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

[User] ELI5: How can food and drinks that are advertised as 0 calories still be metabolized and used as energy by your body?

[Assistant] Under US law if anything that is 5 calories or below it can be advertised as 0 calories. Another thing is that it can take energy to metabolize the food or drink which in all lowers the calorie count, like with celery.


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

[User]
[DC] Someone paid Lobo to kill me. I can hire any other superhero to protect me. Who should I pick?

Lobo was just paid a huge sum of money to kill me.  He accepted the contact and is on his way to kill me.  I can have any known superhero protect me.  Who would be my best pick?  Exactly how screwed am I?  Lobo is just one guy.

[Assistant] The Green Lantern Corps has an extensive witness protection program with multiple extra-dimensional safehouses. You could petition your sector's Green Lantern for aid. Lobo is ridiculously powerful, but he can't take the entire Corps - and if you mess with one, you mess with all.


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

[User]
Why doesn't diarrhea kill us when it used to be so fatal?

When we get diarrhea, we generally don't take medicine for it & we don't die from it. Why was diarrhea so fatal back in the day?

[Assistant]
It wasn't diarrhea that was fatal. Dysentery and other illnesses whose symptoms include diarrhea were fatal. In modern days, most cases of diarrhea are symptoms of mild digestive irritation, poisoning, or psychosomatic disorders. The lethal cases you refer to from the past were symptoms of much more serious afflictions.

TLDR: diarrhea is not an affliction, it's a symptom. In modern days, most of its causes are not lethal. In recorded history, its causes have been known to kill people.


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

[User]
ELI5: What happens to your body muscle/fat when you work out in a calorie surplus vs a calorie deficit?

Like if you work out but you are in a deficit, how do you gain muscle?

[Assistant]
It is complicated.

Losing fat is one process. Working out and bulking up are a different process.  They have some overlap depending on overall nutrition.

Your cells prefers to metabolize sugars in the form of glucose and fructose, but is able to metabolize other compounds. As a simplification, glucose is stored in fat cells, and gets released to the blood as blood sugar. The compound, C6H12O6 for both glucose and fructose but in slightly different shapes, gets metabolized with oxygen to create water H2O and carbon dioxide CO2. There are other materials in fat cells, the stored glucose is just one of many things.

Your cells can also metabolize fatty acids which are different from fat cells. Fat cells store a lot of glucose, and they also contain fatty acids which can be released to the blood. When your cells metabolize these, they don't transform into water and carbon dioxide, they have additional compounds called ketones that are generated as part of a series of chemical reactions, the ketones which is where the keto diet gets its name. The switch to metabolizing fatty acids triggers a bunch of other body changes.

When you have a short-term calorie deficit your body releases glucose, often a first blast from the liver and and then a longer dose from the fat cells and other cells that keep it around. The body can refill those when you eat again. With a long-term calorie deficit the body causes fat cells to release fatty acids in higher doses. These can also be refilled in the longer term when you start eating again. If the calorie deficit continues, having lost both their stored glucose and their fatty acids, fat cells start to actually shrink and more permanent weight. That's why you need to maintain a calorie deficit for multiple weeks before you start to see permanent weight loss, it cannot be on-again, off-again dieting, since the cells will just refill themselves when you are in the off-again phase.

So that's the burning side.

Gaining muscle is a different process involving muscle injury and damage. As part of working out you injure the cells, as a simplification they break open and cell organelles leak out. The damaged muscle materials fuse into satellite cells and repair into bigger, stronger muscle protein strands. This requires proper nutrition, especially having adequate proteins to build up and repair them.

If you don't have proper nutrition, your body will have difficulty with the repairs and won't make bigger, stronger muscle protein strands. Depending on your nutrition it might pull the protein from other areas, pull it from other cells, or it might just make a bad repair that leaves you weaker than before. This is why body builders who know what they're doing are sure to get protein shakes, meat, legumes, and lots of other building blocks.

The chemical processes around metabolizing different materials, the processes of managing fatty acids, and the processes of muscle repair all have complex interactions.


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

[User]
CMV:The right is inherently selfish

Whilst this is based on my experience of UK politics I think it could also apply to US politics as well. There seems to be a trend by the right to try and keep taxes low and cut social spending wherever possible. Privatisation and capitalism are promoted along with the accumulation of wealth. We are told there is trickle down economics but in reality this does not happen either from individuals or companies who are creative with taxes and avoid contributing to society. There is a reluctance to support any ideas that benefit the population as a whole, education spending, supporting the NHS or the removal of the Affordable Care Act.

Please convince me that the right wing parties such as the Republicans or Tories do actually care about all sections of society.

[Assistant]
Taxation is a great example of this and how the right gets "thrown under the bus" for their low-taxes stance. **Corporations don't pay taxes, their customers do.**

Let's do a little business 101. Business sells stuff and earns revenue. Then business pays all the expenses required to sell that stuff and we have gross profit. Then that profit is taxed and we have net profit (which is ultimately why the company exists). A business that fails to earn a profit will fail.

It's commonly accepted that the price you pay for a product is related to the cost to make that product. E.g. if an iPhone costs $500 to make, you're going to pay over $500 to buy it. Also in those expenses though are taxes. So if the cost to make iPhone + taxes = $600, you're going to pay over $600. That's true for every single for-profit company -- including those making baby formula, bikes for people who can't afford to buy cars, hammers for people who have to swing them to make a living, etc.

So the republicans want to cut taxes for those businesses. The left screams "look, the republicans love big business and hate the poor!" Is that true? If you look at it from the perspective of the single mother who will be able to buy baby formula cheaper it's hard to make that argument.

* * *

Let's take it a step further. Those huge companies like Apple have 100s of people working on tax compliance and ensuring Apple pays as little tax as possible. That's why Apple has billions in cash overseas that they can't bring back to the US. Your local mechanic or bagel shop has to comply with the same tax code but doesn't have the resources to figure out how to put the money overseas and avoid taxes.

Who are the low taxes unfair to here? The giant corporation with the resources to avoid high taxes or the small businesses paying more % than the biggest companies in the world?


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

[User]
Can you measure absolute velocity in space without a frame of reference?

Say you are in a patch of space a few light years across in all 3 dimensions and you have no frame of reference, say for some reason you cannot see any stars, its pitch black.

Could you measure your speed?

Would it be of experimental interest (say, just to have a lab that is at rest relative to space itself) ?

(One method I thought about would be based on the speed of light being constant:

Imagine you are in a spaceship. You extend a detector array that includes a highly accurate atomic clock about a light second to your left. You then fire a laser at the thing and see if it hits. If you aim directly at the array and hit, then you are at rest, if not, you need to alter the angle of the laser beam to hit the detector. Based on the distance of the array, the angle on the laser beam and the runtime of the beam, you should be able to calculate your forward motion. You would of course need to have 3 arrays and 3 lasers to accurately dertermine your speed in 3 dimensions.)

Edit:
Thanks everybody!

[Assistant] No, you can't, because there's no such thing as absolute velocity. The speed of light being constant means it's constant in *all* reference frames; in general, there is no local experiment you can run to determine any sort of absolute speed.


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

[User]
[James Cameron's Avatar] What's up with that technology imbalance?

How is it that they possess the capabilities to clone alien bodies, make highly complex telefactored mechs and travel at relativistic speeds, but they can't repair Jake's paralysis or apparently build a a more advanced gun than a caseless high-caliber SMG or come up with a more efficient method of air transport than turbine-driven dropships?

[Assistant] They can repair his legs. He just cannot afford the procedure.  That is one of the reasons he agreed to spy. They told him they would would pay for it when he got back to earth. There are benefits to traditional fire arms. They are durable, easy to clean and use, and affective. The aircraft seem to work fine for what they needed them for. They just didn't expect dragons.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does the drug trade particularly thrive in Latin America?

[Assistant]
There's a few reasons:

1) Drugs grow there easily. The climate and soil makes it incredibly easy to grow illicit drugs like marijuana and cocaine.

2) Legal system. It sucks. They don't have the manpower to regulate the underground drug industry, to find all of the grow operations, or to stop the refining/trafficking. Further, corruption is rampant in many of these countries (low wages means that bribes are even more enticing) so many times the law looks the other way.

3) Desperate workers. People don't resort to growing drugs unless they have to. Due to the economic climate, there are more than enough farmers and laborers willing to accept higher-than-average wages for working in illicit drug operations (while more than average, they still live in poverty).

4) Distribution. Main buyer is the US, and Latin America has easy access to get drugs to the US. Production almost exclusively goes north to the US, a very small amount goes overseas to Europe or Asia.

TL;DR: Many reasons come together to make it particularly enticing to produce and distribute drugs from Latin America.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why aren't football coaches expected to wear suits like other professional sport coaches?

I've been noticing that NFL coaches don't dress up in suits like NHL or NBA coaches, for example, do. Why? Just because? It's cold in a hockey rink and they still get all fancy. So.

[Assistant]
The NFL currently has endorsement deals with either Reebok (up to 2012) and currently Nike. This covers all team uniforms, workout attire and sideline attire.

You're not allowed to wear anything that isn't by Reebok/Nike.

edit: bok not bock.

I bet Tom Landry's fedora is spinning in his grave.


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

[User]
[Fallout] How progressive was society before the War?

In 2077, the world's culture was still much like the 1950s in terms of aesthetics, but what about society? Did they have a civil rights movement? Women's liberation? Gay rights?

