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

[User]
[DC] If I'm a criminal in Gotham city, what should scare me more, coming home and finding a Batarang lodged on my desk, or a Joker playing card?

I heard the Batman doesn't kill.....but screw that, I'm not willing to take the chance, I hear the Bat is a demon, and with reports of Man-Bat flying around, OH HELL NO!

But Joker is a madman, I have no idea what he's gonna do. Although, he could just be proposing for a team-up, but why leave his card, why not just come meet me face to face.

Either way, both know where I live, means they keep tabs on me, I'm just worried who should I fear more.

[Assistant]
The Joker card

The Batarang is a warning, stop what you are doing and you'll be safe for now.

The Joker will go after you if he wants to, no matter what you do, and you'll have no idea when or how.

 You'll probably die of stress and Paranoia before he even shows up.

 Maybe that's the joke.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Are Jedi stupid?

It seems that in the films that there are many occasions where a Jedi  could one of their many force powers to do something that makes sense. However, they can apparently do almost God-like things but for some reason they just don't.  Of course if they used their powers in a more practical fashion the stories wouldn't be as good.

[Assistant] Jedi are bound by a looong list of morals, since they're supposed to be the "good guys" and pacifists, etc. Sith aren't bound by these morals, which is why they sometimes appear to have more powerful Force techniques (Force lightning, etc.) Also, every Jedi has a sort of "force barrier" preventing themselves from being harmed by Force attacks. This barrier can be broken, but does exist.


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

[User]
[Black Panther] Should Wakanda have stayed isolationist?

Black Panther is a strange movie which, while hammering down the need to open Wakanda, shows that isolationism is not just a viable option, but actually the best course of action.

Send brother as a spy to the USA? He turns into a black supremacist and tries to kill you. Attend the UN meeting? Boom, you've been assassinated. Let a half-breed mongrel compete for a throne? He nearly kills you and starts a civil war. Took part in the most ambitious crossover ever? Your kin torn to pieces, and the half of them still erased (even when Thanos' erasure would be nullified, killed Wakandans would stay dead).

Also, unlike in the real world, isolationism have no negative impact on prosperity or innovations with the Wakandan political system gone awry only when someone raised in a foreign culture became a king.

The only thing the should have been learned from the outside world are military tactics for protection against invaders as Ulysses Klaw and Thanos, but, alas, country's opening or not, Wakandans remain warriors, not soldiers.

There is, of course, a humanitarian angle, but I don't see how would opening a Wakandan cultural center in Oakland would help trafficked women in Africa. Not like Wakanda already helping them, of course.

[Assistant]
I guess because while they're a lot more advanced than others, just looking at Tony dicking around with stuff would be enough to know why.

They need to, the world is catching up. The world is changing. And they'd lose their leverage once they no longer possess a large technological advantage.


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

[User]
[MCU] Did superheroes who signed the Sokovia Accords reveal their identity?

I was watching a video tonight and it got me thinking...

In the Civil War comic storyline, the identities of the heroes who signed the Accords were public.

Obviously this isnt the case in the movie, as heroes such as Spiderman still have a secret identity. But did they reveal it to the government, or was there no process like this for heroes that have secret identities?

[Assistant] The entire point of the Sokovia Accords was to regulate powered individuals. That would be pretty difficult to do if they didn't know their identities. So yes, any enhanced person who signed the accords had to reveal their identity to the government.


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

[User] ELI5: Why if you don't eat if you're hungry for long enough, you dont feel hungry?

[Assistant]
You can survive some time without eating. Depending on how much fat stores you have.

You body normally functions without needing to use those fat stores and often just adds to them.

When you go hungry there is a delay in your body switching from using readily available energy and accessing the fat. This is that strong hunger you feel and then it goes away.

This is the simple version. Obviously it is a little more complicated.


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

[User] [ELI5] If hot air rises, then why is there snow on mountains?

[Assistant]
The temperature of air depends on pressure. In physics there's something called the ideal gas equation which looks like this:

PV = nRT

where P is pressure and T is temperature. You can see that if you make P smaller, T will be smaller as well. Air pressure goes down as you go up in altitude because gravity is pulling air closer to the surface - more air = more pressure. That means that as you go up in altitude, the air temperature drops.

Hot air never rises forever - it goes up, cools off, and then comes back down. The reason why nothing like that happens indoors is because you built a box around the air, so it hits the ceiling before it can get high enough for altitude to matter. Outside there's nothing to hold it down and so it rises until it cools off.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does oversleeping make us feel tired?

[Assistant] It often depends on where in your sleep cycle you wake up. Waking up during the deeper periods of the sleep cycle can leave you feeling significantly more groggy. Oversleeping could lead you into that deeper sleep where you are then awoken and you feel more tired. However, waking up during a lighter period can allow you to become more alert more quickly and even if you didn't get a lot of sleep, you can still feel more energetic.


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

[User]
[DC] Does Bruce Wayne have any friends?

*Dark Knight Returns* Bruce is friends with Gordon and Ollie, and *Lex Luthor: Man of Steel*'s is at least dinner friendly with Luthor, is there anyone else though?

Bonus question, who're Batman friends? Not his bat clan, but people he actually enjoys being around. I'll take any continuity, my favorite Batman stories are the ones where he and Clark actually like each other.

[Assistant]
Depends on your multiverse, or universe.

DCAU Bruce Wayne has a LOT of friends, at least as a young man. He alienates many of them as he grows older. Early career (BTAS) he's clearly pretty well-liked and popular in the Gotham social scene. You see him at the country club, parties, gallery openings, charity events, etc. and he's always met by people who seem to genuinely like him. By mid-career (TNBA) he's pushing people away, and he's pretty much entirely abandoned Bruce Wayne as a persona by the time the Justice League rolls around. He only is forced to re-engage his persona as Wayne once his body started to fail him (Batman Beyond), but by that point, he was known as a bizarre, bitter recluse.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] When did Vader become disillusioned with the Emperor?

Was there a single event that made him begin to question his choices?  How close, if at all, did he get to turning on Palpatine before the events of ROTJ?

[Assistant]
Depends. In legends it was within the first few days of the empire that palpatine put vader to work pacifying a separatist world. Palpatine was enslaving the former cis rather than abolishing slavery. While on this assignment vader asked a clone trooper if there was an order similar to 66 that would turn the troops against him. When the soldier admitted he couldn't divulge such an order if it did exist vader killed him to prevent palpatine finding out. After that he spent much of his free time gathering and training assassins to potentially kill palpatine but was always one step behind his master.

In canon vader seems to be doubting his choices constantly but it isn't until tarkin is elevated above vader that Vader starts to seriously plot against his master. Sometime after the death star's destruction Vader creates his own private army of droids to try and outplay palpatine from the shadows but again is always a few steps behind palpatine. He never fully trusts palpatine but after discovering palptine had been grooming replacements since vaders wounds on mustafar Vader actively plots to kill Palpatine but fumbles in the dark trying to find allies.

Both continuities vader ultimately fails until the battle of endor and the only major difference is vader is secretly against Palpatine as early as 19 bby in legends whereas in canon it's not until 0ABY.


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

[User]
What are the possible solutions for a slow reader?

I am a very slow reader when I try to read an article. I never can make things simple therefore  it is natural to have such a problem for me. I actually normally do not care about being slow because I want to understand the things in depth but because of the time being, I cannot write my papers/homeworks etc. on time. So, in real life (not in my dream world), I have serious problems because I am a slow reader. I know that you are experienced people in your study of areas. So could you make any beneficial recommendations to me?

P.S. I am a student of social sciences.

Edit: Thanks for all of the commentators who kindly help and make suggestions for being a good reader. You shared your experiences and advice with me sincerely. Not only because I got advice from you but also I thank you because you wanted to help a student who is in trouble.

[Assistant]
Ill let you in on a little secret about academic writing: you dont need to read every word in order to understand the material.

Here is one reading strategy that you might try. Read the first paragraph and then read the first sentence of every paragraph, and then read the final paragraph. You can do this for every chapter or even every section in an article. You can certainly slow down if something seems particularly interesting or important, and you want to make sure you read everything in bold or italics.  But generally this will help you get the key points of the reading.

Also, for most academic journal articles, you probably dont need to spend too much time on the methods section, unless you know it is something that you will be scrutinizing in class.


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

[User] ELI5: Typically, why do most abused children date abusive partners in their future?

[Assistant] Lingering self-confidence issues often draw them toward partners who are more controlling, who are therefore more likely to abuse them. Once abused they are also less likely to report it or leave the relationship since this treatment has been somewhat normalized in their own mind, as such they are less likely to be shocked enough to take action.


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

[User]
[X-Men] Could Magneto potentially use his powers to act as rail gun?

I need to know. How would this work? Would he increase magnetic fields around him or something? It'd be pretty badass.

[Assistant]
Does Magneto have the required level of power? Yes, recall how many times Magneto has stopped multiple bullets from regular firearm, which just replace magnetic acceleration with chemical reaction.

