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

[User]
[DBZ] Could all the Namekians fuse together into one? And if do how strong would that single Namekian become?

Could all the Namekians fuse together in the way Nail and Piccolo fused together? If so how strong would that single Namekian become?

[Assistant]
Theoretically, yes. And from the looks of things, it's a geometric growth.

When Nail merged with Piccolo, neither of them was strong enough to fight Frieza's first form. Piccolo's power level was unknown, but I'd estimate him around Vegeta's power level at the time. Nail was hovering at 42k. After merging with Nail, Piccolo shot up to well over one million.

After that, he goes from hovering near Goku and Vegeta's base forms at the beginning of the Android Saga, to fusing with Kami and being superior to Vegeta's Super Saiyan state, able to go toe-to-toe with Android 17 on a near equal level. Kami was weaker than the heroes were at the beginning of the Saiyan Saga, but merging with him still boosted Piccolo's power by at least fifty times.

A Namekian who had absorbed his entire species? He'd probably be able to throw down with anyone short of Beerus. And even then, the God of Destruction might be in his reach.


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

[User] ELI5: The Dow hit 20,000. What is the Dow and what does this mean?

[Assistant]
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) is a weighted average of 30 large companies traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

It is used as a rough indicator of how the stock market as a whole is doing, which in turn is a rough indicator for the economy on the whole.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why the International Date Line is placed where it is, instead of anywhere else.

Is it just because there is not a lot of land present, and only ocean, thus to make it simpler, or is there another explanation.

[Assistant]
It's kind of a useful coincidence that it's in the middle of the Pacific where there is not much land.

The reason it's there is because it's the opposite side of the world to the Prime meridian. And the Prime meridian is where it is because the system was invented by the British, so they put it straight through London.

The exact international date line isn't entirely straight though. There are some countries in the Pacific which have chosen to have their time zones on the other side of it, so the dateline sort of "wiggles" around those countries.


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

[User] ELI5 What exactly happens to web content outside of the viewport when you scroll? Does the web browser still see it? What parts of the content does the browser ignore?

[Assistant] Short answer - it depends. But more elaborate is that it depends on how the website was coded itself. By default, browser will load full webpage once you open the URL and thats what happens in most cases. Some websites though uses approach that would limit this, for example lazy loading - which loads all the content, but images and first loads only the ones in viewport and proceeds load rest afterwards. This will result in webpage appearing to be loading quicker.


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

[User] What would happen if the American dollar loses its value?

[Assistant]
If the American dollar loses value, you lose buying power. Today, Widget X costs $10. You have 10 $1 bills and can buy Widget X (ignoring tax for now).

Due to inflation and quantitative easing et al, suppose the dollar has lost 5% of the value. The manufacturer/store are still going to charge the same value for their product. Widget X now costs $10.50, but you still only have $10. You can no longer afford what you could six months ago even though your amount of money has not changed. Your dollar is now only effectively worth $0.95 compared to six months ago.

On a global scale, this affects exchange rates. Say six months ago, 1 US dollar and 1 Canadian dollar were the same. The US dollar lost 5% of value and the Canadian dollar remained the same. When you go to exchange USD for CAD, they're not going to give you 1 Canadian dollar for your US dollar. It's not worth that anymore. They'll give you $0.95 CAD. And if they want to trade a Canadian dollar for a US dollar, you have to give them $1.05 for their $1 bill. (Coin in this case)


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

[User] How many generations does it takes before medical history becomes irrelevant?

[Assistant]
In theory, infinitely many. Consider for example a man that lived, say 30,000 years ago that had some recessive genetic disorder. He could pass this gene on for 1000 generations, and assuming no one else in the tree carried that gene, none of his descendents would developed this disease. Until after 1000 generations, a distant descendent of his has a child with a woman that also carries this gene and their child has a genetic disease.

There is no length of time where genetics or medical history becomes irrelevant. That said, the further back it goes the less influence it has. First of course, because with more generations you have more ancestors, and it is less likely you would have inherited a gene from any one ancestor. And second, because it becomes increasingly unlikely that a disease that was present in your family 30,000 years ago would not have been present in any of the 1000 generations before you.


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

[User]
[Thor]I make Mjolnir totally immobile, no force can move it. Thor tries to summon Mjolnir not knowing this. Would Thor fly to Mjolnir?

Alternatively,  has Thor ever used his hammer summoning abilities to move himself to the hammer?

[Assistant] Thor doesn't move. Either the hammer moves (i.e. your ability to stop its movements is less powerful than the Odinforce powering the hammer), or it doesn't. More likely, it'll tear itself a hole in space-time and drops into Thor's hand without moving.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] How far/powerful could a Squib go/become in the Wizarding World?

What could they accomplish using enchanted items, Potions, Herbology, Muggle Technology, a House Elf assistant and any other means. Most wizard jobs don't really require magic just knowledge of it. Like the real world the only problem is accommodating the disability. I'm sure they could fake it to an extent and i'd love to hear your thoughts.

[Assistant]
Someone forever ago was talking about Filch and how he might be a Squib, but he was also able to repair The Fat Lady.. A job that takes a massive amount of skill and knowledge in the non-magical world on non-magical paintings. That's absolutely amazing for a magical painting.

The problem isn't whether a squib could become powerful and successful.. It's whether the magical world would allow them to. Even with the 'good' witches and wizards, there is a lot of exceptionalism in the magical world and squibs are never given the chance to grow because they are looked down upon - like Mrs figg the cat lady or Filch who the twins make fun of because he's taking a kwickspell course to learn magic.

No wonder filch is a jerk.. He's been looked down upon and made fun of by kids his entire life.


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

[User] [Supreme Commander] Is the post scarcity mass-energy conversion 3d printing military units available to the public, and is it some sort of utopia? or is it some sort of dystopia?

[Assistant] Yes and No. Modern day problems are of no concern anymore than fear of starvation is a concern for most Americans. The dystopia problem is that the whole galaxy is in a titanic 1984esque fight to the death.  Cyborgs are either enslaved or killed regularly. Massive battles that rage across planets killing everyone in its path. One faction is willing to put humanity in the dark ages in the name of freedom. An expansionist authoritarian government hell bent on destroying any who oppose it. Finally a nation of religious fanatics that try to brainwash or kill everyone in the name of aliens, that later try to destroy humanity.  And the end game of all the factions results in most of humanity getting killed off. So yeah not good at all.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Have any Jedi/Sith ever favored a physical blade/vibroblade over a lightsaber as their primary weapon?

Lightsabers obviously have their advantages: Being able to deflect blaster bolts and cut through pretty much anything is their biggest ones.

However, lightsabers are a *terrible* stealth weapon. They light up wherever the user is trying to do something. I could understand why the Jedi would choose not to use them... Except during the clone wars where their primary opponent is droids. There were a very large number of stealth missions where it could have been very beneficial to not have an "I AM HERE" weapon.

Even more so, why wouldn't Sith assassins use them? There seem to be a good number of metals that are resistant to lightsabers (in legends at least). Cortosis, while first appearing legends, is cannon. There are also more examples with metals like Mandalorian Ore and Ultrachrome. And whatever metal is apparently plentiful enough for the thousands of droid bodyguards during the Clone Wars to use against lightsabers.

[Assistant]
I know Darth Maul trained with one for some of his early history in legends.

I assume they don't use them because they have draw backs as well.

Training - Lightsabers are pretty much weightless. The training required to use a weighted sword effectively when you could just use a lightsaber probably isn't worth it to most. It may not sound like enough of a difference, but it is.

Cutting power - The lightsabers heat allows it to cut through things much easier then someone with a blade could, and a Lightsaber automatically cauterizes wounds making it so you can't really leave a blood trail.

Fear - like the Storm Trooper armor behind white, a Red Saber just instills fear wherever it goes, allowing the users a little big of an edge.

 Portability - It's much easier to hide a lightsaber handle then an entire blade.


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

[User]
[It] What does Pennywise transform into if your fear is something abstract?

Such as the fear of being alone, making decisions, sleeping, work, or time moving forward.

Would Pennywise become symbolism for such things? Or would Pennywise transform into something and make the thing that you're afraid of happen?

[Assistant]
The reason Pennywise targets children is because their fears are easy to embody. Those sound like much more adult fears than what children worry about.

Regardless though, even if "being alone" is the main thing that frightens you, a clown with shark teeth popping up in your bathroom is still gonna make you piss your pants. He'll just taunt you for having no friends/family as he's biting off chunks of your arm.


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

[User]
Why does lightening, something that only lasts a fraction of a second, produce thunder that can last several seconds?

What kind of acoustic trickery is going on here..?
-----------------
Edit: a little more thought. I assume (maybe)in an urban environment the sound being able to reverberate and echo off of all of the buildings and structures could build up to a lengthy reverb, but why over a large empty field does it produce a rolling thunder lasting 15 or so seconds instead of just a "pop" or "crack"?

[Assistant] It's all kinds of echos and also, the lightning is what, like a mile long? It's not a point source. The sound that is produced near the ground gets to you much earlier than the sound produced at the top of the lightning. And everything in between gets to you in between, in a continuous way. Since the speed of sound is so slow, it's very noticeable.


