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

[User] [Star Wars] Why do the ion cannons on the Malevolence and the one used during the Battle of Hoth look so different?

[Assistant]
One was built for use through an atmosphe and had to withstand frigid temperatures and snow, the other in the vacuum of space.

Additionally, the ground-based one had a steady power source while the ship-based one had to be charged.

Same tech, completely different environments.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do penises get smaller in cold water?

[Assistant] Testicles will move in closer towards the body to help keep warm. The penis will shrink as there's less blood flow to it in cold conditions. Just like how an erection is achieved by drastically increasing blood flow to it.


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

[User]
[Breaking Bad] How does a Genius Chemist with a PhD end up as a high school chemistry teacher?

Shouldn't Walt at least be a university professor? Even in season 1 the people at Elliots party thought so.

Seems to me the biggest culprit of his turn to crime after cancer is the education system instead of the healthcare one.

[Assistant] Walt could have been a university professor. He could have done work in corporate research. But his ego wouldn't let him play well with others, he couldn't handle the politicking and politely working your way up through the system.


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

[User]
When Herschel was measuring the temperature of light, why was infrared hotter than visible light?

Every time I see or hear something about the discovery of infrared light people say Herschel noticed that the control thermometer to the side of red light was the hottest. Why would the infrared light be hotter than visible light, which has more energy?

[Assistant] Herschel used sunlight, and the peak energy of sunlight is about 600nm (or "Orange") so naively you might expect that to be the 'hottest' color in the experiment. The issue that he had was with the fact that he used a prism to spread the light for measurement. A prism works because its index of refraction is dependent on wavelength, this means that each different wavelength of light takes a slightly different patch through the prism. The catch is that while the index of refraction varies with wavelength it doesn't vary linearly, there is lots of variation in the visible part of the spectrum, and less in the IR. This means that when different wavelengths of IR go through the prism their paths don't change much, so the thermometer ends up being exposed to a much wider range of wavelengths in the IR which means that it's being exposed to more energy.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does my pizza box say preheat oven, when I can just put it in for a couple minutes longer and it's the same thing?

It also says (keep pizza frozen while preheating), what difference does that make?

[Assistant] Pizza companies want you to keep coming back to their pizzas, so they add foolproof instructions.  People have different ovens, so "cooking" while preheating is going to have random results, and they just can't tell people to do that if they have terrible ovens.


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

[User] [Marvel] Does adamantium degrade? As in, if I were to take a solid chunk of adamantium during the Jurassic Period and bury it a dozen feet underground, then dig it up today, would it look any different?

[Assistant]
As far as looking different, the chunk of Adamantium would probably look exactly the same, with any difference in weight being so negligible that you likely wouldn't be able to tell if it was the action from the surrounding material or just what's now missing because you cleaned the dirt off.

I think a big indicator that it *does* degrade is with its effects on Wolverine. Wolverine is only able to live with his metal bonded skeleton due to his healing factor negating the effects of Adamantium poisoning. It being able to poison his body wouldn't make sense unless there was *some* level of material loss over time to interfere with his body.


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

[User]
[general superhero] are there any superheroes who didnt have an awful tragic backstory that provoked them into fighting back?

I guess that does sound a bit lame, but has any superhero just said: hey, I got the power, why not help out?

[Assistant]
The Hawk and The Dove just sort of transformed.

The Creeper was a reporter following a lead, he got his powers almost by accident.

Barbara Gordon was just an admirer of Batman.

The Atom, The Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman and Hawkgirl were all pretty well adjusted in their original iterations.

Steve Rogers hated bullies, but had a normal life.


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

[User]
When I heat up a metal where do photons come from?

So I heat up any given metal to the point it starts giving off light, just like in a light bulb or foundry/ironworks. Where do photons come from and assuming I do so in a vacuum would such metal lose it's weight after some time?

[Assistant]
A photon is an electromagnetic wave. You make one by "shaking" an electron (any charged particle actually, but electron is most common). When you shake an electron you cause a momentary electrical wave, which then self induces a magnetic component and that's what a photon is.

No nothing is lost from the electron when you make a photon.

In order to shake an electron you need energy, that energy is used to create the photon.

When you heat anything (not just metal!) the atoms vibrate from the heat. This vibration is also shaking the electrons which then emit photons constantly. (Even at low temperatures photons are constantly being created - you just can't see them. See blackbody radiation if you want to know more.)

There are other ways of shaking electrons - a cool one is a free electron laser. You shoot an electron between alternating pairs of magnets. The magnets cause the electron to wriggle back and forth, producing photons. (It's called a free electron laser because the electron is not attached to an atom - it's traveling in the empty space between the magnets.)

You can move electrons in wires - which is how radio transmitters work.

An electron can absorb some energy, this causes it to "jump" to a higher orbit in the atom. When the electron "falls" back down (and it will), the motion causes it to release a photon. This is how chemical light (like from a firefly, florescent lamp, or most lasers) is produced. In a glow in the dark toy, you charge it with light - the light causes the electrons to more to higher orbits. They then take a while to fall back down - when they fall down they emit light. If you've seen white clothing glow in UV light, it works the same way. The electrons absorb the UV light, and then fall down producing their glow (unlike a glow in the dark toy, in this case they fall immediately).

When an electron falls down it always emits a very precise amount of light. This is because it can only obit the atom in very specific levels. So it always falls an exact amount (depending on which level it reached, different atoms have different possible levels, and usually more than one). That's why the glow is always an exact color.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does China have only one time zone and how do they function with only one time zone?

[Assistant]
They have one time zone because the government says they have one time zone. Specifically, the Communist government made the change in 1949 after the Civil War.

It means that in the far west of China the sun doesn't reach its highest point in the sky until 3pm. In December the sun doesn't rise until after 10am and in June it doesn't set until after 10pm. Those sunrise and sunset times aren't that remarkable compared to places in higher latitudes, though, and people manage to function in Oslo.


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

[User] How would destroying the Death Star affect Imperial GDP in the short long and medium term?

[Assistant]
In all likelihood, the fear and instability generated by the rebels would result in a sharp decrease in investment and a drop in asset prices, in much the same way 9/11 caused the same on Wall Street. Imperial GDP growth would consequently slow significantly in the short term.

In the medium term, it gets a little murkier. This drop in asset prices could send the empire into a recession. On the other hand, effective open-market policies from the Imperial Reserve Bank--such as buying short-term imperial securities, a strategy known as quantitative easing--combined with fiscal stimulus from the emperor himself (since he's replaced the Senate), could save the galaxies from such a fate.*

In the long term, there are far too many variables to consider, including whether the empire decides to build a new Death Star, how successful they are if and when they decide to strike back, and the possibility of continued assaults by the rebels.

*It should be noted that some economists would argue that the power to manipulate interest rates pales in comparison to the power of the Force. These economists are not in the mainstream.


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

[User] How close are we to being able to make our bodies grow hair where we want it and not grow hair where we don't, without physically transplanting or destroying hair follicles?

[Assistant]
Rogaine works to certain degree. It was originally developed for heart conditions as it increases blood flow. They noticed that their test subjects were growing hair and found hey could make much more money there. However, if you stop using it the hair will disappear.

*Viagra was developed for ~~heart  conditions~~ as well.*


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

[User]
[MCU] Why was Asgard so bad at defending itself?

In Thor: The Dark World the dark elves were able to send their ships into Asgard and basically have their way with the place. There was depiction of some sentry towers shooting back and those flying boats but they were so bad at protecting the city. Also one ship full of elves was able to rampage around the palace until Thor showed up.

[Assistant] The main reason it was so easy for the elves to have their way with the place is the fact that Asgard was actively fighting a war against the loosely organized bands of insurgents and criminals called the marauders, particularly in Vanaheim. They began rebelling against Asgardian rule when the Bifrost was destroyed in 2009, and during TDW the campaigns against them were in the final stages after a year of quelling the revolts since the Bifrost was rebuilt using the Tesseract in 2012. With most of Asgard's army fighting the war abroad, the planet only had a meager defense force to put up against Malekith's warband.


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

[User]
ELI5 how does a computer know how long a second is?

How does a computer know exactly how long a second is? Does it know it as a rhythm? Does it know it by a certain number of computer thingys to equal one second (like unit conversion)?

[Assistant]
There is a clock on the motherboard driven by a quartz crystal that vibrates at a fixed frequency. That is connected to a counter chip that simply tots up the number of pulses from the crystal and sends out a pulse of its own when the count reaches a certain value, the number of pulses in a second. It's just the same as the way billions of digital clocks work.

It's the reason that there is a small battery on the motherboard, to power the time keeping circuit even when the power is off.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why are other Force traditions frowned upon or ignored?

From what i've been able to gather, there are a number of Force organizations that the Jedi cannot match in both combat prowess and ability alone. Yet they get no attention even though some of those traditions are superior due to their emphasis on how to apply and access the Force? I understand that the Jedi and Sith were the first ones to be around, but is it really reasonable to say they have the best understanding of the Force - even though there are other traditions that have shown better results?