Does Magneto have the required accuracy? Yes, recall how many times a Magneto control a tiny speck of metal to accurately take down multiple threat. Even without one he can just attach a barrel to his hand and making pew pew sound.

A better question though, why would he? A railgun bullet can't turn around a cover nor taking down a flying target without killing them. A continuously controlled metallic contraption serve his need better than a small metal moving in a straight path.


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

[User] Why does the tip of your finger hurt after you cut the nail too short?

[Assistant] The skin under your nail has lots of nerve endings in it, just like the rest of your hands. These nerve endings are not used to being touched because normally they have a nail covering them up, so they are pretty sensitive. When you cut the nail too short you reveal the sensitive skin and it hurts.


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

[User]
Martian meteorites are found on Earth, is the converse also true?

Are there pieces of the Earth on Mars?  Have any been found?  If so, what can they teach us about Earth's past?

EDIT: some of these responses are very thoughtprovoking, thankyou!

[Assistant]
Almost certainly. However, whereas the Earth has several billion humans swarming all over it Mars has only had a handful of landers and rovers exploring a tiny area of the surface. It'll probably be quite some time before an Earth meteorite is found on Mars.

The biggest thing such meteorites would likely tell us is the composition of the ancient atmosphere of Earth.


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

[User]
If you have a perfect sphere sitting on a flat table, what is the surface area of the sphere that is in contact with the table?

This has been bugging me for a while because it feels like it should be infinitely small, but that doesn't make practical sense.

[Assistant]
Mathematically speaking, a perfect sphere resting on a perfectly flat surface touches the surface at a single point.

Physically, nothing is either perfectly spherical or perfectly flat. So it's just a very tiny surface.


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

[User]
[Monsterverse] How the hell did humanity become so advanced in godzilla vs kong? [spoilers]

In only 5 years they've managed to build massive megastructures and anti-gravity machines. They also  have underground monorails that can go from hong kong to pensacola. The hollow earth entry point in Antarctica has portals and huge metal pillars that expand for miles. Lets not forget the kong containment facility on skull island, which has its own artificial weather, mile long TV screens, and huge thick walls. Apex managed to create a robo godzilla with laser beams too! How the hell did monarch get that much funding? And most importantly, HOW did anyone get that much tech!? The only explanation would be reverse engineering, but even then theres nothing to reverse engineer from. Its not like they stole ancient human or alien tech.

[Assistant]
Necessity is mother of invention, as saying goes.

In the ending of King of the Monsters the credits were listing all kinds of things that released titans have influenced just by their presence, so it just very well might be that Monsterverse went full Pacific Rim and lifted itself on the new resources the titans have introduced.


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

[User]
Could a 9.0+ earthquake from the Cascadia Subduction Zone trigger an eruption of Mt. Rainier?

I have read that CSZ has the potential to generate a megathrust earthquake (>9.0). Rainier is an active volcano fairly close to this spot. I imagine if both these events occurred simultaneously it would cause some serious havoc.

[Assistant] The primary danger with Mount Rainier isn't an eruption, but rather that the mountain isn't "solid." The mountain's interior is a soft clay which has been formed by the active hydrothermal system underneath and freezing/thawing expansion/contraction of it's 25 glaciers on top. Thus, the major threat is from the collapse of a portion of the mountain itself into lahars -- basically a huge mudslide that wipes out everything in it's path.


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

[User] Why were wolves so easily domesticated to dogs? Why can't we domesticate say, lions?

[Assistant]
Dogs were relatively easy and beneficial because of how similar we are;

- a) They are a social pack animal much like humans. Lions are the most social cat but still it's more the females that hunt in groups and the males don't work very well together.
- b) Lions are primarily nocturnal hunters which doesn't match with us.
- c) Wolves are small enough to be controlled. Lions at 250Kgs for a male, not so much.
- d) Lions have really shitty stamina. They can't hunt for long periods whereas humans are extremely good distance runners and, along with wolves, can move over long distances for long periods of time.


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

[User] ELI5: How is protein powder made?

[Assistant] Depends what type of protein powder it is.  For some, like whey, it's simply the liquid whey left over from cheese making that has been filtered to remove the sugar and fats, and then dehydrated.  Then they can season it with various flavorings to make it more appealing.


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

[User]
[X-Men] have the X-Mens always been labeled as a terrorist group be the news

i'm talking aout the comic not the movies. But after saving human life have the X-Men been blamed for causing the  disaster that they tried to stop.

[Assistant]
Publicly, they're regarded as criminals, though it's never specifically stated if any states have warrants out for them.

At the federal level they're unofficially allies...sometimes. There seem to be almost as many government agencies willing to work with them as there are trying to incarcerate or kill mutants.


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

[User]
ELI5: Final Fantasy X

Was Tidus real or was the place he came from a dream? What happened at the end? Did he die? Or did the "dream" break when Sin died and thus he broke?

I'm so confused.

[Assistant]
Tidus is a dream of the faythe.  During the war between Bevelle and Zanarkand, it became apparent that Bevelle was going to obliterate Zanarkand due to their superior machina.  Yu Yevon got all the survivors up to Mt Gagazet and bound them there so that they would dream and their dreams summoned up their memories of Zanarkand (why there are so many pyreflies there).  The dream world of Zanarkand is out on the ocean so Yu Yevon created Sin as armor and protected the dream world of Zanarkand.  But after many years, he kinda lost his humanity.  Once you stop the dreamers from summoning, everything that was summoned disappears (the dream world of Zanarkand, the aeons, and Tidus).  It's how Jecht and Tidus got swept away to Spira.  They were already on Spira -- just in this little protected plot of ocean where Yu Yevon was directing the summoning by the people of Zanarkand.

If you play FFX-2, you get a little more backstory on who Tidus was based off as Tidus was just an aggregation of the memories of the people who actually lived in Zanarkand.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is console emulation so hard but we can emulate other OSes pretty much perfectly (ignoring the performance cost)?

I feel like this is probably a dumb question and I can intuit that it has to do with hardware differences, but I'd really like a more in-depth explanation (even though I know jack shit about how hardware actually works).

If this isn't the right sub for this type of question please point me into the right direction.

PS: to be clear I'm talking about OS emulation through virtual machines such as VMWare.

[Assistant]
So the first thing to note is that, when you emulate a console, you're emulating the console's *hardware*, and then running the console's OS on that simulated hardware.

With computer OSes, the same applies:  A VM is a set of emulated hardware, and you just install a normal OS to run on that emulated hardware.

So why is console emulation so difficult?  It's because the console hardware is very different from PC hardware, and is proprietary to boot.  Figuring out what the hardware is and what it does requires some amount of reverse-engineering what is essentially a black box.

Plus, it's easy to use an Intel processor to emulate an Intel processor, since you can just pass instruction intended for the virtual processor to the real thing to be evaluated.  But when you have a processor that is completely different than what's in the computer, there's an added level of difficulty where you have to figure out exactly what the optimum method is of converting every single console instruction over to something that is equivalent on the PC's processor, which is sometimes not at all straightforward, and often results in a huge negative impact to performance.


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

[User]
[Avatar: TLAB] What decides who become benders, and what element they get?

It seems sort of genetic, but if it is, what happens if say, a water bender and an earth bender-- Get it on. What element would the offspring have?

[Assistant] What element a person might be able to bend has all to do with heritage. In ancient times the Lion-Turtles granted the first humans the elements to protect themselves from wild spirits. Those people who had not relinquished their element when they left the Lion Turtles in the time of Avatar Wan are the ancestors of all modern benders (except the new Airbenders of the last three years). However, that is the only genetic component to bending, as even identical twins have been born where one is a bender and one is not. The actual ability to bend has to do with one's personal spiritual attunement and natural temperament, and generally manifests very early in life. The old Air Nomads were all benders, for instance, because of the highly spiritual nature of their culture and deeply-held belief in freedom and spontaneity they practiced.


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

[User]
[Blade Runner] If I had foreknowledge of the Blackout of 2022, how could I go about protecting the data on a single hard drive?

Would it be possible by, say, putting the drive in a lead safe lined with rubber and a Faraday cage? Would that be overkill or would it not be enough?

[Assistant] The easiest way might be to backup the data to optical discs or something similarly resistant. A faraday cage would work if you need to save the hard drive itself or don't have enough forewarning to perform a full backup.


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

[User]
[General fantasy] I'm a spellsword. Do I go to the fighters guild, or the mages guild?

Basically I enchant armor, I conjure magical swords, I sometimes do some quick stuff to buff myself/debuff my opponent, my style is a pretty equal mix of spellcasting and fighting.

Should I hit up the mages guild or the fighters guild? I don't think they like each other much, so I don't want to risk offending them by looking too much like the thing they don't like.

[Assistant]
Fighter's guild. You magic because it helps you fight, most wizards magic as a science.  You may not fit in 100%, you'll need to go out of your way to improve your magic, and the more esoteric reagents and such will be hard to come by BUT you'll be happier.

Best case scenario: find a kingdom with enough warmages and train with them. It'll be more militaristic but you'll have the best of both worlds.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are nursery rhymes so morbid?

