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

[User] [Saw Film Series] How is Jigsaw able to almost psychically know people's darkest secrets? Like the bystander who saw Jeff's son get killed, or the woman who smothered her baby?

[Assistant]
He was an engineer with a knack for picking up subtlety, seeing how things worked and understanding them, with both people and machines. Once he went off the deep end and decided to start killing people, that *reading people* got cranked up to *obsessively fixating on anyone and anything*, and he started stalking people until he learned *everything* about them.

In some of the later films it's revealed he had dossiers on tons of people locked away, comprehensive files that detail everything he could learn about them. Those were people who he could watch closely enough to learn their secrets and how to get at them. There were probably tons of people he stalked and watched, but didn't learn enough about them to figure out their dark secrets; only the victims he *was* able to uncover enough about got captured.

Edit: he was also blackmailing a police officer, and was using him for both his access to police files as well as an extra set of eyes and ears.


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

[User]
Eli5 - When we gain weight, why is it hard to notice it but when you see a picture of yourself its super obvious?

I know Ive gained weight but I dont feel super fat yet but after seeing pictures of myself this weekend its obvious I need to jump on a treadmill...

[Assistant]
Because weight gain is usually gradual. So you look in the mirror daily (or weekly, or whatever) and you look *about* the same you did as the last time you looked. You do it again, and you look *about* the same *again*. But if you compare the first time you looked to the 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc, you're seeing those gradual regular changes happening all of a sudden at once.

Weight doesn't normally change much in a day or week even, but over many months those minor changes snowball into more major noticeable changes that's very clear if you compare pictures from different times.


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

[User]
ELI5: "Click Bait" sites?

ELI5:
why are all those clickbait sites all in really obnoxious formats, why are they being developed in such rapid pace, and what do they gain from being "click bait"?

[Assistant] They're obnoxious because their goal is to get as many eyes on their advertisements as possible. They write headlines that make you curious and them force you to look at as many pages as possible to drive up their advertising revenue - each new page serves up a new ad that they get paid for. Because they make money while being cheap and easy to run, lots of companies are copying the business model.


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

[User] Does the presence of heavy elements in the Earth indicate we are made from a remnants of a former supernova? Was it part of the Milky Way? Do we know anything about its nature, stellar environment, or even when it occurred?

[Assistant]
The heavy elements in the solar system were not formed from a single supernova, but from *several* supernovae mixed together. Supernovae disperse over a period of thousands of years, and mix into the general mess of interstellar gas. So what happens is that over time, the supernovae going off all over the galaxy will gradually add more and more heavy elements to it. Some parts of this thin gas coalesces into a *molecular cloud* that will collapse into a number of star systems, which have all been enriched in heavy elements by the history of supernovae in the galaxy.

*However*, the mixing process isn't instantaneous. If there has been a recent supernova nearby, you'd expect to have slightly more heavy elements in the local gas than the galactic average. Radioactive decay contributes to this, because some of the elements formed in a supernova don't actually last that long. Looking at the particular elements found in our solar system, it does look like there was a nearby supernova that went off near our solar system about 4.6 billion years ago. While the material that forms our solar system is mostly from the general mix of interstellar gas, this would have contributed a slightly different mix of heavy elements, and might have helped to trigger the molecular cloud to collapse into stars.


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

[User]
If you remove enough wind energy you will impact the environment.

I just came across this argument on a forum where people were arguing about the pros and contras of nuclear energy. It went like this:

>There's no "miracle" energy yet that doesn't come with rather big issues.

>What's the big issue with wind power?

>There isn't a problem now in relation to wind turbines. In the next 100 years this situation may look very different. If you remove enough wind energy you will impact the environment, but I do not know what the impact will be.

Other (valid) cons of wind turbines were mentioned, but this one seems **completely** absurd to me. Could the earth possibly run out of wind? I figure that wind energy ultimately comes from the sun, and as long as the sun shines we are not going to run out of wind, no matter how many energy we generate from it.
What does askscience think about this?

[Assistant]
If you had a large enough wind farm you could decrease surface wind speeds in much the same way a forest of equal size might decrease wind speed, except a turbine farm is probably more porous with respect to wind, and probably would affect surface wind speeds less than a comparable forest.

Just because the turbines generate energy from the wind doesn't mean they absorb more energy than a stationary object of the same size.

I suppose the issue comes up if you put the wind farm in an area where there have not previously been forests, like grasslands, but I'd guess that even here the majority of the problems would be on a local, rather than regional scale, and would probably not relate to weather so much as the establishment/recruitment success of plants.


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

[User]
[MCU] How were Corvus and Proxima able to kick the shit out of Vision and Wanda but literal seconds later they get Milly-rocked by Cap, Widow and Falcon?

Isnt that the equivalent of beating Hulk and Thor then losing to Hawkeye and Bucky?

[Assistant]
Wanda and Vision are POWERFUL but not experienced.

Cap and Falcon and Widow are powerful AND experienced.

Corvus and Proxima are powerful AND experienced.

The first thing Corvus does is grievously injure Vision with a surprise attack that disrupts his most powerful advantage: his ability to phase. Wanda is extremely distraught and emotional so Proxima keeps her off balance while Corvus goes for the jugular. If the Black Order hadnt underestimated Wandas powers, they would have included her in the initial blitz strike and would have been teleporting off world before the other Avengers arrived.

As for those other Avengers, all three have decades of fighting experience and are an extremely well oiled machine when it comes to team fighting. With Cap at the helm, they recognize the glaive Corvus uses is the biggest threat and use it to neutralize both Corvus and the glaive itself. Proxima fears for Corvus' life and decides retreat is the tactical choice.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do men pee in these crazy urine streams after having sex?

[Assistant]
Just a quick reminder that males have a spongy urethra and this particular structure creates a spiral urine stream which expels urine at higher speeds and this functions as a way to remove obstruction, like sperm in this case. Females do not have this structure and why there's a higher incidences of UTI's for females vs. males.

After sex, you have a combination of foreign objects there such as:

* sperm
* lubrication
* vaginal fluids
* spermicide

Which clogs up the very tip and, in the case of sperm, parts of the shaft.

This is why it's always good for men (and women) to pee (and wash off) after sex because it cleans, well, everything.

The same streams can happen at any time throughout the day but for similar reasons: basic blockage in the tunnel, so to speak.


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

[User] [Mythology] Does a Centar's feces smell like Horse or Human poop?

[Assistant]
Depends largely on their diet. Vegetarian centaurs will smell closer to horse poo, especially if they eat a lot of grasses; most of them prefer human-style cooking, however, especially sweets and alcohol, and any spicy food will be quite detectable (and if you doubt this, try feeding a couple onions to a horse and smell the results).

Centaurs are omnivorous, of course, and those that do eat meat tend to find it works out a little differently in the digestion, smell a lot less horse-like and closer to that of humans or other large omnivores.


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

[User]
What was the first commercial device to use strong encryption?

Was it the AT&T TSD 3600? And is that why the NSA was so panicky in implementing the clipper chip into this device? Before this device were all commercial telecommunications open to being wire tapped by law enforcement agencies?

Sorry for all the questions, just trying to understand.

Thanks in advance.

[Assistant]
How do you define strong encryption?

The enigma machine used pretty damn strong encryption in the 1940's - although it was probably not what you would consider a "commercial" machine - even though 40000 were made.


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

[User]
[Various] How are ancient tombs / monuments lubricated?

So I'm in this ancient tomb and I deciphered its grand secrets (specifically, putting this round artifact looking thing into the round hole looking thing on that door looking thing). Now all the walls are moving around and a stairway leading down to a big chamber full of treasures has opened up on the floor. That's all well and good (anybody want some treasure?), but hold on just a minute. How the Hell did these giant, presumably extremely heavy stone walls move so easily? What crazy mythical grease can last centuries and still be perfectly functional?

[Assistant]
The mechanisms don't rely on lubricated plane-on-plane contact. Instead, they rely on massive counterweights and stone ball bearings the size of cannonballs.

This is why you always hear that horrible grinding noise.


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

[User]
ELI5 How they film physical/sexual abuse scenes in movies.

I just finished watching Silenced (The crucible), it's a Korean film based on real events where children would be beaten and raped by their teachers and school officials. The film had some really graphic scenes where they actually showed the children being touched and undressed.

Edit: I guess my question would be how they can do those things to the actors without emotionally affecting them.

[Assistant]
Acting!

The real answer is - if it's properly done, then it's a combination of on-site therapist working with the actor to make sure they feel safe and secure, the actor having safe words to stop the scene if they feel really uncomfortable, and everyone being 100% professional about the thing when the cameras aren't rolling.

Improperly done leaves people kinda screwed up.


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

[User]
CMV: Subsidized gender assignment surgery should take a backseat to critical life saving surgery.

I believe that government subsidized health care is critical to having a healthy and productive nation (I'm Australian FFIW). However I believe that the focus of this should be on attempting to prevent acute deaths and performing critical transplant surgeries, directly not indirectly saving lives, as opposed to improving the quality of life for a very slim minority of the population.

I am aware of the increased incidence of mortality as a consequence of mental health issues suffered by the transgender collective, however their specific needs are very narrow and for every surgeon that specializes in gender reassignment we have a specialist who doesn't specialize in cardiac surgery, or oncology, or transplant surgery, or pediatric acute care.

