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

[User] Is 'Exotic Matter' just shorthand for 'stuff that couldn't possibly exist under any foreseeable circumstances'?

[Assistant]
Sometimes. In the case of negative energy density matter that you'd need for a warp drive, it means "stuff that probably doesn't exist, but which makes the calculations work".

But "exotic matter" can refer to things that are unusual or poorly understood, even if they probably do exist. Dark matter can be considered "exotic matter" because we don't know what it's made of. It's thought to be a new kind of particle. However, this new particle does not have unusual properties - it would be almost exactly the same as a neutrino, except more massive. So in this case, "exotic matter" doesn't mean "something we've completely invented that changes physics and hence probably doesn't exist". In this case "exotic matter" means "something only a little different to what we already see".


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

[User]
Would it be possible to have a planet large enough that it is actually the center of the system and a smaller star revolves around it?

How small would a star have to be to revolve around Earth? Let's take our own Sun for example. And if you could not do it with our own, what temperature would the star have to be and/or what would it need to be composed of?

[Assistant]
The smallest stars **by mass** are red dwarfs.  (There are actually brown dwarfs, star-like objects bigger than Jupiter, but not quite massive enough for sustained fusion.)  Either way, the smallest star is quite a bit larger than Earth.

The smallest star ever discovered is OGLE-TR-122b.  It's a little larger in diameter than Jupiter, but 100 times more massive.  Because it's much more massive than Earth, it could not orbit Earth.

Also, technically, orbital systems, like binary stars, Earth/Moon, etc., orbit the common center of mass.

The upshot is that it may be possible to have a binary system consisting of a planet slightly larger than Jupiter, but not quite big enough for fusion, and a red/brown dwarf.  They would orbit their common center of mass, but the dwarf star would still have to have roughly 99% of the mass, despite the two bodies having comparable radii.

**EDIT: For clarification, all uses of the terms "size," "large," "small," etc. in this thread are referring to mass.  Volume is mostly meaningless in the context of gravitational attraction.**

Edit 2: "Star-like objects," as brown dwarfs are technically not stars.


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

[User]
Did the Big Bang violate the First Law of Thermodynamics?

Please don't conflate my question with mythopoetic religious doctrine -- questioning the explanatory limits of the Big Bang model doesn't lead us back to the Old Testament.

I'd just like to know why the Big Bang gets a free miracle when it comes to major contradictions (such as a limit-case violation of the First Law of Thermodynamics), whereas other explanations are discounted for such contradictions. Is there a version of the Big Bang model that resolves such seeming contradictions?

Can't tell you how much I would love a good answer to this question.

[Assistant]
Where does the energy conservation come from? It comes from the laws of physics being independent of time, i.e., the existence of a timelike Killing vector. Because the universe is expanding, no such Killing vector exists, so there is no reason to think that energy conservation should apply.

Even if you naively apply Newtonian energy conservation to the whole universe everything works out pretty well. Negative gravitational potential energy and kinetic/mass energy are interchanged in such a way that the total energy of the universe remains to be exactly 0 (if the topology of the universe is exactly flat).


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

[User] [Iron Man 2] Tony said that most other countries were five to ten years away from replicating the Iron Man armor. In the nearly eight years since then, have any of those countries made any progress?

[Assistant] I suspect in a weird combination of humility and arrogance Stark was way underestimating the difficultly of making a Iron Man suit.  Other countries probably have been exploring an making progress on similar types of armaments, but it would be like comparing a Tesla Roadster to a Model T.


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

[User] [Ironman] Ironman is considered a superhero, but would he be considered a superhuman?

[Assistant] If we use the dictionary definition of simply being exceptional, yes, he's superhuman.  By a mile.  But if we set a higher bar and say that it means something like 'more than human,' then we should say no.  Stark is biologically human as far as we know.  He's an exceptional human but still human.  He arguably becomes more than human, though, whenever he tampers with himself to increase his connections with his armor.  An example is his use of Extremis on himself.


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

[User]
ELI5: Tor Browser

How exactly does it work? How much does it conceal your online identity? Are there basic tips that someone should know before using it?

[Assistant]
Essentially, you know the game of "Telephone"? Where one person tells the other person something and then they pass it on until the very end?

TOR works just like that, except people in the middle don't mess up, so the message on the other end of the telephone comes out just as it went in.

When you browse a website, your computer sends a request to a server. The server reads the request and sends it back. With TOR, you put some middlemen in there - your PC sends a request, a TOR relay receives it and forwards it to another relay, until the very last where the request finally reaches the server. Then, the data from the server is sent to the last relay in line, it forwards it to the one before it, and so on until it reaches your PC again. As you imagine, it is pretty safe as you would need to track the signal across all the relays to find the original computer.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] If I had a regular bureaucrat job in the Empire, what exactly would I be doing?

According to Wookiepedia, it seems to me that Imperial bureaucracy was a complete and over complicated mess. So much that even Galen Erso used it to his advantage to bide his time with the completion of the first Death Star to give the Rebellion leverage.

If I was an Imperial bureaucrat, what might my job be? Filing thousands of death reports? Deliveries/ shipments?

[Assistant]
A Galactic Empire would be a logistical nightmare. You've got core worlds like coruscant that aren't self-sufficient and would need constant shipments in order to continue.

You've got an enormous fleet to maintain, millions of soldiers and officer that need outfitting, paying, etc. Potentially trillions of citizens to census, organise, etc.

You've got construction projects, territories that are uncharted or not under imperial control, a rebellion going on.

Basically,  keeping a galaxy under single control is a mammoth task and burocracy would be a massive part of that. You'd be a very busy little worker bee.


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

[User]
ELI5: Scientists studied remains of a kilanova (when two neutron stars collide) and measured one of the neutron stars to be 12.4 miles in diameter.

How could they have known it was 12.4 miles in diameter just by examining the explosion aftermath? I saw this on How the Universe Works but they never explain the reasoning.

[Assistant] Basically they are able to estimate the masses of the two neutron stars based on the gravitational wave signature. Since we know the density of the stars (they are made of nuetronium, the densest substance in the universe, or what we theorize anyway as we haven't ever created it)  we can calculate the volume of the star and then the radius. As other users pointed out, the actual estimation is 20km, and the conversion to 12.4 miles implies a presision that is incorrect, it would probably be more correct to say something like 12-13 miles in radius.


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

[User]
[Avengers: IW] Ebony Maw bows to Thanos and praises him like a god, because, as he claims, no one else has obtained 2 Infinity stones at once. Say I magically popped up in the room with the rest of them in my hand, would he bow to me?

" My humble personage bows before your grandeur. No other being has ever had the might, nay the nobility, to wield not one, but two Infinity Stones. The universe lies within your grasp. "

Will Ebony start kissing my feet? Am I their daddy now?

[Assistant] Ebony Maw was expressing praise at that one specific act yes but that's not the reason he's following Thanos. He's a true believer, following the perfectly balanced mantra and preaching it to others. He worships Thanos for a number of reasons, his unshakeable will, his past conquests, his raw strength etc. Just holding more stones than him isn't going to change anything.


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

[User]
[*Star Wars*] Why is it the Skywalker family produces so many Sith?

Is it just a family trait to be more susceptible to the Dark Side?  Is the Skywalker lineage cursed?  Does the Force hate them...?

[Assistant]
The Skywalker family has a powerful connection to the Force. The Force does not discriminate. It is all-inclusive. As Masters Kenobi and Yoda taught Master Skywalker himself: it surrounds us, penetrates us, it binds the galaxy together.

The Light and Dark side of the Force are two sides of the very same coin. It would be more accurate to say that the Skywalker lineage doesn't produce Sith much more than any other Force-sensitive family, but because their connection is so strong, they tend to be rather sensitive to the power of both sides of the Force....and as we all know: the temptation of the dark side is *strong*.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] According to canon, Anakin was the chosen one, and the force consists of dark and light, but how did he ultimately bring balance to the Force?

The way I see it, there are three potential answers, but I am at a loss as to which one is true. 1. He brought balance by killing Palps and ending the Empire and the Sith. However, it is likely that there will be sith or sith wannabes in the future, and the Empire goes on as the New Order. 2. He brought balance by wiping out the Jedi to level the numbers of Sith/jedi. 3. He brought balance by having children that would teach future Jedi to accept Sith and Jedi philosophies as one.

[Assistant]
Anakin basically acted as a hard reset of the system.

Through his actions he destroyed the Jedi order almost entirely, and then destroyed the Sith before dying himself.

This left a single proficient force user with a tenuous connection at best to the corrupted Jedi system and a not insignificant connection to the Sith as well.

The force was out of balance and Anakin essentially wiped everything.


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

[User]
Why Do Protons and Neutrons Have Slightly Different Masses?

As I understand, the only difference between the two is that a proton consists of two up quarks and a down quark, and a neutron consists of two down quarks and an up quark. I know their masses are almost exactly the same, but why aren't they EXACTLY exactly the same?

[Assistant] If isospin were a perfect symmetry, they would have the same masses. But isospin is not a true symmetry of the standard model. It's broken by the electromagnetic force. Since the proton has charge and the neutron doesn't, they couple differently to the electromagnetic force.


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

[User] ELI5 How does quenching harden steel and how much harder does it get?

