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

[User]
[Star Wars] "Execute Order 66." - Was that just a secret trigger phrase, or did it have to come from Palpatine himself to work?

When Clone Order 66 was programmed into their inhibitor chips, was Palpatine banking on nobody else possibly knowing about the command, or is it baked into the instructions of the Order that only Palpatine can issue it?

How would a Clone respond if the Order was issued by someone other than Palpatine? Would the effect kick in anyway, like the MCU Winter Soldier's trigger words? Would they just stand there confused as to what it means? Would they attempt to arrest the unauthorised speaker?

[Assistant] As of right now it appears that it *can* be triggered by others, but the only other one who activated it required using the Force to do so, whether that's actually a requirement or needed to in order bypass another requirement (e.g. being Palpatine) is unknown.


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

[User]
What do software engineers do once an app/website is built?

Realize the absolute ridiculousness of the question to those of you in tech. Just wondering as a casual outsider. Like, once the app/website is built isn't the heavy lifting basically done? What do all the engineers at Facebook/Twitter/Instagram actually work on all day? is it just refining the code? fixing errors? or preparing the website/app to work as the web, OS, and other things evolve?

[Assistant]
Fix all the problems you created in the initial implementation that you didnt find during normal testing.

Add features that are necessary to sell to more users or make the boss happy.

Find and fix performance issues or security vulnerabilities.

Build internal tools to make the lives of your coworkers easier and more automated.

Depending on type of work you might even assist in helping onboard high value customers.

There is no done


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

[User]
Why did Plato write dialogues?

Why did Plato write dialogues? And why did he choose Socrates as the main character in those dialogues?

[Assistant]
Plato thinks philosophy happens in conversation. We can't be there to talk with him, so he gave us examples of good conversation.

However, Plato also opposed *writing.*

Plato strongly believed that philosophers should not write down doctrines. He states this in the *Seventh Letter* and *Phaedrus* most explicitly. Basically, Plato believed that written doctrines could fall into the wrong hands and be abused by sophists. They could also be used to attack the writer in their absence. One cannot anticipate questions, objections, etc., and a person could intentionally distort your written document to attack you or others.

A written doctrine, more importantly, cannot speak in its own defense. Plato speaks about this quite often. One cannot question, say, Parmenides to see what he really meant (and in fact, Plato talks about people abusing Parmenides' text for this reason; cf. *Sophist*). Likewise, when someone gives their doctrines in a poem or prose (reciting them as a speech), the audience listens, but doesn't ask questions.

Furthermore, Plato believes that a philosopher should approach each person differently, knowing like a doctor the right "medicine" for a person. Just like drugs in the hands of a non-doctor are dangerous, written texts or speeches taken out of context are dangerous for the soul (cf. *Phaedrus*).

The dialogue genre accounts for these problems by "inserting a interlocutor," someone who can ask questions for us (since we cannot be present for the actual conversation). The conversation can be tailored for this person's ears, thus allowing us to watch the process of education at work for the interlocutor.

This also subordinates the writing to the original speakers, where we placed at a distance from the "doctrinal, dogmatic" content, and instead have to infer the philosophical content from what Socrates talked about with so-and-so at such and such a place.

To put it briefly, the dialogue genre gives a context for the specific things said. Written doctrines have no context, lending themselves to abuse.

The whole thing, basically, is a clever way to prevent "Plato" from ever becoming "Platonism."

Unfortunately, Aristotle tells us what Plato's unwritten doctrines were, letting the cat out of the bag.


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

[User]
ELI5: Since the human body is covered in pores, why is acne mostly concentrated on the upper body?

I'm doing some reading of my biology textbook for homework and the current chapter is the integumentary system (skin, hair, nails, etc.) The book says the body is covered in pores, and then goes onto explaining what acne is, how pores get clogged, etc. But it doesn't explain why acne is (for the most part) concentrated on the face, neck, shoulders, back, and chest. Like, I've had one zit on my lower back near my butt and that's it. The rest of it is chest up. I get that if it's hot out and your forehead gets sweaty, obviously some of that sweat will be reabsorbed into the skin and become part of blackheads and whiteheads. But my feet are sweaty in my socks and shoes all day, even when I'm just sitting in class. Shouldn't my feet be covered in zits too? Just struck me as really odd.

I know this isn't NSFW in the sense that it's not about sex or anything, but if I saw one of my classmates reading this, my first thought would be "WTF are you reading?" Figured I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Edit: I dont understand how this is almost to the point of my root beer comment. I wasnt looking for awards or updoots, like I was genuinely curious about the concentration on different parts of the body, but thanks I guess haha.

[Assistant] Sebum is an oil produced by sebaceous glands. You have a concentration of these glands in your face and on your head. If they produce a little too much oil, your pores get clogged with oil/dead skin cells and you get acne.  So, you can get a clogged pore anywhere but it happens more often where you have more sebaceous glands due to oily buildup.


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

[User]
Why do soybeans curd? Why don't other legumes curd?

I was looking for alternatives to make tofu. My grocery store doesn't have soybeans.  All of the alternative legumes, that can be made into "tofu", are made into a milk, reduced to a paste, and then chilled.  Tofu with soybeans is made like mozzarella (when using unpasteurized milk). The soybeans are made into a milk, heated, curdled with vinegar, drained, and then pressed.  Only soybeans can be curdled with vinegar. Why?

[Assistant] Curdling is a result of proteins being denatured by acid and clumping together. Soybeans have a significantly higher protein content than most legumes. If you evaporate enough water from other legume milks, you could increase the protein concentration enough to curdle. High protein legumes like split peas and lentils would be good options.


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

[User]
How does an 8 ounce glass of red wine have more calories than an 8 ounce glass of grape juice?

I did a little research and found that an 8 ounce glass of red wine has a range of between 160 and 200 calories. The same volume of grape juice has about 140 calories. What process leads to the increase in energy in the conversion of grape juice to wine?

[Assistant]
Former Brewer here. The juice that wine is made from (called must by vintners), has a much higher sugar content than regular grape juice. The sugar content (Brix) of regular grape juice would make a relatively weak wine in comparison to the must of wine grapes.

More sugar = higher alcohol (in most cases)


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

[User]
[Supernatural] On the origin of the species

Did the species that live on the earth evolve naturally? If no, why do earths scientists think they did? If yes, what the fuck did god and his angels do for billions of years?

[Assistant]
At least once Castiel has stated he preferred Neanderthal poetry.  They were around in one form or another.

The evolution was probably nudged along in the direction they wanted it to go, but it seems like not everything was by their design.


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

[User]
Best books on logic and reasoning that will increase my ability to analyze news articles for falsehoods

Like the title says I want to know the best books that will catch me up to speed on being able to identify falsehoods in news articles and video feeds of the media. I want to be able to find the false comparisons, break downs in logic that will  highlight where rhetoric is being used in place of truth and reason.

[Assistant]
These seem like two different questions to me. Identifying a false statement is different from spotting illogical reasoning. The first is fought with fact-checking, the second is developed differently.

Are you perhaps referring to wanting to be able to discern when an article is using devices like appeals to emotion rather than straightforwardly stating facts?


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

[User]
[General] Would one timeline diverging into two timelines that later converge back into one timeline make sense?

In my story, the actions of the villain end in two outcomes, one where he annihilates the main cast and wins, and one where he wins but doesn't completely dominate everyone. The story would follow both timelines, the one where the antagonist completely demolished everyone would follow a new set of characters, while the latter timeline revolves around the surviving characters.

Eventually the characters from the former timeline would meet the characters from the latter one, and help them hunt down the antagonist and avenge everyone.

[Assistant] Kind of. Theres actually a concept from the Elder Scrolls called a Dragon Break where linear time breaks down so multiple timelines are all happening at once. Eventually the timelines merge back into one but everyone still remembers the other timelines happening. To use an example from the Elder Scrolls at the end of the Battle of Red Mountain everyone remembers the battle going a little differently. Some believe that Dumac Dwarfking was killed by Nerevar, some saw him killed by Wulfharth, some by Dagoth Ur. Some remember the Orcs and Nords fighting for the Dwarves and some against. All of them happened but eventually only one of them happened.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is it legal to drink 1 beer and THEN drive, but illegal to drink 1 beer WHILE driving?

I understand that you aren't "allowed" to drink beer while driving due to the "open container" law, but what is the reasoning behind this?  You'd have just as much alcohol in your system either way.

[Assistant]
I always figured it was because it's not very practical to pull someone over and ask,"Is that your first beer? Okay good, just checking. Have a nice day."

Easiest way to enforce that law is to have a 0 tolerance policy on open containers/drinking & driving.


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

[User]
CMV: it is not possible to have an entirely "non-offensive" existence.

You can please some of the people all of the time.
You can please all of the people some of the time.
You cannot please all of the people all of the time.

Offense is sometimes given/intended, and sometimes taken/unintended.

It's possible to go through life and deliberately choose to not engage with things you know will give/have intentional offense to an individual or group.

It's not possible to make every possible consideration in every possible way in order that nothing you ever do or say or be can ever be unintentionally offensive, or that someone can take offense from it where no intention is there.

If you change your behaviour to match one groups expectations you may be causing offense to another, and vice versa. There is always someone who can find issue with something.

