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

[User]
[Dc Comics] In what ways does Solomon influence the power of Shazam?

With the name Shazam being an acronym for the God's that empowers the form, I'm curious as to what ways specifically he gains or uses Solomon's wisdom.

I'm looking for specific examples, but I'd be satisfied with generalities. I ask because I notice in pretty much every form of media Shazam and even Black Adam pretty much have their personalities unchanged in their ultra form.

In fact, as I ask the question, I notice (power, stamina, and strength) all really seem like the same thing. In what ways would those be separated up?

[Assistant]
Billy has frequently been shown to be a voice of reason. He says and does things that you wouldn't expect someone of his age to say and do.

An example would be from the Justice League animated tv show. Superman tried to destroy the fusion reactor that Lex built and ended up fighting Captain Marvel, destroying much of the city. It was Captain Marvel who tried to get Superman to think things through and inspect the situation first. After the fight, Captain Marvel gives a speech about heroism and quits the league. A child of his age normally wouldn't be capable of keeping composure and being reasonable in these situations, that's the wisdom of Solomon at work.

In the Injustice storyline he was also trying to be a voice of reason for the League under Superman. He thought that he would be able to limit Superman's tyranny by staying by his side and advising him (and fighting him if necessary).


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

[User] Can long term use of antidepressants cause epigenetic changes?

[Assistant]
The cause of the disease depression although widely accepted theory of neurotransmitters dysregulation or shortage had been over-simplified. With current studies the effect of use of antidepressants shown to alter the wiring system of the neuronal transmissions. In a sense the mass density of the receptors for the neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine starts over-compensating. It does this by either producing higher or lower. Based on the question it will be important to consider what type of antidepressants we are referring to. SSRIs - Selective Serotonin Reuptake inhibitors act either on the pre or post neurones.
With the concurrent scientific evidence we can say that re-wiring of the neuronal networks of significant neurotransmitters system does lead to a certain level of epigenetical alterations. To what extend this takes place depends upon many variable including baseline receptor density but not limited to this.
Hope it helps.


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

[User]
[The Witcher] What was the Conjunction Of The Spheres like from our point of view?

Humans arrived in the Witcher World during the Conjunction Of The Spheres, apparently after having destroyed our world (Im assuming through climate change, nuclear war or some other mundane catastrophe).

When the Conjunction happened, how did our world react to it? What was it like? Did people willingly volunteer to enter the rifts and explore or were random people swept up into the Witcher World without warning?

[Assistant] It appeared as a series of random calamities and disappearances around the second or third centuries. On our world and many others it was random portals that sucked everything onto the witcher world. Some things may have come into our world but it appears that the nexus was doors opening to the witcher world rather than being 2 way doorways.


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

[User] ELI5: How are scientists able to say that a random species is extinct? Did they have to look everywhere?

[Assistant]
Its more they check for long enough and find nothing.

The fact that we know about them in the first place, and can track declining numbers for some, makes their absence the basis for that decision.

That said, some species turn into hide and seek champions, showing up long after they are "presumed extinct"


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

[User]
Why do most foods taste better when they are hot?

The occasional cold pizza can be delicious but for the most part humans generally eat their food hot.  Why?

[Assistant] A huge percentage of "taste" actually occurs through the olfactory receptors (smell). Particles move more quickly when that are hot and can be more easily received by the nose.  We are able to detect more flavor when food is hot.  This is why icecream tastes sweeter the more it melts, our nose can start picking up more of the particles. You can test this in a weird way by taking a jelly bean or a cheeto or something and holding your nose closed, putting the food in your mouth and chewing it. You can only taste certain parts of it (ie the sweetness or the saltiness) but halfway through chewing unplug your nose and you will be able to "taste" its flavor.


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

[User]
[Zombies in general] Why is it that in so many zombie films, we often see reanimated zombies with bites or missing a limb? Shouldn't so many zombies be literally just a head or perhaps too much of the person's body has been consumed so they don't reanimate at all?

If it may take say 10 or 20 mins to be reanimated, i gotta figure one zombie would be tearing through a good chunk of a body and several zombies would leave a body to mere bits and pieces.

[Assistant]
zombies are paradoxical.

As you said zombies tear appart their victims. This would prevent the person from becoming a zombie because there would not be enough left of him/her to reanimate.

Another problem with zombies is that they are 1. strong enough to overrun the world and defeat the armed forces but at the same time 2. can be taken out by the dozens by untrained survivors.

If zombies are so weak untrained starving survivors can take them down then they would have never taken over or spread that far. If they are strong enough to defeat the army then the survivors would stand no change at all as the zombie number increased.

I have found an answer to both problems. This would require the zombie making disease to be airborne in order to infect everyone. Then the disease turns everyone into zombies except a small group of people who happen to be immune. This way you can have your zombie horde while the survivors still stand a change. It would also explain the amount of "intact" zombies. They were not killed by other zombies but simple turned by the disease.


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

[User]
When someone loses a limb does the body eventually compensate by producing less blood? If so, how long does it take the body to do so and where does the excess blood go?

perhaps a stupid question, but I would imagine with the limb gone your body would require less blood in circulation.

[Assistant] Yes, somebody with a missing limb will have a smaller total blood volume.  Just like in any other person, blood volume is mostly regulate by the kidneys, which respond to changes in blood pressure and electrolyte concentration by retaining or secreting water.  When the limb is cut off, all the blood in that limb is lost, as well as any blood lost during the process.


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

[User]
Why don't microplastics keep breaking down?

It's my understanding that as pieces of "stuff" dissolve or disintegrate into smaller pieces the process accelerates as the surface area/volume ratio changes. It seems like plastics in the ocean have broken down into "micro" sized pieces then just... stopped? Is there some fundamental unit of plastic which plastic products are breaking down into that have different properties to the plastic product as a whole, and don't disintegrate the same way?

Bonus question I only thought of while trying to phrase this question correctly - what is the process that causes plastics to disintegrate in the ocean? Chemically dissolving? Mechanically eroding like rocks into sand?

[Assistant]
There's 2 different but related types of "breaking down". One is the type of breaking down which converts plastic polymers into water, CO2 and biomass which are relatively harmless, usually this is biodegradation done by microbes.

Then there's degradation which is usually physical wear and tear and breaking down of larger polymer chains to smaller ones with relatively similar properties through abiotic physical/cheimcal processes (UV breakdown, heat, chemical reasons, etc).

Both these processes exist for plastics, but for the plastics we don't call "biodegradable plastics" or bioplastics etc, the biodegradation process is extremely slow. So they deteriorate mostly using the latter process, still maintaining their plastic properties and due to their resistance to biological processes and to an extent physical processes, they accumulate.

Because they are resistant and accumulate while breaking into smaller pieces, they disrupt animal functions, develop large effective surface area to transport presistent organic pollutants and eventually come back to us.


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

[User] [Project Zomboid, other apocalypse media] In an event like a zombie outbreak, what would be the reasoning behind cutting the phone lines to a quarantine area?

[Assistant]
To prevent pleas for help.  If there are no outgoing calls, the government can tell everyone everything is being handled.

But if the lines are working and you get a tearful call from your daughter trapped in the zone, you're going to do everything in your power to break through the quarantine to get her, regardless of what the government says.


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

[User]
Is salt water a good antisceptic?  If so , how good?

Do different concentrations have different effectiveness?  Is there a certain concentration that is hostile to most life.

wikipedia says this.

>  Many micro organisms cannot live in an overly salty environment: water is drawn out of their cells by osmosis.

I was wondering does it kill a lot of virus and bacteria?

[Assistant]
When Wikipedia says they can't "live" in an overly salty environment, what they really mean is they can't grow and multiply in such environments. But bacteria don't have to "live", they can go dormant and stay that way for years, only coming back to "life" when conditions are suitable. And viruses even more so.

This  is why salt is a preservative, not an antiseptic. While in the presence of high salt concentrations, many bacteria will go dormant, they may form spores and stay in their spore state for tens or hundreds of years. But they're not dead, and when you take the material out of its salty environment, those same bacteria will start growing again.


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

[User]
[MCU] How powerful was Hank Pym before his resignation from SHIELD?

The opening scene of Ant-Man gave a "don't fuck with Hank Pym" vibe. Given how SHIELD wasn't at full power yet, how messy would have a war been against Hank Pym? They imply he's a one man army; could he have really taken SHIELD down before it was even fully built?

[Assistant]
Yes, he could have, but that's not the reason they don't want to go against him: He's a good guy.

But his power? Remember what he says about his technology: "This could change the texture of reality."

Pym's the only one who understands the implications of his discovery. Yellowjacket just wanted to sell it to Hydra, and Hydra just wanted it to make *spies and soldiers*.

If you can shrink or enlarge anything at a low energy cost, most of our contemporary concepts become meaningless, even if we're clever speculators.

Consider transportation: Shrink it and move it. Okay, cool, free shipping basically? No, it's so much more. You can colonize space by shrinking a colony ship to the size of an dust before accelerating towards Alpha Centauri with a laser pointer.

But wait, why are you colonizing another planet at all? Why not just shrink humanity so that the Earth has an endless abundance of food, water, and energy.

