all day but when I get into bed I'm wide awake?

[Assistant]
There are a ton of reasons why.

A)You might have a bad sleep schedule

B)Too much caffeine at night

C)Your room may not be conducive to good sleep

D)Use of electronics at night.

E) Daytime napping

The point is, it's hard to tell, but it's different for everyone.


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

[User]
Where does the energy go if there's no load on a solar panel?

If there is no load on a solar panel, theoretically there is little/no work being done, so where does the incoming light energy go after hitting the solar panel?
I don't see solar panels becoming more reflective if there is no load...

[Assistant]
Neat question!

Just like with any other dark-colored surface, the absorbed light energy goes into heating up the solar panel, which radiates infrared energy and heats up the surrounding air.

On the micro-scale, photons are still kicking electrons across the semiconductor junction to higher potential, but rather than flowing through a connected circuit, they just fall back down across the junction again, releasing energy as heat.

What's surprising is that, according to the law of conservation of energy, a solar panel under load must run *cooler* than one without.  I've never seen a demonstration of this, but a quick back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests that the difference should be measurable with an infrared camera...


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

[User] ELI5: why when I go to sleep with a FULL stomach (ie Thanksgiving Night) I wake up STARVING! However, when I go to sleep with an empty stomach I wake up with a normal appetite or none at all?

[Assistant]
The guys talking about insulin are closest. When you eat, your blood sugar rises. Insulin is released to force the sugar out of the blood and into storage (into fat cells or to restore muscle glycogen). Your body tries to keep normal insulin range of about 90-110. After your body is done getting the sugar out of your blood, you actually dip below the 90 end for a little bit. This usually results in you being hungry again. In regards to Thanksgiving, you were processing food for an extended period of time, and you probably woke up in the low part of the insulin dip.

This is also why eating simple carbs (bread, fruit, desserts, etc) keep you hungry: because you spike and then dip again. Adding in some healthy fats will slow digestion some and keep your insulin in a smoother curve instead of a violent up/down curve.


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

[User]
CMV: It's wrong to not teach children HOW to stand up for themselves against bullies.

 I'm mad as hell and I can't take it anymore. My lovely parents who taught me many wonderful things taught me to turn the other cheek. I'm so pissed as I realize that they just set me up for bullying.

I was bullied like many kids. I was taught at home to ignore it and walk away. AAAARRRRGGGG That is an adult function, not a 13-year-old.

What I should have done from the start is be less of a p\*\*s\* and stick up for myself. I'd let girls walk past me on the stairs and elbow me or make some snide comment for everyone to hear. I literally can't remember their exact words, but they stung because I knew I'd just take them on. Then, once you have the reputation of not standing up for yourself, you're fresh meat for the next bitch.

While knowing that my parents wanted to teach me right, they did me wrong. I should've been taught to turn around and get in the face of said bullier and at least fight for myself. I should've been given the right to defend myself. *I should've been given the tools to at least have a fighting chance even if it got me in a fist fight.*

Every time I hear about bullying in my adult life I just get infuriated. It's always about "we don't accept bullying" or "zero tolerance." Bullshit, they're trying to control the bullier. The only thing to stop bullies is for the person being bullied to fight back. There will always be bullies, but if they don't have anyone to bully, they'll lose their job.

**Parents, teach your kids how to stand up for themselves and support them in school if they get in trouble for doing so. Please, I beg of you parents (and I'm not one by choice) to teach your children exactly that.**

I'm pissed that I've spent my life feeling like I "have" to turn the other cheek. It has caused more problems than I can put on paper. I'm just now, at almost a half a century, figuring out HOW to stand up for myself.

I'm less of a p\*\*s\* than I used to be, and I'm thrilled. I'm just pained for kids these days and hope we, as a culture, stop focusing on fixing the bully when it's time to fix the bullied and empower them. The bully will move on to the next guy and let's hope he gets a door in the face.

[Assistant]
The problem is that actual violence or talking back, usually does lead to more bullying, because it simply fails. The bully picks you, because you're alone and weak. They don't pick the kids that can physically take them and their friends on. The bully doesn't pick those who can talk back and hurt the bully's emotions.

Sure, you can try to teach children that, but honestly, that's really hard and would also likely compromise the innate qualities of the child. Some kids simply aren't build to look tough or quick witted talkers, and they shouldn't have to become so just to avoid being bullied.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why did Microsoft get in trouble for including IE with it's software, yet Samsung can sell me a Galaxy S6 stuffed to the brim with crapware and get away scot-free?

Doesn't make any sense.

Microsoft got absolutely battered for bundling IE with its Windows software, yet Samsung (and pretty much every phone manufacturer) includes a massive host of shit with it's phones and doesn't see any repercussions?

[Assistant]
Back then, internet was *really* slow. To install a browser you either bought a physical copy at a store and installed it from a CD or floppy drive, or you downloaded it at an excruciatingly slow speed. Internet was often priced for the time you were connected, so every second you spent on the net meant your bill was growing bigger. So IE coming pre-installed with Windows was a massive convenience. People didn't have to jump through hoops to get a browser on their system anymore. They could just start using IE and never worry about anything else again. The problem was, IE belonged to Microsoft, the company that owned Windows. Court thought that this gave Microsoft an unfair advantage over other browsers, which couldn't find their way into Windows machines anywhere as easy as IE could. Microsoft was accused of being a monopoly and using their power to restrict their competition and win the browser war.

So it wasn't about filling the computers with bloatware, it was about being a monopoly. Nowadays, it's not as much of an issue because it's much easier to switch to a different browser. They are free and easier to get.


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

[User]
Difference between different types of Amorphous solids?

So I'm doing a research task about glass, its properties, structure, production, and economic impact, but am having a problem finding a distinct difference in definition between a plastic and a glass. Both are amorphous solids, right? Both undergo a glass transition phase, right? Like plastics don't melt, but rather get softer and harder with or without temperature, and so does glass, so what is the difference by definition?

I read that all glass are amorphous solids, but not all amorphous solids are glass. Please explain how this is so, thankyou :)

[Assistant]
Amorphous solids are solids which lack the long-range order of crystals.

Glasses are a subset of amorphous solids which show a glass transition. This is a second order phase transition from the brittle, glassy state into a melted, rubbery state. This is different from melting which is a first order phase transition, and if the material has a melting point, the glass transition temperatur is always at lower temperature than the melting point.

According to this definition, glasses do not only include your typical window glasses but also most polymers or supercooled special metallic alloys into so-called metallic glasses.

Not all amorphous solids, however, have a glass transition and are therefore not glasses according to the definition.


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

[User]
ELI5 the unsettling feeling produced when looking down while on top of a tall building

And why is a similar reaction sparked even when viewing a picture taken from a high vantage point aiming down?

[Assistant]
This is a really interesting phenomenon! Sometimes on the edge of a high place, you feel as though you're almost being pulled to it. This is because in your brain, alarms are going off everywhere (mostly in the amygdala, the part which processes fear) telling you that you are in danger, yet your brain's prefrontal cortex is also able to rationalize that you are not actually in danger.

The conflict between these two processes creates the intense unsettling feeling.

TL;DR: Your brain thinks you're in danger, but knows you're actually safe, and has a tough time dealing with both of these ideas simultaneously.


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

[User]
Why does our ear and nose hair grow longer as we age?

As I hit middle age, I noticed mine growing faster.  My father (in his 80s) has significantly more than I do. Is there a present, former or future necessity for it? Does it have a length 'limit' encoded within us?