The only option is to be your own compass, make your own decisions, and accept that some people may not like that. It doesn't mean to change for them but accept that there is no pure choice that leads to entirely accepted results.

[Assistant]
Isn't this just a subset of the paradox of tolerance?

The very act of being non offensive is offensive to some, see just admitting the existence of LGBT. And that's ok.

Who is seriously proposing an existence where you offend literally noone?


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Why was the Half-Blood Prince so much better a teacher than Snape?

Based on how much Harry improved when given the Half-Blood Prince's notebook, AND also how poorly other students, including Hermione, do in Snape's class, it seems clear that Snape is a terrible potions teacher, and worse even than the Half-Blood Prince.

What happened? Why is the teacher so much worse than the student he once was?

[Assistant]
The Half-Blood Prince's textbook was basically a cheat sheet.  It didn't "teach" Harry any potions knowledge per se, it just gave him some answers and tips for how to make specific potions.  As demonstrated by the exercise to make an antidote for the blended poison, Harry's potionmaking abilities were not significantly improved by his possession of the Prince's book, because he didn't understand any of the fundamental theory.

Put another way, both Snape and the Prince were terrible teachers. Snape was bad because he didn't care about imparting knowledge upon his students, and the Prince's textbook was bad because it imparted the wrong things.


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

[User] [Star Wars] Anakin is a second too slow and becomes a red smear on Darth Maul's bitchin' hoverbike. What happens now?

[Assistant]
* No Anakin means the command ship isn't destroyed, as none of the other pilots are aware of just how good a trick spinning truly is. The droid army defeats the Gungans, likely killing Jar Jar Binks in the process, before returning to Theed to drive out Padme. The Trade Federation win the day.

* Meanwhile, the duel with Maul likely plays out the same way. Qui-Gon dies and Maul gets bisected, though this time there is no dying request. Obi-Wan will have to figure out his future by himself.

* With the Gungans and Naboo security forces thrashed, Padme will be at the mercy of the Senate for aid, who are in no rush to oppose the Federation. This is going to be very awkward for Palpatine, and he'll definitely have to revise his original plans to account for a Federation victory, likely relying on more manipulation of Gunray as Sidious. Assuming he can get things back on track:

* As Padme is not a senator, Palpatine has no reason to attempt to assassinate her in the lead up to the Clone Wars. This means Obi-Wan doesn't find out about Jango Fett ahead of schedule, or the clone army, which in-turn means Dooku and the droid factories on Geonosis remain hidden. The Separatists likely start the war on their own terms at a greater advantage. Sidious may have to go out of his way to deliberately weaken them if he still wants a Republic/Imperial victory.

* Dooku likely still ends up betrayed in favour of someone younger e.g. Ventress, Krell, Offee etc., who is likely more loyal but less powerful compared to Anakin. Mace Windu is likely never informed of Palpatine's identity and so there is no duel between them. Sidious likely keeps his unscarred appearance and the masters survive to see Order 66.

* Beyond here it's anyone's guessing without Luke or Leia existing.


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

[User]
How did English become the international language?

There are easier languages and there are languages with more native speakers, so why is English the language that everyone in the world is expected to know?

[Assistant]
Historical accident. In the past, other languages like Latin and French have served as the "international language." It just happens that we've had two successive English-speaking nations as the most powerful in the world - first Great Britain, then the United States.

At the height of British power, it was literally true that the sun never set on their Empire - they had significant holdings in places all over the world and on every continent. Furthermore, they were a major mercantile nation, and English traders could be found almost anywhere. English was a highly useful language to learn for this reason.

As American power eclipsed that of Great Britain, people didn't have to learn a new language to deal with the new power - Americans spoke English, too. So English's position became more entrenched.

Meanwhile, the world became smaller as transportation in the British/American age eclipsed what came before it. In less than a century, trips that took weeks or months by ship could be made in hours by airplane. In this environment, anyone could theoretically go anywhere - and the best option for many of them was to go to the rich Western countries, many of which were Anglophone, for education. Thus, English again was reinforced as an international language.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does heat alter our perception and create a "wavy" effect.

For example, the area above a strong heater.

[Assistant] Heat changes the refractive index of air (due to expansion), and as currents and eddies of air pass through a heater or over a desert  there's an uneven heating effect, causing slight but visible waves of differing refraction.


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

[User]
Is there like a guide on programming languages? As in what works best for what kind of project?

I have a somewhat solid understanding of some programming languages, but Im having some trouble which language might be better for a type of project. As in like, is python better for a simple chess game than Java.

[Assistant]
As always with any Engineering question which is what this is, the real answer is, it depends.

Most answers should be go with what you know  best so if you know python then use that.

Thinking about your project up front can dictate what technologies you use including language.

Is a static type system important,
Will you want functional programming and/or Object oriented programming.

Will you follow a design pattern or grow the program organically as you add features.

Theres a bunch of options and bunch of trade-offs to consider.

In terms of languages they are all Turing complete which means (loosely) any program can be written in any language.

Obviously certain languages are geared towards different things like where/how they are deployed, or performance etc.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Could Palpatine have just eroded the Jedi council's political power while working to disillusion the younger generation of knights instead of purging them from the Galaxy?

Obviously, his plan worked, so it's hard to argue with the results. But it seems as though Palpatine's plan was needlessly convoluted. I imagine that discrediting and undermining the council probably would've been easier and more full proof than starting a war that you're running on both sides, trusting that an entire army is brainwashed enough to carry out your orders, and banking that one guy would switch sides in such a way as to convince an entire galactic Senate to cede it's power.

[Assistant] Palpatine didn't want to slowly wither away the Jedi, he wanted them to be eradicated in one violent, fell stroke. He wanted to see death and destruction. He wanted them to feel betrayed by those they thought closest to them. And above all, he wanted to pull it off in a way that proved he was the master manipulator. Remember Luke correctly surmised that Palpatine's greatest weakness was his overconfidence in his power. Hubris was always a core part of Palpatine's actions, and ultimately it would lead to his downfall, but he couldn't see that. That said, his plan was the only one he would tolerate because it was the plan that he came up with and stoked his ego the greatest, anything less would be unthinkable in his eyes.


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

[User]
[God of War/Mirror universe] What would the mirror Kratos - the one *without* the goatee - be known for?

Would he still play a part in the Titanomachy?

[Assistant]
I think mirror-universe Kratos would just be a standard Greek hero. He hits most of the checklist:

* Tragic background

* Divine parenthood

* Supernatural abilities

* Great warrior

* Weapons bestowed by a god

So basically, he'd slaughter everything evil instead of just everything.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Okay, Palpatine was an evil bastard, but wasn't he correct that the Republic needed to centralize power?

Obviously not to the extent of making it a theocratic dictatorship like the Empire, mind you, but the Republic before Palpatine's reforms was clearly to brittle and fragile, and would not be able to weather crises effectively. Palpatine intentionally worsened these problems to gain power, but they would have still existed without him.

I'm just saying, there's got to be an in-between state besides "*laissez faire* confederacy" and "military dictatorship."

[Assistant]
Lasted for a thousand years, and it still took most of a generation to bring down from within by a concerted conspiracy involving several actors all with immense power within and without the Republic.

The centralization of power is largely *what brought about* the crises that were ultimately leveraged to kill it. The system worked fine for a very long time.

You want a *laissez faire* confederacy, take a look at the post-Empire Republic. One planet and a fleet destroyed, and it's tits up, organizationally. The pre-Empire Republic *was* the in-between state. Which is why it weathered an entire millennium.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are ALL (except equestrian) Olympic events single sex?

I understand, I think, events like swimming, gymnastics, weight-lifting, etc.  Why do events like fencing, badminton, archery, even basketball, have to be single-sex only?

[Assistant] Because men and women are built differently and have different athletic abilities. So to keep things 100% fair men compete against men and women against women so that the only X factor is skill, not gender differences.


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

[User]
LI5: Can someone explain what's allegedly happened with Murdoch's phone hacking scandal, and why it's so important?

All I can gather is something about the integrity of newspapers and such. What's going on exactly?

[Assistant]
Police were investigating a girl's murder. One small detail of the case was that her family insisted she was still alive (possibly run away, kidnapped, whatever) because phone records showed her voice mail was still being remotely checked regularly and some messages were even deleted.

It turns out a News of the World (one of Murdoch's companies) employee was the one checking the voice mail as a way to get story leads. Messages were deleted so the voice mail box wouldn't fill up, blocking new messages. Deleting those messages is destroying evidence and is terrible because even the tiniest clue can catch a murderer.

This catches the public's attention, more investigation is done and it comes out that this has happened several times before. Most notably, another Murdoch employee allegedly tried to grease palms with September 11th first responders to get info from cell phones in the same vein. This REALLY catches the public's attention.

So, the debate, if we can call it that, is whether or not it's ok for reporters to illegally access your phone messages, delete the ones that could possibly catch the person who murdered you, etc. And, that's only the thing they were *caught* doing.


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

[User]
Why do we keep trying to find new heavy elements if they only snap into existence for milliseconds?

Would these super-heavy elements have some use? Is it self-assurance?

Thanks for the help, I'm only a sophomore in high school, but I'm super interested in this kind of science so try not to use to big of words, I think I have a somewhat basic understanding though.