Wait, why do we care about energy? Just build a robot that can copy itself and shrink it to the nanobot scale before feeding it energy.

This isn't getting into more bizarre concepts like shrinking to slip through quantum foam wormholes to any point in time and space in the multiverse or enlarging space-time itself to create anti-gravity effects.

Pymtech means mastery over matter, energy, space, and time. The only reason Pym isn't using it to achieve greater effects is that he's terrified of what will be done with his technology.


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

[User]
ELI5:Why do airline passengers have to put their seats into a full upright position for takeoff? Why does it matter?

The seats only recline about an inch. Is it the inch that matters, or is there something else going on?

[Assistant]
You're most likely to have some sort of accident during takeoff and landing. This is also why your tray tables have to be up and you can't have laptops during these times: ease of evacuation. If your seat is back, and something happens and the plane needs to be evacuated quickly, you just made it harder for the person behind you to get out.

Edit: I've gotten this message lots of times, and as has been beautifully explained, your window thing has to be up so, in the event of an emergency, emergency personnel can see into the plane/you can see a fire, should there be one.


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

[User]
How can TSA/Airport security workers stand next to X and T ray machines all day everyday without any ill effects?

I know the people walking through the machines have nothing to worry about, but are there any precautions in place to stop the workers absorbing these rays? Do the machines focus the radiation into one area?
Thanks in advance.

[Assistant]
Like any radiation worker, they apply ALARA. That means that you should take steps to make your radiation exposure "As Low As Reasonably Achievable". The ways to do this are the maximize distance from the source, minimize time near it, and use shielding when possible.

If you pay close attention when passing through security, you'll see that they rotate between positions throughout the day. So the people operating the x-ray machines rotate around to other positions as well.

You may also notice that some employees are wearing badge dosimeters. These are little badges that you wear on your body. Over time they will accumulate on average the same exposure density to radiation that your body does. Every few months you send them in for testing to see if you had an abnormally high exposure within that time.

I don't know much about the manufacture of their machines (I'd guess it's not something they want the public to know much about), but it's not hard to add some shielding to strongly attenuate x-rays.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is leather so commonly used for things like wallets, bags, etc.? I'm sure it has to do with the physical structure of leather, but why has it become such a standard material?

[Assistant]
Before the creation of synthetic materials, what other durable material did people have? Belts, clothing and bags, boots all made with animal hides are used by people all over the world. Textiles need a lot of labor, to grow the crop, or forage for the crop, then someone to weave it on a loom.

Now it's fashionable, and people in some cases functional preference.


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

[User]
[The Magic School Bus] Is the bus really magical, or is it some kind of advanced technology?

Is Mrs. Frizzle a witch, or is it just some super advanced technological bus?

[Assistant] Definitely magic. The kids have been physically inside the engine of the bus, and it's a perfectly mundane engine; there is nothing under the hood that would let the bus do what it does. The bus (and likely the Frizzle family as well) is magical in nature, and not bound by the laws of nature or physics.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are some holidays on certain days of the month, like Christmas, while others are on certain days of the week, like Thanksgiving?

[Assistant] If you're in the USA, some, like Labor Day and Thanksgiving, are celebrated on certain days by Federal government decree.  Others, like Christmas, are acknowledged by the doctrine of whatever party is celebrating them (such as in the Catholic liturgical calendar), and (EDIT) popular enough to have the Federal government acknowledge them with State, County and Local governments following shortly after.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why do big ships such as the Avenger need to dump garbage into space?

In Episode V the Avenger dumps garbage before jumping to hyperspace. To my knowledge, this is the only time we see it, despite many other ships jumping at different times. Leaving a potential continuity issue aside, my main question is why would they do this? What garbage could they not recycle or reuse that they must dump it in space? Would this be garbage they compacted? Do ships in the Star Trek universe perhaps possess different technology virtually eliminating waste since they don't seem to have this issue?

[Assistant] It's not that they couldn't recycle or reuse their garbage, it's that there is no incentive to. They don't have replicators like Star Trek so breaking down their refuse is a costly endeavor, and the accountants probably decided that hauling garbage all around the galaxy and eventually having to haul it to a recycling plant was more costly than just dumping it in interstellar space. The logistics of simply throwing everything out an airlock are hard to beat.


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

[User] ELI5: Why did Russia decide in the late 1500's to attempt to conquer Siberia - an unimaginably large & frigid territory - which would increase the size of its kingdom by ~17x?

[Assistant]
The time of Russian territorial expansion was a time of colonialism for all the great powers of Europe. Russia was not well situated to become a maritime power like most of Western Europe, but it did have essentially exclusive access to "unclaimed" territory to its east. While Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands were creating empires for themselves in the Americas and to a lesser extent in Africa and Asia, Russia spread east to Siberia. They were seeking what everyone was seeking, new lands to colonize and cultivate, new resources to tap, new people to spread the gospel of their religion to.

And it was "available", so to speak. There were not, at the time, any great empires or powerful states laying claim to the territory. Only relatively undeveloped societies, mainly herders and hunter-gatherers, who could be easily conquered and subjugated. Just as Spain and France had laid massive territorial claims in North and South America, so did Russia to the vast northern expanse of Asia.


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

[User] [Farscape] It's been 15 years since John Crichton briefly returned to Earth and made humanity aware of the wonders and dangers in the universe. What have we done since then to prepare and protect ourselves using the knowledge he provided us with?

[Assistant]
Not a god damn thing. Aside from a few internet discussions that incessantly pop up, a few documentaries made soon after he left, and maybe a small surge in space-related research at the time, things went pretty much back to normal for Earth.

Getting to space is expensive in every possible way, and people are generally more concerned with their own mundane needs than the abstract idea of saving the planet from a completely unknown and distant threat. It would have been too difficult of a battle to convince *any* politicians to seriously increase a presence in space, and all such efforts would have ended up for naught.

PERHAPS if the Scarrans were literally inside the solar system, and their ships were visible from the layman's telescopes, then MAYBE Earth would have done something. An imminent looming common enemy would have sparked basic human nature to turn the "us versus them" mindset on the aliens. But without an actual physical presence to constantly remind humanity what's out there, people will generally go back to navel gazing and mundane concerns.


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

[User]
ELI5:Why do failed nation-states exist?

Or rather, why do they continue to exist?

[Assistant]
Right now, as you are reading this, there are no soldiers in your room watching you. You probably haven't seen one all week, and no one has checked up on you. You could be doing anything you want, and unless your neighbors report you, you'll get away with it.

Nation-states exist because the people all agree that the government has authority. Once the people reject the authority of the government though, failure is inevitable, because it's impossible for any government to enforce order without the cooperation of the people. Cooperation can be purchased with fear, but that kind of cooperation is minimal at best.

When there are two or more different groups trying to be government at the same time, it's impossible to honor both. Because of that, the state fails, and remains a failure until all but one faction has packed it in.


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

[User]
[The Mask] What is The Mask, where did it come from and why does it seem to have power over other people?

I mean all the people in the movie just randomly started to dance to his. sick. beat.

[Assistant] It was a ceremonial mask that contained the Norse God Loki's spirit, who was the god of Mischief and Tricks. It can change the appearance and personality of the wearer, and bring out their inner desires and to a lesser extent those around him. They would have thought he was entertaining and started to dance as a result of the masks magic.


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

[User] ELI5: If I am in possession of a $1 Bill, do I own it or am I just renting it?

[Assistant]
Having control of a bill means you have the ability to use it's face value to settle all debts both public and private.

The Federal Government actually owns the bill. Which is why it's illegal to deface or destroy any currency.


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

[User]
I'm a girl who is sexist against women. CMV

I honestly believe that men are biologically built to be "in charge." And while I don't have ANY problem with women who work or even feminists, part of me thinks that it's a learned behavior. In other words, we're told that we should be offended by this or that, so we become offended.

I just feel like men should be in charge. I want to get married, have a couple kids, cook dinner, clean up, etc. It makes me happy and I know I'm far from the only one. I think there's a reason the vast majority of BDSM relationships have men in the dominant role and women in the submissive role.

The desire for a woman to be submissive to her man is innate and women are wired to be submissive to proper authority in general.  Basically, I think that women are built to prefer men to be in control, but men and women been told for the past ~50 years or so that this isn't acceptable.

I don't think abuse is acceptable, nor am I suggesting that women live their lives wrong and have been corrupted by evil feminism. We as a society do plenty of things that aren't "natural." I happen to think this is one of them.

But please tell me why I'm wrong.

[Assistant]
Humans could not care less what nature intended us to be. The majority of us don't base our choices on what we feel is "divinely right" anymore. We find our limits and challenge them because it's an even stronger impulse in humans. The question is not "should women be considered equal to men in non-biological terms?"; it's "why should they not?"

I think you're confusing a personal preference for that type of lifestyle with the idea that all women do.


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

[User]
[Marvel] Would an Autonomous Iron Man Suit be Able to Wield Mjlnir?

If Tony Stark directed a suit to move Mjlnir or give it to Thor, or if an autonomous iron man suit were to identify MjOlnir as the most suitable weapon in a situation, would the autonomous suit be able to move the hammer because it has no soul or intent? The hammer is moved by the helicarrier, would it also be moveable/wielded by a suit?