[Assistant] They had Chinese internment camps but otherwise they were pretty progressive. There's Vault-Tec illustrations depicting gay relationships, and anyone could join the military and work in academic fields.


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

[User]
[MCU] How's does Daredevil rebound his batons?

Even enhanced senses don't seem to account for this. He does this on different materials and while moving and fighting. How?

[Assistant] His enhanced senses aren't just hearing and smell, he also has a preternatural sense of his position in space, which, when combined with his "radar sense" allows him to visualize trajectories and angles with superhuman ability. It's also why he's good at parkour, and can maintain eye contact with people while in the mask in order to maintain the illusion of daredevil totally not being noted blind person, Matt Murdock.


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

[User]
ELI5 How is banning of civil air traffic from your airspace enforced?

How do you deal with non compliance? Scramble fighters to politely ask the plane to leave?

[Assistant] Scramble fighters to force the plane down, arrest the aircrew, fine the airline for violating the restrictions. Worst case scenario depending on the plane they can shoot it down but no one wants to shoot down a civilian plane with regular people on it.


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

[User]
CMV: It is morally wrong for a modern civilized society to punish prisoners (besides locking them up in prison) even when no rehabilitation is possible

Whilist browsing through comments on Reddit and other sites, I've encountered many people arguing that persons who have comitted many crimes or a serious enough crime, which makes them unrehabilitable, don't deserve anything beyond the bare basics for survival like food and shelter.

Besides the assumption about rehabilitation being impossible (which is another can of worms) I fundamentally disagree with the notion that we shouldn't treat people humanely just because we can't rehabilitate them.

I assume the people who post those comments think of it as something like a barrel with two types of fruit, "punishment" and "rehabilitatiom".

So all the humane treatment, decent facilities, good food, psychological services, hobby and work programs etc are in the "rehabilitation" fruit type. The theory is that when rehabilitation is off the table, all that goes away and there's only the "punishment" fruit left in the barrel.

That's the notion I disagree with and I think it has no place in modern civilized society.

The *desire* for retribution is valid and a vital part of human nature. It's natural for the harmed to wish harm upon the harmer.

What we definitely should **not** do is take that and *actually make it a reality*.

The best example for an "ideal" prison system would be Norway's. Being in prison *is the punishment*. Anything more degrading or punishing on the prisoner is regressive of modern society in general.

[Assistant] Why does humane equate to having all of the modern luxuries people enjoy on the outside? It is perfectly humane to put them in a concrete cell with a bed and give them access to TV and books during the day.


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

[User]
Why does Socrates argues that unless kings become philosophers or philosophers kings, there is no rest from the ills of the city,

what does Socrates when he says unless kings become philosophers or philosophers kings, there is no rest from the ills of the city,?

[Assistant] The argument in the Republic is an argument by analogy. The rulers of the city are analogous to the reasoning faculty in man. Socrates argues that disharmony exists in the appetite, drives and spirit of man, and we must use our reason to regulate these lower faculties. He sees the city as similar, whereby the lower classes (bronze and silver souls) must be regulated and educated by the upper class (the guardians). Just as in the mind, if reason does not regulate through wisdom, there will be no harmony.


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

[User]
[Marvel Comics] Why is Loki allowed to run free in Asgard when he's killed so many Asgardians personally?

Loki, at bare minimum, has personally murdered so very many Asgardians and the powers that be have proof of this. But every time he's dragged back home ... and given free reign to run amok and start another plan of death and murder and stabbing.

[Assistant] During a recent battle, he died and has returned in the form of a small child. Thor has taken his brother in and is trying to teach him that he need not be evil even if he must obey his trickster nature. And to that end, child-loki is doing a very good job of it.


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

[User] [ELI5] Why is it in media where a character receive a blast of radiation, all other characters immediately cease any rescue attempts?

[Assistant] Depending on the level of radiation received, at a certain point there's literally nothing to be done. There's no intervention, no treatment, no medicine, and no device that can save a person once they've been exposed to a lethal dose of radiation. Not only that, they may be highly radioactive as well depending upon what they were exposed to and how they were exposed. So if someone's certain to die, and nothing you do will change that or provide any comfort really, then you wouldn't use the resources of rescuers or risk exposing them to harm as well.


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

[User]
ELI5:Why are the meat of animals killed by lightning/electrocution not edible?

There was an accident with a power pole in a farm in my country where around 40 cows were killed, and in the news it said that cows killed by electricity as such (or by lightning) are not proper for consumption. I was just wondering, why is that?

[Assistant]
Any animal that is killed has a limited amount of time before bacteria in the gut (intestinal lumen) grow and divide to the point at which they can breach the wall of the intestine and spread to the abdominal cavity, thereby tainting the carcass of the animal with potentially deadly bacteria.

Animals fit for human consumption must have their entire digestive tract removed from the body quickly after they are killed, in a manner that does not open the digestive tract, thereby spilling bacteria over the meat to be consumed.

A lighting strike would kill a large number of animals - possibly far away from a slaughterhouse, and, likely, at night when no one is around.  It is unlikely, therefore, that said animals could be properly processed (have digestive tract removed) within a timeframe that would meet slaughtering standards for the production of meat for human consumption.


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

[User]
[Dickens Christmas Carol]. Why, after his transformation, does Scrooge still fuck with Cratchit ?

Scrooge awakes and sends a goose to Cratchits house, anonymously. Perhaps hes taking the advice from the charity collectors by the start by wishing to remain anonymous in his generosity. But then why, after spending Christmas with his nephew Fred, does Scrooge cut his making Merry short and set his mind to getting into work early the next day just so he can punk Bob like some sort of Yoga on Dagobah?

[Assistant]
Scrooge is still Scrooge. Think back to the beginning of the story, he punks out Cratchitt by pretending that hes ok with Bob taking Christmas off only to yank the rug out from under him. Scrooge likes tricks, he thinks theyre funny.

But after his emotional journey he now thinks its funny as long as the surprise reveal is positive. He probably just thought it was a good prank to raise the tension for Bob and then surprise him with a free Christmas feast and a raise.


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

[User] ELI5: What's so Greek about Greek style yogurt?

[Assistant]
All it means is that the yogurt is produced in the same style that they use in Greece. It's thicker than your typical yogurt because they remove a lot of the water using a cloth to wring it out (i'm sure you can find the process on YouTube).

This style of yogurt is actually quite popular throughout the region i.e. the Balkans, Black Sea area, Turkey, and much of the middle east. Though of course they'd just call it "yogurt" in those countries.

So why Greek and not say Turkish? The Greeks got there first and marketed it quite well, so now your typical consumer understands what "Greek-style" yogurt means - though if you check your labels, the yogurt may not be produced anywhere near Greece.


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

[User] ELI5: Where do curse words come from and why are they bad?

[Assistant]
Curse words come from the same place most words come from - older words.

I assume that what you're asking is how does a word become a curse, right? The process is called "pejoration" by linguists, and it basically happens through a bunch of subtle changes in the commonly understood meaning of the word over a long period of time.

Pejoration doesn't just apply to swear words, though, it applies to any word that gets smaller or worse in its meaning. For example, *cretin*, *idiot*, *imbecile*, and *moron* were all originally descriptive words for people with mental disabilities.


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

[User]
[MCU] When Kilgrave is talking to more than one person, how do they distinguish who he is commanding if he doesn't specific who the command is to?

I mostly picked this up from rewatching the finale of JJS1. Kilgrave gives a few commands that are directed at Trish and Jessica (such as kissing him passionately or saying "I love you"), but aren't directly specified to be commands that only Trish or Jessica should follow. Of course we (and the characters obviously) know via context that Kilgrave doesn't want the crowd of people running up to kiss him passionately or confess their love for him, but how are they supposed to know that?

Kilgrave could go into his favourite restaurant and see his idyllic seat is taken. He angrily tells the man to fuck off, shouting "fuck off out of here", but what's stopping everyone else in earshot also fucking off? Surely if they have the control to believe the command was directed at someone else then they also have the Willpower to misinterpret his commands. But as we see if they're driven to do his bidding, why don't we see a bunch of people following vague commands before Kilgrave has to then stop them and clarify who he wanted to do what?

(Apologies if this lost sense at some point. Currently ill in bed with bad fever and incredibly delirious.) *edit: Specify. See, already found one mistake.

[Assistant]
The same way people know when they're being addressed or not - things like context, tone, body language, eye contact.

Most people learn these things at an early age.  Mistakes still happen though and some people don't learn to interpret the cues as well as others, such as with autism.  So it's possible that Kilgrave has had his commands misinterpreted from time to time.  It probably just makes him madder and the poor person who made the mistake ends up suffering for it.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Who handled the day to day administration of the empire?

I highly doubt the Emperor would send Vader to go collect taxes from every podunk little asteroid of a world or listen to some economist telling him about the illegal death sticks trade.  What do we know about imperial bureaucracy?

Also legislatures IRL deal with more than just passing legislation but also constituent requests. With the abolition of the Senate in IV, how do influential citizens get to lobby/bribe the right people?

[Assistant]
"The regional governors now have direct control over their territories." Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin

The governers reported to the Moffs who reported to the Grand Moffs who reported to the Emperor.


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

[User]
ELI5: Do bombers usually have heavier armor than either fighters, attackers, or multirole aircraft?