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

[User]
Marxist commentaries on Hegel

I'm looking for some secondary readings on Hegel written from a Marxist perspective. I plan to read The Phenomenology of Spirit, mainly because I'm interested in Hegel's relevance to Marxism. So, I would like to supplement my reading with some evaluations by Marxists.

[Assistant]
Marx wrote a bunch of things obviously like *Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right* or the section called "Critique of Hegel's Philosophy in general" in the *Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844*.

Engels has a section on Hegel on *Ludwig Feuerbach and the End of Classical German Philosophy*.

Lenin has a few commentaries of some of Hegel's works in his *Philosophical Notebooks*.

Lukcs' *The Young Hegel* and *The Ontology of Social Being Volume 1: Hegel*. Also the section "The Antinomies of Bourgeois Thought" on *History and Class Conciousness*.

Ilyenkov's *Dialectical Logic* and also a bunch of essays collected in *Intelligent Materialism: Essays on Hegel and Dialectics*.

Althusser's *Spectre of Hegel* is a collection of essays from his early writings.

Jameson's *The Hegel Variations: On the Phenomenology of the Spirit*


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

[User]
What is the connection between critical theory and critical race theory?

As far as I can tell, they seem to be completely separate things. Some proponents of critical race theory seem eager to dismiss any connection between CRT and Marxism, presumably to anticipate and counteract some of the conservative conspiracy theories claiming that CRT is undermining Western Civilization (often through it's association with \*shudder\* Marxists. At the moment, I'm not really concerned with the conspiracy theories one way or the other, I'm just trying to understand what the two terms (CRT and CT) refer to and what, if anything, is the link between them.

So are these fields totally distinct? Is there a lineage from one to the other? Is there much overlap between the two in their contemporary instances? Does the "critical" in "critical race theory" mean the same thing it does in "critical theory"? What exactly is the connection here?

[Assistant]
First, there's a difference between 'Critical Theory' as referring to the Frankfurt School body of work, which is Marxist, and 'critical theory' which comes out of this work but is not necessarily Marxist. It's by equivocation that conservative critics make the charge that critical theory is Marxist.

A critical theory seeks "to liberate human beings from the circumstances that enslave them. (Horkheimer 1982)," but this doesn't necessarily entail a commitment to Marxism, either in general or any specific way, nor a repudiation of it.

The connection between critical theory and critical race theory is critical legal studies, which is critical theory applied to law. Critical race theory came out of critical legal studies by focusing on the ways in which race works within laws to maintain racially-discriminatory power structures.

Critical theory is not a body of knowledge but an approach which challenges power structures, be it in states which are capitalist, socialist, autocratic, democratic, or whatever else. The connection is in the critique of power structures in the interest of liberating human beings from the circumstances that enslave them. In this way, critical race theory is critical theory applied toward the role that race plays in laws which perpetuate racial injustice, and this is done in the interest of reform.


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

[User]
Smallpox is officially eradicated, and IIRC, even the lab samples have now been destroyed. Are we "getting close" with anything else -- specifically, polio and tuberculosis?

I can't recall the last time I heard about a case of polio; and I'd say the same about TB but there are adverts on TV that warn about TB as a side effect -- which is a completely separate question.

I also know that malaria programs are making good progress, but they're a long way from "eradication in the wild".

Thanks!

[Assistant]
The Smallpox virus samples **have not** been destroyed:

Since 1984, theCenters for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC) in the United States and theState Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology VECTORinKoltsovo, Russia are the only two labs authorized by the WHO to hold stocks of live smallpox virus.

In 1986, the WHO first recommended destruction of all Smallpox samples, and later set the date of destruction to be 30 December 1993. This was postponed to 30 June 1999,then again to 30 June 2002. Due to resistance from the U.S. and Russia, in 2002 theWorld Health Assemblyagreed to permit temporary retention of the virus stocks for specific research purposes.

A 2010 review by a team of public health experts appointed by the WHO concluded that no essential public health purpose is served by the American and Russian laboratories continuing to retain live virus stocks.    The stocks still exist in 2021.


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

[User] Eli5: Why do Adults generally enjoy bitter tasting things (ie. Coffee, beer, dark chocolate) when children rarely do?

[Assistant]
Okay, but theres an actual reason these other comments dont address.

Children are more sensitive to bitter tastes. We know this, and theres a few theories about why. The most popular is that it stops kids from being poisoned, because bitter plants are more likely to be poisonous (coffee, for instance, is mildly poisonous).

As you get older, this effect diminishes (probably because evolution didnt select for it after a certain point in life), and some people begin to enjoy (and most people tolerate) bitter tastes.


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

[User]
ELI5:How does the E=mc^2 formula relate to the making of an atomic bomb?

So I'm doing a report on Albert Einstein and I keep looking up how E=mc^2 relates to the atomic bomb, but all of the cites I find I can't understand what is being said.

[Assistant]
Energy = Mass x Speed of Light ^2

That means if you can find a way to directly convert mass into energy you get **a shitload** of energy. That's exactly what a nuclear weapon does. It converts a small amount of the mass of the nuclear fuel directly into energy.


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

[User] [Star Wars] The imperial officers have what seems to be a lot of medals that are blue and red on their chest, correct me if Im wrong. Did they used to be stormtroopers that were promoted?

[Assistant]
Those little badges just indicate rank. Officers of varying importance have different numbers of red and blue (and sometimes yellow) squares. When they're promoted, they change. (Krennic's squares change from the time he kidnaps Galen Erso to the time Jyn Erso encounters him).

So to answer your question, a lot of Imperial officers were Republic senators/governors/politicians/etc in the Republic, meaning their jobs pretty much just carried over, so they were never stormtroopers. Often, applicants to the Imperial Army/Academy are put directly into officer positions. However, a stormtrooper could become an officer. Stormtroopers are the elite soldiers of the Empire, it's not unthinkable for them to retire or be promoted into an officer. But Imperial Officers almost always started their careers in the bureaucracy/administrative field.

**TL;DR**: Some of them were, but not all.


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

[User]
CMV: In Elder Scrolls V Skyrim, the Dragonborn should opt to murder Parthunaax

*What is better? To be born good or to overcome your evil nature through great effort?*

I know this is an unpopular opinion - I love our favourite grandaddy Dragon as much as anyone else. He is kind, wise and was instrumental to humanity throwing off the tyranny of the dragons. So please change my view people!

But here is why he must die:

1) The dragonborn must side with the blades. Dragons raid villages and cities, slaughtering many people in their droves. The people live in terror of a dragon attack and many people are terrified to travel from one city to the next. Meanwhile the Grey beards, safe and protected, spend their day sitting on their ass talking at the sky. At the very least the blades are locating dragons and taking the fight to the dragons but they need the dragonborns help. For the greater good, one elderly dragon should be sacrificed.

2) Parthunaax killed, tortured and enslaved many humans. He was also very high up the command chain (a top general I believe). His actions were akin to war crimes against humanity and he was so high up the command chain he cannot just claim he was following orders. The same way many Nazis were hunted down after WW2 and executed, Parthunaax should as well.

3) Humans generally speaking by nature mostly crave freedom, company and security. Dragons are different. The same way we want to feel safe and free they want to rule over others and be venerated. It is *not in their nature to be good* and every day Parthunaax is fighting against that urge to massacre and enslave humans the same way an addict might always crave that next drink. You are the last known Dragonborn, actually able to properly kill a dragon, how can you leave the fate of humanity up to the mood of someone who is always in danger of relapse.

Note as well dragons are Immortal creatures! So the risk isn't just for a few years or even a century.

4) Following on from my last point. He literally betrayed Alduin when he was his right hand man - how can you be sure he would never betray humanity?

[Assistant]
The dragonborn at the end of Skyrim is the effective head of dragonkind. The reason that, upon your return from sovngarde, there are many dragons on the throat of the world is because they were waiting to see who would be king.

As the effective leader of the majority of dragons, those under you are effectively agents of your will. To command effectively, you need a chain of command, and Parthunaax is the perfect candidate for second - especially since he's the only dragon who essentially followed your will of his own accord in the first place. Pragmatically, this is the best bet for the taming of dragonkind, and short that, or a genocide, Parthunaax is invaluable.


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

[User]
ELI5: If light moves only through space and not through time, why don't we observe it appearing at its destination instantly?

I recently learned about this concept and am still trying to wrap my brain around it...light is the fastest thing in the universe, and supposedly only travels through space without experiencing time; so how come it appears to us to go so (relative to instant speed) slowly? 8 whole minutes from the sun to the earth, what up with that? And what would it take for something to go so fast we do observe it travelling instantly, or is that impossible? Thanks to anyone who can answer any of these questions!

[Assistant] The faster you travel the more time slows down for you (or rather the faster the rest of the universe seem to work if you look out the window). But if you travel at the speed of light, your time is so slow that it stands still, meaning that from your perspective you reach your destination instantly. But from an outside observers perspective you are traveling at the speed of light and it might have taken millions of years to reach your destination.


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

[User]
How does a geosynchronous satellite stay up?

Technically...it's just hovering above one spot. It doesn't seem to be free falling across the sky.

Does it require more fuel than a satellite that actually orbits?

