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

[User] ELI5: What is torque?

[Assistant] Alright so the easiest way to get the concept of torque is to look at a loooooong pole. This pole has a certain mass and nothing will necessarily change that. However if you hold it at the center you'll notice that it is incredibly easy to balance. Now try to hold that rod at the way end while also trying to keep it balanced: this is much harder especially with a very long rod. Alternatively look at an open door. First try to open the door way at the end where the handle is: pretty easy right? Now open the door from the way base of it close to the hinge. Notice the difference in force you have to exert to shut the door? That is the torque or the rotational force of an object which gets increasingly powerful the further it is from its center or hinge.


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

[User]
[Dragonball Z] If you were in Babidi's position, how would you control Majin Buu (in his fat form)?

It seems that Babidi made major mistakes in controlling Majin Buu by being a insufferable prick to him. How would you avoid making his mistakes, and if you were in his position, how would you get Majin Buu under your control?

[Assistant] Just be nice to him. Buu is basically a child, with a childlike mentality. It was shown with Hercule that so long as you are just a friend to him he's more than willing to listen to you and curb his more destructive impulses. Babidi's issue with Buu is the same issue he had with anyone; he was a destructive prick who was just using Buu as a tool, he didn't actually care about their "relationship" so long as Buu got shit done. He was a bad boss.


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

[User] [Superman] How would Superman's story play out if he was Black and had landed in the US during the 1930's?

[Assistant]
Probably *pretty* badly.

There was a similar-ish situation in Gods and Monsters (which is a pretty neat animated DC thing) where the superman of that universe, son of Zod, crash-lands and is taken in by an illegal immigrant family. He gets a different taste of Earth and it's people, what with all the living in humiliating, crushing poverty and being harassed by border patrol agents.

A big part of what makes Kal El the upstanding moral figure that he is, is the family and the experiences he had. Red Son's a good illustration of that. He's raised in the Soviet Union during the height/depths of Stalin's reign, so he's a big believer in Soviet values.

Baby Kal El is just that. A baby. He'd be shaped by his upbringing and his experiences the same as anyone else. Odds are that if he was taken in by a relatively decent family, he'd be a force against the rot of the American South and probably an enemy of the state for his actions, not that anyone could really do anything to stop him.


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

[User]
Are hemp plastics structurally distinct from petroleum-based plastics?

A friend the other day tried to tell me that hemp-based plastics are superior because they're biodegradable, but I don't know that I believe that. After all, it is still plastic... right?

[Assistant]
"Plastic" is a term that describes a material that uses polymers as the main component. This covers an absolutely huge range of chemical structures, giving plastics a wide variety of properties. Hemp-based plastics, AFAIK, are cellulose-based, so they are absolutely biodegradable. Petroleum-based polymers include things like polyethylene and polystyrene, which are very inert and not biodegradable.

From a chemistry perspective, they are completely structurally distinct materials.


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

[User]
CMV:Using crazy parts of the Bible as an argument as to why it bad is a bad argument

_____
Note: I'm not Christian

A lot of times people point out very crazy things that the Bible says as to why the bible is bad. However a lot of people fail to point out that  the  bible is very old and has been translated a million times. Ever translated something a million times using Google Translate. It come out something different. The general idea is right but part are way off. Same with the bible. The general idea is right but some part are off. Is there something off to this logic or is there something i'm missing about the bible?

EDIT: And now my internet is going crazy.

[Assistant] Then all you're doing is cherry picking "Well that crazy thing they said was bad translation, but all the good stuff was translated correctly" . So either what's in the bible is true or it's all false. So if you argue against the crazy stuff saying "This book is no good for these reasons (from the book)" they have to either defend that crazy or deny the legitimacy of the whole document, lose-lose.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do I get motion sickness when I'm in the car not driving but don't get motion sickness when I'm driving?

EDIT: Thanks for the explanation guys. I get motion-sickness very easily and I found driving to be a way to get around that while in the car.

[Assistant]
When you are doing the driving your brain and body know ahead of time what movements be will occurring before they actually happen, like turning, braking, and accelerating.

When you are a passenger, you are kinda like a rag doll being tossed about.


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

[User]
If most of neutrinos were created during the big bang and neutrinos move faster than other matter, wouldn't big-bang-neutrinos be too far away to interact with?

Is it: because the universe is not expanding from a center, then big bang neutrinos are coming from all directions, not in an "outward direction" from some center?

Much of my confusion might result from a misunderstanding of the big bang, and assuming neutrinos travel linearly in space.

[Assistant]
>Is it: because the universe is not expanding from a center, then big bang neutrinos are coming from all directions, not in an "outward direction" from some center?

That's it!

The Big Bang happened *everywhere*. It wasn't an explosion from a single central point that we can point to and say, "there it was."


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

[User]
[The Hunger Games trilogy] I am the Head Gamemaker for the 100th Hunger Games, AKA the fourth Quarter Quell. How would you guys feel about this addition to this years 100th Hunger Games?

Greetings ladies and gentleman. Im Claudius Trajan, Head Gamemaker of the Hunger Games for the past few years now. Next year will be the 100th Hunger Games and the fourth Quarter Quell, an excellent time in celebration of our decisive victory over the Rebels in both the Dark Days and Second Rebellion. The 100th Hunger Games will truly be a special one. That is why I am going to try something new, something that no other Head Gamemakers have ever done before: introduce **firearms** as a weapon in the arena. Yes, its insane. This sounds weird I know. You might say that breaks with tradition or itd be too easy. But hear me out.

Obviously if everyone had a gun, the QQ would end way too quickly and itd be boring since everyone would have an equal shot (pun intended) at winning. Scrawny, barely-fed 12 year old Timmy from District 11 could easily shoot and kill a strong and extremely athletic 18 year old Jimmy from District 2 (whos training to be a proud and noble Peacekeeper). So instead, heres the twist to the twist: **the guns themselves are extremely rare** and **the guns arent going to be at the cornucopia**.

When the tributes run for the cornucopia, theyre not going to find a single firearm there. Instead, theyll find some ammo (Ill touch more on this later) and the guns themselves are scattered throughout the arena. Itll essentially be a normal start to a typical Hunger Games with the blood bath and everything. Theyre free to pick up whatever they want from the cornucopia or run away but after that, if they want to shoot guns, its up to them to find both the guns and appropriate ammo. And there will absolutely not be enough guns to arm every single tribute. There will be Id say 12 individual firearms of varying calibers and types. Of those 12, four are rifles of some sort (e.g. an M16A4, M4A1, C7, and AK-74), four are pistols (e.g. a Glock 19, Beretta M9, 1911, SIG P230), and four are shotguns (e.g. a Benelli M4, Mossberg 500, Remington Model 11, and Winchester Model 1912). Again, **every single gun is scattered throughout the arena**. Its up to the tributes to find them on their own. The thing is though, one gun from each group above is purposefully rigged so that it either jams, explodes, or is otherwise inoperable.

But then I know some of you are probably thinking if they have ammo and the gun(s), then whats stopping them from just killing everyone unopposed and going home?. Thats exactly why **25% of all of the ammo is rigged in some way**. Those 25% could do anything from being blanks, jamming the gun, and/or up to and including blowing up in peoples faces/destroying their gun. The ammo is also separate from the guns themselves and theyre also scattered around the arena (the cornucopia will only have like maybe 150-175 rounds in total) except the guns will only have a small token amount of rounds to give the finder some sense of safetysnd security (so if Molly stumbles upon a Benelli M4, shes not going to find any ammo save for like maybe four or five shells at most thats just enough to give her some sense of safety and security).

Somewhere on the guns themselves, an extremely bright and reflective paint will also be painted on them. For example, the M16s muzzle could be coated with this extremely bright and reflective paint thats able to be seen from VERY far away. This gives unarmed or outgunned tributes a fighting chance while also giving some pros and cons to the tribute wielding the gun. You cant scratch the paint off and even on a bright sunny day you can still clearly see it. You can try and camouflage it with dirt and stuff but itll still be visible.

[Assistant] The people are going to be unhappy, they will root for a crowd favourite and that crowd favourite gets randomly blown up? Right after receiving a parcel of support goodies? You are gonna lose your job man.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why cant Drs lubricate or cushion your joints to cure arthritis?

Ive seen some operations where they replace joints like the hips completely, why not some car tiles he replacement to cure it?

[Assistant] They can and it is a simple in office procedure that many orthopedic offices do offer. Its an injection called Joint Fluid Therapy. The problem is that they havent found a lubricant that lasts, so the procedure is more of a relief from the pain/ a way to delay the need for a joint replacement.


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

[User]
[Bojack Horseman] Where did the "horseshoe" come from?

Horses have hands with fingers and feet with toes just like everyone else. So why are horseshoes made out to be something special, and why are they shaped like some kind of half-ring that would never fit on any horse's foot?

[Assistant] Horseshoes are for playing Pitch. How else would you play Pitch? They aren't literally shoes for horses that is ridiculous. Horses wear Adidas, Nike, and other typical brands. It's like how foxgloves are flowers, not something foxes wear and crows feet are wrinkles, not literally feet on your face.


