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

[User] ELI5: How time signatures work and why songs in unusual time signatures are notable.

[Assistant]
Consider the time signature to be like a language. Most pop music is written in the language of 4/4. This is when the emphasis is on the fourth beat, and everything is written nicely to fit into grouping of four. In this language there are many chords, scales, and note progressions that we've used to hearing. These are the words and sentences that make up the 4/4 language. Since birth, most of the music you listen to is written in 4/4, so everything seems natural and normal. Think of 1 2 3 **4**, 1 2 3 **4**, 1 2 3 **4**, 1 2 3 **4**.

There are other time signatures used in music such as 7/4 (used in a lot of Prog Rock or IDM). This time signature would sound "weird" to the average person because it features many patterns, chords, scales etc that make up the 7/4 language. It takes a little bit of practice to get into it's rhythm. Check out the song Money by Pink Floyd for an example of this: 1 2 3 4 5 6 **7**, 1 2 3 4 5 6 **7**, 1 2 3 4 5 6 **7**, 1 2 3 4 5 6 **7**. This can seem off to us because we're expecting the typical 4/4 beat and instead we get a little bit of tension hearing something different.

Finally classical music tends to be in a huge assortment of time signatures. Another language we could recognize is 3/4. This is normally reserved for waltz. This would be **1** 2 3, **1** 2 3, **1** 2 3, **1** 2 3.

Avante-garde jazz music can often change time signature requiring knowledge of multiple time signature "languages": to be able to play on the fly.


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

[User]
ELI5: If a prisoner is sentenced to death in the US, why aren't they killed on the spot? (Or within the next couple of days)

I've heard how keeping a prisoner on death row costs more than life in prison. Why aren't they just killed right away to save costs?

[Assistant] They are given every legal benefit of the doubt to appeal their conviction before they are executed.  It seems wise to err on the side of caution when you are going to do something you can't fix if you happen to be wrong.


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

[User]
CMV: Although filmmakers and actors may be very famous for a generation or two, even the most well-known actors and films become forgotten relatively quickly, unlike famous inventors or astronauts who made a big impact on history

I love films, and one day would like to do a short film. I can't help but feel like it's a huge effort for ultimately little return, though. Like, in 2 or 3 generations, even the most famous movies will have been forgotten and so will their stories, no matter how life-changing or inspiring they may be. Can anyone convince me otherwise or name any counter-examples?

I think films can have a big impact on someone's life on a personal level, but it's limited to just that. No matter how good the story may be, I feel like films don't have the same longevity as famous novels.

But that might only be because the film industry is relatively young, compared to other mediums of story-telling.

[Assistant]
*But that might only be because the film industry is relatively young, compared to other mediums of story-telling.*

I think you really hit the nail on the head there.  Movies are only a bit more than 100 years old and less than that if you're talking about movies with sound.

Also, if we're talking about actors and directors that remain iconic through several generations...let's see: Charlie Chaplin, John Wayne, Marilyn Monroe, Humphrey Bogart, Alfred Hitchcock, James Dean, *The Wizard of Oz*, *Citizen Kane*, *Casablanca*, *Psycho*.

I think if we move toward more modern movies you're going to find that *Star Wars*, *Indiana Jones*, *The Godfather* Jack Nicholson, Robert De Niro are going to be also canonized so to speak.


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

[User] [startrek] why do they pass pads around instead of just emailing information between them?

[Assistant]
Despite rampant and wide ranging advancements in technology across all quadrants throughout history, nearly all humanoid lifeforms continue to carry on instinctual 'holdovers' from millennia of evolutionary development.

In example, the act of pointing with an outstretched arm or finger. Dozens of species have evolved this particular gesture in different ways, and is still useful today in many aspects as a result. We see subjects point despite there being many unique and many times, faster, forms and Formats of nonverbal attention drawing, selection, and similar.

This carries over to modern day, much to the chagrin and dismay of communications, science, and engineering officers throughout the galaxy. Even with constant upgrades and revamps of internal communication procedures and protocols,  throughput-alpha increases of bio-neural gel networks (especially in regards to retrofits from isolinear circuit networks), and even experimental chroniton-based systems, most humanoids tend to subconsciously crave direct interpersonal communication, along with the requisite multitude of signifiers and modifiers (gestures and body language, tonality, pheromones, low/high level brainwave synchronization, et al). This tends to lead crewmembers to meet directly for discussion over matters regardless of their complexity, security level, or urgency.

Simply put, while we continue to take science and technology further than our ancestors could likely imagine, we are still at the mercy of the instincts that got us here in the first place.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does rain fall in droplets and not like a huge waterfall?

[Assistant]
When a drop of water forms in a cloud, it is a perfect sphere, and is so small that it falls very slowly. If conditions are right, it will run into other small drops, forming a larger raindrop that falls faster. If the drop gets too big, it will fall too fast, and will start to flatten out - instead of rushing around it, the air pushes on the front (or, bottom) or the rain drop. This keeps happening until the air pushes right through the drop, forming a shape like a very thin donut, before fracturing into many tiny raindrops again.

So there is a maximum size that a raindrop can grow too. Even if you drop a huge amount of water - like a waterfall - the same things happen to break up that large flow into small drops, given enough height.


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

[User]
[Cube]. What was the final purpose of the Cube?

I know the explanation probably trickled in on one of the direct-to-video documentaries about the Cube.  I'm not going to waste my time watching those.  Did they ever explain what the cube is for, why they would spend so much freaking money on this thing just to torture a handful of people?

[Assistant]
There was no purpose, and indeed no one person was in control. The Cube was created almost by a type of collective madness by the Military Industral Complex.

That was what was so scary about it.

What kind of service could it have served?

None. Absolutely none.