[Assistant]
It depends on whether it's a truly autonomous, self aware entity or not.

If it's truly self aware, then it'd be judged based on its worthiness. If it's not self aware, then it depends on a number of other factors (for example, an elevator or an airplane can lift mjolnir) that're too complicated.

The shorter answer is "depends on what Odin thinks about it."


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

[User]
Are we staring into a celestial cemetery?

Do we have a way of knowing if any of the stars we see are still burning? Or are we staring into a celestial cemetery?

[Assistant]
When you look up at the sky at night you see only nearby stars. The stars that are visible are between around 4 000 and 5 000 lightyears away. Beyond that distance they become too faint to see.

A good way at estimating the chance of the stars being dead is by comparing this distance to a Star's lifetime, which is at least tens of millions of years and in most cases more like ten billion years. This gives us the boring answer; those stars are still burning.

For a useful comparison to life on Earth, if we take a rough average 1000 lightyear distance and 1 billion year lifespan then the light travel time is 1 millionth of their life expectancy. This means, if you chose randomly, a 1/1 000 000 chance of the star being dead. For a human who lives 80 years that same ratio is about 45 minutes. You are not likely to die in the next 45 minutes.

In fact, since  only about 5 000-10 000 stars are even visible then statistically it is unlikely that even 1 of them has died in the light travel time, let alone a significant number of them.

Lastly, stars do not die randomly. We have a very good idea about how stars evolve and when they will die. So, if we see a young star a few thousand or million light years away we know it is still there.

Betelgeuse is a very famous star (it is the red star at the top-left of Orion if you know your constellations), some astronomers think Betelgeuse is on it's way out, that it is reaching the end of it's life. Truth be told, we can't predict exactly when it will die but it could be soon. Unfortunately, by soon we mean the next few million years. (Betelgeuse is 600 lightyears away).


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

[User] ELI5: Why do people on bikes have to ride on the side of the road and not on the sidewalk?

[Assistant] Bike traffic is too fast for sidewalks and given that a bicycle can be peddled 20-30 mph a sidewalk would not work. What works is actual bike lanes and drivers who watch were they're going as well as bicyclists that obey the rules.


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

[User] ELI5: Do memories occupy a physical space in the brain?

[Assistant]
Memories are pretty much connections between nerve cells, the more numerous
(edit: and stronger) the connections the better you can remember something.

Since this is a physical connection, theoretically there is a limit to how much we can remember. However we dont know how much of our brain is available to store memories so we really cant determine what that limit is.


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

[User]
[DC/Marvel] Why don't Batman/Ironman or any other of the super-geniuses just learn magic?

As far as I can tell in both of these universes Magic is something that can be taught and cast by anyone right? Like there was nothing particularly interesting about Steven Strange before he started learning magic.

And this is more for someone like Batman who really has no other powers, don't you think learning some of that hocus pocus would really end up being pretty helpful? Like the dude can master every martial arts in the world, surely learning at least a little bit of magic wouldn't be too hard for the guy.

[Assistant]
Batman has tried to learn magic at one point from Zatanna.

Batman is, by his nature, a man who seeks logic and reason in things. He's a scientist, someone who wants to break somehing down to its most fundamental, base aspects to study and understand it.

Magic in the DC-verse, putting it bluntly, doesn't work like that. Zatanna says so herself: it doesn't work if you try to make reason or logic out of it, because then *it isn't magic*.

So he gives up. Which is to say, he'll study it where he can (in his way, not Zatanna's) and keep the magician around as a liaison into the magic world should he need a liaison for whatever reason.


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

[User]
[Hellraiser] I have ABSOLUTELY no feeling of sensation at all in my body. Will the cenobites have any interest in me if I solve the puzzle box?

And let's just say that I am completely immune to having sensation given to my body, only an omni could give sensation to my body.

So what's the deal? Without the ability to give me their pleasures would they just leave me alone?

[Assistant] You think physical pain is the only delight the cenobites can inflict on you? They could drive you mad without breaking your skin. Mental/emotional pain is so much greater than the physical kind. You think, you reason. The cenobites can make you suffer.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is it when I'm sick my body produces what seems to be an endless amount of snot in my nose?

[Assistant] that's your body's way of helping a brother out. When you get sick, the virus or infection that is about to attack your cells has to chill for a bit. It needs to prepare so it can get stronger before it attacks. As it begins to spread throughout the body, your immune system begins to mount a defense. when this happens, we experience the side-effects of the war inside your body. huge increases in snot production specifically result from the inflammation of your mucous membrane. this happens because your immune system attempts to prevent the virus from spreading to your respiratory tract (sinus, nose, nasal passages, pharynx, larynx, vocal cords: things that help you breathe and talk), by leaking higher concentrations of water in the cells of the membrane. Thus, your snot becomes runny and you have to blow your nose more often. Just like getting the runs after eating something bad. your body's quickly trying to get rid of whatever is messing with it.


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

[User] [Avengers: Endgame] I'm a disgruntled Sakaaran mercenary working for a psychopathic genocidal maniac on a weird alien planet. If I throw down my pistol and say "to hell with this" before Tony snaps, will I be spared?

[Assistant]
Yes, absolutely.

We have proof of that with 2014-Gamora surviving Tony's snap despite being a lieutenant in Thanos' army up until shortly after the battle began, and just before the army for the Avengers showed up.  Her decision to join forces with 2023-Nebula and save Hawkeye then fight against the Chitauri was enough for her to be excluded from Tony's snap.

Tony's thought as he snapped was most likely something along the lines of "kill Thanos and his forces".  The moment you stop working for Thanos, you're excluded from that.  The Mind Stone and the Soul Stone are able to determine that.


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

[User]
[LOTR] Independent thought in the Nazgul

How much independent thought/problem solving ability do the Nazgul have? The Witch King must have needed a lot of it to do all the Angmar stuff but can't such ability result in plotting against Sauron to regain the Nine or One Ring?

[Assistant]
He certainly still has his own thoughts and feelings, but feels (and fears) the ever present ensalving will of Sauron (during the Third Age Sauron took the Nazgul's Rings from them, so that he could control them while he was without the One).

Below is one of the few glimpses we get into the psyche of the Witch-King, describing the events of of Weathertop and immediately after.

> The camp is attacked by night by five Riders; but they are driven off by Aragorn; and withdraw after wounding Frodo. The Witch-King now knows who is the Bearer, and is greatly puzzled that it should be a small creature, and not Aragorn, who seems to be a great power though apparently 'only a Ranger'. But the Bearer has been marked with the Knife and (he thinks) cannot last more than a day or two.

>It is a strange thing that the camp was not watched while darkness lasted of the night Oct. 6-7, and the crossing of the Road into the southward lands seems not to have been observed, so that the Witch-king again lost track of the Ring. For this there were probably several reasons, the least to be expected being the most important, namely that [the Witch-King], the great captain, was actually dismayed. He had been shaken by the fire of Gandalf, and began to perceive that the mission on which Sauron had sent him was one of great peril to himself both by the way, and on his return to his Master (if unsuccessful); and he had been doing ill, so far achieving nothing save rousing the power of the Wise and directing them to the Ring. But above all the timid and terrified Bearer had resisted him, had dared to strike at him with an enchanted sword made by his own enemies long ago for his destruction. Narrowly it has missed him. How he had come by it - save in the Barrows of Cardolan. Then he was in some way mightier than the Barrow-Wight; and he called on Elbereth, a name of terror to the Nazgl. He was the in league with the High Elves of the Havens.

>Escaping a wound that would have been as deadly to him as the Mordor-knife to Frodo (as was proved in the end) he withdrew and hid for a while, out of doubt and fear both of Aragorn and especially of Frodo. But fear of Sauron, and the forces of Sauron's will was the stronger.
~ "The Hunt for the Ring"


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

[User]
ELI5: How does a black hole have more gravity than the star that created the black hole?

A black hole is born from a very massive star.  Let's say this star has a mass of x.

When the star goes supernova, it's basically explodes most of the mass into space.  The core, however, is condensed into a black hole.  This black hole has a mass < x, yet the gravity of the black hole is > x.  We know this because the star wasn't sucking light into it, but the black hole is.

How can this be?

[Assistant]
Imagine that space time is like a sheet of rubber and the star is like a 100lb weight the size of a beach ball placed on the sheet. The mass of the 100lbs bends the sheet downward putting a dimple in it. The dimple is angled gently the farther out from the weight, but gets steeper as you get closer to the weight.

Now imagine you put a different 100lb weight on it but this one is the size of a marble. You have the same mass, but it's in a more compact size now, so it will make a dimple that is even deeper than the first, and the angle will be much steeper.

Basically the more concentrated the mass, and the smaller the space it occupies, the more it bends space time next to it, and the steeper this curve becomes. It's not that a black hole has more gravity, it's that the change is more abrupt and it bends space time more severely in a smaller area.

Mathmatically we can describe this as the force of gravity being proportional to the square of the distance. Go twice as close to the object, and the gravitational force is 4 times as much. Move 4 times closer to it and the force goes up 16 times. Because black holes are so small, you can get much closer to their gravity well. At the point past the event horizon, the force of gravity is so strong that light can't escape.