[Assistant]
The chemistry of solid steel is kind of nuts.

In short, as it cools to room temperature, steel separates to form two kinds of crystal. As this happens, the carbon atoms move from some areas into others, forming the carbon-rich crystal and the carbon-poor crystal. Depending on the carbon content, the balance of these crystals varies.

There is, however, a third option. Martensite. This is what happens when the carbon does not have time to move, and so the two separate crystals can't form. By cooling the steel faster, you force martensite to form, which is much harder than the other two.


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

[User]
The Borg and Guns... (Star Trek [Obviously])

In "First Contact", Picard goes through a ridiculous song and dance to get his hands on a 1920's era machine gun. He then proceeds to kill Borg with hologram bullets. WhyTF didn't Picard just replicate an AK or shotgun or SOMETHING. And don't give me crap about overpenetration, when they happily use directed energy weapons an order of magnitude more powerful than our most powerful lasers.

[Assistant]
He should have just ran Portal and used a mashy spike plate.

Likely it was the hurry, his obsession with silly detective stories, and the time he wasted on the sartorial selection and accuracy.

^(Also Q made the universe a great deal stupider after Picard solved his time riddle. Spiteful Q.)


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

[User] ELI5: What are the "cleaners" often mentioned in spy movies, and are they real?

[Assistant]
They are people who remove evidence of a event so the public/authorities will be unaware of what happened. In the movies they are seceret agents that clear away evidence.

In real life they are often involved in the PR wing of companies and government departs and are lawyers, publicists, contractors, accountants and general fixers who try to smooth over a problem.

So let's saying during a movie an actor gets drunk and smashes a car into someones house.  The publicist will start a false story how it was exhaustion. The lawyer will prevent the local authorities from pressing charges plus pay off the house owners by getting them to sign a contract. The accoutant will hide the pay off, often by listing the home owners as consultants, etc.


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

[User] ELI5: How does youtube work now? Why does it no longer fully buffer when paused. Why does it have to reload when I rewind to something I've already watched?

[Assistant]
To the first point: for whatever reason, and there are loads of analytics to back this up, most people don't want YouTube videos all the way through, especially when they're over about 10 minutes in length. So Google realized they could save bandwidth by greatly reducing the amount of buffering they did for videos.

To the second: most likely a combination of browsers throwing played video out of cache and YouTube trying to do the same thing for them, as an optimization.


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

[User]
Are there any philosophers that studied the mind in that state where two or more conflicting intentions are being held and what makes one `win` over the other, so to say

Take smoking for example. A person knows that smoking is bad for their health and for their sense of taste and smell. Knows that it actually makes them more anxious, not less. That it is costing them a lot of money to indulge in that behavior. What's the most important is that they have made the conscious intention of quitting and yet they are unable to.

[Assistant] Frankfurt's theory of first and second order desires might interest you. He specifically uses the example of addiction and how it relates to freedom of choice. The addict is not 'free' when they act in a compulsive way because their first and second order desires are not aligned.


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

[User]
Why do news reports keep mentioning that Sandy will be making landfall on the day of a full moon? Is there a scientific significance or is it just superstition?

I understand the storm surge risks of hurricane landfall during high tide but what does the lunar phase have to do with that?

[Assistant]
Tides are marginally stronger during a new or full moon than during a quarter moon, because the tidal effects of the sun and moon are added together instead of opposing one another.

This is already explained in the larger thread about Sandy in askscience.


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

[User] [Batman] An old friend from my youth that I lost touch with just showed up at Wayne Manor today. Should I just fight him now and save some time?

[Assistant] No. First of all, ask him politely if he's being hunted, pursued, blackmailed or stalked. If he answers no to all of the above *then* you should just put him in a chokehold and throw his unconscious body in Arkham.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why poor countries remain poor.

I don't mean to sound ignorant, I just never understood why third world countries don't get richer over time. Shouldn't they have caught up with the rest of the world or at least improved some bit by now? A lot of countries are supposedly getting poorer.

[Assistant] A pair of economists recently won a Nobel prize for attacking this very question, which is not easy to answer. Many theories have been proposed, several of them given as answers here, such as access to natural resources.  Their theory is that the key factor is the political culture. If people believe that they have a chance to prosper by working hard or taking risks, then the country tends to do well economically. If the people believe that their property or business might be taken by those with more power or connections, or there is some other major source of disparity, then the country does not do well economically over time.


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

[User]
Do dogs ears "pop" just like ours do when the elevation changes?

I recently went on a trip to the mountains and I brought along my  10 month old puppy, as my ears popped, I wondered If my puppies ears popped too

[Assistant] Both dogs and humans have a middle ear and a tube (called the 'Eustachian' tube) that leads down to the throat. When a person or animal experiences a change in air pressure, their Eustachian tube should widen to equalize the pressure within the middle ear.


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

[User]
ELI5: whats the difference between a white surface and a mirror?

A mirror is just a surface that reflects light, and white is just all colours mixed together, so a white surface is just one that reflects all light. So why is one monochrome whilst the other is a reflection?

[Assistant]
If a beam of light hits a white surface, it scatters in all directions. If a beam of light hits a mirror, it reflects in one particular direction.

The result is that you can see reflected images in a mirror while a white surface just creates a single color that is a mash-up of all the incoming light.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why the drop in force sensitive people?

Before the clone wars force sensitive people were rare. But its a big galaxy so there are enough to run an academy.

But after the clone wars and the purge Luke and Leia are the only two? And then Rey? In two generations? That seems like a big trend shift.

Even if others are less powerful there must be more kids being born with force aptitude?

(Ive only watched the movies and TV shows. No book knowledge here)

[Assistant]
There's not a drop in Force sensitive people (or rather, not beyond the Jedi dead), there is a drop in *trained* Force users.

Force users have always been incredibly rare. Like, one in a trillion rare, or even less. Reminder that Coruscant alone has over a trillion people on it at any given time, and the Jedi order at its peak still numbered around 10,000 members. Even if the Jedi only took in 1:1000 of actual Force users in the galaxy - and there's no indication that they take so few - that's still just a rounding error of the galactic population capable of learning to use the Force.


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

[User]
If I donate blood, will my blood pressure lower?

Will it lower significantly? How long would the pressure be abnormal?

[Assistant] Yes it will absolutely lower. Fortunately your body is very good at making plasma and red blood cells and will restore the volume that was lost in less than 8 hours as long as you stay hydrated. Its the platelets and white blood cells that take weeks to return to normal levels.


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

[User] ELI5: The situation right now in Iraq and why Obama is ordering airstrikes.

[Assistant] To expand on the comment below me - There is a group of about 40,000 people (Christians) that ISIS is threatening to kill unless they leave. ISIS essentially has these people surrounded and they are living without food or water. These actions are being taken at the request of the Iraqi gov. Also we don't want Iraq to completely devolve into a "terrorist state", for our safety and theirs.


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

[User]
[Django Unchained] Would Monsieur Candy have allowed Django and Schultz to buy Broomhilda for $12,000 if they had been honest with their intentions?

Instead of the whole mandingo fighting circuit and finding the right fighter, what if Schultz and Django just went to Candy and asked him to sell Broomhilda to them for $12,000 dollars, explaining that she's Django's wife and he'd like to buy her freedom.

It was shown that Schultz and Django definitely have the money to pay $12,000, and Django could easily take it as a debt between friends, to be paid off in bounties.

Would Candy have turned down that amount of money for a runaway slave, or just to spite Django?

[Assistant]
I think that was kind of the (intended) flaw in Dr. King Schulz character. He wanted to show his superiority over the racist brute Mr. Candy.

So even though a honest offer would have worked, he still tried to trick him.

Looking for a german speaking slave is a great excuse and she wasn't of much use to Candy anyway. He probably could have gotten her for much less than 12k.


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

[User] ELI5: How can medicine or multivitamins target a specific part of the body when it's all consumed the same way?

[Assistant] They cannot target a specific part of the body. However, if you have some sort of deficiency that shows up most prominently in a specific part of the body, then taking the multivitamin or supplement can reduce the deficiency and "heal" the affected part simply because that's the part that hurts. Same for painkillers; they dull the pain everywhere, but you only notice the effect where you were feeling pain.


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

[User] [Dune] What do we know about the evolution of of the creatures of Arrakis-- especially the Shai-Hulud(sandworms)?

[Assistant]
It's truly unknown where the worms came from. We know from geological and ecological surveys by Pardot Kynes and his son, Liet-Kynes, that the worms had to have been introduced to Arrakis from another source. Water ran freely over the planet in the recent past (geologically speaking) until the introduction of the "sandtrout": the first life phase of the sand worm. The sand trout trap water, and once enough existed on Arrakis to take enough water out of the system, the sandtrout merged to create the first sandworms on Arrakis.

The ecological transformation of the planet started by Paul Muad'Dib and completed by his son, Leto II gradually destroyed all of the sandworms, as they cannot survive with too high a water concentration in the air. By now the sandworms have returned to Arrakis, as the sandtrout fused with the legendary God Emperor Leto II restarted the process of trapping water that began when the sandtrout first came to Arrakis.

