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

[User]
Is it acceptable to ask for an extension on a paper draft for a journal?

For the first time in years, I've had a lot of upheaval and am just drowning. I need a little more time for a paper I'm working on, but I'm a little afraid to ask. Is it ok to ask for this, or is it better to just do my best and give what I can by the deadline?

[Assistant] I would politely write the editor to explain that you're a little behind and need some more time. It'd be good to be specific about how much time (e.g. will submit in a week), especially if you think it would make a material difference in the quality of the paper. I've done this for article reviews and submissions before and they're usually cool as long as you're clear and don't abuse their patience (like asking again and again).


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

[User]
[Marvel] How do mobs still exist in New York?

616 only please.  With superheroes operating like Daredevil and Spider-Man, they seem to take down a mob boss every other week.  I live in New York and I'm pretty sure there aren't that many mafiosos in the city that 40 mobs could be busted up per year and the city would still have to deal with them.

Add in the Punisher who kills entire gangs?  How fast are they springing up?  Punisher must have killed thousands of people so far, he mows down entire rooms.

[Assistant]
Because the mobsters provide services/products that a lot of people want and can't get through any other channel.  Thus they are willing to give mobsters a LOT of money for those services/products.

And because no matter how many mobsters get taken down, there's always going to be someone new who wants that money and think they can "beat the odds" with vigilantes.

In other words, all the superheroes aren't stopping crime, they're creating job openings.


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

[User] ELI5:Why is it recommended that you don't look directly at a total solar eclipse?

[Assistant] because it's primarily the visible light that is being blocked. the UV light (what actually hurts you) is diminished, but still enough to very much damage your eyes. the low visible light also means your eye won't react to protect itself properly.


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

[User]
CMV: I want to vote third party in the upcoming general election

As a leftist I feel like it might be a better option to vote third party rather than vote for Biden. There are 3 main reasons for me thinking this. 1. Biden is a terrible candidate 2. I want the Democratic Party to stop putting forward subpar establishment democrats. 3. I think having three parties receive federal campaign funds would be good for democracy.

1.  My first reason for not really wanting to vote for Biden is that I dont like him as a candidate. He has a terrible voting record, he was on the wrong side of pretty much every major social issue during his career. He was for segregation, he said he believed Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided, he was a driving force behind the war on drugs. He also voted for DOMA. More recently he still isnt progressive enough for me. This is illustrated through tone deaf comments like suggesting that officers aim for the leg and not the heart. I also dont believe that his plan for the ACA does enough to address the healthcare crisis we currently have in this country. Beyond just not agreeing with his policies I have been seriously concerned with his mental acuity. Some of the things he has said out loud on the campaign trail quite frankly sound insane. I also feel terrible about voting for someone who has sexual assault allegations against him. If I was outraged at Trump and Kavanaugh how can I not be similarly outraged at Biden? I believe women and not just when its politically convenient.

2.  This is the second time in a row the Democratic party has put forward a candidate that is less than exciting, although I felt better about voting for Clinton than I do Biden. The establishment dems spent the entire primary dragging Bernie supporters and his policies through the mud and now are turning around and saying well you know you have to support Biden now and honestly I dont see why. If they believe that the best way to win the general is to have policies that are essentially centrist so disappointed trump supporters and moderates vote for Biden then great! They can vote for him, because he is catering to them, not me. I dont think that the Dems should take for granted the progressive vote because they are less shitty than the GOP, I want my candidate to represent my values.

3.  I would love it if there were more than two options. Part of the reason we continue to be stuck with two shitty people is because you need to receive at least 5% of the vote to receive federal campaign funds and get a spot on the national debate stage. If enough people say that they are not going to continue choosing between the lesser of two evils then maybe next time there could be a viable third option. While the founding fathers were incredibly flawed I believe they were right in their warning against political factions. The polarization of the democrat and republican parties has made it so legislation that actually helps people is blocked by partisan goals. It has become more about getting one over the other party instead of actually trying to represent your constituents. A perfect example of this is environmental legislation becoming a partisan issue. We all live here, yet somehow not wanting our home to be destroyed by corporations is progressive.

Because of these reasons I dont want to vote for Biden and I think that maybe in the long run it would be better if I dont, however, I recognize that this desire is likely coming from a place of privilege because I am not one of the people most negatively affected if Trump wins again. I am not a minority, I do not have any family members attempting to come to the US or gain citizenship, and I am financially stable. So basically as of now I am planning on voting third party because it would compromise my values to vote for Biden. I also believe that if we continue down this path the country will only get farther and farther right, but I am open to the idea that this is selfish and I shouldnt.

[Assistant]
Not voting for Biden doesnt stop the the Democratic Party from putting a low-quality candidate forward. Voting for other candidates in primaries and locals stops the Democratic Party from putting forward subpar candidates.

Theres never really been any proof that voting third party in America has any major influence on politics, because the first-past-the-post system necessitates a strong two-Party dominance. So, as a voter in the general election, your job is more to vote for which of the two candidates you *prefer over the other,* not necessarily your acceptance of them as a whole or even as a good candidate of your party. Just that theyre better than the other guy with a real shot.

Again, third-Party is *great* at more local seats and you should definitely vote in whoever you like there. But the Presidency isnt so much a place to start as a temperature gauge of how far other initiatives have gotten.


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

[User] What happens when a particle meets antimatter that is not its antiparticle, e.g. a proton with a positron?

[Assistant]
Depends on the particles.  At low energies, proton and positron would scatter, primarily due to the electromagnetic force, while a neutron and a positron might scatter or might convert to a protton and an electron antineutrino.  At high energies, even more things become possible (this is what happens in the LHC, where protons and protons are collided with each other).

In general, you look to see what final states respect the various conservation laws (such as energy and electric charge and baryon number), and those are what could result.


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

[User]
ELI5: Atmospheric conditions needed for fat snow flakes

Where I live is getting some crazy snowfall right now. There isn't that much snow but the flakes are larger than golf balls and very fluffy, not like hail. What are the specific atmospheric conditions that make the flakes so much larger than usual? (See my previous posts for a video example).

[Assistant]
Ice crystals get stuck to dust particles and then stick together to form a snowflake.  When exactly the snowflake falls depends on multiple factors like size, temperature, and turbulence.

For snowflakes to get that big before dropping, the temperature would need to be barely freezing (probably *slightly* above freezing), low wind conditions, high amount of moisture in the air, and a high variance in atmospheric (barometric) pressure.

The near-freezing temperature combined with the high variance in barometric pressure means the temperature can cycle between above and below freezing.  This melts the edge of a forming snowflake which makes it more 'sticky' and makes these snowflakes stick together.  The high moisture allows for these larger flakes to form more quickly, and the low wind keeps the snowflakes from "shaking" out of the cloud before they reach their critical mass.


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

[User] If you and I are apart 300'000km and we are connected with a stick, I look at you through a telescope and you poke me with that stick, do I feel the poke immediately and see you poking me 1 second later?

[Assistant] Nope. The stick isn't a single solid entity; it's composed of individual atoms, and when you poke someone, you're pushing on atoms close to you which in turn communicate with other atoms down the stick, and so on until the whole stick has moved. Of course on a day-to-day basis we don't notice this, but if you had a stick over astronomical distances, it would certainly matter. Each individual atom still feels the light speed requirement, as do any vibrations travelling through them through the stick.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do people make viruses that just puts pop-ups on your computer?

[Assistant] Some pages get money by showing ads. The problem here is, ads often only pay for unique visitors. Now if you get to visit such a page, you are a unique visitor and the page gets revenue. So by placing a virus or worm or something else on your pc that redirects you to any page, that contains ads, they scam the people that are paying for the ad to be displayed. Others want to sell funny stuff to you like drugs. The other posters gave valid reasons too.


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

[User] [Downsizing] I got high on something and somehow broke into a wealthy Downsized Community and proceeded to eat about 1/3 of the residents thinking they were jerky snacks before I regained my senses. What am I likely to be charged with and is there any plea I can make to avoid punishment here?

[Assistant]
Bro, you are done. No ifs ands or buts about it. A downsized community has at least 2,000 people in it and you ate about 600 of them. Thats manslaughter not to mention all the cannibalism charges.

On the plus side, your gonna become a case study. So look forward to that.


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

[User] [General Superheroes] Why tend so many female superheroes to wear a swimsuit-like costume while there is no body of water nearby?

[Assistant] The costume is not a swimsuit, it's a leotard. Most superheroes use agility or superpowers to avoid injury rather than armor, so it's critical to wear clothing that doesn't restrict movement, similar to the garment commonly worn for dance and gymnastics.


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

[User] [Pokemon] Why would anyone want to catch them all? Ignoring the literal gods out there that would be difficult to catch, that seems like a logistical nightmare of keeping them all cared for and fed.

[Assistant]
Most people don't want to "catch 'em all".

Ash wants to "catch 'em all" in the sense that he wants to complete his pokedex, which is done without literally catching them.

Goh does literally want to "catch 'em all" but he doesn't keep every single pokemon he catches himself.

Trainers can also leave unused pokemon at Pokemon Centers and they will be fed, cared for, and allowed exercise for extended periods.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does fever work as a self-regulatory mechanism of the body?

currently in bed with 38.6C fever and debating whether to sweat it out, or go to a doctor and get meds that make it go down.

