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

[User]
[Marvel] How many nuts can Squirrel Girl hold in her mouth?

Serious question, if Squirrel Girl from Marvel comics has the powers of a squirrel (I dunno if she does, but dumb name if she doesn't) then how many nuts can she store within her mouth?

[Assistant]
About the same number as you or I.

Carrying large numbers of nuts in cheek pouches is really more of a ground squirrel or chipmunk power, not really a tree squirrel thing.  And Squirrel Girl's powers seem much more similar to a tree squirrel's abilities.

On the other hand, there's another hero - Chipmunk Hunk - who can probably bankrupt the Whole Foods bulk nut aisle.


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

[User]
How much energy does it take a bird to flap its wings during flight? Is it equivalent to humans walking/running?

Oh wow. Thanks for all the amazing answers and follow up questions. For science!

[Assistant]
It varies by the type of flight and the species of bird.  Most flight is energetically expensive, at least on a calorie per second basis.

Gliding is very efficient, especially with favorable thermals.  Some birds can fly for hours without a single flap.  This is roughly analogous to you standing on a bicycle while rolling down a hill.  You could probably do it all day, but it's going to be tiring and make you sore.

From there, you have migratory birds which can fly large distances at high speeds.  That is roughly equivalent to a brisk walk or light jog for you.

After that, it's a sliding scale of flight becoming more and more energy intensive.  As a good rule of thumb the more agile a bird is, the more energy it needs to spend to stay airborne.  This peaks with the hummingbird, which burns a staggering amount of calories staying airborne.

It's also worth noting that taking off is generally the most taxing part of flight for any bird.


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

[User]
[LoTR] How long could man (and allies) hold out against Sauron if Frodo and Sam failed?

Let's say Frodo and Sam die somewhere along the way. Maybe they fall into a pit, Smeagol kills them, the spider, whatever.  The ring, however, doesn't immediately make into the enemy hands. How long could the kingdom's of man (and allies)  hold out against Sauron and his armies of orcs?

Both the battle of Helms Deep and Minas Tirith seem to be last ditch efforts of survival. If either battles had ended in failure would that be the end of any meaningful resistance?

[Assistant]
You presented several different scenarios but they all end about the same.

1. Frodo/Sam die. The ring is lost again but not destroyed. Events play out exactly as depicted until Aragon leads the army to the Gates of Mordor. There he and his army are overrun and destroyed. Some horrible things happen to survivors but essentially everyone present is dead. The defense of Gondor and Rohan collapses after that. They are overrun within months. Lorien holds out a few years, Rivendell also but neither can come to the aid of the other and the elves know they don't have the strength to contest Sauron. Many flee to the West before Sauron lays siege to those places. The elves of Greenwood the Great, the Dwarves of Erebor and the men around Long Lake are also defeated. Eventually Sauron gets to the dwarves of the Iron Hiills and the Blue Mountains. The Shire is just marched though, it presents no challenge. Other than the hold out of Rivendell and Lorien Sauron stumbling blocks are marching his armies across Middle Earth not the forces opposing him. A year at best other than the sieges.

2. Helm's Deep falls before Gandalf arrives and the Huron destroy Saruman's army.  Aragon, Theoden et al are killed. The riders of Rohan and the dead do not come to the aid of Minas Tirith. Aragon does not defeat the forces of Umbar so in addition to the forces of the Free People being weaker Sauron's are stronger. Minas Tirith falls.  Sauron doesn't have to move a second army from deeper inside Mordor/The East to attack Minas Tirith a second time his first army will do the job and be much stronger at the end so it can ravage the rest of the west. Sauron's victory is much as above but stepped but about a month.

3. The defense of Helm's Deep is successful, Rohan comes to aid Gondor as does Aragorn but it isn't enough Minas Tirith falls. Sauron has to rebuild his army in Gondor before going forward. Winning would be a close thing. Once reinforced the army turns north, crosses Rohan and strikes Lorien. See #1.


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

[User]
During the first nuclear bomb test, how did they know how far away to observe the blast? Did they already know how many tons of TNT (or TJ) it was?

I tried some google-fu, but nothing showed up. How did the scientists that made the bomb know where to place their observation cameras and bunkers? From what I've seen they were fairly close enough to the blast to see it without using binoculars or other things. There were bunkers 10,000 yards away and observation things 20 miles away.

I also read that there was a betting pool as to how many tons of TNT or TJ the blast would be.

Is there a way to figure this out mathematically? (the TJ and distance of the blast wave)

[Assistant]
The question of how large a nuclear blast can be is a function of the total energy release possible multiplied by the expected efficiency of the weapon.

So in the case of the first nuclear weapon, they knew that it contained 6.2 kg of plutonium. 1 kg of plutonium, completely fissioned, releases 18 kt or so of energy. So the absolute upper bound is around 112 kilotons.

But they also knew their method was not going to be very efficient. The "safe" estimate was that it would release about 5 kilotons worth of energy  an efficiency of only about 5% (that is, only about .28 kg of plutonium would fission, in a weapon that had 6.2 kg of plutonium in it). The most optimistic estimates (e.g. in the betting pool) was around 50 kilotons  an efficiency of 45%. But this was unusual  most thought it would be lower, maybe even less than a kiloton.

In reality, it was around 20 kilotons, which is an efficiency of about 18%, which is considerably higher than the "safe" guess (4X more).

They had a pretty OK idea of how the blast wave would react at different distances and kept anything really sensitive well outside of those distances. They were aided in the fact that damage does not scale linearly with increase of explosive yield: because the explosive energy is released as a sphere, it scales as a cubic root. To put this simply, in order to double the area of destruction, you have to increase the yield by a factor of eight (so a 8 kt bomb destroys twice the area of a 1 kt bomb). So just because it was 4X more energetic than they predicted, that did not mean they had to be 4X as far away to be safe.

There were many uncertainties, however. They tried to keep things as safe as they could under the circumstances, but there were many unknowns. They kept all personnel at comfortably safe distances, and tracked the spread of radioactive fallout. They even prepared for grim eventualities such as people accidentally dying during the test (which sounds fanciful, but it is worth noting that during several Soviet nuclear weapons tests there were inadvertent deaths due to unusual unanticipated phenomena, such as reflection of blast waves off of inversion layers in the atmosphere).


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

[User] ELI5: what determines whether a substance is solid liquid or gas at room temperature?

[Assistant] Intermolecular forces. Some molecules like to stick together, others don't. If they really like each other, they form a solid. If it's more like a friendship they form liquids. If they rather stay away from each other they form a gas. You can force molecules together by cooling them down, which decreases their ability to move around. Or you can increase the pressure. What determines wether molecules like each other or not? It depends on their chemical structure. Some molecules, like water, are polar. They are like tiny magnets that attract each other. Water molecules bond together at room temperature, but they still have enough energy to move around a bit, so that's why water is a liquid and not a solid.


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

[User]
How can doctors tell if you've had a heart attack well after the event?

I had a family friend recently suffer a heart attack and she said that for a week she was feeling really bad and slightly disoriented. She went to the doctor and they said she had a heart attack earlier in the week. How do they determine that? Are there biological markers that stick around for a while? How long? Is something permanently changed in your body from that point?

[Assistant] One way a physician can tell someone had a cardiac event is by doing an electrocardiogram which can (not always) show changes in the waveforms.  Blood troponin levels (protein released if heart cells are damaged) can only be done in the first 24 hours after a suspected attack.  While damage to the heart is permanent, alternate pathways of circulation to the heart will develop over time if the patient survives without having a stent placed in the event of a blockage.   The patient's cardiologist should provide them with all necessary information, or the emergency physician for acute situations.


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

[User]
HOW do sunflowers face the sun?

I'm not asking why, I'm asking how. It has puzzled me because they are the only flowers that do this behaviors. No other plants do this, so I'm wondering how it works.

[Assistant]
Firstly, a correction; *many* plants display phototropism (movement in response to light source/s). In terms of flowers, many are named after this phenomenon with heliotrope in the name, such as the European Heliotrope, or the Salt Heliotrope.

As for the mechanism, there are two primary methods known. One uses motor cells which pump potassium ions into other cells nearby when exposed to light. This makes the pressure in the receiving cells change, while the pressure in the cells on the shadow side stays the same. Different pressures in the cells make them different sizes, thereby causing the flower to rotate. The other method is through actual cell growth rather than modifying the pressure in existing cells. In this method, the plants promote the growth of the cells on one side (either the light side or the shadowy side) more than the other, making the flower bend one way or the other.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do we become noseblind?

After long and continuous exposure to one smell, you stop smelling it. A perfect example is house smell. Your own house most likely doesnt smell like anything to you, but if you enter anyone elses house, they have distinct smells.

What is the actual mechanism behind this? Why does this mechanism occur? What is its purpose? Is our nose wearing out? This doesnt happen with other senses.

[Assistant]
Do you know how if you're in a noisy environment, but with the same sound (say, jet engines on an airplane droning on, or white noise when in your bedroom), you hear it at first, but after a certain time of exposure, you "tune it out"? Your olfactory (smelling sensation) system does that, when it receives the same stimulus over a protracted amount of time (the same odor molecules being detected by your nerves and tissues, over and over). The nerve cells in your nose simply stop sending/stop sending as much "reporting" of the smell molecules to your brain.