Most of the animal life on Arrakis adapted from Terran creatures, such as the blood-drinking birds of prey, and muad'dib (the small mice from which the first Atreides Emperor took his Fremen name).


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

[User] (Star Wars) If Kenobi was a renown republic general in the clone wars and if he interfered with Jabba so often then how in the fuck did a dude with the last name Kenobi live on Tattoine anonymously for 20 years right on Jabbas back porch?

[Assistant]
Tattooine is the backwater's backwater. The only reason to live there by choice is to get away from something, and Kenobi made sure he got as far away from the galaxy (figuratively and literally) as he could while still keeping an eye on Luke. While in his exile, he kept as low a profile as he possibly could, only peeking his head out to stay alive. Like to buy necessary tools or food. It's possible only Luke and the tiny number of people who lived relatively nearby even knew he existed at all.

Plus, a little bit of force persuasion can go a long way in keeping pesky Jabba patrols out of his business.


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

[User]
Can anxiety issues be described as 'the survival instinct gone out of control'?

Can anxiety issues be described as 'the survival instinct gone out of control'? There is really nothing more to my question.

[Assistant]
I think I'd rephrase that to say, it is "a survival instinct that is no longer useful," and now often causes more harm than good.

It may have been adaptive and even preferable at one time to be hypervigilant, hyperaware, and these predispositions would keep you alive.

But in today's world with \*so much stimulus\* that type of nervous system sensitivity can feel more overwhelming than useful.


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

[User] Why do I have to think for a second about left vs. right, but up vs. down comes to me immediately? It's not just me, right?

[Assistant] Up and down are defined by the direction of gravity. Things always fall down, never up. Your feet are always down not up. Your head is alway up, not down. But left and right are more or less symmetric.


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

[User]
[LOTR] Did Galadriel and co. miss Middle Earth after leaving?

Or were they finally happy to be put it behind them after thousands of years of war against Morgoth then Sauron.

[Assistant]
I don't think any elf, though, would "miss" Middle Earth to the extent that they regretted leaving it. They might, instead, simply have fond memories. Galadriel certainly would be one that valued her time there, given that she snubbed the gods in order to stay (though she came to regret *that* decision).

But, in the end, the elves belong in Aman, it is only there that they can ever feel truly at home as it is least marred by Morgoth.


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

[User]
AITA for having a different coding "style" from our senior?

Our team: two junior (me and my mate), one senior engineer.

Project is a backend in java for a web application in a IT company of 20 people. We are based in a medium size city, so not a big tech place.

My mate loves clean code rules, he avoids creating long methods and instead breaks down the code in smaller methods with suggestive names. I became a fan because its easier to understand.

I like to use lambdas instead of passing an anonymous class as a parameter to a method.

Our senior hates our approach because, in his opinion, breaks code consistency.

We are designing new endpoints and usually the senior's handler only has a single method of 200+ lines. He also doesn't use lambdas.

We feel that we aren't breaking code consistency and that he is being to uptight and protective of his code but since we have little work experience, we aren't sure if we are reading the situation correctly.

Are we assholes for not wanting to comply with his rules?

Edit: to the people down voting - please also leave a comment, I'm eager to read your reasoning and learn from it.

[Assistant]
When working on an existing project, it is customary to follow whatever style the project uses.

In some cases it's fine to change some things, especially when the language as evolved. In your case, writing smaller methods and using lambdas doesn't seem too bad, but the final decision is always in the hand of whoever manages the code-base.


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

[User]
[Marvel What If...?] How did Ultron...?

...defeat Thanos so easily with just one infinity stone, while Vision from the "normal" MCU universe couldn't do it?

[Assistant]
Ultron got lucky. There are probably countless timelines where he doesn't, and Thanos kills him. But we weren't watching those timelines. The question in the episode's title was "What If Ultron Won?", not "What If Ultron Won And Then Lost Later?"

Ultron only has to get lucky in one universe to become a threat to all of them.


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

[User] Eli5: How is rain measured in cm/mm?

[Assistant] If you leave a cylindrical bucket outside and it rains a half an inch, then there will be a half an inch of water in the bucket afterwards. A larger bucket will catch more rain, but it will also take more rain to fill it up. Measuring the vertical depth of the water is a consistent measurement no matter what size bucket you use, so it is the ubiquitous standard for reporting rain amounts.


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

[User] ELI5: How is a silencer able to suppress the sound of a gun shot?

[Assistant] The sound of a gunshot is a very sharp square wave, This gives it high amplitude and short duration.  A suppressor stores some of that compressed gas energy in springs or baffles and releases it more slowly.  This makes a longer duration, lower frequency sound with lower amplitude.  Your ears don't hear lower frequencies as well plus the softer level of sound makes the sound less harmful to your ears.  The concept of "silent" is more a movie concept than a firearms concept.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does the feeling of 'love' quite literally feel so heavy in your chest?

[Assistant] The feeling of love is something that is pleasing to the mind psychologically (obviously). It is one of the most potent stimulator for the release of certain chemicals stored in the body into the bloodstream. The body releases a cocktail of chemicals into your blood every time the mind is filled with love that act directly on your heart to make it beat faster, among other things. The heaviness you feel is literally your heart squeezing more blood and beating faster. Not the most comprehensive explanation, but hope this helps.


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

[User]
[General] What are some criminally ignored in-universe applications of your favourite SciFi tech that would be way more powerful than their signature ones?

For example, the Mass Effect from the ME saga. If used to sufficiently increase the mass of a bunch of Hydrogen gas, the protons of their molecules would start fusing at room temperature, regardless of the size of the reactor, (Cold Fusion similar to Muon catalized Fusion). This could be used to generate energy or to manufacture  elements on demand from available ones. This two things combined would almost make any civilization that had both a post scarcity one.

Also would allow to make miniature artificial stars to terraform whatever barren or frozen world you stumble upon.

With this 3 thing combined the ME races should be way on their way to K-III status, not some Kardashev-I with interstellar travel.

[Assistant]
Star Trek is full of these. There are basic ones like how they ridiculously underutilize AI and replicators, but the one-off episodes are more fun.

There is one episode where they encounter a planet where people can't die, as long as they stay there. It's used as a prison. Not the homeworld of a utopian society of gods, a prison.

Then there's that one where they can make someone experience an entire simulated lifetime in a few minutes. This too could be used as a kind of immortality, or at least extending your experienced lifetime a millionfold. Or just imagine getting an entire education in a few seconds. The possibilities are endless. Instead, it's also used as a prison.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is it bad to have a microwave running with nothing inside it?

A friend tells me it's bad but offers no reason why.

[Assistant]
A microwave heats food by generating lots of long wave electromagnetic waves (micro-waves!) which bounce around the chamber, bash into the food, interact with the molecules of the food and transfer the energy into heat to make your dinner hot.

The walls of the microwave are designed to bounce the rays off rather than absorb then, the theory being that they will eventually hit the food  to warm it up. If there is nothing inside, the rays will bounce around in the contained box and can potentially cause an arch and potentially burn the inside of the microwave, and can also bounce around and damage the electrical parts of the machine which will eventually damage it and brake it.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are basements scarce in California homes?

[Assistant]
Very rapid modern development (basements are expensive and take a lot of time), no tornados to worry about, no need to have a dry dark place to store stuff through the winter. Also foundations/supports need to extend below the frostline, so in cold climates you might as well add a whole basement if you're gonna be digging deep anyway. In CA that's not an issue.

"California basements" are actually becoming more common, and are tiny basements purely to put pipes and appliances and stuff that would take up valuable space in the main part of the house.


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

[User] [Avatar] If the water tribe was sexist and wouldnt teach women combative water bending then who taught all the female avatars?

[Assistant]
The Northern water tribe seems like they were the only sexist ones, and it was mostly just that one teacher.  So maybe it simply wasn't an issue with past avatars.  They learned with the southern water tribe, or the main waterbending teacher wasn't a sexist back then.

Or the avatar was a special case.  Even if sexists were still in charge, the fact that she was the avatar outweighed the fact that she was a woman.


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

[User]
Do the billionaires actually have the money?

I've often wondered if there is something I'm missing about how wealth is understood at the billionaire level. Most of their value is not in cash so isn't what they are worth more of an appraisal?

I understand scapegoating billionaires. But I wonder how could we expect them to pay for things when they don't have cash, or with value that isn't real but rather projected.

How much of the 100 billion in Jeff's worth is translatable to increases in Amazon wages? How would that process work?

I thank you in advance and am not looking for political answers but distinctly economic ones.

[Assistant] We'll take your Jeff Bezos example. The majority of Bezos's fortune is held in Amazon stock. If Bezos wanted to turn his stock into cash, he would simply sell his Amazon stock. However, because he owns such a large amount of Amazon stock, if he decided to dump all of it at once, it would hurt Amazon's share price and lower his net worth in the process. So he'd have to sell it very slowly over time to realise it's full value, assuming the stock price held stable over this time period which is a big assumption. If you taxed his wealth highly enough, then you'd see him have to devalue Amazon stock by selling off enough shares to cover the tax burden.


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

[User]
ELI5: What purpose does the USMC serve that the army doesn't?

It's not like they only use the navy to get around, and the army deployed by sea at normandy.