[Assistant] Its not that they're growing longer per se, they're growing for more time.  The reason your arm, leg, ear, nose, etc. hair seems to stop growing once it hits a certain point has to do with how often there is overturning in your hair follicles.  As we age, the turnover time increases, that is the peaks and valleys (growing and empty) spread out.  For some, they become stuck permanently in the valley between production of hair strands -- this is baldness.


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

[User]
How exactly does soap get you clean?

What chemicals in soap react with what chemicals in the body? How does this make your skin clean? Any help would be appreciated- thanks!

[Assistant] Soap contains (generally) alkali metal salts of fatty acids, which are formed through the saponification reaction of triglycerides (which are a type of fats that we eat). These soap molecules are considered amphipathic; that is, they contain a hydrophobic nonpolar end, and a hydrophilic end. It is an approximation to say that dirt particles which cannot be washed off with water easily have some hydrophobic quality. When soaps are added to water, they form structures called micelles; these are balls of detergent molecules where the hydrophilic carboxyl termini of the molecules of the soap face out towards the water favorably, and the hydrophobic ends cluster together out of reach of water favorable. This is favorable because the interaction of hydrophobic tails with water is entropically unfavorable. Hence, these micelles allow the soap to solve hydrophobic dirt/dust particles that normally would not easily be solvated by water. These hydrophobic dirt molecules could be trapped inside the micelles. Thus, the soap allows us to "wash away" hydrophobic stuff that cannot easily be gotten rid of by water.


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

[User]
ELI5 how do reality shows record illegal acts in series?

Like moonshiners or street outlaws, those are illegal things people are doing in the show so how do they record the footage and not get in trouble?

[Assistant] You generally can't prove from the footage whether or not the acts are actually illegal, or just fake reenactments for the show.  And police generally have more important things to worry about then trying to hunt down possibly-fake moonshiners.  You know, like solving actual murders, or responding to victims of domestic violence.


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

[User] [WH40K]Can xeno psykers create their own "Emperor"? Why can't Human psykers create a new one as well?

[Assistant]
Two reasons-

First, the warp is much more turbulent and dangerous vs when the emperor was created. It's like comparing open ocean with a few rolling waves that are of no threat to any seaworthy vessle larger than a jet ski, to the sea right next to a seawall during a hurricane.

Second reason, is because the emperor isn't made from normal psykers. He's made from shamans, who are each comparable in power to malcador, who is rumored to himself be a shaman who stayed behind to guide big E before he reached his full power.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do many Americans lose their power of reasoning when talking about socialism?

I often hear very intelligent Americans talk about socialism as the devil's work that is intrinsically abominable, exactly equal to communism and nothing ever to be considered. Does socialism not mean the same thing over there as here in Scandinavia where it works just fine without dictators and concrete walls (Social democracy)?

[Assistant]
Socialism in the form of communism was the form of government of our longest lived enemy, the USSR. We had 50 years of conflict and risk of global annihilation with them and both sides heavily used propaganda to demonize the other side. That is one generation deciding that they were the enemy, and two and a half generations growing up during the cold war (a generation is roughly 20 years). That amount of cultural indoctrination via propaganda takes a long time to undo (if you can ever undo it). Even though the Cold war officially ended in 1991 there are many in the US that do not consider to have really ended and who do not trust Russia one iota.

It does not matter how successful things are in Scandinavia, the term is tainted by connection to the USSR and for the time being there will be a lot of resistance to them.

Another part of it is that we view the role of government to be different. To the US the role of government is to make sure there is an environment that you are capable of working for your own betterment and that your personal liberties are protected, in much of Europe the role of the government is to make sure that you are healthy and provided for.


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

[User] ELI5: How does sending troops help prevent the spread of ebola?

[Assistant] The military has medical professionals. As well they can help organize and distribute necessary aid, and are capable of mobilizing (relatively) quickly on a large scale to construct and supply treatment facilities.


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

[User]
ELI5: How can MMA fighters often handle multiple blows to the face, but go down if they get a punch to the liver?

I have always wondered why this is the case. Ive seen the most hardened fighters go down due to a simple kick or punch to the liver. Hope someone can explain this phenomenon to me.

[Assistant]
Your skull is really good at deflecting and absorbing impacts without actually taking anything beyond superficial damage.

Getting hit in the face is painful and disorienting, but if the force isn't sufficient to actually cause a concussion or fracture there (usually) isn't actually much damage.

The organs below the rib cage don't enjoy the same level of protection.  Your brain, heart, and lungs are well defended by bone armor but the lower organs are exposed.

Blows there can cause organ damage, forcefully empty the lungs, and/or fracture the "floating" ribs that aren't anchored to the sternum, all of which will drop even a skilled fighter if they take a bad body blow.


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

[User] [Alien] Let's say you are implanted with a Xenomorph embryo. Knowing you have mere hours before it hatches, you decide to go on a suicide mission to attack the nest in the hopes of killing the queen. Would the drones refrain from attacking if you had an embryo still incubating inside you?

[Assistant]
The drones might refrain from killing you, yes, if they sense the embryo inside you.  However, there's nothing stopping them from incapacitating you and dragging you to the nearest wall for cocooning.

If you manage to make it to the Queen, though, the Praetorian Guards protecting the Queen as well as the Queen herself would probably have no compunctions about tearing your head off.


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

[User]
[Ed, Edd, N Eddy] Why does Double D put up with the other Eds' trouble?

They use him because of his intelligence and he has no problem at all being nice to the other kids. Sure he gets wrangled into Eddy's scams and complies, but they almost always result in the Eds getting pounded or punished in some way by the victims. Without the other two Eds or really just Eddy, his need for an orderly life can be fulfilled.

[Assistant]
They're still friends at the end of the day. Edd isn't exactly the most popular (none of the Eds are, actually) but they have each other.

And Edd, while being the most forward thinking and morally driven of the 3, still seems to enjoy the Eds' schemes as an outlet for his creativity. He gets to design and craft things, many of which are ridiculously ingenious. There's probably not a lot of things that keep Edd's mind occupied especially during those seemingly everlasting summer breaks.


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

[User] [Star Wars] Did the clones realize what they did during order 66? How aware were they and what were their feelings about it after the fact?

[Assistant]
Oh they knew exactly what they were doing, and they did it unquestioningly. That was the whole point of implanting the chip in their brains.

Each clone had their own opinions on the Jedi they fought along side with. Some loved them like brothers, others kept a more professional relationship, and others disliked them. However their opinions on them didn't matter, when the call for Order 66 went out, the chip in their heads forced compliance. For a time they knew they had to kill the Jedi near them, and would do so knowingly and to the best of their abilities. When the order was given, the Jedi were just the same as any other enemy.

The aftermath and how they felt about it was again a personal issue. Most would justify it somehow in their minds. They were soldiers after all and they followed their orders. Some though did feel bad. They looked back at felt almost as if they were in some kind of trance, but again that too was a justification of sorts, a way to distance themselves from their actions.


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

[User]
[Fallout] Instead of having some kind of an experiment or secret,each Vault is ''normal'' (Vault 8 pretty much) and is opened when the all clear signal goes out.How is the Wasteland changed?

The Vaults get their standard supply of a GECK and everything. (by the all-clear signal I mean Vault 8's Enclave one.)

[Assistant]
Well for starters Civilization will probably rebuild a lot faster.
There are about 120 vaults. Each vault holds a couple thousand people.

