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

[User]
[Man of Steel]How did Clark's parents hide his powers in his youth

Throughout childhood, you have to get several check ups done, especially in your school years. In high school, you have to get multiple jabs done. One was for tetanus IIRC.  Obviously any needle would break on Clark's skin. There are also blood tests you have to take as a child.

How did they get by without arising suspicion from schools and etc.

[Assistant]
*Required* vaccinations are a fairly new thing, and even today many places have exemptions for religious or medical reasons. They could tell the state that their child is a Jehovah's Witness with an allergy to mercury and they'd be fine.

His powers also developed over time. Super Girl was bathed in yellow solar energy for her entire trip to Earth, and hit the ground with her powers. Kal El wasn't, which is fortunate: a toddler with the ability to fly and rip steel with his bare hands would be ... difficult to contend with.

The Kents knew he was an alien, and kept a pretty close eye on on his development, mostly because they feared that the government would come and take him away. As he matured and his powers began to reveal themselves, they taught him to 1. not kill anybody and 2. hide what he was capable of.


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

[User]
[Hunger Games] What did the Mutt in the 75th Hunger Games actually look like?

During the 75th Hunger Games, a Mutt was released into the arena.

We never get a detailed description of it.

We only know that it was extremely large, very fast and apparently carnivorous, tearing apart a Tribute so badly that he/she couldn't be identified afterwards.

What did this beast actually look like? What kind of creature did the Capitol engineer for this game?

Was it a reptile, a mammal, a giant insect, what?

[Assistant] It could have being one of those mutts that they release into the sewer in the third book. In the movies they are quite weak individually but in the books they are insanely fast and strong. It would also make sense because Snow enjoys fucking with people, and it would terrify the tributes that may have seen the beasts before.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is brown sugar always "wet"?

[Assistant] Brown sugar is just regular white sugar with molasses in it, molasses is just really refined cane sugar syrup, and when added together it makes the mixture damp, not necessarily wet. You want brown sugar to stay damp for different baking needs and thats why they are always added in with the eggs and wet ingredients.


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

[User]
[Team Fortress 2] Why don't Sniper's adoptive parents look like normal Australians?

Sniper himself gets a pass because he was born in New Zealand. But his adoptive parent don't look like normal Australians either. Neither of have mustaches, when it's established that most Australians have mustaches regardless of sex, and neither of them are particularly buff.

[Assistant]
There's a few possibilities. First, they were elderly and lived out in the boonies. As such it's entirely possible that just didn't feel the need to keep up with current fashion trends and as such have shaved their mustaches.

It's also possible that they may not have used Australium much or at all since they appear to be somewhat poor.

Finally when they realized that Sniper was not Australian they may have decided to shave their own mustaches to avoid making him feel bad about not being able to grow his own (similar to a parent shaving their head to support a child with cancer).


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

[User] ELI5: Why does everything taste a whole lot worse when you're sick?

[Assistant] Your nose plays as big a role in taste if not bigger than your tongue. Bite into an apple with your nose plugged and the aroma from the food cannot travel through your nasal cavity. Same thing applies when you are sick, your nose is stuffed up and scent cannot be converted to flavor.


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

[User]
[Halo] Is it known how much stronger/more efficient MJOLNIR shield technology is compared to contemporary Covenant shields?

It's stated in canon that it took decades to crack forcefield technology, but once it was cracked Halsey and twenty of the UNSC's best scientists were able to eventually improve it beyond what the Covenant possessed. In simple terms, human shields got "more shield" out per Watt put in. The higher ranked Elites did have shields stronger than Spartans', basically because their power plants had much more oomph. The UNSC were concerned the Covenant could salvage a suit of MJOLNIR and make the same modifications to their infantry and ship shields, becoming even more durable.

Is it ever stated in any media how much stronger human-style shields are? If you don't know, what's your guess? Ten per cent, Twenty, Fifty, double?

Cheers in advance.

[Assistant]
I don't know, but it sounds like Halsey needs to get her hands on those power packs, then. Imagine the cake walk that would be in the games.

"Reach? Yeah, three Spartan IIIs murdered an entire fleet in a few days, and they even had time to tea bag, what about it?"


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

[User] Why does organic matter burn instead of melting?

[Assistant]
Burning is a chemical reaction where the matter combines with oxygen.
Melting is simply a state change from solid to liquid.

For organic matter, it simply means the energy required for the burning reaction to happen is lower than the energy required for the organic compound to begin melting. So as you add heat, it reaches the burning reaction before it can melt.


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

[User] ELI5: What is happening inside of the human body when someone is faced with something that makes them "squeamish" and causes them to pass out?

[Assistant] When a person experiences extreme stress or emotion, it can trigger a certain part of the nervous system or a widening of the blood vessels, both decrease blood pressure. If you dont have enough blood going to your brain, then your body auto shuts down to try to save your life. Things that may cause you to faint: encountering your phobia (blood, needles, spiders), hysteria (Michael Jackson, the Beatles, Beyonc), sensory shock (seeing your parents doing it, seeing your grandparents doing it). Fortunately, you can use smelling salts (containing ammonia) to shock (irritate with harsh smell) other parts of your body to trigger waking up.


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

[User]
Why do massages feel good?

I understand a fair bit about the sensory relay of mechanosensors. However, what I can't wrap my head around is why squeezing muscles (especially when someone else does it) feels good. Furthermore, what's the evolutionary benefit of having this positively reinforced behavior?

I realize not everyone enjoys massages, but for those of us that do...what's the deal?

Bonus Question! - Why does my breath stink after a massage? Does this happen to anyone else?

[Assistant]
(1) Not everything is adaptive. There need not be an evolutionary benefit for enjoying a massage, just like there is probably no evolutionary benefit to a man enjoying being pegged with a large black dildo.

(2) Basically, muscles that are overstimulated often respond by losing tone (i.e., they are more resistant to elongation). This results in stiffness, and it means that the muscles and the points they attach to are under a lot of tension. In extreme situations the muscle might contract to form a knot, especially if the muscle is spasming because of some underlying nerve/signalling issue. Massage, by forcibly elongating these muscles, can serve to relieve this tension and the pain it causes.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are batteries inserted in opposite ways?

For instance, the + symbol must be facing up while the - sign is facing down, and vice versa on the other side, in order to insert batteries into my remote.

[Assistant] This is usually because the batteries are placed in series to increase the output voltage. Youll notice the + and - at the end of the remote are just joined with a small piece of metal. Its the easiest (and therefore cheapest) way to get the voltage required.


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

[User]
Please tell me major things that old physics books have misinformed me on.

I recently started reading *Feynman's Lectures on Physics*, and a few years ago I read *Asimov's Guide to Science*. They're both absolutely classic science texts from which I can/have learned a ton, but I also know there are some caveats in learning out-of-date information. Some of them I can catch from my own knowledge (Feynman said that we don't know the intermediate between DNA and protein; Asimov said that we don't have solid evidence smoking causes cancer and that freon is a natural wonder with no detrimental effects), but I know very little physics and incorrect facts in these fields I am likely to miss.

Just curious, what are some big things that have changed, especially in physics (about which I know the least)?

Thanks!

[Assistant]
The Feynman lectures took place in the early 1960s, and a lot of little things have been learned since then, but not too many big things.

The structure of protons and neutrons was just being discovered in this decade, which lead to quantum chromodynamics, the theory of quarks (partons according to Feynman) and their interactions. This makes up part of the *Standard Model,* which was formalised in the 1970s. We have since discovered that neutrinos have mass and oscillate between flavours.

The biggest discovery was perhaps in the 1990s, when we realized that the expansion of the universe is accelerating and that the cosmological constant/dark energy exists.

There are also lots of discoveries in condensed matter like high temperature superconductivity and fractional quantum hall states. Nanotechnology was basically the brainchild of Feynman and it's been moving along since then.


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

[User]
Why do people die of starvation without using up all their bodies' fat reserves first?

I've read that the human body starts breaking down proteins for energy after some time during starvation even when there is still fat left that the body could have utilized to make energy. Why is that so?

Also, is it possible for a person to survive on just his fat reserves for a long period of time if he can't find anything to eat?

[Assistant]
Your body requires more than just fat and protein to survive, and this long list includes your vitamins and minerals that keep your inner machinery working. Not enough vitamin C? Scurvy! No vitamin A in your diet? Keratomalacia!Lacking vitamin B12? Say hello to atrophic gastritis.

Again, you can't survive on just fat alone.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do all vision charts start with a large capital E?

[Assistant] When the Snellen chart is used for a basic assessment, the order of the letters doesn't really matter--the variation starting with E just happens to be commonly used by manufacturers. (There's little reason to deviate from it.) If you want to seriously test someone's ability, especially when fraud is a concern, nowadays a random selection is used rather than a fixed chart.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do earphones separate sound in vertical space?

I listen to a lot of binaural recordings, and it's amazing how they can make you feel like sound is coming from above, below, in front, or behind you.  How is that possible?  I understand how left and right work, and to a lesser extent I even understand how front and back work, but how does up and down work?