Why don't I ever hear about marines fighting in europe or the army fighting in the pacific? (WW2) What was different about their combat doctrine at that time that determined who got what job?

What do they actually do differently now?

I don't think the marines sailed to Afghanistan; how are they different from the army?

[Assistant]
The idea is that the USMC can serve as a fast reaction, forward deployed force. The army isnt neccesarily set up to have forces of various, but usually smaller size forward deployed at bases around the world. How have MAGTF's (Marine Air Ground Task Forces) of various sizes, at the smallest it will be an infantry battalion, along with some armor, some logistical, and some air support, which you can all load onto a couple of USN ships and sail around until needed.

The USMC is set up both structurally(all branches within one, and strong cross training with USN), and doctrine wise to do that (focus on warrior ethos/smaller more multi task units), to go into situations with minimal outside support, and to make do. The Army meanwhile is the big shock and awe force which comes with everything you can imagine and then some. The USMC is then the smaller faster sword, to the USA's giant 105mm howitzer.


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

[User] [Marvel] Why was Spider-Mans spiderbite so much more potent than the super soldier serum or the heart shaped herb?

[Assistant]
Because it was a freak accident, never intended to happen. Not some scientifically measured formula intended to provide a nonlethal transformation or a natural herb. Like Banner'e accident, it was just a bizarre outcome of science and chance that worked out well.

Also because spiders are very strong.


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

[User]
Why is academia so obsessed with academic clock (e.g. years after PhD)?

Why does time play such a big role in academia? I try to ignore it, but it starts to stress me out.

I am 37 years old, had a very fast PhD (started at 23, finished by 26) and a very long postdoc (11 years), both in Germany. I have been fairly successful, a total of 4 first author papers in 14 years (in journals with IF 5, 9, 10, 12, if that matters). I worked in well-funded **life science** labs in **Germany**, so I never needed to get my own research money (I applied both during PhD and early postdoc years but never got successful with grant applications).

I'm now trying to determine my next career step. Academia doesn't offer me a permanent position. I apply for junior faculty positions but I don't get any interviews, because 11 years postdoc and no independent grant money makes me not so attractive to hiring committees. I want to apply for starting grants, but they all require you to be less than 4 or 7 or 8 years into your PhD. I look at associate editor positions in scientific journals, many of them say the applicant should have a postdoc experience of 1-5 years. I look at career advice platforms, everywhere it says "postdoc is temporary, don't fall into postdoc trap, don't become forever postdoc, move on to something if you are not an independent group leader of some form after 7 years". I join career days for R&D industry positions, the biggest advice is to apply after 2-3 years of postdoc, the older you are in academia, the less attractive you are for industry.

Why is everyone so obsessed with number of years after PhD? I wasn't forced to do a long postdoc. I wanted to work on fundamentals of **molecular neuroscience** and study its mechanisms, and it took me 14 years in total. 1 first author paper in every 4 years is quite normal. I have done my job well. It wasn't possible to do it outside of academia. But I'm not obsessed with staying in academia, I'm also fine with moving out and making space for younger scientists. It just stresses me out wherever I look I hear so many people babbling about timelines, number of years after PhD, academic age, "after 7-8 years you are an expired postdoc" etc. I am 37 but this makes me feel much older and less valuable than I am. Where does this obsession come from? Why do grant organizations set these time limits for applications? Now even industry positions set similar limits in job posts. It's quite discouraging and demotivating.

[Assistant] At least at research universities, search committees are implicitly trying to project your career trajectory to the point of retirement, and trying to guess how distinguished you'll eventually be. Spending 11 years in a postdoc suggests a career trajectory which is less meteoric than what the best research universities are interested in. In addition, not demonstrating a level of research independence (by securing independent funding) a decade post PhD does not reassure a search committee that you'll ever achieve research independence (which is a necessary criteria for a permanent position).


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

[User]
CMV: The US Government should waive any visa requirements and launch a Dunkirk style hail mary Berlin airlift mass evacuation of any women or children from Afghanistan who want to be relocated to the United States, no questions asked.

Afghanistan is a lost cause and countless thousands of afghans have grown up in a democracy and are going to be plunged into a handmaid's tale dystopia very soon. I met an all girls law school team of afghan women at an event a few years ago, and I can't imagine what they must be going through right now. If America got taken over by a fanatical religious group like in the handmaid's tale I would hope other nations would take the citizens of my nation in. Yes, there is nuance, and there are even theocratic Islamic nations which aren't all that bad to live in. But the Taliban will not treat women or anyone else fairly. The United States can and should immediately send as many of our planes as possible and draft civilian airliners if possible to send to Afghanistan and offer to rescue and relocate as many afghans as want to leave, the entire population of Kabul if they want to leave. We can settle them in large American cities like Detroit or Pittsburgh that have seen population declines and the influx of immigrants will benefit America in the same way the influx of Vietnamese immigrants benefited our nation. This is a moral imperative. The United States and NATO gave an entire nation of women and young people hope for the future. It's a shame that Afghanistan couldn't stand on it's own, but if we actually care about feminism and human rights at all it is our responsibility to rescue as many people as possible.

Edit: because a lot of people are harking on this. Yes I care about men too, but I would want to prioritize women and children because Taliban policies target women far more than men and deny children an education. Also it's a Titanic lifeboat type situation at this point. Didn't meant o offend anyone by being anti men and the change my view point was that we should take as many people as possible, not the women part. Thanks for all the responses.

[Assistant]
Why just Afghanistan and not the countless other people in Third World countries suffering from despotic regimes too?

EDIT: Plenty of replies missing thre point here

There are plenty of other countries in similar situations that the US has screwed over, some much closer to their border than others. So OP can argue either:

a. The US has a responsibility to bring in the refugees from all those other countries too, or b. Afghanistan is a special case out of all those other countries.

There is also the possibility that there might be alternatives to fulfilling the moral imperative for the US to make amends to the countries its messed up in, without accepting refugees wholesale.


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

[User]
[DC] Has any member of the Suicide Squad ever been truly loyal to Waller?

Waller usually recruits her Suicide Squad with the promise of time off of their sentences, and a bomb threat to keep them in line once they're in, but I wonder, has any Suicide Squadee ever been truly loyal to the Wall and genuinely believed in her, her principles, and her cause?

[Assistant] Peacemaker seems pretty on board.  He was enthusiastic about the mission and was willing to kill people he respected to accomplish it.  He also seemed to agree that letting the data get out would be bad for America.


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

[User]
Why does burnt food stick to the pan and why does soaking in water unstick it?

I was trying to wash a frying pan after I burnt some chicken and it felt like trying to excavate concrete.

[Assistant]
I believe this is a combination of two major factors. First, burning the food dehydrates it, so there's no liquid to lubricate the particles in the burnt food, making them feel like concrete. Secondly, burning food causes organic molecules to polymerize. It's like caramelization gone too far. That increases the average molecular size, making the food more viscous and hard.

Soaking helps because it can lubricate the particles, making them easier to get off the pan.


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

[User]
[Warhammer40K] How would the Imperium react to a powerful AND pacifistic and helpful faction?

Let's say that, in their exploration of the Galaxy, the Imperium finds a peculiar planet.
On it, people of ALL races, xenos and humans, are living in harmony, with no war or dissense to speak of. Their leaders are "ascended" entities incredible powers, who are incredibly moral, "good", merciful and empathetic, while also being VERY neutral and pacifistic. These entities (who used to be mortals, humans and xenos alike) are pretty much all-powerful, immortal and nigh omniscent, while also being 100% immune to chaotic taint and corruption, and they freely teach anyone how to become one of them (the process involve getting rid of all mortal desires, reaching absolute serenity and purging all hate, greed, xenophobia, etc).

This planet pretty much welcome the Imperials with open arms at never oppose them in anything. Even if the Imperials attack them, the "ascended ones" simply resuscitate their victims and carry on with their day. Even if the whole planet is subject to Exterminatus, the ascended put it back, and if the Imperials try to take some people away against their will, those people are istantly teleported back to the planet.
Think of this faction as an "immovable object". The Imperium pretty much can't do anything to them, but they won't do anything to the Imperium either, except offering to teach them their ways.

How would the Imperium react to this faction?

[Assistant]
They would attack them, and then keep attacking them when they come back. Exterminatus and all.

They are guilty of heresy and harboring xenos. The Imperium accepts no response to that except fire and death.

That it doesnt actually end up doing anything is irrelevant  war and futility are pretty much the Imperiums watchwords.


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

[User] [LOTR] If the One Ring had never been created, would the other rings of power have been actual forces of good in the world or were they corrupt as well due to knowledge of their creation coming from Sauron?

[Assistant]
They would not become corrupted through some supernatural means, in the way that the One Ring affects people. The Seven and the Nine were corrupted by Sauron after he stole them; without Sauron's actions they would have been no more harmful than the Three Rings, which were still used and kept secret during the time of LotR by their bearers (Elrond, Galadriel, and Gandalf).

However, within the metaphysics of Middle-earth the Rings of Power are a sort of moral grey area. As Tolkien puts it in his letters: "power is an ominous and sinister word in all these tales, except as applied to the gods." An underlying theme in Middle-earth is that there is no clear distinction between magic and technology; instead, the division is between Art and Power. This is most easily seen in the contrast between Gandalf and Saruman. Both know how to create gunpowder, or at least some magical concoction which is remarkably similar. Gandalf uses it to make fireworks; Saruman uses it to create bombs.