There is a belief that this is an evolutionary advantage (being able to tune out repetitive stimulus) so as to not get distracted and pay attention to other, newer things in your environment (like, noticing *other smells*).


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

[User] ELI5: Why do GIFs on the imgur.com & giant.gfycat platforms load SO much slower than just a gfycat GIF, even if they seem to be the same quality?

[Assistant] gfycat files are not GIFs. GIF is a particular way of storing an image, and it is supposed to be an image, not a movie. GIFs allow you to have layered images, and change which layer is at the top. Each layer is basically a separate image. gfycat (and Imgur's new "gifv" thing) store movie files, not image files. These take advantage of the fact that most animations consist of smooth movement and that in general each frame is pretty similar to the previous one. Rather than describing the entire scene each frame (at 30 frames per second), it will describe one scene every couple seconds and then just describe the changes for each frame in the middle. It makes it take much less space than storing the full image each time, so you have a much smaller download.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is military equipment so expensive?

Like on how can a jet cost $62 million and a tomahawk missile cost $1.5 million?

[Assistant]
An elephant is a mouse built to a government specification.

Most military gear is designed to work in extremely hostile environments, hot, cold, wet, vibration... the list is long. One has to prove that it does so, which means a lot of testing. Accordingly, design costs are astronomical.

Production, on the other hand, is often severely limited. If you can spread your design costs over millions of units, as happens in the consumer world, the per-unit amortised design cost is low. But when production is only a few tens of items, as in a fighter jet, the design cost per unit is high.

Then there is tradition. Once opon a time, electronic devices were unreliable and cranky, two qualities the military can do without. Accordingly, elaborate procedures were put in place to make every component traceable to its source, in the hope that process problems could be found and corrected. These procedures are costly.

Modern electronics is highly reliable, even under field conditions. Think what your cellphone endures. MIlitary purchasing has not caught up with this fact, it is still in the 1950s.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are there no whales or other marine mammals the size of regular fish?

By regular fish I mean something like a Salmon. It has struck me as odd that whale/dolphins etc are proportionally pretty huge compared to fish, why is this the case?

[Assistant]
Warm blooded creatures, mammals, maintain an internal body temperature.  Where as cold blood creatures(fish regulate their body temperature with the external environment.  Why is that important?

Water is a heat sink, as such water tends to take the heat out of surrounding objects.  Thus, if an organism spends a large amount of time in the water and are warm blooded(mammals) they would lose a large amount of energy quickly trying to regulate their body temperature.  A cold blooded creature, like the vast majority of fish, wouldn't have this issue(most fish also have their blood come into direct contact with the cold water through their gills).

So how do mammals survive for a large amount of time in the water?  By utilizing a massive amount of insulating fat like seals and whales.  Thus one reason there is a large difference is that mammals need to have a very think insulating layer of fat to keep them warm in the ocean, where as fish dont.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Aren't Harry's parents teenagers?

They died when they were 21. They weren't kids, but they were very young. When Harry saw projections of them (Mirror of Erised, in their pictures, as ghosts when he had the Resurrection Stone), was he seeing them as they were when they died (young adults)?

If so, when he saw them right before he faced Voldemort the final time, wouldn't they have been roughly his age?

[Assistant] The Mirror shows what Harry *wants* to see, not what reality was. Harry wants his family, his father and mother as actual parental figures, so he sees them in the Mirror as he wants them to be in real life: old enough to actually be his parents, not just a couple years out of Hogwarts. It's about desire, not reality.


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

[User] A diet Lipton Iced Tea has zero calories. I know there are *things* in it, hence "energy," so how can there be zero calories?

[Assistant] The calorie rating of food and drinks is limited only to energy that is extracted by our body. Some components of the food/drink pass through our body without contributing any energy by being metabolized, or are absorbed by our body without being burned for energy (minerals for example).


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

[User] Will a candle actually help warm up a really cold room?

[Assistant] Yeah, a little, if you light it. According to wikipedia, a candle puts out about 80 Watts of heat energy, which is about the same as what a human puts out. An 800 W heater can heat up a small room, so you should expect that filling a small room with 10 people or 10 candles will warm it up noticeably.


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

[User]
How do battery life indicators work?

How can an electronic device measure the remaining amount of life in its batteries? Is there some fundamental difference in the process of the chemical reaction between a dead battery and a full one, or is the measurement based on something like the strength of the current?

[Assistant]
There are two basic ways.

First, batteries do not have a constant voltage over their entire charge cycle. The plot of voltage vs capacity for a discharging battery is called "discharge curve", and you can use that curve together with a voltage measurement to estimate remaining battery capacity.

The main advantage of this is that it is a single-point measurement (that is, you do not need to know how long the battery has been discharging to use this method of estimation). However, the discharge curve varies somewhat with the load on the battery, so this method has some inaccuracies.

Second, you can literally count the amount of charge that is delivered by a battery, using a device known as "Coulomb counter". This device is only useful if you know what state your battery started in (for example, 100% charge), and you know the total battery capacity. Since total battery capacity varies over the lifetime of the battery, this also has inaccuracies; also, this method requires continuous monitoring to tally up all the charge that flows in and out of the battery.

In practice, these two methods are combined.


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

[User] Is it possible to run up falling objects?

[Assistant]
Run probably isn't the right word for it.  If you're on an object that's free falling, you're going to be as near weightless as makes no difference.  That makes running difficult.
Nothing wrong with climbing though as long as you have enough handholds.  If you can climb faster than the terminal velocity of whatever the falling object is, you can make upward progress.


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

[User] ELI5: How does ISIS still exist and stay so strong although many nations have sent so much armed forces to hunt them down?

[Assistant] Much of the action against ISIS has taken the form of air strikes, special forces actions, and more conventional actions. To be effective against a guerrilla force, you need to have a large number of troops constantly occupying their power base areas to prevent them from moving and resupplying, while building good will with the local populace to prevent the guerrillas from recruiting.


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

[User] [DC] Could Brainiac qualify for the Orange Lantern Ring?

[Assistant]
He collects things of all sorts for a purpose higher than mere avarice. Avarice has a component of almost irrational desire, all for the sake of having that thing (whether to stand out or to be special; that said, the thing is only special if it exists and isn't possessed by Larfleeze himself in Larfleeze's case). Brainiac collects things for the sake of knowledge and not because he wants things for primitive reasons (like rarity or appearance). He wants to learn and absorb and collect what he must to learn more and so on.

So sure, he could try it... but that would distract him from being able to run his ship and micromanage his collection efficiently and continue to do his best to absorb all knowledge. Which, in turn, would be a foil to the constant emotion of desire needed to activate the ring.


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

[User]
eli5 why do things glow when they get hot?

Fundamentally, where does the light come from? Is it electrons being broken down into photons..?  If so, does that mean when something gets so hot it produces light that it technically loses Mass or how does that work??

[Assistant]
The glow is called *black-body radiation*, and it happens at low temperatures, too. It's just that the light at everyday temperatures is a wavelength human eyes can't see. All objects emit black-body radiation, although the amount they emit ramps rapidly up with temperature (it scales with temperature [in Kelvin] to the fourth power).

The actual mechanism at the particle level is that temperature is the random movement of particles within a material. That random movement results in charged particles moving past one another and in electrons being bumped up and down between different energy levels, and both of those processes can convert some of the energy of particles in the material (in practice, generally electrons) into light. The electrons themselves aren't destroyed by this, but they lose (kinetic) energy. The emitting material does lose energy (and thus mass in some sense, since mass and energy are the same thing), but black-body radiation doesn't involve the destruction of particles, no.


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

[User]
[LOTR] Why did Elrond not reforge Narsil and give it to Aragorn at Rivendale before setting out with the fellowship?

Narsil is just sitting in a Rivendale chapel in pieces.

Elrond knows his smiths can reforge the thing.

The fellowship is leaving on an insanely dangerous quest.

He knows Aragorn can call on a vastly OP ghost army with the sword, should he need it (would probably help get those hobbits to Mt Doom).

Why wait until the last minute? He just cranky his daughter got a crush on this man meat?

[Assistant] In the books he did. In the movies it was because he didn't want to acknowledge Aragorn as the king because that meant he'd have to give his approval to court his daughter which would mean eventually losing her (Elrond is immortal and if Arwen chose to stay with Aragorn he would eventually outlive her).


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

[User]
ELI5: When you press the snooze button on an alarm, why is the set time always 9 minutes?

Whenever I press the snooze button on my phone or on my watch, the set time for the snooze is always 9 minutes? Why not an even 10 minutes? 9 minutes just seems weird and awkward.

EDIT 1: So, it seems like it does vary on different phones, and sometimes you can configure the snooze times. But, majority of phones and clocks are set for a default of 9 minutes.

EDIT 2: Thanks for all the great feedback and answers. Made my first post worth it :')

[Assistant]
for mechanical, if now maybe historical, reasons. when you hit snooze the clock looks at the final digit displayed. say it's 8:0**0** when your alarm goes off. when you hit the button, it'll go off the next time it sees the number *before* the final digit. that's a 9 in this case. so it goes off at 8:0**9**.

it would have been a lot more complicated to design one that would go off at 8:1**0**, because the final digit is a 0, same as when you hit it at 8:0**0**, so it would go off straight away.