What is interesting is that a black hole can be almost any size. It's not the mass of the object that matters, it's how large it is in proportion to that mass. We call this the Schwarzschild radius. Basically what this radius represents is the amount of mass you would need to have inside of a sphere of a given size in order for it's escape velocity to equal the speed of light. For instance if you could somehow squeeze the earth down to about the size of a marble, it would be a black hole with the mass of the earth instead of the mass of a star. It wouldn't start devouring the sun or anything, and even the moon would keep right on orbiting the tiny little black hole. But anything that got too close to that tiny little singularity would be devoured and spaghetified just like any other black hole.

- Edit  there are a lot of questions about why the size matters and not the mass. If you could fall through a hole cut in the center of the earth, you would fall very fast, but as you got deeper in, the gravitational pull of all the rock above you, would help to cancel out the pull of the rock below you, slowing you down. If you made it to the center of the planet, you would be weightless as you would be pulled in every direction equally.

Lets do this as a thought experiment. Lets say you have 40 guys arranged in a circular shape and they all had a rope tied to you. in different spots and tried to pull you towards them. Once you passed into the circle, some would be pulling you in towards the center, but the ones behind you on the edge would be trying to pull you back out. In fact you might even be strong enough to walk through the circle and walk out the other side 'escaping'.

The larger this circle of 40 guys is, the easier it is to defy their pull because spreading them out has them pulling you from many different directions.

Now what happens when those 40 guys all jump in a manhole but their ropes are still pulling you? Now no matter how close you get to them, the force pulling you doesn't let up. And all those ropes are going to the same spot, pulling you towards the same spot, and if you tried to walk away, instead of the ropes being spread out, they are all pulling you the same way so you can no longer walk back out, you are trapped, spiraling inwards towards the hole in the center until you are pulled into the hole.

Except it's not guys with ropes, it's large objects like a planet, exerting gravitational force on each other, and on other objects. When that force is spread out, it kind of comfortable. If that force were to be stuck in a single place and the pull of the entire planet was in a single direction, and the closer you got to that small spot, the harder it would pull you, that is a black hole.


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

[User]
Does light "age"?

So here's the scenario...

Let's say I'm looking at an arbitrarily distant body 5 light years distant, what I see in my scope is an image of that body as it appeared 5 years ago.

Simple enough... except that since time slows down for things that travel at the speed of light, by the time the light particle/image gets to me wouldn't the distant body actually be a great deal older than 5 years?

Edit: removed the lightspeed travel illustration

Edit:  Question is poorly phrased, sorry.  I was trying to get at how light can be used to determine the age of distant objects if it is subject to relativistic effects related to time; seems it is exempt.

[Assistant]
Standard caveats: constructing a reference frame traveling literally at the speed of light isn't incredibly meaningful, since nothing massive can go that fast and you have to take a bunch of limits. Having said that.

Light does not age. Light *cannot* age, because in a reference frame traveling at c there is zero proper time. So for the photon, *no* time passes between the point of emission and the point of absorption (which is okay because, for the photon, there is also no distance between those points.)

More importantly, though, you do not have to consider these effects at all, because they are only relevant in the light's reference frame. In your reference frame the light took 5 years to get from point A to point B, so in your reference frame you see what was happening at point A five years ago. What the light does or doesn't experience is not relevant.


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

[User]
[X-Men] What Would Happen if Rogue Drained Phoenix?

As I understand it, Jean  Grey/Hope/Rachel/Whoever channels a specific cosmic being, the Phoenix Entity, yes?  So... if Rogue were to drain that channeling ability, would they fight each other using the same being?  Is there any precedent for the Phoenix "rejecting" a call?  Or is it more a "Power Cosmic" type thing?

Thanks!

[Assistant]
So, the Phoenix is more of a "possession" than a "channelling" thing.

It, in and of itself, is a cosmic being, and a force of nature of near-endless power. Like, star-eating levels.

If Rogue were to drain someone capable of hosting the Phoenix, there would be no consequence in terms of the Phoenix. If Rogue were to attempt to drain someone possessed by the Phoenix, she would most likely be overloaded with minimal impact to the Phoenix.

It would be like trying to jump start a car directly off a substation.


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

[User]
[Black Panther MCU] About a certain scene, with posible effects of the future of Wakanda

When Killmonger is crowned king of Wakanda, one of his first orders is to burn the sacred garden of heart shaped herbs. Is there a secret location with more of this herbs, or all was lost and the future Black Panthers will lack the enhancement?

[Assistant] We currently dont know. People have pointed out that the dirt was orange and the ability to commune with the dead is a Soul Stone ability, at least in universe 616. The mountain could contain vibranium and the soul stone. It was said that Wakandans had been mining the mountain for thousands of years and barely scratched the surface of all the vibranium. It stands to reason the Soul Stone permeates the mountain and it could create more herbs.


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

[User]
How does our immune system "know" not to attack our gut flora?

What mechanism allows our gut flora to exist without being attacked by our immune system? Especially bacteria such as E. coli that are potentially pathogenic?

[Assistant]
The gut is outside the body as though the body was a torus / donut, the epithelium of the gut forms a barrier between the contents of the gut and the body and blood stream. In places there is mucus also contributing to the barrier, eg stomach. There are some immunoglobulins (igA) in the gut secretions and the acid environment of the stomach is bacteriocidal but in general there are no immune cells within the gut lumen, in the fluids in the gut. There are immune cells in the gut walls (lymphoid tissue and tissue macrophages) but they are not in contact with the bacteria within the lumen of the gut.

If the bacteria breach the barriers of the gut the immune system will respond. For example, pathogenic E Coli have *fimbriae* (little fingers), a mechanism to attach to the intestinal wall. They can also produce toxins. "Normal" E.Coli does not.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is there still so much Ancient Greek pottery in pretty good condition when most other objects from that era didnt survive?

[Assistant]
They made a lot of pottery. Most of that pottery was destroyed but since they made so much the small portion that survived seems like a lot. Also pottery/ceramics dont really oxidize like metals or rot like wood so they last a very long time in good condition.

Keep in mind, greece, rome and northern africa used pottery to store and trade things like olive oil, wine, etc. on industrial scales. In fact, the Roman republic and empire (which included greece) produced hundreds of millions of amphora (clay pots) for trade and they are probably the most common finds at any archeological site. It would be like future humans digging up our plastic bottles in 1000 years and wondering why they dont find as many iphones.


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

[User] ELI5, if coughing is your throat's reaction to try to get rid of whatever is in there. How come we cough for days on end after getting sick with nothing coming out and then one random cough after a while the phlegm finally comes out?

[Assistant] When you are sick you get increased mucus production. The mucus covers the surfaces inside your throat and is usually not an issue. However if you have too much it can start to flow and clump up. When you cough you push these clumps up the throat and it mixes with the rest of the mucus. This is why there might not come anything out. Making sure to clean out as much mucus as you can will help your breathing and reduce the coughing.


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

[User]
[Kaijus] What criteria must a monster meet to be considered a kaiju?

What criteria must a monster meet to be considered a kaiju? To my knowledge, the requirements of kaijuhood seem so vague and poorly defined that seemingly any giant creature could be considered a kaiju. I have half a mind to call Sharknado, or even the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, a kaiju.

If King Kong is a kaiju just because he's a giant gorilla, then shouldn't Clifford the Big Red Dog be a kaiju because he's abnormally large, a different color than normal dogs, and capable of human speech? If being a giant is the baseline requirement of being a kaiju, then Paul Bunyan and his blue ox, the Jolly Green Giant, and maybe even Andre the Giant (since Andre was far larger than an average human) should all be kaijus.

What about giant, intelligent cosmic beings? Shouldn't they be kaijus? I'm talking about characters like Galactus, Cthulhu, and maybe even Mogo the living planet of the Green Lantern Corps.

Also, you can't tell me that kaijus have to be evil, because Mothra, Gamera, and even King Kong and Godzilla themselves have all performed acts of heroism to protect humanity.

Sorry for almost writing a full essay here. I'm just genuinely curious (and confused) about this subject.

[Assistant] If you want to get technical, "kaiju" just means "strange creature" and in Japan can describe various things without respect to size. It's even been used as a convenient term to describe some dinosaurs.


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

[User]
Are any two electrons, or other pair of fundamental particles, identical?

If we were to randomly select any two electrons, would they actually be identical in terms of their properties, or simply close enough that we could consider them to be identical? Do their properties have a range of values, or a set value?

[Assistant] They are so identical that the state with electron A in state 1 and electron B in state 2 is **exactly the same state** as electron A in state 2 and electron B in state 1. This indistinguishability has measurable effects, most importantly it is evidenced by the statistical properties of ensembles of particles.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is there a massive interest in virtual reality lately, isn't VR around for decades already?

[Assistant] It's been around, but it's been lacking in the "reality" in a very significant way.  For example, VRML from the late 90s was interesting in that it was easy to create a 3d world and navigate it, it wasn't going to be a compelling experience for entertainment, and wasn't going to be immersive as a user experience. There is _some_ sense that we've reached a critical mass of hardware and software capabilities to make the vision of VR something that can be compelling to everyday folk.