Again, Thanks! :)

[Assistant]
Science isn't always about finding applications. There have been many discoveries throughout history that didn't have practical applications for decades or centuries.

These super-heavy elements won't have applications because they're too short-lived. But they're useful for testing our current theories on nuclear physics.


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

[User]
ELI5: what happens to the water used to make concrete?

Can the concrete degrade, until the water escapes?

[Assistant] Concrete setting is a complicated process and depends on the materials used. But part of the process is the hydration of the ingredients. The water actually becomes part of the ingredients. The water remains but is part of the chemical components. Concrete is also produced which will set under water. The Romans understood how to make concrete including underwater concrete. It is part of how they were so good at construction.


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

[User] Everyone says to not write a csv parser from scratch. But if your language doesnt have one, how do you do it the right way?

[Assistant]
>Everyone says to not write a csv parser from scratch

Everyone says to not write a csv parser from scratch if your language already provides a decent one.

FTFY.  If you need or want to write one for yourself then just write it to parse your particular delimited file. If you want to create and publish a  library then find a popular one in another language with a decent test suite and mimic it. It should address all the edge cases that make it universal.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is it recommended to drink lots of milk after swallowing bleach ?

[Assistant]
There is a protein in milk, one protein structure called lactase (kind of like a microscopic arm made of legos) is responsible for making bleach less harmful when swallowed.

 This protein "lego arm" binds onto the highly reactive chlorine atom and the highly reactive OH (hydroxide) molecule in the basic bleach, when it does this it, the protein transforms (like a transformer, except its final form is shitty ...and turns into sort of a "homo gangbang" ... i.e.: homogeneous cluster of protein). The protein molecules then combine and coagulates with the above dangerous stuff... This allows your body to SHIT it out rather than being absorbed into your system.

So milk helps by having its lactase bind onto the "bad" particles and allows you to shit out the homo. gangbang of lego arms.


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

[User] ELI5: how do ants in ant colony know whats their role? Are they trained for these roles (soldiers, farmers, etc.)? Are there ants that go through career changes and switch roles?

[Assistant] Some roles are just based on body type. A soldier is never going to become a queen. But others do actually change roles. Ants communicate through chemicals and if an ant in one role goes awhile and doesnt encounter much of a chemical associated with a role, it can change to that role. So, imagine half the foragers get eaten by an anteater. Other ants slowly notice theyre not encountering enough forager chemicals and might switch roles. That eventually restores the balance.


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

[User]
Parents doing a PhD, what does your schedule look like ?

Hi !

As a parent of young kids ending my first year of PhD, I'm turning to you for inspiration on what are your routines, tools, or else that helps you stay on top of things ?

Either studying method, note taking, food planning, etc.

Thanks !

EDIT : Thanks all for your replies. This is really encouraging. Knowing we're not alone, and having some tools. I already use GanttProject, but will plan more. Bullet notebook seems great too.  As for social media... it's hard ! ;-)

[Assistant]
Treat your PhD like a job. Regular hours. 8am to 5pm. You are in class, at your desk or in your lab working. Set those expectations early with your adviser. Reading papers? That's to be done at work, during work hours. Class assignments? Done during work hours. Grading papers as a TA? In the office during work hours. Only break that wall if absolutely necessary and unavoidable.

You will see and hear people talk about their long and crazy hours. Most of the time that's because of poor structure and planning. They are "working" 12 hours a day, but a lot of it is wasted or down time. They can afford to do that without any consequences aside from missing social activities. With proper planning and a structured day/week, you will get much more done in 8 hours (please take a decent break + lunch, don't work 9 hours straight).


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

[User] Why can't you ever have truly monochromatic light?

[Assistant] Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. The wavelength of light is related to it's momentum, and quantum objects (such as light particles) cannot have their momentum defined with infinite precision. That's why a photon cannot have one exact wavelength, instead it has a range of possible values for it's wavelength.


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

[User]
[Marvel/DC] What would happen if various superheroes got shot in the chest?

Assume:

* Their powers are functioning properly.
* They're wearing their standard gear.
* They're immobilized or taken by surprise (regardless of how implausible this is) so they can't use shields, weapons, wristbands, etc. to deflect the bullet..

I know the really obvious ones.  Bullets bounce off of Superman, and they just pop out of Wolverine's body and the wound heals.  What about Thor?  Hulk?  Spiderman?  Wonder Woman?  Does Batman's suit deflect bullets?  Etc.

[Assistant]
1. Thor laughs

2. Hulk smashes the offending shooter into the ground

3. Wonder Woman shrugs it off

4. Spiderman has a hole in his chest

5. Batman has serious bruising and may have internal injuries depending on the caliber of the gun

6. Iron Man shoots back

7. Capt. America has a hole in his chest

8. Bucky Barnes has a hole in his chest

9. Black Widow has a hole in her chest

10. Hawkeye has a hole in his chest

11. Wanda Maximoff has a hole in her chest

12. Vision shrugs it off

13. Star-Lord has a hole in his chest

14. Drax starts beating the shit out of the shooter

15. Gamora starts beating the shit out of the shooter

16. Rocket Racoon has a hole in his chest

17. Groot shrugs it off

18. Aquaman laughs

19. Cyborg shrugs it off

20. Buster Scruggs drops dead

21. Robin drops dead

22. Nightwing has a hole in his chest

23. Red Robin has a hole in his chest

24. Starfire has a hole in her chest

25. Raven has a hole in her chest

26. Beast Boy has a hole in his chest

27. Luke Cage shrugs it off

28. Daredevil has a hole in his chest

29. Jessica Jones has a hole in her chest

30. Danny Rand has a hole in his chest

31. Dr. Doom beats the shit out of the offending shooter for marring the perfect armor of Doom.

32. Mr. Fantastic shrugs it off

33. Invisible Woman has a hole in her chest

34. Human Torch melts the bullet

35. The Thing shrugs it off

36. Green Arrow has a hole in his chest

37. Green Lantern shrugs it off

38. Flash has a hole in his chest

39. White Siren has a hole in her chest

40. The Atom shrugs it off

41. Citizen Cold has a hole in his chest

42. Vixen has a hole in her chest

43. Constantine has a hole in his chest

44. Heatwave has a hole in his chest

45. Firestorm converts the bullet into nuclear material

46. Dr. Manhattan pontificates about the futility of life

47. The Comedian drops from a 50 story apartment

48. Night Owl drops dead

49. Silk Spectre drops dead

50. Ozymandias drops dead

51. Rorschach drops dead

etc, etc.


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

[User]
ELI5: How can we measure, define, or even estimate the surface area of something like activated charcoal when the coastline paradox makes the length of a nominally 2D surface difficult to reckon? What about less regular surfaces like intestinal lining?

I imagine it's derived indirectly by comparing the physical and/or chemical properties of unprocessed and processed samples, but what about other microscopic structures, like intestinal lining, that don't have as straightforward properties to test?

And more to the point, what do we mean when we say "surface"? Where's the cutoff for various standards (chemical, biological, or architectural) where surface ends and interior begins?

[Assistant]
Despite what some have said, when defining the surface area of a porous surface like activated charcoal, you absolutely do run into something directly akin to the coastline paradox. One measures the surface area of a porous surface by essentially covering it in molecules of a known size and shape. The amount of molecules needed to cover the surface tells you how much surface you have. The size of the molecules determines how small the corners and crevices are that the molecules can cover. That is, if you use a big molecule to measure a surface with a lot of very small crevices you will under estimate the total surface area.

There are materials with surface areas of several thousand square meters per gram of material. This is much larger surface than you would predict by simply counting up the surface of spheres.


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

[User] ELI5: Does touching bones(for example if I had a deep cut or a bad break that exposed bone) hurt?

[Assistant] You can literally palpate your bones through your skin. Does it hurt when you do this? No. Any sensation is the nerve endings in your skin. With that being said, once you enter the bone, you can feel pain. In certain emergency situations, the inside of the bone has to be accessed in order to administer life saving medications. The person does not usually react to the puncturing of the bone, but they do experience severe pain when saline and/or medications are pushed into the bone marrow.


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

[User] Eli5: What causes that feeling in your stomach when you drive quickly over a steep bridge / go down a steep drop on a roller coaster?

[Assistant] It's literally your stomach moving up in your torso. Our organs aren't rigidly held in place; they're more floating in your torso, anchored by ligaments here and there. Usually you don't notice it, but a sharp change like what you describe can cause perceptible movement.


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

[User]
[BSG] If the Twelve Colonies possessed FTL jump drives that were capable of crossing significant portions of the galaxy, why didn't they expand further before the Second Cylon War?

I understand that jumping long distances is dangerous, but surely they sent explorers or surveyors to new planets at some point?

The colonials have been spacefaring for at least 2,000 years after all.

[Assistant]
The Colonies were extremely unusual in that they were several habitable worlds in really close proximity to each other. In contrast, it took weeks of searching further out from Colonial space than they had ever gone for the Galactica to find ONE barely habitable planet.

Calculating jump parameters is also an involved process which has some inherent risks. You can jump to nearby stars using telemetry gained from ground and orbital telescopes, but it lacks exact precision and most stellar bodies are almost impossible to detect, such as asteroids small planets, comets etc. This seems to be the type of recon Raptors were designed for, but they lack the sensitive viewing systems to extensively survey entire systems.