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

[User]
CMV: People should not be able to purchase soda with SNAP benefits

The idea of SNAP is to supplement nutrition, but soda has no nutritional value. A candy bar would at least offer satiation for a short period of time, soda won't even do that. Soda barely, if at all, can even be defined as a food. Google definition for food: \*" any nutritious substance that people or animals eat or drink or that plants absorb in order to maintain life and growth. "\*

Some people living in a "food desert" isn't relevant when it comes to soda. It'd be better for them to have nothing at all rather than soda. There is no practical scenario in which a person would need soda (every day) because there isn't any water around.

If one thinks the government shouldn't tell people what they can and cannot purchase with money provided by the government, then why restrict cigarettes or tobacco?

I don't believe this is a matter of offering people dignity. But even if it were, drinking multiple sodas a day isn't going to help a person be more dignified in the long term.

If there are "some sodas" which may offer nutritional value isn't enough reason to me to just allow all types of sodas to be purchased. Also if energy drinks and sports drinks are just as bad isn't relevant either.

I don't see a slippery slope issue here either. The line is just "it needs to offer nutritional value"; which soda does not, therefore it should not be eligible for SNAP purchases.

[Assistant]
The problem is with how items are restricted/categorized by the government.

Soda has a nutrition facts label. It is considered a food by the FDA. If it is considered a food (has nutrition facts), it is eligible to be purchased with SNAP benefits. End of story, no debate to be had.

The other side of this is that things which are far more healthy than many of these things considered 'foods' (meal replacements shakes/bars, protein powders that could hell fill out breakfasts, Ensure type shakes, etc) don't have a nutrition facts label. They have a supplement label. Are these things actually healthy/good use of money? Debatable, but they are a far sight better than soda and chips.

The way the US government defines 'food' is what needs fixed, and it's just not going to happen.

Past that:

If you go the route of excluding things more specifically, every existing product has to be reviewed. Every new flavor stemming from these existing products has to be reviewed. Every new brand, every minor formula change.

You can't just say 'no soda' because then why are sunny d, Hawaiian punch, and kool aid ok? You have to find the breaking point of 'does this meet the cut?' If none of those do, what about fruit juice cocktails? Probably not. Well then, what about fruit juice with additional sweetener? Also probably not. But fruit juice itself isn't great either. So ok, no, nix all sugary beverages.

Oh. Coffee only has minimal nutritional value too. No coffee or coffee drinks. And tea. Why would tea be okay?

Let's just... Only water and milk then! Those are the only beverages that are SNAP eligible! Waittttt! Hold up! Soy milk? Chocolate milk? What about coconut cream for cooking? Sweetened condensed milk in the baking aisle?

It is just not possible to actually limit by item without massive issues and debate that will never actually end long enough for such a reform to happen. Recategorizing is more feasible, but also, lobbyists and debate.


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

[User]
CMV: Solving a Rubik's cube in the fewest moves is far a more impressive intellectual feat than solving it quickly

I will preface this by saying that I have nothing against speedcubing and speedcubers. It is highly impressive that people can solve scrambled cubes in a matter of seconds, and I respect all those who dedicate their lives to mastering the art of solving them quickly. There is no denying that it takes a huge amount of training, skill, and manual dexterity to become a competitive speedcuber.

That being said, I believe that being able to solve any given permutation of the cube in the fewest moves is a far more impressive intellectual feat (and one that should be valued more in competitions). Speedcubers are fast because they can recognise patterns quickly and are able to apply memorised algorithms. This takes a lot of practice, but is ultimately a question of experience. As you become more familiar with different permutations of the cube, you develop a 'feel' for which algorithms to apply and can rapidly execute them as a result.

On the other hand, I am under the impression that fewest-move solves are much more difficult to master, since there are no fixed 'solving methods' for any given arrangement of the cube. It becomes an exercise in trying to develop your own algorithms on the fly so as to minimise the number of moves you will need, as opposed to an exercise in quickly applying algorithms that you have already memorised. In a sense this makes it more like solving a Rubik's cube 'au naturel' - without having read up on algorithms at all - a task that very few would be able to accomplish. In my view this makes it much more intellectually stimulating and challenging than speedsolving, and is why I believe that fewest-move solves should be the centrepiece of Rubik's cube competitions. CMV.

EDIT: I've just woken up and have received a tremendous number of replies, from cubers and non-cubers alike. Thank you all for your input; I've really enjoyed reading your replies even though I haven't had the chance to respond to all of them. The replies I have received from those experienced in both events have been the most enlightening. I gather it looks like I'm underestimating the amount of algorithmic thought required for fewest move count solves and oversimplifying the process of speedsolving. I'm not sure I've reversed my opinion just yet but it does give me something to think about. I also no longer think there is a valid basis for valuing what is perceived to be the more 'intellectual' event in cubing competitions.

[Assistant]
If you tell five experienced cubers to solve a cube as quickly as possible, then you have one obvious winner at the end. That guy looks impressive and spectators are entertained.

If you all give five experienced cubers a Rubik's cube in the same order with infinite time to think, then they'll all give you a solution with the same number of solution steps. So then how do you determine who has won? It's also not really exciting from a spectator standpoint to see five guys think really hard for an hour and then all come up with equally good solutions.


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

[User]
[Marvel Universe] Why isn't the Purple Man (Zebediah Killgrave) one of the most powerful villains in the world?

Killgrave has the ability to control most people through his pheromones. Basically, people are obligated to do anything he asks, as long as he's physically near them. He could easily talk his way into the upper ranks of every government and superhero allegiance in the world. So why doesn't he?

[Assistant]
Because he is in fact literally a purple man who needs to be present for his powers to work. He's easy to spot and his powers are defeated by anyone with an oxygen mask. His influence wears of pretty quickly once he leaves.

All in all it means he's pretty easily defeated when people realize what he's doing, which is hard to hide considering his identity isn't much of a secret and his appearance is hard to hide.

He's much more suited to staying hidden and using his powers for smaller misdeeds. Like a criminal kingpin.


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

[User]
[Fantasy] What's the difference between a golem and an elemental?

They're often depicted as two different things in fantasy, but they both basically hulking masses of earth right?

[Assistant] A golem is animated earth where an elemental is the spirit of [insert element here]. Elementals are completely natural things and can be manifestations of earth, water, air, fire, and possibly other elements. Golems must be created and are commonly done by either ancient druidic cultures to protect an area or by accident through leaking magic.


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

[User] ELI5 How do the medicines like paracetamol or ibuprofen work? Do they help the brain by making it ignore the pain (suppressing) or by actually fighting the cause of pain?

[Assistant] Ibuprofen works by stopping an enzyme from creating chemicals called prostaglandins that can cause pain and inflammation. Paracetamol does that a little bit too in your brain, but we don't completely know how it works.


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

[User]
[Death Note] Can the death note kill people with diseases that take a long time?

If there's a limit of about 20 days before the death note gets bored and defaults to heart attack does that mean that it's impossible to use illnesses that normally take longer? For example let's say that a 20 year old man's name is written in the death note and the cause of death is specified as dementia. Does that mean he'll just die of a heart attack or that his brain will just rapidly fall apart over the course of 20 days?

[Assistant]
Death Note Rule 27:

> If you write, "die of disease" with a specific disease's name and the person's time of death, there must be a sufficient amount of time for the disease to progress. If the set time is too tight, the victim will die of a heart attack after 6 minutes and 40 seconds after completing the Death Note.

> If you write, "die of disease" for the cause of death, but only write a specific time of death without the actual name of disease, the human will die from an adequate disease. But the Death Note can only operate within 23 days (in the human calendar). This is called the 23 day rule.

Death Note Rule 28:

> If you write, "die of disease" like before with a specific disease's name, but without a specific time, if it takes more than 24 days for the human to die the 23 day rule will not take effect and the human will die at an adequate time depending on the disease.

> When rewriting the cause and/or details of death it must be done within 6 minutes and 40 seconds. You cannot change the victim's time of death, however soon it may be.

So if you specify the disease, they'll contract it right away, and killing them takes however long it normally would for that disease.


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

[User]
[Marvel] Has Deadpool ever sought an adamantium skeleton

Has he ever tried to find someone that could reproduce the bone coating process?

[Assistant]
No, and he wouldn't.

First of all, Wade is a victim of the Weapon X program as much as Logan is. They lied to him, used him, and when he didn't turn out the way they wanted, he suffered horrible tortures at their hands and wasn't even allowed to die. Doubt he's going to sign up for more.

Second, he probably wouldn't survive. Deadpool actually has a stronger healing factor than Wolverine, even though he was given it from Wolverine's DNA - Adamantium is toxic, and while the invincible bones make Logan a deadlier combatant, he'd die if his healing factor wasn't constantly fighting off his own poisonous skeleton. That's why they can't go around just giving *anyone* adamantium skeletons - even if they could find a way to safely install it, it would kill the subject in short order. A part of Wolverine's healing is always dedicated to letting him survive his toxic bones, so it's weakened.

Deadpool on the other hand has cancer. Or *is* cancer at this point, basically 100% of his tissue is malignant, including his brain (explaining his madness). The healing factor has sort of merged with the cancer, so while he has infinite cell regrowth, well, not all cell growth is a good thing. That's what cancer *is* after all. His cells aren't just recovering from injury, he's in endless flux. Wade's body is a warzone. His healing factor protects him from the cancer, but also replaces everything with *more cancer*. It's not just a skin condition, every organ, bone, muscle, is in an endless battle with itself.

So let's just coat his bones in an indestructible, toxic metal, shall we? Either the poison will weaken his healing factor enough that the cancer will kill him, *or* the constant death and regrowth of cells, including bone cells, will now be encased in adamantium which will impede its shifting nature, and he'll exist in agony.