[Assistant]
Better results is largely subjective. Different sects have different abilities, and the results are hard to compare. Aing-Tii monks, for example, aren't known to be able to use the Force in any offensive manner, but are able to transport themselves across the Galaxy with it. The Fallanassi are able to hide themselves and leave messages in the Force, but had no telekinetic ability. It's not really possible to say whether this is better or not.

As to why the Jedi are so prominent, it stems from two things: the Jedi were the most numerous of any Force-user group, and they were closely interwoven with Galactic Republic politics since the very beginning of the Republic. They gave the Republic both military and non-combat aid countless times over the millennia, and because of this are well known throughout the Galaxy.


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

[User] Why are Gravity, Electromagnetism, and the Strong force transmitted by massless particles but the weak force is transmitted through massive particles?

[Assistant]
The force carriers of the weak force acquire their mass from the Higgs mechanism.

Let's leave gravity out for the moment; we don't have a reliable particle theory of gravity yet.

The other forces all have a common mathematical structure, implying that they are mediated by spin 1 particles with no intrinsic mass.  However, the force particles of the weak force interact with the Higgs field. Consequently, since there is a non-zero Higgs field filling space, the force particles for the weak force acquire mass.

If gravity has a particle explanation, it requires a massless spin 2 particle, and like the photons and gluons of the electromagnetic and strong forces, would have no interactions that could undo its masslessness.


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

[User]
[Naruto/Boruto] Why Doesn't Naruto us clones to be a stay at home dad?

After Naruto becomes Hokage, why does he have trouble raising his kids and taking care of Hinata? He could keep a clone at home, help around the house and raise his kids while still being Hokage. Not only that, he would get to live both experiences.

[Assistant]
That's basically what he did, use shadow clones to help him with family life and work when things got really busy as Hokage.

However there are drawbacks. Boruto didn't accept them anyway because he felt it was cheating or not really Naruto. Plus they have an expiration limit (like when one vanishes and drops Himawari's cake) and are a draw on Naruto's chakra (which leaves him exhausted at the end of the day) so he can't maintain them indefinitely.


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

[User]
why are 100s (longer cigarettes), the same price as regular length cigarettes?

why are 100s (longer cigarettes), the same price as regular length cigarettes?

[Assistant]
One factor that may be at play here (not knowing enough about cigarettes in particular to say for sure), is that the breakdown of costs is different than you've envisioned in your head.

One of the most prominent places this comes into play is clothing.  The reason a small shirt generally costs the same as an XL is that only a very small portion of the price represents the physical cloth used.  The vast majority of the cost comes elsewhere in the process.  It costs the same amount of money to design a large shirt as a small one, the same amount to market it, and the cashier doesn't get paid any more or less depending on the size of the clothes people buy that day.

I'd imagine that cigarettes might fit a similar pattern, with the majority of the costs coming from sources beyond raw materials/manufacture.


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

[User] [Spider-Man] How come in Into The Spider-Verse, the people sucked into Miles' dimension were all coincidentally Spider-People?

[Assistant] It wasnt a coincidence. They were sucked in in response to Spider-Man getting in the energy stream. If Green Goblin had been the one in the energy stream, wed have seen a bunch of Green Goblin folks show up (presumably including the Green Gobbler).


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

[User]
Is my Physics teacher correct on this fact?

He said that because red shifting proves that stars are moving away from us, that means that our theory of evolution is disproven. Not the part of survival of the fittest, but the bit with "primordial soup". He said that, in order for "primordial soup" to exist, there would have had to been multiple big bangs. Is he right..?

[Assistant] No. Redshift is evidence for the universe expanding which supports the Big Bang theory. This has nothing to do with evolution and the connection he is trying to make between the beginning of life and redshift makes no sense at all.


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

[User]
[Terminator] Why does Skynet fight the human resistance with anthropomorphic bipedal terminators carrying small arms, backed by low flying gun ships?

Why not just carpet bomb all human controlled areas?

[Assistant] Skynet nuked us, and we still survived and came back to fight against it. Using terminators and gun ships allows it to slowly comb an area and get ride of every human in every nook and cranny. This doesn't bother Skynet as even when it looses terminators and gun ships it can just recover them later and repair them or rebuild them and send them back into battle. Skynet will never die of old age and the longer we spend fighting it the better it becomes at fighting us, so Skynet actually benefits from fighting us for a long period of time.


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

[User]
[40k/HP] I am an Inquisitor of the Ordo Malleus. I have found myself on a primitive planet, whereupon I discovered a secret society of rogue psykers. How much of a threat are they to the Imperium of Mankind?

Their sorcery appears astonishingly weak compared to the psykery I am used to, especially my own gamma-level psychic abilities, however they have somehow managed to keep hidden from the entire non-psyker population of this planet for centuries at least.

Does the planet need to be purged? If so, what would be the best method to eliminate this psyker presence? Could an exterminatus be required?

[Assistant]
The Creed says to distrust the Psyker, not to kill it on sight. Were we to kill the Psyker you wouldn't be alive now, would you?

The question is if they will follow the Imperial Creed and accept their place in the Emperor's great plan.


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

[User]
[Batman] Does Batman care about white collar crime?

In most of the media we see he only ever deals with typical thugs, burglars, and arms dealers.

[Assistant]
Bats cares about people being hurt.

If your restaurant is selling chicken liver for $1,000.00 a portion and claiming it's from endangered emus, Bats will let it slide.  If the place is using illegal immigrants as slave labor, you'll get a visit.

He doesn't care that Selina keeps ripping off jewels, because that's a property crime.  He lets Penguin operate his club because Cobblepott is a reliable source of intel [in some iterations]


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

[User]
ELI5:Why is there any controversy involving drones?

They use less fuel than normal planes and keep our pilots out of danger. Why is a bomb dropped by a drone any worse? Why is a terrorist getting killed by a bomb a problem to anyone?

[Assistant] The controversy over the drones is not really about the drones themselves. The controversy is that Obama used a drone to kill a US citizen. US citizens should be provided due process (a trial, the opportunity to offer a defense, etc.). This drone strike violates that principle, even in the most narrow readings of the law.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] How did Imperial pilots feel about the transition from the ARC-170 to the TIE fighter series?

The ARC-170 is shielded, has a hyperdrive, and is well armed and armored. The TIE is faster and more maneuverable, but the explicit goal of its use is to overwhelm the enemy with numbers, and if it costs the lives of who knows how many pilots, then so be it.

Did the Imperial pilots have any issues with being given less robust ships and being told they were expected to die more frequently than with their old hardware?

[Assistant]
"You need shields? you need a hyperdrive to run? Real soldiers of the empire need only their wits, only their speed. The aging Arc-170 was for an age where pilots bought their way into the service. It was corrupt and dark time before we took back our society!

The Tie-LN rewards skill, bravery and daring. Just like the imperial navy!"

-Unknown imperial squadron commander who was taken out by a single shot from an X-wing on his third flight.


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

[User] Are there any functions other than e^x that are their own derivatives?

[Assistant]
You're asking for the solutions to the differential equation dy/dx = y(x). The general solution to this is A*e^x, so that function is its own derivative for any number A. (Note: including for A=0; y(x) = 0 is also its own derivative.)

There are no other solutions because there is a uniqueness theorem (the PicardLindelf theorem) that proves that, for a given initial condition y(0) = B, there is only one solution to the differential equations (which is necessarily B*e^x because you can easily show that it solves the problem.)


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

[User]
[The Elder Scrolls] How and why the heck does someone live off a Briarheart?

"Oh yeah, I'm going to tear out one of my vital organs and replace it with this plant."

How can this work? How is this a supplement.

and why is this a supplement?

[Assistant]
Well it's Hagraven magic. Possibly Daedric. There is a whole ceremony and everything. Eye witness accounts suggest that the Forsworn Briarhearts are much more powerful mages than normal Bretons as well.

There are people ready to become half bird for more power, losing your heart does not sound that bad a deal.


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

[User]
ELI5: How come black people have predominately curly hair?

And how come some other races don't?  I've never seen an Asian with curly hair for example.

[Assistant]
For the first humans living in Africa, the curly hair offered distinct evolutionary advantages such as:

- protecting the head from UV radiation (the head being the most important part of the body and therefore needing protection the most),
- not becoming a soggy clump covering your eyes when wet, and
- allowing increased airflow around the head

For those who migrated to other parts of the world, these benefits didn't necessarily apply.


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

[User]
ELI5: What happened to time itself during the earliest stages of the big bang?

As the universe became less dense incredibly fast, what happened to time and why? I don't know how to properly explain this as I'm extremely lost when it comes to physics. But as I understand it, a second will always last a second for the person experiencing it, but from an outside perspective that isn't necessarily true depending on the gravitational pull. So, isn't the universe older/younger depending on from where you view it?

I've been thinking about this for a couple of years and when I saw Interstellar I started thinking even more about it. When they land on the first planet where they almost get crushed by that big ass wave, time is passing a lot faster from an outside perspective. This must have happened at the big bang as well, but in much more concentrated areas, essentially making time a complete "mess"? From that planet, wouldn't the universe be a lot younger?

And as the universe keeps expanding and thus becoming less dense, does this keep happening? If so, can it reach a point where time simply.. stops?

