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

[User]
Anatomically, how similar are 'big cats' to ordinary house cats?

I was watching a documentary and saw a bunch of lions sitting on a rock in the sun, and it struck me how similarly their behavior was to the cats at my house. Their gait, stance, everything seemed similar. So I was wondering how similar these two animals really are.

As a side bonus question; if I were to scale my cat up to the size of a Lion, could it be an effective predator and survive in the wild?

[Assistant]
* House cats (Felis) can purr while inhaling and exhaling and can't roar.  Big cats (Panthera) can only purr while breathing in one direction but can roar.  This is due to structural differences in their throat.

* Felis cats tend to bury their waste.  Panthera do not.

* Felis have pupils that narrow to slits.  Panthera have round pupils.

* Felis have pointier ears, while Panthera have smaller rounded ears.

* Most cats attack the neck by 1) tearing out a neck artery, 2) chocking the throat, or 3) crushing the spinal chord along the back of the neck.  But Jaguars are special and have another option:  biting between the ears and into the brain of their prey.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do (former) communist states always show off their army and weaponry in annual parades?

As far as I know every (former) communist state holds annual military parades where they show off their army and weaponry. What makes these states do so and why is it necessary?

[Assistant] Well the United States has airshows, it's not really unique to former communist states. Essentially if your country has any sense of nationalism they'll occasionally show off their Armory. And after about a decade it just becomes a common tradition.


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

[User] [Aliens/40k] An Astartes gets facehugged while knocked out in battle. How strong would the Astartes-Xenomorph be if it was able to reach full maturity?

[Assistant] **If** it managed to get into the Astartes' body(remember, most of them can spit acid), and **if** it managed to consume the progenoid gland(which is the only part that really alters the DNA), and **if** it managed to get out(Astartes have fused rib cages and the black carapace), it would be rather strong. But that would require a lot of things to go perfectly right.


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

[User] ELI5:How can tampon and wet wipes be advetised as flushable when they still clog the pipes?

[Assistant] Much to the dismay of sanitation workers, there is no law determining how the word "flushable" should be used in advertising, no certification process, or even a legal definition of what makes something "flushable".


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

[User] [Harty Potter] Does Felix Felicitus bend reality to the users advantage, or does it just make them more aware of the opportunities around them?

[Assistant]
*Felix Felicis

It doesn't bend reality, it just mentally guides them towards the best *possible* outcome in seeking their goals. That's why Harry got the memory from Slughorn *and* managed to break up Ginny and Dean, because he openly wanted the first and subconsciously wanted the second.

It has limits, though. That's why Harry didn't use it to break into the Room of Requirement. Luck alone couldn't let him overcome a powerful spell.


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

[User]
Why is China devaluing the Yuan bad for US companies?

Why has China allowing the value of the Yuan to lower causing a big fall in the US stock market? Doesnt this allow US companies to keep buying the same Chinese stuff for lower prices?

[Assistant] It makes imports cheaper for companies that are importing, yes, but it also makes exports less competitive, so companies that export will be hurt by it. The effect is ambiguous, but it also signals an escalation in the trade war, which signals the potential for more tariffs or other trade restrictions, which will be unambiguously bad for the economy.


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

[User] ELI5: If exercising means you strain muscles to grow them, why does straining your back hurt it instead of making it stronger?

[Assistant]
There is a fine line between exercising and straining. Sudden jolts of pressure, weird twisting, almost anything going wrong can cause damage to things like tendons, disks, etc.

If you work out carefully you do strengthen your back muscles instead of iinjuring them the same as your arm and leg muscles.


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

[User]
[Batman vs Superman] (SPOILER!!!!!) Who was that ? And many more questions.

This universe seems a bit odd, Bruce Wayne seems to be much older than the other 'league members', and as such, he's been The Batman for a long time now. In particular scenes, Batman was using machines guns and (from what it seemed like) blowing people up ! What an odd universe, what happened to batman ? Did he lose all of his morals throughout the years ? Or maybe he didn't really kill anyone....anyways, to my main question.

While Bruce Wayne was downloading the secret files from Lex Luthor, he feel asleep and seemed to have drifted off into some kinda dream ? What was that all about ? Was it an alternate universe ? I can understand Batman using guns here (sorta, not really though ) but what really got my attention was when Bruce woke up and saw ....someone giving him a warning, saying "You were right about him !! ". Who was that ? Was it the Flash ? Didn't look like long hair Barry Allen, he was wearing some kinda suit.

Any answers to Bruce Wayne's morals and that particular sequence ?

[Assistant] It was flash. He was showing Bruce a possible future where Clark went crazy as a result of losing someone he loved (probably Lois). Interesting vision as it implies flash will know Bruce in the future and the possibilities of what Superman can become.


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

[User]
[Diablo] How has humanity not been overrun?

It just seems that demons are in every major town and city. It takes a very long time to build something and as evidenced by the barbarians they are almost just defending ruins.

[Assistant] The demons have attacked a few towns around the countryside, but certainly not everything. The adventurers only go where the demons are, which is why that's all we see. This is like playing Call of Duty 2 and saying "why haven't the Nazis conquered the world yet? They're everywhere!"


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

[User] ELI5: Why on boats are the propellors at the back yet on planes they are on the front?

[Assistant]
Some issues:

1. Turbulence.  When the medium through which your propeller moves is turbulent, you get wildly varying power levels.  So you want to avoid feeding very turbulent air/water into your propeller.  On a plane, the airframe itself generates a good deal of turbulence.  On a boat, the hull alone generally won't impart enough energy to the water to create significant turbulence because water is much more dense than air.

2. Steerage.  If you place the engine at the front, the resistance of the medium around your craft will tend to cause the craft to align along the direction of travel.  If you place the engine at the back, the resistance of the medium will tend to deflect the craft from the direction of travel. With a plane, you need some pretty significant control surfaces to overcome this effect because air doesn't pose much of an obstacle to yawing uncontrollably.  On a boat, it's nearly impossible to deflect its course in this manner because you'd need to displace enormous amounts of water to move sideways.

3. Boat propellers only work underwater.  Even with the denser medium, it still makes sense to put the propeller on the front of the boat - the water just makes it less impractical to put the propeller on the back, it doesn't make it *better*. What makes it better is that the front of your boat leaves the water in situations where you need powered propulsion (climbing up a wave) while the back of your boat leaves the water in situations where you don't (climbing back down the wave).  In the first case, gravity is opposing your direction of travel so a loss of propulsion means you fall back.  In the latter case, gravity is assisting your direction of travel so a loss of propulsion means you keep moving forward anyways.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why was the economy so strong in the 90s, and what's different between then and now?

I was born in 1993 so I don't really remember that era, but from what everyone says there were always jobs available, wages and benefits were better, higher education was a fraction of the cost and making a living for yourself was easier.

Obviously we've had recessions since then, but by my understanding the global economy has technically exited recession and is growing. If this is so, why do we always hear about how terrible the economy currently is? What would it take for the American economy, for example, to get back to where it once was?

[Assistant]
The American economy was fantastic from the 40's to the early 90's (save a couple blips during the 70's w/ the oil crisis and a minor banking crisis in the 80's) mostly because:

* There were no competitors.  America was the only 1st world nation left intact following the war.  The 3rd world was way behind, Europe rebuilding, and Russia never really an economic threat.
* America established a rock-solid middle class thanks largely to FDR and Johnson's policies that virtually guaranteed livable wages, affordable education, and advancement.

What we've seen since then is:

* The 3rd world advancing at a *much* higher rate than the U.S. - our massive technological and educational lead is shrinking.  On some level they were bound to catch up quickly.
* The aforementioned middle class is disappearing, mostly because of a greedy generation of baby boomers decided to dismantle the social programs that made them strong for a few bucks.  The baby boomers were handed everything, didn't recognize why their parents built it in the first place, and don't appreciate how critical it is to maintain that system.  Europeans, with their WW2/Cold War scars, do - and have massively outpaced us in infrastructure in the past 30 years.

The US's advantage over Europe is mostly related to how easy it is to start new companies and execute new ideas, and it's advantage over the rest of the (not western) world is it's education / infrastructure.  Both of those need to be maintained and improved to keep our economic advantage.

The only real areas where the US is still drastically ahead of the world is in software and entertainment (both of which also are natural to Americans - whom excel at rapid innovation/creativity but less on meticulous mechanical engineering), and is a peer to Europe in other high tech areas (medicine, etc).

That what grew our economy then, that's what drastically grew in the early 90's, and that's the only thing keeping us a float now.

The easiest thing to do is simply look at the parts of the US with booming economies.  Massachusetts and San Francisco (high tech boom), NYC (finance), and Los Angeles (entertainment/startups).  Do what they do, and stop voting for the fucking tea party.


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

[User]
ELI5:Why does playing a Blackjack hand incorrectly negatively affect everyone else?

Isn't it still random chance what cards you get?

[Assistant]
It doesn't really, but people will cry anyway.

Here's an example. You have 14, the dealer has a 6. You take a 10 and bust with your 24. The dealer turns over a 10. if you didn't take that 10, the dealer would get 26 and everyone would win. now you "made everyone lose."

Sometimes you will take a 10 that would have made everyone win, sometimes you take the 5 that would have made everyone lose. Everyone has a right to do whatever they want with their chips at the casino. If you can't handle grumpy people at the blackjack table find a new game to play, start to tell people to fuck off, or play with enough people that you won't have to deal with assholes.