In Jack and Jill, Jack cracked his skull open.

In Rock-a-bye baby, a baby fell out of a tree.

Ring Around the Rosie is based on the bubonic plague, which wiped out 1/3 of the entire European population!

In It's Raining, It's Pouring, an old man bumped his head and died.

3 blind mice got their tails chopped off with a knife.

[Assistant] Some nursery rhymes are meant to teach moral lessons, others were a product of a society that was much more prone to morbid events and therefore psychologically influenced and drawn to them. Ring around the rosie for example as you mention was made during a time when people were fixated on death. It was not just in poems, but also in art, songs, and in the general attitude of everyday life. In short, morbid messages in poems tend to reflect how society felt at large.


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

[User]
[Fallout] So I was looting a ruin and found this old bobblehead; suddenly I can see better! What happened?

I was just doing some scavenging one day and came across this prewar bobblehead. I thought it would be worth some caps but as soon as I picked it up I could see better and Im not sure what the hell is happening!

[Assistant]
Experimental pre-war technology engineered by the United States Government. It wasn't fit for military usage, so they ran tests by distributing complimentary bobbleheads to those officially registered to enter Vaults.

Upon touching the bobblehead, a subtle electromagnetic signal is sent through your body, stimulating certain cells to streamline themselves and become more efficient. The result is a near-instant increase in varying aspects of your physical condition. The United States wanted to use this technology for medical therapy and for creating enhanced soldiers for the military.

The project was never brought to fruition, for obvious reasons--the Great War. However, the civilian bobbleheads which survived the blasts are still littered around the wasteland. The occasional scavenger might come across one or two in their life, but the effects are so minute without a whole bunch of them that they're considered worthless, except to the avid collector.


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

[User]
Which is more important to oral hygiene, the toothbrush or the toothpaste?

Just curious, if you had to pick just one to use, which gives the greater benefit to maintaining oral heath?

[Assistant]
The toothbrush. While toothpaste assists in the removal of detritus (it's basically mouth soap) and helps strengthen teeth with its fluoride content, it's the toothbrush that removes food particles and plaque responsible for turning all the sugar in your mouth to lactic acid that wears at your teeth.

 As mfigueiredo said, floss is also important to get at the tooth surfaces that a manual brush can't reach, like between teeth. (If you use proper technique your teeth shouldn't bleed, either)

Toothbrushes are also much more effective if you brush your teeth properly. Brush all the tooth surfaces in a circular motion, and don't brush too hard.


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

[User] Eli5: why is Florida the only state where alligators and crocodiles live side by side?

[Assistant]
Alligators are more tolerant of colder water and weather, and thus are found not only in Florida but in Georgia, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, Arkansas, North Carolina and South Carolina.

Crocodiles are much more susceptible to cold and for that reason they are only found in Florida, and only in south Florida. They require consistent, year-round tropical temperatures. Even a cold snap in south Florida can kill crocodiles, while alligators may continue to thrive.


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

[User]
ELI5: How is Crime Dealt with on Indian Reservations

Do the police get involved, or do they have their own group of trusted individuals.

[Assistant]
Each tribe will have its own police department, which handles most things. This is important, because on tribal reservation/trust land, city/county/state law enforcement officers will not have jurisdiction.

For felonies, federal law enforcement officials are involved, typically the FBI. The reason for this is that most tribes have misdemeanors proscribed in their tribal legislation, but felonies are just handed at the federal court level.


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

[User] ELI5: What causes the "singing" when you drive over bridges or certain types of asphalt at high speeds?

[Assistant]
Regularly- and tightly-spaced bumps, basically. Same principle at work when you run your fingers down the teeth of a comb, strum a washboard, or something like that. This is most noticeable on bridges with road surfaces made out of some kind of metal grid (to let water through and reduce weight, mostly). With regular roads, it'd be "rumble strips," either across travel lanes to warn traffic to slow down, or on shoulders to warn drivers to get back on the bloody road.

Every time the vehicle's tires hit one of these bumps (whether raised or depressed), there's an impact noise. Just like running over a stick. But do a bunch of those in tight succession, and the ear/brain starts to interpret the resulting sound as a musical "pitch". Musical pitch is directly related to frequency of vibration. That's all sound is, really: shock waves propagated through a medium (usually air), that are detected by organs in the ear, transmitted to the brain, and interpreted as sound. So the faster the car is going, or the closer the bumps are together, the more of these impacts there will be in a second, producing a higher frequency of vibration and thus a higher pitch.


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

[User] ELI5: How does one die of "Old age", do our bodies simply shutdown one day or is it always somekind of disease that kills old people?

[Assistant]
It's like a really old car. Lots of things are falling apart, a few might break down but it'll keep chugging along though leak oil all over the place.

Then one day something important breaks, or just one too many small things broke, and it never starts up again.


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

[User] [Batman] If a vigilante named Batman popped up in Gotham, would the FBI start investigating him? If so, what would they be trying to find out exactly? Would their interest in studying him / what they want to know about him change if he wasn't a lone vigilante, but instead leading a whole bat-family?

[Assistant]
Most of Batman's crimes, assault, assault with a deadly weapon, trespassing, obstruction of justice, etc, don't fall under federal jurisdiction. Therefore he is clear of FBI interest.

However, there was that time he used warrantless wiretapping on 30 million private citizens in Gotham. It was the time he turned every phone in Gotham into a sonar transmitter and listening device. That's 30 million separate federal crimes committed. Each usually accompanied with several years in prison. And Batman did not have a license to transmit on those frequencies. Which is a violation of Title 47, Part 15 of the Code of Federal Regulations. So that's 30 million more felonies.

Suffice to say, the FCC and FBI will be hunting him down using a combined taskforce. Given the nature of the crimes, the FCC will probably lead the investigation. Batman will serve more time than all of Gotham's super criminals combined when the FCC gets a hold of him.

Somewhere upwards of 60 million plus years in prison.

Also Batman would have to pay fines of several thousand dollars per unlawful transmitter.


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

[User] [Star Wars] Can lightsaber blades be broken?

[Assistant]
Basically, no. The blade isn't a solid object to break, it's all high temperature plasma contained in a magnetic field.

That being said one of the CGI shorts for The Old Republic MMO does feature a blade being broken, but it required a rare Force technique from a powerful Force user and the shorts are hardly Canon.


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

[User]
CMV: Cultural Appropriation is a myth.

I never was able to see how cultural appropriation is real in the way people always talk about. I dont see the issue with a white girl having cornrows or a white dude rapping. Its not like shes saying, Lol I look so much better with cornrows than black people do or hes speaking in Ebonics. My go to argument is that if only black people are allowed to rap, then only Italian people can play the violin and only Polynesian people can do the hula.

Now, if any of that offended anybody, then I apologize. Im far from racist. I really would like to understand this.

Edit: how do I say this is solved? I dont want people wasting their time continuing to reply.

[Assistant]
there is such a thing as cultural appropriation, however the phrase has been high-jacked by jerk offs on twitter looking to get internet points by pretending to be offended.

The examples you gave are not cultural appropriation, they are examples of culture. Culture is doing something(anything), someone else sees you doing it, they like it, so they do it as well. sometimes with you, sometimes on their own. but that is the definition of culture.

cultural appropriation would be Jewish Multibillionaire Dan Snyder using the racially charged term Redskins, native imagery, and a mascot with a native likeness strictly for financial gain with no appreciation for the culture other than marketing purposes while not giving a single dime or deference to the people of that culture.


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

[User]
[Star Trek] How would the Federation handle a Pre-Warp civilization with galactic ambitions?

Let's say there is a planet with a high population, nuclear weapons, and the ambition to conquer the galaxy. They make a deal with an enemy of the Federation to get modern weapons technology, and start manufacturing photon torpedoes to arm their ships.

Fortunately for the Federation, they never developed warp technology. Instead, they travel for decades in massive fleets, raising new generations in colony ships at sub-light speed travel.

They show up with a massive fleet near Earth, promising total destruction unless Earth surrenders within 24 hours.

The Prime Directive forbids the Federation from interfering with Pre-Warp civilizations. Obviously the Federation can defend themselves, but can they strike back against the attackers? Knowing that the colony ships are filled with non-combatants and children, would the Federation destroy them or simply shield Earth?

If the attackers are defeated but refuse to surrender and keep building fleets of ships, could the Federation occupy and/or exterminate the planet?

Would there be a political outcry among the general population if the Federation was seen as bullying or committing genocide against a primitive (but aggressive) people?

**Edit:** I know it's not likely for a pre-warp civilization to be able to make it Earth. I was more interested in the political/legal ramifications, but it seems like that's pretty clear-cut too. The Prime Directive doesn't apply when the pre-warp civilization goes looking for a fight. Got it. I surrender.

[Assistant]
>The Prime Directive forbids the Federation from interfering with Pre-Warp civilizations.