[Assistant]
There are a couple of reasons that we can hear what direction a sound is coming from:

Left to right is the simplest, we can pick up the slight delay from the sound taking a little longer to get to one of our ears and figure it out from there

The other directions are because of the unusual shape of our ears - in getting to the eardrum the sound will bounce around in various different ways depending on where the sound is coming from, and our brains have had so much practice at listening to those echoes that it knows exactly what direction just from that exact echo.

Binaural recordings are literally just recording the exact sound that gets to your eardrum, and so it tricks your brain into thinking that it echoed off your ear to have come from that exact spot instead of coming from your headphones.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are healthcare plans restricted to family members? And why do after a certain age even those family members are kicked off?

[Assistant]
Because its based around who is dependent on you.

If you are a husband, you help take care of your wife and take care of your kids.

You don't take care of your best friend Jim or your grown son or your brother.

Except in special circumstances. Many plans use the term "dependent" instead of "child" and can be altered if that dependent is incapable of taking care of them self (such as in a child with cerebral palsy or an autistic person, etc)

The idea behind it is that your plan takes care of those that are dependent on you. Not grown people who are able to care for themselves.


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

[User]
CMV: Airport security is not only ineffective and unnecessarily time consuming, it is also very dangerous.

Airport security has been proven to be very ineffective. For example, the TSA have missed 70 percent of fake weapons and I have heard/seen personal anecdotes to the same effect. Furthermore, there is no proven example of the TSA or similar organisations having stopped a terrorist attack. This supports the arguement I will make later.

Another key issue with airport security is the fact that it cause long delays for travellers. Most of those affected will say something such as Its worth it for security. But is it? Why should we face long delays to support an ineffective and intrusive system?

Airport security can be used as an example of security theatre. It is an attempt to scare off potential terrorists and smugglers but is unlikely to deal with any who actually attempt to pass through.

Airport security actually becomes a danger since it creates a target for terrorists. Why bother passing through when you could kill a large number of people who have nowhere to go?

Why does a system which is ineffective, inconvenient and dangerous still exist. It should change and be replaced with alternative options.

[Assistant]
>Airport security actually becomes a danger since it creates a target for terrorists. Why bother passing through when you could kill a large number of people who have nowhere to go?

On this point an attack on a large mass of people waiting in line does not have the impact that taking down a plane would. They're not looking for body count, they're looking for shock factor. If they were just interested in body count any sports game, concert, streets of New York, etc would be much better targets.

>Why does a system which is ineffective, inconvenient and dangerous still exist. It should change and be replaced with alternative options.

Can you give us an alternative system that could replace it? How would you handle airport security?


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

[User]
ELI5: Why did cyan and magenta replace blue and red as the standard primaries in color pigments? What exactly makes CMY(K) superior to the RYB model? And why did yellow stay the same when the other two were updated?

I'm tagging this as physics but it's also to some extent an art/design question.

**EDIT:** to clarify my questions a bit, I'm not asking about the difference between the RGB (light) and CMYK (pigment) color models which has already been covered in other threads on this sub. I'm asking why/how the older Red-Yellow-Blue model in art/printing was updated to Cyan-Magenta-Yellow, which is the current standard. What is it about cyan and magenta that makes them better than what we would call 'true' blue and red? And why does yellow get a pass?

**2nd EDIT:** thanks to everybody who helped answer my question, and all 5,000 of you who shared Echo Gillette's video on the subject (it was a helpful video, I get why you were so eager to share it). To all the people who keep explaining that "RGB is with light and CMYK is with paint," I appreciate the thought, but that wasn't the question and please stop.

[Assistant]
Red Yellow Blue was used in early printing because that was the best they knew at the time. Technology advanced, and printing color images switched to using magenta and cyan to get a wider, more accurate range of colors.

Our eyes see three basic colors of light: Red, Green, and Blue. Cyan pigment only absorbs one color from light, Red; this leaves behind Blue and Green. Magenta pigment absorbs only Green. Yellow pigment absorbs Blue. Mix those three in varying combinations and you can get every color the human eye can perceive. (Technically you don't need Black in CMYK, but it takes a lot of CMY to get a good, dark Black.)

In contrast, Red Yellow and Blue can only be mixed to *most* visible colors, but there are some that are simply not possible to create with those three as your "primary" colors.

The reason Yellow "gets a pass" is because it is a primary color in color schemes for both subtractive light and traditional art.

So why did we use Red Yellow Blue for so long? Because (a) for a long time we didn't know enough about light to know Cyan and Magenta are better primaries, and (b) Cyan and Magenta pigments are hard to make, requiring (relatively) modern processes.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do TV game shows tax people who get cash on the spot?

I see game shows like How too make a deal give away cash on the spot. Are these people taxed? I know if you win showcases etc taxes are collected on items, but what about cash handed on the spot?

[Assistant]
Any cash prize (including lotteries) is generally considered income in the eyes of the IRS (or similar entity for other countries).

The person/entity giving the money will report the transfer of money to the IRS (and in some cases, offer to withhold the expected taxes) , and it becomes the responsibility of the recipient to submit a payment of the expected owed taxes in a timely manner and to report the earnings when the time comes to file taxes for the year.


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

[User]
[James Bond] Where does Bond's wealth come from?

Is it the casinos?

[Assistant]
He's got some investments and inherited income, but for the most part he isn't exactly rolling in cash; at the end of the day, he's just a civil servant with a decent amount of seniority. But he spends most of his days on mission, eating, sleeping and drinking on the Queen's dime, and his effective per diem is an infinity symbol so long as he doesn't abuse the privilege. In practice, he only has a few months on any given year where he actually needs to pay his own way, so he can afford to party hard.

As far as the gambling, yes, he can get extra income that way. The books in particular have him as a member of a social club where one of the requirements is that you need to win or lose a certain amount at the tables each year or pay a fine, so he constantly has access to high class play during his downtime.


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

[User]
The man who broke the bank of England.

The most famous short sale of US$10 billion worth of pounds sterling was made in 1992 by George Soros. That deal brought him a profit of $1 billion during the 1992 GBP currency crisis and a nickname The Man Who Broke the Bank of England.

But here's my question. I do not quite grasp where does the money come from ultimately? Did this one billion have to come from other peoples wallet? Or am I looking at it in the wrong way?

[Assistant]
tl;dr The Bank of England and British taxpayers

Prior to the EU, there was the European Exchange Rate mechanism (ERM). European countries fixed their currencies (+/- about 5%) to the German Deutschemark because Germany had the strongest economy.

In order to maintain the exchange rate, the Bank of England had to intervene. It can do this by buying/selling British or foreign currency and setting interest rates. Messing with interest rates messes with the whole economy so buying/selling currencies is the better (less distorting) way to manage the exchange rate.

Due to political developments in Great Britain around 1990, Great Britain entered the ERM and pegged British pounds at around 3 Deutschemarks per British pound (3:1). From 1990-92, everything was great. But, there was a global recession in 1992. The Bank of England wanted to cut interest rates to increase investment and consumption. Unfortunately, this also impacted the currency peg mandates so it couldn't. Through some other mechanisms, the British pound became overvalued and was traded at the lower end of the agreed upon range. As long as Great Britain maintained the range, all would be fine.

Enter German Central Bank President. He allowed off the record remarks to be printed if paraphrased and he was basically quoted as saying a currency "could come under pressure" before a referendum in France to join the EU.

Enter George Soros. He reads these comments in the Wall Street Journal and bets he is talking about British pounds. He starts increasing his short position (not short selling per se, but more complicated instruments) against the pound (which was guaranteed by the British government). He also started short selling British pounds outright.

Short selling can go very bad, very quickly because its a bet that the value of the asset will go down. You are selling today and buying tomorrow, pocketing the difference. But British pounds were already at the bottom of the range allowed, meaning they can't appreciate any more, so the value of British pounds could only go down!

If the value of the pound stayed the same, Soros wouldn't make any money, but he more or less couldn't lose any either. Overnight (literally, he was in NYC) while Europe slept, he borrowed and sold pounds until he owned about $10b worth of currency. Other hedge funds caught on and by the time London woke up, British pounds were about to trade below the required level. The Bank of England tried buying them up, but it didn't work. It couldn't raise interest rates because of the recession. Eventually Great Britain was forced to leave the ERM and float the British currency on an open market. The value fell 15%.

George Soros effectively made 15% on his $10b bet, paid for by the Bank of England and British taxpayers.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do websites like PirateBay and other illegal websites manage to host their websites?

Couldn't their internet provider and or host shut their website down?

[Assistant]
One major lynch-pin was that these websites did not host illegal content. Rather, they simply allowed people who were hosting it themselves to get together.

Add this to the different laws where the sites were hosted and the fact that the US doesn't have nearly as much power as it thinks it does, and it is very difficult to take these sites down. Since any party would need a valid reason to strike, it hadn't been a strong case in the past since sites like PirateBay didn't host any content. It's a classic case of "we know you're up to no good, but we can't do anything about it."


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

[User]
[Teen Titans] Why is the Titans tower so big?

Why do 5ish people need a giant tower with hundreds of rooms?  Is there anything else in the building?  Do they rent the bottom floors and just use the top?  Do they have support staff or c-listers that we don't see?