[Assistant] At high temperatures the DNA and proteins of many Bacteria and Viruses that are affecting your body and making you sick will denature, preventing them from being able to reproduce. Now a fever becomes dangerously high at 39C so you should probably contact a Doctor.


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

[User]
[General Fantasy] What happens when a vampire sucks the blood of someone with HIV/AIDS?

I'm not sure if this was asked before, but would vampire be able to withstand the effects of HIV/AIDS or do they actively avoid victims with diseases?

[Assistant] Depends entirely on the fiction behind the vampire. For instance Dracula is dead so any virus or disease that cannot live on dead tissue would die but he could still temporarily carry it.  The vampires in the vampire's assistant series are resistant to disease but can still become sick and pass on diseases to others.  And in most other fiction vampires are entirely immune to disease and sickness and can only pass on their own vampirism examples being Baltimore vampyr and blade.


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

[User] [ELI5] When we breathe out and release CO2, aren't we "losing" a carbon molecule? How can we use oxygen but when we exhale it we add one carbon to the oxygen? Is the release of carbon what makes breathing important?

[Assistant] We use oxygen by "burning" carbohydrates in our body and using the energy released in the process. Carbon from these molecules turns into CO2 (which is useless for the organism and gets released) and hydrogen turns into water.


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

[User]
If reason is not the source of morality then where does morality come from?

If reason is not the source of morality then where does morality come from?

[Assistant] Who says it "comes from" anywhere? For the same reason that mathematical relations are an inherent truth of reality, moral facts can just be the same. Its even easier if you think of morality like math in a sense. It could be the math of interpersonal value relations.


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

[User] How do birds that swallow an entire fish in one gulp avoid getting cut by the fins?

[Assistant] Most birds eat fish head first.  If the fish went down tail first, then it would be extremely easy for the fins to fan out and do damage.  However, going in head first the fins are forced down for the dorsal and forced against the fish's body for the pectoral.  Since the fulcrum of the dorsal and pectoral fins are closer to the front of the fish, it is like placing an umbrella in a cardboard tube and trying to open it.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Who is more powerful Dooku or Grievous?

Comparing their fights to Obi Wan in ROTS its hard to say tbh. Dooku did train Grievous and during their sparing match it seems Dooku is stronger yet Grievous had more of a reputation as a badass and only a few Jedi who faced the feared droid general were known to escape alive.

[Assistant]
Count Dooku was the more powerful of the two.  Pretty much everything Grievous knows about dueling he learned from Dooku, and in typical Sith fashion Dooku never taught him enough to defeat him.  Dooku is also a high level Force user.

Grievous is more feared because he actively hunted Jedi.  He stalked them and killed them, while Dooku didn't.  Dooku's prime consideration was leading the Separatists and would only duel when a Jedi approached him.  So if you were a Jedi you were more likely to be killed by Grievous, simply because he would be trying to kill you. But if the two of them ever fought, Dooku would win.


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

[User] Is it possible for a high powered laser to burn through a mirror (or other highly reflective surface)?

[Assistant]
Yes.  A sufficiently high power laser would produce enough heat to quickly destroy the reflectivity of the mirror.

Additionally, you could use a laser of a wavelength that the mirror does not reflect (e.g., an IR laser on a non-IR reflective mirror).


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

[User]
ELI5: when a plane breaks up at 30,000 feet what happens to the human body, and how fast?

When Payne Stewart's plane depressurized, supposedly everyone died instantly but the plane did not break up. I have read on MH17 that people could be alive while they fell. I have also read about people surviving falls from broken up planes. Can someone explain what happens, what the differences are from a pressurization standpoint etc that would knock out pilots immediatley versus having people actually survive a fall etc?

[Assistant]
At 30,000 feet you have about 1 to 3 minutes of useful consciousness, and more like 30 seconds to 1 minute at the altitude MH17 was at. What happens exactly? Well, you pass out. What happens then depends on the other specifics of the incident. In Payne Stewart's case, the aircraft maintained altitude, so when the crew/passengers passed out, they just remained unconscious until they died due to asphyxiation.

In the case of people falling from that altitude, they are likely to lose consciousness initially, then regain consciousness as they fall to lower altitudes with higher pressure. Would they be fully alert and aware as they struck the ground? It's certainly possible, but they would likely be only semi-lucid and in a daze of confusion.


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

[User]
How do birds learn the call that's specific to their species?

Would a bird that has never met another of its species still make the same call? Could isolated populations of the same species develop calls that are different to one another?

[Assistant]
Birds which are isolated during development will still sing, and some of the elements will be similar to fully-formed species-specific song. But the non-isolated birds' songs will be more complex and have crucial elements which the isolates lack. How exactly a bird learns to sing is still under study, as it's a bit hard to study these neural processes while they happen.

As for different songs within the same species, "dialects" are a matter of controversy. It does seem like at least ecological differences can influence song development and may lead to species growing farther apart (Slabbekoorn & Smith, 2002).


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

[User]
[Attack on Titan] Under a series of new orders issued out by Queen Historia meant to preserve mankind and better combat the Titans, what are ways that we can better protect citizens and the Walls and eventually take back Wall Maria?

I am Colonel Hoggers, a former artillery and infantry officer in the Garrison and now the newly appointed military liaison officer to the newly established central government under the rule of Queen Historia. I had the personal support of Commander Pixis as well as the backing of much of the Southern Divisions senior officers and enlisted personnel, allowing me to be elevated to such a prestigious position.

Under a series of new orders, one of these orders included reviewing the military capabilities of humanity. Weve concluded that our defense plans and weaponry as well as training could use a lot more work. Thanks to declassified documents, weve been able to take some small steps towards better advancing our military tech.

So, how could the military of mankind better improve itself?

[Assistant]
Lift the bans on technological development, and fund the development of new Anti Titan Weaponry, and other technologies.

Technological innovations such as Air-ships, revolvers, and who knows what else were suppressed by the previous administration. Any technological developments made were heavily controlled by the government, retarding humanity's technological development to maintain peace within the walls.

If humanity wants to defend its holdings,or effectively make war on the titans, its arsenal must be able to modernize unhindered by fearful governments. A patent system should be enforced to encourage inventors to create new technologies to sell for their own profit. Without fear of them being seized or silenced by the state.

New technological developments, particularly in Anti-Titan Weaponry could be actively funded by the garrison and other military branches to aquire the appropriate tools to complete their missions. The Garrison could commission lighter, faster firing, more powerful, and more accurate guns to move quickly across the walls or in the field. The Scouts could fund the creation of flying machines for safer reconnaissance missions. The Military Police could acquire more effective anti-personnel weaponry etc.

Decentralizing humanities technological developments is the first of many steps to arm humanity for the battles that lie ahead of it.


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

[User] [Star Wars] Lama Su said that the Clone Army they made for the Republic was One of the finest weve ever made How many armies have they made before and what wars were they used for?

[Assistant]
We don't know all of the details, but we know that they themselves (at least in Legends, though that doesn't appear to be the case per current continuity) survived their world flooding only because of extensive cloning, controlled breeding, and genetic manipulation.

The extent of their history of contracted cloning to outsiders likewise isn't known, but appears to be mostly limited to creating slaves or armies for mercenaries.


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

[User]
Is it possible to design a lens that has no spherical aberration?

A parabolic mirror can reflect all incoming rays parallel to the optical axis to a single focus. Is there an analogous geometry for a lens that can do the same, at least for a single wavelength of light, so that spherical aberration is not a concern?

[Assistant] Yes. In fact you can make a lens with spherical surfaces (which are easy to fabricate), which perfectly eliminates the "third order" sperical aberration. Its called a "best form lens". There will still be higher order spherical aberration, but typically those are small to begin with. In general, aspheric lenses can give better aberration correction still.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are video games based on movies usually terrible?

Edit: Thanks for the answers!

[Assistant]
All About the money.

 They play on the success of the film to sell copies. If the film was a commercial success you can be sure the game tie in will be a success no matter how bad it is.

So movies makers know that the game sells just cause its a move tie in. This means they can put a low budget, and put minimal effort in and it will still make them a fortune.

ELI5: People buy the game cause its a tie in, Even if the games abysmal.


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

[User] ELI5: With sonar, radar technologies so advanced, why is it that we cannot simply scan bodies of water to get a very clear picture of the size/amount/even type of creatures lurking below?

[Assistant]
sonar is very inaccurate at small detail because it depends on the water being a consistent medium that sound consistently echos the same way.   problem is....water isn't consistent.  salinity, temperature, current all distort how quickly sound travels thru.

radar has no application since radio waves don't penetrate water that well.


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

[User]
[Assassin's Creed] Could the Animus be used to learn non-physical skills?

We know that with prolonged sessions in an Animus, a subject would acquire the Bleeding Effect and effectively learn all the physical skills and abilities of their ancestors. However, nothing has been stated regarding whether or not a subject could acquire the person's mental skills and talents. If a person were to go inside the Animus and view the memories of an ancestor who was a brilliant physicist, would they come out with incredible mathematical and scientific acumen? If a person viewed their ancestors' memories from birth to adulthood, would they gain the ability to speak their ancestors' languages with native fluency?

[Assistant]
Gonna go with yes on the mental skills, since Desmond gained skills that at are least partially mental, like martial arts or eagle vision.