While 'pre-warp' gets tossed around a lot, it's not actually the key characteristic in terms of the Prime Directive.  There's nothing magical about the warp drive specifically that allows interaction with the Federation.  It's just that usually civilizations become ready for contact at about the time they develop warp capability.
Your hypothetical civ has had contact with interplanetary civilizations, has begun acting on a quadrant level, and have initiated contact with the Federation.  Any one of those things takes the Prime Directive out of play, and the Federation is free to interact as appropriate.
In this case, that probably means intercepting them in deep space before they get anywhere near Earth, and hammering out a peaceful solution.
Additionally, you're talking centuries of travel, not decades.  This fleet's weapons and shield tech is going to be hilariously out of date long before they actually get to Earth.  This will make negotiation possible even in the case that they're ridiculously belligerent.


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

[User] ELI5:Why at night when i'm trying to do things i feel so confident? Like i think about doing things but when time comes or when i wake up in the morning I don't want to do it anymore or i chicken out?

[Assistant]
Thinking about doing something gives you much the same psychological benefit as actually doing it. Your brain rewards itself as if it has actually accomplished a goal.

When the time comes to do the thing for real, you are faced with the work required and the task is suddenly less attractive.


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

[User] ELI5: when we suck in our stomach what's really happening? Like are my organs actually moving or is it just air? Why would I had so much air in my belly, shouldn't my organs be there, and doesn't air just go to your lungs?

[Assistant] Your body is full if fluids alongside all of the organs, and yes some of your organs can slide around. When you suck in your gut, you can feel your ribcage expand. Some fluids move up into this area, allowing you stomach to appear smaller. Your organs will slide around a little, but unless you're using a tight corset, this movement isn't going to be drastic.


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

[User]
[Marvel] Has Thor forgiven Ironman, Reed, for cloning him?

without his permission, and you know, getting Goliath Killed.I saw a post from some 7 years ago linking to a comic where Thor just dumps on Tony, and that felt good, but its been a long time now and I wonder if the cloning thing has been dealt with in any other way? is it water under the bridge?

[Assistant]
He forgave Iron Man enough to hire him to rebuild Asgard after Siege to bail him out after he lost a bunch of his business due to a super villain. He also vouched for Stark when he asked to use the forges of Nidavellir during Fear Itself.

You have to remember that Tony almost killed himself fixing his mistakes from Civil War, and the version of his mind current to his body post Dark Reign is a pre-Extremis back up who wasn't the one who cloned Thor or fought the Civil War. Tony also took responsibility for mistakes he made under the influence of Extremis despite not remembering them.

I have no idea if he cares enough about Reed to hold a grudge for his role in the creation of Ragnarok.


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

[User] When Does A Galaxy become a Galaxy?

[Assistant]
There's actually no single definition that can cleanly define a galaxy.

In the most commonly used definition, a galaxy is a gravitationally bound collection of stars, gas, dust, etc., that lives within a dark matter halo. Indeed, it is considered that under lambda-cdm and hierarchical formation, dark matter haloes collapsed gravitationally first, and then baryons fell (were pulled into) these dark matter haloes. The gas, being collisional, could then form disks and eventually, stars. So a dark matter halo which has within it a collection of stars could be called a galaxy.

However, there are examples of galaxies which appear not to have dark matter. For example, NGC 1052-DF2 and NGC 1052-DF4. It is not yet clear \*why\* these have no DM, but one theory posits they were once part of a normal pair of gas-rich, "regular" galaxies which collided. In such a collision, the DM (being non-interactive) would continue onward, but the gas, being collisional, would collapse in small pockets like beads on a string along the collision path (producing galaxies without dark matter).

Similarly, there exists a class of galaxy known as a Tidal Dwarf Galaxy. These are formed out of the gas that gets thrown off of galaxies during mergers/gravitational interactions. Because only gas is flung out (not DM), these form systems lacking dark matter, which can get flung out into the general area of the group and eventually become dwarf galaxies. However, these do not follow the formation mechanism listed above and produce some issues, because....

Stellar mass is \*also\* not a clean definer. The least massive dwarf galaxies in the literature (\~10\^5 Msun) are less massive than the most massive globular clusters and star clusters (which are definitely \*not\* considered galaxies).

At the same time, boundedness (or lack thereof) to a more massive system doesn't work either --- while GCs are bound to other galaxies (unless flung free), satellite galaxies are also bound to more massive haloes. Here, people usually cite the fact that satellite galaxies \*do\* have DM haloes while GCs do not.

All in all, historical precedence (remember that the first galaxies were discovered and "defined" before our understanding of DM and large scale structure formation developed) and a large number of similar-but-different types of systems means we don't really have a completely clean definition. One could imagine setting one, and renaming certain things to no longer be galaxies, but this is unlikely to happen --- we astronomers like to stick to our naming conventions, even once we know they don't necessarily make sense anymore. Anyways, hope this helped provide some context!


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

[User]
[All Superheroes] Why do superheroes always refer to people as citizen?

Obviously it's not every hero, but so many heroes say things like "No need to thank me, citizen". I get that they can't just assume who someone is, but a little variety would help right? It's always just some variation on citizen, and with so many heroes doing it, I was just wondering why. What is the origin for this statement, and is there a reasojn it is still used today by so many heroes?

[Assistant]
It's formal, yet uplifting and kind of respectful. If you think about it, it's kind of the most honorific title you can give to an ordinary individual you know nothing about and are speaking to generally.

But probably more importantly, it coveys that you are a civil servant speaking directly to the people you serve.


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

[User]
Is is still oppression if the victim has internalised it?

I've always wondered this cause some female relatives of mine have accepted that they are inferior to men and they don't see anything wrong with it. I think this is a result of systematic brainwashing. What do you think? And if it is opression, how should we approach it with an ethical perspective?

[Assistant] The most famous answer to this question comes in the form of Paolo Freire's book *The Pedagogy of the Oppressed*.  There are problems with his account.  bell hooks considers a few in *Teaching to Transgress*.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are celebrities photographed even without consent but "normal people" have to be blurred out?

[Assistant]
You actually don't need a release to film people in public places. You have no more rights than an angry Alec Baldwin in public. Producers generally try and get releases for anyone who is somewhat prominent, but that is only because they may want to use the footage in ads at some point, and certain forms of commercialization require a release.

As it stands, anyone wearing a GoPro can film you in public for as long as they like (provided they do not considerably interfere with your movements), then post it all on YouTube, and you have no say in the matter.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does smoking preserve food?

[Assistant] Smoking by itself is actually insufficient to properly preserve foods. Smoke is an antimicrobial and an antioxidant but only protects the outside of food, so it is usually combined with other processes like salt-curing and drying which protect the interior of food from bacterial growth.


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

[User]
[LOTR] "You fool, no Man can kill me!" the Witch-King of Angmar spits. But what about a Dwarf, or an Elf?

Would a non-human be able to exploit the same loophole as Eowyn and slay the Witch-King due to not being a "Man"?

Or am I completely misinterpreting this line as a prophecy/magical defence, when in fact it's just a stubborn boast by the Witch-King and witty reply by Eowyn?

[Assistant]
Anyone (including a human male) *could* have killed the Witch-King without violating any physical or magical laws.

However, per the prophecy, only an individual who wasn't a Man *would* kill the Witch-King. That could have meant a Dwarf or an Elf.


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

[User] [Fairy Tales] Goose that lays Golden Eggs: What's in the egg? If it's solid gold, how do the geese reproduce?

[Assistant]
"Goose" is a slight misnomer here.  The golden egg-laying bird is a type of waterfowl that superficially resembles a goose, but is a completely different species, known as *Branta aurelis*.  This species is interesting, because it evolved to have a very specific survival mechanism: it forms a symbiotic relationship with sapient species that use gold as a form of currency.

*Branta aurelis* has a normal set of ovaries and oviducts, which produces eggs for reproduction as normal.  It also has a separate set of organs for the production of oblong gold spheroids.  The openings for both ducts are located quite close to each other, which has led to the misconception that the bird is laying golden eggs.

*Branta aurelis* are exceedingly rare in the wild, because they often cannot survive without protection and care from sapient species.  They have bright white colorations, which is not conducive to camouflage in the wild, and they are often too heavy to fly or run from predators, due to being weighed down by the gold spheroids in their bellies.  As a result, *Branta aurelis* is generally considered extinct in the wild, and specimens are only known to exist in captivity.

However, when kept as pets or as sources of income by sapient species, *Branta aurelis* tends to thrive.  They provide gold to their minders, who in turn provide food and shelter.  The birds also have a mechanism where, upon death, the gold spheroids inside them dissolve into an aqueous gold solution that is re-absorbed into the bird's body.  This means killing and cutting open the bird to take the gold is almost always unsuccessful, thus ensuring their minders have a motivation to keep them alive and healthy.


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

[User] [1984] How would Oceana handle a major natural disaster like a hurricane or earthquake?

[Assistant]
Nothing unusual

First of all, as far as the rest of Oceania knows, no natural disaster has ever happened. Even nature itself has been bent to the will of Big Brother, and the sun is shining all over our glorious Oceania.