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

[User]
How does being a grad student compare to tenure-track positions at teaching and research universities?

I'm a 3rd year PhD student in CS. Two years ago, if you asked me what I wanted to do after I graduate, I would have said "be a professor" without hesitation. Now, I'm not so sure. The main reason is that I feel like I'm always just barely keeping my head above water. I'm never early on deadlines and I can never spend more than 4 hours working on a single thing. I feel that I never have enough time to be extraordinary at any one thing - I can only maintain being just-good-enough or above-average at many things (I prefer the former). It seems like that is pretty normal for my advisor as well, which has made me second guess my future goals.

However, based on what I've read, there is a big difference between being a professor at a teaching university rather than a research university. So I'm wondering how my current workload as a PhD student compares to those. Is a tenure-track job at a research school very similar to being a grad student? What about a tenure-track job at a teaching school? I'd like to hear some personal experiences on this so that I'm not basing my future decisions off my own predictions.

Currently I have this work load: 1) Continue to progress in research, 2) Teaching a new class (which means all new material), 3) Service work (I'm president of a student org), 4) Prepare for qualifying exams (have to write a survey paper and give an oral defense by next Fall), 5) taking 1 class

This workload seems to be pretty standard. Not everyone is teaching a class, but most are TA's so they still have teaching responsibilities. Not all students are involved in service so they might not have that.

I'm wondering how similar this workload is to the workload of a tenure-track position at a teaching or a research university?

[Assistant] The workload of a junior faculty member is more than that of a grad student.  This doesn't make it worse, but it does mean for the first 4-6 years, you are working your ass off more than in grad school.  The advantage is that its your work, your field and research interests, and there aren't any exams.


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

[User]
[Prometheus] if Engineer DNA is an "exact match" for ours why aren't we giants with white skin and black eyes?

Does "exact match" mean something different in this context?

[Assistant]
The Engineers weren't an "Exact Match". The good doctor was very mistaken and looking at a protein sequence, not a DNA sequence.

This mistake was not caught because everyone on the Prometheus mission was severely brain damaged.

Truth is nobody had been in cryo that long before, and there were a number of unanticipated complications. The David unit suffered a partial dissolution of its' neural network due to prolonged uptime with no human contact.


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

[User]
(ELI5) How do electrical eels have electricity in them? And how does it hold?

Ive always wondered this and Im not quite sure how it works. Can they turn it on and off? And how do they reproduce if they are electric?

[Assistant]
Electric eels make electricity inside their bodies.  Special cells, called electrocytes, are located in the eel's electric organ.  Just like the nerve cells in your body, these cells make an electric current from a chemical reaction.  Unlike the cells in your body, which are connected to conductive fibres, the cells in the eels electric organ are connected to each other.

They operate together, like the muscle cells in your leg when you jump, and though each cell only makes a small voltage there are many of them and by connecting to each other they can combine their electric output to make a substantial shock.


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

[User]
How do PIs choose PhD students?

Just curious as to how PIs pick their students? Assuming that all applicants have good academic background and the lab's has more than sufficient funds, what is it that determines one student gets selected over the other? What qualities or red flags do PIs look out for when deciding to accept or reject students?

How do PIs tell if one student has potential or not (assuming both cases of having worked together before and having never worked together before)?

Also, would a PI rather keep a bright student that is not neccesarily the most hardworking, or a hardworking student that isn't as bright?

Just out of curiosity!

[Assistant]
Were they first in line to make it clear that they want to join the lab?

Are they interested in a project that needs more hands? Or one that already has enough people on it?

Do they ask the right kinds of questions?

Do they come across as being coachable? Are they enthusiastic about the prospect of the work? Are they likable?

Does it seem like they'll be a good lab citizen and contribute favorably to the lab culture?

If they did rotations in other labs, what did the other PIs think of them?

If they rotated through the lab, or even just hung out with the current lab members, what do the current lab members think of them?

>Also, would a PI rather keep a bright student that is not neccesarily  the most hardworking, or a hardworking student that isn't as bright?

They'd rather keep the one that produces significant publishable results in a timely manner with as little hand-holding as possible.


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

[User] ELI5:why does night vision use the color green?

[Assistant]
So the easy answer for ELi5 is black and white is turned green because the eyes are more sensitive to green.

Next level is the night vision captures all incoming light over many light wave and make it black and white. To aid further in light magnification they made is green to reduce eye strain  and easy for your eyes to see.

There is a more scientific and deeper engeering reasons but for an ELI5 is for easy of seeing the objects out there.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do expensive hotels have private wifi for sale while crappy motels have free wifi?

[Assistant]
You have to look at the business model and the potential customers that each is trying to attract.

Crappy motels are trying to compete on cheap price and convenience, looking for bargain-seeking tourists.  So offering OMG FREE wi-fi is a big draw.

Expensive hotels primarily cater to business clientele and convention goers.  Most of them either have an expense account (so they don't really care because they just pass on the cost to their employer or client), and/or NEED to get onto the Internet because of work.  Also in general these people have are less price sensitive.

Also sometimes when a large business goes through a travel agency, the people in charge of booking just care about price of the hotel room.  The expense reporting goes to another division.  So they don't really care that the wifi costs more because it's not a line item for them, which means they'd rather book at a cheaper hotel with jacked up wifi prices, than a more expensive one with free wifi.  (Note that these people still aren't competing with the budget motels because usually the company has a certain standard that a hotel has to meet, and budget motels fall short.)


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

[User] ELI5: How do some math problems become so massive they take up full massive chalk boards?

[Assistant]
Some math problems are so massive, they involve more than just a chalk board, but rather entire books with hundreds, even thousands of pages. Most of it is establishing the problem in a formal, concrete way, and then creating a mathematical framework which you can use to solve the problem.

For example, suppose your problem is trying to determine the number of prime numbers in the range 1 to 100. Well, first you have to define what a prime number is. Now you have to show some way to find prime numbers. Now you have to actually calculate the solution. Even for something trivial like this, we could probably fill a chalk board.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is it called Feminism instead of Equalitarism?

Never understood this...  Why is it?

[Assistant] Because "equalitarism" doesn't embed the problem that is being solved in the name.  It could be about addressing the problems associated with being short in our tall-appreciating society, for an example.  Feminism points at a very particular problem.  It makes sense to me - the things you'd do to solve to solve the social challenges of women are very different than those you'd create to solve the problems that face minorities...or short people, or poor people or any other dimension of "inequality".


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

[User]
ELI5: What is so special about vinegar that it is used as a cleaning solution?

I see vinegar being recommended for all DIY home cleaning solutions (even for cleaning urine, which I would have thought needs an enzymic cleaner). What is so special about it?

[Assistant] Distilled white vinegar, which is usually around 5% acetic acid, has pH of somewhere between 2-3. This is quite acidic. That means it can disolve common household greases, grimes, and mineral deposits, and it can kill a fair amount of microbes. It is NOT, however, a good disinfectant, as it can't kill certain kinds of bacteria, molds, and viruses. It's a good general-purpose cleaner where disinfection is not required, which covers a lot (but not all) of household cleaning.


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

[User]
ELI5: How are curfews in a supposedly free country legal?

Seems like restricting people from being outside or gathering is infringing on basic human rights.

[Assistant]
Generally, the curfews only apply to people under the age of 18 (except in special circumstances, such as a state of emergency, if curfews are implemented more broadly then).
The reason behind this being to (mainly) stop minors from doing illicit activities, which can be a whole range of things, such as gang activities, running away from home, going to inappropriate parties, so on and so forth. Also, they serve to protect the minors from any adult possibly commiting harm to them in the dark hours of the night.

And, for the record, while you have someone watching what you do constantly, and telling you what you can and can't do on a specific scale, you aren't really free. Also, if you were referring to the U.S.A., it's not a "free" country. That's a notion from the 1700/1800s that people mistakenly think still apply to this day.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do eyes have that awesome pattern around the pupil and what is the purpose of the coloring?

[Assistant]
The colored part is called an iris and is a muscle used to control the size of our pupil, the black part of our eye that allows light to enter.

The color is caused by a mutation that reduces the amount of melanin contained in the iris, this lack of melanin allows light to be reflected out of the iris in hues of blue or green and different shades of brown.


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

[User]
Glycogen stored in the liver lasts for 12-14 hours, how much in weight is this glycogen?

So I'm a undergrad majoring in biology, and while taking my Macro-molecules and Metabolism class my professor remarks that glycogen stored in the liver can last for 12-14 hours, to which I asked how much glycogen is that? He didn't have an answer, so I'm asking it here.

[Assistant] Typically about 100 grams. This can also last to fuel the body for up to 22 hours before the body switches to breaking down protein and fat for energy. Muscles store about 400 grams of glycogen, but those bastards are selfish and since they lack the enzyme glucose-6-phosphatase, they cannot convert G6P to glucose to be used to regulate blood glucose.


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

[User] EL5: Why do companies such as Mcdonald's and Walmart continue to spend so much on advertising when they are already the most popular companies in the world?

