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

[User]
Why are depleted uranium penetrators "self sharpening"?

I keep hearing that depleted uranium is "self sharpening" and the best explanation I've found is that DU burns away on the edges. While I don't doubt this is true, it still doesn't explain what exactly it is about DU that causes it to happen instead of having the nose rounded over.

(and yes I already know about post-pen effects so you don't need to explain that)

[Assistant] I work on similar self sharpening materials, and it's typically due to the way the material deforms. If it has very little plasticity,it can form shear bands. These can form into a crack, and happen at very specific angles. If your material is brittle enough, and fails the right way, the edges of the fracture surface can get very sharp. Think of how glass or obsidian fracture.


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

[User] if you heat up a goose before winter ends, would it think that summer is soon and fly north?

[Assistant] Probably not. Geese follow food, not temperature. Geese pretty much only get up and leave when food is hard to come by because everything is frozen, which partially explains the inconsistent migration patterns of the Canada goose. If they have food, they have no reason to migrate.


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

[User] [Phineas and Ferb] How are Phineas and Ferb able to fund all their elaborate inventions?

[Assistant]
Although they're hyper-competent, they're still kids. We haven't seen them monetizing any of their world-changing inventions, and most of the raw materials disappear over a short time. Without the ability to recycle materials, even a super rich benefactor would run out of funds quickly.

We've seen time travel before (or we will have). What if an adult Phineas and Ferb traveled back in time to reclaim some of these lost inventions, patenting the technologies and profiting through the sale and licensing of patents? Adult Phineas and Ferb could easily be funding all their own childhood projects, making more and more money as time goes on.

This might be a bit of a paradox, but that's only an issue until the boys invent a paradox stabilizer.


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

[User]
I believe we should keep obese, mentally handicapped, and extremely poor people that would need assistance from breeding. CMV

I believe people who are incapable of raising a child should not be allowed to. Basically if you are morbidly obese (from genetic markers or from an inability to take care of yourself), mentally handicapped (incapable of raising a modern capable child without assistance), or poor to the point where you are incapable of feeding your children without assistance (meaning you need to fix your life first) you should be required to submit to any of the reversible but long term forms of birth control and if it doesn't work that your child should either be aborted or taken away by the government until you are capable of raising a child.

I think this would reduce childhood obesity rates, the number of children growing up in broken homes, and fix the issue of poor people producing more children than rich people (even though ideally that would be reversed).

This belief leads to a lot of hatred and anger in my every day interactions with people so I would like a reason to change it please.

[Assistant]
Aside from the ethical issues surrounding this - can you imagine what a logistical nightmare this would be?

What would be the cutoff for "poor" or "obese" or "retarded".

So the only difference between allowed to have a child would be 10 pounds, 10 dollars or 10 IQ points?

What about if you have kids and get fat?

This isn't an equitable, workable or pragmatic system.

Also; while far from perfect - CPS does exist.


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

[User]
[DOOM] what are the implications of Hell existing?

Does hell just exist in the doom universe? Is it different than the idea that you go there when you die? Or is it more of an evil dimension? Is it even hell or just another dimension filled with monsters. Side question: what has happened to people on earth in the doom universe? Are they still there? Or have they been consumed by ardent energy, etc. Thanks!

[Assistant]
This could be a little long and really gets into the games, and some of the books.

First off lets keep in mind that when Doom was being made? John Carmack said something along the lines of, "Story in a video game is like story in a porno movie." Now again keep in mind, we're talking the early to mid-1990's here. Sure games like Final Fantasy and even some PC RPG's could do story? But it was told to you, or you found out the story in fairly simple ways. SSI Gold Box AD&D titles have the story in the game manual, Ultima with it's, "Name. Job. Bye." system of talking to NPC's. Point is? Doom's story was a simple line of Demons bad, you good, go kill! Like how in a porno movie no one gives a shit that the lady doesn't have money to pay for the pizza, we want the action.

Thus this brings me to the Doom Novels by Dafydd ab Hugh and Brad Linaweaver. The story behind them is really that the Demons are 'Aliens' the whole hell stuff is ignored, Deimos is moved to Earth's orbit via gateways, the Zombies and the like are made via a bio-weapon. The third and fourth books have more aliens showing up and a plot that's almost sorta lifted from Babylon 5's Vorlon vs. Shadows stuff.

So long story short? The Novels are more or less made in a way that kinda go's down a more Sci-Fi road. Really they are not too bad for being based on two games that have 8 pages of story. Still lets get to Doom 3.

Here the idea is that 'Hell' is another dimension. Humans really came from Mars and when fucking around with transporter tech opened a gateway. Mars due to the war with the Demons gets wrecked, what's left of the Mars Humans flee to Earth and the Demons are beaten back via a 'warrior' with the Soul Cube. The humans on Earth after a few thousand years or so now have hell as the place where bad people go where they die as mankind has forgotten all about coming from Mars. So Doom 3? Hell is the evil dimension that just has energies and the like that turn people into Zombies, and the 'Demons' are just really the assholes who live there. Still with me? Good... Now we get into the real fun of the first two Doom games, Doom 64 and the 2016 Doom as yes they all sorta tie together...

Alright so again keep in mind there's barely any plot with the first two Doom games other then what you see after beating episodes or a number of levels in Doom 2. Doom 64 however? It's sorta Doom 3 if you will. The story being that the main character from Doom and Doom 2 returns to Mars to finish off what's left of the Demons. Said Marine go's to hell and beats the 'big bad' and stays in hell to make sure the Demons never get out ever again.

Thus this brings us to 2016 Doom. We find out that the Doom Marine was found in a sarcophagus in hell. The UAC started fucking around with Ardent Energy as Earth had an Energy Crisis on it's hands. The UAC are worshiping Demons and getting all into spooky black magic and the like. And the game does sorta hint that yes Doom 1, 2 and 64 took place.

So over all it's sorta this...

The Doom Novels are just 'Aliens' sure there's talk of heaven, hell and the like. However it's over all about a bunch of Aliens who much like the Vorlon's and Shadows have their own ideals that they are fighting over. Thus you die and no one really knows what comes after.

Doom 3? Humans are really ancient aliens (think Battlestar Galactica) who fucked around with transporter tech and found an evil dimension on the other side. Think Event Horizon and Warhammer 40k's 'The Warp'

Doom 1, 2, 64 and Doom 2016? There is a hell, it's the place where bad people go when they die and filled with not so nice things. The UAC after Doom 64 starts fucking around with hell and finds Ardent Energy, they also find the Doom Marine who when Hell over runs everything gets pissed off and leaps back into action. Chances are Doom Eternal will sum up what happened to everyone on Earth, and so far via the game play videos? Not looking too good...


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

[User]
CMV: Death Penalty Shouldnt Be an Option

My argument doesnt stem from a human rights standpoint, but instead from wanting to punish the criminals that deserve it. If a persons crime is bad enough to deserve to be put to death, then why give them the easy way out? Itd be more of a punishment to let them rot in prison with no chance at parole. Spending endless years in prison with other high threat criminals is the worst punishment and therefore the appropriate replacement for the death penalty. If that criminal poses a threat to other prisoners, isolation is always an option, being an even worse punishment than regular prison.
	On the opposite side of the spectrum, getting rid of the death penalty would ensure that no innocent person was accidentally convicted and put to death before proving their innocence.
	The death penalty also costs the taxpayers much more than life without parole. This is due to the extra judicial matters (i.e. investigation, trial, appeals) needed and the cost of lethal injection.
	So not only would eliminating the death penalty provide for a tougher punishment and ensure no innocent people are lethally injected, but it would also save money.

[Assistant] You say that life in prison is worse than the death penalty, but people actually facing the death penalty overwhelmingly disagree with you, as demonstrated by the fact that they usually appeal and/or seek clemency.


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

[User] Do your eyes stop 'working' when you close them or is it just the fact that no light can enter that you don't see?

[Assistant]
It's the latter.  Your eyelids block the outside light, and so the sensory cells in the retina don't get stimulated very much.

However, your lids aren't exactly made of black sheet metal.  Under normal circumstances they absorb and scatter so much light that not enough photons make it through to your retina.  Given a strong enough light source though, enough light will make it through to form an image.

If you get a flashlight, close your eyes, and point the flashlight at your lids, you may see some light shine through.  *Make sure you turn the light off before opening your eyes again*.


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

[User] ELI5: Lately, I've been getting crank calls where, whether I pick up or not, the caller hangs up immediately leaving no message or insistance that I call someone else or anything. What is the purpose of telemarketing like that?

[Assistant]
One reason an organization or entity would do that is to identify what numbers are "live". Suppose you are setting up a robo-calling operation and want to call everyone in Texas with your message. You can look up the area codes easily but if you called a random number the chances are it isn't valid. All you would get is some "This call cannot be completed as dialed" message.

So to prepare this organization would set up an auto-dialer to call every possible combination of numbers and see which ones connect. If they hear the tones from the calls that cannot connect they remove the number from their list, but if it connects to anything they hang up immediately. After they have culled the list they will start calling with a message.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is the blood-brain barrier so important in medicine?

[Assistant] The BBB is a *very selective* physical filter within the capillaries that carry blood to the brain.  This filter blocks 99% of all molecules in drugs from reaching the brain, only allowing in the very smallest of molecules.  Creating a drug that does what you need it to in the brain while at the same time being tiny enough to make it through the barrier is very difficult.


