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

[User] [Marvel] The Hulk grows a mighty appetite after several hours of smashing, and goes to Cici's Pizza to gorge himself on inhuman quantities of meat lovers 'za. What would happen to Banner's digestive track once he reverts?

[Assistant] If the Hulk ate portions that'd be deadly to Banner, he'd remain the Hulk until the pizza was, uh, processed. After all, Banner has tried to commit suicide, but the Hulk prevented Banner's desired result.


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

[User] Eli5 : I have bad service, how do ads still play perfectly?

[Assistant]
So there are services called CDN. or content delivery networks. Their purpose is to let content providers store cached copies of their content on servers closer to where this content would be requested from. A lot of advertisers will contract the services of a CDN to put copies of their ads on servers that are usually installed directly in the data centers of service providers.

Because of this, the video you're trying to watch ends up being on a server on the other side of the country or in a different country, but that ad you're being forced to watch is probably coming from a server within your internet service providers internal network and doesn't even have to go out to the internet to stream the data to play it.


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

[User] Why do the dark spots on the moon look the same color of the sky in daylight ?

[Assistant]
The only parts of the moon you will see in daylight are those which are brighter than the sunlight which makes it through the Earth's atmosphere from that same position.  In other words, it is not that those parts of the moon appear to be the color of the sky per se, but that they are darker than the sky itself, and so do not "shine through" the layers of atmosphere.

If you hold a white sheet over a flashlight, you cannot see the flashlight at all when it is off, but you will see the light it emits when it is turned on.  In a sense, you could say that when it is off, the flashlight appears to be the same color as the sheet (because the only light you will see from that direction is the light bounced off the sheet).  Similarly, the moon is visible in daylight because the sunlight which reflects off its surface is brighter than the sunlight that happens to be scattered off the atmosphere from the same angle.

This is why you can only see the "daytime moon" when (1) the moon is fairly full and (2) it is fairly "far" from the sun, in terms of angular distance as an observer on the Earth's surface.


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

[User]
[Marvel]Why did Logan join American Wars/Conflicts?

He does hold himself someone patriotically as a Canadian, making sure Fury understands that when he's about to ask him to dive into Vietnam to fight symbiotes.

But he fought in the Pacific during WW2 where Canadian support wasn't that prevalent, but more interestingly, he fought in the civil war, a war where Canada didn't much have a horse in the race.

Why is that at time he's behaving more like a mercenary with a steady moral compass, but at times, he's just jumping into conflicts he's got no real stake in?

[Assistant]
He's matured over the years, but for a long time he just loved a fight for it's own sake.

He's nearly immortal/invulnerable and has no other real skill set beyond violence.  In a war situation he gets paid, is respected and admired by the men and sought after by the ladies.

He was probably in other conflicts that we haven't seen yet.


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

[User]
[My Hero Academia] What was the explanation given to the public in regards to All Mights loss of strength and muscle?

After fighting All for One, One for All was extinguished inside All Might, rendering him quirkless and scrawny. Given that One for All is a secret known only by a handful of people, what was the explanation given to the public as to why this happened? People would be clamoring for an explanation as to why the Number 1 Hero was suddenly powerless, especially since it was shown to happen on a live broadcast.

[Assistant] He probably told the public that his fight with All For One left him so drained and injured that he couldnt continue to be a hero anymore, which would be close enough to the truth and something that would reasonably be expected to happen to a hero in the line of duty. The live broadcast would only strengthen that claim, given that he visibly depowered in the middle of the battle and prevailed through sheer strength of will.


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

[User] [Fallout] Are super mutants sexually dimorphic?

[Assistant]
They are not. The way the FEV works on human bodies, both male and female, eliminates any secondary sex characteristics and most of the primary. The original project that eventually created super mutants was supposed to make super soldiers of the US army, so they all share the same "ultimate body plan" that ultimately results in hyper-developed muscles, enlarged skeleton, loss of hair, and green skin.

If you were to SOMEHOW pull down the pants of a super mutant, you'd probably find the tiny, shriveled remains of human genitalia and could tell which sex the original pre-mutated person used to be. Not unlike how it's super difficult to tell the sex of certain animals, like crocodiles or snakes, without plunging between their legs and doing a thorough check. But good luck doing that.


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

[User]
What does the term "cold blooded" in cold blooded actually mean? Could someone elaborate please?

Do they need to warm up their blood? How do they survive in hot or cold environments? What fundamental things do they differ in from warm blooded animals?

[Assistant]
It means they are ectothermic, and internal sources of heat are typically small and inconstant. They typically use environmental heat sources, and do not have a maintained body temperature. Some ectotherms can raise their temperature internally if they need to. Others just find a nice rock and bask in the sun.

They do need to warm up before activity. Bees vibrate their flight muscles to get them up to temperature, for example.

On a biochemical level, their enzymes must work across a large temperature range, making them more inefficient than enzymes which work only at a very narrow range.

It's also wrong to just say they're "cold blooded" or "at the environmental temperature", it's more accurate to say that their temperature can vary by large amounts.


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

[User]
[General Heroes] I grew up in a ninja cult and have spent every waking hour for the past 25 years training to fight, yet this costumed clown beat me and a dozen of my brothers in a fight in like one minute. What gives, how do I get to that next level?

I know this guy from surveillance, too.  I've never even seen him hit the gym -- he usually just sits in a bar brooding about how hard his charmed life is while his group of hot friends try to cheer him up.

How can I parlay my decades of experience into becoming a truly formidable fighter?  I've trained at least as hard as this guy, so what's the missing ingredient?

[Assistant] Fight him one-on-one.  By the law of ninja conservation, a single ninja is a significantly more formidable foe than any individuals in a group of ninjas. By having all your ninja brethren join you in battle, you've weakened yourself.  You must fight alone, like this costumed hero.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do locks have unique keys even though they are produced in huge numbers?

Edit: thanks for the answers!

[Assistant] For common house locks, they don't have to be unique.   There just have to be enough combinations that the chances of a random key combination working on a random door are low enough where it's not an unacceptable risk.


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

[User]
ELI5: What's is IFRS and what is its purpose ?

(International financial reporting standards)

[Assistant] The idea is that a company doing business in Germany might have a different way of accounting for its expenses and revenue and assets and everything than a company in Canada. But by having a standard, agreed upon set of practices for accounting, now that company in Germany can expand to Canada and the company in Canada can expand to Germany without having to learn a completely new way of accounting and then figuring out how to adopt that into its own country's system.


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

[User] Is there a programming language that has no undefined behavior ?

[Assistant]
Sort of depends on what precisely you mean.

C and C++ have undefined behavior because the languages are defined by a *specification* rather than an implementation. The specification says what programs are valid and how compilers must behave. By declaring some behaviors as undefined they grant more flexibility to compiler authors. The compiler authors are 100% unconstrained when it comes to how your program behaves on an execution that encounters undefined behavior.

Some languages like Ruby are defined by a specific implementation. There can be no undefined behavior because "whatever the interpreter does for that input" is the behavior.

Some languages like Java have a spec but are managed by a VM so they can more easily constrain everything to an intended behavior. But this does not prevent *unexpected* or *unpredictable* behavior. For example, a buggy Java program can happily have data races from bad concurrency programming. The compiler emits a program that aligns with the specification but the program still behaves in a completely unpredictable fashion. In C++ a data race is explicitly "undefined behavior" but in Java a data race is just a bug.


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

[User]
How do you not fall down the rabbit hole when reading research papers?

First year doctoral student here. I find that when I'm reading research papers on topics that interest me, I'm compiling a never-ending list of other studies referenced within the original paper that also pique my interest and seem related to my topic of study.

What methods do you all employ to ensure that you can be surgical about what you spend your time reading/studying?

Or am I being naive and this is now my life for the next few years? I have a feeling that is the case :)

Any advice you have would be awesome. I appreciate your time!

Edit: you all are amazing. I truly appreciate the responses and positivity. Great ideas all throughout.

[Assistant]
Laziness, and a desire to play games.

But really, this doesn't seem like a bad thing. So long as you can get your work done on time, and it stays relatively focused on your topic, this seems like a pretty good habit to have.


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

[User]
medicine Is there any other way to develop AIDS other than the HIV virus.

AIDS is an immune system disorder, could anything other than HIV cause this?

[Assistant]
When people say "AIDS" they usually mean "HIV/AIDS", which is a specific type of AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Disorder) due to HIV infection. It's just easier to say.

Really, any immunodeficiency that you have but weren't born with is acquired, so chemo patients technically have an "acquired immunodeficiency disorder" brought on by their chemotherapy.

But most people don't call it that because of the common use of HIV/AIDS = AIDS.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] What would've happened if Obi Wan had heeded the words of the council and not trained Anakin?

I'm sure this has been asked before.. Would they have just given him to a nice family somewhere allowing some sith lord to come along and get a new apprentice? Would he grow up and marry a nice girl on some moisture farm?