If each are like Vault 8 then many of them will leave the vaults within a few decades and found cities like vault city. The ones that don't leave within a few decades are just in places with high levels of radiation.

Now with all these vaults opening and founding many cities across the wasteland the enclave will most likely soon show up and take control of the cities. Since  they created the vaults, the vaults would be loyal to the enclave.

With nothing to stand in its way the enclave will take over the wasteland.

With 120 vault cities this New America controlled  by the enclave would become a sort of Utopia. Since as far as we know the rest of the world is a wasteland too then America will likely be better off then any county in the world.

The medical technology of cloning and stimpacks as well as the military power of power armour will allow this new civilisation to deal with any threats it faces.

They will soon be able to get factories working again. Factories that will be staffed by robots that will start producing everything from cars to power armour.

Places like Big MT will be discovered eventually and there technologies will be used to further progress mankind. The infinite  resources from the Vender machines  from the sierra madre    will allow for even more progression as humanity rediscovers space travel and travels to other continents.

By the year 2277 the enclave have most likely taken over most if not the whole world. Soon the will be able to start colonising and terraforming other planets.

Humanity will keep expanding into space colonising and terraforming world after world.

They will eventually meet the Zetans who will be greatly interested in some of the technologies on earth.

Humanity will start trade deals with the Zetans. Trading things like technology, knowledge and even planets.

Humanity will expand through out the galaxy  becoming a galactic super power.

Humanity will live in a Utopia and there will be peace.

.

.

.

.

You know... Until that blood thirsty space empire from the other side of the Galaxy shows up and space nukes humanity to dust.

**Because War. War. Never Changes.**


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

[User] [Culture] Can a simmed civilization Sublime?

[Assistant] I think they could, but only if they became aware of their simulation and were able to gain some level of control over the substrate they were hosted on. If they can get to that stage there wouldn't be much separating them from a group mind, assuming of course that they have access to sufficient processing power.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is 320kbps the standard bit rate for music and not higher?

[Assistant]
Essentially, MP3 was developed to compress CD quality audio to certain bitrates without noticeable loss of quality. Much of the encoders targeted 128kbps or 192kbps, which is pretty much nominal - it sounded good, but other codecs (Vorbis and AAC) started kicking MP3's butt at those bitrates. 320kbps is nearing the upper range of what's actually "worthwhile" with MP3 - increasing the bitrate won't increase the quality anymore.

So the short answer is, MP3 algorithm as a whole doesn't offer much benefits over 320kbps. It's pretty much as good as MP3 gets. Other algorithms might be worth a try, or you could just use a lossless compression algorithm like FLAC.


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

[User]
What would happen if I started my car in zero gravity?

Assuming you're in a pressurized environment, if I started my petrol car in zero gravity, what would happen?

[Assistant] If you had a fuel injected engine and an elastic fuel bladder, the engine would run, and you would probably get enough lubrication from the oil to operate short term. If the car was not strapped down or attached to anything, it would begin to rotate around the same axis, but in the opposite direction, of the fly wheel to conserve angular momentum.


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

[User] [HARRY POTTER] What if Harry had chosen Slytherin instead of Gryffindor?

[Assistant]
To choose Slytherin means admitting your ambitions are the most important thing to you. For Harry, this likely ultimately means accepting the Deathly Hallows and knocking over the Ministry once Voldemort has proven how weak it is. Much like Grindelwald without the Muggle hate.

Voldemort almost certainly still loses, because there's no way for him to win in face of the prophecy, but there's also a good likelihood he is only reduced to a shade again - Slytherin Harry won't sacrifice himself.


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

[User]
[Magic School Bus] How are the students' standardized test scores?

Did Mrs. Frizzle prepare them sufficiently?

[Assistant] I mean, they have a class size of like 8 kids. Either they're in a special education program, or it's a very exclusive private school... You don't get that kind of teacher-student ratio in a gen-ed public school classroom. either way, they're likely exempt from standardized testing.


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

[User]
Does heat from a spaceships engine radiate away in space?

Say I built a nuclear powered spaceship in my back garden, and could fly around Earth just fine.  Would the engines / reactor cook me inside the cabin once I reached space, as the heat generated has nowhere to go?

edit.  This post really *took off* (ha!)  Appreciate all the replies and discussions it's generated!

[Assistant]
Two of the important ways to shed heat in our atmosphere (conduction and convection) don't work in space. This leaves just a single heat transfer method: radiation. All objects emit electromagnetic radiation, with the amount (and wavelength) depending on the temperature of the object.

So your spaceship does have a way to get rid of heat, but it'll be far less effective than it would be sitting in your back garden. So despite space being very cold, heat can be a bigger issue than it is on Earth. So heat management is an important area of interest when it comes to designing satellites and other things that go into space.

One of the ways to help cooling is to create a system that moves the heat from the interior parts of the craft to the outer walls of the space craft. The hotter you can make the outer walls, the more cooling you get through radiation.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do major and minor keys in music convey different emotions?

Are major and minor keys interpreted differently because they actually for some reason evoke those emotions, or has the association of keys with emotions in media help dictate which is 'happy' and which is 'sad'?

[Assistant]
There is no strict rule saying that major or minor keys are for happiness and sadness, respectively.

However, a minor third is slightly more "dissonant" than a major third. In general, dissonance is less pleasing to the human ear, and won't induce a complete, resolved, happy emotion.

Diminished triads sound particularly frightening and sad. This is because more dissonance is involved with a diminished triad (two minor thirds, one stacked on top of the other)


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

[User]
Why is it a lightbulb can light up a room more than a fireplace, but the fireplace radiates a lot more thermal energy? . Or atleast so it feels like.

Question is basically in the title. I just wondered since thermal radiation is basically electromagnetic waves right? Or am i missing something? And shouldnt the intensity light=intensity of heat.. Only thing i could think of would be that the fireplace maybe is radiating a lot of its heat in the invisible spectrum?

**edit** Just to make no confusion, since many answered this part. I meant that the radiating part of heat alone is stronger from a fireplace than a lightbulb. I know that the fireplace for obvious reasons will transfer also a lot of heat through convection/conduction too that a lightbulb won't do as much of because for one it's smaller.

Some did answer what I was looking for though, specially thanks to them and thanks to everyone else who answered :)

[Assistant]
Radiation of thermal energy (as opposed to conduction of thermal energy) *is* light, so when you say a fire feels very warm, it's because it *is* producing lots of light, just not in the visible spectrum.

Light bulbs were specifically designed to use materials that produce most of their radiation in the visible spectrum, for energy efficiency.


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

[User] Eli5: I've heard our DNA is 98% identical to a chimpanzee but that we have 50% of our mothers DNA and 50% of our fathers DNA. How am I only 2% different from a chimpanzee and 50% different from my mom?

[Assistant]
Your parents share something like 99.8% of the same DNA, so the 50/50 split is only in the remaining 0.2%, not the entire DNA sequence.

To put it in perspective, your parents are a pair of Ford Focuses, red and blue. A Chimpanzee is like a Ford Fiesta, which is 98% similar to a Focus.

You are a purple Focus, 50% mom, 50% dad, but still 98% similar to a Fiesta.


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

[User]
Made a project with an alt github account, but now wanna include it on my portfolio.. conflicted

Hi all, having trouble on how I can include one of my personal projects in my resume/portfolio.