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

[User] ELI5: How come sometimes when we look at words they look like they're spelled wrong even though they're not?

[Assistant]
This is the phenomenon called wordnesia

It is a brain glitch where words dont look like words. And sometimes become scrambled or you cant understand what they mean or how theyre spelt.

Reading words is pretty much just on autopilot in your brain-so when you actually try to look at the words-and overlook at them-your brain gets a bit confused.

Like how driving becomes natural and actions eventually become automatic. Then when you think about driving, you suddenly cant remember quite what to do.


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

[User] [Star Wars/Rogue One] Did the Empire/First Order ever find out the Death Star I was sabotaged by Galen Erso? If yes, did they adjust the Second Death Star and/or Starkiller Base?

[Assistant]
Yes.

The second Death Star improved on its predecessor's design by incorporating millions of millimeter-sized heat-dispersion tubes in place of the two-meter-wide thermal exhaust port exploited by the Rebel Alliance at the Battle of Yavin.


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

[User]
ELI5 What Calculus is, and what it's used for.

I've heard of it, and the most I understand is that it's advanced maths, insanely hard, and some of the stuff I learned at GCSE (Age 14) can be done much faster with it. Unfortunately, past age 15 (I'm now 22) I didn't learn any more maths - I did French, Spanish and Politics A Levels, and a degree in the same. I'm not asking to learn it, just wondering what the deal with it is.

[Assistant]
Imagine someone is walking, but according to very strange rules. On their first step they travel one meter. Every step after that is then half the length of the previous step. That means the second step is 1/2 a meter, the third step is 1/4 a meter, then 1/8, 1/16, 1/32, etc.

It's not too hard to figure out how far the person has traveled after a certain number of steps. After 1 step, the person has traveled 1 meter. After two steps 1 1/2, three steps 1 3/4, four steps 1 7/8, and so on. With a little patience, you could figure out the distance for the 158273877629th step.

But what would happen if that person were to take an infinite number of steps? How far would he go? Would he go an infinite distance, or would he actually stop somewhere? This is the kind of thing calculus helps you figure out.

There is a *limit* to how far this strange walking man can travel if he adheres to these rules. In this case that limit is 2 meters. No matter how many steps he takes, he will never travel past 2 meters. Any finite number of steps he takes (i.e. any number like 5, 10 or 837626, no matter how big) he will be short of 2 meters by some amount, but once he takes an infinite number of steps he will "arrive" at 2 meters.

Normal math can't handle things like infinity very well. In many cases, where to get your answer you would have to add an infinite number of things, or divide by zero, calculus lets you get around this in clever ways, and it's all based on the idea of *limits*.

Let's call the number of steps the man takes "n", and the distance he has traveled "x". As the number of steps the man takes (n) increases (as n approaches infinity) the distance he has traveled gets closer to 2 (x approaches 2). If we put those mathy terms together we get, "As n approaches infinity, x approaches 2". This means the *limit* of x is 2. As long as n is finite, x is less than 2. If n becomes infinite, then x becomes 2.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is different kind of beers served in different kinds of glasses?

I've always wondered if the different glasses actually effect the taste in any way, or if it's just a cultural thing.

[Assistant]
Much the same reason wine is served in different glasses.

Glass shape and size changes how aromas are presented to your nose. Smell is a huge part in the taste of things. Hops is very aromatic and the type of beer has different volatile compounds from the type of yeast used in fermentation that affect the flavor and smell.


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

[User] [Halo 2-3]How would the battle for Earth have played out if the Master Chief succeeded in assassinating Truth aboard the keyship?

[Assistant]
Not sure if you're aware of the comic series *Halo: Uprising*, but there was a segment in the comic where the Chief had the Prophet in his ironsights with a Carbine. A sneaky Jackal stopped him and the Brutes almost killed the Chief.

But had the Chief successfully killed the Prophet, it would probably had a destructive consequence for Earth. In retribution for his death and figuring out that Earth was humanity's home world, they would have called for more reinforcements. And glassed the planet clean. Since Truth is dead, he wouldn't have ordered to go to the portal. The remaining Chieftains would have commenced the glassing process. Only with the arrival of the Elites would the human forces have a chance to retaliate. But Brutes, are, well brutes. Their savage nature would have ripped their numbers apart. They would have start to fight among one another as chieftains try to claim their place as the leader of the Covenant. With the arrival of the Elites, they would have been finished off or pushed away. Then they would have to destroy the portal.


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

[User]
CMV: Restaurants should list lettuce as an ingredient

I hate lettuce.   I hate it so much.
I hate the texture and the taste, I hate how quickly it spoils, I hate how it ruins leftovers by turning yellow and slimy, and I hate how it is often used as a filler, and I hate how when it is shredded it is inpossible to pick out of what I am eating.

I will often go to a restaurant, and select my choice of burger/wrap/pita/taco/sandwich/other based on the ingredients listed. Many times I have selected an item that did *not* list lettuce as an ingredient, only to have ny order come with a big heaping pile of shredded lettuce.

Restaurants would never include unlisted meat or cheese ingredients due to dietary restrictions, so why is it okay to do the same with lettuce? I should not have to specify "no lettuce please" on an item that doesn't list lettuce as an ingredient.
I would even accept "all menu items come with lettuce" written somewhere clear on the menu, but again, this is not always the case.

Lastly, I want to reitterate that it should not be *assumed* that lettuce will come on a certain item. A meatball sub, for example, is usually (in my experience) made with no lettuce. And yet, every so often a restaurant will put lettuce on their meatball sub without specifying it on their menu, but all the other ingredients (meatballs, marinara, cheese) *are* listed.

This is wrong.

CMV!

[Assistant]
>Restaurants would never include unlisted meat or cheese ingredients due to dietary restrictions

Due to allergy or potential religious conflicts*

>burger/wrap/pita/taco/sandwich/

Ever one of these it should be assumed that lettuce is a standard possibility.


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

[User]
CMV: Capitalism is a greedy killing machine and it's not okay.

The Left vs right politics war waged on humanitarian leaders by greedy elites (oil billionaires mainly) who need extensive therapy and mushrooms (and quite possibly a hug)

Let me explain

Mental health awareness is purposely suppressed in America because it's "bad for business". The more people that become aware of their own mental health and sense of self-worth, allowing themselves to focus on what they (and the rest of society) actually need to be doing for the betterment of ourselves and everyone around us, the less and less people are okay with scummy behaviour exhibited by greedy corporations, the big guys on top realize this and are now actively suppressing this stuff rather than just passively and it's time we did something about it.

Oil billionaires use radicalization to fund political wars so the big companies that can mass produce can sell resources for wars. This way all the misguided but intelligent greedy souls in need of therapy can stay rich and keep getting richer. They also use lobbyists to create bought-out congress members who can gear the country towards bailing them out and keeping them in power. Artificial intelligence is going to a world of terror in the name of Capitalism and I fear for our future.

[Assistant] In the past two centuries, capitalism has raised more people out of poverty and into middle class prosperity than any other system of economy. Yes, it is the worst system, except when you compare it to all the others.


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

[User] How high would punitive damages have to be for it to no longer be profitable for landlords to illegally withhold security deposits?

[Assistant]
Theres obviously no single number to give you that would answer this question. In deciding whether to take any illegal action, you weigh the chances of getting caught, chances of getting punished if accused, and the actual retribution for your actions.

In a civil-suit situation, as this would be, you also have to consider incidental things like time and legal fees, which are often daunting enough that few victims actually consider court in civil matters like this. Additionally, think about how a plaintiff would weigh the amount of the deposit and the amount that it would cost to go to court- usually the deposit amount is already low enough that you would rather just take a loss.

You could, for example, set punitive damages at $15,000 per day that your deposit is withheld, but with a low probability of having to actually pay such a fine, theres little deterrence.

Rather than question what the fine should be, it would be better to wonder how to improve the efficacy of the legal system thats already in place.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does a hand drawn animation company keep drawings of people, places, and things consistent with a big animation team.

Companies like Disney create movies with 50,000+ hand drawn frames. How does every animator drawn the same character/place like every other animator on the team?

[Assistant]
You are touching the surface on why hand drawn movies are so difficult to make and why the Disney productions were so loved.

They reuse the still after it is drawn once. If they need another angle the original still is used for reference. These stools are larger than the frame and you can move them with the shot to get different backgrounds.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do most foods taste terrible while going through chemo, but others have no change at all?

[Assistant]
"Everything changed for me"

"I'll never forget the day that everything tadted like tofu.  Everything tasted like nothing."

Source, wife who went through chemo last year.

Tastebuds are fast turnover cells that regenerate and die quickly.  Chemo kills the tastebuds before they can develop and mature.  What taste you lose is specific to you individually.

Source, same wife who is also a doctor.


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

[User] What are Schopenhauer's views on suicide? Did he support and justify the idea given his views on reality?

[Assistant] He was opposed. He thought that 1.) suicide was an optimist's view-point, since it was based on the expectation of something better that ought to have happened to one having happened, and more substantially 2.) since representation was just a manifestation of will mediated by the intuitions and causality, any attempt to escape it on a representational level as opposed to attempting to quieten the will itself was still caught in the veil of representation.


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

[User] ELI5: How do earphones produce adequate bass despite their size?