But remember that Desmond had to go through Ezio's training years to gain his Assassin abilities, so you would have to sit through memories of that person's schooling.

Gonna go with no on languages, since the animus translates for you.


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

[User] [Batman] What would Gotham be like if Batman suddenly started using lethal force?

[Assistant]
Batman would quickly install a reign of terror and order in the city, ruling it with an iron fist and assuring peace and order in the city. Soon enough, with Gotham completely under his control, he turns his eyes towards the rest of the world. Bruce Wayne thus begins a comprehensive plan to take out criminals wherever they may be.

It is not long before the genius detective is attacked by other super heroes who do not believe in his new philosophy. Undeterred, Batman is always prepared and systematically takes them out as they try. As always, Batman refuses to change his mind or his course, regardless of what others think. He is a man on a mission. As Batman Inc. grows, it begins to work with small governments around the world to establish carefully controlled societies under strict vigilance. Anybody steps out of line and they are killed by Wayne Corp. sentinel drones.

Superheroes take not and start to seriously hunt him down. They don't succeed: Batman always has a plan. Unlike others, Batman wastes no time in killing them and removing the threat. No speeches, no nonsense. A kryptonite bullet, whatever it takes.

In short, Batman becomes one of DC Comics greatest supervillains. Woe to the earth if that happens. Do not underestimate the anger, the obsession and the desire for control that Batman feels. **He is a beast trapped in a cage of his own morals.** That invisible barrier is everything that keeps him on the side of the " good guys" .
Why do you think he is so god damn strict? Of course he wants to kill the Joker and thinks that he should. He wants to kill all of them. Everyone. He wants to wipe them out, so that no little boy will ever again witness his parents get shot in a rat-infested alley somewhere. This is why Joker wants Batman to kill him so much : yes they have a personal war of ideological viewpoints and yes breaking the Batman down means Joker wins, but the punchline of that Joke is that by doing so , Joker will also unleash upon the world a horror that even he could never instill. And by one of its greatest heroes! Isn't that just....*hilarious?*


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

[User] [Marvel] During AvX, Psyloche experienced pain when she tried reading Daredevil's mind. Was this due to the nature of how his senses work or did he learn this how to shield his mind from the Chaste? How resistant is he to psychic attacks?

[Assistant]
Daredevil's main power is actually super migraine.

Imagine being able to hear the heartbeat of every person in a room. Imagine being able to taste what your next door neighbour is putting on his sandwich. Imagine being able to smell all of New York at once. Imagine being able to count the threads or your clothes by simply touching them.

Now imagine doing all of this at once.

Daredevil spent years training to not get mad from this sensual overflow. To be honest, he's probably a little insane anyway. No normal person would be able to think straight with such an amount of input all the time, and nobody would be dumb enough to try and become a lawyer in addition.

So when Psylocke entered his mind, she got a glimpse of all the stuff that goes through Daredevil's brain, completely unfiltered. We've seen how often telepathics get backlash from certain characters. A classic example would be Wolverine, psychics are usually greeted by the beast inside him and tend to not go further. Another example would be from "Deadpool kills the Marvel Universe" (not 616, spoilers): >!Professor X tries to read Wade's mind after he has gone completely overboard and faints when he sees how Deadpool perceives the world.!< That's where the pain Psylocke experiences comes from.

Daredevil probably doesn't need any further training against psychic attacks (though he'd be easily capable to learn how to defend himself) because he's naturally resistent to them anyway.


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

[User] What are quantum numbers?

[Assistant]
Quantum numbers are the quantities needed to specify the individual basis states in a given basis.

For example to specify the state of an electron in a hydrogen atom, you need at least four quantum numbers.

Ignoring fine structure, you typically work in the basis of well-defined **L**^(2) and L*_z_*. So your quantum numbers are n (basically the energy),  (the orbital angular momentum), m*__* (the z-component of the orbital angular momentum), and m*_s_* (the z-component of the spin).

There are additional quantum numbers you could specify, like the spin s (always 1/2 for an electron), the parity, the lepton number, etc. But the four above are the minimum necessary to specify the exact quantum state of the atomic electron.


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

[User]
Since he has come up in the news again, I'll go for it. I think George Zimmerman was completely deserving of his verdict and allegations of murder or a hate crime come from ignorance. CMV

Now the first thing you can say is "The dispatcher told him not to get out of his car" and you're correct. I'm sure Zimmerman would be the first person to admit that. That does not make one guilty of second degree murder or manslaughter.

The truth is that Martin had ample time to go home. He didn't. He was waiting on Zimmerman. He was a violent human being that had been in trouble many times for fighting and was heavily trained in MMA techniques.

The fact of the matter is Martin attacked Zimmerman first. There is nothing illegal about keeping an eye on a suspicious acting character. Martin was going inbetween houses on his way home. He did not go directly home. Not accusing him of anything nor am I trying to give him motives. Just saying that is enough to warrant suspicion.

The witness testified that he saw Martin on top of Zimmerman, beating down on him, while Zimmerman was calling for help. After 40+ seconds of being beaten mercilessly, being told he was going to die, Zimmerman fired one shot. Only one. That is better restraint than most police officers.

I think most Americans only see the two races of the two individuals, bought into the lies and doctored MSNBC coverage, or just have no idea of how the justice system works.

Let's say for the sake of argument, Zimmerman was a racist asshole that saw some black kid, followed him and gunned him down. The truth is, there is no proof. There is too much reasonable doubt. There is no way we can actually know what happened between those two people. In order to convict you need to prove beyond reasonable doubt that he did it. The evidence isn't there.

[Assistant]
> Martin was going inbetween houses on his way home. He did not go directly home.

Clearly you have not seen a map of the neighborhood.  He wasn't "going inbetween houses", he left the winding street and took the pedestrian walkway.

Zimmerman left his car and trailed Martin off the street, around the buildings and down the walkway.

Let me ask you about a different scenario:

A white man is walking home from the store.  A suspicious black man with a gun starts following him.  The white man confronts the black man and a fight ensues.  The black man shoots the white man.

Same verdict?


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

[User] ELI5: What's the difference between a formula and an algorithm? How does an algorithm work?

[Assistant]
An algorithm is a sequence of steps. A formula, on the other hand, is an expression of information.

For example:

The volume of  a sphere is represented by the formula:

V = 4/3  r3

That formula encodes the volume of a sphere based on it's radius. There are no steps in the formula, just information (The relationship between the radius and volume of a sphere).

To calculate the volume of a sphere you might use the algorithm:

1. Cube the radius
2. Multiply by
3. Multiply by 4/3

but notice that the above algorithm doesn't describe the formula it self, it describes how to apply the formula and get a result.

 A Genetic algorithm, however, can be expressed as a series of steps, but there is no concise representation for the information within a Genetic algorithm. i.e. there is no formula.


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

[User]
CMV: The latest media coverage of Critical Race Theory completely misrepresents what CRT is. This is harmful.

Critical Race Theory has once again been picked up by the bewilderingly successful merchants of hysteria: Ben Shapiro, Michael Knowles, Prager U, and so on. It is presented as a singular theory about race, but even then these merchants mention the multiple theorys and ideas under the umbrella of CRT.

As Im moving through Critical Race Theory: An Introduction by Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic, Im realizing that Critical Race Theory is the title of a school of thought, so to speak. Like the labels Existentialism or Theoretical Physics, CRT is not ONE theory about racism. It is a label for many theories and ideas regarding race, racism, race relations, intersectionality, sexism, essentialism vs. antiessentialism, nationalism vs. assimilation, the practice of law and justice, and the rest. When schools have classes that teach Existentialism, for example, they dont teach one interpretation of the school of thought, one existentialist philosopher. When we hear about Theoretical Physics, we know that there are many different theories about the physical laws of the universe and many different speculative theories regarding our place in the universe and the universe itself. Thus is the case with CRT.

IF a school, like the one Megyn Kelly has claimed to pull her children out of, IS only teaching that white people are inherently bad (which, if you watch her interview on Bill Maher, isnt a a stretch from what she is saying) then sure, your children arent being taught the full scope of CRT. Firstly, I doubt that is happening. Second, nobody would really be upset about your decision to pull your kids out.

But this is the way that these merchants craft their straw man: one theory, the idea that its bad to be white, that our judicial and economic systems are inherently racist. Sure, these are definitely ideas that sit under the umbrella of CRT, and most of them when not straw-manned, are substantive, engaging, and persuasive. But CRT is also so much more, and this limited view of CRT gives people the idea that its just some more progressive SJW nonsense. Its not.

Also, and this goes to those merchants, if you are passing your values onto your children, values of rationality and reasonability, then they should definitely be able to think for themselves. Or are you really doing that?

I post this because I believe this, but also because I would like to learn something new. If Im getting anything wrong, Im open to learning!

[Assistant]
Let's see.  You said

>"..the idea that its bad to be white.."

then

> "..these are definitely ideas that sit under the umbrella of CRT.."

Case closed.  Everything else you said attempts to whitewash that.

There's why there's "hysteria" as you call it.  Though there is no hysteria.  The reality what is being pointed is that no "theory" that calls out people "as bad" because of the color of their skin, which you just did, is going to fly.