Context:

I made a discord bot under an alt Github account. I have a main Github account that I always use for my projects, but not for this one. Reason being, it was originally just a fun thing I made with a few ppl I met on discord and never met them in person. Of course, I wasn't comfortable with them knowing my identity (since I don't know theirs either), so for sharing code, we all used alt accounts.

Anyways, this bot turned from something meant for like a small 10 person discord server, to now 1000+ ppl playing it in over a 100 servers. I've done quite a lot of work on this and learned a ton, so of course I wanna put it on my portfolio.

Few reasons why I am conflicted with putting it on my portfolio:

1. My name is no where in the repo details/git username. How would a recruiter know I didn't just yoink some random person's project?

2. Since this started as just a random thing for fun, the git commits are not professional at all.. (lots of commits named like "stuff", "hope this works", "lol", "progress"), and a decent amount of the code is a huge mess too..

I was considering not including the repo and just describing the project in detail in my resume/portfolio. However I normally always include the source repo... I'm afraid that if I don't include it, recruiters would be suspicious.

Thoughts on all of this?

[Assistant] Nobody is really going to care about things like the details of commit messages on a hobby project. If you want to move the project into your main account you can use git to rewrite the commit history and change the author to the email and name on your main account. You can do some googling and find plenty of stack overflow posts about how to do that.


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

[User] [Star Trek Discovery] What benefits and disadvantages would ships comprised entirely of holographic containment walls have compared to physical ships?

[Assistant]
Pros: complete configurability. Need a massive research station? Done. Have to put that on hold to move the entire population of a planet to a refuge station? Push a button.

Cons: one power outage and you're turbo-fucked.


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

[User] ELI5, what's going on in Venezuela, and what are the causes?

[Assistant]
You know that old saying: no society is more than 9 meals away from a revolution? Well thats where Venezuela is at today. How they got there is another story. Granted, oil prices are very low and oil is Venezuelas economy is largely dependent on oil revenues but 20 years of underinvestment in their oil industry, basic infrastructure, rampant corruption and the Venezuelan governments relationship with the Chinese has left the nation impoverished. Exacerbating all of this is the incredible brain drain thats been taking place for the past 15 years. A petition for Hugo Chavezs recall back in 2003 led to a blacklist for anyone who signed it, barring them from any public sector employment. Tens of thousands of high skilled workers, most critically in the nations oil and gas industry, packed their bags and left Venezuela. Instead of taking all that oil revenue and reinvesting it in the Venezuelan O&G sector or using it to diversify their economy it was siphoned off by corrupt Chavez allies, spent on PR stunts or doled out as welfare to the slums to keep Chavez in office. And when the oil money began to dry up due to both lowering prices and a decline in output from Venezuelan producers (caused by the lack of investment in those assets) they just began printing money. To make matters even worse, in an attempt to tackle inflation and shortages of basic necessity the Venezuelan government has been seizing private businesses and producers that dont toe the line on price controls. The reality of this policy is the business is handed over to a Chavez/Maduro ally who then runs it into the ground through a combination of incompetence and corruption.
.
So now you have a population that has to deal with 1,500% inflation, the worst violent crime rate on the world, lack of basic necessities, food shortages, crippling international debt, and no employment prospects. Its a wonder it took them this long to rise up.


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

[User]
Can eggs break inside of Oviparous animals?

Like chickens, geese, and platypuses.

If the egg does break in them does it halt the time to lay until it self-repairs; Despite the other eggs being ready to to be laid?

[Assistant]
Eggs are either really tough, or soft and leathery. Trying breaking an egg in your hand, the shape makes them very resistant to pressure. To break the egg the bird would have to have such a serious impact that the animal is probably dead before the egg breaks.

Sometimes birds produce imperfect eggs. They can get stuck along the way for a bit before moving on, leading to odd shapes, or sometimes no shell at all. The shell-less eggs can tear, scramble egg in the nest, but the shell wasn't hard yet, so at least no cuts. If an egg gets stuck completely it's a life-threatening emergency. Usually you'd try to lubricate it and gently massage it out in one piece. Breaking the egg is a last resort and dangerous, because yes, the shells can cut the bird up.

The soft eggs of reptiles can tear when they get stuck. It's also possible that eggs accumulate and can't come out at all, same urgent emergency as with birds, gotta get them out or the animal dies.


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

[User] Where do squirrels go during hurricanes?

[Assistant] Squirrels nest in hollow trees or in bird-like nests that are larger.  In weather, if they feel the need to shelter, they seek anything available that qualifies as an umbrella. Hollow trees are your best bet for finding them sheltering. They will also readily use barns and houses if humans do not disturb them.


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

[User] Is it possible for a single, random atom to split on its own, at any time?

[Assistant]
Yes, this happens all the time in some radioactive elements. It's called alpha decay: the atom splits into two, and one part is a helium nucleus, also called an alpha particle.

For example, a radium atom splits into one radon atom and one alpha particle.

If you observed a single radium 226 atom for 1600 years, it would have 50% chance of splitting in this fashion.


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

[User] Are cancers always fatal when left untreated?

[Assistant]
Depends on the cancer's ability to metastasize. One can live for many years with small carcinomas in thyroid nodules that don't really do anything much, for example. And many people are diagnosed with latent cancer on pathology after they have died of something else.

If you get to the point where you are diagnosed, though, treat your cancer or it will probably kill you.


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

[User]
Is there an evolutional or functional difference between octopus intelligence and vertebrate intelligence?

Layman's thoughts: Octopus have evolved very differently from intelligent mammals. And all highly intelligent vertebrates I could think of are also highly social. So I wondered how different (if at all) invertebrate and specifically Octupus intelligence is from other forms of highly intelligent life.

[Assistant] Is there a difference in their intelligence? Not really, they have "intelligence" suited to their surrounding. They can't get much smarter than they are now (they can't really evolve in intelligence) as their blood-delivery is done via (I believe) copper, rather than the human's iron. This limits, physically, the amount of blood that can be supplied to the organism's brain and limits the size and function of it. Being one of the first "deciders" in evolution, it cannot revert to another metal.


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

[User]
Terrible professors - why can't teaching and research be separated?

I'm doing a masters course in Europe and I'm honestly shocked at the number of terrible professors teaching me here. Out of all the courses I've taken this year, maybe one had a prof who I'd call a good teacher. My university isn't some local university either, it's pretty well known internationally (in the QS top 100). It's frustrating because it seems like some of them are completely aware of their incompetence when it comes to teaching but just don't care or try to improve it.

One particular prof who teaches econometrics, which at the masters level is pretty mathematically dense and should require at least minimal use of a blackboard, literally just reads off the slides in his lectures. He doesn't try to solve anything for us, just "if you solve this, you get this" and moves on. What's even worse is that his slides are EXACTLY copied from the book, they're literally just the books split into smaller chunks. So in his lectures he reads out the book to us essentially. I asked someone who was in the course last year and he said that the prof was famous for being terrible. When this guy has been teaching the course for a few years now like this, probably receiving horrible feedback each time, I don't get why he himself or the university doesn't do anything.

I think terrible professors are so common because they don't have an incentive to try and get better at their job. They're hired for their research, consider that as their main job and hence really don't give a shit about whether their students are learning or not. But why does it have to be like this? Why aren't research and teaching considered separate and equally important jobs? Why aren't profs held accountable for their horrible teaching?