[Assistant]
Bear in mind that the earth rotates. A geosynchronous satellite is necessarily falling around the earth, as this is the only means by which it could remain above a relatively fixed point on the ground.

It is just that it has an orbital period that matches a day in duration.


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

[User]
ELI5: If I eat the same thing for several meals in a row, why do I get sick of it?

Is it because our bodies function best with a variety of food, or have I just conditioned to eat different foods at each meal?

[Assistant]
It could well be a combination of the two.  When you experience a stimulus, such as eating food, your body produces hormones in response.  When you do pretty important things that your body wants you to do, it produces 'feel good' hormones such as endorphins - things like eating and sex lead to endorphin release, and it's how your body motivates you to do things.

When the body repeatedly encounters a particular stimulus, such as a flavour, say, it begins to down-regulate it.  The same stimulus will (temporarily) have less effect on your body.  Think of background noise that might seem loud at first but soon gets blocked out.  That means that you're getting less endorphins if you eat the same thing over and over, and your body pushes you to eat something else for that sweet endorphin rush.


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

[User] [Marvel]Can TOAA irreversibly get rid of his own powers in a way that he can never get them back?

[Assistant] I think i've seen this on here before and it was agreed on that he could get rid of his own powers permanently so long as he never wanted them back.  The moment he wants them back, snap, they're back.


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

[User]
[Judge Dredd 2012] Why not arrest Ma-Ma?

If Dredd arrested Ma-Ma and took her outside the building, there would be no risk of triggering the bombs, and there would be the added bonus of interrogating her to uncover the details of the rest of her operation. Why was it so important for Dredd to execute her NOW rather than later?

[Assistant]
It is the law.

Sentence is death with summary execution.  He acted appropriately.

He is wounded.  If free, she could so more harm. Corrupt Judges may free her.  Someone may be harmed transporting her.

The computer guy is likely to have any answers he though.  Better to cut all risk of her causing future harm immediately.


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

[User] ELI5: If atoms are mostly empty space, how can things be solid?

[Assistant] Think of a propellers blades spinning around but only way way way way way way way faster, a fan spinning looks like a solid and kind of acts like barrier nothing can pass though, small enough, tight enough together, enough of them, spinning fast enough, and in all directions, solid surface.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do babies have to sleep so much more than adults? And why cant they get all that sleep in one go each day, rather than over multiple naps?

[Assistant]
Once born babies will do one thing for the first months: Grow more.

Their stomach is the size of a marble, that is how much they can eat in one setting. After that more sleep because that is energywise the cheapest way: All energy not used for activities can be used for growing.

Once their stomach is empty they want it to be filled up again and the cycle repeats.

So multiple naps because their stomach is smaller, so much to conserve energy so it can be used for growing.

PS After about three months of this and when the parents go from "Will this ever change????", the baby will smile and the parent's heart will melt.


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

[User] [ATLA] When Koh the face stealer grabbed Avatar Kuruks wife, why didnt he go into The Avatar state and go after him? Im sure Raava could have handled his ass.

[Assistant]
he would have lost to koh. Kuruk was physically and spiritually weakened. he died at age 33 because he fought evil spirits and each battle destroyed his soul and health. this is why Koh killed Ummi, as a punishment for fighting spirits.

Kuruk tried but couldn't find Koh. he has been searching for him for over 400 years in the spirit world.


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

[User]
ELI5: How the Associated Press works.

How do things "get picked up by the AP"?

[Assistant]
Journalism major here.

The AP is like one big newspaper. It has a lot of writers who go around the world and write stories about everything that goes on in the world. Those stories are then bought by newspapers who run them instead of having their own writers make the stories.

When a big story happens where the AP doesn't know about it, the local writer writes his or her story, and when it becomes national or world news, the AP will purchase that story from the writer. The Joplin tornado a year ago is a perfect example of this.

Hope that helped!


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

[User]
How did fish wind up in lakes that are far inland or in high altitude areas?

If I had to guess, then I imagine they are remnants of when the oceans were in that particular location but I would like clarification on this.

[Assistant]
If the fish were from when the area was covered by oceans then they would be unique species, having evolved from old salt water species. That's almost never the case with lakes.

Rather, the answer is much simpler. Lakes often have streams or rivers connecting them elsewhere, and so fish migrate along those routes. Even in cases where a lake doesn't have a connecting stream today it may have had one in the very recent past (years or decades) due to local flooding. Since flooding is fairly common on the scale of centuries just about everywhere, most lakes have been connected to other lakes and rivers at some time in their past.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do i get a runny nose when its cold outside?

[Assistant]
There a couple of reasons for this.
1) Your body wants to inhale nice, warm air.  Mucous helps to warm it up.

2) To help you warm up, your body also expands its blood vessels.  This allows more liquid to enter the nasal passage that can then be turned into snot.

3) As you exhale, it is possible for the vapor in your breath to further add liquid to the mucous in your nose.

This is as opposed to seeing a runny nose when one is sick.  This is done to "plug up" the nasal passages where the bugs are and prevent it from moving to the lungs.


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

[User]
[Assassin's creed] Why are the Templars trying to create a precursor body?

I was under the impression the Templars wanted the precursor genome so they could explore the genetic memories with an animus in order to gleam secrets about precursor tech.

Now it turns out they are trying to clone a live precursor. What gives?

[Assistant]
The Precursors are biologically distinct from humans. The Genome may not have been enough to allow the Animus to be cross compatible between the species. Having a live subject allows them to obtain data from Animus use without the issues of human biology corrupting the input.

Plus, you can basically guarantee that Juno has had some influence in the program.


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

[User]
Are dice rolls really random?

I guess this might be more of a mathematics question and probably been beaten to death, but I can't seem to find a straight answer anywhere.  I'm just genuinely curious, craps is whack!

[Assistant]
There are two definitions of 'random' that get used in everyday conversation.  The first is non-deterministic, the second is non-predictable.

Dice rolls are deterministic, but not predictable (under everyday circumstances).


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

[User] ELI5:What's the difference between highways, freeways and expressways?

[Assistant]
The main difference would be between freeway and highway. A freeway is guaranteed not to have at-grade crossings like pedestrian crosswalks or intersections like one would need a stop sign or traffic signal for (albeit there are some stop/go traffic meters in place to help control traffic), while a highway is allowed to have these things.

An expressway is generally a multi-lane highway that allows more traffic to flow faster, but certain area's have more specific definitions for them.

EDIT: As noted in below answers: Freeways *are* highways, but with less things allowed on them.


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

[User]
[DC] Tips for someone beginning a new job at Arkham Asylum

Hiya, I'm Dr. Nico Bruijic or used to be. Anyway I'm a psychiatrist who will begin working at the famed Arkham Asylum in Gotham as the chief psychiatric resident. I was wondering if any of yall have any advice for me. Now before everyone chimes in saying I shouldn't even work there, please believe me I am highly experienced. I was originally working on a thesis centered around my long time patient Wade Wilson. Unfortunately I was caught in the middle of a battle between Dr. Doom and the Fantastic Four which resulted in a tear in the fabric of reality opening up and sending me to some strange parallel universe.

My purpose of working at Arkham is to further the understanding of the human mind and the ills that plague it. As the chief psychiatric resident I'll be able to have access to some of the most mentally disturbed and further our understanding of the human mind. However I am aware of some of the risks involved.

What type of things should I look out for in terms of patients, security procedures, etc. Any help would be welcome.

[Assistant]
Leave your life outside arkham, never tell coworkers or inmates anything bar your professional name. They will ether use it to trap you or blackmail you. One inmate was able to twist the mind of a former psychiatrist once he learned enough about her, manipulating her fears and fantasies to bend her will. She's occasionally in there now, but as a patient.

And if you see a shadow at night wandering around, but there have been no alarms set off of inmates escaping, just pretend you never saw it. That shadow is your best friend.


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

[User]
[Independence Day] Did the air force expect to accomplish anything against such massive ships?

I mean, how could they expect a few hundred sidewinders and AM-RAMs  could accomplish anything against city-sized ships. I understand that options were limited, but what did the military hope to accomplish?

[Assistant] If you're gonna go down, you may as well go down swinging.  Besides, if a miracle occurs whoever ordered the attack gets to take credit and look like a genius and if it fails, fuck it, everyone is dead already so there was nothing to lose.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] If I was accepted as a student at Hogwarts, and I went there with the goal of infiltrating and reforming Slytherin from the inside, would the sorting hat sort me into Slytherin?

Say I came from a family like Ron's, where I knew about the wizarding world and the history of Hogwarts. I understood the dark history of Slytherin, but, being an 11 year old, thought that they could be reformed and made to be a good house. To use their cunning and ambition to help people instead of hurt them.

Would the sorting hat stick me in Slytherin?

[Assistant]
This particular ambition is somewhat unnecessary. Slytherin is misunderstood. Historically, using their cunning and ambition to help rather than hurt is precisely what most Slytherins did. Hell, *Merlin*, the most respected wizard of all time, was in Slytherin and everyone knows it. It's true that historically notable Dark Wizards are more likely to be Slytherins than any other Hogwarts House, but the annals of history are full of complete bastards from every house-- it just happens that at the time Harry went to school, most of Voldemort's "former" supporters happened to have school-age kids of their own that had been raised in an environment where being an evil prick was normalized.

