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

[User]
[DC Comics] How to incapacitate a speedforce speedster?

Hello funny 4th wall people.

I'm a rank and file grunt (yes, they really call us that) in a subdivion of Cadmus.

Me and the rest of the team have just gotten a mission briefing from the team captain (rest of us think he only accepted it cause he's boning Waller) and our job is to slow down the flash while Cadmus does Cadmus shit with some random orphaned child.

I have a feeling they're just gonna ask us to shoot at him again so are there any methods to stop him?

We know he uses the speedforce and that does a lot of shit for him but all I know is that some asshole in tight yellow spandex comes out of it every 2 weeks and starts yelling "BARRY!".

I really don't wanna get a superspeed wedgie again, it feels like a hot wheels track going around my pelvis whenever I move.

So with the budget of Cadmus and the Military, what Idea can we suggest so we don't get involved the fuck out?

[Assistant]
Based on what we know about the flash is while accessing the speed force he is still susceptible to all of the same weaknesses regular humans have, just on an accelerated time scale. For instance he still needs to breathe. This gives you 2 weaknesses: lack of oxygen or presence of airborne poison. Another example is telepathy, like most humans the flash is vulnerable to telepathic attack if you can increase the speed of the attack to match his brains speed. Also the flashs great strength is his speed, specifically his ability to run. However he still needs a surface to run on and a force to hold him to that surface. If you need to trap him, try locking him in a zero gravity trap. Just beware how you construct said trap because the flash can run on any concave path using centripetal force to provide the friction he needs to run and because he has been known to use his arms as windmills or propellers so keep a heads up for that.

Honestly if it were me, id recommend airborne poison.


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

[User]
ELI5:Schizophrenia

It might be a silly request, but I don't think there's a better place than ELI5 to get things vividly seen.

[Assistant]
It's a serious psychological disorder which appears universally across all human cultures and affects just over 1% of the human population.

The condition can best be described as a fundamental disconnection from reality accompanied by severe delusions, paranoia, and/or hallucinations. People affected by schizophrenia may be unable to distinguish reality from fiction/imagination/hallucinations and tend to form beliefs that are delusional/idiosyncratic beyond reason and which are often difficult for other people to understand.

Some patients also lose the ability to speak in coherent sentences, lose the ability to interact in socially appropriate ways, suffer difficulties in comprehension and formulating thoughts, and in some cases even become catatonic (unresponsive and/or immobile).

The disorder is believed to have a strong biological basis and research suggests that people who are biologically/genetically predisposed to schizophrenia have an increased chance of developing the disorder if they are exposed to cannabis products at a young age (during adolescence).


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

[User] ELI5: How does VX (the nerve agent that killed Kim Jong-nam) kill you even with a tiny amount applied to the skin?

[Assistant]
From Wikipedia:

*"VX blocks the action of acetylcholinesterase, resulting in an accumulation of acetylcholine in the space between the neuron and muscle cell, leading to uncontrolled muscle contraction. This results in initial violent contractions, followed by sustained supercontraction restricted to the subjunctional endplate sarcoplasm and prolonged depolarizing neuromuscular blockade, the latter resulting in flaccid paralysis of all the muscles in the body. Sustained paralysis of the diaphragm muscle causes death by asphyxiation.*"

TLDR? VX stops communication between your nerves and muscles, causing your diapraghm to stop working, which makes you suffocate.


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

[User]
Can fire occur from a non-oxygenated reaction?

Combustion is the reaction of a material with oxygen, right? But the fire is a result of the energy being released from the exothermic reaction. So does that mean that other exothermic reactions can create fire? Or is it just oxygen, and why?

[Assistant] It probably depends who you talk to as to how specifically they'd define it.  But certainly there are other chemicals that burn exothermically - for example anything that can burn with oxygen can burn with fluorine.  Even after it's been burned with oxygen.


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

[User] [Forrest Gump] Did Jenny give Forrest AIDS before she died?

[Assistant]
According to Wikipedia...

> In low-income countries, the risk of female-to-male transmission is estimated as 0.38% per act, and of male-to-female transmission as 0.30% per act; the equivalent estimates for high-income countries are 0.04% per act for female-to-male transmission, and 0.08% per act for male-to-female transmission.

It's very unlikely, especially considering Forrest's luck.


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

[User]
[Lotr] how have the people of Middle earth not advanced more technically?

In real life, the first human civilizations started around 4000 to 3000 BCE, or around 5000 to 6000 years ago. In lotr, just the combined time of the 2nd and 3rd age is over 6400 years, not to mention the entirety of the 1st age, when men first awoke, as well as all the years of the trees when elves were around,  so why doesn't Sauron have tactical nukes and Gandalf an ak47 by now?

[Assistant]
The elves and the Ainur are sort of static in the sense they already are what they are destined to ever be. You see this when they are unable to *recreate* something that has been destroyed. They are bound to the world, so it's impossible for them to recreate or even replicate a pattern that has left the world. Similarly, they can't make huge leaps of innovation and technological progress because they just can't. They are as advanced as they will ever be.

Once the elves, the Ainur and their influence vanish from Middle-Earth, the world becomes the dominion of humans. And the special gift of humans is precisely that they aren't bound to rigid patterns of fate like that; their role in the cosmos is active and dynamic, not static.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does laughing very hard sometimes make us cry?

[Assistant] 2 theories. Laughing puts pressure on our tear ducts. And laughing and crying are both emotional extremes and apparently there is evidence that crying and laughing come from the same part of the brain.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do we lose some memories even if they are long-term memories?

If we can remember something like a name or number for months or even years, how can we eventually lose that memory after some period of time, however long it might be? What actually changes in the brain to make us forget?

[Assistant]
Memories are "stored" as the connections between brain cells. These connections become stronger through use and weaker through disuse.

If you don't think about something for long enough, the lack of activity causes the physical connection between cells that represent the memory, or a part of it, to weaken until it can no longer "store" that memory, or even will sever entirely.


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

[User]
[LOTR] Did the dwarves have names for the Nameless Things under Moria?

Given that they are at the bottom of Moria, the Dwarves must have encountered them when mining down there. What do the Dwarves know about the Nameless Things?

[Assistant]
...What part of "Nameless things" was not clear?

To the extent the Dwarves encountered them, it was just something horrible that came out of the darkness, wiped out a bunch of people, and then vanished as if into thin air. They didn't understand it enough to name it.


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

[User] ELI5: the birthday paradox. With a group of 23 people why are 2 of them likely to share a birthday?

[Assistant]
In a group of 23 people, you can pick a pair of people in 253 different ways.

So, even though the number of people seems small at first glance, there are actually a lot of chances for a shared birthday.


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

[User]
How bad is it to reneg on a job acceptance 24 hrs later?

I've been on the tenure track job market this year (for my second year). I received a offer from university A at the end of Feb, before I had gone on 3 other scheduled interviews. A has been patiently waiting for my decision, but ultimately told me I needed to give an answer by this Friday.

Two of my other interviews told me they are taking the position in other directions, and university B told me they had offered the position to someone else, but they hadn't yet accepted. I was disappointed because I really liked B more than A for a lot of reasons, but finally decided yesterday (weds) to accept the offer from A.
I emailed the chair, told him I had decided to accept the offer and would like to further discuss. Note that there is no "official" offer letter yet. We are going to talk by phone either later today or tomorrow, and he said he would draft an official letter.

Meanwhile, at 6 PM yesterday (weds), I get an email from the chair at B stating they want to make an offer and she is calling me this morning. There are other factors to consider, but I expect the salary to be about 10-15K more and the startup to be maybe double.

How bad would it be if I turned around and declined the offer from A today or asked them to match knowing they likely won't be able to?

[Assistant]
Go for the job you really want. The stakes are higher for you than for anyone else in this situation, and backing out from A before you've officially signed anything is a relatively minor breach of etiquette--not even ethics--in the grand scheme of things.

By the way, outside of academia, there is no concept of "you accepted a job so you can't accept any other jobs for the next while." It sort of makes sense in academia, because schools need to know who's going to be available to teach courses, but it's not like they've put you on the schedule already.


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

[User]
[general fantasy] what weapons (gunpowder and melee) would be good for dealing with armies of stone golems and animated armor?

Edit: added situation from comments for clarity:
Yes sure!
I am working on a comic, in which there is an elven city/stronghold, and humans are trying to destroy said city.  Instead of fighting them self, the elves  use magic to control golems and animated armor to fight for them, and defend their city. The humans have dug trenches all around the city and cannons along with other firearms and explosives. There are thousands of stone golems outside of the city walls, that march in formations of hundreds toward the trenches. As for intelligence, each one is "programmed" with very little intelligence (enough to walk and fight, but not to come up with strategies or anything advanced) but as a group are controlled from the elves from afar, as if the elves are playing a very complex game of chess. The animated pieces or armor are not quite so numerous, and there are only hundreds, as a sort of special units. They would only be in groups of 3 tops, and are used to quickly take out many lives and reak havoc. They are much faster, more skilled, and programmed with lots of fighting experience and intelligence. **so the question being, if you were the humans with this knowledge in advance, what weapons would you bring/ what would be effective in such a situation?** (muskets, grape shot cannon fire, heated cannon fire, explosive rounds, blunderbusses, etc.)