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

[User]
What does it even mean that space is curved

I saw on another post that it is curved intrinsically and I get what that means but not really what it implies. What evidence is there that it is curved other than satisfying mathermatical equations? I get that around planets space is "curved" as in things will move towards or around it, but why isn't it just moving straight through space and something pulling me in. I feel like there is a difference here between the form of space and content of space, what is *actually* curved, space seems to me just to be a relation between objects, how can it be curved as a thing? Can't I always just draw a straight line in space through objects? What is actually curved when you say space is curved, I guess I need some clarification on a definition of space as well.

Sorry if a lot of similar questions have been asked but reading through them I felt none of them really cleared up my confusion.

[Assistant] Light follows the shortest possible path, which one would expect to be a straight line. However, near massive objects like stars, light actually follows a path that is curved, meaning that the shortest path is not a straight line, it's curved.


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

[User] [Nightmare on Elm Street] The Dream Warriors were able to give themselves powers of their choice against Freddy. What if I just lucid dreamt that I was unstoppable like Juggernaut or Dr. Manhattan? Would Freddy ultimately still grab me, say a lame pun, and stab me with his gloves?

[Assistant]
Remember, you're not *actually* becoming Dr Manhattan. You're just *dreaming* that you are.

You're putting your will against his, wrestling for control of the dreamscape. That's the conflict here. The Dream Warriors choose to visualise this as them getting powers, but you could just as easily visualise it as summoning minions or calling forth positive memories or some kind of dating sim where you have to win the valedictorian's heart before freddy does. The metaphor doesn't matter.

What  *actually* matters is whether you can override his will with your own. If you can, you can beat him. But if you can't, it doesn't matter how ludicrously powerful you imagine yourself being. Freddy can just wipe it away like any other dream.


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

[User]
[MCU] What does the soul stone do? [Spoilers?]

We saw a demonstration of every single stone, except for the soul stone.

Keeping in mind that they are different than the comic book gems in some ways, If a MCU villain/hero was able to get only the soul stone, then what are they capable of doing? Everyone assumed it was going to be Heimdall carrying it, but maybe he was given power by it in the past? I ask because this was the most protected stone, but it is never used.

The mind stone was able to give consciousness and emotion to a robot, as well as control both of those of a living being. So where does the soul stone come in?

[Assistant]
We see Red Skull greeting people by their names and the names of their parents, which is definitely a Soul Stone power. And we see Thanos talk with Gamora, presumably because her soul was trapped in it after she was sacrificed.

It probably lets you perceive who a person is, at their most fundamental level. The kind of knowledge only a best friend or close family member would have, not mind reading but a gut feeling about how they would react in a hypothetical situation. You could also change who a person is if you exerted its power, and a more subtle version of this would let you say or do things to easily manipulate someone.

And you could do this to yourself, although that's extremely risky. One common theory is that you could use it to make yourself worthy to wield Mjolnir. But then you'd only be able to use Mjolnir to do worthy things, so it seems difficult to abuse.

It could almost certainly be used to capture peoples souls as they died and do stuff like necromancy, but that's probably not possible with a single stone. A magic-user would find a lot of uses for it. You could also use it to counter more subtle types of magic like astral projection.

In the right hands it could be a terrible power for a master manipulator or a charismatic leader.


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

[User]
[resident evil] Why does Umbrella Corp. continue to operate?

In most places corporations do evil things in pursuit of money, or power, or whatever. However, with the world effectively empty, what's left? It's like they're being evil just to BE evil.

[Assistant]
Well, their main business model actually is medicine and other chemical products. Umbrella actually makes and distributes the always incredible First Aid Spray, which is basically a trauma ward in a can. But as far as their shady dealings go, it's all about weapons development. The various viruses, the T-Virus especially, were made to create creatures called B.O.Ws (Bio-Organic Weapons). Hunters, Tyrants, and all the others, they were all genetically designed mutations created to be used on battlefields. Presumably the idea was to either sell the creatures themselves to the highest bidder, or possibly sell the virus itself as a chemical weapon.

That's Umbrella's reason for letting Raccoon City get completely overrun back in RE2 and 3, they saw the outbreak as an opportunity to see the virus in action and collect that ever-present nebulous "combat data" on the monsters. That's also why Wesker leads the STARS into the Spencer Estate, presumably he was filming the whole thing to use as part of his sales pitch when offering the virus to the highest bidder. "Look how the Zombies totally owned that knock-off SWAT team! Aren't they cool?"

As for the questionable sanity of their employees, crazytown design architecture for their facilities, and the fact that they owned and operated a mercenary company AND a concentration camp? That's just good old-fashion hand-wringing, mustache-twirling villainy.


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

[User]
[Marvel/DC] At what point can something become classified as a superpower?

How strong does someone need to be for it to be considered super strength

How fast does someone need to be for it to be considered super speed

How smarte does someone need to be for it to be considered super intelligences

ect.

[Assistant]
The moment it is 'not normal.'

Lifting 50 pounds doesn't sound like super strength, but you'd probably be impressed if a 4 foot 60 pound person did it with one hand.

Even if their super strength is well within human capabilities, it's not for their natural body.


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

[User]
[Blair Witch Project] What would happen if the US military destroyed the forest the Witch lives in?

Biden sees footage of the paranormal incidents and says Jesus Christ, we cannot allow these ghosts to keep killing people.

He orders an evacuation of all surrounding towns, and launches a full carpet bombing of the woods. After, military and tanks storm in and destroy as much as they can of the woods, decimating the place beyond ruin.

Would this kill the witch? Would she fight back against a military invasion?

[Assistant] The trees are flattened, the sightings stop, and everything goes back to normal. Then in 50 years, when the forest has regrown, people begin reporting strange occurrences and start to go missing again.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does electric current in a coil move along the wires instead of going shortest path straight through the copper?