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

[User] ELI5: How can small invertebrates, such as ants, survive long-distance falls that would kill most vertebrates?

[Assistant]
Part of it is simply their weight. Terminal velocity for an ant is much lower than for a human. It won't hit the ground with as high speed as a human will.

Additionally, when it does hit the ground, it won't hit the ground with as much force because it's much lighter. The heavier something is, the greater structural integrity it requires to not collapse, however, that extra structural integrity adds even more weight, so there is a limit to how big things can be.

Because an ant is so light, it doesn't need heavy bones to keep itself from collapsing under its own weight, which further reduces how heavy it is.

A mouse will survive greater falls than a human too, relative to its size. An elephant, however, can't survive nearly as high a fall as a human, relative to its size.

Also, ants are soft, and they don't have bones that can break. Furthermore, ants don't have a vascular system, so they don't have any blood vessels that can rupture and cause internal bleeding. Most insects "breathe" through pores in their body, which directly enriches blood with oxygen. There's no need to circulate the blood through the entire body and eventually to a set of lungs.

This is also what typically limits the size of insects. The oxygen concentration in the air. The greater the oxygen concentration, the bigger an organism that "breathes" like that can grow before "suffocating" itself. They were much bigger when there was more oxygen in the atmosphere.


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

[User]
Does the confirmation of gravitational waves contradict String Theory?

So I'm new to reddit, but i don't know where to ask this.
Since the discovery of gravitational waves has confirmed that Einstein was right: gravity is a property of Space-Time, as Space-Time is deformed by mass, thus giving objects their trajectory through space; does this mean that String Theory is wrong?

I might have no understood String Theory right, but if i understand correctly, it, like some of the theories that are being tested at the LHC are looking for the graviton, the particle that transfers the force of gravity.

To me it seems that these two theories are incompatible. I may be very wrong, since it's unlikely that I understood String Theory. Thank you.

[Assistant]
No. String theory naturally incorporates general relativity. Therefore string theory is compatible with everything general relativity ("Einstein") predicts.

Also the LHC cannot just look for (massless) gravitons, since that would require essentially probing the Planck scale, which is borderline implausible in our Universe, let alone humans in this century. They are looking a variation in the form of massive Kaluza-Klein gravitons which are particles appearing in some specific models of large extra dimensions. These are almost always stringy models, but string theory exists and thrives very well without these hypotheses. These are just specific proposal people have made, they're not an essential part of string theory, and there's a lot of different ones.


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

[User] Would a mass of water ten times the size of the sun be able to extinguish the sun?

[Assistant]
The sun isn't combusting anything, it's a fusion reaction driven by the weight of the sun pressing down on the core. Adding more mass to the sun will make the sun burn *even hotter*.

The water also wouldn't *stay* water (especially putting that much on). The heat from the fusion reaction would quickly dissociate the water molecule into hydrogen and oxygen atoms. The oxygen wouldn't make it into the core during the normal main sequence lifetime since the outer layers of the atmosphere at those masses aren't normally convective. This would be a very strange star, though, since almost all the mass you're adding is oxygen. It's possible the normal stellar atmosphere models don't hold up well when the average particle weight is so high. 11 solar masses *is* (probably - there's a bit of uncertainty) enough to start fusing oxygen in the core eventually, once the hydrogen then helium in the core is used up.

In short, though, it wouldn't extinguish the sun, it would make the sun burn even hotter by increasing pressure on the core. The sun would then burn through the available material more quickly than it would otherwise.


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

[User]
[40k] What happens to a primarchs soul after they die?

I was reading up on some background lore for 40k and it mentioned that when the emperor destroyed Horus's soul it meant he couldn't be reborn so to speak in the warp. Assuming this is the case does this mean Ferrus Manus, Sanguinious, Konrad Curze etc are all out in the warp somewhere? Does this mean they could potentially return to the materium and kick some ass one day?

[Assistant]
>when the emperor destroyed Horus's soul it meant he couldn't be reborn so to speak in the warp. Assuming this is the case does this mean Ferrus Manus, Sanguinious, Konrad Curze etc are all out in the warp somewhere?

At that point, Horus was a Daemon Prince. The reason it's worth mentioning that his soul was destroyed is because of this; his physical body might have been nearly indestructible, but destroying *that* is the easy part with a Daemon Prince, and it doesn't mean much. If you killed Horus at Terra by simply ripping off his head or nuking the ship, he'd be leading the Black Crusades today. For reference, look at Angron, whose physical body has been destroyed several times now and is no worse for wear.

The other Primarchs don't play by the same rules because they are Primarchs, beings of the materium with large presences in the immaterium, not Daemon Princes which are fundamentally beings of the warp that happen to be wearing partially-human skin at the moment. When they die, they actually *die*. Their soul enters the warp and they are eventually torn apart by its horrors, just like everyone else in  40k.

That said, there probably *are* several Primarchs still alive in the Warp, if only because several of them appear to have gone into it willingly at one point or another and since they did so with their bodies and the only things that can actually hurt one in a fight are other Primarchs, it wouldn't be too weird if Leman or The Khan or someone was still kicking around inside the eye of terror, half-mad after ten thousand years of unending combat.


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

[User] [WH40K] Why are infantry forces still heavily used in 40k when nukes and spacecrafts make them obsolete in combat?

[Assistant] It doesn't do you any good to take an area and it have be an irradiated wasteland. They have planet killing weapons, why fight at all? Cause lives are cheap in the Imperium, habitable worlds are rare enough to be worth dying for, space craft can't occupy land, and space craft are rare enough and expensive enough that you have to make a concerted effort to take out anti ship weapons with boots on the ground.


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

[User] [Kim Possible] So, Kim is somewhere in her thirties now. What is she up to these days?

[Assistant]
Worked for the government in a high-clearance capacity as a teenager? Probably disillusioned by now, working for some clandestine dark-money anti-government organization, going through moral reletivism while keeping some of her old contacts to try to make a positive change.

She'll be back in the government by the time she's 50, probably in a leadership role, utilizing her connections from the underground world to try to and correct the world from the inside out.

Ron is a stay-at-home dad and also a self-made millionaire through cryptocurrency.


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

[User]
[LOTR] Was Frodo chosen to carry the ring because he has been in its presence for years and never tempted?

Title basically says it. We know the ring will do everything in its power to be returned to Sauron. Years have passed and the ring never once tried to tempt Frodo to kill Bilbo, was it possible that the ring sensed Frodo had extreme willpower similar to Bilbo?

I've always thought that because Frodo didn't know about the ring it never could tempt him but I remembered  Gollum's ring origin and he had no clue what it was.

Edit: Guys, I'm not talking about the council in Rivendell, I'm talking about the reasoning behind Bilbo giving the ring and why didn't the ring ever consider to tempt Frodo. Sorry If I messed up my question.

[Assistant]
If you mean him being picked at Rivendell, it's a combination of him volunteering and Elrond believing, based on all he'd heard, that the task was appointed to Frodo.  Gandalf made a similar comment at another time that the ring was meant to come to Frodo.

Basically, they both trusted that a higher power had successfully shaped events such that Frodo would bear the ring and destroy it.


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

[User]
[Shadow of War] How the hell is celebrimbor so powerful?

I mean, he's just a fallen elf who made a ring, right? What gives him the power to basically single handedly stand against the full might of Sauron and all his armies?

[Assistant]
Celebrimbor assisted with forging the one ring, and briefly stole it from the hand of Sauron.  In Shadow of War he forges another ring to assist in challenging the Dark Lord.

The ring amplifies the power of the wearer.  When a hobbit wore it, it made him invisible.  If a being mightier in stature had worn it (Gandalf, Elrond, Galadriel) it would have made them into a dark lord, capable of challenging Sauron in open combat and wresting control of Middle Earth from him.

In Shadow of Mordor's Bright Lord DLC, we see Celebrimbor attempt this exact plan, which ultimately fails.  In Shadow of War, he tries again and (spoiler) ultimately fails.


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

[User] ELI5: what happens in our muscles when after a few times, it becomes physically impossible to lift a heavy item another time, at least until we had some rest? how does exercise change this?

[Assistant]
The short answer is your muscle cells have used all of their energy reserves and need time to replenish and make more.

Okay so your cells use a chemical called ATP as a type of chemical energy storage. Your cells break ATP apart and use that energy to do things like contract muscle cells. There are several ways that your cells can make ATP, some are fast but not very efficient/don't produce much, while  other methods or slow but are highly efficient. However, there is only so  much ATP your cells can store at one time. So, as your lifting the weights, your muscle cells are burning through their ATP reserves and desperately trying to keep up. Eventually you reach a point where only the fastest method of making ATP, called glycolysis, can keep the cell alive, but this isn't enough ATP to power the contraction of your muscles. Once you take a break for a few minutes your muscle cells have had time to build up their ATP reserves again by having some of the slower metabolic pathways active.


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

[User]
[Futurama] How did Fry go 11 years in the future without catching a cold

Bonus Question: Why aren't people whom arrive from the 2000s quarantined after being unfrozen so they don't spread the cold?

[Assistant]
By the year 3000, a lot of diseases and viruses have likely been eradicated... Especially with the couple of "refreshes" we've seen the Earth go through in the time lapse during Fry's slumber.