For every transgender person requiring very specialized care that isn't being provided there are dozens of people who require care that isn't being provided but is comparable to many more others in their situation, there is an economics of scale in treating those dozens in lieu of treating the few.

[Assistant]
It costs perhaps 13k Australian dollars for SRS surgery for mtf and it reduces the suicide risk from 40% to 4%.

Lifetime treatment costs for cancer range from about 3k for melanoma to 60k for leukemia, average 17k.

Given the expensive nature of being trans, since a lot of them try to kill themselves, it's quite cost effective to fix those issues with SRS. 40% of those with leukemia die every five years, their health and physical effectiveness sharply drops. A trans person who you fix with SRS can be a productive civilian for much longer.

Cancer treatment is also a very different specialism from doing sex reassignment surgery. Typically a urologist will do that. They do things like treat erectile dysfunction, deal with kidney stones, deal with overactive bladders, handle infection of the bladder. There's no real shortage of urologists. Re modelling genitals is already quite common since people often injure their genitals.


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

[User] ELI5: When you've eaten food and drunk fluids,how does your body separate solids into your bowel and liquid into your bladder?

[Assistant]
Well, your body is a pretty smart assorter.

The quick pass through your body involves both food and drink travelling from your mouth, down a long muscular tube to the stomach, and then gradually reabsorbed from the long intestines within.

 Food and drinks get subjected to several special juices called enzymes that break it into simple compounds like glucose, basic proteins and fats.

Most of the water that you drink and the water in your food is absorbed by your gut with glucose. It enters your bloodstream and goes to the liver for processing before going to the rest of the body.

Urine is a very fine filtration of your blood. Your blood now carries loads of nutrients and a few waste products. So the kidney sorts it out and produces urine.

Whatever can't be absorbed in the gut, stays in the tubes and is converted by local bacteria into poop.


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

[User]
(Skyrim) Who claims the Dragonborn after death?

I've completed numerous daedric quests and I've also completed the dark brother hood storyline and the thieve's guild storyline. I'm also a werewolf. So where does my character go after death? As it stands now, Hircine, Nocturnal, Sithis and several other deities and daedric princes say they will claim my soul when I die. So who gets it?

[Assistant] Personally, I'd theorize that the Dragonborn's soul would be split apart and the different sections he/she devoted to each Daedra/Aedra are given to each of them. Considering how Serana could soul-trap a fragment of the Dragonborn's soul, it's definitely possible that it could be divided up evenly between whoever has claims on it.


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

[User] ELI5: Sometimes when I'm drinking a beverage a swallow is painful, almost like the liquid has turned solid and getting stuck in my throat. What gives?

[Assistant] There's a pocket of air caught in your esophagus, which creates an outward pressure and makes it hard to swallow. You can force it down (you won't do any real damage), or open your mouth and let the pressure balance out before swallowing.


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

[User]
ELI5: Capacitors

Electronics are becoming ever more prevalent in my uni course (I'm doing sound engineering). Knowing how your own equipment works and stuff is integral but what is a capacitor. I failed physics in school almost. What does it do. Help.

[Assistant]
Basically a capacitor stores an electrical charge. However unlike a typical battery, which stores electric charge through a chemical reaction, a capacitor stores its charge as a build up of static charge. The exact same kind of static charge you get from rubbing a balloon on your hair, or rubbing your socks on a carpet. A capacitor can build or release its energy really fast, but it doesnt last very long. This is perfect for a lot of applications. An easy example is the flash bulb on a camera. The bulb is powered by a capacitor that can dump all of its energy in a fraction of a second. You couldnt get that fast of a release out of a chemical battery. With old camera you can sometimes hear a high pitched whine as the capacitor recharges after a flash. Big electric motors also use capacitors to help kick-start themselves.

Capacitors are also really useful in tons of other electronics because they act like a little reservoir. In converting AC to DC, capacitors help to smooth out the flow of electricity between the ups and down of the AC current.  They are also all over audio equipment, both in power delivery and signal processing.


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

[User]
ELI5: How can we eat raw fish but raw chicken makes us sick?

Does it have to do with living in water / not living in water?

[Assistant]
Lets be clear here. If you take one chicken, and one fish, and kill them both at the same time, you are just as likely to contract a disease from one as the other.

However, chicken processing is gross. Same with pork and beef. Fish is kept cleaner for the intent of being sushi, and is even more expensive if it is sashimi grade. You can do the same for any meat. Steak ~~Tar Tar~~ tartare is raw beef, and it is delicious. Raw pork and chicken are slimy and kind of gross, but if it was kept to the same standards would be perfectly safe to eat.

*edit. It's Steak Tartare. I've never seen it spelled, hopefully is better now.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do we have to brush our teeth but cavemen got along fine without doing so?

[Assistant]
They did not get along fine. Many cavemen died of dental abscesses.

A couple factors include that we live much longer so our teeth have to last longer, and we eat a diet that is much richer in sugars and oils that promote tooth decay.

We're also in a society that is much closer-packed, so there's less room for bad breath and there's much better odds of picking up the particular acid-secreting bacteria that causes tooth decay and can be reduced in concentration through brushing and flossing (people with perfect teeth usually don't have it).

We also place a high value on the cosmetic appearance of perfect teeth. Visible cavities are a huge turn-off, both when seeking a mate/date, and when seeking a job later in life.

By the way, flossing is way more important than brushing.


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

[User] ELI5:If android runs on Java which is emulated on a virtual machine, how come it isn't miles slower than iOS which runs native code?

[Assistant] Java isn't emulated. It's what's called just-in-time compiled, which means the virtual machine translates it from its machine-independent byte code into native code when you run it. This technique is only a little bit slower than native code, mostly in terms of start-up time (so initially opening the app).


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

[User]
[Dr Who] Why does the doctor always seem sad when regenerating? What changes within his mind and being that makes him different?

We know it's the same doctor, the good doctor who still helps when he can, who does good and fights evil wherever he finds it etc just that he now has a different look to his face and body. But mostly, when he does change and his companions are near him, he tells it like all he is at the time is being erased and his memories just merged with someone new. Someone new who is still the doctor but just won't be him or her completely.

[Assistant]
As Tenth showcases, while he can regenerate, he's still *dying* for this one. Regeneration was always treated as a big gamble, and while Ninth claims about getting two heads or no head are probably an exadderation, amount of times the regeneration went smoothly can be counted on fingers - there's always some weird shit happening from bouts of insanity, memory loss, and whatever that thing with the Fifth was.

Regeneration is a time of ending, and the next one after you will never be the same.


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

[User]
Eli5: How are lungs self-cleaning?

Edit: More specifically, how does the cleaning occur? Is it simply the constant pumping of air in and out of the lungs? Or is it through other means?

[Assistant]
Youve got a sticky substance called mucus in your airways that catches the bad stuff. This sticky substance and the bad stuff are then moved up the airway by the action of these hair-like things on the outside of the cells called cilia. The cilia beat back and forth to move all that stuff like a conveyor belt up the airway so you can cough it up and out of your body.

This is called mucociliary clearance.

Edit to add: some diseases which affect this process include cystic fibrosis in which the mucus is thicker and so it doesnt move up the airway as well. Since it gets stuck and doesnt move out as easily youre more prone to get sick because the mucus is trapped. Another example of a disease is ciliary dyskinesia where the cilia dont work well so the mucus isnt able to move up and coughed out, also making you more prone to getting sick.


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

[User]
CMV: Accepting suicide as an option which people are free to make is benefitial for everyone to an extent.

Many suicide prevention statementsone of them are actually helpful at long prize; "Suicide is a selfish decision" sure, but making someone live against their will, and limiting their freedom is even more selfish, "A permanent solution to a temporary problem" is not as preventing as people may think, either.

Besides, you should have the freedom to end your life if you want to; forcing someone on a psych ward for a decision they personally chose to do is not something to be proud of.
Minimizing the grieving of other people's personal decisions is better than trying to control lives(not saying it is ok to say "get over it!" to a person who lost a loved one by suicide).

[Assistant] When and who decides that the decision is made by a person who is making a completely lucid, rational decision? Im sure there are people that survive suicide attempts that would take issue with the blanket nature of your view.


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

[User] ELI5: How do software patent holders know their patents are being infringed when they don't have access to the accused's source code?

[Assistant] Software patents only require a description of the function, not the literal code required to make it work. This is what gives them the ability to sue programmers who may never have even seen the origin program and its one of the reasons the patient system is so broken.


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

[User]
Magic: The Gathering is pay to win. Please CMV.

People have recently gotten me interested in MTG, I like certain strategy aspects of it and it's fun to play. However, it's being more and more clear to me that it's really just a pay to win game. I am open to having me view changed though if I'm wrong about this - I'd like to be wrong.

There's really only 3 main things that decide who wins. The cards, luck, and strategy / skills. Now everyone know that some cards are just plain and simple objectively better than others. You want to have good cards in your deck, and those will likely be rare or mythic rare. Look at all the top decks. These are usually very expensive. If you want to play in a serious modern tournament then you'll have to dump an insane amount of money into this. If you want to play legacy then even more screwed. Other than buying all the singles you can rip open packs to try and get some cards you want but this will probably be even more expensive.

