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

[User]
[Star Wars] Was Anakins suit made specifically for him?

Palpatine seemed to be in a hurry when he picked up Anakin, and probably didnt foresee him in charred remains beforehand, and wouldnt have time to make the iconic Darth Vader suit.
If his suit is made of whatever he made available on his ship, why does Vader have a shiny, quite fashionable Helmet to compliment his dashing robes?

[Assistant]
Vader's armor was made specifically for him, and it was fabricated on Coruscant while Vader was being seen to by medical droids. Not while en route on Palpatine's ship. And contrary to some old Legends, the suit was not made to hinder him or keep him in constant agony. (he does that to himself) It actually made him stronger, faster, and more powerful than he ever was as Anakin. And the upgrades Anakin made to the suit over the decades only made it stronger.

The basic life support systems were relatively easy to make, as Anakin wasn't unique in the galaxy for having severe lung damage or artificial limbs. But the helmet and armor pieces were modeled after ancient Sith battle armor. Palpatine knew a great deal about the old Sith order, and he knew that Vader would need a powerful and intimidating visage. The illusion that Palpatine summoned to try and dissuade Yoda near the end of the clone wars was of Darth Bane wearing armor that inspired Vader's.


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

[User]
[Rudolph] Why did Rudolph choose to help Santa Claus?

Rudolph was a pariah and outcast because of his glowing nose, and not only did Santa do nothing to stop it, but even seemed to encourage it, convincing Donner that his son was defective. So with all that, on that foggy Christmas Eve, why did Rudolph choose to guide his sleigh instead what most would do, as in telling Santa to go f\*\*k himself?

[Assistant]
Well Im going to go out on a limb and say Rudolph is magnanimous enough to at least not be willing to let his personal grudge get in the way of the happiness and joy of billions of people on Christmas Day.

And when did Santa *encourage* his status as a pariah? Hes never not depicted as in the wrong for being an ass at times and always humbly asks for Rudolphs help when that foggy Christmas Eve comes. Man has his own life and problems, he cant just tell all the reindeer to drop their prejudice against Rudolph. Donner being a bigot isnt something he can really crack down on. Plus, homeboy ran off into the wild for a better life in some of the adaptations as a kid-Kris Kringle is a nice man, but at the end of the day he has a lot more things to do than help with someone who ditched everyone and randomly came back as an adult.


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

[User]
Philosophy of humor, comedians discussing humor, specifically dark or "offensive" humor? Anyone know any good talks, videos, or articles?

I saw the preview for "Can we take a joke?"  and it reignited my interest in this subject.  Years back I remember seeing a video of Franky Boyle defending himself and explaining his humor while in the midst of getting sued. He was eloquent and reasonable and explained himself really well (I cant for my life find it again). Anyhow, I appeal to the collective knowledge of Reddit to see if anyone knows of some good talks, debates etc. on this subject.

thanks!

[Assistant] There's an HBO special of Louis CK, Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, and Ricky Gervais sitting around talking about the art of comedy. Not necessarily academic philosophy of humor, but quite interesting nonetheless.


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

[User] [Marvel]What is the difference between Inhumans and Mutants?

[Assistant]
Mutants are born with the X-Gene, which usually activates around puberty, giving them powers. The X-Gene was originally put in humans by the Celestials.

Inhumans are the product of Kree experimentation on ancient humans. Their powers are only activated when they're exposed to the Terrigan Mist, which is toxic to mutants.


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

[User]
I think that organic food is too expensive and unnecessary. CMV.

I think that organic food is too expensive and unnecessary, but my sister doesn't. She has now moved away from home and only buys organic or fairtrade food products. It is expensive, and unnecessary. She has tried to explain to me why it is important to buy organic food and if I buy less and throw away less, the bill will be the same. But it simply doesn't work for me. Organic meat and eggs are almost twice as expensive as normal and it simply hurts to take the one which is more expensive.

I understand that organic food may be better for the environment and our nature but I haven't heard a convincing enough argument for me to start buying 100% organic food as long as it is available and waste money on something that tastes the same.

[Assistant]
The organic food movement is a truly great movement because it shows the true cost of the food that we eat. Assuming you live in the U.S.A., most of your produce comes from giant factory farms that are heavily subsidized by the government in order to keep providing you with the cheap food you are accustomed to and consume. These farms require a very specific amount of fertilizer, pesticides (insecticides and herbicides), and irrigation in order to grow their crops but the yields are very high. So what's the problem here?

Roughly 20-30% of the fertilizer that is applied to a field growing crops actually reaches the target plant and the majority is lost as run-off in water. Why does it matter? We are currently disrupting the nitrogen cycle which releases green house gases and we are displacing these invaluable fertilizers (nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium) into the ocean. Some estimates (rough estimates at current rate of consumption and production) put the majority of the world's nitrogen supply in the oceans by about 2050. What about the fertilizer that does make it into the plants? These crops are shipped across the country to various markets and the food waste that contains valuable nutrients is not returned to the soil, continuing the need for a large amount of fertilizer to be artificially added to the soil. Organic farms produce and sell locally and as such have the ability to take the food-waste byproduct and compost it, which can be used to fertilize the fields and return the nutrients to the soil. They also typically do not use high yield crops which means they use traditional varieties of crops that don't require much in the way of pesticides or fertilizer and require much less irrigation.

Another big problem with factory farming is that it degrades soil through extensive irrigation and over-tilling. Desertification (the destruction and loss of arable soil) is a problem that people all over the world are facing but we in the United States are very fortunate to have the bread basket region. This region can have up to 6 feet worth of top soil so it seems like a problem that will never have to be addressed but a large majority of farms keep destroying the top soil faster than it is replaced and we will eventually be left with nothing but bedrock if this continues.

Meat is a big point of contention here as the red meats that are a staple of the American diet depend very heavily on these subsidized crops (corn mostly) in order to raise these livestock. It takes about 8 kg of feed to produce 1 kg of edible cow meat and an overall estimated ratio of about 16 units of resources to produce 1 unit of cow meat (this includes other resources on top of feed such as water). If this factory farms were not subsidized by the government, meat in the United States would be more expensive and more representative as to what it actually costs to produce.

This is all from a sustainability standpoint and it has a pretty simple breakdown. Factory farms currently do not operate on a sustainable level and more than likely will never be able to given the practices of factory farming and how the markets work. Organic farms are an attempt at sustainable farming. Yes, organic food products are more expensive than non-organic food products. This is because they represent the real cost of what that food took to produce. In this way and through sustainable farming practices, organic farms are a big step towards sustainable agriculture and protecting our future.


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

[User] Why are tardigrade so resilient and how CAN they be killed?

[Assistant]
A tardigrade resilience mostly comes from its desiccated state. That is, when it is dehydrated and in "hibernation" so to speak.

When they are hydrated, they are prone to death by any form that regular lifeforms can experience. They arent immortal.


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

[User]
ELI5: How can my mobile make emergency calls when it has no signal?

1st post, thanks for reading!

[Assistant] It may not have signal from your carrier, but it may be able to pick up signal from another carrier, which is allowed only for emergency calls.   This other carrier won't show up on your cell phone's signal meter, but it will allow you to place an emergency call.


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

[User] [Star Wars] Everyone in the galaxy seems more unmoved by the act of murder (even Jedi), compared to us. Is this because sentient life (literally quadrillions of people) is really plentiful in the galaxy?

[Assistant] I think that would be somewhat of a generalization. So much of what we see in Star Wars is through the eyes of people who deal with death on some level - soldiers, Jedi, bounty hunters, or people who live in extremely dangerous places in general. If you live in a "wretched hive of scum and villainy" like Mos Eisley, seeing a Rodian gunned down in a shootout in a bar probably isn't that crazy. Whereas if you wrere in a bar in a posh neighborhood of Couruscant drinking with friends after a day in the office, and someone pulls out a blaster and guns down a patron, you'd probably hear some screams.


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

[User]
[Star Trek] Did Earth become post-scarcity due to Vulcan involvement or due to Warp drive technology development?

I know Zefram Cochrane successfully attained Warp and then immediately met the Vulcans, but did they bolster our studies or did we develop the rest on our own under their guidance?

[Assistant] Judging by the events of enterprise and the latest film it would appear that the post scarcity developments came after meeting the vulcans and we're developed in joint effort. The Vulcans did appear to be more developed but not to a large degree that they could create nearly any needed resource or material with ease.  It appears that around the formation of the federation or possibly a short time prior advances in technology created the possibilities for post scarcity.


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

[User]
The Earth goes around the Sun which goes around the Milky Way which is hurtling through space.  I was told that in physics, as velocity increases, time slows down.  Is time moving slower for us than for a hypothetical stationary observer in interstellar space?

Is time passing differently in different solar systems and in different galaxies?  Is there a 'universal time' in which a certain defined amount of time has elapsed since The Big Bang?

[Assistant]
There isn't a "universal time." All inertial reference frames are equivalent. You could say that Earth is hurling at 99.9999% the speed of light in some direction, and you wouldn't be wrong.

If you choose to ignore all that, you can pick a reference frame in which the cosmic microwave background is the same temperature in all directions. Relative to this, we are moving about 600 km/s. In terms of time dilation relative to this frame, the difference is only about two parts per million.