[Assistant] For tenure-track professors at R1s, the calculus is simple: at the end of six years, if they excel in research but are marginal at teaching, they get to keep their jobs (basically permanently). If they excel at teaching but are marginal at research, they're going to be unemployed. It's not a hard choice to make.


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

[User]
ELI5: Does the human eye have a frame rate?

My instinct would be no but if that were the case why do certain frame rates feel wrong and why can we observe things spinning in the opposite direction to how theyre actually spinning.

[Assistant]
The eye does not see in frames, because life does not come in frames. A frame is only a measurement of something that is created as a still image, and then played quickly enough to create the illusion of movement. Life does not happen like this, there is no "frame" of a moment of something in real life.

Superfast movement illusions, such as wheels appearing to spin backward, do create issues for our eyes, as the brain only processes a certain amount of input at any given time to avoid overload. It will throttle the input at a certain point. But this is demonstrably different than a frame rate.

Anything that says the eyes see at a certain FPS is just an estimation that puts what our eyes do and tries to compare it to a frame rate, which is why there is such disparate numbers and nonconclusions in it.


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

[User] ELI5: Why has a part of black culture tried to reject white culture but maintained its steadfast faith in a religion that stems from that same culture?

[Assistant] Christianity wasn't ever associated with slavery. Yes, white slave owner used it to justify slavery, but white abolitionists also used it to condemn slavery. Christianity isn't slave-owning culture, it's not white-people culture, it's American culture. The slaves were just as devout as their owners, often even moreso: the majority of gospel hymns come directly from Christian songs about freedom that would be sung by slaves in the fields.


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

[User]
As a staff member at a university, should I just expect faculty to be disrespectful?

I'm young \(24\) with my BS and MSEd, working as an academic advisor to students in an undergraduate teacher preparation program. I just passed my one year work\-iversary.

Faculty within my division are awesome. Of course, there's drama but for the most part it doesn't involve me and I do my job with no issues. Every now and then my name has been muddied but my chair knows I keep it all above\-board so it hasn't been an issue.

Faculty outside my division seem to have a vendetta with my division? That's the only way I can describe it. Our division is the largest on campus with the highest enrollment numbers in undergrad and grad programs and our students take classes from nearly every division on campus. Faculty members from other divisions are repeatedly disrespectful and rude, assuming that I am wrong or out of line, constantly taking things to my dean or chair without even looking for an explanation.

I'm extremely frustrated that they A\) don't trust me to do my job correctly, B\) are focused on their divisions rather than the well\-being of the student, and C\) go to my boss without reaching out \(like when their issue was with a faculty member with my same first name...\).

What do I do? I fear retaliation from faculty. Is this just par for the course? Are full professors just going to be rude to me?

[Assistant]
I have a similar position to you.  It sounds like it's not you, but there's an issue with trust.  If you are going by policy, they may have issues with the policy, not with you.

The best thing you can do is open the lines of communication whenever possible.  Join committees or task forces where you may be working interdepartmentally.  If your boss meets with them, ask to be included.  CC on emails whenever appropriate and copy/paste policy to enforce your point.

Advising is sometimes being the peanutbutter that sticks the sandwich together.


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

[User] [Marvel/DC] If Bruce Wayne had gotten spider powers at the same age Peter Parker did how might this have changed his future evolution into a vigilante?

[Assistant]
He still becomes Batman. Capes and bats are already part of his mental landscape, what with Zorro and the batcave. Spiders are scary but they don't appeal to his theatrical side. He skips being a plainclothes vigilante and goes straight to costumed crimefighting.

But before that, he completes his world tour. Bruce hates relying on things he doesn't understand so he'll want to be prepared in case he loses his powers. He also needs to train himself *not* to kill people with super-strength. He'll still be a fitness junkie, making him just as big as most versions of Batman while approaching Venom in terms of raw power.

Bruce doesn't invent his grappling hook. Instead, he'll get around the city using parkour and a combination cape-and-gliding-harness. It possibly resembles the *Batman Beyond* suit.

In combat this new Batman is a total wrecking ball. The strength of Venom, the senses and reflexes of Spider-Man, and the martial arts skills of... well, Batman? Most of his rogue's gallery doesn't stand a chance. Bane never breaks his back. Physical villains like Killer Croc get downgraded to "nuisance." Other villains either get superhuman henchmen or powers of their own.

If Bruce takes on sidekicks they'll need to have powers. No badass normal is going to keep up with him. He still enjoys being a mentor, so he'll probably be more involved with the Teen Titans.


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

[User]
Doctor who: If you looked at a weeping angel with a telescope, could you see it in an unfrozen state?

Considering it takes time for light to travel, I don't see why not.

[Assistant] Angels are temporal in nature, as well as quantum. Any observation of them, at whatever distance, should cause them to freeze. As soon as you are in position to receive light bounced off of one, it will freeze in that frame of reference until no longer observed.


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

[User]
How many calories are in poop vs how many calories we consume

Like if I consume a 400 Calorie Hershey bar, what will be the caloric amount of the poop? How many calories is an average human actually running on?

[Assistant] **Keep this serious, and on topic. Please only answer if you have a background in biological sciences that relate to this question or you have a very good sources answer that covers the dynamics of what the body absorbs and what it doesn't. Thank you!**


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

[User] [batman] how would the joker react if someone genuinely expressed that they found his antics amusing?

[Assistant]
He'd smile and shake their hand. He'd give them a bag of cash and tweak their nose. He'd shoot them in the gut and make a crack about "belly laughs". He'd trap them in a funhouse and drive them insane. He'd seduce them with wit and charm. He'd skin them alive while demanding to know why they weren't still laughing. He'd buy them an ice cream. He'd frown and ignore them, because they're not his chosen audience.

Joker doesn't care about your opinion, unless you're wearing bat ears and a grim expression.


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

[User] [Harry Potter] If a pregnant animagus shapeshifts into a (maybe much smaller) animal, what happens to her unborn child?

[Assistant]
If the child is also a wizard it's likely they just shift as well. Wizard children are perfectly capable of performing advanced feats of magic, they just don't have control over it.

Maybe due to the placental connection the mother's magic just adjusts the baby as well, treating it like any other organ.


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

[User]
ELI5: Do fish and small sea creatures feel pain , how does it work ?

I just watched a vid of a crab eating a fish on a nature sub and it just kinda sits there not moving while its being eaten (in water)

[Assistant]
In general vertebrates are expected to feel pain. Fish have a spinal column and are a vertebrate. The fish is not moving due to shock, blood loss, or death.

The ability to feel pain is usually defined as being able to learn to avoid a stimulus. For example, crabs have a natural desire to hide under rock shelves. If you shock the crab every time it goes under a rock shelf it will stop hiding under rock shelves, telling you two things:

1. You can train a crab.
2. Crabs must feel bad when you shock them and want to avoid feeling bad.

Other organisms, like bacteria, will avoid hazards that will lead to their death, but have no ability to associate phenomena with those stimuli and only act in direct response to a stimulus.


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

[User] [Sci-Fi General] The fact that planets often have numbers: like "Yavin IV" and "Ceti Alpha V" seems really boring. Why don't the inhabitants of those star systems come up with original names for all the celestial bodies in it, just like humans have done with our solar system?

[Assistant]
Because most of the time those planets aren't named by the people living on them, they're named by a Galactic survey crew who have to come up with names for a few hundred planets a week, and they simply don't have time to bother coming up with unique names.