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

[User]
Most philosophers, historically and contemporary, seem to be critical of their (current) society and would prefer a move towards their ideal. Are there any philosophers who strongly advocate the status quo and discourage change?

I hope it's clear what I'm asking. Most philosophers' positions are arguably ideals. And most of those positions don't look exactly like our current way to organize society, our economic models, and what happens in politics.  But are there philosophers, who, for whatever reason, actually defend the status quo and strongly discourage change or progress?

I'd be happy to hear answers in a wider sense, where the 'status-quo' could mean any nation on the planet (of course somebody who sees Sweden as close-to-ideal, doesn't truly defend "his" status-quo if he lives in the US, but that's fine). But I'm especially curious about philosophers who defend the status-quo of their society. For example, an US-American philosopher, saying that the US-American society+economic model is fine the way it is and discourages any change in either direction.

[Assistant]
Kant, in realizing the potency that Humean skepticism would have on traditional notions of God, the soul, morality, etc. grounded on pure reason, i.e. reason unbounded by sense-experience, sought to re-establish justification for these views on practical reason.

Kant, though, was also a principal philosopher of the Enlightenment and argued for constitutional republicanism in the waning days of absolute monarchism.


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

[User] [Superman vs Batman] how can Batman even stand a chance against Superman?

[Assistant]
First off you need to understand who Superman is. He is the polar opposite of a beserker, he always, *always* holds back for fear of doing more damage than he intended. In fact you could say that is his greatest fear, and his biggest character flaw; he lives in constant fear of breaking everyone and everything around him, like a man made of fire living among paper dolls.

For this reason, as well as a history and friendship with Bruce despite whatever may happen to drive them to fight each other, means that he will always try to use "just enough" force to disable Bruce but never actually seriously injure him.

Bruce is calculating, and despite their friendship will do whatever is necessary to do what is "right", at least from his perspective. Bruce only draws the line at outright murder (and guns). Batman's utility ~~built~~ belt is sort of a greater metaphor for the Batman character himself, he is ALWAYS well prepared, and will ALWAYS find a way.

So, though their "powers and abilities" may not match on paper, their actual character and personality is what makes this an even match.


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

[User] Why do the planets seem to be semi-limited to one plane? Why do some planets not orbit upwards around the sun?

[Assistant]
Because of how solar systems form.

They start with a cloud of gas which begins to compress under its own gravity. Since gas moves randomly, there are always a few more particles moving in one direction than in any other, forcing the whole cloud to spin in that direction faster and faster as it compresses.

Centrific force then causes the cloud to concentrate around the axis of rotation, forming a disc. From that disc you get planetary orbits.


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

[User]
[General] Why are space fighters not used in the expanse?

Wouldnt fighters have a higher chance of survival if one missile can incapacitate a large ship like the donnager during its battle with stealth frigates?

The only logical reasoning seems to be cost or human pilots holding back their capabilities.

[Assistant]
One of two things happens with their tech: either A) you build a ship with all the resources to keep a single pilot alive and healthy on a long-haul between wherever the launch point is and where the target is, in which case you don't have a snubfighter you have a barchelor apartment in space or B) you put the fighter on a fully equipped mothership, in which case you'd be better off with a pilotless missile-armed drone, or the fighter's mass in missiles and PDG ammo, and you still haven't solved the vulnerability issue.

Building a decent space fighter in any setting where inertia is a Big Deal is basically a non-starter, since there's not a lot of fancy maneuvering that can be done without crushing the pilot. And without the ability to dodge, survivability comes in the form of armor, defensive guns, and enough internal space for a rail slug to pass through without killing the whole crew, all of which a one-person craft would lack.


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

[User]
ELI5: seriously, why in movies are the voices so quiet and the sound effects so loud?

and what's the deal with ads being so loud?

[Assistant] most movies are meant to be played on a 5.1 or 7.1 surround system with a center channel speaker reserved for voice. Most of the voice is channled through that speaker. So if you listen to it with a set of 2 speakers or somtimes headpones the balance is off because all the voice is not seperated.


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

[User] Why don't spiders get stuck in their webs?

[Assistant] Their webs use many different types of silk. Some are elastic, some are strong, and some are sticky. They can also mix these properties as necessary. They know which will lines are sticky a d simply avoid stepping on them. Some also have a coating on their feet which helps avoid issues.


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

[User]
[StarWars] Why did the Empire use TIE starfighters?

The Empire seemingly was birthed from the government of the Galactic Republic, so my question is, why did the Empire forsake the Republic's fleet, which eventually evolved into the Rebellion's, and contract/design a whole new family of starfighters? If there is common lineage between the Empire's and the Rebellion's star fleet, then they became greatly divergent in the time between the Clone War and the Rebellion Era.

[Assistant]
It's all about combat philosophy.  The TIE fighter is a descendent of the V-Wing fighter, deployed late in the Clone Wars and similar to the Delta-7, commonly used by the Jedi order.    That same V-Wing design also evolved into the A-Wing fighter, which was a popular interceptor design used by the Rebellion.

The TIE fighter is a direct expression of Imperial philosophy.  Pilots (and their ships) are considered expendable assets, to be spent however their commander might decide in the pursuit of their mission.  Their cheap cost, small size, and enormous maneuverability allowed them to be deployed in great numbers, swarming their opponents to meet their mission goals.

The Rebellion, on the other hand, focused on quality over quantity.  They needed ships they could count on for multiple missions and repair if necessary, so they opted for designs such as the X-Wing, which was equipped with shields and life-support.  A single X-Wing should easily be able to take on a single TIE fighter, but that's why the Empire endeavored to ensure that a single TIE fighter was a rare sight.


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

[User]
ELI5:What is the singularity?

Reading science fiction books, and listening to the technology news, I hear a lot about the singularity that is supposed to happen between 30-70 years from now.

Yet I have yet to understand exactly what the singularity is.

[Assistant]
Imagine we invent a computer program that can make improvements to itself without us helping it. (Maybe we already have!)

It keeps improving itself. It gets better and faster at improving itself.

The more it improves itself, the more intelligent it becomes. The more intelligent it becomes, the faster it improves itself.

Imagine it doubled in intelligence every year. Pretend this number represents intelligence.

0.5, 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512....

Phew! It took a 10 years for IBM's "Deep Blue" to become as smart as "Watson"...

512, 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, 16384,

Woah! In only 5 years it became as smart as a bumblebee!

32768, 66536, 131072, 262144, 524288, 1048576

Yikes, another 5 years later it's as smart as a dog!

2097152, 4194304, 8388608, 16777216, 33554432, 67108864

And now it's smarter than us!

And now it's *tripling* in intelligence every *month*!

And now it's doing it every minute! Every *second*!!!

And BANG! All of a sudden there's this God-like AI with unimaginable powers and life and the universe is different than before.

We don't know how it will be different, we just know that any exponential growth feels flat for a while and then *suddenly* becomes very vertical.


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

[User]
[Pokemon] is it possible to treat the fungal infection on a Paras?

Hi there. I've got a Paras, and he's been my friend for years. I named him Tom. Neither of us are really into battling much, though he does occasionally have fun matches with the neighbor's Meowth.

Anyway, I did some research and found out what happens when they become parasect. I don't want to lose my friend, but as time goes on, those mushrooms on his back get a little bit bigger, and he seems a little bit less like himself.

Is it possible to surgically remove the bulk of the mushroom mass from him, and treat him with antifungals?

[Assistant]
There are either two outcomes on this field of untested Pokescience. Either, the antifungal treatment completely kills the Paras, due to an innate symbiotic relationship. It is far greater when they become Parasect yes, but it is theorized that even Paras cannot live without their fungus.

OR, treating a Paras could cause some kind of new, never seen before evolution into a completely new pokemon. Similar to the evolution of Slowpoke into Slowbro. So honestly, it depends if you like those odds. Might want to leave this test to a Pokemon Professor.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do storage devices have capacities that are multiples of 8?

Strictly speaking about gigabytes (8GB, 16GB, 32GB etc.)

[Assistant]
storage is a collection of 1's and 0's (bits) and 8 bits form a byte. all the information about your files, programs and anything else is stored in this binary form. lets just call this the data.

however just storing the data isn't enough. you have to be able to manage all this data, and how to find it all. that way when you open a file, the computer knows where to go to find all the data that comes together to form the file. this is done by giving each location on the storage device an address. and since there are SO many addresses, we actually need a way to label them all. which we do - in binary.

and because of this, a storage device has a certain number of locations we are able to reference before we run out. and without getting technical about binary (with 8 bits you can address 2^8, or 256 locations), multiples of 8 means we are using every single available location to store data.

so if we had a 16GB USB and wanted to make it bigger, to expand it to 20GB would be silly. since we are already making more locations available to reference, we might as well use every single location and expand it to 32GB.

*thougt id add this in in case you do want to get technical:
so like i said, 8 bits mean you can address 256 locations. if we add one more bit, we get 2^9 different locations available to us, or 512. this continues... 1024, 2048, 4096..... so you can see that with the addition of each bit we get a twice as many more locations to store the data. this is why you often see 512mb, 1GB, 2Gb, 4Gb, 8Gb etc... sizes for storage!


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

[User] ELI5: How come turning wifi/data on and off again makes it work better?