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

[User] [Avatar]How was the Boiling Rock prison complex even built?

[Assistant]
I have several possible theories:

1. There was a natural path to the island that was destroyed when the gondolas were installed.

2. They used insulated boats to travel to and from the island until the gondolas were installed.

3. The Fire Nation "convinced" captured Earthbenders to create a bridge to the island, which was destroyed when the gondolas were installed.


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

[User] eli5: What is the importance of nitrogen in air? Almost 80% of the atmosphere is N. If this amount drops to e.g. 50-60%, what would happen?

[Assistant]
Nitrogen in the air is, to a large degree, just filler. It doesn't do much, but is there so that there isn't too much of anything else.

So, if you dropped the amount of nitrogen in the air, what would replace it? If it was some other largely inert gas like argon or helium, then nothing. It would work perfectly well as air. Indeed, deep sea divers do replace some or all of the nitrogen with helium, because at high pressure nitrogen is toxic.

If you replaced it with oxygen, which is what the other 20% of the air is, then fires would be much easier to start and much harder to put out. Metal things would oxidize (rust or corrode) faster.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why can't microwaves replace ovens?

Both can cook things, but I imagine produce differing types of heat or whatnot. Don't know much about the things.

[Assistant] Microwaves don't actually produce heat, they produce microwaves that rotate the water molecules inside of the food, in which the friction heats up the food from the inside essentially. Ovens actually produce heat with essentially a giant resistor that heats up the air inside of the oven, which then heats and cooks the food. Ovens are generally preferred because you get browned and tasty food, as opposed to rubber/flabby food from microwaving. It's a culinary preference.


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

[User]
How does Globally Unique Identifier aka GUID works?

So I'm confuse about how GUID works, it's said that the probability of colission is very very low. But let's say GUID is either A, B, C, D, E..Z. and I have 2 computers in my home with same algorithm, the 1st computer produce A, how did computer B know that A is already produced?

[Assistant] There is no authority, central or distributed, which enforces the uniqueness of GUIDs. There is no guarantee of a GUID's uniqueness. The total number of unique keys (2^128 ~= 3.410^38) is so large that the probability of the same number being generated twice is very small. For example, consider the observable universe, which contains about 510^22 stars; every star could then have 6.810^15 universally unique GUIDs.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does it hurt more to pinch or hit parts of your body such as fingers when theyre very cold?

[Assistant]
Our body uses some of the same pathways for sensing cold as it does for pain. So when our skin is cold, the sensory nerves have a heightened sensitivity to pain stimuli.

Interestingly, this might be a protective mechanism- allowing us to sense pain and detect injuries despite the numbing effect of the cold.


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

[User] [DC] In times of severe crisis (lets say they know Darkseid is invading in 100 years or something like that) could the Gods of Olympus provide the planet with an army of Wonder Woman level beings? Is there any limit on how many demigods Olympus can have running around at once?

[Assistant] There's a Conservation of Ninjutsu style effect in play - the more they make the more the power they've invested is diluted. A single Wonder Woman is, well, wondrous. A hundred would be more like Kinda Nifty Women, a thousand would just all have nice boobs.


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

[User] Is it a coincidence that the first four planets nearest to the sun are all much smaller then the four other planets?

[Assistant]
No, it definitely isn't. The conventional explanation is as follows:

There are three main types of neutral materials in the universe, which (listed in decreasing order of abundance) are:

1. Gases (Hydrogen and Helium)
2. Ices (Water, Ammonia,  Methane, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Monoxide)
3. Rocks and metals

Materials in category 1 are always gases, while materials in category 3 are always solids. But materials in category 2 are gases close to the Sun and solids farther away (note that we're referring to conditions of low pressure like those in space, where no materials are liquid).

Far from the Sun, solid cores of planets can get much larger because they can contain abundant ices rather than rare rocks and metals. They can even get large enough to capture Category 1 materials (gases) and get really big, like in the case of Jupiter and Saturn. So outer planets should be much larger than inner planets.

That's the conventional story, but things are more complicated due to the possibility of orbital migration. That's why we've seen hot Jupiters close to their stars. But if violent migration of this type doesn't happen, we expect that things will be like our Solar System, with big planets far out and small planets close in.


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

[User] In what ways does dark matter interact with other dark matter?

[Assistant] Gravitationally, which keeps it loosely clumped together through space. It's possible that it interacts through the weak force, but this is currently unknown. Obviously we would have a better answer if we knew what dark matter was made of.


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

[User]
Could you make Ice, before the invention of the freezer?

Or was Ice a recent invention?

[Assistant]
Artificial ice is relatively recent yes. Before that, ice was actually imported from the Arctic in massive blocks, packed in straw. It was thus extremely expensive, and only the richest people could afford it. In many country estates in Europe you will find 'ice houses' - purpose built cellars especially for storing ice.

EDIT: peer review has revealed to me that local rivers, lakes and ponds were initially used as sources of ice, and that New England was the original centre of the ice trade boom in the 19th century.


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

[User]
CMV: I believe toll roads are bad and just another tax for what our government should already be providing.

It seems every city has them or wants them, and even when its proposed to only last a few years, they somehow keep running cause the free money is good. Sure, some of them are well maintained, but aren't all of our roads supposed to be well maintained? Toll roads basically tell us only those who can afford to pay to drive get quality roads that our government is supposed to provide anyways.
And for the most part, private corporations are the ones that end up getting a good deal out of the projects while we get shafted. If our legislators need money to improve our roads, shouldn't they be upfront about it and tell us how they plan on doing so? But even then, it seems like people are somehow ok with toll roads and understand the costs that are needed. Yet, when other taxes are proposed, people get up in arms because the word 'tax' was used as a way to improve things.

Why isn't this issue brought up more often?
Change my view reddit!

[Assistant]
Two benefits to having a toll: 1) The people who use it are the ones who help to pay for it, and 2) Gives people an incentive to not use it if they can avoid it, thereby reducing congestion.

It's similar to paying a fare when you ride the bus or the subway.


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

[User]
If fossil fuels ever becomes too expensive to be a viable source for air travel, what are some alternatives we can use to power planes in the future?

I'm not aware of any energy source with the same potential energy to weight ratio that even comes close to fossil fuels. Even if battery technology came close, wouldn't we have to take a step back to using propellers? I have never been able to get a good answer to this.

[Assistant]
Synthetic kerosene made from biomass at $9/gal is not a heck of a lot more expensive than Jet A (approaching $7/gal)

But in answer to your question, compressed hydrogen at 70MPa ( at 123MJ/kg) has nearly 3 times the energy density of jet a (at 42MJ/kg) by mass.

As far as alternative fuel vehicles go, aircraft are well suited to conversion to run on compressed hydrogen since its biggest problem is confinement and aircraft have high rates of consumption and low storage life demands, so leakage isn't as much of a problem.


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

[User] ELI5: How did Japan become such a powerful nation, while having so little land?

[Assistant]
It's three times the size of England, so you might be thinking it's smaller than it actually is.

After WW2 they had help from the Allies to rebuild their economy, and the Japanese government cut taxes and invested heavily in manufacturing and technology industries.  Japan had a miracle economy from 1960-1980 because they were in position to develop and benefit from a tech boom.


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

[User] ELI5: Is time travel possible??

[Assistant]
Sure. You are going forward in the future all the time. We also know exactly what to do for you to experience a second while the whole world ages through centuries.

Basically the faster you move, the slower your time goes, so at certain speeds, your second will be a year for the rest of the world.

Same thing happens with gravity - the more gravity the slower times goes, so clocks on the Moon go faster than clocks on Earth. You could theoretically get an orbit around a black hole, so that your time slows down enough, that when you return you'll find yourself in a far future.

Both of these things are proven experimentally and most famous example are GPS satellites which were highly inaccurate before these effects were accounted for.

---

Backwards time travel works too, but only in equatioms. Theoretivally if you were going faster than light it would work. The only problem is that going at the speed of light is impossible.

If you were to find a wormhole (also exist only on paper), they could transport you in time as well.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] I don't like the master I was assigned to, can I request a new one?

I'm basically her errand boy and she doesn't spend any time teaching me and hasn't taken me on a single mission.

Can I approach the jedi council and ask for a new one?

[Assistant]
No. The Jedi Council does not give the title of Jedi Master away lightly, and being given an apprentice is a serious matter. Different Jedi have different teaching styles, and the Jedi Council trusts that your master is training you in a proper style. We also monitor your master more than you may realize, and we are confident that she is training you properly, perhaps to break you of that arrogant tone.

So we recognize your request, but given that it's stupid-ass request, we have elected to ignore it.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is the skin on our lips different from the rest of our skin?

[Assistant]
Its a mucus membrane! The same type of skin as inside of your mouth, inside the vagina, and under the foreskin, but its open to the air so it doesnt stay wet and feels slightly different.

The exact reason why our lips are a mucus membrane isnt entirely agreed upon, but the skin looks different because its a different type of skin. Its almost definitely a sex thing, but whether we have noticeable lips because theyre attractive and have selected for the trait with our sexual preferences, or because they make the mouth a more sensitive erogenous zone and that got our ancestors with noticeable lips more play, isnt 100% agreed upon.