[Assistant]
Proximity to your ear. The volume of air displaced by a large subwoofer is large, but it is many feet / several hundreds of feet away from your ear. If you are too close to something of this size, you will be doing damage to your ears because the volume of sound waves hitting your eardrum is too large.

Similarly, small earbuds produce a bass sound with a very tiny volume, but that earbud is mere millimeters away from your eardrum. Change that even to a few centimeters and the bass sound waves diffuse too quickly for them to affect your eardrum.


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

[User] Where do the abs go during a pregnancy? Up, down, front, back?

[Assistant]
The uterus is posterior (beneath) and inferior (below) the abdominal muscles. So during the period of pregnancy when a woman is "showing," those muscles and their connective tissue get stretched out in her abdomen, just like the skin on her belly does. They don't really go in any one direction, they just kind of "inflate" around the fetus as it grows, radiating out from a point generally a few inches above the navel. The "abs," in the sense that you can see muscles like a six-pack, aren't visible at this stage because they've been so thoroughly stretched, and because most women don't have much abdominal muscle mass anyway. It's not uncommon for this stretching action to damage the woman's muscle tissue and tear into a small separation, a condition called *diastasis recti*.

During delivery those muscles play a big part in actually pushing the fetus out of the uterus. Because of the extreme stretching of the muscles and connective tissue, it can take weeks or months for them to heal and settle into their original position. Without vigorous exercise, most women find that their abdominal skin and muscle tissue is more loose after pregnancy.


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

[User]
CMV: I think it is ridiculous for one ethnic group to be indebted to another based on the actions of people who've been dead for hundreds of years.

~~For example - government funded benefits to people with even small traces of Native American genetic makeup. Is this really justifiable? Are the taxpayers who are funding these people's free income really responsible for the actions of men who lived hundreds of years ago - who they may not even have any genetic relation to? It gets even more complicated when we start talking about percentages - for instance, a person who is maybe 1/4th Native and 3/4th Anglo would qualify for these benefits despite the fact that the majority of their genetic makeup represents the people that they are claiming victimization by. But this is really not a relevant piece of the original topic - so don't feel obliged to include it in your arguments.~~

Edit 2: This example has done nothing but misrepresent my original thought, and I clearly do not have a strong enough understanding of Native American history to justifiably use it. Thanks to rigoding90 for making me realize this.

Note: My view extends far beyond any controversy involving Native Americans, to include any instance of this phenomenon.

Change my view.

Edit 1: It's currently 1am and I just realized that there are several very detailed replies to this post. I need to get to bed so I can get up in time for work tomorrow, but I will be reading through them in the AM. Thanks for taking the time to reply if you did.

[Assistant] The actions of people who have been dead for hundreds of years can have lasting effects if not adequately remedied. Don't think of it as necessarily a debt tracing back hundreds of years - think of it as an attempt to remedy a current inequality, the reason for which we acknowledge to be some past cruelty.


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

[User]
What would you call the class of people who are low on cultural capital?

Terms like working class and proletariat originate in, and are better suited for, class systems divided by access to economic capital. However, I think that these days class is more defined by access to cultural capital (e.g. education, elite culture). What would you call the new lower class in such a system?

[Assistant] Why do you feel that this concept of "cultural class" is more relevant today than economic class when one can still so distinctly associate social power, influence, and wealth with how a person makes money (Selling labor-time vs owning capital)?


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are untested medical treatments not allowed to be used when no known treatments work and the patient is sure to die?

If a patient is suffering from an illness, all available treatments have failed, and death is imminent, why can't the patient consent to be treated with untested treatments or drugs that may save them?  Are there laws against this, and if so, why?

[Assistant] Terminal patients are allowed to take part in clinical trials using experimental medication. The catch is that these trials need half the patients to be secretly given placebos so there is a control group to compare against. Some states have passed "right to try laws" which allow terminal patients to have access to placebo free experimental medication. The problem is that the lack of placebos makes it much harder for doctors to develop effective therapies, so these laws probably cause more harm in the long run.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do white Lego bricks turn yellow-ish over time?

[Assistant]
Some plastics are not UV stable (ultraviolet light damages or degrades the material), look at stuff that sits in display windows hit by sunlight for extreme and obvious examples.

This causes discoloration over time (and/or cracking), either fading of the color or whites yellowing.


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

[User] [star wars: revenge of the sith] what was happening on the surface of Coruscant during the battle above It?

[Assistant] Mostly a running battle between CIS intrusion groups hitting strategic targets, and disoriented and ill-prepared Republic and Jedi forces. The battle was largely over by the time the holotape begins. It was always just a raid, the Separatists didn't even get around to bombarding the planet properly.


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

[User]
We are in our most natural state as children. It is the job of educators, parents, governments, and other authority figures to beat the shit out of your inner child, so they can turn you into a mindless zombie who acts out some absurd idea of "this is what an adult is supposed to do." CMV.

Why are children so joyful and carefree, while adults are often such miserable sacks of anxiety, depression, or some other form of psychosis? I believe that decades of learned repression are responsible. It all starts in the classroom with "Sit down Johnny, stop throwing that pencil at Suzy!" But after being told over and over that acting on your desires is unacceptable, you need to shut up and do your work, you learn to repress those desires. "Yes, yes, I do really want to do this work. I want to get this A." In a sense, you learn to create in your mind a little teacher that is yelling at you to stop being an immature brat and instead be "responsible." "Growing up" is the process of fully identifying with that little teacher you've created, so that you do the "responsible" thing without the need for an actual teacher threatening to send you to the Principle's office.

Your conception of what it means to be an adult is not purely determined by teachers and parents either - this is bigger than that. It's also your culture (or subculture): how as a man/woman you are "supposed" to behave, or what is cool/uncool, for example. I believe that kind of pressure is equally (or more) powerful, and it also serves to repress your natural childlike state. We could say that in addition to the little teacher you created in your mind, you create an equivalent figure for the group of peers you're trying to fit into, and it yells at you whenever you do something uncool.

Ground between these two rocks, authority and peer pressure, I believe that little is left of your inner child by age 20 or so. Its kind of still there, but it's been badly abused, shoved into the basement and chained to the wall. Many people have forgotten its even there. They're too busy trying to act out some script that was given to them, that really has nothing to do with who they truly are. Who doesn't want to be accepted? If anything, that's the only part of the inner child still left intact: this desperate desire to fit in. No one represses that desire, because it is so essential for being a zombie.

Yes, you have to learn how to be responsible and how to interact with your peers. You have to learn how to function in the adult world. But is functioning living? I'd argue that you can only truly live by being in touch with your authentic desires, by stubbornly insisting on your right to be a child - that is, to be a natural development of the person you were when you were a child. This is probably one of the most difficult things you can attempt - a zombified adult insists that everyone around him be a zombie as well, so most likely you will have to go around pretending you are a zombie too most of the time. The only way to make this bearable is if you find some non-zombie companions, around whom you are free to be your true, 100% self around.

I welcome any challenge to my viewpoint.

[Assistant]
What you're basing this post on is called an "appeal to nature" and in short is a fallacious valuing of the undeveloped over the developed.

The "untouched" nature of childlike consciousness is often misperceived as a type of heavenly state, where spiny defenses and general malevolence are not necessary because of the inherent goodness of the child's soul. In reality, those defense mechanisms have simply not yet developed in response to the real dangers that the world actually poses to the child.

>Why are children so joyful and carefree, while adults are often such miserable sacks of anxiety, depression, or some other form of psychosis?

because they don't know any better yet, and this is a very scary, hellish thing. This is why children get into vans with strangers and jump off roofs with superman capes on. we shold not desire to be more like children.

Instead, we shold desire to grow out of the naivete of childhood and into our various neuroses and psychoses, and then out of those and into a more flowing, harmonious unity with the dual nature of the world (dangerous/not dangerous). This is absolutely by no means a regression backward into childhood, but rather a massive leap forward into the kind of fluid, adaptive self-determination and resilience that exactly 0 children possess.


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

[User] Since economics is often considered the dismal science, what are some truly interesting/fun facts about Econ?

[Assistant]
There have been many strange applications of economic knowledge. Several books have been written about them recently. The most well known is "Freakonomics" (and it's sequels) by Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt.

One of the things that book is Sumo wrestling. Economic methods have been used to detect cheating in Sumo wrestling and in some other situations.


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

[User] Does sign language differ significantly from country to country?

[Assistant] Yes. There's also no necessary relationship between the spoken language of a place and sign language. British Sign Language is very different from American Sign Language, which is actually closer to French Sign Language.


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

[User]
[Sociology] What are more recent theories regarding elite opinion and opinion leadership? Is Lazarsfeld/Katz' "two-step flow of communication" model still the most prominent one?

As a historian, I want to make use of the "two-step flow of communication" theory. As it's over 50 years old now, I'm wondering if it hasn't been superseded or heavily criticized by now?

Also, can you point me to some more recent books or articles on elite opinion and opinion leadership?

Thank you!

[Assistant]
well, lookey here, something i know about...

the two-step flow, which started the school of minimal effects was superseded in the 1970s by studies showing direct effects of media, e.g., framing, agenda-setting, priming by Iyengar, McCombs and Shaw and lots of others.

However, some believe we're re-entering an era of the two-step flow and the minimal effects as we increasingly rely on blogs, facebook, and elsewhere for our political information.