[Assistant]
[Legends canon]

He would have been given the option to join one of the Jedi Service Corps (probably the Exploration Corps.) Or he could have gone wherever on his own. He was free, he could have gone wherever he wanted. He had friends in Naboo's Royal house. He could make a living fixing junked droid in Corusant's lower levels. He could have became a professional podracer. The galaxy was his oyster!

In truth though, he would have received some kind of warrior training no matter what. Darth Sidious knew where he was, he could have gone AWOL with some rogue Jedi he met, or any number of things would have happened. Anakin's conception was basically the Force's answer to Darth Plagueis's meddling, and an attempt to balance itself out. The was the Will of the Force that Anakin receive the training he needed to bring the Force into balance. Which is probably why the council allowed him to be trained in the first place.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is iron important in the human body

?

[Assistant] It binds to haemoglobin (the stuff in your red blood cells) and makes it work, haemoglobins' job is to carry oxygen around your body, so if you have no iron, you have no oxygen carrying stuff which means you have no oxygen which means dead.


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

[User] ELI5: If fish are cold blooded, how do some species function at depths of over 900 meters where the temperatures are 0-3 degrees celsius?

[Assistant] Fish have a unique chemistry. It has been determined that often their blood is similar to antifreeze. This makes them able to function at colder temperatures than a lake trout or some similar surface water species.


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

[User]
ELI5: What is Natural Gas?

When one refers to the fossil fuel "Natural Gas" is that substance in a liquid or gas state? I honestly don't know if the gas that comes out of the stove is harvested from the ground in in a gaseous state. (Or if it is even harvested from the ground at all)

[Assistant]
Usually it's pockets of gas trapped underground.

when petroleum oil is formed, a by-product of the oil is the gas.

When we drill for oil, sometimes a huge high pressure pocket is found, and if it's pressure is high enough and sustainable for a long time, we will just tap it off and use it. (There is some processing done to it before we use it) but in a nutshell that's basically it.


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

[User] ELI5: How do trees get water to their top portions without any sort of pump (like a heart)

[Assistant]
Vertical plants generally have vascular (transport) tissues called xylem which carry water up from the roots to the leaves. Wood is one of these transport tissues. And as everybody mentioned, these work through capillary action, which sucks the water up like a straw. This is due in part to water itself. Because of something called hydrogen bonding, water molecules are actually really attracted to each other, and they want to stick together. If one water molecule evaporates through a leaf, the next one says "No, don't go!" and follows after it. This causes the next one to reach out, and the next, and the next, all the way down to the roots in a process called transpiration.
**TL;DR: a one-way road to the top, and water molecules having the world's largest open relationship with themselves.**


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

[User]
[Marvel Cinematic Universe] What is the "official story" regarding how everyone came back?

It makes sense the the truth, which is that Time Travel is possible and the Avengers borrowed the stones from the past, is a dangerous secret that the Avenger wouldn't want getting out; It would pose the danger of someone else copying their results and becoming a god.

[Assistant]
Since Jimmy Woo, Darcy, and Monica Rambeau all know the events of Endgame's final battle with Thanos in pretty significant detail (including Wanda almost defeating Thanos singlehandedly and Captain marvel almost defeating him until Thanos used the Power Stone against her), it's likely that Iron Man's, War Machine's, or Spider-Man's suits were recording the events of the battle, and that information was shared or leaked with the public. It's why Tony is so idolized in Far From Home (see the graffiti, etc.). (Alternatively, one of the more talkative or public-friendly heroes like Scott Lang or Professor Hulk may have gone on a press tour to explain what happened.) You could argue that perhaps only the government got this information, but the fact that Darcy knows about it despite not being a member of a government organization implies that the information has gotten out to the general public.

So it's possible that the quantum realm van is known about, and almost confirmed that the existence of the Infinity Stones is known about, but whether time travel was ever made clear or what the Infinity Stones actually are was ever explained to the public at large is unknown. It's likely that the Avengers explained the Infinity Stones to some extent during the 5 year gap between IW and Endgame to explain how everyone vanished, but time travel may still be a secret, especially since the Avengers are the only ones to figure it out, and they still needed Pym particles which, as far as we know, only Hank Pym knows how to produce.

So the official story is likely something incredibly close to the truth but with perhaps a few key details omitted.


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

[User] [Star Wars] [The Mandalorian] Why are the Jedi considered an ancient order and only exist in legends when they were exterminated merely 32 years prior in canon?

[Assistant]
Why are they considered an ancient order?

They have protected the galaxy for thousands of years.

Why are they legends?

Based on the younglings in ROTS, and the number of clone troopers to Jedi Generals, there were a few thousand to a few hundred thousand Jedi. In a known galaxy of trillions. Most people in the Republic went their entire lives without ever seeing a Jedi.


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

[User]
ELI5: why do car companies make insanely cool concept cars and then when the cars are released to market, they look like regular old cars?

Why not produce the cool looking car? And if you don't end up producing it, why even create it in the first place?

[Assistant]
Concept cars are usually hand-built. They often don't meet all the regulatory requirements for things like safety features and they may not even have engines if they're only going to be displayed at an indoor show.

The purpose is to build hype for a future model and/or show off some new technology or styling feature. The final production model, if there is one, will usually include a few elements from the concept.


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

[User]
[Doctor Strange] Why did Doctor Strange use the time stone AFTER he entered the Dark Dimension?

Stephen knows he is up against something... otherworldly, to put it lightly. The Dark Dimension is Dormammu's home turf, so the entity is going to sense if someone comes inside.

So, then why did he decide to use the "checkpoint" function of the time stone, once he had entered the Dark Dimension? Why didn't he set it just before he entered through the dimensional tear? Dormammu could have killed Strange as soon as he landed on that surface to set the time stone; why risk it?

[Assistant]
Because it's not a 'checkpoint' for Strange, it's a jail cell for Dormammu.

If the time loop isn't entirely in the Dark Dimension, it gives Dormammu an out that he can exploit to break it.  It is also unclear whether Dormammu would actually know, or care for that matter, if a human sorcerer entered his dimension just then.  He obviously doesn't fear Strange, so there's little risk of an immediate reaction.


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

[User]
Can someone explain the significance of the question: "how can the net amount of entropy of the universe be massively decreased?"

From Isaac Asimov's "The Last Question", what does this question mean? I'm not a physicist and what I've read on entropy is: "the number of specific ways in which a system may be arranged" and it cannot be decreased. What's the scientific significance with the question then?

[Assistant]
Imagine a fish tank full of water.  Now pour some ink into it.  pretty cloud shapes!  Now come back after a few days, no more pretty cloud shapes, just a big tank of diluted purple dye.  Everything has mixed together and is stable.  This is entropy, everything has mixed together and is stable...  There is no more mixing.

Now imagine the universe as a big fish tank full of stars.  One by one, those stars are slowly exploding.  They are burning stuff and releasing heat.  Pretty stars!  Now come back after a bazillion squillion years and you'll see an empty, but slightly warm, fish tank.

Sooner or later, all the fuel in the fish tank will be used up, and the stars will go out, one by one, leaving nothing but a patch of warmth.  Since there is only so much universe, the heat has spread out and "settled" into everything being the same temperature, just like the ink made everything the same colour.

To decrease entropy in the universe is to be able to gather up that warm patch and un-burn it back into a star.

As humans, we know that in a squillion squillion years, everything will end.  If we could decrease entropy in a system, we could gather up the heat, un-burn it into a star, then make a planet and hot alien chicks.  It doesn't have to end, we can just reverse the process.

That is why decreasing entropy is important.  The unlimited and eternal supply of hot alien chicks.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do flannel sheets feel warmer than regular sheets when you first get into bed?

[Assistant]
The way the human body senses temperatures is weird and relative. As your skin comes into contact with something that is a different temperature the two set about reaching an equilibrium.

Plastic toilet seats feel "warmer" than porcelain ones. But they aren't. Porcelain is a more efficient thermal conductor, so it drags heat out of your arse much faster than plastic. The more rapid theft of heat with porcelain is what we perceive as cold.

Same principle applies with flannel sheets. The effect is more pronounced because flannel has more of a texture, so less of it is in contact with your body (stealing warmth) at any one time.


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

[User]
[The Callisto Protocol] How the fuck did things get so out of hand?

Seriously. We hear and see before and while the disaster happens that

1. Black Iron is a maximum security prison, and seemingly a fairly brutal one

2. There are armed guards and hilariously deadly robots *everywhere*

The main character, the guy who gets through the whole thing, is seen killing infected left and right. He's seemingly just some random pilot, starting out with just wearing a prison jumper and using a metal stick to beat them to death.

Later on he upgrades to somewhat better equipment, but...those are things that guards *also* have. Presumably in a situation like this they would also have access to better weapons. Yet they somehow got overrun?