The Rings of Power are not inherently evil, since the intent behind their creation (and later use, at least by the elves) was largely benevolent. But they are still a manifestation of Power, an attempt to subvert the external world to the user's will, and as we see with Sauron's use of the stolen Nine Rings they can easily be turned to evil ends. Furthermore the elves' intent was not entirely selfless: they liked their status in Middle-earth as the wisest and most powerful people around (in contrast with the Undying Lands, where they have to compete with the divine Valar and Maiar), and saw the Rings as a way to alter Middle-earth so they could have their cake and eat it too: living somewhere like the Undying Lands while still preserving their top-dog status without divine beings running around everywhere. All this is in contrast to something like the Silmarils, on the far "Art" end of the spectrum, hallowed gems with unearthly beauty but little in the way of power to influence the world, created as sheer artistic expression.


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

[User]
[Galaxy Quest] How did the arrival of the bridge of an advanced alien spaceship on Earth impact society?

When the *NESA Protector* crashed into the convention center, the people inside first assumed it was part of the show, but upon leaving, and when the authorities arrived at the scene, they would surely discover that it was in fact an incredibly advanced spaceship, complete with faster than light technology, laser weapons, instantaneous cross-galaxy communication devices, databases of untold amounts of astronomical and scientific data, and countless other artifacts that were far beyond Earth's capability at the time, not to mention absolute confirmation of alien species.

How did this amazing windfall of technology impact the world?

[Assistant] The ship sat unclaimed for a few days until the owner of the convention hall told his nephew that he could take it home. It was auctioned off on eBay and later sold to a theme restaurant in Las Vegas as background decoration.


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

[User] ELI5: Do wet objects stay wet in a vacuum?

[Assistant]
It depends on whether the system is closed or not. If it's a closed system (e.g. a closed box) then the moment the wet object is placed inside, it will no longer be a perfect vacuum and the wetting liquid will continue to evaporate until the equilibrium vapour pressure is reached. In that case, it's perfectly possible that the object will stay wet forever, it depends on the liquid (and how much of it there is), how big the box is and the temperature.

If it's an open system (e.g. space, or a vacuum that is actively being pulled) then the partial pressure of the vapour around the object will always be below the equilibrium vapour pressure (because the vapour is constantly being removed as it is formed) and the liquid will always be able to evaporate. In that case, the object would eventually dry out.


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

[User] ELI5: What is happening when a computer gets stuck when loading? If a computer has no moving parts, and calculates things by sending electrons from one chip to another, shouldnt all calculations be more or less instant? Wheres the hold-up?

[Assistant]
In sure, the computer has ended up in a situation where it is waiting for something to happen that will never happen. Either the computer is legitimately waiting (doing nothing while waiting for some event to happen) or it is stuck in some loop it can't break out of.

Imagine, for example, you design a robot to walk down a hallway. You program it such that, if it sees something in its way, it moves to the other side of the hallway.

What happens if you put two of these same robots facing each other?

Well, they'll see they're in each other's way, then move to the other side.

Where they'll be in each other's way, and move back to the first side.

And so forth.

This is called a "live lock."

The computer program may have some sort of loop that is supposed to exist when a condition is met but, for whatever reason, that condition can't be met so it loops forever.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] What is the nature of the Trade Federation?

So is the Trade Federation a collection of corporations that work together like a chamber of commerce kind of? Or are they an actual state which controls space? Considering they have their own Army and Navy it seems they are at least some sort of Corporate-proto state.

[Assistant]
The Trade Federation was a very powerful Republic commerce guild, trade cartel, megacorporation, and lobbying group that was founded in 350 BBY as an association of business and trade groups with its own commercial trade fleet.

It grew to dominate entire star systems and all major trade routes, and possessed a formidable private military. Toward the end of the Republic, it would become increasingly dominated by the commerce-savvy Neimoidians.


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

[User]
In cultures with a concept of 'profanity' (as English speakers would think of it), is it universal to curse when under stress or in pain? Why?

This question is actually an intersection of psychology, neuroscience, and linguistics, but the psych/neuroscience element is most interesting to me.

I'm tetra-lingual (knowing 3 Indo-European languages and 1 Dravidian language) and in each language I'm familiar with there are a subset of words that are sort of "taboo" to use in polite company but it is common to shout them when in distress, like if you are hurt or angry.

Is this a universal thing across languages and language families? Are these cultures that don't have such 'profanity' taboos?

And where it does exist, why do people tend to utter these words specifically under stress but put up a taboo around doing it at other times? Is there a psychiatric element to this and is it at all related to the vocal tics that come with impulse control disorders?

[Assistant]
There is some research on the hypoalgesic effect of cursing (swearing mitigating physical or emotional pain) but it is relatively limited.

From an operant conditioning perspective, people may limit use of curse words in the presence of certain stimuli that are associated with punishing consequences. So the people, events, and objects associated with a workplace, formal event, or classroom signal that cursing will result in derision or other negative social consequences. In turn, others may be less likely to respond negatively when you curse under conditions of pain or distress, so pain may serve as a signal that negative consequences are unlikely to follow.


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

[User]
[DC] Can Superman breathe in space?

Ive seen some adaptations that show Supes wearing a helmet with oxygen when he goes in space, while others make it seem like he survives just fine. Is he just holding his breath for a long time or does he just not need oxygen to survive?

[Assistant]
He can *survive* in space, let's say.

The suit is still a bit of a necessity, firstly because it shelters him from any hostile stuff like Kryptonite, secondly because if he strays too far from sunlight his powers will diminish, and thirdly because it has a radio that lets him stay in touch with people, and of course he can't *talk* in space.

 (it's actually a point in Kingdom Come that he can't talk in space, but Captain Marvel can because Screw You It's Magic)


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

[User] [TMBG] When Particle Man is underwater, it's possible that he doesn't get wet, but that the water gets him instead. What does it mean for water to be 'particle maned'? Is it still drinkable?

[Assistant]
SCP: 6328, Particle Man

Class: Keter

Warning: subject Particle Man must never be allowed to come into contact with large bodies of water. Procedural failures will allow large scale ecological collapse and a possible XK-Class end of world scenario

Procedure: Particle Man is to be kept in a non ionized casket in a special hydrophobic facility at [REDACTED]. Particle Man is known to possess an innate ability to contaminate dihydrogen monoxide with his essence, initiating an unknown chemical reaction which sublimates water into a rare and dangerous water catalyst, Ice-9.

Ice-9 is a solid form of water known to substantiate itself rapidly through all water it comes in contact with, disrupting body chemistry and the very foundations of life. Plans have been made to destroy Particle Man, but so far [REDACTED].


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

[User] ELI5:Why don't big chains like Papa Johns, Pizza Hut, and Dominos ever sell pizza by the slice?

[Assistant]
Selling pizza by the slice involves having multiple pizzas with different toppings ready all the time.  Which is an expense and a hassle.

If you keep the pizza fresh, then you'd end up tossing a lot of unsold product.  If you don't keep the pizza fresh, then your brand starts to suffer as customers start to judge your entire menu by bad experiences with stale singles.


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

[User]
ELI5: The ending to the ghost in the shell movie

I'm having trouble understanding project 2051's motives. 2051 wants to combine with kusanagi to make an optimized machine.

2051 says that he picked her because they are a lot alike. He can't simply make a copy of himself, but what separates the two besides the extent of 2051's knowledge? I feel like this plays a huge part in what the movie is trying to say.

[Assistant]
2051 stated that copies do not evolve, it be like cloning a human with a heart defect. All the clones will have the same 'error' as the original and once that 'error' becomes challenged by an external factor, the whole system collapses (the race becomes extinct if you will).

By merging with the major, 2051 ceases to be as does the major and they become a new, third entity. Kind of like how a man and a woman makes a child - oh you have your father's humor, but your mother's eyes.

> but what separates the two besides the extent of 2051's knowledge?

The Major is so much machine that basically the only thing left of her human self is her brain and spine. She questions her humanity and keeps looking for some definitive proof that she's alive. 2051 is in a similar situation and as the Major browsed the net in search of her answers, 2051 picked up on it and decided she was worthy to be its partner.

By merging they'd get their answer - they were alive, even if they weren't before.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is it so painful to accidentally bite your own tongue but when you purposefully bite it, it doesnt feel like anything?

[Assistant]
The reason is because when you bite down on your tongue on purpose, you arent actually biting down as hard as when you bite on your tongue accidentally.

Your brain knows you are about to hurt yourself, so even if you dont realize it, when you bite down on your tongue on purpose, you arent biting down as hard.

Its that simple.


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

[User]
[Avengers Endgame]Why didn't they time travel back to Titan or Wakanda?

Lets say they time travel to Titan just before or during the Battle.
Let the Battle play out as normal until Thanos is pinned, then stop quill from getting to Thanos.The Gauntlet is removed and Thor could kill Thanos with Stormbreaker, then just ask for the gauntlet or steal it.They have 4 of the stones and can get mind and time like they did in the film.No sacrifice needed,Gauntlet premade, 2 trips and past Thanos doesn't come to the future.