So once you have the cards you need luck and just the knowledge of how to play with them. You can fairly easily learn the strategies involved with how play with your expensive deck once you've assembled it. There is a certain amount of depth here but anyone can look up how it's done and practice until their good. So basically the only barrier to playing pro magic is money. If you're not a complete idiot and able to learn a few things all you need is to dump a ton of money into this and become good. CMV.

[Assistant]
There are a few things to note here. Firstly, there will always be better and worse cards. Since people want to play with the best cards, the monetary value of the best cards will rise. Therefore, the best decks will generally be expensive to purchase. Secondly, there will be bad decks. If you enter a tournament with a bad deck you will almost certainly lose, no matter how good you are. So in some sense there is a monetary barrier to competing.

However, spending money on the best cards in no way guarantees you any level of success. If you could win by just buying the best cards then you wouldn't see the metagame shift over time.  People would identify the "best" deck, buy those cards, and not change anything until a new set is released. Of course, this **never** happens. The metagame shifts constantly as people discover new strategies and tweak decks to adjust to weaknesses. Often, this means shifting towards cards that are not nearly as expensive since nobody has yet identified their niche.

There is also a **ton** of depth at the pro level. There are at least a dozen websites dedicated entirely to discussing strategy. If you look at who wins tournaments, some names show up over and over despite tournaments having hundreds of entrants. This suggests that the skill cap for MTG is actually quite high and that most players do not play at the same level as the best pros.

Here is a good example of a play that you might not just pick up by "not being a complete idiot":

Your opponent is playing an aggressive deck. Your deck is a little slower. It is your turn four. Your opponent has one creature in play and you have none. You have a land and Barter In Blood in your hand. Barter In Blood costs 4 and makes each player sacrifice two creatures.

In order to get full value out of your card you need to not play a creature and get your opponent to play another creature. If you drop a land and pass the turn your opponent will almost certainly know something is up and suspect something like Barter. The correct play then is to *deliberately miss your land drop*. Getting mana screwed at three lands is way more common than not having any plays from 1-4 mana so your opponent might see this as an opportunity to go on the offensive and drop another creature. This gives you the opportunity to make a big play.

Good players see that. Okay players don't. This is why good players win tournaments and most players don't.


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

[User]
What does Emil Cioran's quote about "only optimist commit suicide" mean?

"Only optimists commit suicide, optimists who no longer succeed at being optimists. The others, having no reason to live, why would they have any to die?"

What exactly does this mean? Especially the end part "The others, having no reason to live, why would they have any to die?"

 This doesn't make sense to me as if someone sees no reason to live, then there's clearly a reason for wanting to die.

[Assistant] The former type lost something, while the latter type had nothing to lose to begin with. He suggests a view of suicide as being motivated by strong "reasons". The former type can generate such reasons. The latter cannot.


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

[User]
CMV: Hot Dogs are sandwiches

First thing's first:

What's a sandwich?

In my view, a sandwich is best described as a food that is created by placing a filler between a piece or pieces of bread that are either wholly separate or have been sliced or separated in some way.

By this definition, a hot dog is a sandwich. You take a bun, slice it down the middle, put something in it, and eat it. No, it's not the "standard" sandwich you might think of with two flat slices of bread and peanut butter/sliced meat/whatever the hell you want in between. But it's a definition that I think perfectly describes that kind of sandwich and also has room for less conventional items that are still generally seen as sandwiches, like subs.

Now, I'm not saying my definition is perfect. But if someone has a better one that excludes hot dogs, I'm dying to hear it. So far all the "hot dogs aren't sandwiches" arguments I've heard have been very unsatisfying. A few examples I've seen kicking around with quick responses, just to get them out of the way:

* A hot dog has a vertical orientation, while sandwiches are horizontal
   * OK, but you can easily hold a regular sandwich vertically. You can also hold a hot dog horizontally. Many subs are eaten more vertically than horizontally.
* A hot dog is its own thing (just the sausage)
   * Yes, a "hot dog" may also refer to just the sausage. But a hot dog sausage in a bun is commonly called a hot dog, and that's the kind of hot dog I'm talking about.
* A hot dog is a taco
   * A taco's bread wrapping is not sliced or separated in any way: it is one piece of continuous bread (until you bite into a hard shell taco and it shatters into a thousand pieces, of course). In my opinion, a taco is a wrap, and a hot dog is a sandwich. If you're going to call a hot dog a taco, you're also saying subs are tacos.
* Well what about burritos? Are they sandwiches?
   * No. Burritos are wraps, like tacos and gyros and any other bread-contained food delivery device that does not involve sliced or separated bread
* Your definition means that open-faced sandwiches aren't sandwiches!
   * Correct. "Open-faced sandwiches" are not sandwiches. They are food that is placed on top of a piece of bread. They are liars.
* Only boomers/Republicans think hot dogs are sandwiches
   * This has nothing to do with whether a hot dog is a sandwich or not, and it's one of the lamest takes I see because it's entirely emotionally-driven and contains zero evidence or logical arguments.

CMV!

[Assistant]
Hot dogs aren't sandwiches because the contents of sandwiches are sliced or flattened in some other way. In no other context would a cylinder be put into a sandwich.

Have you ever eaten a whole head of lettuce between two pieces of bread? How about a whole steak, unsliced and not pounded thin, on a bun? Have you ever had a sandwich with a whole pickle in it instead of slices? Even a piece of fried chicken in a sandwich was likely sliced, pounded flat, or butchered in some way to fit a sandwich (like a thigh). When you put pepperoni or salami on a sandwich, do you include it in sausage form or sliced? Cheese? Sliced.

The only notable exception to this is meatballs, but even then we're talking about one type of sandwich with multiple meatballs to fill out the bread.

A hotdog doesn't follow this rule. It's a whole sausage, unsliced and still cylindrical. Hot dogs are therefore not a sandwich.


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

[User]
ELI5:Why is 350 degrees farenheit the optimal baking temperature for pretty much everything?

I know that some things are baked at higher or lower temperatures, but it seems that the vast majority of things are cooked at 350 farenheit. What's up with that?

[Assistant]
Cooking uses a lot of water.  Heating water over the boiling point cases a phase change from a liquid to a gas.  That phase change catalyzes a lot of chemical reactions.  So temps in cooking will tend to be over the boiling point of water.

Heat causes protein to break down.  A lot of cooking is designed to make things that are hard to chew and digest easier to chew and digest and that often means breaking proteins.  That process happens at varying degrees based on heat so the higher the heat the faster proteins are affected.

But if you get the temperature too hot you get oxygen combustion - stuff burns.  Burnt food doesn't taste good and the more burned something gets the worse it tastes.

So there is a range of temperatures higher than the boiling point of water but lower than the combustion point of various ingredients where proteins are breaking down at a meaningful rate to keep the total time required to prepare the dish within some rational constraints.  Those temperature and time limits reappear time and again in cooking as a result.


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

[User] [The Last Airbender] Did any airbenders (aside from Aang) survive the Air Nomad genocide?

[Assistant]
Yes- Appa survived along with Aang.

In addition, a herd of sky bison managed to survive the genocide, and continued to live and reproduce until Aang's time. He used them to breed all the sky bison we see in The Legend Of Korra. So there were loads of surviving airbenders.

Aang was, however, the only *human* airbender to survive until the end of the war.


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

[User] ELI5: In TV Shows they showcase how many viewers it garnered, how are they able to collect this data?

[Assistant]
In the olden days aka pre-streaming services this was mostly determined by a single company called Nielsen Media Research. Nielsen selects demographically representative families that they regularly survey to ask what theyre watching, and use math to extrapolate nationwide numbers. Same company does audience ratings, too. You may have heard Nielsen ratings before  same people.

Now with streaming services, networks can just directly measure viewers, but Nielsen still measures this for shows watched through traditional cable.


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

[User]
CMV: Men should also have a say when it is about their children being aborted or not.

First: I don't particulary mean that they can force a woman to carry to term or for an abortion.

A woman has all the power when it is about childbearing and conceiving. There are probably countless men in the world who got "tricked" by their partners into long term commitment or just locked as a source of income by woman who lied about their birth control or got pregnant in some other way.

Thus it would be just reasonable to allow men, to give their opinion about the child. Of course the woman can not be forced to perform an abortion or to carry to term. But the man should be able to get free from every engagement if he doesn't want to be the father. This should be tied to the same rules as the mothers decision to keep a baby or not. After the first trimester you are out of luck and are locked.
Maybe a woman would be even willing to carry to term, when she get rid of the responsibility for the child when the father wants to take care after birth.

This might be still open to abuse, since someone could know to be pregnant and just not tell, but it would be an improvement imho.

Edit: my view changed a lot when getting comments, thanks everyone.

I think some form of legislation is still necessary to make the system less prone to abuse. I really don't know a suitable solution. Easy way would be to offer sperm-banking at some non-profit and cheap vasectomies for everyone to be affordable. But I guess some people would have some problem with that too.

Edit: This is also applicable for every situation where one party is tricked into pregnancy by the other one. Also to "fix" a relationship or what other obscure reasons there are. Usually men are without options then. Thus why this was focused on men in the beginning.

[Assistant]
It sounds like you're not really in favor of men having input on abortions themselves, as you say that a woman should not be forced to carry to term if she does not want to.  It's really hard to say men have any inpit on the matter when the final decision still falls to the mother.