[Assistant]
The wire is insulated. It's not obvious, but wires in coils have a layer of shellac on them that acts as insulation.

I once had to find an epoxy that was electrically insulating and thermally conductive. Yes, they make exactly that thing.


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

[User]
Why do mathematicians prefer first-order logic over second-order logic?

I know that FOL has more deductive power and SOL has more expressive power. I'm a bit confused as to why deductive power is preferred over expressive power. Shouldn't isomorphism be valued? Is the historical trend towards favoring FOL and deductive power just a matter of taste/a historical accident?

[Assistant] Mathematicians, for the most part, don't really prefer first-order logic over second-order logic. The vast majority of working mathematicians do their work in a system unique to the sub-field they're working in. The reason the formalization, par excellence, for all these different fields is first-order set theory is a historical accident. In 1908, Zermelo published his axioms for set theory, and there's reason to think he conceived of it as second-order. But it had a couple of key flaws, and in 1922 when Fraenkel reformulated the system, he did so as a first-order system. It was this formulation that gained traction, and so it was the first-order formulation that became standard. Additionally, people were fairly skeptical of second-order systems, associating them with the failure of Frege's logicist project in the Grundgesetze.


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

[User]
Do gravity waves disprove gravitons?

I know that quantum theory is at odds with relativity over the exact nature of gravity.  Do gravity waves prove that gravity is inherently tied to space-time geometry as opposed to being mediated by force carriers, aka gravitons?

[Assistant]
Gravity waves are to gravitons as electromagnetic waves are to photons. In fact, the reason why many theorists consider gravitons to be exceedingly likely is that once you have gravity waves, it's hard to imagine quantum gravity without gravitons (at least close to the flat space/weak gravity limit).

EDIT: Actually, these are gravitational waves: gravity waves are something else, see below.


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

[User] ELI5: How does a public company go private? Don't they have to convince all shareholders to sell back their shares?

[Assistant]
There is a threshold for the % of shares to be owned by a majority shareholder before they can force minority shareholders into selling.

This may be detailed in the companys articles of association or in the relevant law for that country.

But in short they need to gain sufficient shares in the company, either by buying those on the open market or buy convincing existing investors to sell their large stake.

Normally these offers to buy shares are above the stock price the company was trading at before the takeover started so the minority is still getting a reasonable deal, just less than they feel the company is worth.


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

[User]
ELI5:Why is NZ and Scandinavia so high on Ease of Doing Business rankings despite high public spending?

Shouldn't the taxes scare off businessmen and prevent them from succeeding too much? I don't think there are any structures to help them out either.

It's the opposite as Singapore, but it works just as well plus adds social benefits, while the Singapore/Japanese model just seems to have drained their people dry. What's made it so?

[Assistant] Its because public spending doesnt necessarily mean its regulatorily difficult to start or maintain a business charter. Nordic Countries make starting a business fairly simple, and a lot of the public spending those countries do benefits businesses as well.


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

[User]
[Fosters home for Imaginary Friends] Has anyone tried to weaponize imaginary friends?

Considering the fact that there are Imaginary friends that can shoot lasers, create objects out of nothing, and have super strength, has the government ever tried to force a child to imagine like a weapon monster imaginary friend or an invisible assassin?

[Assistant]
Probably not.

IIRC, if you're smart and imaginative enough to manifest an imaginary friend, you'll also be smart enough to accurately perceive the government that's strongarming you as your actual enemy. It's similar to how Weapon X is mainly successful at creating superbeings who are personally committed to killing everyone at Weapon X; Any program that seriously attempted this would self-select out of existence after one of the kids gets pushed too hard and manifests an Armyvorous superpredator or something.


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

[User]
[DRAGONBALL] Does the ability to use ki extend your lifespan?

Mr Roshi doesn't seem to age at all. Actually none of the characters actually seem to age at all since Saiyan saga after they reach a certain age. Does ki extend ones lifespan?

[Assistant]
Master Roshi is biologically immortal. Saiyans are in there prime until they are ~80yrs old. Krillin, Tien, and Yamcha have shown some signs of aging normally.

Yes, ki manipulation does increase their lifespan....but being extremely healthy people probably does more to decrease the signs of aging. DBZ spans ~20yrs based upon most interpretations.

Most sources point to Krillin going from 20yrs old to 40yrs old between the Saiyan saga and Battle of Gods.


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

[User]
ELI5: What exactly is GDP in economics and how does it affect nations and their economies?

I'm really trying to grasp this concept but I can't seem to wrap my head around it. I have the most basic knowledge of economics and I hear GDP being referenced often though have no clue what it means or does, and I can't really find any information that describes it simply. ELI5!

[Assistant]
GDP stands for "Gross Domestic Product". In short, it's the total value of everything produced in that country over a given period of time (typically a year).

In an ideal world, this value would be perfectly visible. We could see a car roll off the assembly line, and a little video game-style score number would pop up above it to tell us exactly how valuable that car is. In practice, we can't see some abstract idea of value, so instead we use prices. If somebody went and paid $25k for that car, that's how valuable it was. Calculating GDP is just a very careful process of summing up all the purchases in an economy while being careful to avoid double-counting (the car factory bought tires to put on the car, but the final customer also bought those tires, so we shouldn't count both purchases).

The higher a country's GDP, the more "stuff" it makes. Big countries will make more stuff than small countries just by construction. If you divide all that stuff by the number of people, you get "GDP per capita". Under the (false) assumption that all the stuff we make is actually divided equally among all citizens, each person can expect to get goods worth the GDP per capita.\* Therefore, it's generally better for GDP per capita to be high and growing rather than low and shrinking.

Because we can't see value perfectly, our technique of calculating GDP means that lots of activities of questionable value are included in GDP, and lots of activities that contribute real value are not. If you crashed your car and then bought a replacement, that contributes to GDP. Meanwhile, if you grew your own vegetables and prepared a meal at home, that does not contribute to GDP because you never made any purchases we can observe. On the other hand, if you bought a meal in a restaurant, that does contribute to GDP.