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

[User]
[ Marvel Comics] Who is the better lawyer She-hulk or Matt Murdock

The senario, the crime lord Hammerhead has been framed for an illegal weapons deal by Kingpin and Oscorp that resulted in a large amount of collateral damage and civilian loss of life when the experimental weapon overloaded when a group of superheroes including Spider-Man and punisher showed up to stop the deal.

Who would be better able to win the case for Hammerhead; She-Hulk or Matt Murdock without using their superpowers or heroic identities to gain evidence for his innocence.

[Assistant]
Even without his super senses, Murdock is the clear winner.

He's a trained ninja.  He can sit and read case law for 24 hours straight, remembering every word.  He argued in front of the Supreme Court.

Jess is an okay NYC lawyer, but nothing to get excited about.


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

[User] ELI5: When I was younger, even in to my 20's, I was never able to fight in my dreams. Now, I can fight, run, and argue with seemingly no limitation. What changed?

[Assistant] Not an expert by any means, but it would seem that as you get older and get better at self control, these changes would be reflected in your dreams. If you are in control of your life, you have more self confidence, and that would also be reflected in you dream life. Good job! you are getting more mature and wiser...


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

[User] [LOTR] Why doesnt the one turn Sauron invisible when he wears it?

[Assistant] Because he controls the ring rather than it doing whatever it wants and he's already in the spirit world. The ring kind of drags people half into the spirit realm which is why they turn invisible to mortals. Something like gandalf and sauron and sarumon can still see them plain as day because they have a foot in the spirit world by their very nature.


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

[User] ELI5: Why it's hard to see LCD screens in direct sunlight. And while we're at it, how some screens like on the Kindle resolve this.

[Assistant]
LCD/LED are 'backlit' displays. They work by having a light source behind the screen. LCD works by filtering a white light into different colors, like a stained glass window. LED works by having many tiny light bulbs that turn on and off like a neon sign. To see the image, the display has to overpower any background light, like the sun, which is usually much brighter.

Kindles use 'e-ink'. These displays are not actively lit up by themselves. They are simply pigments which are moved around, like an etch-a-sketch. You need external light to see them, so the sun actually helps.

Backlit displays will shine in a dark room like a flashlight. E-ink will not, like a newspaper.


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

[User]
ELI5: What is the difference in training that results in sumos being big, fat and strong, and wrestlers big, lean and strong?

Both are very strong, do intense training and eat enormous amounts of calories to supplement. Yet why do sumos become fat and immensely strong, and wrestlers become more muscular and lean?

[Assistant] Sumos have different classes, as do western wrestlers. However, a sumos size isnt necessarily his only advantage. He needs skills, as do western wrestlers. Heres where the difference is. Sumo wrestling takes place entirely on their feet. Once they fall, the match is done. Western wrestlers continue on the ground, where body fat would simply get in the way and tire them out.


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

[User]
[Groundhog Day] Did Phil ever manage to save the old man?

In a few attempts when he was stuck in the day, he tried to save the old man from dying.

Did he ever manage it when he broke the cycle?

[Assistant] No, the homeless guy dies in every loop no matter what Phil does.  If the loop is caused by an intelligence then it is probably to teach Phil humility and compassion.  If the loop has some other cause then it was just the guy's destiny to die that day and no power on Earth could stop it.  Or it could simply be that years of homelessness cannot be undone by a few hours of warmth and a hot meal and the guy's body just gave out.


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

[User] why do the carbons in graphene only have 3 bonds?

[Assistant]
Each carbon atom in graphene is sp2 hybridized and bonded to three other carbon atoms via sigma bonds. The remaining p orbital is perpendicular to the plane of the carbon atoms, but it is most certainly not non-bonding; in fact, these p orbitals give graphene its remarkable properties.

The electrons in the aforementioned p orbitals are delocalized due to resonance (or molecular orbitals, according to MO theory), similar to benzene, but on a much greater scale. Thus, there are partial double bonds in addition to the sigma bonds, and overall, each carbon has four bonds.


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

[User]
When a seed requires 6 weeks of cold weather to germinate, what makes it take so long -- i.e., what happens at week 6 that didn't happen before, or how does the seed "know"?

It's not necessarily about freezing, either, as there are seeds that you can germinate in a fridge (staying above freezing).

[Assistant]
Plants (and seeds) sense temperature in a number of ways, though it is not precisely known how seeds 'count' how many days/hours they've been at cold temperatures. However, as others have pointed out, t is known that plant hormones such as jasmonic acid, abscisic acid and gibberellins all play an important role in either inducing or repressing dormancy and germination.

Some of the ways plants sense temperature changes may give us some clues as to how they might 'count' how long they've been at a certain temperature. For instance, plants actively adjust the ratio of saturated to unsaturated fatty acids in their membranes to maintain fluidity and functionality of said membrane in response to decreasing (or increasing) temperatures. By decreasing the ratio of saturated to unsaturated fatty acids (i.e. adding more unsaturated fatty acids) the membrane will remain fluid at lower temperatures.

Now, if you think of a seed as a bank and each structure (organelles, membranes, etc) within the seed as a separate bank account, with transactions between accounts being represented by biochemical pathways and money being the separate chemicals and molecules involved in these pathways, it could be that by draining one 'account' continually over time (like the account that produces the precursor to unsaturated fatty acids) in order to increase the amount of 'money' allocated to another 'account' (the membrane), it could be that the plants eventually realize, "Oh shit, its been cold a long time, maybe we should germinate the next chance we get because this really sucks."

On the note of hormones: they, like fatty acids, have to come from somewhere; often they have to go somewhere as well. Source and sink. So, if the enzyme that produces the hormones from whatever precursor molecules and the enzymes that move these hormones from the source to the sink are both more active at lower temperatures than the enzyme that senses this hormone at the sink, it's likely that the hormone will build up within that sink (a tissue, organ, etc). Excesses in certain hormones at a given location past a given threshold can lead to genetic reprogramming; it can turn genes on and off. So, if the sink enzymes are not active, and the concentration of the given hormone continues to increase over time, it could then activate genes that cause germination. On the other hand, if the temperature isn't low enough (and therefore the sink enzymes can effectively process this hormone in some way) or the duration isn't long enough (and therefore the concentration of the hormone doesn't reach a particular 'gene activation threshold') the genes may never turn on and lead to germination.

tl;dr No one really knows exactly how seeds do it, but hormones and membrane fluidity could be a potential signal.


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

[User]
ELI5:How was that Buddhist Monk able to self immolate without showing/feeling pain?

Im sure you have heard of the famous event where a Buddhist monk burnt himself to death. There are several vids on youtube of Monks self immolating. Apparently their meditation allows them to detach themselves to an extent from the pain.

But I still dont understand how it is possible to be so calm during such extreme pain.

[Assistant]
I believe the nerves are very quickly destroyed. When your body goes into pain overload  it goes into protective mode and can no longer process anymore. People who have suffered full body burns of explosions recount that after the initial shock they feel nothing but heat, but only feel pain later during recovery.

The brain processes the feeling of pain, if you give it too much pain info it gets back logged. So you only have to endure a certain amount.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do neon colors work?

What makes them "pop" more than regular colors? And why can't I imagine a neon brown?

[Assistant]
Sometimes instead of being called neon colors they are called "fluorescent" colors.  What makes them fluorescent is that they absorb light you normally can't see (UV light) and then release that energy as visible light.  The result is that if you shine light that has UV in it (like sunlight or a blacklight) instead of just reflecting light like normal colors do, they actually glow as if they were a weak light bulb.  The end result is that there is actually more light of those colors hitting your eyes so they seem brighter.

As for why you can't think of "dark" neon colors, it's because what makes them distinct is that they add more light, while darkness is actually the absence of light.


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

[User]
(MCU) Why didn't Tony Stark find out anything about Hydra?

He decrypted all of Shield's files when he was on the helicarrier, shouldn't something that point to hydra have shown up.

[Assistant]
Several reasons! After all, HYDRA's all about having multiple heads.

So what are the priorities of HYDRA Pre-Triskelion? They need to keep themselves secret, to endure, keep themselves out of the light. Those are the BIGGEST. If they can't follow through with those, then saving the world from freedom isn't going to happen.

So HYDRA is damn good at hiding.

And a lot of effective hiding is where you don't put your faith. SHIELD's new flagship hellicarrier? Probably not a good idea to put sensitive HYDRA stuff on something that can easily fall out of the sky. Especially if Nick Fury makes a habit of leading from the front. HYDRA needs to endure, and that's hard to do with a cycloptic micromanager standing over the helm.

That's why they chose secret bases as their primary information nodes.   HYDRA has plenty of agents in places where they can control the flow of information itself (The Hub, Triskelion, etc), but no infrastructure to trace back to the real heads of power. In fact, before the failure of Project Insight, many HYDRA agents didn't know who else was HYDRA. Everything was compartmentalized, so if one head was cut off, two more could take its place.

Added to that, keeping out of the light. Behind and underneath SHIELDs encryption was HYDRA's. Paranoia pays off. Double encryption, non-standard codes, even experimental, seemingly sentient computer algorithms. HYDRA had access to everything SHIELD did, and a little more. Plus, SHIELD wasn't looking for HYDRA, but HYDRA was always hiding from SHIELD.