The infected are mostly just creepy looking zombies with one or two mutations. More deadly than the regular zombies we'd see in some other outbreaks, sure, but pretty clearly something that someone with weapons and training can handle. *Which we can see in the game, when Jacob beats all of them to a pulp with nothing but a glorified stick.*

Even with SPOILER's intervention, it seems like just locking every door and going through the place with some robots and guns would have solved the whole issue fairly easily.

[Assistant]
1. The Biophage Pathogen was released into Black Iron in secret and without warning, catching the inmates and prison personnel alike off-guard.
2. The Biophage Pathogen spreads *quick*.
3. The Biophage are ridiculously strong and resilient and are capable of completely mutilating and slaughtering normal humans within a split-second. Should even a guard let their... erm- *guard* down, they are going to be *instantly* eviscerated, and with the virus spreading as rapidly and as sporadically as presented, the unprepared prison personnel likely stood no chance. Moreover, the guards may have lacked the survival and combat instincts that Jacob possessed and may have caved the second things went for broke, increasing their chances of being reduced to mincemeat.
4. As seen during the opening chapter of the game, the robot patrollers were all disable, presumably by the Warden, during the beginning phases of the outbreak. Then, upon reactivating, the security bots turned against *everybody* in the prison, barring the Biophage for unknown reasonspresumably the doing of the Warden in an attempt to further his goalsand began gunning down everything that crossed their paths, friend or foe.
5. As the outbreak started, the dense population of Biophage ran rampant about and mauled everything they could find, leaving the guards outmanned and outgunned. However, as things progressed, the population of humans decreased, causing the Biophage to begin spreading out to different parts of the prison, reducing population density, which is why Jacob only encountered Biophage by themselves and in groups of two or three, rarely in groups upward to six, which is *chump change* compared to what everyone else likely had to face all at once.


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

[User] ELI5:If a state government decides to not follow federal law, what are the most drastic measures the federal government could take?

[Assistant]
It depends on the law. The National Guard was called into the Alabama school desegregation scandal in 1963 because the governor of the state was physically prohibiting the desegregation.

But most federal 'laws' are more like guidelines that the state has to follow because the fed attached funding to it and the state wants to keep the funding.


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

[User]
[RPG's] I finally reached Level 99, but only by completing a vast number of world spanning quests and defeating progressively harder evils. Now that I'm here in the final dungeon, I'm running into Level 99 slimes, and uh, did they go through a similar path to reach that limit?

Is there some awesome slime adventure that also spanned the world and included countless defeated foes that I'm sadly ignorant of?

[Assistant]
They've generally taken one of three routes.

1. They've made dark pacts with horrible entities that granted them horrific powers at a terrible cost. Yes, they have epic powers, but when the slimes die they go to slime hell for eternal torment, and so does their slime wife and children.

2. They've developed their abilities in ways that will severely retard their growth. They're dark experiments by a wizard or have taken slime steroids to be the best. They will never be able to respec their skills for greater challenges or develop or improve, while you still can, they're often slaves to some dark entity which built them up.

3. They are a true hero of the slime nation, one of the greatest of warriors who has fought the mightiest of foes to gain this position, an epic paragon of a slime. You are in the presence of heroes.

So yeah, it really depends a lot on the situation.


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

[User]
[STAR WARS] Why did the Empire stop using clones?

Wouldn't it be cheaper and more efficient to continue using clones? and as opposed to conscripted soldiers it The Empire would literally have more control over the clones with their head chips, plus (and correct me if im wrong) The Republic didn't pay the clones, therefore wouldn't it be cheaper to continue using clones into the galactic civil war?

[Assistant]
It's making the clones that is extremely expensive. Since only kamino knew how to make such good clones, they were the only ones to hire.

It's shown in a tcw episode that just buying another 1 million "units" almost bankrupted the Republic.

Not to mention, you gain a massive propaganda boost if you use regular soldiers, Becasue instead of nameless clones fighting in a war you don't care about, its your father, your brother, your sister. It fosters nationalism, and if a loved one is killed by rebels it also makes you hate the rebels, which is a bonus. Instead of "let's buy more clones" it becomes "support our troops" and we all know how powerful that message is.


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

[User]
Does every salt taste like NaCl, if so, why ?

I'm talking about simple salt like MgCl2, KCl ...
thank you.

[Assistant] So, beryllium salts actually taste sweet, not salty. In fact, the word beryl means sweet in greek, which is why the element was named beryllium. It was named this way back when chemists used to taste compounds to determine what it was. Turns out, beryllium is a potent carcinogen. Oops.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do car air conditioners need to be recharged, but home units (window, central air, etc) can be used continuously?

[Assistant]
Coolant molecules are very small, and coolant is under extremely high pressure, so it's prone to leaking. Cars use non-solid piping for parts of the A/C system because the pipes need to be flexible. These lines tend to leak, and their unions tend to use O-rings for seals which tend to leak as well.

Whereas the piping in home units tends to be solid copper or aluminum, and the unions are brazed. So everything which contains the coolant gas is made of solid metal. It's much less prone to leakage.


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

[User] ELI5: Why don't we have solar panels on every roof, building, and vehicle?

[Assistant]
Quite simply: money.

Solar panels are expensive to install and take many years to make back their initial cost. Many new buildings DO include solar panel installations, but to retro-fit them to every building in the country would cost hundreds of billions of dollars. Who's going to pay for that?


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

[User]
CMV: Fast Fashion is the cause of severe negative consequences so people should thrift shop or use sustainable fashion

Fast fashion brands like Shein, Zara, Topshop are major contributors to environmental problems progressing as a result of mass production of cheap, poor quality, disposable clothing. The fashion industry as a whole creates 80 billion garments a year which is over 10 for each person on earth. The production 20 years ago has now increased by over 400%. Also with the recent production methods, there is an average of 10 times a garment is worn before it is thrown away. Since the prices of these products are decreasing, and fashion trends are accelerating, the quality of production is minimal. Majority of the time, these clothes are either disposed of through incineration or go to the landfill if they are not recycled or donated. The environmental issues that arise with these methods lead to water usage, microfibers, greenhouse gases, deforestation, toxins and even human rights issues.

[Assistant]
This is a pretty classic case of shops do what consumers ask for. There are hundreds of clothes outlets. This isnt like cars where they all got together to not move to electric cars and so you couldnt vote with your wallet, this is clothes where there is no shortage of competition.

There are plenty of brands that sell high quality clothing and are fashionable people just chose cheap and low quality fashionable clothing. People that spend their whole paycheque on clothes each month and throw clothes away or dont wear them have always existed it is just becoming more fashionable and more of an issue because of the environmental impact.

The issue is the consumer in this scenario not the business. All those companies could refocus to be higher cost higher quality lower speed of new product releases but they dont because that isnt what people want.


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

[User]
ELI5:what is the difference between a switch, an hub and a router ?

Hello and thanks for reading. I am posting this for work reasons: I have installed said equipment in the past, but never actually configured them, but I might have to explain in an interview that is happening tomorrow.

I have google'd it, but the explanations are really technical. What I know: routers are for distributing IP adresses in a domain (like your home internet box), switches are a mean for computers to be connected to a domain with an IP adress and hubs are for computers to be connnected to a domain without an IP adress (router sends back the information to every port on the hub, only the concerned computer takes it thanks to the concerned layer).

I am sorry if this ain't proper ELI5 stuff, since I already know a bit about it, but I would hate to say something dumb for that interview.

EDIT: thanks everyone for the wonderful help. :)

[Assistant]
A hub is exactly what it sounds like: a hub where everybody meets. If one pc sends data on it's cable to the hub then the hub just passes this to everybody else connected. It's basically the same as everyone being connected over the same cable (like back in BNC times).

A switch doesn't just send everything it receives back to everybody connected. It looks at each individual packet. Inside each packet there is a MAC address corresponding with a specific connected computer and the switch sends the packet to this computer only. You could say it's an advanced hub with a bit more intelligence.

A router for end-users often includes a switch or a hub which is why it has at least the same ports as a switch or hub does. But a router is there to connect two or more networks. If a computer can't be found locally then the package is sent to the router and the router decides where to sent the package next. For an end-user router that means sending everything into the internet that is not found locally. From what you said i don't think that you had the pleasure of working with non-end-user routers.


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

[User]
How do People who are paralyzed, with no feeling below the waist, enjoy sex?

Me and my friends were talking about this.  If you are paralyzed to the point of not being able to get it up and you have no feeling down there how do you orgasm?  This is mostly about males since there are times males will get a pump so they can get an erection.  What's the point of that if there's no feeling down there?

[Assistant]
I actually asked this in a AMA and became friends with the kid in the AMA. He had a girlfriend however he could not even move his arms. His entire body was paralyzed except his Face/head.

He said the tension release from sex/blowjobs is what did it for him. He still got all the endorphins and emotional release from jizzing.


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

[User]
As oxygen is produced by photosynthesis, is the proportion of atmospheric oxygen lower in urban centers? If so, how much lower, and does it affect human health?