Fry comes from the 20th Century... An era rampant with viruses, bugs, diseases, etc.

Fry's immune system is better equipped at fighting multiple viruses at once, but when there's fewer viruses to fight off it's even BETTER at handling them than before.


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

[User]
[Alien] If the Company knew about LV-426 and the distress signal before the Nostromo took off on it's mission ( And they did given that Ash was a last minute replacement ) why didn't they just send a normal ship with their own crew to find out about the alien?

It would have solved all their problems in one go.

[Assistant]
It also would have resulted in a flight plan filed with both the ECA and ICC, with all crew and cargo subject to customs and quarantine screenings.

The *Nostromo* was just as much a "normal ship" owned by W-Y as any research or other vessel they might have sent, was already scheduled to be on a route that would allow for convenient re-routing to the signal source (don't discount how expensive it is to send a ship somewhere... space is *really* big, and nothing even remotely like crowded, traffic-wise), and provided for a very easy way of getting crap past customs and quarantine in the event that a viable xenological agent was discovered.

Plus, truckers are easy to buy off.


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

[User] [Wreck it Ralph]What are some of the more disturbing consequences of the fact that video game characters are all and sentient? Do millions die each time a home console or computers are destroyed? What about those poor characters in half of all Japanese games, the "adult" or uh... tentacly sort?

[Assistant]
Most stuff is connected to the internet so they do not die.
And about the tentacle thing. You do realize that characters in the game act? Game is just a show for the Players. Characters are actors.
So tentacle stuff made does characters a porn actress.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away..."

How long ago was a long time ago?

[Assistant] Given that in-canon works place the age of the Star Wars galaxy at about 13 billion years (give or take), and our Universe is only 13.8 billion years old, and also considering that the oldest known galaxy took 380 million years to form, we can probably say that the setting for Star Wars should be no more than roughly 400 million years in the past, give or take a millenia or two.


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

[User] [Kong:Skull Island] Does Hank Marlow get paid by the military for all the years he was on Skull Island?

[Assistant]
Probably, yes. If he was posted as dead, or missing presumed dead, and then returned and proved his identity, he would be considered to have remained in the military, and as such should be paid for his time in service.

If they're feeling salty, they might accuse him of desertion. Proving he *didn't* desert could be awkward, but since there seems to be a cover-up in effect they'd probably rather avoid a trial, give him his back pay, and send him home with dire warnings about what will happen if he talks to anybody about Kong.


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

[User]
CMV: It aint cool having enemies

As the saying goes, youre doing something right if you have enemies. Also, its seems like mainstream society considers it a badge of honor to have haters or so.

Its all bullshit to me. Theres nothing cool about having a target on your back. I dont want to live like Im a villain to someone, especially if I never did shit to that person. Bad enough that I was bullied and ostracized growing up.

Id rather be that one guy who anyone can count for anything. Id rather be a friend than a foe. Change my mind.

[Assistant] I think it can be a badge of honor to have enemies arraigned against you, or at least part of an image.  Think about someone like MLKJ or Harvey Milk.  Their image was at least partly defined by the people who opposed them.  The fact that the KKK and primarily racist Conservatives opposed MLK only served to make MLK look like an even bigger badass in the eyes of his supporters.


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

[User]
What are the limits of gravitational slingshot acceleration?

If I have a spaceship with no humans aboard, is there a theoretical maximum speed that I could eventually get to by slingshotting around one star to the next?  Does slingshotting "stop working" when you get to a certain speed?  Or could one theoretically get to a reasonable fraction of the speed of light?

[Assistant]
TL;DR: The faster you move, the closer you need to get to the celestial body you want to slingshot around. At some point, you burn up in the atmosphere, crash into the surface or get ripped apart by gravitational force differences.

When you do a gravitational slingshot, you're essentially "bouncing" on the planet, doing a 180 degree turn around the celestial body. From the celestial body's point of view, you approach it at the same speed and once the slingshot is complete you leave with the same speed. In other words, we can simply see it as a bounce with a restition coefficient of 1 (no energy lost) on the celestial body.

The key to a successful gravitational slingshot is to have the celestial body approach towards you. Let's say you have a planet hurtling towards you at 10km/sec, while you fly towards it at 2km/sec. From the planet's perspective, you are approaching the planet at 10+2=12km/sec, you'll loop around the planet and then go back in the direction you came from at 12km/sec. However, from our perspective, we approach the planet at 2km/sec, get flung around it and then fly away in the same direction as the planet at 22km/sec (very confused about the exact speed).

In essence, you're stealing some of the kinetic energy of the celestial body you slingshot around, and the effectiveness of this is solely dependent on how fast the celestial body is moving, so there's no theoretical maximum speed apart from the speed of light (which you can always keep getting closer and closer to as your kinetic energy increases).

However, there are practical problems that will either reduce the efficiency and practicality of a slingshot, or even make it downright impossible. The faster you go, the stronger gravity needs to be to be able to sling you around the celestial body. The only way to increase the force of gravity from the body is to get closer to it. This means that you get quite a few problems. If you're trying to sling around a planet or moon, you could start experiencing drag from the atmosphere, which would not only slow you down a lot but also potentially burn you up. If the planet/moon has a solid surface, you may not even be able to get close enough to the planet without crashing into it. Similarly, getting too close to a star has some obvious drawbacks.

A black hole is therefore optimal for a slingshot operation as it is neither warm nor has any significant atmosphere nor surface. You can always get a little bit closer to the event horizon to allow you to turn around it quicker, although at some point you'll get so close to the black hole that your ship is torn apart due to the different parts of the ship experiencing so different gravitational forces (the parts closest to the hole turns inwards, while the farthest parts don't turn enough to keep up with the center of the ship).


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

[User]
Can we repair damaged nerves?

If yes, which ones and how?

[Assistant] Yes, nerves can be repaired. If nerves are severed, they can be stitched back together. If a larger piece is damaged, it may require a nerve graft, where the damaged area is removed and another nerve (from elsewhere in your body or from a cadaver) is stitched on to either side. However, this isn't like grafting a blood vessel where it just starts working. You're really making the tunnel that the nerve fibers within it are travelling through, and these need to regrow and reconnect. It's a slow process - about 1 mm a day, and therapy is usually needed to control discomfort and make sure nothing atrophies.


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

[User]
[Legend of Zelda] How useful is the Master Sword to an everyday person

When Link has the Master Sword he is able to defeat Gannon as well as any dark creature. If some random person from Hyrule used the Master Sword would they be able to potentially kill Gannon too?

[Assistant]
In the hands of the average person it's basically just a sword.

The sword's magical powers need to be earned, either by a pure hearted or courageous individual who takes it up in the name of vanquishing evil.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are my abs more defined after a shower?

[Assistant]
Your body will be more dehydrated after a long shower or bath.

You're in a hot and extremely humid environment. Your body's natural response is to sweat. However, you don't feel the sweating because it's constantly getting washed away.

In addition, the heat from the shower increases blood flow which can cause your muscles to slightly swell.


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

[User]
What causes head-rush when we stand up too fast? What do we "see" when this occurs?

As the title asks. When you stand up too fast from a sitting/laying down position and your vision goes dark and you start to see "images". What causes this?

[Assistant] When you are sitting down you are a bit compressed and when you stand up quickly, your blood suddenly has to fill the parts that didn't have so much blood due to the compression. This causes a drop in blood pressure resulting in the brain not getting enough blood, so it starts shutting down, which you feel as a head rush.


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

[User] ELI5: If I fall asleep while listening to music, will my brain enter rest mode, or keep processing information?

[Assistant]
"Rest mode" is somewhat of a misnomer - when sleeping, your brain is actually just as active as when you're awake. It's believed that sleep is when the brain processes daytime experiences to find meaning, incorporates what it believes to be important into longer-term storage and other parts of the brain, and runs literal *simulations* to work on long-term problems. Dreams are believed to be a consequence of this processing and deep thought, and are affected to some extent by available stimuli (such as music), which continue to be received and processed by the brain even while asleep.

If you fall asleep, you're sleeping, period. The *quality* of that sleep may be affected by surrounding noise such as music, but you will be sleeping all the same.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are bugs attracted to light, especially my lamp at night, but not attracted to the sun in the same way?

[Assistant]
They are.  It's just the sun doesn't move when they do.  If you're trying to go in a straight line, you can keep the sun in more or less the same place relative to you and you'll more or less go in a straight line (curved due to time, but for 10-minute stretches, close enough).

But if you try and keep a lamp light in the same place relative to you, you just end up going in circles around the lamp.  Which is exactly what bugs do...


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does one have no strength when waking up?

I don't normally talk like that, put if I replaced 'does one' with 'do I' my post will be removed for being too 'subjective'

[Assistant]
Your body paralyzes itself while you're asleep so you won't act out your dreams. It's takes some time for your body to regain full strength from it after you wake up.

Fun fact, this is the same cause as sleep paralysis, or waking nightmares. You wake up at night, but your body is still locked, so you can't move, and your still tired brain hallucinates nightmares.


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

[User]
[Witcher] Why aren't the Kings forcing the Witchers/Sorceresses to share their secrets for a long life?

Basically force them to make a surefire method of immortality or at least a method to prolong their lives by a few hundred years.

Lots of Chinese Emperors have died trying to perfect methods to extend their life and ironically dying as a result of said method.