So to answer your question, the reason why Tony Stark's JARVIS program couldn't turn up anything on HYDRA was because 1, HYDRA wasn't storing sensitive data on the hellicarrier 2, HYDRA controlling the flow of sensitive traffic around the hellicarrier to avoid any non-HYDRA agents accidentally getting a hold of it, and 3, Even after he decrypted SHIELD's files, he had no idea to keep looking for HYDRA's.


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

[User]
Why do doctors bother with painkillers like oxycodon, etc, that barely differ from morphine?

Specifically what I'm asking is why bother having so many different strong opiates if they all have very, very similar profiles?

Besides duration, and the ceiling of the painkilling effects (i.e. codeine vs. morphine), the differences are very slight between these drugs. In fact I believe only morphine makes the WHO's list of essential medicines for a healthcare system. Why bother stocking all the rest?

Edit:To add to this, I'm mostly interested in what, if any, implications the often slight alterations in morphine's analogues have that make them more desirable than morphine itself. Primarily I'm interested in how these small changes effect a drug's structure-activity relationship. Opiates are really just an ideal example I picked, if you know something regarding this in other kinds of drugs, that's also of help.

I am aware of the following points: Pharma pressures doctors to use new but not very innovative products, and that doctors like to rotate a person's pain medication to reduce tolerance effects.

[Assistant]
While there are some differences within the group of opiods/opiates, you are right to question the clinical value of them.

Oxycodon may have a better metabolism (morphine has active metabolites and is more reliant on kidney function) and a more predictable bioavailability.

In some surgical protocols you want a very short half-life (you might have continuous administration) which makes remifentanils pharmacological properties beneficial.

There are some opiods that have secondary effects, suchs as tramadol and tapentadol (monoaminergic reuptake inhibition).

There might also be a difference in documentation, for instance a pharmaceutical company might have been more willing to perform a study on a "new condition" using drugs that they still own - and we are more willing to use drugs with good studies backing them up.

A very down to earth reason is that daily dosages of morphine in the 400 mg range ~~i.v.~~parenterally (with extra doses around 70 mg) evokes more worry than 80 mg of hydromorphone.


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

[User]
CMV: Psychedelic drugs should be legalized

In my opinion, psychedelic drugs such as mainly LSD, psilocibin mushrooms, DMT and Ayahuasca, but also other psychoactive drugs with a potentially positive effect, should be open for everyone to explore without legal consequences.

A lot of people still seem to be irrationally afraid of those drugs, even though by now there is good evidence that they can be used to help the treatment of depression, anxiety, PTSD (in the case of MDMA) and many other mental conditions. Psychedelic drugs are a very interesting and unnecessarily stigmatised area of research, and the legal prohibitions make it very hard for scientists to explore this field of research.

Some of those drugs have been used for thousands of years by indigenous cultures for spiritual purposes.A majority of people that have used those drugs argue that if those drugs are explored in a save environment, there is a lot of potential to explore one's own conciousness, which seems to me to be one of the key areas of spirituality.

I think that legalizing those drugs will decrease the violence surrounding them, because they can be sold by companies, not only on the black market. It would also make sure that the quality of the drugs is tested, which would reduce the amount of people that get hurt using them. It would also make education around this topic way easier, we could teach in school how to SAVELY use them, because telling the children NOT TO USE THEM AT ALL is probably not going to work anyway.

Now, thanks for reading my arguments, and CMV, guys :)

[Assistant]
All of the situations where these have been used responsibly in traditional cultures and experiments showing their usefulness have been in *highly* controlled and professionally guided environments.

Pure legalization would encourage highly irresponsible use, including by people that really have no business messing with their already fucked up brains.

So... legalized for medical use, like Schedule 2/3 in the United States, instead of their current "always illegal" Schedule 1 classification? Sure...

Without more evidence of safety for the general population in uncontrolled use, it's a really, really, bad idea to legalize powerful psychoactive substances more generally.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are we able to use the brain to fight the urge to sneeze or vomit, when its the brain thats urging us to do so?

[Assistant] The same way you can run a game and a music streaming service on your PC at the same time. The brain is only a part of the whole system, the urge to sneeze and the ability to resist sneezing are two seperate programs, the PC that is your brain, can run at the same time.


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

[User] Why does milk taste fine for several weeks but then spoil all at once?

[Assistant]
It doesn't actually spoil all at once. It's a continuous process as bacteria, like lactobacillus, consume the milk (primarily lactose sugars) and excrete compounds that aren't tasty, like acetic acid, and replicate so there are more.

That said, it will hit a threshold where your sensory inputs (smell, taste) can detect it, and that's probably the point where it seems like it went bad all of a sudden.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does car hotwiring even work?

In movies and whatnot, some dude breaks into a car, fishes under the steering wheel, grabs two wires and sparks them together, and bam, car works? What're the principles behind this? Does it actually even work? (that sounded very suspicious, I'm not looking for advice on how to steal cars)

I would think that the position of the key-barrel where you normally start the ignition of a car with a car-key would prevent this from occurring?

[Assistant]
When you turn the key in a car, it just turns a rotary switch.  A switch is just a mechanism that connects wires.  If you know the right way to connect the wires, you don't need a switch to do the job.

Now, a lot of newer cars make this impossible because of various security features (like chips in keys) but on older cars, all you need to do it grab the wires & connect them in the same way the ignition switch would have.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do we put braces on kids who still have some/all baby teeth?

[Assistant]
Are you seeing brackets (the part cemented to the tooth) on baby teeth?  If you're talking about braces while some baby teeth are still there, the orthodontist is probably just getting a head start on the adult teeth and making space for new (larger) teeth to come in.

If you're seeing braces on the actual baby teeth, they're likely trying to deal with something other than crooked teeth. For example, fixing an over or under (or cross) bite.


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

[User] ELI5: What exactly happens when a music producer "masters" a song/album?

[Assistant] When most people hear the term 'mastering', they are think of the mixing process, aka balancing volumes and adding effects, etc. Mastering is actually a specialized subset of mixing that is a form of audio quality control or quality assurance. Only a relative handful of people and studios are capable of mastering, compared to the thousands of mix studios out there. The goal of mastering is to get every track sounding as good as possible across multiple systems, meaning that the end product should sound great through your car, stereo, headphones and laptop speakers. Along with this, many artists' songs are recorded and mixed in multiple locations, and it's the mastering engineer's job to get them to sound like they all are polished to the same standard. Lastly, mastering produces the final CD or vinyl format for distribution and archives the tracks (often separated into clean lyrics versions, a capellas and instrumentals) for the publishing company.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why did the English alphabet get rid of letters like  and  even though they are still used today?

For those who don't know,  makes the th- sound in that, the, there... And  makes a sound in words like apple, bad, sad etc.

[Assistant] In many cases before then printing press came along, the english language was in huge flux.  People did what was convenient, or what they thought was more true to latin or greek origin (even when it wasn't).  Pronunciations weren't uniform and spellings less so, and they could change dramatically in only a few short decades.  Then, at arguably the worst possible moment, the printing press came along and fixed the language in its current hodgepodge.


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

[User]
How is there a fire in the Gulf of Mexico? And what method are they using to put it out?

I have been looking at videos of the fire for awhile now. And I am just really not understanding how its possible. I understand that there is a large fuel leak, but how would ignition even occur accidentally in the ocean?

And then we see boats spraying more water on top. What are they trying to accomplish?

[Assistant] It was methane gas, and the ignition was likely intentional. Methane can be very dangerous, it could've built up and then exploded, so they burn it. Once they repaired the pipeline the fire would extinguish itself and did. The oil was in a separate pipe and there was no spill.


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

[User]
Can someone explain VAT to me?

Probably a stupid question.

As I understand it, VAT is charged on the value added. So if I buy a burger bun and a burger patty, I pay VAT on that purchase. Then if I cook and sell the burger, the customer pays VAT on the difference between the sale price of the burger and the price I paid for the ingredients. I hope that's right?

If so, how does the system keep track of that? Am I, a burger retailer, expected to know how much the ingredients cost for each item and calculate the tax accordingly? Equally, isn't it the case that when I get charged VAT in a shop it's charged on the full price?

[Assistant]
Usually, you simply add the VAT to the price before taxes when you're selling stuff, while you deduct the VAT on the stuff you buy from your taxes. That way, essentially only your added value gets taxed.

EDIT: Numerical example. Suppose you sell a mixer for $100, for which the parts cost you $50 (all without VAT). Now introduce a VAT of 10%. You added $50 in value, so you should pay $5 in VAT. What actually happens is, you sell for $100, and pay $10 in VAT. However, you also paid $55 for the inputs, of which you can deduct $5 in VAT, so you pay $5 (10-5) in total.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is a hot bath or shower so comfortable and warm but weather at the same temperature would be (almost literally) hell?

[Assistant]
You don't have to breathe in hot bath or shower water. The air is still decent.

But take a hot shower with the fan off and the room sealed up, the weather will get pretty bad in there.

Conversely, if you stand outside in 95F degree heat, but wear a rebreather with a hose going inside to 65F degree AC, or just stick your face inside, you feel pretty good!

TL:DR - a lot of the misery from heat comes from breathing it.


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

[User] Eli5: What is that deafening feeling in your ears when you stretch?

[Assistant]
This is actually fascinating process.