To sum it up: time is affected by gravity and it's different depending on where you are. The big bang was chaotic with areas with different density and temperature. What does this mean for the age of the universe, and time itself? Is it safe to say that the universe is ~13.5bn years old since time is relative?

I probably made a fool out of myself now.

[Assistant]
"So, isn't the universe older/younger depending on from where you view it? "

Since by definition you are part of the universe, you cannot 'view it' from anywhere else. The idea that you can must therefore be a fiction. Likewise, the idea that there is a detached 'point of view' also has a non-empirical basis and contains a paradox, similar to the statement 'a circle whose centre is everywhere'.


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

[User] [DC] What does Shazam using the wisdom of Solomon look like? Whats he done with it?

[Assistant]
Mechanically? He gets large boosts to his intelligence, with a masterful grasp of mathematics, a near perfect memory, understanding of most Earthly languages, increased mental processing speed, historical facts that he never studied for, and leaps of intuition that would put some TV detectives to shame.

How does it manifest itself? Aside from the passive boosts (such as the increased thinking speed and mastery of languages) all of the gods and heroes in his head are constantly howling for his attention, making demands, giving advice, and generally screaming at the top of their voices. This has the side effects of enhancing his emotions, making them rawer, purer, more potent. Solomon acts as a calming influence, helping muffle the unreasonable demands of Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles, and Mercury. His Wisdom helps Billy regulate the powers coursing through his body, and focusing on his voice allows Captain Marvel a firmer grasp of his enhanced emotions.

Of course, sometimes the advice he gives is unwarranted or sometimes wrong. Solomon's not perfect, that's the other guy. We don't know that he's ever given outright bad advice, but Mary Batson once commented that he chided her for listening to pop music and said it'd rot her brain.

Moreover, with Solomon's Wisdom comes a great surge of morality.  It's not that it forces Billy to be good, that's all him, but Solomon clearly lays out why his actions would be wrong and what consequences they might have. For example, once Billy was taking a make-up exam and the teacher left the room. He turned into Captain Marvel to use Solomon's wisdom to cheat... And then Solomon helped him realize that it'd be wrong to do so and that he should stand on his own merits, so he turned back into Billy. (He got a C on the exam, by the way.)


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

[User] Why do human babies have so much trouble sleeping? Do babies of other species have trouble sleeping? Are humans unusual in this regard?

[Assistant]
The smaller you are the faster your metabolism is. Ie you need food more often babies are growing an so need constant food.

Its why they feed every 3 hours on average.

 A baby can't regulate its temperature by putting on an extra blanket. So even small changes in breeze and temperature can have an impact on their sense of safety. A baby left alone (is from an evolutionary viewpoint) easy prey. Thier bodies are also undergoing a lot of growth which means aches and so fourth. So they only sleep in short amounts of time.

A lot of animals only sleep for short periods. Its just not a safe survival strategy to be asleep for long periods unless your a bear.
Or you have no choice like being frozen in place.


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

[User]
Why are students warned not to study Carl Jung [psychology]

Allegedly of course.

[Assistant]
Can you clarify what you mean by "warned not to study Carl Jung"?

If you are using Jung as if it is contemporary, evidence-based theory... then you're just misinformed about the state of the science at this time. But Jung is certainly a legitimate thing to study from a historical perspective.


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

[User] Why do I see black when I close both eyes, but when I close just one eye, that eye sees nothing?

[Assistant]
It has nothing to do with seeing, and everything to do with perceiving.  The vision center in the brain is constantly filtering out excess stimulus and filling in gaps in what it sees.  One of the things it does is fuse the image from each eye: when we see using both eyes, our brain puts the information together into a single field, rather than two separate perceptions of reality.  It fills in holes with predictions and eliminates constant stimulus that aren't important (like your nose).

When you close one eye, your brain tries to fuse the dark and light images, and determines that something is occluding the image from the shut eye, and proceeds as normal.  It's just like when you're sitting behind a tall person looking around their head - your brain ignores the back of the head and you 'see around it' (or a little bit of a double image).

In another example, when you wear the Red-Cyan or Green-Magenta 3-D glasses, you still end up seeing in near-full color even though one eye is only seeing a monochromatic image because your brain has fused the colors together!  It does the same thing with the darkened eye.

All of that happens without our awareness of it - you can force your mind to start paying attention to the details by focusing on a light through your eyelid, applying pressure to it: our conscious mind can circumvent the autonomic actions of the vision center by telling it to stop discarding the information because now it's important and the focus of your mental processes.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is Julian Assange still in the Ecuadorian embassy?

Why would Sweden extradite him, given the opportunity, and not the UK, having had the opportunity?

What are the Swedish laws about extradition?  Do they not forbid extradition to countries where the death penalty is a possible outcome of the trial?

Has the whole situation been a complete stalemate ever since he entered the embassy, or has any progress been made toward sorting out the situation?

Thanks in advance!

[Assistant]
I believe nothing has changed since he entered the Embassy.

There is still an extradition request outstanding for him, which means there is an arrest warrant for him lodged with the UK police. If he leaves the Embassy that warrant can be executed, therefore he's still inside.


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

[User]
CMV: The gender-bathroom issue isnt that hard to fix

The bathroom issue isnt actually a major problem; its really an underlying debate about gender that makes this issue tricky. But, the point of this post is bathrooms:

- Let people use the bathroom they want. If you identify as one gender and are transitioning to that gender, it would be distressing to be forced to use the bathroom of the gender you dont identify with. This usually isnt impacting anyone. I will say that I like gendered bathrooms for privacy: I would feel kind of uncomfortable if a person who looks exactly like a woman (although identifying as a man) walked in; But, Im willing to get over that, especially considering the rarity of such cases (in such cases, no one would probably question it if you use the bathroom that corresponds to your appearance, but ultimately up to you).

- I think gender neutral bathrooms that anyone can use are a great idea. They benefit everyone, and the concept already exists: all single stall bathrooms are already effectively gender neutral, because it doesnt matter with one stall, and most large public places already have a family or wheelchair-accessible bathroom that could serve the same purpose.

- The only gray area is the medium-size bathrooms that most restaurants and places have. Im frankly not sure if the number of people who need such bathrooms justifies requiring all businesses to provide gender neutral bathrooms; Im not super familiar with how businesses are required to deal with similar issues like handicap access and allergies, but I think treating these bathrooms like disability accommodations is a reasonable way to go. Im not opposed to gradually moving in the direction of two larger male-female bathrooms and a single stall bathroom that anyone can use, either.

- As far as access to gender neutral bathrooms goes, I think its ok for them to be available, but fewer in size and number than gendered bathrooms. My university, which is pretty liberal and progressive, has gender neutral bathrooms only at specific, marked locations. Like with a handicap door or a vegetarian meal alternative, accommodations arent always necessarily equal, but I dont really see any other good way to do things, though: theres just not enough demand for gender neutral bathrooms to justify putting them everywhere. Equality and fairness arent the same thing in this case, and I think fairly easy access, such as having a neutral bathroom near the main building bathrooms, is realistically fine.

- On a related note, Ive heard of colleges putting tampons in the mens bathroom to try and be accommodating to transgender students. While I think the idea is nice, I once again dont think the number of tampon-using men justifies providing tampon stuff in every mens room. Personally, I think its ultimately your own responsibility to bring/do what you need, and provided stuff is just for convenience. If its imperative to provide tampon stuff, I think its fair to either put one source outside the bathrooms entirely or inside the female and gender neutral bathrooms.

CMV: am I missing anything about this debate? It doesnt seem like it should be that hard to deal with.

Ok, Im seeing that this issue is contentious, but not for the reasons I expected. Some people are for abolishing gendered bathrooms altogether, which I dont see as necessary. I do see that the whole use the bathroom you identify as could potentially cause problems or be exploited by people looking to peep, and I think that is a valid point to mention in this debate. I still consider my original position to be valid though.

[Assistant]
Why not just have a urinal room and a bathroom with only individual stalls and a common hand wash area?

That way, it's still fast (men peeing don't occupy stalls), and everyone has their privacy while doing their business.


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

[User]
Are professors in Europe hired mostly behind the curtains?

I asked a friend who did a PhD and a postdoc in Europe why I see so few professor jobs for my field in websites like Euraxess. He told me that based on his experience, it seemed that European professors are initially informally offered a position based on personal connection, and then they post an ad for that position exclusively on their university website just because that's a formal requirement, and then they formally hire the person they had in mind. Is this how it works most of the time?

[Assistant] There is no answer to this question. European countries differ vastly in hiring practices. What you describe certainly isn't true for most (or even all) of the countries with open academic systems (i.e., the ones in which a foreigner might get hired). That's places like the Netherlands, Switzerland, etc. But even some of the countries with mostly closed systems have strong internal competition among candidates (e.g., Germany). What you describe might be true for some of the closed systems that suffer from nepotism; Italy struggles with that, for example.


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

[User]
[Demolition Man] How did Taco Bell win the franchise war?

Meat? Banned.

Spicy foods? Banned.

Pretty much every menu item on Taco Bell has meat. Then to top that off Taco Bell just hands away Hot Sauce. So how did such an establishment as Taco Bell manage to win the franchise wars?

**Secondary question.**

Who lasted the longest in the franchise wars? Was it Pizza Hut?