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

[User]
I see belief in God as a major intellectual weakness. CMV

I would love to be the understanding, accepting, arms-wide-open type who could honestly say "I respect all beliefs." But it wouldn't be true. I just don't. Belief in any of the Gods defined by major religions is a major intellectual copout, and I have trouble respecting a person who holds such a belief.

Philosophy is, in my opinion, the most important aspect of any person's being. It is literally a collection of the guiding principles by which a person chooses to live. How can I respect the intelligence of someone who chooses to just *not think about it for themselves*? Who chooses to let an ancient text with uncertain authorship or a hierarchy of clergy dictate their philosophy to them? This isn't even about whether or not God exists. It's just about how mentally weak I believe a person has to be to let their philosophy be dictated to them.

Please, help me see why I should be more accepting.

EDIT: Since a lot of people seem to be misunderstanding me, let me point you to this sentence above: "Belief in any of the Gods defined by major religions is a major intellectual copout." That is the core of the belief I'd like changed. I want to see why believing in one of these major Gods isn't a major philosophical weakness. Since I value philosophy extremely highly (as I said above), a philosophical weakness, to me, translates to a major intellectual weakness.

I've also amended my argument like so: this belief being an intellectual weakness only applies *in the present*, the reason being that today we have so much less reason (ignorance, societal pressure) to believe or at least feign belief in a major God than centuries-old men and women had.

Hope that clarifies my position.

EDIT #2: I think I need to clarify one more thing. Having "an intellectual weakness" does not mean that a person is stupid. A person can be very intellectually strong in one area and weak in another. My view is that belief in one of the major Gods or, I suppose, dogmas is a philosophical weakness. Since I value philosophy so highly, this is a major intellectual weakness. Also, again because I value philosophy so highly, I have trouble respecting someone with such a major philosophical weakness.

Just trying to be clear. I'd rather not get any more "There are super smart religious people therefore you're wrong" comments.

[Assistant]
I think the problem here is that you believe someone who questions religion will inevitably come to the atheist conclusion.

But the fact is that a lot of intelligent people question their religion *and come to the conclusion that it's true*. Or at least that it's valuable and useful to them.

The ancient text, the uncertain authorship, the hierarchy of clergy, those get questioned every day. Often by the *most devoutly* religious. That's what started the protestant revolution, after all!


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

[User]
ELI5: Since the Native Americans were here before us, how... did they end up here?

Also didnt the Vikings discover America or am I ignorant?

[Assistant] The native peoples of North America predate the Vikings and subsequent European settlers but also came via land migration. All human tribes originated in and around Africa and dispersed in all directions, globally. The native North Americans traveled across the Bering straight land mass that was temporarily exposed during a little ice age, allowing human to travel from whats now north east Russia to Alaska, and migrated downward to favorable weather.


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

[User]
[Batman] Could Batman, Harvey Dent, and Gordon have cleaned up Gotham if Harvey never fell and became Two-Face?

This question can apply to both Comics and Nolan Batverse.

[Assistant]
If by cleaned up you mean reduced or eliminated street-level crime in Gotham, then yes, it's probably feasible.

If by cleaned up you mean gotten rid of the supervillains such as the Joker, Bane, etc, then no.  Guys like them are drawn to Batman.  As long as Batman exists, then there will be lunatics wrecking havoc in Gotham.  And if Batman ceases to exist, then a clean DA and police commissioner will not be sufficient to keep Gothan clean, much like it hasn't been sufficient in the past.


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

[User]
CMV: Trans participation in sports often has an unfair advantage over other competitors

I know this is about to get a ton of shit, but I would like to keep the conversation reasonable and based on logic. This is not meant to be trans-phobic or closed minded, so now that Ive gotten that out of the way, lets try to keep the conversation civil.

In a nutshell, when someone changes genders and chooses to enter a sports based competition, isnt this unfair to the other entrees? Its a biological fact that one gender has strengths and drawbacks in relation to the other. While a girl could work hard and train to be able to deadlift 100lbs more than any male competitor, wouldnt the majority of women be at a disadvantage to a MtF participant? Although some men are more flexible than women, wouldnt the majority of men be at a disadvantage to a FtM gymnastic competitor?

If you take a cis-gendered male and sign him up for a womens track and field event, he would be denied entry because of the imbalance. So once the person states they are that categorys assigned gender, the biological differences are now ignored and they can participate. Even in the military, female fitness goals are lower then mens, even though some females could meet the male standard - the point is the majority couldnt.

So if the point is that there IS no biological difference between people, why are there still male and female sports categories at all? Why wouldnt everything be coed and merely based on speed or skill level?

[Assistant] There are biological deferences between men and women which results in men having in unfair advantage over women in sports which is why there are womens leagues. Transition from male to female doesnt take away the advantage men have over women. When a women transitions to male she doesnt have an advantage over the male competitors so its fair for her to compete against men.


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

[User] What does the helium in a balloon do when we inhale it that causes the change in our voice?

[Assistant]
Helium is less dense than air. This means the speed of sound is helium is faster than air.

Your vocal chords produce a sound wave rich in harmonics, which are then filtered by the resonances of the vocal tract.  With the higher wave speed in helium all these resonances have a higher frequency, thus changing the tone of the voice.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why is senator Amidala so intent on defeating the Military Creation Act? The separatists don't appear to be interested in a diplomatic solution.

Wouldn't a standing army benefit the Galactic Republic?

[Assistant] Because she believes that creating that standing army will *only* lead to it's use. That the very act of making the army is giving up on diplomacy and deciding that you are going to fight these people, **some** of which have legitimate grievances with the current state of The Republic.


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

[User]
Inappropriate to ask professor for another research opportunity?

Let me just start by saying I'm an undergraduate physics major. I have a physics professor who I have a really good relationship with. I showed so much interest in his class that a few months ago he actually offered me the opportunity to do research with him on a certain topic that I was particularly taken with. We finished our research the other week and typed it up for publication.

Now that it's over, I'm feeling kind of sad. I appreciate the opportunity so much and absolutely loved working with him (it was a dream come true since I look up to him so much as a physicist). I'm wondering if it would be rude to ask him if he would be willing to do more research with me in the future (in the coming months or next year)? I don't want him to think that I'm trying to use him or that I think he's some type of machine who is just here to do research with me. I just loved working with him so much.

I understand he didn't even have to give me this opportunity and I just want to make it clear that I don't feel entitled. When I say I appreciate his gesture I mean it with all my being. This is why I'm wondering if it wouldn't be right to ask him that. Or is there a way to bring it up to him without sounding like I'm using him or that I am unappreciative of the amazing thing he already did for me?

[Assistant] no harm in asking! tell him what you said here, that you enjoyed the research and the opportunity and that you'd like to continue working with him. and of course, pitch any new ideas you may have. glad you had such a nice experience with him!


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

[User] ELI5: Why was the prohibition of alohol overturned in 13 years while marijuana hasn't been in 45 years?

[Assistant]
It's because more adults had been experienced with alcohol and the propaganda campaign was not as successful. People simply didn't believe the (mostly religious) bullshit.

But we have a lot of people in the US today that still believe all the propaganda and hokey pseudo-science the government spewed on them during the 20th century. And marijuana prohibition has been going on for way longer than 45 years.


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

[User] ELI5: What makes ivory different than normal bone and why is it so valuable?

[Assistant]
Ivory is mammal tooth. It is primarily made of dentine.

Elephants have very large tusks (teeth) so were one of the only sources of very large pieces of ivory, since most teeth are quite small and even large tusks on many animals still are basically nothing when compared to the impressive tusks of the elephant.

It is valuable because it is an excellent carving material.


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

[User]
CMV: "My Body, My Choice." Should apply to those wishing to take their own life.

Suicide is a tragic thing, don't get me wrong, and it's not to be taken lightly either. However, whenever we say "My Body, My Choice." It's always brought up in abortion debates and I myself feel like that same logic makes sense for people who wish to die but yet, stopping them is seen as heroic and correct while generally abortion arguments have a solid population on either side. (One side believing abortion is okay).

So why does this rule apply to one and not the other?

I myself have gone through a mental breakdown before and wanted to die. (I'm currently thankful for being alive and improving on my desire to do so) But I remember knowing how while it would hurt my loved ones, it's my life isn't it? I know some may say "See? You're happy you're alive!" But you could also bring up that in an abortion situation the potential child could be happy to be alive as well. (If arguing abortion is wrong, this implies it's the wrong choice) Sorry if it's hard to follow, I'm not the most talented person with words.

Basically, to one party we say "do whatever you want cause it's your life and your body" but to another we say "you're not allowed to do whatever you want because we say so."

I'm open to any ideas, I'm just stumped by myself.

[Assistant] Well based off of statistics gathered in a couple Scandinavian countries the evidence is that the majority of survivors don't die of suicide, as in the majority of survivors end up realizing that they want to live and don't take thier own lives afterwards.  We know that suicide in most cases is a breaking point moment, it's not in the majority of cases a planned and carefully executed act, it is the result of a mental break that is rapid and a culmination of stressers.  Suicide prevention is all about delaying, trying to get people past the momentary lapse that has led them to wanting to die, and given the brief nature of suicide, and majority of survivors not committing suicide, it seems pretty evil to just let all these people that we know statistically a majority don't truly want to die given a normal state of mind, to just die.


