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

[User]
Cmv: People can't differentiate between the internet and real life anymore.

Writing this while getting ready to go to a medical procedure so forgive me if it seems rushed. When it comes to certain subjects discussed on the internet including political subjects, gender subjects, and relationship subjects. It always seems these situations are anectodal experiences that happen on the far reaches of the internet.

A popular one is people saying that trans people are calling people transphobic for refusing to date or sleep with them. People can tell me on the internet they are totally getting fired by bosses for it and their life is ruined sure but don't we demand proof and not anectodal stories? I had one bad goth gf at 19 but you don't see me telling people that all goth girls are psychotic people who don't deserve trust.

Ones internet experience is so customizable people apply it to the fabric of their own reality. They choose when to say GIVE ME A CITED SOURCE BRO or NO BRO I TOTALLY BELIEVE THIS IS HAPPENING. We also tend to paint groups with broad brushes on the internet and that leaks into our irl views of said group. Just because one person said something whacky or extreme doesn't mean their all this way but those views always tend to come from internet reactions. Am I off the mark? Change my view if I am.

[Assistant]
Wellfare Queens, the Satanic Panic, Heavy Metal having subliminal messages all predate the modern internet.

Basically if a person is confronted on an idea they tend to believe it more. This creates an issue with controversial issues people tend to believe them more then non controversial ones.


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

[User]
[Star Wars/ Force Unleashed] Where does Starkiller stand in the Star wars Universe?

So where does Starkiller stand in the universe, time wise and in terms of importance? Is the Force Unleashed's story play any role in the universe? (Played only the first, but do mention the 2nd)

[Assistant]
He's somewhat important in Legends in that he persuaded the various Rebel cell leaders to finally meet up and declare their Rebellion official. The first game starts about a year and a half before *A New Hope*.

In canon, however, he does not exist.


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

[User] ELI5: What physically happens when you get a chill down your spine?

[Assistant]
There's an actual medical term for it: a frisson!

It's not exactly known what causes it, but it seems to involve your brain's reward system triggering a response from your sympathetic nervous system, the part of your nervous system that's involved in fight-or-flight. It also might involve the opioid receptors in your nervous system.

It's a highly individualized response --- that is, it's different for everyone.


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

[User]
[MCU] How difficult would it be for Ben and Jerry's to make an ice cream flavor of a public figure without their consent?

Banner/Hulk wasn't aware of Hulka Hulka Burning Fudge, and even if he had there's a decent chance he wouldn't have given consent to create the flavor. Can B&J create a flavor like that if the person they're referencing is alive, but isn't around to give consent? Could Banner sue them? Assume that the snap hasn't thrown the whole planet into chaos and that civil courts are still functioning.

[Assistant]
Captain America was created by the US Government, and it doesn't seem like they trademarked the name. The Cap identity (not Steve Rogers, but the costume) is probably public domain.

Stark, on the other hand, is one of the most famous people on the planet, *super* into his own image and reputation, and able to summon a horde of lawyers that would make the Nazgul shit themselves in terror. There is absolutely no possibility that Ben & Jerry's would try to make an Iron Man themed flavor without Tony's express, written consent.

Hulka Hulka Burning Fudge is in more of a gray zone. "Hulk" is a generic word, except when it isn't. By marketing a fudge-based ice cream, instead of a green pistachio flavor, B&J could claim that they weren't referencing the giant green rage monster at all. And, even if they *did*, they could also argue that Hulk, not Banner, is the one with standing to sue. That could get tied up in the courts for years.

Of course, it's entirely possible that all of the Avengers signs over their publicity rights to Stark on page 427, Paragraph 42, Section A, Subsection III, Item iv of the Standard Avengers Employment Contract. We know from *Homecoming* that there is plenty of Avengers merchandise on the market, so someone must have either obtained the rights or decided that it was legal to just go ahead and do whatever they wanted.


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

[User]
ELI5: can you grow immunity to cyanide?

So Ive seen a video about a guy who tests how much cyanide there is in a cherry and I was wondering if you can grow some sort of immunity to it?

[Assistant]
No, it's not Iocane powder.

Seriously, though, the answer is no because it is made up of just two atoms, a carbon and a nitrogen. It's too small for the immune system to detect and destroy, and desensitizing the immune system to cyanide will not do any good, since it works directly on cell membranes and doesn't involve the immune system at all.


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

[User] Eli5: What is mortar exactly and why is it so good at holding bricks together?

[Assistant]
For ELI5, it's the cement put between bricks and rocks when building walls and floors. While the bricks or rocks will be complete and dry, mortar is applied while wet, and dries on place. It's essentially cement glue, and holds the bricks in place.

It's a little different than concrete, still made with cement and lime, mixed with sand and small stones, appropriate for the use case and aesthetics desired. The ratio of ingredients is what separates ~~cement~~ concrete from mortar, with ~~cement~~ concrete having a lower water-to-cement ratio, and often larger particulates like gravel with the sand.

Edit: correction that concrete has lower water-to-cement, because cement there makes no sense...


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

[User]
[Fallout] What's up with 'Nuke Culture'?

So what's the deal with how everyone in the pre-war universe were obsessed with nuclear weapons. For example Nuka cola or Sugar Bombs. Why would you be excited over weapons that would inevitably kill everyone?!

[Assistant]
They weren't obsessed with nuclear *weapons*! They loved every possibility that nuclear power gave them!

How did their cars drive for years on end without needing any refueling? Fusion powered energy cells. What about everybody's favorite Mister Handy? It surely wasn't gasoline powered after the Resource Wars of 2055-77.

But it wasn't just energy that it gave them, it opened up many other fields too! Research into the so-called "radiation sickness" advanced them to the point where they can heal even the worst of medical issues with one little shot from a Stimpack. We are eating food that was made 200 years ago, all because they have been irradiated during packaging to prevent any bacterial growth.

Sure, the bombs and energy weapons it also led to, and eventual eradication of most life on Earth, were an unfortunate side effect of such a wonderful, and powerful, technology. But really, any good technology can be used for bad too.

Fun fact: Nuka-Cola Quantum glows because of the addition of the mildly radioactive strontium-90, which has a half-life of ~29 years. That means when it was made, 200 years ago, it glowed nearly 128 times as bright as it does now.


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

[User]
[Moon Knight] Khonshu and night sky

Why did Khonshu had to revert the night sky to its state from 2000 years ago, when you basically can do it even with the most simple app on android or apple? Cause those speeds of stars and planets are already calculated and you can just input your time and it will give you the output of how it looked X years ago.

[Assistant]
The software they were using was certainly more than capable of doing this, as it was shown being able to map the ancient sky in realtime and using that to calculate the location. The likely issue is that, since the sky moves throughout the night, they needed the exact date and time that the star map referenced.

The reason Layla didn't get a result when she plugged in the information was because they didn't have this. She didn't know the reason and Steven quickly came up with a half-correct guess that it was due to the motion of the stars. They were both in quite a hurry and did not have time to research the problem more fully.

It's also unclear how this information would have been found without Konshu's intervention. Perhaps the creator of the map made it secret so that only being such as Konshu could determine it. Or perhaps it was stored separately, in the form of another star map that indicates the time by describing the sky (and general date) from a known location.


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

[User]
How do non buoyant things wash ashore?

Just saw a post about a huge megalodon tooth that was found off the coast of North Carolina. How does something like that wash ashore? Does it ever reach the ocean floor, or has it been traveling around the world via ocean currents for millions of years until it finally reaches land? Or did it reach the shore a long time ago and was only recently exposed??

[Assistant]
Wave action scrubs the bottom of surf zones.

If you stand still in heavy surf you will quickly notice you are not standing still.

Depending on current, and tide the wave action will either be pushing you to shore, or pulling you out into deeper water.

In coastal areas you will see seashells, and even rocks pushed several inches each wave until they rest on a debris line at the edge of the surf.

The beach sand itself is made by being washed out to deeper water, then piled back onto the beach by the waves scrubbing, and abrading until fine.

There is a beach in Hawaii called the magic sand beach. Each tide the sand is completely washed away to bare rocks, then when the current reverses washed back into place forming a beautiful sandy beach again.


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

[User]
Eli5: why is making your heart work harder good for it?

(running/working out)

[Assistant] Your heart also has muscles, just like in your arms and legs. Making it work harder for a little while helps to build the strength of the heart. In turn, the heart is able to pump harder thus supplying oxygen to your body more efficiently. It's also able to pump fewer times to get the same amount of oxygenated blood to your body. All this means that even when you're not exercising, your heart doesn't have to work as hard.


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

[User]
[General Sci-Fi] My Earth has just barely lucked-out of facing an Alien invasion. How can we prepare ourselves to face this kind of event in the future?

I'm a member of the **C**ouncil for a **C**ompetitive **E**arth, or **CCE** for short. Our purpose is to figure out how to best adapt existing Earth technology and political structures to the new heliopolitical situation we find ourselves in.

About 2 months ago, we made first contact with an alien species, and only narrowly-avoided becoming a conquered people through what I can only describe as a series of contrived challenges and coincidences that our would-be invaders were obligated to follow. They had selected one random human to serve as our planet's champion, and, despite the challenges being blatantly unfair, said human managed to *win*, causing the invasion to be called-off.