What it sounds like instead is what some mens-rights types call "financial abortion" where the father absolves himself of any and all responsibility for a child he does not want.  The problem with that, is that child support and related systems don't exist to benefit the mother or to teach the father a lesson, they exist because, following birth, there is a being that is unambiguously a living person with great material needs.  In short, child support is for the child.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is one bad movie so bad for an actor's career?

[Assistant] It depends on the actor. It depends on the movie. If an actor has an extensive career, then one bad movie will almost certainly have little to no effect on his/her career. If this "bad movie" is one of only a few roles, then it would obviously have a greater effect. But realistically, most (if not all) actors will play in absolutely horrid movies/TV shows/plays in their careers... usually many horrid ones. That is just part of the business.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are movies rated PG-13, but TV shows rated TV-14 in the US? Why do they increase the age by 1 for TV shows?

[Assistant] The film ratings system is administered by the Motion Picture Association of America, while television content ratings are governed by the Federal Communications Committee. Other than that there really isn't a reason.


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

[User]
The asteroid belt...is it a sphere?

I was thinking this morning that the solar system isnt flat, and if the asteroid belt which is commonly quoted (no reference) as one of the reasons earth hasnt been hit by any planet killing meteors, wouldnt it have to be a sphere, or is it on the same vector as Earth? (and even then, meteors can come out of anywhere (i think).

[Assistant] The asteroid belt is pretty flat, you can imagine it like one of the rings of Saturn in shape. The reason for this is that all the planets/asteroids etc in the solar system formed inside a spinning ring of matter (an accretion disc) around the very young Sun, so are all orbiting roughly the same way (interactions between bodies since then has scattered some out, hence the rogue asteroids we worry about hitting the Earth, but the majority of stuff is still merrily spinning on round the Sun in the same plane we are).


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

[User]
ELI5: Whats keeping weather forecasting from being a highly accurate science?

Were expecting snow where I live and forecasts vary wildly. So, whats the roadblock keeping meteorologists from being far more accurate?
(No snark or judgment on the profession here, truly curious)

[Assistant]
There are an insane number of variables. Whether the air is over water or dirt or rock, how hot that is, what direction the wind is blowing, what direction it was blowing yesterday, the temperature *here*, the temperature *there*, the pressure here, the pressure there, the elevation here, the elevation there, what kind of vegetation is growing, the season, how active the Sun is, what time of day, how humid it is, how humid it *was*, what the temperature was like yesterday, what the temperature was like yesterday over there, how much dust is in the air, has a volcano erupted, is there a forest fire etc. etc. Every single point *on Earth* affects every other point, so that the variables for the next county over in every direction are affecting what's happening in your county; except, what's happening to the counties next to *them* affects *them* which affects your county. Except the Earth is a sphere, so what's going on in your county is affecting the counties that are affecting the counties that are affecting the counties and so on that are affecting your county.

The weather is affected by the ocean currents, too. Like, a lot. And all of the variables that affect the air above the water are analogous to variables affecting the "weather" of the ocean currents in the water, like the topology of the ocean floor, the temperature, the salinity, etc. So you have to do all the same work twice, so that you can predict what the ocean is doing so you can predict what the air is doing.

And of course, the air also affects the ocean! So you have to predict what the air is doing so you can predict what the ocean is doing so you can predict what the air is doing.

Everything is interconnected and complicated and it's an entire planet's worth of data to sort through, and no two places on Earth are exactly the same. So you can model what happens tomorrow with some reliability, because it does take time for all the variables to affect your area. But every day into the future you're trying to predict is going to be less accurate because more and more variables have to be accounted for.


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

[User]
ELI5:If the coil on a speaker cone can only vibrate at one frequency at a time, how come I can hear two notes simultaneously?

It's something that I've wondered about sound waves in general, but this is the best way I could think of wording it. If I play a song through a single speaker cone, how come I can distinctly hear each instrument?

[Assistant]
A speaker does not vibrate at a single frequency.  You know this for sure because of the observation in your post - a musical "A" is a different frequency than a "C".  It does produce a single waveform.

Think of throwing a rock into water.  Now throw another rock right after it.  The waves you see represent the combination of both those rocks.  You see a single wave patten the result of both, it is the result of the "frequency" of both waves.  One waveform, multiple frequencies.

The speaker is capable of creating the complex waveform that is made of multiple underlying frequencies.


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

[User]
[Star Trek] Why is there no CCTV on Starships?

There is one instance in The Search for Spock where they look at video and its framed exactly the way is was in Wrath of Khan with close ups and everything. There are also some video or holographic recreations they sometimes do, but so many crimes and murders take place with no primary evidence.

CCTV would solve almost all of the mystery plots they have in the series and Star Trek 6 wouldve been over in 5 minutes if either the Bird of Prey or the Enterprise had video cameras.

The onboard computer can track people on board but it sometimes seems limited to communicators rather than biological signs.

[Assistant]
The enlightened people of the 23th and 24th century have concluded that putting cameras everywhere is an invasion of everyone's privacy that only breeds paranoia and mistrust.

As for the suspiciously good video evidence we sometimes see in Trek:

I personally think that it's actually just a really advanced simulation based on the ship's log. That would explain the impossible camera angles and how they can look at things that happened on an alien planet.


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

[User]
What did Nietzsche mean by whatever harm the wicked may do, the harm of the good is the harmfulest harm! And whatever harm the world-maligners may do, the harm of the good is the harmfulest harm!?

The entire section this quote is derived from is below. From Thus spake Zaruthustra (Old and new tables).

O my brethren! With whom lieth the greatest danger to the whole human future? Is it not with the good and just?

As those who say and feel in their hearts: "We already know what is good and just, we possess it also; woe to those who still seek thereafter!

And whatever harm the wicked may do, the harm of the good is the harmfulest harm!

And whatever harm the world-maligners may do, the harm of the good is the harmfulest harm!

O my brethren, into the hearts of the good and just looked some one once on a time, who said: "They are the Pharisees." But people did not understand him.

The good and just themselves were not free to understand him; their spirit was imprisoned in their good conscience. The stupidity of the good is unfathomably wise.

It is the truth, however, that the good MUST be Pharisees they have no choice!

The good MUST crucify him who deviseth his own virtue! That IS the truth!

The second one, however, who discovered their countrythe country, heart and soil of the good and just,it was he who asked: "Whom do they hate most?"

The CREATOR, hate they most, him who breaketh the tables and old values, the breaker,him they call the law-breaker.

For the goodthey CANNOT create; they are always the beginning of the end:

They crucify him who writeth new values on new tables, they sacrifice UNTO THEMSELVES the futurethey crucify the whole human future!

The goodthey have always been the beginning of the end.

[Assistant]
Are you familiar with any other of his works?

Basically, it's a common theme of his - that "good/evil" is in reality the reverse of what's good for humans (due to certain historical developments). "Good" is just a nasty moralization that runs counter to healthy, life-affirming behavior.

Hence, those who are "good" are dangerous and unhealthy.

It's easy to find places in his texts where it's brought out.


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

[User]
How do complex technical skill gets inherited? Is it in the DNA?

How can the skill that is required build complex structures like bird nests be inherited?

I have been watching a show about prehistoric hand axes. They appeared some 2 million years ago and after some early development they remained unchanged for at least 800 000 years. Also these hand axes weren't simply functional. Many of them are way too large and elaborate to be functional.  Many of them  shows no sign of use at all.

The host of the show theorised  that they may had been  the result of some inherited trait, similarly as some species of birds create unique complex decorated nests generation after generation. Early hominids may had the compulsion to create elaborate hand-axes to prove their biological fitness.  In case of hand axes 800 000 years and thousands of miles of separation  makes it very unlikely to be simply cultural development.

**What inheritable traits that can result maintaining such complex behavior over such vast stretch of space and  time?**

[Assistant]
You aren't born knowing for example how to do calculus. We don't have complex crafting designs pre-programmed into us on how to make exotic axes. The host of the show was doing crap science. People have created ornate versions of weapons all across the globe because it simply is something humans tend to do with craftmanship.

You are going to have those that flex their skills and those ornate axes were much more likely to stay out of combat and be well preserved so they have a much higher survivership bias, as keeping a valuable ornate weapon in the family handed down generation after generation is cool.


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

[User]
CMV: There is no such thing as the one.

My theory is that there are actually many the ones in each city. Its just a matter of whom you happen to meet first out of that pool of people.

Most of us know someone who has been widowed. Many of those widows/widowers will eventually remarry or at least settle down with someone else. They often feel as though their second spouse is just as right for them as their first, sometimes even more so. How does that make sense when they believed their previous spouse was the one until the day they died? It makes sense because there isnt a singular one, there are a lot of them. We just arent aware of the others.

There are situations in which little details seem to confirm that someone is indeed the one and only love of their life. For example; My wife and I grew up in the same town but didnt know each other but met on vacation 4000 miles away. And it turns out our grandfathers used to be best friends! But lets be real - coincidences happen every day. Odd ones. Far-fetched ones. But they happen. And they serve to make us feel even more secure in the relationship.