It seems logical that it would be.  I did some research myself using University of Google, but so much of what I found was from unreliable quack health sites that I thought I'd ask the experts. :)

[Assistant]
Yes it does, but if you measure it accurately, you will find that there will be more oxygen near water and on water compared to land, due to algae and photosynthesizing bacteria, and especially phytoplankton which produce quite a considerable sum of oxygen.

However, the proportions of oxygen in cities to countryside vary so much as you have to take into account a whole range of factors, including, and not limited to: pollution by cars, industry, people, buildings, materials in the city, bodies of water, temperature, wind etc.  and is the reason why you will never get a exact answer, because it is so variable.


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

[User] [Parks and Recreations] How is it, Leslie Knope, a stickler for rules, is okay with her employee Jerry being hassled by other employees?

[Assistant]
Jerry is an enigma; a walking testament to the balance of Nature. It is not the individuals desire to hassle Jerry, but actually Nature itself correcting the balance of his blissful life outside of his Pawnee government job.

Nature began using clumsiness to balance out Jerry's fortune, but as he's such a life-loving character, he laughs it off. This angers Nature, who in turn elicits the support of external influences to support it's effort in reaching equilibrium.


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

[User] ELI5: what is the biological reason as to why we get "stitches" when we run or eat a big meal?

[Assistant] The classic "runner's stitch" is from the diaphragm fatiguing and cramping from too much stress. With running this is obviously due to the increases in breathing due to the exertion. If you are over stressing the diaphragm when you are eating then you are doing something terribly wrong and need to cut back on engorging yourself like some sort of snake.


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

[User]
Need help with academia lingo

New PhD here. I've been a nurse in the clinical setting for 8 years and as I start looking at getting into academia I realize I am somewhat ignorant on terminology. What exactly does adjunct mean? Is that the same as part-time faculty? I know the basics about tenure vs. non-tenure-track, but I'm more curious to understand how non full-time faculty works. I would greatly appreciate some clarification.

[Assistant] Adjunct means that the university is associating with you on a short term contract. Sometimes the contract is for pay (like to teach a class) and it can also be used for affiliated people who may do some collaborative work at the university for zero compensation. (Usually a professional courtesy for advisory roles)


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

[User]
Why is the newborn heel prick test is done on the heel?

Wondering why the heel spesifically.

[Assistant] It's for convenience. The heel has blood vessels close enough to the skin surface, you can poke a big enough hole to get sufficient blood before it clots, you can easily bandage the site afterward, and it's relatively easy to hold the foot still while you do the collection. And the baby isn't going to disturb the band-aid by trying to walk around right afterward.


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

[User] [Captain America/MCU] How would the MCU be different right now if Cap had never been frozen and had returned and stayed active after WWII?

[Assistant]
Cap joins Peggy in forming shield.  With a super-operative and her brains, they go further faster and Hydra is kicked out of shield.

But it continues in the USSR and all through the cold war he and the Winter Soldier are clashing.

Banner's formula might have been different.  Grey Hulk perhaps?

Shield may get a non-powered "Avengers" squad w cap and the howing commandos.

We would get robot Dum-Dum with the 'stache tot his day!

It would probably be revealed the SS is also the "Infinity Fomula", so cap stays young and can still participate in the normal avengers Arc.


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

[User]
How does radiation or proton therapy get rid of cancer cells?

I've received radiation, along side chemotherapy, for a tumor I had in my head. It was one of the main reasons why the tumor went away and never came back in that area. Unfortunately, it spread to a different part of my brain and now we are looking at proton therapy, as it's more precise, for treatment. I'm curious as to how radiation and proton therapy work and how they help kill cancer cells. Thanks in advance.

[Assistant]
In most radiation therapy, including protons, most of the cell killing is through a multi-step process like this:

1. If the treatment is with x-rays or gamma rays, they hit some electrons in the patient, which shoot off at high speed.

2.  Those electrons, or the protons or incident electrons if receiving one of those therapies, fly though the tissues very fast and in their wake they gently pull off many more electrons from their molecules.  This is mostly from water molecules because they are the most abundant.

3. The ionized water molecules form a variety of highly reactive molecules and elements such as hydrogen peroxide and free radicals.

4. Some of these encounter DNA strands and cause damage.

5. Often the cell can repair this damage, but if too much happens in one spot the DNA can be cut in two.  This is very hard to repair.

6. With unrepaired breaks, the cell will often die in one of a few ways.  For example it may undergo programmed cell death called "Apoptosis", or the next time it divides it could have a major failure and die.

7. If every reproducing cancer cell in the targeted area is killed then the tumor *in that area* is cured.  This is called "local control", and is the objective of much radiation therapy.


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

[User] [Star Trek] How has the Klingon Empire not collapsed on itself yet?

[Assistant]
Is there a specific reason you assume it would?

They are prone to conflict, but all indications are that internal allegiances are somewhat fluid and transitions involving a new emperor seem to indicate that rivalries are settled to some extent ... and in one way or another before a new emperor is put in place.

I suspect the Klingons are willing to fight among themselves, but not to the extent that it becomes an existential threat to the empire.   We saw the civil war quickly resolved when the Romulans were shown to be involved and support moved to Gowron quite quickly.


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

[User]
[WH40K/Star Trek] How long would it take for just a couple of Orks to completely overrun the Star Trek universe?

If a few fell out of the warp and crash landed on some random planet, and the spores took hold, how long would it take before they just overran everything? Months? Years?

I'm speaking from the point of view that nothing in the Trek universe could really stop them cold. Especially once they managed to loot a Borg cube and made it Orky.

[Assistant] Sadly, the Orks can't do anything, as their FTL tech relies solely on the Warp, which probably doesn't exist in the Star Trek universe. The best they could do is make a planet or system ridiculously dangerous. Assuming the can get ahold of FTL travel somehow, it would take a year or so to get a steady population and around 50 to overrun the universe. There seem to be a ton of populated planets, but they could probably find and destroy the major ones in 10-15 years, but it would take a long time to get the small ones.


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

[User] ELI5: What is a Roth IRA?

[Assistant]
It's an investment account designed for retirement. You pay money into it and use that money to invest in things like mutual funds. Upon retirement age, you may pull out the money with any interest without paying taxes on it. Also, since you put in already-taxed dollars, you're allowed to withdraw up to what you put in at any time without any tax penalty.

It complements a 401k plan, in which you aren't taxed on what you put in but are taxed on what is pulled out. By using a Roth IRA and a 401k, you can manage your tax liability now and during retirement.


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

[User]
[Warhammer 40k] How Costly is a Galaxy Spanning War That's Lasted Millennia? How Many Weapons, Armours, and Technologies Have Been Wasted and Abandoned on the Battlefield being Shot and Damaged?

I mean granted the Imperium fixes up its Titans and battleships because they're so valuable if not irreplacable, but by now the war must have turned into a monstrous pit for iron, copper, production time and archeotech to be thrown into and scattered across a billion battlefields and left behind as their holders are slaughtered or abandoned for a replacement. I'm amazed that after ten thousand years, the Imperium hasn't run into supply problems.

[Assistant] The Imperium is far too vast to care about the cost of anything smaller than a planet. As far as they're concerned, provided they're conquering stuff they're in the black; it doesn't matter how many lives they have to throw away on the battlefield, how many miners and labourers and artisans they have to work to death to keep the materiel flowing, how many trillions they have to starve to keep their armies fed. These costs are insignificant.


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

[User] ELI5: How does your body store and distribute fat?

[Assistant]
When you eat excess calories from food, you end up with more sugar and fat in your blood (and lymph, for those who are pedantic) than your body should have. So your body releases a molecule called insulin (and a few other molecules) to signal some organs like your liver and fat tissues (known as adipose tissue) to start taking up those extra sugars and fats out of the blood. The liver stores both sugar and fat, and the adipose tissue turns the sugar into fat to be stored.

But not all fat tissue is equal; some have different receptors on them and so are sensitive to different signals. For instance, the sensitivity to sex hormones differs between fat around the belly and fat around the thighs, which means that men often have more fat around their belly and women more around their thighs. So the exact area where you store fat depends on which adipose tissues are being told to work the hardest and cleaning up the extra sugar and fat in the blood.

Does this answer your question? Feel free to ask for more information.


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

[User] [Harry Potter] How might events have turned out differently if Sirius Black had not been falsely imprisoned and Harry had grown up with him instead of the Dursleys?

[Assistant] Even if Sirius had not been imprisoned, Harry would still have been sent to live with the Dursleys. Petunia is his blood relative, his mother's sister, and he needed the magical protection of their blood connection. This is because of his mother's sacrifice.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does software volume control works?

I have noticed that for example in windows volume of 32 and youtube 100%, is quieter than 34 and 85%. Multiplying them would suggest it to be 29.

Also, the jump from one level to another might feel much bigger than what it was, eg: jumping from 38 to 40 would be a 5% increase, but it feels much more.

I have noticed that this phenomenon is quite universal, with software-controlled volume.

This leads me to believe it is not having a linear relationship but something more complicated.