For that argument, see Bennett, W. L., & Iyengar, S. (2008). A new era of minimal effects? The changing foundations of political communication. Journal of Communication, 58(4), 707-731.

But also, there is another argument: the one-step flow of information. advertisers, campaigners, and others directly target consumers nowadays with a unique message:

Bennett, W. L., & Manheim, J. B. (2006). The one-step flow of communication. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 608(1), 213-232.


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

[User] eli5: How do historians know that ancient people actually believed in things like demons or spirits, and that it wasnt just like the Boogeyman or Santa to them?

[Assistant] Mostly through ritual evidence. Believing in Santa is one thing, but sacrificing an animal or part of your harvest to appease him is another. Anthropologists will find alters or walls covered with figures or spirits. At the base they'll find things like animal bones or clay jars with evidence of decomposition in the soil around it. They'll find many layers and many different artefacts that date back decade after decade. All that is evidence of long term ritualistic worship.


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

[User]
CMV: When it comes to old games with no remakes or digital release, there is nothing wrong at all about piracy.

(This debate will keep out games that have a remake or digital release, or are new enough that they can be brought new from a retailer's shelf. That criteria pretty much excludes all modern generation games.)

Let's suppose you have an old game, like, say... 2002's Super Mario Sunshine. The game, as of now, has seen *no* remake and no rerelease. The only way to play the game is to get a copy of the GCN disc version.

But the game is over 13 and a half years old! So the only way to... "fairly"/"legally" buy it is to buy a likely-overpriced used copy (or sealed resold copy).

Now, the fundamental, most common anti-piracy argument is that "you're not supporting the game developers". But with older, GCN/PS2 and before games like this, there is **no way to buy the games in a way that supports the developers** -- buying these games the right way only supports the "used game industry". That won't support the developers.

So my conclusion is that there is nothing wrong with pirating the game, since buying it the "right" way would make no difference to the developers.

Again, this post is about old games that have seen no rereelases -- not modern games (which are a much more... difficult discussion).

So that's my opinion. Piracy on old, physical-copy-only games that have no remake or digital release is entirely acceptable. I challenge you, CMV!

[Assistant]
>But with older, GCN/PS2 and before games like this, there is no way to buy the games in a way that supports the developers -- buying these games the right way only supports the "used game industry".

Healthy used game industry benefits the developers in the long term.  That is because it is easier for developers to charge higher prices up-front when day-one purchase gamers know that they will be able to re-sell the game later on a secondary market.

If there were no secondary market, less people would be willing to shell out high prices on day one - thus hurting the developers.


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

[User]
[YU-GI-OH] How does ,,created during a duel" cards work?

I'm not taking who creates them (Industrial Illusions), but there are times when during a duel player pretty much creates a card that wasn't in their extra deck. I could buy that when paranormal powers are at work when Jaden dueled Yubel possesed Jessie and created Rainbow Neos,  or in some matches with Numbers. But in some matches there it's more muddled. When Yusei dueled Primo, Yusei used Accel Synchro to summon Shooting Star Dragon, but he had a Blank card. And there was also Yuya Pendulum. Was this ever brought up, like Duel Disk system didn't recognized card and it stalled? When Joey fought Espa Roba and used High level monster,  without tributing it didn't worked, so they have anti cheat measurent. Could be that they are ,,hacked" by universe and card are added to database? I propably put too much though into it, but I was curious.

[Assistant]
Magic overpowers technology in all instances but one - that being Kaiba's AR tech, which managed to throw off the (not quite) all-powerful magic of the Quantum Cube. Though whether this is because of him being a reincarnation of the ancient Priest Seto is unclear.

In all other cases, technology is completely dumbfounded and entirely fooled by magical occurrences. So when a new card magically appears, the system perfectly understands it as if it were a card that existed all along.

The card likely wouldn't show up in a database search, but the system would act as if it was there anyway.


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

[User] [Babar] Is Babar's Kingdom (Celesteville and surrounds) essentially a puppet-state for the French colonial interests?

[Assistant]
Not exactly. Babar isn't directly controlled by the French, but the fact that he has been "civilised" by his time spent among them gives him a skewed worldview which leads him to believe that the interests of his people are best served by close collaboration with their foreign "allies".

The French are able to take advantage of this, but have to be careful not to be too obvious about it - they are keenly aware that an elephant never forgets.


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

[User] ELI5: I didn't cough while i was smoking but now I've quit for a week and i can't stop coughing. Why?

[Assistant] There are little hairs in your lungs that help clean by moving mucus in the lungs. When you smoke these hairs stop working as effectively, but when you stop they start to heal and clean, so you'll experience coughing/tons of mucus as your body catches up.


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

[User]
ELI5: What happens between the gap of about the 5 or 6 months when a movie trailer is first released, and the opening theater date?

At this point is it just building hype or is there any strategic way the producers collect feedback and change stuff prior to the release?

Just curious.

Thanks!

[Assistant]
Actually in many cases, when you see the trailer, the movie isn't anywhere near done.

It looks like they finished the whole 2 hour movie and you're seeing a selection of 2 minutes of it.

In reality, they might have 200 hours of footage and they're nowhere close to editing it down to a cohesive film. They haven't finished figuring out the soundtrack, the postproduction / visual effects, they might not even know which ending to pick.

There have been lots of cases where the trailer shows a scene that doesn't end up being in the final movie.


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

[User]
I believe engagement rings are a sexist and outdated practice which perpetuate harmful gender roles. CMV

I'm passionate about gender studies and gender equality (for both men and women).

There's a lot of things I could post but I want to start with a smaller issue: I think engagement rings are sexist (towards both men and women).

A man is expected to put a significant amount of money towards the purchase of an engagement ring, at least three months' salary. "Expected" by traditional society -- yet also by most women, some of whom fight for gender equality.

In a world where single, childless women between 21 and 30 (i.e., those most likely to be getting married) currently outlearn their male counterparts, [1] I think it's completely wrong to expect the man to make such a big financial contribution towards what is supposed to be an "equal" relationship.

Additionally, I believe that when a man gives a woman a $3000++ ring in exchange for her hand in marriage, he is in a way "purchasing" her and therefore "objectifying" her.

Thus, I believe it's hypocritical to want gender equality yet support something like engagement rings, which holds men to their traditional value (i.e. their wealth) and holds women to theirs (i.e. their passive objectification).

----

[1] "Women now outnumber men on college campuses, and single, childless women out earn their male counterparts." (Forbes, "Why Are So Many Professional Millennial Women Unable To Find Dateable Men?", 2012)

----

EDIT 2/12/14 8:36 AM EST: Have to run to work. Will comment more when I return. Thanks for the responses so far.

[Assistant]
I agree that engagement rings have many bad practices associated with them, but is there anything fundamentally wrong with giving someone a wearable symbol of your commitment to them? If you are opposed to the sale of a Hummer for environmental reasons, do you have to be opposed to the sale of all cars? Yes, a large, gaudy ring can represent all the negative traits you describe, but if both partners decide to buy each other small, tasteful (relative to their own perception) rings to symbolize their love for one another, what's wrong with it?

Rings, especially when evenly valued, can convey love and commitment without also symbolizing a sexist tradition. Many gay and lesbian couples give marriage or commitment rings to one another in this way. It is all about context. Just because sexists give/wear wedding rings doesn't mean they ruin the beauty of it for everyone else.


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

[User] ELI5: What is jihad.

[Assistant]
The literal meaning of Jihad is struggle or effort, and it means much more than holy war.
Muslims use the word Jihad to describe three different kinds of struggle:
1) A struggle to live as a good Muslim
2) A struggle to build a good Islamic society
3) A holy war to defend Islam.


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

[User]
[Warhammer 40K] what if God Emperor of mankind descended at this era?

This is a it of a pet peeve of mine? When God emperor declare he will lead humanity, why there's none that oppose? I mean there is this guy, super strong, charismatic want to become emperor. What the world leader will do? Fight? I don't think they would just give the position and submit to him.

Thus my question, if he do it on the current era where there are the like of Putin, Obama, Xi jinping. Will he succeed? Or will it just invite a massive global resistance?

[Assistant]
The God Emperor is literally superhuman.

In addition to an impressively superhuman physique, he also has psychic powers.

In addition to that, he's immortal and has in-depth information on humanity's history, including the ways he's already influenced it.

In addition to that, he has the combined wisdom and knowledge of the Great Shamans of earth's past.

He's not above demonstrating his power either. So striding into a public broastcast of world leaders and forcing them, through his Will alone, to kneel before him, would be a good start. Speaking and projecting his words and thoughts to everyone on the planet is probably a good round two.

Then he'd start Leading us, fixing problems, guiding humanity to reach its destiny among the stars. Smear campaigns wouldn't really work once he abolished the pettiness that allows children to starve, for men to be tortured, for women to be enslaved.

That is if he didn't take advantage of the pettiness, allowing the world leaders their small fiefdoms in exchange for fealty. Which he'd be fine with as he is more than capable of outliving the world's leaders and taking over in their stead when they pass.


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

[User] Why doesn't the glass inside optic fibers break?

[Assistant]
The individual optical glass fibers used in cables are very strong and very flexible because they have a large tensile strength and small diameter. This is the same material used fiberglass boats, ladders, etc.

When bundled together inside a coating, along with strengthening components such as Kevlar, and then wrapped in extra material (the cabling) to protect against dirt, bending, crushing, etc. you have a very tough fiber optic cable.