Or

Time travel to Wakanda just as Thanos kills the Vision.Let Thor stab him with Stormbreaker then have someone grab Thanos's left arm and have future Thor cut it off with Stormbreaker.No sacrifice needed,only 1 trip albeit it would be risky.

Why didn't they do either of these?

[Assistant]
1) They didnt know about the sacrifice for the soul stone. They knew Thanos killed Gomorrah but not why he did it. So they couldnt have planned for it.

2) Like you said, its way riskier. If theyd gone to Titan, and Thanos realized he was outnumbered and out matched all hed have to do is space stone his way out of there and theyd all just be standing around on Titan twiddling their thumbs. Same with Wakanda. One mistake, one miscalculation on what time period they come out at, anything, and Thanos is gone. They dont get the stones and their one chance to bring everyone back goes along with him.

Going back where they did was much lower risk. They knew the dangers everywhere except Vormir, and knew they could handle them. And even with all the planning they did, a bunch of it fell apart when push came to shove. Loki vanished with the tesseract, and Nebula got captured which let Thanos come to the future. Imagine how much worse it couldve gone if their whole plan depended on getting the drop on Thanos during some small window of time on Titan or Wakanda.


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

[User] ELI5: what is a 401k and how does it work?

[Assistant] It's a retirement investment account. You may put a portion of your income into it tax-free (ie, you don't pay taxes on the portion of income you put into the 401k up to a limit). You are able to invest the money in the account in a selection of mutual funds to theoretically allow the amount to grow instead of simply being held there. Upon retirement, you may withdraw from the account as normal income (so it does get taxed at that point).


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

[User] [MCU] How did Thanos get the Mind Stone as seen in The Avengers?

[Assistant]
We don't know; the origins of the Scepter aren't shown on-screen.

But we can guess; the Scepter is like the Tesseract or the Eye of Agamotto; a housing that allows someone to use an Infinity Stone without immediately exploding.

Based on what we know about the Stones and Thanos, we can surmise that it was created by someone very powerful - on the level of the Sorcerer Supreme, if not greater - and that Thanos obtained the Scepter after decimating that culture.

Given that he didn't launch the Infinity War until after Odin and the Ancient One were both dead, we can also assume that Thanos waited until *after* the death of the Scepter's creator to go plundering. Thanos is smart enough to avoid a fight he isn't certain he can win.


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

[User]
ELI5 How does your voice change from talking to whispering?

I know that talking is the sound coming from your vocal chords (right?), so how does your body whisper? I noticed a whisper sound more "breathy", so does that contribute?

[Assistant] When you're whispering, you're usually not actually using your vocal cords. You're just shaping your breath in the same way as you would while speaking, which makes (almost) the same sounds at a much lower volume.


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

[User]
What is the point of a fellowship postdoc?

Im a few months in to my fully-funded two-year postdoctoral fellowship. The administration and faculty are nice, Im given a (shared) office/a computer/software, Im working on a few different projects with different faculty, etc. However, I just cant shake that the feeling that this is just an extension of my PhD. Ill get a few papers out, but I cant do anything PI-level and then my time runs out and Im back on the market.

Does a completed postdoc really improve your chances of a faculty position? Because, productivity-wise, this doesnt really seem different than a 7-8 year PhD. Thoughts?

[Assistant]
As a postdoc on a fellowship you would normally be in complete control of the direction of your project,  usually with some level of budgetary control.

Standard postdoc you are usually the PIs bitch for whatever project they got funded.

Whether it's 'worth it ' depends on your field,  goals, and other experience.


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

[User]
CMV: Mandatory volunteering should not be required for high school graduation

In my country, high school graduation requires students to volunteer their time to non-profit organizations in order to graduate, in addition to course requirements.

I don't believe that this should be the case.

This is because there is NO benefit that mandatory volunteering provides for a student that optional volunteering wouldn't.

It actually introduces problems like: eating away at a student's study time if they're having trouble with their courses, clashing with a possible part-time job to make ends meet, or simply clashing with students' free time to relax, etc.

[Assistant]
>This is because there is NO benefit that mandatory volunteering provides for a student that optional volunteering wouldn't.

But if it's optional, a lot of students wouldn't do it and would not gain nor give the benefits of volunteering.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are mascots a big part of American sports but not so much in Europe?

[Assistant]
The focus on American sports tends to be more about the teams and the team franchise identity, when in Europe the focus is a lot more on locale. This came up a bit on a question a while back when someone was asking about how US teams can so easily change owners or cities compared to European teams. Because most American sports are only maybe 150 years old tops and organized play groups are mostly less than 100 years old, there isn't nearly as much history. The oldest European Football team (Notts County) has been active since 1862. The oldest American Football team, by comparison (The Green Bay Packers) joined the NFL officially in 1921.

The focus on the franchise of the team versus the locale is also impacted by the relative size of the countries. It's easy to find a local team to support in England, where the UK club system can have hundreds of teams across all the various levels. There are 92 teams in the first four levels *alone*, while in the entirety of the NFL there are only 32 teams. Even just going with Level 1 teams, there's approximately 1 team for every 2,500 square miles in England, and in the NFL there's one team for ever **12,000,000** square miles.

So it's a lot easier to associate with a franchise than a location, especially when that location might be five states over. And part of creating that franchise is by creating a mascot or icon to rally behind.


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

[User] Are the "Stages of Grief" consensus in Psychotherapy? Because they do sound too.. "cookie cutter".

[Assistant] When it comes to human experiences, almost nothing is universal.  Theories of psychotherapy in general are merely a rubric, a guide, to help explain some of the more common experiences people go through.  However every person's experience will differ slightly and Kubler-Ross' stages are just an observation of some of the more common experiences people have when dealing with death.


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

[User] ELI5: How can scientists know one of Saturn's moons has water?

[Assistant]
There is a probe out among Saturn's moons we sent out about 17 years ago. While we already knew there was ice on the moon (it is all over the surface, kilometers thick) we didn't know that any was liquid. The moon was thought to be geologically inactive.

However the probe was precisely measuring the gravity around the southern pole and detected an anomaly; there was slightly more mass than could be accounted for by ice. This combined with the discovery of massive plumes of water being ejected from some cracks in the surface of the ice allowed the deduction that the unexplained density variation was due to liquid water (which is more dense than ice). By measuring the gravitational anomaly they could even determine the rough size of this subsurface ocean.


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

[User] [Star Trek]remember that guy who said he thought Androids shouldn't be captains and Klingons shouldn't be councilors. Does starfleet not have a HR department you can go to try and get such racist (or speciesist) officers disciplined or fired?

[Assistant]
The differences in species in the Star Trek  universe are not the superficial differences inside *homo sapiens* that lead to racism. Klingons might actually be incapable of sympathizing with another species emotional problems at a level where they can be effective councilors. Its not cultural that can be overcome, its not a lack of training on the Klingon's part, its physical and instinctual brain chemistry that makes them not suitable to help others resolve problems in a non-violent, non-confrontational way acceptable to non-Klingon society. And the Federation would have the science to prove it. Species are not races.

The android thing is just opinion. There is no science the Federation has to back up such a statement as there has never been an android of Data's capabilities before to try and be an effective captain.


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

[User]
ELI5: How are our minds able to imagine a person saying something in their voice that they've never said?

To give an example: Let's say I'm thinking about my best friend. How is it that I can make my brain say something like, "Stay Classy, San Diego," in his voice without him never having said that before?

[Assistant] Your brain can remember the nuances of your friend's voice well enough to recreate an approximation of it from memory. Your brain is very good with patterns, so it an fill in the blanks even if you've never heard him say those exact words in that order. It's a lot like thinking of an object even though you aren't actively looking at an example of that object.


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

[User]
[Beauty and the Beast] Why didnt Belle marry Gaston to save her father?

In the movie Belle was willing to take her dad's place as the Beast prisoner and promised to stay there forever if it meant releasing her father but when Gaston tried to have Maurice thrown in the Asylum and promise to release him if she married him she said never. I dont get how come she was willing to be the beast's prisoner forever but not Gaston's wife if it meant saving her father? How is being Gaston's wife worst than being the prisoner of a monstrous creature? As far as Belle knew at the moment he probably would have kept her behind bars in the prison cell her whole life. How is that worst than being Gaston's wife?

[Assistant]
Character development.

In the first case, she basically only had her father as an emotional connection, and vice verse. Both her and her father were alone and shunned by the rest of the town. In the second, though, she had more allies, more friends and, perhaps most importantly, a message calling her something other then the weird daughter of the freak.

She'd grown to respect herself more, and had more to live for, and wasn't going to throw herself at the mercy of monsters anymore.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] How did a wooden funeral pyre melt Vader's durasteel helmet?

Can wooden fires really melt steel like that?

[Assistant] I don't know the melting point of durasteel, but a wooden-fueled fire can certainly have portions where it gets hot enough to melt regular steel. At that point, it's a matter of airflow. It's *easier* with a fuel like charcoal, but if you pump enough air into the right places into the fire, and your fuel is organized in a way to allow a good flow of air without allowing too much heat to escape, it's certainly possible.


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

[User] ELI5: When youre sick and have a sore throat, whats actually causing the soreness?