Since then, our status as some kind of "nature preserve" has been rescinded, and we've been seeing steadily increasing extraterrestrial activity. Relations are cold but cordial at the moment, but it's become blatantly obvious that we are *severely* outclassed on the galactic scene. We likely only have a decade or less before someone moves on us again, and the next time we probably won't be so lucky.

We've been attempting to purchase alien technology to reverse-engineer it, but we've encountered a problem: our currency and resources are practically worthless on the galactic market. I've heard some of our contacts joke that we'd be lucky to be able to afford an interplanetary *taxi fare* even if we sold all the oil in the world.

We do have one strategic advantage: One of the would-be-invaders has aparrently settled down with the human that defeated her in the contest, which is probably why none of the other local empires have made a move on us yet. Stil, we haven't had much luck persuading her government to give us anything but the bare minimum when it comes to assistance.

What are the **CCE**'s options here? We're not looking to become a great power or anything like that, we'd just like to be able to *defend* ourselves if the need arises. Is there anything we can do to dissuade any future would-be-invaders? We just want to preserve an independent Earth into the future.

[Assistant] There is a very narrow window between aliens not having left their planet yet and being sufficiently advanced. Look at where we got in a few millennia. The universe is billions of years old. You really can't prepare yourself, beyond making sure the transition to being sufficiently advanced goes as quickly as possible.


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

[User] [Warhammer 40k] What's the Imperiums' plan for dealing with dying stars? For example what shall be done in 5e+12 years when the sun around which Holy Terra revolves starts to die?

[Assistant] That is so far away it's probably in the Imperiums too-hard basket for now. It is possible for Exterminatus to be executed by basically strapping engine to small moons and launching them into planets, so it wouldn't be entirely unreasonable for Terra to be flown out of the solar system and to safety. Imperium technology is such that they wouldn't even need a star to be able to populate a planet.


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

[User]
Could exposure to radioactive radiation be "good"?

So I'm just curious no I'm not gonna try to expose myself to radiation and I know it's very likely to cause permanent damage or kill you but was I'm wondering is whether there is a chance when it changes your dna that it makes you "better"

[Assistant]
Let's be clear here, ionising radiation (as opposed to non-ionizing radio waves, WiFi signals etc.) causes changes in biological specimens by changing/damaging cellular structure.

This occurs when the charged particle - an alpha particle (He2+ ion), beta particle (an energetic electron, e-) or a gamma ray (high energy photon) passes through a biological structure.

Given that these particles are atomic sizes or smaller, and the proteins forming the DNA that is changed consist of tens or hundreds of atoms, and human DNA is literally 3.2 billion base pairs of proteins, the chances that you randomly expose DNA to radiation and it makes an improvement are about the same as randomly picking a word from the dictionary, and then randomly turning to a page of your favourite book and replacing the 57th word on that page with the one selected from the dictionary, and then making your favourite book better! And this is for the single cell affected.

For radiation to turn someone into spiderman or something requires the radiation to modify each and every relevant cell in the body in the same way. So now consider your book experiment, and imagine that EVERYBODY IN THE WORLD has to do the same with their own favourite book. Statistically impossible, right?

Now, the human body has some kind of system to guard against these changes (which happen more than you'd imagine) since we live in a naturally radioactive environment, albeit at a relatively low level. When cells are changed, some biological process switches off and the individual cell dies, and another one grows to replace it. When this doesn't happen right, people develop cancers. And this is why excessive radiation exposure kills people, because too many cells die at the same time.

Theoretically, if this process could be understood and controlled, it could lead to improvements, but not by the process of making things better, but by killing off some cells that were less efficient than the others at whatever they did, or indeed cancerous. This is the radiotherapy treatments that others have referred to.


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

[User]
[Marvel] Why Hasn't Thanos Cursed his Generals with Immortality?

So, this guy cursed Deadpool to be forever unkillable.  I've yet to hear anything about the curse breaking, so it seems like a really neat trick to pull.  Now, I'm not too familiar with the Mad Titan, but it seems he likely has minions and generals who aren't as death-proof as he is.  Wouldn't it be handy if they were?  Or does this count as Thanos's "inevitable self-sabotage" schtick?

[Assistant]
Thanos and his crew worship death and the best reward you could give them is death after glory. If you made them immortal they would consider themselves horrible failures and actually be worse. Check out Infinity from two years ago. His Lts to prove a point slit their own throats in Atillan to show it's glorious to them.

Thanos didn't curse Wade with immortality, he cursed him with never being able to meet Death.


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

[User] [Daredevil] are there any blindness related disadvantages that Matts powers dont compensate for?

[Assistant]
Yeah, a huge one- screens.

He can't watch TV, read a computer monitor, quickly glance at a smartphone.  Blind people can use these things, but he doesn't have much of a special advantage in using them.


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

[User]
[Monsters Inc.] Why aren't the doors at Monster Inc. directly connected to the refinery via pipes?

Using bottles to collect screams and then transporting the bottles to the refinery seems inefficient. Why not just lay scream-pipes from the scare floors directly to the refineries? The pipes don't need to run a long distance either, since the refinery and the scream floors are almost right next to each other(at least I think they are).

[Assistant] Containment. Scream energy is very volatile - a breach of even a single canister is explosive. A breach of a *pipe,* containing that much energy, could level a city block. Canisters are less efficient, but safer.


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

[User]
I believe that 100 years from now the American Flag will be looked upon with the same disgust as the Nazi Flag during WWII. CMV.

I believe that the American government has committed terrible war crimes since the Cold War, particularly in the past decade.  The NSA spying, The Patriot Act, supplying arms to ignite revolutions overseas, false flag operations to promote wars.  Millions of people have been killed in wars started by the United States, many of which are against a particular race.  This is no different than the numbers killed by Hitler and Nazi Germany.

Once this information becomes more available and accepted, the backlash against the red, white and blue will ultimately leave the flag as a symbol of corporatism, greed and war.  CMV.

[Assistant]
Not even the soviet flag is looked upon with the same disgust as the Nazi flag.

Neither are, for that matter, the British, Spanish, Belgian, or French flags that were flying during colonialism, nor is the Confederate flag, or even the old USA flags that were in usage during the genocide of the natives, the Italian tricolor that was already in use under Mussolini, or the old South African flag of the Apartheid, or the Russian Empire's old flag that was in use during many pogroms, purges, and rulers like Ivan the Terrible.

The Nazi flag isn't looked upon with disgust because it represents *a country* that committed atrocities against peace and against mankind. All countries have done that, and they will continue to do so.

It is looked upon with disgust, because it is understood to directly represent a specific will to commit a certain atrocity, instead of just proclaiming the overall existence of a people. (who also happened to commit some atrocities along the line).


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

[User]
[Star Trek] How prevalent is holo-addiction?

On earth or other wealthy planets where holodecks are presumably plentiful, are they available to everyone equally, or must people pay for them in some manner?

If people must pay, are there holodeck junkies? Are there people turning tricks for holodeck credits?

If there is unlimited availability, how much of the population spends most of their waking hours in the holodeck?

[Assistant]
Exactly the same as every other addiction throughout history.

By strict logic, even in the 21st century, There was enough electronic entertainment to keep any individual completely occupied for the entirety of their life. Living on the most basic food and shelter, a welfare payment is more then enough to provide this, especially with the prevalence of piracy.

Yet the vast majority of people, even those with ample free time and money, still used it purely as a regular entertainment medium, exactly the same as books 50 years before.

The instances of holodeck addiction today can be viewed in exactly the same way, The result of a mental irregularity drives the addiction to escapism, rather than the medium providing for easy addiction.


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

[User]
What is the best strategy to recruit PhD students?

Hello all! I'm starting as a professor at a US institution this Fall and I'm having a hard time finding PhD students. Especially since many of the students that applied during the last fall with our department have decided to go somewhere else (i.e., we weren't their first option). Any piece of advice from some senior professors on how to efficiently recruit good PhD students? \[my field is engineering\]

[Assistant]
Its challenging to do this before you are actually there working and have a lab set up.  From the students perspective it feels too abstract and there are too many unknowns, such as what the research groups culture will be like.

In a pinch you can start by working with undergrads or hiring a technician.


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

[User] ELI5: Why can't brain cells regenerate when other cells of the body can?

[Assistant] Brain cells do regenerate, though at a much slower rate. This slow rate is to ensure the neurons grow exactly as they should. When damage occurs to the brain however, scar tissue forms quickly, much quicker than new neurons. The scar tissue is too thick for the new neurons to grow through, effectively rendering that area of the brain unable to regenerate.


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

[User]
Is a Kalman filter the same as a hidden Markov model, except with a continuous state space?

So the hidden Markov chain is not bound to discrete states, but can take arbitrary real values (possibly subject to constraints of some kind). This makes sense to me, but I could not find a definite source for this, so a quick confirmation would be helpful. Thanks!

[Assistant]
No. State space models are the same as HMMs except with a continuous state space (as you say).

The Kalman filter is a particular type of state space model where you assume that the state transition and observation distributions are linear and Gaussian.


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

[User]
[Fallout] Why is everything still so post-apoaclyptic?

The chronologically latest fallout game (fallout 4) is 210 years after the great war- the difference between today and the British empire. And yet, everything still looks like the bombs fell last week.

Everything's still the moldering ruins of before. No-one's built any new structures, and people who live in the old structures are just squatting in them without even fixing the walls. There's no real industry to speak of. Society is still just "raiders everywhere and isolated groups of a dozen people in makeshift homes". No trade networks, no charismatic leaders uniting the groups, no significant citystates or empires, all the factions basically isolating themselves completely.