None of these kings in the witcher seem to be interested in their idea of immortality.

[Assistant]
1. Witchers are seen as sub-human. People view them in the same class as the monsters they hunt. Class-obsessed royalty would never consider debasing themselves to the level of witcher.

2. The nobility does exploit the witchers and sorceresses as much as possible. Those being exploited have their own agenda however.

3. Very few potential witchers survive the mutation process. And it transforms you into a "monster." Which, as stated previously, no royalty would want due to loss of status (see: Adda the striga; also Ciri).


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

[User]
[X-men] How many mutant abilities the future sentinels can mimic?

For example, we can see that they minic fire, ice, metal, hardened rock skin, but what if they could touch Quicksilver or Wolverine or the teleporter guy? Would they just simply become machines that are superfast or supernanoregenerating or can teleport everywhere or even read minds and stop motion? With this tech, why not create better worlds? (Instant travel and self reparing machines ect ect)

[Assistant]
It appears that the sentinels read the mutant's genetic sequence in order to determine how their powers function, and then adapt that ability into themselves.

Based on that, they should be able to mimic almost any mutant ability, with a few limitations. If their composition isn't organic, for example, they wouldn't benefit from mimicking Wolverine's power, and attempting to mimic Magneto's power might fry their circuitry.

They would also be incapable of cloning powers that came from some source other than the mutation itself. Juggernaut's power comes from magic, and Rogue's flying-brick powers are a result of absorbing someone else's abilities, not from her specific mutation.


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

[User]
[MCU/Civil War] *SPOILERS* About the Serum...

Why did all of Hydra's supersoldiers including Bucky turn out super aggressive and want to kill their superiors. Is there a reason they're all so unstable.

[Assistant] The way the original serum worked is it made you more of what your are. Good people become great, a strong person would be super strong. An aggressive solder would be hyper aggressive. A trained killer with authority issues...well.


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

[User]
Why does high inflation cause less export

In my head it would be the other way around. Could someome please explain why this is the case?

[Assistant] It depends on elasticity but the usual logic is that higher prices (i.e. inflation) means less volume sold which more than reverses the gain from higher prices. There may be other secondary effects such as a devaluing currency that could affect it too.


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

[User]
[The Thing] Could a Xenomorph be assimilated?

Maybe not just a Xenomorph, but say a Facehugger happened upon a human subject that was secretly assimilated by the Thing. When it attaches, obviously the Thing starts to assimilate what little biological material it could and make it part of itself, but from this video I watched the other day, according to it, a Xenomorph's (and by extension, a Facehugger's) blood is a manufactured acid. This fits in with the Prometheus line of thinking that the Xenomorph species was biologically engineered to be highly lethal weapons.

So maybe the agent that prevents the blood from burning through their own biology gets assimilated in the face, but the acid blood wouldn't and once the Thing would start to mix this acid with its own body's bloodstream, it would immediately start destroying the cells not lined with the specific agent meant to prevent self harm. But what about a fully matured Xenomorph?

[Assistant] I would think the crazy carbon-silicon make up of the Xenomorph species would make it difficult for the Thing to assimilate it since it can't assimilate things like fillings.  It can get away with it in other lifeforms because the ratio of silicon to carbon is extremely low.


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

[User]
ELI5: Where did the "S" rating originate and why is it better than "A+"?

I've searched on google to no avail.

[Assistant] It originates in Japan, the land of all the crazy things. Because it's known that if you get less than a C you have failed there would only be 3 grades you could get if you finished a level (as they often did not have +- modifiers), S class was introduce something difficult to give people a sense of achievement and something to work towards getting. Then came the SS and SSS ranks to create even more grades to get because more letters clearly means it's better.


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

[User]
What is this economic law called?

I'm looking for the name of the law that states that when an actor needs to make several consecutive decisions (e.g. spending another euro, working another hours) he/she should spend that on the choice that gives the most utility.

(My situation applies specifically to an organisation that aims to improve a public good, if that makes any difference.)

[Assistant]
Not sure I'dd call it an "economic law," but you could call it the principle of utility maximization.

There's a certain circularity to maximizing "utility," though -- to say that option A gives more utility than option B means nothing more or less than that the actor in question prefers A.  To "maximize utility" is another way of saying that an actor has consistent preferences and acts on them.

So all your "law" is saying is that you should try to take your best option.  Or, relatedly, spend each unit of your resources the best way you can.  Which is true and important, but not at all surprising -- that might be why it is not usually referred to as a "law."  Don't feel bad, though -- if you ask me, this is the fundamental principle of economics.  A lot of other stuff can be derived from it.


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

[User]
ELI5: What tax loophole allows rich people to pay less in taxes than middle class people?

Edit: I put loophole in quotations since I know they arent loopholes in the traditional sense but instead tax write offs, deductions etc.

[Assistant]
the big one is the capital gains tax vs paycheck income taxes. Rich people make a lot of money from the sale of stock, but that sale is taxed at a much lower rate than income taxes.

Another is that they can afford accountants who can spend the time to look for deductions, write-offs and other ways to reduce their tax liability.


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

[User]
In the Picard era, Romulan warships are powered by captive singularities. What happens to them if the ship is destroyed?

Seriously, what happens?  Is there a sudden navigational hazard?  And what happens if the Romulan ship goes boom inside a solar system?

[Assistant] A natural quantum black hole is not stable due to Hawking radiation. The ones used in Romulan ships are artificially maintained, as soon as the mechanisms doing that are destroyed the black hole will evaporate (with an enormous release of energy in the process). It's not much different from a warp core breach on a Federation ship, though the explosion is much more consistent in its characteristics since an exploding Federation ship results in a turbulent mixture of matter and antimatter that has a more chaotic reaction curve.


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

[User]
[Judge Dredd] Where does Mega City One get its food?

Understandably, MC1 needs a food source. The ocean is possibly a source, but from what I understand, its poisoned. And the Cursed Earth is out of the question. So how does Mega City One manage to feed 800 million people?

[Assistant]
Algae farms and possibly soylent green. In Dredd you actually hear him call dispatch for a meatwagon to truck some bodies to recycling.

Human bodies are either recycled directly as food or as mulch for something that grows fast.


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

[User]
[Star Trek] Starfleet seems to totally change its uniforms every few years. What justification does it give for this change? Do they just blast out a subspace communique to the fleet saying "we have decided that grey with ridges is the new red"?

Is starfleet really that fashion savvy or are there pragmatic improvements being made with each swap?

[Assistant]
If we were to paint Starfleet uniform philosophy with broad strokes, we can see a back-and-forth battle between uniform uniforms (uniforms that look mostly the same, with minor differences to denote rank and division) and uniforms with drastically differring appearances.

Why? Well we can only speculate as there is no provided blanket "justification." All we see are changing uniforms.

Uniform uniforms are all the same for a reason: you want to create and enforce a "group" psychology: aside from minor differences, we are all part of the same team fighting for the same goal. Key word: fight. Having rank after rank of soldier all look the same is a key element in a unified fighting force.

With United Earth (and later Stafleet), the uniforms were this, and it makes sense. Earth had just recently risen from the ashes of World War III. A combative mindset was still in the forefront and uniform designs reflected this.

The birth of the Federation brought about relative peace and security and Starfleet branded itself an organization whose primary mission was exploration, not combat. To makes appearances coincide with this goal, the uniforms changed to be less militaristic. This brings us to Kirk-era with the division colors being most prominent. Rank insignia was down played, and the breast insignia was tied to the ship, rather than the organization.

But Kirk's era was not all sugar and candy. There were ongoing hostilities with the Klingons, not to mention a brief incursion by the Romulans. Probably not conicidentally, we see a gradual shift back to the Uniform uniforms, this time red being the primary color.

This carries us from the late-Kirk era all the way to Picard era. This, not surprisingly, is a period of increased hostility between the Federation and Klingon empire. Despite the Khitomer accords and "official" peace, the Klingons would still be antagonistic toward the Federation until the events of Narendra III, in which a strong and lasting peace and alliance was formed.

It was during this time period that the Klingons settled their issues with the Romulans (at least on the battlefield) who then retreated into a long period of isolation. So, relative peace again settles on the quadrant.

Not surprisingly we have a uniform change back to solid colors of different departments (with the infamous yellow-red swap).

This pattern holds until, again, war breaks out. This time with the Dominion. Another change back to the Uniform uniform.

So it would seem that, when everything is fine and dandy, the Federation wants to distance itself from the military look of their personnel (while still actually having a uniform), but when the blades come out, they revert back to cookie-cutter uniforms that look mostly the same.


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

[User]
ELI5: What exactly is static pressure in Bernoullis equation.

Im quite confused on what the static pressure P is in Bernoullis equation. Im not sure if its the external pressure causing fluid to move through, lets say, a pipe, or the internal pressure within the fluid thats moving in all the directions.

[Assistant]
Its the pressure in the liquid. Suppose your pipe had a small hole in it with a tall vertical tube attached. The liquid from the pipe would obviously go into the tube as well and rise to a certain height defined by when the pressure exerted by the column of liquid in the tube becomes equal to the pressure in the pipe (minus atmospheric pressure of course). That value is the static pressure at that point in the pipe where the hole is.

The word static is used to discern it from dynamic pressure which is basically the kinetic energy per unit volume of the flowing liquid. Otherwise static pressure and pressure are synonyms.