[Assistant]
The cells on the surface of your throat dying, exposing nerves underneath that are not supposed to be exposed, and react by causing pain.

When you have a cold or flu virus that causes a sore throat, the virus replicates by getting inside your own cells and causing your cells to produce more virus instead of doing whatever they were supposed to be doing. Once enough virus is made, the cell will break open and the new viruses will infect other cells nearby.

In addition to that, your immune system is trying to get rid of the viruses and virus-infected cells. There's no way to do this without killing the infected cells. Your immune system recognizes which cells to kill because the cells display a sample of everything being produced at that moment inside of it, and if the sample of protein fragments being presented is not from your own body, it means it is from an invading pathogen.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does a sunburn not hurt for several hours after actually being in the sun too long?

Worked out in the yard yesterday in the blistering heat and got a sunburn on my neck. When I came in I knew I must have burned my neck but figured it would take a few hours to know if it was going to hurt or not, curious why the pain comes so many hours after the "damage"?

[Assistant] As your body's response, capillaries open up, allowing more blood to the affected area. This aids in the healing process but also makes the area feel warmer and more tender. However, the response isn't immediate, taking the noticeable few hours before the inflammation sets in.


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

[User] ELI5: How do commercial bread makers like Sara Lee and Pepperidge Farm get their loaves to turn out in a uniform size and shape every time?

[Assistant]
Science and machines!

These companies most definitely have a research team on hand. They study everything about the product to make it the best they can. Chemistry, flour types, even yeasts and fermentation.This results in more controlled and better understood products.

The other half is factory bakeries. They mass produce their breads in machines. Because human hands have little to do with the bread making process, the product always comes out more consistent.


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

[User] Does human vision have an aspect ratio?

[Assistant] The typical human binocular visual field spans approximately 125-135 vertical degrees and around 180-200 degrees horizontally.  This gives an angular aspect ratio of around 3:2 for the bounding box in spherical coordinates.


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

[User]
Why is it worth owning a sub-majority share in a private business?

Why is it worth owning a sub-majority share in a private business?

Couldn't the owners just keep on paying themselves larger salaries, buying themselves perks (e.g. cars, etc.), etc

 I could especially see this being a large issue for small businesses with private investors.

[Assistant]
Its an investment like any other hoping for a return. The additional risk comes with higher potential reward.

Trust is important. Many early investors are friends and family. More institutional investors write protection into contracts.

With tech IPOs, many offer golden shares with additional votes for visionary leaders like Mark Zuckerburg. This is because their vision and leadership is seen as making the company more profitable for the other shareholders.


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

[User]
When in the interview process is it appropriate to ask about salary?

Ive been interviewing for a full time teaching position in the Humanities at a public 4 year regional school (US). The job advertisement didnt list a salary range and during my first interview they never mentioned it. Ive been asked to come to campus for an interview after the initial phone screen. Before I make the drive there (about 3 hours, which they said they will pay for) I want to make sure Im not wasting my time or theirs if the salary isnt what I want. When is it appropriate to ask those questions? Or IS it appropriate?

[Assistant] Since its a public school, with some googling you should be able to find salary data for people currently in similar positions, if not a specific salary scale in the faculty documentation. Otherwise, it generally hasnt come up until negotiations following an offer; if it does, its usually from the dean/provost/upper admin, not the direct dept or search chair.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do happy things that are impossible (like winning $1T) not make us happy, but scary things that are obviously impossible genuinely scare us?

[Assistant]
In the pass (Thousand of years ago) it was more beneficial to be scared of tiger/wolf that could be hiding in that bush in front of you. Then be happy of possibility that you will find tasty berries there.
So people who genuinely were scared of "Imaginary/Impossible" things lived, and optimist were eaten.


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

[User]
ELI5: If the Common Cold needs a human host to survive, could we eradicate it from the Earth by telling everyone on the planet to work from home for a week?

I takes roughly a week (I believe) for a human to produce antibodies to fight off the Common Cold.  In that time, it spreads itself to other people.  It mutates over a few months, and then comes back and infects you again, because you don't have antibodies against the new mutation.

So if we all isolated ourselves for a week, we could produce antibodies for the current strains, and kill them all off?  Thus, the world would be cured of the Common Cold forever, right?

[Assistant]
It would take much, much longer than a week and much, much more than just working from home - you wouldn't be able to get groceries, go shopping, there would be no electricity or running water without someone to maintain it. Depending on the virus, they can lay dormant for years at a time before finding a new host. Some people would not be able to eliminate their cold, so they would need to be quarantined forever.

It might be possible, but it would cause total economic collapse and the end of civilization as we know it. Probably not worth it to avoid picking up some kleenex and cough drops.


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

[User]
[Greek Mythology] Would Medusa have turned EVERYBODY who looked at her to stone?

Seeing as sexual preference and attractiveness are partially a matter of individual taste and subjective reasons, and that there exist people like scat and snuff fetishists, would there be anyone with such an idiosyncratic sexual palate that they actually found her quite hot and were therefore immune to her "charms"? I ask because I was just talking to a friend who had an overwhelming crush on Steve Buscemi.

[Assistant] Medusa's petrifying gaze had nothing to do with the viewer's sexual preference. It was a curse from Athena, one so potent that the hero Perseus was able to use it as a weapon against the titan Atlas, the evil king Polydectes, and in some versions, the inhuman Kraken.


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

[User]
[MCU] if Thanos is as strong or stronger than Hulk, where are the super punches?

Watch Hulks fights vs Thor and youll noticd he sends Thor flying when he punches him. Thanoss punches dont really send Thor flying. Hulk is able to send Hulkbuster flying, yet Hulkbuster is bigger than Thanos, but Thanos doesnt go flying by Hulks punches. Hulkbuster can hit Hulk in a way that sends it flying, but Thanos doesnt. How do Thanoss punches damage Hulk more than Hulkbuster when Hulkbuster sent Hulk flying, but Thanos didnt?

[Assistant] It seems counterintuitive, but If Hulk is being lifted off his feet he's not taking the full impact of the blow since some of it's spent throwing him across the room and the force of his landing is distributed across his body. If he doesn't move, he ate the entire thing with the surface area of the punch. He'll regenerate, of course, but it's still more damage than he would have taken getting thrown.


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

[User] ELI5: How do movie scenes in famous places (like Times Square or Grand Central Station) work? Do they have permission forms for everyone in the area?

[Assistant]
If you live near one of these locations, sometimes without warning you attempt your usual walk past the area and find that it's blocked off for filming.  Sometimes there's a PA (production assistant) standing there with a clipboard.  He/she will give you a lookover to check that you're a visual fit for the show, and then tell you that you have to detour around *unless* you sign a release and promise not to draw attention to yourself as you walk past.

They only do that for people walking by in the midground, though.  Anyone coming anywhere near the actors will be paid extras.

(Really experienced New Yorkers know that things like sidewalks are always fair game [unless they've paid a fortune to block off the entire street for the shoot, in which case it will be police blocking the road, not crew] and can't be obstructed whether you refuse to sign a waiver or not.  Look in the background of some Law & Order shows and you'll see a grizzled local plowing through on their way somewhere with a worried production person trailing behind.)


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

[User] [Marvel] How often does Wolverine being a Mutant actually affect him compared to Cyclops and others? It seems like his storylines rarely bring it up while others are far more focused on this.

[Assistant] Wolverines skill set, personal and professional history, and generally unsavoury connections mean he's not really a public face.  While the Xmen are at the forefront being public figures and having big battles.  Wolverine is normally in the background, killing people.


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

[User]
ELI5: What were the major differences between South African apartheid and American segregation?

Moreover, why wasn't the United States blackballed on a global scale for segregation the way South Africa was for apartheid?

[Assistant]
Something that is important to understand in this context is that the US is about 75% white while South Africa is about 20% white. This means that enforcing white ethnic power in South Africa was going to be far more challenging. The solution that was found was that certain areas were to be declared "black homelands". These areas were supposed to be made independent (though South Africa never allowed them real independence) and black people were to be citizens of these "black homelands" and not of South Africa, leaving South Africa a white state. As such black people were not citizens of South Africa and were not legally able to live outside of these "homelands" (although those restrictions were more in paper than in reality).

To summarize: South Africa had a black majority while the US had a white one. As such enforcing white power in South Africa required much more extreme measures.


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

[User] ELI5 Why there isn't a universal side of the car to add fuel?

[Assistant]
Originally, the fuel filler would be placed wherever the engineer seemed sensible. In a Ford Model T, for example, the tank was under the seat and you'd flip the seat up to access it.

There are some cars that put in the middle front or back, but it turns out that was more hazardous if you got in an accident. The Chevy Bell Air hid the fuel filler behind a real tail light -- that sort of thing isn't legal anymore.

New rules say that the fuel filler has to go on the long side of a car, and inside of any crumple zones that might get crushed in a collision. It would be super tricky to build them into the door, so your four spots are the four corners of the passenger compartment.

European car manufacturers tend to favor the passenger side, unless it's got a sliding door whose mechanism makes that impossible. The idea is that it keeps the individual fueling the car away from the street while refueling roadside. Some American automakers have the same philosophy.