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

[User] [General] Do telekinetic people get any sort of haptic feedback from the use of their powers? Can they "feel" things through telekinesis?

[Assistant] Most of the time yes, as it's a common secondary superpower that makes using the power easier. For example, in Mistborn both types of telekinetic allomancy let the user see and feel how large and how far away an object is, and they get tactile feedback because their telekinesis obeys Newton's Third Law.


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

[User]
CMV: If Christianity is true, and children go to Heaven, there is no logical reason for us to not kill our children.

This argument depends on the following premises: God, heaven, hell exist. Our actions have some determination on which place we go to. And that God allows babies/children (maybe only the baptized, depending on who you ask) who die into Heaven.

These above premise's are simply assumed for the following argument. Don't bother challenging them, as this argument is specifically that if the above is true, the rest follows.

So if you have a child you probably love them right? Possibly more than you love yourself. And loving them includes wanting what's best for them.

Going to Heaven is the best thing.

Going to Hell is the worst thing.

If your child grows up and makes their own decisions, there is a chance they will go to hell.

If your child dies young they automatically go to Heaven.

Killing your child young prevents them from going to hell, and ensures they go to Heaven. Or to put it another way: Killing your child prevents the worst fate and ensures the best fate.

Hence, if a parent loves their child they should kill them while they are young.

Preemptive  response: You will go to hell for killing your child.

Counter: Yes. However if a parent loves their child more than themselves, then ensuring their child's happiness in paradise worth their own damnation.

Don't worry I don't have kids.

[Assistant] First of all, if 'Christianity is true', then all morality really is derived from God's Will, and He has told us not to murder.  In a metaphysical reality where those things are true, there's no argument possible for saying that someone 'should' defy God.


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

[User]
What's the difference between the Higgs boson and
the graviton?

Google hasn't given me an explanation that I find completely satisfactory.

Basically, what I understand is, the Higgs boson gives particles its mass, whereas the graviton is the mediator of the gravitational force.

If this is accurate, then...

1) Why is there so much more focus on finding the Higgs boson when compared to the graviton?

2) Is their existence compatible with one another, or do they stem from competing theories?

3) Why does there need to be a boson to "give" particles mass, when there isn't a boson that "gives" particles charge or strong-forceness or weak-forceness?

[Assistant]
It might help to realize that mass and gravity are distinct things: in a universe with no gravity, objects could still have mass. The basic property of mass is that of inertia; that is, the more massive an object, the harder it is to push or pull on it to change its direction or speed. In our universe, mass has the *additional* property that it creates a gravitational field that attracts other masses, but as far as we know that is not an "inevitable" property of mass like inertia is. So, on a space station, it is much easier to play catch with a baseball than a bowling ball, even though there is no apparent gravity.

So, knowing that inertia and gravity are distinct, it is easy to see the different roles of the Higgs and the graviton. The Higgs gives particles mass (inertia) which would exist even if there was no gravity. The graviton is the hypothetical particle that carries the gravitational interaction between massive particles. These "jobs" are completely distinct from each other, so in answer to your second question, those two particles are not part of competing theories, they could both exist.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do piano notes of lower pitch sound 'rougher' and higher pitch notes sound smooth?

[Assistant]
Low notes vibrate slow enough that you can hear the individual back and forth of the strings.

High notes vibrate so fast that it sounds like one seamless tone.

If you were to record a high pitch sound and play it back at a slow speed, you'd hear a low pitch tone instead.


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

[User]
[The Matrix] Did the humans think about the long term consequences of Operation Dark Storm before they implemented it?

Did they plan on being able to shut it off eventually? Or plan to cover the entire world or was it just the area above 01 and the plan went to shit and somehow spread over the entire globe?

They should have realised the effect that no sunlight would have on the world. Hell, scientists came up with the idea of at least would have been consultants on it.

[Assistant]
Remember that the history we watch was made by the machines for the machines.  Of course they would blame the humans for messing everything up.

Who really needs sunlight?   Machines could live off wind, hydro, geothermal, etc.   It was the humans who faced extermination due to lack of sun.  Yes some cities could survive but the vast majority were dead.


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

[User]
[Star Wars: The Force Awakens] Is Finn...

...Actually force sensitive?

 Its pretty clear that Rey is. But all i've seen Finn do is wield the saber (but not very well), and I assumed he was able to use it from his Stormtrooper training.

[Assistant] He seems to be at least somewhat force sensitive.  Probably not to the level of your average Jedi though.  It could also have just been the force guiding him (and other events in the movie) to fully "awaken" Rey.


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

[User]
Are there any philosophers who talked about ethics on the basis of compassion and love instead of just consequences?

As far as I can tell most philosophers that I go to for ethics are based on consequences for performing an action and why they will ultimately not benefit you. I know my question is vague and broad so sorry about that but I was just wondering were there any philosophers (any time period, eastern or western) that talked about ethics on a basis of compassion and love for fellow humans? I understand the consequentialist pov I am just looking for this particular pov.

[Assistant]
Emmanuel Levinas is sort of along these lines. He argues that when we encounter another person, they make a demand on us to take care of them by their mere presence.

Simone Weil and Iris Murdoch both have a place for compassion.


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

[User] ELI5 - Why are people occupying Wall Street?

[Assistant]
There is a huge amount of wealth in America.  If you look at a graph of US GDP, you see that we produce more and more every year.  The wealth is out there.

Yet, every year, Americans feel more and more squeezed.  We don't feel like we're getting a share in this tremendous wealth we're creating.  In fact, quite the opposite: we feel like we're receiving less and less every year, even though we're producing more and more.

Americans are confused about this.  They don't understand how it came to pass that all our money goes to corporate executives.  They know that in the past, that when a company made money, all the employees would benefit, not just the executives.  They know America doesn't work that way any more, and they don't know why not.

Furthermore, Americans believe that the people who actually *make* the cars are the real "wealth creators," not the GM executives who take home big salaries while making terrible decisions.  Americans rightly see hard workers, not executives, as the engine of wealth, so it particularly rankles that the executives get all the benefits, and the regular employees always get scraps.

They may not understand economics, but Americans are smart enough to follow the money.  They don't understand how it was done, but they strongly suspect that somehow, the executives orchestrated the whole thing.  They just don't really know the details of how it was orchestrated.

So they're standing outside Wall Street, pointing at the people who they see as responsible, hoping that somebody will figure out what to do about the problem.


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

[User]
[Marvel] Have the Illuminati been a net positive for the Marvel Universe? Has their organization's existence "saved the day" at some point?

I know one of their earliest decisions was to blast the Hulk into space, which ended up becoming a crappy fiasco....

[Assistant]
The Illuminati is an example of what happens when a group of very smart people decided to do what *they* think is best, and what also happens when you get a group of very smart, but very flawed individuals together in such a way that they feed into each other's flaws just as much into each others' strengths.

The idea of the Illuminati from the beginning was flawed. Any organization, whether superpowered or not, dedicated to addressing major global issues needs some form of transparency or oversight. Not just because of moral or ethical reasons, but because any committee needs a second opinion, and a means of cycling in new ideas and perspectives.

But let's look at the Illuminati's track record, and see whether their actions were both a net positive, and strictly necessary:

First, in attempting to lead a pre-emptive first strike against the Skrulls, the Illuminati antagonized an entire interstellar empire, and gave them the means to eventually launch the Secret Invasion. Categorically not a net positive, but was it a necessary measure? Also no. Wars are not prevented through excessive shows of force. They are prevented using careful diplomacy. You'd be better off handing the job to the Nova Corps, SWORD, or even the Guardians of the Galaxy.

Next, they tried to handle the Infinity Gauntlet. For a frame of reference, this ends with six men, from Earth, each being given control of *one sixth of all reality*. That means that if they wanted to, they could collectively vote to wipe out half of all life in the universe. Is this a net positive? Absolutely not. Is this necessary? Also absolutely not. Control and jurisdiction of an Infinity Gem should be something handled by an interstellar committee representing quadrillions of sentients.

Then the Hulk. Was exiling him a net positive? No. To add onto this, although the intentions were good, the idea was deeply, deeply flawed. It's the equivalent of strapping an armed nuke to a missile, *with an active timer on it*, and shooting the missile blind into the ocean hoping it never detonates or is discovered. Furthermore, was it necessary? Also not. There are much more effective means of Hulk containment and de-escalation, the first of which is *not to make him mad*. This is another example where the Illuminati needed a second opinion.

I'll then skip ahead to the Incursions. The necessity of *a* solution regarding the Incursions does not justify the actions of the Illuminati. They had no plan, no solution, nothing beyond desperate stopgap measures that would make even the most heinous supervillain blush. Did they actually accomplish anything? Not much, as it was Doom who saved what little was left of reality. Was it necessary? Also absolutely not, because when you're faced with a multiversal catastrophe, you don't keep it between your little boy's club. You let the rest of the world, and the galaxy, and the universe know, so that *they can fucking help*.


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

[User]
ELI5: If vodka, whiskey and gin are all made of grains, why is only whiskey brown?