[Assistant]
Imagine that we can measure couples compatibility on single measurement. Now center the map around you and assign compatibility score to every person around you. We can assume that compatibility follows normal distribution with fat low tail. This is fancy way of saying that half of population (same sex) is not willing to date you (low compatibility score), most people are average match and few are good match.

Now you can pick highly compatible partner near you if you search long enough but this doesn't mean they are most compatible. In order to find that you need to expand your search radius. But higher your target compatible score goes the search radius increases exponentially. Like you can find a great partner within 100 miles but next partner that is better is 1000 miles away and after that next better partner is 10 000 miles away. It becomes harder and harder to find "the one" or "the one with the highest compatibility score".

And this why people settle to lower score but this actually makes it harder for searchers. Now your "the one" is already in a relationship and you won't find them even if their compatibility score is higher with you than with their current partner.

TL;DR: You can always find more suitable partner but you have to travel further, spend more time and despite all this your "the one" might already be in a relationship.


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

[User] ELI5: If credit limit is $500, and I pay off my credit card so I have more than $500 available credit, can I make bigger purchase?

[Assistant]
Sure! Your credit limit is just the amount that the bank will loan to you. You can put a positive balance on your account, and then make a payment above that limit, without any problems.

The only catch is that some banks will not allow you to carry a positive balance for a long time, and may make a transfer on your behalf, transferring that positive balance to a savings or transaction account.


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

[User]
Is there a fallacy behind the "go read a book" argument? If so, what is its name?

I personally find it very cringy and condescending.

[Assistant]
At *best* it'd be an informal fallacy (like appeal to authority, reification, argument to moderation et cetera), rather than a formal logical fallacy (ie, actually breaking the rules of deduction etc).

Even if "go read a book" is cringey, it's not a logical position or argument, it's a statement of unwillingness to have a serious conversation about a topic. To think about it in terms of logic seems like a category error, unless it's a part of a broader argument and this is a way of brushing off a specific criticism. Even then it's an informal problem, to do more with rhetoric and debate.


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

[User]
[Star Wars]Did the seperatists really need to fight?

Given there's a large group of independent systems not affiliated with the Republic was there any real problem with systems not being a part of the republic?

[Assistant] They could have seceded peacefully, sure. But that wasn't the point of their existence. They were *meant* to egg on the Republic, and were violent even before the war started. Remember that *Attack of the Clones* **starts** with an attempted assassination perpetrated by the Separatists.


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

[User]
[D&D] A halfling monk just critted a red dragon with his fists and killed it. What does that look like?

A 40-lbs humanoid with no weapons or armor critically injures a 60-foot, multi-ton reptile with scales like iron.

Was there an explosion of energy?  Did he hit in the exact precise nerve point in a gap in the armor or something?

[Assistant] Jumping into the air the monk slips between scales broken previously from the fight. Hanging onto the torn scale they swing themselves for extra momentum into the wound right before they plunge their hand deep into the flesh using their maximum effort to dig deep and rip out an artery. A spray of blood comes in answer as the monk falls back near where they had leapt. As the last of the dragon's lifeblood pools before the monk the rest of the party finally admits size does not matter.


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

[User] [MU/MCU] What are the interstellar nations or empires closest to Earth? Does Earth lie within the borders (disputed or otherwise) of any interstellar nation or empire?

[Assistant]
The Badoon are a gender-segregated pair of nations of a reptilian species. The Sisterhood are based in Capella, a real star about 40 light years from here, but they're not the interstellar empire. The Brotherhood is, and rules a third of our galaxy. Despite this, they're *small time*; but the Guardians have been warned to take them seriously. They have attempted to invade Earth several times.

They're probably the closest too. Xandar and the Skrulls in the Andromeda Galaxy, the Kree are part of the Large Magellanic Cloud, the Shi'ar are in a galaxy somewhere in the local group that isn't identified (Triangulum?).


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

[User] ELI5: If Homo Sapiens were capable of interbreeding with Neanderthals (and apparently did), why are they considered different species?

[Assistant]
Because ability to interbreed is not the only measure of a species.

As a general rule 'can't breed and produce fertile offspring' is a reasonable good rule of thumb for determining separate species, but it certainly isn't the only measure that is used. Physical characteristics, genetics, geography, diet, all of these things are used when trying to determine if two populations should be considered a separate species.

Honestly, determining if something is a separate species, especially with very closely related species can be very hard. That is why the 'species problem' exists. It basically is the question of 'when is something different enough to be a different species' and a lot of opinions on the matter exist.


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

[User]
[Red Dead Redemption 2] If Dutch had a million dollars, would it have been enough?

I mean, was he always going to push his luck?

Let's say he lucked out on a million dollars in 1890s money. That's a fortune.

Would he have been able to call it quits? Would he include the Gang in it?

[Assistant]
He always had a line about finding enough to take the team to a paradise, namely a colony island where the colonists were in charge.  So would a million be enough?  Absolutely.  Charter a boat, buy some land and slaves to cater to it.. Yes.  It would have been enough to make that happen.

But as the years rolled in he would have become restless and turned his sights on power, which Iin that arena would be naval.  He would have found some silly little conflict to press himself into in the search of greatness.  And eventually it would go pear shaped.  Dutch's curse was the search for more.


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

[User]
ELI5: Stack vs. Heap

My current major is computer science and I am stumped with this concept of "Stack vs. Heap" in memory.

[Assistant]
The stack and the heap are two different regions of memory your program can access.  The main difference is how they're managed.

The Stack is memory that's managed (to some degree) for you.  When you declare a variable from within a function the memory for that variable is allocated from the stack.  This allows the memory to automatically be returned (deallocated) when the function returns.

The heap is memory that is NOT managed for you.  When you malloc something you are taking a chunk of memory from the heap.  It will last forever until you explicitly free it.


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

[User] ELI5:What impact does calling state representatives have?

[Assistant]
Individually?  Not a great deal.  One voice isn't much when a representative is working with hundreds of thousands.

But a bunch of them?  You'll get a response at minimum.  To paraphrase Wayne Wheeler (the guy who got Prohibition passed) "the primary desire of any American politician is to get and keep a job."  If you make it clear that they need to play ball with you to get/keep their job... they'll work with you.


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

[User]
From what I understand, we have only discovered a tiny fraction of the species on earth. Is life so diverse that I may have species that are unique to a 10 acre plot of land?

Maybe just wishful thinking on my part, it would be pretty neat if there were species that evolved into something new while on our land. Any type of life... animals, bugs, plants or microorganisms although I have a feeling that last one is an entire world of its own. We live in a rural area in the southern U.S. with a natural creek and I see so many different bugs when I go exploring. The creek only goes about a half mile and I've seen fish in it, I don't even know how they got there.

Please don't laugh at me if it's completely impossible. Help me understand just how "local" our local wildlife is and how likely it is that we have noticeable evolution going on in our own backyard.

Edit: We've been here since the 1970's and there are constant changes in the types of animals or plants that thrive and dominate here. We never do anything intentionally to influence that.

[Assistant]
You have to consider how we discover species.  So for example we've almost certainly encountered 90% of the mammals on our planet, but we might be at around 20% of insects and 5% of bacteria.  Similarly, we might know about 70% of river-dwelling aquatic organisms and 20% for those in our oceans.

So if you go take a look in a creek in your backyard, chances are slim you'll find a new species, simply because those sorts of environments are well-studied and you're unlikely to have the tools to do better.  On the other hand, if you go out there and take water samples and put the microorganisms through a whole-genome sequencer, you're almost certain to find something new.


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

[User]
[DC] Could Beast Boy turn into Doomsday? What is the strongest creature he could theoretically turn into?

I noticed beast boy doesn't really have any limits to his power that are clear cut. They say it takes effort for him to change into creatures rapidly, but that is about it. What is stopping him from turning into doomsday if he wanted to? What would be the strongest creature he could turn into?

[Assistant]
Beast Boy's power is fueled by the Red, the lifeforce connecting all animals. Every planet with animal life has a Red, but they're not interconnected. As long as BB is on Earth, he can only turn into animals native to Earth. For him to turn into Doomsday, he'd have to be on Krypton, which is gone.

Also, it's debatable if Doomsday is connected to the Red at all, since he's an artificial creature.


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

[User] [Bicentennial Man] If a robot could be your FRIEND would that be enough to prove they are sentient, good etc?

[Assistant]
It's really, really hard to tell the difference between "actual" intelligence and the simulation of intelligence.

I know that the Chinese Room thought experiment isn't especially highly regarded anymore but as an introductory, 101 explanation of the idea, it helps. Imagine you're in a room with a book of instructions. From a slot in the wall, you receive pages with Chinese symbols on them. The book of instructions doesn't tell you what the symbols means, but has a guide for how to respond with other Chinese symbols. You respond, receive more pages, respond more, and so on.

To the person on the other side of the wall, it seems like you know Chinese, because you're responding with appropriate answers to their Chinese questions. In reality you don't speak a word of Chinese, you're just following instructions on how to respond.

That summarizes a problem with trusting whether or not AI is actually sapient: does the AI actually understand and have volition in response, or are its responses just part of a program that seems sapient?


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

[User]
If we were to return to a decentralised world of small local economies. Could a western nation prosper?

Super hypothetical. But if, like Britain, everyone is very far removed from manufacturing and agriculture. Where we have huge chains of supermarkets like Tesco or Sainsbury's (Walmart I guess would be US equivalent).