\*In reality, people need to pay for the stuff they receive. They typically pay with money they earned from working, that is, making stuff. To a rough approximation, if you're very productive and make a lot of stuff, you will have a high wage, which will entitle you to consume more stuff.


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

[User] ELI5: How come old cartoons like Tom & Jerry are animated much more smoothly and lifelike than more modern cartoons (80s, 90s) and anime?

[Assistant] Basically, more effort was put in.  These cartoons used to be a lot more expensive, so you could hire more animators and have them take more time doing things.  But this wasnt sustainable and things had to change.  When these cartoons came to tv(something a lot of people are mistaken about is that the old Looney Tunes werent tv episodes.  They were shorts shown in movie theaters), animators had to come up with a lot of tricks to bring the cost of animation down.  Hannah Barbera are (in)famous for a lot of these.  They will reuse animation, reuse backgrounds, have cars move off screen and play a crash sound rather than animating a crash.  And yes, these cartoons werent as good, but animation wouldnt have survived without these changes.  Eventually the techniques were refined(computers helped a lot) but TV animation never really hit the same level as those old shorts.  Animated films shown in theaters were able to maintain this level, but they had more money and time to work with.


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

[User]
[The Boys TV Show Season 3 SPOILERS!]How does the Headpopper work exactly?

I'm keeping this as vague as possible in case anyone is still clicking this. Go all out in the comments tho.

In season 2, someone gets killed for the first time by the headpopper supe in front of the boys. Every other time this happens, the supe is present. If the power is not activated by a trigger (the victim there was going to say something she wasnt supposed to), why did the headpopper not kill the boys then and there?

Also, at the hearing, the headpopper uses their powers without their eyes turning white, something that happens every other time.

Can they use their powers from afar? Could Hughie be infected by a trigger or something like that?

[Assistant] It's telekinesis. They can exert extreme pressure on a targeted area. Pushing on a person's skull until it pops or on their brain until it's liquified and shooting out their head. They have some ability to use it at range without line of sight but it appears to be limited. The eyes turning white seems to have been missed during the initial attack on congress rather than an abnormal event. The reason they didn't kill the boys is they needed to leash them and manipulate them through the CIA and the planned superhero oversight committee. Killing the boys risked more competent unknowns being put in position instead of the boys who could be controlled by vought.


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

[User] [Warhammer 40k] besides the horus heresy, what situation called for the largest deployment in the imperium or at least one of the largest?

[Assistant]
The largest mobilization since the heresy is canonically the 13th Black Crusade, where Abaddon raised the largest collection of Chaos forces since the Heresy, sailed out of the Eye of Terror, and waged war against Cadia so hard the planet broke in half.  Memorably, this led to the war cry, "Cadia broke before the guard did!"

Despite that victory, the war continued in a stalemate until the forces of Chaos started fighting with each other, and the crusade collapsed.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do clouds tend to clump together in the sky, rather than the water vapor just being spread out equally over the air?

[Assistant]
Clouds tend to form at the top of updrafts, as the upward-moving air expands and cools, prompting it to dump its water as a mist which forms the clouds.

Obviously, the whole sky cannot be one big updraft, as air must also be moving downwards in order to take the place of the air moving upwards. This forms many different cloud shapes, including the traditional convection cell hex grid - if you look carefully you will sometimes be able to make out a hexagonal grid arrangement where clouds are at the center of each hexagon. This is because circular convection cells form and when they come together the circles form a hexagonal grid.


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

[User]
[LOTR] Failure of the Wizards

Why did only one of the five wizards stay on task on their mission? Why did they get distracted or turn evil so easily if they are powerful Maiar with an important mission?

[Assistant]
Because the Miar are still subject to all the emotions and feelings we feel. They all formed their own opinions on the world and that drastically impacted their thought process over time.

The two Blue Wizards aren't talked about much. All we know is they went East and we're never seen in Middle Earth. Either they died, became distracted, or were corrupted and formed their own magical cults somewhere in Rhun.

Radagast found comfort in the natural world and did what he could to protect it. He never cared much for the people and kept to himself. However, it was never clear if this was counted as a failure, as he did act against the dark forces from time to time, assisting Gandalf when he needed him. Sadly it's implied that Saruman likely killed him before Elrond could send people to summon him.

Saruman believed it was sheer power that would hold the dark back. He went so far as to try to use the Ring itself to defeat Sauron, but even Miar can't resist the corruption of the Ring.

Gandalf succeeded because he saw the value in the everyday man. From the mightiest hero to the quietest hobbit he saw the gift that they all had. He believed that the good in all people working together was more powerful than the most ancient spells. Sure enough, he was right.


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

[User] Why isn't Mars' magnetic field as strong as Earth's?

[Assistant]
Its not big enough to form a decent core, and the pressure/temperature at the core is insufficient to melt. To form a magnetic field on terrestrial planets, you require a spinning molten metal core (iron-nickel for Earth). Venus for instance, while being very similar in size and internal structure (same thickness's for core-mantle-crust) it rotates much slower, so the dynamo effect that gives Earth its magnetic field doesn't really work. Mars may have had a magnetic dipole about 1/10th that of Earth in its early history before the  remnant heat of planetary accretion diminished and its core froze.

On a side note the liquid metallic substance that produces the magnetic fields for Jupiter and Saturn is hydrogen (the metallic state refers to the chemical bonds - the hydrogen atoms are present in a sort of sea of electrons, which is a metallic state of matter).

Uranus and Neptune have magnetic fields that are unrelated to their core, they form due to convecting fluids in a thin shell in the interior of the planet composed of electrically conductive fluids (ammonia, methane and water)


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

[User]
CMV: Malcolm in the middle is the best Family centered show to ever air.