[Assistant]
mcdonalds doesn't advertise too much for brand awareness, everyone already knows they exist. what they DO spend money on is things like

* introducing new products to the public (fruit smoothies, angus burgers, etc)
* to fight back against popular opinions (we use 100% REAL beef, no fillers)
* to address potential markets (african americans, kids aged 5-10, etc)
* to promote new promotions (cheeseburger meal is $1.99!)

advertising isn't always used to tell people that a company exists. it exists to send a focused message that the company wants to tell - whatever that message is.

you can see this in the walmart ads too. they have a bad reputation for being a bully that muscles local competitors. so what they do is fill their ads with people who are a part of the community but also work at walmart.


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

[User]
ELI5: As they polar ice caps melt why does the sea level rise, isn't the displacement of the ice already accounted for.

I'm not debating that it is happening I just want to know why. I thought of this because I remembered that like 4th grade science experiment where you put ice in the glass and fill it to the top with water then wait for the ice to melt and the water stays at the same level.

[Assistant] Most of the ice that's of concern is sitting on land in Antarctica, Greenland and mountain glaciers.  Approximately half of sea level rise is attributed to melt from these ice sheets.  The other half is attributed to ocean water warming and becoming less dense / taking up more volume.


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

[User] Do the current high PE ratios mean that the stock market will likely crash?

[Assistant]
No. There are a few reasons why one measure is not sufficient to determine when the stock market will crash:

1. The inverse of the PE ratio is the earnings yield and this can be compared with bond yields - if bond yields are very low, PEs may justifiably be very high.
2. PE multiples are based upon accounting earnings and accounting earnings do not represent economic earnings in many cases. E.g., asset values are often written down by impairments in recessions, which can cause profits across many firms to look very low, signaling a very high PE ratio (by virtue of low earnings) just at the time when it may be near a low in the stock market. Case and point is March/April 2009. Companies just reported annual 2008 earnings which included a "big bath" and therefore the PE ratio of the S&P 500 was briefly very high, just when it was the best time to purchase stock.
3. What determines stock market crashes is not valuation of stocks per se but the market narrative changing due to changing conditions. E.g., the housing market causing a run on money market funds and the collapse of banks, the pandemic, technical features of the market driving the sell off of 1987, etc.


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

[User]
[Pokemon] Can you capture another trainer's pokemon in battle?

Has this ever happened in lore or is something preventing it? Are pokemon somehow bound to their trainer? Or could you capture a low HP pokemon mid battle?

[Assistant]
Not with a normal pokball, no - but there's a special type of pokball created specifically for that purpose, called a snag ball.

Snag balls were created by an organisation called Cipher with the intention to capture pokmon that had been raised to a high level by their trainers. Once captured, Cipher turned them into shadow pokmon, which are heartless, soulless fighting machines.

The good news is that shadow pokmon can themselves be snagged with another snag ball and made whole again through a process known as "purification", which basically involves making them fight other pokmon until they're able to feel emotions again.


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

[User] [The Simpsons] Is there an in-universe explanation for why most of the characters are yellow?

[Assistant]
When Grandpa Abe begins a relationship with Marges mother, Homer expresses worry that he and Marge will thus be brother and sister, causing their children to be horrible freaks with pink skin, no overbite, and five fingers on each hand.

The implication here is that for those who inhabit the world of the Simpsons, most ethnicities having yellow skin is simply the evolutionary norm. That is how humans developed, and pink skin is a genetic aberration.


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

[User] [Star Trek]its 2393, my planet that has Just broken the Warp barrier. Star fleet makes first contact in that year, but they've been aware of my Society since 2167. Could historians on my planet request Star fleet give them access to their observations of us over the centuries?

[Assistant]
Yes.

The reason for the Prime Directive is to avoid affecting the cultural development of pre-warp societies. Once the Federation have made contact there is no further question of that.

Unless some other restrictions apply, any historical observations should be as readily available as any other Federation scientific resources.


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

[User]
ELI5: What is blood poisoning?

I've just read the first *Hunger Games* book and it devotes a sizable part of the climax to Peeta's situation after he was stabbed by Cato. What exactly is blood poisoning and how does it kill?

Edit: A moderator automatically sent me a message saying I should Google this first. I have, but I'm still confused by all of the medical terminology.

Second Edit: Holy shit, I didn't expect this to blow up, I just returned to Reddit after like 5 hours. Thanks for all of the responses, people!

[Assistant]
Blood poisoning is what happens when an infection makes it into your bloodstream, which is your body's central highway for distributing and collecting stuff.

When you have a cold, you have an infection in your respiratory system. It's restricted to that area. When you have an ear infection, same thing. Or a skin infection. These colonies of bacteria are stuck in that spot; that is where they broke in and, hopefully, that's where they die when your immune system takes care of it. Blood poisoning (or sepsis) is when the infection isn't taken care of, and it breaks through and spreads *everywhere*, all at once. All of your organ systems become at risk, your immune system has to be mobilized everywhere (which means inflammation everywhere, causing another huge list of problems), your temperature spikes, and your body burns through resources like crazy. It's extremely dangerous, and highly fatal if not immediately treated.


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

[User] [Marvel] If Norman Osborn is a multi billionaire then why does Harry go to a normal public school?

[Assistant]
Norman Osbourne specifically talks about this in Raimi's first Spider-man movie.

He says that Harry has been kicked out of every private school he's been in. Presumably, as some sort of retaliation, because Harry accuses his father that the only reason Harry was in these schools was because it benefited NORMAN, not Harry himself.

Sounds pretty canon to me.


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

[User]
[Monsters Inc.] Why did monsters so casually go into children's rooms if they thought children are toxic?

They freak out over being touched by a sock and in the beginning Waternoose makes it very clear how lethal monsters think children are.

[Assistant]
They receive vaccinations routinely to prevent any airborne toxins from harming them. Physical contact with a child or one of their heavily toxic possessions (even worse, an item of clothing drenched in toxic sweat) could still be absorbed through the skin, poisoning the monster. If a kid escapes into the monster world, then even worse. They're actively contaminating the world and potentially infecting monsters who haven't been vaccinated, such as those who don't ever need to venture into the human world.

Of course this is all later proven to be hogwash dreamt up in the Monsters Inc conspiracy (Screamgate), but they certainly pumped out a lot of propaganda and "alternative facts".


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

[User]
[Alien] In the original film, why is there a lack of panic and urgency in the crew when they discover the adult Xenomorph?

Saw the film for the first time recently, and it is a very good horror flick, especially for its time, though it was a bit too slow-paced for my taste.

Anyway, maybe I'm remembering wrong, but when they find out that an alien is on their vessel causing mayhem, they discussed their next move very nonchalantly. To be fair, Ripley was pretty freaked out towards the end, but I'm referring mostly to the 2nd act.

[Assistant]
It's because of characters' characteristics - Ash is, well, you know who. Parker is "I don't give a damn" pragmatic brute. Ripley is "no nonsense" officer. Dallas is jaded, tired and "doesn't want to be there", grumpy captain. IIRC he is also a soldier, a veteran of war with actual combat history under his belt.

...and then there's Lambert - she is scared, panicked and already crying.

There's also the fact that the alien wasn't truly seen. Parker merely observes that it has to be big/huge. They are still oblivious about what they are facing.

In addition: it's assumed that people who leave Earth, spend years in cryosleep and risk being stranded among stars simply can't be that fragile.


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

[User]
[MCU] In the years since Falcon joined the Avengers has the US military reevaluated their EXO-7 program and begun training para-rescue troops again?

Seems popular support would be easier to get with such a high-profile user of the equipment.

[Assistant] It wasn't discontinued because the suit was ineffective. It was discontinued because the success rate of the training program was so low. One of the few success stories becoming more high profile does not change that.


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

[User] ELI5 Why do we associate citrus scents such as lemons and oranges with freshness?

[Assistant]
The actual ELI5 version: citrus has "fresh smelling" chemicals in it.

The slightly less 5-year-old version: The characteristic smells of citrus are primarily chemicals called terpenes, things like Limonene primarily, but also Terpinene, Geraniol, Myrcene, Cymene, Linalool and others.

These terpenes are found in a TON of organic plant matter that we tend to think of as "fresh", like flowers and herbs and grass. Avid potheads will probably recognize these terpenes as the things that give their sticky icky that characteristic dank nug smell.

They also tend to be quite volatile and dissipate quickly, meaning that not-fresh things rarely have a large quantity of these terpenes. Of course there are tons of exceptions to this rule, but this in broad strokes is why we tend to associate citrus with freshness.


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

[User]
CMV: The shift from "Art" to "Content Creation" is degrading the artistic quality of creative works, and will continue to for the foreseeable future (Fresh topic)

Hey all, this one is mostly for fun, but I do think a lot about how the internet and content consumption has an effect on creatives around the world. Definitely open to changing my view and also hearing different perspectives.

In recent decades, social media, YouTube and other internet platforms have become the main places many people go to consume media and spend their free time. This obviously has had a huge impact on creatives, and we see a huge number of aspiring "Content Creators" and less aspiring "Artists." In my argument, I'm using Artist as a blanket statement to include anyone who makes creative works. Musicians, authors, poets, visual artists, filmmakers, etc.