Everything still seems like people just took shelter in these ruins a few months ago, rather then having 200 years worth of people living and dying in them. No-one's even tided up or painted the walls.

What's going on? It's been *200* *years*. What's stopping people from moving beyond the squatting in a ruined museum stage of rebuilding?

[Assistant] There's heavy radiation around population centers that's only within the last 100 or so years begun to drop to non lethal levels.  This slowed population spread greatly for average humans while escaped lab experiments and mutants grew wild and remain a threat to this day.  The heavy radiation has also caused a marked cognitive decline in people leading to an effective lowered intelligence as the population adapted to the radiation.  Fewer older generations passing on their knowledge leading to younger generations learning through self teaching and oral histories which again causes a retardation of recovery efforts and social development. This all coupled with aggressive factional violence from both raiders and technology hoarding groups like the enclave and brotherhood of steel means a massive loss of knowledge and experience to the ravages of the world.  Instead of say mechanics passing on their trade to their children and so on there's a big gap of a hundred or more years where those skills were either lost or jealousy hoarded rather than shared.  We see factions like the NCR building and rebuilding a modern society but other groups aren't as lucky to have such a wide skill base to build from.


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

[User]
ELI5: When you are in the hospital and get an IV how does your body "taste" what's in the IV?

For example, when you get a saline IV and you can "taste" the sodium while the IV drips. Just curious on how this happens internally in the body.

[Assistant] If you increase the sodium concentration in your blood, all the (relatively thin) mucosal membranes in your nose and mouth can pick up on that, as that blood courses through them in the course of regular circulation. At the end of the day, all that taste is is electric signals which fire when a molecule binds with a receptor, and a lot of the binding is based on simple stuff like charge and molecular shape. If you think about it, it's very evolutionarily beneficial for the body to be able to inspect the chemical makeup of its blood.


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

[User]
[XCOM2] Why do "Vipers" have breasts?

I am a proud ADVENT citizen. I do all that is asked of us by our benevolent Elders. Sometimes, when I look at the "Vipers", I wonder: why does an apparently reptilian species have breasts, a mammalian characteristic?

[Assistant]
++Transmission Override++

It's a remnant of their time as 'thin men'. They were engineered to take on mammalian characteristics for infiltration purposes. That is, to look human. Now, when infiltration is no longer a primary concern, they're transferring back to designs more reminiscent of their natural forms.

However, despite all the advanced  technology and vast resources, it's still cheaper to do the transition over several generations. Expect to see variants without breasts in a few years, maybe a decade at the outside.

++End Override++


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

[User] ELI5: How do machines that accept cash payment determine that a five dollar bill is a five dollar bill, etc?

[Assistant] Optical scanning.  An optical scanner looks at the denomination Portrait, and  other parts of the bill to reduce fraud.  Optical scanning is a follow-on from magnetic scanning developed and commercialized by Stanford Research Institute (now SRI International) for bank check clearing automation.  Look at the font at the bottom of a bank check (or cheque).  It was originally developed to be printed with a high iron content and read by magnetic arrays (early 1950s).  As computer processing and digital imaging progressed, better optical recognition was developed.  Some currency scanners also read the metal strips put into US currency starting in the 1990's.


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

[User] Is every single living cell adjacent to or have access to a capillary? Are there living cells not next to a blood/O2 source, and if so, how do they survive?

[Assistant]
Diffusion allows for nutrients and O2 to be between adjacent cells. No need to be directly next the capillary, if your neighbor, or neighbor's neighbor is.

Many forms of multicellular life have no ciculatory system, for example jelly fish. Our advanced ciculatory system allows for more efficient transfer over our large volume, but especially in less active tissue, cells may be far from a capillary.


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

[User]
[General Fantasy] Why is every cure from a plant that is found only in one place and that place is always a dangerous hard to get place surrounded by monsters?

Why isn't it ever in a field of butterflies and bunnies?

[Assistant]
There's tons of common accessible plants that cure lots of things. Every witch and herbalist knows about them. That health potion collecting dust in the bottom of your pack is probably made from them.

But the bards don't sing about that and there's not a buff warrior fighting to get them, so you forgot they exist.


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

[User]
[Wreck it Ralph] Are the video game characters be considered sentient AI or magically sentient inanimate "objects"?

The characters are self-aware bundles of code that can feel and has awareness and acknowledgement that they're video game characters, in this case they're borderline sentient AI.

However its possible that they're having a Toy Story scenario in which an obscure whacky magical phenomena is causing them to be alive in which case they are vaguely magically sentient.

Its never hinted that they're intended to be alive considering that they have to hide the fact that they ARE from humans, but it seems like its second nature to their world that virtual characters are indeed alive.

[Assistant] Methinks we're looking at a Tron scenario, where sapient life emerges without the intent or knowledge of the people creating. Just like how Kevin Flynn doesn't know Clu or Tron are living an actual life between executing his commands until he gets sucked into the machine, the folks who made Fix-It Felix, Sugar Rush, or Turbo Time have no idea what's going on inside the cabinets after hours. No one programmed Turbo to be a game jumping dick, for instance.


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

[User] Is it better to know one programming language very well but not know much about others, or to know less about a specific one but to know about a wider variety of languages?

[Assistant]
In answer to your question: neither.

Have a rich understanding of programming at conceptual levels, express this understanding through several languages and be prepared to learn and adapt on the fly.

A rudimentary level of ability for any language isn't helpful if you're expected to use it. You need to be able to write in the language at a given pace (by your employer) which allows you to do your job.

Knowing about lots of languages - and how to interpret them - is really only useful for out-of-scope conversations and keeping up with the project being discussed.

The good news is: once you learn a few languages very well *with* your foundation of programmatic principles and CS; you can learn more languages quicker than you learned your first.


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

[User] [Bleach] Why do the Shinigamis have a giant army organized into 13 divisions if their only jobs are to send souls to soul society and defeat hollows?

[Assistant]
There are a quarter of a million cities in the world, each city is assigned a soul reaper from what we can tell, not to mention various expanses of wilderness that would still be wise to have someone watching over-- that amounts to quite a large standing army just by itself.

But then you have to factor in populating the Seireitei with a standing defence force. Even if you don't expect a massive attack, you might have an intruder trying to steal secrets, and you don't want that to be easy.

Now, you also have to think about this. You have all these super powerful soul reapers, with innately powerful levels of spiritual energy. Basically anyone who is a third seat or higher could cause some amount of trouble *if they aren't part of your military*. The reason to have so many squads is so that there isn't competition between the incredibly powerful soul reapers for ranked positions during the times that there isn't a suddenly powerful enemy.


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

[User] How do we know that dinosaurs didn't roar, like in Jurassic Park? Would they have chirped and cawed and sang, like birds today?

[Assistant]
Phylogenetic bracketing. None of their relatives have anything similar to vocal cords so dinosaurs most probably didnt either, so they couldnt exactly roar. Something like the deep hisses of crocodiles or the cassowarys rumble might perhaps give you an idea of what they could have sounded like.

Edit: And similarly for singing, thats not an ability all birds have but is limited to songbirds, so its not something we can hypothesize for dinosaurs as a whole.


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

[User]
[Batman] Why hasn't batman gained some form of immunity to cranes toxin after years of fighting him?

I know the out of universe reason is that it would be less interesting and basically make scarecrow a non issue but in a few universes scarecrow is more or less immune to his fear gas due to constant overexposure

Batman has fought scarecrow countless times, has probably been more exposed to the stuff then some other people have and yet he doesn't ever exactly seem to get some form of immunity to fear toxin like crane seems capable of.

[Assistant] He likely has. In Arkham Asylum Crane injects him with enough toxin to "dive ten men insane" over the course of a night and Bruce is relatively fine. As for why he hasn't got total immunity Crane is constantly changing his formula up.


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

[User]
[Star Trek TNG] Assuming no prior knowledge, how quickly could Commander Data crack the enigma code?

Edit: without consulting an encyclopedia or textbooks on World War 2!

[Assistant]
Probably almost instantly.

The enigma wasnt *that* hard to crack using brute force. In the mid 90s you could crack a 3 rotation enigma in a few seconds and a 4 rotation enigma in a minute or two.

Today your cell phone would find it pretty trivial to solve the enigma if coded properly.

Im not sure if Data would even consider the enigma to be coded its so simple.


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

[User] [Kirby] What goes through the head of enemies as they are swallowed alive? What happens to them once they are inside Kirby's body?

[Assistant]
So, you can get as grotesque about it as you want, but theyre essentially killed once Kirby swallows them.

Best case is they get absorbed by Kirby and help him by using their powers, this turns them into an unwilling thrall at best.

But otherwise they are either a) swallowed and digested or b) turned into a star, spit out, and disappears. In either case they cease to be.


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

[User]
[DC] If Superman, Wonder Woman or Batman accidentally killed a civilian while crime fighting, how would they feel? What would they do afterwards?

Yeah, this would never happen, they're way too careful, but assume that it's a freak "once in a million lifetimes" accident.

If Batman, Superman or Wonder Woman accidentally killed an innocent civilian while fighting a villain, how would they feel? How would they react afterwards?

[Assistant] Theyd be horrified, and would do whatever they could to atone for their actions. Batman would give some money the civilians family every month to make up for whatever income they lost. Superman and Wonder Woman would turn themselves in to the police and confess everything that happened.