[Assistant]
Meat? Taco Bell had long since stopped using *real* meat in any of their products, so that was a non-issue.

Spicy Foods? Taco Bell had long since convinced a lot of people that "spicy" just meant "with an enormous amount of cumin" and nothing else, so also good to go. They spent years slowly moving their "hot sauce" packets to being just water with vinegar in it, and convincing people that this meant "flavorful".

But, ultimately, all of that was unimportant to the franchise wars. Fast food places changing their menus is a non-issue. Their menus are like the sea, inconstant and inscrutable.

They won by the effective use of one weapon above all else: advertising. While McD's was focused on real estate management and catchy jingles, while Carl's Jr was going hard-in on toxic masculinity as a selling point, while Wendy's was getting increasingly unhinged and dadaist, and while In-N-Out was using the *exact same commercials* as they'd used for the previous fifty years, Taco Bell was producing intricate action-comedy movies that only had the barest relationship to food.

You think their current Nacho Fries short films are just jokes? By the time Cocteau is gaining strength, they're the most-profitable film franchise in the entire world!


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

[User]
How much energy does the human race use in a day? How much does the Earth absorb from the Sun in a day?

Are we using more or less energy than the Sun provides? And by how much?

[Assistant] About 1.21* 10^17 watts is absorbed by the earth from the sun. There are 86400 seconds in a day which corresponds to 1.04* 10^22 Joules a day. In  2008 we used 144,000 terrawatt hours which corresponds to 5.2* 10^20 Joules. So Earth receives 20 times more energy in a day than we use in a Year, so we use about .014% of the sun's energy that hits earth.


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

[User] [Mass Effect] How do you picture the role of humans in galactic politics changing after the events of ME3?

[Assistant] Humans played a major role in uniting the galaxy to victory, so that could put them in high regard among the other species. That and now the Citadel is in orbit above the Earth could mean it becomes a new hub for galactic politics.


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

[User]
CMV: Finances/fame shouldnt be able to enhance your favor in terms of the justice youre served for said crime in America

For the most part, I feel as a country, we have a decent justice system overall. There are a bunch of flaws within the justice system, but theres flaws in every system so thats not my concern. My view kicks in with money. Money or fame shouldnt be able to determine the justice youre served or result in you suffering a less severe consequence versus someone who isnt as stable financially having to take on the more intense consequences due to the fact that he/she couldnt afford the top dollar representation. People dont get me wrong, its obvious if you go out here and kill somebody, famous or not, youll be sent to prison and justice will most likely be served as it should be. But there are MANY cases where someone with money can pay their way to say, something like probation , versus someone without money actually having to go and serve jail time due to the fact that they couldnt afford that top dollar representation. And I dont agree with this one but. The law obviously differs from state to state, but I can provide many examples where a celebrity can do something and theyre able to pay their way out of that situation, versus a defaults citizen in that same situation, they would have had a different consequence. The law doesnt say when you commit a crime, if you have this certain amount of money, youll get this etc. the law says you cant do so and so, and if you break that law, it states what is punishable for breaking said law. I feel this is unfair, and that many people havent been served fair justice. Just because somebody cant afford a top dollar lawyer, that shouldnt determine how much less or more guilty they are for said crime. I feel we all are human and should all be treated as such. No one is bigger than the program. My post refers to something bigger than celebrity privilege because the people that can afford top dollar lawyers, at the end of the day they did earn that money. But Im referring to when courts allow money/fame to help determine a consequence, I feel thats wrong and its not true justice. This is my view.

[Assistant]
Suppose you want to bring in an expert witness.  Who pays for that person's time?  The State?  Suppose you want to bring in a dozen expert witness?  Who then?  What's the cut off?  How much money is the citizenry willing and/or able to fund the defense of every plaintiff?

Would you prefer the State fails to bring people to trial because they fear the economic burden the defense could incur  on public funds?  The bigger the trial, the bigger the stakes, the bigger the defense could dig into the public coffers.

Maybe you think you'll put a cap on the amount of money a defendant can spend.  Well, that's pretty much the system we have through the funding of public defenders.  Maybe you think to make it fair, all defendants can only spend the same amount on a defense.  Okay, but what limit is there on the State?  And if a citizen can afford to bring in expert witnesses to refute the State, would you really want a system that prevents them bringing those witnesses forward?

At the end of the day, the reason why money can buy more "justice" is that any other alternative is destined to lead to more injustice.  The question is how much legal aid can we provide to the indigent compared to other systems.

If you can show me a legal system somewhere that is able to afford more resources to mount a legal defense per capita for the indigent, then you'd start to be on a more firm foundation.


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

[User]
I believe that even if there is an explanation on some level for why the universe exists, eventually it would still have to lead back to some first thing that 'just was' for no reason and without any cause. I see no way around this. CMV.

Say you have a cause for time and space existing. Well then what caused that thing? Say we find the cause for that thing. What caused that cause? Unless you have an infinite regression of causes, I don't understand how there couldn't inevitably be a first cause that has no prior causes, and thus just exists with no explanation whatsoever.

Even if there were an infinite regression of causes, it seems to me that this still wouldn't avoid the problem. We would still need to explain why the infinite regression existed in the first place (although "first place" in this sense doesn't mean in the actual chronological sense, but in more overall sense). So no matter what, it seems that there must be some first thing that is just there for no reason and with no cause.

Please change my view.

[Assistant]
The idea of 'cause and effect' doesn't necessarily apply outside our universe.

Causality only exists when there's a time dimension. In order to say that something caused something else, there needs to be a before and after state. These must be distinguishable in time. However, time is a property of our universe; it did not exist before the big bang.


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

[User]
[Marvels] Would Hydra have helped Steve and the Avengers, if they knew what was at stake with the 1/2 of all life being snapped?

So obviously Hydra are the bad guys but when it comes to survival of species, would hydra have offered its resources to battle Thanos armies if an emissary reached out for help (if there wasnt already someone deeply imbedded)?

I mean; I get Hydras about world domination and stuff, but dont they stand to gain by helping and lose if they dont?

[Assistant]
Depends.

I could see them taking the gamble that erasing half the population would mean that they would have a better chance of taking over everything that was left.  Or they might decide that it was time to help out.

Also, if they had one AI like Zola, they probably had others.  Even if the entire leadership was snapped, they would have had a back up plan.


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

[User]
[General fantasy] I'm a mage and was wondering if teleprocessing a lich's phylactery into a star would work.

I mean, thats where they are reborn right? and they won't have any souls to feed them. should be an easy kill.. I .. need to git rid of this thing before he gets better and I don't have any other means to get rid of it.

[Assistant]
Yea, if you have the power to do that kind of teleportation, and the power to get around any wards and protections the litch has on his phylactery, that would work.
I'd hardly call it an 'easy' kill though.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Could you cast the Imperius curse on someone and force them to take their own life, making it look like suicide, and get away with it?

I guess the more general question is: what are the signs (if any) that a particular curse has been cast on a person after it has worn off? Are there magical traces left which are detectable?

[Assistant]
Conditional yes.

The Imperius curse is an utter bastard to resist. Actions that run particularly contrary to the nature of the creature are a bit easier to resist - and nothing is more inherent to a creature's nature than the urge to keep on breathing. Unless you're a Thestral, anyway, and then your most basic urge is less about living, more about terrifying school children.

So, a subject of sufficient will can resist the urge to kill themselves, but 99% of the folk under the Imperius curse can't. Most of the time, subjects are tormented until they're no longer of use, forced to strangle their families, then go pick a fight with a bus.

Forensic magic is a strange field. If they have access to the wand of the curse caster, they'll know. They can work backward through the spells its cast (with difficulty increasing further back in time) until they work out what's going on. If a magical forensics team is on site when the curse is broken (by death or countermagic) they've got a good chance to know what's happened. The longer period since the curse has been broken, the less chance they have to detect magic in use in the area, let alone the spell (although something as unpleasant as the Imperius curse does leave some strong traces).

The problem with magical forensics is that it is: A) Inexact by its very nature, because Magic is a whiny bitch that hates being looked at by ANYONE, let alone a wizard, B) Dependent on the spell in question for the level of detail, length of time the traces linger, knowledge of the caster/target/effects, etc and C) Dependent on the knowledge, ability and raw strength of the Forensics Examiner.


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

[User]
How is it that we need oxygen to live but that free oxygen is also toxic to cells?

We breathe oxygen because our cells need it to live, yet exposure to free oxygen will also kill those cells? How are the lung cells/alveoli "immune" to oxygen exposure?

[Assistant]
Free oxygen is actually oxygen radicals. The oxygen ions mentioned by others wouldn't really be much of a problem. They would react with the plentiful hydrogen ions in your body and become water. Oxygen radicals are free radicals and are pretty terrible for you. Your body has anti-oxidants that react with free radicals like free oxygen and bind them up.

Edit: Oxygen ions are O^(2-). There are a number of different oxygen radical species: superoxide O*_2_*^(-), ~~peroxide O*_2_*~~^(2-), and hydroxyl radical OH^(). Atmospheric oxygen is O*_2_* which is a molecule with two atoms of oxygen (diatomic).