As for the affected areas, it was clearly a cowardly attack by our eternal enemy Eurasia. A larger than usual number of prisoners will be shot to avenge the infamous attack during the next Two Minutes of Hate. And infallibly the television will announce that a twice as powerful attack has already been unloaded on the heads of our mortal enemies of Eastasia.

In the coming years, since Big Brother certainly cannot be taken by surprise by a cowardly enemy attack, the history books and newspapers will clearly show how the attack or natural catastrophe whatever it may be was predicted well in advance and the number of casualties equaled zero.

Beyond propaganda, the Party has only pleasure if part of the overproduction is destroyed by the force of nature in addition to permanent war. The purpose of the whole dictatorship is 1) to exercise control 2) to destroy much of the wealth produced so as to keep the proletariat in poverty.

The Inner Party in the coming years will fervently hope that someone will dare to remember that there has been a catastrophe beyond the Party's control so that it can search, capture, torture and in the end kill those unfortunate few with good memories. Maybe they will invent some fake rebel organization like "Sons of the Earthquake" to have fun behind their backs.


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

[User]
ELI5: Sony's and Nintendo's Financial Problems

Someone explain how these companies are losing so much, they have successful products, PS3 caught up to Xbox and sold reasonably well, and Wii sold like a bazillion units. the PS4 seems to be doing great and the Wii U seems to be on its way to recovery.
What should these companies do different?
And is this relevant to the strength of the Japanese Yen? It seems many big Japanese companies are struggling.
PS: first post, be nice :)

[Assistant]
Nintendo isn't in that bad of financial shape-they've run healthy profits most years *except* for the financial quarters after the Wii U launch, and it's turning around. They're also reputed to have a  *very* healthy nest egg, often suspected to be enough to completely cut bait on the Wii U and coast to their next hardware release if it became necessary.

Sony's gaming division is in the black, but the rest of the parent company is a sea of red ink, and the gaming division isn't anywhere close to profitable enough to balance the books.


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

[User] ELI5: If the moon has a big heavy mass that is not in the center, why is it on the far side of the moon and not the side closest to us?

[Assistant] You know how, when you hang a bucket of water by a rope and spin it around really fast, the water presses to the bottom of the bucket, the side farthest from the center of the spin? It's like that, except with big rocks held together by gravity.


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

[User]
CMV: Employees and customers need to have a say in how businesses are run.

A shareholder in a company usually doesn't care how the company generates profit; all that matters is that the share price goes up and the dividends arrive on time. Whereas the employees care about good working conditions, good pay, and good benefits; the overall profitability of a company usually isn't a concern. Customers care about good products and good services offered at a fair price.

Of course, these are blanket statements which do not apply to every person, but I believe that these statements are generally true over the human population.

You will get business owners who genuinely care about the wellbeing of their employees, care that they make a good product, and want to do good for the world (e.g. donating profits to alleviate poverty, stop a disease, save the environment, etc). I've found this to be particularly true among small business owners, who personally know their employees and customers. Unfortunately, I think that owners that care are the exception, not the rule, most just want the money.

Occasionally, I have seen a truly passionate employee who wants their company to be the best company ever, to make lots of money while providing value to the community and world. But these employees are few and far between. And there are customers who really care about avoiding companies that treat their employees poorly, use sweatshop labor, mistreat animals, destroy the environment, etc. But most are really just looking for good deal.

So, in the model where shareholders alone get to decide how a company behaves, there is an incentive to make money with little regard for the employees or customers. If we, as a society, want better working conditions, better pay, and better products and services at lower cost, we need to involve employees and customers in the corporate decision making process.

Employees and customers are already involved to an extent. Workers can unionize and customers can choose to not buy from a particular company, but these are faulty. Not all industries are unionized, and the most vulnerable (people exploited in sweatshops) have absolutely no control over their working conditions. And there are limits to what unions can do (e.g. they can't demand that a CEO take a pay cut because of bad decisions which hurt workers, whereas the owners of a company could demand such a thing). And customers who would like to take a stand against a company might not have the option to do so. If there is a de facto monopoly or the customer is simply too poor to be able to afford an alternative, then the customer might be boxed into buying overpriced garbage from a company that is horrible to their workers and the environment, thereby implicitly endorsing the company's behavior.

Employees and customers need to have a say in how businesses are run, and the current model for involving them in the decision making process works far less than 100% of the time. I see nothing wrong with companies wanting to make enormous piles of money, but personally, I would also like to see a world in which decently priced products and services are of exceptional quality, the workers producing the products and services are treated well and paid well, and at least some of the company's profits go to making the world a better place. And I believe that giving owners, employees, and customers each a 1/3 vote in how a company is run to be a good start toward this better world.

Edit: If you are going to claim that customers can influence companies through their purchasing power, please also describe how a customer may be able to influence a company with a monopoly.

[Assistant]
The thing with customers is that what customers say they want, and what they really want, are often very different. Most customers, they say they care about value (quality/cost), some claim to just care about quality. But when the quality product costs twice as much, and will last for four times longer, winning on both value and quality, many of them will see the price tag, and go straight for the cheapest option... They want your company to be green, but they wont pay for it. They want your company to pay workers a living wage, but they wont pay for it.

Customers very much do have a say in how businesses are run, but it isn't based on their virtue signalling on Facebook and Twitter, it is based on how they actually spend their money.


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

[User] [Marvel/DC] Is it possible for a dedicated amateur to ever become as good at trick shots as Bullseye or Deadshot, or for a dedicated archer to become as good at shooting a bow and arrow as Hawkeye or Green Arrow?

[Assistant] Bullseye absolutely not. Considering what Batman who is that universes version of a regular guy is capable of, probably GA and Hawkeye, maybe deadshot, but Bullseye has killed people with a baby rattle and a hat simultaneously, KOed Daredevil with a paper airplane, threw a handful of screws with enough force and accuracy to kill a dozen people at once, and all kinds of other insane nonsense. Hes basically a low level mutant.


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

[User] How different would the world be if the stock market never came into existence?

[Assistant]
People owning wealth would have invested in companies that pay dividends anyway, but in a vastly less efficient way.

From this point of view (and excluding financial derivatives and other products, let's consider only the "stock market"), the purpose of the stock exchange is to maximize liquidity and have a place where sellers and buyers meet. This is one of the reason why opening hours exist, for example.

I can provide a similar example to understand. In Switzerland, people move in/out their rentals only at specific times of the year (end of September, end of March). In these two times of the year, the market is very efficient: there is a lot of offer and a lot of demand.

If you need an apartment outside of these dates, you may end up paying a lot (because offer is limited) or to score a great deal (i.e., a bad deal for the landlord), because demand is also limited. This uncertainty indicates that there is inefficiency in the matching process.

What happens if this rule does not existed? People would rent apartments anyway, of course. In the same way people would still be interested in buying a small portion of a company in exchange for a fraction of its profits, and they would find a way to do it.


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

[User]
A good student is visibly wasting away, and I don't know what, if anything, I can do to help?

I am a young research professor, only in my third year at this University, and teaching my first class - up until now, I've been involved with research and research only.

There's a student in my class who I am very concerned about. In the 2 months I have been teaching this class, she has dropped a lot of weight, going from a slim healthy looking girl to a stick with a head, literally. I mean, I look at her and I think her neck is about to snap under the weight of her head. The class is multiple times a week, and *every* class she just looks sicker and sicker. Sunken eyes, extremely slow movements. I finally decided to ask this question when I saw her nearly faint when getting up.

It's shocking. I have no knowledge of eating disorders, but this seems like the epitome of anorexia. It's a bloody shame too, she seemed like a very bright and engaged student to start with, now she hardly even looks up during class.

I am not in america or in any of the more... evolved western countries, and unfortunately, there really is not much focus on student mental health or even a guide on scopes of faculty-student interactions, basically as long as we stand in front of class and teach them something, and as long as the students show up, the leadership is happy with it.

This student is from abroad, and more than likely doesn't see her family more than once or twice a year, and I haven't really seen her with any friends, so I think if I don't do anything, no one will. Honestly I'm scared she might die, and there could have been something I could have done about it.

What can I, as faculty, do to help her?

[Assistant] I think you may be better off asking someone who's local about what to do, rather than here. Mental health, the concepts of personal space/privacy, concern for others etc. can be drastically different depending on a culture. Better yet, ask a local professor about what they'd do.


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

[User] ELI5: How matter seems so solid when atoms are made of 99.9% empty space.

[Assistant]
So, imagine a magnet. Like a regular old desk magnet with a north and south pole.  Now, take the south pole of that magnet and bring it closer and closer to the south pole of another desk magnet.

As you know, they're going to resist each other, and you'll feel that resistance well before the magnets actually "touch"---when the only thing between the two magnets (as far as this repulsion effect is concerned) is "empty space."

That's the exact same thing (basically) that's happening with atoms.  They repel because of the ~~magnetic~~ electrostatic properties of the outside of the atoms, and they seem solid because all the matter we would try to push through them repels off of it based on the strength of that repulsion, not based on "touching."