[Assistant]
Like pretty much anything computer related, resetting fixes an abundance of issues. By starting something over it is forced to run all it's code from the beginning, refreshing anything that might have gotten out of whack.

I don't have a specific technical answer because it could be a whole number of things making your wifi or data not work well in the first place, but in short, it's like when you're in a conversation with someone and you get confused and say "woah woah hold on let's start over."


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

[User]
Honestly, what do you think my chances are to become a tenure-track prof with limited geographic availability?

I'm finishing a PhD May 2020 in environmental engineering. My spouse as of next-month and I want to move back to our home state of (southern) California to be near our family and parents. We currently live in NY. I want to pursue this academia biz but I am placing geographic limits on it. My PhD is at an R2 school, I have 2 publications, with 2 more coming this year. At a glance there are only few labs that align with my field/subfield that I could apply for post-docs in Los Angeles/Orange County. Honestly, my biggest fear is that when we move back, I'll struggle and put us under financial stress as I try to find a post-doc or adjunct positions. Is this an unnecessary risk that I am subjecting myself to? I could also find a fulfilling career in industry. If I go full-force into trying to find tenure-track positions, is that too unbalanced -- where I'm trying too hard towards an unrealistic "dream" career? I'm realizing now that this is half rant/half advice-seeking and hope it's not coming across too annoying/naive/half-baked ideas.

Edit: Thank you for the responses everyone! You've given me some things to think about.

[Assistant]
Well, restricting yourself geographically is definitely going to make it harder, no doubt about it. So yes is the answer to that question. Are you never going to get a postdoc/position in your area? Maybe. Should that stop you trying? Certainly not, but Id have a backup plan for while youre searching and if you give up searching. Youre going to have to be a lot more patient than if you had the whole of the country/world to look for a job.

So thats the reality of it - good luck!


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

[User]
[MCU] Why was there that mention after the Helicarrier attack that Thor couldn't grab Mjonir?

Edit: meant to say "moment" not "mention". Mobile auto correct.

[Assistant] He was resolving to kill his brother if it was necessary to protect Earth. Up to that point, Thor had been trying to talk him down (even though he had been killing humans). His hesitation to pick up Mjolnir reflects how torn he was by the decision, not any lack of worthiness.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Did the Emperor ever have visions of falling down a reactor chute?

Or um, maybe some deep hole? Jedi and Sith can sense certain premonition about the future right? Did The Emperor have nights when he woke up in a cold sweat after having a nightmare of falling into reactors?

[Assistant]
No, the future *he* saw ended in his victory.

He was overconfident - it was his weakness. And it polluted his ability to accurately predict such things, especially where choices were made that he didn't understand.

He never guessed that Vader, after all this time, would chose his son over him, his oldest friend and master. And your feelings will shape your visions.

Anakin feared his wife's death. Luke feared for the fate of his friends without him.

Palpatine didn't fear Vader, or the Rebel fleet.

Notice he didn't predict and prevent the destruction of the Death Star, either. But it remained totally undiscovered for it's *entire* construction time... when the Emperor was worried it could be prevented. Once he believed it unstoppable... it was destroyed.


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

[User]
CMV: Biden will get the nomination and Trump will win a second term

The vocal minority of Sanders supporters will, of course, not go out and vote for him. No matter how hyped this movement gets on Twitter and Reddit, those numbers just dont translate into actual vote numbers. The youth dont fucking vote.

Biden will get the nomination. He will have a campaign somehow even more dull than Clintons. His VP pick will be someone exciting AKA a woman. Klobuchar endorsed him so shes an obvious one, Harris never did but shes female and brown so shes even more exciting and progressive. People will not be motivated or excited to get to the polls the way they were in 2008.

Trump wins.

EDIT: Kamala did endorse Biden a few hours ago. What a fucking shocker.

[Assistant]
If Sanders supporters couldn't win against Biden among Democrats, he had no hope in the general election.

Republicans didn't go to the polls to elect Trump in 2016.  They went because they hated Hillary.  This time it's reversed.  The Dem vote is focused on removing Trump.

Trump's only advantage was the stock market hitting new highs.  And that seems to have eroded quickly over the last week.  If Covid-19 continues to depress the markets over the next months (and it seems like it will) he doesn't have a chance.


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

[User] ELI5: If motion causes friction, and friction causes heat, why does wind (which is air in motion) get colder the faster it blows?

[Assistant]
Youre right, it does have friction which produces heat but this is minimal compared to the cooling effect.

Wind blows away the warm air from the surface of our skin and helps our sweat to evaporate (Ill write at the end why this helps) and these effects are larger than that of the friction.

Tangent: sweat evaporating cools us down because the molecules with the most energy (heat) evaporate first, thereby taking away more than their fair share of heat, hence the average temperature of the sweat decreases.

Edit: youve probably seen the extreme effects of friction from the air when seeing things enter the atmosphere in films.


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

[User] [Samurai Jack] What, exactly, are Aku's powers?

[Assistant] He's really more or less a very powerful shapeshifter with some reality warping. It's kind of weird. There have been times where he is a legitimately dangerous enemy to times where he's almost comically inept. Regardless, he can't be killed without the magic sword Jack wields.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why does Jabba The Hutt have nubile humanoid slave girls in skimpy outfits? Shouldn't he be into giant slug monsters like him?

Does he have a humanoid fetish that he just parades around for the whole galaxy to see? Would the other Hutts find that gross?

[Assistant]
I personally think it's more about Jabba showing off his status and power than anything. If you think about all the different people he keeps around his palace, are they going to be more impressed that you have hutt slave girls, or that you have humanoid slave girls which are probably considered more conventionally attractive throughout the galaxy?

(Also there is precedent for Hutts being attracted to other species, like Jabba's uncle)


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

[User] ELI5: Why does Tea and Coffee taste bad when it's watered down, even though they're mostly water?

[Assistant]
Coffee and tea are a specific ratio of water to "stuff;" the stuff is the oils and other chemicals from the coffee beans or tea leaves.

So when you brew a cup of tea, the box of tea will tell you "Steep this tea bag in X water for Y minutes."  That's like a recipe - it makes sure there's the right amount of stuff vs. water.

Pouring extra water in there messes up that ratio, and it tastes worse.  Just like if you put too much flour in a cake or too much water in a soup.


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

[User] ELI5: How do animals sense natural disasters but people can't?

[Assistant]
Birds are sensitive to electromagnetic fields-static in the air before a storm would mess with them.

Elephants can hear *way* lower frequencies than we can so a low rumble in the earth is something theyd pick up.

Stuff like that.


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

[User]
How come Captain America's shield can slice through rope, but it bounces off of people?

I've read that Captain America's shield is composed of a vibranium-iron alloy (vibranium is a fictional element capable of absorbing all vibrations as well as all kinetic energy) that was created under unknown circumstances (guy fell asleep while messing with vibranium and iron, woke up and the metals had fused).
I was wondering if the above was consistent with four properties of Captain America's shield:

1. As I said earlier Captain America's shield absorbs all vibrations and kinetic energy, and when the shield is hit by a huge force (such as Hulk punching it) Captain America may be sent flying backwards but feels no shock from the punch alone.

2. When thrown (the shield is a concave disc and is almost like a very light and effective frisbee) the shield can hit and bounce off of multiple walls without losing any energy other than the energy lost through air friction and gravity (know nothing about physics, don't even know if gravity can cause a thrown object to lose forward energy).

3. Captain America's shield is sharp and when thrown by Captain America, at least, can cut through a rope ladder that is hanging from a helicopter.

4. Captain America's shield bounces off of people in the same way it bounces off of walls, even if it hits a person's back while that person is wearing no clothing on the torso.

Anyone mind helping in explaining if all of these properties are consistent with eachother?

[Assistant]
There are subtle differences in how he throws his shield depending on what he wants it to do.  He's an expert with the weapon that few can match (bullseye and taskmaster come to mind).

Think of all the crazy shenanigans a pool shark can make a billiard ball perform, now image one exposed to vita rays and super soldier serum.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Did Palpatine have to individually call every single troop commander and tell them to execute order 66?

I only ask since he directly addresses commander Cody so was he seriously the only one that he called directly?

[Assistant] I always figure that the little holoprojectors have a certain amount of AI in them, so a commander could potentially reel off a full list of orders and only the info relevant to the recipient's function and rank would be relayed. Also it would address them by name, just to be polite.


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

[User]
Why haven't other species on earth reached the same level of consciousness of humans?

I'm not talking simply about intelligence like in dolphins or some species of ape, but complete self aware and conscious beings. Does it have to do with evolution? Can there only be one self aware species on a planet as the top predator?

[Assistant] Dolphins are completely self aware. we just don't care because we can't communicate with them but scientists are learning their language now and hopefully one day we'll be able to tell them all about the miracles of Jesus!


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

[User]
ELI5: I am short-sighted. If I look in a mirror which is close to my face, objects in the distance (in the mirror) still look blurry. Why?

Logically I would have thought that because the reflected image is on a flat surface close to my face, that I would be able to see everything reflected clearly. I can somewhat understand why this is not true... but I would very much appreciate a dumbed down explanation. Thanks!

[Assistant]
A mirror is not a picture.  Put your camera in selfie mode and you will see the background in focus, because the camera in your phone is properly focused and the screen on your phone is  a real image.