***Artistic quality*** is something that is obviously subjective and up for debate, but I think many kinds of content are blatantly non-artistic, and it would be hard to argue that they are. Examples: Let's Play Youtube channels, reaction channels, Instagram and Snapchat influencers, many many subreddits, the vast majority of TikTok videos, many podcasts, etc. While I am open to debating what is of artistic value, I would say works that qualify as artistic and having lasting quality have some qualifications:

\- The act of creating, and the work itself is emotionally expressive for the creator. It also is typically seen as an artistic, self-expressive act by the creator.

\- The work provokes an emotional, meaningful, or thought provoking response in those engaging with it.

\- It has a lasting cultural effect or meaningful impact on society.

\- It is, well... creating something that wasn't there before! Someone making ***anything*** that expresses their inner world, to me, is inherently more artistic than a video of you doing squats at the gym.

It's obvious to see that these platforms function in an inherently different way than all other creative or artistic platforms in human history, and thus effect the artistic works made for the platforms. All social media websites are driven on user engagement, with the algorithms that drive these websites solely focused on ***keeping users on their platform as long as possible.*** This by itself is going to change the nature of the media made for these platforms - users are no longer rewarded for creating works that have higher ***quality,*** or have a thought provoking or lasting effect on society, they are only rewarded for creating works that are immediately eye catching, or keep users engaged for this exact moment, only to be forgotten about seconds later quite often. Obviously this feedback loop will lead to people who shape their lives around creating content for these platforms, and will make works that lead to user engagement.

Does this change in mentality, the change to a "Content Creator" lead to less artistically valuable works being made on the whole? I think, in general, it does. Many platforms incentivize creators to constantly be pushing out new content, and I think this is antithetical to the quiet contemplation many artistic works require. I think many people who might have opted to be an author before YouTube became huge might choose now to make a film analysis channel, or something similar, due to the instant feedback and ability to reach more people, as opposed to spending months or years doing research and writing a novel alone. There are more people opting into a less artistic platform, and making less quality creations as a result. There is also much less of a focus on originality and/or artistry, and more of a focus on entertainment

Things to address about my argument and things that will change my view:

\- I hope this isn't coming off as pretentious - I don't think these platforms are bad for ***society*** or anything like that, they are just bad for ***artistic creation!***

\- If you can prove that on the whole, there are more quality creative works being made now than there were previously. I mean heck, maybe only 3% of all YouTube channels are actually of artistic quality, but maybe that's more than there used to be during the hayday of Television, Radio and film. (Please link your artistically pleasing sources here!)

\- If you can change my mind on what criteria is important when determining artistic value - I'm open to having my view changed on this, have fun with it!

\- If you can show me other platforms or other avenues that creators are disseminating their original artistic works, and are incentivized on originality. Bandcamp is a good example.

\- If you can argue that in the future, it won't always be this way, and that while at the moment this is the effect that algorithms are having on content creation, that for some reason it will actually have a ***positive*** impact on artistic value, eventually.

[Assistant]
I think youre falling prey to what is called survivorship bias.

Over the decades and centuries, only the great art (Mozart, Van Gogh, Dickens) has a lasting impact, while everything else is eventually forgotten. As a result, we tend to fallaciously believe that back in the day, *all* art was great, and there only Picassos and Virginia Woolfswhen in truth, there were a million cheap, mediocre composers for every one Mozart, but weve simply forgotten about all of them.

In truth, the majority of art over the centuries has been what one might call content creationcheap pamphlets, pulp magazines, gossip columns, commercial illustration, one hit wonders, bad sitcoms, etc. The thing is, we dont remember any of that any more than we will a specific YouTube makeup tutorial in a hundred years from now.

Just like we only remember less than 1% of artists and musicians from the 18th century, we will likely only remember 1% of artists from the 21st as well.


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

[User] [Pokemon] Hey I'm a generic grunt and well why is there a 10 year old in our base? And how is he beating us so soundly?

[Assistant]
This world is inhabitated by creatures called "Pokemon". You may have heard about them. They like fighting. Some people train their pokemon to fight better. You and your buddies have clearly prioritized dicking around your base instead of training.

Hope you haven't got anything important in that base of yours.


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

[User]
Why wasn't the Antarctic ice sheet larger during the last ice age?

Inspired by the recent XKCD, I looking into the last glacial period, and while huge ice sheets covered much of north America and Europe, it looks to me like there wasn't much coverage of the southern continents (in fact it appears the antarctic ice sheet was actually smaller). Is this true, and if so how can this be the case if global temperatures were significantly lower back then?

[Assistant] Keeping in mind that ice floats, and that Antarctica is an isolated polar continent, the ice sheet there has no place to go but into the ocean. Tidal and possibly thermal stresses at the edge of the floating ice sheet then "prune" the edge contantly through iceberg calving. The same process occurs along the oceanic portions of the arctic icecap.


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

[User]
Are billionaires saving the US dollar?

I have only taken micro and macro a few semesters ago, so please inform me if any of my logic is incorrect.

The total wealth held by billionaires has increased by $1.6 trillion since March 18th, 2020. This represents 1/3 of total gains over the past 31 years. All of this money has been funneled into their net worth (basically) from the general US population spending their stimulus.

Billionaires holding all of this money are essentially offsetting the amount of QE the fed has done over the past year, and acting as a buffer for inflation.

They are reducing the velocity of the printed money, but if they were to start spending a significant amount of that money, inflation would be jump started.

I cant imagine that this amount of money, held by such a relatively small amount of people will be moving very much in the near future. So are they kind of saving the economies ass as of right now?

TL;DL: Billionaires are keeping the dollar scarce. Kind of? for right now?Also read the last sentence.

[Assistant]
Wealth isn't money and company values going up is not the same as increases in the money supply.

Billionaires generally don't hold a lot of money (relatively speaking). They hold *wealth*. This is important.

If you own a stock whose value goes up, it's just the *value* that changes. Think of it like owning a classic car for example. You bought it for $20000 30 years ago and now it's worth $50000. Does that mean you have 50k in the bank? No, you'd have to sell it for that. So you'd have to stop owning an appreciating asset and own cash instead.

Point being, stock values going up doesn't mean billionaires "soak up" cash. It doesn't even mean they have *more* cash. They just have *assets with higher value*, which doesn't necessitate any actual transfer of money for those billionaires.

Also, *if* this were the case it would just mean the central bank's job is slightly harder. They engage in things like QE to push inflation *up* to meet their target, and making it harder just means they have to increase the money supply more (or do other things).


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

[User]
CMV: Women's football is terrible even at the highest level. Instead of pushing women to be more like male players, change the womens game to better suit it's players.

I say this not because of some misogynist rant but because it really is terrible. I'm volunteering as a youth coach for boys U12s. After painfully watching a game of 'elite' women players it became very clear that the sport gets way more money and attention than it deserves for some unbeknownst reason. I've watched mens U19s and U17s play at regional level and I'll be brutally honest- those teens are an order of magnitude better. I think there's a simpler logic as to why. Not physiology as that is obvious, but to get good players you need a large pool of talent to sift out the best. Women's football does not have that even at grassroots levels so you end up with relative mediocre players abound. No fault of theirs though.

So I make a proposal to change the womens game so as to evolve the sport rather than expecting the womens teams to play at the same level as their male counterparts. Things like rule changes, transfers(something similar to a the draft in Basketball), uniforms and generally making the sport take advantage of women's strengths(Agility, technicality of female players is quite close to that of their male counterparts IMO). Football is generally slow to evolve, and modernising the sport through women's football would serve the sport quite well. And it would be exciting to watch(more eyes watching makes for better sponsorships), and less intimidating for girl players especially at the grassroots levels.

[Assistant]
I think the big reason why womens football is so much worse is because there's basically no profs and there isn't much of a push for them to go playing as you said.

You'd have to invest in it first before it'll properly be able to develop.


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

[User] [X-MEN 2 movie]When Professor Xavier causes every human to have terrible pain for a short time, how many millions died in traffic accidents, planes going down or other similar calamities? Did public welfare of many countries collapse from medical and repair costs? How else did tons of people die?

[Assistant]
A lot of people no doubt died.  I'd say there was serious fallout from the event, though we never actually see anything.

In addition to people driving cars and motorcycles and airplanes, anyone in a precarious position would have likely suffered injury or death. Things like those working on a scaffolding or construction site, crossing the street, swimming, taking a bath, working with power tools, etc.

Then there are the unfortunate accidents, people who break their neck falling off the curb or developing fatal brain bleeds from cracking their skull on the kitchen counter.

Finally you'd have all of the vulnerable populations with medical problems who could die from just falling down in their kitchen or nursing home.  People suffering from medical emergencies that would be ignored during and after the event because all of the providers were incapacitated.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] How would the Empire have faired if they kept using clones instead of stormtroopers?

Let's say for one reason or another the Empire keeps using clones instead of stormtroopers. How would they fair?

[Assistant]
Quite honestly, they couldn't have. The rate at which they expanded the military far outstripped the pace at which the Kaminoans could provide clones, and on top of that the clones were far more expensive to produce than it is to just have recruits from civilian populations. Even nationalizing the banks - making it so the office of the Chancellor owns the banks - as they did simply showed how dire the financial situation was for both sides during the Clone Wars.