So people show up to start living on that world and just use the old name. And even if they want to change the name it's still going to be known to the rest of the Galaxy by it's old boring name, since that's what it would be called on all the maps and records.


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

[User]
[MCU] How old does Steve Rogers feel?

In Winter Soldier he says something like "I'm 95, I'm not dead". Does he actually identify as a 95 year old, or was that a joke?

[Assistant]
A joke. He only has 30-some years of life experience, as opposed to a 95 year old who has three times that. He probably feels out of place in the modern world in the same way that a 95 year old might, however, having both grown up in the 1920s.

Of course, a 95 year old would have experienced all the societal changes gradually, whereas for Steve Rogers it was in the blink of an eye, so they'd likely have differing perspectives in any case.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] How do copyright laws work?

What law will prevent me from duplicating Bertie Bott's charm to create his every flavour beans or Nimbus Racing Broom Company's charm and marketing them as my own?

[Assistant]
A lot charms are kept hidden from people to prevent these type of thing. If you don't know the charm, you can't copy it.

Making doesn't just rely on one simple charm. There's a variety of complex charms with complex interactions. A broom is more akin to a magical artifact than an a simple magical item. These spells are common knowledge, but what prevents people from just mass-producing their own brooms is the amount of skill and work involved.


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

[User] ELI5 how is it that hot air rises - but the higher you go in elevation, air is increasingly colder?

[Assistant] The Earth radiates huge amounts of heat that it absorbs from the Sun, so this heats up the air at lower altitudes. Since that air becomes warm, it rises, but that gets it farther away from the heat source (air is pretty bad at absorbing heat directly from sunlight), so it cools down. This is why it gets colder at higher altitudes. As the air cools, it sinks back down, where it gets warm again and repeats the process. This movement up and down is the main engine that drives weather.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do certain sites, like Facebook for example, only allow me to deactivate my account rather than completely delete it?

[Assistant] There is an option to completely delete a Facebook account, you just have to dig around for it. Then there's a two week cool down before it actually deletes. Many of these sites make money from selling user data, they use having a large number of users as a selling point.


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

[User]
ELI5: How can the President issue an executive order that basically directs an agency to ignore the law?

NO POLITICAL BS PLEASE.  Just explain the reasoning behind the president's proposed order that says don't deport who the law says we must deport.  I don't care about - or want to hear about -who is right or wrong on immigration policy.  My question has to do with the concept of the rule of law, not immigration.

[Assistant]
The executive branch's job is to execute the law.

For example a cop pulls you over for 5mph over and lets you off with a warning. This is within their right as they execute the law and can decided if the law needs to be applied in this situation, and if punishing you just.

This is an example of a power check in the US government. Congress can create a law, yet if the law is very unpopular, or stupid. It may never be enforced.

:.:.:

The president cannot create laws, or spend money without congress's blessing. But he can tell agents within his branch how to read the law, and execute it. That is actually what the President's job is.


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

[User] ELI5: How do they make fireworks that assume a specific shape when they go off?

[Assistant] Shapes like a circle are easy. You place small charges with delayed fuses around a bigger charge that blows them away from the center point equally in all directions. Shapes like a heart or other more complex ones need the central "spreader" charge to be specially shaped or have some sort of interference so that the smaller delayed charges that makes the shape are the right distance away from the center when the pop.


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

[User] Eli5: what happens if an object is pushed past it's terminal velocity?

[Assistant]
Nothing much. If whatever's pushing it is removed, it will slow back down to its terminal velocity.

Terminal velocity is the point where air resistance and gravity cancel each other out. In your scenario, gravity is pushing less hard than air resistance (because it's going faster than its terminal velocity), so it will slow down until it's back in balance. Pretty much the same thing that happens as gravity speeds it up until air resistance stops it from speeding up any more, except with the two forces reversed.


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

[User]
[Superman all versions] When specifically did Superman clarify the meaning of his chest symbol?

if there are different point in the saga please point them out.  i'm looking for the earliest bona fide instance available but anything on topic is good.

[Assistant] Wikipedia says in the original Superman movie he revealed that his symbol was not an S it was instead the coat of arms of his house. It's then called the coat of arms, and the symbol for hope, in Man Of Steel.


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

[User] ELI5: How can companies like Netflix and Uber survive with so much debt?

[Assistant]
There's two main methods for a company financing themselves. Equity and debt.

Equity is selling shares of their own company. So you can borrow 1 million by selling an investor 10% of their company.
At the end of the year, any left over profits which the company has will typically be distributed to the shareholders via dividends. This is optional, but often recommended to keep your shareholders happy.

The second method is debt. Say Netflix borrows 1 million at 5% interest for 5 years. Netflix is obliged to pay back those loans. However, as their profits are largely subscription based, they can rely on a fairly stable cash flow of income to pay off those debts.

As long as Netflix consistently pays off it's debt interest, the total value of debt isn't too important.

The benefit of using debt is through tax. Companies are taxed on profits, debt interest reduces companies profits. This means, by financing themselves via debt, companies such as Netflix can pay less tax, completely legally. This is called a tax shield.

As to how a company finances itself is largely dependent on how stable it's income is. Because netflix can rely on a very consistent flow of income through subscriptions, they take on debt, have no risk of failing to make their payments, and lower their taxes, all at the same time.


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

[User]
[Arrowverse] How many Barrys were there at the murder of Nora Allen?

say, up to and including season seven plots to keep with the spoiler rules.

[Assistant]
There are at least five Barrys.

Child Barry

Future Barry Allen fighting with Reverse Flash. The first Barry Allen.

Season 1 Barry Allen trying to stop Reverse Flash

Season 2 Barry Allen triggering Flashpoint

Season 3 Barry Allen reversing Flashpoint

Additionally there's Season 5 Barry and Nora immediately prior to the attack.


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

[User]
ELI5: Quark names.

Why are they named as they are? Top, and bottom, up and down feel similar but strange and charm sound crazy in comparison.

Why do they have the names they do and where does strange and charm come from?

[Assistant]
Up and down quarks are named for their spin.

Top and bottom quarks were named because they compliment up and down quarks. So the names were chosen to reflect that. They were once called truth and beauty (respectively for top and bottom). Those names never really caught on. Beauty lasted longer than truth did, though.

Strange quarks exhibit strangeness. Which is a term that has been used longer than we've known about quarks. The term has to do with how long it takes for a particle to decay through strong/weak interactions. Basically, they're "strange" because of the seemingly usually long time it takes for them to decay.

The charm quark was simply named on a whim. Sheldon Glashow and James Bjorken (the guys who theorized their existence) were charmed by the symmetry the particle exhibits.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] How do ships not crash into each other when going into/coming out of hyperspace?

I understand how navicomputers map celestial bodies to plot the best course while in hyperspace. I'm asking specifically about when the ships enter and exit hyperspace. How do they each know when and where another ship may be making the jump into hyperspace or coming out of it? What if one comes out at the same moment another is making the jump into it at an intersecting path? Wouldn't they hit each other? I feel like with as many ships as there are traveling around, this would happen often. What is the safeguard against it? Do the navicopmuters talk to each other?

Edit: Thanks to everyone for the replies. Addressing the point about space being vast, I understand the odds of two ships hitting each other are low. However, my odds of winning the lottery are also low but if I play a million times, I may win once or twice. Given the number of times ships come into and out of hyperspace around the galaxy, there has to be some statistical probability of crashes happening. The idea of using approach and departure vectors around the planet may help avoid this problem. The NAV computers may also be quick enough to pick up when a ship is dropping out of hyperspace and make adjustments. Good stuff!