Having said that, breaks and faults in fiber optic cables are not unheard of.


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

[User] [Jojos Bizzare Adventure] If Okuyasu was actually creative with his stand, what are some of the more OP things hed be able to do?

[Assistant]
He'd be an extremely dangerous assassin if his Stand can move independent of him as well as targeting non-Stand users. Imagine the coroner's confusion when they open up a victim to find that they're missing some of their heart valves or that a crucial set of arteries are just *missing*.

Also, erasing the space between some guy and a car in the middle of a street. The other guy has no idea why a car suddenly flew towards him at fifty miles an hour.

Or even as a rudimentary healing skill; erasing the bullet wounds from your body, although this could use practice.


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

[User]
Do I apologize to my professor? How can I get over this?

I normally do very well in school (3.5ish GPA) but this semester was absolute trash. I had an class that had a lab report each week that took me roughly 20 hours to complete from start to finish (the professor required perfection, or he would simply give you an F). I also work as a tutor for our college, roughly 28 hours a week

This meant that I wound up skipping lecture in my microbial genetics class. I know the professor from prior semesters and I've always done very well in her class, but I basically submitted garbage the entire semester. I actually had a panic attack during her final, which I left 1/3 of blank.

For some reason, I felt the need to ask her if I could re-take that final. She, of course, declined. I wound up with a C in the class.

TLDR: My questions are ...

1. Do I apologize to my microbial genetics professor? I never should have asked her if I could re-take the exam. I also feel SO BAD for how horrible my attendance was.Edit: Okay! my plan is to reduce my academic workload next semester and endeavor to do better in this professors class next semester. I might apologize when I see her again in the summer, long after grades are put in.

2. How can I recover emotionally from this semester? I will have a 2.5 GPA for this semester, which removes me from the Dean's list. I basically want to die. I probably won't make it to physician assistant school now, and I'm having trouble coping. EDIT: Upon reflection, this second point is not based in reality. I'm gonna be fine, it just feels bad right now.

Edit: I want to thank everyone who responded. I definitely feel better now that I have a plan. For the most part, you guys were level headed and kind, and I really appreciate it.

[Assistant] That tutor work of 28 hours a week is, well, sort of nuts. That's over half of a normal work week, it's not really a surprise you won't keep up with the top of the class, assuming you're not a part-time student. I'd say halve that, preferably twice if you can, and just do your best in classes going forward. Going into some debt is quite preferable to not being able to complete your studies properly.


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

[User] ELI5: How do razors/sharp blades cause scars but regular cuts heal without such obvious damage?

[Assistant]
Razors cut such a clean edge on the skin, theres nothing for the red blood cells and platelets to grab onto to start forming a clot

Regulate cuts leave jagged edges in the skin, even if you cant see them, for the red blood cells and platelets to attach to.


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

[User] [DC] Has Batman ever beat somebody so bad that they decided to quit crime upon recovery?

[Assistant]
The Wayne foundation provides safe halfway housing and other help for former criminals who want to go honest. They have to agree to serve any prison time and to work towards being a productive member of society, but virtually everyone in the program is there after either having Batman beat them up to Oblivion or threaten them with a sucky existance. Bruce Wayne even offers good jobs to especially needy former low-lives.

(This was also discussed in the recent Batman Kings of Fear 6 issue mini series and in the 2011 Legends of the Dark Knight series)


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

[User]
How do fish naturally "spread" to other lakes/ponds?

For a little background to my question. My uncle bought a house with a decent piece of property. He dug a large pond that he has been intending to stock with fish for his grandkids, nieces and nephews. He dug this pond a couple of years ago, and has been letting the natural plants grow around it, balancing the PH, and just getting it suited for fish.

A few days ago, he noticed several small pan fish around the edge of the pond. He didn't put them in, and his pond is pretty far from any roads or streets, and near his house, so it's very unlikely anyone dumped anything in. There is no water running in, and no floods connecting it to any other water.

People on his Facebook have suggested birds of prey dropping them in, or even bears/cougars. Those seem relatively unlikely as I would think they would be unable to survive swim after being grabbed/dropped by a large predator. I'm unconvinced, any ideas?

[Assistant] The general hypothesis is actually not that the birds carry the fish themselves and drop them into a lake. It's that fish eggs in the water stick to the feet of birds, and they deposit the eggs into a new body of water when they fly somewhere else. To answer your question though we have no clue. There was a big study a couple years ago to look into this bird feet egg hypothesis that didn't disprove the idea but couldn't find any evidence at all that this actually happens in nature.


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

[User] ELI5: What are Cankersores and why do they hurt so badly?

[Assistant]
canker sores are ulcers - sores where the surface tissue over an area has disintegrated, leaving an open wound that heals slowly.

It hurts because its an open wound that heals slowly in a part of the body that moves a huge amount and is unavoidably exposed to food and drinks, which irritates them and makes it hurt more.


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

[User]
ELI5: how does putting a plastic bag on your atm card help it read when it's having issues?

This is our go-to solution at work for getting troublesome cards to read, but no one seems to know why it helps.

[Assistant]
Imagine there was a scratch on the painting in front of you.  You know how you can deliberately make your vision fuzzy?  Imagine doing that.  You still see the painting, but no longer see the scratch.  Of course, you the painting is a bit fuzzy, but everything is RELATIVELY in the same place.

That's all the card reader needs.  For everything to be in relatively the same place in proportion with everything else.  The plastic bag "fuzzies out" the scratch.

Edit: Thanks for the gold, kind stranger!


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

[User] [Marvel/Wrestling] What if the radioactive spider had bitten John Cena instead of Peter Parker?

[Assistant]
The spider enjoys a nice bite of potato salad.

More seriously, we get a somewhat less emotionally traumatized, all in all healthier (if not as bright) Spider-Man.  Less web swinging, more clinging to walls and then suplexing people.


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

[User]
ELI5: How are newer cars stolen?

How are modern cars stolen? With all the anti-theft technology, I am curious how they are defeated? I have seen gone in 60 seconds, but all the car thieves I see arrested have neck tattoos and their area code tattooed on their knuckles.

[Assistant]
Thugs do thug shit, the same as always.  They:

* Steal keys from your house

* Steal keys when you're not looking

* Take cars with keys in them

* Car jack you

* Ride off with your car when you thought you could trust them

* Get the title transferred in their name using forged documents

* Get someone in a dealership to make keys for them

* Tow it away.


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

[User]
CMV: Billionaires SHOULD exist.

Abortion and guns are two things I will never change my mind on. But Im willing to forget those issues in favor of things I think are much more important. Because of that, I am considering switching from conservative to liberal.

So the issue I want my mind changed on:

1. Billionaires SHOULD exist. I am not saying it is a necessity. Yes, I understand some of these people didnt work for their money. I understand its  a vast amount of wealth that is not necessary for one person to hold. I believe that these arguments are not valid. I have an iPhone 11, but all I need is an iPhone 6. Doesnt mean I want my iPhone 11 taken away, I earned it. I know some of these people inherited their wealth, but I dont want the money I pass to my kids being taken from them, I left it for them for a reason.

Just to clarify, I fully support heavy taxation of people with more than a billion dollars, I just dont agree with the premise of billionaires shouldnt exist. Tax the hell out of them sure, but i just dont agree with saying they should never exist.

Is the billionaires shouldnt exist just a saying meaning heavier taxation? Or is it literally a hard cap of once you hit 999 million you arent allowed any more?

EDIT: who downvoted me? I understand my logic is probably flawed. Thats why Im here to have my mind changed? I thought that is the point of this sub?

EDIT 2: just because this has quite a few comments, my mind was changed on this from this thread, thank you to everyone who commented. What changed my mind was the realization that this statement is not literal, but more of a philosophical people with vast amounts of wealth shouldnt exist in a world where people are starving which I can most certainly agree with.

[Assistant]
The billion is an arbitrary number that is used because it sounds good but the general idea is that it is unjustified for a society to structure itself in a way that allows some people to live in extreme abundance while others suffer or even die due to poor economic conditions.

Its a conditional statement, should billionaires exist (while others suffer)?

And on a deeper level this question becomes, should we support a system that allows people to suffer unnecessarily?


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

[User]
[dragon ball] If cell somehow manages to get the DNA of a god, can he become a god?

Will his power be boosted, if so so how powerful he would be if he had gotten beeruss dna, will he have god aura?

[Assistant]
1. Cell has Saiyan DNA, which should allow him to become an SS God, or something quite similar to it.  He doesn't need to absorb some other God's DNA.  It's quite likely he'd be able to keep pace with Goku and Vegeta all the way up to the height of their power.

2. Buu Absorbed a god, and didn't become a god.  So, just absorbing power doesn't seem to be enough to cut it.


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

[User]
I'm a postdoc giving a talk this summer in front of leaders in my field. Is it okay to mention that I'm looking for a faculty job?

This will be in front of a bunch of leaders in my field that would very likely be collaborators when I'm faculty somewhere. Would it come off as tacky to mention I'm looking for a job? What about just mentioning that my postdoc is almost over? We're going to a glam journal with the results I'm presenting if it matters.

[Assistant] I've seen people give talks and at the end mention that that they're on the job market. I've also seen people who don't say it out loud, just have at the bottom of their last slide ("I'll be on the job market Fall 2017!")


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

[User]
[Metal Gear] Can anyone provide a good ELI5 version of the Metal Gear Solid series' plot?