Basically, it seems to be a measure of time... They'd have to calculate reliable jump-coordinates from telescopes, send a Raptor to do a cursory sweep and determine safe coordinates for a larger jump, then send in heavier survey equipment both to survey the system but also to collect data for further jumps. That type of work is time consuming, and rather expensive.

This wasn't so much an issue for the Galactica, since they largely threw caution to the wind for the sake of survival, but the Colonies wouldn't have been so desperate. In fact, between the First and Second Wars they seem to have become increasingly arrogant and bureaucratic.


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

[User]
Why did the moon lander vehicle look like it was wrapped in (golden) tin foil?

Re-watching Transformers: Dark of the Moon, and in other media, it's always shown like this, but it looks rather flimsy and easy to peel...

What is it?

[Assistant] That's actually a thermal insulation material called multilayer insulation (MLI). It just looks ruffled because of forces in transit and landing. The way out looks may also have to do with how it wraps around the contour of the lander components.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do all soda companies have the same size and shape of can/bottle?

Wouldnt companies have variance between products? Or is there some sort of standard that causes all of these cans and bottles to be manufactured the exact same way? There are some other examples of this but soda is just the first that comes to mind.

[Assistant]
While it is true that a different company takes care of the packaging, this doesn't stop them from requesting different sizes and shapes. Or even building their own packaging facilities.

However most soda companies would try to stick to the standard. That's party because they don't want to lose potential sale from things like vending machines. Or stores that can't be bothered to handle logistics on storing and handling a specific container shape, while every other brand is easier because they're similar.


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

[User]
ELI5: Everyone in the world raises their arms/fists to represent success and victory. Why is that?

Every culture (to my knowledge), every country, and every civilization that all developed independently of eachother, and yet everyone raises their fists or arms up in the air to proclaim 'yes!' or 'victory!'.

Why is that?

[Assistant] It is just a human reaction. Recently, saw a video on TEd talks about body language. It said there was a study done and when someone who was blind and has always been blind won a challenge they raised thier hands up in the air, in victory. Even people who have never seen that done, react that way.


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

[User]
How can the universe have a single age?

According to wikipedia, the universe is estimated at 13.3 to 13.9 billion years old, but I haven't been able to figure out what exactly that means. If you take two objects and ask them how long ago an event they both witnessed was, you would get two different answers depending on gravitaty and velocity. Objects that have been trapped inside of a star since the big bang would say the universe is much younger then an object free floating between galaxies. What is the age of the universe measured relative to, and what's the significance of that age over any other given age?

[Assistant]
When you zoom out to the cosmological scale, where anything smaller than a galaxy is too small to resolve, it turns out that nothing moves very fast. It's true that the proper time in a moving reference frame will differ from the proper time in a notionally stationary reference frame, but unless the relative velocity between those reference frames is large, it doesn't differ *much.*

Cosmologists consider a special reference frame in which the cosmic microwave background appears, *and always has appeared,* isotropic. That is, there's no significant difference in the frequency of the microwave background radiation coming from *this* direction and the radiation coming from *that* direction. This gives cosmologists a reference frame to work from.

Conveniently, Earth is in this reference frame, within certain limits. The dipole anisotropy we see in the sky indicates that the Earth is moving relative to the background at about 600 kilometers a second, a velocity so small that to a cosmologist it rounds down to zero.

So any two clocks in reference frames in which the CMBR is fairly isotropic will agree within an acceptable margin of error.

Considering the error bounds on the age of the universe encompass something like *half a billion years,* "close enough" is, indeed, close enough.


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

[User] ELI5: If fires go out when oxygen is removed, how is the Sun burning?

[Assistant]
Short answer: the sun is not burning.  It is too hot to burn.

The sun is a nuclear fusion reaction (mostly hydrogen into helium), which is far and away a higher energy than simple oxygen combustion.


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

[User]
[Halo] How the hell did the Home Fleet with 200 S-MAC guns fail to destroy the Fleet of Sacred Consecration during the First Battle for Earth?

You are talking 100+ ships vs 15 (13 cruisers + 2 CAS carriers), now, lets say for a moment that the 100 ships ain't that good, the SMAC's alone should have torn the entire enemy fleet to shreds, an SMAC can put a round straight through 3 covenant capital ships.

During the fall of reach, there were 20 SMAC's, and they managed to destroy a third of the Covenant fleet (which numbered 314) and they only got to fire a few times before their ground control station went boom.

Why did it require the master chief to destroy one, and why did the other one manage to get to the surface? those ships should have been obliterated the moment they got into the kill-zone.

[Assistant] I believe the storyline of the first mission is that they aren't in the killzone, they're staying outside of effective range and launching boarders. If most of those SMAC stations were destroyed without firing a shot, it would explain how Regret's carrier made it past.


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

[User] ELI5: When eating food like mashed potatoes, and you swallow a big bite causing it "sticks to your ribs", what is actually happening? Why does it feel like I'm suffocating when the food should be on its way to my stomach, not caught in my air pipe?

[Assistant]
Your air pipe has soft tissue and firm tissue that makes it up. Cartilage rings in your air pipe (which keep it from collapsing when you inhale) are shaped like the letter C, with the open part of C facing the back of your neck. There is obviously not an opening in the back of your air pipe but the tissue back there isn't as firm and can be pushed in/out easily. This "weakness" in the back wall means that something can push in from behind, narrowing your air pipe and making it feel harder to breathe. Your food pipe just so happens to run behind your air pipe.

This is a guess as to what is happening. If it was your epiglottis closing, you literally wouldn't be able to breathe instead of just having mild difficulty.


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

[User] [Fallout 4] I used to live in the Capitol Wasteland and had to run regular maintenance on my gun. Now I live in the Commonwealth and the gun never breaks. What gives?

[Assistant]
One of the first things the Institute created were maintenance nanites. They can repair minor damage at a molecular level, keeping things running longer without the need to tedious maintenance. But, they aren't self replicating, and if something suffers too much damage, they 'write it off' and focus on something else.

*Non-canon. The more realistic answer would be, you still have to preform semi-regular maintenance on a firearm. But the system previously used required WAAAAAAY too much maintenance, and doing it realistically wouldn't really add anything to gameplay (you clean your handgun every day. It works fine for 20 years without so much as a missfire) so it's just assumed you do it and its in the background.


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

[User]
[ATLA/LOK/Harry Potter] I am a fully realized Avatar who has been given a regular old stick disguised as a wand. How many spells can I preform using only my bending abilities and no magical knowledge?

Essentially, how many HP spells could be replaced by bending to achieve identical effects without the magical world discovering my true identity?

Assuming I have access to all bending subsets.

[Assistant]
That depends heavily on who you're trying to fool. A well trained wizard would recognize that you aren't actually performing magic. Magic has a distinct feel to it that you can't quite recreate with bending.

As far as recreating the effects of magic, firebending should be your go to. It's easiest to direct and shape in a way that would seem to be controlled by your "wand" (just be careful it doesn't catch on fire) Earth Bending is probably off the table entirely. It's too physical to really go unnoticed as a something different, unless you're capable of telekinetic bending. Other than that, freezing water, combustion bending, and maybe some quick lightning should help you pass to most wizards.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does the taste of something diminish rapidly? Example, swirling a fruit yogurt drink around the tounge quickly becomes tasteless, yet swallow and immediately take another sip and it is bursting with flavor again. How is the taste sucked out?

[Assistant] It's called neural adaption. You are sensitive to changing stimuli. Constant stimuli are filtered out by your nervous system. All of your senses have this quality. For instance, your eyes constantly move even when you're looking straight ahead in order to negate this.  Otherwise, your vision would fade just like the taste of your yogurt drink.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are torrent sites and it's torrenters not being attacked/arrested?

I've always wondered why nobody, such as the federal government hasn't really cracked everyone down including its users

I am aware of he takedowns of megaupload, the pirate bay and also demonoid (which I'm sad to see go down right now since I'm an avid user)

ELI5 please :)

[Assistant] Regularly going after individual users doesn't really make sense, because it costs a lot more to prosecute people than the damage you do just by downloading. But going after the *providers* isn't likely to work; torrent sites get all the protections that search engines do, which means that as long as they don't actively try to get people to violate copyright there's not much of a case against them. So there's just not all that much the government can do about it.


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

[User] ELI5: The science behind "Red skies at night: sailors delight. Red skies in morning: sailors take warning."

[Assistant]
It wholly depends on where you live, in tropical regions this makes no sense at all but in temperate climates weather systems move predominantly west to east.

Red skies are usually caused by sunlight reflecting off the underside of cloud cover. If there's red sky in the morning, the sun is shining from the east hitting cloud cover coming from the west, i.e. there are clouds on the way. Red sky in the evening is exactly the opposite, clear skies to the west and clouds departing to the east.


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

[User]
ELI5: How is it that homework help websites such as Chegg and Coursehero are somehow able to remove all other answers from the internet?

Before these sites were around I would have no trouble googling my problem and finding help on a solution.  Now, all of these answers are behind a paywall and rarely seem to be able to find anything anywhere else.