As far as "average family" centered shows goes, Malcolm in the Middle is by far the best. The realness of the characters is unmatched, the situations they get into are relatively believable and they introduce new people with appropriate back story.

I feel the few times they tiptoe into the realm of unbelievable (Malcolm's IQ, Reese in general, Lois' rage issues) is merely an unavoidable ratings evil.

Over all I would say that Malcolm in the Middle is the only show that accurately portrays an actual, feasible, real life family throughout the entire series. What I mean by that is many shows fall into tropes and make it unbelievable, while Malcolm in the Middle starts with these trends and keeps a constant level throughout the whole show. CMV!

[Assistant] Roseanne was a better family centered show. It focused on a blue-collar  family struggling to get by on a limited household income with lead characters who were overweight and struggled with real issues. They weren't perfect looking, they talked like regular people, they struggled with the same issues that average working families dealt with (even the grittier ones like poverty, alcoholism, drug abuse, domestic violence, infertility, etc.) More people could relate, hence why it became one of the most watched shows.


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

[User]
[The Wizard of Oz] Why does the Wicked Witch of the West melt when water touches her?

Its like a powerful acid to her. Is she in constant pain from the water vapor in the air? Is that why shes such an asshole?

[Assistant]
She's so old and wicked that all of the moisture in her body has gone. Even when she was ~~born~~ bit by Toto, she didn't bleed because her blood had dried up long ago. The molecules of her body are basically just being loosely held together, and by coming into contact with water, they break apart and dissolve into it. She's long known that water was antithetical to her living, so she completely avoids it at all costs, staying far away from people bathing and not doing any of the scrubbing herself.

As an aside, it was noted that the Wicked Witch of the East was also dry, and after dying, her feet basically dissolved away into nothing, fully drying up in the sun.


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

[User] ELI5: What would happen if nobody in the world bought anything for a day? How about a week? A month?

[Assistant]
Likely not much.  All that would happen is everyone would rush out the following day and buy 2 days worth of stuff.  The same would apply to a week or a month.

There would be some problems at the busienss side of things.  Having the right levels of inventory and staff would be dificult for the buying day.  The non shopping day would be a large cost savings if the retailers knew it was going to happen in advance (no need to open and staff the store) and a cost sink if they were caught by surprise.

Overall, not much would go wrong.  People are going to buy what they are going to buy.  It would just wait until tomorrow.


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

[User]
[Marvel/DC/Superhero] What is "telekinetic energy"?

When characters use telekinesis, objects move. But when someone like Psylocke creates a "telekinetic blade", what is that? Is it light held together by her telekinesis? Is it some sort mental electricity? What kind of energy is that and where does it come from?

[Assistant]
It's force and it comes from their mind.

So telekinesis is just exerting force on an object with your brain.  You move it by basically pushing it around with mental energy.

When people make telekinetic constructs, like Psylocke's blades, they're basically coalescing that force into, essentially, a physical object. (Though keep in mind Betsy's tele*kinetic* weapons are a fairly recent development and early on she used a tele*pathic* blade, that hurt people's minds but didn't cause physical interactions at all.)


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

[User]
[D&D] and most fantasy. I'm doing a biology project, and I'm confused about species vs race?!

So I'm a half orc named Yod, perfect marks, about to leave highschool. Final project involves studying lineage and breeding, I want to be a memphit breeder like da, and I got to thinking. I've seen half humans, half elves, people with dragon in their bloodline, half orcs, half orc/half ogre, but never a dwarf/gnome, elf/orc, half tiefling, etc.

Are we different species? Which ones are different species? Are our mixed offspring sterile? What's going on here? I've searched as far back as I can and no books list all sentient races, (consider elementals, can you be half wind elemental? And WTF is a genesai half breed?) as being from a common progenitor. In fact some seem to be directly made from nothing, or a diety.

What the heck happened and what's going on here? And with shape changing readily available, does that mean the only limits are physical? I'm so confused. This project is really tough guys, and the professors eyes seem to glaze over when I ask them.

[Assistant]
In many fantasy settings, you can safely rule that most humanoid races come from one Species. This is due to the tendency for inter-racial unions to produce viable offspring with no biological or physiological defect. In D&D particularly, half-breeds do not seem to suffer any reproductive deficiency, even when their parents are from widely different races (Half-Goblins exist, for instance). This reproductive capability also extend to non-humanoids who have shapeshifted into another form, though the offspring may inherit some characteristics of their non-humanoid parent (Dragon-bloods, Genesai, etc).

In some settings, this is attributed specifically to Magic. In Warcraft, interbreeding between races is extremely difficult without magic, with all known half-breeds being the product of direct magical intervention (Garona) or the offspring of powerful mages (Rhonin's twins). In some of these, it's even difficult for two closely related races to reproduce (Elves and Trolls, for instance). In this case, it's safer to classify Race and Species as synonymous.

In other cases, interbreeding is either almost or outright impossible. Warhammer Fantasy is an example here. Humans, Elves, Dwarves and Halflings, despite sharing superficial similarities, are entirely different Species.

So, like most cross-universe considerations... It depends.

As a general rule... If they can interbreed successfully enough for there to exist populations of 'Half-whatevers', they are of a single Species. If they require magic or genetic intervention (such as in Star Trek) to produce offspring, healthy or otherwise, then they are different Species.


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

[User]
ELI5:Why were Vietnam War Veterans hated by the American public?

I always see things on tv and in films that show the American public hating/abusing Vietnam War Veterans. Why is it that this occurs, or is it just something that happens in films?

[Assistant]
Vietnam was the first televised war. It was the first time that we did not get information about the war through the filter of newspapers and authors. Seeing actual footage was much more visceral than reading about it in books and articles or even seeing photos of it so the true horror of war was better communicated to the civilian populace. It was also communicated much closer to real time than any war previously.