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

[User]
Why Tsar Bomba - the most powerful bomb ever detonated - could have destroyed the Earth according to its creators?

According to the Russian physicists who created the bomb, the explosion could have started a self-sustaining nuclear reaction in the ocean, leading to the planet's destruction. How is that possible?

[Assistant]
Do you mean the Trinity test rather than Tsar Bomba? The thought was that the temperature would be high enough to ignite a fusion chain reaction in the atmosphere.

Of course it didn't happen, because we're still alive.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do we hallucinate? What's happening during it?

[Assistant]
The portions of our brains responsible for interpreting our senses are generating their own signals or interpreting signals incorrectly.

Sight, for example, is just the interpretation of light radiation sent as a chemical/electrical signal from our optic nerves to our occipital lobe. If, for some reason, our occipital lobe generates it's own chemical/electrical signal, we'll "see" things that aren't actually there.

You can perform a quick "pseudo hallucination" by closing your eyes and pressing gently on your eyelids. A bunch of lights will appear.

Other common pseudo hallucinations are thoughts and dreams.


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

[User]
CMV: I believe universities should be more exclusive

I think everyone is going to agree that the current educational status of the united states is bad at best. The extremely high costs and the saturated laboral market are driving young people to start their lifes with a massive debt on their account and uncertainity on whether or not they are going to be able to get the job to pay for it. My point being that I eleibe this problem woulb be solver, or at it would help drastically if universities were much more exclusive. Full disclousure: Im not american, I follow the british educational system, which mostly suffers from the same problems than the american, gowever I opted to argue from an american view so that most people that are going to read this could relate to my arguments. In the british system there is an average made of all the exams and a grade "C" is calculated from this average, this means that if a student gets a 58% in an exam and the average of the students is 64% he will get a "D", if the average is 55% he will get a "B". This ensures that only a fraction of the class gets "B" and "A", the reason why Im explaining this is because Im unsure of whether or not the american system has a similar approach. Anyways, my underatanding is that if universities only admitted for entry students that had an average of "B" (or a gpa of 3, correct me if Im wrong on this) this would unsaturate the job market for university students, drive the prices of higher education down and also open the eyes to a lot of laboral opportunities that are looked down upon just because of voncept that you need a university diploma to be succesfull in life. (By the way Im not a native speaker so if I had spelling mistakes please overlook them and focus on the view)

[Assistant]
Education is important for its own sake. Universities aren't just job factories, they teach other important skills. Things like critical thinking, research skills, a base knowledge in core subjects like science and history, a widened worldview giving you empathy for the "other." Even if you take those skills and use them for nothing but flipping burgers or digging ditches, all of society is better for having more people be competent in these skills.

Consider the insane amount of fake news floating around social media that gets bought hook, line and sinker, the people who deny basic scientific truths like climate change and evolution, the way the American presidential race has become more about a popularity contest and sounding good than people thinking about the actual issues, partially because they don't know how to. Some of these problems could be at least not as bad if everyone had the right to a college education. Even better, if they started teaching these skills before college.


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

[User]
[WH40K] If chaos is so infectious, why do the people in the know not get all the skulls removed from everything?

Because come on, being surrounded by the damm things all the time has to open you up to chaotic influence.

[Assistant]
Not really. The only one of the Chaos gods with a skull fixation is Khorne, and he's also the least subtle and insidious of the four.

Skulls are an important symbol of the Imperial faith, symbolising the sacrifices made in the Emperor's name and reminding His followers that their own lives are forfeit to His will. And yes, they're also an essential part of the Blood God's decor, but so is the colour red.

And Tzeentch likes eyes; that doesn't mean you're risking your soul every time you look a human being in the face.


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

[User]
Why doesn't the Banach-Tarski theorem work in the physical world?

The theorem would have you believe you can violate conservation of mass with an Exacto knife. Why is this untrue, what's different about the physical world that doesn't apply to the Banach-Tarski theorem?

[Assistant]
The Banach-Tarski construction requires you to be able to divide a unit ball into nonmeasurable subsets. The existence of such sets is a consequence of the Axiom of Choice, and like everything else due to Choice they are nonconstructible: you can only assert that they exist, not explicitly form one.

Besides, mass in the physical world is not infinitely fine: it is made up of particles. So any subset of a physical object is really just a finite set of particles, not a subset of R^(3). And Banach-Tarski does not work on finite sets.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is compiled code impossible to access unless the uncompiled source code is available. Cant game devs get a retail ROM and decompile the code from that?

[Assistant]
It's not that easy. Once it's been compiled, you can't decompile it. Think of the code like the recipe for a cookie. If you have that recipe, you can make that cookie any time you want. But if the cookie is baked, you can't just look at it and figure out the recipe. You'd have hints, sure, but the full recipe can't be figured out by looking at the end product.

Compiling code is complicated, and the end result can't easily be reversed.


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

[User]
Name change after wedding

I recently got married, and I'm planning on taking my husband's surname legally, possibly with hyphenation. However I'm not sure what to do for work as I've published quite a few papers under my maiden name... BUT the maiden name is a very common name so my husband's unique surname would actually make me and my work easier to find. Also considering hyphenation, but our names sound kind of weird hyphenated.. maybe I'd get used to it though?

I guess I'm just wondering what other married folks in academia have done. I realise a lot keep their maiden name legally and professionally, but I like the idea of having a family name.

EDIT: I know I CAN keep publishing under my maiden name and that was my first thought, my question is more whether it could benefit me to take on a more unique surname given that there are dozens of academics with my current first & last name. My husband has suggested just keeping my maiden name for work, but I wanted the perspectives of others who've been in the same boat.

Also should have been clearer in my initial post, I don't want to drop my maiden name immediately. If I take his name at all for work, I would hyphenate/double name for at least a while to maintain a connection to my older works.

[Assistant] You could publish under a hyphenated name to maintain continuity between your older publications and your newer ones.  And then legally change to your partners name for license, ss card, and all other everyday aspects of life.


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

[User] ELI5: Where did the concept of men being expected to pay for dates originate from? Why is it still somewhat expected today?

[Assistant] Women weren't allowed to have jobs. A man would have to pay for the woman's meal if taking her on a romantic date because she couldn't pay for it, and because the man had to prove to the woman that he could financially support her, since if they got married he would have to work and she wouldn't. Even though our society has changed to make women able to work, the idea that the man should pay for the date is still kept by many people who like traditional gender roles.


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

[User]
ELI5 Why many drugs/treatments are effective in rodents and not humans?

Specifically why are treatments often MORE effective in rodents models than human trails? And could this work the other way but we wouldn't know because testing wouldn't allow it?

[Assistant] Rodents can possess different metabolic enzymes that humans do not have (and viceversa); in that case their organism will be able to modify certain drugs and make them *more* active, while others will make them *less* active. Their metabolism compared to ours is usually very fast. And yes, it's surely possible that some treatments could be effective in humans but not in rodents.


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

[User] [Batman] What makes Batman lose his cool when dealing with criminals?

[Assistant]
Usually hes already having a shitty time and they just push him over the edge. Two instances come to mind:

In Knightfall, while dealing with the looming threat of the then-unseen Bane which was culminating in the mass Arkham breakout, Victor Zsasz broke into a womans college and was holding them hostage. Batman showed up, running low on self-control, and Zsasz ranted about them being the same except Batman went after criminals. Bruces response was to go feral and beat the piss out of Zsasz, screaming that they were nothing alike while beating him to death if not for Renee Montoya intervening. Another Knightfall example would be later when he cracked down on Joker and Scarecrows team up, only to hallucinate about Jason Todd when hit with fear toxin. This led to him delivering a mental soliloquial eulogy for the boy while whamming on Joker and screaming Jasons name.

Meanwhile, in the Hush arc, Bruce had reconnected with his childhood friend Tommy Elliot only for him to seemingly be murdered by Joker. This led to Batman almost actually killing Joker if not for the intervention of Commissioner Gordon. Jason Todd was not necessarily wrong to be pissed when he came back.


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

[User]
[General scifi/fantasy] A lot of books posit that the best warriors come from harsh environments; what are some good novels where the badassery comes from the gentle green fields of a temperate climate?

Looking at **you**, Dune...

[Assistant]
Many stories set in a classical medieval setting fit this bill. A Song of Ice and Fire, the Lord of the Rings with the rangers, etc.

Dune is an interesting one. The Fremen are a warrior society due to the harsh conditions and constant external threats, but it's the spice which makes them exceptional. Saluca Secundus is arguably worse than Arrakis, but the Sarduakar weren't any match for the Fremen.


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

[User]
ELI5: What does it mean when a program was coded in assembly/assembler language?

My friend told me the first (Gameboy) Pokemon were coded with assembly, and said that must have been difficult. I looked it up in wikipedia but I have no idea what all those words mean. I just started programming, so I have a very basic idea of coding.

Why is that language considered difficult? Was it super primitive or what?