Japanese car makers tend to favor placing the filler on the driver's side (as do some American car makers). Their thinking is that they don't want the driver walking around the car to fuel at a gas station.

In some instances, it's simply a matter of having to place the filler in a certain spot because the engineers have other components that have to fit in certain spaces (to accommodate doors, special electronic features, etc.). They are usually in the back because the fuel tank usually sits in the back (because the engine and transmission take up room in the front).

Electric cars don't have the same restrictions, but they do tend to place the charge ports towards the end of the car to make it so fast-charge cords needn't be very long. While there are a couple that place the port in the front (Leaf, Kona EV, and e-Niro) or back (EV6), most place it on the side so that it's less likely to be damaged in a collision.


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

[User]
What physically happens to your body when you get "out of shape"?

For example, I used to be a pretty good runner and kept up with running consistently. Then I stopped for several months and it was a lot harder to keep the same pace I used to. Why is this?

[Assistant] Not sure about ALL the reasons, but for one, the more you exercise, the more mitochondria your muscle cells make (It is here that your cells use up the oxygen you take in and convert it to ATP [energy]). Your aerobic capacity is highly dependent on your mitochondria's ability to turn sugar (among many other things) into ATP. When you stop aerobically exercising (don't run for a few months), your cells see that there is no point in keeping all those extra mitochondria if you are not using them. So the cell breaks them down and uses the parts for things more relevant to your body's current situation :)


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

[User]
eli5: I was just reading about modern submarines on Wikipedia such as the German type 212. Why are they capable of travelling faster submerged than surfaced?

I would have thought that the opposite was the case as less mass is pushing against the water while surfaced.

[Assistant] There are a few factors slowing down submarines on the surface. Water does have surface tension which makes it harder to push through it on the surface then under water. You also end up pushing water upwards into the air creating a bow wave which will push on your hull. This bow wave will not be the same under water. You also get waves hitting the ship slowing them down. A trick to traveling faster on the surface is to cruise in semi-submerged mode. This is when they trim the boyancy so the submarine have almost no boyancy. This menas that most of the submarine is under water and only the top of the sail or even just the periscope is above the water. Something comparable is done with big container ships in that they have a huge bulb on the bow just bellow the waterline looking similar to a submarine bow. This will then break up the bow wave making it easier for the rest of the hull to follow.


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

[User]
If all dogs came from wolves, how did we get so many different breeds etc?

Like how do we have pugs and Aussies and all of that jazz? Might be a dumb question but I would love to know!

[Assistant]
Selective breeding.

In the beginning we didn't have "dogs", we had wolves that didn't attack us, and protected us, in exchange for warmth & food. With time, as humans spread around the planet, we started setting them to different tasks like guarding or hunting. And each generation *we* chose which dog could sire offspring, selecting those that had favorable traits, and/or were better accustomed to a certain climate.

And much later people got pretty much insane & wanted dogs that were fashionable, which is why we get breeds that wouldn't survive even 5 minutes without the comforts modern humans provide.


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

[User] [Independence Day] How did society re-build after the invasion?

[Assistant]
* The largest remaining cities become the new capitals and economic centers.
* A new set of political elite are drawn from states' civil societies, owing to many politicians dying when their countries' capitals were wiped out.  This new blood along with the extensive infrastructural damage yield dramatic changes to laws and constitutions.  The changes skew conservative owing to the extraterrestrial threat (political attitudes shift conservative under existential threat) and to it being urban rather than rural populations that got wiped out.
* The chaos yields militaristic opportunism, with regional rivals (like Saudi Arabia and Iran) attacking each other and non-governmental forces seizing territory (like in Chechnya).
* In spite of these incidents, there is a wave of global solidarity as world and regional governmental bodies are created or expanded in light of the extraterrestrial threat.  There's nothing like a common enemy to unite people.
* After a period of time, a reconstruction boom ensues with high levels of employment and economic growth.  There is also heavy investment in military and space-related technologies.  This period is remembered as a golden age of prosperity and development.
* This boom is aided by the salvage of technologies from the crashed alien ships.  This is therefore not only be a period of prosperity but also rapid technological advancement.
* Decades later, the earth is scarred but stable.  Humanity has the ability to travel beyond the solar system with technology it still only barely understands.


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

[User]
Why was the solid rocket boosters of the Challenger designed in four segments requiring o'rings instead of just one piece?

Is four sections a design advantage?

[Assistant]
The SRBs weren't manufactured in Florida, so they had to be transported to Cape Canaveral. Doing so as a single piece would not have been possible.

They could have been manufactured nearby but the shuttle was designed to be able to be launched from California as well as Florida, and setting up two manufacturing sites apparently wasn't in the cards.

Also, having the SRBs in multiple segments made manufacturing easier and it also eased post-flight inspection and refit.

And in the end, the SRBs performed very well, except for the times (and that's meant to be plural) when NASA launched in unsafe atmospheric conditions.

(Only one SRB failed during launch. But previous cold weather launches had shown serious damage to the o-rings.)


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

[User]
How do infrared cameras work?

I know that infrared waves are the same as heat waves, and I know that you can take advantage of these ways in the same way as you can with the visible light, but how does it work? An infrared picture contain red and blue colours, but are these colours determined to be used for specific intensities of infrared or what?

[Assistant] Infrared, visibile light, ultraviolet light, etc.. All of these are electromagnetic waves of different frequencies. Infrared cameras work pretty much the same as visible light cameras, only their sensor is sensitive for longer wavelenghts of electromagnetic waves.


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

[User]
ELI5: if the Japaneese knew about the nuclear bombs before the US dropped them on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, why didn't they surrender sooner?

So I heard recently that the nuclear bombs (or the Manhattan project or whatever you want to call it) was originally supposed to be secret but it was difficult trying to keep the ginormous bombs hidden from the public, if that's the case then shouldn't Japan (or the Axis powers in general) have known that the Allies would use the bomb? Why wouldn't they surrender before that? Was it even considered?

[Assistant]
Oh, some *did* advocate for surrender, just like in Nazi Germany when all was lost. The problem lied in the *culture* that was formed during the rise of both Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. Defeat in and of itself was seen as a shame that could not and would not be accepted ever.

Simply put, it was death before dishonor. Germans got total wipeout by Russians. Japanese got *almost* total wipeout by the US - until the Emperor finally decided that it wasn't worth it anymore and called it quit. And even then, most generals just offed themselves rather than endure the shame of being seen as losers.


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

[User] eli5: If water is non-compressible, then why not use it in hydraulic machines instead of hydraulic oil?

[Assistant]
Water has a few major issues as a working fluid:

1: its corrosive to metals and will dissolve seals and sealants.

2: it gets weird below 0C.

3: it gets weird above 100C.

Weve engineered various hydraulic fluids to avoid these problems.  You wouldnt want to have your hydraulic cylinders all blow apart the first time you get a light frost overnight.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do antibody tests differentiate between antibodies generated by a COVID-19 infection versus those generated by the vaccine?

I recently participated in a study for which I took a COVID-19 antibody test to see whether I had ever contracted the virus. As I've been vaccinated, I assumed this would confound the test, but in my informational material, it says, "The tests that we use do not identify antibodies from vaccine (only from past infection), so if you have had the vaccine, do not be concerned that this antibody test result is negative."

How does such a test work & how does it differentiate between these two types of antibodies?

[Assistant]
The phrase you're looking has a name: "DIVA" - distinguishing infected from vaccinated.

E: more ELI5 here, for an ELI15, see further below.

Imagine that anyone who gets the vaccine gets a red Lego. Anyone who gets infected gets a red Lego *and* a blue Lego.

If your test looks for the red Lego, it can't tell people apart, because both infected and vaccinated people got a red Lego.

If you have a test for the blue Lego, it can tell who was infected because only infected people got a blue Lego.

**ELI15:**

For covid, the main vaccines are against the spike proteins, and your body makes antibodies against the spike protein.

There are a number of antibody tests for covid. Some test for spike protein antibodies - these cannot tell you if a person was infected or vaccinated. They are not Diva-compatible.

Some tests look for antibodies against another viral protein - the nucleoprotein. These tests are Diva-compatible and can tell the difference between someone who's been vaccinated and someone who's been infected, because only the infected people will have antibodies against the nucleoprotein.


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

[User]
[Teen Titans] Can Beast Boy alter select parts of his body without altering others?

Like, if the TV remote is out of reach and he's too lazy to get up for it(which given his behavior isn't too out of line for him), could he just turn only his arm into an octopus tentacle or something?

[Assistant]
Probably not, but maybe?

Traditionally, Beast Boy's powerset has been to transform into an animal (and gain the corresponding animal's abilities/ characteristics + ability to speak). Partial transformations are outside his toolkit, so no, he can't typically sprout an octopus tentacle to grab a remote across the room.

That said... Occasionally there are hints that Beast Boy's powers are not yet fully developed. Most of the time when we see him in action are either as a teenager or young man. On rare occasions, either when Beast Boy's mind has been affected or when we are presented with a future version, he has demonstrated transformations and abilities that the younger/normal version lacks (specifically, turning into a Lovecraft blob monster and splitting into multiple animals). So it's not out of the question that he might develop such an ability (partial transformation) as he ages and develops his powers, but it's not a certain thing.