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

[User] ELI5: Why can the cursor on a PC go off screen to the right and bottom but not to the top or to the left?

[Assistant] The point at the end of the cursor is the exact location of the mouse, which means the rest of the cursor icon is not taken into account. So that exact point is at the end of monitor, which appears as if the mouse went off the screen when it really hasn't, as far as the OS is concerned.


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

[User] Do electrical cables have a jerk effect, similar to a water hose, would the voltage/throughput matter?

[Assistant]
Yes, in two ways. Firstly when you send a voltage down a wire, if the wire is say, unconnected, the pulse can reflect at the end because of the impedance mismatch and briefly create a small voltage spike. This brief spike can be up to double the signal voltage so if your signal is high to begin with it can cause a problem. Even connected cables still experience this, so If you want a good signal on long cables they need to be impedance-matched to stop voltages bouncing back and forth at junctions and disrupting any data you are sending along the cable.

Secondly the rush of current along a cable creates a magnetic field around the wire. Depending on the orientation of the wire (kinked or wound) this can create opposing magnetic fields which push against each other. If the current is very high, the cable can move slightly, though most high current cables would be too heavy to notice much movement.


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

[User]
[Batman] Batman's whole schtick is scaring the shit out of bad guys, has he ever used Scarecrow's gas to do so?

Obviously scarecrow is an asshole, but his gas seems promising.  It's non-lethal (Except in the cases where he's overclocked it and driven people crazy), it suits the Bat's M.O., and he should be perfectly capable of reverse engineering it and making a slightly weaker form that won't make people hyperviolent lunatics.  He could incapacitate criminals without breaking half their bones, and I doubt they'd risk a return visit from Zombie-Demon-Batman (They might think they could take regular Batman in a rematch, I doubt they'd try it if they thoight he was a magical demon who brought their nightmares to life.).

Has he ever used Scarecrow-style gas when he wasn't already fighting Scarecrow?  I.e, has he ever set out with the goal of using it, rather than just turning it around on Scarecrow (in the canons where SC isn't already immune to it, anyway.)?

[Assistant]
Scarecrow's gas makes people unpredictable. If you break their arm, you can be pretty sure how they're going to react. If you dose them with a mild-altering substance you have no idea what's going to happen.

On top of that, Batman uses fear as a selective tactical weapon. Spraying a gas around will affect innocent bystanders.


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

[User]
Eli5 why putting clothes on when your bodys wet is so hard

Your skin becomes stickier? It gets more friction. Why? Shouldnt water make surfaces slipperier?

[Assistant]
yeah water is sorta sticky to both you and the towel... that's why it doesn't just roll off of you to begin with.

if the water is "deep" enough then internal water molecules become like wheels of a ball bearing and it slides across itself and reduces friction dramatically. by deep we only mean several molecules deep... like gravel or wet leaves on a path. a thin layer of gravel is stable... but if the gravel is stacked on more gravel then it gets weird and slippery.

so... the towel absorbs excess water through capillary action. this means that it takes away the depth. with only a single layer of water the water sticks to both sides but can't slide.


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

[User] CMV:The centralization of cable news is of much greater concern than the present Brian Williams scandal.

[Assistant]
The Internet has caused the barriers to collection and distribution of information to be almost non-existent.  As a results, our news is becoming far more varied and decentralized than it has in the past.

If anything, the polarization of cable news is a reaction to the need to find a niche in an ever more competitive environment.  People now have nearly limitless choices for news which cover almost every possible viewpoint, so TV news is trying to find the most popular ones so they can continue to make sell advertising.

Thus, your complaints about cable news shouldn't really concern you since it's a reaction to things getting better overall.


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

[User]
[ATLA] How pragmatic was the Air Nomad genocide?

So, let's dissect FireLord Sozin's plan.

He wants to take over the world and the Avatar is his greatest threat.

What's his plan?

Wipe out all the Air nomads and consequently kill the Avatar while he is still a child. But there is one problem with this plan, even if it succeeded, even if Aang was located and murdered, it wouldn't necessarily do much except buy the Fire Nation more time, after the death of Aang, another avatar would be born as a Water Bender, what would the Fire Nation do then? Try to kill all water benders?

Even if they did, an Avatar would be born as an Earth Bender, and considering how big the Earth Kingdom is and how they have the largest population out of all the nations, the effort to eliminate all Earth Benders wouldn't be possible regardless of how powerful the Fire Nation is.

To cut the post short, how smart and pragmatic was the plan? To me, all it did was buy the fire nation more time to expand and conquer but not really destroy their ''greatest threat''.

The only way this would realistically work is if the Fire Nation attempted to kill the avatar while he or she was in the avatar state but this is a gamble, and considering that hundreds of avatars that came before died outside of the avatar state only make your chances lower.

[Assistant] I dont think Sozin ever expected the war to go on for a century. As far as he was concerned killing the Avatar would buy him at least 15 to 20 years to conquer the world which realistically should have been more than enough time.


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

[User] Do Magnetic Fields Instantly Appear or do they Propagate at the Speed of Light?

[Assistant] Electric and magnetic fields always propagate at the speed of light. That's what light is made of, after all. When we talk about the 1/r^2 distribution for a static charge for an electric field (or the magnetic field of a bar magnet) we're assuming that the charge has existed "forever" in the same position. If you shift that charge over, the electric field will change to the one centered around the new position roughly in a ball that expands at the speed of light. So for electric fields far away, the effect of the nudge will take a long time to be felt, because the resulting ripple will take time to get there.


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

[User]
Is it beneficial to breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth when running?

My dad (not a scientist) says that this method doesn't supply one with enough oxygen and ends up hurting in the long run.

[Assistant] The benifits Of breathing through your nose is it humidifys the air and filters anything that may irritate your airways. The cons are it is a narrow longer tube that causes more resistance making breathing large volumes difficult. Most runners breath through there mouth, if you wanted to hear more you could cross post to /running.


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

[User]
[Stargate] How is that Radio Waves can travel in both directions through an open wormhole but Visible Light and matter cannot?

If it's just a simple case that the Ancients designed it to allow radio waves, then can't the frequency range be extended to allow visible light?

[Assistant]
Chief Science Officer of SG2 here. So stargates are unable to transport  matter. This is why matter is converted to energy and that energy is sent instead. EM waves like light and radio, however, are already energy, so it doesn't need to be deconstructed.

The problem is that the physics of passing through a wormhole causes distortion to those EM waves. Radio waves, however, have a much longer wavelength than visible light, which allows it to travel through the wormhole with minimal distortion. This is actually what produces the stargate's signature shimmer- light passing through the wormhole is distorted and shifted, allowing you to see the fluctuations in the event horizon. Even in low light environments, ambient energy from the wormhole is distorted into light, producing the shimmer.


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

[User] ELI5: How can Justin Bieber have been recorded saying the N-Word in 2008 and have nothing happen, but Paula Deen generates a scandal for having said it years ago?

[Assistant]
Paula Deen used the 'N-word' as an adult in a context which was clearly racist and discriminatory. Paula also has a history of other racist and discriminatory behavior.

Justin Bieber used the N-word when he was a young teenager and the context was not the same. In this case, Justin was simply repeating a song that sounded funny (to him) and it was pretty clear there was no real malice intended, he just did not appreciate how offensive the lyrics were. To him, it was not so much about the meaning of the song that made it funny, but rather the fact that it contained curse words and things you shouldn't say.

It's also worth understanding that Justin Bieber is from Canada, a country which doesn't have the same history of racial segregation and discrimination as the US and where only 3% of the population identifies themselves as Black. As such, young Canadian teens are arguably less aware of racial issues and US Black history (as compared to their US counterparts), and therefore are less likely to appreciate how offensive such songs are to others, particularly people from the US.


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

[User] ELI5: If a battery stores power in chemical reactions and supercapacitors store power as charge, what is the key enabler that is now making solid state batteries practical, and how is this different from high-discharge batteries or supercapacitors?

[Assistant] The innovation is a ceramic layer that sits between the cathode and anode and is what puts the "solid" in "solid state" (as opposed to a non-solid separator).  This layer ferries lithium ions from one terminal to another, and critically stops the formation of lithium dentrites (tiny metal spikes that form when lithium batteries charge) from connecting the two sides of the battery and forming short circuits.  This working ceramic layer is the new tech that makes the solid state battery practical.


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

[User]
ELI5: Since the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere is December 21, how come it's either January or February the coldest months of the year?

The same goes for summer.
Bonus : If it's some kind of "momentum" why does it take so long?

[Assistant] You're right about the "momentum" thing, sort of.  The Earth is a sort of warmth battery -- you know how on a hot summer day, the ground will stay warm to the touch even after the sun goes down?  This is the same sort of thing, but on a much larger scale.  It takes about a month for the Earth's surface temperatures to reflect what the sun's been providing.  It's a big thermal mass, and so it takes a long time to change.


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

[User]
How does getting KO'd work?

I understand you get punched in the head, or you hit your head on a low-lying doorway, or you trip and your face hits the ground and you go unconscious. But what actually causes your brain to shut off?

[Assistant]
The neurons in your brain communicate by propagating electrical signals down their axons to the next neuron via a synapse, which is just a gap in between nerve cells. There are two ways of doing this:

1) electrical synapse, which is more or less a direct pathway through two cells. it is quicker but much less specific in the sense that the signal can't be modified.