Because I frequently look up military aircraft a lot on Wikipedia, and time and time again, I keep hearing how bombers are slower and less maneuverable than either fighters, attackers, or multirole aircraft.  So does that mean that bombers are more heavily armored than the other three types of military aircraft?  If not, and armor just weighs down *any* plane, why are bombers the largest, slowest, and leave maneuverable of the military aircraft, anyway?

[Assistant]
In Modern times? No. They simply avoid engagements by operating too high, too fast, or too stealthily to be detected.

They are the largest, slowest, and least maneuverable because, you know, of all the bombs.


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

[User]
[General video games] What are the downsides to having too much charisma?

Let's say that charisma points can go up to 10; somehow, I manage to get 40 or over. What would be some (unexpected) downsides to being too charismatic? What about a stat like wisdom?

[Assistant] It makes blending into a crowd or committing a crime without anyone recognizing you more difficult. You're also going to need security to keep crazed fans from harassing you when you go out in public.


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

[User]
ELI5: How did our ancestors get by barefoot?

How did neanderthals and all those primitive ancestors hunt and evade predation without any shoes? We go berserk if we so much as step on a lego. How did they run about with small pebbles and rocks on the ground and in the grasslands?

[Assistant]
If you have ever walked on bare sufaces long enough you would begin to form thicker skin on the souls.

If you look at a lot of outdoors living people there feet are like god damn leather. Also rudimentary shoes have been found with early humans. We originated in hot areas, so frostbite wasn't too much of an issue.


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

[User] [Portal] What would be the full potential military/combat application of the Aperture Portal Gun?

[Assistant]
Infinite power - coat lead panel in moon dust, drop into mariana trench.

Pop other end of portal at sea level and aim at turbines.

Infinite free green energy can be used as a tool to destabilize economies, secure allies, funds and trade deals. Basically a weapon.


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

[User]
[Fallout] Why is it that all the armor pieces that I find come in nice, folded piles?

It seems weird that in a land after nuclear fire rained from the sky that people would have the common courtesy to fold their clothes before leaving it all over the place. Especially Power Armor. I mean, how to you fold that?

[Assistant]
Fallout tech is amazing. The amount of R&D put into making the average Americans life easier before the war was staggering.

Just one of these many inventions to make a good American capitalist house wife's day that much easier while her husband was hard at work securing your freedoms against the communist threat were self folding clothes.

Laundry done? Just dump little billy's clothes onto his floor and be amazed as they fall neatly folded in easy to put away piles!

^(WARNING: Self folding clothes do have a minimal chance of blocking breathing passages and permanently maiming their wearers!)


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

[User] What conditions produce the least strategic voting within a democracy?

[Assistant] If you're talking about citizens voting  (rather than legislators or members of the judiciary): proportional systems encourage less strategic voting than 'first past the post' systems. In these systems, districts have multiple seats allocated based on the percent of the votes they garner. Therefore, if a district has 10 representatives, a party may only need 10% of the vote to get one of those seats allocated to their party. Within proportional representation systems, a lower threshold for getting a party in the legislature can also discourage strategic voting. For example, if a district has 100 representatives to be allocated, a party may only need 1% of the vote in that to get a legislator elected. Some countries also have national minimums necessary for parties to be in the legislature. See Boix (1999) for a great review of how electoral systems affect electoral outcomes.


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

[User]
What kind of sounds does a human fetus hear in the womb?

I imagine a lot of low thrumming sounds and muffled environmental sounds.

Would it hear anything that sounds like white noise, a vacuum, or a hair dryer?

Would it hear any high frequency sounds?

[Assistant] Babies hear the lower end of the frequency spectrum when they're in the womb. They can get a lot out of that, though. Byers-Heinlein 2010 presents some compelling evidence that newborns of bilingual mothers actually come out of the womb with an ability to distinguish their mother's two languages. They can do that because even when you filter out frequencies above 200-300 Hz, the frequencies that really contain most of the information we need to process speech, there is still find a lot of stuff particular to certain languages or speakers. You can distinguish between voiced stuff (vowels, consonants like d, z, n, r, l) and not-voiced stuff (consonants like t, s). You get intonational contours and pause durations, too.


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

[User]
ELI5: What actually stops online games from being played cross platform?

I'm curious after seeing the CoD game being refunded because people who bought it on one platform couldn't play with everybody else. Are the games that different when played on different hardware? Are consoles more different than, say, a cheap laptop and a huge gaming rig? What gives?

[Assistant] Between Console and PC, PC players have the advantage of being able to use the much more precise mouse input, which would lead to very lopsided skill levels for the most common games. Between consoles, Microsoft forces developers to host online games on first-party servers which you can't access from other consoles (I think Nintendo does this too). Playstation is the only console that has ever support cross-platform online, but the only example that comes to mind wasn't even between the same game: EVE Online and Dust 514 took place within the same servers but you couldn't directly interact with the players of EVE from the PS3.


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

[User] ELI5: Why did our mother cat start hating her kittens after they grew up?

[Assistant] Her maternal instinct wore off.  Once a cat's kittens grow up she doesn't feel the need to care for them any more.  She starts treating them as she would any other cat.  Some cats seem to form a semi-permanent family bond with their kittens but others don't.  Kind of like humans.


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

[User]
[Superman] If Jonathan Kent II is only half-Kryptonian, then shouldn't he only be half as powerful as Clark?

I'm just thinking from a genetics POV.  Like, when a dark-skinned person marries and has babies with a light-skinned person, the resulting kid typically is lighter than the former, and darker than the latter.

In the same way, Jonathan should be stronger than Lois, but weaker than Clark, due to his human genes.

[Assistant]
That's not how genetics work. You have dominant and recessive genes, so the expressed phenotype is one of the other, not a combination of both. Where it gets tricky is that traits are usually a combination of genes, so it's pot-luck what you get.

It's possible that kyptonian genes are dominant over every corresponding human genes. So while Jonathan's genome is a 50/50 mix of kryptonian and human, his phenome expresses 100% kyptonian.


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

[User]
ELI5:How do you interpret revolutions per minute (RPM) in the context of driving your car, and what do you need to look out for?

Also, is it bad for my RPM to go up when I go down hills on lower gears, so I don't have to waste my brake pads?

[Assistant]
The RPM is how fast the engine is spinning. If you let it go too low (driving slowly on a higher gear) your engine will stall. And neither should you rev your engine too high, going in to the red of the meter.

And no it's not bad to roll down, again as long as the rpm doesn't go in to the red, just shift up to a higher gear if you need to. Engine breaking is actually good for your fuel consumption. As modern cars will complete stop the fuel to the engine if the car is rolling in gear. So if you plan your driving and use your brake as little as possible it will save fuel.


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

[User]
Unemployment rate

Why is only Involuntary Unemployment is considered while calculating unemployment rates while Frictional and Structural unemployment depicts that the people are not skilled enough. And why is Voluntary Unemployment is not included if the people are not working with enough skills?

[Assistant]
The unemployment rates that are created by statistical offices usually work like this. They add up the number of all people who are looking for work. That includes people who are "involuntary unemployment" as well as "frictional unemployment" and "structural unemployment". It does not include those people who are not looking for work and not reporting themselves as looking at job centres/ labour exchanges.

The categories "involuntary", "frictional" and "structural" are not directly measured. They are theoretical tools. Economists who use those categories (and not all agree with them) try to divide the measured unemployment rate up into those categories using mathematical tools.


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

[User] What actually happens when I change the radio station in my car? How does my antenna know when I switch from 88.5 Newstalk radio to Oldies 101.1? Bonus points: why are FM stations odd numbers?

[Assistant]
The antenna picks up the whole FM band. It gets amplified, then it gets combined with a variable Local Oscillator in a non-linear mixer which outputs the difference between the two signals to create an intermediate frequency at (typically) 10.7 MHz. So for 88.5 MHz the LO is 99.2 MHz. For 100.1 it is 110.8. That's how tuning is done. The 10.7 MHz is called the Intermediate Frequency. The IF is further amplified and filtered. This conversion to IF is known as the superheterodyne process.

The frequencies all end in odd numbers because the channels are 200 kHz wide and the band starts at 88.0. So the center frequency of the lowest channel is 88.0+0.2/2=88.1. Each successive channel is 0.2 higher.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do Dictators maintain power when it seems that most of the country is against them.

With what is going on in The Middle East and South America where is seems like significant portions of the county are against a particular regime, how do these dictators maintain control? I understand they have the armed forces but surely people in the respective armies must be against the dictator as well or at least have family that is demonstrating.

[Assistant]
- Surrounding yourself with corrupt people who financially gain from your policies, and who in return provide you with "donations"

- Ensuring the wealthiest citizens benefit from your policies and are exempt from prosecution for the laws they break

- Changing laws to marginalize opposition

- Silencing journalists

- Employing state media to control the narrative

- Creating nationalist fervor through a perceived outside threat from foreigners

- Indoctrination of ideology in schoolchildren

Many countries that are not currently dictatorships have already checked off a few of these boxes, including the United States.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Could Luke and Vader have killed Palpatine if they had teamed up earlier AND both survived? If yes, what would this mean for them, the Empire, and the Rebellion?

**By *earlier* I mean earlier in the whole interaction in the Throne Room scene**

[Assistant]
I feel like there wasn't a lot of options. Palpatine is masterful at reading minds, he can see treachery coming from a mile away.