However that sort of grand design definitely makes you a good candidate for Slytherin-- you just might have to find another goal to point yourself towards.


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

[User] [Star Wars] I a pre-empire world, why was it practical for the Sith to only consist of a master and apprentice, while there were dozens-if not hundreds of Jedi to oppose them?

[Assistant] During the Republic era, the Jedi didn't know the Sith were still around. They can't build up numbers fast enough to survive the inevitable Jedi attack that would come when they discovered that buildup. Even if they could equal the Jedi in numbers, the nature of the Dark Side means that they'd be very vulnerable to infighting and internal strife that badly weakens their war efforts. It's much more practical to stay out of sight and working against the Jedi from the shadows.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does Spider-man always pop up in incest threads on 4chan?

[Assistant] It's a running joke. A long while back there was an incest thread on 4Chan, and someone decided they would take it over with Spiderman memes. This caught on very quickly, and it became law that all incest threads are fair game to be taken over by Spiderman.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why weren't cannons on wooden ships aimed downwards to destroy the keel?

I'm sure the answer will be obvious, but would have guessed sinking would have been beneficial over just destroying a ships sailing ability. At least from what I've been able to find.

[Assistant] The angles most battles happened at would mean the shot would have to go through water to hit the keel, and water is VERY good at stopping high velocity impacts. Also in the age of sail, you usualy wanted to capture the ship and take it home, either as your own ship or for a salvage prize from the government. Basically the government would buy the spoils of war.


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

[User]
[Pokemon] Is the water produced by water type pokemon safe to drink?

I.e, if my squirtle knows water gun, can he fill up my canteen or is that how you get sick?

[Assistant]
It is regular water, but still not necessarily safe. If you gave him a glass of water to swish around his mouth and spit back into the glass, you probably wouldnt drink it.
Need to filter it through your Bulbasaur and then boil it with Charmander first.


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

[User]
eli5 Why does the handwash/soap only kill the microorganisms but not our own skin cells?

I read how soap kills the microorganisms like bacteria by tearing apart their cell membranes.

Does that affect our skin cells also, does the top most layer of our skin also dies and we are just too big on cellular scale that we don't feel anything?

P.S. i know millions of cells die in our body everyday so it doesn't matter still just curious does soap also kill outer most skin cells?

[Assistant]
The top most layer of your skin is already dead. As our skin cells move from the inside to outmost layer the cells get smaller and filled with keratin until your left with a layer of lots of hard dead cells.

Soap is an emulsifier, meaning it makes fats and water mix. Both our cells and bacteria have cell membranes made of fats so the soap makes this mix with water and cause them to burst. It also carries them in tiny bubbles that can be washed off out skin.

This process does affect the top layer of skin cells but as said they are already dead and the skin is constantly replacing itself, so it has no overall effect on us.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] How did the Emperor happen to have a bad-ass Darth Vader outfit lying around for Anakin?

Seriously...  unless it's off-the-shelf gear for intergalactic paraplegics, how did all of that happen so quickly?  If it took course over a matter of days/weeks/months, did  Sidious design it himself?

Also, it seems that Sidious didn't care about any of his other apprentices, why Vader?  I thought that if a Sith Lord underling wasn't tough enough to survive everything, that was proof that he wasn't tough enough to be a Sith Lord.

[Assistant]
According to the novelization, the surgery on Anakin/Vader took more than the few minutes we see in the film;

>In the newly renamed Emperor Palpatine Surgical Reconstruction Center on Coruscant, a hypersophisticated prototype Ubrikkian DD-13 surgical droid moved away from the project that it and an enhanced FX-6 medical droid had spent many days rebuilding.

The armour itself (according to the Star Wars novels "Light and Dark" and "Tales of the Jedi") is largely based on existing designs for Sith Droids and General Grievous' armour, details of which we can assume Sidious would have had ready access to.


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

[User] ELI5: why are tablets so difficult to swallow without water? It seems to me that we swallow things larger than them all the time, yet there seems to something stopping us when it comes to tablets.

[Assistant] Sure there are bigger things we swallow, but they're wet and lubricated, completely deformable (due to chewing) and don't have a psychological component to them (they don't stick and cause ulcers, they're not bitter, we're not told to avoid chewing them, etc.).


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is it that in the West women seem to have a million different options for formal clothing while men only have the suit and tie?

To use as an example, let's say you're watching the news or some sports cast, the male hosts always wear a suit and tie while female hosts have a new dress style every day. It's the same situation for every day real life formal events. Also, men are always covered up from arm and leg down. While women have the choice to be as revealing as they want while still being formal. It's one thing that definitely helps women during lets say a wedding on a hot summer day.

[Assistant]
If men's clothing sometimes seems almost military in its sameness, that's not a coincidence. The influence of military uniforms on civilian wear has traditionally been substantial, especially when mass conscription meant large percentages of men served. In fact, if a man wears a blue blazer with khaki pants and a tie, he's basically wearing a naval jacket, British colonial army trousers, and a descendant of a scarf worn by Croatian soldiers (where we get the word "cravat.") His shirt has a soft collar because WWII soldiers came home and decided they weren't going back to stiff collars.

The influence is almost ridiculous sometimes. Both Allied generals at the Battle of Waterloo have a shoe named after them, and two British commanders at the Battle of Balaclava have sweaters named after them. (Wellington, Blucher, Raglan, and Cardigan.)

Even in times where few men serve in the military, the desire to wear roughly the same thing as other men remains strong, while cultural norms against excessively creative male clothing are still present to some extent.


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

[User] How are time and space, according to Kant, a priori?

[Assistant] They're a priori for Kant because they're part of the conditions of possibility for our experience. They're the form of our sensibility, and are the form that appearances must take in order to be appearances for us. On Kant's view, we wouldn't have experience if we didn't have some form of sensibility, and we wouldn't have the experience that we do if the form of sensibility weren't space and time. It's not as if we just encounter space and time in experience; if that were the case, they would be a posteriori. They're needed for us to have experience at all, and so must logically precede all actual experience.


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

[User] Are there ocean deserts? Are there parts of the ocean that never or rarely receive rain?

[Assistant]
Not only are there sections of ocean that don't receive much rain, but there are also massive circulations called gyres. Gyres are basically huge portions of ocean that are surrounded on all sides by currents, so you end up with a rotating central section that is fairly stagnant. Water evaporates from gyres, but doesn't recirculate well with the rest of the ocean, which increases salinity and decreases nutritional components in the water.

What results can be described as something similar to a desert on land. A warm, salty, nutrient-poor area, where life is typically more scarce than in the surrounding areas.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is it so much easier to hold your breath underwater than it is outside on land.

Hopefully this isn't just me who experiences this.

[Assistant]
**Short answer:** That is because yor body can do wonderful things at the sense of danger. There's a "diving reflex" that your body triggers automaticaly because it knows it's going to have to deal with the lack of oxygen, so your body does it's best to survive for the longest time possible.

**Long answer:** When your body senses that you're going underwater your heart slows down which lessens the need for bloodstream oxygen, leaving more to be used by important organs like the heart and brain. Also, blood vessels narrow starting to reduce bloodstream and keep oxygenized blood for more important organs to use. The narrowing of blood vessels starts at your hands and feet and goes all the way up to your torso. The diving reflex is completely involuntary and doesn't trigger unless you come in contact with water.


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

[User] ELI5:What would happen to North Korea if Kim Jong Un died unexpectedly? Who would take power?

[Assistant] We don't know how NK's government works. They don't really like sharing information with anyone. We SUSPECT that the generals run the show, and Kim Jong Un is just a figurehead, but we don't know for certain.


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

[User]
[Dodgeball] Would $5 million be enough to invest in the controlling stake of Globo-Gym?

Sure, $5 million is a huge investment and would be enough for most places, but this is Globo-Gym we're talking about. Have you ever been there? There's probably more than $5 million worth of workout equipment alone in each of their gyms, then add on all of the surgical equipment and staff that's so readily available at every location.

Also, I bet that White Goodman is worth WAY more than $5 million. He built that gym from nothing and turned it into a massive international business. Do you mean to tell me he doesn't have enough to out-bid Peter to keep control of the company?

[Assistant]
There is the tiniest possibility that the stocks are so thinly spread between investors that no one has 5 million worth of stock power.

So everyone owns 0.01% of the company and 5 million buys you .02%... but even then Goodman should have been able to offer to buy someone out for 2x the price if the company is as large as we think it is.

Final thoughts. They are both fucking idiots that have no idea how the stock market works and the threat of it is enough to send Goodman spiraling into an eating disorder without investigating any of it. So Goodman freaks out, admits defeat closes up his new flagship store before he is "forced out", or so he assumes from the interaction after the game.

So either a fuck ton of investors or sheer stupidity.


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

[User]
Are there any subtle signs/mannerisms that could suggest someone is sadistic?

Hi. First post here. Basically what the title says. Im thinking of doing a bit of a creative work and I want one of the characters to be sadistic. I dont know much about sadism outside of a sexual context so I figured asking here would be better than filling my search history with questions about sadism. I dont want to explicitly tell my audience that shes sadistic but I think its important for the suggestion to be there because it helps to partly justify an important decision she makes.