[Assistant]
Hmm, you've mentioned gunpowder and melee, are you asking for mundane methods of killing golems and enchanted armour or *specifically* methods involving gunpowder and melee?

If it's general mundane methods corrosion works a charm against most minerals and metals  the trouble is the most exciting acids you could throw at them, like hydrofluoric acid, couldnt even be kept in glass bottles as they eat through it, but weaker ones like sulphuric/hydrochloric and in particular nitric acid will do wonders too.

I single out nitric as it's one of the earliest sources of high explosives, so if you're not using it to corrode metal and rock monsters you could use it to make explosives out of common plant fibres and a little chemical know-how (dont want to go into too much detail on explosive manufacturing though...)

Otherwise if you're asking about techniques involving guns and swords, could you provide any tactical details on the golems and enchanted armour? Like how intelligent are they? How fast do they move? Do they travel in groups? Pairs? Solo? How big are they?


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

[User]
[T2 Judgement Day] Would the T1000 continued to have made beef stew while mimicking John Connor's foster mother?

When the T1000 is in disguise as Janelle Voight, it is making beef stew until John arrives home. If the T1000 didn't discover its ruse had been uncovered, would it have continued to finish making the meal? How long would it have stayed undercover if wasn't found? Do all Terminators have some degree of skill in culinary arts?

[Assistant] Considering how fast it disposed of his foster dad, it's likely that T1000 wouldn't continue making beef stew. It would've just waited for John Connor to come in and stab him, should it's deception succeed.


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

[User] [MCU] If Dr Strange used the Time Stone to see all the various timelines, how come he didn't know what Thanos looks like?

[Assistant]
Of course he knew what he looked like.  His opening line was designed to set the right tone for the encounter.

In his 14 million attempts he tried everything - being conciliatory, demanding surrender, surprise attack, etc.  The greeting he used was the one where he saw victory.


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

[User] Is the moon big enough to support all humans on earth with an earth like environment? We are counting out gravity issues.

[Assistant]
You may need to clarify the question.

The world population is currently somewhere around 7.37 billion. Earth's land area is about 149 million km, so the average density is about 49 people per square km. The moon has roughly 38 million km area, so the average density, if everyone could somehow move to the moon, would be about 194 people per square km - or 4 times as dense, since the moon has 1/4 the surface area. This is far less than the average population density of heavily-populated regions of Earth, so in that sense, it's very feasible.

Beyond that, it's hard to find meaning in the question. For the moon to support that population, it would need significant sources of water, a means of producing food, air to breathe, and countless other things that the moon is devoid of.

So technically, it has nothing to do with the size of the Moon, but rather its lack of the resources that life on Earth has evolved around and thrived upon.


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

[User] When you recieve a blood donation, what happens to the DNA of the blood you recieved?

[Assistant]
Normally, red blood cells have no nucleus at all. So no DNA there.

If you receive white blood cells, they generally don't reproduce, so the DNA gets digested and recycled with the rest of the cell when it dies.

If you receive a bone marrow transplant, it will have stem cells that can keep making more blood cells. The recipient now has blood cells with the donor's DNA.


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

[User]
[Halo] Is the fact that the UNSC fields mixed gender forces remarked upon as novel by the Covenant?

In the UNSC both men and women serve together in the interstellar armed forces (including direct combat arms like the infantry as well as the SPARTAN forces) and it's not seen as a particularly hot-button issue like it was in the 20th and 21st centuries.

Covenant forces, particularly Elites and Brutes, seem to be universally male (save for species without distinct sexes like Hunters and Engineers) and what we know about civilian populations of the Covenant seems to indicate very entrenched gender roles (as well as other weird stuff like the Elite's hatred of doctors). They obviously come into close contact with our forces and I'm curious if they think it's weird that humans seem to less socially uptight about that sort of thing.

[Assistant] The Covenant seem pretty far-reaching in their exploration and familiar with many sentient species.  It probably wouldn't seem that weird to them that humanity is composed of two genders and that both genders are capable of combat.


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

[User] [The Matrix] if two people plugged into the matrix conceive a baby... how is the baby born in the real world? if the two people never even touched?

[Assistant] A conception effort that achieves success trips a program flag that selects a prospective suspended zygote of the right phenotype and genotype from the baby farm. The selected zygote is then put through its growth cycle, to be eventually plugged in to the Matrix proper once it has matured to usefulness. This process similarly triggers a procedure in the Matrix proper that links the mother's experience to the growth cycle of the child, simulating a pregnancy from beginning to end.


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

[User] [MCU] Why Thanos instantly believed Red Skull on Vormir that the Soul Stone demands a sacrifice?

[Assistant] Because, well, why would he lie? They had gone to the only place on Voromir that the stone could be, and it wasn't there. A masked figure, the only living being on the planet, tells them where the stone is and how to get it. If there was another way to get it, this figure would have done that already.


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

[User]
CMV: Supporting artists who are bad people is unethical

I mean, theres so much great art made by people who dont rape / arent racist etc.
By supporting Chris brown for example you are directly helping someone who beats women. I dont really care if you like his music, the way I see it only a complete asshole would value their enjoyment of a song over not supporting this guy.
Even if you dont financially support him and pirate his songs, being a fan of someone still has an impact on their success, maybe an extremely small one but given his heinous acts I dont think you should want to support him on ANY level.
I doubt anyone would support him if he did that to them or someone they loved, just because he did it to a stranger doesnt make it suddenly less wrong.

[Assistant] Using economic systems to replace justice systems is shifting the burden of justice to each individual. Rather than placing the ethical blame at each dilute consumer, it is far more conducive to place such blame on the concentrated power of the judicial system.


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

[User]
ELI5: If proteins are degraded in our digestive system, how come Mad Cow disease is transmitted by eating infected flesh?

I mean, I can understand how the proteins are stable in heat, but the degradation of proteins is just breaking the bond between the amino acids, why wouldn't that happen?

[Assistant]
It's because the proteins have folded into something called prions

Think of it like this - You have a bunch of strips of velcro, and they are loosely held together, with even an end you can grab and pull. A bit of jostling (the energy from heat, acid, etc.) can cause those hooks to snap free of the stringy fabric

Now imagine if instead they were shoved as tightly together as possible, hooking every single bit of fabric together and not giving any spot for you to grab onto. You can't even apply that jostling (the heat, acid, etc.) because it's so condensed and tight you can't even grip a tiny corner

Prions are akin to this, their structure being so twisted up in and on itself that it takes a lot more heat, chemicals, and so on to break those bonds to the point that it can survive in the soil for many, many years - the acid can't get into any gaps, bleach can't grip any of the atoms to shred it, and even heat can't jostle it loose unless it's at the point of basically liquefying everything because the jostling just causes the "hooks" (atoms) to hook onto more fabric and hooks (other atoms)


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

[User]
[Inception] Was that dude's father really disappointed that he tried to be like him?

The guy who is having the inception done on him. They create the idea that his father would not have wanted him to try and be like his father and be his own man. Is this idea based in any reality that the team had discovered in their research on him?

[Assistant]
No.
The team came up with that idea from scratch in order to accomplish their goals.  That's why it's actual inception and not something easier.
Now it's possible that the father actually was disappointed for that reason, but that's not something the team knew, or even really suspected.  It's just a convenient fiction that has an outside chance of actually correlating with reality.


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

[User]
What keeps the protons in the nucleus of a atom from repelling each other?

In chemistry, we were taught it has do do with the quarks and gluons, but didn't get much deeper than that. How exactly do these quarks and gluons peek the protons together?

[Assistant]
Protons do cause a mutually repulsive Coulomb interaction between each other, but there is also an attractive force due to the residual strong force. The residual strong force dominates at small distances.

The strong force is what acts between quarks and gluons, and it's what causes nucleons (protons and neutrons) to form in the first place. When you have a bunch of nucleons (or general hadrons) in close proximity to each other, there is a residual strong force between them analogous to the Van der Waals forces between atoms and molecules. This is what causes nucleons to bind together to form nuclei.

If the nucleus gets large enough (high enough atomic number Z relative to the mass number A), Coulomb repulsion will start to overpower the strong force. This can cause the nucleus to become unstable to spontaneous fission when Z^(2)/A is greater than approximately 47, according to the liquid drop model.


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

[User] [DBZ/The Thing] Majin Buu is assimilated by the creature from John Carpenter's The Thing (1982). What happens now?

[Assistant]
Well the titular Thing would have no negative effects on Buu; he's fully aware of what transpires within his own body and would thus prevent the Thing from doing any actual assimilation. However, Buu would be able to gain the powers of the Thing via his absorption technique. This would probably lead to people suddenly exploding into a mass of pink bubble gum after making contact with Buu.