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

[User]
ELI5 Why do Taxi drivers in the UK and Europe drive cars with predominantly manual gearboxes

If I was driving 8-10 hours per day I'd want an auto... I know manuals used to be cheaper and are still a little cheaper, but I'd have thought the reduced effort would be appealing.

[Assistant] Cars with manual transmissions have been more common in Europe in general compared to the States. Its only been very recently that people there are starting to move away from them. While yes manuals tend to be cheaper, their cost difference was much greater a few decades ago. Another thing is that manuals tend to be a bit more fuel efficient than typical automatics, but this has become less true recently with CVTs and automatics with more than 6 gears that can sometimes beat their fuel economy.


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

[User]
ELI5: Freud's Id, Ego, and Superego

I've never been really good with understanding these concepts... they've come up in my Gender & Women's studies class.

Just wondering! :)
Thanks!

[Assistant]
This is up for debate but

Think you mind being controlled by three things.

ID is like the animal part of your brain. It's the part that is like, that food is awesome let's eat it, she or he looks hot let's have sex with it. It's really not interested in long term and is more interesting the short term. Think of it like a frat boy.

The SuperEgo is the judgemental part of your brain. It's the part that is like you shouldn't eat that food it will make you fat, you shouldn't ask them out they'll only turn you down and it would be impolite. It's like the principal.

The Ego is sort of the moderate between the two. It tries to let the ID do what it wants to do but makes sure it doesn't have any horrible consequences and stop to SuperEgo from causing you to do something against your short term or long term interests. It's sort of the most realistic of the three and tries to make every good for the reality of the situation.

Some Freudian will probably explain it easier but that's 5 year old answer.


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

[User]
[X-Men Movies] In Days of Future Past we find out sentinel and mutant detection technology has been around since the 1970's. Why did we see no evidence of this in any of the other movies?

Bonus question: how on earth could Trask have build the sentinels using '70s era technology?

[Assistant]
The classic 1972 Trask Sentinel is what you get when very smart people design a machine to do one thing, with no preconceived limits on how or why. It exists to find and battle mutants, without metal. It's clumsy, expensive, and requires constant human attention. But it only needs to do one thing, and it does that thing.

Think of Bangalore torpedoes, DSRV's, or some of the technology the astronauts took to the moon. Awkward, hyper-specialized tools that are useless in any context except the exact one they were meant for. You need a vehicle that can drive around on the moon and fit in an Apollo lander, and it's 1970? You can have one. It'll be expensive. It will only ever be the right tool for exactly that job. You will need to give your men special training. But you can have one. This is the crazy Marvel Universe equivalent of that.

Old technology can still do a lot when you only have one requirement, and you can do anything to meet it.


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

[User]
[Godzilla] What made the Titans...

What made the Titans go into hibernation and what made them start waking up?

[Assistant]
I do believe it's explained in 2014 that as time passes, the average radiation levels on the Earth dropped.

With a reduced amount to feed on, many of the Titans either moved deeper into the Earth (like Godzilla), or simply went into hibernation.

Then, upon the increasingly more widespread nuclear testing and such, the surface became more 'habitable' for the Titans in the sense that they now have a more abundant source of sustenance on the surface once again.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are standardized tests considered to be racially biased?

[Assistant]
Heres a real Texas TAKS test question that is a good example of bias on a test.
Some students wanted to make a model to
show how the size of the moon compares with
the size of Earth. They used an orange to
represent the moon. Which of the following
would best represent Earth?

Answers: cantaloupe, grape, lime, or cherry

You can argue a student should know what those fruits are, but the bottom line is the questions do not test only the knowledge of the size of the Earth and Moon, but what these fruits are. This can be hard for an English language learner, or poor students who likely do not eat as much fruit.


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

[User] Why do the angles in a triangle add to 180 degrees, but if you walk the lines of a triangle you would turn 360 degrees?

[Assistant]
The difference is deflection angles and internal angles are not the same.

If you travel in a straight line for 1 meter, then deflect 60 degrees to the right, travel 1 meter, then deflect 60 more degrees to the right, travel one meter, you've constructed half of a hexagon.

In order to do a triangle, each deflection would be 180-60=120 degrees.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is college tuition so high in the US? What does all the money go to? What would be the easiest, most effective ways to make it cheaper?

What parts of the school make it so expensive to run?

I've never sat down to figure it out, but it's hard to imagine it could actually cost $40k/year to give someone an education. Especially at a research institution - often, half of the grant money that professors get for research goes to their department (that's true for Northwestern at least).

Edit: it'd be great if anyone had numbers on this. Are there any university financial office execs out there? I went to a small school where nobody working there was making anywhere close to Ivy League money and the "list price" was still $28k/year. (Of course most don't pay full price, but the school still *gets* that money, be it from federal loans or some scholarship fund.)

[Assistant]
The extra money goes to amenities (gyms, pools, food services, concerts, parks - basically anything that isn't basic teaching facilities and salaries).  This makes the college more appealing to those applying, so they can raise tuition.

As colleges get more expensive, federal loans are made easier to obtain so students can still enroll.  As federal loans are made easier to obtain, colleges are able to add more amenities and raise tuition.  Positive feedback loops are bad.


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

[User]
Difference between computer IP and computer IPV4

Hey if there is a better sub to post this in let me know.

Right now I am serving to 0.0.0.0 from my laptop

I noticed when I did curl ifcofig.me I got an IP address that starts with 68 and when I go to the address on chrome nothing shows up but when I run ipconfig /all I see an IPv4 Address that starts with 192 and when I go to it I see my website.

Whats the different between my  IP Adress starting with 68 and the world viewable one that starts with 192? Thanks.

[Assistant]
These IPs are all IPV4.  IPV6 is a different format.

192 is a special prefix number which is the used for local private networks.  (In binary it's  11000000)

68.x.y.z is the public internet address.

There is a process called Network Address Translation (NAT) that lets a computer on your local network make requests outside past your router, and the responses on the way back get converted into the local address.

If we didn't do it, there could only ever be 4million devices online.


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

[User]
[Star Trek] What happened to Kirk's stolen bird-of-prey?

Was it left at the bottom of the bay? Put in a museum? Returned to the Klingons? Shipped off to Area 51,000 to be dissected?

[Assistant] I suspect it was returned to the Klingons as an act of good-faith after the assassination plot that took the life of the Chancellor and almost the life of the President, to aid in the fledgling alliance between the Federation and the Empire.


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

[User]
What is the Largest Clade with One Extant Member?

 The family Ailuridae has one extant member, the red panda, is there any  larger clade (like an order or something) that also only has one extant member?

[Assistant]
This is inevitably going to be a bit imprecise because of debates about whether or not you have a single species or several and what "level" a clade is at...but

Aardvarks are the only species in their order

Until recently there was only one described species in the _phylum_ placozoa,  but more were recently discovered.

There's still only one known species in micrognathozoa, which can be classed as a phyla or class depending on who's doing the classifying.  There are almost certainly other species around that we don't know about though...like placozoans, these things are tiny and hard to find.

Ginkgos are the only species left in their order.


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

[User]
When two beams of laserlight are put in perfect, destructive interference, where does their energy go?

Where does the energy go when two beams of laserlight are put in perfect, destructive interference so that all the waves cancel out each other and there is no beam anymore?

Why is the law of conservation of energy not hurt by this phenomenon?

[Assistant]
If the two lasers are perfectly aligned and at the same frequency so that there is destructive interference *everywhere*, the lasers will simply not emit radiation in the first place because their emission mode has become forbidden. Instead, the electrons will transition by some other route than lasing such as electron-electron scattering or phonon emission. In the end, the energy that would have been in the laser beam if its emission mode had not been suppressed ends up as heat in the laser.

You have to realize that lasers don't automatically emit light when you turn them on. They only lase when the stimulated radiative transition has a higher probability rate (roughly speaking) then other possible transitions modes for the electron. In a full analysis, calculating the stimulated radiative transition rate would require taking into account the resonant cavity, and where the light may go after.

This is fundamental to laser design. A laser is basically an amplifying medium at a natural frequency and a resonant cavity. The peak frequency of the amplifying medium is often not exactly lined up with any of the resonant frequencies of the cavity. The amplifying medium does not emit at its peak natural frequency because this frequency is forbidden by destructive interference effects of the cavity resonance. Instead, the amplifying medium emits at the frequency of one of the cavity resonances.

When talking about interference, the energy usually goes to the regions of constructive interference. But when there is destructive interference everywhere, the light is simply not created in the first place because it is forbidden from doing so.


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

[User]
Why don't nuclear power plants use direct air cycle turbines?

DACT were successfully spun up during the nuclear propulsion program but nuclear aircraft were not viable for obvious reasons.

However they seem to make a lot of sense, why heat steam and run a turbine when you can run the turbine directly off the heat of the core? Wouldn't this be more efficient?

[Assistant] No, so far we havent find anything is better than steam. You can look at the PV or TS diagram, steam give you the best result. Coal fired power plant do exactly that. But natural gas turbine will burn fuel at the turbine to generate power and send the exhaust to generate steam for more power, heat recovery steam generator (HRSG). If you use heat to do one task it will ended up losing too much heat (energy).