[Assistant]
Imagine you're a kid and you're at the grocery store with your mother. She needs you to go get some milk from the other side of the store while she looks at produce. Depending on how old you are, she might give you different instructions. The older you are (higher level programming languages like C, C++, Java, etc) the simpler her instructions can be. So if you're 15 she can just say:

"Go over to the back of the store and get me 1 gallon of milk."

But let's say you're only 9 years old (lower level assembly language) and you need a bit more instruction, so she tells you this instead:

"Go straight up this aisle, then left, then when you get to the end look on the right, there will be a case of dairy products. Open the case and grab a gallon of milk. Close the case and bring the milk back here to me."

The mother is effectively asking for the same thing, but the younger child (assembly language) has a much more primitive instruction set and needs exact details with each instruction, while the older child (higher level object oriented languages) already knows all of the details and you can just ask them to get some milk.

In actuality, EVERY programming language is ultimately compiled into the low level assembly code (which is even further reduced to binary 0s and 1s) that is specific to the machine it is running on. Assembly code for a TI-89 calculator is different than for a computer and usually based on the processor (or microcontroller) that is responsible for actually interpreting the assembly language machine codes.


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

[User] [DC] How would it have turned out if young Bruce Wayne were chosen for the mantle of Shazam?

[Assistant]
He would have never been chosen by Shazam.
Bruce had too much hatred in him and all he wanted was revenge growing up.

Billy Batson was light hearted and always stayed optimistic, no matter the situation. Which is why Shazam picked him.


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

[User]
[LOTR & The Hobbit] A question on trolls

I have noticed in the events of There and Back Again.(A Hobbits Tale) by Bilbo Bagins and The Lord of the Rings by Frodo Bagins that the sentience of trolls changes dramatically in the roughly 60 years between the two events. By this I mean in Bilbo's story they are capable of conversation and reasoning, where as in Frodo's Story they are unintelligible brutish creatures with the only concept of I'm going to wreck the shit out of that thing in front of me. Is there an explanation for the seeming loss of sentience?

[Assistant]
the trolls bilbo met were natural trolls not Olog-hai.

The Olog-hai were a breed of troll created by sauron for war, they can survive sunlight, are larger and far more powerful than ordinary trolls - it seems likely he would have bred for brutish traits and compliance.  It is these that marched out of mordor to war and as such these that the fellowship met on their journeys.

edit: it's worth pointing out that bilbo was known to enhance stories a little for dramatic reasons - his trolls are rather more intelligent than the average, most are more like the rediculous cave-man stereotype in modern films.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why didn't the Republic already have an army before Attack of the Clones?

I could understand it being too small to deal with the Separatist mass-produced battle droid armies, but from what I can gather it seems they had literally nothing except the Jedi and local security forces. How is that possible for a government in charge of most of the galaxy? Shouldn't they have at least *some* conventional military, if only to deal with things like space pirates, droid insurrections, and alien invasions?

[Assistant]
States rights. The Republic was a collection of 'nations' who each handled their own business. In case of disputes they held meetings and voted. You either accepted the resolution or didn't. If you opted to attack someone else with your nation's military, nearby nations might lend a hand to the defender (or not) as we see with Naboo and the Gungans. However, there was not much expectation of the 'Republic' stepping in as an authority figure.

Each nation had a lot of autonomy. Of course during the war this led to a lot of nobody agreeing to anything. We see this with the assault on Scarif. The Rebellion (Republic adherents) couldn't agree, and it took individual members acting in unison to get something big done.

Federalism and centralized power came with the rise of the Empire. Before that, think of the Republic as more of an agreement between responsible parties rather than it's own autonomous entity.


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

[User]
Let's say we have a person submerged in a large tank of water, and the tank is traveling a brisk 30 mph or so. Suddenly, it collides with a stationary wall. What happens to the diver?

Would it hurt? Cause severe injury? Would the water cushion the diver better or worse than say, an airbag? People are about as dense as water is, a little less so, so would the diver actually be pushed *away* from the wall he just crashed into? What if the tank freefell onto the ground instead?

[Assistant]
Here's some actual data (from J Aviat Med. 1958 Jun;29(6):433-7. Protection against acceleration forces in animals by immersion in water. MARGARIA R, GUALTIEROTTI T, SPINELLI D.):

* 8 out of 10 rats survived a brief acceleration of 1000g while submerged in water, while nearly 100% died during a brief acceleration of 100g without water.
* 80% of frogs and fish subjected to 150g for 1 minute lost equilibrium due to detachment of the otolith organ.
* Fish died after 24 hours of either 150g or 3000g (the paper is vague) due to an inability to feed.
* Erythrocytes were found concentrated in the "lower" half of animals after centrifugation (even live ones).
* As for using breathable liquids: rat fetuses were able to withstand brief 10,000g accelerations and develop normally.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do downloads often stop at 99% before finishing?

[Assistant]
Three possible reasons:

**1. File integrity verification:** Your computer performs an operation on the data you downloaded and compares the result to a checksum. If answer and checksum do not match, the data is corrupt. This is how your computer tells if your file's data is a completely correct copy.

**2. Uncompressing:** Some optimised downloaders or protocols (usually modern ones) have built-in compression. Compression reduces file size and helps with download duration. However, to extract the raw file from a compressed one, it needs to be decompressed first. The 1% is decompressing: you may notice the 1% takes longer for bigger files.

**3. Virus scan:** Modern browsers also have in-built virus scanning. The process is similar to file integrity verification, but your computer actively looks and matches for malicious code checksums.


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

[User]
ELI5:Why do the Haribo Sugarless Gummy Bears cause issues?

I came across the reviews of the Haribo Sugarless Gummy Bears and find it hard to believe that they do that. Why do our bodies react that way to the gummy bears?

[Assistant]
In these bears is a chemical called Maltitol. Maltitol is a plant sugar altered in a lab to be less digestible. This means it doesn't hurt your teeth and takes longer to release it's sugar content into your system, making it safer for diabetics. Win win!

Except, because it doesn't digest quickly, it spends a lot more time sitting in your stomach and intestines than normal sugar. This causes osmosis to take place and your body begins to release water into your digestive track.

So, your belly full of sugarfree gummy bears has become a liquid soup of sugar water and whatever else you've eaten in your bowels. And things in your bowels like to come out. Normally, the osmosis works the other way, drying out your feces so as to reduce water loss, but in this case, no such thing happens and the soupy poop water heads for your hole with the wild abandon of the Colorado river.


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

[User]
{Reign of fire} World's military vs dragons

Just watched Reign of fire 2002, i enjoyed it, especially van zan.

A question that struck me was, how the world's armed forces seem to overrun quite quickly.

Surely america/russia/china, and any other world power with a significant air-force, would  see the imminent threat coming from London, would scramble the F16 etc and blow the dragons out of the air. Not to mention the anti air guns major military's have.

So what exactly happened that trillions of dollars of hardware didn't make a bigger dent?

[Assistant]
The old militaries were built specifically to fight other militaries. Despite the fact that toward the end the most powerful and technologically advanced militaries were fighting third-world insurgencies, the purpose of their armies, navies, and air forces was to fight other armies, navies, and air forces. That's how they were organized, that's what they had in mind as they designed tactics and technology.

When the dragons first showed up, it was unlike anything our militaries were trained or built for. They're more maneuverable than attack helicopters, they can be nearly as fast as fighters, they showed up almost immediately in incredible numbers, and the result was we weren't able to keep up. A few Apache helicopters could take on one dragon, but we were outnumbered 30 to 1 by the time we realized the reports were actually true. Not only that, but the dragons were built for hitting basic infrastructure, interrupting supply lines faster than we could defend them. The Great Planes of the United States were burning within a week of the first sighting. Trucks moving supplies were easy targets. No military can be everywhere at once. We hit what looked like smaller nests with bombs, tried to strike them with missiles, but for every 1 we killed, a dozen took its place because of their incredible reproductive and maturation cycle. Eventually, there was almost nothing left but isolated pockets of resistance and submarines, but even they ran out of supplies.

The idea that there was a home-base for them wasn't even fielded until after most militaries were in ashes. It was luck that a small group of spec-ops were able to get across the Atlantic from the US to strike London, and even all but one of them died taking on the Father dragon.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] How did Luke become so good so fast?

I understand that he could have learned the basics of force usage from Yoda on Dagobah and practised on his own time, but in a pretty short timespan he goes from having never even swung a sword before to being able to match Vader in a duel in ROTJ. Where did he even learn sabre duelling, Yoda never seemed to teach him anything. And unlike the force, practising saber would require a partner.

[Assistant]
In Legends, he didn't do a whole lot. He just kinda became good.

In canon so far we've seen him practice with his lightsaber quite a bit in-between ANH and ESB.

All that being said, Vader was taking it easy on Luke. Had he ever been serious about fighting him, Luke would have been destroyed at any time. On Bespin, he was trying to convert Luke, not kill him. On Endor, he was caught up in his mixed loyalties to Palpatine, the man who had been his master for over twenty years but had lied to him, and the son he had never known he had who was pleading for his father's life.


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

[User]
Why did Futurism become a fascist movement?

I'm currently reading some of the early Futurist manifestoes, but these are from before figures like Moussolini became interested in the movement. What about futurism made it easy for fascism to embrace?