If that were the case, Buu would become a walking virus with no means to permanently stop him. Imagine Goku finally tossing the Spirit Bomb and destroying Kid Buu only for Vegeta to suddenly have several tentacles explode from his body and transform/absorb him into a fresh Buu.

Fucked up shit right there.


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

[User] [Star Wars] Would a modern-day handgun, compared to a blaster, be an effective weapon against a Lightsaber?

[Assistant] The lightsaber would turn the bullet into gas, as aok said, but the bullet from a modern handgun travels faster then a blaster shot, and is harder to see. Not that it means that a jedi wont be able to block it, they rely on the force and precog, so they will still be able to catch them. But it will be harder, since modern weapons can fire more bullets faster. Rapid fire slug throwers are actually the best weapon vs jedis. Its not a sure win, but it does help your odds.


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

[User]
ELI5: Burlesque vs Stripping

Genuinely do not understand the difference... no offense intended.

[Assistant]
Burlesque originally developed as a racy satire show in response to economical disparities, moral squeemishness and social hang ups of Victorian England. The striptease (which differs greatly from what we would now call a striptease) was a part of the show but by no means the entirety of the show.

Stripping is the removal of clothes for money with the purpose of sexual titillation. Nothing more.

Burlesque evolved quite a bit since its inception 150+ years ago but the true neo-burleslque shows still use bawdy humor to mock the more conservative sectors of society while pushing the edges of what is or is not art. In burlesque, stripping is not the point of the show; it is merely an element of a larger performance.

Edit: Just remembering a few things. Comedy is a huge part of burlesque. The original burlesque shows featured various comedians and comedy acts. Comedians such as Bob Hope, Jackie Gleason and W.C. Fields all got their start in burlesque.


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

[User] How do some parts of the body know when to stop growing hair, at a certain length, like eyelashes and eyebrows?

[Assistant]
Hair follicles generally go through three repeating phases. First, growing, that's pretty obvious, the hair is growing and getting longer. Second, it goes into stasis, where the hair isn't really growing, but is still there. Third, regeneration, where the hair falls out and the follicle gets ready to start growing more hair.

Things like arm hair and eyebrows always look the same length because of averages. The stasis period is long compared to growth and regen, so most of the hairs are at the stopped growing phase and you don't really notice the small percentage of falling out/regrowing hair. Of course, the length of these phases vary between individuals, which is why some people have naturally discrete neat eyebrows, and some people have crazy bushy eyebrows.

Head hair also does this, but the growth period is usually longer than for hair on other parts of your body. If you just let it grow without cutting it, you would theoretically reach a overall maximum length for your individual hair. Now, because of your hair drying out, splitting, and breaking, it would probably be all shaggy and ragged instead of nice and neat like your eyebrows, but that's beside the point. But there really is a reason that not everyone can grow hair down past their waist.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is it rumored that Macs do not get viruses as often as PCs do, and is this rumor true?

[Assistant]
It simply doesn't make a lot of sense for someone to write malicious software to target Macs.  Windows has around a 90% market share.

Since the goal is usually to spread to as many endpoints as possible, you want to target the broadest base.  That said, malicious software for Macs does exist.


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

[User] ELI5: How does your body seem to sober up in an instant if something bad happens?

[Assistant]
Your body has a good setup in order to respond to emergencies. It pumps you full of adrenaline and endorphins and stuff like that, and that *can* mitigate intoxication.

But the keyword here is "seem". You are very likely still impaired.


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

[User]
CMV: As a Libertarian, it makes more sense to vote Democrat than Republican

So, I've been thinking about this for a while, and the view is contingent upon a few assumptions:

1. Taxation is theft.
2. Democrats are more likely to spend tax revenue on social welfare programs that benefit Americans (the tax payer).
3. Republicans are equally likely to tax, but less likely to support spending tax revenue on Americans, and more likely to support expenditures on foreign wars (not on the tax payer).

Since I believe that tax is theft, but I'm unwilling to accept punitive actions as a consequence of not paying my taxes, I'd rather receive some of that money back in the form of healthcare subsidies, educational benefits, etc. This is purely from a cost/benefit perspective and not an agreement on the philosophical or moral basis of taxation or social welfare.

CMV

Edit: Tons of great, well thought-out responses. Thank you all for weighing in!

[Assistant]
Depends on how much you earn, if you are very rich vote Republican to get proportionally less tax and thus have less stolen.

Vote Democrat if you are not super rich because you will have  the same amount stolen but more of it will be spent on you.


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

[User]
ELI5: How are we good at determining how full a container is just by holding it?

Basically the title. When we pick up a sealed container with our hands, say, an oxygen cylinder, most of us can determine how filled it is. But how?

[Assistant]
You can feel the center of gravity of an object, because simplified that is where your forced applies. It is basically the rotational axis of an object. You can test this by suspending something a disc in water and then weighing it down with coins on one side. It will always spin closer to the coins.

Now the center of gravity does not equal the fullness of the container, but we can approximate it, the heavier the substance, the easier. A container that is empty will have its normal center of gravity, but one that is half-full will have it shifted towards the filled half.


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

[User] [Harry Potter] Does the Crown exist? How does the British magic community view him/her/it? Do they swear fealty to a muggle?

[Assistant]
... Just to check, you do realise that the average British citizen doesn't swear fealty to anyone or anything, right?

I mean, joining the police or the armed forces, sure, but that's not likely to come up for most wizards. There is no British equivalent of the Pledge of Allegiance.


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

[User]
[Legend of Zelda] Where does the Master Sword's scabbard come from?

Every time Link gets the Master Sword he puts it in a brand new scabbard that he didn't have before. It's never shown to be in the same room as the Master Sword so where does it come from?

[Assistant]
In some legends it's given to him by Rarou during the 7-years he spends in the Temple of Time growing old enough to be the Hero of Time, Rarou also gives the adult-Link his new clothes.

 In other legends the god's probably just poink a scabbard into existence to hold the Master Sword so that Link doesn't have to worry about how to hold it, it's the kind of petty time-saving measure the god's are fond of doing for heroes.

Really though, we don't know, because what we know of the various heroes is brought to us through legend and hearsay, and legends don't mention such trivial details such as where the Master Sword's scabbard comes from.


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

[User] Why is string theory empirically untestable? Couldn't we build a microscope powerful enough to see "strings"?

[Assistant] I recall that to build an accelerator capable of probing the length scales of strings is on the order of the orbit of pluto. Like we'd have to build a particle accelerator the size of our solar system to be able to "see" strings. So in a way, it's empirically testable, just not feasibly so with modern understanding. However there are other predictions the theory makes that we hope to test in the future.


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

[User]
[Marvel] Why did Wolverine get to be a member of the Avengers and an accepted member of the super hero community?

Wolverine willingly murders bad guys all the time. He he has even murdered a shitload of good guys when he was brainwashed. Which was a lot. (I'm especially thinking about the time Hydra got him.) A lot of heroes are morally opposed to killing, so why does Wolverine get a free pass? Why is he treated differently than the Punisher?

[Assistant]
Wolverine has a adamantium-hard sense of honor, and at the end of the day, he's going to do what he thinks is the right thing for the forces of good.

It's his methods that have always been at issue, not who he's fighting for.

Captain America's been through a war, one where he fought beside Logan. he knows that there's a time and a place where the choice whether or not to kill isn't really a choice anymore.

On that day you want Wolverine around.

On the other days? He can take the hits no one else can and still get up, and he's an experienced, skilled and ferocious fighter even if he doesn't kill. And robots- he's the perfect guy if you want to shred robots.


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

[User]
ELI5: What is different about the insides of wires that transmit power (Charger), data (Aux, Ethernet), or both (USB-C)?

Basically what is inside that allows wires to transfer only energy, only data, or both?

[Assistant] It's more about the connections between the two ends of the cord.  Cords that are only for power only have connections at the pins that carry power, so a power only cord will have less individual wires inside it than one that can transfer power and data.  That's why the power only cords are generally cheaper.  They also don't have to conform to the data speed standards that data cords have to conform to.


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

[User]
[MCU] What were SHIELD's alternatives to Avengers Initiative?

MCU wiki states, that "While S.H.I.E.L.D. was devoting a majority of its resources into the building of the Triskelion, Nick Fury used finances to observe remarkable or enhanced individuals". In other words, before the Battle of New-York, Avengers were just an underfunded side project, as the very idea of gathering a group of people with superpowers was considered ridiculous by Fury's superiors.

However, even before 2012 SHIELD was pretty much aware about extraterrestrial threats, and the agency had probably been implementing various projects, aimed to protect the Earth from different extraordinary threats, including the already mentioned Triskelion (how a single high-tech building was supposed to protect the entire world, by the way?).

Until now, I just assumed that SHIELD focused its primary efforts on researching alien tech and providing advanced weaponry to regular armies. However, I have found almost no information regarding SHIELD global defence measures, that are not part of Avengers Initiative. Did the agency have anything else besides helicarriers and Triskelion?

[Assistant]
Their only real option is to develop and mass produce advanced weapons based on alien technology/magic/super science, which is what they were trying to do with the tesseract in Avengers 1. This next tech would then be used to equip conventional forces who would then combat threats in a traditional manner.