I feel like Vader was only successful because it was an almost impulsive decision to throw him down while he was so enthralled in torturing Luke.

If they had attacked Palpatine while he wasn't distracted he could have just killed them both. Every time we've seen Palpatine in the films he is messing around with everyone who challenges him.

If Vader and Luke had tag-teamed him earlier, he would have just given them both aneurysms or stopped their hearts, or crushed them with telekinesis. The entire scene he finds the idea of Luke hurting him humorous.


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

[User] Has anyone ever attempted to fuse heavy elements by artificial nucleosynthesis? What would make such a process difficult?

[Assistant]
Yes, we do this all the time using particle accelerators. This is how superheavy elements are produced, for example.

The Coulomb barrier, the negative Q-values, and the kinematic thresholds pose problems for these reactions happening in nature. But with an accelerator, they're not an issue.

Fusion reactions are actually on the *low-energy* side of the kinds of reactions we can do with accelerators in experiments.


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

[User]
[General Sci-Fi] Why are most aliens around the same height and basic appearance as humans?

With some exceptions, my favorite being the elcor or hanar of Mass effect, most aliens are bipedal and around the same size as humans, even if they originate from planets with different conditions.  What causes this?

[Assistant]
There's so much variety out there. More than we can imagine. But we can only interact with a narrow range of species *precisely* because there's so much variety.

Many aliens can't survive in the same environments that humans can, and vice-versa. There's aliens who would turn to mush if they set foot on Earth. There's aliens that come from worlds so massive that a human couldn't take a step without shattering their femurs. There's aliens for whom oxygen is a deadly poison. There's aliens who exhale cyanide gas. There's aliens so big, they *are* their homeworlds. They can't imagine intelligent beings as small as us. There's aliens who protrude in normal space only a little bit, you need electron microscopes to see them.

Then there's aliens who think and communicate in profoundly different ways. There's aliens who talk using ionizing radiation. There's aliens that are disgusted by the sounds we make ("Stop flapping your meat!") There's aliens whose speech is naturally encrypted, and who never repeat the same word twice. There's aliens who take ten thousand years to finish a thought and aliens who live so fast an entire generation has lived and died by the time you finish this sentence.

Then there's the aliens who are so odd, we can't bear to be in the same room with them. There's a peaceful race of artists that happens to look like ten-foot-tall wolf spiders. There's a species of blue-skinned space elves whose natural scent is distilled cockroach oil. There's another race that looks identical to us, except they talk out of their vaginas. Their toothy, toothy vaginas.

It's safe to assume that if a particular alien species wants to associate with us, they must have a lot of things in common with us. Same deal if we find ourselves socializing with an alien species. We'll all have similar needs, lifespans, and thought processes. We'll all probably look alike, or at least not too different

The galactic community is a lot like high school. The different species sort themselves into cliques. Heavy-worlders stick with heavy-worlders, hydrogen-worlders with hydrogen-worlders, methane-breathers with methane-breathers. The crystalline intelligences have a table to themselves, while the machine intelligences take their lunch in the bathroom. And *everyone* steers clear of the humanoids making out in the corner.


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

[User]
Open relationships/non-monogamous as an academic - need to keep secret?

Throwaway account. I am curious how common this is in the academy. Given the unpredictable nature of the jobs market and the need to travel often for field research, and the two-body problem, this arrangement makes the most sense for me.

Another question I have is whether I need to keep this aspect of my life on the down low in the time before getting tenure, even from colleagues, in order to not create any fuss over one's personal life? I'm already pretty low key and reticent in discussing my personal life so this is more of a question of whether I should intentionally keep it a secret, aside from a few trusted friends. For what it's worth, non-monogamy/polyamory is not a protected class like LGBTQ from the perspective of anti-discrimination laws.

A third question is whether embracing this kind of lifestyle would preclude me from jobs in religiously-affiliated institutions (BYU, Notre Dame, Georgetown, to name a few that lie on different points in the spectrum of religiosity and strictness), under some morality clash with campus culture clause or preventing any kind of uproars from parents etc.

[Assistant]
Generally, it depends on your colleagues, really, however:

> A third question is whether embracing this kind of lifestyle would preclude me from jobs in religiously-affiliated institutions (**BYU**

Yes.


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

[User] [Star wars] Why did yoda say "good bye Chewbacca, miss you I will" aren't Jedi meant to be free from attachment?

[Assistant]
Attachment means you value your connections and desires higher than doing the right action. Luke was attached to Han and Leia when he decided to stop his training and go off and try to rescue them.

Jedi are basically Zen Monks with laser swords.


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

[User] [Halo/Elysium] What stops the atmosphere from escaping out the top and sides of the Halo/space station?

[Assistant]
The same electromagnetic field that shields the rings from solar radiation.

Field generators withing the ring structure creates an electromagnetic field that keeps the solar wind out but also keeps the polar molecules of the atmosphere in. Combine this with the artificial gravity created by the spinning of the ring and the atmosphere stays intact.


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

[User]
[DC/Justice League] How much media attention do individual members of the Justice League receive?

Is it only the Founding Seven that gets a lot of attention? Or will everyone in the Justice League be in the media's eyes in one way or another? Could someone join the Justice League and reasonably expect to not have tabloids about them?

[Assistant] It would really depend on each individual hero. For example Green Arrow and Captain Marvel/Shazam were the central heroes of their cities before joining the League, so they'd be fairly well-known. Many other superheroes are similarly well-known key defenders of cities across the world.


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

[User] ELI5 What makes milk go bad outside of the fridge while a cow's body is warm?

[Assistant]
Food goes "bad" because organisms from outside start to make it their home. This is how fridges and freezers work, by creating an environment that's difficult or nearly impossible (respectively) for these critters to take hold.

Food, or in this case milk, doesn't go 'bad' inside the cows body because these organisms can't get to it there. There are \*other\* bad things that can get to it there, which is why we tend to pasteurise milk as part of the whole milking-bottling-getting-it-to-a-shop process - this involves applying high heat to it to kill off any critters inside. From this point on, though, it's only a matter of time before new critters get in from the outside. The colder it is, the less chance there is of this happening, thus we put it in the fridge.


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

[User]
[Dark Souls] How would a modern civilization deal with the Undead Curse?

Edit:
Modern Earth or similar.

[Assistant]
Depends on where exactly, and what you mean by a modern civilization.

Humanoids rising from death retaining some sentience, while slowly going insane over time?

That sounds like an invitation for a religious uproar and for a kneejerk zombie outbreak reaction.


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

[User] Can insects fly in the rain?

[Assistant] They really dont like to. Getting hammered by an enormous raindrop is tough when youre tiny. Plus water is really viscous and sticky for small bodies. Honey bees and dragonflies will stop foraging when raining. Most mosquitoes hunker down too.


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

[User] ELI5: If light is bent by gravity and the universe is sufficiently big wouldn't light continue to be bend around each successive massive object until being viewable back at its point of origin as "the past"?

[Assistant]
Light isn't bent by gravity.  Light goes in a straight line in space.  Space is bent by gravity.

There is probably not enough mass in the Universe to bend space into a closed surface where all light might loop around to return to it's source.  The Universe is mostly flat around here, but we can't see all of it.

If you have a large mass, and you're in the right place, you can send a message into space by blinking a light and have the light go around the massive object and return to you, effectively letting you see your past.


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

[User] [Half-Life] How did HECU's objectives change over the course of the Black Mesa incident?

[Assistant]
The HECU's initial orders were to eliminate the extra-dimensional invaders, as well as the science and security personnel within the Black Mesa compound.  This would ensure that Black Mesa would remain a viable and valuable research center, while also covering up the Resonance Cascade incident by eliminating all witnesses.

However, the HECU found themselves overwhelmed by the opposition they faced.  The creatures that teleported into the Black Mesa facility were tougher and more numerous than the HECU had expected.  Previously, humanity's experience with these alien creatures were limited to the likes of Headcrabs and Houndeyes.  Now the HECU were dealing with the likes of Vortigaunts, Grunts, Gargantuas, etc.  Additionally, resistance from the science and security personnel was greater than expected.  In particular, one Black Mesa researcher known as Gordon Freeman was able to kill and evade HECU troops almost at will.

The HECU tried to respond by bringing in greater force against their enemies.  For example, they flew in greater numbers of troops, deploying them quickly by having their soldiers rappel down from transport aircraft, such as Ospreys.  In addition, the HECU also called in artillery strikes and air strikes.  Finally, they also recognized the danger that Gordon Freeman represented, and targeted him specifically.  However, despite these measures, the HECU were still unable to turn the tide of the battle.

As a result of suffering significant losses, the HECU began pulling out of Black Mesa. Their objective had changed from cleanup to cutting their losses.  As a result of the HECU's failure, a large Black Ops team was sent in.  The Black Ops team had four objectives.  The first two, eliminate the aliens and eliminate the human personnel, were the same as the HECU's goals.  The other two, however, were not.  The Black Ops were to eliminate any HECU soldiers they encountered (again, to get rid of witnesses), and in addition the Black Ops set up a nuclear warhead to detonate and destroy the entire Black Mesa facility.

The attack by the Black Ops took the HECU by surprise.  As a result, the Black Ops were very successful in their mission to eliminate HECU members.