[Assistant]
It is nearly impossible to remove something completely from the internet. Your answers are most likely still there. If they're not it could be because the hosting Website is no longer online.

What's most likely happening is that pages like Chegg and Coursehero have a higher rank on the search engine and thus being displayed first. The "old" pages are being pushed further down as their rank isn't as high.

Another explanation might be that those pages pay the search engines to get displayed on the first page (think of it like ads).

Try to alter your search query in a way that it looks less like a homework related question. That increases your chances of getting to free answers. You can even try advanced search queries to exclude those homework pages from the search results.


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

[User] [Blade Runner 2049] How many real humans exist compared to replicants/non-humans?

[Assistant]
Almost impossible to tell.

Off planet who the fuck knows. On planet it might be as high as 10%

The real issue here is how much "behind the scenes" labor is done by replicant.

It looks like Batistsa at the beginning was hiding as a human on the giant farm. If we assume everyone there was human it might be dramatically lower than 10% since humans are doing a lot of the dirty work.


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

[User] [Elderscrolls] What are the Khaijit's views on cat ownership?

[Assistant]
The Khajiit aren't that big on Ownership in general. Culturally, things are largely shared with no direct individual control, which is why Khajiit typically get a bad rap for being thieves. They take what they need, regardless of who 'owns' it.

There is a bred of Khajiit, the Afliq, which is almost indistinguishable from a House Cat though. like the Senche, the Khajiit view them as siblings, not as domesticated animals, because, in a very literal sense, they are.


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

[User]
ELI5: How are we able to hold and engage in conversations, seemingly without thinking?

When someone strikes up a conversation we are able to respond quite fast. There's usually not much of a pause when it's the other person's turn to speak. Is this just reaction? Every conversation is a bit different, yet no deep thought ever seems to cross our mind when engaged in conversation.

[Assistant]
You _are_ thinking, deeply and intensely, when engaging in conversation. But this thinking is something your brain is innately wired to do.  It's as natural a human behavior as walking, or looking out on the world and recognizing what you are seeing, or using a tool. All these are really intense and difficult problems that we tackle automatically and easily, because we are adapted for doing just these things.

Contrast this with doing algebra or playing chess.  These are things we have no innate ability  to do, so we have to do it the "long way" by applying our general-purpose conscious intelligence to the problem. Holding a pencil and writing out 124 + 139 = 263 is a _vastly_ more difficult problem than solving the equation, but most people could accomplish the writing without "thinking", while the math problem takes some thought, since the motor-control and visual recognition are things the brain is primed to do, unlike addition.

This threw a lot of early AI researchers, who originally expected things like machine vision to be easily solved on the way to conquering big problems like chess and advanced math.  They learned it was much easier to make a computer beat the world champion in chess than to make one engage in a sensible conversation.  Which gives you an idea how difficult it is.


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

[User]
[Avengers] What happens when Hawkeye runs out of arrows?

It cant be possible for his quiver to hold more than fifteen arrows. Some of the battles he participates in take hours. And Im talking about the pre-*Endgame*, non-Ronin Hawkeye, with no sword to also use as a weapon. So, does he just stop fighting altogether? Does he use his bow as a melee weapon?

[Assistant] He did run out of arrows, in the first *Avengers*. He scavenged more arrows from the corpses of his enemies, used his bow as a staff, and acted as a spotter for the others. He's also really good with a sword.


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

[User] [Marvel]What are the least friendly and the least neighborhood versions of Spider-man?

[Assistant]
An alternate-universe comic had a guy who was bitten by the spider going completely off the deep end - he became a psychotic monster who devolved into a giant spider-monster, engaged in cannibalism and impregnated his girlfriend with spider eggs, which ripped her apart and devoured her body.

Morlun shows up at the end and kills him, devouring his soul.


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

[User]
CMV: The United States should base the elections solely on the popular vote.

The claim that the electoral college was set up to avoid populists winning elections may have been true, but it was set up in a time where political parties weren't a thing in the US and frankly, it also makes it seem like it was set up due to fear of the average person's stupidity. All the electoral college has done is allow populists *within* political parties to win elections.

There is also the concern that if the electoral college was removed, candidates would only campaign in New York or California and disregard the rest of the nation, but what people don't realize is that this *already happens* but instead of highly populated states, it's swing states. Candidates spend majority of their resources campaigning in these swing states and they typically get to elect who the next president will be. Only in those states does everyones vote truly matter.

If the electoral college was abolished, this would actually make candidates campaign all over the country far more proportionately. Millions of republicans don't bother voting in California or New York because their vote essentially doesn't matter. Millions of democrats don't bother voting in Texas or Georgia because their vote also essentially does't matter. If the electoral college was gone, people who previously didn't vote in these "for sure" states would have an actual reason to vote, this will cause candidates to campaign in states that they previously wouldn't even bother with and not only focus on a select few swing states. Voter turn out would also increase dramatically. In turn, the president that actually gets elected is far more representative of the people. States are a lot more "purple" than people think.

And probably the most important reason is that the electoral college allows for the less popular candidate to win presidency. There has never been a president that lost the popular vote that was well received by the public, **there is a reason they LOST the popular vote**. Majority of the time, the popular vote typically aligns with the electoral vote anyways, so it won't be such a major change. Only now the hiccup of when the less popular candidate wins will be eliminated.

[Assistant]
The whole point of EC, is that you vote for electors - not for President. The assumption was that the populous was too stupid, too busy, and too uninformed to make a decision about the Presidency, and that they would vote for a local town elder, who would then go to Washington DC and meet the candidates and decide on their behalf.

Under EC, there shouldn't even be a popular vote, and people shouldn't be voting for President indirectly through electors - but rather directly voting for electors who then make the decision on behalf of their community (not unlike how Congress works).

It is the fact that we have essentially abandoned this model, which is why EC looks so bad - because no one knows their electors, and no one has faith in their electors, because they have become merely in-betweens. The EC would make a lot more sense, if Presidents stopped directly appealing to the public, and Electors made a substantially bigger push on the local level.

But as long as Presidents directly appeal to the people, and not to the electors - yeah, we probably should just switch to popular vote.


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

[User] Eli5: If heat from the sun is radiated onto Earth, doesnt that mean multiple layers of air are being heated up? If so, why isnt the top layer really hot and the lower ones cold?

[Assistant] Air is not good at absorbing radiation, which is evident from the fact that you can see very clearly in the air. This is possible because light waves pass through the air with little interference. The same is true for infrared radiation, which is what heats up Earth mostly. Rather than being absorbed by the air its absorbed by the Earths surface. The surface, in turn, heats up the layer of air next to it. This down-to-surface air then rises up, because warm air is less dense than cold air, making that colder upper air settle down somewhere else. This process causes most of what we call weather, by the way.


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

[User] ELI5: They said "the water doesn't have an expiration date, the plastic bottle does" so how come honey that comes in a plastic bottle doesn't expire?

[Assistant]
Whoever said that is wrong.

The FDA and IWBA can't find any evidence that age matters to plastic water bottles. The FDA has ruled that there is no limit to the shelf life of bottled water, and no company has even insinuated that the expiration is related to the plastic.

In 1987, New Jersey passed a law requiring all bottles of water to be stamped with an expiration date 2 years after the bottling date. Since you can't identify which bottles will wind up shipped to NJ, companies just stamped all bottles with a 2-year expiration to ensure compliance.

They never passed that law for Honey, which is why plastic honey bottles don't have an expiration.

Although the law was repealed in 2006, companies had figured out people will throw out "expired" water and buy more, it actually increases sales, so they kept printing it "voluntarily".


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

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

[Assistant]
When you make something creative (a book, a website, a painting), you get something called *copyright*. This means that you have a right to determine how people copy it; if they want to make a copy, they have to ask you for permission. The C-in-circle symbol means that the thing it's printed in/on/whatever is copyrighted.

When you sell stuff, you have certain words and phrases that are connected to your advertising for it. This includes the name of whatever you're selling, but it can also cover things like taglines and memorable characters from your ads or something. This is called *trademark*, and the TM means that the phrase right before it is trademarked.

Now, you can *register* trademarks with the federal government; prove that you've been using it for a while, and that people associate the trademark with you, and it goes on the official list. When you do this, other people get less leeway in using your trademark, and it's a lot harder for you to lose the right to it. So when a trademark is *registered*, people use the R-in-circle instead.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is it scary when kids sing or laugh or say nursery rhymes in horror movies/games?

[Assistant]
Generally, it's done in a minor key where the tune is altered, so anything can be spoopy when done that way (Have you seen the Teletubby episode in black and white that plays a Joy Division Song over it?).

Also, one of the early films to do this was Nightmare on Elm Street where kids are jumping rope and singing 1-2 Freddy's coming for you, 3-4, better lock your door.

In this case, it's contextual.  Freddy Kruger was a child molester and murderer, so it's about dead kids, and the context makes it spoopier.


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

[User]
Why is Nietzsche so often dismissed as the angsty 14-year-old's philosophy

I am trying to get into reading more philosophy, and by chapter 1 in 'Beyond Good and Evil', I'm attempting to keep up with his densely compacted writing. Interesting ideas abound, regardless of their real world applications.

Why is he dismissed so quickly?