But assuming somehow they manage to negate the costs and other impracticalities of the clones, the Empire would actually be better off - the clones are generally far better soldiers than the recruits that the Empire switched off to.

Of course, this is also assuming that Rex and other clones like him get silenced. If the clones realize what they were forced to do to the Jedi, and the truth spreads... soon, the Empire's military is gone. Presumably, an Empire that continues using clones would have contingencies in place for that happening, though.


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

[User]
[Gargoyles] Why did the British government allow David Xanatos to tear down a major historical site and transport it to America?

Even if the castle is privately owned, there are laws about what you're allowed to do to historical structures. Deliberately removing it piece by piece is against the law.

[Assistant]
Well, look at where castle Wyvern sat before Xanatos decided to buy it. It was literally on the edge of a crumbling cliff, probably just a few decades away from falling into the ocean and taking all of its history and exquisite art (because who honestly believes Gargoyles are real?) with it. Aside from that, the castle had a VERY bad reputation for being haunted, which kept squatters away from it for a thousand years and prevented the government from preserving it themselves. The thing with most haunting legends are that they don't really keep people away, they're really just big tourist signs. But Castle Wyvern ACTUALLY kept people away. Nobody really studied it and no tourists came to the castle to spread its spooky history around. Nobody would have agreed to preserve it like all the other castles in Scotland, and it would have disappeared as a historical footnote without extraordinary intervention.

So Xanatos, with incalculable wealth and (alleged) bribes to the right people, offered to preserve the castle for the government. And he'd do it in a way that would excise the haunting rumors and let the nearby land be put to good use. If Xanatos was smart (which of course he is), he would have also run a massive PR campaign all through the country (and hell, the entire western world) to get popular support for his massive purchase. TV spots, printed ads, radio interviews, the works. If he got the general public on his side, offering to do what the government never did AND doing his part to preserve history, the people in charge of such things would be hard pressed to refuse him. (Also bribes. So many bribes. ALLEGEDLY)

EDIT: It also occurs to me that, even if Xanatos did all the stuff above, there probably would have still been protests and massive campaigns by citizens to stop him. But he's not subject to their laws or feelings, and he probably never set foot near the castle until the first day of moving, so he wouldn't have been affected in the least.


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

[User] ELI5: Muscle repair process: what happens specifically when post workout calories are consumed, and during sleep?

[Assistant]
Nothing happens when post workout calories are consumed.  That is bro-science.  You will be fine if you don't drink your protein shake exactly 10-30 minutes after working out unless you were already suffering an extreme calorie deficiency over the preceding days and your body fat percentage is already very low.  Your body will only catabolize muscle tissue in extreme situations, and even the most extreme workouts don't consume as many calories as you think.

As far as sleeping: muscle growth is regulated by free testosterone, which is released in a pulsative fashion.  The biggest pulse occurs at night when you are asleep.  It signals your damaged muscle tissue to heal, and then the cells/fibers to lengthen and thicken so that you will have an increased mechanical advantage the next time you attempt a similar physical feat.


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

[User] ELI5: What is a second mortgage and why is it bad?

[Assistant]
You buy a home for $100 dollars, and borrow all $100 from the bank.  After some time you only owe the bank $80, and the home is worth $120.  Now you can take another loan on the $40 on the part of the house that you own.

The loans can be bad if you get in a position that you can't pay on both the $100 loan and the $40 loan at the same time.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do sharks sense a drop of blood in water from kilometers away?

A lot of documentaries say that sharks can sense a single drop of blood into the water from kilometers away. This way, they can find food easily. However, how is that possible? How can only a few drops of blood diffuse into the ocean and the sharks are still be able to sense everything?

[Assistant]
Shark olfaction is fairly sensitive--although it varies by the species. They can detect very small amounts of a chemical within the water, which undoubtedly is advantageous for hunting.

However, in order for the shark to actually detect said chemical (e.g., trace amounts of blood in the water), it needs to actually physically encounter it.

So, if you cut your finger and start bleeding, it's not like sharks within 1+ kilometer distance will all start swimming towards you because they haven't actually physically encountered blood in the water. It would require a steady stream of blood leading from you to it.

Another way to think about this is how we detect stars in the sky with our vision. If a star forms today, and it's 1 million light years away from earth, we won't know that the star has formed until light rays travel far enough to reach earth (i.e., 1 million years from now).


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

[User]
Using laptop at night in the dark - does it damage your eyes?

Hi scientists of reddit,

My girlfriend told me it was common for people to go blind whilst working by candlelight centuries ago.  I tend to do a lot of my work on the laptop before bed.  So it's not uncommon for me to be on my laptop in a dark room.  I've never really thought of the possibility of the laptop light damaging my eyes before as I find they adjust fairly quickly.  So reddit, am I hurting myself? What precautions can I take? Should I keep the light on from now on?

[Assistant]
"Reading in the dark" and suchlike activities which "damage your eyes" are old wives tales.

Quality and quantity: If the light emitted by the laptop screen contains dangerous wavelengths (very-high frequency light, UV and up), or if the laptop produces huge amounts of light (think car headlight) so that you have to squint to look at the screen, then it may damage your eyes. If neither, then looking at the screen does nothing to your eyes, because they're just doing what they are designed to do: collect, focus and encode light patterns.

On the contrary - people who constantly spend time workign in low light levels actually improve their ability to function under such conditions. They don't develop *better* night sight, they just get better training.

All things said, it's still not healthy for your eyes to stare at surfaces that are an arm's length away for hours, days, month and years - which people working with computers end up doing. THere are many exercises you can do to mitigate ill effects in this regard.


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

[User]
CMV: The inequality in wealth that exists between the top 1% (or 0.1%) and everyone else doesn't really matter.

Oxfam has released their annual report with the stats on the inequality in wealth between the highest echelons of society and everyone, with figures such as the 26 wealthiest individuals owning as much as the entire bottom 50%.

I think this sounds jarring but it's not actually something we should care about: the focus ought to be on global poverty (which by just about any measure has been in decline for years), not the size of the gap. There is no real reason to care about whether the gap is a bit bigger or a bit smaller, all that matters is whether those at the bottom are seeing their standards of living rise or not, and reports like Oxfam's and the discussion surrounding them are a distraction from this goal.

[Assistant]
The Gini coefficient on wealth is the best predictor of criminal violence - as it turns out, economic inequality, not poverty, appears responsible for violent crime and especially homicide.

The floor of poverty continues to rise in nations where this gap continues to increase. If you believe this rate is worth reducing, then it's worth making sure that inequality doesn't get *too* out of control at the same time you're pursuing the goal of raising the floor on standard of living.


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

[User]
[Dune] In the scene with the Sardukaur Legions, who are the people chained upside down?

I assume they are religious sacrifices but who are they? How are they chosen? Further more who is the priest talking to them? Does the imperium have a standardized religion?

[Assistant] Salusa Secundus is the Imperial prison world, especially toward the end of House Corrino's rule, and has something like a 90% mortality rate among those who are sent there. Most likely those unworthy of training into the legions become sacrifices so bath those worthy in blood.


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

[User]
[HP] Why do wizards not fix most physical disabilites/problems

When Hermione went to the nurse to have her teeth fixed the implication was that it was fairly easily done. So long as it hasn't been curse off they can reattach limbs relatively easily, but they can't fix Harry or Dumbledores sight issues?

[Assistant]
The healing spells function by accelerating and enhancing the bodies natural healing properties, an astigmatism isn't something the body gets better from overtime.

Next; "why not just fix his eyesight without a healing spell?" well permanent physical alteration of someone is one of the hardest spells imaginable, well maybe not when it comes to cursing limbs or eyes off people, but the good kind, and certainly not the kind that would be worth doing just to save anyone from the minor inconvenience of wearing glasses.

Also as a minor point, anything that has been damaged by a curse can't be healed (see Alistar Moody), and as Harry is a [Spoiler:] horcrux he specifically can't be healed.


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

[User]
Does a capitalist economy require infinite economic growth?

Does a capitalist economy (one where capital goods are owned by private firms and individuals) require infinite growth? What would happen without growth?

[Assistant]
No. An economy can function "fine" without growth.

That said, you really kinda want growth, no matter in whose hands the means of production are. Growth is in part fueled by productivity increases and technological progress, in short better products and more efficient "manufacturing". Zero growth also means technological standstill.

Zero growth also means no rise in living standards, no rise in wages, etc.


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

[User]
Thanking an adjunct prof?

I'm graduating soon and I'm starting to think about writing thank-you cards for my professors (I've already done a couple).

My department only has one adjunct faculty member, who is part-time and teaches a couple of 200-level classes. I don't know him all that well because I haven't had him as an instructor for two years (I do still see him around the labs and we're friendly), but he was an early influence in my undergrad career because 1. I really enjoyed and learned a lot from his classes and 2. he was the first professor who really pushed me to succeed and taught me the vital skill of overcoming failure.