[Assistant]
Subtle joy in others pain. Even something as quirky as a positive/neutral comment would start to tip your audience off that something isn't right and then you can escalate it from there.

Sadism is about finding joy in another person's suffering/pain.


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

[User] ELI5: why do our eyes seem puffy when we wake up?

[Assistant] Throughout the day, the fluids in your body move down towards your feet. When we wake up from sleeping, the fluids had the time to equalize in your face and head. This is also why your voice sounds like you just woke up.


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

[User]
When people shoot guns in the air, why don't the bullets injure people on the way back down?

I've seen people shoot their guns in the air in hundreds of movies, and quite a few real newscasts as well.  Why don't people worry about where the bullets are going to go on the way back down?

[Assistant]
> why don't the bullets injure people on the way back down?

They can and do.

> Why don't people worry about where the bullets are going to go on the way back down?

Because people are thoughtless and foolish.


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

[User]
[ASoIaF] How does the economy work in the Iron Islands?

I've just watched the first few episodes with house Greyjoy and the king bloke asks if his Son if he paid the iron price for his clothes. Did the king bloke get his clothes off a dead guy? How does one get anything done when the currency is killing?

I set up a blacksmith, sell my armor, sell my weapons. My first customer pays the iron price and there goes the only blacksmith in town.

I'm sure this has been commented on before but I'd like a reasonable explanation as to how everyone buys their clothes (there's no way they just pillage places on the continent, that isn't sustainable), how anything ever gets done.

[Assistant]
It's a reference to the Old Ways, which they were no longer doing at the time. Regardless, it still has meaning in the sense of "earning" what you have. Theon didn't earn it. He was wealthy merely by birth. Though a captive-ward of the Starks, his position as heir of a noble family afforded him luxuries. He didn't have to work for a single thing. It was all just given to him.

He was a smug, arrogant teenager that thought things were owed to him. If there was something he didn't have that he wanted, he could just toss a gold coin and get it. Easy.

That's not the way of the Ironborn.


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

[User]
[MCU] Is Hawkeye wanted for murder/property damage in Japan?

We see in the beginning of Endgame Hawkeye is murdering a bunch of Japanese Yakuza. Although this may be arguably not morally okay it is still illegal. The Japanese guy even says "WE hurt people?" in response to Hawkeye saying that they hurt people and turns around at all the damage. So like is he wanted for murder and property damage?

[Assistant] Probably technically yes, but its like "some guy, that we have no idea who or even what he is, tore apart the yakuza like tissue paper"...they probably wont be actively trying to figure out who or what this guy is, especially since he just appears, destroys the gang, and disappears without a trace. No one besides Nat knows its Hawkeye...and shes dead now.


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

[User] ELI5: How do astronauts aboard the ISS always have an oxygen supply?

[Assistant]
They  have some plants which helps, but they're not really there to generate oxygen.  Most of oxygen is generated by electrolysis, take water and break into hydrogen and oxygen.   Collect the oxygen and vent the hydrogen into space.

resupply runs bring water along with other cargo.  And water is reclaimed from the air and urine of astranauts.


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

[User]
Research position at rural vs. urban R1

I have a friend who just finished their postdoc at a top tier school and now they're searching for a research position at an R1.  USA, neuroscience.  Obviously the competition is extremely high.

Maybe rural vs urban isn't the right idea, but I'm wondering if there's a difference in competition at schools in big research areas vs. schools in isolated research areas.  Like UCLA vs. University of Maine.  I assume that UMaine has much less competition if people are turned off by the lack of local opportunities for collaboration, small rural towns, always traveling far for conferences, limited opportunities for trailing spouses, etc.  And UCLA would have more competition for the opposite reasons.  On the other hand, maybe the high amount of competition completely negates everything else and there are still more people willing to move to isolated areas than there are available positions.

Either way, I haven't been able to find much info at all.  Anyone have some insight?

[Assistant] Tenure-track jobs are rare enough that there are likely hundreds of applicants for each position. We all realize we have very little control over where we live, and will apply for any job we would reasonably take - while "reasonably take" will vary from person to person, the competition is enough that there really isn't an "easier" tenure track market. You're right that jobs on the coasts or other desirable locations are likely to get even MORE applicants, but that doesn't mean that less-desirable places somehow suffer or that the competition there is easier.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do nosebleeds happen so suddenly and bleed so profusely as composed to other kinds of cuts or wounds of similar sizes?

[Assistant]
Because unlike any other mucous membrane laden orifice on your body, your nose is the only one you've been fingering without abandon for the past 20 years. This has resulted in the expansion of superficial capillaries along a layer of tissue with a fairly thin epithelial layer. So all that mining for nose gold means that anytime the humidity drops by a single percentage point, you get yourself a gusher.

Tl;Dr:  blood supply + tissue protection +  =


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

[User]
CMV: The two party system should be abolished.

I understand my view may be flawed. I want to see the opposite side of this coin.

I believe that plurality vote should be replaced by majority vote. Meaning that people give their votes as rankings of all the candidates, as opposed to a singular choice.

The point of this is basically to prevent people voting just so the other guy doesn't win. Rather voting for the candidate who truly reflects their views. In theory it's supposed to prevent vote splitting and it is actually used in some places with success. It is supposed to give the candidate who aligns the most with the regular persons views.

Is this view too naive? Do you think this can even be achieved? I'm interested in hearing the flip side of this.

[Assistant] The main issue is that eventually one political viewpoint wins. This is inevitable.  If you have multiple parties via ranked choice voting or proportional representation, then essentially all you are doing is letting the politicians decide what the best governing coalition should be. With a two party system as encouraged by plurality-wins voting, you know the two political "brands" and you get to choose which brand best represents you.  With any other system, you are at the mercy of whatever coalition your preferred candidates need to negotiate in order to govern.  You're not really getting around the issue of the lesser evil. You are just deciding that whoever you vote for is going to be better at deciding what the necessary compromises are than you the voter.


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

[User]
Is Deleuze's metaphysics the metaphysics of modern science?

In the SEP article on Deleuze, they quote him as saying "Bergson says that modern science hasnt found its metaphysics, the metaphysics it would need. It is this metaphysics that interests me." And that made me wonder if he succeeded. Does Deleuze have a metaphysics for modern science? Would his writing make sense to a person with a more scientific background/mindset? Granted they put in the work to read and understand him.

[Assistant]
It's arguable whether or not Deleuze supplies *the* philosophy for modern science (can there be such a thing?), but he certainly made a good attempt to supply *a* philosophy for it. Deleuze was particularly inspired by complex systems science (through the work of Ilya Prigogine in particular) and was definitely inspired to think in terms of thresholds, populations, gradients, bifurcations, non-linearity and the like, a vocabulary which tracks very closely alot of the broad developments in modern science.

Manuel DeLanda is probably the philosopher whose best tried to bring Deleuze and modern science together, and his groundbreaking book *Intensive Science and Virtual Philosophy* shows just how much both can be - and are - in communication with one another. John Protevi is another scholar who has done alot of work in bringing out the scientific aspects of Deleuze's thinking, particularly his *Life, War, Earth*, which is another fantastic book.


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

[User] [Harry Potter] If the Wizarding world had truth potion and could read minds, How did Sirius Black end up being wrongly accused?

[Assistant] The Ministry is and has always been, for the most part, woefully incompetent. They showed up to the scene of the crime, found Sirius laughing like a madman, took a few witness statements, and locked him up. Azkaban is chock-full of innocents who weren't put through anything resembling what Muggles would deem a fair trial.


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

[User]
[Marvel Comics] What happens to the machine characters like Ultron in the Earth-2149?

Earth-2149 is the world that has Marvel Zombies in case you don't know.

I meant what happened to characters like Ultron.

[Assistant]
We can extrapolate based on the Age of Ultron vs Marvel Zombies crossover that Ultron himself is immune. Sticking with his place as a villain, he continues his original intent and attempts to take over the world, using a method to control them.

Machine Man is also 100% machine and is one of the known survivors in the Marvel Universe, being immune to the infection. He becomes a zombie hunter and zombie killer.


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

[User]
ELI5: What determines the light-absorption properties of atoms and molecules?

I know it has to do with electrons dropping and raising energy levels, but what determines the energy levels that are changed and how does it work in molecules? Would all (outer) electrons in a molecule change their energy level at the same time or is there another thing at work here?

[Assistant]
In a molecule, you have many possible quantum states. There is the lowest energy, the ground state. At fixed energies above this, you have various excited states. When a photon of just the right energy to match one of these gaps hits the molecule, it is absorbed and sends the molecule into a higher energy state.

So how are these higher energy states described? There are many possible options. As you said, it can be excitation of the outer (valence) or inner shell electrons. It can be a vibrational mode of the molecule, such as bending, stretching, or wagging. All of these will correspond with different energies of light. Generally, molecular vibrations absorb in the IR, valence electrons in the UV-vis, and inner shells in the x-ray. This affects the type of spectroscopy you can use to ID a molecule.


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

[User]
[Diablo 2] How did Marius manage to enter the Durance of Hate, let alone without being spotted and killed?