On a mild tangent, what SHIELD actually is/do is a total mess. Its clearly an extension of the US intelligence services/armed forces cloaked in the guise of an international organization (why is black widow appearing before a US congressional hearing for leaking SHIELD data in captain America 2?)


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

[User]
CMV: Suburban life > Urban life

Change my view - life in the suburbs is easier, more comfortable, and cheaper.

For the price of renting a one bedroom apartment in a big city, you can own a 3 bedroom house in the suburbs. Instead of cramming into a crowded subway and hoping to get a seat, you drive to work in air conditioned luxury in your own car. You can go to the grocery store and come home with more than 1 bag of groceries because you can easily load it into your car. If you do have a car in the city, driving and parking are both a nightmare compared to the suburbs. Raising kids in the suburbs, the schools are better, you have a yard to play in, and they can bike around the neighborhood.

Now, there is more culture in the city - more museums, plays, concerts, etc. And in the suburbs, you're just a 45 minute train ride away from that.

So it seems to me that the extra space, comfort, and savings of the suburbs apply nearly 365 days a year, and it's more inconvenient maybe a dozen times a year when you have to trek into the city.

[Assistant]
>For the price of renting a one bedroom apartment in a big city, you can own a 3 bedroom house in the suburbs.

This depends largely on your city's zoning policies.  In a city which allows a lot of high rise construction, you can see condos becoming the dominant form of housing and providing a better price point for most buyers.  This is the case in Toronto right now.

>Instead of cramming into a crowded subway and hoping to get a seat, you drive to work in air conditioned luxury in your own car.

Which can sit in traffic for an hour+ each way if your job is downtown, whereas you might be a 20 minute or less commute away if you live in the city.

>You can go to the grocery store and come home with more than 1 bag of groceries because you can easily load it into your car.

Or you can use a grocery delivery service.

> If you do have a car in the city, driving and parking are both a nightmare compared to the suburbs.

Generally accurate, yes.

>Raising kids in the suburbs, the schools are better, you have a yard to play in, and they can bike around the neighborhood.

They also have a lot more stuff to explore in the city, and often city schools can be just as good, though in the USA there tends to be a harder divide because of the white flight and segregationist housing policies that followed _Brown v. Board of Education._  In a place like Toronto though, the city schools are fine.

Is urban life better for everyone? No, but it's not some hellscape from which people are desperate to escape either.


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

[User] Do fish get confused when a large current or flood displaces them somewhere far away?

[Assistant]
There are many, many different species of fish and they all behave and react differently.
There are territorial fish: Clown fish (of Finding Nemo fame) will go and find an anemone during adolescence, and then never leave the square metre around that again until they die. Being displaced would likely kill them, or they may move to a different anemone if they can find one quickly, but that is not the sort of experiment that people like to run.

Lots other fish are on the move their entire life. Mackerel and tuna, many sharks, herring - a long list of fish that just follows the food, the currents and the temperature. They don't have a territory so displacing them would impact them less - though the impact would be nonzero because they would still notice a difference in the water quality.


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

[User]
Why does touching metal to a metal cavity filling hurt like crazy?

Why does touching metal to a metal cavity filling hurt like crazy?

Even if you barely tap it the pain is insane. What causes this?

[Assistant] Have you ever touched a 9-volt battery to your tounge? Similar thing. Along with other stuff in your mouth, certain metals brought together make a very small and weak battery. While weak, you have sensitive nerves in your tooth, and the metal filling makes it very easy for the electricity to reach them.


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

[User] [X-Men] Ultimate Wolverine murdered a teenage mutant whose power was to kill all life-forms around him via radiation. He accidentally killed his family/town and this story would have hurt the public's perception of mutants forever. Would 616 Wolverine have killed him too?

[Assistant]
Likely yes, if all other options were out. Pre-Krakoa he probably would try to call some favors, like dampener collars or have a powerful telepath knock the kid out, and if that didn't work, well... What he does isn't very nice, as the tag line goes.

Post-Krakoa he'd kill the kid without a second thought, and just respawn the clone on the island.


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

[User] (Doctor who) What are the doctors combat abilities? We see him talk his way out of countless fights and run from them even more often but what could he do during the war when there were no moral quandaries holding him back.

[Assistant]
just look at what he does when he's trying to distract and prevent damage. his habitually trying to save the people who want to harm him, and those he cares for.

the tricks and traps he weaves all in an effort to prevent harm to all involved. not just those he protects.

now imagine he's angry, and isn't trying to protect. the expert misdirections, the sabotage, the defections.

look to the example of the clone Doctor from Stolen Earth arc, the human Doctor borne of anger. how long did the entire Dalek fleet last against that one man?

The Doctor would be the worst enemy you'd never even realize you had until it was far too late.


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

[User] Does a Knife with lubrication cut/stab/slice/etc better or worse than a Knife without?

[Assistant]
It would not appreciably effect the cutting power of any variety of knife. What it would be is protect the blade from tarnishing. The force applied to the blade perpendicular to the cut is what causes the friction. This force is from the sides pushing in on it. While lubrication would make the coefficient of kinetic friction between the blade and the object being cut lower, what slows a blade is mostly the object in front pushing directly back on it. It would certainly not hinder cutting, but the reduction in friction is nominal in comparison to the force required to cut an object. This being said lubrication would help sharper knives more than dull knives because the force to cut forward is lower, and as such friction may come into play, albeit barely. As stated earlier the lubricate makes sure that liquids don't accumulate on the blade and cause it to rust, although you should still keep your knives clean.

TLDR: Not really, although the sharper the knife the more it would help.


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

[User] By what mechanism(s) do our orifices resist infections that cuts in our skin do not have?

[Assistant]
There's several:

* Friendly bacterial flora. They are capable of "out-competing" the bad bacteria in places like your mouth and anus. If the area is already colonized, it makes it that much more difficult for pathologic bacteria to colonize. A good example showing this is that if you wipe out someone's natural flora with antibiotics, they have a susceptibility to c. diff, which is a pathologic bacteria

* Physical mechanisms. The urethra is probably the best example of this. When you urinate, it flushes out bacteria. Things like a catheter that take away that natural flushing mechanism and can lead to UTIs. Women have a shortened urethra, which also leads them more susceptible to UTIs than men.

* Chemical mechanisms. Two examples of these are saliva in your mouth and vaginal secretions. They create a chemically unfavorable environment(pH, denaturing enzymes) that combat bacteria.

* Your actual cellular immune system. Places like your GI tract contains MALT, or Mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue. MALT is a highly concentrated area of immune tissue which helps fight pathologic bacteria

* Antibodies. Mucosal surfaces like the GI tract contain high concentrations of IgA immunoglobins, which bind to pathogens and prevent infections

Sterile environments like the bloodstream and unnatural orifices(skin cuts) lack some of these barriers which can lead to infection. edit: **Just some clarification -- the sterile parts of your body DO have protective systems(including antibodies and the cellular immune system), but lacks some of the other ones. This is why you don't get an infection every time you get a cut.**


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

[User]
[X-Men] I'm a fairly ordinary medical researcher at a fairly ordinary university. How hard would it be for me to get a hold of mutant DNA/tissue (or maybe even a few mutant volunteers) for my research in a safe and ethical manner?

I'm not interested in secret government experiments or shady underground criminal deals. I'm not trying to create super soldiers, or 'cure' mutation, or anything like that; I'm just trying to answer the important questions, like "how exactly does a mutant healing factor work?" or "do all mutant telepaths have the same basic power, or are they actually entirely different mutations with the same general effects?" or "what happens if I insert the X-gene into a model organism, like a mouse?".

Surely it shouldn't be hard to get my hands on at least some research materials, right?

[Assistant] You could always ask the X-Men if they would be willing to send some of their own research or volunteers to help. Theyll probably do a lot of back-checking on you, but if youre as ordinary as you say you are, then there shouldnt be a problem.


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

[User]
CMV: A jury should not be a group of laymen. It should be comprised of experts who would actually understand the evidence presented.

Jurors should be selected based on their expertise, depending on the nature of the trial. If it's a murder trial, a jury of forensic experts should be chosen to determine whether the evidence points to a guilty verdict. If it's a financial fraud trial, a jury of financial experts should be chosen to determine whether financial fraud actually took place.

Far too many trials end up being about the lawyers appealing to emotion and softening the jury because they know the jury probably wouldn't actually understand the case. As a layman, if two opposing forensic experts present evidence for and against the defendant, I wouldn't know who to believe because it's not my area of expertise. I'm left having to choose which expert to believe. It shouldn't be up to laymen. It should be up to people who actually understand the evidence.

[Assistant]
This is not the point of juries. Juries are peers of the defendant, and their purpose is to provide an impartial ruling based on the facts presented to them.

If there are technical issues that the jury needs to understand then expert witnesses are called to explain the intricacies to the jury. If it is unclear which of two competing witnesses is correct then either the defence or the prosecution or both have failed to present their case properly.