Edit 2: Atmospheric oxygen is a radical, but it doesn't actually hang out in your cells by itself. It is always (or almost always) in a complex with a protein. Peroxide is an anion, not a radical, but it will generate radicals in your body.

Source: MS in chemistry.


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

[User] ELI5: Why the north was fighting against slavery in the civil war, yet the 13th amendment was barely passed by this same government?

[Assistant]
The north didn't go to war to end slavery.  They went to war in order to preserve the unionto bring the southern states back under the USA.

The south, however, did secede because of slavery.  For a present day analogy, think of all those people who insist that Obama wasn't born in the USA, or that he is a "secret Muslim."  They are wrong, but they don't care, they just really hate the guy more than they care about truth.

A similar thing happened with Abraham Lincoln, but in a larger scale.  He wasn't planning to end slavery when he got elected, but the southern states freaked out that Lincoln was going to take their slaves away anyway.


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

[User] I just read that we share 90% of our genes with the fruit fly. How is this possible considering the vast difference?

[Assistant]
I guess the question should be "what did you expect?"  We and fruit flies share a common ancestor, so it would actually be shocking if our genes were totally different.  We don't actually share *any* genes in common with them.  Rather, 90% of the genes in a fruit fly are *related* to the genes in a human.  This makes sense, as a fruit fly does a lot of the same things a human does.  Biologically speaking, we're actually quite similar.  You see light, they see light.  You move your muscles, they move their muscles.  They have nerves, so do you.  They metabolize glucose, their cells grow, their cells divide.  They make proteins and replicate their DNA the same way we do.  Most of those genes are the same, or at least very similar.  Things like body shape and size are mere window dressing compared to most of the fundamental biological processes that animals use.  This is sort of like being shocked that both an iPhone and a desktop computer both have silicon microprocessors that use binary.

One mistake people always make with evolutionary bio is to think that because we are bigger and smarter, that it somehow makes us more evolved than fruit flies.  They think that our DNA should be more complex, more nuanced, more unique than a tiny fly.

The fact is that fruit flies are probably more evolved than us.  Their generation times are much shorter, so they have gone through many more rounds of natural selection than humans have.  They have just gone in a different way for their evolution since our lineages diverged.  They have maximized efficiency, small size, and short generation times, which enable them to thrive on food sources and amounts that humans wouldn't be capable of living on.  That said, they do a ton of the same things, and so you'd expect a lot of commonalities between us.


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

[User]
What are some philosophical themes that stand out in Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov?

I have just started reading The Brothers Karamazov and thought I would ask what philosophical themes stand out the most in the book, just so I know what to expect!

[Assistant]
Theodicy and free will, specially in the chapter of " The Grand Inquisitor"

Existentialism is a major theme in Dostoyevsky's works, and this book is no exception, Elder Zosima proposes several existential ideals such as responsibility for ones sins.


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

[User] [Star Wars/Trek] If the Borg assimilated a Force weilder would they gain access to Force powers?

[Assistant] Probably not. Remember midichlorians do not cause the force, they just feed off it. Also the use of the force requires training and concentration something a simple drone wouldn't be able to do. Not to mention that like Vader The Borgs inherent Force potential would be severely limited by all of their technological "enhancements"


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

[User]
[DBZ] Are Earth's martial arts techniques exceptionally powerful relative to the rest of the universe?

Sure, Goku has Saiyan genetics that give him a massive advantage, but he and other Earth-trained fighters seem to exceed the expectations of fighters from other worlds. Goku travels around a lot and picks up techniques from everywhere, but guys like Krillin, Tien, and yes even Yamcha tend to punch above their expected weight classes.

 Are Earth based fighting styles like the Turtle school more powerful, or have greater potential, than those found on other worlds?

[Assistant]
Tien, Yamcha, Chiaotzu and Piccolo trained with King Kai after Vegeta and Nappa tore them a new one. Having a Kai train you tends to give you a huge edge as this type of training simply isn't available in the mortal world. The ability to return from the dead via the Dragonballs is also unique to Earth (and Namek), so being able to go back and forth between the Spirit and Mortal realms gives the Z fighters a huge advantage when it comes to training.

Add to this the fact that the Earthlings have access to Kami's Lookout, a Namekian sanctuary that includes training resources that far surpass typical Earthly facilities.

Then you've got things like Baba and her ability to bring the dead back to life (temporarily) which seems unique to Earth, which just adds to the whole "the dead never truly die" mentality of Earth's heroes. Heck, we even got to see Grampa Gohan in Dragonball come back for a day at one point.

Between all this and the fact that, like you said, Goku (and others) travel off-planet and wind up picking up additional training, skills and powers, only to bring that back to Earth which we can only assume gets passed along to some extent to the other Z fighters, and you've got yourself a planet that's effectively one of the best training locations in the universe.

After all, when you want to get good, you train with the best. And Goku and Vegeta are the best.


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

[User]
[Spider-man] What is the extent of Sandman's powers? (Specifics in comments)

For example, how fine is his control over himself? His brain is made of sand: could he alter his own neural pathways to increase his intelligence?

If he got sand into someone else's mind via the nose, could he use it to control them?

Does it have to be sand? Sand is just a collection of random bits of stone and animal bone. Could he influence animals through their bones? Can he tunnel through stone by breaking it into "sand"?

He's got to have some sort of telekinetic power to control his sand constructs with them being across the room and he can blast sand into people's faces...Could he use this power to throw a boulder? A person?

How exactly does this dude's power work?

[Assistant]
> His brain is made of sand: could he alter his own neural pathways to increase his intelligence?

No. All his powers' energy is concerned with the shaping of his sand form. At that point there is no brain, no individual organs, and no neurons to alter anyways- it's all sand.

>If he got sand into someone else's mind via the nose, could he use it to control them?

No. he controls the sand his body consists of, nothing else.

> Does it have to be sand?

Yes.

> Sand is just a collection of random bits of stone and animal bone.

Sand is mostly silica and quartz. It is that substance along with other dirt or earthen particles that are intermingled which he controls.

>  Could he influence animals through their bones?

No.

> Can he tunnel through stone by breaking it into "sand"?

He can use the sand he controls to sandblast through substances, but he cannot convert any substance into sand.

> He's got to have some sort of telekinetic power to control his sand constructs with them being across the room and he can blast sand into people's faces...

It's not telekinetic, it's an earth manipulation power. It works only on earth and only on earth of a certain size and consistency.

He does not make sand constructs that are not of his own body mass, which can be considerable and rather spread out.

> Could he use this power to throw a boulder? A person?

No, not unless they're made of sand, or inside or part of his body mass.

> How exactly does this dude's power work?

It's actually pretty simple. he turns into sand, can control his mass by absorbing more sand, and can reshape that sand in any way that sand can normally be manipulated. There is secretly one grain of sand, however, that contains his astral essence, and if that grain is removed from the rest of the mass, all of it will be removed from his control.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is the caramel soft in ice cream bars, but if I were to stick a Snicker's bar in the freezer, the caramel would come out rock hard?

[Assistant] One is carmel sauce and the other is carmel candy.  When making it, its highly dependent on temperature and the amount of fat. Plenty of recipes online if you want to try making it at home. You need a candy thermometer though.


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

[User]
[Alchemy/Rap] Is it possible to turn a hoe into a housewife?

So,  my boy Trey is set on marrying this girl but to be frank,  she's a hoe. I'm a pretty high ranked alchemist and figured I could give it a go,  but all rumors say you can't make a hoe into a housewife. Is there any truth to these rumors or nah?

[Assistant]
Probably not.

As we all know, the average human body is comprised of Water (35 L), Carbon (20 kg), Ammonia (4 L), Lime (1.5 kg), Phosphorous (800 g), Salt (250 g), Saltpeter (100 g), Sulfur (80 g), Fluorine (7.5 g), Iron (5 g), Silicon (3 g) and fifteen traces of other elements. Your hypothetical housewife would be composed of these elements as well.

Your average garden variety hoe will be comprised most notably of a wooden shaft, and some kind of metal that has been shaped as to give the tool utility.

You would need quite a few resources to turn a 'hoe' into a 'housewife', to the point where you would no longer be able to say that your initial Hoe, and the resulting housewife, have any relationship whatsoever.


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

[User]
Splenda and other artificial sweeteners are "hundreds" or "thousands" of times sweeter. How do they measure this? They taste the same to me.

Artificial sweeteners like Splenda are said to be hundreds or thousands of times sweeter than real sugar.  How do they measure this? And why is it that a teaspoon of splenda in one of those little packets tastes exactly as sweet as a teaspoon of sugar?  Shouldn't my mind be absolutely blown by how sweet it is?

[Assistant]
Because it's also diluted thousands of times so that in the  packet it's about a 1:1 analog of sugar.

That way when you are used to putting one packet of sugar in your coffee, you use one packet of Splenda. Otherwise your mind would be blown. Plus, it's hard to put only a couple of grains of Splenda in your coffee.


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

[User] [Star Wars] How would things have changed if Ahsoka never left the Order and was present in Coruscant during the events of Episode 3?

[Assistant]
Had she been on Coruscant and still with the Order, she would have been the best chance for Anakin to come to his senses. But as Anakin proved on Mortis when he believes in something he will turn on his friends. It is quite possible that Ahsoka would either die at the temple or join her master.