So Marius (somehow) manages to get all the way from Tal Rasha's tomb to Kurast, then to Travincal and the temple.  This seems unlikely for a couple of reasons:

1.  Jerhyn had commanded all ships be docked, and the first ship out sped to Kurast with the heroic adventurers.  It seems, however, that Marius arrived in Kurast before they did.

2.  Entering the Durance requires destruction of the Compelling Orb (or fancy teleportation, which was available to the dark wanderer, but not Marius), something that was not done until the adventurers entered the Durance themselves and killed Mephisto.  When Marius found the three at the Infernal gate, Mephisto seemed to be just fine.  How did Marius get in?

3.  There are hundreds of vicious monsters all over Travincal, Kurast, and especially in the Durance of Hate.  The heroic adventurers had reasonable difficulty getting past them - how would some frail man barely hanging on to his sanity manage to sneak all the way in and out?

4.  At the climax of his journey, Marius is less than 100 feet from Baal, Mephisto, and Diablo.  It is later evidenced that the three didn't particularly care for saving Marius' life, how could the three be so blind as not to notice either Marius or Baal's soulstone which was draped around Marius' neck?

Bonus Question:  When Diablo went through the Infernal Gate, he ended up in Hell.  When the heroic adventurers went through it, they ended up in the Pandemonium Fortress.  Where would Marius have ended up if he actually managed to get through the gate?

Bonus Question 2:  How did Tyrael expect Marius to get through such a well guarded gate with... courage?

[Assistant]
Marius was just before all the fuckery started to happen. Demons comes after the Great Evils, not before it and it takes sometime before people notice that the land is infested with Demons.

Jerhyn closed the Docks when he heard reports of demons out in the sand, hopping to have some evacuation ships when shit got really bad. Marius was just shortly before the reports came in.

Travincal, Kurast and the Durance of hate was empty when Marius was there, the Demons started to appear just after he left. When Diablo freed Mephisto shit got bad in Travincal that that we see.
How he got in to the Durance of Hate, the same way Diablo did, Diablo probably opened up a alternative door, maybe straight through the ground itself.


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

[User]
How did the first polar explorers know they had reached the pole and they weren't actually off by kilometers?

I'm wondering how the first polar explorers knew they reached the pole (North or South), as they obviously didn't have any modern/digital equipment, the compasses pointed to the *magnetic* poles and there were no maps to help them as they were the first to explore those areas...
Or did they just get close enough and then proceed to stick a flag in the ground?

[Assistant]
Astronomy. They used sextants to measure the positions of the sun (expeditions were made during the summer, so stars couldn't be used). In theory, if you are standing at the exact pole, the sun should stay at the (almost) exactly the same angle with respect to the horizon (it technically moves a tiny bit up/down the sky every day to the change of the seasons, but not at all due to the daily rotation). Sextants are pretty accurate (down to a few hundred meters in ideal conditions).

Apparently the first explorers to the south pole made a bunch of measurements are the pole itself, to "box" it in and prove they definitely, at some point, were on top of the pole proper.


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

[User] ELI5: How do immortal jellyfish stay alive?

[Assistant]
It's kind of played up in the media...they probably are functionally immortal, but it's not that special.

Jellyfish (actually a hydrozoan in this case but that doesn't really matter much here) have two life stages, a polyp stuck on a rock like a little anemone (the juvenile), and a floating jellyfish stage (the adult)

Immortal jellyfish can revert from the adult phase back to the juvenile phase...but that doesn't necessarily make them immortal, it's just changing the shape of their body.  Actual immortality requires keeping your _cells_ healthy and renewed.

But immortal jellyfish can probably do that so they probably are immortal anyway.  But that's nothing special, even their relative the lowly hydra, which can't do any special "turn back into a baby" tricks, is probably immortal.  We've tracked them for years in lab experiments and they show no sign of aging at all....not surprising since they regularly replace and renew _all_ their cells....easy to do when you are more or less just a bag with tentacles.  Probably a lot of animals in this group can just go on living forever...or at least until something eats them or they starve or whatever.


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

[User] How do random number generators work? Are they really random?

[Assistant]
Depends widely on the generator.  Some of them read from hardware that is measuring some natural process that is considered random. Some just output from a large table of previously generated random numbers that were read from a natural process.  Some simply output numbers distributed relatively evenly.

In many cases random number generators are of the third kind, and these are called "pseudorandom" because they output numbers that are good enough for games or picking which file to read first.  One example of a pseudorandom pattern is a function that outputs a stream of numbers with near-equivalent probabilities for each next number.  These functions are "seeded" with a starting number, but the problem is it's just a function, so if you find the seed number it started with then you can run it and generate the exact same string of numbers, allowing you to perfectly predict it.

In some contexts though, especially cryptography, pseudorandom numbers still have recognizable patterns hidden in them if you put enough energy into looking for the patterns. So for cryptography there is a whole set of cryptographically "safe" random number generators. They are usually less performant, but random enough that a dedicated nation-state wont find a pattern.


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

[User] Is there a limit to how many different antibodies can a human body have?

[Assistant] Yes, as they are all encoded for in the germ line DNA. However, due to V(D)J recombination mixed with a few additional mechanisms for generating antibody diversity, there are billions and billions of different antibodies that one person can make.


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

[User]
[X-Men] If someone pulls out Cyclops' eyeball, will it shoot out the optic blast from all directions? Essentially a ball of death?

So I always wondered, Scott is immune to his own beam, so it doesn't affect it when it hits his skin, but the eye is still pretty much a sphere, so the optic blast is just a ball that is shooting laser in every direction right? It's just the opening of his eye that makes it look like a laser, with the beam "spilling" out of the socket?

So if someone pulls the eye out, will the blasts be emitted from the whole surface of the eye? Won't it be like a sphere of optic blast in every direction?

Or will his eye just stop functioning?

[Assistant]
Does it come from the whole eyeball or is it from the back of the eye and just focused through the pupil and lens like....reverse of what the eye is supposed to do?

I dont know nothing about Cyclops Im just curious.


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

[User] [Invincible] Do Viltrimites have a "kryptonite"?

[Assistant]
Everyone is saying the right thing, wrong.

>!Viltumites DON'T have super hearing, but they do have massively more complex inner ears, it's how they can maintain balance whilst flying. Certain frequencies, that while not harmful to a human, are horrifically painful to Vitrumites, to the point it can kill them if the frequency is high enough, this is utilized several times in the comic, specifically against Mark.!<

>!Also they are exceptionally tough on the outside, but their insides aren't as tough, but, it requires extreme damage to the heart or the head for them to kill him, you can disembowel a Viltrumite and it won't kill them if you miss the heart. !<


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

[User]
ELI5:How can a soft drink like red bull or coke zero have no calories?

I mean, shouldn't they have some!? It's not just water. How does that work? Also, do such drinks mess up a diet by making your insulin shoot up or anything?

I ask because I really like red bull but I'm on a diet, so I need to cut calories. This seems like a win-win, but I'm guessing its not.

Thanks!

[Assistant]
If there are fewer than 5 calories per serving they can round down. Next time you are at the store grab a can of the silver sugar free redbull.

The small? 0 cals.

The Medium? 10 cals.

The large? 0 cals.

The small is under 5, so they round down. The large is big enough to split into 2 servings, reducing the calories below 5 and permitting them to round down. The medium is too small to subdivide and they are left unable to round.


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

[User]
ELI5: When extreme flooding happens, why arent people being electrocuted to death left and right?

There has been so much flooding recently, and Im just wondering about how if a house floods, or any other building floods, how are people even able to stand in that water and not be electrocuted?

Arent plugs and outlets and such covered in water and therefore making that a really big possibility?

[Assistant]
You get electrocuted when you stick a fork in a socket because all that electricity is going directly into you. When a flood happens, that's a much larger space for all the electricity to flow into. As such, the electricity won't be as intense to the point where it affect lives. It's similar to the concept of grounding. When you ground some electricity, you're providing a route for electricity to flow into the ground because the Earth is a much larger body than yourself.

The caveat though... if a small and insulated area like a bathtub or wading pool gets flooded and hits electricity, that body of water will probably be electrified enough to kill.


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

[User]
How does X Men's Danger/Training Room works?

I'm sorry if it's been asked before, but a new discussion is always nice.

[Assistant] The Danger Room has ~~always~~ been a combination of robotics and advanced Shi'ar hard light holographic technology that can create training courses that range from simple obstacle courses to fully immersive virtual reality programs where the trainees can interact with anything from 1st gen Sentinels to ninja death squads or whatever else Forge, Beast, Kitty Pride and the other programmers can think of.


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

[User]
ELI5: How is water managed and supplied in Trains ?

You can use well explained technical terms and please talk about normal trains that are used for daily commute not the rather hi-tech ones !

[Assistant]
Pretty much like in an RV.  There are tanks to hold clean water, typically refilled with a hose at the ends of the line.  These are usually mounted above the sinks and toilets, so gravity delivers the water.

The drains all connect to storage tanks under the cars, which are pumped out at the end of the line.


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

[User] [The Elder Scrolls] What's with all the men and mer on the Shivering Isles? Where did they come from? Did they all move in from Mundus? Are they dead souls claimed by Sheogorath? Are they all actually Daedra? What's going on?

[Assistant]
For the most part, they're mortal men and mer who were invited in one way or another by Sheogorath. And they're all there for reasons that only make sense to the mad god himself.