Like seriously, wow. I have a pretty busy schedule and don't really have time to go through the whole series but I always thought MGS4 on the ps3 looked cool and my friend said he would let me borrow it for a while, but I'm sort of lost.  If anyone could help explain this stuff, that would be great!

[Assistant]
Synopses:

MGS1: Snake is sent to take out Liquid who has stolen a nuclear stockpile and is holding the world ransom. Snake makes best buds with a nerdy scientist who calls himself Otacon. It turns out that Snake and Liquid are both altered clones of Big Boss. Liquid thought Snake had the superior genetic engineering but actually Liquid did. Ocelot looked like he was working for Liquid but was actually a double agent.

MGS2: Snake and Otacon start a group (I use the term loosely, it's just the two of them) called Philanthropy to expose and destroy Metal Gears. He's photographing a secret Metal Gear project by the US military when some Russians show up to try and steal it. Ocelot shows up with a transplanted arm from Liquid and randomly gets possessed by it sometimes, then sinks the boat they're on and steals the Metal Gear. Ocelot looked like he was working for the Russians but was actually a double agent. Snake is reported dead but who are they fooling?

Later in MGS2: Crazy AIs orchestrate a recurrence of the events of MGS1 to try and turn Raiden into another Snake but then everything goes to shit because he does his job too well and gives them a virus. Raiden turns out to have been a child soldier under the rule of another clone of Big Boss called Solidus and has to kill him at the end. Most of this was probably virtual reality and Raiden starts doubting his perception of reality but Snake tells him to stop over-thinking it. Ocelot looked like he was working for Solidus but was actually a double agent.

MGS3: During the Cold War, Big Boss (who is currently called Snake) is sent to rescue a defector from the Russian jungles (just roll with it). He fails at this, his mentor, the Boss, defects to some Russian extremists who she has a history with. The Russian government is pissed and Snake is sent back to the jungle to kill these extremists. It turns out the Russians he's sent after want some secret giant quantity of money and the Boss was actually a double agent whose job it was to keep that away from them. A double agent ally of yours named Eva turns out to be a Chinese triple agent and makes off with the information on that hidden sum of money. Ocelot looked like he was working for the Russian extremists but was actually a double agent.

Some general things to know about the series:

* Everybody Otacon cares about ends up dying.
* The entire world has a raging stiffy for Big Boss.
* A man named Johnny who has chronic diarrhea guards the player characters whenever they are imprisoned.
* People keep pissing themselves.
* Most of the boss characters you fight are pretty explicitly magical and nobody seems to notice.
* Bipedal tanks that roar like dinosaurs for some reason are the pinnacle of weapons technology.


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

[User]
[MCU] Google now has digital copies of all the sacred texts in the Ancient Ones library. What's the worst that could happen, and what should I do to fix it? -Dr. Strange?

I took photographs of all the sacred texts so that I could run them through Google Translate. I forgot that I had my phone set to automatically back up my photos to my Google Drive. Google now has a complete set of high resolution photographs of the incantations and instructions for the most powerful sorcery known to human kind.

What's the worst that could happen?

How should I go about fixing this situation?

- Dr. Stephen V. Strange, MD, PhD

**Edit 1**: *Rather than alter time to fix some typos and minor grammatical errors, which resulted from the confluence of creating the original post on a mobile device, auto-correct, and shaky hands, I used Reddit's edit feature to make the necessary corrections.*

[Assistant]
The apocalypse.  Contact Google.  Major publishers have gotten stuff pulled and/or blurred before.

Or just wait until the first near apocalypse and then enlist Tony Stark and/or Cable to erase all copies of the image.  If anyone can do it, they can.


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

[User]
[Pirates of the Caribbean] At worlds End. Why was the final battle a 1v1 despite the vast amounts of ships on both sides?

It always confuses me as Ive tried going scene by scene to the end to find out why its only one on one. It seems super lame too since after this huge inspiration speech its just two ships instead of the whole navy vs the pirates.

[Assistant] It's basically like combat by champion, but with ships instead of single people. They let their best ships fight, and the side whose ships win get the victory of the whole combat. That greatly reduces the price in ships and lives.


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

[User]
[Marvel] How powerful can Galactus be.

I have been getting into comics more and Galactus seems to be a cool character and want to know just how powerful can he be. I see the name Black celestial arc Galactus thrown around as being possibly a multiversal threat. I would like to know more about this character.

[Assistant]
Well for starters:

> The first (and oldest) living entity in the universe, Galactus employs advanced science capable of creating the Ultimate Nullifier (capable of destroying and remaking the multiverse) and the ship Taa II. Reed Richards speculated that Taa II (the Mbius strip-shaped, solar system-sized home of Galactus) might be the greatest source of energy in the universe.


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

[User] ELI5: How is the military spending of the US ($682 billion) justified when it's 4 times more than that of the 2nd highest? ($166 billion - China). Are we really being threatened that much?

[Assistant]
In terms of coverage and force projection the US is unmatched.  They feel the need to have these capabilities in order to protect american interests in foreign lands.  Meaning, it's not the US itself that is under the threat. But rather American businesses, factories, mines, refineries, and ships that are under threat and must be protected.  In addition to this, the US military is expected to protect US soil.

A country like China on the other hand, is much more concerned with protecting the homeland.  So they keep the military that they do have closer to home, and this is much cheaper.

On an individual technological level the US likely has a slight edge over a country like china.  But it is not a significant contributor to the budget difference.  That is almost all down to the US's want to be able to hit a target anywhere in the world with relatively little notice.  No other country has full world coverage like that, and it costs.


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

[User] ELI5: If HIV can be spread through body fluids, why can't it be spread through saliva?

[Assistant] Saliva has very little bodily material for the HIV to reside in. Its mostly just water and salt. And as always dose makes the poison, so technically you could get HIV from saliva, but you would need to drink liters of it to even have a chance.


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

[User]
[Batman] I recently started as a patrol officer in Gotham. How much will Batman know about me?

In different iterations of Batman, he's seen as knowing the names of officers making up whole departments.  How much does he actually know about each one?

[Assistant] He has supercomputers and an extraordinarily advanced research capability at his disposal. He doesn't know anything about you initially. He has an excellent memory, but Gotham is a big city with a big police force, and your one guy. When your normal duties cause you to become involved with a major super villain he does a check on you, and gets all sorts of information. Likely he only knows your name and anything relevant from that point, though he likely doesn't forget it once he does know, and he can access an absolutely enormous amount of information on you and anyone you are connected to.


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

[User]
How feasible would it be for a major publicly traded company to become employee owned?

Think Amazon or Apple. How would it be possible for them to become majority (or completely) ESOP? Or an employee owned corporation?

[Assistant] Assuming no expropriation, and using your examples unlikely. Taking Apple  as an example, it has 123,000 employees and a valuation of 1 trillion. Every single employee would have to stump up several million . The numbers are a little less extreme for Amazon, but still well outside plausibility.


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

[User]
[Married with children] How is Al blind to the fact that Peggy is hot?

He acts disgusted with the idea of kissing her, winces when he sees her picture and once feel out of a window because he saw her portrait and reeled in horror.

But... Peggy is hot.

[Assistant] So what?  He is tired of her shit.  He is tired of her spending all the money, not pulling her weight in the relationship, and how she treats him.  So she's conventionally attractive.  That doesn't mean Al _likes_ her.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is it that when we sit in the sun with our eyes closed for a while, when we open them again colours look so much more vibrant?

[Assistant] The skin of your eyelids lets light shine through. But there's blood inside that skin. So you see a red/orange color. After you've stared at red/orange for a while the color cones in your eyes get "tired". When you open your eyes, the opposite colors - green/blue -  will look way bright because those cones are fresh.


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

[User]
Do tree squirrels live together as mating pairs in a nest?

There's a hole in the tree outside my office window and every day I see 2 gray squirrels go in and out. Are they mates, or parent and child? I'm curious about my little friends!

[Assistant] Eastern gray squirrels build a type of nest, known as a drey, in the forks of trees, consisting mainly of dry leaves and twigs. Males and females may share the same nest for short times during the breeding season, and during cold winter spells, squirrels may share a drey to stay warm. They may also nest in the attic or exterior walls of a house, where they may be regarded as pests, and as fire hazards due to their habit of gnawing on electrical cables. In addition, squirrels may inhabit a permanent tree den hollowed out in the trunk or a large branch of a tree. (From Wikipedia)


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

[User] ELI5: Why do you hold your arms up while you run but hold them at your sides when you walk?

[Assistant] Holding your arms up when running makes it easier for your arms to keep pace with your stride because you are swinging a pendulum the length of your shoulder-to-elbow instead of swinging a pendulum the length of your shoulder-to-fingertips.


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

[User]
Often, people argue that an influx of immigrants to Sweden/Britain/the United States would destroy either the economy or the culture of the destination country. But has this ever happened?

I'm defining immigrant as somebody who moves into an area with an established government in hopes of economic success. In this context, English settlers in New England are not immigrants, but Irish people who crossed the Atlantic in the 19th century are.

[Assistant] In the 1820s, the Mexican government invited Americans to immigrate into what was then Northern Mexico.  Eventually they rescinded the invitation, but Americans continued to enter the area illegally.  Didn't work out so well for Mexico -- today, we call the region "Texas."


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

[User]
[DC] Is superman stronger than his own durability?