Both of those outcomes directly affect the Rebellion as Ahsoka was an integral part of it's growth and directly assisted Hera Syndulla and the Jedi Kanan Jarrus AKA Caleb Dume and his padawan Ezra Bridger. Without her guidance and assistance on Malachor, it is likely that Kanan would have died and his padawan Ezra would have become a disciple of Maul. Tho they may have both perished when Vader arrived.

Had she joined the Empire, she would've become a powerful Inquisitor and while not being the first Grand Inquisitor, she likely would have replaced him when he died, possibly at the hands of Kanan or something else, possibly Ahsoka herself.


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

[User] If the sun is constantly emitting energy, does that mean it is also constantly losing mass? If so, why is it said that the sun will eventually grow in size?

[Assistant] Yes, at the rate of roughly one lunar mass every million years, not including the particles spewed off as solar wind. Overall this is insignificant compared to the total mass of the sun. The sun is expected to increase in volume, decreasing the overall density, which isn't really related to the loss of mass.


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

[User] ELI5: Why can small businesses have the same name but I can't call my dildo shop Walmart?

[Assistant]
Two small business have very small chance of interacting with each other and most likely offer different services that would clearly differentiate them in the publics eye.

Walmart is a multinational corporation whose name carries a certain expectation in the public eye. When someone goes to a store called "Walmart" they expect, well, Walmart haha. Branding a store with Walmart on the name creates the expectation that the Walmart corporation is actively involved with that business. Under the law Walmart, or any business, is able to prevent other stores from latching on to their name.


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

[User] [Fallout] Why is the sole survivor from vault 111 able to survive the wasteland but if residents from vault 112 were to be let out their bodies wouldn't be able to cope with the outside world ?

[Assistant] The preservation systems in the two vaults were entirely different. Vault 111 was an experiment in total cryogenic suspension, essentially freezing the subject in time as well as ice. Vault 112 kept its subjects alive but cognizant. They could not be frozen because their brains needed to remain in working condition. Their bodies were two centuries old by the time the Lone Wanderer wandered in, kept breathing entirely by artificial methods and fed intravenously to the point their bodies depended on the machines. If you've ever seen what Robert House looked like when the Courier pulled him out of his own pod, that's what the Vault 112 residents would have resembled. Emaciated, frail, sickly, starved, and probably incapable of movement.


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

[User] Biochemically, why does the methyl group of meth cause it to be so much potent than other amphetamines?

[Assistant]
Methyls make molecules more nonpolar. Not more polar. Nonpolar molecules are less soluble in water.

The methyl group on methamphetamine lets it bind better to the receptor amphetamines binds to. Think of it as the methyl making the molecule a better shaped key for the lock (the receptor) relative to other amphetamines. This increases the signaling response the receptor generates (it's "stronger").


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

[User]
What is the truth behind the threat of "skipping off the atmosphere?"

In space movies, when the brave astronauts are about to re-enter, you often hear someone very solemnly pronounce, "If the angle of re-entry is too shallow, the capsule will skip off the atmosphere." Back on Earth, the astronauts' families cringe in fear, with the implication that this terrible thing must never happen.

What is the reality of this? Have any of our spacecraft *actually* "skipped off the atmosphere?" If you did "skip off the atmosphere," where exactly would you go? Is this something that could be harnessed productively, like to provide lift or change course? Or is it just some movie metaphor?

[Assistant]
What skipping off the atmsophere really means is having a trajectory that takes you through the upper atmosphere, which is curved like the Earth, at a speed and angle that atmospheric drag isn't enough to terminate your orbit.

It is a very real threat.

But can also be a tool. You can use a shallow entry to make several passes before your intended de-orbit to slow you down for a safer re-entry.

But you're not likely to go barreling off into the unknown because of it. You'll more than likely remain in Earth's sphere of influence and your orbit will bring you back around again. The trouble then is mission length. You're not coming back around quickly and whatever oxygen and such you've budgeted for the mission will likely be exhausted. So your ship will make it home, eventually, but it'll be a really expensive coffin at that point.

We actually designed a few missiles to make use of this to save on fuel, 'skipping' around the globe.

No manned vessel have ever done it and Apollo 13 came the closest with a pretty shallow entry.

Edit: It helps to realize that 'skipping' is a bit of a misnomer. Objects don't skip off atmosphere the way a stone might skip on the water. The stone does this because of the properties of water and the stone generating lift. No lift is needed for atmospheric 'skipping.'


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

[User]
Magnets mess up electronics. But how precisely?

I know that in the case of magnetic storage (disk drives, RAM) the magnetic field of the magnet messes up the data stored.

But how do magnets otherwise destroy most electronical devices?

[Assistant] It's actually fairly difficult for anything other than a remarkably strong magnet to mess up electronics - you can screw with data on magnetically stored medium (RAM, by the way, is electrically stored, and shouldn't be affected by your garden-variety magnetic field). If the magnetic field is sufficiently strong, and either time-variant or you start moving the device around, you can induce a voltage on some of the traces inside, which may just be enough to create sufficient voltage ripple to throw it out of spec and make it behave weirdly. In an extreme circumstances, and with a switched power supply, you can mess with magnetic field generated by the electronics used for energy storage, which is usually finely tuned - throw it off too much, and you can cause the power supply to start throwing out weird voltages (it'd have to be a really big magnet). Lastly, the most visible sign is in LCDs, which use ferrous crystals to either block or allow light - a magnet there will make a dark spot - it usually goes away when you remove the magnet. Don't try it with an LCD you like, though. (it used to be in CRTs you could make a rainbow spot where the magnetic field overpowered the steering field for the electron beam. It would stay there until you degaussed your tv). In short, electronics can be influenced by magnetics, but usually only either in extreme circumstances or with electrical parts that depend on a unperturbed magnetic field.


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

[User]
[DBZ] Who does the Kai's lawn?

But really though.

their grass is always perfect. I'm talking always Bermuda grass or better. I could believe maybe North King Kai cutting his own but the others, who does this? why is it literally always perfect? Never too long but not golf course short? Who's going around cutting this?

[Assistant] What makes you think anyone even has to do it? King Kai and probably Bubbles as well, live forever, or pretty darn close to forever. It's not outside of the realm of possibility that his super small, yet super dense planet, has grass that never gets longer than that. The same way human hair tends to stop growing at a certain point, that planet's grass and other plant life could. Hell, maybe the super intense gravity won't even allow it to grow any taller.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does the wind usually seem so much more calm at night time?

[Assistant] Wind is caused by horizontal differences in air pressure.  One way for pressure to fluctuate is when air heats up and rises.  During the day, the sun will heat up certain surfaces faster than others.  When the surface heats up, the air above it rises, causing a low pressure area.  Air from a higher pressure area then travels towards the low, which creates wind.  At night, there is no surface heating, and therefore you don't get this type of wind.


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

[User]
ELI5 why does milk taste so good after eating something with syrup or peanut butter?

Edit: My first post to make it to the front page is the stupidest question I've ever thought of while high and binge-eating Eggo Waffles.

[Assistant] **Likes disolve likes. Polar substances like water disolve polar substances like sugar. Non-polars like oil, fat, and gasoline dissolve non-polars. We've all seen this, oil doesn't mix with water. Chocolate and peanut butter have fat which don't disolve well or at all in water, but do in milk because milk has fat.**


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

[User]
If allergies can come from repeated exposures, why are we not allergic to everything?

Correct any assumptions I may have made, but I have read about how allergies can come from repeated exposures to something. For example, I've read the story about how cockroach researchers eventually become allergic to them, and in turn have an allergy to instant coffee.

How come we aren't allergic to things we experience everyday in our lives? I eat wheat almost everyday, will I eventually get to the point where I die if I walk past a bakery? Will all pet owners become allergic to their pets? Will youngsters all develop an allergy to AXE bodyspray? Will someone eventually become allergic to a medication that they take chronically?

[Assistant]
Allergies are due to your immune system misidentifying one protein as a similar protein.  So repeat exposure increases the risk of this part happening.  Once this happens, your body creates antibodies that will flag those proteins for histamine attack the next time theyre seen.

Usually our immune systems are good at proper identification, but some genetic traits as well as look a like proteins make certain allergies more likely.


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

[User] ELI5: why hasn't the price of helium skyrocketed with its depletion?

[Assistant]
Because no one is really worried about it running out.

There is plenty of helium extracted from the earth each year, a byproduct of natural gas wells.  However, it isn't usually profitable to capture it, so producers just let it and other gases escape into the air.

Once the price hits a certain point, producers will capture it, and the price will stabilize.


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

[User]
ELI5: Can someone explain how units of measurements were decided upon, and why the math is perfect?

Is it just a coincidence that a cube measuring 1cm x 1cm x 1cm holds 1mL of water and has a mass of 1 gram?

Were all three units of measurement based on water?

[Assistant]
It's not a coincidence, they were defined that way.

The meter was originally defined at 1/10,000,000 the distance between the equator and the north pole.

A liter is a unit of volume, defined as 1000 cm^(3), so 1mL = 1cm^(3) (one cubic centimeter). It is derived directly from the meter, and has nothing to do with water.