[Assistant] In Legends, there is an "entry zone" (I forget the l-canon name for it) that's just a big area designated for arriving ships to revert from hyperspace into. There is no traffic control, as you cannot communicate with ships in hyperspace. They just revert blind somewhere in the area, and since space is HUGE and ships are small, accidents are extremely rare.


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

[User] [Pokemon] How recent of an invention is the pokeball and what does a pre pokeball society look like?

[Assistant] It depends on the canon we are using and what you define as a pokeball. Groudon and kyogre were both controlled by spheres and that could possibly be the first example of a "pokeball" in the game canon. Something a little bit closer to the modern definition of pokeballs is the apricorn balls. Up until around 400-700 years ago apricorn balls were the only pokeballs available.


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

[User] Eli5: Why does anxiety take appetite away and causes stomach to hurt ?

[Assistant] As you become stressed your body prepares to defend itself from physical attack. This means it turns off all the things that aren't designed to fight or run away. That includes your stomach and digestion. No point wasting energy digesting food if you are going to get attacked by a tiger in the next 5 minutes.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why is Luke better at using the Force upside down?

In the Wampa cave on Hoth, to grab his light saber; while training on Dagobah, when he gets his vision of the future; while hanging from the antenna under Bespin, to contact Leia.

It seems that some of his greatest instances of using the Force were while upsides down. Coincidence? Explanation?

[Assistant]
Luke started using the Force relatively late in life. As such, he had developed preconceived notions of what was normal, and what he was capable of. In order to fully unlock his Force potential, he had to lose those notions; he had to, to paraphrase Yoda, unlearn what he had learned.

Getting turned upside down is a disorienting experience. It disrupts your normal view of the world, and your place in it. When Luke was upside down, his mind was able to go to places it wasn't ordinarily, because he was so misconfabulated by his upsidedownness. It was the physical equivalent of a koan.


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

[User] Why do our eyes get "bags"?

[Assistant]
As for "why", there is probably no reason. Baggy eyes do not confer any evolutionary advantage. (Sorry for a bit pedantic answer)

As for how this happens, it is usually part of aging process. Many organs need fat around them to shield them from shock and to maintain them in good shape. Eyes also have a bit of such fat around them. As people age, the skin and the muscles on the face get weak, while the fatty tissue tends to expand a little bit. Combined, they end up making the fat get saggy under the eyes.


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

[User]
[Superman] (A) Why did Superman think that flying around the world would work and (B) How DID it work?

To reverse time?! If you've seen the movie, you know what I'm talking about.

[Assistant] Superman is going backwards in time by flying faster than the speed of light. Going in a loop around the Earth was simply efficient, as that's where he wanted to end up when he was far enough into the past. The Earth itself wasn't spinning backwards; rather, Superman's perception of the Earth's rotation made it look like it was going backwards, due to the negative direction he was moving through time. How Superman was able to see the planet at all at relativistic speeds, well... When you have superpowers that let you break the speed of light under your own power, you stop caring so much about what Einstein may have said.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does a microscope not show the microbes on its own lens?

I hope I worded that correctly so you can understand my question.

So I'm pretty much thinking "Ok, so a microscope is essentially a big 'zoomer' - it'll show everything in front of it magnified by... a bunch. So, there are germs on everything, right? So there's got to be germs on the lens of this thing. But I never see them? Or, for that matter, the germs ON TOP of my glass slide??"

Apologies if I'm using incorrect terminology here. Obviously this isn't my area of expertise. Hopefully this makes sense.

Also I did do a search and couldn't find any similar questions.

[Assistant]
A microscope is essentially a series of lenses.

You know all those knobs on the side of one? They adjust the distance between the lenses and/or the distance between the slide and the lens apparatus.

The reason they do that is because lenses have *focal points,* which are points outside the lens at which light projected through the lens will converge--or, in more familiar terms, a point that the image is the most crisp and clear.

When an object is moved into the focal point of the lens apparatus, it becomes magnified. Outside of this point, it's blurred. If it's too far outside, it's blurred so badly that you can't even see it.

Microbes on the lens are too close to the lens to be anything but horribly blurred, to the point where you can't see them except maybe as a slight tint to the light. Microbes on the slide, you could probably see if you focus on them.


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

[User] ELI5: why do people with Down Syndrome tend to have similar face structures?

[Assistant]
The facial features seen in Down syndrome are due to the extra chromosome (trisomy 21).

They are due to the extra "dose" of the affected gene (trisomy 21).

The effects are that epicanthal folds are produced on the eyes, which are almond shaped. Alongside this, the face trends to be flattened and ears are set low.

As well as these facial features, individuals with trisomy 21 also have short stature and small hands too.

It's the combination of the features together, especially the epicanthal folds of the eyes that are distinguishing.


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

[User] Why do astronauts lose bone mass in space?

[Assistant]
Bone tissue is constantly being broken down and rebuilt by osteoclasts and osteoblasts. The balance between the rate of ossification (making new bone tissue) and resorption (breaking down existing bone tissue) is normally carefully balanced.

It turns out that one of the signals that stimulate ossification is microscopic damage to the bone tissue, which is created all the time as you move around. Except when you go to space, that damage is reduced dramatically because you're no longer working against gravity. And thus, the careful balance is upset because not enough bone is being made to replace what is broken down as normal.


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

[User]
[Lord of the Rings] How does Gandalf typically spend his day-to-day? Like before his big distraction at the end of the series, was Gandalf hunting for the Ring 24/7, or did he take time to learn things for himself, relax, or go on fun adventures?

I've read the series and I personally feel as if Gandalf's life were him kind of making up for the limitations of the rest of the Council.... Like, Saruman obviously fails his mission, and perhaps Radagast and the blue wizards as well. But would Gandalf have succeeded if he'd gone more quickly into his adventure, or was he right to wait until the moment he found?

Not like a destiny question, more like, was Gandalf really putting all his personal energy into destroying the Ring?

Do we know how much information he received from Valinor and how much he had to receive from Middle-Earth with regards to the One Ring? Does Gandalf's old man form influence his ability to retain information while he's on Middle-Earth?

Thanks. sorry for the rant. asking for a friend.

[Assistant]
He knew plenty about Middle Earth before he left. His mission was to guide the Men of Middle Earth and to one day drive darkness from it. Neither he or most of his fellow Istari (except Saruman) were looking for the Ring until Gandalf put two and two together almost 20 years after Bilbo's 111st Birthday. He is more focused on traveling and advising leaders of men and trying to squash darkness where he could. For example during Thorin's reconquest of Erebor he did so to try and rid Middle Earth of one of the last great Drakes of Arda.

Please note that their job wasn't to do all the work themselves, that's why he sent Thorin and his company (and to some extent Bard) to slay Smaug or send the Hobbits along to destroy the Ring. Gandalf beleives it's the little things that will save the world. The innocent, gentle kind of good that is found in even the smallest beings.


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

[User]
[DC Universe] How is Batman able to survive a punch from Darkseid?

I was watching the animated movie "Justice League: War" earlier and saw Batman get punched with full force from Darkseid. It was a dead-on hit and Batman didn't really brace for it.

[Assistant] Bracing for it would have been a bad idea as it would have made his body absorb more of the impact.  He purposely didn't brace, and as such most of the force of Darkseid's punch was transferred into momentum.  Super strength for punching has a point of diminishing returns, grappling is really far more effective, especially when both fighters are super strong and super tough.