The process of applying to grad schools has really opened my eyes to how horribly adjunct professors are treated (and my school is known for having low faculty salaries in general) and yet he still cares so much about his students which is something I never really appreciated when I took his classes. (I don't think other students do either because many complain about how strict he is and hate his classes.)

I really want to write him a thank-you note that's basically like "you're an awesome professor, and I know you don't get enough credit as an adjunct faculty member but you're a rockstar and thank you for all your hard work and everything you do."

But I dunno, is that weird or inappropriate? It's not like he's my mentor or anything, I just want to make sure he knows he's appreciated.

[Assistant] Send the letter, but emphasize his contributions and your appreciation. Omit the middle part. He isn't looking for sympathy. Better yet, tell him that you contacted the dean to express your appreciation for his instruction.


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

[User]
eli5: Is it actually possible that all snowflakes are unique?

Is it really possible that in all of Earth's history, conditions have not existed to make two snowflakes the same? How can we ever really know that there HAVEN'T been two the same?

[Assistant]
It's possible, but it's a statistics issue, like two snowflakes landing on exactly the same spot.

A snowflake averages 0.02gr (according to Google) so that is about 6x10^20 water molecules locked together.

Incredibly unlikely that any two would ever lock together in the same arrangement throughout.  Incredibly unlikely that any two would have exactly the same number of molecules.  And incredibly unlikely that any two would also have the same impurities (dirt and others) distributed the same way throughout.

So it's very likely that there have never been two that are identical, even though we might be fortunate enough to find two that seem to look alike.


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

[User] [Samurai Jack] Why does Jack only wear light robes? If he's a samurai, shouldn't he be wearing armor?

[Assistant] If he was born and raised in his homeland without interference, yes. He would have been trained how to care for the armor, how to don it, fight in it and so on. But he didn't get that; he went into exile as a child, and learned the ways of war from foreign tutors. By the time he made it home, the nation had been reduced to miserable slavery; all of the old suits were either destroyed or in Aku's clutches, and the resources to make a new suit (trained armorsmiths, raw materials, facilities) would have taken a long time to gather, if they could be found at all. If he had prevailed against Aku, no doubt the first suit of armor to be made after his nation's liberation and reconstruction would be presented to him with great pomp and ceremony... but he didn't win.


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

[User]
If neutrinos turn out to be faster than light, are they useful in any way? Communication?

If the experiment proves true, is it theoretically possible to use neutrinos for communications? Im not incredibly clear on how they are detected as well as whether or not we can manipulate them at all. Not would it be faster than light but you would eliminate the need for satellites as well given that they can travel through the earth.

[Assistant] The recent measurement has no practical implications for communication. Neutrinos make inefficient signals because they are almost indetectable. One application I've seen proposed is for messaging submarines, because radio can't penetrate and sound is slow.


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

[User]
ELI5 how do big tech companies sell data? How do they turn users' data into profit & money?

How do they sell it and who buys it?

[Assistant]
Most of the "big tech companies" you're probably thinking of (Facebook, Google) don't sell the data directly. You can't really walk up to Facebook and say "I want to buy 3 million email addresses and phone numbers, how much will that be?"

(Before someone chimes in to say that Facebook basically sold data in Cambridge Analytica or whatever, that's beside the point - giving people access to data for money is still not their primary business plan. If you think about it a little bit you'd realize that it would be a dumb business plan, because eventually you'd sell all your data, giving you nothing left to sell because it's all been leaked. Not to mention the immediate regulatory attention it would attract.)

Instead what they do is sell ads, but use the information they have to sell better ads. For example, as an advertiser you could tell Facebook that you want an ad shown to "10,000 people between the ages of 25-35 who are interested in Hiking in the US." Facebook will then show your ad to the users who it thinks matches your criteria, without necessarily revealing who those users are. Since targeted advertising like this is typically more effective than non-targeted advertising, advertisers continue spending money to run ads on Facebook and Google as opposed to other places that have less data on their users.

You can try it yourself; it's pretty easy to run ads on Google and Facebook. You can spend a couple bucks to publish an ad that will get shown to some minuscule number of users.


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

[User] [Marvel] Are there any heroes who Punisher gets along with, or at least respects?

[Assistant] He refused to fight back against Captain America in Civil War, and went to prison to make sure Daredevil didnt betray his morals and do something hed regret. He also seems to respect Spider-Man for being such a do-gooder after almost killing him under false information-he saved his life in Civil War and when he shot him in 1610, broke down completely and turned himself in begging to be punished.


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

[User] ELI5:What prevents plants from growing beyond a certain height?

[Assistant]
A pant usually grows taller so it can outgrow all other plants and catch the most sunlight, which it needs. However, growing and keeping all those leaves healthy and hydrated costs a lot of energy, which is why a tree loses its leaves in winter, when it's not energy efficient to keep its leaves alive.

Now, the taller a plant gets, the more energy and time it costs to transport all nutrients and water all the way up from its roots to the leaves. So at a certain moment, there is an equilibrium - the plant just doesn't have enough capacity to keep growing anymore.


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

[User] Is there any limit to the mass of an object in the universe? Can something, like a black hole, become so massive that it can rip through the fabric of spacetime, or would physics prevent that, or is there no upper limit to the mass an object can be?

[Assistant]
Honestly, we don't know. It also depends on your definition of 'rip through the fabric of spacetime ' since many people would consider any black hole to have done that already.

It also depends on what you define as 'an object'. Does a galaxy count? Or a cluster of galaxies? Both are gravitationally bound, so may be considered 'an object'.

The single most massive discrete object detected so far would be the black hole TON 618, which masses 66 *billion* times the mass of our sun.


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

[User] ELI5: Why with today's camera technology do we still use video cameras that are 15+ pounds, and require two hands and a shoulder to rest on?

[Assistant]
For quality and photographic properties.

The biggest limiting factor is the lens. The wider the lens, the more light it can capture; and the longer the lens, the more tightly it can focus on distant subjects. Lens size is also related to other visual properties like depth of field and the compression of space.

With still-photo cameras, you can use a longer shutter speed -- leaving the camera sensor 'open' for longer periods -- to acquire more light. This is not as possible with video cameras which require a minimum of 24, often 25-30, images to be taken each second; the effective maximum shutter speed is 1/24th of a second. So if you want to acquire more light you need to make your lens bigger.

If you want to see the problems inherent in a small lens, go and take a cellphone photo outdoors at nighttime, and see the noise and poor detail that results. Even the best cellphone cameras struggle because it's the size of the lens that limits you.

There are other factors involved as well. You need to weigh down the back end of the camera to balance for the heavy lens, so now it's even bulkier. But you actually *want* some bulk most of the time, because it helps you keep things steady when shooting 'from the hip' (just holding the camera, without tripods or camera mounts). If you have a camera that's 3 inches wide and light as a feather, every tiny movement you make will jostle it and make your video a shaky mess. If it's got decent heft to it, it's easier to hold it steady and avoid jostling it with minor movements, and if it's big enough to mount on your shoulder, even easier.

Then there's storage. If you're just some guy filming occasional 720p clips of your friends skating or of your dog catching frisbees, then saving to phone storage or SD cards is great. But professionals have different needs. Uncompressed 4K footage is 44 GB per minute. So you want cameras that can film to hard drives, SxS, etc, and that means bulk. And you want batteries that can shoot high-quality footage and run those hard drives and powered mics for at least a couple of hours while in the field, which means bigger, bulkier batteries.

These are all concerns that mostly professionals have, which is why it's mostly professionals that still have these big heavy cameras. For family movies and casual stuff you do use those much smaller, lighter cameras that can be wielded with one hand.


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

[User] Does the fact that neutron stars are held together by gravity rather than the strong nuclear force change the stability of the neutrons in them? Or do they still have a 15 minute half-life?

[Assistant]
Yes. Nuclei beta decay because at relatively large |N - Z|, the proton and neutron Fermi levels are significantly different, and it becomes favorable to turn the type which is in excess into the one which is in deficit.

In a neutron star however you have an immense gravitational force which makes it energetically favorable for the material to be as densely-packed as possible. In a neutron star, the desire to close-pack all of the matter overwhelms the difference in proton and neutron Fermi levels, and forces almost all of the nucleons to become neutrons.


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

[User]
[Halo:CE] How did Capt Keyes "overhear" his captors calling installation 04 Halo? Hell, how did he know how to pilot a Covenant dropship?

During "The Truth and Reconciliation" for those wondering.

I thought translation software was incredibly unreliable given the many species and languages of the Covenant coupled with the fact it took A.I. level computing power to translate things quickly. Hard to imagine Keyes had access to that in a Covenant cell.

Up to this point in the war I heard the UNSC was having a hard time operating lots of Covenent technology outside intuitive weapon and simple vehicles. I know A.I. can do a lot of the heavy lifting but Keyes specifically told Cortana that he would pilot the dropship. He even had the fine motor control to crush two hunters with the pronged front of the ship. So is Covenant drop ship operations standard material for captains in the UNSC?

[Assistant]
Prior to Reach going tits up and the Pillar of Autumn making a random shipspace jump to Installation 04 Captain Keys was to be a key player in Operation Red Flag, a plan to kidnap a Prophet to force a ceasefire.