[Assistant]
well, they're superheroes.

they need a large space to store their equipment, equipment used for EVERY POSSIBLE SCENARIO.

also, in the event that something catastrophic happens and the tower gets partially destroyed, they have plenty of other rooms they can use as a "replacement"


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

[User]
ELI5: When writing an amount of money, such as '50' or '50p', why does the '' come before the amount of money but the 'p' comes after?

I guess the same logic applies to American currency with '$50' and '50c' (I don't have the symbol for cent on my laptop).

I'm just wondering why money values have the larger symbols ahead of their money, but the lesser values always come after?

[Assistant] It's a quick glance tactic to avoid mistakes.  If there is not a 0 and a decimal written before the number, one might actually misread 50 as $50 or vice versa, so the  was after the amount.  This was more prevalent in days of handwritten books as the two symbols were really only one curved stroke apart from each other.  However, the presence of the 0 and decimal point can work just fine in electronic spreadsheet modernization.  $0.50 is much more largely considered acceptable today as it's usually a computer doing the calculations.


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

[User]
ELI5: What happens to the water content of an egg that has been hard-boiled?

My eighty year old grandfather asked this question.

I told him that I think the water does not begin to evaporate unless the shell is cracked, otherwisd the moisture is still within the egg.

Am I wrong?

[Assistant]
Most of an egg white is water and most of what isn't water is protein. When you cook the egg white and it becomes opaque and semi solid, it's not because you dehyrdrated the egg white, but rather because the proteins were denatured and have unfolded and refolded in such a way as to trap the water it contains in a sort of protein prison creating a gel mesh which keeps the water from running out.

By continuing to cook the egg, you can indeed make the folded protein mesh "squeeze" the water out of the eggs. This is most commonly seen in overcooked scrambled eggs, which get rather tough and then just release their water to pool in the pan or on the plate once too much heat has been applied.


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

[User]
Why don't astronauts on the ISS wear lead-lined clothes to block the high radiation load?

They're weightless up there, so the added heft shouldn't be a problem.

[Assistant]
Lead isn't as magical of a radiation shield as it's often portrayed as.  It's really good against x-rays in the diagnostic range, but against anything else it's mediocre and is just used because it's a cheap dense material.

Against high-energy cosmic rays lead can actually be worse than nothing, because the rays can blow apart the big sloppy lead nuclei and the fragments fly off as even more radiation.  A better choice would be something made of light nuclei like water or plastic, and even then you're talking about thicknesses that are just not on the scale of clothing.


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

[User] ELI5: How exactly is spider silk stronger than steel, when your hand could easily cut through thick spider webs whereas a steel wire half the size would require a knife to cut through?

[Assistant] I think you're vastly overestimating the size of spider threads.  Spider draglines (the particularly strong silk threads usually measured) are about .00032 inch in diameter - or about 1/3000th of an inch.  A metal thread of that diameter would offer very little resistance to your hand as well.  Spider silk is slightly weaker than a steel wire of an equivalent diameter.  The "Twice as strong as steel" factoid you usually hear is actually comparing by *weight*.  Spider silk is much less dense than steel.


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

[User] [Superman] In terms of physics, how exactly does Superman fly?

[Assistant]
I believe it was hypothesized by Desaad that Superman uses a low-grade subconscious manipulation of gravity in order to lift and propel himself.

This would explain why he is able to lift things when not anywhere near their center of gravity, and why his hands don't simply tear through large objects he's moving.


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

[User] Other than height, are there any observable physical differences between a human who is alive today and someone who was alive 10,000 years ago?

[Assistant]
To get an idea of this, when Europeans sailed to the Americas and Austrailia, they met people who had been genetically isolated from them for more generations than you have from a person 10,000 years ago.  On a fundamental genetic level there's basically no significant difference.

Now, they might look a bit different from their descendants (for example, Europeans have gotten paler over time), but they'd be well within the range of modern human variation.  Obviously they'd be wearing a different set of clothes and probably looking around wondering what the heck had just happened if you saw one transported straight out of the stone age.

Non visible differences might be present too.  They'd lack a set of genes that many (but not all) modern humans have making it easier for us to digest farmed foods like milk, starches, and alcohol.


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

[User] ELI5: why do we get a horrible feeling right before we puke and feel better after doing so until "that feeling" starts to build up again ?

[Assistant] When your body needs to vomit it will produce chemicals to make you nauseous making you want to puke. After you vomit dopamine is released making you feel better. Your body rewards you for getting rid of the toxins in your body.


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

[User]
What are the main arguments against Pigovian Taxes?

I have a general understanding of Pigouvian Taxes. They are taxes used to influence behaviour, such as carbon taxes influencing someone's burning of fossil fuels.

I can think of a few arguments against Pigovian Taxes, but they don't seem economic and are more ideological. For example, generally being against government intervention in markets or affecting people's freedom of choice.

What other arguments are there against Pigouvian Taxes? (assuming I understood the concept correctly).

Edit: I realized I misspelled the term in the title.

[Assistant] One issue might be government failures. When there is an externality, the competitive equilibrium allocation is not optimal. This is a market failure. Theoretically, a social planner can set a Pigouvian tax/subsidy to restore the social optimum. However, this is probably not feasible in practice. First, in order to calculate the optimum, the social planner has to know a lot of information regarding the cost structure of firms and peoples preferences. Second, implementing the tax might be difficult, especially in countries with poor state capacity, since people will try to evade the tax. Third, the government agencies are in practice run by self-interested bureaucrats and politicians, not by benevolent planners. So, their decisions might be different from the optimum.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter]How can Ollivander trace his lineage back to the 4th century B.C.?

The shopfront in Philosopher's Stone states "Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C." How can anyone, magical or not, keep track for that long?

[Assistant] Some families keep records. This goes double for families of wealth and prominence. Most European royal families can trace their ancestry back at least 1,000 years, and thats without magical record-keeping techniques.


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

[User] ELI5: how does a country like the USA produce exactly as much electricity as needed at all times. Where does excess power go when not needed?

[Assistant]
One one side, you regulate the output of your powerplants to meet demand. That can be complicated with some plants, so the system is set up that you have base load plants, that will essentially run at constant production, mostly nuclear and coal, and peak load plants, which can react quickly to changing demand, that is mostly gas.

On another side, you can store excess production. That's done with pumped storage plants. Excess energy is used to pump water into an uphill reservoir, from which it can be quickly released downhill through a water turbine to produce electricity again when the need is there.

Overall, it's a fine balancing game between all the different sources and the changing demand. But the folks running that game have lots of statistical data on how demand changes over time and can predict what they have to do based on that.


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

[User]
How do things like arteries stay watertight after being stitched together in an operation?

When something like an artery is repaired and stitched together how does it become sealed? Is it just regular clotting the way blood repairs skin cuts etc or something else?

[Assistant]
It's mostly just by placing very small sutures usually 6-0 or 7-0 prolene very close together with the help of magnifying lenses.

The way that they are sewn together is also maybe not immediately intuitive, but they are not just sewn together end to end, but the edges are trimmed at angles to form much larger ovals that are sewn together and distribute the pressure along the repair over a larger area and so that they can overlap more and gives more room to place more sutures.

When tying the final knot it is also very important to get the tension in the suture just right so that it is under enough tension to hold everything together, but not so tight that you rip the suture through tissue or have everything bunch up into a ball.


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

[User]
ELI5:Why is throwing a glass of water on someone considered Assault?

the other night at a bar, a fight broke out...someone threw a glass of water on the two fighting in an attempt to break it up and was arrested for assault.  Felt this was unfair, as water is harmless and they were attempting to break the fight up.    why is water considered a weapon?

[Assistant]
"Assault" means different things in different states, so it can confusing.  In this instance, it is almost certainly being used to describe a crime that is sometimes called "simple battery" (or something similar).

This crime requires that (a) an offensive touch or contact is made upon the victim; and (b) intends or knows that their action will cause the offensive touching.

So, if a person causes water to physically touch someone, and knows that the person getting hit with the water would be offended by it, it's assault.

From a nerdy legal point of view, the real question is whether this assault could be a justified use of force. If the person thought that by throwing the water they were using the minimum amount of reasonable force necessary to prevent a more serious battery, there might be a defense to the assault charges.


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

[User]
Bacterial Resistance to Drugs

I'd like to know how some bacteria are able to survive, reproduce and further mutate. Also how to defeat the potential yet extreme pandemic.

EDIT: Thanks for clearing that up!

[Assistant]
Drugs are small molecules that interact with the machinery of all types of cells (human, plant, bacteria, fungi etc.). Typically they block or repress the function of some essential cellular component (typically an enzyme/protein). Drugs are able to interact with these cellular parts because they have a shape that fits like a puzzle piece into its target.

Mutation is a natural process. When a bacterium is ready to reproduce it makes a copy of its chromosome(s) (made of DNA and consisting of genes) and divides into two daughter cells. This copying process is very accurate, but NOT perfect. Some cells in a growing population of bacteria will have mutations that were not found in their ancestors. Some of these mutations may occur in gene that codes for cellular parts that are drug targets. When a mutation occurs in one of these genes it may alter the site on a protein where drugs bind. The two will no longer fit together like puzzle pieces and the drug will not work or will be less effective. Other mutations may help cells deal with drugs in different ways. Enzymes may gain new functions that can cause them to expel or break down drugs.