[Assistant]
Note that an obsession with the future might foster a conclusion about certain *eugenic* steps that need to be taken in the present. Such a focus could be fearful of the effects on society of progressive ideologies that one sees as destructive of traditional values and national identity.

Hence the easy embrace of futurism by palingenetic ultranationalists (who worship a nation obsessed with rebirth).


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

[User]
[Batman] Why does Jason hate Dick?

Tim I can see, that's his replacement. Damien's a little punk, *I* hate him too. Batman "failed" him, and I would think Batgirl just doesn't like him either and she caught it by association. But why Dick? He's the coolest guy ever, a Peter Parker with confidence instead of spider powers, he even reaches out to him in an endless repeat of flashbacks. What's his problem? Does he just feel threatened by someone he recognizes could easily replace him? Is it fear of a superior so he's trying to go alpha male?

[Assistant] Dick Grayson is everything Jason wishes he was. He is living proof that Jason could have been a real hero, were it not for being killed and Batman being a general tool. Jason hates him for that, and for the fact that he was obviously Batman's favorite.


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

[User]
[Marvel] Why is everyone working at the TVA Human?

The TVA recruits from the variants they extract from the timeline..

They are active on earth and in Asgard so they are probably involved on everything.

Why are human variants the only ones being offered to work for them?

[Assistant] Because He Who Remains is only concerned with events that affect his personal history. Until about the last couple of decades, the only aliens that had significant contact with humanity included Eternals and Asgardians, neither of whom are externally distinguishable from humans and at least one of whom are very few in number. This means the vast majority of history that could actually result in a Kang variant only involved humans or aliens that look just like humans.


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

[User]
ELI5: why some sunny days are hotter than others?

Why 2 consecutive days can be with great temperature differences,  given that the sun is at the same angle and botth days are sunny, clear sky, no wind?
By great temperature differences I mean from 21 degrees Celsius onde day to 32 the next, to 39 the next next.

[Assistant] There are many variables that can cause temperature and weather to change (and feel like a different temperature), much of which is interconnected, but essentially the density of the air that the suns heat must travel through will make it feel cooler (colder, denser air) or hotter (warmer, thinner air).


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

[User] ELI5: Why does our skin gets itchy when we make contact with something that's shaking, like a bus seat or a massage chair?

[Assistant]
Itching is commonly caused by changes blood flow to the skin which causes nerve stimulation. This can be due to an irritant (bug bite or medication reaction), change in blood pressure (exercise in some people or medications or many other causes), or for some people vibrations which can cause direct stimulation of the nerves.

In some cases people who do not regularly exercise will have tiny blood clots in their capillaries. This isn't a problem, but when they're dislodged by vibrations or a change in blood pressure (such as exercise) they can cause itching. These tiny blood clots are largely harmless and will dissolve when they get into larger blood vessels. This will go away with repeated exposure.

Edit: added a bit about the capillary clots.


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

[User] [The Shining] The hotel manager states that he would've preferred to not hire Jack had the choice been down to him, expecting him to snap like his predecessor. Does that mean a more stable-minded man could've resisted the Hotel's corruption?

[Assistant] Jack's an alcoholic with a violent past who lost a teaching job and has no experience with hotel upkeep. He's not really the best guy for the job regardless of it being haunted. Someone else could've resisted it, yes. But nobody else could've been hired.


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

[User]
[Metroid] So... how does the Morph Ball let Samus turn into, well, a ball?

It obviously doesn't physically compact her into a ball, as at least four horrifically mutilated Space Pirates found out. So how *does* that thing let her compress into a solid spherical mass roughly the size of a beach ball?

[Assistant] Chozo tech allows her suit to convert her body into energy and psionically control the ball, then re-form when she stands up again. Unfortunately it's keyed to Chozo DNA so it would only work for her or a Chozo.


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

[User]
[Warhammer 40k] Could a Space Marine survive reentry into Earth?

Would they burn up and if they survived that would they live past the landing?

[Assistant]
No.
A) There is reason they use drop pod.
And More Importantly.
B) Vulcan the Primarch of Salamanders did Die reentering Atmosphere. He did get better.
So if Primarch Die from Reentering SMs will definitely do so.


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

[User] [MCU] In one scene in Guardian of The Galaxy, Peter makes a joke about Jackson Pollock. After this, Rocket responds, Youve got problems, Quinn. How does Rocket know of Jackson Pollock?

[Assistant] He might not know about Jackson Pollack. Rocket is just inferring the meaning from the context. He would have said the same thing if Peter had said a Vincent Van Gogh painting or a Paibok the Power Skrull painting.


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

[User]
If your brain was slowly integrated with computer upgrades, would it really be 'just a copy' if the biological part failed after you'd become 99% machine? (No break in stream of consciousness)

Honestly, I feel like if your stream of consciousness didn't break you'd still be you.

[Assistant] Chalmers has a discussion of this in "Mind Uploading: A Philosophical Analysis," which has a response from Pigliucci right after it in the book they're both in, which is *Intelligence Unbound: The Future of Uploaded and Machine Minds*, which also has some other relevant chapters.


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

[User]
[SCP Containment Break/ Secret Laboratory] Why is heavy containment the first thing after entrance zone? Wouldn't it make more sense to keep all the really dangerous objects further into the facility?

Why is light containment the furthest into the facility? There isn't a lot of dangerous or high priority objects in light containment. The objects in heavy containment seem to be more dangerous or seem to be higher risk than the ones found in light containment. So why keep the more dangerous SCPs closer to entrance zone, where they would be closer to offices, break rooms, medical facilities, and the surface?

  Why isn't the facility designed so one would go into entrance zone, light containment, and then descend into heavy containment?

[Assistant] So that if something really bad gets free, the collateral damage is minimal. For example, that alligator thing breaks free every few months. It would be an even worse disaster if it let out 30 other, slightly less bad things each time.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do people in Urban societies in the Midwest, Northeast, South and West coast all have very similar accents/dialects.

Most black guys I know from Atlanta and New York sound just like me.

[Assistant]
In the modern society, a lot of dialect becomes a result of broader influences than just your immediate geographical surroundings.  Television has standardized quite a few American dialects.  Most Americans watch network television which tends to use fairly standard dialects depending on their characters.

The standard media dialect, the type of dialect that people often refer to as "not having an accent" is very much reinforced in formal broadcasts like news programs.  This dialect is prevalent in the the midwest and west coast anyway, so there's a lot of it around.

Entertainment television and movies default to this dialect, too, but they'll have characters that they want to express a different regional identity, so they'll cast someone who has or can imitate a regional dialect, like for the movie "The Departed" where several of the actors had Boston accents (some more successfully than others).  If you wanted to cast some one for a character that's from the south, you'd likely have them use a southern accent, etc.

[edit] and to answer you question in regards to urban areas, they're the places that usually experience the most influence from television/movies/social media and which have the biggest mix of dialects, so someone living/growing up in an urban environment is more likely to end up with a standard dialect than any other particular one.

[edit 2]and the African American dialect is particularly standardized.  There is less variation among African American speakers than among almost any other major demographic.


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

[User] ELI5: If parrots are so smart, why can't they be potty trained?

[Assistant]
Some animals have a natural instinct to control their defecation.  Some do it for sanitation, others to prevent detection.

Other do not, and just poop when and wherever.  You have that luxury when you are high up in a tree, above everything else.   Controlling it would be like you trying to blink only at certain times.   You could do it for a while, but it would be unnatural and exhausting.


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

[User]
CMV: left-wing people should be against mass migration, even more than the right.

I would say that Im fairly left-wing in many of my views, but its never made any sense to me why leftists ignore and understate the left-wing argument against mass migration.
Mass migration predominantly benefits businesses, because workers from cheaper countries will generally work for less money than their native counterparts,, this forces wages down for everyone and severely limits the power of unions, since any striking workers can just be fired and replaced with new ones.
The counter argument I hear sometimes is that eventually the immigrants will align with the native workers to demand higher wages and better working conditions, but I dont understand how this is possible.
To be frank, a Polish taxi driver can make much more money in the UK than he can in Poland doing the same job, I dont see him jeopardising that to stand in solidarity with working-class people in the UK.
Many right-wing parties, which are essentially at this point mouthpieces for big business, claim to be tough on immigration but in reality they are not.
Consider, there were more migrants coming to the UK under the government of Boris Johnson than there were before, though he claimed to be quite tough on that, but he knew more migration means lack of power for workers, its simple supply and demand.

[Assistant] But this isn't a problem with the migrants, it's a problem with the cooperations, using people who wants to work for way less, so they hire them instead. What you are doing in your statement, is dividing the working class, and pitting them against themselves, even though the problem lies solely on the capital class, underpaying workers.


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

[User] ELI5: When building a skyscraper, which parts does the architect do, and which parts does the structural engineer do?

[Assistant]
An architect is responsible for basically how everything looks. What color everything is, how the rooms are laid out, overall design, how the space feels and is used, and basically, the "Human Side" of things.

A structural engineer tells the architect that his crazy design will collapse under it's own weight, and provides solutions on what can work. And they'll go back and forth until a solution that the architect likes and won't fall apart is reached.