So, to summarize, the HECU's objectives were initially to destroy the alien invaders and silence all witnesses.  When this proved more difficult than they'd anticipated, the HECU escalated.  Then, after realizing they couldn't win, the HECU's objective became one of retreat and withdrawal.  Finally, when the Black Ops arrived and started attacking the HECU soldiers, the HECU's scattered forces still in Black Mesa only had one possible objective left:  survive.


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

[User] [Predator] What did Dutch do with his life after defeating the Predator?

[Assistant]
Sterility and radiation sickness from the blast led to depression and chronic health problems.  A few years later he escaped from an assisted-living facility and disappeared.

However, he was not dead, as some government officials believed.  In fact, he was retrieved by another Yautja vessel, among whom he was regarded as a legend.  With their medical technology he was brought back to full health.

In honor of his victory in the jungle, he was acid scarred with the mark of a Huntmaster.  He traveled the galaxy at the head of his own hunting team winning many trophies on many different worlds and adding to his already impressive reputation.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are cable boxes so big, yet more technologically advanced devices such as smart phones can fit in the palm of our hands?

[Assistant] Cable boxes need to contain the analogue circuitry to deal with whatever else (i.e. cable TV) signals, 90V power (in some cases) may be coming down the line.  (the 90V power is for repeaters and other things that make the trunk lines work; should probably be filtered out at the house drop).  You're talking big analogue circuitry... which you could put into a smaller package, but you'd have to cool it. Bigger package and vents = cheaper.


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

[User]
ELI5:What causes muscles to gradually lose their ability to function during repetitive lifting exercise?

When doing bicep curls, the first rep is relatively easy but eventually it becomes impossible to do a single curl.

After a rest, the muscle resets and can once again lift.

What is causing the muscle exhaustion and what is it that "resets" within the muscle?

[Assistant]
In order for your muscles to move, they require energy. Energy at a cellular level is provided by burning glucose to make energy carrier ATP (the technical term is aerobic glycolysis). Like normal burning this proces requires a lot of oxygen that is provided through red blood cells. If the exercise is demanding enough you require more ATP than your cells can produce with the supply of oxygen being a limiting factor. At that point your cells will produce extra ATP through a proces that doesnt require oxygen. Known as anaerobic glycolysis or the lactic acid cycle. This has lactic acid as a byproduct, which builds up in your muscles creating a less ideal environment therefore you lose strength.

So buildup of lactic acid due to insufficient oxygen supply causes your muscles to fatigue.

The reset happens when all the lactic acid is removed from your muscles and the ATP is again supplied through aerobic glycolysis.

If your muscles and stamina improve over time your muscles will improve blood supply and therefore more oxygen, giving you more clean burning to supply ATP. That is a reason some athletes take performance enhancing drugs like EPO which stimulate red blood cell production, delaying the build up of lactic acid in the muscles.

Fun fact; some organisms, like yeast, have a different anaerobic glycolysis system. When yeast is deprived of oxygen it will also produce ATP through anaerobic glycolysis, but instead of lactic acid the byproduct is ethanol i.e. alcohol. Therefore you have to make sure that when brewing beer or wine there is no oxygen coming into the fermentation vessel, otherwise the yeast will switch to the more efficient aerobic glycolysis and not produce any alcohol.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] how many younglings would it have taken to overpower Anakin?

Fight takes place in the same room that he slaughtered them in the movie, every youngling has a lightsaber with the basic training to use it (assuming they didn't have lightsabers in the movie though). Room has however many younglings necessary to overpower Anakin, if even possible, disregard room size if necessary to fit more younglings in.

[Assistant] I doubt any of the younglings could withstand a rage fueled Anakin force push so the benefit of numbers would be greatly diminished.  We also need to consider that unlike traditional sword fighting when Jedi battle it is much easier to defend than attack, this reduces the chance of Anakin falling to a lucky blow. The best bet would be to wait for fatigue to kick in so we are looking at over 5 minutes of high intensity killing maybe 1 every 6 seconds so fifty to tire him out another 6 to deal the final blow (experience with grevios shows four sabers is possible to defend) for a total of 56.


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

[User]
Why dont busy restaurants raise prices?

There are a lot of restaurants in my city that are always super busy (like 30 minute wait time to get in) which suggests to me that their food is priced below market value since there is a shortage. Wouldnt it be in their best interests to raise the prices and make it less busy while collecting more profit?

[Assistant]
I think the likely answer is that restaurants aren't maximizing profit in the narrow sense of one night's revenue, but over the lifetime of the business.  For many restaurants, that means they'll put a premium on being full, so that they're seen to be full, so that they get a reputation as being a good and desirable restaurant.  That could have beneficial effects in the long run.  And if they raise prices, fewer people will be able to afford to come, and may cross the restaurant mentally off the list of places they'll go (even during non-busy hours).

You frequently see musicians sell tickets to concerts far, far, far below the actual market value.  They're leaving big money on the table, but they do it so that their dedicated fans have a chance to buy cheaper tickets regardless of income.  It's very important for them to have not just a consumer-transaction relationship with ticket buyers, but an artist-fan relationship and that helps that happen.  They're building loyalty and trust.  Restaurants who would rather be medium priced and 100% full than medium-high priced and 75% full could be doing the same thing.


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

[User]
[Men In Black] What's the truth hidden from Agent J?

All through the series, Agents K and Z mock J for being naive and knowing too little that he can't comprehend what he doesn't know. But really, how worse does it get than knowing that our world is inside an alien locker/marble/computer? How horrifying do the secrets of MIB get?

[Assistant] It's never mentioned, so impossible to accurately speculate, but picture some of the things that challenge your personal worldview rather than your position in the universe; Humanity was actually a parasitic experiment, humanity is bred for feeding like we do for chickens, there is an afterlife or a priorlife, energy is sentient, and so on.


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

[User] Is any part of Earth dependent on the season of Winter? Or is it just a season we "survive" through.

[Assistant]
It isn't clear what you are asking... Some organisms have evolved to survive winter to the point that they require it. But not all winters are the same.

Certain trees, for example, will eventually die without a dormancy period. Similarly, certain fruit trees require a certain number of of "cold hours" to produce their fruit.

So they are dependent on winter, but it is also still a season that is "survived" in that winter creates an extreme environment. They evolved to depend on it because it happens and has to be part of their life cycle, not because winter is more favorable for them, as in there is more energy available or something like that.

Some plants in certain climates do their growing in winter, or shortly before and after, but *not* during the warmest months of summer. This is usually in warmer climates where winters are mild. For them, the summer is the extreme season that they just hunker down to survive and they do their growing in spring/fall and some in winter when it is milder.

Does that answer your question?


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

[User]
ELI5: How was wrestlemania 1 shown on closed circuit TV?

What does ppv do differently than CCTV?

[Assistant]
PPV brings it into your home. A closed circuit feed is more costly to set up, so it was in larger venues.

So, for Wrestlemania I, you would drive to a local event center, the kind that would host concerts and the like. You'd park, you'd pay your admission to get in, and then, on large screens, you'd watch WrestleMania with 15,000 other people.


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

[User]
Does gravity have "speed"?

I guess a better way to put this question is, does it take time for gravity to reach whatever it is acting on or is it instantaneous?

[Assistant] The real answer is more complicated than the standard "it travels at c" response everyone tends to see. Gravitational waves travel at c, as one would expect. But if you're talking about something like falling off a cliff, or orbiting around some heavy object, then gravity is instantaneous (as in the curvature field that gives rise to gravitational effects is already in place the moment you step off that cliff). Even changes in gravity are difficult to calculate because you need to include complicated terms like momentum and energy fluxes, stress and strain and pressure.


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

[User] [Marvel] [X-Men Movies] Does Magneto still practice any Judaism?

[Assistant]
Almost certainly not. His dissastrous childhood would rob him of any belief in a benevolent higher power, and his adult belief about self-determination would be at odds with religious practice.

Magneto does not believe in god, he believes mutants should strive to be gods.


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

[User]
Do non-human animals need glasses?

Do all dogs and cats and birds of prey have 20/20 vision (or their species' equivalent)? Is visual acuity something that is naturally selected? (You're a nearsighted deer and you can't see the wolf off in the distance, and so you won't survive long enough to reproduce).

[Assistant]
Wild animals don't _need_ glasses, typically.  Almost by definition, your typical animal is capable of surviving without any sort of technological fix like that...after all, all their ancestors did so.

That said, many animal don't have 20/20 vision (and 20/20 isn't actually perfect, it's just normal good vision in humans-even some people exceed it).  For instance, rats and beavers have poor, blurry vision.  Animals like these make up for their vision with other senses, like smell and hearing, which are often quite a bit better than those of humans.  So how selected vision is depends on how much it's used by the species involved.  For some species like humans, it's under heavy selection.  For something like rats, not so much.

It's worth noting that even in humans, nearsightedness is rare in premodern societies. And based on some cursory reading, it appears that nearsightedness is more common in domestic animals than in wild or feral animals of the same species.  There's probably an environmental component to nearsightedness in these cases.


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

[User]
Why heavy water is toxic, while ordinary water isn't?

If chemical properties of substances depend only on the outermost "layer" of electrons around the molecule, how come ordinary water isn't toxic, while heavy water is?

[Assistant]
There are a few reasons. Heavy water is called so because there are a lot of deuterium atoms in the water molecules instead of normal hydrogen. Hydrogen is just a proton with an electron. Deuterium is a proton, a neutron, and an electron. This alters the atom in some subtle ways.