Another important thing to know is that bacteria "have sex." They can exchange pieces of DNA with one another or uptake DNA from their environment left over by dead cells. Some of this transferred DNA may contain genes that confer antibiotic resistance. When drugs are administered to a population of bacteria, most of them will be killed but if any resistant mutants were in the population they now have the opportunity to grow and reproduce and all of their surviving descendants will contain their genes for antibiotic resistance because they are essentially making a bunch of clones of themselves.

There is much debate going on about the best way to deal with wide-spread antibiotic resistance. We are in this situation because bacteria evolve faster than our ability to design and commercialize new drugs. Many scientists would say we need to use antibiotics less often, especially in livestock. Others want to find new combinations of drugs that work synergistically with one another. Multiple approaches will likely need to be used to deal with these issues.


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

[User] ELI5: What exactly is a hangover?

[Assistant]
Dehydration is a big part of it, but so is the general breakdown of alcohol in the body. The alcohol breaks down into some harsh compounds like acetaldehyde and formaldehyde, then it breaks down into acetic acid.
Acetic acid is fine, it's the same stuff in vinegar.. the problem is the middle part. The common reaction to those two is sweating, skin flushing, vomiting, and nausea.
Combine it with water loss from drinking other things than water, throwing up, or peeing more, and then add in the two compounds and it's a painful morning.


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

[User]
From an evolutionist standpoint, if warmth is necessary for survival, why did humans evolve without fur?

it just seems counterproductive to me. if we started out as monkeys why would we lose that warmth.

[Assistant] We lived in warm places and didn't need fur to live.  Losing it made us cool down better when exercising, enabling us to endurance-hunt other animals who cannot exert themselves as much continuously over a long time.


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

[User]
How to come off natural in a PhD interview?

hi everyone. I recently got an interview invite to one of my top programs for a PhD. I am insanely excited and stressed about it. they have already told the interviewees what questions to expect, which has given us both a blessing and curse in terms of preparation.

of course I prepared answers to these questions but I am worried about coming off as rehearsed/scripted, especially as I tend to get nervous and find it hard to maintain a natural flow.

any advice for introverted, anxious people to come off more natural or relaxed in interviews? thanks!

[Assistant] Its expected that youll be nervous. Just dont read answers or rattle off memorized lines and youll be fine. Good interviews are like good improvised musicthe person knows their stuff so well that they can adapt and flow while still being authentic.


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

[User]
[Nightmare in Elm Street] Can you trap Freddy Krueger definitely in the real world?

So, the default strategy to try to kill Freddy is usually bring him to the real world and kill him here.

Freddy apparently can only be temporarily be disabled this way, coming back after a couple of months, maybe?

But could you bring him back and trap him in a prison cell, a metal box, or anything like that to contain him indefinitely? What are the options?

[Assistant]
So in FVJ it's established that he has to be remembered in the world to be brought out of hell and into dreams. That's why they invent the drug to stop the kids from dreaming. You could bring him into the real world as Nancy did but it was her saying she didn't believe in him that banished him back to hell. Then there's also the Nightmare 2 situation where he can be released through enough mockery of the target teenager.

So you'd have to have the person that brought him into the world to watch him. Then as that person died you'd have to repeat the process. This sounds like a job for a Foundation.


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

[User] Why does plastic turn white when stretched?

[Assistant] Clear plastics are amorphous (or monocrystalline, but that's unlikely); the long polymer chains are arranged with no particular long-range ordering.  When you stretch the plastic a little bit, you add some energy to the system, pulling a few of those chains into alignment with each other, creating small areas of oriented chains - inducing crystallization.  When the plastic contains a bunch of small crystals, the boundaries between the crystals scatter light, making it appear white.


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

[User] ELI5:Prior to toothpaste being introduced to the world, how did humans of the past maintain oral hygiene?

[Assistant]
They died before it mattered. Their diets had far less sugar in it, so their teeth didn't wear as fast, and they had fewer cavities to deal with. By the time they started losing teeth, they were probably already old and close to dying anyway. As modern medicine started increasing the expected lifespan, dentures were created to make up for lost teeth.

As well, fluoride is a naturally occurring mineral found in pretty much all water sources. That's actually how it was discovered that fluoride helps your teeth - scientists were studying the effects of high levels of fluoride in the drinking water of people in the mountains. So most people were exposed at least to *some* fluoride to help remineralize their teeth as they were worn down.


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

[User] ELI5: Does the phrase "Some viruses target specific cells in the body." mean that when viruses infect the body they completely ignore all other groups of cells or do they infect them equally and only flourish in those cells that favour their growth?

[Assistant]
The outside of cells and virus cells are covered in chemicals. Different cells are covered in different chemicals.

Specific chemicals stick to other specific chemicals. Other chemicals don't do anything. It can help to think of it like many different colors of velcro. Blue velcro only sticks to blue velcro, it doesn't stick to red or green velcro.

If a virus as the correct chemical to stick to a cell, it sticks to that cell and infects it. If a virus does not have the correct chemical, it just bounces off of it and doesn't do anything.

Medicine that targets a specific part of the body works the same exact way. It goes everywhere, but only attaches and does stuff to cells with the right chemical on the outside.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Have any witches/wizards attempted space travel through magical means?

Related question: what spells might a wizard use to facilitate space travel?

I've read that apparation becomes increasingly difficult with larger distances, could an immensely powerful wizard apparate to the moon?

[Assistant]
Wizards who use the bubble head charm don't seem to have any concerns about decompression sickness, so it's plausible that it regulates pressure as well as provides oxygen, and might be used in space travel or easily adapted to that.

As for getting there, apparition is out.  Only the most highly skilled wizards can travel more than a few hundred Km, and the Moon is much farther than that.  There are no fireplaces on the moon, so floo powder is out, and brooms are limited to a few Km of altitude.  A portkey would be a possibility, assuming a wizard had the foresight in the 50s through 70s to make a probe into one.  If not, their options for getting there wouldn't be too bad, a lot of wizard spells could be very helpful in recreating or simplifying muggle-style space vehicles (for example, imagine a weightlessness spell on a rocket, or a two-way mirror instead of a radio).


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

[User]
[Star Trek] Why do tribbles hate Klingons?

As far as we know, they are not a sentient species.  They hated Klingons before the "Great Tribble Hunt", which took place after the incident on K7.  Why the hate?

[Assistant] Perhaps it has to do with their ability to exude that calm feeling. Most creatures respond to them with this need to care for and protect them... but Klingons respond differently (with hostility) to their empathic projection, and they can tell.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do credit cards expire?

[Assistant]
There are a few reasons:

1.  The expiration date is yet another dimension of security.  You've got to provide number AND date AND code-on-back for full authorization.  Very specifically, the Visa and MasterCard license agreement requires this of credit card issuers that do so under the Visa name and system.

2. It provides (yet another) logical window where the creditor can check in on you, raise your rates, change fees, or turn you away as a customer.

3. they do wear out, new technologies (as well as changes to issuer brand) get included and this provides them a mechanism to ensure that the newer "model" is in your hands, rather than you holding on to an old one for eons.


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

[User] [Dragon Ball Z] I'm not too familiar with the series, but if Vegeta wanted to be immortal and all powerful before Frieza, why didn't he just seek out the dragon balls in his free time when he was hanging out with the Z team and became a good-ish guy?

[Assistant]
Ummmm... He searched pretty hard for the Namekian Dragonballs. There was a pretty intense 3-way search going on at the time (Frieza's men, Z-Fighters, and him), and he managed to find a decent few of them.

When all the Dragonballs *were* assembled in one place, and Porunga was summoned, Vegeta showed up after 2 wishes were made, and *did* wish for immortality, but Guru died at that moment, so he wasn't given it.

Then Frieza showed up, and everything when to HFIL in a handbasket.

Later, when Guru was revived, the third wish was changed to "send everyone except Goku and Frieza from Namek to Earth."


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

[User] [MCU] Why did Thanos have to snap his fingers? Is there a rule that there has to be a physical action to make anything happen? Tje rest of the stuff he does with the stones he just thinks... Too much of the plot hangs on him rubbing to fingers against each other.

[Assistant]
He didn't have to, but the stones play along with your assumptions, and once you've got the idea that to activate it you need to close your fist or snap your fingers... that's how they work for as long as they're in that gauntlet.

They are, if anything, *too* amenable to the user.


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

[User]
[Daredevil] (spoilers) Matt's soul

In the series both Matt and his priest make it very clear that murder is a mortal sin that should not be committed. It is even a plot point when he decides not to kill Fisk. So why doesn't Matt care that he set Nobu on fire, killing him?

[Assistant] Many people/cultures differentiate between murder and "combat kills" where the opponent is clearly trying to kill you. Call it "self-defense," or whatever, but Matt - both as a warrior and as a lawyer - probably appreciates the distinction.


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

[User]
What is the "empty space" in an atom?

I've taken a bit of chemistry in my life, but something that's always confused me has been the idea of empty space in an atom. I understand the layout of the atom and how its almost entirely "empty space". But when I think of "empty space" I think of air, which is obviously comprised of atoms. So is the empty space in an atom filled with smaller atoms? If I take it a step further, the truest "empty space" I know of is a vacuum. So is the empty space of an atom actually a vacuum?