And meanwhile vodka and gin are clear?

[Assistant]
Whiskey is aged in barrels where it gets it colour. The barrels would have some char and the interaction between the wood and liquid give it it's colours.

Sometimes caramel colouring is added to whiskey to a certain colour but doesn't affect flavour.


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

[User] [Half Life 2] What are the chances of Breen surviving the end of the game?

[Assistant]
That's cute that you think chances exist.

There are powerful beings, such as the G-Man and the vortigaunts and the Nihilanth, have the ability to freeze time and/or teleport people and things to wherever they whim. So the question becomes not "might someone or something have intervened?" but "did anyone or anything stand to benefit from Breen's survival?" Breen was a figurehead that served to pacify humanity, to assure us that the Combine was doing us a favor by turning us into abominations and stealing our resources and, now that humanity has rejected him, he no longer serves any function.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are places like Japan experiencing extreme heatwaves of 40-45 degrees celcius while equatorial areas such as Malaysia and Indonesia are not experiencing such high temperatures even though they are closer to the equator?

[Assistant]
Weather is a complicated subject. Mainly so long as you are south of russia or north of new Zealand then your weather is a lot more dependent on your local atmosphere than solar intensity.

It depends on how much water is in the air, how much cloud cover, what pollutants are there in what concentrations... all of which are local factors. Which is why areas north or south of the equator can be hotter than the equator sometimes.


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

[User]
What determines where the poles are on a ball magnet? Or a bar magnet?

On a bar magnet, one end is north and the other is south. What exactly determines which end is which?

What about a sphere magnet? They would be on opposite sides obviously but what determines where the north and south are on something that doesn't have ends?

Couldn't really find an answer from google but I probably don't know what to search for.

Thanks a lot in advance. In a debate with a flat earther and I need some ammo from smarter people.

EDIT: Thanks guys, I learnt a lot of interesting stuff about magnets from this.

Unfortunately, the flat earther I was debating called me a sheep and scuttled off into the internet undergrowth when I asked how a flat, stationary earth generates a magnetic field. All he did was link a video of Eric Dubay blithering incoherently before crawling away.

[Assistant]
Its defined by how it was magnetized, the direction of the field that was  applied when making it. The internal magnetic domains align according to that.

There is no particular reason that a bar magnet has to have the poles at each end either. It would be perfectly feasible to make one with one long side north and the opposite one south.


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

[User]
[LOTR] Why did the Rohirrim announce their position at Pelennor Fields?

(In the movie at least) Yes it is one of the best scenes but... wouldn't have the cavalry charge been much more effective if they swooped in with a bit more of an element of surprise? The beautiful horn and speech are lovely and all but it allowed the Orcs to reform their lines and steel themselves a bit.

[Assistant]
Surprise wasn't really an option. It's hard to hide the sound of six thousand horses and their pissed-off riders. You're gonna be making tons of noise no matter what you do, so it may as well be organized and intimidating.

It also served to let Minas Tirith know that help had arrived.


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

[User]
Super cold refrigeration...how do they do it?

I've read several stories recently that involve getting something EXTREMELY cold.  Like, just above absolute zero.  My question is, how do scientists achieve really cold temperatures?  For example, how do you chill nitrogen to a sufficiently low temperature to turn it into a liquid?

[Assistant] Some of the coldest temperatures achieved have been due to evaporative cooling. What you do is prepare your system of particles in a series of magnetic traps, which keep your particles localized. Then, after cooling it as much as you can by other methods, you (very carefully!) lower the strength of the magnetic trap, only allowing the higher-energy particles to escape. The net energy of the remaining particles is lower, and therefore the temperature decreases.


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

[User] [Star Trek] How would different Star Trek characters have reacted to taking Picards place in The Inner Light?

[Assistant]
That's the one where he learns to play the flute?

Was it ever clear how much control he really had in that experience?

Remembering that the conjectured purpose of the probe was to create a memorial to a lost civilization, it seems like you would want to provide a curated and consistent experience. It's possible that everyone experiences a similar life made of largely predetermined and guided decisions where they're effectively along for the ride even as they maintain a sense of self and an illusion of self-control.

Also a very effective way of propagating your weird alien flute music.


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

[User] [Star Wars] What did Palpatine and Vader do in their spare time, assuming they had any?

[Assistant]
Vader spent his spare time basically as we saw him in Rouge One: in his castle on Mustafar, submerged in a tank designed to keep him from being in constant agonizing pain, and meditating on everything he lost to fuel his anger and delve deeper into the Dark Side.

Palpatine did pretty much the same thing, except he was more focused on experimenting and exploring the Dark Side along with occasionally setting up a pet project or two in the Empire.


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

[User]
Is the oil on the moon Titan made in a different way to the oil on Earth?

Can it be used the same way as oil from earth?

[Assistant] Titan is mostly covered with methane and ethane. On Earth, when discussing energy applications, that comes closest to natural gas, which is mostly methane with a bit of larger molecules. Petroleum, the black thick liquid, is comprised of larger hydrocarbon chains.


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

[User]
In carbon dating, why do we assume that the ratio of Carbon 14 and 12 in the atmosphere has always been the same? (or for the last 60,000 years)

I'm not particularly scientifically literate, so please excuse me if my question doesn't make sense.

[Assistant] Well, it is an assumption we make, which is why carbon dating is considered more of a ballpark estimate. We can only really be accurate and confident to about 5000 years ago, since we have calibrated the C14 system using old objects with known ages. There is a Japanese lake being examined in the hopes of being ble to calibrate carbon dating with leaves that are tens of thousands of years old.


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

[User]
[WH40] Is there any basis to believe that Humanity's state of affairs can ever substantially improved?

I.E Given the grimdark universe can mankind ever enter a renewed golden age?

[Assistant]
There's the idea that the final death of the Emperor will allow him to be reborn either as another superman like he was to lead mankind again, or as a powerful warp entity who could battle Chaos directly.

The problem is that nothing is really guaranteed and the event itself would be an unparalleled catastrophe that could easily cause human extinction. Terra would instantly be swallowed up by the warp gate the Emperor is pretty much holding closed by "sitting on it". Superluminal travel would become impossible without the Astronomicon. It would pretty much be open season on mankind by its enemies until the Emperor could get a hold of the reigns again (if he even came back).


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

[User] ELI5: How does salt "bring out the flavor" of food?

[Assistant]
Salt tends to reduce our perception of bitterness in foods.  By reducing the bitterness perception it actually increases our perception of not only the salt but the other flavors in the food that we can detect: sweet, sour, and umami (savory flavor).  This brings out 4 of our major 5 tastes while reducing one that is often undesirable.  Of course too much salt eventually overtakes those other flavors as well, so the amount of salt is very important.

There is also the fact that we crave salt in order to get the sodium we need to survive.  Meeting that craving adds to our enjoyment of foods.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does a vending machine know the difference between a One Dollar bill and something that isn't a One Dollar bill?

Like if I put a 100 Dollar bill in the machine would it know that it's a hundred?

But couldn't you put anything in a vending machine and still have it work if it resembles money?

[Assistant]
The Treasury uses (among many other security features) a special magnetic ink. There's a head in the bill reader that scans for a specific pattern of magnetic ink, and usually some other optical sensors.

Coins, on the other hand, are distinguished by using surprisingly accurate measurements of its width, thickness, weight, and number of ridges along the edge.


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

[User]
[Indiana Jones] How exactly does the light-sensitive booby trap work?

Also, would the trap be triggered if it was nighttime?

[Assistant] It wasnt triggered by light, that was a bit of misdirection on indy's part.  He didn't trust Sapito so he put his hand into the light and activated the trap with his foot.  That's why Satipo was skewered when he ran out of the temple.  He avoided the light but still triggered the trap.


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

[User]
Is there any reason other than "for looks" that long hair on females became a social norm?

Is there any reason as to why females have almost always had long hair, at least compared to males, throughout history? Was there any kind of advantage this offered? Is male hair different than female hair?

[Assistant]
Anthropology major here (graduating senior), long hair on women is a signal of reproductive health for women in western society. It is has links to youth and vitality, which are indicators of reproductive health.

A citation for clarity and accuracy

Hinsz, Verlin B., David C. Matz, Rebecca A. Patience. Does Women's Hair Signal Reproductive Potential?. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Volume 37:2 (2001), 166-172.


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

[User] How do ISP's limit the speeds I get?

[Assistant]
their equipment drops packets that cannot be sent within the limits of the contract for your connection.

network routing works by a store and forward principle. the packet is read into the memory of the router
and then either discarded and overwritten or read from memory and sent along the cable.

the software that runs on the router makes these decisions. These routers have a traffic shaping module that can be configured for the desired behavior, for example a bandwidth limit and it will either forward or drop packets so as to comply with the policy it has been configured with.


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

[User]
[Avatar] Why did a mobile uplink facility exist at all, let alone why did it exist in the Hallelujah Mountains?

What were the circumstances surrounding its establishment?

[Assistant]
Odds are the Avatar program once had operatives, or planned to have operatives, in or around the mountains. That particular project would likely have shuttered after the shootout that led to the closure of Grace's school and the collapse of relations with the Omaticaya clan.