First, the mass of the atom is basically doubled. A neutron has a slightly higher mass than a proton, and an electron's mass is negligible. That added mass can affect the chemical properties of the water.

Second, and most importantly, the hydrogen bonds formed by heavy water are slightly stronger than those of normal water. There are thousands of processes in the body that rely on the very specific strength of hydrogen bonds. The stronger bonds found in heavy water can inhibit cell division, make protein action inefficient, or disrupt the proper functioning of cell membranes.

Heavy water isn't radioactive like many other isotopes can be, but its particular chemical properties can cause symptoms similar to radiation poisoning. It's non-toxic in small doses, and is actually used for some diagnostic tests in medicine, but once the levels increase to 25% or more of the water in your body, severe symptoms start to appear.


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

[User]
ELI5: How can certain companies (like Amazon) sell a product for less than what it would cost if it were bought at the manufacturers website? Whos taking a loss here?

This might be a fairly simple question but Ive always wondered why I can buy the same item for less if I just happen to buy it elsewhere that isnt the original brands website.

[Assistant] Because a company usually sells their price at discount to second hand retailers. If the retailer is big enough, like amazon, they only have to mark it up abit to get their profit off of it. Say the original company sells 20$ boxes, but it cost hem 10$ to make. So they sell that box too amazing for 14$ since they are selling so many. Because amazon is so big and they sell so much, they can afford to sell those same boxes for 18$ instead of 20$


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

[User]
[Spiderman:OMD] Why did Mephisto, Lord Of All Evil, want...

Why did he want Peter and MJ's marriage in exchange for reviving a dying old lady that was practically fine with dying because she lived a good life? Was he bored that day and wanted to screw around with being evil?

[Assistant] IIRC - the biggest impact was the removal of the daughter Peter and MJ had, May Parker (named after aunt May), from existence.  They believed she died during birth, but really, she was stolen from them.  Aside from being exceptional cruel to trick parents into unknowingly erasing their child, May Parker could have be destined to be a hero that thwarts Mephisto in the future.


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

[User]
[The Umbrella Academy]How is Klaus any more use than Vanya in combat/crime fighting situations?

so he can talk to the dead and sometimes manifest them in reality, ....how does any of that make him useful for, say, stopping a bank robbery?

[Assistant]
There's two hands to this. On one hand, their adoptive father is so pumped about people having superpowers that he's blinding himself to the actual tactical issues with using taking to the dead as a combat superpower, on top of the problems of *sending children into combat situations*. On the other, the ability to talk to dead people could be extremely useful as an intel gathering tool; if the bank robbers had already blown someone away, Klaus could bring them back and ask questions about what's going on in there.

Of course, on the specific question of Klaus vs Vanya, >!Vanya is a human time bomb, and it's not worth the danger of putting her in a high stress situation.!<


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

[User]
ELI5: How has the identity of artist "Banksy" not been found out? Also how do people differentiate authentic works from imitators?

Inspired by the recent posts about Banksy, I decided to read his wiki. I'm so confused as to how we have so much information about him yet no identity. Also how do we know the information we have is valid? I'm just lost as to how this works in this day and age.

[Assistant]
Banksy has his own website and crew that he works with that handle media stuff. They put out press release and establish websites that showcase his official work.

Authenticating his works is very difficult. Many counterfeits are out there.


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

[User] [ELI5] Why yawning is contagious.

[Assistant]
I believe it involves something called mirror neurons. The connections in our brain are formed from cells called neurons, that will cause electrical signals to be sent to different areas, and to to other cells in the body. The way a mirror neuron works is weird but interesting. Essentially the same neurons involved in thinking about (or processing the image of) yawning is responsible for producing a yawn. So by looking at someone yawning, and thinking about it, is almost the exact same as yawning yourself, so you yawn. Another example (for most people) is watching / smelling vomit. This process has been seen in other animals too including dogs and monkeys.

Mirror neurons are involved in the empathy portions of our brain (possibly for learning language) so kids with autism will not yawn as much if they watching a video of people yawning, and kids without autism will yawn much more.


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

[User]
[Superman] Does Superman's heat vision emit from his pupils or his eye sockets?

And to aim, does he need to look at something or point his head at it?

[Assistant] It seems to start at his pupils and then expand outward. His irises glow red when he gets angry, but when he unleashes his full-force heat vision, it becomes a solid beam similar (in shape) to Cyclops'


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

[User]
CMV: I think DJs get far too much praise for what they do.

I think DJs are unduly adulated because they don't really do anything.
Playing songs one after another seemlessly requires little skilll, but people treat DJs as if they are real musicians when it isn't an artform by any stretch of the imagination.

All they do is press buttons, put their arms in the air and say inane things into a microphone, yet they receive celebrity status for it.

Nobody goes to the cinema because a well known projectionist is working, but they do basically the same thing as a DJ.

I understand the need for a 'showman' at a rave or other music event, but I do not understand why people like DJs so much.

This is not an attack on electronic music - I love electronic music and listen to it daily. A computer is just as much a musical instrument as anything else these days, whether you like it or not.

[Assistant]
Firstly, let us set the guidelines for a DJ. Are you referring to the likes of Deadmau5, David Guetta, Skrillex or Tiesto? These men are all musical producers; although their live performances may be "men pressing buttons", their creative skills are in the studio. To sell their creative talents it is necessary for them to perform and display - as it is for any artist - and so they have their CDJ decks and computers at festivals like Ultra, and they perform to their fans.

But, in the case of a night club/radio DJ, don't relate a DJ to a projectionist. Instead, imagine them as an aural chef.

If you and famous DJ X are given 100 songs, you can both play about 5 hours of music. Equally, if you and Chef Z are given 20 ingredients, you can make a 3 course meal.  Just as you may actually understand the peanut butter does not go well with venison, you may also have enough of an ear for music to know not to blend staying alive in to like a G6.

But the DJ has still mastered combining songs, in the same way that the chef has mastered combining tastes. They know how to watch the crowds reaction to tempo, tone and genre, like a chef watches heat, spice and flavor of a broth in a pot. A chef at a Michelin star restaurant will become famous for his quality dishes, a DJ at a super club for this quality mixes.

Yes, they also exist to be a master of ceremonies, but they are themselves an artist. A chef has not raised the chickens he serves in his dishes, just as the DJ has not created the music, but it is the awareness and synchronization with their mediums that makes them deserving of credit.


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

[User] CMV: We need to start calling the 'seperatists' in Ukraine for what they really are: a Russian invasion force.

[Assistant] The separatists and the Russian invasion force are two separate groups who are both fighting against the Ukrainian government. The separatists are Ukrainians who favor separation from Ukraine, and the Russian invasion force is supporting them by invading from Russia.


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

[User]
ELI5: Styrofoam is a petroleum product. Cups are made of styrofoam. How does putting piping hot liquids (such as coffee) in to a petroleum product remain safe for human use?

I imagine over time the chemicals that are released from the hot liquids would build up in your body and cause things like cancer.

[Assistant] The molecules in styrofoam are very stable (at room temperature, don't microwave styrofoam). Pieces don't break off and get into the liquid in your cup. Also just because something is a "petroleum product" doesn't mean it's as toxic as petroleum. The properties of a substance changes drastically when formed into different molecules, such as the classic example NaCl.  Na is a highly reactive metal. Cl is a deadly gas. Together they make table salt.


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

[User]
Is there a maximum voltage obtainable by simply stacking transformers one after the other?

What stops me from stacking 10 transformers which each multiply the voltage by 100, getting a compounded 10^20 fold increase in voltage, with an initial voltage of 1 V, each electron would get an energy increase of 10^20 eV, easily surpassing the LHC, so  what stops this from happening?

[Assistant]
Darn physics. Again.

First you'll need to account for different levels of isolation. At high voltages it gets hard.

Next - internal resistances. Once your current is down to a few uA that pesky 0.05ohm inherent resistance suddenly spoils the party. Not much left to drive the next stage.

Also you are making a mistake of using voltage as energy. They are not the same.


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

[User] Why can I use my pancake as a stylus?

[Assistant] Whether something will work with a touchscreen depends on whether or not it can conduct electricity (to a reasonable degree). One can only assume that the pancake can conduct electricity well enough to be used as a stylus.


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

[User]
[DC]Can someone explain what is happening with DC?

Last I heard, darkseid was getting ready to fight the AM and now he's dead and batman, the flash, and superman are gods?

[Assistant] The Anti Monitor killed Darkseid by turning the Flash into the Black Racer (Death). Batman is sitting on Metron's Mobius Chair because he needed to know what the war was about but it's also turning him into a dick. Superman was weakened on Apokolips so Lex Luthor threw him into one of the fire pits so he could get charged but it turned him into a dick. Lex Luthor got pumped full of Omega energy so he's the new Darkseid.


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

[User] [DC] If the anti-life equation is a mathematical equation proving that everyone must submit to Darkseid, can you be too stupid to get it?

[Assistant]
If you're already that stupid, then you can probably be subjugated by Darkseid easily without the equation. The equation will automatically force you to learn of the truth. It's Darkseid's win button, which is why most comics deal with preventing Darkseid from ever obtaining the equation rather than stopping him when he has that power.

The thing people need to understand about the Anti Life Equation is that the equation's power says more about Darkseid than it does the equation itself. The equation doesn't really give Darkseid power, it just confirms what is already there. Darkseid defines the equation, not the other way around.