2) chemical synapse, which is a larger gap in between two cells. the first cell (known as the presynaptic neuron) receives a train of action potentials (spikes in voltage, basically an electrical signal) that cause voltage-gated calcium channels to open and calcium ions flood into the cell. this creates a biochemical cascade that releases neurotransmitters into the synapse.

these neurotransmitters diffuse across the synapse to the postsynaptic neuron (2nd cell), where they interact with receptors on the neuron's surface. this causes a change in chemical structure of the receptor protein which intiates a cascade in the 2nd cell that may or may not lead to an action potential, depending on the cell, neurotransmitter, and conditions.

so basically, consciousness is created by a bunch of chemicals interacting to make changes in voltage in your brain cells. when you hit your head, you can create enough force to cause some of the neurotransmitters to "spill out" due to mechanically induced depolarization. the incredibly specific electrical patterns that constitute your consciousness are lost, and thus consciousness is lost.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do sounds like the letter "S", "ts" and drums/cymbals sound extra static-y on the radio, even on clear stations?

[Assistant] They contain high-frequency components. Radio stations use 10-15 KHz audio bandwith.  This is quite sufficient to transmit low and midrange sounds, and even most "high" frequency pitches that humans can perceive.  But some sounds contain high frequency components in the 15-20 KHz range, and radio transmitters/receivers are simply not made to handle them well (or at all).


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

[User] ELI5: Why do dancers count '5, 6, 7, 8', instead of '1, 2, 3, 4' as in music?

[Assistant] Dancers often use 8 count bars/measures of music, meaning their moves are broken down in 8 counts or 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8.  They will count 5, 6, 7, 8 out loud as a countdown to begin together on 1.  You wouldn't count 1, 2, 3, 4 because you don't want to start on 5.


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

[User]
CMV: Money can buy you happiness.

The saying goes that money cant buy you happiness, but I find that to be false. Growing up poor, life was pretty miserable to say the least. Its harder to get access to basic necessities, youre marginalized because you grew up poor, and its very difficult to break out of the cycle of poverty.

Now Im earning six figures, I have to say my standard of living has improved. I can afford to live on my own, I can pursue my own dreams, I can give back to my community, and live my life to the fullest. Ive never been happier to work for an employer who pays and supports my mental well-being and finding a job that gives me purpose. When I was poor, none of the above would be possible with the money my family brought home and my dreams were always crushed mostly due to money.

Nowadays, it seems you can almost throw money at anything to get what you want and be happy. Want to buy that fancy dress you like? Sure, throw some money at it. Want to travel to the city/country of your dreams? Lets book flights and hotels for a few thousand dollars and see the world.  Want to fly into space and see Mars? Great idea, lets throw in several million into the venture.  Want to buy Twitter so you can control the media criticizing you? Why not? Heres a few billion dollars to buy out the company. Want to get mental health support? Heres some insurance money or government funding to pay for treatment to get you back on your feet.

Regardless of which class you are in or your living situation, money always drives us towards happiness.

[Assistant]
You're missing a nuance here.

Money enables your full and rich life. That full and rich life makes you happy.

If you had money, but did not have anything in your life that gave you purpose or a sense of achievement, you'd probably not be very happy.


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

[User]
Did the impact from the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs change the earths orbit?

If so, how much of a change did it make?

[Assistant] Technically every speck of dust does, but it's negligible in both cases. An impactor with 1/1000 the diameter of Earth has (very roughly) 1/1000^3 or one billionth of its mass. If it approaches Earth at e.g. 10 km/s then it will change its orbital velocity by around one billionth of that speed, 10 micrometer/s. Compare that to Earth's orbital velocity of 30 km/s. You might change the average Earth/Sun distance of 150,000,000,000 meters by something like 50 meters, which is measurable with current tools - but it doesn't matter beyond that.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does my dog pick up sticks in her mouth and carry them around?

Doesn't it taste bad?

[Assistant] When dogs were first domesticated a long, long time ago they were primarily used for hunting for quite some time. After a few millennia of evolution we bred a lot of hunting based instincts into them, one of those being retrieving prey for their master. Basically, when your dog brings a stick to you it's simulating bringing a hunted animal to you. If the dog wants you to throw it, it's mimicking it's natural impulse to chase after prey. If the dog wants to play tug of war with it, it simulates the prey fighting back or something trying to steal it away. (Fun fact, if your dog ever violently shakes it head back and forth it's trying to break the prey's neck) In summary, playing fetch or tug of war mimics the actions we selectively bred dogs to accomplish and gratifies them.


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

[User] ELI5: I've had the same cat for years and I'm certain he loves me. Why does he need to sniff me every time before he allows me to pet him? Isn't his sight enough?

[Assistant] You need to remember that compared to most other mammals, people are *terrible* at smelling. So while you think your smell doesn't change from day to day, to your cat, it does. When he smells you today, he notices that you've been shaking hands with different people, eating different things, handling different objects, etc. In a weird way, it's him asking about your day.


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

[User] ELI5: What happens in the brain when someone is daydreaming and what neurological activity(ies) causes someone to come out of it?

[Assistant]
Daydreaming is focusing conscious neurological power on a memory or a fabricated idea...the brain has the ability to compute multiple areas of attention and information every second, this allows you to underlying continue the task at hand while considering and embracing other thoughts.

 It was originally and instinctual survival skill (chasing, while throwing or grabbing or planning your next move) and through the evolution of communication and culture, your brain can now calculate multiple tasks that you desire at one time. Basically your are telling you brain to be aware of your current surroundings/situation while allowing the neurons to fire and create a fabricated idea/visualization to focus the majority of your mental power on.

Edit - coming out of a daydream is usually a product of subconscious override that your current situation demands your attention, usually to keep you safe either physically, mentally or emotionally... However it can be provoked purposely if you decide to shift your focus to either another daydream, thought or progressive idea.


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

[User] ELI5: Am I correcting in assuming that Apples iOS is based on a 7+ year old frame work. How long before they have to completely redo the OS instead of making incremental changes?

[Assistant] As a 5-year old, something you can relate to is Legos. Modern software design is just like Legos. The parts of the program are all built as standardized pieces. They can be taken apart and put back together in a variety of ways, but because of this use of standard parts, old parts can be removed and then new parts can take their place. Those new parts can do exactly the same thing as the old or do things in entirely new ways. Modern software works just like that. Think of how your parent's old 1980's Space Lego set can be put together with your older siblings's Harry Potter set and all of that works with your brand new Chima set.


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

[User] ELI5: Is the Rothschilds networth an actual thing ? Does this family actually control nearly all the wealth in the world? If not then why are they mentioned so much in online forums and blogs ?

[Assistant]
They are rich, but the wealth has shrunk and divided with each other. No 1 member of the family owns it all anymore.

As for the hate they often are tied into the conspiracies like the Rockefellers or other wealthy families from the Industrial Revolution. From Illuminati, New World Order, to Reptilian Aliens, the tinfoil hat wearers have pointed to them.


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

[User] What is the maximum number of atoms that can exist within a molecule?

[Assistant] Some thermoset plastics form a macromolecular structure is only limited by the size of the object you are making. The whole structure is connected by molecular bonds, so is, strictly speaking, a single molecule.


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

[User]
CMV: There is nothing inherently racist about not being attracted to certain ethnic or racial groups

To be clear, not wanting to date a black person because of stereotypes about black people ("I think black people are XY") or opposition to interracial dating is racist, yes. However, not wanting to date a black person due to not being attracted to skin colour is not racist.
Most people have preferences based on weight, height, face shape, etc. Most women would not want to date a shorter man.  Gay men are not attracted to women and lesbians are not attracted to men. Attraction is no more a choice than taste in food or art. I did not choose to like vanilla ice cream and chocolate cake whilst disliking chocolate ice cream and watermelon.
So if not being attracted to black people or Asian people is racist, are gay men sexist?
For my view to be changed, one would have to explain

* How not being attracted to a certain race is racist whilst being gay is not sexist
* How attraction to skin colour or other features is any different than attraction (or lack thereof) to weight or height.

[Assistant]
Would you say that having had and still somewhat having 'white' beauty standards may cause people to have underlying biases towards dating certain races?

If say, black features, are portrayed less in the media as being attractive then people are less likely to find them attractive.

I would argue that that was racism of a kind, although not as blatant as other forms.


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

[User]
I have an opal ring. Dim memories from Chemistry class long ago tell me not to get it wet, but other advise tells me water is fine, it is heat that kills an opal. What is an opal made of, and what can degrade the colour?

What are opals made of?  Do they turn cloudy (losing their colour as they transform) from exposure to either water or low humidity hot air?   I really dont want to lose this ring, and taking it off and on ups my chances of losing it.   Can I wash my hands ten times a day with my opal ring on?  Do the dishes wearing it?   Should I be keeping it away from hot air dryers?

[Assistant] Opals are made of silicon in what is usually a non-crystalline order (meaning there is no unit cell that can be used to describe it's structure, as is the case with diamonds, rubies, etc). They contain water within the structure, somewhere between 5-20% depending on the gem. Opals are impervious, and exposure to water should be fine, unless the glue used to bond the opal to the ring is not water-safe. Excess heat will cause an opal to crack, but we're talking throwing the ring in a fire heat, not wearing it on a warm day heat. You should be fine wearing it day to day.