Would we benefit from a move to a country with lots of small self sufficient industries. So you buy your clothes from a few of the town's main manufacturers. Your food is locally sourced from local farms. Most of the high street is small, private, independent shops.

I appreciate that not everything can be produced locally. But if we were to move back more in that direction. As some town's still do (e.g. Totnes in Devonshire).

Is there a name for this economic theory of decentralisation? Do you think this would be a net positive or detriment?

[Assistant] I believe this would be called autarky. The econ 101 answer would be that this is a terrible idea: rather than sourcing all your products locally, each region should specialise in what it has a comparative advantage in and trade for products they can't produce. The net result is that all parties are better off (total consumption is higher).


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

[User]
[DC] As a professional thug for hire in Gotham, how do I best prepare myself for dealing with Batman?

Whether it's mugging ladies for their purses at 1AM in random dark alleys or helping the Penguin take over the big art gallery opening I take pride and joy in my job as a seemingly illiterate violent criminal and it fulfills my life long dream of pointing guns at other human beings. Trouble is as bad as the cops are that stupid Bat just seems unstoppable, even the Joker seems to have to really play his cards right \(puns like that is why I get asked for by name\) to be able to get away without spending 3 months in a body cast in Arkham. Is there anything I can do to beat Bats or at least put up enough of a fight to get away?

[Assistant]
Do you really think one man could knock out every single goon he hits with one punch?    Your buddies are already throwing the fight by taking a dive on the first hit.

Take a lesson from them.  As soon as Batman makes an attack anywhere in your vicinity, throw yourself backward and ragdoll like you're unconscious.  You can practice on your own ahead of time to make it look more realistic.  Carry a blood capsule that you can bite down on for added effect.

This way you avoid permanent injuries that will take you out of the game for good.   Wait til Batman leaves to pursue your boss and then make your escape.  There are always other villains hiring.   It also plays better if it goes to court because you didn't have a chance to actually hurt anyone.


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

[User]
[Warhammer 40k] Do Mork and Gork actually exist somewhere?

Just a warning,  I'm pretty new to Warhammer 40k lore in general,  but I'm already obsessed with it so please bear with me :)

So do Mork and Gork actually exist somewhere?  Like are they chilling on some giant thrones, influencing their ork children?  I'm confused because it seems the  Eldar gods appear in the physical world with Avatars and have directly interacted with Eldar, but I couldn't find anything like that referring to the Ork gods.

Are Mork and Gork actually confirmed to exist and interfere within Ork society? The presence of chaos Daemons and Primarchs,  as well as the Eldar God Ynnead make it hard for me to believe the Ork gods aren't busy as well.  Thanks!

[Assistant]
It's not 100% straighforward - remember that everything about the orks has been engineered by the ultimate biological + warp engineers, the Old Ones.

The reflexive answer is to say that no, physically they dont exist, but they exist in the subconscious of Orks and so will exist within the gestalt Waaaaagh field - which is why Weirdboyz and the like have abilities that manifest bits of Gork and/or Mork.

That said, if (and it is a big IF) Xenology can be trusted, the ork spores are designed to fill gaps in the warmachine  if the waaagh detects there's not enough painboyz, more will spawn, if there's not enough squigz, more will spawn.  That's one of two facts to keep in mind.

Slight tangent but look at other non-chaos gods  the Umbra may be remnants of an Old One, originally the gods of the Eldar probably were Old Ones, the god of the Hrud was probably the pre-mentioned Umbra Old One...

We can take from that that Old Ones had no issue passing as gods  fact two.

This part is pure headcanon made from those two facts - It's possible that Gork and Mork were the Old Ones that originally engineered the Orks, and using their mastery of warp and biology found a way to hide from chaos  by not fully existing (thus being impervious to being dismembered).  If the Waaagh can detect the status-quo and adapt the system it stands to reason that there may be states in the system that the Waaagh is looking for that it has yet to find  what if there are breeds of Ork that havent been grown yet as the breeding conditions arent right?  What if one of these yet-to-be-used states involves re-spawning the Old-Ones if the warp is less turbulent?

Tl;dr No, not physically, but the idea of them exists in the Waaaagh. I've personal headcanon that they could be the engineered remnants of Old-Ones, and they could become real if the warp was becalmed.


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

[User] [Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood] What exactly is a 'rebound' and why is it NEVER brought up besides the second episode?

[Assistant]
When you attempt to bypass the laws of equivalent exchange and perform alchemy beyond what you have available, a rebound occurs.  A rebound is the alchemy process balancing itself in an undirected, catastrophic way instead of careful balance deliberately performed by the alchemist. This doesn't occur often, because most alchemists we see in the series are absolute masters of the craft, and don't even attempt to exceed the natural limits of Alchemy in this way.

Technically, the prices paid for performing human alchemy are also form of rebound (since you're attempting to perform alchemy involving a human soul, and not providing *nearly* enough in exchange for that), they just aren't referred to as such during the series.

>!Lastly, when Father dies at the end of the series, he's experiencing a rebound.


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

[User]
How do owners take on more risk than employees? And does it justify their much higher pay?

It has often been said that the reason that workers are paid far less than owners/CEOs and even shareholders is because they take on the risk of the company failing and losing money from declines in valuations.

I have also heard it argued that workers do also themselves take on a lot of risk when working for a company, for instance if the company performs badly they may be fired or pay may be deducted (often to prevent the wealth of the owners coming down). They therefore may not be able to afford rent, food and other necessities and as such the risk of joining is high.

I can also think of two responses to this point:
1. The worker can always find a new job (though this depends heavily on the labour market and if they were highly specified it may be harder for them to find a new job that pays enough to support their prior lifestyle)

2. The worker will never lose money, merely not receive more in the future, whereas the owner will lose wealth if the company fails. (Though Im unsure if this point is entirely true)

So the ultimate question is, is there substantial risk taken by owners to justify the often far higher pay/wealth accumulation?

[Assistant]
No one is compensated purely for risk - employees are compensated for supplying labor and shareholders are compensated for supplying capital. Each then earns a risk premium based on how risky the option they choose is relative to their next best option.

Employees face comparatively little risk - the risk of losing your job is inherent to any job and leaves you in no worse position than not having a job in the first place. They're paid 1 month in arrears, so at most they have a couple of months outstanding if the business fails and, in the event of failure, they typically have the highest ranking claim against the business besides the costs of the bankruptcy itself. In many jurisdictions there are also government schemes to cover the unpaid wages of failed businesses.

For shareholders, they can earn risk-free returns by investing in government bonds. The relative risk of investing in equities is substantial - they pay money upfront with no guarantee of even receiving the principle back, never mind profits. In the event of failure, they rank last, paid after all employees, suppliers, creditors etc, typically losing everything. As such, they earn a significant risk premium - although less than you might imagine: market risk premiums are typically around 4-6%.

For owners/founders, they're a hybrid of employee and shareholder, plus there's an element of compensation for "entrepreneurship" - more than just taking risks, they had a novel idea, spotted some advantage etc.

For CEOs, they're basically just highly skilled employees - they're not compensated for risk, they're compensated by shareholders for the perceived value they add to profits. Debateably, their high pay also reflects exploitation of the principle/agent problem, where CEOs basically set their own pay, subject to shareholder outrage, which gives them significant latitude because shareholders are typically diffuse and hard to organise.


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

[User] [Star Wars] Given how we saw Snoke meddle with Rey and Kylo Rens minds could it be that Anakins visions of Padme came from Palpatine and it was all an even bigger plot?

[Assistant] It's possible, sure, but there's nothing that really shows it to be the case. Palpatine doesn't seem to have to manipulate Anakin using visions, he can manipulate him with the truth - it's just as likely (IMO more likely than not) that he just took advantage of Anakin talking to him about these visions rather than actually causing them. We've seen multiple instances of him simply turning an existing situation into his favor.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are motorcycles so loud compared to cars?

[Assistant]
1, Not all of them are.

2, Some motorcyclists prefer a loud sound because

2a, they think it's cool

2b, the vibration feels powerful

2c, they believe that "loud pipes save lives"

(that is, that when other motorists *hear* a loud motorcycle, they're not likely to accidentally hit it)

3, different muffling systems.


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

[User]
[ST:VOY] What has happened to the Borg?

Are they completely destroyed or just rebuilding?

[Assistant]
(It depends on which "official" continuity you want to follow, the books or Star Trek Online.)

The Borg were dealt a crippling blow by destroying the transwarp network, but they were not destroyed. They continued their mission of assimilation and trying to attain perfection. They no longer had their "easy" method of travel, but their ships are still extremely fast and they have the ability to build and adapt faster than any other species or group in the galaxy.

(In the novels) The Borg realize how much a threat Starfleet and the Federation actually are to their existence. So they launch a full invasion fleet into the Alpha quadrant several years after Voyager's return. The entire collective is eventually destroyed in this conflict.

(In Star Trek Online) The Borg continue normal expansion and operations, but something draws them toward the Alpha quadrant faster than they otherwise would. (Like almost all STO plots, probably the Iconians) Their territory contains almost half the galaxy by 2409, and they have a foothold right on the doorsteps of the Federation and Klingon empire.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is Greenpeace so vehemently against nuclear power?