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

[User]
Is escape velocity the same radially and tangentially?

Say I was on the surface of the moon (because I want to avoid atmospheric effects) and I fired a gun. Would it be easier for the bullet to escape if I fired it at the horizon or if I fired it straight up?

[Assistant] The escape velocity remains the same; however if you shoot in the same direction as the rotation of the Moon around its axis, you'll get that velocity added to the bullet's velocity counting towards the escape velocity. Effect is maximum at the equator !


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

[User]
[Fairly Odd Parents] How wasn't Vicky traumatised by 'Icky Vicky'?

Her idol and celebrity crush, Chip Skylark, dedicated an entire song to hating on her with the help of her bully victim and Chip's new friend,Timmy Turner.

Not only is this song negative towards Vicky, but it's entirely based on describing how gross and unpleasant she is to be around. Chip's concert audience latches onto the song immediately, joining in to reverberate "Icky Vicky" as Vicky flees the scene in tears. Not surprising, given her intense fondness for Chip as her target of puberty-driven infatuation.

What *is* surprising is that Vicky manages to bounce back from this as if it never happened. The only person she genuinely cared about acknowledged her as revolting and horrible through a hit song, becoming as popular as "My Shiny Teeth and Me". How is she still the same person afterwards?

[Assistant] It's mainly because Vicky is an astonishingly shallow person.  She can't be deeply hurt because there's literally no depth there - she doesn't care very much about other people or what they think, so the "Icky Vicky" fad would piss her off while it was a thing and then be quickly forgotten.


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

[User] ELI5: What is at the bottom of the crack in an earthquake?

[Assistant]
if you drop a layer cake, one or more layers may break, but not always in the same place.  what is happening is the soft layer of filling keeps the breaks seperate.  so where the topping or icing breaks, you may get a deep chasm, you may not, but unless the cake is completely unrecognisable, there's not a single place where you see all the way to the plate.

 the earth's crust is made of many more layers of all different softnesses.  wherever they get squished or stretched, an earthquake is the vibration of the layers moving around and rubbing.  so there is not always a break, and just like the dropped cake, you might get lucky and the change in shape might not be noticable!

 when there is a break you will likely see the crack go down through rocks of similar softness, until a layer of softer or loose rocks, perhaps covered by loose rocks fallen in from the sides of the crack.

 if you were expecting a volcano to burst out, you would have to be next to a geological fault line, where the process is different.  that's more like two cakes being smooshed into each other, and the cracks and earthquakes are usually minimal compared to the slow movement of layers sliding and folding over each other, leaving filling all over the place and very occasionally letting some of the super hot filling of the earth to leak out.

 please clean up after yourselves and don't waste cake.


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

[User]
[DC/Marvel] Why are DC comics set in fictional cities like Gotham and Metropolis while Marvel comics are set in real places like New York?

I **know** that not all places in Marvel are real. (like wakanda and Dr. Doom's contry) but i'm talking about the earlier comic heroes like Batman and Superman, who protect and serve fictional cities like gotham and Metropolis, while the X-men/Spiderman/fantastic four and avengers do it in real-life cities?

**EDIT:** Well, this has blown up. at least someone actually answered my question. thanks everyone.

[Assistant] It was a marketing decision. When Marvel was making it's move, DC was silly and unrealistic, with dream stories and imaginary stories. Stan Lee decided that his heroes would operate in the "real" world, have "real" problems and be more open (less secret identities, no Jimmy Olsens, etc.). And it worked. People were engaged in the stories and Marvel grew.


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

[User] ELI5: How is it possible that some animals are "immortal" and can only die from predation?

[Assistant]
There are two ways that immortal animals have come to exist. The first one is that their telomeres don't decay. This leaves them for high risk of cancer and other genetic issues but they technically don't age. This is how lobsters do it.

The second big one is that whenever they die they revert back to a infantile state and start over again. This is down by a couple breeds of jellyfish.


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

[User]
Is murder inherently immoral?

First i need to clarify that i am in no way trying to justify murder and this is just an idea i wanted to do more research on.
I am just wondering what the mortality of taking another life is from a purely philosophical view point,  i can understand how the method of killing can be immoral but if the death is instantaneous and painless without any awareness of dying i don't see how that would be immoral by itself since technically  there was no harm done because the person who died is not aware of dying.
Also if there is a name for this line of thinking please provide it.

[Assistant]
Well murder means wrong killing, so yeah we are going to think its wrong, but if you are wondering if killing is permissible, then yeah sometimes it is.

>death is instantaneous and painless without any awareness of dying i don't see how that would be immoral by itself

Even if we are consequentialists this is clearly wrong since it denies future pleasure, frustrates future preferences etc.


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

[User]
[Final Destination] Does the entire world death count stop every time someone avoids death?

In Final Destination, were shown that Deaths got this grand list of everyone who is supposed to die and in what order they will die in. Whenever a group of people manage to avoid their planned death through a premonition (like getting off of a plane or not riding a roller coaster), Death has to play catch-up and kill them all in the order they were supposed to die in. Were also shown that if someone on that list tries to kill themselves when its not their turn, they cant do it.

So does that mean every time someone avoids their death by having a premonition, Death has to stop killing people until it catches up? Otherwise everyone who dies before that person is breaking the order.

[Assistant]
>	So does that mean every time someone avoids their death, Death has to stop killing people until it catches up? Otherwise everyone who dies before that person is breaking the order.

I doubt it, if nobody on earth died for days, weeks or longer it would fuck up desths plans even more.

We also dont really know what deaths plans are, this could be a much more grand plan we cant comprehend.


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

[User] Why is geostationary orbit for a satellite fixed at about 36,000 km above the Earth? What makes this the optimum distance?

[Assistant]
The orbital altitude of 36000 km isn't just the optimum distance, from Newtonian mechanics it follows that this is the only distance for a geostationary orbit. The derivation is fairly simple and can be found below:

A geostationary orbit is a circular orbit in which the satellite stays, as the name implies, over the same point on Earth. That means that the satellite completes a full orbit every 24 hours.

For a circular orbit with radius *r*, a centripetal force is required to maintain the orbit, described by:

F = m r w^2

(*m* is the mass of the object, *w* is the angular velocity, typically measured in radians per second (radians are a unit of angle, a full circle corresponds to 2 pi radians)).

In the Earth-satellite system, this force is provided by gravity, which is given by:

F = G M m / r^2

(*G* is the Newtonian constant of gravity, *M* the mass of the Earth)
Equating the two yields:

m r w^2 = G M m / r^2

the *m* terms cancel, shuffle some of the others:

r^3 = G M / w^2

Fill in the values for *G*, *M* and *w* and you can compute the value of *r*, which should give you an outcome just over 42000 km. If you subtract the radius of the Earth, you'll find the 36000 km value.

In general, the speed of a circular orbit is related to the radius of the orbit. The smaller the radius of the orbit, the higher the speed of the object will be. The orbital altitude of about 36000 km is the sweetspot where a satellite moves with just the right speed to remain above the same spot on Earth.


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

[User]
[X-Men] What are the hoses on Apocalypse's arms for?

Do they enhance circulation? Do they feed him some potent liquid? Are they purely cosmetic?

[Assistant]
He's armored by the Four Hosemen of Apocalypse.

But yes, as Common-Additional says, he has Celestial tech *in addition to* being an Alpha/Omega level mutant and being the product of alien genetic tinkering.

So, while the pipes foreshadow his eventual affiliation with/against Cable, the armor more generally implies the foes of Apocalypse... are hosed.


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

[User]
CMV: Technologically driven productivity gains will make Universal Basic Income so cheap it will be non controversial and inevitable.

Technological improvements are on the verge of making the basics of life so inexpensive that a Universal Basic Income sufficient to cover simple living requirements will be non controversial and all governments of developed nations will implement it by 2070.

Robotized agriculture and vertical farming (of genetically engineered super foods like vat grown meat), 3D printed housing, and even clothing will become so cheap that it will be trivial for governments to fund a UBI to cover food, clothing and shelter. Self driving cars and drone delivery will further drop the costs of transportation and delivery making it easy for people to live even in remote areas that have low costs of living.

As costs of food, clothing and shelter keep falling the price of a UBI becomes a low burden for tax-payers making the implementation of such a system easy to do politically, particularly since it can allow the elimination of other safety net programs at the same time.

That said, UBI may do little to eliminate inequality, which may actually increase substantially. Technological improvements will keep reducing the need for low skilled work while simultaneously increasing demand, and compensation, for people with even higher levels of education and specialized skills. The value of educations for anything other than these increasingly specialized fields will be minimal.

Perhaps there will be new careers for jobs we can't yet foresee, but that may take time to evolve. Increasing productivity will may demand for creative jobs in entertainment. Caring jobs, like nursing, will likely also continue to be in demand since these will be particularly difficult to automate.

Major advances in medicine could also lead to greater inequality as only the wealthy would be able to afford increasingly exotic life saving, and extending, treatments.

But increasing inequality is beside the point of my premise that the creation of a UBI in most developed nations is virtually inevitable within the next 50 years. In fact, growing inequality likely makes UBI an even greater possibility.

[Assistant] do you think that, in say, 1890, when the industrial revolution set in full blast and technological changes were super obvious, that people were fearing that automation would take all the skill and quality out of hand made products? and while machines ended up doing lots of things, they didnt make humans obsolete. how do you think it's different?