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

[User]
How much of Bender's personality is due to him getting electrocuted in the pilot?

In the pilot, while Bender and Fry are trying to escape from Leela and co they end up in a small room with barred windows.

Fry asks Bender to bend the bars and Bender responds with something about not being made for destructive bending. Fry then goes on about a tirade about free will.

Bender then says: "You are ~~fool~~ full of crap, Fry!" turns around and his antenna is caught in the open socket of a light bulb. Bender then turns back around and says: "You make a persuasive argument, Fry!" and bends them free.

How much did this influence Bender's personality?

[Assistant]
It's hard to say. We don't have a lot of information about Bender before he met Fry. It does seem like his personality changed at that point. But there's also the fact that he literally sees people as potential targets for theft.

If he was originally programmed like that then his personality might be as old as he is. But it's also possible he reprogrammed himself to see this way.


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

[User]
[40K] What would happen if the Eye of Terror suddenly dissipated?

In an unprecedented turn of events, Imperial observers report that the swirling, endless warp-storm that was the Eye of Terror has been completely restored to real-space overnight. What are the ramifications of this?

[Assistant]
Good news for the Imperium, they'd be able to redeploy massive amounts of forces elsewhere in the galaxy to defend the Imperium.

As of current lore though a massive warp storm that makes the EoT look tiny by comparison has completely cut the galaxy in two, so if that stays it's not going to make much difference.


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

[User]
CMV: Boy Meets World would have been better if they maintained the original ages and grades of Cory, Shawn, and Topanga.

Cory, Shawn, and Topanga (CS&T) were in the 6th Grade at the start of the series, the 1993-1994 school year/TV schedule. We knows this because in S1E09, **Class Pre-Union**, Mr. Feeny tells the class they will be "the graduating class of 2000" and a banner displayed at the class pre-union also reads "Welcome Back, Class of 2000". It's also stated that Cory is 11 years old, and Eric is 15 years old, establishing a four-year age gap. We know *this* because he fails his drivers test in S1E15, **It's a Wonderful Night**, having turned 16 at or around that time.

We also know that in S2E01, **Back 2 School**, CS&T start 7th Grade and their first year of what should 6 years of high school at John Adams High. This lines up with the 1994-1995 school year/TV schedule, setting up the expectation that each season of TV will cover more or less one school year.

Over the course of the 7 season run of the show, that *would* have pegged CS&T to end the series graduating high school, and Eric graduating college (or entering his senior year, depending on whether the writers would have had him put in the work to make up the year he didn't get into college).

However, by Season 4 (as stated in S4E03, **I Ain't Gonna Spray Lettuce No More**), CS&T are in 11th grade while Eric is still in his one-year off from schooling. Further evident of this time jump is the high school graduation of CS&T in the S5 finale and their freshman year of college in S6. For reasons I am personally not a fan of, the show jumped CS&T's class up two years, from the class of 2000 to the class of 1998, while maintaining the school year/TV schedule alignment for other characters.

While I'm sure from a writer's perspective there were more compelling stories to be mined with Eric and Cory being two years closer in age, the time jump narratively hurt the show and reeked of a shark jump. The college application process, SAT prep, and overall educational drama for CS&T were rushed through in order to get them to college. The relationships Feeny had with Shawn and Topanga seemed artificially enhanced to get them to align with his relationship with the Matthews brothers, whereas following S&T through six years of high school could have seen that properly fleshed out. The pains of college planning (whether Shawn could get in, whether Topanga would choose Cory or going to Yale) went by in the span of 2-3 episodes. Eric's growth as a character was stunted in order to keep him in the circle of CS&T, which ended up hurting the later additions of Jack and Rachael.

TL;DR: Boy Meets World jumped the Class of 2000 up to the Class of 1998 during the run of the show, and this move made the show worse for most of the characters, CMV.

[Assistant] Aging up the characters allowed the writers to handle subject matter that might have otherwise been inappropriate by the network's standards. Corey and Topanga's relationship turning sexual, for example, is probably something they wouldn't have otherwise gotten away with on a family network. Same goes for subplots that touched on themes of alcohol and death.


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

[User]
Applied to a full-stack developer job. Got an full-stack technical assignment but not sure which backend language to use.

Hi guys,

I have applied to my first full-stack developer job and got through the first round. I've got a full-stack assignment which I have to finish by next thursday, but I'm kind of lost on which back-end language to use.I have experience with the following:

\- Java (with Spring Boot, Thymeleaf and Hibernate)

\- JavaScript (and React)

\- NodeJS

\- HTML & CSS

\- MySQL databases

\- A little bit of MongoDB

Shortly said, the assignment requires me to write both a front-end and back-end for a fictional company which delivers chemical substances to labs. An employee must be able to plan shipments by truck for these substances, where some substances can't be combined because of various dangers. I'm planning to write the front-end in React, use a MySQL database, but not so sure which language to use for the back-end (NodeJS vs Java). Writing both the front-end and back-end with JS would be convenient, but I would like to hear your opinion about this and what I should take into consideration before choosing one or the other. Thanks in advance!

[Assistant] It doesn't matter. Write what you are most comfy in. What's more important is you have a reasonable explanation for your choice and what's most important is the quality of your code and your decision making for how you solved the problem.


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

[User]
[Avengers: Infinity War] Why is Wakandas offense so lacking?

They have an entire force field dome around their city for defense but only have a small army of foot soldiers for offense. Why dont they have turrets set up to start firing away at the outriders or other threats? Also, they still have a small arsenal of ships with guns that went unused.
Also this question is a bit tangential, but while were at it, how tf did Corvis Glave sneak in?

[Assistant] For centuries Wakanda's foreign policy has been "do not engage with the outside world". They rely on security-though-obscurity for defense and have zero interest in invading anyone else. If an outside nation seems threatening, they use commando tactics to eliminate the threat at the source. If that should fail, they have a force field that can stand up to any army on Earth. Given all of that, it's understandable they would regard building the sort of offensive capability one finds in, say, the U.S. army as wasteful.


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

[User]
[Marvel] Why do Venom/ Carnage and the others look like Spiderman?

It's a random alien species, right? Why the suit?

[Assistant]
Iirc Venom's first interaction with humanity was Spiderman. He basically imprinted and that set the pattern going forward, not just in appearance but in the way it uses it's abilities. And Carnage was basically just something split off from Venom.

Another example would be the gas-mask children from Eccleston's run as the Doctor.


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

[User]
[Starcraft] What is Psionics?

Was Psionics ever explained in-depth much like how Warp sorcery and the Force from 40k and starwars ever was? were we ever told how it functions and what it's sorce was? or was it all just space magic?

[Assistant]
I mean, the force and the warp are ultimately just space magic too.

Psionics is just manipulating a naturally occurring energy source that exists in the Starcraft universe.  The Protoss have a "light" version called the Khala, while everyone else seems to draw energy from the "dark" version called the Void.

The Khala is an artificial construct that allows more control over your powers, and doesn't leave you vulnerable to other things from the void corrupting you.  The mainstream protoss think of the void as evil because using it would drive protoss mad back in the day, but ultimately the void is naturally occurring and really more of a neutral thing and can be thought of as the ultimate source of all psionic energy.  The Dark Templar use it frequently without many problems.
 Much like the Warp , you can even physically enter the void >!and the final missions of Starcraft 2 take place inside of it!<.


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

[User]
Windows+Linux vs MacOS for development ecosystem

I'm getting either the Framework laptop or the new M1 Macbook Pro; I boiled the decision down to just the development ecosystem.

My work over the next two years will involve quantitative finance, so it'll essentially be Data Science, Software engineering, and Machine Learning work.

This decision would be a no-brainer and I would undoubtedly be using Linux (I use arch btw) on its own if it weren't for the fact that having Excel is an absolute essential need.

I do not like doing my dev work on Windows even with WSL. Linux has zero support for Office so I'd essentially be switching between the two (I'd make Linux my primary OS).

Looking at these criteria, it seems like the obvious choice would be to work on MacOS, but I'm wondering whether it's really worth paying the 'Apple Premium'. Also, I heard that developing on the M1 isn't all roses and flowers especially for lots of Python libraries since they don't compile properly. Lastly, Excel on MacOS does miss a few features here and there compared to Windows, but I'm not too familiar with them and I don't think it really matters.

Those of you who run a Linux+Windows combo, how productive are you guys? Is having to switch back and forth worth it at all? Is the MacOS premium worth it? I also have no idea what Windows 11 brings to the table.

[Assistant]
If youre a Linux user by choice and you only need windows for Excel, just run it in a VM. Dual booting is annoying if youre having to do it regularly.

A Mac is perfectly fine too. But based on how you describe what you want, I'd go Linux and a Windows VM (or maybe Wine if Excel runs fine with it...no idea there).


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

[User]
[Batman] Why didn't Thomas and Martha Wayne have any bodyguards?

Thomas and Martha were one of the most richest and influential people in a city that has a enormously high crime rate, yet neither of them thought that having a bodyguard or two was good idea. I'm not even talking about the night they were killed, we never see them have any protection and security with them.

I don't know about you, but If I lived in Gotham and had the position and money that the Wayne's had, I'd hire a few muscle heads to keep me relatively safe.