The image in a mirror, on the other hand, is a virtual image made by reflecting light from the real world to your eyes.  The distance to the objects in the scene is unchanged (maybe a little longer by the distance to the mirror and back).


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

[User]
[Dragon Ball] How do you create a set of Dragon Balls?

Neither Kami nor Dende seemed to be very powerful, and yet Shenron's ability to grant wishes was contingent on them being alive and having enough power to grant the wish themselves (at least in terms of defeating enemies).

Is dragon ball creation unique to Namekians? Can it be taught?  I read that Mr. Popo was able to create them once, but that was in a video game, so canon is questionable.

[Assistant]
When Dende came to become the new guardian of earth he needed two things, 7 stone balls and a model of the dragon carved from a tree native to Namek.

Then all it takes is some magic words, and the dragon is born, it's life force is tied to the Namekean who created it.


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

[User]
A question about nerves

Does every nerve ending have it's own dedicated pathway back to the brain, or are there some pathways that carry information from multiple nerve endings? If the latter is the case, how are the signals from different nerve endings distinguished from each other (I think 'multiplexed' would be the word in comp sci)?

That is, will, say, a nerve in my pinky finger have its own 'wire' going back up to my brain, or will it share a 'wire' with nerves from another finger at some point?

[Assistant] No. It gets complicated. There are multiple kinds of touch receptor in your skin: receptors for fine touch, for pressure, for pain, for temperature, for vibration, and so on. These all are associated with a nerve fiber that travels through a nerve to the spinal cord. Some go up to the brainstem directly; others connect in the spinal cord itself to secondary neurons, which can connect with multiple peripheral nerves. Some secondary neurons gather together peripheral fibers of the same "modality" (temperature, pressure, etc), some gather together fibers from a specific area. This combined information is passed on up to the thalamus and then to the cortex via the spinothalamic tracts and dorsal columns. It's in the primary sensory cortex and the somatosensory association areas of the cortex that this complicated input gets integrated into something we think of as just a single sense.


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

[User]
ELI5: Trillion dollar coin

Wikipedia wasn't very helpful and Googling didn't yield much in the way of 'why?'

[Assistant]
The current answers here completely misunderstand the purpose of the coin.

The government (and most governments worldwide) spend more money than they take in.  To cover the difference, they issue debt (also called government bonds, T bills, treasuries, etc.).  This is similar to putting some of your monthly expenses on a credit card.  The difference is that this isn't really as bad for a government as it is for a person for some various reasons that are beyond the scope of your question.

Now, for some political reasons, in the US, the Congress has set a legal limit on the amount of debt that can be issued (the debt ceiling).  The debt ceiling doesn't go up with inflation or when Congress tells the government to spend more money than it takes it (new programs or population growth that makes current programs more expensive), so we keep running up against the debt ceiling.  Legally, the government (the Secretary of the Treasury) can't issue any more debt, so the US would basically run out of money in its bank account, and Congress has said that it's not allowed to use its credit card anymore.

Normally money is issued by the Federal Reserve (the Fed), which is an independent body that the president and the Secretary of the Treasury don't have direct control over.  This is setup this way so that the president can't issue a ton of new money and cause inflation.  The Fed is our promise to people that we'll keep inflation at ~3% or so rather than just printing a bunch of dollars.

The coin is a loophole.  The only money that the Secretary of the Treasury is allowed to "print" are platinum coins.  All other money is printed by the Fed.  Why platinum coins?  The goal was to let the government print a few commemorative coins to sell to coin collectors and make a few bucks but not really influence inflation or the money supply.   *But*, there's no reason why the government can't just print a trillion dollar platinum coin (the loophole).

Why would this not cause massive inflation?  It's because basically this coin would act very similarly to issuing more debt.  The government prints this coin and deposits it in its bank account (the Fed).  Voila, the government can use this to pay down its credit card balance and now has access to that extra amount of credit.  But in this case, the government would promise to later destroy this money as soon as Congress gets its act together and raises the debt ceiling.  In other words, while it is legally money, the government would promise that it's actually more like an IOU.  So in that sense, it's like if you hit your credit limit and have no money in your bank account, you borrow money from your brother *and* the credit card company has already told you that it will raise your credit limit, it's just working through some paperwork.  As soon as your "official" credit line from the credit card company is raised, you can pay back the "unofficial" money that you took from your brother.

Because of the current economy, US government debt effectively pays investors a 0% interest rate (investors are so scared and they view US debt as so safe, that they're basically parking their money with us for no charge).  In the earlier example, if your brother didn't need that money, then it wouldn't really matter that he loaned it to you for free.  On the other hand, if his bank was willing to pay him a lot of interest, he might be irritated because he won't make that interest money while you borrowed from him.

tl;dr Because the government would promise to destroy the coin after the debt ceiling was raised, the coin actually acts as a debt instrument.


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

[User]
[WH40K][DC] If Darkseid found himself in the warhammer universe would it feel like going to heaven?

i don't really know anything about wh40k other than what i read on this sub, but from descriptions it seems like a wet dream for darkseid. how would he fare if he suddenly found himself there? would he become the dominant force in that universe? would there be anything he disliked about it?

[Assistant] Darkseid is more about domination than destruction. His ultimate goal is to enslave everything in the galaxy to his will. He's **fucked**. Wh40k doesn't have many superman tier standouts to foil Darkseid, but the average level has been raised to the point where Darkseid is literally never going to get his shit done. His usualy go to has been either invasion or using the Anti-Life equation to rob people of their will to live. Try convincing a Waagh that living is pointless. They know exactly what the point of life is, and where they're suppose to shove that point to eviscerate humanoids. Then there's the 4 Chaos Gods, the literal antithesis for everything Darkseid stands for. Individually Darkseid is unmatched in WH40K as far as the material world goes, but His plan isn't tolerable to any of the Big Guys. He's going to find himself trapped in the Sea of Souls, or lost in the darkest recesses of the Webway sooner or later, assuming the Big E doesn't strip his soul bare and obliterate him (and before people tell me he can't do that anymore, Inquisition War proves that the Emperor is still very much alive and in control of his power, at least on a psyonic level. There's no reason to assume he's gotten any weaker with his psyker powers, Ravenor actually got a lot stronger once his body was crippled and he was confined to a chair. )


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

[User] [Superheroes in General] Which hero has the best relationship with their villains?

[Assistant]
Professor X and Magneto are best friends, at the very least. Recently the two of them have organised a government with almost all of the major mutant supervillains. That seems pretty solid.

Second place goes to Batman and Catwoman, who stopped just short of getting married.


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

[User]
[The Culture] Are there non-sublimed, non-transcended civilizations in the galaxy that are more advanced and powerful than the Culture?

What about equals in terms of strength and technology?

[Assistant]
There are plenty of equals to the culture, who are referred to as 'high level involved' or 'optimae' by civilizations which aren't quite on the cultures level.

Despite the inevitable-in-retrospect conclusion of the Culture-Idiran war, the Idirans were roughly on par with The culture before losing the war, and had allies even *more* on par with The culture who didn't want to fully commit to a war, but did want to see The culture knocked down a peg.

Overall, equivalent tech civilizations are normally on good terms with The culture, and vice-versa, but differ with them on various points.  The culture is much more reliant on minds than any of their technological equivalents, and tends to be more involved with 'lesser' species through their Special Circumstances agents.


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

[User] ELI5: What it Google's Deep Dream and how does it work?

[Assistant] Deep Dream is a neural network. It notices patterns in images. Programmers at Google programmed it with the following instructions: "whatever you see in this image, show me more of it!" This process is repeated with the output of the last altered image used as the input for the next. As a result, if the program sees something like a dog, it emphasizes it and feeds that image back into the program. As it continues to do this, the image looks more and more like whatever it saw initially. The network usually sees dogs in random things or buildings in skylines because the images it was trained with (the images it was detecting patterns in to apply to others) were mostly animals and many images featured skylines with pagodas or towers in the distance. Deep dream takes your image as input, then repeats the previously mentioned instruction until it has created a "dream" out of your image.


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

[User]
[Alien Nation] what is the world like now, 30 years after the new comer arrival?

Have they spread out more through the country? The world?  Has recovered and studied newcomer tech become wide spread?
What might some the main characters be up to by this point?

[Assistant]
The first people to notice the odd flaking disease were eventually identified to be those who had extensive relationships with the Newcomers, many of them sexual.  Scientists called it a "fungal analog", a benign growth that pervaded the circulatory ducts in the slave ship the Tenctonese arrived in.

Unfortunately humans had no immunity to the spores, which took several months to germinate.  By the time the vector was identified, the disease had spread around the world, carried in the upper atmosphere by outventing of the *Gruza*.

Symptoms invariably progressed from sloughing skin to open sores to necrotic rot within a year, unless extensive debridement of the wounds took place.  Victims would lose their fingers, eyes, ears, and nose first.  Death would eventually occur due to septic infections from the loss of protective skin cover.

The Newcomers were, sadly, unable to help to human race as it wasted away because they themselves were succumbing at alarming rates to native Earth infections.  Many previously undescribed bacteria, fungi, protists, and other disease-causing agents were able to make themselves at home in the Tenctonese biology.  The worst of them was known as 'corn canker' from its origin in maize crops and the way that it caused rows of blisters on Newcomer skin to burst out that looked like corn kernels.