Think of it this way: if there are two expert witnesses who present opposite sides of the case, how would you decide which of them to have on the jury? Surely each side would argue to have their preferred expert sit on the panel?

The precise purpose of juries is that they have no special understanding; they are a stand-in for the "man on the street".


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

[User] ELI5:Why diarrhea burns your butt.

[Assistant] Diarrhea usually involves undigested food. This is accompanied by the acids in your stomach which were unable to fully break down the food, so the contact of the internal acid on your butt-skin causes the stinging sensation.


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

[User]
[ELI5] There is soon going to be a mile high sky scraper. How come we don't go subterranean? Surely it's safer? No collapse... No unreachable fires... So why not go down?

FOR THE SAKE OF ALL THE GODS ABOVE AND BELOW... PLEASE READ THIS EDIT:

People keep mentioning "you have to dig up earth"... wouldn't open cast mines be a good place for an underground hive?... I mean... Subterranean settlement?

Maybe a mine?

It's just a hypothetical. Please be nice.

[Assistant] Earthquakes are still a problem. Things can still errode underground. Proper ventilation would be an issue. Then you have to dig a massive hole in the ground. Thats not cheap. You have to make sure the underground part can support the earth around it. Theres no natural lighting. There cant be any windows or views. Its not as simple as you might think.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does cat nip effect cats like it does, but not dogs or other animals?

Thanks for the help, I've always been curious.

[Assistant]
Terms to know:
Nepetalactone - a compound in catnip
/ Olfactory system - the sensory system used for smell

In short, researchers are really unsure what exactly causes the cats to go into a craze like they do, thus they can't figure out why dogs / other animals aren't so easily affected by it. There isn't really an answer to this, however, here's a little information on what happens.

From what researchers can grasp onto.. Inside of catnip there is nepetalactone, which is known to be a very strong compound. The way that this compound effects cats is that it gets into the cats noses and to where the olfactory system is, the nepetalactone binds to the receptors inside of the olfactory system and triggers signals to the brain. Researchers aren't quite sure why exactly cats react to it as they do, they suspect that it pretty much mimics cats "happy" pheromones and cause a reaction in their brains that is the same reaction that comes from those "happy" pheromones.

For measure on how strong catnip is-- researchers say that the compound nepetalactone is up to TEN times more effective at repelling insects than the most commonly used compound in insect repellents. So imagine all that strength inside of the cats little nosies? Crazy, right?


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

[User]
CMV: Showers are better than baths when the purpose is to get clean.

I totally understand there are valid reasons to take a nice warm bath. If you're looking to relax, or soothe your  muscles for instance, then I get the whole bath thing. I'm pretty sure baths are really good for exfoliating skin as well. However when we are talking about cleanliness I would argue there's no comparison. Showers evenly distribute water over your body while efficiently mixing with soap to break apart oils, dirt, and sweat that are stuck to your skin. Plus in a bath you're kind of left to sit in the water that's now mixed with all the grime that comes off your body, as opposed to the dirty water being sucked down the drain when you're in the shower. Again, I'm not bashing baths here, just saying when the priority is to get yourself clean, I don't think it's even close.

[Assistant] For most people, youre right. But you have to consider disabled people as well. What if someone cant move as freely in the shower so parts of them dont make contact with soap and water? In a bath, at least their whole body can get wet.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are the pieces in a torrent downloaded in random order rather than sequential?

[Assistant]
Torrents split up the files into smaller numbered chunks.

When you download the torrent, you need people who have the pieces to upload to you.

Torrenting works faster when everyone downloading has different parts of the torrent, because then you can upload that portion of the torrent too, meaning the file spreads outwards like a web or ripple.

If everyones client tried to download sequentially, it would form a bottle neck as everyone else waits to download the same portion, and then upload that same portion to everyone else... causing a wedge-like formation of file dispersion.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do we have nostalgia and how does it work?

[Assistant]
Its more or less a glitch. An incident that made you happy then will still make you happy now.

You ate pizza with your friends. (At that time it just made u happy cuz pizza n friends)
Now it makes you happy because you had no worries, no debt, no job. Just friends, pizza and pokemon.


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

[User]
I'm confused about gravity. Is it a particle? If not, how does it exist and if so, does it have a mass?

Just confused.  Someone said there is a speed of gravity that is the same as the speed of light.  But if gravity isn't a particle it shouldn't have a top speed.  And if it does have a particle then it has to have some mass, no?

Thanks for any answers ahead of time.

[Assistant]
Graviton is a **hypothetical** elementary particle that may happen to be the carrier of gravity. This is not proved yet and some of the brightest minds are looking for it.

It is not mandatory for all elementary particles to have mass - best example is photon. So, graviton, if it exists will also not have mass and it will always move at speed of light - *c*

Irrespective of that, gravity is fundamental force, just like electromagnetism and couple of others. As per special relativity no force (information) can move faster than speed of light in vacuum. This applies to gravity as well.


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

[User]
(GOT/ASOIAF) What if Robb Stark just gave up the war?

Lets say that shortly after executing Karstark, Robb decided to cut his losses and fully retreat back to the North. How would events play out from this decision?

[Assistant]
If he just gave up and went back to Winterfell, he would have lost the support of all of his bannermen and lords who felt that they were fighting for a noble and worthy cause. He would have been alone in his castle (well, as alone as a major lord can be) when the Lannister armies arrived to execute him for treason. There's also a good chance the men who had been fighting for him would join that army both to keep themselves alive and get revenge on him for abandoning their goals.

There really isn't a way Robb survives the war. Either he is betrayed or he betrays everyone around him and pays a bloody price.


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

[User]
Do Cells That Make Up The Brain Get Replaced?

Skin cells die and get replaced with new ones continuously. Does a similar process happen for cells that make up the human brain?

[Assistant]
The classic answer is no: once you're an adult, the neurons you have are there and you're pretty much stuck with them. The connections between them are constantly changing, though, which is essentially how memory and learning takes place (obviously a very simplified picture).

However, that picture has been complicated more recently. There's evidence that a few areas in the brain (part of the hippocampus and an area called the subventricular zone) can grow new neurons in adulthood. We're also starting to understand more and more the importance of glial cells, which make up something like 90% of the cells in your nervous system. They do a bunch of things and there are many types, but generally they provide support, protection, and nutrients for the neurons...but we're finding out more and more that they're very important for creating and maintaining junctions between neurons and may play a key role in a bunch of diseases and psychiatric illnesses.


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

[User]
[Marvel] Did Captain America ever serve in the Pacific during the war?

The title pretty much says it all. After his transformation, did Cap ever serve in the Pacific, or was he specifically fighting in the European Theater?

[Assistant]
Yes, he fought the Japanese. And he was incredibly racist while doing so, heh. There are plenty of vintage Captain America comics where he serves in the Pacific, fighting the Japanese while calling them "japs", "yellow monkies" and "nips" left and right.

He pretty much saw action on all fronts in the war.


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

[User] [Pokemon] Who pays for all the Poke-Healthcare? Why is direct care free everywhere but medicine is so expensive?

[Assistant]
Free health care comes because of the invention of the Poke-Healing Station, which allows for quick and easy healing of pokemon at a fixed location. This was created by the Joy family, which is why there is a Nurse Joy at every pokemon center.

However, such an invention has not yet been made portable, so the medicine sold by stores is the next best thing. You can't really expect a store owner not to try and make money from the situation, and selling potions and status healers is a fairly profitable business strategy.


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

[User] ELI5: What actually happens when your finger gets "jammed" and why does it hurt so much?

[Assistant]
Your finger takes enough force that this force directly translates as pressure to the bones. The bones bump at the joints, causing a bone bruise at the joint. The injury can be accompanied by strain on tendons/fibers depending on how the injury occurred.
     Pain is caused by the chemical response to the injury, and the nerve endings available to receive the signals. In your fingers, there are a lot of nerve endings, presumably (from an evolutionary standpoint) to allow for sensitivity and control. We use our hands for so much that it is good to be able to tell a lot about our environment from the hands. The greater number of nerve endings means a more intense response (pain).


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

[User]
How difficult to find a position at a research university?

I am applying to PhD programs this fall in political science. While I do desire to teach, I am primarily motivated by a desire to spend my time doing research. How difficult is it to find a job at a research university, or at least one with a 2-1 or 2-2 teaching load?

[Assistant] Easiest way to find this out is to go to such a university's webpage, find the department of interest, look through the CVs of the untenured assistant professors. Then remember to scale up cos that shit keeps getting harder.


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

[User]
Why do we have different soaps for different things? What are the differences between, say, shampoo and dishwasher liquid that prevents them from being interchangeable?

Why couldn't we use hand soap in our hair, shampoo for our dishes, dishwasher liquid for our laundry, etc? Are there chemical properties of each that only allow them to be used on certain materials/in certain conditions?

[Assistant]
Shampoos, hand soaps, dish soaps, etc have foaming agents that you would not want in your dishwasher or washing machine. Dishwasher detergents have abrasives to scrub dirt away, but this probably wouldn't be desirable or necessary for a shampoo.