[Assistant]
Human hearing means that for something to be heard as twice as loud it has to have roughly ten times the power.  Volume scales that are marked out from 0 to 100 take this into account so that maybe every 20 units on the scale mean ten times more power.  If a volume of 60 means 1 W of power then 80 means 10 W, 100 means 100 W and 40 means 0.1 W.  Also, on this scale of 20 units for a factor of 10, going up 6 units is a factor of 2, so a setting of 66 would mean 2 W.

The details of how these scales work will vary with different software but they'll generally use the same principle: going up the same number of units means *multiplying* the power by some amount.  You talk about going from 38 to 40 which might increase the power by, say, 26%.  Going from 40 to 42 would increase it by the same percentage and the same for anywhere on the scale.  Going from 98 to 100 would also increase the power by 26%.  In mathematical terms it's a logarithmic scale.


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

[User]
Temperature is the average kinetic energy of a substance's molecules, so does a substance's temperature increase if its translational speedand thus translational kinetic energyincreases?

For example, when a pitcher throws a baseball, he increases the ball's translational kinetic energy. Neglecting the affects that drag force has on the ball, does the combined affect of the molecules' translation and vibration cause them to become 'hotter?'

[Assistant]
Keep in mind that kinetic energy relies on velocity and velocity is a relative measure -- that is, it can only be measured relative to something else.

Every object on the universe is moving relative to at least one other object in the universe, so by that measure every object has some kinetic energy at all times. How much depends on what you're measuring it against.

The heat of an object, say, a baseball, is the average of its molecules' energy relative to each other. When you throw the ball that doesn't really change. The ball moves faster relative to the earth, but the molecules' motions relative to each other don't change.

Now, if it goes really fast, the molecules on the surface experience friction with the air molecules, knocking them around in their natural trajectories and creating disarray against their neighboring molecules... to get hear but just on the surface.


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

[User]
CMV: I am not religious, but I believe there has to be something out there. There HAS to be a reason for all of this - the existence of everything. Believers and non-believers welcome

I've been an atheist for a while now. Recently I listened to a debate about the existence of an afterlife and it really disheartened me, even though I'm an atheist. The panel arguing against the notion of an afterlife was extremely convincing. Obviously my brain is telling me that death is final and that there is no afterlife.

But I can't help thinking that there has to be something out there. There has to be a reason for the existence of this universe. What was there before the Big Bang? And what about infinite parallel universes? *Why?* What's the point? Why do these things exist? Why does this all exist? What was there before nothing? Was there ever absolutely nothing? And WHY?

[Assistant]
Let me just say that you're begging the question here. To say that there's a "why" intrinsically says that there's a "who", because only conscious beings have motivations that "why" could be attributed to.

Instead of asking "why", just ask yourself "how". There are a lot of lovely explanations of how the universe might have come to be. A lot of ways of exploring how the universe works.

Leave the "whys" to people that think there's someone out there that created it all.


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

[User]
[DC Comics] Is there any non-Kryptonite weapon that can hurt Superman?

Superman is invulnerable to a majority of weapons (blunt force weapons, piercing weapons, cutting weapons and energy weapons) and is only affected by Kryptonite weapons (because of the Kryptonite) and magical/psychic weapons (because he is vulnerable to magic and psionics like anyone else). Therefore is there any non-Kryptonite weapon (barring magical and psychic weapons) that can hurt Superman?

[Assistant]
The "easiest" way to take out Superman without Kryptonite is to use red solar radiation; anything that emits radiation at that wavelength will fill his cells with useless energy, rendering his powers inert.

But aside from that, it *is* possible to overwhelm Superman's invulnerability using merely mundane weaponry.

Nuclear bombs are the easiest example. A single nuke won't generally kill him, but it will reduce him to a withered husk that requires yellow sunlight to recover. Hit him with a few nukes and keep him in the dark, and Kal El should die.

Superman has also been knocked unconscious, for example when flying at full speed into a planet. This indicates that there is a level of blunt force that will harm him, or even kill him.

And when Doomsday killed Superman, it wasn't due to magic or kryptonite; he simply beat on Kal El until he fell over. If the Eradicator hadn't put him in the recovery chamber, that would have been the end of the story.

There *are* limits to Superman's durability, they're just very, very, *very* high.


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

[User]
Could someone explain why gravity doesnt fit in with other areas of physics for a unified field theory?

Thank you for thinking about answering my question!

[Assistant]
There are four fundamental forces that we know of. Three of them appear to be 'quantized'. This means that they come in discrete packets. In other words, there is a single "unit" of light energy (plank's constant) that is fundamental and indivisible. This is analogous to zooming in on light and finding out that it's pixelated.

Gravity, on the other hand, resists quantization. Quantized gravity equations go haywire and give you infinities. This is analogous to zooming in on gravity and finding out that it's continuous.

Different people have different intuitions about whether the universe is pixelated or continuous at the small scale, but it can't be both: our continuous model of gravity doesn't work with our pixelated model of light (& the other forces) on scales where there is a lot of energy in a small space (e.g. black holes).

 Pixelated in terms of how much energy it carries, not in terms of its literal position. Position still seems continuous, which is directly related to why gravity is continuous. See below.


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

[User] If you placed our solar system much closer to the galactic core, what would be different?

[Assistant] You would notice a lager density of stars in the night sky (imagine the milky way except everywhere). Cosmic radiation would increase drastically due to the proximity of nearby stars. The Earth is actually is a cosmological rural town. Tidal affects of nearby stars could have an affect on our planet if they are close enough, which given the density of stars near the galactic core could be possible. There could even be irregularities in the earth orbit affecting even the seasons. Regardless life would be unlikely because of the intense radiation.


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

[User]
[Warhammer 40K] What's up with the funky Eldar helmets?

Does their size and shape serve any purpose other than making them a more conspicuous target?

[Assistant]
I have always figured that the helmet design on the Eldar is a cultural thing, as the Eldar seem to have a fascination with combining art with all of their creations. Thus their helmets design is as aesthetically pleasing to them as possible. It would seem that in their arrogance, they are willing to sacrifice practicality for aesthetic design.

Although that might be an ironic statement coming from a Space Marine.


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

[User]
[TMNT] Why are the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles "heroes in a HALF shell"?

That always struck me as odd. They have a carapace and a plastron, which are correctly connected. So they have a whole shell!

[Assistant]
There are many references to turtle soup which in olden days might be served in a half-shell.

Also, colloquially, most people might only consider the back half the "shell" part even if this is biologically incorrect.


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

[User] [Star Wars] Why hasn't anyone extrapolated Technology from the Sarlaac that would extend their life to thousands of years?

[Assistant] Threepio never says you will be *alive* for a thousand years, just that you'll be slowly digested.  And why are you trusting what a mobster without a xenobiology degree says about sarlaac biology anyway?


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

[User]
Why do bacteria not get crushed and die when objects millions if times their mass are placed on them?

Bacteria are so tiny that even the lightest of objects would be extremely heavy in comparison. How is it that they are able to survive under the weight of things when they are so extremely small?

[Assistant]
This is a problem of perspective.

Is that super heavy item perfectly smooth on a cellular scale? Is the object the bacteria is on also perfectly smooth?
Think of it like steeping on a small bug, if the grooves in your shoe happen to land on the bug, it will appear to have survived the stomping. When in fact it wasn't stomped.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do people make weird faces while working out/carrying heavy objects?

As I was doing my reps, I realized I was making a weird face, and that everyone else were too, and had no idea why.

[Assistant]
Because under extreme stress, contraction of more muscles than are being targeted, works to maintain tightness and prevents you from being exposed to injury.
And because the body is one big unit, muscles work synergistically, even facial and neck muscles. Try tightening your fist as tightly as possible, you may notice more muscles than just your forearm will contract.


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

[User] eli5: What causes the grain texture in vintage movies?

[Assistant]
The quality of the photosensitive coating on the celluloid film itself.

This is a gelatine emulsion containing microscopically small light-sensitive silver halide crystals. The sizes and other characteristics of the crystals determine the sensitivity, contrast, and resolution of the film. When a scene is being shot, as light exposes the film, this causes small droplets of silver to form which give the appearance of grain.

Basically, the larger the size of the particles, the more visible grain is apparent on the final image. Over time, manufacturers have been able to reduce the size of the silver halide particles and thus make grain less apparent. It is still there but much finer.

Modern digital photography does not use celluloid or photosensitive emulsions so this is no longer a problem.


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

[User] What's actually happening in a "double-bounce" on a trampoline?

[Assistant]
I am assuming by that term that you mean when one person essentially transfers their "bouncing energy" to another.

The key is for one person to come down on the trampoline surface slightly before the other. Their momentum stretches the trampoline down just ahead of the other person's arrival. When the 2nd person comes down and makes contact, they continue to stretch the trampoline even further, which resists the process of the trampoline recoil pushing person #1 back up. Person #1 will not rebound very much (since the trampoline cannot recoil), and #2 will rebound much more than normal, since they will have displaced the trampoline downward much further than normal (with the help of #1).  The effect is for much of #1's momentum to be transferred to #2.  Of course, momentum and kinetic energy are conserved.