As a side note: An architect is sort of the "supervisor" of the project. They usually hire the electrical, structural, civil, and mechanical engineers needed for the job, as well as the contractors who build it, and provide overall guidance of the project. Kinda like a director of a movie.


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

[User]
Why do galaxies form superclusters throughout the universe instead of being evenly or randomly distributed in space?

Every model of the universe shows "webs" of galactic clusters with gaping voids between them (Botes void being the most famous of them). But on a universal scale, galaxies are tiny, so I couldn't imagine that they're so dense that they'd have that amount of attraction to each other across *gigaparsecs* of distance.

Much in the same way that diffuse galaxies have no apparent shape (despite often having huge amounts of stars), I'd think that the same would occur with the universe as a whole.

Or maybe physics works differently at such massive scales?

[Assistant]
Okay lemme paint you the picture. The Universe starts very hot, super compact, with tiny and random quantum fluctuations in the density of the matter as things jiggle back and forth. Then an event called 'inflation' occurs. The Universe very vary rapidly expands by many orders of magnitude. All of a sudden, those density fluctuations get blown up massively. They're now huge, and very far apart, so they can't reach equilibrium too easily.

The leftover heat (with a little help from gravity) sets up oscillating waves of density of different sizes all across the Universe. These are called the Baryon-Acoustic Oscillations (they really were acoustic! Moved just like sound waves!) As it continues to cool, certain sizes of oscillations are selected for and then 'frozen in' (they cool enough to stop oscillating), and this sets in a pattern of structure in the form of density fluctuations. Overdensities become the birthplace of stars. Underdensities become voids in which nothing happens.

It is important to note that dark matter does not oscillate, since as far as we know it exerts no pressure and can collapse freely. This dark matter collapse predates and predicates the baryonic collapse. Without dark matter determining where the baryons oscillate, there would be no structure!

There are now two forces at work. Gravity wants to bring things together. Dark energy pushes them apart by expanding voids. In overdensities, gravity wins, and stars form galaxies; galaxies form clusters; clusters form filaments. In underdensities, dark energy wins and pushes the clusters further away from each other. This creates the web-like structure we see today.


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

[User]
What is the most optimal shape for a glass to keep my beverage cold ?

I just took a cold beverage out of the fridge and I wondered what shape of glass would be perfect to keep the beverage cold the longest. Would a spherical glass have less surface to take heat from? Or would for example a high but small diameter cylindrical glass be better? Or would they behave the same? What would be the ideal ratio between beverage-to-glass and beverage-to-air surface size? (while still considering the glass to be drinkable from)

[Assistant]
A traditional wine glass actually gets pretty close. It's important to the taste and aroma of wines to be served near their ideal temperature, and the wine glass helps.

The bottom is nearly spherical, minimizing surface area. The narrow stem minimizes conduction from the base, and it gives you a way to hold the glass that minimizes conduction to the liquid. The high walls and narrow opening keep airflow away from the surface of the liquid to minimize convection.


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

[User] How come we are able to detect planets thousands (millions?) of light years away from us, but we have yet to determine with 100% certainty whether or not there is a ninth planet in our solar system?

[Assistant]
Our main method to detect planets orbiting distant stars is by observing the star when the planet moves in front of it. This briefly makes the star appear dimmer as the planet blocks part of the light of the star. If this happens on a regular interval, we assume that this dimming is caused by a planet and its periodic orbit.

An additional planet in our solar system can't be detected this way, since such an object would never come between the Earth and the Sun. Since this hypothetical planet would be far away from the Sun, it would only receive and reflect a small amount of light, making it very hard to detect. Detecting a very dim speck of light amidst a sky full of objects that are much brighter, without any idea about where to start looking, is worse than finding a needle in a haystack.


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

[User]
What is it about space-time that limits the speed of causality to something finite?

The standard answer to why the speed of light is finite usually just boils down to that the speed of causality is finite. Is there a deeper explanation? How does relativity theory calculate this speed?

[Assistant] Simply, because our experiments say so. It was one of the big headscratchers right around the turn of the previous century, that in all the experiments to measure the speed of light, they all came up with the same number *regardless of the frame of reference*. If you measured it on a train moving relative to the earth, you got the same number, if you measured it at the pole vs at the equator, you got the same number. The "Theory of Special Relativity" is about how Newtonian physics must be adjusted for the fact that *no (inertial) reference frame is special* (note that the two uses of "special" are totally different: Special Relativity is merely a special case of General Relativity, while "no reference frame is special" means in the "unique or different" sense). This "all frames are equal" thing implied, via some very simple math (like, decent middle school students could be walked through it reasonably well), that going faster than the maximum speed (which is also the speed that electromagnetic radiation travels at) results in being able to construct time paradoxes and make effects happen before causes. We don't know *why* the math worked out this way, per se, but we *do* know that this mathematical framework we built for "no reference frame is special" describes the physical universe as we see it.


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

[User]
[X-Men: Days of Future Past] How did magneto manages to stay sane?

Magneto was imprisoned for 10 years in solitary and when freed it's like he was there for just a day, he had no psychological scars. Most people in strict solitary start to hallucinate just after some weeks let alone years.

So how did he manage it?

[Assistant]
Remember this dude is a holocaust survivor he already has quite a bit of mental stamina.

Im also willing to bet while he was probably lonely as fuck he wasnt staved of all interaction with people. He must have been interviewed analyzed questioned many many times.


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

[User]
[Pirates of the Caribbean] Can Captain Jack Sparrow and company really be called "pirates?"

I mean, they don't seem to do a whole lot of pirate-y things, aside from swordfighting, rum-drinking, and sailing.

[Assistant]
This is set during the 1720s-1750s, when the golden age of piracy was slowly dwindling out as merchant ships began hiring more and more security, and pirates could get much better deals working with the government as mercenaries.

Jack spends most of his time trying to regain control of his ship and wriggling out of supernatural debts, but does pull off a few big time thefts over the course of the series.

And the series starts off with Elizabeth witnessing the wreck of a merchant ship that's been utterly gutted and everyone aboard killed, so it's not exactly a cuddly business they're about.


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

[User]
[MCU] why do the advanced civilizations of earth seem to hyper prioritize into either magic or science, never both?

So far weve seen Kamar Taj, Ta Lo, Wakanda, Talokan, and arguably several very powerful organizations such as Shield, and Hydra. With the sole exception of Hydra why do the powerful nations and organizations of earth seem to hyper specialize into either magical or scientific advancement, while most of the alien nations and organizations weve encountered such as Thanos army, the Asguardians, and the Time Variance Authority seem to prioritize at least a basic understanding of both?

[Assistant]
Pretty straightforward, actually; Every "advanced civilization" is hyper-isolationist. They keep to themselves, and refuse to share their knowledge and resources.

Anyone in Wakanda smart enough to "figure out" magic probably dedicated themselves to unlocking the secrets of Vibranium. And if you have *actual magic,* why bother looking for advanced resources to level up your tech tree?

As for HYDRA, the Asguardians, and Thanos, they're either galaxy spanning, actively stealing tech/magic from others, or both.


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

[User] ELI5: Why I can't charge my laptop with an usb cable and a travel adapter like i can do with smartphones?

[Assistant]
Because your laptop requires something around ~~1~~70 watts to operate, and the USB connection only delivers a couple of watts -- maybe 4.5 watts if you use USB 3.0.

Simply put, your laptop requires far, far more power than USB was designed to deliver.


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

[User] ELI5: How come acid doesnt eat through glass like it does everything else?

[Assistant]
Glass is made of two things silicon and oxygen. to dissolve it you need to be able to separate these two things apart. Think of these as a husband and wife.

Their bond is quite strong as its quite a stable relationship.

Then comes the homewrecker called acid bringing their attractive ions along. Other couples are attracted to these ions more than their husband/wife therefore they dissolve. The bond in glass is too strong more most acids to break.

Except hydroflouric acid. They're the kneau reeves of the acid world. HOT.

Edit: after a long hard think... Im leaving the typos in.

Edit2: thanks for all the awards! Was not expecting that!


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does watching a video at 1.25 speed decrease the time by 20%? And 1.5 speed decreases it by 33%?

I guess this reveals how fucking dumb I am. I can't get the math to make sense in my head. If you watch at 1.25 speed, logically (or illogically I guess) I assume that this makes the video 1/4 shorter, but that isn't correct.

In short, could someone reexplain how fractions and decimals work? Lol

Edit: thank you all, I understand now. You helped me reorient my thinking.

[Assistant] If you went 2.00 times faster, would you expect to get there instantly? No, instead, it's half the time. When you go X times faster, you reduce the time to 1/X. So 2 times faster makes the time 1/2 what it was. 5 times faster, you'd get there in 1/5th the time. 1.25 times faster can be expressed as 5/4 times faster, and you get there in 4/5th the time, or 80%.


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

[User] My fraternity likes to use restaurant fundraisers to raise money and force everyone to attend. How can I explain using economics that it is a terrible way to raise money?

[Assistant] You are hoping that the value derived from the meal to donors exceeds 80% of the price.  Otherwise, people will donate more directly.  Why not ask a sample of potential donors how much they would spend on food versus donate directly?


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

[User]
Hiccups! why?!

I keep reading that no one really knows why or how they happen. Can someone explain why they happen?