Within a decade most of the human food crops had perished from another disease scientists likened to terran roundworms.  They originated in the sewage systems of the alien ship and ravenously ate their way through all plant life they encountered.

Native ecosystems collapsed from the loss of the primary photosynthetic producers.  Wild animal populations disappeared with their food sources.  Many of the remaining humans starved.

Global climate patterns altered from the loss of vegetation as entire regions were impacted by changes in reflectivity, heat absorption, water retention, and erosion.  Civilization as we know it came to an end with the "lucky" survivors eking out a meager existence in an increasingly hostile world.

Fortunately for them, the alien species who the Newcomers had escaped from arrived on Earth, searching for their lost slaves.  They found a ripe new species to exploit - humans.  Easily rounding up the primitive tribal groups, the new aliens made a sport of it, holding royal "hunts" and awarding trophies to each other.  They eventually acquired enough new fodder to trade and breed and create an entire new class for their pleasure.

Thus did humanity survive.


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

[User] [Star Wars] What would Vader have done had he survived the destruction of the second Deathstar?

[Assistant]
It's an interesting question because Darth Vader didn't die when the second Death Star exploded, but minutes before, in the audience of the Emperor, when he chose to defend his son and sacrifice himself to save Luke - that's the moment when Darth Vader dies.  Anakin Skywalker dies a few minutes later from his (extensive) injuries on the ramp of a shuttle, just prior to Luke's successful escape.  Lets look at it from both angles, though:

1.  Darth Vader survives - Upon finally overthrowing his master and patting himself on the back for installing basic electrical grounding in his armor, since he'd seen Palpatine's lightning attacks before.  Lets just say for the sake of simplicity that Luke left in the confusion and we don't get an immediate round II with Vader.  Vader, ever a survivor, realizes that the Death Star is beyond saving and makes his way to his personal fighter or escape craft.  He links up with the remnants of the (still very formidable) Imperial Fleet and makes his way to Coruscant, where he consolidates his power while undergoing extensive repairs and upgrades.  He recalls Mara Jade, and puts her on the path to assassinating Luke.  He's able to maintain the coherence of the overall Imperial sphere through use of brutal force and crushes a few outlying Imperial rogues who want to set themselves up as small independent operations.  This keeps the Rebels from swinging in and taking apart the Imperial Fleet piece by piece, and upon the return of Grand Admiral Thrawn's task-force, the Rebels and the Empire have another massive blowout, this time with massive losses on both sides.  Luke by this point has gathered other potential Force sensitive candidates to the cause and may have even put together a small fighting force of them, but Darth has done the same, leading to significant casualties and serious collateral damage.  Likely outcome - both the Empire and the Rebels are critically damaged and a third power base comes in to sweep up.  Vader, Mara, Luke, Leia, Han, Lando are all likely dead or seriously injured.

Edit:  Forgot to mention in this scenario that weapons like the SunCrusher would come into play, solidly in Imperial hands.  Upgrade the destruction level between Empire and Rebellion to catastrophic, including the likely loss of Coruscant.

2.  Anakin Skywalker survives - Anakin pops up and realizes that the best thing for lava burns over 95% of the body was a good old fashioned tasering, and all the sudden feels right as rain.  The light side of the Force, again flowing through its champion of Balance, empowers him to get himself up and out of the Death Star.  Rather than link up with the Rebels or the Empire, he goes on walk-about, visiting the homes of Ben Kenobi and of Yoda, hoping to find wisdom and perhaps some forgiveness from his old masters. After years of meditation, soul searching and healing through the Light side of the force, he begins to reach out with his feelings for his children, who find their way to Dagobah and (quite surprisingly) meet with their father.  Leia is deeply conflicted and initially rejects him, but Luke's experiences with the Dark Side, and last moments with him in the Death Star, allow him to forgive.  The newly founded Jedi Order established by Luke benefits massively from the knowledge of an original Jedi and, in the fullness of time, Anakin joins his former Jedi brothers, bathed in Light for all eternity, forgiven of his sins.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do the tips of our fingers and toes need a covering such as our nails?

[Assistant]
Nails provide a firm backing, allowing for better grip, finer sensory function, and giving a handy pair of built-in pliers for delicate work.

Imagine you stuck a chopstick through a sausage, stopping a centimeter or so from the end.  Now try to pick up something small.  That stupid squishy sausage rolls around and you lose your grip.  Now add a spoon to the back of the sausage, lightly connected to the chopstick.  Now all that stupid sausage doesn't roll around as much, so you can pick things up.  In a pinch (pun intended), you can also use the edges of two sausage-spoons to pick up something very small.

That's the "what" of fingernails.  As for "why," well, they have a function which arose from modifications to the claws we inherited.  Why on the toes?  Because they're on the fingers.


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

[User] [Star Wars] What happened to all the younger clones after the founding of the empire? were they blended or did they still get to be stormtroopers?

[Assistant]
(In Legends) they never stopped making clones, though a Kaminoan rebellion and the mass production of cheaper, though less immediately competent Spaarti clones meant that Jango clones were becoming fairly uncommon by 0BBY.

(In Canon) the last generations of Kaminoan clones finished only after the end of the Clone Wars, were all folded into the Purge Troopers, since bribing clones to falsify your travel documents or overlook a facial recognition hit was very unlikely compared to your average conscript.

This got at least one Inquisitor killed when a Jedi mind tricked the clones into designating the Inquisitor, who was a former Jedi, as an active target for Order 66, and activated the Order.


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

[User]
Is the academic system reaching a point where the scientific advancements are becoming too complicated and expensive such that it will no longer be possible to churn out the same numbers of PHDs? How will the academic community respond if such a point is reached?

Given that to get your phd, you have to expand science or knowledge somewhat, which means that the next phd student will have to have slightly more work to advance it and so on.  From what I understand, phd students are taking longer and longer to complete their studies, but the economy still needs them for education and work.  What happens if there is no longer enough phds to fulfil societies needs?

I imagine some fields this won't matter, but in sciences and math, it would be worse.

[Assistant]
Trust me, there are far far more PhDs still being churned out than open positions in academia. Just ask a professor or hiring manager how many applications they get for an open tenure-track position

Meanwhile, you don't (edit: ~~even~~ necessarily) need a PhD to get a job in industry...


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

[User]
You can't form an "ought" from an "is"?

This phrase comes up a lot in internet debates and it always seems to end the debate, which seems wrong to me. What can you say in reply? What *can* you form an "ought" from? The trouble is that most statements you can make seem like "is" statements, even those about values, which would seem to be where the answer should come from. Is it just a debating trick?

I understand the phrase arises from Hume's philosophy but I can't find anything about it on his Wikipedia page.

[Assistant]
It can be a little confusing to think about in the terms in which it's couched, since even obviously normative propositions like "it's wrong to cause unnecessary pain to others" are framed as "is" statements. But all Hume is saying here is that you can't get from purely descriptive facts to normative ones. So like:

P1) Infidelity causes harm

C) Therefore, infidelity is wrong

is an example of an argument that would fall afoul of Hume's guillotine, and, as it happens, it's invalid. But something like:

P1) Infidelity causes harm

P2) Causing harm is wrong

C) therefore, infidelity is wrong

would not. It's really more about descriptive versus normative/evaluative than the literal words ought versus is. (Plus, any normative "is" statement could be rephrased in "ought" terms to avoid the semantic confusion).  Did this help at all?


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

[User]
[Marvel] Who is the most accomplished academic?

So the Marvel Universe (let's say 616) has a lot of geniuses, Reed Richards, Bruce Banner, Tony Stark and Hank Pym.

But if we compare their accomplishments, academic ones, not super hero feats and setting aside inherited funds that facilitated achievements, who is the most accomplished academic? Which contributions have they made?

[Assistant]
I want to say Reed, as he seems to have made the greatest variety of creations and discoveries. Many major discoveries have to do with exploring alternate worlds and dimensions.

But the discovery of Pym Particles is a pretty big deal.

But all this might be moot because they both keep their inventions and discoveries to themselves, not sharing them with the academic press.


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

[User]
[STAR WARS] How do Jedi use lightsabers without harming themselves?

I'm sure experienced Jedi are skilled enough not to, but we see kids using them in EP3.  By the time a Jedi is out of basic training, shouldn't they be missing a hand or two?

[Assistant] Early on in their training, they use practice sabers, sabers that can't actually cut a limb off. So they don't have to worry about cutting their arms off. They don't craft a true lightsaber until later on, near the end of their temple training.


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

[User]
[Marvel/DC] If a superhero were caught and questioned by police, could they avoid being charged with everything done in their superhero persona since there would be no proof it was always them, every time?

For example if Bruce Wayne was outed as Batman, they would likely try and pin everything Batman has done on him. However, if Wayne claimed most of those were copycats, and there was no proof otherwise, could he get off free?

[Assistant] There was a Spider-Man story where he was charged with some crime in court. On the day of the trial, he did show up, but a number of other people also showed up in identical Spider-Man costumes. Consequently, the court ruled it couldn't convict him because it could have been anyone who did it.


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

[User] ELI5: How can I watch some videos in 1080p with no problem but another video won't even open in 360p a minute later ? (On YouTube)

[Assistant] Is the second video popular? YouTube locally caches videos that are at least semi-popular, so you'll have an easier time trying to watch a Taylor Swift music video than a random video with <1000 views from 5 years ago.