The process works best if #1 and #2 land very close to each other, and if #2 arrives at the trampoline surface just as #1 has reached his maximum downward travel and is just about to start going back up.

Source: Spent a lot of time on the neighbor's trampoline as a kid.


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

[User]
ELI5: How are ISIS making so many gains despite having seemingly poor training and fighting against official militaries?

I was always under the assumption that ISIS fighters were just civilians with poor training/equipment.

[Assistant]
Many of them are ex-iraqi military, or insurgents who are battle hardened from fighting in Iraq since the US invaded in 2003. A bunch of them are basically just poorly trained civilians, but they've had some reasonably competent military leadership.

But more importantly, they groups that they've been making progress against generally aren't any better trained/equipped/motivated.

Much of the gains against in Iraq have been against Iraqi forces that, for various reasons, have barely bothered to fight. You don't need a great army to win against a force that runs away whenever you get close.

On occasions where ISIS has met up with better organized forces, such as the kurdish peshmerga, they've had a much harder time making gains.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are plane windows so small?

Why are they all (roughly) the same size? Is there no way to make them larger, so the passengers would have a better view?

I can imagine it being less efficient energy-wise but that doesnt quite explain why Ive never seen even one plane with slightly larger windows then all the others.

[Assistant]
It's less a matter of energy and more a matter of structural integrity. Aircraft have to deal with very uneven pressures: as you go up it drops quite a bit outside, but for people to not-die you have to keep it high enough inside.

Every one of those windows is a hole in the hull - sure it's sealed, but that's still a point where there's two different separate materials that are being forced all of the time - that means stress and fatigue around every single one. The seals and separations also affect the airflow - at low speeds like in a car this doesn't do much more than maybe affect how quick you do 0-60 compared to the sports model, but for aircraft that's potentially going to affect range and fuel efficiency. Or, at the very least, cost: It may be possible to make an entirely transparent hull, but with the appropriate strength and properties for a commercial jet?

There's also the issue of what happens if one fails: A nice big window isn't just a bigger weak-spot, if it breaks, that affects how quickly cabin pressure drops - which makes the difference between "we can compensate for this", "we have time to drop down a few thousand feet so folks won't be in danger" and "They're all dead, everybody's dead, everybody is dead, Dave"

There'd be no windows at all if designers were allowed to get away with it.


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

[User]
[MCU] How exactly did Howard Stark acquire the vibranium to build Cap's shield?

Did he manage to do some exploration and mine some of it out?  T'Chaka and T'Challa don't really give Cap any shit for the shield itself, and given Klaue's brand and T'Chaka's statement on the stolen vibranium used to build Ultron's doomsday device, they don't take kindly to thieves.  Does that mean that Howard was able to set up a trade or some other deal to legally obtain it?

[Assistant] There's no real way of knowing. Howard Stark isn't the kind of guy you could trust to give an honest account (plus he's dead), and Wakandans aren't known for blabbing about internal matters to outsiders.


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

[User]
I believe we should be governed by scientists, CMV

Our leaders need to be able to deal with the ever increasing complexity of our technology, economy and society. Therefore, I think, it should be mandatory that every politician goes through several years of education in undergraduate level mathematics (especially statistics, formal and informal logic, calculus), a technology/engineering related field, economics and ethics. As a result prestige wouldnt arise from origin, charisma and eloquence anymore, but from honesty and clear, intelligible logic.

[Assistant]
You don't think people whose job is to make *laws* should study law? They have nothing to learn from history, a large part of which involves studying the successes and failures of past leaders? Or geography, an understanding of which is vital for knowledge of global politics? Or philosophy, which is the only way to determine what ultimate goals they should be aiming for, and what is right? Or political science so they fully understand the democratic process? Or sociology so they better understand the nature of society? Aren't all of these things more relevant for politicians than undergraduate mathematics and technology/engineering? (I agree with economics and ethics, but they're hardly standard subjects for "scientists")

Since the voters aren't getting any more educated, why would origin, charisma and eloquence stop mattering? Most famous scientists (at least of modern times - Dawkins, Sagan, Hawking, Feynman, Einstein etc.) were reasonably eloquent, and they weren't in a job where they literally *had to* persuade the public they were right about incredibly controversial subjects.


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

[User]
[Game of Thrones/TV] Are there limitations to Trial by Combat?

I mean if I was best buds with the best 100 fighters in all of Westeros and Essos, and had them at my back and call. Could I go about killing as many people as I wanted, surrender when arrested, and simply demand "Trial by Combat?". I could never lose!

[Assistant]
If you had one hundred of the best fighters in all of Westeros, then absolutely you could do whatever you wanted. Might is right, after all.

How are you feeling after that wine, by the way? It's fresh from Dorn.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is ice slippery but glass isn't?

[Assistant]
Most things get smaller when they get colder- it's a principle called "thermal contraction." Most things get bigger when they get hotter- "thermal expansion." Solids are denser than liquids.

Water is weird in that it doesn't work this way. When water becomes ice, it actually because slightly larger because of its molecular structure. Ice forms in a "lattice" of water molecules.

When you step on ice, it physically breaks some of this lattice, compressing it down into water. The water that you just made sort of lubricates the surface of the ice.


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

[User] ELI5: How are "Netflix Original" shows profitable?

[Assistant] They are profitable because Netflix itself is profitable.  Their original shows help drive that profit because they presumable get people to either sign up or keep them from cancelling their subscriptions.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does the 2nd law of thermodynamic "disprove" evolution?

I've heard this fact touted a hundred times over but I've never heard anyone explain it.

[Assistant]
It doesn't.

Second law of thermodynamics basically says that in a closed system all energy should in time be spread out evenly through that system.
IE: a bucket of water, all the water will eventually be at the same temperature.

People extend this argument to say that on earth, there shouldn't be any growth or anything. Since the 2nd law says everythign should just even out.

They ignore the HUGE NUCLEAR FUSION EXPLOSION ~8 light-minutes away constantly pumping more energy in to the system. AKA the sun.


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

[User]
[The Grudge/Ring] Instead of running away, what if someone tried to physically fight back?

I was watching the grudge the other day and wondered, "What would happen if someone decided to punch kayako, or put that b!tch in a choke hold?"

Or any Horror movie with this kind of antagonist in general, what would happen if instead of running away, they tried to throw a couple of haymakers.

[Assistant]
The whole "rip a girl's jaw off" thing suggests that she's supernaturally strong, and being a ghost she doesn't need air so you can't choke her out.

She's probably not good at striking since she's so slow, but you can't keep her out of grappling range indefinitely and as soon as she gets hold of you the fight is over.


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

[User]
Can a moon have a moon? Can that moon have a moon?

Can a moon have a moon? Can that moon have a moon? How far can this pattern continue before there's an inherent instability in the system?

Please note, it does not need to be forever stable. It does need to be stable for an appreciable period of time to count.

[Assistant] There's nothing preventing that such a scenario from being stable if things were placed appropriately (e.g. there are man made "moons" orbiting Earth's moon), but it is unlikely to form naturally. What does exist is Trojan moons, where smaller moons orbit a planet 60 degrees ahead or behind a larger moon, under the mutual influence of both the planet and the larger moon. Saturn's moon Tethys has two Trojans.


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

[User]
Why do we take insignificant things so seriously?

E.g. losing one's mind over a videogame, a line at a store, or some other trivial matter.

EDIT: More specifically, why do we get irritated when small things don't go our way.

EDIT 2: Woah, thanks for the award!

[Assistant] We are social animals so we are constantly aware of out status. Many things can threaten that status, such as a long line or going through first class to take our economy seat. For example when people who go through first class to take their seat there are more fights on the flights. We live in a stressed out, capitalistic, materialistic 24/7 on world. So stress diminishes people's ability to maintain perspective and equilibrium. Also media, including social media show healthy, beautiful, talented, loved, productive, well compensated people. So as social animals we think our lives should be similar adding to low self-esteem, dissatisfaction and stress.


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

[User] If you were locked up and only had access to 1 litre of water, how should you comsume it in order to survive the longest?

[Assistant]
Before drinking any of it, store your urine if it's dilute. You're probably pretty hydrated already, so you'll be losing a lot of water through there. When your urine starts to get darker(Probably only after 1 piss), stop, and start drinking small amounts of water. Concentrated urine will be very bad for you, and is counter productive for quenching thirst. When you run out of water, drink the dilute urine. It'll give you a little more emergency water.

There's not really anything you can do. Your body has you covered though. As you get dehydrated you'll begin to release hormones like ADH to help you preserve more water.

But basically, there's no magic trick to make a litre of water last you over a week. Depending on heat you'll probably dehydrate in about 4 days, provided you were properly hydrated before you started.