[Assistant]
First: there are no such things as nested atoms. Yes, different kinds of atoms have different sizes, but you will never find one atom tucked _inside_ another one.

Now, when you really think about it, "empty space" becomes kind of a tricky concept to define, and it depends on the scale at which you look at the space. For example, there's a story about a philosophy (?) professor doing a demonstration in class, where he fills a cup with marbles, asks "Is there empty space in this cup?" (and the students answer "no"), then pours sand into the cup, asks "Is there empty space in this cup?" ("no"), then pours water in and so on. The point is that "empty space" is not a specific technical term. A particular region of space could be considered empty or full or something in between, depending on which definition you're using; and definitions differ.

With atoms, what's really going on is that the space outside the nucleus is filled with the quantum fields that represent an electron. (It's slightly tautological to say that because a field fills space by definition, but let's not worry about that.) The electron itself is very very small, essentially pointlike, so it doesn't really take up any space on its own, and thus you might argue that all the volume of the atom (outside the nucleus), minus the size of one electron, is empty. But on the other hand, there's some probability of the electron being anywhere within the atom, so by another definition, it's not really accurate to say that that space is empty if there's some chance an electron could show up in it. In particular, the space within an atom is not quite the same as what physicists consider a vacuum, because there's a significant probability that you'll find an electron in the atom whereas the probability is much less in a vacuum.


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

[User]
Why do mammals usually have dull coloration when compared to some birds, reptiles and fish?

Basically, there is no mammal that comes close to a bird of paradise, a milk snake, a clownfish or a jewel beetle in terms of coloration. Why?

[Assistant]
There are proximate and ultimate causes at work here.  Proximately, mammals lack the genes to make most kinds of structural pigments.  Many of the really bright, iridescent colors of animals are structural.  Mammals are generally limited in the kinds of pigments they have available.

Ultimately, _most_ brightly colored animals use their bright colors to communicate with others of the same species.  The ancestor of all mammals was nocturnal, and to this day most mammal species do not use vision as their central means of communication, instead relying on scent and sound.  Most mammals have relatively poor color perception as well, especially on the red end of the spectrum.   So there has been little pressure for them to evolve new colorful displays or to keep those ancestral genes for structural colors.   The exception to all of this is the old-world primates, which are active during the day, have full color vision, and have some of the most colorful displays of all mammals (consider the baboon, for example).


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

[User]
If you plug a submerged straw with your finger and then lift it from the liquid, a volume of liquid remains in the straw; is there a maximum diameter of cylinder (straw) where this is still possible?

What other limiting factors come into play?

[Assistant]
The surface tension of the inverted meniscus at the bottom of the straw limits it. For a bubble of air to move up and a drop of water to move down, extra surface has to be created against the tendency of the surface tension to minimize the area (\*).  At some point the energy required to create that extra surface is less than the energy gained by water falling and a bigger straw has  more water that can move down under gravity.

\* The contact angle between water and straw wall stops it becoming completely flat though, so the area isnt the actual minimum possible geometrically.


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

[User]
ELI5 Why do so many languages employ the "masculine"/"feminine" type nouns?

English seems to do just fine without gendered nouns so why is it that most other languages have gendered nouns?Just wondering what the point is and how they all converged on the same basic structure.

[Assistant]
Gender is not a vital feature- and there are lots and lots of grammatical features which are not vital but languages have them anyway. English for example has tense, which many languages do not have and are fine without.

"Extra" features such as gender and tense help communicate more information- making sentances more compact, less ambiguous, and freeing up word order.

Gender specifically is common becuase of historical accident. Proto-Indo-European had gender and it spread like crazy across Europe and South Asia. As a European language, English is actually a bit strange for not having gender.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are female orgasms so much more intense than male orgasms?

It seems like men are sort of... Unhappy to cum. It's like they're scratching an itch, but for women it ranges from a really good feeling to an earth-shattering religious experience. How come women's orgasms are so much better?

[Assistant] Well for one no man has even been a woman and vice versa so it really is impossible for anyone to say the only factual thing thing we can say though is that woman can orgasm multiple times in one sex session while men can usually only do once sometimes twice, Imo men enjoy their orgasms just as much but they only get the one and when it happens the sex is usually over so it's a bittersweet moment. Females get to spend the whole time trying to orgasm as much as possible while males spend the whole time fighting the orgasm for as long as possible.


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

[User] ELI5: If female orgasms last so much longer then males, why do men think/want sex so much more?

[Assistant]
It's not just about the orgasm. The sex thought process is also driven by the biological need to procreate and produce the next generation.

Women are fertile a few days of the month, but men are fertile pretty much all the time, and a guy can fertilize many many women. So biologically men's sex drive is higher and they think of it more often.

And yes, there are lots and lots of individual exceptions. This is from a general trend perspective.


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

[User]
[Lord of the Rings] Have there been any cases of a human/elf marriage where the elf continued living long after the human died?

From what I remember reading, the elf always seems to become mortal from the marriage. Or die from being very sad, as elves sometimes do.

Has there ever been an elf who married a human, outlived them, and didn't become mortal or die of depression? Continued living without being miserable forever?

[Assistant]
It's a little more complicated than that. Each marriage between Elves and Men came with its own set of unique circumstances.

The first, between Beren and Luthien, ended with Luthien becoming mortal because those were the terms imposed on her if she wanted to get Beren back from death. Beren had died fighting Carcharoth, and Luthien died from grief shortly afterwards. Luthien goes to the Halls of Mandos where she basically makes a plea to get Beren back (Men leave the circles of the world upon death). This is successful, and Beren is returned, but she is now mortal, and they both die about 40 years later.

The second, between Tuor and Idril, ends with Tuor allegedly remaining a Man, but being granted true immortality by Eru after he and Idril sail west. So in this case, both partners lived on for eternity. Tuor is the only Man to have had this happen.

The third, between Aragorn and Arwen, ends with Arwen choosing to become mortal. She's one of the half-elven, along with her brothers and father, so she has a choice of which kindred she would rather be with. The act of marrying Aragorn doesn't make her mortal; she could've chosen to be an Elf, but she doesn't want to live without him. When he dies, she gives up her life the following year.

There's another marriage too - between Imrazor the Numenorean, Prince of Belfalas, and Mithrellas, an elf-maid from Lothlorien. She bears him two sons, and then disappears one night, her fate unknown.

Basically, each Union of Elves and Men came with extraordinary circumstances that affected how each marriage and the fates of those involved ended up playing out. If an Elf was to marry a Man in normal circumstances, it would not make the Elf mortal, nor would it make the Man immortal. If the Man died, the Elf could live on forever, although they would obviously be carrying a lot of grief. Any children from the marriage will be of the race of Men, so mummy or daddy Elf also gets to watch them die too.


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

[User] [Chrono Trigger] What do the abbreviations B.C. and A.D. stand for?

[Assistant]
AD stands for "Anno Domini," which translates to "Year of the Lord." The Lord in this case refers to King Cedric Guardia I, who founded Guardia in year 1 (possibly year 0).

BC stands for "Before Cedric," since it was before he founded the nation.


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

[User] Is it possible to trap photons between two mirrors?

[Assistant]
Briefly. The problem is that for any reasonable distance between the mirrors, the small chance for light to not reflect each time means that the "half life" of a photon is a tiny fraction of a second.

Hypothetically you could put your mirrors in outer space to get more distance, but then you have the difficulty of aiming them precisely enough to prevent the photon from missing.


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

[User]
[Batman Begins] What was the official story behind Bruce coming back to Gotham after being presumed dead for 7 years?

What possible reason would there be for a spoiled, self-absorbed billionaire playboy living off his parents' inheritance to just disappear from the public eye for several years?

And wouldn't people find it suspicious that Bruce Wayne's return strangely coincided with the Batman's first sightings?

[Assistant] Public answer to the first question: he was tired of the fame, media attention, and expectations put upon him as the sole heir to the Wayne family fortune.  So he spent a few years traveling the world, laying low, and figuring out himself.


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

[User]
[LOTR] Why didn't Aragorn stipulate he wanted the undead army to help him defeate Sauron and his armies then they would be released of their oath?

He got them to attack the ships for one. He got them to help him at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields. Why not get them to help one step closer at the gates or Mordor? It's not like they killed all those people on the ships and were like. "We're done, can't help you any further."

And most of all it's not like they had anything better to do anyway. They are undead.

Why stop? Why not go one last step to help destroy in my opinion, the most important force of ork reserves (10,000) if Frodo and his quest failed?

They would have cut through them like cheese.

Why didn't he simply say, "Help see us all through this and you are free."

[Assistant] Basically, he didn't want to push his luck with them. The possibility existed that at a certain point they would feel they had fulfilled their obligation and abandon him or turn on him, or that Sauron might manage to seize control of him, meant that he dared not take them further than to battle the Corsairs of Umbar (book) or to help defend the Pelennor fields (film)


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

[User] [DOOM] What do the demons and various hellspawn do day-to-day when there isn't an active invasion going on, or when the Doom Marine isn't tearing the place apart?