[Assistant] Alfred is the bodyguard.  He's former SAS at that age he would have wrecked Joe Chill no problem.  The issue was he was bringing the car around so wasn't with Thomas and Martha.  until it was too late.


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

[User]
ELI5:Why does it make a difference in taste, if the water I brew tea with has boiled or not?

It's the other way around with mate: if the water hasn't boiled the mate tastes fine, if it boiled it's spoiled.

What does boiling do to the water?

[Assistant]
It's about temperature and solubility. Coffee is the same way, you're toeing a fine line with certain flavor compounds that come out at certain temps.

For instance, if you boil the water, once it's all mixed in with the tea leaves it'll sit at say 204F (95C), this is hot enough to get all of the good flavors out of black tea, but in mate will draw out bitter compounds, if you use water that hasn't boiled and it's steeping at 190F (87C) then it won't be hot enough to draw all of the  desired compounds out of black tea, but will be perfect for mate because it won't draw out the bitter compounds.


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

[User] [Rogue 1/SW] If Scarif base could send out hundreds of Tie Fighters when under attack, why did the Death Star only send out 12 when it was under attack?

[Assistant]
The Rebel attack on Scarif was intentionally made to look like a larger assault than it actually was. In addition, the Rebel fleet was larger when it attacked at Scarif. So basically, the Imperials thought they were getting screwed in a massive surprise ambush and sent out all they had, lest they react too little too late.

At the Death Star, the Rebels attacked with a fleet that was already depleted from the previous battles, against an Imperial force that was already in a prepared posture.

As a rule of thumb, you only want to commit as much resources into an action as are required. Over committing can expose you to needly spending resources, or getting those resources caught in a trap.

So well prepared, and confident in their abilities, the Imperial only sent out what fighters were needed. Perhaps they were even hoping the Rebel fleet would surrender after the destruction of Yavin. Capturing lots of prisoners and ships would be a magnificent bonus to proving the might of the Death Star.


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

[User]
[Batman] What was Alfred's reaction when Bruce Wayne told him he wanted to fight crime?

I haven't read any comics so i know nothing about Batman's origin other than his parents death. When Bruce was deciding to fight crime, did he keep it a secret from Alfred or was it always out in the open? How old was Bruce when he became The Bat? Did Alfred try to persuade him not to?

[Assistant]
Bruce was in his mid-late twenties when he became Batman.

Alfred was, and is, very concerned and has no desire to see Bruce injured or killed.

Bruce was pretty open with Alfred about wanting to fight crime and, because Alfred was his servant and had that 'proper British butler' attitude, Pennyworth rarely objected to Wayne's plans. He usually viewed it as not being his place to object to, correct, or belittle his employer in any way, though sometimes he was overcome by the situation and has snapped at Bruce (and even quit) before.


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

[User] [Star Wars] All jokes aside how good/bad were the storm troopers?

[Assistant]
Stormtroopers are rigorously trained soldiers and highly skilled fighters. Obi-Wan acknowledges this, "Only stormtroopers can be so precise."

In the OT, the troopers only horribly miss when they were likely only trying to apprehend the characters. On Leia's ship, and on Hoth they quickly dispatch the Rebels.

There are a few examples of incompetence though. The Rebels TV show troopers can't shoot for shit. Of course, that is a kids show so that should be taken into account. Also, Ewoks....


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

[User] ELI5: The business model of banks. How do they make money?

[Assistant] People loan you money, you pay them a small amount of interest, you loan other people money they pay a substantial amount of interest, the difference between the interest rates minus your costs is the profit.


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

[User]
[Black Panther] How did Klaue not know that Erik Stevens (Killmonger) was part wakandan?

In the beginning of the movie , it was established that Killmonger's dad had collaborated with Klaue to steal some vibranium from Wakanda. Klaue ended up causing some casualties , including W'Kabi's parents , and the rest is in the film.  Klaue and N'Jobu must have planned the heist together a lot, so wouldn't he have known that he had a son? I was under the impression that he worked together with Killmonger later on because of his connection to Wakanda and his skills. But the part where he was shocked to see the mark on Killmonger, left me confused.  Even then, he must have recognized his earth name.

So is there a reasonable explanation for this? Or is it just a plothole?

[Assistant]
>Klaue and N'Jobu must have planned the heist together a lot, so wouldn't he have known that he had a son?

Unless they did the planning in N'Jobu's living room, no. It's more likely that N'Jobu just gave the info about Wakanda's defenses and which vibranium warehouse to hit in exchange for their own vibranium. N'Jobu wasn't stupid enough to do that right in his own home where Wakandans have constant access. He only failed because he did not think that T'Chaka was paranoid enough to plant Zuri to keep tabs on him.

As Killmonger working together with Klau, I'd assume that Killmonger is a triple-agent in there as part of the CIA sting to bring Klau in. Klau being surprised was because he thought Killmonger was an African culture expert, not an actual Wakandan.


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

[User]
Does there exist such thing as Anti-light? like anti-photons?

Does stars conformed of antimatter emit anti-light? does such thing even exists?

[Assistant]
Photons are their own antiparticle.

Antiparticles have the same mass and spin as their corresponding particle, but opposite values for all other quantum numbers: electric charge, colour charge, flavour, baryon number and the various lepton numbers. A photon scores zero for all these other numbers, and therefore an antiphoton has exactly the same properties as a photon. In other words, they are identical.

Edit: So, to directly answer your question; in a universe where antimatter prevailed over matter, light would be the same because the stars would still be emitting photons. No, there is no 'anti-light'.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why can you only keep chicken in a fridge for 1-2 days?

So I understand bacteria. It can't survive well at super cold or super hot. This makes sense. No problems here.

I understand chicken just chilling in it's own juices in a fridge would attract a lot of bacteria. This makes sense.

But shouldn't all the bacteria burn off when you cook it? Especially if you cook it through fully? What is the line that happens between day 2 where you could still burn off the bacteria in the chicken and day 3 where suddenly nope you'd be food poisoned.

[Assistant] It's more than just the other two answers. Many bacteria produce substances that aren't very good for you. Some of these substances are toxins. If the chicken sits in the fridge for a long time, lots of these toxins are produced. Sure, the bacteria are killed when you cook the meat, but the high amount of toxins remains on the food even after that.


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

[User]
CMV: People who value designer goods and labels just want to show off their wealth to others

Okay so I know this sounds like a duh kinda post but I was talking with some friends about how Im not at all impressed by designer stores and wearing things with designer logos. In my eyes, I think I would rather save or invest the $5K people use for LV bags. Or, I would rather donate a set amount to charity or really change a persons life in some way. I think the craftsmanship argument could be valid, but there are many not as well-known designers, or logo-free items, that are of the same craftsmanship level or better. The purpose of buying something like an Hermes Birkin is because you want the world to know you can afford that. I think it also depends on the item. The quality and craftsmanship of a car for example, something you drive every single day and if it breaks down you could be in danger, is a separate consideration. I highly doubt these people buying Birkins are using that bag every single day until it rips apart. I for example live in leggings. Ive had so many over the years that just didnt hold up, poor fabrics, poor construction. Will I buy leggings from other stores? Yes. But Ive found the craftsmanship is the best from one designer store, and I feel justified because I use them daily, AND, no one can really tell its from there unless i wear a crop top or something (which I never do). If it didnt have the logo and it was the same patented fabric type, I would still buy it.

Perhaps its how I grew up, but from a young age I never liked how people would notice things first before me. Too many times as a kid and growing up, people would just assume I was broke or whatever by looking at me, because Im a private person and not obvious, and they would act condescending; upon visiting my home for whatever reason, their tune would change, and I HATED it. I hated that reaction and I felt it showed their true colors and what they really valued in a person. I like people who I can be myself around, even in a Walmart tshirt and jeans and who arent impressed with my clothes/accessories/material goods. I would also rather be healthy and physically fit/athletic and wear Walmart clothing than out of shape and in designer. I understand the high fashion argument, and if some people are just into fashion and want to spend their money that way, just because they like that stuff, fine. But idk, they wouldnt get the exact same pair of glasses if it had no logo and they didnt know it was from that particular company, you know?

I think its all about what you prioritize in life. At the same time, I realize its judgmental to feel this way, and I have friends who do love this stuff who are wonderful people. CMV: people who wear designer goods plastered with logos, or designer goods that are obviously identifiable as designer, do so to show off their wealth.

[Assistant]
Some, surely, but if you are arguing all or even most, that is not the case. Other reasons people buy designer clothes:

1) Quality. Often, you get what you pay for and many designer pieces will last a lifetime while the cheap version falls apart.

2) Cut. Designer pieces are just that - designed. They are often cut and sewn to much more exacting standards and fit much better.

3) Location/working conditions. Sone (not all) designer clothes are manufactured in places with stricter worker protection laws and under better conditions.

Some people buy designer items for exactly those reasons.


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

[User] [MCU] With the influx of alien technology to Earth, when would the rest of the world have reached technological parity with Wakanda, assuming they decided to remain isolationist?

[Assistant]
Not long?

Hard to speculate about how long the tech in the MCU would take, largely because much of it is so advanced it's indistinguishable from magic.

But, let's say they've been able to understand alien tech, those new advances combined with sources of vibranium for study could lead to them outstripping the Wakandans fairly quickly.  Alien tech is already on par or more advanced so they may be able to find even better ways to exploit vibranium.