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

[User] ELI5: you need sleep and food to regain energy, what kind of energy is this and where in the body is it stored?

[Assistant]
Well, energy from food is stored short term as sugar in your blood (your blood sugar levels, the thing diabetics tract.) and long term as fat across your body.

Energy from sleep is different. It is not the same thing as the physical calories we need as fuel. We arent 100% sure why we need sleep yet, but the theory is that our Brain just needs a break. Like a muscle thats been working out all day or a computer thats been running for a week straight, things just stop working correctly. Nerves/synapses dont fire right, signals dont travel all the way theyre supposed to, etc etc. and that the rest our brain gets while we were asleep is essential for it to reset itself and be able to function the best.

Again, we dont exactly know what the physical/chemical mechanisms are that make us feel sleepy/re-energized before and after sleep, but it is quite clear when looking at sleep deprived individuals that the brain just starts to not function as well.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why did the Emperor drop his Sith title after completing his goal of creating the Empire?

After all the politics were played and the Empire was created. He sat atop it at his throne.   At this point in time, would he WANT others to know that it was the mighty Sith that command them?

[Assistant] Not at all.  Emperor Palpatine's goal was for the Jedi to be criminalized, exterminated, and eventually forgotten and expunged from history.  Along that line, he wanted the Sith to be kept secret, only known to the two Sith existing at any given time and a few carefully-picked lackeys.  In short, he didn't want anyone to know anything about any Force-traditions that might jeopardize his Empire.


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

[User]
How can exchange of photons generate attractive force?

So I read that electromagnetic interactions are carried out by exchange of photons, but I can't understand how can that generate attractive force between electron and proton for example.

[Assistant] Static forces are brought about by an exchange of *virtual* particles. Virtual particles are not really particles (hence the name), but are mathematical pieces of the overall equation describing the fields. Static forces are brought about physically by static fields. The "photon" does not describe every possible electromagnetic field configuration. It just describes an asymptotically-free fluctuation of the EM field. Static fields are another possible configuration of the EM field. In static fields, there are no literal little particles shooting off from a proton, carrying away momentum, and then smashing into the nearby an electron and thereby causing and electron. You are right that this makes no sense.


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

[User] ELI5: How do they decide the way mountain roads twist and turn?

[Assistant]
Many of the mountain roads you may find started out as trails or paths. The path was whatever made sense to the people (or animals, as many started out as deer trails, etc) as the easiest way to get through the terrain. The path was then widened for horseback, then for carriages. Sometimes the paths were re-routed for fallen trees or washed out sections of the trial. Eventually these paths were improved with gravel or planks. When automobiles came along the paths were further improved and rerouted to make life easier on drivers. Houses and landmarks were established and the roads were routed to or around them appropriately. Eventually a new section is built for a particularly difficult or treacherous section.

Some roads are a bit more deliberate than this, but many mountain roads you will find evolved over more than a century in one way or another.


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

[User] ELI5: What is a plasma tv and why were they so popular but have now been forgotten?

[Assistant]
Plasma TVs work by using panels made of millions of small gas cells (think mini fluorescent light bulbs).  These panels are relatively difficult to manufacture.

They were very popular because they had superior performance than comparable LCD TVs at the time -- with deeper blacks, more accurate colors, wider viewing angles, and less motion blur.

But over time, LCD TVs became much simpler (thus cheaper) to manufacture than Plasma TVs.  Plasma TVs also required more electricity to run on.

So Plasma TVs began losing in popularity to the cheaper LCD TVs.

What finally killed Plasma TVs was the introduction of 4K "Ultra High Definition".   Turns out, making 4K Plasma panels for 50-60" TVs would have been incredibly expensive.

Because of this high cost, TV manufacturers decided that they would be better off selling 4K LCD TVs instead of Plasma, and invest in newer technologies like OLED.


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

[User] Given supernovae release neutrons, allowing heavier elements to be created, as well as the expanding universe, is it theoretically possible for there to be more heavy elements we have yet to find?

[Assistant]
The question about superheavy elements has nothing to do with an expanding universe or neutrinos.

We can produce elements up to 118, and beyond uranium (92) their lifetime decreases with increasing element number - while uranium has a lifetime of billions of years the heaviest elements just live fractions of a second. Even heavier elements could live a bit long*er* (maybe several seconds, maybe even days - "island of stability"), it is not expected that there are elements with a long lifetime. Even if supernovae can produce elements beyond 118 (which is unclear on its own), they would probably decay quickly.


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

[User]
[Hunger Games] Why no bomb collars on the tributes as a failsafe?

I am calling upon Battle Royale on this one but never got an answer for it.

[Assistant] Failsafe for what? The Capitol hosts a fair game, where every tribute has a chance to win. It's not their fault if some tributes are *unluckily* roasted by fire, but it certainly would be if they blew up because they wore bomb collars. And come on, to blow out the forcefield you'd need so many volts of electricity, it'd be like a lightning strike. Where would the tributes ever get that?


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

[User] eli5- When you get a shot with a needle how does the meds stay in the body instead of just coming right back out the hole the needle made? Is it different for IM and IV?

[Assistant] The needle is very tiny and the skin is elastic enough that not a whole lot can pass back through the hole left. In addition, the creation of the hole causes the body to begin the repair process, which fills the area with blood that sort of gets in the way of anything trying to get in or out - which is why some people bleed from injections. There simply isn't enough medication injected to force it's way back through all that, because it's just as easy to disperse throughout the muscle.


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

[User] [General sci-fi] Im planning on constructing a Dyson ring. Im kinda new to these kinds of megastructure projects, so Id appreciate any advice on construction or design. Before I begin, are there any common rookie errors that I should look out for?

[Assistant] First and foremost, give up on the idea of getting it done in your lifetime. These kinds of megastructures take *generations* to complete. Second, secure your legacy by finding a group of young people that share your goal. When you're dead and gone you'll want people the to continue your work. Set up a pipeline to keep that group staffed for generation after generation. Without them your ring will likely stagnate and remain unfinished as support and enthusiasm wanes. Lastly, and this is a big one, be ready for technological advancements. Since this will take decades to build with bleeding edge tech, assume that certain elements of your design will work out by the time they need to be conducted, even if current science can't explain it. Leaving these gaps and trusting that they'll work themselves out will help make sure your ring isn't obsolete by the time it's finished.


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

[User] [Elder Scrolls] Why can I trap Vivec and Almalexia in the regular Azura Star, even though they are of a sentient race, and should need a Black soul gem or the Black Star?

[Assistant] Azura's Star follows Azura's wishes. Trapping the souls of two traitors that usurped their godhood is something she's willing to allow. Trapping the soul of Alvor the nobody blacksmith is a horse of a different color.


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

[User]
Which programming language for the following goals

Hi kind folks,

I work as fte software developer and in my experience of 6ish years I have used Java and Golang. Another thing which happened during these years is that I started losing the interest in programming and tech stuff.

These days my liking to it is coming back and the most of it is coming from the drive to quickly (and being able to) build new things and things which are just out of my comfort zone.

In short I am looking to go in flow zone with building things.

My gaols can be summarised as that I want to learn in and out of a langauge's ecosystem and want to build easy things in a weekend.

I am thinking I should go with python for that but I am concerned about what I hear for its lack of concurrency in the language.
Will it be a blocker if for some projects I want to strive for scalability? Are Python Django applications not able to handle mild to moderate traffic-- let's says for a simple crud app, some hundreds of request per minute per box.

My natural inclination is towards python cause it's very quick and easy to develop a thing in it and due to its rich ecosystem. But if it bites later, I'll go with Java though at the moment I don't feel I would be enjoying that.

Thanks,
If you want to ask followup questions, shoot, I'll try to answer them asap.

[Assistant]
dude, you know Java. just use Java.

Python, while fast and "less wordy", has nothing on familiarity.

if you're looking for a new challenge, use Python. there's no use case you as a single developer can have that Python and Java aren't suited for.


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

[User]
[Groundhog Day] During the loop, do the people other than Phill have or exhibit free will? Likewise, does physical randomness happen?

Obviously people Phill encounters act differently after meeting the slightly different Phill of each day, and that has a ripple effect, but are there variations between the days that are unrelated to Phill?

Eg is there anyone who, prior to meeting Phill or his ripple effects, makes a different decision (no matter how small) on different instances of the day? What about, say, dice rolls? If hes careful not to influence the roller in any way beforehand, can he or can he not predict the result in advance? Does such certainty (if it exists) go down to quantum level?

[Assistant]
There is no randomness.   Phil is reliving the EXACT same day over and over again. The events, without his alterations, would play out exactly the same, otherwise.

It's like reading the same chapter of a book over and over again.  If you dont skip any words or paragraphs, or dont insert your own phrases... then the story reads exactly the same.

>What about, say, dice rolls? If hes careful not to influence the roller in any way beforehand, can he or can he not predict the result in advance?

the dice roll would be exactly the same. The lottery numbers would be exactly the same... the shuffled playing cards would be exactly the same... nothing changes.  It's otherwise the exact same day.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are metals smelted into the ingot shape? Would it not be better to just make then into cubes, so they would stack better?