[Assistant] It's like a cramp. Ever get those when you run too much or bend your leg the wrong way? Well, when you breathe in, there's a muscle that does that, called the "diaphragm." And instead of getting cramped, like most muscles do when they're unhappy, the diaphragm kinda twitches, making you breathe in really hard all of a sudden. That's what we call a hiccup.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] do you think that, maybe, only maybe, Voldemort felt a bit of remorse or sympathy for Snape before or after killing him?

Snape was a trusted spy and a very valuable asset for Tom Riddle and the death eaters. Maybe Voldemort felt a *little* bad for needing to kill him?

[Assistant]
The only thing Voldemort felt bad about was losing his own useful servant.  His defining trait is his inability to love or care for others - his only allegiance or care is for himself.  He didn't feel bad for Snape, he felt bad for *himself*.

He killed Snape because the benefit of being master of the Elder Wand (or so he thought) outweighed the benefit of having a capable right-hand man.  And the regret he mentions isn't that he's snuffing Snape's life out - he could care less about Snape's feelings or wants.  What he regrets is that there was a price that he, Voldemort, would have to pay - that Snape had inadvertently mastered the Elder Wand (again, so he thought) and needed to be removed.


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

[User] ELI5 "Kony 2012"

[Assistant]
Honestly, the video that's going around is pretty self-explanitory (and even includes, funnily enough, a scene where the narrator explains the campaign to his young son), but if you don't have 30 minutes to spend:

There is a man who lives in central Africa, usually in Uganda, named Joseph Kony. Kony appeared as a public figure in a time where many different armed groups were fighting each other for control of Uganda (the government was overthrown by a militant group in 1985 and ruled for all of 6 months before being overthrown by a different militant group). When the leader of the group he was a part of died, Kony took control of a large part of it. He claims to wish to establish an independent nation based on Christian and African ideas.

However, as far as we can tell, he doesn't actually want this. See, Kony does terrible things. He and his army hide in the jungle, occasionally coming out to pillage towns, torture & scar people, and kidnap children. Kony takes these children in and forces them to become soldiers for him.

Kony 2012 is a bunch of people who think that the main reason that Kony gets away with doing this is because most people in the Euro-American world don't know who he is and what he does. They hope that by raising awareness, they will put pressure on western government to help catch him. They believe that the Ugandan army wants to capture Kony, but simply does not have the resources, technology, and knowhow to find him in the dense jungles of Africa.


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

[User]
[Marvel/DC] Why should I become a henchman?

I'm a small time, but effective crook. I'm not an idiot; I'm decent with my fists and handy with basic weapons. I mostly get into petty theft and occasionally muggings, etc. I try to keep a low profile and even have a day job.

Why would I become a henchman to big time villain? What's in it for me? Seems like I'm likely to get my head stomped and wind up in prison.

[Assistant]
Sleep,  rest and relaxation.

When you work for a group you don't have to know everything or be everything.

You get a safe place to sleep at night,  good meals when your not breaking into weapons labs or going on a diamond heist.

And when your finished for the day you can sleep well knowing you have twenty guy who have your back a badass boss and 4 sentries on duty.


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

[User] Possibly a stupid question... why do ice cubes generally look clear, but when you shave the ice, the shavings look white?

[Assistant] The same reason polished and cut diamonds are clear, while rough diamonds are generally opaque. When ice is shaved, it gets a rough outer surface which refracts light in many different directions. Ice cubes are very smooth and so light passes through them and refracts more evenly.


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

[User] Are the recent US and French elections ('socialists' versus fascists/nationalists versus liberal democrats) evidence that we no longer live in a post-political world (a la Zizek and Badiou), but see a reemergence of competition between these three systems?

[Assistant]
As you pointed out, there's hardly any 'socialists' involved.

The thing is there's hardly any 'fascists' involved either (excepting the occasional Richard Spencer).  There's just a variant on paleoconservatism, which is itself a type of liberal capitalism in the broad sense of the term.


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

[User] ELI5: Are people born lactose intolerant? And if so, how do lactose intolerant babies drink their mothers milk?

[Assistant]
Lactose intolerance is the default for humans after being weaned. We stop producing lactase, the enzyme needed to digest lactose, which is a sugar. This happens in other mammals and is normal.

The ability to continue to produce the lactase enzyme into adulthood is a mutation that occurred in populations that used animals for milk and dairy products. So those with ancestry from these populations are less likely to be lactose intolerant.

A person with lactose tolerance can actually become lactose intolerant if they stop consuming dairy because their body may not produce the lactase enzyme after a period of time.


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

[User]
Why haven't CPU pins been replaced by flat contacts?

I hear stories all the time about people who accidentally bend the pins on either the CPU or in the socket when building their computers. Why is it not possible for processor manufacturers to create both a socket and CPU that just use contacts like on the bottom of Intel processors? Then there would be nothing to accidentally bend, so what is the advantage of having the CPU sit on top of pins?

[Assistant] If both sides of the connection were flat, the entire surface with all the contacts would have to be absolutely perfectly flat, which is impossible. There needs to be something to compensate for the imperfections.


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

[User]
ELI5:What is causing the current rise of authoritarian regimes in richer countries around the world?

With the French election coming up, this has sparked my interest in "nationalist" parties. It seems, to me, that this is becoming a serious problem but I want to be more educated on the situation. Can ELI5?

[Assistant] This is often attributed to *populism,* which basically means that average people believe the system is being rigged against them by the elites, so they want to create a super-elite (a powerful central government) that in theory shares their values and can stand up for their interests.


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

[User]
[DC] Why did Batman have Robin wear the most visible uniform possible? Why not... Black?

I feel like Robin's uniform was basically a giant bullseye.

[Assistant] Robin wanted to wear an outfit reminiscent of his parent's costumes as the Flying Graysons, using their colors to honor their legacy. And Batman taking Robin under his wing was a conscious attempt to lighten up and try to not be as DARK AND GRIM.


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

[User]
Why is 7nm considered the limit of Moore's law?

I understand that around 7nm silicon can no longer be used, but I am unsure why. I have seen that using graphite can lower the limit to 5nm, but again unsure why.

[Assistant]
Commercial integrated circuits today are made using projection methods. This can be grossly simplified as follows.

The wafer is coated with photoresist. A stencil of the circuit is projected onto the wafer; where the light hits the photoresist, it gets developed just like an old analog camera. This process is fundamentally limited by the wavelength of light. Because of diffraction, you can't really image features smaller than the wavelength of the light you are shining through the stencil. Most systems use deep UV light today to get the smallest wavelengths and smallest features. They also play tricks with double exposures and complicated stencils that are specially shaped to counteract the diffraction. But again, you can only get so small with projection.

After this projection, you are left with a print of the stencil on the wafer and can remove or add or dope patterns and form a chip architecture. This process is repeated dozens of times to stack up the full circuit.

Right now, we are pushing up against the limits of what is possible with UV light. It is difficult to just further shrink the wavelength because you start pushing up into x-rays which just pass through most things and cant be focused like UV.

Of course, there is a whole zoo of other specialized methods that have been demonstrated in laboratory settings, but they do not work well for large scale production. For example, using something similar to an electron microscope to scan the pattern into the wafer can give very fine features but is very slow since it must move line by line rather then an entire exposure at once.


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

[User]
[Lord of the Rings] What would have happened if Aragorn took the One Ring?

Let's say that, on the Falls of Rauros, all the hobbits and Boromir die during the attack, and Aragorn had to take the One Ring. Without Gandalf guidance and the Ringbearer to carry the Ring to Mt Doom, and also being influenced by the Ring itself, Aragorn decides to try and use the Ring against Sauron by himself.

What would have happened then? I'm curious because in the books it had been stated that Aragorn had the power and will to use the Ring against Sauron, and that Sauron was actually tricked into thinking that Aragorn had indeed taken the ring for himself (which is why he allowed him to march up to the Black Gate undisturbed, as he hoped to catch the ring before Aragorn could really control it completely).

[Assistant] He probably gets corrupted by the Ring and either betrayed like Isildur, or manipulated by Sauron into doing his biding. Maybe he is "victorious" in claiming back some land from Mordor and win some battles against the Orcs, but in the long run he either end up dead or as a puppet King for Sauron, whose Ring-self manipulates Aragon to its own ends.


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

[User]
[TNG] Why do people age and die as if no innovations in anti-aging technology have occured since 1990 AD?

1. food can be zapped into form, including steaks, fish, etc. Couldn't this make for a simple print-and-swap option for any body part? (Brain excluded).
2. But what about brains? we can't just swap those out can we? Well, yes, but clearly apparent aging/wrinkles seem like a conspicuous oversight by federation scientists. And, since neurons are just cells as well, couldn't any possible brain problem be detected the moment it occurs, and the 1 or two bad cells or whatever, fixed with nanosurgeons in seconds? There's no known cause of brain problems that couldn't easily be repaired with TNG technology.
3. Overpopulation isn't a problem, there's ample resources and plenty of planets to expand to, so it can't be some kind of legal prohibition against immortality.
4. Bonus question: why is anyone not in constant perfect fitness? Or balding? If the limitations of a replicator can't produce 'living' organisms (which is rediculous, but i'll leave that for another time) then couldn't a teleporter just beam me across a room and reassemble non-essential parts like ab muscles or bones to make me super ripped and 6'3"?