First off, your inner ear is an air chamber filled with sensitive instruments and sealed off from the world by your ear drum. It is, however, connected through your Eustachian tubes to your sinus, allowing it to equalize with changing air pressures. When you have a cold and these tubes get blocked off, diving under water or flying in an airplane can create pressure changes that are truly painful. You need to "pop" your ears to make it go away, or massage the Eustachians by chewing some gum. (They are effected by moving your jaw around)

Now what does this have to do with stretching? When you yawn, your jaw goes way back and your Eustachian tubes open up really wide. (They're not normally wide open, otherwise you'd feel it in your ears every time you swallow.) And then you pinch them off. As you pinch them off, the continued yawning and stretching actions squeeze the tissues around your ear, and your tongue will back against your nasal passage changing the air pressure in your sinus. All of this causes flutters of pressure changes within your inner ear, as you open it, seal it off, squeeze it and release. This momentary pressure in your inner ear pushes against the ear drum and messes with your ability to pick up sound waves during the stretch.

Now sometimes something really awesome happens.
Your ear actually has a built-in hearing aid, and it can get a feedback loop and have to reset!
There are tiny hairs(?) in your inner ear that will vibrate in response to sound, amplifying it. Now, just like when someone gets that horrible feedback squeal between a microphone and speakers, sometimes these hairs pick up a random vibration and runaway with it. You'll actually hear a very high-pitched ringing that slowly fades away to silence, with diminished hearing ability for a few minutes until the system has reset.
Stretching sometimes sets off this feedback loop of hearing-aid hairs and can cause you to lose hearing volume for a couple minutes. More commonly you may just need to "pop" your ears after yawning to release any pressure that didn't come back out.  (Do this by pushing your jaw back and swallowing)


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

[User] ELI5 : How are manufacturers able to manufacture really small cpu transistors?

[Assistant] Photolithography. You know how a projector can take a small image and turn it into a massive projected image? You basically do that in reverse, large designs which get focused down and etched into the silicon by bombarding it with light.


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

[User] [LOTR] What was happening in the rest of the world while the War of the Ring was going down?

[Assistant]
In terms of "important happenings"? Not much. At least, not much as far as we can tell.

It is believed that the two Blue Wizards went to the far East. What they did there is unknown, however; some believe that they began cults of magic and lived like kings, some believe they accomplished their mission of stopping Sauron's influence from reaching too far, and others believe they simply vanished into obscurity much like Radagast. These two are really the only connection we have between Middle Earth and literally any other region of the world, and we know essentially nothing.

In truth, we aren't even exactly sure what lies beyond the borders of the maps of Middle Earth, let alone who lives there or what is happening.


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

[User] I cannot grasp the concept of the 4th dimension can someone explain the concept of dimensions higher than 3 in simple terms?

[Assistant]
To understand the 4th dimension, look for the similarities between the lower dimensions.

0 dimensions, means no height, no width, no length.

In the first dimension we can only have one line. 'Creatures' on this line can be longer or shorter, but never wider or taller. there can only see down that one line, so when they come close to one another, they don't see each other's length, just the front or back tip, it would look like a point. To them, that one line is their whole universe, nothing else could exist. We in the 3d world know that when you take one line, and you stack a number of parallel lines next to it, you create width or a second dimension.

For the second dimension, imagine a sheet of paper, by itself, it has almost no thickness, and for our purposes let's say it has no measurable height. 'Creatures' in the 2d world can move along that paper, front to back and side to side but they have no height, so when they see a wall, or another 2d being it looks like just a line, though in reality it is a shape, they have to move around that shape to see it's other dimensions because they cannot get off that sheet to see the shape from above. To them, it is their whole universe, nothing else could possibly exist,  But if you put enough sheets of 2d paper on top of each other, you create a stack which has height, a 3rd dimension.

Seemingly, a 4th dimension would all also be a series of 3 dimensional worlds stacked next to each other.. Which is why some people define time as being the 4th dimension, since it is an infinite series of 3d 'moments' stacked right next to each other.

For further information watch flatland. It goes into concepts like 1 dimensional beings only being able to percieve the portion of the 2d entity that was within their line of sight (a point), and similarly the 2d being could only see a slice of the total 3d being, the part that was in their line of sight within their 2d world. Similarly we would only percieve a slice of the total 4d being that interacts with us.

But some believe that since we move along a timeline (though we do not have control of our movement) we are all 4d beings, only able to see a slice of each 3d moment of the other 4d beings we interact with. This follows with the concept that 1d beings, that would live in a 1d world could only travel on a line, and only see the point(0d) in front or behind them. And though 2d beings can travel through their 2d world in both dimensions, their perception of each other and the would would only be lines (1d). 3d beings would only see in 2d as they move throughout their 3d world. And 4d beings would move through 4 dimensions (height, width, length and time) but only be able to percieve 3 dimensions.

On the other hand, our ability to percieve 3 dimensions in one frame of time is due to our having 2 eyes, sort of a biological hack that gives us limited 3d perception. Seems to me, it's more like we percieve in 2 dimensions and have evolved a system that makes that not as big of an issue as it could be.

Edited for clarity/added info.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why the Japanese confuse "l" and "r."

It's been a joke for a long time, but all the articles I found were hardcore linguistics.

[Assistant]
A human vocal system can make a huge variety of sounds. Each language only uses certain number of those sounds. Once a person is past a certain age, it is hard for them to learn sounds that aren't a part of the language that they grew up speaking.

Japanese doesn't have separate sounds for the letters L and R. The sound for R is the closest one they have to the sound for L. When they try to say an English word with an L sounds, they closest one they can think of is R.


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

[User]
CMV: Zombies (mostly) make no sense

I don't want to hear about how horror is unbelievable anyway so who cares. There is always a logic to go by, even when it involves supernatural.

Unless Zombies are moved by magical forces, I claim that they make no sense. And in many zombie stories there was some attempt to scientifically explain them. I am not asking for any deeper explanation that would work in our reality, but I am asking for consistency.

They are creatures who have their nervous system, even if damaged, and all their organs atrophied. So how on earth are these creatures whose hearts don't beat, whose livers and lungs don't work, able to see, smell and move?

If your muscles are dead - and they are with no blood to nourish them - you will not be able to move regardless your nervous system.

How can you'r eyes work if they aren't watered?

How can you smell if you can't inhale the air because your lungs are dead?

Discuss.

[Assistant] There are typically two types og zombies, depending on which fiction you are looking into. There are magical zombies, which are just reanimated dead. There is no attempt to make sense of it because, well, it's magic. The other type is the more grounded in reality type that are usually caused by some rabies-like pathogen. Generally these zombies are not fully dead, but have lost higher order thought process and still have mostly functioning bodies (at least for a period anyway). Some stories play a little fast and loose with biology, but there's very little hard science fiction out there anyway. The answer in these kinds of situations is that it works by some mechanism we are unfamiliar with and know little about and it's not relevant to the plot so explaining in detail how the science works serves no purpose.


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

[User]
ELI5 Why can't we just make an incredibly good microscope that can almost see atoms? Why is there a limit

Why can we not just put enough microscopes together to see molecules or atoms in real time?

[Assistant]
Light moves as a wave and has a property called *wavelength* which is the distance between peaks of the wave, like between crests of ocean waves. We can only see things that are bigger than the wavelength of light; atoms are smaller than this, so light can't reflect off individual atoms only off the surface they make up. This means it is physically impossible to see atoms with light, no matter how good the microscope is.

**However**, there are things called electron microscopes which work by shooting electrons at a material instead of light. Because electrons travel with a shorter wavelength than light, they are in fact capable of "seeing" atoms.

**Edit:** electrons are particles that carry electric charge, like photons are particles that carry light, for anyone who didn't know.


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

[User]
Why do you only hear the low frequencies when you're far away from a music performance?

I live about 2 km away from the city center, and if they're playing music I can always hear the lower tones quite well, while the higher notes apparently do no make the distance. Why is that?

[Assistant] Lower frequencies are attenuated (lost/absorbed) less in air (and other fluids). Stoke's law of sound attenuation can be used to calculate the effect. Because the attenuation rate increases with the square of the frequency, higher frequency sounds will be significantly more attenuated than lower frequency sounds. (This is one of the reasons you cannot effectively transmit power using a directed ultrasound beam of safe intensity, although it hasn't stopped people from trying.)


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

[User]
[MARVEL] Why are Sue Storm and Reed Richards always getting divorced?

They are getting divorced in Fantastic four life story, divorced in the ultimate universe, Spider man life story.

If they are supposed to be a family why is their relationship always I  the rocks?

[Assistant]
Their relationship has often been strained, particularly when Reed becomes focused on his research and ignores her. In the 616 universe, they have been separated once or twice, but always came back together as Reed realized Sue brought balance to his life.

In the Ultimate Universe, Reed was far more cruel than his 616 counterpart. He had no problem killing his enemies, and consciously decided morality was a restriction in his scientific endeavours, thus becoming the evil Maker after Secret Wars.

There is actually a canon reason why so man Reed Richard counterparts are indifferent at best or cruel at worst. Reed Richards-616'a father was Nathaniel Richards, who later would travel to Earth-6311 and father a child there, and that child would be the ancestor of Kang the Conqueror. At one point Kang was eliminating many dimensional counterparts of himself from ever existing, and abducted hundreds or even thousands of Nathaniel Richards, and had them do battle to the death until their were only two left, "evil" Nathaniel and Nathaniel-616. Nathaniel-616 contacted his son Reed, who was in college, as well as Ben Grimm and Victor von Doom, and they worked together to defeat evil Nathaniel. As a result, only one Nathaniel remained, the strongest survivor who eventually become the ancestor of Kang, and there would be no competing Kangs to descend from alternate Nathaniels.