[Assistant] Whenever you pour something into a mold to solidify, you have to worry about getting it out again, and that's much easier when the walls are at an angle like \\___/. That's also why molds for cakes or ice cubes are often shaped that way.


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

[User] [Harry Potter] Since the Prime Minister of the UK is always told about magic, how fucked are we now that Boris Johnson is PM?

[Assistant] The Ministry keeps just enough tabs on the Muggle government to know that they're in complete disarray right now. Unless there's an emergency they're not expecting him to last long enough in office to need to know.


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

[User] eli5 how can a bathroom scale determine the body fat, water content and "dry" bone mass just from passing some electrical current?

[Assistant]
Easy answer. It can't.

It's a very, very rough estimate derived from how conductive the path from one leg to the other (through the pelvis) is. It allows it to calculate an estimate of the amount of subcutaneous fat... But that has huuuuuge error bars: gender, age, individual variations in fat distribution, skin conductivity, how wet or soapy your skin is when using the scale...

These are basically worthless for the absolute number. The only thing you can use them for is track changes over time to see whether you're going in the right direction, but that's it.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] I'm an Irish Traveler child staying in a halting site in outside Birmingham, and I get a Hogwarts letter. How does my transit to life in Hogwarts work out?

How do I get books? Does the school make any effort to transition students who've basically lived a nomadic life into life in a castle?

[Assistant] The school makes no effort to help students in really any way.  The Weasley's were shown being unable to afford new books so you'd likely use the old leftovers in the classroom (Half-Blood Prince confirms that there are old textbooks available).  The school would probably give you a loaner wand instead of sending you to buy a new one.  You'd know that you'd have to go to King's Cross but you'd probably have to find your way to Platform 9 3/4 like Harry did.


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

[User]
[Sonic the Hedgehog] What does the Death Egg actually do?

In the first 3 Sonic games the entire plot is basically a roller coaster of stopping Dr. Robotnik launching his Death Egg into space. It launches and crashes about 3 times through Sonic 2 and 3 & Knuckles. But I've been wondering, we never once saw what it's actual purpose is or why it needs to be stopped. It just floats back up and falls back down. It doesn't appear to have a Death Star like planet destruction cannon, it's just a big silver ball that floats in space. What's so evil about that?

[Assistant]
Well first off, it's a giant robot factory. Sonic and friends don't like robot factories. And compared to Robotnik's ground side installations, it gets relatively hard to reach once it's in space, while it can happily rain down eggrobos and other nasties at the surface.

It did fire into the Lava Reef volcano with its giant eye beams and caused a kind of eruption, so that does point at having some direct offensive capability. Not a planet buster, but that makes sense. Robotnik is still using the planet, after all.


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

[User]
[The Addams Family] If I killed a member of the Addams Family, how would the rest of them react?

Much of the comedy in the Addams Family movies is based on death, torture, and the like.  They seem to revel in that sort of thing.  Morticia loves being tortured, Wednesday and Pugsley are actively trying to injure or kill their new little brother, and so on and so forth.  Given this, how would they react if I killed one of them?  Would they seek retribution or would I get a slap on the shoulder and a "Good show, old man!"?

[Assistant]
They may enjoy playful torture, but that's with *family*. That's also a far, far cry from an outsider *murdering a loved one*.

These people have resources and recourses that you don't even want to *know* about.

Let me put it this way. You know how they say their house is a museum? You wanna be one of the exhibits? Didn't think so.


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

[User] ELI5: Why exactly do cats hate water?

[Assistant]
Think about when you make a loud noise, what does the cat do?  It fucking bolts out of the room in a split second.

Cat's sense of safety relies largely in their ability to GTFO out of whatever danger appears.  They have great spacial awareness and hearing, so they can detect danger at it's first sign.  Their hind legs are backwards compared to ours, so they can LAUNCH them into a jump or a sprint from a sitting or laying position.  Anything that prevents this takes getting used to and makes many cats nervous.

If a cat is in the water, it can't get out very quickly.  It's incredible jumping and running acceleration doesn't help it when it's not able to touch solid ground.  The water sticks to it's fur and adds very significant weight, making it difficult to run or jump.  For a cat, being in water feels very vulnerable.


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

[User] Do non-human primates have dominant handedness like humans do?

[Assistant] Findings on the subject are inconsistent. Some studies have found no evidence of handedness while others have found clear hand preferences. Often individuals favor one hand strongly but the choice seems random. Most likely there is no strong species level lateralization like with humans but rather individual learned behaviors.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Are there any safeguards against unwanted visitors through the floo network?

Seems like being a burglar in the wizard world would be incredibly easy. Just step in to the fire, say which house you want to steal from and emerge in their living room.

[Assistant]
This was addressed on some level in Pottermore. It said there were safeguards both physical and magical that prevent this but didn't specify what.

I can guess what some of them might be.

* Physically block the fireplace. It's been stated in the books and movies you can't use the network if something is obstructing the fireplace. Throw some random, large junk in there an you should be set.

* Magically disconnect the fireplace. The only way you can use fireplace for the network is if it has the appopriate enchantments. If you can add them, you can remove them.

* It's too loud for burglary. When someone is entering and leaving, it creates a loud "whoosh" and most likely wake up anyone nearby. It'd be like breaking into a house by smashing down the door with an axe.

* Various anti-theft charms and enchantments. They exist and there's nothing that says you can't use it on a fireplace.


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

[User] How does a green screen work? Does it have to be green?

[Assistant]
It can be also blue. It's a very simple concept. Imagine a picture (not a movie, for the sake of simplicity).
You have a picture of you dressed in a black suit standing in the middle of a black screen. It's very difficult to distinguish you from the background.

Now the background changes to green. It's much easier, even for a computer, tell the differences between your body and the screen. So, a computer program can take out only your body and paste it into another image.

The same goes for your skin, since green and blue are two colors very different from any skin tone, it's very easy to pull out only your body and change the background with a computer program.


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

[User]
[avatar] how did roku know that sozin used the comet?

in episode 8 when roku talks to aang, he says that fire lord sozin used the comet to start the war, but how did he know that? it all happened only about twelve years after his death.

[Assistant] This is more a supposition than a hard answer, but the version of Roku Aang sees is just Aang's past life with all of Roku's experience, wisdom, knowledge and personality at the point of his death. However he's also a part of Aang and during their discussions he's always providing exposition to Aang, and never the other way around, indeed if Aang brings up any new details with his past selves they always seem to be unsurprised as if they already know what he knows. Well what if Roku actually does knows everything Aang knows, so he'd know the current year, the year the war started, he very likely did know that the Comet would have arrived the same year Aang was frozen (I doubt the Fire Nation didn't keep track of that Comet and he was Fire Nation nobility) and most of all he knew Sozin (his goals, the way he thinks, and how he'd react to the situation). He wasn't a dumb man, so perhaps he just figured it out by putting all the pieces together.


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

[User] ELI5:Why are receipt printers so much quicker than "normal" printers you find in offices?

[Assistant] They use a whole different technology to print to paper, called "thermal printing". It has it's pros and cons. For example, you can *only* print to thermal paper using a thermal printer. Also, you trade quality for velocity.


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

[User]
[The Office] Other than Creed, did any of the subjects face any serious consequences for what they did during the documentary?

There was *a lot* of morally questionable and probably illegal stuff filmed over the 9 years the US documentary was filming.  Theft, assault, rampant sexual harassment, severe bullying, even firing a gun in an office.

Surely there should have at least been more consequences from corporate HR.

[Assistant]
- The Producers insist that all of it was consensual, and just acting.  Any kind of criminal charges resulting from the documentary would hurt its marketability, so they want to avoid that as much as possible.  If a prosecutor wanted to prosecute, they'd need someone to testify that the acts caught on camera *weren't* just acting, and prove that beyond a reasonable doubt.

- The Scranton branch brings in more profit than any other branch of Dunder-Mifflin, so corporate is willing to look the other way on just about everything.  Including direct video evidence of acts that should result in criminal charges.

- The individuals involved shut their mouths because the producers explain there's dirt on *everyone.*

- Dwight was unwilling to cooperate (willing to face time in jail for every crime he's committed so long as justice is done!) until he was made secret assistant to the producers.


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

[User] [Star Wars] Did Palpatine believe in the prophecy of the chosen one? And was it fate for Anakin to burn on Mustafar?

[Assistant]
He likely heard of it at some point, but either figured it was an old legend, or simply didn't care. Once he knew about Anakin, he did his best to groom him to become his apprentice later, because the only thing greater than destroying the Jedi Order is stealing their prophesied hero at the same time.

It wasn't Anakin's fate to burn on Mustafar. The only thing we know about his fate was that he was supposed to destroy the Sith and in doing so restore balance to the Force; this was performed at Endor when he killed Palpatine and subsequently died.