[Assistant]
I think that there are two main reasons for Nietzsche being popular with 14-year-olds:

A: His strong, emotional, flamboyant, visual style of writing. Not many teenagers would continue reading Kant's works beyond the first three pages of any of the books. Nietzsche's style is appealing to young boys.

B: On a superficial level Nietzsche's work is exactly the stuff that rebellious teenagers want to hear. "Fuck the system!"

With many teenagers reading Nietzsche while not understanding everything properly, there will eventually be a whole lot of remarks made about him in discussions or on the internet that are very emotional, "rebellious", and rather incorrect and skewed in terms of what Nietzsche himself had in mind. People will see this flood of comments made about Nietzsche by angsty 14-year-olds and therefore connect Nietzsche with angsty 14-year-olds.


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

[User]
[Undertale] Spoilers for cannon/true pacifist ending

A young child is the ambassador of the humans.

A young child who has shown powerful skills of diplomacy and a skill for thinking on their feet.

BUT... The underground isn't as large a place or complexly political.

If Frisk chose to go with Toriel is she accused of kidnapping? Does that sour negotiations?

They all took off without actually contacting any specific leader. How would humans react to the monsters? Is the history of monsters v humans widespread? Or are people caught unawares? Are Alphys, Undyne, Papyrus and Sans fated to finding only violence? Certainly Sans and Undyne are clever and Alphys is brilliant. Papyrus has confidence but.. really.. Little else. Right?

The king is quite optimistic, kind, and powerful. And.. naive. Does he truly think everything will be fine with them all running off? How naive is he and what danger will he most likely face?

Frisks first goal ought to be to find family and then political leaders. How will they respond? How long has Frisk been away from home and how positively will leaders respond to the arrival of monsters and the return of a child?

I beat the game with smiles and tears. Laughed even. But... I really do think that there are few positive things facing this happy crew.

[Assistant]
If you pay attention to the credits, you can see that one way or another, it worked out. Sans and Papyrus got a car. Toriel opened a school. Mettaton went on tour. And that's how it is when you have a lot of determination and a little caring. The how isn't always important... but there are worse methods than to start by sharing an incredible tale of courage and friendship.

Frisk doesn't have any home or family to go back to. They were so alone no one cared if they lived or died. That's why they went to Mt. Ebott: to disappear. That's why within minutes of meeting Toriel, they started calling her "mom." And that's why they let her adopt them in the end.

Frisk's friends were just the first wave; if you go back and talk to the other monsters once the barrier is broken, they are nearly all preparing for their exodus from the underground.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do Atomic Fusion stops at Iron?

Hello,

i look at many cool Videos about the fusion processes inside of Sun's.
A Sun begin's to die when she can't fuse elements anymore.
This given Element is Iron, but why?

[Assistant]
When you fuse small atoms, like hydrogen, it releases energy. This is how the sun works for example. But doing it in reverse (splitting helium to hydrogen) takes energy.

When you split big atoms, like uranium, it releases energy. This is how nuclear reactors work. But again, doing it in reverse (combining xenon and strontium into uranium) takes energy.

Iron is the crossover point between the two, where fusing it goes from producing energy, to consuming energy. So most stars stop there.


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

[User] [war of the worlds] if the Martians studied planet earth for a million years before launching their invasion, why didn't they know about germs? And why didn't they attack before humanity had built defensive capability?

[Assistant]
- Interplanetary war is hard, you put it off for as long as possible.  The Martians were waiting until the moment when humanity could possibly pose a threat to them,

- Humans have advanced more in the last hundred years more than they had in the previous hundred thousand years.  That exponential growth took them off guard.  Also, while humanity didn't pose all *that* much of a threat to the Martians.  If it weren't for the germs, we'd still have been soundly stomped.

- Something in the way life evolved on mars meant micro-organisms weren't an issue at all.  It's hard to look for something like that when you don't even know it could be a problem.


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

[User] ELI5: Sharks, crocodiles etc. When they eat in the water their prey, where does all the water goes when they swallow? Do they somehow filter meat from water or do they just swallow it all?

[Assistant] I feel like the question was "Does it gulp a lot of water into it's stomach along with the food and does the water stay there or does it somehow get pushed out. And the reason this is an interesting question would be, does gulping large quantities of water mean that the shark is always ingesting way more water than food? And does that affect how it has to eat.


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

[User]
[Marvel MCU] How big the asatru religion is now that Thor casually walks around and saves the planet?

How many millions have converted to asatru since Thor and Loki first appeared on Earth? Thor is not only literally the god of myths but he is a hero who has saved the planet countless times.

I would personally convert to any religion whose god in question walk on a weekly basis through NYC.

[Assistant] I would too, except Thor discourages it. He does not want the responsibility of an individually active deity. Our ancestors believed, but he gets no benefit from worshipers, and he is not really a god, but a powerful alien with a conscience.


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

[User]
Is this correct about Boolean?

Boolean just means that the output will end with a true or false statement, right?

But then I see things like AND/OR/NOT operators called Boolean too. What's going on there?

And I see Boolean Conditional statements. Would that just mean that when there is an "If ... Else ..." code that the answer would be true or false? But then with things like Arduino/Electronics don't all conditional statements end with a true/false statement because the switches are being turned on and off?

Thank you!

[Assistant]
a boolean isn't something that *ends* with `true` or `false`. it IS either  `true` or `false`.

AND, OR, and NOT are boolean operators. Kinda like add, subtract, or negate, these operators let you create larger boolean expressions that either resolve to `true` or `false`.

with an if-else code block, you'd have a boolean expression in the `if` expression.

    if (myBooleanVariable) {
        doStuff();
    } else {
        doOtherStuff();
    }

you `doStuff()` when `myBooleanVariable` is true. If it's not true, then you `doOtherStuff()`

Also, not every expression returns true or false! Many functions return all sorts of values! like a function `getTemperature()` would return a number like `56` or something. Those, however, can be made into boolean statements by evaluating the value in a way that returns a boolean value

for example, say we use the `getTemperature()` function again and we want to get a jacket if the temperature is too cold. We could do a comparison operation to figure out if the temperature meets a criteria for us to get a jacket.

    if (getTemperature() < 45) {
        getJacket();
    } else {
        console.log("It's not even cold!");
    }

even though getTemperature returns a number, we used it to create a boolean expression. It's a powerful way to help our code make decisions!


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

[User] [General] If I chop the human part of a centaur off would a coroner be able to tell it wasnt human or are all the appropriate human bits in the top half? For example when a centaur breaths is it filling the human lungs in the chest or the horse lungs in the body?

[Assistant] The cardiovascular and pulmonary systems, including the lungs and heart are kept in the centaurs human chest, though they are much larger than a normal humans.  This causes the digestive tract and reproductive systems to be pushed further down, into the horse part.  Performing an autopsy on just the human half of a centaur would reveal two enormously giant lungs, and a huge heart, but little to no other organs or systems.


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

[User] ELI5: When you drop an apple and it bruises, what's happening?

[Assistant] The once rigid cells are ruptured by the force of impact, resulting in a mushy soft spot. As for the discoloration, the impact compromises the integrity of the skin and allows oxygen into the apple. The oxygen also causes more cellular degradation and eventually rot.


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

[User] ELI5: How does a multinational company pay it's taxes?

[Assistant] Things obviously get a bit more complicated than this, but at the basic level, they usually have separate subsidiaries operating each country (though we may consider the EU a single country for this purpose). Each subsidiary then has its own separate profits that it earns in the country it operates in, and it pays taxes on those profits. It may then send post-tax profits to the parent company or some other subsidiary.


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

[User] [MCU Infinity War] How did Thanos turn the Aether (Reality Stone), a liquid, into a stone?

[Assistant]
On its own, it flows into different shapes and states, altering reality because that's what it does.  Sometimes it's a liquid, sometimes solid, sometimes particle cloud, etc.

Once you have it, reality can be whatever you want it to be.  You can fix it in any state you desire.


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

[User] Eli5: Why is it that there are multiple copper wires inside an electric cable and why are they coiled?

[Assistant]
It's good to have a thick wire, so electric current can easily flow through it. But if it was just a solid chunk of copper, it wouldn't bend easily.

Putting multiple copper wires in close proximity makes the cable easy to bend while also letting a lot of current through.


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

[User]
[Tron Legacy] Why did that one program suicide to prevent being sent to the games?

I get that lots of programs de-rez in the games, but what made certain deresolution preferable to a chance at living in the games?

[Assistant] The way the games are wired up, with programs like Rinzler using a non-regulation spare disc in a disc fight and Clu descending into the play field with his private goon squad, the Games seem less like a fair shake and more like a brutal public execution. Might as well die fast and certain rather than let the lions maul you in front of a live audience.


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

[User] ELI5: Why doesn't the United States have similar population issues as India and China?

[Assistant]
Being rich, and womens' rights.

Poor people have more kids, this is a well known fact.  People working on farms in rural India don't have tractors, they need as many people as possible to help work.  They don't have social security, so they need lots of kids in the hope that at least one will be able to take care of them when they get old.  They don't have insurance, so they need daughters to marry off to men in other villages (with different weather patterns) to support them during droughts.