[Assistant]
Because it uses potentially dangerous materials and because it obviates the need for more "preferred" forms of power like solar and wind.

The problem is, of course, nuclear power is one of the cleanest and safest forms of power that exist.  Even if you take into account the number of accidents and deaths from nuclear power accidents, you would have nowhere near the number of incidences as you do with other sorts of power.  Plus the waste, while dangerous, is very manageable and if we really wanted could be stored quite safely.

It's a lot like drinking water made from pee.  You can do it, but the thought of it makes you sick.


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

[User] [Game of Thrones] Shouldn't members of Unsullied army be significantly weaker than soldiers in other armies due to lower level of testosterone?

[Assistant]
Yes and this is acknowledged in the books:

"Others may be stronger or quicker or larger than the Unsullied. Some few may even equal their skill with sword and spear and shield. But nowhere between the seas will you ever find any more obedient."

The point of the Unsullied is their unparalleled obedience and discipline combined with their peak level training. You're not buying them to win arm wrestling contests.


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

[User]
[Raimi Spider-Man] In Spider-Man 3, why couldnt/wouldnt the Venom symbiote immediately attach itself to Peter Parker the way it did to Eddie Brock?

Something that confuses me is why the symbiote wouldnt just merge with Peter the moment it touched him. Why was it necessary for the symbiote to disguise itself as a costume for a time before it actually tried merging in the church bell tower? That was only when its life was threatened, too. Why did it bother going the extra step of making itself be a removable costume when it had the power to fuse itself into him like it did to Eddie Brock?

[Assistant] When the symbiote first came to earth it was weakened and vulnerable. It didn't know what the abilities or capabilities of the native population were. If it reveals itself too soon then it might be destroyed, so instead it was subtle and tried to secure itself through mental control. It also had very different morals to Peter, and Peter would have fought the symbiote immediately if he knew what it was. Even once bonded with Peter, it's unlikely that a forceful bonding would be as straightforward as with Eddie due to Peter's enhanced physiology. Once Peter figured out the symbiote's nature, it was under pressure to find a new host and fast. It also knew that humans were weak and vulnerable so went all in on the first one it found, who just so happened to have incredibly compatible motivations, making the bonding even more complete.


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

[User]
[Star Wars Prequels] Were the Jedi suspicious at all that the template for their clone army worked for the Separatists?

I mean, Kenobi starts by tracking down an assassin that tried to kill Senator Amidala. He finds out it is Jango Fett, who just happens to be the template for the entire clone army? Jango Fett also works directly for Count Dooku and stands at Dooku's side at Geonosis. Does this raise any red flags for any of the Jedi? Any at all, that their army might not be on the up-and-up?

[Assistant]
Probably a little, but fundamentally Jango Fett was just a good template, and a Bounty Hunter.

He was going to follow the money wherever that led him, from the Jedi point of view if the Republican just offered him a bigger paycheck he probably would still be fighting on side his clones.


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

[User] This might be a dumb question, but assuming we can keep the the number of businesses failing low, is high unemployment due to the pandemic easily recoverable?

[Assistant] Business failures will certainly make things much worse and lead to a longer recovery period but it is unlikely that we will see a return to pre-COVID unemployment levels anytime soon.  Even if firms dont go under in large numbers, firms face a number of issues now.  Firms were already highly indebted on average prior to COVID and many now face an even higher debt burden.  They will have to tighten their belts as they deleverage by cutting expenses including headcount in some cases.  The other big issue is the shock to aggregate demand will likely not go away overnight.  Some industries might be able to see demand for their goods and services return quickly but for others it will be a long road such as tourism, hospitality, entertainment, oil etc.  Part of the impact on demand is consumer indebtedness and consumer confidence both of which also cant be quickly fixed.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is Taiwan not recognized as an official country by some?

[Assistant] Because of the People's Republic of China. They contend that the Republic of China is a rebelling province and not a sovereign state. Most countries don't want to go pissing off China by formally recognizing them, especially since everyone kind of gets their cake and eats it to, as countries can still do business with Taiwan.


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

[User]
[Borderlands] Why are critical hits effective when the target is shielded?

So I w-w-work a lot with shields. There's a big one around my town. It's spherical and blocks incoming m-m-mortar fire by acting like a solid shell. But when I was dealing with some bandits trying to raid my town, aiming for their h-h-heads wore out their shields a lot faster than aiming for their bodies. I'm a computer engineer, not a shield engineer, but I'm curious. C-c-can someone explain this to me?

[Assistant] Its like wearing old fashioned Kevlar, if you get hit with a slug thrower that energy will be dissipated in a similar form to getting hit in the chest with a baseball bat. Since shielding has no mass, that energy has to go somewhere, so while the dampners do a good job at taking most of the hit, a direct shot to a critical area like the head will still feel like being bludgeoned with an aluminum pipe, and if you're lucky, your shield might just hold and you'll survive.


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

[User]
I don't think the Koch brothers are all that bad. CMV

Now, if you are a liberal or conservative, socialist or capitalist, it doesn't matter.  I don't think the Koch brothers deserve the flack they get. Here's why....

Both the Koch brothers are extremely high profile philanthropists, pledging to donate more than half of their income to philanthropy. I could post links as sources, but they're really easy to find. They fund a great deal of arts, education, and scientific research. They may be fighting the Affordable Care Act, but it's really hard to argue that they don't give a damn about poor, sick people when they've donated many millions to helping the sick and needy.

If the Koch brothers were really trying to deregulate things just to boost their profits for selfish means, they would not be as high profile and outspoken. Could it possibly be that they just simply believe that laissez-faire capitalism and libertarian policies are simply best for America and they feel strongly enough about that to donate money to those causes for the same reasons they donate to other charitable causes? I think it's much more likely that they really are fighting for an ideal and are not crony capitalists.

Again, whether or not you believe in conservative/libertarian causes is not the debate here. I'm trying to argue that they may just simply be donating to these political causes because they believe they are what's morally right and not because these causes will fatten their own wallets.

[Assistant] A large part of the flack that they get is because people don't like the idea that a single person (or family) can spend $60 million influencing elections every four years. Regardless of whether they are doing it to ultimately generate a >$60 million return down the line or whether they are doing it because they are deeply conservative at their core and think that's best for the country, people don't like the idea that two rich guys can have a significant effect on election outcomes just by spending money. For people who dislike the campaign finance system and the largely unrestricted flow of money into elections, the Koch Brothers will always be a bogeyman.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why cant we charge mobile phones and laptops in seconds and minutes by providing them large amounts of current?

Wont it be faster then plugging it in for hours?

[Assistant] If there was someway to manufacture batteries that wouldnt overheat, bubble up and explode when an extremely high current is applied, that would be an option. The asus zenphone 2 with its packaged charger does something similar but still is limited to a 1 hour charge time.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Given Han Solo was able to bribe an Imperial to escape Corellia, how well paid were people employed by the Empire?

In poorer countries, you can assume any police officer/civil servant will take a bribe but it's more risky to try to bribe someone in a richer country where they are paid more. Han was pretty certain his bribe would work without targeting a particular worker to get an exit pass from Corellia, suggesting it leans toward not well paid.

[Assistant]
Well for starters, Coaxium is valuable, a little goes a long, long way, since it is a controled substance, being able to have some that didn't come from some official source can open a lot of doors if you know what to do with it. Han using the Coaxium was less slipping the guy a $100 and more like passing him a small bag of gemstones.

Secondly, its less that the Empire didn't pay well, but rather that there is a bit of a culture in the Imperial Forces to try and get a step up when ever one can. Maybe its a bit of the Sith mentality subconsciously leaking, but Officers were kind of encouraged to backstab others, make a deal with unsavory characters, even grease the wheels a bit in order to get ahead. The only condition is to not get caught, otherwise they will come down hard on you. But for someone who was raised on the streets of Imperial controlled Corellia, Han knew that offering a well placed bribe to any Imperial Officer had more than just a good chance of success as long as he was sly, didnt ask for too much, or make a scene.


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

[User] ELI5: How does medicine work with our body to relieve pain in different parts of our body? Back ache-Take an asprin. Tooth ache-Take the same asprin.

[Assistant] Pharmacist here. To ELI5 this: basically, there are enzymes which facilitate reactions (cause them to happen more rapidly and more often) which cause signals to be sent producing pain. The name of the enzyme medicines like Ibuprofen target is called cyclo-oxygenase, or COX for short. Meds like this are closely related to the chemicals in the body which actually activate this enzyme, and the med takes the place of the body chemical, but do not activate the enzyme, causing it not to activate. That's it on a molecular level, and that happens many, many times when you take medicine. This causes the pain signal not to be sent. This is an example using NSAIDS. There are many other types of pain medications, all having unique ways in which they stop pain (Tylenol, opioids).


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

[User]
Why are cochlear implants limited to human range of sound?

It seems like it might be able to be extended (i.e. could hear dog whistles, etc.).  Is it a limitation with the brain, the technology?  Or is it simply to give the recipient "normal" hearing patterns?

[Assistant] Sure, we have the technology to increase the frequency range on cochlear implants, but the reason they aren't is because human communication is done well within the range of normal hearing. Focusing on that range is the most efficient way to use the limited number of electrodes (22) that replace the 16,000 or so hairs normally used for hearing. Taking just one electrode outside the normal range of hearing would reduce the overall efficacy of the device with no improvement of the main purpose of the device, communication.