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

[User] If sound can be cancelled by producing another sound-wave in anti-phase, and light is packets of waves, is it possible that light can be cancelled out using anti phase?

[Assistant]
Yes, all waves, including sound and light, experience destructive interference when two coherent waves meet out of phase. This is what leads to optical interference effects such as the swirling colors on soap bubbles, the colors on peacock tails, the color patterns on the bottom of a CD, etc. The reason that you see color patterns when interference happens is because different colors have different wavelengths and experience destructive interference at different points. So at one point on the soap bubble, the green light has the right wavelength so that the reflection of the front surface of the bubble's thin film interferes with the reflection from the back surface of the thing film, destroying the green light, and leaving the red/blue light to reflect back into your eye.

Note that in wave interference (true for both sound and light), energy is never really destroyed. Rather, energy is redirected by the interference effect to the areas of constructive interference (and/or absorbed by materials and turned into heat).

Also note that unlike sound-cancellation headphones, light cancellation goggles (i.e. sunglasses) don't use wave interference as the mechanism to block light since it is so much easier and practical to use simple absorption.

UPDATE: As others have wisely noted, mostly only low-end optical filters use simple absorption, whereas high-end filters indeed use the interference that happens between the multiple reflections of the incident light off of the layers of optical coatings.


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

[User]
CMV: The modern governmental constructs currently in America are way too powerful, and directly lead to the polarized and divided political climate that we now have.

A lot of people today view politics as some sort of battle. They back their candidate, and anyone else is directly opposing them. However, I believe the underlying issue here is that the political offices, and the government as a whole, are much too powerful.

A lot of people are truly fearful during elections because the thought of the opposition winning scares them. They fea that someone they don't winning could negatively impact there way of life.

However, this shouldn't be a fear, in my opinion. The political offices and government should just be the instruments through which the country runs. It shouldn't be some battle between side, over who gets to monopolize the law-making for the next two years. At least to me, the centralized power is the issue, not the candidates or politcial powers.

Am I totally off base here?

[Assistant]
I partially agree with you, in the sense that candidates and political powers aren't the problems. However, it's not the magnitude of power the government has as a whole that is a problem, it's how few different perspectives exist that is.

The first-past-the-post voting system in the US makes it impossible for third parties to stay around and be relevant in the long run. We need to escape our two-party system in order to check the power of individual political parties. Under the veil of the Democratic party is a huge spectrum of voters. It has the economical left and healthcare voters, it has the social justice advocates, it has the environmentalists, it has the far left and the socialists, it has the socially liberal and economically conservative individuals, the highly educated, the anti-abortion liberals, and a LOT of swing voters.

The Republicans have the libertarians, the tea-partiers, the Trumpublicans, the Reagan Republicans, the Christian right, etc.

If we had a different voting system that empowered extra parties and discouraged two-party voting, we would have a much more diverse congress, much more accurate representation, a much more enthusiastic voting base, and, most importantly, a significant reduction in the us-vs-them mindset. Multiple political parties that still yield the power to improve society is much better than a two party system that doesn't have the power to destroy it.


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

[User]
[Assassin's Creed] I am a business man in the 1700s and I'm afraid some weirdos want to kill me

Hi! To give some background:

I am a moderately wealthy businessman living in the 1700s and I've received a letter from a trusted person saying that "The assassins" are after me and will attempt to kill me soon. I've heard rumors about these guys before and I know that they re a kind of a cult that kills people and climbs buildings or something.

I've tried to contact the sender but all I got as an answer was a letter sealed with a weird insignia and containing an eagle feather.

What may be happening and what do I do now?

[Assistant] Whatever you do, don't go sailing in the Caribbean. Your best chance at survival is to become useful to the assassin, so quickly invest your money into a bar or a weapon's shop. None of the assassins have ever killed the shopkeepers that they engage with, not since their origins back in Ancient Egypt. If changing your career would take too long, I'd recommend putting large rocks in the haystacks around your town, especially those close to churches and other large towers. The assassins have a weird habit of jumping right into haystacks, so if you put something hard in them, the assassin coming for you might take care of himself.


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

[User]
[Economics] Why do some countries, like Ecuador, choose to dollarize their currency? What are the advantages and disadvantages of doing so?

I'd also appreciate an explanation of the logic behind the advantages and disadvantages. I understand that dollarization encourages greater fiscal discipline, but I don't understand why that is the case.

[Assistant]
If you are a country with a huge national debt, you can pay it off by raising taxes and cutting services. But people obviously hate when you do that, so one appealing way you can get rid of your national debt is through inflation: you just print enough money to pay it off. But, this is terrible for the people who lent you money. It's essentially the same as not paying them, because the money you do pay them will be worth much less than the money they lent you.

You can really only pull this trick once. After that, no one in their right mind is going to trust you, so they either will not lend to you or they will charge you a very high interest rate. One way you can reassure lenders that you won't cheat them again is to make it impossible for your government to use inflation to get rid of its debt in the future. And one good way to do that is to use the US Dollar as your currency.

If you are the US Central Bank, you could not give one tiny fuck if Ecuador has too much debt, and you are certainly not going to print more Dollars to help them get rid of it. By switching to the Dollar, Ecuador is giving up its ability to control its own money supply, and thus giving up the ability to screw its creditors via inflation. Investors know this, so they are more willing to lend to Ecuador at lower rates.


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

[User] [Star Wars] What was the general view of droids (not military) during the Clone Wars?

[Assistant] Contempt is a bit of a strong word, but they were not looked on particularly favorably.  Anakin's friendly relationship with Artoo is in the minority, while Obi-Wan's general disdain and view of them as replaceable tools was much more indicative of attitudes as a whole.


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

[User]
[Gotham] Why is the Arkham compromise a bad thing?

Bruce and Jim act like it's such a terrible thing but why? Arkham gets renovated just like the Wayne's wanted, The housing gets built like Falcone wants (I'm not sure why he wants it though) and Maroni gets a toxic waste dump. Everyone gets what they want, the city gets 3 useful things and it prevents further gang violence. I don't see the problem. Is it because Maroni gets half of it? If so why is 2 mob bosses getting a little any worse than 1 mob boss getting a lot (which is what would happen if Falcone got everything he wanted)? Can someone explain it to me?

[Assistant]
Because at whatever level, Batman doesn't want Gotham 'solved'. He wants to keep fighting crime.

While some other capes do it to make the world a better place or solve the problems of their particular metropolis, Batman is not 100% right in the head. He does what he does because he couldn't do anything else.

He's not Bruce Wayne playing at being Batman. He's Batman using Bruce Wayne as a handy cover.


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

[User] ELI5 How does a sneeze work? Like, how exactly is it triggered, and what happens during a sneeze?

[Assistant] A sneeze is how the body clears obstructions and irrititants from the nasal passage. The cells lining your nasal passage have tiny little hair-like structures called cilia. Whenever enough of these structures are bent or irritated they will send a signal to your brain that the nose needs cleared. Moments before the sneeze your chest muscles tighten and your throat closes for an instant. This creates a slight buildup of pressure in your lungs. The throat releases a moment later and the daiphragm (the muscle that compresses your lungs) spasms to force the air up. This also propels a lot of droplets up through the nasal passage. The rapid air combined with the droplets of saliva pick up and force the thing that caused the sneeze out.