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

[User]
[The Matrix] Why do people in the Matrix wear sunglasses indoors and often at night? Doesn't it make things harder to see in battle?

Maybe it's not a concern for Neo since he has "code vision" but other humans do not.

[Assistant]
The Matrix isn't real. These are people who can casually slow down time, run up walls, and make 20 foot jumps. If they can bend those rules, they can probably see normally with sunglasses on.

Put simply, what you must first realize is that there are no sunglasses.


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

[User]
ELI5: how was New York cleaned up after 9/11?

I don't want this to come across as insensitive, but how did it really happen?

You don't exactly have teams specialised to clean up something on such a large scale. How were the rest of the buildings demolished? How long did it take? When did that part of New York start operating again such as the opening of shops? Are there any pictures of the clean up? I was very young when this happened, I can remember the day but not the aftermath.

[Assistant]
We actually do have teams specialized to clean up large scale disasters. They are called the National Guard.

There are also many specialized civilian groups that deal with building demolition and companies that deal with construction clean-up.


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

[User] Why are cells (e.g brain cells) irreparably damaged so quickly when deprived of oxygen?

[Assistant]
One of the things the other commenter didnt mention is alternative metabolic pathways. When theres no oxygen, your body will use other stuff to make energy, and that stuff can create byproducts that rapidly kill the cell. If a little gets created during normal function, the cell can clean it up. But no oxygen, no cleanup.

Apoptosis (cell death) takes some time - minutes or even 10s of minutes depending on the cell type because different cells work and live at different paces. Reactions slow down significantly as temperatures drop, which is why some people survive long periods of drowning at low temperatures.


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

[User] ELI5: How does google benefit from offering free services that don't have ads on them - google docs, sheets, drive, sites, forms, etc? Why do they spend all the resources on building and running them?

[Assistant]
There is an enterprise version of those products for businesses that is pretty profitable. Getting a user base familiar with those products makes it a compelling reason for a business to adopt them over Office 365 or something else.

Also, Google drive has storage limits. If you exceed then, you need to pay. Docs, sheets, emails, etc all contribute to your storage limits.


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

[User] ELI5 how come women begin being biologically capable of having babies at an age (periods can start as early as 9) in which they are not developmentally/emotionally/physically capable to?

[Assistant]
I see a lot of people mentioning evolution. Valid to some point. But a huge influence are
endocrine disruptors like BPA. A few decades ago it wasn't common for girls as young as 9 to get their period. The chances of surviving a birth as a 9 year old are also pretty low.


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

[User]
How many cell's distance is the average human tissue cell away from a capillary?

I get that it's a broad question and it would probably be different in bone vs muscle, but I'm assuming not every cell is directly adjacent to a capillary.  Roughly how many cells would or could be between 2 capillaries and still get adequate O2, waste removal, etc?  Thanks!

[Assistant] In general the maximum distance between a cell and a capillary is approximatively 20-30 microns (more less 2-3 cells) to enable the exchange of molecules and gases in less than 1 second (more than that could be detrimental for the cell). So between two capillaries there could be 5-6 cells.


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

[User] ELI5: How did a scottish accent become the principle accent for dwarves in a fantasy setting?

[Assistant]
It's not a Scottish accent, it's a dwarf accent.  Jokes aside. Dwarves historically were based on Nordic/Viking culture and didn't necessarily have a set accent before they started frequenting film/video games.  Most Americans at the time this started would have a difficult time recognizing (or thinking it sounds silly for a tough dwarf) something that would most resemble a Viking accent like Scandinavian.  At one point the Scottish highlands were controlled by Norsemen and some clans in Scotland have Viking lineage so the accent was chosen.

Of course, there is no right answer, it is the true definition of a meme.


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

[User]
[Criminal Minds/Supernatural] What does the BAU think about Sam and Dean?

The FBI was hunting Sam and Dean a few years back. According to Agent Hendrickson, the Winchester brothers were assumed to be a pair of serial killers who were traveling the country murdering random people and desecrating graves for no reason.

Presumably, the BAU team had a hand in creating the "profile". Did they have any theories on the Winchesters' motivations? Who did they think was in charge? Did they have an explanation for the murders and grave defilements?

[Assistant]
Dean and Sam Winchester.

Aliases: Innumerable. Pay attention to agents and individuals whose names are pop-culture references (e.g. Agent Stark amd Agent Banner).

Whereabouts: Unknown. Constantly on the move, they remain in one location for a very short period of time. Their locations have minimal connection to one another. Analysis found only slight connections, in the number of urban legends, and on previously unexplained crimes.

Associates: Deceased. A number of biker gangs have been connected with assisting the Winchesters over the years, attempts to trace these individuals has often been unsuccesful or hindered by unforeseen complications.

What We Know: The two brothers were raised by their father John Winchester, a vagrant, after the disappearence of their mother. Mary Winchester's (ne Campbell) missing status was not reported until worries from the neighbours were investigated. John Winchester is still considered a person of interest for thr case.

Throughout their teenage and childhood years their location is hard to pin down. Various schools have children registered who bare a resemblance to Sam and Dean, and the few photos found confirm a few of these nodes. During these years it is believed they were raised by their father, but due to being neglected for long periods of time may have sought other father figures.

A split emerged in the family group when Sam attended college. From interviews with class mates and friends they all paint a picture of Sam as a quiet and kind individual, but noted he never talked about his family or past. At college he became involved with a woman named Jessica Moore (possible fianc). Sam dropped out of college and is believed to have returned to his family. Moore is considered an unsolved homicide, with Sam Winchester the prime suspect.

Over the next decade we have intermittent reports and cases of unsolved homicides happening while the Winchesters are in the area. The cause of death in many of these cases has been ruled as accidental, but the statistical overlap of their presense and these deaths makes them persons of interest.

In the years of 2011 and 2012 their behaviour changed significantly. Multiple mass killings were committed by the brothers using machine guns. The locations were found to be sites of previous unsolved deaths that they had been in the vicinity of.

Bodies matching known descriptions of the Winchesters were found in Ankeny, Iowa. This conflicts repeated sitings and photographic evidence of the brothers after this date. These bodies could be dupes used to attempt to remove police attention.

Psyche: Our analysis suggests that Dean is the enforcer of the brothers. Being the older brother he has sway over his brother, and we suspect that he uses the disappearence of Moore as leverage over Sam when they initially met to get Sam to join in his activities.

This doesn't negate Sam's agency. The act of Moore's disappearence, with the return to his familial structure, has lead Behavioural Analysts who worked in the 1980's to suggest a Satanic Cult. The idea, while challenged, may hold part truths. Moore may have been Sam's initiation to the family, or a way to apologise for leaving the group. What we know of the family structure and environment suggests that both Sam and Dean have been raised without normal morals.

At many crime scenes the brothers impersonate FBI (or other police forces) officers to get access to the crime scene. They also often continue to assist in the case, possibly to divert the case, or to revel in no one suspecting them. This is highly narcistic behaviour.

Both brothers exhibit psychopathy (through the string of deaths and corpse desecration that follows them across America), and Dean exhibits Machiavellianism through the leadership it is believed he has within the pair.

They are also linked to decades of fraud and identity theft. This furthers the evidence of psychopathy, showing an utter lack of empathy for their actions.

Prognosis: The brothers exhibit characteristics of the Dark Triad. The are suspected to be highly dangerous and armed at all times. The narcissism may be our advantage as they seem to believe they are on a greater journey, so seem unwilling to die. With suffecient planning we can prevent them from making the engagement planning.

Many years of unstable familial structures with a neglectful and amoral father has raised two brothers that seem to have mo cares for anyone but each other.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] What exactly did the Sith do in the first place?

Okay so I know there was a Sith holocaust, but what did they do to piss the Jedi off so bad that they committed genocide, and then continued to hunt them until the end of time?

[Assistant]
This is all purely legend.

The Sith were originally a species of Red skinned bipedals who resides on the planet of Moraband (also known as Koriban).

They made contact with the Republic, and the Jedi as well, around 10,000 BBY.  A Sith Lord Naga Sadow spread the seeds of the war between the two factions, and then led the Sith in an unsuccessful war against the republic.

The Sith would reappear every few centuries, reigniting war across the galaxy for nearly 9,000 years.

This finally cumulated in the New Sith Wars, which were a thousand year period where the Sith and the Jedi fought over the fate of the galaxy.

From 2,000 to 1010 BBY the republic fought a large number of different Sith clans and factions that sought to control the galaxy.

In 1010 BBY the Sith finally United themselves into a single coalition. They waged the greatest war the galaxy had ever seen, and nearly collapsed the Republic itself.

This war ended with the Sevent Battle of Ruuslan, where Lord Hoth's Army of the Light defeated the Sith.

However, there was one survivor. Darth Bane.


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

[User]
ELI5: The purpose of the uvula.

What does it actually do? Why is it there?

[Assistant]
In human adults, the uvula (which is essentially an extension of the soft palate) doesn't do much.  It can generally be removed without any significant consequence.

In infants and non-humans, the uvula makes contact with the epiglottis (which is a sort of shield or valve to keep food from going into voice box), which allows them breath through nose while swallowing.

In adult humans, the voice box changes position such that it can no longer contact the uvula (which is why we have to hold our breath when swallowing).  This change in position, however, does give us dramatically more vocal capabilities.