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

[User]
[Warhammer 40k] Why is Terminator armour so completely useless against Genestealers?

In Space Hulk, the massively armoured marines fall ludicrously easily to Genestealer attacks.

As soon as they enter melee combat they are pretty much doomed, they might as well be naked. This always bugged the shit of me considering how much the lore says how powerful Terminator armour is supposed to be.

I mean if they can shrug off an anti-tank round or a blast from a heavy lascannon how can a single strike from a Genestealer's claw kill them instantly? Surely a creature the size and mass of a Genestealer couldn't possibly release as much energy from a claw strike than an impact from the aforementioned weapons?

[Assistant]
You have to consider the scaling effects inherent in any game.  You see, one genestealer game piece does not equal one genestealer in "real life."  It more likely represents a whole swarm of genestealers.  However, 1 terminator game piece probably does represent a single terminator.

So in the board game when a genestealer kills a terminator, it represents a situation where hundreds of genestealers swarm out of the bulkheads to mob the lone terminator.  In conjunction with the super charged claws and muscles of the genestealers, it's easy to see how they could kill a terminator.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does having a window down when you're nauseous help keep you from vomiting?

Or just cool air in general. Like when you're on an airplane and you feel sick it kinda helps to have the air blow directly in your face. Why does this help?

[Assistant]
So, one of the reasons we get motion sick is because the brain cannot rationalize the movement of a car with our bodies movement. Basically, we're moving, but the brain can't figure out why because we are not physically moving. This sort of disorientation in our equilibrium is attributed to poison or toxin by our brain, forcing us to expel our stomach contents to rid us of the poison. Taking away the closed off and immobile atmosphere inside a car is a good way to relieve motion sickness because it tricks the brain into thinking its true movement.

Also it helps relieve the symptoms leading up to vomiting. Sweating and dizziness can be alleviated by cool air.


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

[User] [The Silmarillion] Which dragons under Morgoth's command was the most dangerous?

[Assistant]
There are only two named Dragons that were under Morgoth's command.

Glaurung - The first Dragon. Wingless. Smart, capable of using magic. Was one of Morgoth's commanders. Killed a Dwarf King. Destroyed Nargothrond. Played a major role in the Curse of Hurin.

Ancalagon the Black - The largest and most powerful dragon to ever exist. He was so big that he crushed Thangorodrim when he died.

So in terms of raw power, Ancalagon wins. But the most dangerous? Well, we don't really know much about Ancalagon. He sort of just shows up and dies. Glaurung is a much more fleshed-out character, with actual dialogue and personality. If we're talking about dangerous in terms of raw destruction, Ancalagon would win. But if we're talking about dangerous in terms of cunning, intelligence, deceit etc, Glaurung wins.


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

[User] Is there a theoretical limit to the size of ocean vessels?

[Assistant]
There are many non-theoretical limits:

Economics. (Cost to build, staff, fuel and turn a profit.)

Port or passage size. (Not simply depth/width of port, but cargo handling limts. It doesn't do your passenger/cargo company much good if it takes weeks or months to load and unload. It also needs to fit under bridges or through canals or breakwaters. Include tugboat size under general port size issues.)

Engine size - (which is both a subset of economics, but has its own limts as well for maximum engine size. But you can theoretically add more smaller engines.)

Material strengths and choices. (This is less important than the above two issues. Google: pykrete to see how to make massive ships out of ice and sawdust.)

And the final hard limit may simply be the curvature of the earth, and any assymetrical gravity loads the ship may experience due to the not-so-uniform structure of Earth and accompanying gravity field.

But the theoretical upper limits for a floating, moving ship are absolutely, staggeringly huge. Look at icebergs for examples. They've documented floating icebergs that are the size of small countries or US states. They're big enough to build several cities on and are measured in dozens or hundreds of miles wide and long, with hundreds of feet of ice above water. If you made a ship out of solid pykrete that size it would likely last for a hundred years.

There's also nothing really stopping someone from building a ship the size of, say, California if you can find a place big enough to float it and it weighs less than the water it displaces.

Moving it around with fossil fuels would probably be too expensive. You might be able to sail it around, or use solar or nuclear for electric drives.

But moving a ship the size of California around would also probably cause, uh, some minor catastrophes like tsunamis, altered ocean currents, altered wind patterns and more.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] If disarming one's opponent via telekinesis is the primary tactic in a lightsaber duel, why don't Jedi put lanyards on their lightsaber hilts?

Seems like it would help a lot.

[Assistant]
Wouldn't help as much as you think.

With the lanyard, in the case of a successful telekinetic attack that rips the saber from your hand, instead of simply being disarmed,  you're now disarmed and yanked off balance.  That seems a worse situation than just having your lightsaber on the floor and having to call it back to your hand.

Better to just practice defending yourself from telekinetic attacks in the first place.


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

[User] ELI5: if someone is strangled but can still be revived with CPR - why can their body not start breathing again on its own ?

[Assistant]
When someone is strangled the problem is not lack of oxygen (or excess CO2), since the body can handle that for a few minutes. Instead, blocking the respiratory tract results in a strong negative pressure in the lungs as they try to breathe against the blockage. This pulls fluid out of the veins and into the air sacs, so its much more like drowning.

Thus cardiac resuscitation alone wont work, because the lungs are full of fluid that is hard to remove.


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

[User]
[40K] Eldread Ulthran "died" in the lore but he's still around? What's that about?

In the original Eye of Terror campaign of Abaddon's 13th Black Crusade back in like 2004 or 05, Eldrad the Eldar Farseer was one of the big casualties. Apparently he tried to steal a Blackstone Fortress but Slaanesh herself was in the fortress. What happened there?

However now he's apparently back and helping out Roboute Guilliman. What happened? Did he escape from Slaanesh and the Fortress or did everything just get retconned?

[Assistant]
Well you see Eldrad usually has a plan, he's also kind of a dick. So yeah he probably had an escape plan, a backup plan, and a few other plans in place to get out of the fortress. For all we know Eldrad just convinced some warlock that he was actually him and switched with the double when things went sideways. Perhaps he was never even there and called in a favor from emps to convince everyone that he was? Possibly Eldrad made several clones of himself and uses the clones to confound and confuse his enemies. Maybe papa smurf reached back in time and pulled Eldrad from the fortress before his death?

All we do know is that everything went **just. as. planned.**


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

[User] Noob here, If for example, GDP growth is +3%, and the M0 supply is +50%, why isnt inflation 47%? And also why businesses consider CPI instead of money supply to determine price increases or decreases?

[Assistant]
Inflation needs to consider the velocity of money (# of times each dollar gets passed around the economy) as well. If the money supply growth significantly outpaces the nominal GDP growth, it means that the velocity of money went down significantly.

Businesses consider input prices + competition rather than CPI/money supply to determine price points but they are all interrelated.


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

[User] ELI5: How come doctors have had such trouble treating diseases like Alzheimer's because of the impenetrability of the blood brain barrier but chemicals like marijuana and alcohol have no trouble at all?

[Assistant]
The blood-brain barrier has nothing to do with why we can't treat Alzheimer Disease. There are no medications available to directly combat it.

It does act as a filter for large molecules and cells (such as bacteria). It is not just a "net" with tiny holes it though, it's more complex than that.

The blood-brain barrier allows lipophilic molecules to pass through (with some exceptions that are actively transported out by specialized proteins). Being lipophilic means it has certain chemical properties, but the basic thing is that is able to dissolve in fat/oil (aka lipids). Alcohol and THC dissolve in oil and are relatively small molecules, therefore they pass right through.


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

[User]
ELI5: How on earth do wells work?

I don't understand how do wells work. Like, I've seen a lot of wells made of stone, so, if you dig a huge hole in the ground, how does water come inside the well? Like, I've seen a lot of movies where someone gets stuck in a well or something, and there's always a rock bottom. So, how does water get inside the well?

[Assistant]
In certain parts of the world, there is a layer of water saturating the ground under the surface. This is called the water table.

Pretend the water table is 9 meters below the surface.  If you then dig a hole 10 meters deep, it will penetrate the water table. Water will flow into the hole, filling it to a depth of 1 meter. Water then can be removed from the hole, which is now called a well.


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

[User] [Star Wars] Why didn't the Jedi try form a few groups to take down Vader instead of being hunted down one by one?

[Assistant] How would you suggest the Jedi track each other down? They have no resources, in a Galaxy of quadrillions. Add to the fact that the Jedi don't want to be found, and you have a near-impossible task. This doesn't even mention the fact that they all have death marks, and are constantly on the run from inquisitors and bounty hunters.


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

[User] ELI5: What happens under our skin when we feel "itchy" and why does scratching it relieve this feeling?

[Assistant]
We have nerve endings in our skin, that send signals to our brain, like something is pushing me (touch) or something is cold (heat, obviously).

But nerves need to be aroused up to some minimum point to send proper signals.

When they are aroused less then minimum, the brain is confused, and needs to decide; so, it sends down an arm and some fingers to scratch it, so it can decide is there something wrong like chemicals or venom or stuff, or is it just that nerve endings need to be rebooted to continue to work normally.


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

[User] [Jak and Daxter]How come the dark eco turned Daxter into an Ottsel, but killed Jak anytime he fell in?

[Assistant]
Dark Eco seems to have weird effects on Jak in general - probably because of his bloodline that he was open to certain mutagenic traits but the dark eco he encounters is still too "pure" for him to withstand.