It did really happen and that reaction is something that many in America fee ashamed of. That is actually a major component of why the US is so pro-military and hero worships its soldiers so much now.


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

[User]
Is it possible to view the past?

 For instance, an event on earth that took place in the 1950's?  I'm aware it's technically possible to view the past everyday when we look at stars.  However, I'm referring more to time travel without interacting, only observing.  In this case, the people from the past would not be able to see or hear the observer and we could not change the course of events.

So basically, would it be theoretically possible but not plausible? On the other hand, if it were possible, how would we likely achieve doing this?

[Assistant]
You hit on the key idea that signals have a speed of light delay, so looking at *anything* is equivalent to looking back in time. You're seeing these words on your laptop or phone screen as they were a nanosecond ago, the moon as it was a second ago, sun as it was 8 minutes ago, and the stars as they were years ago.

The problem with trying to then *see* 1950 is that the light from the 1950 is now 65 light years away. In a sense, a distant observer in the Aldebaran system is just now receiving those signals, but for us, that ship has sailed. We have no way of *catching up* with that light in order to see it again.

The arrival of light signals tells you whether or not two points in spacetime are causally connected or disconnected. If a signals can be sent between two points in spacetime then they are causally connected, and if not they are casually disconnected. Relativity of simultaneity only allows you to change the order of events that are causally disconnected, and since we are causually connected to 1950 we won't be able to do *any* tricks of special relativity.


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

[User]
ELI5: If volcano eruptions are from pressure buildup, why not just drill and relieve the pressure?

If they spot an active or risky volcano, why can't they just do some carefully-placed drilling and relieve the pressure before it has time to build up? Has that ever been attempted?

[Assistant] That's a monumentally risky endeavor for so little reward. You could get seriously burned, possibly trigger a real volcanic eruption, and release toxic gases into the atmosphere. Furthermore, as long as the core is hot, volcanos will still erupt, and the nuclear fission of the uranium in the core will *keep* it hot for a long time to come.


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

[User] [Who Framed Roger Rabbit] What was the most dangerous part of Toontown?

[Assistant]
Based around several cartoons of the era, stay away from the East Side. While California-based animation studios tended towards making happy-go-lucky, family-focused cartoons, New York-based animation studios went for the more adult, booze-and-sex, dark humor cartoons. Sure, Looney Tunes had violence and explosives as part of their gags, rarely do they use the explicit death of a character as part of the joke.

Also, since most of those cartoons involved people going to Hell far more frequently, there is a *literal* hellhole over there.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] If Han Solo hadnt survived the carbonite freezing process, how exactly would Boba Fett be compensated by the Empire, and who would he deal with?

Would he call up the Imperial claims and billing hotline?

[Assistant] Assuming that Han dies, Vader would match Jabba's bounty. While he isn't much of a sentimentalist he does value Boba more than others. He would attempt to keep on the best bounty hunter's good side should he need his services later. The money would come directly from Vader's accounts that are practically limitless as he has no oversight beyond palpatine asking what the funds are for. Jabba would be upset at the loss of torturing Han but knows how ruthless Vader can be as well. He'd probably pay a partial bounty to Boba and claim the killing of Han as being ordered rather than an accident.


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

[User] ELI5: How do bees make royal jelly and how does it work? How does it make a queen instead of a worker?

[Assistant] Its secreted by a gland on worker bees. It's just a special nutient (and possibly hormone? Unclear) mix that they feed to larva. Those larva destined to be queens are fed lots of extra helly and actually fully submerged in it. This exposure serves as whats caused an epigenetic trigger. That means that it switches off certain genes and switches on others, causing the larva to develop into a queen instead of a worker.


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

[User]
ELI5 the differences between sociopath, psychopath and narcissist to me?

Can anyone explain it to me? Thank in advanced.

[Assistant]
A sociopath is a wolf in sheep's clothing.

A psychopath is a rabid wolf in sheep's clothing -- or maybe only just a wool sweater.

A narcissist is a sheep who thinks he's the shepherd -- and you can go to hell if you don't indulge him in his delusion.


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

[User]
Eli5 : why do people scream when they are in pain?

We do we scream/yell when we are in pain? And is this the case for animals and insects to?

[Assistant]
- To alert others to possible danger
- To alert others that you need assistance
- To discourage your attacker
- To stimulate hormone release (e.g adrenaline, endorphins)

Many animals have similar alert and distress calls. Some also release specific scents. Even some plants release chemicals when damaged that nearby plants can react to.


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

[User] ELI5: Whats the difference between two and three pronged electrical outlets?

[Assistant] Two prongs give you an ungrounded wire ( hot) and a grounded wire ( neutral). Three prongs add a grounding wire ( ground). The third prong provides greater protection in a fault event. Which is why the more power the appliance or fixture draws the more likely there will be a third prong.


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

[User]
ELI5: When we fall and land hard on our backs, why is it we can't breathe for a few seconds after? What happens that causes that?

I just remembered when I was a kid and I did this. The landing was hard and the panic that sets in when you realizes you can't breathe. Oof.

[Assistant]
The diaphragm is a big muscle underneath your lungs that helps you breathe. When you get hit really hard on the back/chest/tummy where the diaphragm attaches, then it'll spasm (i.e. not move for a few seconds).

It's like if you get punched in the arm and then you don't want to move your arm because it hurts. Similar thing going on here.

Fun fact: skirt steak in cows is the same muscle as the diaphragm in you!


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

[User]
ELI5: When glaciers melt during the warmer months how much gets frozen back during the cooler months?

With all this exponential melting going on it got me thinking. Whats the net loss over time? How does cooler weather impact or regain any lost ice??