The functions described in the other comment are more specific to the soft palate, of which the uvula is somewhat a part of, but those functions (keeping food out of nose) do not need the uvula.


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

[User]
[LOTR] Is Saruman actually any more powerful with two staffs than one?

For that matter, does he need it at all? I figured his powers like telekinesis/telepathy/weather control would be innate.

[Assistant] Not really, no. He was depriving Gandalf of his own power. And even then, turning to Sauron's side (or, in the books, rejecting his title of "The White" in place of his own made-up "The Many-Coloured") caused him to fall out of favor with Eru who stripped him of his power.


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

[User]
Do we need new Covid tests kits for every strand of mutations?

How do rapid lateral flow tests detect Covid? Are they targeting a specific strain/mutation? Do we need to changes the tests kits for every mutation?

[Assistant]
Imagine this way.

You develop a test to tell if something is a car.
After you develop the test people start to make sports cars, boxy cars, two door cars, etc.

Chance are you can still detect what a car is. Even though some cars go faster, look different, etc.

When we test for Covid we generally either are replicating the viruses genetic information or checking the body for antibodies. And these generally dont change enough to prevent the tests from working.

BUT it could depending on how big of a mutation is. So generally no. But potentially yes.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Do chocolate frogs "die" when you bite off their heads?

When characters eat chocolate frogs in the books, they are often described as biting off the frogs' heads. Do the frogs stop moving after that, or does the spell keep working until they're digested or something?

[Assistant]
ron had said "rotten luck, They only have one good jumps in em," (or something of the sort)

i suspect that the enchantment will wear of after a certain time, most likely ending soon after it is opened.


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

[User]
[Alien Isolation] What are the save points?

For the player, it's a place to save progress but I'm curious what it is in-universe. It's a panel with a phone that you insert a flash drive into, but I don't really know what it does.

[Assistant] The card that Amanda slides into the phone acts as an identity card.  The universe in which Weyland-Yutani and Lorenz Systech exists apparently never developed miniaturized Common Access Card technology so identity cards are large and bulky to hold all the personal data needed on such a card.


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

[User]
Does leaving a refrigerator door opened for about 20 seconds actually use up a large enough amount of energy/ power to consider not leaving it open for that long?

I'm at my parent's house, and they think that when I open the fridge and leave it open its a huge waste in energy.

I'll open it up and grab some iced tea or something, walk over to the table to pour it, and put it back in the fridge. It takes like 20 seconds, tops. Is enough energy or power being wasted here to actually be mindful of leaving the door opened?

[Assistant]
I vaguely recall actually calculating this for a question long ago.

The answer is basically no, it's not a huge waste. For starters, the air in the refrigerator is essentially stagnant; you're not going to get a large amount of mixing of the cold air with the surroundings in the span of 20 seconds, unless you have a fan pointing at it. Secondly, if you have a decently stocked fridge, the thermal mass of the physical items inside it (think of a fully stocked beer fridge), and the walls of the fridge, is far higher than the thermal mass of the air.


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

[User]
I believe that The United States has no right to claim that it's the greatest country in the world. CMV

I believe that this countries very foundation was based on violating human rights (western expansion and manifest destiny) and we continue to do so to this very day. I believe there was small window during WW2 where we were all united and prosperous but since that time has passed we've begun degenerating as a country and I fear that Americans pigheadedness and constant 'murrica circlejerk is going to blind us to the very real condition of our country where wall street robs the little man blind and a tiny majority of the populous controls a vast majority of the wealth.

The average duration of unemployment in this country is at an all time high of 39 weeks, while 5.5 million Americans are unemployed and NOT receiving any benefits. Low income jobs account for 41% of all jobs in the US and a good majority of manufacturing jobs are being shipped away to foreign countries.

Our education system is abysmal, tuition for higher education is going no where but up, driving many students deep into debt that they fear might never get payed off, delaying the big life events such as marriage, children and owning a home. In primary education, our country is ranked 25th in Math performance, 21st in Science, and 15th overall.

This is among just a fraction of issues we face as Americans, to say that we're the greatest country on earth is arrogant and ignorant. CMV.

[Assistant] Depends on what you consider the term to mean. Hate to break it to you but the term great, when used to describe nations historically usually means who has the 1. Strongest economy, 2. The strongest military 3. The most influence amount other nations. In the end those three things are what really determine how great a civilization is and the US is far in the lead in all those categories.


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

[User]
ELI5: What happens when TV and radio commercials play twice in a row?

Is that intentional by the company or a mistake on the part of the broadcaster?

[Assistant]
Advertisers are hoping that the repetition will stick in your mind and make you remember their message. (I own a small business and have done this in the past.)

Edit: Sometimes the station has time to fill and will duplicate the ad as a freebie to the advertiser too.


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

[User] ELI5:why do some insects stay in one spot for a long time, like hours or even days?

[Assistant]
Lots of reasons.  Some of them because they are:

1) Full.  It takes a lot of energy to fly around looking for food.  Why waste that energy flying when you don't need to eat.

2) Cold.  Insect movement is directly related to temperature.  If it's cool out, they won't move fast.

3) Courting.  Some insects remain still waiting to attract a mate.

4) Pregnant. A female insect is saving her energy to produce and lay her eggs.  Since many insects die right after they lay eggs, it makes more sense for the mother to save what remaining energy she has, as she won't need it.

5) Dying.  You might be witnessing the last throes of an insects time on this green earth.


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

[User] Why do computer parts work faster or better when they are cooler?

[Assistant] Circuits and wires are made of various metals, which are conductive (electricity moves through them quickly/easily). When electric current flows through a wire, some of the energy is lost as heat, causing the wires to get hotter. Heat reduces the ability of a conductor to conduct electricity, so the hotter your computer gets, the slower it gets and the worse it performs. Computers that are running are constantly generating heat that needs to be removed. That's why all computers have fans, to keep cool air moving over the circuitry.


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

[User]
Is it likely that genital Herpes will be cured within this decade (or the next)?

I remember reading about breakthroughs and the possibility of a cure for genital herpes becoming available within 10-20 years. This was all research and news articles I had read in 2000 when I found out I had contracted genital herpes. It is now a decade later and the latest news swirling around is the failed vaccine (Simplirix) and subsequent decision by GSK to abandon it last year.

While I have been disheartened that a vaccine still hasn't been successfully developed, I have high hopes that there will be a cure (and vaccine) within my lifetime.

[Assistant]
A cure is unlikely. The problem is when herpes is latent, it just kinda sits there. Unless if you have a method to actively inactivate or remove ~~latent virus particles (doubtful)~~ the viral plasmid, you'll never have a "cure".

Prevention, vaccine, and drugs to suppress outbreaks are significantly easier to develop and more accessible than a cure.

~~Incidentally, whoever figures out how to inactivate latent viruses will be one step away from curing a bunch of other diseases, like HIV.~~

*edit: craigdubyah pointed out that the HSV's latent form is actually circularized DNA in the nucleus. That's even more difficult to target than an encapsulated, intact virus.*

*On the other hand...*

*Does anyone know if antisense DNA works against dsDNA? If it does, that might be one potential to deal with latent HSV. But then they'll have to keep taking the drug to keep the viral DNA latent. Nevermind.*


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

[User] ELI5: Why is crime concentrated in certain areas in the US? What stops these people to drive to a so called safer neighborhood where they are least expected?

[Assistant]
The type of crime where being 'least expected' actually matters is exceedingly rare. Most crime is not Ocean's 11-style heists, but either interpersonal conflicts (where the location of the crime is dependent on the location of the individual you're targeting) or opportunistic crime (where the location of the crime is dependent on what you see in your daily life).

Indeed, for most crime, it's as easy - if not easier - to predict crime by looking at *victims* rather than criminals. If you open a liquor store in a certain neighborhood, there's no guess who will attempt to rob it. But *someone* probably will. In contrast, if you open an upscale wine shop in McMansionland, you're unlikely to ever experience a theft unless you make a particularly bad employment decision.


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

[User]
[All You Need Is Kill (manga)] Why do they equip infantry with firearms that they know won't kill the aliens?

I've only read the manga, so please avoid spoilers from the book. Haven't seen Edge of Tomorrow, so if your explanation pertains to the film, please avoid spoilers.

It's pretty clear from the armory details and combat that most of their mechanized infantry weapons are very ineffective. They've been fighting the Mimics for sometime, and it seem like a large waste of lives and resources when a lone solider or even a few can't kill a single Mimic with a 20mm rifle. I get they can be used as distraction, and maybe sear number of hits can get through to one, but it still seems like their throwing bodies at the situation.

[Assistant]
The 20mm rifle is mostly used for suppressive fire as it doesn't pierce there natural armor. It is almost impossible to kill a mimic with just a rifle. Thats what the Pile Driver is for. A shoulder mounted melee weapon. Just the right thing to kill these hellspawn. The catch is that you have to get close enough to use it, which is almost impossible to do and even then your ammo is limited. Still it's the most effective method to date. Other tacticts where tried, but every single one of them failed in the end.

Bombing: Probably did more damage to us.

Traps: Nope.

Atillery: Mimics evaded every single time.

Your are right they are throwing bodies at the situation, but sometimes, sombody gets lucky and takes a mimic with him.