As for why Dax transformed? Precursor meddling.


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

[User] ELI5: how a blister is formed.

[Assistant]
Something causes a break between the layers of the skin - like heat that breaks connections between layers, or movement that mechanicaly tears it. The inner layers are living tissue, and so contain 'lumph'- the fluid that surrounds all living cells. This lymph pushes open that break made between layers, pushing the layers apart.

This is fine, however - left alone, the lower layer will seal over and become strong skin, the lymph will slowly be reabsorbed or leach through the skin, the top layer will dry up and flake off, leaving new, healthy skin. As long as the blister is left in tact.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Was Grindewald Hitler/a Nazi?

I've had this argument with my friend for a long time, and figured you guys might be able to figure it out.

The timelines seem to match up, and he was part of a 'great (wizarding) war', and (I think) it was hinted that there was a disturbance with the muggles at the time as well.

so, the question remains.

Is he?

Could he be?

[Assistant]
Hitler wishes Grindelwald was a Nazi.

But no, he wasn't. While there's certainly a clear parallel between the two men, and they share a great deal of ideology, Grindelwald would never have worked with Hitler. He was a filthy Muggle.

While some of Grindelwald's followers may have supported Hitler during World War 2 (which is why Grindelwald's defeat in 1945 is so closely tied to Hitler's downfall), Grindelwald himself never expressed any support for the Nazi regime or the machinations of the Third Reich.


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

[User]
[General RPG] Why am I limited to two magic rings?

Seriously, these things make you stronger, faster, more charismatic, etc. Why can't I have one on each finger, one on each toe and a few on my private parts for good measure?

[Assistant]
Because of the resonance.

One ring on each hand is fine, they're far enough apart and don't stay in the same place in relation to each other. But any more than that, say two rings on each had, and the magic enchantments start to interfere with each other and bad things start to happen.


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

[User] [Star Wars] is there an internet? What's it like? How fast is it?

[Assistant]
The HoloNet exists and it uses hyperspace communication nodes so you an send information from one end of the Galaxy to another very fast.

However during the age of the Galactic Empire it was severely restricted and most of the information was curated and presented through the Empire's Propaganda group. However the Rebellion used the HoloNet to great effect by sending vids and statements and pointing out Imperial crimes to as many different sites before the Empire found them and stopped those sites. But it was always a losing battle as for every site the Empire took down the Rebels put up another, and the fact of the Empire cracking down on free speech helped prove the Rebels point.


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

[User]
[Batman] Why do most of Batman's Rogues go to Arkham in modern interpretations?

Ever since it debuted in the 80s Arkham Asylum is probably at this point the most famous Prison/Mental institution in all of fiction. Despite its sub-professional standards and inability to keep its inmates and patients from routinely escaping, once Batman captures a high profile villain he usually returns them to their room in Arkham.

Which Ok, fair enough, but is there a good reason in modern comics and media that alot of these villains even BELONG In place like Arkham Asylum when places like Blackgate Pentitentiary exist? Sure most of Batman's villains are costumed themes but most of them are sane. Just eccentric.

Joker? Sure.

Two Face? Sure. Split personalities and such.

Mad Hatter? Of course. Wonderland delusions and all. But outside people like them and a few others I feel like a vast majority of Batman's criminals aren't at the point where they would be sent to an Asylum over legit prison.

Killer Croc, Riddler, Penguin, Mr. Freeze, Black Mask, Poison Ivy, Bane, Clayface, ETC don't belong in a hospital for the criminally insane. They belong in a place like Belle Reeve or Iron Heights.

Interpretations vary but usually they aren't insane criminals in the same way someone like Victor Zsasz is(Although i can see why some people say Clayface is insane). They have a firm grasp on reality execute their crimes with a purpose that isn't the result of some mental illness like Two-Face.

Riddler is just extremely narcissistic and at times OCD. But that would not land him in a mental hospital. Mr. Freeze literally does crimes to get money for his wife's condition. Bad decisions? Sure. But he's not crazy at all. Penguin is a sophisticated and exceedingly intelligent mobster in most incarnations. Killer Croc in most interpretations is a guy who *turned* to crime because he was a social outcast his whole life.

Most of the time he's hired muscle and most of his stories revolve around him trying to get money and being a thug. Again, he's guy in pretty shit circumstances but he's not a insane with no understanding of how his actions hurt people.

I get that Arkham is popular and cool, but most of them don't belong there. I think one of the few adaptions that try to justify this best was the Arkham Games. In those games the Blackgate prison was destroyed so alot of the villains that weren't even insane ended up there.

Also Arkham and that game doubles as a mental hospital AND super prison for metahumans.

[Assistant]
See, there's the thing, most of Batman's rogues *don't* go to Arkham. Riddler, Two face, Bane, Black Mask, Penguin, and Mr. Freeze Generally go to Blackgate.  Croc only goes to Arkham because Blackgate can't hold him.

Ivy Goes to Arkham for much the same reason Croc does, but it's arguable that she's legitimately insane. A court would at least find her to be heavily deluded.

 Clayface's mind is altered by the Process that turned him into clayface in the first place. He's easily declared unfit to stand trial.

Joker and Harley go to Arkham for Obvious reasons.

Most of Batman's villains *do* go to normal correctional facilities, extenuating circumstances aside. Belle Reve isn't someplace Batman likes to send people though, on account of Amanda Waller recruiting most  members of Task force X from the inmates there.


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

[User]
ELI5 What's the Difference Between Polyester Clothing from the 1970s and Modern-Day Polyester Clothing?

Polyester fabric has been around for a relatively long time.

It seems like the best quality workout/ sports/active/underwear clothing today is made out of polyester material.

My understanding is, the higher quality professional attire (suits, jackets, pants) are still made of natural materials like cotton. However, that trend seems to be going more towards a hybrid polyester/cotton blend.

When did polyester material surpass the natural materials like cotton to be the go-to material for practically all clothing and why?

[Assistant]
High quality suits are not made from cotton unfortunately. They are made from wool.

Polyester is a generic name. It's a broad family of synthetic materials. Different types have different properties. The types used in sporting wear are moisture wicking and quick drying. The early types were shiny and didn't breath well. The shininess is one of the reasons it fell from favor in the 80s until now as business preferred the more muted look of wool or wool blends. There are attempts to make middle of the road suits from cotton for vegans but tradition dies hard.

The term polyester refers to a very large family of fabrics. Almost as bad as the term plastic. Plastic could mean the cheap, weak plastic a lot of plastic forks are made from. But Kevlar is also a type of plastic. The stuff used for body armor and originally created to replace the steel belts used in tires.


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

[User] [ST:TNG & ST:V] The Emergency Medical Holographic Program common on Interpid-class starships seems even more human than the remarkable androids built by Dr. Noonien Soong such as Data and Lore, yet seem to not build upon any of the late genius' research. How did the EMH get so advanced?

[Assistant]
The EMH, and most interactive holograms, are extremely advanced chatbots at their most basic core. They begin "life" as a set of very familiar (to 24th century technicians) code that adapts to user input and gives appropriate output. Doctor Zimmerman was a genius among his field because he could work wonders with that interactivity, and even give a "personality" to his creations. Of course, with a raging ego like his, he gave his first EMH programs his personality. So they're copies of basic information that have limited functionality. Granted, those limitations are almost unimaginable to us mere 21st century people, but they *are* limited. Voyager's Doctor is a special case of a heavily modified hologram left running for years on end, and allowed to self-modify. He uses a significant amount of computing power to remain functional and depends entirely on the ship/mobile emitter being functional to "stay alive". He does, however, prove once and for all that 24th century computers are advanced enough to form intelligence of their own, given time and resources.

Soong's androids, on the other hand, are limitless. They are unique personalities shaped by their unique experiences. They learn, grow, and respond to the world like any living being. They were built to be their own people, and not chatbots that parrot out information and perform specific tasks. Data and Lore can be anything they want whenever they want. They may not be alive in the sense of living tissues and functioning organs, but they are living beings in a new sense. They have consciousness and true intelligence, not mere databanks and adaptable response programming.


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

[User] What's the strongest refutation to the claim that conciousness doesn't originate from the brain?

[Assistant] According to Vednta, consciousness is a function of Brahman, the underlying reality. From consciousness, the material world is manifest out of. Or in other words, the knower necessarily must precede the known. During the course of a dream there are so many events that arise and dissipate, but actually all that is occurring within the dream is an illusory show of consciousness, of Brahman. The waking state is no different, it is also just a shadow manifestation of Brahman. Just as the 'reality' of a dream vanishes upon waking, the 'reality' of waking vanishes upon dreaming. The value of their knowledge is relative to their own conditional state. One should be interested then in what is consistent between both the states of dreaming and waking, and that link is consciousness itself.


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

[User]
Is it possible for the Earth to "catch" and acquire a new moon?

Could a passing body be trapped by Earth's gravity and become a new satellite of Earth? If so, what would the consequences be?

[Assistant]
Well, it's not easy for that to happen. The passing object would reach Earth's proximity with enough speed to go back to the same distance it came from. It takes another body to absorb that energy.

However, a gravitational interaction with the Moon could absorb this energy. The Moon would be boosted into a higher orbit and the new object would become a new satellite of Earth.

How likely is this to happen naturally? Just look at all the craters on the Moon. None of those objects became an Earth satellite.