[Assistant]
I think you misunderstand glaciers.  A glacier is a slow moving river of ice, flowing down a valley.  Glaciers don't directly regain "lost ice" that melted off at the end and flowed down to the ocean.

Glaciers flow out of fields of ice up in the mountains.  That's an area of high altitude, between mountain peaks, where many years of snowfall accumulate.  It never gets warm enough to melt all the snow that falls each year, so every year, more snow gets added than melted away.  As this snow builds up higher and higher, the weight of all that snow compresses the snow at the bottom into ice.

When an ice field like this overflows the edges - at points in between the mountain peaks, where there are lower passes - ice spills over the edge and starts flowing down a valley, very slowly.  Most of the time, there are multiple glaciers from one ice field, flowing in different directions.

How much a glacier advances or recedes each year is based on these factors:

* How quickly ice melts from the glacier - which happens mostly near the bottom, where it's lower altitude, and especially if the bottom of the glacier is directly touching a lake or ocean.

* How fast the glacier is flowing - which is based on things like how steep a slope it's flowing down.

* How much new ice is being fed to it from the ice field above.

Climate change can attack glaciers in these main ways:

1) Longer, warmer summers mean more of the glacier's ice melts each year.

2) Warmer air at high altitude can cause more snow up there to melt, slowing down the accumulation of new ice, or even causing more snow to melt than fell that year.  This can cause ice fields to shrink or even disappear, and completely stop feeding a glacier.

3) Changes in precipitation patterns can lead to more snow falling on the ice field each winter.  This especially happens because snow is more likely to fall at temperatures a little below freezing, than temperatures that are very far below freezing.  So in some places, as the climate warms, if more of the winter weather at the ice fields is a bit warmer bit still below freezing, this can cause *more* snow to accumulate each year.


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

[User] [General] I am a transport plane pilot and the Hero carrying the MacGuffin has just boarded. How do I survive?

[Assistant] It's a bit of an old technique so it might not be as effective as it used to be, but try to fly over a big map and leave a dotted line behind yourself. You'll be at the destination (conveniently marked with massive letters) in no time!


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do some solids burn but other solids melt?

Copper, Glass, Aluminum, Gold, Silver, and plastics all melt when exposed to very high heat, but Coal, wood, bone, cotton, and paper just catch fire.  Why do some things seem to go from Solid to Liquid to Gas, but other things go from Solid to Ka-Boom?

[Assistant]
While compound objects like wood, made of many elements, could have a melting point in theory, that temperature can be higher than the temperature at which the material itself decomposes, the linkages between the different component parts break down. When that happens, the material is destroyed (burning for instance).

If you continued to heat it, you might get further decomposition, but ultimately you would arrive at materials that *would* melt/evaporate.

However, by that point your wood no longer exists.


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

[User] Is ice a rock?

[Assistant] Yes, a rock is an aggregate of one or more minerals. So a lump of single mineral counts as a rock. So then the question is, is ice a mineral? The modern definition excludes things that aren't solid at room temperature, but traditionally ice has been classified as a mineral and so it is still included in international mineralogical classifications.


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

[User]
[Fallout] I have stumbled upon a old nuka-cola factory with thousands of old bottle caps.

How much stuff could I buy with my new found wealth?

[Assistant]
A few months' worth of clean drinking water or a house in a well-off settlement or one or two really nice guns.

What I'd recommend, though, would be a bodyguard detail because going around telling people about your fortune like this is going to get you killed.


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

[User] [DC/Marvel] Given the opportunity, would Bruce Wayne have trained with the Ancient One at Kamar-Taj?

[Assistant]
No, at least not to become a sorcerer.

Bruce has access to a wide array of magic users, and he's dated Zatanna. If he wanted to learn magic, he would have the opportunity.

But he doesn't like it. It doesn't make sense to him. His mind is too logical, to precise, to deal with a system that doesn't just exploit the rules, but actively *rewrites* them.

He has learned spells in the past, and employed them effectively, but he doesn't like it. Similar to the Green Lantern ring, it doesn't fit with who and what he is.

So Bruce would most likely do his due diligence, and figure out how the magic of Kamar-Taj works, and the best way to pummel them into submission of they went rogue, but he wouldn't become an active wizard.


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

[User]
How can one get a sense for the "hottest" (most popular) and "newest" (most recently posed) problems in philosophy?

How can one get a sense for the "hottest" (most popular) and "newest" (most recently posed) problems in philosophy?

**Edit**: Just to add an extra question: Is it important to get a sense of "motion" in philosophy, because the field can feel like a massive, immovable thing that never moves?

[Assistant] See what people on the job market from top schools or people at post docs at top schools have on their websites. Take special notice of papers that are going to be published in top journals. Bonus points if all of their citations are from other papers that are going to be published in top journals. At some point you will reach the hot philosophy singularity.


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

[User]
[Zombies] I've survived the first few days. What's my optimal long-term plan to cull zombies or carve out a zombie-free zone for myself?

**EDIT**: *Please* don't launch into your stock survival plan. This question is *not asking for that*. I have survived. I've got food and water and I'm safe and secure. What is my plan for zombie mass extermination, long term?

Most zombie scenarios have their characters being constantly reactive. *Oh crap, more zombies! What should we do?* Lather, rinse, repeat.

Sooner or later you have to stop reacting and start taking steps to rid your environment of zombies in bulk; either that or take control of some territory and establish a zombie-free zone. Something like what the Triffid survivors did.

How should I efficiently attract/hunt and dispose of the zombies?