There are lots of ingredients in these products that are tailored to the specific use they're intended for. You can try this yourself by washing your hair with body soap or dawn dish soap and compare to a shampoo. Or put dawn in your washing machine and observe the results.


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

[User]
[WH40K] how do warp drives and Gellar fields work?

I know what they do, I'm more interested the mechanism(s) that they operate under.

[Assistant]
You are asking dangerous questions, adept.

Seriously, like, execution worthy. And not just because no one seems to know (GW's never gone into anything approaching detail).

We know that all Warp Drive systems, including the Tau's and even the Webway gates of the Eldar, operate by utilising a 'warp core'. This seems to be a mechanical anchor into the Warp which when powdered allows for the formation of an aperture through which the ship can pass. The density of the core influences the power necessary and the total extent of the 'portal' but beyond that we don't know anything.

Gellar Fields are a energy shield which holds back the effects of warp exposure. How, again, is not clear, but when activated in real space, and then transitioning to the warp, the physical laws of the material universe remain in effect within the confines of the field. Likely they react similar to the Warp Cores, but in reverse. Instead of creating a breach into the Warp, they prevent the Warp from influencing their contained micro-space.


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

[User]
[Jumanji] What happens if one of the players dies?

Does their turn get skipped or is everybody fucked?  If they finish the game does that player come back to life?

[Assistant]
They're eliminated from the game. What happens if every player is eliminated before the game can be won? Mercifully, the world has never had to find out.

The completion of a game of Jumanji reverses time to before it was opened, so yes, should someone win the game, they will be restored to life-- or more accurately, they never will have died in the first place.


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

[User] [The Defenders] Any of them capable enough to be able fight alongside the MCU members?

[Assistant] I would say all of them either could or have the potential to. Daredevil is easily Black Widow tier with his martial arts expertise and Iron Fist could surpass that as he learns to harness his powers more. Luke Cage has strength and durability that surpasses Captain America so he could fit right in. Jessica Jones might have the hardest time with her limited combat experience, but with proper training she could be an Avenger if she wanted to. If Falcon, Hawkeye, and Black Widow can be Avengers, the Defenders definitely can.


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

[User] ELI5: How do networks know how many people are actually watching a show?

[Assistant]
It depends on the medium.
Online they can actually get pretty good numbers, while they don't know how many people are watching a single screen, they do know how many devices requested a copy of the show.  They also don't know the demographics who watch shows online, but use other tracking methods to estimate which demographics viewers belong to.

For TV, obviously they don't get detailed information like that because the technology doesn't work like that.  This means they use statistics and sampling to try to make up for the lack of direct feedback.  Neilsen ratings are the most popular of these.  They first asked for TV show diaries, but eventually moved to set top boxes.  These have a number of known sampling problems.

For the self-reporting, people know that they're being watched.  This causes them to leave out shows they're ashamed of watching, or marking down that they've watched shows they thought they ought to but in fact had not.

For the set top boxes, the problems are different.  First, even choosing a representative sample to start from is difficult.  Out of that, people have to accept the boxes so the numbers are distorted away from shows that the type of people who don't want a Neilsen box in their home like to watch.  Even within households, they attempted to measure demographics (who's actually watching) and this again encountered some of the same problems with self-reporting where family members would enter someone else's code because they were ashamed at what they were watching.

In short, to answer your question of how they know how many people are watching a show, they don't.  They ask a fraction of a percent of the general population to take these surveys, then multiply those numbers to estimate how much of the general population watches any particular show.  There are a number of problems in the survey and those problems get multiplied when those numbers are scaled up.


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

[User]
ELI5:Why I can't undergone surgery in complete anesthesia when I have some (even little) infection?

I have chronic bacterial prostatitis and need knee surgery, but I have read on the internet that you can't be anasthesied if you have some kind of infection in your body. So, my question is why?

edit: Thanks for explanation guys!

[Assistant]
You can have anesthesia with an infection. Otherwise nobody could ever have their appendix removed under anesthesia.

What's more likely, since this is elective surgery unrelated to infection, is that they don't want to do surgery with an active infection because it raises the risk of post-surgery complications.


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

[User]
[DBZ] If Mr. Satan trained hard enough, would he eventually be able to survive being shot?

Mr. Satan outright dies at one point by being shot in the chest by a random guy with a gun. He gets resurrected after with the help of Majin Buu, but this got me thinking - could he ever be able to withstand that with enough training? I mean, Goku as a kid had a power level of TEN and was already bulletproof. Krillin was capable of withstanding energy blasts that destroyed entire cities. Can Mr. Satan ever gain that sort of endurance? Or is he just screwed because he was born without the ability or ki potential to become that powerful?

[Assistant]
Ki works as an all round stat buff except in certain circumstances. What makes the main characters in DB so superhuman is because they have so much of the shit. Krillin wasn't able to kick a guy through a wall as a kid because he had huge muscles like the hulk, its because he large amounts of ki. Ki also buffs your durability. If your ki is high enough then yes you are bullet proof. Even DB era krillin and roshi were bullet proof.

To answer the question specifically about Mr. Satan it all depends on how he trains. If he just continues with conventional training forms as he as always done then no. He is still weak to bullets. But say one of the main characters decides to teach him how to harness and train his ki, then he would become immune to them just like everyone else.


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

[User] If gorilla's have been shown to be able to learn and comprehend sign and spoken language, why have they not developed their own crude language?

[Assistant]
They do not understand sign/spoken language to the level you believe. Much of the Koko-The-Gorilla studies you are probably thinking of are vastly over hyped by both the project leads and the media. While gorillas are very intelligent creatures, most linguists do not consider them to have the capability to communicate complex ideas such as those not directly connected to their current emotions. That said, they are still certainly able to communicate in the wild concerning potential predators or general emotions which is interesting in itself.

As for why they don't have the ability to communicate to the same degree humans do there are multiple hypothesizes such as the lack of certain gene sequences influencing brain development but it boils down to no evolutionary advantage to doing so. Gorillas do not hunt in large packs or build large structures so communication does not need to be complex to get the job done. With the energy that in humans would be used to feed large linguistic centers of the brain gorillas can instead develop better senses, muscles or general efficiency.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are there so much 'breakthrough' research on cures for cancer, but they don't seem to get out of the laboratories and into the hospitals?

I keep seeing articles on 'breakthrough' cures for cancer, but somehow or another these technologies don't  seem to be found in hospitals- I mean the 'go to' cure still boils down to chemotherapy? Why is this so?

[Assistant]
Research is hard. If we knew how to cure cancer and it was just a question of spending enough money or time, we'd have done it by now.

But it doesn't work that way. There are lots of ideas on how to cure various types of cancer but to test each idea takes millions of dollars and years of studies - typically first on animals, and then on humans only if the animal tests are successful. Most of those ideas won't end up working - they'll end up doing more harm than good. A few ideas will help a bit, but they won't be a complete solution. Other ideas won't work but will lead to an interesting discovery that others can learn from.

Research is based on a grant funding model. Every year many thousands of scientists apply for grants to work on cancer research. In their grant application they explain the idea they want to try.

Funding organizations (government and private charities) choose which researchers to fund based on how much they like the idea, and the track record of the researcher applying for the grant.

At the end of a grant - typically a few years, like 3 years or 5 years, the researcher publishes their findings. Obviously 99% of them won't actually discover a cure for cancer, so they have to put as much of a positive spin on what they did learn. Even if they weren't successful, they may have learned something - and it's important to publish that information so that others can learn from their attempt - even if that just means learning that a particular idea didn't work and should be tried.

Journalists then take those publications, most of which are quite honest about the fact that they made interesting incremental progress that might someday help lead towards a cure for cancer, and they write headlines that are a lot more sensational based on those. So you end up hearing every week about a "major breakthrough" when in reality it was probably just another small step in the right direction.


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

[User]
ELI5: What is the deal with Dubai?

I feel like I've only heard of Dubai in the last five or ten years. What's the low-down on the city/country's rise to noticeability?

[Assistant] Oil money. Then they leveraged that oil money for credit to build up Dubai, initiating a huge slew of construction projects (islands, manmade reefs, tallest building, giant indoor skiing mountain). Some of these building projects are so ostentatious and excessive that people took notice. They have been building a Las Vegas in the Middle East (although they'd compare themselves to Singapore -- they want to be the major trading port of the ME). However, with the recession that hit in 2007, they lost a ton of money and have been unable to sell a lot of what they built. They've had to take a huge ($60bil iirc) loan from their neighboring Emirate cities.


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

[User] Why do animals (including us humans) have symmetrical exteriors but asymmetrical innards?

[Assistant]
Most of our asymmetry is due to just two organ systems: the GI tract and the heart. The concept that best explains the shape of both of these systems is the idea that a long organ that has to fit in a small body does so by being wound up.

The heart could be composed of a linear arrangement of a pump, the lungs, and then a second pump. In some organisms like the worm, the heart is a linear pump. However the human body cannot accommodate a linear arrangement and thus we have what is effectively a tube curled up on itself.