Unfortunately this had the side effect that almost every version of Reed was orphaned while a child, and did not have the love and guidance of his father growing up. Because of this, most dimensional versions of Reed tend to be more scientific minded but indifferent to the events of the world, not necessarily evil but not as caring to the state of the universe. Most of the members of the Council of Reeds are like this. Another effect is that most Reeds are not able to form the loving bonds of family and friendship that Reed-616 can, thus never marrying or having a family, and also never fathering Franklin or Valeria. And due to the scarcity of Franklin, there are few who had the infinite power who could have restored reality after the destruction of the multiverse during the Secret Wars. Thus Franklin-616 was pretty much the only one available who could restore the multiverse.


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

[User]
I think that receipts should be by request only when purchasing under $5 of physical goods. CMV

I find it incredibly wasteful that every time I get a soda or snack form a gas station that a small piece of paper is wasted on that transaction.

I think the default approach to purchases under $5 should be no receipt, unless the customer specifically needs one. generally a retailer will refund you a cheap item even if you have no receipt for it. So there's not a big issue there.

Obviously people charging things  to business cards or people keeping close tabs on expenses would want receipts for everything and thats fine, just make them request it. I could be wrong, but i think the majority of people don't give the slightest concern to needing receipts of small consumable purchases.

I just think it would be a fantastic way to cut down on extra waste from all of the paper.

Obviously purchases of any size made online could be sent to your email by default.

[Assistant] The receipt isn't for your benefit.  It's for the benefit of the store.  By forcing the cashier to give you a receipt, it prevents the cashier from giving you the item in exchange for money and then keeping the money for herself.


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

[User]
[Particle Man] The song taken literally.

Take the song literally :

* What are the power sets of each Man?
* Why does Triangle Man hate Particle Man and Person Man?
* How does Triangle Man win?

[Assistant]
Particle Man:

* literally, whatever the hell a particle can do

* quantum tunneling would be hella chill

* really, just use your imagination/physics knowledge

Universe Man:

* expanding

*shrinking

*big bang-ing

Triangle Man:

* he's fucking 2D (think like Game & Watch from Super Smash Bros)

Person man:

* just an ordinary dude

Triangle man is jealous of them for not having 2-dimensions. Thus, he gets into a fight with them. Universe man, in an attempt to kill triangle man commits suicide, thus ending the universe and destroying person man and particle man. As an abstract geometric concept, however, triangle man is undamaged and survives.


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

[User]
ELI5:How are diesel and gasoline engines different?

In Tom Scott's most recent video he was going over the radio silence zone in west Virginia and mentioned that "Within a mile ... Only diesel trucks are allowed, gasoline cars generate too much (radio) interference."

How?
(Reposting with flair, since I forgot)

[Assistant]
In a car powered by automobile gasoline there is a thing called a spark plug in every cylinder.  The spark plug creates a powerful electric spark, which ignites the gas after it's sprayed into the piston - this is what causes the explosion and drives the piston down, making the engine go.

In a diesel piston engine, the piston squeezes the air ~~and fuel~~ ^\(see ^reply ^below) mixture much harder (called compression).  Compressing air heats it up, and a diesel engine squeezes so hard that it heats to the point where the fuel explodes on its own. Modern diesel engines can be much more complicated, but at its most basic form a diesel doesn't need any kind of electricity to run at all.

In context to the video you watched, the interference is probably caused by the spark plug and electronic ignition in a gasoline car (not speculating on if the video maker is correct, but those can be sources of radio interference in cars).


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

[User]
[DC] Can Barry Allen (or any speedster) run any speed between their top, regular human speed and their speedster speed?

For example, lets say Barry wanted to be an Olympic sprinter. Can he run the speed required without standing out? Or does any speed over his fastest, human speed generate lightening, and give away that hes the Flash?

[Assistant] Yes. They can control their speed.   This would be evident when interacting with certain real-world items like say spinning a turbine.  If he went top speed, he'd destroy it, but he can limit his speed to go fast enough to make the turbine do what it needs to without destroying it in the process.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do airlines get your checked luggage on the right plane when there is a short layover?

I know they scan the barcode and that tells them what plane and stuff, but what is the process that happens that gets the bag from one plane to another, accurately and on time?

And yes I know its not ALWAYS accurate. But it is very accurate.

[Assistant] They usually sort it at the departing gate. They know which luggage needs to be taken out first. That information is sent to arrive airport. They also compartmentalize the bags. Ie, belt, terminal 1, terminal 2, etc. So this way, its easy to put the bags in correct cart and take it to correct place.


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

[User]
ELI5: What exactly is Dj vu and what neurological events are happening to make it occur?

I have always found Dj vu to be very interesting so I wanted to find your guys input on the subject.

[Assistant]
Nobody knows for sure, is the short answer.

The slightly longer but still short answer is that the *best guess* anyone has is that it's a temporary "short circuit," of a sort, involving your long-term and short-term memory. Your knowledge of things that happened to you two seconds ago comes out of your short-term memory, obviously. But the guess neuroscientists have is that it's possible for something to go wrong, probably in your hippocampus, that gives you the *sensation* of drawing on your long-term memory instead. So something that happened to you two seconds ago "feels like" it happened to you days ago, or longer.

But again, nobody knows for sure. It's a difficult phenomenon to study, for obvious reasons.


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

[User] ELI5: How does the training differ between a regular doctor/surgeon and an army doctor/ surgeon?

[Assistant]
It depends on what you mean. A regular doctor/surgeon and an army doctor/surgeon are trained the same. The difference is that that army one is in the military and is an officer upon completion of medical school. They all went to college, med school, residency, and +/- fellowship. The difference is where they did residency and fellowship. There are civilian programs and specific military programs (San Diego, San Antonio, Walter Reed, etc).

If you mean a medic and not a doctor/surgeon, they get additional training after boot camp with the goal of being able to stabilize the wounded on the battlefield to take them back to the doctor or surgeon on the local base. The doctor/surgeon on the local base will then generally perform further stabilization to transfer the patient to a designated military hospital (e.g. Germany).


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

[User]
Lily zombie growing in basement w/no sun, very minimal, very intermittent incandescent light and no H2O... Is this normal?

My friend had a lily that seemed to have died and she placed it in her basement which contains no windows.  A couple months later... an apparently nocturnal plant burst forth.

It looks normal other than a loss of color... Its yellowish-white and about 18 inches tall.  I can post some pics as soon as I get home.

Edit:  Thanks guys!  I figured the color was due to lack of chlorophyll just didn't realize the bulbs stores enough energy /nutrients to develop.  Interesting... it will see sun, I'll see to it. :)

[Assistant]
Bring the poor thing into the light!

Lilies, and many plants can have a dormant phase. It's possible that the dark cool basement triggered a 'winter', and the plant is trying to grow again. It is using the energy in the bulb to keep growing without light, but it won't last forever. It is white because it is not wasting energy to produce chloroplasts (which are green and do the photosynthesis) until there is light to use.

Many plants will try to grow without light, if you leave a box on your lawn, you'll see strange long, white grass growing underneath, desperately trying to reach the light.


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

[User] ELI5: Does the size of a brain in any given species always determine intelligence?

[Assistant]
Intelligence has a direct correlation to the size of an animals brain when compared to the size of the animal.

For instance, we humans have very large brains for our bodies.  That means that we have extra processing power beyond what is required for basic motor function.  Many birds also have large brains.  They can solve problems and simple box puzzles to get food.

Dogs on the other hand have proportionally smaller brains than birds or humans.  They can recognize commands that they are taught through repetition, but typically cannot solve problems on their own.


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

[User]
[Mass Effect] Should we be worried about the Quarians and the Geth?

Every Council species have been severely weakened by the Reaper War. Both the Quarians and the Geth contributed a great deal in securing our victory. But now we are receiving reports that the Quarians and the Geth have patched up their differences, and are working together in settling Rannoch. What does this mean for us? Will they seek to colonize other systems? How will they respond to the Council ejecting them and refusing to help in the past? Will this peace last or will war break out again between them? There are stories of Quarians allowing Geth to become part of their Bodysuits. What will come of that?

[Assistant]
*That's* what you want to worry about? You've got the Turians thinking they saved everyone's butt so we owe them, you've got the Salarians who like to, shall we say, creatively interfere with evolution, and you've got the Krogan, cured from the genophage and breeding like, well, like Krogan.

And you're worried about the two races that have set up a hippie love-in commune way the hell in the Perseus Vail???

[Out-of-universe reply: reuniting the Quarians and the Geth was the best part of the trilogy for me.]


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

[User] ELI5: Why did Russia invade Ukraine?

[Assistant]
Ukraine had a pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych who sparked massive protests when he turned down a deal that would have brought Ukraine closer to the EU in favor of closer ties with Russia.