As for why they would, the concern would not simply be latency in the neural uplink, but just about every other form of communication. What if an Avatar experiences any serious problemloss of supplies, injury, needing backup, what have youin an area where it's difficult to communicate with or be reached from Hell's Gate? It would make sense to have a sort of forward operating base with supplies and scientists on standby.


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

[User]
[Halo] Why do grunts and jackals dislike each other.

I noticed in infinite grunts and jackals have a lot of dialogue shitting on each other.  This doesn't seem to be present with any of the other races, not even elites and brutes who would have obvious reasons not to get along.

[Assistant]
It's a holdover from their historic animosity while part of the Covenant going back to when the Unggoy were forcibly inducted into the Covenant a few hundred years ago.

The Unggoy's high birth rate meant that, on High Charity, a lot of Kigyar had to be relocated. This constant moving put a lot of stress on their females, which caused infant mortality to spike quite high. Those that didn't move and tried to share space often found themselves crowded out anyway, their nests (inadvertantly) crushed by the constant swarms of Unggoy.

In response to this the Kigyar tried to poison the Unggoy's recreational drug supply which would have sterlised large numbers of them. The Covenant leadership found out about this and... did nothing. This caused the Unggoy to finally rebel in 2462. The Kigyar were only too happy to help put down that rebellion, which only ended when an Arbiter partially glassed the Unggoy homeworld.

And as one final twist, their surprise successes during the rebellion ended up proving the Unggoy's combat prowess to the Sangheili, who from then on allowed the Unggoy to be part of the actual armed forces of the Covenant instead of just unarmed cannon fodder. This further incensed the Kigyar and the two races have been at odds ever since.


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

[User] How sharp is a black holes event horizon? If I flew past a black hole at a relativistic speed, and accidentally clipped the event horizon with a single molecule of my ship, would that molecule of spaceship break off and be sucked into the singularity?

[Assistant] There is no possible free-fall trajectory that would do this. If you get closer than the photon sphere (well outside the event horizon) then every attempt to orbit the black hole ends up inside the black hole. You can get closer and still get away if you use your impossibly strong thrusters. If you get closer and closer to the event horizon the thrust you need goes "to infinity", and your ship will break apart at some point. How exactly it breaks apart depends on details of the ship, but everything that goes beyond the event horizon will certainly fall in.


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

[User] ELI5: What is the order of shutting down a computer/laptop? Which hardware pieces are shut down first, and last?

[Assistant]
The purpose of a proper shutdown is to save data in applications and services to disk to prevent data corruption and data loss. As well as to cleanup logs and temporary data. This way digital garbage data (left-overs from a running application) isn't left lying about on your computer taking up space or potentially causing issues during a bootup or application start.

1. Applications are shutdown, logged in users are warned to save data in applications that are still running. Programs are then forcefully closed after a timeout.

2. Users are logged out, sessions are terminated, disables the GUI interface to prevent any application launches

3. Services (applications that run in the background) are stopped. Drivers are unmounted. Hard drives and other devices with moving parts are stopped. Data in caches is written to disk to prevent data loss.

4. Computer sends termination signal to the hardware, turning the power into standby mode (off)


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

[User]
How does a vacuum affect the temperatures of surrounding objects?

If a vacuum is created in a lab, does its temperature tend to 0K? Does this mean that its container would be very cold to the touch? If, say, water was poured into it, would it freeze instantly?

[Assistant]
A vacuum doesn't affect temperature, as such. If there were a compete vacuum, there would be nothing in it to contain energy. Therefore, no energy cannot manifest itself as any heat.

A vacumm will, however, affect the TRANSFER of heat. If there is no mass (i.e. there is a vacuum between two systems) then two of the three forms of heat transfer cannot take place - conduction cannot take place as there is no continuous medium. Like wise with convection.

Radiation can still take place.

If you were to put a conventional (air cooled by means of radiator/heat sink) PC in a vacuum, it would overheat. There is nothing to transfer the heat into, so the unit, itself will continue to heat up, with only a tiny amount of radiative heat dissipation (insufficient to cool it).


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

[User] ELI5: why are cars made to go so much faster than speed limits allow? What is the point of a car that can go 120+ mph?

[Assistant] Engine Efficiency . If the top speed matched the speed limit, you would constantly be redlining the engine, until it explodes. by placing the max speed in the hundreds , your optimum most fuel efficient cruising speed falls into the speed limit range. plus speed limits are arbitrary and subject to change, how would you like to be on a newly 75mph freeway stuck going 55mph?


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

[User] [D&D]. How would the abundance of magic and magical engineering help create modern technological advancements like air travel and space flight?

[Assistant]
D&D level magic would allow for many of the same conveniences as modern technology, but it would probably look very different.

Air travel, for instance, would probably look like naval ships that were enchanted to fly, not vessels with wings that create lift. The very idea of a wing shape that creates lift would be unnecessary, and it's unlikely that anyone would bother researching it.

The same is true of space travel; *Spelljammer* features naval-style vessels with their own gravity fields and atmospheres, and their Spelljaming Helms allow casters to move the ships through space.

Teleportation also mitigates a lot of technology. Why go to the trouble of creating a supersonic airship if you can just open a portal and pop over to a different continent for lunch? Or to a different reality?

In terms of medical research, the whole germ theory of disease is rendered obsolete when you can have someone lay on hands and fix whatever ails you. You don't need to cultivate penicillin if you can just brew a healing potion, and you don't need psychiatry when someone's insanity is very likely the result of *Crown of Madness*.

The one area where technology seems to clearly outpace magic is telecommunications. Speaking Stones are a poor substitute for even a cheap cell phone, and a scroll and quill have nothing on a kindle. Google and Wikipedia provide far better access to knowledge than a musty library in some wizard's tower.


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

[User] How far below the surface of the water does a hurricane disturb the natural state?

[Assistant]
Waves have a decaying effect and are essentially noise level at tens of meters depth. The rain changes the composition of the water and that diffuses through the area but even a meter of rain over a kilometer-deep ocean is going to be a negligible change for a short time.

The change in bulk current and the flow of storm surge on littoral areas would be the biggest effects. When an entire bay gets sucked out to sea, that's 100%. Or when it gets pushed a km inland, or cuts through a barrier island, or creates one...


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

[User]
[General] I just managed to pull off a round trip time travel to the future. I came back with the iPhone Zed. It's like 10 iPhones from now. Can I patent and sell the tech?

It's obviously an apple phone, apple logo and all. If you go into settings > about phone you'll get a ton of info clearly explaining it's an apple phone.

But it hasn't been patented *yet*. This is new tech, software and hardware for this current timeline. I'm not even going to pretend I understand any of it.

Can I become rich?

[Assistant]
Provided the tech is significantly different from the current iPhones, yes you could patent it. However, because the settings describe it as an iPhone and it has Apple branding on it, you would be violating trademark and copyright laws if you tried to sell the device. You're much better off dissecting the phone, figuring out how the individual technologies inside of it work and patenting each of those separately. You then want to licence those technologies to any tech company that wants it, and profit of all of those companies.

Of course, doing so would create a paradox where the tech you are now selling has come from a timeline that no longer happened, and is there really any value in material wealth now that reality is collapsing in on itself?


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does the UK use imperial measurements for some things, but metric for others?

As an American that enjoys British television, I've noticed that they often use the imperial system for distances, but metric for everything else.  Can anybody explain to me why this is?

[Assistant]
Irish guy checking in.

We're in a pretty similar condition to Britain here.

Look at it this way, consider if you want to order a beer. 500mls is too little, and a litre is far too much in a single serving.

568mls is the perfect amount.


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

[User]
[Star Treck TNG] How does Picard report in anything to do with Q?

The types of powers Q holds and the things he's done to the enterprise and its crew seems neigh unbelievable. How can Picard honestly record anything Q does and not be seen as a mad man?

[Assistant]
Given all of the other nonsense craziness that the Enterprise encounters, up to and including the literal embodiment of evil in the form of a psychic blob of ooze that kills a bridge officer, and all of the other crew witnessing and recording their own version of the events, there's no reason Picard wouldn't be believed. Picard is always dispassionate and clinical in his official logs. He'll say what happened, clearly and concisely, without embellishment, and let Starfleet do what they want with the information.

Whatever reservations Starfleet might have about it and consider or explanations like mass crew hallucinations - a distinct possibility, given that it's happened before - the ship's sensor logs will also corroborate Picard's testimony. Even if the sensors can't make sense of what happens, they can at least note that, say, suddenly a bunch of crew members spontaneously disappeared from the ship and out of range of all sensors right about the time that Picard says Q magicked them to some other plane of existence.


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

[User]
Why does sunlight cause the colors of objects to fade over time?

I've always accepted the simple explanation that the sun's radiation damages paint, but the more I think about it, the more I realize that I don't know what's actually going on there. Can anyone help me out?

[Assistant] Most of the pigments we use to give colour to objects are organic pigments. Organic pigments happen to have lots of chemical bonds in them that can be broken by exposure to visible and ultraviolet light. So put enough light into them for a long enough time and the compounds that give the object its colour in the first place will be destroyed. So the colour fades.