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

[User]
[General smart superheros] How do people like Batman and Sherlock Holmes manage their time?

I dont know the comics, but from what I have heard, Batman constantly prepares for all contingencies and also keeps himself physically fit as well as informed about all kinds of topics. Ozymandias is similar. Sherlock Holmes is famous for conveniently knowing about very fringe subjects that are useful for his trade.

How do these people manage to do all of this? Do they use apps to keep track of all the recent developments in areas that are useful for them? How did they acquire such knowledge in the first place? How do they train their skills to have them ready when needed?

As for Sherlock Holmes, I cannot recall any mentions of him using a rigorous time schedule in between cases to update and extend his knowledge and skills, except in chemistry. For Batman I have heard it mentioned that he spends most of his spare time working out and planning. So this at least would fit the skills that he is shown to possess. But is ist ever mentioned how he organises all of these tasks needed for keeping on top of the game?

[Assistant]
Sherlock Holmes in the books makes way more sense.  Holmes cares about one thing, and that's being the best detective.  So he EXCLUSIVELY reads about things that will make him a better detective.  He's essentially the first min-maxer in fiction.

If you pick a topic of discussion that doesn't include the niche things Holmes is an expert on, he'll appear to be quite stupid since he devotes zero time to anything not related to being a detective.


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

[User]
I always hear that I'm supposed to wash my fruit and vegetables before eating, but does holding them under a faucet for a few seconds really do anything worthwhile? What am I risking by not washing them at all?

Do I need to do anything more than make sure there isn't visible dirt on the surface, or should I actually get out a scrub brush for each piece?

Is there likely to be anything on the fruit that a healthy immune system can't handle easily?

[Assistant] Most pesticides we use on veggies/fruits are water soluble and also breakdown fairly quickly in water. Presumably they've been washed before you purchased them but you can never be sure. A quick rinse should remove any pesticides still on the surface.


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

[User] [Monk] Lt. Randy Disher is consistently wrong, scatter-brained, and often downright stupid. How did he get promoted to Lieutenant?

[Assistant]
Detective work involves exploring every reasonable possibility to find a solution. But there is always only one solution. That means every other lead ends in absolutely nothing gained for days or weeks of work. It is incredibly frustrating. It is like slamming your head into concrete, over and over. Always hitting a wall.

The thing about Disher is he will earnestly put his whole effort into slamming his head into that wall. And when it ends with no results and a headache, he will pick himself back up and do it again on the next wall. And the next, and the next. Never faltering, never wavering. He will keep doing that until the solution is found.

Disher is not just persistent; he has a genuine, deep desire to bring closure to the victims. It is a desire that cannot be faked or imitated, it has to be genuine.

He isn't the smartest detective in the world, he doesn't come up with a genius solution. But he cares and he will work himself to the bone to help the geniuses figure it out. Disher has no ego, he doesn't think of himself as the one person who can solve a case. He sees himself as part of a team, and he is more than happy to play second fiddle to others. Because at the end of the  day, Disher doesn't care about recognition or his career. He cares about people. Those he works beside. Those families who have lost a loved one. Those victims he owes justice to.

Disher succeeds because he does nothing but be himself. A simple guy who won't give up and extends empathy to those around him.


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

[User] Why do corporations repurchase shares? What benefit does this have?

[Assistant]
When a corporation has extra money, it has a bunch of options for what to do with that money which generally fall into one of two categories:

1) Invest in the business:
This could mean building a new factory, acquiring another company, developing a new product, additional employee compensation, etc.

2) Return money to shareholders (i.e. the companys owners):
This is the ultimate goal of a corporation - owners invest money, the business generates profits, the business pays the profits back to the owners.

Dividends are one way to return money to shareholders - this is just a direct cash payment to the owner of each share, often in quarterly installments. Many companies do this, but a significant downside is that dividends received by shareholders are taxed as regular income (in the US). Shareholders usually dont like paying taxes.

Which brings us to share buybacks. This is just another way to return money to shareholders - they can choose to sell their shares back to the company, in which case any gains are taxed at capital gains rates (typically lower than regular income tax rates in the US). If a shareholder chooses to keep their shares, each share is now a slightly bigger piece of the company.


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

[User] ELI5: How does memory function without object permanence, such as my 4 month old recognizing me?

[Assistant]
You are confusing two different things.

Your child recognizes you by sight and smell. Object permanence refers to your child's concept of you when you are gone. At 4 months old they don't realize you are not there and will be back soon. In their mind, you don't exists. They don't "miss" you in the way a 5 or 6 year old would.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do we have fingerprints?

[Assistant] They help us grip . The early human ancestors with extra grippy fingers would have had an evolutionary advantage in climbing / using tools and as such they were the ones that survived and passed on their grippy fingerprints .


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

[User]
ELI5: Every part of this sentence "I run mergers and acquisitions for a large private equity hedge fund"

Edit: What I mean is what is a hedge fund, what makes it private, what does it mean to run mergers and acquisitions and what does that person do in a private equity hedge fund?

[Assistant]
I = Narrative individual

run = manage/head/oversee

mergers and acquisitions = combining, selling or dividing up bits and pieces of different companies

large = big

private equity = strategy of making large investments into a few specific private companies (not listed on the public exchange)

hedge fund = strategy of managed, flexible portfolios of investments, usually much broader than private equity in range to reduce risk

The sentence doesn't quite make sense though because "private equity" and "hedge fund" are two different strategies.


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

[User] ELI5: After you have signed a contract what stops anyone from switching out the pages of the contract and making it seem like you signed something else?

[Assistant]
You get a copy and they get a copy, if the copies don't Match for some reasons, that's for the courts to sort out.

Really important contracts will have you initial on every page to keep shenanigans like that from happening.


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

[User]
[DC] How am Bizarro brain work?

Last time me run out of Superman, Bizarro no tell him "me love Superman," and then Bizarro not punch Superman! It am perfectly sane behavior.

Am Bizarro very good at words and not am confusing them with their opposites? Or Bizarro not am expressing love with non-violence?

___

TB;DR, Does Bizarro say the opposite of what he means ("I love Superman" = "I hate Superman"), or does he actually love Superman and can only express that love with what normal people consider violence? (Question extends to everything else he says/does.)

[Assistant]
I think that Bizarro does things and expresses himself in ways that are completely opposite to the ways average humans do so. So, yes, if Bizarro says he hates Superman, he is really saying that he loves him.

On a related note, Bizarro has his own Bizarro, a hero known as Zibarro, who is basically the exact same as Superman, but he lives on Bizarro World instead of Earth.
Unfortunately,  Zibarro doesn't have his own version of Bizarro, so there isn't an infinite line of Bizarros all the way down :(


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

[User] What are the biggest obstacles in 3D printing human tissue or organs?

[Assistant]
Complexity of structure. An organ consists of multiple different tissues arranged in very specific ways. Tissues themselves have their constituent fibres and/ or cells arranged in specific ways too. Its not just this homogenous thing.

Because in physiology structure= function, even if we can figure out how to tell stem cells how to differentiate, we then need to tell them how to organise.


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

[User] How have we discovered that water used to exist on other planets and their satellites?

[Assistant] Direct evidence of ice has been observed on Mars. This, coupled with the remnants of fluvial processes on the planet, of which are analogous to many that can be observed on Earth in regions of past water flow, can be taken as yes we have discovered that liquid water used to exist there.


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

[User]
ELI5: The differences between acetaminophen, ibuprofen, & aspirin?

I know that aspirin helps blood clot, ibuprofen is a muscle relaxer, & acetaminophen is an NSAID. Yet all are recommended for (& provide relief for) headaches. This overlap I don't understand, what do these medicines have in common?

[Assistant]
What's common is that they all affect the way your body creates and processes pain, but that's about it.

Why three separate ones exist is because they all have different chemical structures, and are handled when you take them by separate "metabolic pathways" (the process in which they are absorbed into, affect, and are eventually removed from the body) which make them better or worse for treating certain conditions. They all treat pain, but some are better for sprains than others (where swelling is an issue), some cause a little internal bleeding, some are better at reducing a fever, and they have different side effects.

For example, if you have liver issues, don't take acetaminophen because it's hard on that particular organ.

(But a correction: aspirin helps AVOID blood clots. That's why low dosage programs can help avoid heart attacks.)


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do some bands, like Tool, not want to have their music on Spotify?

Is it a record label thing? And if so, why do some bands have their music on Spotify while others, perhaps from the same label, don't?

EDIT: I ask because I noticed that even though Tool and A Perfect Circle are both fronted by Maynard, APC has their music on Spotify while Tool doesn't.

[Assistant]
When you stream a song on Spotify or a similar service, they must pay the record company (or whoever owns the rights to the song) a royalty fee. Depending on the band and how much clout they have, this royalty amount varies, but its usually fractions of a cent. However, when someone purchases a song on iTunes, for example, the rights owner is paid 70% of the sale price (69 cents for $0.99 songs and 90 cents for $1.29 songs). And therefore, in order for an artist to make as much off a song streaming on Spotify as they do off a sale on iTunes, someone has to listen to it perhaps upwards of 100 times, depending on their payout from the streaming service.

TL;DR: the payout from 1 song stream on Spotify is fractions of a cent where buying that song on iTunes yields 70-90 cents for the owner of the rights to the song. Some artists hope people will buy their music if they can't stream it.