Has anyone tried mind controlling superman into killing himself and would that work? If a villain mind controlled superman to rip his own heart out, would that work or is superman even more durable than his own strength?

[Assistant]
It's possible.  Humans have enough strength to kill themselves.  But there are structures in place to prevent the use of your own strength directly to kill yourself.  For one thing, you can't choke yourself to death normally - your hand would go limp when you fell unconscious (though, don't try this - you still risk damaging your throat, triggering an unknown underlying condition, or dying because you did manage to break your hyoid bone).

There's also a psychological limitation, however.  A lot of mind control methods have a limit that prevents them from violating the victims' moral code.  This limit is present in hypnosis - you can't be hypnotized to do something you don't want to do - and though it has workarounds (you may not be able to hypnotize a bank teller to give you all the money in the drawer, but you could possibly make them believe that the $100s are $20s when cashing a check, so that they dole out the same number of bills of the higher denomination).  Thus, if he wasn't suicidal, this wouldn't likely work.  But. even if the control could violate core beliefs, there's a good chance some more primal part would work for self-preservation and keep you from going through it it.


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

[User] [40K] If a human vehicle is red and is fighting orks, does it go faster?

[Assistant] Yes, the power of the waaagh isn't limited to only having effects on Orks. It's one of the reasons Yarrick is still alive, they actually believe he can't die, and that's why they like fighting him so much.


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

[User]
ELI5: What would Hans Gruber have been able to to with all those bearer bonds?

Surely he wouldn't have been able to do anything, right? I'm not entirely sure how they work. What are they, like, currency or something?

[Assistant]
Bearer bonds aren't really issued anymore because of their strong link to criminals and money laundering, but yes, he could use them.

They are unregistered, whomever is holding the piece of paper at that time, is the owner.

Sure he probably couldn't walk into the Nakatomi HQ and turn them back in for cash, but he could use proxies to cash them, or sell them to third parties.

Edit: To explain bearer bonds, think of your school lunch as currency. Your friend wants some of your lunch, so he can fund his lunch exchange business. So you invest your lunch in him, and in return he issues you a bond, or a legal promise to pay back your lunch loan within a specific period of time with a specific interest rate.

This is how many governments and companies raise money for projects. Sure, because the time and interest are set by the borrower and not the lender, you don't make a lot of money fast, but its considered some of the safest, as the returns are guaranteed by law.

Bearer bonds are a type of bond. There is no registry of them. When you buy one, you are issued the bond itself, a piece of paper, but no record is kept of who bought it. So when the time period expires and its time to cash it in, whomever shows up with it gets the money. This lack of ownership history made them great for criminals, and criminals only. So now no one issues them at all.

Still, existing bearer bonds have to legally be paid out, unless they can directly prove fraud. But that's hard, old Hans Gruber could easily sell the bonds to a third party and no one could prove that they were stolen bonds.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are bathrooms all gender specific, rather than having one restroom with all stalls, for both genders?

[Assistant] A long time ago there used to be "powder rooms" that ladies can use both for the toilet and to adjust their clothing or touch up their makeup. Since doing either in public were seen as impolite these powder rooms were explicitly private and for ladies only.


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

[User]
[Assassin's creed] If all the Assassin's killings are so brutal and in public, how are they not noticed by the crowd around him?

 Especially when he tries to blend in public walking along like he belongs, in an assassins uniform.

[Assistant]
Keep in mind that the Assassin uniform is designed to look like normal clothing - Altair's dress was similar to the local monks', Ezio's was a nobleman's tunic, Edward Kenway wore a sailor's gear etc.  It wasn't especially unusual for those ensembles to feature hoods - they might earn a second look, but there was nothing too remarkable about them.

As for the brutal killings.... we have to remember that the Animus is an imperfect device.  When we see a man brutally stabbed in the back and dropped to the ground.... that's sort of a loose interpretation of the actual killing.  The assassin ancestor in every case was cunning and well-trained - if an assassination was done in a crowd, it was well-hidden by placing the body on a bench, creating a distraction, taking out the target from range, etc.  Each of the assassins probably only killed a handful of men in their entire careers - not necessarily every guard in Paris, over and over again.


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

[User]
[Halo/MCU] Could Steve Rogers safely wear MJOLNIR powered armor?

Assuming he was given a neural interface, would Cap's super-soldier serum altered body allow him to wear and operate a SPARTAN's powered armor without injuring himself?

[Assistant]
For those wondering about the question, the first iteration of MJOLNIR power armor was practically unusable by humans, mostly on account of reaction time. It severely injured several of its operators because of the amplified speed and strength it granted, John 117 nearly gave himself a concussion the first time he saluted wearing it. A user who flinched from pain might create a chain reaction of injuries that could kill the user.

There's actually a short scene in Iron Man 2 that shows a similar problem where a man testing power armor accidentally twists his spine 180 degrees.

EDIT: In theory a normal human user could adapt to the armor, but their quarter-second reaction times would still make them too slow to take full advantage of the speed boost. In one of John 117's field tests he was able to swat an air-to-surface missile out of the air (and he's not the fastest Spartan).


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

[User]
How long does a supernova last?

Like a year?

1000 years?

5 million?

What ballpark are we talking?

[Assistant] The core collapse takes less than a second, the shockwave takes a few hours to blow all the star out of its way, and the "rest" takes a few years at most before it's gone. They are an incredibly fast process for the scale they're at.


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

[User]
[MCU/Spidey FFH] - If everything Mysterio does [Spoiler] then why did Peter [Spoiler]

If everything Mysterio does is controlled by projections/holograms/drones, then how did Peter possibly get wet when he was "punched" by the water monster in Venice?  Similarly, why did anyone feel actual heat coming off the fire monster?  If it was all projections shouldn't it have just felt like nothing at all?

[Assistant]
It obviously wasn't *all* a projection. It appears that at least some of the drones were at least equipped with water cannons and flamethrowers in addition to their more traditional guns.

What they didn't have was a lot of mass, so they had to simulate the damage caused by giant smashing fists by shooting up whatever the monsters were "punching."


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

[User] ELI5: Why do frozen, raw chicken products keep getting recalled for salmonella? Wouldnt the solution be to cook the product properly? All raw chicken could contain salmonella.

[Assistant] There are two normal issues governing a recall due to salmonella. The first is the actual loading or the amount of salmonella present, so there isn't a recall if there is some salmonella, but if there are substantial amounts of salmonella. The second is if the salmonella is an anti-biotic resistant strain.


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

[User]
[The Matrix] The war is over. How do they handle "the ones that want out?"

At the end of the last film, the Architect promises the Oracle that everyone who wants to escape from the matrix will be freed. How exactly are they planning to handle this? Does some representative program debrief them? Do the machines run rapture.exe?

[Assistant]
Simple, they make a series of movies detailing exactly what the Matrix is and release them onto the masses. Some people just see them as pop-culture, others see the truth and ask to be freed.

We are the ones who chose to be enslaved.


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

[User]
[Overwatch] Has the supernatural been confirmed?

I know the Overwatch game isn't entirely accurate, but it's based on real people, right? Can Hanzo and Genji really summon dragon spirits? And what about that stuff with Reaper feeding off of people's souls? And Zenyatta can hover people and heal while he's meditating and all that. Is that just stuff he built into his robot body, or is he doing that from zen alone? And I don't want to sound prejudiced, but is Torbjorn a dwarf? Like, not a human suffering from dwarfism, but the actual fantasy race? I'm not saying he's less than human. If anything he's proven himself to be more than human. But if all that other stuff is true, fantasy races wouldn't surprise me.

[Assistant]
Hanzo has a nanotech energy generator embedded in the tattoo of his arm. Genji has the same tech, but it's in his sword. They took inspiration for the weapons from the Shimada family legends.

Reaper is able to convert the residual bio-electric field from a dead body into repairing himself (bodies run on energy, right?)

Zenyatta can hover because he converted his body to hover. He heals the same way as other people heal, using a biotic field - which is both energy and nanotechnology, which is why it affects omnics.

Torbjorn is human.


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

[User] ELI5: Could an unbreakable wire that is one atom thick slice through you and would it leave you in two separate pieces?

[Assistant]
Yes. It would break all molecular\* bonds in a plane, cutting through anything. Molecular bonds are what holds solid objects together. No bond, and they slide apart.

The question is if the bonds would reform after being cut. For metals, the answer is yes. Metals would act like sticky putty. The bonds reform as soon as they touch.  A perfect clean cut through  metal can be undone by sticking the two halves together.

For liquids, there are no bonds, so it doesn't matter either way.

 For bones and blood vessels and cells and tendons and muscle fibers, no. It will sever the connections. The bonds will be broken and they will not simply go back together.  All the hard connective tissue holding you together will be cut, and you'll be cut in half.

\*Edit: Covalent bonds, ionic bonds, metallic bonds, etc.


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

[User]
[starship troopers] why don't the arachnids launch a full scale attack on earth?

After behemacoytl consumes the Sky Marshal, he had ample time to send the information back to the other Queens to launch a full scale attack in earth, as they now knew about all of earth's military.

[Assistant]
They can't. They didn't hit Buenos Aires with an asteroid either.  The government did to drum up support for the war while drawing attention away from domestic problems.  Unless you believe that the bugs threw a rock across the galaxy and the Federation somehow missed it?

Buenos Aires was an inside job.

There is no indication at all in the movie that the Bugs have FTL, they probably colonized other planets the slow way.