Not all invitations are so blatant as the one given to the Hero of Kvatch. Only a lucky few are given giant stone portals to walk through. Some people might have just blipped out of their old lives and began anew in an instant. Others might have slipped and fallen, hit their head, and woke up there. Or maybe some are still living in the real world, with an exact duplicate living an entirely different life on the Shivering Isles. It's all valid where Sheogorath is concerned.


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

[User]
If it takes so many processors to simulate one second of human neural activity, why are processors so much more accurate and faster than brains?

I read an article recently (if anyone could provide a link, that would be appreciated) that said that it took lots of processors (I forget the number, but it was a lot) and about 40 minutes to recreate one second of the brain working. What I don't understand is how I can perform long calculations, perform thousands of instructions to keep a game running, and run an entire operating system on my computer, when it takes me seconds to do two digit addition or memorize a phone number. Processors seem so fast and accurate, so why does it take so many to simulate the much slower and sloppier human thought?

[Assistant]
Processors are very good, extremely accurate and very fast - but only at certain types of problem.

A processor can very easily solve any problem that can be expressed using an algorithm - a series of steps that can be followed, one at a time, to tell it how to solve the problem.

The difficulty is that our brains don't work this way. There is no algorithm that we know of which can accurately simulate what the brain does or how it does it. Our brains, although nowhere near as good as computer processors at solving logical or mathematical problems that can be written as an algorithm, have very complex internal workings that are very good at solving problems that *can't* be written as algorithms.

**ELI5 analogy:** think of brains and processors as types of car. They look very different, but appear - at first glance - to do similar jobs.

Think of the brain as an off-roader. And the computer processor as a racing car.

The racing car (processor) can get around a race track (solve mathematical problems) extremely quickly. The off-roader (brain) can get around the race track (solve the same problems) too - but it will take a bit longer.

Once you're off-road, though (thinking about more complex problems) the off-roader (brain) is king. The racing car (processor) probably can't get around the course (solve the problem) at all - and if it can, it will have to be done very slowly and very carefully.


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

[User]
Why doesn't bacteria develop a resistance against alcohol such as hand sanitizer, but does so towards antibiotics?

That an abundant use of antibiotics increases the risk of bacteria evolving a resistance towards the specific antibiotic everybody knows, but why doesn't it happen with Alcohol such as hand sanitizer or similar. Or does bacteria develop resistance towards alcohol as well, and in that case, why are we still encouraged to use hand sanitizers as much as possible?

[Assistant]
Why doesn't bacteria develop a resistance against fire?
Because dead do not evolve.
External sanitizer does not have to be safe for internal use, unlike antibiotics. It just needs to kill bacteria. Indiscriminately. And exposure to alcohol can kill human cells too.


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

[User] Since the flow of electric current through a wire is same as that of water through a pipe, will the flow of electric current be restricted when we "squeeze" the wire?

[Assistant]
Well, not literally, since squeezing a metal wire typically won't do anything (at best you'll compress the plastic insulation that surrounds it).

But it is true that the current that can run through a wire, at a given voltage, depends on the thickness of the wire. Thin wires have a higher resistance and can therefore carry less current at a given voltage (or, stated differently: require a higher voltage to carry a given amount of current).

This is why certain high current applications have requirements on wire thickness.


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

[User] ELI5: Why haven't avocados been bred to have tiny pits?

[Assistant]
You can't just "breed" things arbitrarily to have whatver quality you want. You have to find one that naturally mutated that feature, then breed that plant. For example, no one bred seeds out of grapes. They found a grape vine that mutated to grow no seeds, then they grafted that vine over and over until seedless grapes were widespread.

To get avocados with tiny pits, you'd have to find a plant that grows tiny pits, then breed that plant. Until we find that plant, we can't breed avocados with tiny pits.


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

[User]
How soon after exposure is the flu contagious?

I know that you are most contagious in the couple of days before symptoms show and for the couple of days after.
But how does that apply to exposure. For example, a person is exposed in the afternoon, are they automatically contagious after exposure or does that take time to "build up" in the body?

[Assistant]
No, they are not immediately contagious. It could take days to become contagious.

Initially the virus multiplies unchecked and it reaches a peak concentration. This is when you are most contagious. Shortly after reaching peak concentration, you begin feeling symptoms as the immune system has realized it is under attack. Normally by the time you feel symptoms the concentration of the virus in your body has already begun to decrease thanks to the immune response.

This is true of influenza and many other viruses. The time it takes between you getting infected and symptom onset is called the incubation period and it's normally more than 24 hours for influenza.

For Covid-19 the average incubation period is several days, but you could be spreading the virus for 24 hours or a little longer before you first feel symptoms.

You feel fine, but you are highly contagious. Because you feel fine you are likely to be near people and talking to them in close proximity. This is where the virus shines. As you speak, microscopic spit balls filled with virions are floating through the air and those nearby are breathing them in.

Emergency rooms will normally see an spike in influenza this time of year in the US. A few days after friends and family congregated closely together for Thanksgiving.

Edit: Peak concentration is typically reached \*shortly after feeling symptoms\* rather than shortly before as stated above.


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

[User]
ELI5: What does Batman have against Superman?

I've just watched the trailer on the front page and I am none-the-wiser. You'd think Batman and Superman would be good friends, what with them both working to protect the world and all that. However, they seem to be at loggerheads.

Would someone explain what their beef is?

Edit: I've been down-voted in less than a second. This isn't a joke post. I genuinely want to know why Batman and Superman have issues.

Edit edit: Thankyou everyone for your answers! Bonus question: who is Zod??

Edit edit edit: for my money, the trailer wasn't so great :(.

[Assistant]
He saw Superman fighting Zod with no concern about the destruction they were causing, killing thousands of people. As seen in the trailer, he was holding that little girl amidst all that rubble.

In shows like DBZ, the good characters always demand to fight away from populated areas.

Nothing to do with this post, but that trailer is fantastic.


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

[User] Helium is a product of nuclear fusion.  Could this fact solve the coming helium shortage once fusion reactors become viable?

[Assistant]
Probably not. Back of the envelope calculation coming up, may well contain stupid errors:

Assuming D-T fusion, a single fusion event releases a 14.1MeV neutron and a 3.5MeV helium nucleus. Assuming you can absorb all this energy and you've got an efficient heat engine setup at around 50%, you'll get about 1.5x10^-12 J per fusion, so for a 1GW output you'll need 6.67x10^20 fusions per second. Say you have 1TWe (electric output) worth of fusion reactors worldwide (about half of current electricity generation), then you're producing 1000 times as much helium, or 6.67x10^23 atoms per second. About a mole each second, or 4 grams. This works out to 126 tons of helium a year, or about 1000m^3 per year of liquid helium. The US strategic helium reserve had a peak volume of about a billion m^3 . World consumption of helium is measured in tens of millions of m^3 per year so you'd be short by several orders of magnitude in the best case.


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

[User] [Marvel] How do Wolverine and X-23 not go into shock from the pain of their wounds?

[Assistant]
It's a combination of a few factors.

First, they heal pretty damn quick, to the point that they often start the healing process before the wound is even fully inflicted. Presumably, this means they never feel the full pain of most of their injuries, and if they do, it isn't for very long.

Second, adrenaline is a thing -- even people without healing factors or superhuman durability have been seen powering through stab wounds, broken bones, and even dismemberments as if they aren't even there with enough adrenaline pumping through their veins.

Lastly, in the case of Wolverine and X-23 specifically, they have some slightly enhanced/altered mental functions as a result of their mutation, including their famous berserker rage, in which they are able to completely ignore pain and fatigue. While they rarely use it in full due to the danger it presents to their allies, a minor version of it seems to be near-comstantly active, at least in combat, as their general demeanors and fighting styles display.


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

[User] What is happening in the brain when someone is unconscious?

[Assistant] We don't know exactly what is happening but here is the best guess.  Anytime someone is unconscious (that is not medically induced) they have either sustained a traumatic head injury or are seizing.  We know that the brain stem is usually spared because they are breathing and the heart continues to contract. The exception to this of course is when a seizure affects the midbrain and thus the occulomotor control goes out the window.  We also know that the "working memory" which is in the prefrontal cortex, is damaged, as well as the hippocampus.  This accounts for the memory loss of up to a minute before the incident. Other than that there is cell death.


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

[User]
ELIF: how did people in the past, say 200 A.D write the date? When did people start using the year?

Did people in 100/200/300/ect. write the date with the year? Did anybody ever write the year like January 31st 5? When did we add the year?

[Edit] thanks for the answers everyone!

[Assistant] The AD system was invented in about 525 AD, and came into common use a couple hundred years later. Before that, people in the West didn't usually number years; they just said "the Xth year that King Y has ruled".


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

[User]
Why does low testosterone cause depression in men, but the equivalent testosterone level in women and boys doesn't?

Are adult male brains addicted to testosterone or something?  A low T level in men causes depression and lethargy, but what is considered low for a man would be high for a woman or a boy.  How come that level doesn't cause any issues for women and boys?

[Assistant]
This question is fairly pertinent in the transgender community, where it's been pretty well documented (although not necessarily with scientific rigor) that giving a male to female trans person *estrogen will often relieve a lot of the depression and anxiety they had previously felt.