The GI tract is the same story. It would be hugely long if a linear, thus it has to be wound up inside of us. There is no symmetrical way to wind it up. Many organs like the pancreas and the liver actually bud off of the GI tract during development so the asymmetry of the GI tract explains the asymmetry of many of the other abdominal organs. However those organs not involved in the GI system like the ovaries in the kidneys tend to be relatively, although not perfectly, symmetrical. Likewise the lungs are not perfectly symmetrical because the left lung must accommodate the heart.

The one interesting thing about this whole conversation is that the direction that things rotate in the human body during development is due to tiny molecular motors called "cilia". If there is a genetic defect in just a single protein that composes the cilia, the cilia are no longer able to guide the process and there is a 50/50 chance that the organs will rotate the "wrong" way. This leads to the inversion of all symmetry in the human body called "situs inversus". This leads to occasional moments of extreme confusion for doctors, seeing as patients often don't even know they have reversed symmetry.


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

[User] [Star Trek/Harry Potter] Assuming that the wizarding community has continued to remain hidden, what would their culture and society be like in the 24th century?

[Assistant] The Federation has encountered stranger things than HP magic. By the 24'th century, they probably know what magic is, how it works, and what alien is causing it. Even if they remain hidden, the revelation that muggles have truly figured out magic, reducing it to physics, is hardly something Wizarding culture would survive.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do the colors on your computer screen become distorted when you apply pressure to the screen? And what determines what color these distorted pixels turn to?

[Assistant]
You're using a liquid crystal display. This means that there's a sheet of liquid crystals in between a bunch of other screens and filters, and behind all of that is a light. When you apply an electrical charge to liquid crystals you can change their shape, and when that happens the direction and color of the light as it passes through can be changed.

But you can also change the shape by pressing on them through the filters. Because this is much less precise than you can get with an electric current, it sort of warps into a blob of colors instead of a coherent image. When you remove pressure, the electrical current takes back control and forces the liquid crystals into the correct shape again.

Its hard to predict the colors since you have to take into account the previous configuration of the liquid crystals, the amount of pressure you're putting on them, the location of the pressure, and the type of light and filters used in the display. So it usually just creates a strange gray sort of color.


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

[User]
If the gravitational force linearly decreases to zero as you approach a planet's center, does that mean the region of the highest pressure in a gas giant isn't necessarily the center?

This might be stupid question, but it's something I've been thinking about. I can't wrap my head around how there is any pressure at the center of something if there's no gravitation force there.

[Assistant]
Pressure inside the center of a gas giant isn't due to the gravity felt at that one spot, but by the weight of all the matter surrounding it. For example, the air pressure you feel at sea level is caused by the weight of all the air above you.

Another way to think about it is in terms of potential energy. Consider the planet's center, filled with a high density of molecules. If you were to magically place a box in the center, you would have to clear out room for it by pushing all of those molecules out of the center. As you push the displaced molecules away from the center, they would displace more molecules to make room, etc etc all the way to the edge of space for the planet. In essence, you have slightly increased the radius of the planet by placing a box in the middle, increasing the gravitational potential of all the molecules that had to move slightly further away from the center. The planet resists this increase in potential energy, which the box feels as pressure. Why is this increase in potential energy greatest in the middle? Well, if you put the box halfway to the core of the planet, then the particles below it are not affected. When you put it in the middle, every particle is affected.


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

[User]
[Marvel] Through the usual Marvel Universe shenanigans, Frank Castles family gets revived. How does this affect him?

And how would he react to a supervillain taking them hostage?

[Assistant] Honestly, this might be the thing that breaks him, crying at his revived family... but also having to explain to his family what happened when they were murdered, and why they died. He might end up retiring, with both heroes *and* villains declaring the Castles untouchable (since the heroes don't particularly like Frank's brand of vigilantism and the villains think that keeping them alive will keep them safe).


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

[User]
What would happen if we built a giant smokestack that was tall enough to be in space, and started burning a bunch of stuff on the ground?

Might be a silly question. Still curious just the same.

What would happen to the smoke/pollution if we started burning a bunch of stuff here on earth but had all of the nastiness float up through a giant smokestack some distance off into space? Would it dissipate or just hang out there, ready to poison us at some later date?

Thanks for any answers!

[Assistant]
Assuming you can build the stack in a way that it's stable. And then assuming that you could find a way to make sure everything goes all the way to the top and you could actually eject stuff into space...

Earth's gravity would just pull all that crap back into the upper atmosphere.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does "double-jumping" on a trampoline work?

What energy transfer happens?

[Assistant] Double jumping occurs when you are jumping on the trampoline with another person and the jumps are timed in such a way that the stored energy of two people landing at the same time is converted to kinetic energy and applied to a single person.  Basically, both people land, applying the weight of both bodies, but one person removes their weight first, basically doubling the rebound effect of the trampoline on the second person causing them to get bounced much higher.


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

[User]
[Borderlands] What was life like on Pandora before it went to hell?

The planet reads like an apocalypse world.  Scattered infrastructure indicates the world was on some level successfully colonized.  If you weren't a prisoner, how bad off were you living there in the short time it didn't completely suck?

[Assistant]
The dahl corporation colonized it originally. They built old haven and sanctuary as the main settlements around their mining operations. Eventually the mining became less profitable and the planet was abandoned. Several companies would attempt to settle various regions for mining or exploitation with various degrees of success. The planet steadily decayed as stranded colonists and escaped prisoners built small communities and violent gangs with new influxes of technology being rare. It wasn't until later that the first vault was discovered and a new gold rush was aimed at the heart of pandora and elpis.

During this time elpis Pandora's moon was colonized by Dahl and a renewed interest at reclaiming their former colony was launched. This pretty rapidly broke down as the atlas corporation came in with a hostile takeover. They devastated most of Pandora's struggling settlements and as Dahl pulled out again even more colonists were abandoned. Atlas brought no new technology or settlements but built a handful of fortresses to search for the vault from. Leading into the events of the first game.

So during it's height and Dahls first operations Pandora was a wild wilderness with a handful of small towns and a few cities built near mining sites and laboratories. There was little attempts to protect the ecosystem so the seas were nearly drained around the coastal regions seen in Knox's armory and garbage was left everywhere creating the trash coast and mountains of refuse as Dahl imported garbage from other colonies. It was always a blue collar settlement filled with salt of the earth types and a penal colony but never was it close to civilization like promethea.


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

[User]
How do housing prices and rent increase simultaneously in areas without significant population growth while a record number of new homes are being built?

Edit: To clarify Im located in the Oklahoma City metro area, according to multiple websites that track population growth, for the last couple years population growth has slightly declined while all the above factors remain true. Im wondering if there are any other factors or phenomenon that can explain the increase housing prices as of late. Such as income increasing allowing people live without roommates.

[Assistant]
Can you clarify which areas you're referring to? Because most US places with large rent increases have seen large increases in demand and relatively little housing supply growth.

I will note that you should be careful reasoning from (a lack of) population increases and supply increases: If demand for housing in Miami goes up and Miami doesn't build any housing, then price goes up, but population and housing supply will stay the same (because we haven't built any housing for people to move into, it's just new, richer residents replacing old, poorer ones).


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

[User] ELI5: If I put water into a freezer with a temperature of ~-5 C and close the door, why doesn't it freeze instantaneously?

[Assistant]
Freezing something is like trying to calm a group of people down.  The larger the group is(more volume) and the more pissed they all are(hotter), the longer it will take to cool them all off.

The more effective the negotiator(colder freezer), the faster the people calm down.

Consider energy, momentum, inertia, and the ability to diminish these things.


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

[User] [Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory] Is Wonka singing off the top of his head or has he rehearsed, along with the Ompa Loompas, these extensive musical numbers with choreography and special affects? Or are we seeing a very serious situation through the lens of a small, impoverished, hungry child?

[Assistant]
It's strongly implied that yes, he planned all this, along with choreography (in the depp movie, someone suspiciously points out that these are far too polished to be spontaneous)

He's...a very strange man.


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

[User] If LIDAR from self driving cars shoots lasers, will there be "LIDAR pollution" from hundreds of cars shooting lasers?

[Assistant]
Depends on in what sense you are referring to "Lidar pollution". There will be no visible effect due to the lasers being in the infrared wavelength range.

If you mean will there be crosstalk or interference from other nearby Lidars in a crowded area, that is a possibility, but there are methods to get around that issue.  One way is to use coherent scanning technology which allows the unit to send out a series of pulses with a specific signature encoded into it that the detector can check for when it receives a signal.  In that way, the signals from other nearby Lidars wont cause the unit to register false returns.


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

[User]
CMV: Why should I try an open relationship with my girlfriend?

Edit: At this point, I will be tuning out. Going on possibly my last date with my girlfriend. I'll update at some time after we've talked if this thread is even pertinent, or if it's very pertinent and able to give me some more reasons for trying out an open relationship.