[Assistant]
Hell exists in a completely separate spacetime continuum from our own. Demons and the damned exist in eternity in hell at every single instant of our own spacetime--a year on Earth is exactly as long in hell as a second here. In hell every single punishment inflicted on the damned is experienced both simultaneously and eternally, where the smallest puncture wound is drawn out to encompass the entirety of time, and the forsaken soul is able to experience each of these torments only because they've turned away from God's grace, and His mercy now cannot save them from eternal damnation. As such, there is no "down time" in hell. A demon doesn't have to sit around twiddling its thumbs, because, for every instant in eternity, it's already tortured the damned, and for every instant in the future it's already going to be torturing the damned.

During the Martian incident, nexus points between the Earth's continuum and hell's were created *from the Earth side in*, forcing our spacetime continuum to twist into hell's. When a demon passes through the portal they experience time as we experience it, constraining them to our linear sliver of time. Thus even the worst torments inflicted upon living souls on Earth are mercifully transient, as God's grace still lets us live as is natural to us, and we might be saved even from hell's worst transgressions into our world (though it may not appear this way when being skewered by an imp). This is evidenced by the very obvious fact that victims still succumb to the release of death and have souls that may pass on.

When a living soul twists through the Earth-created nexus and enters hell, for an infinitesimal instant (even if it's all of our mortal existence) hell's eternity is projected down into what we perceive. For this unmeasurable duration the demons of hell are spawned and are destroyed by the Doom marine's actions, but as soon as the twist in spacetime is removed (death or retreat), there again ceases to be the flow of time as we perceive it. It could be imagined as a spacetime bubble drifting through the demonic plane and forcing the immediate surroundings to coalesce in time and space. When the Doom marine passes the damned it allows him to perceive a moment in time when they're suffering, and when he leaves that suffering again balloons outwards to eternity.


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

[User]
Instead of breathing would it be possible to just oxygenate our blood?

Like instead of breathing through the lungs, just directly oxygenate the blood and have it enter the blood stream.

[Assistant]
This is what is done during some heart surgeries, using a heart-lung machine to mechanically oxygenate the blood. It takes venous blood out of the patient and passes it along membranes to oxygenate it, then reconnects to the patient's arteries.

However, there are complications associated with using a machine to do imperfectly what our lungs are very good at. Studies have shown that many patients who have been on a heart-lung machine suffer minor brain damage afterwards.


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

[User]
[DC] Wouldn't Superman get lost in space?

This questions mainly applies to Superman because I know he regularly leaves Earth to go on space missions. But it also applies to other space-faring heroes (or villains).

When Superman leaves Earth and travels to a distant solar system or galaxy, how does he find his way back home? As soon as he left the immediate solar neighborhood, our Sun would just become another point of light in a sky containing billions of other stars. Is Superman an adept star navigator? Does he have some sort of location sense like a homing pigeon?

What about other space-faring people? Does anyone ever travel outside the solar system and then realize they have no idea how to return? And how would they even go about finding their way back if they did get lost?

[Assistant]
Supes could just see our planet from that point of light in the sky - he has super vision.

Past that, it's just familiarity (going into space enough times) or outside help (hitch a ride with a GL). If anyone ever got lost, they would just find someone with future tech (from out perspective, normal tech from theirs) and get them home. It's the equivalent of pulling over and asking directions.


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

[User] ELI5: How come some cheese spoil while others just "age"?

[Assistant]
Several protective techniques permit aging:

- Mixing in a lot of salt
- Drying the cheese
- Coating the whole cheese with wax
- Encouraging a beneficial mold to grow, which fights off other molds and bacteria.


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

[User]
[MCU] Spoilers: Loki Timelines

>!How were Sylvie and any of the alternative Lokis allowed to age to adulthood?

>!My understanding: the TVA exists to preserve the sacred timeline and prune any timelines spawned from nexus events. Furthermore, the show establishes that what we see in the MCU so far are events that were "supposed" to happen and are part of the sacred timeline. Doesn't this mean "our Loki" (Tom Hiddleston) is the "real" Loki? I understand he took an action that deviated from the sacred timeline, but he was still the one that participated in the previous events of the sacred timeline up to this point. How come the other Lokis could exist at all? Wouldn't they have been pruned at birth when they were born as "the wrong Loki"? Why was alligator Loki not instantly pruned because Loki is clearly not supposed to be an alligator?

>!It felt like they established this timeline lore and then shoehorned the alternative Lokis in there because it was cool.

I've tried to google this already but have just found explanations of the timeline without answering this specific question.

[Assistant]
Full Loki series spoilers

>!Because the TVA outright lied about its purpose. What they *actually* do is prune any timeline that will lead to another Kang. All the various timelines exist in parallel, including the weird ones, but the TVA only intervened in ones that "branch towards a redline". Turns out, a redline is "one that leads to Kang".!<


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

[User] Just as "red" in hundred meant "count", does the "ter" in close relatives (like father, mother, brother, sister) mean anything in Old(er) English?

[Assistant]
Yes!  Father, mother, and brother are derived almost unchanged from proto-Indo-European (PIE), where -ter is a kinship suffix.  Sister is from PIE *swesor, probably from PIE roots *swe- "one's own" + *ser- "woman."

If you like this sort of thing, etymonline.com is fantastic.


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

[User] ELI5:Why does The NFL, NHL and PGA Have Tax Exempts?

[Assistant]
The leagues themselves are organized as pass through entities, but the teams are not.  The NFL is the most famous example of this, so I'll use it as an example.  If the NFL generates profit, every last dime of profit gets passed through to the teams themselves.  The NFL itself, for business purposes, is more like a Chamber of Commerce or a trade organization that itself is not doing business.  But the teams can (and do) pay taxes.

Even if you wanted to 'make 'em pay' or anything like that, there would be nothing to tax because all the profit is passed through to the teams.


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

[User] [Harry Potter] If a man drank a polyjuice potion to transform into a woman then had sex with a man, would conception be possible? What would happen to the embryo when the potion wore off? If pregnant woman drank a polyjuice potion made from a man what would happen to her fetus?

[Assistant]
Conception would be possible if the woman who provided the body matter happened to be fertile at the time. The embryo would irrevocably disappear once the potion wore off.

You *may possibly* be able to carry it to term by constantly dosing yourself with Polyjuice, as it would be quite odd if each dose reset you to *exactly* the form of the body-matter-provider at the time it was harvested (for instance, you could have instant perfect healing that ignored Dark magic damage by going into battle Polyjuiced and then dosing yourself with Polyjuice like a healing potion; more prosaically, technically, that would restore you to the form of someone who hasn't just swallowed Polyjuice - unless of course the magic doesn't depend on having Potion inside you).

A pregnant woman who drank Polyjuice made from a man - or indeed a non-pregnant woman - would turn into that man for the duration, then back to her original form, foetus and all. Magic has a "memory" of what Transfigured things were like, which is why you can unTransfigure things, and it's very high-fidelity: McGonagall could restore Draco Malfoy even though his body and brain had been transformed into an ordinary ferret.


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

[User]
[Overwatch] How come the Junkers don't suspect Hammond of being an Omnic?

So now we know that Hammond is a hamster who escaped Horizon Lunar Colony. He landed at Junkertown and rebuilt his escape pod into a battle mech so he could fight in the Junkertown gladiator arena. He quickly became a champion of the fighting pits.

The Junkers do not know that Hammond is a hamster. They probably assume that he is just a human in a mech, but he has never shown his face or used his real voice, instead communicating with a computer voice. How would the extremely anti-Omnic Junkers not raise any questions about Hammond being just a machine and not a person inside a suit?

[Assistant] There's a lot of theories, but "intelligent kangaroo" has more supporters than "secretly an omnic" (best odds right now are on "radiation-damaged paraplegic on life support"). It mostly has to do with his movements, Omnics have a certain uncanny valley motion. He doesn't have the reflexes to be an Omnic and definitely behaves like a mech pilot. He also buys food and a few people think he's a vegetarian (they haven't noticed that he eats bugs too).


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

[User]
[Star Wars] How was the second Death Star built so quickly?

Pretty common topic but I couldn't find it on here. So.....the first Death Star was being built at the commencement of the Clone Wars but wasn't flying around blowing up planets until Star Wars IV. Roughly 22 years I believe. Meanwhile the second one was up and running in 4-5 years. What gives?

[Assistant]
The first one took a lot of R&D which the second didn't need.

And improvements in construction techniques, including self-replicating construction droids. They also built it in a system with massive concentrations of required metals.


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

[User]
How were the very first computer languages/operating systems coded?

Without any basis with which to code such complex programs, did they have to write everything in binary? Machine code?

[Assistant]
Assembly languages are just a step above binary. Assembly code is basically just CPU instructions expressed in human-readable text. Assembly "compiler" (actually *assembler*) is almost a 1:1 converter between text representation and binary. (It may also have some macros and other conveniences). People used to write everything in assembly before the advent of higher-level languages.

Of course you still need to write that first assembler, but as you can imagine it's not a very complicated program. And once you have it you can use *that* program to implement a more complicated assembler. That technique remains common when developing higher-level languages as well: you start with a rudimentary compiler, then you use *that* compiler to implement a more complete compiler (so, in effect, the compiler compiles itself). For instance, gcc is itself written in C.