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

[User] Eli5: Why are cars exhaust pipe always located at the rear, not side? And truck exhaust pipe located at the front but high up?

[Assistant]
Side exhaust tend to not do well if a fair number of people burn their clothes and skin getting in and out of the car from the side. Most cars don't have entry ways from the rear.

Trucks used to (perhaps still do) spend a lot of time running idle (in cold weather, many truckers used to keep their engines running all night even while parked and the driver is sleeping in the cabin). The container or load at the back is detachable and people tend to work there attaching and detaching stuff while the engine continues to run. The high exhaust makes it more comfortable and safe.


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

[User] ELI5: What causes the feeling of "heaviness" in your eyes when you're sad or depressed?

[Assistant] Your eyelids and eyebrows are muscles just like others, and they're pretty damn active just about all the time you're awake, so they experience fatigue when you're tired, even if it's low emotional energy or depression fatiguing you. Sickness, allergies, and even sun damage can swell your eyelids which can give you that sensation without much relief when you do close them. Some people also just get that sensation a lot easier because of the shape of the skin around their eyes.


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

[User]
[Multiverse of Madness] Undead?

What made the spirits of the damned so effective against Wanda and her magic? She seemed to handle everything else in the movie with ease.

[Assistant] Traditionally, necromancy is a line that must never be crossed in regards to magic. There are dire consequences for even tangentially messing with it. If a group of spirits attacked Wanda when she's never had to deal with anything remotely like that, she will of course struggle to fight them initially.


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

[User]
[Superheroes] When a superpowered person dies, what happens to their body? What would a superpowered person do to make sure their bodily remains don't get exploited?

Do Ironman and Batman both have high-tech mausoleums for themselves?

What would happen to remains of someone like Superman or Captain America?

What about relatively unremarkable mutants in X-men?

What do you do with the body of a supervillain?

[Assistant]
Case by case. Using Batman as an example, if he died in costume, its' safe to assume one of the other members of the Bat Family would be able to collect him before anything happens. Nightwing would probably take up the cowl, and Batman would be buried as Bruce Wayne. No reason for anyone to really dig him up.

In the case of someone like Supes, he's often buried in very public places, where they wouldn't be able to take his body without someone noticing and the League making an appearance. Though even then, most of the time even his villains have too much respect for him to actually dig him up. Except maybe Lex.


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

[User]
[Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy] Have the long terms effects of the improbability or infinite improbability drives been studied?

It seems to me that frequent usage could cause some damage to the Whole Sort Of General Mish-Mash. Has anyone really researched this?

[Assistant]
There is a theory that says that use of the Infinite Improbability Drive could cause the universe as we know it to be destroyed and replaced by a far less logical, apparently random universe where probability is useless.

There is another theory that says that this has already happened.


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

[User] ELI5 How does the U.S. justify intervening in the Middle East due to the region being unstable but not intervening in Mexico when the country is being ravaged by drug cartels?

[Assistant]
Because Mexico is stable, even though it isn't peaceful. Cartels are a danger to the Mexican population, certainly, but they aren't making Mexico a threat to the US or any neighboring countries.

Or, to quote Eddie Izzard: "Pol Pot killed one point seven million Cambodians, died under house arrest, well done there. Stalin killed many millions, died in his bed, aged seventy-two, well done indeed. And the reason we let them get away with it is they killed their own people. And we're sort of fine with that."


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[User] ELI5: what is radiation? And how does it kill you?

[Assistant]
Lets say you get 7 Gray of ionizing radiation. That is enough to kill you, on average, even with good and immediate medical treatment.

Radiation is just particles, either massed particles like protons or neutrons, or massless ones like photons, aka light. In the case of photons, what we call radiation (in the bad for you sense) is just photons with way more energy than something like visible light. A visible light photon has an energy of 1.5-3.5 eV; a gamma ray (bad radiation) has an energy of 200,000-3,000,000 eV.

Getting 7 Gray of whole-body radiation means that every kilogram of your body has been exposed to as much as 200,000,000,000,000 of these dangerous photons.

Because the photons have so much energy they are "ionizing radiation". The photon goes shooting though your body, missing a lot of stuff because photons are small and atoms are mostly empty space. But eventually the photon crashes into something, either an electron or an atom's nucleus, and it gets blown out of the atom.

Suddenly the atom is no longer a chilled out atom, making up a molecule. It's now an ion, and it can't be part of the molecule any more because it has a charge. The molecule breaks.

Maybe that molecule was a strand of DNA. Maybe it was a hemoglobin protein in a red blood cell, trying to carry oxygen. Maybe it was a molecule of water, and now there's super reactive hydrogen and hydroxide ions inside a cell, looking for the first thing to react with.

You're exposed to radiation all the time. Your cells have ways of fixing it, including killing the cell because the damage is too great. Not a big deal at low rates, your body makes new cells, everything works out.

But not when each kilogram of your body sees trillions of individual radiation events. Your body only has trillions of cells. Literally every single cell is exposed to hundreds of ionizing particles by itself.

So in the end, too many of your cells are too broken and can't be repaired. You are the sum of your cells, and when enough of them die, so do you.


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

[User]
Why does the Higgs boson interract with electrons but not photons? Is there some property subatomic particles have which determine the 'level of interactivity'?

As I understand it, interraction with the Higgs field via the Higgs boson is what determines a particle's mass. If this is the case, is there any specific known property subatomic particles have which determine to what extent they interract with the Higgs field?

[Assistant] Actually the mass is what determines the extent of their interaction with the Higgs field. It's not that the Higgs field determines a particle's mass; rather, the existence of the Higgs field simply makes it possible for other particles (fields, really) to have mass.


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

[User]
In the United States, Why is a Masters degree (particularly in economics) considered a "consolation" degree when it seems like it is highly valued in other countries?

Sorry if this is the wrong subreddit, but since this is about an MA in Economics, I thought it would fit in a little bit and generate a bit more of a response than if it were in say, AskAcademia. So the general consensus I've heard is that in the United States, getting a Masters degree in Economics is generally considered a "consolation" degree for those who drop out of PhD programs and I've heard some call the degree useless. Yet in Canada and other parts of the world, a large portion of economists simply just need to hold an MA in order to take an "economist" position. Why is that? Why does it seem like in the United States you need to have a PhD to be an economist and else where you don't? Or am I wrong?

And kind of related, there are a lot of masters programs in Canada whereas in the United States, most students who wish to go for something higher than their Bachelors have to go for PhD programs and then if they leave early, they are awarded their Masters? It seems to me that a Masters degree is much less valued in the United States, am I wrong about this? Why is the structure of programs so different between the US and elsewhere?

The reason I ask is because a lot of professors I've talked to in economics have advised that it is best for students who do not wish to teach to just get their MA in Economics then go into public or private industry. They've said that the opportunity cost of getting a PhD in Econ is just too high to justify unless you love teaching. Is this true?

Edit to add: I guess what I'm trying to get at is that in Canada, for most disciplines, students first get their honours degree in their field, then their masters, then their PhD. In the United States, it seems very common for students to go straight from their bachelors to their PhD program and I'm trying to understand why this is? Going straight from a BA to a PhD in Canada is very rare. (I've come across one econ program in Canada where you could go straight from BA to PhD)

[Assistant]
It has to do with the culture of the degree.

In the US, with rare exception (NYU), MA degrees are not *terminal* degrees. You don't just sign up for Chicago with the intent of getting a Masters. (Indeed, you cannot.) Instead, you sign up for Chicago with the intent of getting a PhD. The MA is given after you've completed your first-year comprehensive exams.

Given that one does not enter a program with the intent to get an MA, but an MA is given after one year in the program, the *usual* inference is that if someone has an MA from an American school, then it means that individual was unable to complete the dissertation phase of their degree.

Now that's not always the right interpretation, but it is the most common.

In Canada and in some European universities (LSE), the MA is considered a terminal degree, and no such stigma applies.


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

[User]
[MCU] why does Iron Man keep getting in melee fights if he often gets wrecked? Why do very durable characters have bad piercing durability?

Thats his standard approach for most situations against his enemies yet he ends up on the losing side. Sure he has made impressive to his suits but he still loses this melee fights or wins due to luck. Why doesnt he use different approaches by default? For example, in Civil War, all he had to was shoot Bucky. He had bullets built into his suit as seen in Iron Man 1, 2, and Avengers 2. So why not just shoot bullets at Bucky? He shot two rockets at Bucky.

So for the next question of the post: Characters like Thor, Kurse, Hela, and Thanos are durable tanks but are susceptible to blades. Kurse and Hela get stabbed through the whole torso by swords but that doesnt affect them. Whats the point of stabbing them but having no effect? How do they get stabbed through torso but be ok? How, physically, can these characters be extremely durable against heat and blunt force but theyre weak against blades?