Secondly, womens' rights.  Everywhere in the world, the rise of rights for women leads to a decline in fertility rates.  As women can work and earn more money, the opportunity (EDIT: opportunity *cost*) of having another kid increases.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do Cuban-Americans despise Castro and Guevara, yet Cubans in Cuba worship them?

[Assistant]
They are totalitarian leaders, speaking out against them would mean punishment, torture, even death.

There are many loyalists in cuba, yes, who believe that the conditions they live in now are far better than before the revolution, and who can blame them? Instead of a mud hut, they have a solid walls, a doctor on the premises often, school, and even a pretty reliable source of food.


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

[User]
How do snakes move around?

VERY late edit: I just realised that I didn't put ELI5 in the beginning. Sorry.

[Assistant]
Snakes are very strong. They have over 4,000 muscles in their tiny body. We have only 600 muscles, so imagine how powerful a snake can be!

Their are four different ways a snake can move:

-By curving their belly scales slightly outward to push off of the ground and forward. Pretend to do this by laying on the ground and pushing yourself forward using nothing but your toes. You're curving your toes to move! Snakes have special muscles to move these scales, so it's much faster than you on your toes.

-By throwing their bodies forward using their strong muscles. Pretend to do this by crouching down and leaping forward. Everywhere you go.

-By throwing their bodies forward following their head. Much like the previous one, except the snake is "striking" every time it moves! Pretend to do this by crouching, but only moving when you jump out to bite something. This is useful for the sidewinder, which cannot move otherwise on sand.

-By flexing off of obstacles, such as rocks and sticks. Pretend to do this by laying down, and launching off of your bed, bookshelf, etc. to propel yourself. This method prevents snakes who move like this from moving on slick surfaces at all! To propel themselves in this method, they move in diagonal motions, so they can launch themselves in the opposite direction every time they land, moving in a straight path. This gives the appearance of a serpentine, "S" shaped path.

Hope this helps!


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

[User] [Riddick] - What is the nature of the Underverse and how did it give the Lord Marshall his Powers?

[Assistant]
In this verse, life is antagonistic to the natural state. Here humans in all their various races are a spontaneous outbreak. An unguided mistake. The solution lies in another verse. A verse where life is welcomed and cherished. A ravishing ever-new place called Underverse... but the road to that verse crosses over the threshold.

When you look up to see a group of shooting stars it is already too late. What you are seeing is an army, an army unlike any other... crusading across the stars toward the UnderVerse, their promised land - a constellation of dark new worlds. Necromongers, they're called. And if they cannot convert you, they will kill you. Leading them, the Lord Marshal. He alone has made a pilgrimage to the gates of the UnderVerse... and returned a different being. Stronger. Stranger. Half alive and half... something else.


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

[User] ELI5: How are surfing competitions judged if surfers don't always get the same waves as each other?

[Assistant] As a surfer, you have to pick the wave that best suits the tricks you want to perform. That's part of the skill, being able to read the wave. Just like how fishing competitions rely on the fishermen picking the best fish to keep, not just catching fish.


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

[User] If electrons behave as waves when theyre not observed and behave as particles when observed at microscopic scale, how can they behave as waves observed at eye scale? (Young experiment)

[Assistant]
The concepts of particles and waves evolved in classical physics, however as quantum physics was developed, we discovered that those ideas were simply approximations. An electron isn't a particle; it isn't a wave. What is it?

We can understand electrons only in terms of a new construct, something we might call a particle-wave or a wave-particle. It isn't a wave; it isn't a particle; it has some properties of each, however, the mixture is awfully bizarre. It moves through space like a wave; it responds to measurement like a particle; it's a wave that can carry mass and electric charge. It can spread, reflect and cancel itself, just as noise-cancelling headphones cancel sound waves. However, when you detect it, the event is generally sudden, abrupt. The detected electron continues to exist, however, the wave function has been decisively altered. If you detect it with a small instrument, the previously large wave function instantly becomes small.

The duality of wave-particle duality reflects the fact that if you persist in understanding the true nature of the electron in terms of particle and waves, then you have to consider it to be both. However, in reality, it's neither, it's something that is new (if you can apply that word to an over 100 years old idea).


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are there so few blue foods in nature?

Luke Skywalker's aunt gave him blue milk.  Where's our blue food?

[Assistant]
Blue food is a rare occurrence in nature. There are no leafy blue vegetables (blue lettuce?), no blue meats (blueburger, well-done please), and aside from blueberries and a few blue-purple potatoes from remote spots on the globe, blue just doesn't exist in any significant quantity as a natural food color. Consequently, we don't have an automatic appetite response to blue. Furthermore, our primal nature avoids food that are poisonous. A million years ago, when our earliest ancestors were foraging for food, blue, purple and black were "color warning signs" of potentially lethal food.

Most plant life contains a combination of chlorophyll, keratins and anthocyanins in some combination (plus other things, of course). Chlorophyll makes things appear green. Keratins make things appear red, yellow or orange. Anthocyanins have a wider scope and can reflect back reds, purples, yellows, magentas and blues. Pretty much, how an anthocyanin displays colour depends on the pH of the soil/air around the plant.


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

[User] What is the theoretical maximum size of a terrestrial planet?

[Assistant] If you keep adding terrestrial planetary material (mostly iron, silicon and oxygen) to a planet eventually it will resemble a white dwarf star. The radius will peak at only a few times that of Earth, depending on the exact composition, then start decreasing again. When you reach 1.44 times the mass of the Sun, or about half a million Earth masses, the planet/star will collapse, nuclear fusion will ignite and the resulting type 1a supernova will completely destroy the planet/star leaving no remnant.


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

[User] Why does your ping go up if it's only using a few kilobytes playing, downloading a game in the background? Shouldn't it be the same?

[Assistant]
When the network is used at its maximum bandwidth, your router queues the data packets to be sent/received until its their turn to be processed.

When you are downloading a game your bandwidth will usually be saturated because your connection is weaker than than what the game servers can serve you. However your game only sends a few hundred packets per second. This means that when your computer sends your player position, the router will queue it until all the downloading game data that was queued before is finished being processed. This might be millions of packets that block your multiplayer game for at least a few dozen milliseconds. That is noticeable especially for a FPS game.

There are features to avoid this, namely QoS (quality of service) but you gotta configure it, and only if your router is compatible. Good QoS infrastructure allows you to prioritizes some services' packets over others.


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

[User]
ELI5: what actually causes genetic issues if breeding pair are for example siblings?

i guess we've all seen the whole 'little hickville town with mutated villagers' horror scenes in series and movies. would human beings (or other mammals) actually mutate into barely recognizable as humans like that if for example siblings had babies together for several generations?

from the very little i've read, i just came to the conclusion that inherited health issues would be more likely to manifest themselves but beyond that and the whole social stigma thing the offspring would be relatively normal. if i'm wrong, what causes it?

[Assistant]
Our DNA has redundancy built in: it comes in two halves.

Each half can potentially bear faulty copies of a bunch of genes - but so long as there's a working copy in the other half, you're fine.

Think of two pieces of paper, each with a random set of holes in it. Put them together, and so long as none of the holes line up, you effectively have a complete sheet.

When two organisms breed, they take half the DNA from each parent - one sheet of paper each in this analogy.

If the two parents are only very distantly related, it's a pretty good bet that they'll have few or no faulty genes in common - any holes they have will likely be in completely different places, and so won't line up.

If the two parents are very closely related, however, those two pieces of paper will have a very similar pattern of holes, so at least some of them will very likely line up, and the offspring will get two broken copies of the gene. If they're lucky, this doesn't make a whole lot of difference.... but if they're not, really important stuff can get fucked up.


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

[User]
[DC/Marvel] If someone like Thor decided to start fighting street-level crime, would they face opposition from street-level heroes? If so, why are street-level heroes so insistent that only they should deal with it?

One day, Thor decides to start raining godly justice upon the criminals of Hell's Kitchen. Would Daredevil tell him to cut it out, even if Thor manages to (in the short term) eradicate crime? If so, why wouldn't street-level superheroes want such relief? Is it pride? Or is there a rational explanation?

[Assistant]
Thor in the beginning of his comic run would occasionally fight street crime, though he usually faced more esoteric threats.

Theoretically, the reason is because most street level superheroes deal with organized crime like gangs and mobs, problems that cant simply be beat by going in there and beating everyone up. Essentially, he would be no more effective than Daredevil or Spider-Man even though he would be much more powerful.

Also, Daredevil, Spider-Man, and others have skills outside of fighting(science, law, connections) that would make them better suited for fighting street crime than Thor would be.


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

[User] ELI5: How come fat isnt distributed evenly across the body but instead is in specific places?

[Assistant]
Fat is insulation. It protects important areas. It also cushions us. So like for example, your butt. Your bones wouldnt be good to sit on, so this is the solution. Your abdomen has many of your most important organs, and doesnt have a rib cage to keep them safe.

Your sex hormones are a huge determining factor in where your body stores its lipids. Different fats in different areas have specific receptors for hormones. Hormones signal important pathways in your body!

Fatty acids are what we get when we break down lipids. They are by far the most energetically favorable thing for your body to break down. It doesnt take nearly as much energy to break them down, compared to the cellular energy we get out.