After he fled the country, a new, more pro-Western government was elected that promptly signed that deal. Putin's regime, seeing Ukraine as a necessary buffer and viewing Ukraine not entering NATO and the EU as a vital national interest, launched a covert war of aggression in the East of the country (where there are lot's of Russian speakers and pro-Russian sentiment is higher) and engineering the annexation of Crimea. The goal was essentially to throw Ukraine into chaos and prevent it from being able to get its shit together and be able to join NATO or the EU. Putin has done this kind of thing in other places like Georgia and Moldova as well.


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

[User] ELI5: What's the wierd taste in your mouth after sleeping?

[Assistant] A bunch of germs live in your mouth. Some of them are helpful germs, some are just germs leftover from the food you ate during the day. When you sleep, the bacteria don't. They are looking for food! They prefer carbohydrates, but your body doesn't make those naturally and you aren't eating them when you are asleep. So they break down the proteins found in your saliva. When they do that, waste gases are formed.  It is this waste that builds up in your mouth, which is what causes that bad taste and the bad smell of morning breath.


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

[User] [Avengers: Infinity War] Bruce Banner says Thanos has the biggest army in the universe. How many more forces does Thanos have besides the Chitauri and the Outriders, and what happened to these other forces after Thanos retired to his farm?

[Assistant]
At this point we don't really know what other forces he has.  His core elite, the Black Order, is dead.  A lot of Outriders and Chitauri are too, though it's likely the invasion force for Earth was only a fraction of his combined might.

In addition to those, he can probably muster militia from all of the worlds he's conquered, which is apparently quite a lot.

The troops he had on duty get a double pension since half of them got snapped away too.


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

[User]
[Black panther] killmonger planed to make wakanda attack the world what would be the likely outcome if that happened?

So we know he wanted to attack all the other countries using the superior wankanan technology. How likely would he succeed against the planet?

[Assistant] It really depends on how long he has to change the Wakandadan economy into a war economy.  They have better tech but they don't have a lot of it or a lot of people.  It looks like Killmonger was going to arm insurrectionists firsts.  Now it's up to the worlds governments to figure out the advanced weapons came from Wakanda and not a Company like Stark or AIM or Hammer nor was it Chitari tech Adrian Tombs was selling.  This would probably take a while since the world at large doesn't know about Wakanda.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do airport mass spectrometers identify "explosives"

I had an encounter today where my bag "tested positive" for explosives.  The person who questioned me brought up C4 several times.  I know what it is but I've never seen / been around it.  How does this happen?

[Assistant]
A mass spectrometer breaks a molecule into parts. Based on the sizes of those parts you can figure out what you originally had.  Basically, imagine you walk into a room and see a bunch of shattered bits on the floor.  By looking at the pieces you can reasonably guess if it was a window, a plate, or a teacup that shattered.

Big Molecules like  C4 will have signatures of what they look like when they break into pieces, but sometimes you might have stuff on your bag that is just the pieces and looks the same...we have gotten to the point where the process is extremely robust (there are devices that can spray your finger and tell what medications you have been taking), but occasionally false positives will still happen.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Are Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans artificially flavored, or do they actually contain the substances they're flavored after?

For example: Would it be dangerous to eat a poop-flavored bean? Could a cocaine-flavored bean get you high? Could you extract DNA from a raw-beef-flavored bean?

I'm just curious because muggle jelly beans often contain extracts from the fruits they're flavored after.

[Assistant]
> Could a cocaine-flavored bean get you high?

I would say nobody could be stupid enough to give candy that could get you high to a kid that has magical powers they barely understand and (in the case of first year students) don't fully have control over, but these are wizards we're talking about, so....

Still, it's more likely that the beans flavour comes from some kind of illusion magic that is cast on them to make you _think_ they taste like whatever they taste like when they are actually just little globs of sugar not that dissimilar from muggle jelly beans.


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

[User]
[BTTF] What did Doc and Marty do that screwed up utopian 2015?

There's a retcon theory that the reason *our* 2015 doesn't resemble the movie's 2015 is because Doc and Marty did something in the past that altered everyone's timeline.

My personal theory is that somewhere along the line they got in the way of the guy that invented hover technology. That guy didn't invent flying cars or even the hoverboards, which I assume operate on the same concept. Possibly the same technology that allows one to negate gravity could also be the tech that led to Mr Fusion.

Any thoughts?

[Assistant]
Hover tech was everywhere in Hill Valley because that's where the inventor was born. The entire place was essentially a cutting edge early adopter of the tech, and essentially served as a living, breathing showcase of what it was capable of...

Or would have been, if the inventor's ancestors hadn't been scared off of setting in Hill Valley by word of rampaging outlaws and runaway trains. Settling instead in the Seattle region, the inventor was born, but didn't make the same connections and friendships that led to them building hover tech. Without the gravity manipulation tech that underpins hover, no one cracks the secret of portable fusion. Without portable fusion, clean energy isn't abundant, leading to a general damping of technological progress.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is laughing so contagious?

[Assistant] While there isn't 100% consensus on this, the prevailing theory is that laughter developed as a way to signal to people that a thought to be dangerous situation wasn't dangerous - someone who saw the brush move thinking their was a predator, only to see a squirrel come out would laugh to let people know there wasn't danger.  It disarmed the situation and reduced the tension of all involved.  It would then spread throughout the group so that everyone would realize that the danger was no longer present.


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

[User]
ELI5 - The TI-89 Calculator has been around since 1998, still costs $200, and has yet to have been replaced as the standard... why?

The TI-89 Titanium retails for 200 US Dollars (can be found for about 130-140).  The TI-89 has been around since 1998.  Since then we've developed smart phones, tablets, kindles, etc.  Why is the TI-89 still the standard when we could seemingly replace it with something much more powerful for the same or a lesser price?

[Assistant]
Blame CollegeBoard, the company that administers SAT and AP exams.

They only allow certain specified models of Casion, HP, Radio Shack, Sharp, TI, and a few others. They're also very strict about NOT using app-based smartphones as a substitute in their tests.

Further, many college math classes require them, and have stuck with particular models, especially TI, as they or their teaching assistants can help with those, but not some random app you downloaded last week.

With students forced to buy these, and college stores stocking them as a result, TI has little incentive to innovate or bring the price down.


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

[User]
Are there any respectable critiques of theorists like Deleuze/Derrida from analytical philosophers?

I always see people arguing against the people brought up like Scruton/Sokal/Chomsky who argue against these type of theorists and was curious if you guys know of any respectable critiques of these type of philosophers from analytical philosophers? Surely there has to be at least one good one.

[Assistant]
I think the issue is that while there are plenty of critiques from within Contintental Philosophy, the critiques from Analytic Philosophers tend to assume the superiority of the Analytic tradition. For example, if you look at the conflict between Searle and Derrida it becomes a bit clearer. Searle had the following to say about deconstruction:

> ...anyone who reads deconstructive texts with an open mind is likely to be struck by the same phenomena that initially surprised me: the low level of philosophical argumentation, the deliberate obscurantism of the prose, the wildly exaggerated claims, and the constant striving to give the appearance of profundity by making claims that seem paradoxical, but under analysis often turn out to be silly or trivial.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Are there specific anti-Jedi weapons?

I am a bounty hunter that was tasked with taking down a Jedi general. Just some minor Knight that just finished being a Padawan from what my informants tell me.

However I am not exactly skilled in melee combat, so I wouldn't trust myself to be able to beat a Jedi, even with cortosis braces or a cortosis blade.

Are there any specific weapons designed to make it easier for people with inferior combat skills to take Jedi down? I don't want to have to turn myself into Grievous over this after all.

[Assistant]
Get a slugthrower, you can pick them up dirt cheap in outer rim worlds, and Jedi can't deflect their ammunition. Also, have at least two getaway plans prepared: Jedi have a tendency to turn impossible odds to their favour - a jetpack is advisable.

Finally, explosives are a good idea - if you can get an explosion to go off near a Jedi, either via laid charges or rockets, they can't block the damage. They'll often avoid them by anticipating the explosion, but this still allows you to use explosives to position them and control the battlefield.


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

[User]
If calcium is a metal, can it be used for things like electric circuits? Can it be smithed?

I just found out it was a metal.

[Assistant] Calcium has a conductivity that's a bit worse than aluminum, so it would be OK for electric circuits if it weren't so reactive. It corrodes quickly in the presence of air or water into calcium compounds that are no longer conductive.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do our brains think of embarassing moments when we try to sleep?

It sucks.

[Assistant] I read an article saying it was to protect us. In hunter-gatherer times, if we weren't paying attention to the cliff or tiger ahead of us because we were distracted by a beautiful sunset, it could come back to bite us later so if you find yourself agonising over mistakes made at work, it's likely you are assessing your performance and looking out for your livelihood. So thinking over how awkward you were at that party is likely your brain is assessing the "threat" of not being accepted. And trying to remind you not to do that next time.


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

[User] ELI5: How comes that no matter what colour the gel in soap products, the lather is always white?

[Assistant] Lather is white because it's full of tiny bubbles!  When you whip that soap into a foam, what you're really doing is mixing lots and lots of air into it, until what you're seeing contains way more air than soap.  (And consequently, way more air than the dye that gives the soap its color.)  Those itty bitty bubbles reflect a lot of light, which makes the lather appear white.  If you added a LOT of dye to your soap you could get some color into your lather, but at that point it would definitely stain your hands, which kind of defeats the purpose of soap.