What has been established is that there are some nuclei in the brain that are sexually dimorphic. Studies have shown that in transsexual women and cissexual women they are similarly sized, but men given estrogen treatment for things like prostate cancer did not so "female" sized nuclei.

Going from that to saying that your neurological sex determines which sex hormones you react positively to and which you react negatively to is a stretch, but is certianly one explanation.


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

[User]
[Futurama] how to do earth politics work?

how does it work choosing an earth president, im watching the one where nixon is trying to get reelected, and it makes no sense how certain countries vote as a hole but then states of america vote separately??

[Assistant] Look at the Earthican flag - it's just the American flag with the stars replaced by Earth. Clearly, at some point in the past America took over the world. Former countries now have the status of states.


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

[User]
[Avatar: The Last Airbender/The Legend of Korra] Why can't Waterbender's boil water?

We see most semi-proficient waterbenders able to change the state of water from liquid to solid and then vice-versa. However, what's stopping them from having the ability of boiling the water whilst its under their control and turning it into a gas?

[Assistant]
We see Katara do this in season 3, to screen their escape from a Fire Nation ship. Waterbenders can also control clouds and mist.

You don't see it very often because it has few hand-to-hand combat applications. Waterbenders also can't make water vapor hot enough to harm someone (because that needs fire), and it's more direct to slap someone with a water tentacle or freeze them.


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

[User] ELI5: Millions of data signals are transmitted over the same cables simultaneously. How are they separated and "sorted" so they go to the right place?

[Assistant]
The act of sending multiple messages on the same medium is called multiplexing. There are three distinct ways of doing it.

First is Time based multiplexing. Instead of sending everything at once, it all goes in a queue and gets processed one at a time. At a higher level, many protocols work like this.

Then we have frequency division multiplexing. This is where you send signals on the same wire at the same time using different frequencies. They can be read at the other end and separated back into the two distinct messages.

Then, in the world of fiber optics, we have angular division multiplexing. As the name suggests, this is where you send messages at different angles within the fibre optic cable. The reflection within the cable preserves the angle, and you can again read the distinct messages on the way out.


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

[User]
[Kingsman] Did everyone with an implant die?

When Merlin activates the implants and everyone's head explodes, is it just everyone in the complex or everyone that had one? Cos if the later Merlin just exploded the Queens head.

[Assistant]
The plot of that movie really confused me.

So all of the world's elite got an implant that exploded, killing them in the process. Yet, by the next movie, pretty much nothing has changed in the world.

Like, if the world's 500 richest people were spontaneously killed. It would have dramatic consequences.


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

[User]
How exactly does Laser and doppler cooling work?

I was looking into quantum and atomic clocks and seen laser cooling, as far as I'm aware Lasers work by emitting stimulated radiation so I can see how they could heat things up, can't quite wrap my head around how they would cool though?

Cheers :)

**EDIT** Thanks everyone for your input, it really helped to clear things up!

[Assistant] Electrons absorb photons and reemit them at specific frequencies. Doppler cooling works applying a laser field to what you want to cool at a slightly lower frequency that it can absorb it. Since the atoms are moving, some will move towards the laser and some away from it. The atoms moving away see the laser redshifted, and therefore of even a lower frequency, and ignore it. The atoms moving towards the laser see it blueshifted, enough so as to be of the right frequency to be absorbed and reemited. This process robs the atom of some of it's kinetic energy, since it has to "bounce" the photon away, and so it cools down. Do it for long enough and you get all your atoms at near-zero kelvin.


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

[User]
[Skyrim] Who gets the claim on Dragonborn's soul?

During his or her adventures, Dragonborn has a lot of opportunities to become a servant or a champion of various Daedric Princes, including rather damning ones with Boethiah, Mephala or Namira.

So if Dragonborn becomes a servant/champion of several or all Daedric Princes, who gets the soul? Or if we assume that Dragonborn indeed has a soul of a dragon, Akatosh gets the first and final claim?

[Assistant]
There is no "assuming" the idea of the last dragonborn has a dragon soul. Their soul is 100% dragon but their body is mortal. It's the fundamental fact of any dragonborn, no matter their history or race. So no matter what petty daedra ends up beating its brothers/sisters to claim the soul, they have nothing on Akatosh's ultimate claim to his child once it leaves the mortal world.

Not only that, but in order to defeat Alduin, the dragonborn must fight in Sovngarde, and gain the allegiance of all the honored dead who rest there. So if a daedra comes calling, it might have to deal with the legions of countless honored warriors who owe their very existence to the dragonborn. At the very least, they would fight to preserve the natural cycle and allow Akatosh to claim the dragonborn upon death. Or they may fight the daedra in order to let the dragonborn choose whoever they wish to spend eternity with.

Also, let's not forget that sometimes daedra like to speak large but not deliver on their promises. They might like to say they own a person's soul or the destiny, but sometimes it's just so they can sound more intimidating or "godly" to the hapless person they're speaking to. Often they're not actually interested in claiming a soul, or sometimes don't have the power. Granted, the dragonborn is a very unique circumstance and any daedra worth their salt might still want that soul even if they usually don't keep mortals. But the fact is not all of them actually damn people, and sometimes they just talk to hear themselves talk. Often enough, a mortal spreading chaos or strife with their favorite weapon is enough for them, and they're content to let it slip back into history when their latest toy passes away.


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

[User] ELI5: Could Causality theoretically predict the future?

[Assistant] In classical physics, yes: a complete knowledge of the state of a system provides complete knowledge of all its future states. Once quantum effects come into play, our best current answer is "no": there appear to be truly random processes at play there.


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

[User] [It's a Wonderful Life] Was George Bailey transported to an alternate universe, brought into a virtual dreamscape, or were his visions of a "George-less" world induced by some other means? Show your work.

[Assistant] There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call "The Pottersville Zone".


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

[User] ELI5: Why is white skin more prone to sunburns when whiteness typically is better for reflecting light and not absorbing heat, compared to darkness?

[Assistant]
Other answers here are lackluster. It's not a question of physics; the statement you made is true if we were talking about a white nonorganic surface vs. a black nonorganic surface.

It's a matter of biochemistry. 1. Sunburns are not due to heat, they're due to radiation damaging cells of the epidermis. In fact, UV-A passes through windows, which will damage your skin without sunburning it (or you feeling hot). 2. Melanin's UV-protective properties are not because of its color, but rather its molecular properties that allow it to dissipate UV radiation as heat. Chlorophyll in plants (green, not black) also isn't bothered by UV radiation by other molecular means.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do aircraft cockpits have so many buttons and switches? What do all those actually control and are they all used?

[Assistant]
They all have a function yes - aircraft builders aren't in the habit of including buttons et al just for decoration.  But bear in mind that redundancy / duplication is a key safety feature in aircraft, so you can pretty much divide the number you see by two to get the number of distinct functions.

  Some of them are "just" monitoring different states (fuel, hydraulics, electricical systems etc) in order to give informationm should anything not be as it should, rather than having a direct purpose in flying the aircraft. Some are for navigation, others for flight control...


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

[User]
Would a person weigh more at the pole than at the equator?

 I ask because it seems the centrifugal force would be greater at the equator than the the pole, effectively reducing the force of gravity at the equator. This question is assuming the Earth is a perfect sphere (which I know is not the case).

[Assistant]
Assuming a spherical earth there would be a difference resulting from the earth's rotation. So yes, you would weigh slightly more at the poles than at the equator.

Now for the earth as an oblate spheroid there is the same difference, plus you will weigh even less at the equator because you'd be farther away from the centre of the earth.


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

[User]
Theoretically, what would happen if a Plane traveled the same speed as Earths rotation in the opposite direction?

Would time not pass and would you get the same amount of daylight all the time? What would happen?

[Assistant] Depends on how long you kept it up.  If you matched the Earth's rotational speed, you would constantly be facing the same direction relative to an observer looking down on the solar system from above the plane of our orbit around the sun.  However, over time, as the Earth revolves around the sun, the time of day that same position would experience will change.  If it's noon when you start this experiment, it will be midnight six months later.


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

[User]
Does someone snapping your neck really kill you right away like in the movies?

My thought here was along the lines of if you can live as a quadriplegic, why would snapping your neck kill you instantly?

[Assistant]
You have seven vertebrae in your neck (cervical vertabrae). Breathing is controlled by nerves that come out above the third, fourth, and fifth vertebrae. Severing or severely injuring the spinal cord at this level will paralyze the diaphragm and keep you from breathing.

It will also paralyze all other muscles below this level.

Either the carotid or vertebral arteries supplying blood to the brain may also be damaged by the shear forces of the neck being snapped, referred to as dissection. This would cause ischemia to the areas of the brain supplied by those arteries.

The most immediate cause of mortality in this situation would be respiratory arrest leading to cardiac arrest and death.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] How does the Death Star get around?

Does the Death Star use the same tech as most ships? Does it use Warp Speed? If so, what does it look like when the Death Star warps?

[Assistant]
It uses a hyperdrive to travel through hyperspace.

We've never seen it jump but there's no reason to think it would be much different from any other ship.

How it gets around at sublight speed isn't as clear, although it would certainly have some way of doing so.