Edit 2: Yeah, no need for the thread. Called off the relationship. Thanks all for those who gave their advice; maybe someone else is in a similar situation and got some thinking done with this.

---

My girlfriend and I have dated for 3 years now, with each of us being our second significant other. We both think each other are great, and casual conversation has talked about the distant future of having a house together or going on nice vacations.

However, she has decided she is too afraid of regretting not dating other people. She would be willing to try an open relationship and not just break up, but I don't think I want to do that.

I think I'd be insanely jealous of whatever guys she sees, and envious of her because she has the looks and social skills to date nearly anyone she would want to. I'm not sure that I could easily find someone else to date, or that anyone I find could ever be as great as her for a lifelong partner.

We're also long distance right now, and have been for the last several months, and would still be for the next year at least. I thought it was working OK until she broke the news about what she wants. I can't imagine that I'll actually really get anything out of it being long distant and her new boyfriends and girlfriends being much closer and easier to see.

I'm open for feedback on either direction, though I recognize the orangereds should be persuading me to try the open relationship as per the comment rules. After an hour or so, I may not be able to respond to anyone who wants to ask for more background information or more of my opinion on certain things. But that first hour, I'll be available.

I am willing to change my view in an attempt to keep who I very much love around, but at this point I am leaning toward either we're exclusive or we're broken up.

[Assistant] If she brought it up that way, sorry to say, but it's already over. Especially if you are long distance. She's anxious to date (ie have sex with) other people and you are an obstacle not a reason not to.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do thermos flask bottles advertise 24hrs cold and 12hrs hot. Shouldn't it be the same amount of time for temps in both directions?

[Assistant]
The difference in temperature determines how fast heat transfers.

Ice water at 0 C is 25 degrees C from 25 C room temperature.

Hot water at 80-100 C is 55-75 degrees C from 25 C room temperature.

Hot water is more than double the temperature difference of cold water, so it changes temperature faster. Thus, the water inside will remain hot for a shorter time than cold water remains cold.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] What happened to Luke's landsleeder?

In A New Hope, Luke and Ben appear to leave the landsleeder behind in Mos Eisley parking just before they leave the planet with Han. What happened to it after that? Is there a tow truck service on Tattooine? Did the Hutts auction it off at some point?

[Assistant] Landsleeder? you mean the landsleeder that Lonk and Ubi-Jim sold in Must Earnsloh to pay Horn and Kubichakka so they could all leave Toottoohuun in the Millionaires Flagoon? You mean that Landsleeder?


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

[User]
ELI5:How are emulators written?

I only have very basic programming knowledge (like CS101-level) and I can't imagine how someone reverse-engineers a console like that. I heard they use programmer manuals sometimes? But I'm not sure about that.

[Assistant]
The entirety of an emulator all at once is overwhelming for anyone.

You write an emulator via divide-and-conquer: you do lots of small bits, and slowly link them together.

The initial way you get the information is through leaked programmer manuals, official instruction set manuals for given processors, and through pain-staking reverse engineering. For instance, if you want to know how the overflow flag is set, but it's not documented, you perform every possible add operation, log the flag results of each, analyze the output and manipulate your own code until you can match your logged data. You do this through lots and lots of educated guesses. The better your deductive reasoning skills, the better you'll be at writing an emulator. Electrical engineering skills really help out for the earliest reverse-engineering efforts in helping you to run code on the hardware and get some initial analysis work done.

After a system is well emulated, you can use the source and debuggers from other emulators. But you're really just emulating an emulator at that point. It's fine if you want to do that, of course.

The biggest requirement for writing your first emulator is being willing to spend potentially a few months staring at a blank video output screen. Your only indication of it being alive will be your CPU debugger printing out hundreds of megabytes of text as you step through instructions.

Once you have some games running, you then spend the next ten or so years analyzing and fixing bugs, only to cause more bugs in the process. So it's a nice, decade-long game of whack-a-mole.


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

[User]
How do flash grenades work?

What causes the flash, as well as the loud noise?

[Assistant] Usually a reaction between a metal (e.g. Magnesium) and an oxidiser (e.g. ammonium perchlorate) . Basically a small explosion, but with the results focused on light and sound rather than concussive force. If you've ever burned magnesium in school, basically the badass version of that.


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

[User] [Marvel] does war machine send his suit to tony for repair and upgrades since he's the only one who knows how this tech works. Does tony give him this service?

[Assistant] When considering the War Machine armor, the systems come in two classes; proprietary "StarkTech" hardware like the power systems, repulsor thrusters, etc, and more conventional military hardware. Most of the ordnance on the War Machine are conventional military weapons modified to be able to interface with the suit, and their care and upkeep can be handled by the armorers and technicians of the USAF. The StarkTech components are tougher, and a limited number of people (like Rhodes himself, technicians on contract from Stark Industries, Tony, or a limited number of outside experts) are trained and qualified to do stuff like swap out a dead thruster or upgrade the internal sensors and controls. If needed, during periods where Tony and Rhodes are on good terms, Tony himself could show up to help resolve a major issue with the suit.


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

[User] How did all the salt in the ocean get there?

[Assistant]
Rain falls on land. Land contains salt which dissolves in the rain. Rain eventually makes it to streams and rivers that eventually lead to the ocean. Water then evaporates from the ocean to become rain again but the salt that was dissolved in the water cannot evaporate so it stays in the ocean.

Rinse repeat for billions of years.


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

[User]
What is the next form of governance beyond nation-states?

Right now, the world is divided into nation-states yet this was not always the case.

Before this, the world was ruled mostly by monarchies and their colonies. There was a time when city-states held a lot of power. Before that, feudal states held sway in much of the world.

Way back there were empires which arose, held power, then fell.

Is anyone writing about what the next phase might look like? Ideas?

[Assistant]
There was a push of this type of inquiry in the 60s, with neofunctionalists like Ersnt B. Haas, for instance his book "Beyond the Nation State". The argument of neofunctionalists is largely that while states create international/regional organizations, those organizations bureaucracies take on a life of their own and expand their functions and powers; the assumption further is that these organizations are more effective and efficient than wars and conflict for solving disputes and thus states will continue to surrender powers upwards.

More contemporary work on international integration exists, and much of it focused on the emergence of the European Union...but that has been called into question by the various challenges facing the EU the past decade or so. Intergovernmentalism is the other major strain of thought there, and while still advocating for regional-level integration between states, tends to assume states retrain more power and control over these arrangements than a functionalist would.


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

[User]
When staring at stars in the night sky, where are they from? Are they only local to our milky way?

I have been out to the country to see the Milky Way pass over head. So I understand that those stars in that band passing over head belong to the Milky way, but what about the other 90% of the sky? In every direction there is a star or spec of light to stare at. Where are these stars? How far away are they?

I realize thats difficult to answer but what I am really asking is, am I only looking at the milky way when I look up or are those small flickers of light traveling from other galaxies? It may be a simple answer but its one of those things I was never told or taught, and google didnt give me the best results.

[Assistant] Pretty much all in the milky way. The stripe you see across the sky is what you see when you look towards the center of the galaxy. The other stars are inclined above or below that direction. There aren't that many extragalactic objects you can see without a telescope (I think just Andromeda?)


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

[User] If it takes the earth 23hrs 56m to rotate, why dont days get offset the closer we get to the leap day?

[Assistant]
If you fix a point among the backdrop of the stars (on the "celestial sphere"), it takes the Earth about 23 hours and 56 minutes to rotate so that that point returns to its same position in the sky. This is what we call a *sidereal* day: the period of Earth's rotation with respect to the celestial sphere. Since the celestial sphere for all practical purposes is stationary, this is the appropriate number to report when discussing the period of rotation of the Earth.

In one sidereal day, the Earth also moves a little bit in its orbit around the sun, which means that the sun, as viewed against the celestial sphere, moves too. After one sidereal day, when your imaginary point is again directly above you, the Sun is slightly off to the side of where it used to be. That's why it takes slightly longer than one sidereal day for the sun to be in the same position. This is a *solar* day and is, on average, equal to about 24 hours.

Over one whole year, the sun moves exactly once around the celestial sphere, which means there should be exactly one more sidereal day than solar day. You can then calculate the difference between the two (assuming one year is 365.24 days):

1 / (365.24 + 1) * 24 * 60 = 3 minutes and 56 seconds.


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

[User] ELI5:How can a woman create a fully functional baby in nine months but can barely heal a broken ankle thatll never work again properly?

[Assistant]
Because embryogenesis is a series of unimaginably complex and carefully sequenced construction tasks involving cellular machinery that is permanently switched off after the work is done. There's little room for error and everything has to happen right the first time- mistakes manifest as birth defects or failed pregnancy.

After that, our body's own healing mechanisms are responsible for injury recovery, which are not meant to build human body parts but to repair them. It's like trying to repair a building after it's already built- you'd need to disassemble existing structures to replace what's broken. The body can't do that.

We're complex creatures, and lack the ability to regenerate our bodies in part because a broken bone isn't the death sentence for us that it is for many other animals. We can still survive even if our body doesn't always heal perfectly.