A gram was defined as the mass of one cubic centimeter of water at the melting point of water.


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

[User]
[Stellaris] Our civilization is doomed. How can we leave a message for the future?

Our people, the Akar, began at the bottom of the seas of our homeworld thousands of years ago. We raced towards the future, elevated past factionalism, and took to the stars.
In the process of finding new worlds, we found a paradise beyond scientific understanding in a world called Divinity.

It was a "Holy World" of an empire that was spacefaring when our species was still  fumbling with bronze and glass. We have been defeated in every single stage of our conflict despite all of our best efforts. Even as I write this, the core worlds of my people burn.

We have perhaps days before the fleet of our enemy comes within an AU distance and glasses our homeworld to set an example. We want to leave a message to anyone who may find our world in the distant future, one sharing our collective sorrow and hopes we once knew.

How can we, as an enemy plans to boil our seas and char our surface? To poison our atmosphere and unleash bio-engineered nightmares upon our children? What can be done?

[Assistant] Begin mass producing faster than light capable probes with as much data on your race and culture as is possible and start shooting them off in every direction imaginable. Many will be destroyed. Many more will drift for centuries, millennia, to be occasionally found and translated. Someone, somewhere, will remember you.


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

[User] ELI5 why your voice sounds different to you when you speak and when you hear it on a recording?

[Assistant]
because when you're hearing a recording of yourself, you're not also experiencing it through the dense matter of your skull.

also, a recording does not have perfect fidelity. but mostly the first thing.


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

[User] [Warhammer FB] Has anyone ever turned away from Chaos after embracing them?

[Assistant]
Yes, in the Beastslayer novel of the Gotrek and Felix saga, the brother of duke of Praag is a Tzeentch cultist that is plotting to kill his brother and make the city fall to Chaos. Even though he sincerely loves his brother.
The plan fails because he has a change of heart at the very last moment, and protect his brother from the assassins. Sadly though, his soul still belongs to Tzeentch, and the Chaos God punishes him for all eternity for his betrayal.

Also, it's hinted that ALL Chaos Warriors conserve a minuscule fraction of humanity in their mind, and this human conscience is horrified by their actions and by Chaos itself. The apparent madness of the Chaos Warriors is mostly due to trying and silence this voice in their head with act of crazed violence.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is claustrophobia such a common fear, given that our ancestors were cave dwellers? Wouldn't we have adapted to tight and dark spaces?

[Assistant]
Although prehistoric humans are often called "cavemen" its likely that the vast majority of early humans did not live in caves. Caves are where we find most prehistoric human artifacts, but that's because caves preserve things that would be destroyed, lost, or buried outside.

It's far more likely that most humans lived in things like tents and huts. Keep in mind that prehistoric humans had the same intelligence as you or I, and so were perfectly capable of constructing simple shelters.

Also, you assume that fears like claustrophobia are hereditary. That's far from clear.


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

[User]
ELI5:Why do most mentally disabled people share a lot of the same traits?

( head tilted to the side, arm tucked to the chest, etc.)

[Assistant]
They don't.

People with similar disabilities share similar traits. You notice the ones with these traits because you associate them with mental disabilities.

Many people that are intellectually delayed are relatively "normal" in appearance. They simply are less able to develop adaptive behaviors that help with society's definitiion of normal. Example would be fetishizing of specific body parts, normally people would not go to strangers and attempt to touch those parts but an IDD person would have less impulse control since to them they're just partaking in something they like and the thought that the other person might not be willing doesn't cross their mind.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter]If Sirius hadn't been sent to Azkaban would Harry have been safe with him?

Harry was sent to the Dursley's because his Aunt Petunia was his only living blood relative. Granted Sirius is only his Godfather, but with the protection surrounding 12 Grimmauld Place, would Voldemort have found Harry? Could Harry have safely lived with him?

[Assistant] The fidelius could probably have protected Harry at Grimmauld Place, but it had just failed Harry's parents so Dumbledore would conceivably have been reluctant to choose it as a main line of defense again. The blood magic made possible by Lily's sacrifice was too powerful to ignore; Albus would be more likely to make Sirius live with Harry and the Dursleys than to deprive Harry of an ultimate protection.


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

[User]
Can a atom be made of just a neutron and an electron?

Can a atom be made of just a neutron and an electron? What is this called?

[Assistant] There would be no electromagnetic force between the neutron and electron, so no, not possible. The closest you can get to that is one neutron, one electron, AND one proton. That would be deuterium which is an isotope of hydrogen.


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

[User]
If a magnetic field requires a moving electric charge, how does a permanent magnet work?

And even if a permanent magnet has some sort of current flowing in it, how does the current stay moving without the input of energy?

[Assistant]
First of all, a magnetic field doesn't necessarily require a movement of charge. All it needs is a change in electric flux with time.

Second of all in an atom, the electrons are "spinning" around the nucleus, usually in random directions. Every single one of them is like a tiny bar magnet (the more technical term is dipole). In an object where the electrons are mostly "spinning" in the same direction, all the dipole moments sum together and make one big dipole.


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

[User] Why am I always tired throughout the day, but energetic at night while surfing reddit until 3AM? Shouldn't I just keep getting more and more tired until I fall asleep?

[Assistant]
Your circadian rhythm is controlled by melatonin levels. Elevated melatonin   causes drowsiness and melatonin should decrease to undetectable levels during the day.

Melatonin production is suppressed by shining blue light around 460 to 480 nm onto the retina.

So perhaps you are not receiving enough blue light intensity early in the morning and it is only by late in the afternoon that your melatonin production is properly suppressed.


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

[User] CMV: Capitalism is leading to the degradation of culture.

[Assistant]
How do you define degradation? What is lower vs. higher "quality" culture?

Capitalism in conjunction with the online marketplace has created a resurgence of handmade craft. Things like food-trucks and micro-breweries are redefining the way Americans look at food, beer, wine. The availability of cheap, high quality production equipment (arguably the result of capitalism) has allowed more people to explore their creativity through video and music production.

If you define "culture" as the production of different "stuff," production has never been higher.

If you think that the mainstream is all there is, that just sounds like you haven't explored much outside the mainstream to see how vibrant the culture is in practically every city in the United States.


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

[User]
[Terminator franchise] How sentient are the Terminators?

Both the T-800 and T-1000 have overriding programming that they don't or can't deviate from - kill their target.  However, they have a lot of leeway within the programming and often seem to make spur of the moment  decisions.  They let some civilians live and kill others.  They use subterfuge sometimes and brute power sometimes.  It doesn't seem as though they're following an algorithm that gives them the best outcome toward the target, more like they're assessing the current situation and acting accordingly.  This seems pretty close to free will.  And... In Terminator: [Dark Fate], it's revealed that after its target is gone, the  T-800 basically has free will, and does things that a human in similar  circumstances might, such as starting a business and family and blending in as a human.  Would you call the Terminators free-willed?  So, are they sentient?  They're AI, yes, but a sufficiently advanced AI to have  self-awareness.  Do they have free will?

Edited to fix title. I forgot which movie was which.

[Assistant]
A constant theme within the Terminator Universe is the prospect of machines developing to the point they begin exhibiting more and more human traits, specifically  emotions.  The "Uncle Bob" expressed humor, concern, and empathy (all of which was made  possible after the switch over of his chip from Read-only to Read-write)

T-1000 expressed what may be "Sadism".


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

[User]
[Star Trek] What's it like being transported?

Sometimes when the transporter malfunctions the people being transported flicker back and forth a few times, can the people being transported see what's happening?

They don't seem to be able to move. If the transporter is malfunctioning are they aware of the missing time?

[Assistant]
I believe so. In TNG: Realm of Fear, Barclay has an unusual experience while being transported and later purposely recreates the situation so he can observe more closely.

There is also the unfortunate transporter accident in Star Trek The Motion Picture, where one of the people seemed painfully aware that the transport failed.

This would not be the case throughout. When Scotty was rematerialized from the pattern buffer after 75 years in TNG: Relics, he acted like no time had passed.


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

[User] Are there viruses that are benign but highly infectious that we dont know about until after its spread?

[Assistant] Polyomaviruses are very common. HPyVs 9 and 12 are not known to cause any disease. BK and JC viruses infect the large majority of humans. There are 13 we know of that infect humans, there are probably more we just haven't found yet, and in general they only cause disease for immunocompromised patients, if any disease is even known.


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

[User]
[Terminator] How diverse are the Terminator's skillsets when it comes to blending in? Can they cook? Are they programmed to know how to have sex?

Of course the main use of Terminators is to look and sound human enough to get in close to the target. But say Skynet needed the Terminator to stick around a while longer, perhaps befriend a community of humans or seduce influential figures, could they do that?

On one hand the T-800 showed no finesse when it came to learning information or completing its objectives back in 1984. However the TX is able to augment its breasts in 2004 to bypass issues with the police, clearly acknowledging basic sexual concepts to achieve its goals.

So does Skynet chuck in a bunch of these skills to augment how believable their infiltration units are? Or do they just learn as they go? Are they *anatomically correct* to be able to trick or even have sex with a human (if and when the situation demands it)?