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

[User]
[Revenge of the Sith]Prior to initiating Order 66, what kind of politician was Palpatine on his way to being remembered as?

From the moment Palpatine takes over as Chancellor, to the moment he initiates Order 66 and becomes Emperor Palpatine, he was forced to keep his true identity a secret, playing the part of a cunning but seemingly agreeable politician. Prior to seizing complete control of the galaxy, what were some of Palptines most significant political contributions and achievements, and what were some of the core components he preached (i.e. family values, economic policy, financial regulation)?

[Assistant]
He was *incredibly* popular. Chancellor Valorum was seen as the personification of the bloat of the Republic. When Palpatine stepped in, shit got done. He said "We're gonna build an army" and boom, now there's an army. His platform was that he was a kind old man from Naboo who wanted what was best for everyone.

Financial deregulation? It'll help us end the war faster!

More troops? Well, the CIS is building more droids!

Ok, let's try peace talks.... aaaaaand there was a Separatist attack on Coruscant. (And the Separatist senator who reached out was assassinated)

Palpatine had the propaganda dialed up to eleven. Everything good that happened was a result of his decisive leadership, everything bad was a direct consequence of the Jedi Order's attempts to consolidate their power.

As far as his achievements, everything he did was to build his own power, and his future Empire.


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

[User] Theoretically, is it possible for an intelligent being living in the second dimension to 'discover' the third dimension?

[Assistant]
Dimensions aren't places, even though the term is often used that way in science fiction. Rather, dimensions are properties of spaces.

Specifically, when we talk about a space having "n dimensions", what we mean is that it takes n numbers to uniquely specify a point in that space. For example, if you want to specify a point on the surface of the Earth, you need two numbers, latitude and longitude, so the surface of the Earth is 2-dimensional. If you want to specify a point within the Earth, you also need to specift a depth, so the interior of the Earth is 3-dimensional.

Notice in each of these cases, there's not a unique way to specify a given point with numbers. We could, for example, specify a point inside the Earth using a rectangular coordinate system, instead of latitude, longitude, and depth, and it would still take three numbers (x, y, and z) to specify a point. Thus, even though we say a space is three-dimensional, that doesn't mean there are exactly three well-defined values that we could call "dimensions". However, time is a little bit unique in this respect. If we want to specify an event, rather than just a point, we need four values, three to specify a location in space, and one to specify the time at which the event occurred, so "space-time" is four-dimensional. But time is, for various reasons, distinct from space, and so you will sometimes see it referred to as "the fourth dimension". That does not mean, however, that there is a well-defined first, second, or third dimension.

Now, with all of this in mind, we can imagine hypothetical beings in a hypothetical two-dimensional universe (three-dimensional space-time). There are then two ways to interpret the question of whether they can "discover" the third dimension. If we're asking whether they could conceive of a three-dimensional space, there's no reason to think they wouldn't be able to, since we, in three dimensions, can conceive of spaces with arbitrary or even infinite dimension. If we're asking whether they could discover that time is "the third dimension" for them, as it's "the fourth dimension" for us, again there's no reason to think they wouldn't be able to.

On the other hand, if you're asking whether beings living in a hypothetical two-dimensional universe could discover *our* three-dimensional universe, then that question doesn't really make sense.


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

[User]
AskScience AMA series: We are researchers in Quantum Computing and Quantum Information, here to answer your questions.

Hi everyone, we are BugeyeContinuum, mdreed, a_dog_named_bob, LuklearFusion, and qinfo, and we all work in Quantum Computing and/or Quantum Information. Please ask us anything!

P.S.: Other QIP panelists are welcome to join in the fun, just post a short bio similar to the ones below, and I'll add it up here :).

To get things started, here's some more about each of us:

BugeyeContinuum majored in physics as undergrad, did some work on quantum algorithms for a course, and tried to help a chemistry optics lab looking to diversify into quantum info set up an entanglement experiment. Applied to grad schools after, currently working on simulating spin chains, specifically looking at quenching/annealing and perhaps some adiabatic quantum computation. Also interested in quantum biology, doing some reading there and might look to work on that once present project is done.

mdreed majored in physics as an undergrad, doing his senior thesis on magnetic heterostructures and giant magentoresistance (with applications to hard drive read-heads.) He went to grad school immediately after graduating, joining a quantum computing lab in the first semester and staying in it since. He is in his final year of graduate school, and expects to either get a job or postdoc in the field of quantum information.

LuklearFusion did his undergrad in Mathematical Physics, with his senior research project on quantum chaos. He's currently 6 months away from a M.Sc. in Physics, studying the theory behind devices built from superconducting qubits and hybrid systems. He is also fairly well versed in quantum foundations (interpretations of quantum mechanics) and plans on pursuing this in his PhD research. He is currently applying to grad schools for his PhD, if anyone is interested in that kind of thing. He is also not in a North American timezone, so don't get mad at him if he doesn't answer you right away.

qinfo is a postdoc working in theoretical quantum information, specifically in quantum error correction, stabilizer states and some aspects of multi-party entanglement.

[Assistant]
Basic questions from an entirely uneducated person:

1. What materials to you see (or are available) to serve as quantum computing devices?
2. What are the benefits of QC over current computational technology?
3. What will serve as the equivalence of a bit and transistor in a quantum computer?

Thanks guys!


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

[User]
ELI5: How does an iron lung work?

I was reading up about polio and read that many children ended up in iron lungs to allow them to breath "normally". What exactly does the iron lung do to allow the patient to breath normally?

[Assistant]
Your head is outside an airtight seal in the iron lung, so only the rest of your body is inside (generally, though at least your chest)

The iron lung alters the air pressure in the chamber.  If the force of the air pressure in the chamber is less than the pressure in the lungs, the lungs seek to expand to correct the difference and will cause the person to inhale with a type of vacuum force, really.  When the pressure in the chamber then alternates to exceed the pressure of the lungs, it pushes down on the lungs with the increased air pressure, and causes the air to flow out of the lungs.

It was a surprisingly elegant invention considering how much more invasive methods such as breathing tubes are with risks of infection, they aren't ideal for long term use.


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

[User]
Could one make a vaccine to train one's immune system to attack their own body?

As opposed to markers of some virus or whatever. Have there been incidents of people getting an autoimmune disease from vaccination trials?

(obligatory: this is unrelated to covid, though perhaps the soreness from the booster is encouraging this on my mind.  Very pro-vaccine, I am just curious if such a thing is possible)

[Assistant]
The immune system has a built in mechanism that destroys cells that recognize self-antigen. This doesn't always work (see: autoimmune diseases), but most of the time it does.

In some conditions like Gullain-Barre Syndrome, something foreign (like a vaccine or a bacteria in undercooked turkey) can stimulate a confused immune system to attack self antigens.  When people have GBS after a vaccine (which is rare but does happen) this is essentially what happens.


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

[User] Is there a limit to how long a radio wave can be? Would extremely long waves be of any use?

[Assistant] Frequencies lower than 1 oscillation within the age of the universe don't produce anything you could call an electromagnetic wave, and similarly wavelengths longer than the Hubble length are not meaningful waves. Apart from that there is no limit, it just gets harder to detect radiation the lower the frequency gets.


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

[User]
[DREDD 2012] How does Megacity-1's economy work?

Apologies if i'm mixing up my Judge Dredd universes, but if one of the things that's turned the world into such a crapsack is excessive automation creating mass unemployment, how does the economy work? If the vast majority of people don't have jobs, they don't have an income to tax, right?

[Assistant]
The way the city is set up, there is no need for an income tax because the government already controls the vast majority of the wealth. Like, 99% or more. Those who ARE noticeably wealthy are either part of the government, or hold a sort of position that is inherently untaxable (aka criminals).

Everyone else lives off welfare, more or less.


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

[User]
[Logan] Spoilers - Question regarding a weapon in the film.

How would an adamantium bullet be able to kill Logan/X-24, when stabbing with adamantium claws in the brain can be recovered from?

[Assistant]
Assuming his claws were even able to pierce the adamantium skull (with his claws having much lower energy than the bullet), the damage they would do to his brain would be far more localised. The instant the claws start to retract, the brain tissue would begin regenerating behind it. In a fully developed mind this would still cause problems but for a mainly feral newborn mind, those issues wouldn't be very apparent, especially during a life or death fight.

That bullet, on the other hand, did a lot of trauma to a large amount of the brain. Half of it was pretty much blown away at once and what was left was probably not in good shape. X-24 would have died instantly, without having the chance to even start regenerating the damage.


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

[User]
I have a question about digging a hole straight through the earth

If you were to do so, and jump in, I've heard you would go rite through and come out the other side at about the perfect speed to step out of the hole and walk off on the other side. Sort of.

But, If you were to be lowered into the hole, all the way to the very center and let go, would you just float?

Edit. Ignore the temperatures, just concentrate on the mass and size of the earth.

[Assistant]
Fun fact: If you jumped into a hole all the way through the Earth that was somehow made frictionless, you'd reach the other end of the hole in about 42 minutes.

But that isn't the fun part. The fun part is that this is true *whether the hole goes through the center of the Earth or not.* It's equally true for any tunnel through the Earth that follows a chord.