New Gods are powerful self aware abstract ideas who come from the 4th World, the Sphere of the Gods. And Darkseid is the God of Evil, the abstract essence of pure evil.

What the equation does is that it gives its victims insight to the true nature of Darkseid, why he is the master of Anti Life, giving them definitive proof that free will is futile, because at the end of the day you are not, Darkseid is.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] What did TMR do in the cave to scare the children?

I keep hearing about how He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named did something in the seaside cave to scare two children so much they never spoke of the incident again.

What did he do?

[Assistant]
Probably made animals (from around the area) "dance" in a horrifying way, or, simply tortured animals. Maybe he rocketed up the walls of the cave like a demon. Maybe he made his first serious go at possessing people. I've seen speculation that that cave had "known magic" before Tom ever found it, in which case perhaps he activated the magics present to disturbing effect.

Some people like to imagine a sexual undertone to these events which the narrative glosses over, so you could imagine the almost-pubescent Tom exploring his sexuality by forcing the muggle children to do things for his amusement.


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

[User]
[Black Panther] So how does Wakandan succession work, actually?

In *Black Panther*, we see the ceremony which grants T'Challa his powers, and officially makes him King of Wakanda. He ingest a heart-shaped herb, is buried alive, and communes with the spirits of his ancestors. Based on T'Challa's reaction, it seems like this is the first time that has happened to him.

But in Civil War, T'Challa is already acting as the Black Panther. He not only has the suit, but he's able to go toe-to-toe with Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes, leaps off of buildings, and can chase down vehicles moving at highway speeds on foot. He's clearly an enhanced human, which means he must have ingested the Wakandan herb.

So how exactly does succession work in Wakanda? Can the king abdicate the role of Panther without giving up the throne? Did T'Challa have to "fight" T'Chaka to claim the mantle? Did T'Challa ingest the herb but pass on being buried alive the first time? Or did they give him a modified version that granted the powers of the Panther but didn't bring him to the afterlife?

Moreover, what happens if a king gives up the title of Panther but stays on the throne? Could Killmonger have challenged T'Chaka for the throne, or would T'Challa have fought in his place?

[Assistant] The King and the Black Panther are normally the same person but one can choose to give up the duties of the Black Panther and devote all their time to being King, which is what TChaka did. In his old age he passed the mantle of BP to TChalla while retaining the mantle of King. So TChalla ingested the herb but didnt go through the burial process and transportation to the Ancestral Plane because he wasnt taking the mantle of King. Because TChalla was TChakas firstborn he was next in line to be king anyway so there was no challenge necessary. Also the king can deny any challenge issued as soon as they become king. So TChaka would have just said no to Killmonger if he challenged him.


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

[User]
[DC] Did the Amazonians ever adopt a girl that was not Amazonian and trained them?

I just watched the Snyder cut and the part where the girl told Wonder Woman that "she wants to be like her" got me thinking about it. Would Amazonians even train human girls? Or has it never happened before?

[Assistant]
In the DCAU, Aresia was a human girl who was saved by a soldier on a boat, and they eventually washed up on the island. The soldier pleaded with them to save her before dying of his injuries, and the Amazonians adopted her as one of their own.

She would go on to try and kill all men in the world, but it shows that the Amazons dont look down on girls outside of their island immediately.


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

[User] ELI5: why do people sleepwalk?

[Assistant]
There's a part of your brain that paralyzes you when you fall asleep. It blocks every signal that your brain tries to send to your muscles. That part is unsynced or damaged in people who sleepwalk.

Oftentimes the person is also able to look around, espond to stimuli and do complex tasks like talking or making themselves a sandwich or even driving. There's a special condition in the same vein that causes the sleeping person to attempt to beat the shit out of their sleeping partner. That's an indication of brain degeneration.

This is during the dreaming part of sleep called REM, where your brain is very very active and able to do complex tasks.

**Edit:** Yall got some funnyass stories about sleepwalking.


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

[User]
[The Matrix] Did Agent Smith lose rank among the Agents when he lost Morpheus?

At the beginning of the movie, Agent Smith seemed to call the shots among the other two Agents.  They followed behind him, he gave the orders.  During his interrogation of Morpheus, he had his glasses off and earplug out, and so was unaware of the attack on the roof.  The other Agents seemed concerned and confused about what he was doing to Morpheus.  Once Morpheus made his escape via helicopter, one of the two other Agents (Agent Brown, I believe) issued the orders while Agent Smith followed.  So, did Agent Smith lose rank due to his actions and failure with Morpheus?

[Assistant] He didn't lose rank, he lost face.  The Agents don't have a rank per se.  Smith at that point was the most experienced agent, so the others were deferring to him a bit (note how they didn't leave immediately when he asked them to, only when he yelled.)  After that fuck up, his experience stopped counting for so much.  They all get the same orders from the machines via the earpiece, but the machine HQ doesn't differentiate between the agents, the orders just say stuff like "1 agent to follow this target, 1 agent to follow this other one, and 1 to stand guard" and leaves it up to them to decide who does what.  Brown wasn't "calling the shots" so much as he was calling dibs on which of those positions he wanted.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] What would have happened in Episodes II-III if Qui-Gon Jinn never died in Episode I?

What would have happened if he never died? How would he have reacted to the clone wars? Would he have trained anakin better? What would happen?

[Assistant]
Everything would change. Anakin developed a severe fear of separation and loss while a child. This started with leaving his mother but was counter balanced with gaining a father figure in Qui-gonn.

Then soon after he lost both parental figures in his young life. Obi Wan would go on to train him but that was more of an older brother taking care of a little sibling than a Father-son relationship. Anakin as he got older challenged Obis authority over him in the same way a younger brother challenges the elder.

We can see the direct link to the fear of losing padme as an adult. Interestingly, that relationship started when he was a boy meeting qui gon and after losing his mother as a teenager.

So if Qui Gon survived, Anakin keeps his father figure who can help him separate healthily from his attachment to his mother.

Qui Gon also was a more flexible teacher than Obi Wan. Obi Wan is the Ideal Jedi Knight And Master. He was skilled, brave, and balanced. He had the temperament for the Jedi code.

He fell in love with someone and even saw her murdered in front of him by the same person who killed his father but ultimately had faith in the Force and let go of his attachments.

Palps would struggle to temp Anakin because Anakins Sin wasnt falling into Love, it was being unable to let go. Qui Gon still being alive would be a huge help In lessening that fear of loss in the first place but also in helping remove attachments generally.

Now Anakin had other flaws as we all do. Anakin was extremely arrogant. Prideful in his abilities and dismissive of his weaknesses.

Being the chosen one doesnt help as its both a password to cut corners and an almost unachievable expectation. In reality, he should have never even known about that prophecy.

But fundamentally, a living Qui Gon would help mitigate Anakins fatal sin of fear of loss.


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

[User]
CMV: There needs to be a tax on harmful food additives and a tax cut on foods without them.

Basically everything we see in the grocery store has too much stuff added into it. Added sugars and salts because they're natural preservatives, for instance. Roughly 90 percent of America's 3.5 trillion dollars of aggregate health care expenditure comes from chronic illnesses. The most dangerous of these illnesses (Besides the ones caused by cigarettes and alcohol) are mostly based on having a poor diet and exercise life. Those are of course obesity, diabetes and heart disease.

So, I'm looking for an idea that will try to tilt the economics and incentives of shopping for food in favor of healthy alternatives. I stumbled upon the idea of having a tax directly on the harmful components of food. So if an individual packaged food product has over 5% daily value of sodium, it's communicated directly into the sales tax for that product. So if it has 10% of daily value, then the sales tax would be 5%. You could work this in for excess sugars, saturated and trans fats, artificial preservatives and all manner of harmful components in food.

 Obviously I don't expect cashiers at a grocery store to sit there and calculate the sales tax based on whatever is in the package. It would have to be handled by computers that would communicate the contents of what they've ordered from manufacturers directly into inventory so that it's automatically applied at the cash register and visible on the price tag on the shelf.

I understand that there would be necessary exceptions to the rule. Salt shakers for example. If a full salt shaker has 1000x your daily value of sodium, you can't very well charge 1000x the price of the product in a sales tax.

I also understand that since sugar and salt are natural preservatives, they are critical to the infrastructure of food transportation. That and the fact that sodium is very healthy for you up to a certain point are the reasons why you would start charging the tax after a daily value of 5 or 10 percent. Some sodium is necessary. It's also the case that if a food product requires that much preservation just to get to the supermarket, then it's either from too far away or it's probably not a good food product.

I see a lot of potential for this to really change people's eating habits. Ultimately, something needs to be done about American health issues stemming from diet. I don't want these taxes to range so high that it starts bankrupting companies so fast that they don't have time to change their product process. I also would want the government to properly fund diet and health related programs to better help this transition into hopefully slightly healthier lifestyles.

Let me know if you have any objections as to the efficiency or legality of such a tax. Also let me know if there are better systems of dealing with America's lack of dietary integrity.

CMV!

[Assistant]
You may not be aware, but soy and corn are both heavily subsidized by the US government - meaning that the government pays farmers to produce these crops even if there is no market for them. The reason corn syrup is used so often as a sugar substitute is because corn is dirt cheap due to the subsidies.