> If so, what would the consequences be?

If the new satellite were massive enough it could perceptibly change the tides.

If the orbital configuration were not stable, then it could undergo successive gravitational interactions with the Moon and end up crashing into Earth if its orbit were destabilized too much.


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

[User]
ELI5 What are the disadvantages of nuclear powered submarines?

I was already able to find a bit of layman information about the advantages of them via other ELI5 posts. So now I would like straight layman points on the *disadvantages;* not only the main meltdown danger, but other things like logistics vs diesel/electric powered subs. Please note I am asking about nuclear *powered* submarines, not necessarily nuke equipped.

[Assistant] diesel electric submarines are extremely quiet when submerged and running on batteries.  Nuclear reactors are really big, heavy and complex machines that require very specialized technicians to operate.


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

[User]
CMV: There should be no laws to limit what someone can do with their will after they have died.

So I discovered recently that in some countries, such as France, there are laws in place that limit what can be handed down in a will so that certain individuals must always receive something. I see this as wrong, unless it is the persons freely given choice they should not be forced to hand out certain objects to people after their death. A will after all is meant to be that persons final 'will,' the last things they want to do with their possessions. To limit this seems not only to defeat the entire point but also wrong to me.

[Assistant]
A huge portion of the property that exists, including essentially all of the land on earth, was once owned by someone who is now dead.

What if their wills stated something like I will this land to a trust, to be held in perpetuity, and it shall never be farmed? What about only white peoples can build housing here? Even if only 1% of the land had those conditions attached by some will at some point in history, that would be a huge problem for todays living if law honored those kinds of provisions in wills.


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

[User] ELI5:Why is the Japanese national anthem so controversial?

[Assistant]
Wrote this in the other post, but it comes down to the average Japanese person's lack of desire to return to the militaristic, god-emperor days of the early 20th century which led the country to war and ruin.  The flag, the emperor and the anthem where things to be venerated and worshiped above all.  Didn't work out so well.

However, all of this is unlikely to happen as the country is completely different culturally and the only people making an issue out of it are pretty much the same type that think Obama is going to impose martial law in the U.S.

Go to a major sports event and if a Japanese wins a medal you'll get everyone singing Kimigayo loudly. The current emperor and empress are seen as a nice old couple who set an example of what proper modern Japanese behaviour should be.


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

[User]
What are some useful psychology books suitable for a layperson?

I've already read a good smattering of these and enjoyed em. I'm thinking of stuff like Cialdini, positive psych, Duckworth's Grit, Thinking Fast and Slow, and stuff on cognitive biases in general. Any major topics/classics I've missed?

[Assistant] Oliver Sachs' book The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat. It is an excellent read. It is a collection of actual clinical accounts from his career. Obviously it leans heavily towards abnormal psych but it is a fascinating book.


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

[User]
[MCU, Black Widow] So... does the USSR still exist?

I just got finished watching Black Widow and it seems like the USSR still exists.

Alexei is a super soldier on par with Captain America, claiming that he was the Soviet Union's first and only super soldier. He laments that he could have been more famous than Captain America if only he hadn't been sent to a secret mission for three years in Ohio. Except that secret mission ended in 1995, and would have started in 1992. Just one problem for the Soviet super soldier... The USSR fell in 1991.

He also wonders why Dreykov put him in prison, where he's been for 21 years. Among the petty reasons like saying his hair looked bad, he mentions "wanting to talk about the withering of the State" and "wanting the party to feel like a party" instead of a bunch of sourpusses. Say what you will about the actual politics of the USSR, Alexei seems to be a true believer in Communism (he even has KARL and MARX tattoos on his fingers) so he's clearly talking about the Communist Party, but they wouldn't have had power in the Russian Federation.

Do the Widows of the Red Room work for Putin, or is a Communist still in power? Did the Berlin Wall never come down in the MCU? Did it fall at a later date? Did it ever even exist?

[Assistant]
No, the USSR was dissolved, and they took away his costume.

Dreykov was the owner of the red room, a secret spy group that trained Black Widow, and employed Alexei for the mission against Shield. He was powerful pre and post the USSR falling. He inspired Alexei by telling him Red Guardian was back and remembering the glories of the old days in the USSR when Alexei was famous and successful.

Dreykov has moved to a model with less open violence and more spying and secrecy and stealth. Alexei is a fantastic super soldier, but he's not a great spy. As such, Alexei was locked away, likely for being loud and flashy.

Dreykov was friends with Putin, and was influential and powerful in the new post USSR russian order.


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

[User] Are there visual anomalies that the human eye can see but wouldn't be seen on a picture taken?

[Assistant]
I can think of a couple:

- Extreme dynamic range. You've probably noticed most cameras can't take a picture containing some items in direct sunlight and others in shadow: either the sunlit areas are blown-out to white, or the shaded objects are solid black. This is because our eyes have a greater dynamic range than most sensors. HDR photography is a way of compensating for this with multiple exposures.

- While it's pretty rare, some people can see polarized light. Looking at the blue sky about 90 degrees from the sun, they will see a pattern of blue and yellow.

- This one's controversial, but there's some evidence that certain females may be "tetrachromats"--they have a fourth variety of cones in their retinas that would allow them to see a color between red and green, a true yellow. Since cameras emulate the *typical* human eye's sensitivity, they detect red and green, but make no distinction between red+green yellow and true yellow.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does absolutely nobody live in Vermont if nearly all other northeastern states like New York and Connecticut are so densely populated?

[Assistant] This is only part of the story, but Upstate Vermont and New Hampshire used to be fairly densely settled with scattered small farms tilling the rocky soil. As the American West opened up however, people realized that there was much better land to be had elsewhere. Many of these people moved away. Once the farmers left, there wasn'ta lot to replace the local economies. Not a lot of mineral resources, no large navigable rivers, not a lot of major trading centers As a result, people did not return to the areas they moved out of. Vermont used to be 85% farmland, 15% forest. Now the opposite is true. If you go through a lot of forest in Vermont you'll find old stone walls all over the place from abandoned farms.


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

[User] I've heard descriptions before of star formation and they state "dust and gas come together to form the star". What exactly is the "dust" made of and where does it come from?

[Assistant]
>I've heard descriptions before of star formation and they state "dust and gas come together to form the star". What exactly is the "dust" made of and where does it come from?

The "dust" could perhaps be best characterized (in the iconic voice of Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, of course) as "star dust."  It is made up of assorted heavy elements (often called "metals" even though they aren't all actually metallic elements), which are produced in the core of stars from a previous generation.  Then when the star dies in a supernova, it explodes and all of those heavy elements get scattered outward.

The shockwave from the explosion typically compresses other nearby gas fields, which triggers them to collapse gravitationally and turn into new stars.  Some of those heavy elements also get mixed into the gas and settle in as the core of the newly-collapsing star, and also they can accrete around the star and form terrestrial (rocky) planets like Earth or Mars.  Through this way, each generation of stars becomes successively "heavier" (in terms of heavy element content) than the previous generation.  Heavier stars have longer lives, so the first generation of stars was very short lived, the second generation lived a bit longer, and now the third generation lives even longer still.  (Our Sun is a third generation star.)

Hope that helps!


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

[User]
If i had magnet and i would put piece of iron under it just right so it wouldnt fall nor rise but it would float would it eventualy fall anyway? If so why?

Would the magnetic field "demagnetize" the iron after time or the magnet itself would get weaker?...

[Assistant]
The situation that you describe, an iron piece suspended in mid-air by a magnet overhead, would be extremely unstable. Any slight perturbation in the system (small changes in air currents, vibrations, temperatures, etc.) would cause the iron to either fall to the ground, or move upward into the magnet.

If we ignore these perturbations, then eventually the iron piece would become magnetized as more of its magnetic domains aligned with the magnetic field of the overhead magnet. This would cause the iron piece to become more strongly attracted to the overhead magnet and the iron would move upward.


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

[User]
[Half Life] How the HELL does Gordon Freeman -a mere physicist with no special training- become the scurge of two alien empires and the US military?

Is there any more to it than blind luck to explain how Freeman had somehow managed to pull this off?

[Assistant] Gordons life and decisions are decided by forces beyond his understanding and out of his control. Throughout his journey the dominoes have lined up for him, a guiding force beneath his feet carried him along and ensured his victory. At the time of the Black Mesa incident all he had to do in order to succeed was to be the right man in the wrong place.


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

[User]
How do frameworks/library maintainers make revenue?

Not sure if is the right subreddit to ask this but I always had this curiosity.

[Assistant]
In many cases, they don't.

Remember the recent log4j vulnerability? That logging library is used in most of the Java ecosystem. Before it got media attention, the maintainer of log4j got only tiny amount of donations from three people.


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

[User]
[X-Men: Days of Future Past] At the very end of the film, why did Logan in the newly forged timeline suddenly wake up with his consciousness from the defunct super sentinel timeline?

As I understand it, from 1973 until the day he woke up in the future, Logan lived his life in the new timeline without any direct memory of being possessed by his defunct future self. (Xavier and Hank may have told him about this period, but that would have no effect on what ultimately happens at the end when he wakes up in the X-mansion.) So from Logan's perspective of the altered timeline, he just blacked out a few times during the movie's events and then woke up getting dredged from the river with his 1973 consciousness... so shouldn't that have been the end of his time related disorientation?