[Assistant]
When Tony was fighting Bucky, he wasn't in his right mind, and it's not certain he was even going for a quick kill.  It's entirely probably he wanted to beat the shit out of Bucky with his own (augmented) hands, and then kill him.  Or not kill him.  Hard to say how Tony wanted that to go down.

In other situations he does shoot from long range.  Kind of a lot.  It just doesn't always work.

For the second part, blades are a different kind of weapon that does a different kind of damage.  You can't punch through a piece of cloth, but you can cut through one very easily.  Also a factor here is the type of blade.  We're not talking steak knives here, these are generally high-tech/magical Asgardian weapons.  They have improvements over a regular bit of sharp steel that aren't readily apparent to the naked eye.  These improvements help when used against durable opponents.


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

[User] [Grand theft auto] How is the economy doing so well?

[Assistant] The health care industry and medical technology have become so advanced that they can quickly repair and heal people on the brink of death after extreme injuries, as well as seemingly resurrect the freshly deceased. Combine the profitability of the healthcare industry with that of the barely regulated arms and munitions industries, on top of all the other industries such as automotive and entertainment, and you've got a bustling economy.


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

[User]
Why is there discrete states of matter, as opposed to a continuous spectrum of matter?

Why does matter go through discrete phases of solid  liquid  gas, rather than a continuous change going through a buttery or syrup-esque phase?

[Assistant]
At the atomic level, the temperature of a substance is a measure of how energetic it's particles are. The higher the temperature, the higher the average kinetic energy of the atoms or molecules that make up that substance. For most substances, these particles attract one another with a strength governed by the various attractive forces at play, such as electric forces, van der Waals (sp?) forces, and chemical bonds. At low temperatures (and high pressures) the particles don't have enough energy to break these bonds, and the substance is solid. At medium temperatures some but not all of these attractive forces can be overcome, and at high temperatures the particles become completely separated and exist as a gas.

So why are there no in-between states? Because these bonds are binary; either they exist or they don't. Either the temperature is high enough to break the bonds, or it isn't. There is a very clear threshold above which the bonds are broken, and below which they remain intact. This translates into a clear division between states of matter.

Interestingly, because temperature is an average measurement, it's possible (and indeed quite likely) for individual particles to have a much higher or lower kinetic energy than that average and break or form bonds independently of the rest of the substance. This is how water can evaporate without boiling, for instance. It's also possible for particles in a solid substance to gain enough energy to sublimate directly into a gas.


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

[User]
How does quantum tunneling work?

i mean, a particule can go throught matter because, its going too fast, or it can travel trought the gasp in our cells?.i mean, in that way why arent we change by this objects. like. Hows a particule can go so fast that can traverse you without been notice.Ex:- you can feel photons (light) but you cant feel neutrons so.....

[Assistant]
The particle doesn't tunnel through a barrier per se. It isn't even a particle while traveling, it's a wave function with a probability distribution along that wave. That distribution tells us how likely the particle is to be found at any point of the wave once we measure it. Measuring the particle collapses the wave function and makes the particle behave like a particle and not a wave.

In this state, the particle cannot travel through the barrier. However, there is a portion of the wave function that exists on the other side of the barrier. It is much less likely that we measure the particle as being there, but it isn't impossible to do so.

So sometimes when the wave function collapses upon measurement, the particle will have appeared to have "teleported" to the other side of a barrier.

I've simplified several things that have a lot more nuance to them, but this is the basic gist.


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

[User]
Suppose we have two black holes, one that formed from matter and one that formed from an equal amount of antimatter. If they were to collide and merge, would they merge normally, or would there be some difference noticeable to an outside observer?

Also, if I may further the question a bit: would it be possible for infalling matter (stuff that just passed through the event horizon) from one of the black holes to ever "meet up" with infalling anti-matter from the second black hole at some point within the horizon on the way towards the singularity?

[Assistant] It would be indistinguishable from two black holes made of matter merging. In general relativity black holes lose 'memory' of whatever makes them. It doesn't matter if it eats atoms, light, neutrinos, antimatter, dark matter, etc, they're all the same to a black hole. Some form of mass/energy goes in and the black hole mass increases, no questions asked.


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[User] [Tarzan] Why is it that out of all the apes in the group that only Tarzan is the one that feels compelled to cover his genitals?

[Assistant] Tarzan discovered that placing some sort of protection over your genitals can be helpful, the same way that early humans did so. Modesty isn't the only reason we cover our junk up, keeping mosquitoes away is also a concern.


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

[User]
What is water like at a plasma state?

Several months ago, I read an article about how a planet was found possibly containing an atmosphere (Or surface? I can't quite remember..) full of water at a plasma state. What would it be like? Or, what would it look like?

[Assistant]
Water can't exist as a plasma.  H2O is a neutral molecule.  A plasma is a completely different state of matter composed of ions.  You can think of it as a gas composed of electrons and ionized nuclei.

At very high temperatures, the weakest-bound electrons in water have enough energy to overcome the force that binds them to the molecule.  You get H2O^+  and electrons.  At higher energies, thermal energy overcomes the energy keeping oxygen and hydrogen bound to one another.  You get oxygen and hydrogen ions, and depending on the conditions, some free electrons.

If you have a planet with very high temperatures or pressures, H2O could exist in equilibrium with ionized water, or even hydrogen/oxygen ions.


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

[User]
[8 Mile] Would B-Rabbit have won if he went second?

What would he have said? I'm sure it would've been great, but the reason he won in the first place was because he trashed himself so Clarence had nothing. But if he went second, then what?

[Assistant]
The point is that he was freestyling, it would all depend on Clarence's verse and what ammunition he gave Em for his own verse, who knows how it would've ended the other way around, seeing Em rap in real life though it's clear he has immense talent for freestyles...

I think he'd have been fine, providing he didn't choke again.


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

[User]
Just as we can create and manipulate an electromagnetic field, is it physically possible to create or manipulate a gravitational field?

Gravity is a strange force. Could we create it without using mass?

[Assistant]
Why without mass? You can't create an electromagnetic field without charge.

Anyway, to answer your question we can create gravitational fields by putting lots of heavy stuff in one place, as Cavendish did when he measured the gravitational constant. Gravity is indistinguishable from acceleration, so we could mimic gravity by having something that is constantly accelerating.


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[User] ELI5: Why aren't enclosed underground places like parking basements filled with CO2 where we just choke to death?

[Assistant] The contractors which build these buildings are required to add vents to these areas so that there is a bit of airflow through all the spaces. Especially places such as parking garages which might have issues with carbon monoxide from the cars. The vents are not enough for anyone staying there for an extended period of time unless it is designated as living space. And even though buildup of dangerous gasses is one of the reasons for these vents the biggest factor is humidity which will cause mold to grow and destroy the building. Without sufficient venting of the foundation a building might be unlivable in a decade.


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

[User]
[DC] Why hasn't the Justice League just posted someone with powers at Arkham permanently and just call it a day?

Seriously, people break out of this place so easily.

Maybe if they put guards who weren't so useless against these people, maybe they'd stay in there for more than 30 seconds.

It could even be like a training exercise for new recruits.

[Assistant] So you want to take a bunch of bright-eyed newbies with superpowers and stick them in a facility full of some of the most twisted, damaged, and subversive psychopaths Gotham has to offer? Up to and including the fuckin' Joker? That place is messed up, man, like it's cursed or something. Last thing we need is for it to drive somebody with powers round the bend and unleash them on us.


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

[User]
Why do some researchers do two PhD in the same field? (economics)

Hi,

I've noticed some economists have two PhDs in economics (for example, Jean Tirole or Philippe Aghion). What would you say the reasoning be for embarking in a second PhD? Is it to access a better university? Would there ever be a reason to do that?

[Assistant]
In France, there have been several classes of doctorate degrees over the years. Whether a Doctorat de 3me cycle (a degree that has since been phased out) from the 70's and 80's is equivalent to a PhD at MIT or Harvard during the same time period (as in your 2 specific examples) is a question for the institutions involved.

The vast majority of universities will not accept you to do a PhD if you already have one in the same (or a similar) field.


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

[User]
[DC] What other political platforms did Lex Luthor support when he ran for president

Did he run exclusively on an anti alien, anti hero, law and order campaign, or did he also get involved with other parts of politics like environmentalism, healthcare, and gun rights? I apologize in advance if this is too political or controversial for this subreddit.

[Assistant] Luthor did some philanthropic grandstanding in donating aid and assistance to Gotham at the tail end of No Mans Land. He had another underlying plan to do some massive land-grabbing which Batman and co. prevented. The good PR from the philanthropy still helped with his campaign though.


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

[User]
[DC] Could a Kryptonian become addicted to Kryptonite?

Superman says that he can hear everything around the world and always has to hold back to not destroy things around him. So could a Kryptonian get addicted to Kryptonite to feel "normal".

[Assistant]
i doubt it- kryptonite doesn't just remove powers, it also causes extreme pain and fairly quickly kills you.

While, granted, a lot of drugs cause side effects,they're more longterm and subtle. This isn't. It's the difference between feeling out of it because you took weed and feeling out of it because someone punched you in the face.