[Assistant]
In the Sarah Connor chronicles one of the terminators sent back into the past maintained a relationship with a woman, including sleeping together, in order to complete its objective and another unit unintentionally killed someone who would enable Skynet to be born so assumed his position.

From this we can assume that Skynet can program information into its units so they can complete their objectives as well as allowing them enough freedom to learn new skills and abilities to improvise if their mission goes awry.


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

[User]
[Elder Scrolls] Why does Khajiit hate the cold? Khajiit has more fur than Man, Mer, or Argonian.

Is it due to the warm sands of Elsweyr drawing you home?

[Assistant]
Khajiit loves the cold. Just in moderation.
Skyrim, it says, goes well past moderation.
The cold also comes from her people. In Skyrim, Khajiit is not friend. He is not welcomed into warmth of town with his wife.

He stays outside, with the cold, the roars on the wind, the bandits and drunks. Duty binds him to stay, to work for the better life, yes? The warmth of home. Warmth of Elswhyr. Where Khajiit has dignity.


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

[User]
[Avatar: The Last Airbender] Why didn't the Fire Nation use Combustion Man to blow up the walls of Ba Sing Se?

Seems like it would be easier to just draft him instead of building that giant drill.

[Assistant]
While he could cause a lot of damage, it would be hard for one man, even one with his abilities, to get through the wall. A dozen Earthbenders could just keep drawing up Earth to reinforce the wall as needed until he was taken out (Iroh nonwithstanding as he is exceptionally powerful)

The drill also had the advantage of being heavily armored, and it stays in place where the wall can't be filled back in.

If the Fire Nation were to use men to take down the wall, they may be better off simply directing soldiers to melt it with combined firebending efforts.


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

[User]
[Marvel] How did Dr. Doom become God Doom, and how does God Doom differ from Dr. Doom?

Also, which universe is God Doom a part of?

[Assistant]
Spoilers for the current Secret Wars crossover follow -

We don't know exactly how, yet. The Beyonders - an extradimensional race of omnipotent beings, of which the one from the original 1984 Secret Wars was a newborn infant - decided to destroy the entire multiverse, for reasons we don't know. Dr. Doom engaged in a fairly convoluted plan to stop them... by destroying the multiverse himself, before they did.

The difference being, the Beyonders were going to completely wipe everything out. Doom saved bits and pieces of worlds from across the multiverse. Then, somehow - we still haven't been shown how in the comic - he managed to defeat the Beyonders and steal their power, then assemble all those bits and pieces of parallel Earths into a single world, Battleworld.

Then he and Dr. Strange altered the survivors' memories to remember that the world had somehow always been this way, made up of little patches of alternate universes, and that Doom is God and always has been. People mostly just don't think about it too much, and questioning it is considered heresy.

So the answer to which universe God Doom is from - lots of them, in one sense, in that he is God over a world made from the Earths of many different universes. None of them, in the sense that no actual universe survived, and Battleworld hangs in an empty void, circled by a sun made from the Human Torch. But in terms of origin, he is the Doom of Earth-616, the main Marvel Universe.


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

[User]
CMV: Trumps presidency will end up being a net negative for US conservatives agenda

Just to be clear, this isnt meant to be a debate about whether said conservative agenda is a good thing. Only whether trumps presidency will ultimately be a good thing for it

Anyways, I believe that Trumps presidency will cause a huge progressive backlash for years to come. It looks as though republicans are going to lose control of the senate, and so democrats will control the house, senate, and presidency. This means that democrats can get their vengeance on the trump era, and pass almost anything they want. Medicare for all, substantial gun reform, police reform, wealth tax, etc- all of these are potentially on the menu.

Trumps behavior has also damaged moderates views of republicans. This is most apparent in the suburbs. Moderate voters who might usually lean republican have been turned off by trumps crude language and behavior, and I believe that losing the suburbs is what caused republicans to lose both senate races yesterday (ossoff hasnt been declared the winner yet but all signs point to him winning given that most of the outstanding votes are from democratic areas). We all know the cities will always go blue and rural areas will always go red, but if the suburbs start leaning blue  that would be disastrous for republicans.

The biggest counter argument I can see to my case is the fact that Trump stacked federal courts with conservatives. For conservatives, Trumps greatest achievement is definitely the vast number of conservative justices that he appointed and were ultimately confirmed. Most notable of course is the Supreme Courts 6-3 conservative majority. And the courts are definitely important, but the courts do not make the law, they only apply it. Plus, the idea of stacking the supreme court has been discussed among democratic circles, and if that happened, the conservative majority would disappear.

So ultimately, I believe that, while Trumps presidency seemed like a victory for US conservatives, it will actually do more damage to conservatism in this country than it will do good.

[Assistant]
Trump was never a conservative, nor was he seen as a good conservative option. Conservatives supported him in his Supreme Court choices though, and did largely see him as better than the Democrat options.

I believe you are correct if you change out Republicans for conservatives in your post though.

Conservatives will have a battle ahead of them to bring the Republican Party back in line with conservative values.


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

[User]
How do things dry?

Let's say I spill a glass of water on my wooden floor. After a while, it's just not there anymore. Where does this water go?

[Assistant]
A puddle dries by evaporation, which is when the water molecules get enough energy to turn into water vapour.

Now, on a normal day you would think that the water isn't warm enough to boil and evaporate, which is true. However water doesn't need to boil to evaporate. As the water molecules move around and bump into each other, they are constantly giving or losing energy to each other. So when a molecule is lucky enough to just keep getting more energy, it will eventually have enough energy to break free from the puddle and turn into water vapour (steam is just hot water vapour). Eventually, all the water molecules will have gotten enough just energy from bumping into each to evaporate.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is the ratio of protons and electrons in the universe 1:1? Is there a mechanism keeping that ratio steady or did we just get really lucky when the universe formed?

Is this one of those "it's that way because if it wasn't we wouldn't be here to ask it" questions?

[Assistant] When the universe started out from nothing in the Big Bang, its total charge was zero, and when the particles were being created, that total charge was staying zero at all times, and is thought to be exactly zero to this day. So in every possible particle creation process for every one positively charged particle created one negatively charged particle appears as well.


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

[User]
[MCU] What exactly is the TVA supposed to do if someone like Doctor Strange or Wanda messes with the timeline?

Like slowing time won't stop the fact that both of them can just delete people and Strange has time manipulation as well if he has the infinity stone. Plus they can travel through portals. What exactly is to be done then? Hope for the best? Attack them in their sleep and hope they don't have any defenses?

[Assistant] They've got the benefit of choosing the battle field. They can jump into a timeline at any point they want, maximizing their advantage and their targets disadvantage. Everyone sleeps, shits, and let's their guard down at some point. They can also study not just the time line in question but any other similar time line to get an amazing scouting report of what they need to do. As long as the TVA agents are worth their salt they are essentially all powerful and all knowing. And they'll attack you before you even know they exist and what they are capable of. Basically, they only lose because they fuck up, not because of anything you're capable of.


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

[User] [Stephen King's 1408] What was the voice screaming the numbers on the phone? Why those numbers?

[Assistant]
Another illusion by the malevolent will of 1408. Because it's disorienting and terrifying.

The pairs of numbers always add up to 13, notably. This may be significant because, like many hotels, the Dolphin renumbers its floors so that its 13th floor is labeled 14-- so room 1408 is on the 13th floor. 1+4+0+8 also equals 13, and the temperatures the thermostat sets itself to also add up to 13 every time.

Edit: It's possible, based on the short story, that Room 1408 is a creature from Todash space much like It/Pennywise-- the short story describes both Enslin and the maid who went blind as having seen terrible colors. These are perhaps something like It's deadlights.


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

[User]
[Death Note] Is it the Shinigamis' job to kill humans?

are the comparable to the Grim Reaper? where a human can only die with intervention by a shinigami, or is it optional?

I guess what I'm asking is if a person contracts a disease and dies, is it because, without a doubt, 100% that a shinigami wrote it in their notebook? or can humans die without death notes?

[Assistant] Shinigami need to kill humans in order to live by absorbing their remaining lifetime had their name not been written in the Note, so humans must be able to die without Shinigami intervention. Shinigami kill for entertainment and sustenance, but they are not the sole cause of death in Death Note. They have less in common with the Grim Reaper than they do with a typical predator.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do airplanes collide midair if there arent that many planes, and the sky is huge?

[Assistant] Many fights come from and go to the same airports, which means that lots of planes are using similar flight paths.  If they were freeform flying from anywhere to anywhere, then there would be much less risk since they'd be following a million different paths.  But since there are relatively few starting points and ending points, more traffic is compressed into less routes.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do the voices in schizophrenics' heads say negative things?

I've always read about schizophrenics having voices in their heads talk to them, telling them to kill people or to kill themselves. Why don't these voices say more positive things?

[Assistant]
Typically Schizophrenics are diagnosed BECAUSE of the voices being constantly negative. there are plenty of people that "hear voices" that are mundane or even positive. What sets Schizo's aside from the rest is theirs are constantly negative, or they choose to listen harder to the negative, or the negative is stronger due to some traumatic event.

In any case, its not the Schizo that makes the negative thoughts, its the negative thoughts that put forth the diagnosis of Schizophrenia.