The only other alternative, in theory, would be that the sudden erasure of the super sentinel timeline caused a blast of spacetime-related energy. Such a blast amplified the time-defying telepathic connection, and so Logan's future mind was permanently transferred to his 1973 body. But obviously this was not the case because then he would've never been confused at all and Xavier would have nothing to explain to him at the end.

I do not understand what caused him to wake up one day with his future consciousness. I understand perhaps that date coincided with the date that the sentinels were erased, so it became a set point in the timeline that on that day, his consciousness would spill over. Which would mean it overlaps with the theory I posited about a spacetime related energy blast causing a telepathic time ripple, but with a slightly different effect that doesn't sit quite as well with me.

Did I just work myself through it? Maybe. But I would like to hear your theories or perhaps the mechanics were all officially addressed somewhere along the line.

Thanks for reading!

[Assistant]
So the Logan that lived in the dark future of 2023 goes back to 1973 and prevents Mystique from killing the scientist.  This erases the original dark time line Logan is from so when his mind returns it returns to his body now living in the new 2023 where everyone is alive.

So either dark time line Logan completely replaces the mind of new time line Logan (which is kind of dark if you think about it, essentially killing the Logan that lived through the better time line) or as Logan settles into his body he will start to remember the new time line, but still retain the memories of the dark time line.


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

[User]
[My Little Pony] What is a Cutie Mark?

Also why is it only the "Ponies" that have them? I mean there are  Zebras, Yaks, Griffins, Dragons, whatever Discord is and a Minotaur  (maybe 2, depending on what he meant by him betraying his brother)

Bonus Question: What is up with  Celestia's & Luna's mane? What about  Twilight and Candace, will they get magical manes?

[Assistant]
The Cutie Mark represents a pony's most outstanding talent, sometimes coinciding with their name. For example:

Fluttershy's Cutie Mark are three butterflies, depicting her aptitude in caring for animals.

Pinkie Pie's mark is a bunch of balloons, symbolizing her skill in planning parties and generally in making others happy.


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

[User] [General Sci Fi] What are the advantages of having saucer-shaped spaceships?

[Assistant] I mean, aside from the obvious advantages in atmospheric flight and instantaneous directional change with a significant lessening of drag, the pilots of said spacecraft would probably feel silly calling a giant flying Borg shaped Rubik's cube a "flying saucer." Basically, they don't want to look goofy at work.


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

[User]
Been trying to solve this problem for the last couple of days but it seems impossible to solve

Hey all, last couple of days have been nothing but pure annoyance and rage for me. Decided to ask here for help maybe an experienced developer can help me out with this...

Basically, the problem is that I have a NodeJS server(NextJS to be exact) and when a user makes a request to a specific endpoint, I want to generate a bunch od PDF files(around 20-30kb in size each, in total even up to a few thousand files in some cases, but in some cases only a few), then I want to put them inside a .zip file(just for the convenience really) and serve them to the user somehow..

My initial solution was to just do all that in memory and in sync. I knew before even implementing it that this won't hold for long. Sure enough, even with 30-50 pdf files it was timing out the requests and extremely slow. But I wanted to implement it just to see if it's even possible to do what I want to do, and it was. Good start.

Next, I decided that it would be great if I made the zip in memory, but instead of sending it straight to the user, I would upload it to Azure and then send the user a link to the file. This.. didn't really work.. It was still working in a synchronous manner, so the server would just hang when you wanted to export the file and be completely unusable until it uploaded the file to Azure.

Fair enough, it's time to put this in a background task. I installed the `agenda` library thinking that this would be the final thing I needed to do.. The problem with this was, the app was being hosted on Vercel and even though the job ran in the background, the request still timed out. Even though I returned a response to the user right after clicking the export button, Vercel was giving me a "request timed out" error every time I tried this. I am really not sure why that was the case, it seems like that shouldn't happen..

My next idea was to have a separate server running on Azure App Service whos only task would be to zip and upload these files. But this idea soon fell in the water when I noticed that I would have to copy a lot of the code over, and some of it, like my database models, would not be easy to maintain and update, since I would have to do it in 2 places every time I make any changes...

Anyways, the last 2 days I've been trying to migrate my **entire** app to Azure App Service, and since NextJS wasn't really made to be hosted there, it's been painful. Constant crashes, errors and issues that I have no idea what to do with. And I honestly don't want to waste any more time on this since I am not sure if that is even going to work... So that's why I'm here. I would love for someone to tell me how the hell should I solve this because I'm just sick of it.. Thanks for any comments and/or suggestions... I feel like this kind of problem would not be a first for many people, and having some professional experience with software development would really help out a lot, but as a mere student, I hope that you understand that I don't really know what I'm doing lol.. Thanks again!

[Assistant]
You should not be generating a thousand PDFs in an on demand manner while the user waits.

A UI might trigger the request; then you want to do some form of push from the server to the UI to let them know that they are ready to be downloaded.


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

[User]
ELI5: What makes clothes that are kept for too long without use develop that distinct "stored" odor?

That distinct scent on clothes that haven't been worn in a couple of years or more.

Same with fabrics on homes or cars, such as curtains and carpets.

[Assistant] For clothing, it's dust mites and bacteria.  Want a pro tip from someone who does costumes for a local theatre group?  If you are storing something for the long term, get a spray bottle and fill it with cheap vodka.  Then spray everything you plan to store.  Don't "soak" it, just a misting spray.  Keeps the odor at bay, and doesn't reek like mothballs.


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

[User]
CMV: Devices incapable of hovering should not be permitted to call themselves hoverboards.

A hoverboard is a well-known science fiction trope: a skateboard-sized device that can float above solid surfaces and is used for personal transportation and recreation.

Today there exist some modified Segway bases that call themselves hoverboards despite the fact that they are entirely incapable of hovering.  If anything, they are less capable of spending time aloft than a standard skateboard.  However, their name causes confusion among potential purchasers and may mislead us into obtaining one despite the lack of the advertised capability.  Worse yet, if they become popular and retain this name, they may poison the original term and make great science fiction works like Back to the Future less accessible to future generations.

For these reasons, the devices should not be allowed to advertise themselves as Hoverboards.  Self-balancing boards or Headless Segways would be more reasonable.

I understand that Patmont Motor Werks has registered a trademark on the term hoverboard for two wheeled scooters; this is not the source of my objection.  Also, their trademark should be sharply limited to ensure that actual hoverboard manufacturers can call their products hoverboards without legal difficulty.

[Assistant]
"Fruit Loops" are not actually looped fruit.

A "Smart Car" is not an autonomous car.

A "3-D" movie is 2-dimensional.

The "Miracle Mop" is not truly miraculous.

There are many products where the name is not literally accurate, but is often effective in conveying to the public what the item is.

No one is going to be deceived by the name "hoverboard" once they actually see one.  There is no intent to mislead the public into buying one, only to discover that it doesn't really fly.

What it *does* do is tap into the desire to be Marty McFly.  Despite what we were told by the movie, we still don't have hoverboards.  This device does come as close as anything to letting you feel like Marty did in the movie.  Why not use that title?


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

[User] ELI5: Why does getting hit in the nuts hurt so much more than getting hit anywhere else?

[Assistant]
You need them to have more kids.  Those who suffer great pain when hit there will, on average, be less likely to have them damaged (having learned about the pain, and fighting hard to avoid it) and are thus more likely to successfully have kids that live to reproductive age.  So it's very strongly selected for.

Natural selection is sometimes quite mean, but it's effective.  That's all that matters :)


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

[User]
How does a non-polar molecule such as glucose dissolve in a polar solvent such as water?

I'm currently studying for my Biology mid-term and I stumbled upon a section of the bio-chemistry unit that has me a little confused. The general rule is that likes dissolve likes (e.g. Water can dissolve NaCl which is also polar), however, it also says that water can dissolve non-polar substances such as glucose. I was wondering how this is possible? Thanks!

[Assistant]
1. Glucose is polar. The electronegativity difference is significant enough between the oxygen and carbon atoms that there is an asymmetric distribution of electrons

2. Ionic compounds like NaCl, while they dissolve in polar substrates, are not usually called polar. Polarity is most commonly used to describe the nature of covalent bonds.


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

[User]
[Pet Sematary/Jurassic Park] Hypothetically, what would happen if InGen buried a dead Tyrannosaur in the burial ground?

What if an adult Tyrannosaurus rex died from some unforeseen illness and Hammond decided to have it buried in the burial ground near Ludlow?

Since Tyrannosaurs are already ferocious killing machines, would a dead T. rex resurrected by the pet cemetery be any different than a regular T. rex?

[Assistant]
When their kid came back he wasn't just ferocious but also more intelligent and tactical than kids his age should be, the example jumping to mind being that he slashed at foot tendons to make his victim fall to the floor to make the kill easier. So expect the tyrannosaurus to fight a lot smarter than just chomps and body slams.

And tyrannosaurs may be ferocious killing machines but there's nothing to indicate they have any malice behind their attacks since they seem to just hunt for food or defend themselves. The undead kill for seemingly no reason, so expect the tyrannosaurus to become much more aggressive.


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

[User]
Why don't bugs fly in straight lines?

Every time I see a fly or a moth try and go somewhere, they tend to do a more zig-zag pattern rather than making a straight shot for it.

[Assistant] Unpredictable flight patterns make it difficult for predators to target insects.  Survival, evolution etc.  There may be addition reasons as well.  Evolutionary adaptions often serve multiple functions.