Cortana was largely responsible for mission planning. She chose for John-117 to carry her and for the Pillar of Autumn to be modified, and for Captain Keys to be in command. He was chosen ostensibly for his excellent improvisation skills.

So it would make sense that he either already knew something of the Covenant languages or learned as a part of mission planning. Same goes for flying a basic craft, especially as they are very intuitive.


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

[User] ELI5 : Why are some female athletes being disqualified from the olympics for their natural testosterone levels ?

[Assistant] There have been a few problems with women's running the last few years. Both people accused of being men in disguise, transgender women trying to compete with the other women and also suspicion of women taking testosterone to boost their performance. In an effort to prevent these issues they changed the rules and now the definition of a women is based on their levels of testosterone. This is the first Olympics with the new rules. And it have caused some issues where women with naturally high testosterone levels which would have been able to qualify as women under the old rules now have to compete with the men.


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

[User] ELI5: Why vitamins have expiration dates. Do vitamins and minerals degrade?

[Assistant]
Many chemicals oxidize and lose their intended properties, just like food (which incidentally is made of chemicals :P). This means that free radicals (oxygen ions) attach to different parts of the vitamins/rip off a few atoms.

So the vitamins could either become inert and useless, or potentially poisonous.

---

More ELI5:

Our air will over time cause the vitamins to change their chemical structure. This makes vitamin A no longer vitamin A - but some deviant variation.


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

[User]
"Don't do an unfunded PhD" - always true?

I guess I'm not the only one who has heard this piece of advice (perhaps you may call it a 'rule'): if you're not being funded, don't do a PhD.

What is the basis for this? If you can afford to do it, why not go ahead? Has anyone here self-funded their PhD?

EDIT: Having encountered a good number self-funded PhD students here in the UK, I am wondering if perhaps this is more true of US institutions. Does anyone have any insight on this?

[Assistant] There are exceptions to every rule (like what if you are an heir to a giant corporation, and want to study history of art for 5 years). But generally, yes, it's a good rule of thumb. If you are competitive, and the field is competitive, you probably can find a funded PhD. If you are not competitive (for the field of your choice), it's probably a good idea to become competitive before you plunge head-first into a PhD, as things are not likely to improve drastically once you are in the program. It's a big decision, for most folks.


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

[User]
[Fallout] What about warships?

So in Fallout 2 there is the oil rig, which gives some indication that a lot of big things are still afloat, and given that the US would have probably been anticipating war, they probably had ships ready and some out... So my question is: are they still out there, especially given that nuclear capable ships can go for a long-long time before refueling is needed, and if they aren't afloat, then what happened?

[Assistant]
It's possible or even probable that a few battleships and submarines survived the great war, they likely wouldn't last more than a few decades at most.  Even nuclear reactors need refueling eventually, and ships also need to be repainted constantly to ward off rust.

The Enclave were apparently able to maintain an oil rig, complete with oil tanker, for this long, so it's certainly conceivable that they also maintained a large warship or two.  However, large warships are only useful for fighting large wars, and there weren't any happening for a hundred years.  It seems likely that warships would be decommissioned to save valuable resources.

On the other hand, it's likely that, even if they survived, any at sea ships would have lost contact with the US government, and simply gone their own way.  Europe, Asia, and America are all irradiated wastes, but Australia was just like "wtf mate".  Maybe they just went there.


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

[User]
[STNG, et al] Why to Borg drones "de-evolve" between encounters?

My 12 y/o son just asked me this, and I didn't have a good answer. An away team encounters a drone, shoots and kills the drone, they have several shots before a drone appears that has a personal shield. Some months later on another away mission, the same scenario repeats itself. Why wouldn't the drone have that shield on subsequent encounters?

[Assistant] They always have that shield, but it can only stop phasers operating in frequencies they have encountered before.  Between each encounter with the Borg, the phasers are upgraded and re-tuned so that the beam they fire is a bit different.  This lets them bypass the Borg's personal shield a few times before the Borg adapt to the new frequency setting.


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

[User]
ELI5: What are the current Problems with nuclear Fusion?

I remember some years back they had already 10 - 20 seconds stable nuclear fusion in one test reactor, but why is my Power still from some wind turbine and solar panels? (Question is about the Physical obstacles of the recent research, not about politics or economics)

[Assistant]
You are creating something as hot as a star. No physical material we have is strong enough to withstand that kind of heat and pressure. Any metals, ceramics, even carbon nanotubes would melt and rupture instantly.

So the reaction is contained by floating it inside of a magnetic field so it doesn't actually touch anything. This field has to be very strong to contain the energy being created, and so it takes a lot of energy to keep the field up. Currently we can create fusion reactions, but we always end up putting more energy into them than we get out of them.

We either need to find a way to generate more energy in the reaction without needing additional energy to contain it, or we need to increase the efficiency of the magnetic torus that contains the reaction so it doesn't take so much energy to maintain.

This is why cold fusion is so sought after, because without all of the heat then you don't need high energy toruses to contain the reaction.


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

[User]
[X-Films] What would be Logan's natural lifespan with his regeneration with and without adamantium, assuming he didn't have his death sped up by the crazy circumstances of anti-mutant GMO corn and Xavier regularly harming him?

Basically, if he died of old age in both scenarios at otherwise "full" power, with and without adamantium. What kind of life spans are we talking?

[Assistant]
TLDR: Around 584. Born in 1832, died in 2416.

In the comics, it is established that mutant healing factors can't keep up forever. Technically speaking, he could die at any age if he suffocated, or drowned. Healing factors only work on physical injuries, and when you drown/suffocate there is nothing to heal. You would just simply stop. But let's discount this.

We'd have to assume that his healing factor works by replacing his dying cells with ones that were similar to his healthy ones. Wolverine might look good for his age, but it's all the healing factor trying to keep up. And as you get older, your cells break down faster and become harder to repair so you produce less of them. That's why we get wrinkles, grey hair, and just slow down in general. This process begins some time in your mid twenties on a cellular level. It's the same for Wolverine. He does age, just way slower than we do because of the factor. Despite the healing factor, age will kill you eventually because your cells simply won't be able to keep up any more.

In the comic Wolverine: The End (2004) , he states his age as 210. If we subtract 25 as a baseline for cellular aging, we can say that Wolverine's body has been fighting the aging process for 134 years. He's also stated to have a biological age of 50 in comics from the same time. So comparing his biological age to his chronological age, we can calculate he ages roughly 1 biological year for every 7.5 chronological years. So if we do the sums on that (minus the 25 years we established for not fighting the aging process), and compare the result to the lifespan of the average healthy Canadian male (81.24 years), he'd live to around 584 before his healing factor can no longer keep up and he simply passes away due to old age. In the films he's said to be born in 1832, so he'd die sometime in 2416 based on these sums.

Arguably, this is the worst way to die. Seeing all your loved ones age and die around you while you keep going no matter what you try and do just sounds horrible. Plus, because it can't stop you truly aging, it's basically a power that's destined to fail. Healing factors are kind of a horrible thing when you look at it that way.


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

[User]
[Doctor Who] Why do Daleks not have more advanced suits with faster speed, multi-directional cameras, opposeable thumbs etc?

They are barely capable of observing and manipulating the world around them from what I have seen, yet they are advanced enough of a race to challenge the Time Lords.

[Assistant]
Daleks have no need for upgrades! Daleks are already perfect! We are superior to races with thumbs! How could we be changed for the better, we are already the superior lifeforms!?

Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate!


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

[User]
What is the purpose of neuron synapses?

Why is it necessary to have a gap between an axon and a dendrite? Why not just have one continuous path?

[Assistant]
If you had no synapses,  your brain would just be one mass of cells that were all connected. That would mean when one fired an action potential,  eventually they all would, there'd be no room for change or differing excitation criteria.

Having the gap there allows the signal to be regulated. There are multiple structures and proteins presynaptically which can be up/downregulated. The same is true postsynaptically. Different synapses have different neurotransmitters too, which are regulated in unique ways. For instance,  the glutamatergic synapses are part of the major excitatory pathway of the brain. The GABAergic synapse is a major inhibitory pathway. Each has a whole unique system of regulation allowing those neuronal pathways to act completely differently. This would not be possible without the synapse.


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

[User] [The incredibles] how long could elastagirl hold her breath?

[Assistant] I'd think it would vary - since she can alter her shape, I'd assume she can also alter her lung capacity. I'd imagine how long she can hold her breath would vary depending on the volume of air she was holding at that particular time.


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

[User] ELI5: How does reverse image search work?

[Assistant]
There are 2 parts to it:

 * From each image, a "fingerprint" is extracted, something that describes the image as uniquely as possible but doesn't change when the image is manipulated (e.g. resized or changed to a different format with a lower color depth).
 * Have an index that allows you to search through millions of fingerprints efficiently to find the closest match to the fingerprint of your search image (the "efficient" part is where it gets complicated).

This is the stuff of active research, many people are trying to find newer and better algorithms for this.

A very simple fingerprint algorithm would be to resize the image to a very low resolution, e.g. 3x3 pixels with 6bits of color depth, i.e. you have 9 pixels and each can have one of 64 colors. And the search would return all images that are identical when resized to that format, which means they have a similar average color in each of the 9 parts that are sized down to 1 pixel.