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

[User] ELI5: What is actually happening when a tv remotes batteries start to die? Why is it you have to start pointing it at the box and pressing buttons longer? Why does it still work for a while in this way?

[Assistant] Your remote is essentially an IR blaster (that's really what they're called). When you hit a button it sends an infrared signal that the TV receives. If the battery is dying it reaches a point where it still works but with less strength. The signal emitted is narrower, and weaker as it dies. So you do have to literally aim at the receiver to hit it, and sometimes you need to hold the button down to send the signal a few times to be received.


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

[User]
Why did beer taste disgusting when I first tried it but now tastes good after a short time?

Was it my taste buds maturing?  Or perhaps I just got used to it? or maybe my brain was craving that alcohol numbness and bypassed my taste sensors? Please do tell me.

[Assistant]
Acquired taste.

What is acquired taste? Things that taste good to you are things that your body is familiar with- Things you have eaten since you were a child and things that have similar traits to things you ate as a child are what you mostly like. Pastas, breads, cheeses, and meats are very common starting points for many people.

Things that taste bad to you are things that have a very foreign taste to your taste buds. They are something your body doesn't know anything about. This rejection is a survival mechanism that would help prevent hungry people from eating things they shouldn't eat in the wild. This is also where the urge to chuck up really bad tasting food comes from.

The cool part is that you can train yourself to like literally any food(has to be edible, you can't train yourself to like concrete) that you currently don't like by eating it enough. Once your body decides that the foreign thing is not harmful it will gradually quit rejecting it as bad tasting.


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

[User]
[MCU] How has Justin Hammer (and his company) been managing since the Expo?

From what I recall, the guy who attacked Tony Stark's car broke out of prison, hacked the Hammerdrones, and Tony teamed up with Hammer's Iron-dude to save the day.

A bit embarrassing, but at least the Iron Patriot suit showed that Hammer could make similar stuff to Stark's armor. That's pretty awesome!

But then the the Aliens and Wakanda showed up, with tech better than we could have dreamed....  then there was the Decimation and the Blip.

Is my Hammer Industries stock worth anything?

[Assistant]
Justin Hammer went to prison for his role in the Expo disaster, but Hammer Industries continued on as a relatively respectable name in arms manufacturing.

They even came out with their own Chitauri-derived munitions, called the Judas bullet, that was able to pierce Luke Cage's bulletproof skin.


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

[User]
ELI5:Psychologically and physically. What is the difference between water boarding and dunking someone's head in a bucket of water?

Before water boarding came into light. The more well known form of torture was dunking someone's head in water.
Is there something about water boarding that causes more physical or psychological trauma?

[Assistant] Waterboarding triggers all the fear and physiological reflexes of real drowning, but with the prisoner strapped down and water poured in a controlled manner, it is easier to administer and it does not carry the risk of actually drowning him.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do mirrors look like they have depth while screens (computer, tv, etc.) just look flat?

[Assistant] Mirrors respond to the movements of your head and eyes. In terms of 3d virtual reality a mirror has built in head and eye-tracking. This gives the presented image a sense of depth that a picture does not have. You can look around the corner, which no amount of head movement will do to a static 2d image.


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

[User] ELI5:Why do people stutter?

[Assistant]
There are four factors most likely to contribute to the development of stuttering: genetics (approximately 60% of those who stutter have a family member who does also); child development (children with other speech and language problems or developmental delays are more likely to stutter); neurophysiology (recent neurological research has shown that people who stutter process speech and language slightly differently than those who do not stutter); and family dynamics (high expectations and fast-paced lifestyles can contribute to stuttering).

Stuttering may occur when a combination of factors comes together and may have different causes in different people. It is probable that what causes stuttering differs from what makes it continue or get worse.


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

[User] ELI5: We see all those layers from millions of years ago... but how is new dirt constantly and consistently added to the surface? Where does it come from?

[Assistant]
Dirt is mainly decomposed organic matter and eroded sediment from rocks.

So, it kinda comes from everywhere.

In an environment that only has eroded material and no organic material, you get a sandy desert.

In an environment lush with life and with few exposed rock areas, you get rich dark soil.


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

[User]
How do countries decide how much money there needs to be?

Are there calculations they can make, or do they essentially estimate and then course correct as inflation is under/over target? Or something else?

[Assistant]
I think its important to clarify that there are multiple types of money.

Hard money/currency is generally not directly involved in managing monetary policy and central banks ensure there is always enough to meet demand (as if there is not that tends to cause bank runs). A bank can order as much currency as they want from a central bank.

Taking the example from the US the Federal Reserve system is responsible for distributing currency and they order currency from the US Mint (coin) and US Bureau of Engraving and Printing (paper). Commercial banks can convert their reserve in to physical currency (also in reverse) and also exchange old currency for new currency (EG worn out notes). While banks are not required by law to be able to meet any currency demand they are required to be able to meet reasonable currency demand.

Central banks have lots of tools for managing inflation and there is some variation between how countries manage it but they are looking to manage the supply of money, generally growth in deposit accounts. In most countries the traditional policy tool for this is managing the cost of credit by influencing the overnight rate banks lend reserves to each other at, they do this by buying or selling assets banks hold in reserve.

In the US the Federal Open Market Committee meets to set a target rate. The OMO desk at the NYFed executes trades to nudge the actual rate towards the target rate. The OMO desk buys & sells US Treasuries from banks, this changes reserve liquidity which changes the overnight rate. The process of credit creation is a bit weird but the TLDR here is that when banks create credit they need access to overnight markets to settle accounts so a higher overnight rate will increase the rates they charge for credit.


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

[User] How do magnets get their magnetic fields? How do electrons get their electric fields? How do these even get their force fields in the first place?

[Assistant]
Electrons have a fundamental property called the quantum mechanical spin. This spin can be understood and described as an intrinsic angular momentum.

The spin creates a magnetic dipole moment with a certain magnitude. In non-interacting electrons, these dipole moments are randomly oriented such that in average all magnetic moments cancel each other and the net magnetization is vanishing. If the electrons are brought inside an external magnetic field, the spins partially align such that a rather small net dipole moment is created which is aligned in the same direction as the external field. This is called paramagnetism. As soon as the external magnetic field is removed, the electrons lose their alignment and the overall magnetization is zero again.

If the distance between the electrons is reduced they start to interact with each other. Either through their direct magnetic interaction between the dipoles (dipole-dipole interaction) or through a quantum mechanical effect called exchange interaction. This causes the electrons to align with respect to their direct neighbor, either in a parallel or anti-parallel configuration. In the former case (ferromagnetism) the individual magnetic moments add up and a large net magnetization is maintained, even in the absence of an external magnetic field. In the anti-parallel case, it is called antiferromagnetism and the net magetization is cancelled even in the presence of an external magnetic field.

In ferromagnets, the spins do align only within certain volumes, called the magnetic domains. Between these domains, these large net magnetizations may again be randomly oriented such that the overall magnetization of a piece of ferromagnetic metal is zero. If such a material is brought inside a sufficiently strong magnetic field, the domains rearrange such that all their magnetizations add up. The domains' orientations may be effectively "locked-in" so that when the external field is removed, the material maintains a significant amount of net magnetization and a magnet is obtained. This is called persistence.


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

[User] [WH40k] The Emperor is about to die in the throe, the IoM can not beat the orks, chaos or the tyranids, how does Emperor expect to win?

[Assistant]
The Emperor exists in a horrifying state of unlife/undeath. His physical body damaged well beyond repair - his soul is tethered to our mortal realm trapped inside a withered and decarying husk.

But humanity would not have survived this long without the Emperor's immortal sacrifice. Were his body to fail his soul would be fully freed into the warp ascending him to Godhood.

* Immediately the Astronomicon would burn out, leaving humanity mostly blind in the ways of Warp Travel.

* The Emperor would be free to take more direct action as a warp god (ass opposed to his current limited involvement).

From here the Emperor goes two ways - either we sacrifice a large number of his immortal children - miming the shamanistic sacrifice of old to 'rebirth' him. Or he simply stays in his pure warp form and guides humanity as a true God.

1) Call his children back - Russ, Guilliman, Vulcan, etc. He imparts his love and wisdom onto them and sets them on their respective tasks.

* Russ leads the spearhead against the Orks counter attacking with such savagery that the initial WAAAAAGHH is stopped and even pushed back.

* Guilliman leads the defense of many beleagured worlds in a manner not seen since the Hades Hive of Armageddon. The previously flimsy and waivering resistance is emboldened by the Primarch and quickly reforms cold and unbreaking firing lines - bringing swift disciplined fire down on the advancing greenskins.

* Vulcan begins building great seige defenses and advances much of the mechanicus knowledge. While he has the least glamorous role - the after effects of his work will prove crucial to the survival of the Imperium - the advances in tech and preservation of knowledge will embolden the coming counter offensive.

* The Emperor - after dictating his wishes to his sons will reactivate the Astronomicon - either throgh divine will or by teaching humanity it's secrets.