I would propose that the government stop subsidizing corn and soy, and start subsidizing broccoli, asparagus, carrots, kale, spinach, and the like. Make the healthy foods cheap instead of the nutritionally worthless starches.


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

[User] eli5: What is the bootstrap Paradox?

[Assistant]
An event that has no ultimate cause due to a time travel loop.

Your future self arrives in a time machine to give you the plans for a time machine, so you can build the machine and go back in time to give yourself the plans.

The plans have no actual original creation. This is a  bootstrap paradox.


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

[User]
Why does most garbage have that same garbage smell?

It's seems that no matter what I put in my garbage it seems to have that same garbage smell. Also when I put my trash in the dumpster, the dumpster always seems to smell about the same?
Is there some common denominator that makes garbage all have that garbagey smell?

[Assistant] Mostly because most garbage is actually the same basic components. Normally, garbage contains inorganic components (glass, metal) and organic components (plastics, paper, animal and plant products, etc.). When this organic material, especially the animal and plant products (food) are left outside, under the sun (which radiates UV spectrum light) and in the presence of bacteria, it begins to decompose, commonly producing compounds like methane, trimethylamine, cadaverine, and putrescine. The mixture of these compounds is what creates the "garbage" smell. Since people need to eat to survive, there's almost always some kind of food product in every garbage bag, and since a small amount of these chemicals are needed for the human nose to detect the smell, you will almost always smell the characteristic "garbage" when there's trash around.


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

[User]
[Cyberpunk] How exactly have guns evolved?

Tabletop and video game version. What makes a cyberpunk pistol any better than a Walmart Glock?

[Assistant]
All of the weaponry in the world by assumption needs to consider the advancements in technology.

A highly cyberized and armed corporation solider can easily take small firearms like its nothing. Even someone with the fancy equipment against someone with high quality cybernetics like the woman in Cyberpunk 2077 announcement trailer was able to take military grade bullets just by their subdermal (armor plating grafted to the skin) protecting them.

To avoid psychotic, criminal and/or violent cyborgs taking over. Weapons would need to advance to take on such threats.

Of course lower grade weapons like the Walmart example exist. Even in the game you the player can buy a $1 gun. But it wont do much against one with even below average armor and cybernetics.

- Laser guns exist in the tabletop games and referenced in the video game
- Some fitted with incendiary, electrical, chemical and energy rounds.
- Some have built-in homing rounds.
- Many guns can link to someones cybernetics, showing the user ammo count and charge level for the railgun variants.
- As mention, railguns exist. Even for basic pistols and rifles.
- This without mentioning built in weapons like wrist-mounted blades, grenades launchers and reinforced knuckles.

Even at the base level, cyberpunk weapons are significantly more advanced than real world weapons.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is an orchestra so big? How can 20 cellos improve the music in a way 5 cellos can't?

[Assistant]
3 reasons:

1. Orchestral compositions have a lot more separate parts than you realise.

2. Two cellos playing in unison sound "bigger" than just one, for obvious reasons, even if you match the volume.

3. When the orchestra started to take shape, there was no electronic amplification.  Especially for the lower frequencies, it was very hard for a single instrument to fill a hall with a pleasing listening level.  Really, only the piano and the organ could do it effectively on their own, other instruments had to be multiplied to make them loud enough to be heard.  Even though you can now make a single cello as loud as you damn well please, if you want classical music to sound the way it did when it was first written, you need to play it the way the composer would have heard it.


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

[User] [Star Wars]The super star destroyer is the largest ship in the galaxy, with a crew of 280,000. What is the purpose of this ship? How would they feed the countless people aboard?

[Assistant]
It's the Empire... the purpose is to be bigger and better, and intimidating to any of those who would oppose it.

Being the Empire, they could simply get provisions from whatever a nearby planet could provide.

This vessel wouldn't at all be sustainable pre (or post) Empire rule of the galaxy.


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

[User] [star wars] Does the death star ever need to refuel? If so, how do they do it?

[Assistant]
Yes, it needs to refuel. It has a band of Ion Engines around the equator of the hull. The power probably comes from nuclear or antimatter generators.

Hyperdrive generators link into the system and provide FTL travel. Each bank contains ~123 generators.

Hyperdrive generators generally run on antimatter fuel.

Fuel for ion engines and hyperdrive generators are most likely shipped in and stored somewhere near the core of the Death Star.


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

[User]
How do floating bridges work?

I just heard about some floating bridges in Norway(I think) and was wondering exactly how the bridge deals with floating, all the wind and wave motion would cause a lot of stress in many directions why doesn't it break? Purely, from stress testing are these as good as or better than something like a suspension bridge?

[Assistant]
The floating bridges are made of steel reinforced concrete sections that were formed around low density materials making their overall desity less than water. To avoid bobing up and down with waves, tides, etc, they are pulled down below height they want to float due to boyancy by cables attached to very large anchors burried in the ground under the water, if you could see the underwater cables, you'd see that the floating bridge is really an upside down suspension bridge with the cables fighting boyancy instead of fighting gravity.
Depending on things like water depth, composition of the ground, currents etc it can be easier to bury a few anchors than to build large towers to support the bridge. With the floating bridge design the cables are under the most stress when there are no vehicles on the deck as the weight of the vehicles helps to keep the bridge down.


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

[User] ELI5: When businesses say they accept all "major" credit cards, what exactly does that mean? Is there such thing as a "minor" credit card? And if so, what are they and how do they work?

[Assistant]
Major refers to visa/mastercard, and in most cases discover and Amex.

As opposed to saying they take any credit card, because your sears card won't work, unless it's a visa branded one (which many store cards are going to.)

Also, for the latter half of the last century you had diners club which was mostly accepted at hospitality driven places like restaurants and hotels.

The terminology is simply outdated but once made sense and it's carried on.


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

[User]
Illustrate examples of how you teach a group of diverse students.

I found this type of interview questions for TT positions are so hard to answer. Do any of you have been asked this type of questions, and how did you answer them? Thank you so much!

[Assistant]
First, you need to demonstrate your conceptual understanding of one or more pedagogies that inform your approach to instructing diverse students. Frameworks such as Universal Design for Learning or Culturally Responsive Teaching are examples of pedagogies that might work here. Be fluent in your pedagogy to the extent that you are comfortably able to both summarize the gist of the pedagogy as well as pull out specific tenets to discuss in more detail.

Second, you then need to illustrate how you translate theory into practice by describing real situations from your teaching experience where you implemented your pedagogy. If you can provide evidence that your pedagogical approach was effective then that is even better.


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

[User]
cmv: encyclopedias in the information age are one of the worst sources of information available to us. Wikipedia is far more accurate.

I recently heard a psychiatrist make this claim and after mulling it about for a while I decided he was right. If there's a new discovery or a changed detail that requires the most minor of updates, the nerds over at Wikipedia will have the appropriate pages updated in nanoseconds with sources to match.

Meanwhile you need to wait for the next encyclopedia set for that update, and there could be a mistake in that set too, which can't get fixed until the NEXT edition. Plus those bitches costs hundreds of dollars. Who has the money to update it EVERY cycle?

 And if you need to find something hyper specific about a certain radiology tech procedure in the encyclopedia? Good fucking luck, kid. You'll maybe find one article about radiology in the 17,000 articles that are supposed to cover all the topics in the *world*. You'll flip to "radio-" section and find "radio broadband network" and "radioscope" with nothing inbetween. Figures, that's just your luck, isn't it?

Beyond that, most people have the encyclopedia set circa 1600 sitting on their bookshelves collecting dust. You open that bitch up and it says "our solar system is geocentric, here's 52 reasons Galileo is a dumbass:" in old printingpress lettering.

"B-B-BUT DUDE! There's trolls that change wiki pages!" No they don't, go on Wikipedia and make an account. Try and change something. It either won't work because your account hasn't been established since before the dawn of the internet and you're not trusted, or it'll be changed back in half an attosecond and you'll catch a seven trillion year ban that you can't appeal.

Wikipedia is more accurate than encyclopedias. Hands down, no contest. Actual encyclopedia books are turbo-ass in the information era.

Deadass the price of the newest set on Amazon is 950 dollars. Who the fuck has a thousand dollars lying around and goes "oh I know! Instead of getting more pieces for my PC or putting it towards the new car part I want, I'll be the biggest fucking nerd in existence and buy an encyclopedia set! That'll definetly be a good investment :)"

Fucking nobody, that's who. And if they do, they'll pass it down Like thier greatest family heirloom until their great-great grandkids open it for the first time in the year of our lord 2096 and say "hey, string theory? This was disproven half a century ago! Why are these books so inaccurate??"

[Assistant]
It's not one of the worst sources, it's just not the best.

Encyclopedias work regardless of government regulation or power outages.

The worst is in reading the clouds for answers.  Followed by Info wars comment section.


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

[User]
Eli5... Manufactured Homes - Just as Good Yet Advised Against

My SO and I are in the market for a home (the market is insanely competitive).  We found a home that checks a lot of our boxes, but it's manufactured.  Our realtor warned us against them and I don't understand why. Something about financing being different?

[Assistant]
So the biggest things youll run into from a financing side is some mortgage companies will not borrow for manufactured homes. The biggest reason is that manufactured homes tend to depreciate while fabricated homes tend to appreciate. No matter how you feel
about the quality of the build and workmanship in a manufactured home, for your  mortgage company it just might not make sense.