Some lifestyle choices, like smoking, poor diet, etc., can determine some of where we store our fat. However it is mostly genetics.


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

[User]
[The Matrix Trilogy] If the Matrix was an iterative, virtual construct designed by the machines  Why didnt the machines, wholly aware of the impending One and the 1% expected to reject the construct, just either disable connection to the Matrix and/or just boot them out of the platform?

Its been a hot minute since Ive seen the Matrix trilogy but was an instant fan since the first.. so excuse the gander if its already addressed or if I missed the answer, but never felt was properly addressed within the story

[Assistant] It is briefly addressed by the architect. The One serves his purpose by rebooting the matrix whenever it reaches and unsustainable level. Same as Zion being a controlled point for the rejects of the matrix being allowed to exist. Once the machines determine the matrix and Zion are at a fail point they confront the one and have him choose a certain number of men and women to start over with. The rest are killed or plugged back into the matrix and all memory is erased except for the one who leads his chosen few to Zion to rebuild. It's all carefully constructed to give the illusion of choice but that choice has already been decided by the machines to control humans.


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

[User]
is the spread of COVID typical for a respiratory virus

i understand that there's no respiratory virus for which we have so much data as COVID 19, but what do we think: is this global pandemic pattern, with the virus and the Deltas and the Omicrons and etc etc and the rapid spikes in infection rates etc, something that happens all the time with your everyday harmless sneezy colds?

Followup question to 'yes' responses: are there other viruses that are following a similar pattern *right now* to COVID, like, are the infection waves etc correlated?

[Assistant]
Flu follows a seasonal wave pattern. It spreads mainly in the winter. To make the vaccine and produce it in time we need to guess which flu strains need to be in it 6 months in advance. We do that with a worldwide network of scientists studying flu. We trace it as it bounces from northern hemisphere to southern hemisphere and back and make educated guesses about what strains to include in the vaccine for the next year.

Respiratory Syntactyl Virus (RSV) is a respiratory virus that many people get. Mostly it acts like just a minor cold unless you are very young or very old. It's one of the leading causes of hospitalizations for infants however. During the lockdowns for COVID the things we did almost eliminated RSV transmission. As we relaxed the non-medical interventions, lockdowns and such, RSV made a big resurgence.

The reason COVID's waves are so dramatic is that it's a new virus. The population was immunologically naive to it i.e. nobody had had it before. That's the situation you can have explosive growth in viruses. Back before the chickenpox vaccine came out schools would have little epidemics of kids catching it. Chickenpox is more infectious than even omicron (R0 \~12 is usually quoted. Some of the high end estimates for omicron put it's R0 at 10). Since the older kids and teachers were immune the size of these epidemics were small. All viruses have waves anytime there are large enough groups of people who are succeptiable.

Our "back to normal" with COVID is when it starts acting more like a flu. It will probably start causing waves every fall and winter (much smaller ones than the ones going on now). Since most people will have either had it or been vaccinated it, these waves almost certainly won't be as dangerous at that point. People will still die, but we won't be risking the collapse of our healthcare system because of the load.


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

[User]
[Hobbit/LOTR] How would things have played out if the orcs never showed up at the BotFA?

(spoilers ahead)

Let's say that for one reason or another the orcs do not show up to Erebor after Smaug was killed and instead of the Battle of the Five Armies we get the Battle of the Three Armies(dwarfs,men,elves)?

Everything else is the same, the Elves want their heirlooms, the men of lake town want their "share" of the treasure(I do have to agree with Thorin that he shouldn't have to hold to his word to repay the people of lake town after all he says "what choice did we have but to barter our birthrights for our freedom?")

And the dwarven army shows up all the same, except there is no threat of orcs to force everyone to come together.

What happens? Do they fight or come to terms? If they do fight who wins, by how much and at what cost?

Can the elves take on the dwarfs? It was kind of hard to tell who had the greater numbers since the dwarfs are naturally smaller and seemed to have tighter formations than the elves. We also see the "soldiers" of laketown taken aback when they were faced with an actual army of dwarfs, they were confident when it was them and an army of golden elves against 13 dwarfs but once they thought they might have to fight rather than just get in on that group experience/free loot they got behind the elves.

Bonus question: The Heirlooms Thranduil spoke of, was it just the necklace we see Thorin pick up or was it also the pile of jewels he threw the necklace on? And as Thranduil says "The Heirlooms of my people are not lightly forsaken." implying that at one point there were in his possession so why did the dwarfs have them? Not sure if I am right but I figured they were at one point his wifes, while being nice they weren't inherently special and she had given them to the dwarfs as a gift, but once she died and there was nothing left of her he wanted them back to remember her by.

[Assistant]
The soldiers of laketown probably didn't have any weaponry that could penetrate Dwarven armor at all, they would have been a non-issue in the battle.

The elves were gracefully assembled on the field of battle, not hidden behind fortifications or atop mountains with bows where they would be most effective.  They were there as a show of force to try to intimidate Thorin's party into surrendering, not deployed in a sensible military formation.

Dain's forces were allowed to walk right up to the Elves, further eliminating the problem of their lack of mobility compared to the Elves and Men.

Finally, the Wood Elf king was a bit of a coward.

Result?  It would be a slaughter.  The Elves would retreat, most of the men would die (either in direct combat, or starving to death in the winter afterwards) - and the Dwarves would keep the mountain.


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

[User] [Star Wars] What happens to force users that are not accepted into the jedi order?

[Assistant]
They work as, essentially, farmhands and laborers in various agri-worlds to provide for the jedi and local communities.

Or they join the Sith because even though they're powerful enough they're too old, become a dark jedi, hunt down a regular jedi, then repent.  Presto!  Welcome to the Order!


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

[User]
If the moon's spin is tidally-locked so that it's synchronized with it rotational rate (causing it to almost always look the same from Earth), once humans colonize the moon, will the lunar inhabitants experience "day" and "night" on the moon?

I was thinking earlier if lunar colonization might cause there to be a need for lunar time zones, but then I started thinking more about how the same part of the moon always faces us.  So, I got to reading about how the moon spins on its axis, but the tidal bulge slowed it's rotation to eventually make it look like it's the same part facing us.  Would that experience be the same on the surface of the moon?  Forgive my ignorance.  My one regret about my education (I'm 48) is that I never took physics or astronomy.  Thank you in advance.

[Assistant]
The Moon's rotation is indeed synced with its orbit, which is why it always faces Earth with the same face. But that still means that it is rotating! It takes the Moon about a month to rotate about its axis, relative to the Sun. So if you're on the Moon, you do have a day/night cycle, it's just about 2 weeks of daylight, followed by 2 weeks of night. The Sun will rise, move across the sky, and set, over the course of 2 Earth weeks. However, the Earth will always be in the same fixed position in the sky, and will only move if you move to a different position on the Moon (if you're on the far side of the Moon, the Earth is always "underground" from your perspective).

This is actually what causes the phases of the Moon. When the Moon is a crescent or half moon or "gibbous" phase, this is because part of the Moon that is facing the Earth is in night-time, and is too dark to easily see from Earth. This isn't the Earth's shadow on the Moon - we only see that when things line up just right during a Lunar Eclipse - this is the Moon's shadow on the Moon.

Hope that helps! I'd also recommend setting down some tennis balls or whatever and moving them around, as seeing things laid out like that can help things to click sometimes.


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

[User]
ELI5: What's the difference between US and UK language settings?

I see these different English settings on devices and sites all the time but I never could tell what the difference was. Is it just some words spelled differently or is there something I'm missing?

[Assistant]
Depends on where the language settings are used.

It could influence any of the following:

* Language selection (English vs US English)
* Keyboard layout (UK QWERTY vs US QWERTY, different placement of special symbols mostly)
* Date formatting (the UK uses sensible dates, the US uses garbage)
* Default currency selection and formatting
* Paper sizes for printers (really! A4 vs US Letter)


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

[User] ELI5: How do stealth planes work? What makes them stealthy?

[Assistant]
When they talk about stealth, they mean via RADAR.

A quick breakdown of RADAR: Pretend it works like a dolphin's or bat's echolocation: we shoot radio waves in a direction and then those waves bounce off stuff and if the waves bounce back toward us, we can "see" whatever the radio wave bounced off of.

Stealth planes use a combination of angular shapes and reflective materials to bounce RADAR off of the plane, but not back towards the "listening" location. Imaging a dolphin trying to look for fish with clicks, but every time a sound hits the fish, the sound bounces up or down instead back to the dolphin, making it so the dolphin doesn't detect that particular fish.


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

[User]
What is the force that drives light to move at the speed that it does? Or to put more simply, what propels light?

I understand that light travels really fast. I know that is an understatement but anyway, what is it that propels light forward to move at the speed that it does without ever slowing down?

[Assistant]
There is no propelling force behind light. From a classical perspective, light is two perpendicular waves in the electric and magnetic fields. The changing electric field induces a magnetic field and vice versa, so the wave is constantly perpetuating itself. Waves do not accelerate, they propagate at a constant speed from the time they are emitted to the time they are absorbed. That speed is determined by the permittivity and permeability of the medium, and in the case of a vacuum this gives the speed of light.

From a quantum perspective, light consists of massless particles called photons. In special relativity, a massless particle *must* travel at the speed of light.