[Assistant] For the most part, aging is far less of a problem.  People regularly live to 100 and are still reasonably healthy and active in their 80s and 90s.  Major enhancements like transgenics are illegal in the Federation due to the Augment War.  Not sure if what you describe in #4 would fall under that, but it's probably still something most people would frown upon.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does the Geneva Convention forbid medics from carrying any more than the most basic of self-defense weapons?

[Assistant]
Because the war crimes rules also say you're not allowed to shoot at medics.

If medics were allowed to be armed, armies could just dress up *all* their soldiers as "medics" and say "haha you can't shoot any of us."

But that obviously wouldn't work, and the enemy would shoot at them anyway...*leaving zero of the intended protection for their* ***actual*** *medics.*


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

[User]
[Doctor Strange MoM] What happened on the battle of *SPOILER*

In MoM we see the illuminate take out Thanos on Titan, how did the battle differ with a smaller number of different heroes compared to the 616 team up of avengers/GoTG?

[Assistant]
They just had a better combination of power sets.

Thanos was shown to be vulnerable to mental manipulation when Mantis made him semi-catatonic. The Illuminati had Charles Xavier, who is one of the most powerful psychics in the universe, so his manipulations would have been even more effective, and could work at a distance. This alone could have tipped the battle in their favor.

Black Bolt, when really lets go, it a city buster, doing far more damage than even Stark's nanotech armor is capable of.

Captain Marvel - Maria Rambeau in this universe - was probably strong enough to take on Thanos' fleet by herself.

Reed Richards would have been better at containment that Spider-Man's webs, and also brings whatever weird science they need.

Peggy Carter would have devised the strategy.

Finally, Strange used the Darkhold to finish him off, and corrupted himself.


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

[User] ELI5: How did vanilla become synonymous with "plain"?

[Assistant] *Very* recently. The use of "vanilla" to mean "unexciting" or "the usual thing" only dates back to the 1970s, where it started to be used to describe people of normal sexual orientations and interests, in contrast to people who subscribed to unconventional sexual norms. Over the years the sexual aspect of the slang term got lost, so now we call anything ordinary or conventional "vanilla" without so much as a giggle.


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

[User]
How do animals react to an albino animal of the same species?

Do animals react in a strange way when they see an albino animal of their own species, or do they react the same as they would to an animal of their species that wasnt albino?

[Assistant] I have been to a wildlife park in the UK where they have different breed of antelope and some of them are albino. The ranger explained that in the wild, the rest of the herd would expel the albino from the group because they stick out like a sore thumb and are therefore a danger to the rest of the herd. Obviously in this park there are no predators so theyre allowed to chill with the gang.


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

[User]
[Guardians of the Galaxy 2] Why is Peter so impressed that a Zune can hold 300 songs?

When he's given the Zune he reacts to the fact that it can store 300 songs with wonder. Everyday he works with tech that makes a Zune look like a slightly fancy rock, so why does a 30gb storage capacity impress him so much?

[Assistant] He doesn't care it's 300 songs. He cares that it's 300 earth songs. Hes listened to the same 30-40 songs on two cassette tapes he has had to painstakingly care for and restore over the last 30 years. Finding such a large collection of his homeworld in a digital format means both nearly 10 times the amount of music he's lived with his entire life and another part of his lost home restored to him.


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

[User]
[Rick & Morty] Spoilers S2E3

At the end of the episode, what happens if Rick does actually does manage to kill himself? What are the repercussions of that?

[Assistant]
**BIG SPOILERS AHOY**

Since the machine seems to work by reducing the target to a formless gray goop, the family might not even piece together he was dead; he didn't take the time to leave a note, and no one on the Smith household has the technical or forensic knowledge to figure out that stain on the garage floor is Grandpa. Most likely they would assume he ran off. Beth would be heartbroken, Jerry would be relieved, Beth would bite Jerry's head off for being relieved. Morty would claim possession of whatever Rick left behind.

The Earth is destroyed by the Cromulans due to Earth's failure to show them what they got; without Rick to tell them the score, no one tries singing, and the Cromulan stays in orbit waiting for Earth's performance until tidal forces destroy the place. Morty grabs the ship and the portal gun, loads up the family, and gets the heck out of dodge, searching for an Earth where the Cromulan never showed up.

Soon afterwards the car fails, and Morty has to try and troubleshoot the battery; if he can talk the residents of the pocket universe to start sending power back through, crisis averted, otherwise the car is stranded.

Many events of the season are missed, most particularly Rick isn't around to track brain parasites into the house, nor is he there to receive the invitation to Bird Person's wedding. The impact of the latter is significant, as it also means that Earth isn't dragged into the Federation."


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

[User] ELI5 Why does rabies make people hydrophobic?

[Assistant]
*Why* is because it makes your saliva thicker and stickier. That's what causes the foaming of the mouth associated with rabies. The thicker saliva holds more virus, so it spreads better.

*How* partially involves just eating holes in your brain that make you irrational and dislike water. It also causes loss of control over your muscles and often painful muscle spasms. This very much includes muscles in your throat.

It begins with difficulty swallowing, so you kind of feel like you're choking when you try to drink water. As it progresses, the spasms make it impossible to swallow. It's also very painful. So trying to drink water makes you feel like you're choking and drowning, while you're also becoming more paranoid, delusional, and irrational.

Eventually, just *looking* at water causes your throat to spasm in anticipation of drinking - by this point you're horribly thirsty, your body demanding that you drink the water in front of you, but your rotten brain is panicking at the choking and painful spasms in your throat.


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

[User] Are atoms with a high electron count more likely to form bonds with other atoms because their valence electrons are far away from the nucleus?

[Assistant] Yes, also forming weaker bonds due to the distance. The nucleus attracts the electrons towards the center, so a smaller element the electrons are stronger held because theyre much closer. In larger elements the distance is much greater and the nucleuss pull is much weaker, think of it like the strength of gravity with the sun being the nucleus and planets are electrons.


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

[User] ELI5: How do our organs stay in place and not get jumbled up over the years?

[Assistant]
They are wrapped in membranes and held in general place by connective tissues. Additionally, although they have some "squish," they also have some structure and shape, and generally fit together a certain way.

Imagine filling some water balloons with jello before it's set, and packing them tightly into a lunchbox. Once the jello has set, shake the lunchbox a bit - the balloons will stay in roughly the same locations.


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

[User]
[MCU] ENDGAME SPOILERS

So now that Sam is Captain America does he keep the wings? I don't think he'd stop using them because he doesn't have super soldier strength like Steve did. Does someone else become falcon now?

[Assistant] I can't speak for the MCU, but in 616 Sam has been Captain America for a few years now. He been depicted with and without wings, and sometimes with a jetpack. Notably in 616, Sam is considered to be "peak-human" just like Steve was, due to years of training side-by-side with him.


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

[User] ELi5: Do you get the same benefits from sleep if you've had a nightmare?

[Assistant]
You get some benefits from sleep, also easy cardio!  Nightmares usually come later on in the sleep cycle, during REM. REM lasts longer and longer each cycle, so it tends to be early morning rather than interrupting the initial cycles.

Nightmares increase heart rate, sometimes to a similar level of a vigorous workout. People who are advised to not exercise due to high risk of heart attack have a slightly higher risk of death (typically in the early morning) from heart attacks overnight, thought to be related to nightmares.

Some people with parasomnia (a.k.a. "Nightmare Disorder") have surprisingly good heart health relative to their overall health, because their brain and heart are getting regular exercise even when the rest of their body isn't.


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

[User] [Harry Potter] So my mother is an American witch but my dad's a no-maj, he got really nice paying job in the UK but he thinks he will be transferred back in a few years or so. This summer I'll be turning 11, will I be given a choice between Hogwarts and Ilvermorney? Will I be able to transfer later?

[Assistant]
Depends on whoever you receive an owl from.

Most likely Ilvermony in your case as your only connection with Britain is through your No-Maj father.

Its not clear how exactly transfers work, but if Hogwarts is any indication, its not really common, if allowed at all.


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

[User]
[Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow] What's going on with the world?

Why is technology so advanced in 1939? Did Germany ever go Nazi?

[Assistant]
Broadly speaking, Sky Captain's world took a turn more akin to classic pulp, with a *lot* of breakthroughs in power storage, generation, and use that simply never happened in other world's. Among other things, it looks like the populace never turned against lighter than air vehicles, but the general state of the inter-war era seems to still hold.

Seeing as the general political situation parallels our own in that era, it's likely that the Nazis (or something indistinguishable, due to the hotness of fascism at the time) still happened.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do services like Facebook and Google Plus HATE chronological feeds? FB constantly switches my feed away from chronological to what it "deems" best, and G+ doesn't appear to even offer a chronological feed option. They think I don't want to see what's new?

[Assistant]
Facebook does so because they charge people (mostly companies, but you can pay as a person also) to get their posts at the top of your feed.

Actually, if you are a company, Facebook builds their site so that your views will drop over time unless you pay them.