For the time being teh Imperium is saved and the initial WAAAAAGHHH is broken. The lines have held and we have regrouped but so have the Orks.

Emboldened by their defeat of the Tyranids the Orks descend again by the millions. Testing the Imperiums defenses and slamming into the weakest points.

Suddenly from behind Orkish lines come Corax and the Lion on two different fronts - leading their respective chapters with untold fury. The sight of two returning Primarchs sends the defenders into a frenzy and the Orkish WAAAAGHH is shattered on two of the four fronts.

From the Ghoul Stars... the Orks just stop. The turn away from the Imperium and attack something behind them. All the Imperium knows is that the Orks were destroyed utterly and no evidence of the Xenos that did it is left. Few in the Imperium recognize this - those that do order all available defenders to outside the Ghoul Stars to stave off the cold and impending death.

On the final front the Orks gather for literally the largest single attack seen since the Heresy - Chaos seeing the Emperor reborn throws all it has in with the Orks.

The whole host of just about every nasty thing descends on the Imperium. The Primarchs - recieving the blessings of the God Emperor rally the totality of their chapters and brace for the most gruesome fighting since the Heresy.

Ynnead springs to life from the last breath of the Eldar - having been formed by a mass suicide in a last ditch gamble. Slaan'esh is destroyed utterly - destroying many advancing chaos forces and throwing the lines into dissarray.

The Tau appear in force - not out of kindness but seeing that literally the fate of the galaxy rests on the events ahead - throw every bit of their might into the fray.

The fighting is bloody and horrifying but the Imperium wins the day - grudgingly allowing the Tau to withdraw without further bloodshed.

Chaos is broken but not exterminated - the Imperium rebuilds with the Primarchs leading humanity. The Emperor is praised.

And we wait for the next Xenos threat...

Edit: Or you know something like that.


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

[User] ELI5: How do icy-hot gels work?

[Assistant]
A lot of answers are saying "menthol cools", but that's wrong.

Menthol produces the *sensation* of cooling without *actually* cooling, by activating the nerve receptors that would normally react to cold temperatures.


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

[User]
Competitive programmer using c++, but absolutely ignorant of other things the language can do here. What else can c++ do?

I read and see a lot of videos and sites claiming that c++ is used for robotics but as someone who has never done anything beside solve competitive programming problems, I have no idea that this is all possible. I am just curious what else can c++ do? and what makes c++ special for robotics for example, and why it would be a good idea to learn more about the capabilities of c++

[Assistant]
C++ can be used for a multitude of things. The advantages is that is has very little overhead compared to assembly language so you can make software perform at high speed. That is good for robotics. Also, it has no garbage collection (compared to C# or Java) so you get no surprise breaks in execution where such a thing is critical. Another advantage ithat it is smoother than Assembly language to work with. It is nice to not have to make all the code in Assembly fitting for each micro controller or cpu.

If you still want to make some Assembly code you can make that inline in C++.


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

[User]
Are quantum fields in any way similar to classical fields?

I understand classical fields as being functions of space with spatial(-temporal) coordinate inputs and scalar, vector or tensor outputs (like temperature being a function T(x,y,z,t) with a single scalar output). But when people talk of quantum fields, they talk of "exciting the field to produce particles" and other things that refer to quantum fields more as physical media that can be disturbed and picked apart. Am I missing something big here? Or is QFT just so complicated that it's not worth comparing quantum fields to classical ones?

[Assistant]
In the canonical picture, quantum fields are operator-valued fields (distributions, to be more precise). The Hilbert space on which they act is spanned by number states. Each number state consists of a given number of particles with given momenta and other quantum numbers (spin, color etc.). In fact the \*free\* fields behave like a set of harmonic oscillators for each momentum/spin/color/etc. Of course not every state is a number state, but they provide a basis by which you can express any state by linear combination.

In this picture, the fields are just operators that create and destroy particles, but the particle content is in the abstract quantum state.

The path integral picture is closer to the classical interpretation, but the relationship to particles is a bit more difficult to see. Basically, there is the path integral/partition functional, which consists of a sum over all possible classical field configurations weighted by the value of the action on the given field configuration. Thus all possible field configurations contribute to the amplitudes and expectation values. In the classical limit, only those configurations contribute for which the action is stationary, eg. those that satisfy the classical equations of motion.

TL;DR: In the canonical approach, fields are just tools. In the path integral approach, physical processes happen by summing over classical fields, even those that do not solve the (classical) equations of motion.


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

[User]
ELI5 What happens to the radioactiveness of nuclear waste we bury?

Like, wouldnt the container we place nuclear waste in hold in the radioactivity? making the container not safe to open ever, because opening it would release all the contained radio activity?

[Assistant]
"Radioactivity" is not like Water or anything you can store. It's more like light.
If you put waste into a box and seal it "radioactivity-tight" it is like placing a flashlight into a blacked out box. The light is not stored. As soon as the batteries are empty there is no light anymore.

Both are forms of energy or "energy-vectors". They transfer energy into whatever they encounter on their way. They heat it up and this heat is transferred outside the containmet vessel and not harmful anymore.


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

[User] ELI5: How do we know that a species has definitely gone extinct (as opposed to just being extremely rare/elusive)?

[Assistant] Well, we don't.  In science "definite" answers are few and far between.  However, there isn't much difference between having 10 animals and having 0 animals.  That population of 10 is too small to preserve genetic diversity and survive in the long run.


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

[User]
[MCU] [Doctor Strange 2 spoilers] Why cant Wanda recreate her children?

She made Tommy and Billy through her own power in WandaVision. Whats stopping her from doing the same, instead of going on a murder spree to steal versions of them from another Wanda?

[Assistant]
A. She knew they were fake rather than the real versions

B. A bunch of people went through a lot of trouble to stop what she was doing last time, and it's likely that she couldn't recreate them outside those circumstances.


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

[User]
When does slang become a dialect?

When do phrases and conventions in common usage transition from being seen as slang to being part of a different dialect or a different language?

[Assistant]
Never. *Slang* is a word used to describe a subset of words that are informal and usually temporary. By definition, slang cannot become a dialect because a dialect is a full system of communication, not simply a small part of vocabulary. Everybody grows up learning at least one dialect of their languages (with *dialect* serving as a broad cover term for regional, social, or ethnic varieties). Slang is going to be part of all these dialects, in the informal speech of the dialect.

Sometimes, slang can persist and even find its way into the standard form of a language if enough people use it in contexts where the standard is expected (e.g. *fan* as slang for *fanatic*). You might find David Crystal's summary of the slang specialist Eric Partridge's work in Crystal's *Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language* to be helpful in understanding the how and why of slang.


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

[User] [Indiana Jones] Sallah was present for the discovery of The Ark of the Covenant and The Holy Grail. What impact did this have on his overall Christian faith and piety?

[Assistant]
Living in Egypt and all Sallah is most likely a Muslim.

The Ark has no effect on that, it's a Jewish relic attested not only by the Tanakh, but also the Qu'ran and other Islamic sources.

The Grail also can't have too much impact. While Islam does not consider Jesus the son of god and doesn't believe in the resurrection, Jesus was an important prophet and a relic he used being holy wouldn't conflict with that (especially since if memory serves the film takes the interpretation of the grail as the cup Jesus used at his last supper rather than one that caught his literal blood upon his death-- Islamic tradition is that God transposed Judas and Jesus so that it was Judas, or possibly some other individual, who died on the cross while Jesus was physically assumed into heaven.)


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

[User]
ELI5: How does muscle memory work? Why do we get better at something through repetition?

One of the interesting things I remember from learning musical instruments is when you're really trying to play some musical piece without any mistakes, you try multiple times, then sleep it over, and on the next day you'll be much more skilful at playing this.

Back then, it seemed to me like a some sort of magic. So, if I went through time and met a ~~12~~ 5-year old me, how should I explain how muscle memory works?

[Assistant]
There are lots of nerves in your brain, which can connect to each other in lots of ways.

When you do something - like tying shoe laces, playing an instrument, walking, or driving - you cause some of the involved nerves to form connexions with each other.

The more you do this, the stronger these paths become, reinforcing the action by making the "signal" that the nerves give in this situation stronger.

Eventually, the signal from this nerve pathway will be so strong that you'll do it 'automatically' without going through your "upper-brain" (consciousness).

This process is commonly called the "1,000 hours" automaticity, though the actual amount of time doing something to cause this to develop varies depending on task, the individual and the action involved.


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

[User]
[Breaking Bad] did Gus actually care about his restaurants aside from using them as fronts for his criminal life?

So, Gus used his Los Pollos Hermanos restaurants to hide his meth business and would spend a lot of time as the manager at one of them. my question is, did Gus genuinely care about the restaurants or was it all just a front? Like, did he actually pride himself on having the best chicken around, Good customer service and fair work conditions or was it all just a way to hide his crime and the only thing that mattered to him was that the restaurants served as a disguise?

[Assistant] Remember, he was using LPH from the beginning with Max, his partner in both crime and life. That he continued to use the brand even after the latters death rather than go with another suggests that he cared for the restaurant. On the other side, Gus strikes me as the kind of guy who enjoys a job well done to his best extent, a view he would extend not just to his criminal activities but his civilian ones as well.