[Assistant]
Zombies don't live forever, so the best and safest plan for ridding the world of zombies is to wait them out.  Get locally secure and just wait for them all to die of starvation and/or injury.
If you're dead set on doing something active about it, then a kind of pit trap is probably your best bet.  Dig a big steep walled hole, spikes at the bottom if you feel like it.  Then a noisemaker or whatever lure hung over it.  Zombies come to the lure, fall in, you come by every day or two and light a big ol fire in the hole.
Obviously this is only going to work very locally, but that's really all you can accomplish on your own.
If you've got more people, then you can sort of take territory as you've suggested, and build a wall around it.  Maybe with pit traps or some other more sophisticated trap every so often on the outside of the wall.
If you've got the type where everyone turns when they die, you're going to need patrols in your safe territory, and some very rigorous procedures regarding death.


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

[User] Why does my mouth love cold beverages but my skin hates cold water?

[Assistant]
**SHORT ANSWER:**

The thing is, sometimes your skin loves cold water. Your mouth likes cold water more than your skin because your mouth's temperature is higher than your skins.

**LONG ANSWER:**

The reason why it feels good to have a nice cold glass of water but pouring that same water on your skin would make it freeze, is because it's warmer in your mouth than the air around your skin (most of time). Since your mouth is warm, it's a relief to have a cold glass of water. Your mouth is warm because it's inside your body. Your skin is different. It's on the outside, so it takes on the temperature of the air around it. The temperature of your mouth at a normal temperature is around 36.7 C (98.06 F). Rarely is the air around your skin that hot. But when it is, feels good to have a glass of iced water poured onto it. When it's really hot out in the summer, it feels great to go in a pool and cool off. In the fall, you'd most likely think that the same water that refreshes you in the summer is freezing cold.


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

[User]
[MCU] What happened to the Abomination after Hulk beat him?

IIRC, he didnt die, so what did they do with him?

[Assistant]
The military tried to recruit him into a Dark Avengers team. Thanks to some quick thinking at SHIELD, Tony Stark was contracted as the project liason for General Ross. With Stark's *excellent* diplomatic skills and *charming* personality, the project never got off the ground.

After that he was moved to a SHIELD black site. Right now he's either locked up in one of Coulson's hidey-holes, or he escaped along with many other metahumans when SHIELD was disbanded.


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

[User]
ELI5: How did the restaurant industry convince the American population to pay their employees for them?

Where did we buy into the tip system?

[Assistant]
Before the Prohibition of alcohol, tips were basically bribery so some customer could get better services like bigger plates of be given food faster. When the Prohibition of alcohol came, restaurants saw a huge income decrease and they encourage their waiters to accept tips so they could get paid, instead of readjusting the whole prices so the money before spent on alcohol was driven to food and non.alcoholic beverages.

This become so strong that now reataurants can pay little no nothing while their customers live out of tips. In reallity, they can accept the tips and if they dont get to minimun wage, they can legally ask the money to their employer so they can get minimun wage.

This is something just in USA and maybe some other countries. In Spain, where i live, tipping is not mandatory but is somewhat encouraged if the service is good, fast and take more orders than normal, if the table was big, if they bring bread and tap water instead of bottled when we ask for it... In Japan is even considered of bad education to give money as a tip cause is seen as a way to show off how much money you have.


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

[User] [Mass Effect] How does a headshot deal more damage to shields/barriers?

[Assistant] Because the head is the most vulnerable vital spot,  shields are concentrated there and in a higher amplitude.  Dealing a head shot will put a large strain on the shields because you're hitting a larger % of the shields total energy capacity with one shot.


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

[User]
[Star Trek] Why is almost everyone on my ship a commissioned officer? Why are there so few enlisted on my vessel?

I joined Starfleet to get a good education and see the quadrant. Whenever there's an away team, only the officers get picked. Even that Lt. Barclay gets to go, and I'm stuck here cleaning plasma injectors. What gives?

[Assistant]
Away missions tend to be of great importance, so it's only reasonable that the most experienced and trained crew members are the ones who go.

And not everyone on your ship is ao officer. Only 120 are. The other 1530 are enlisted or civilian reps (not including family members).


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

[User]
[Ghostbusters] How liable would the EPA and Walter Peck be for the explosion at the Ghostbusters headquarters?

Assume that they were storing hazardous materials in violation of EPA standards. They still were *storing* them; it wasn't until Peck ordered the containment field switched off, even in the face of the GBs' statements as to the danger of an uncontrolled shutdown, that the hazardous materials were catastrophically released into the environment. Surely Peck, at least as an individual, should carry some liability for the consequences of his actions.

[Assistant]
**VERY**. Provided that the Ghostbuster can prove that the fecal material hitting the oscillating cooling device is Peck's fault.

The system the Ghostbusters had set up had no measurable leaks, even if it isn't stated, because Egon isn't the kind of scientist to stand next to radioactive materials.

The real question is who does the blame fall on? Is the blame mostly Peck's fault, with the EPA taking some of the blame because they empowered a raving lunatic? Or does the EPA remain blameless because a raving lunatic goes above and beyond what the EPA allows, deciding that he wants to do the equivalent of purposefully causing a nuclear meltdown?


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

[User] ELI5 the differences between similar file types and what instances they're better for (jpeg or PNG, gif or html5, PDFs and such)

[Assistant]
Each file type stores and compresses its data in different ways. Let's look at three different image formats: jpg, png, and bmp.

Bmp, or bitmaps, are uncompressed images. If you read the bytes, you would get the colors of each and every pixel.

Png images are lossless compressed images. That is, they are smaller than a bmp, but you can get all of the data back.

Jpg images are lossy compressed images. They are even smaller, but when you uncompress them, they loose some of their quality. They are good at it though, so you likely won't notice much of a difference.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do movies shot in 24 fps seem so much smoother than 24 fps?

For example, if you run like a video game or a animation in 24 fps then it's studdery as hell. But movies and tv shows appear smooth.

[Assistant]
Short answer: blur.

When you shoot a scene at 60 fps, you get faster shutter speed and less blur. When you shoot 24fps, you get slower shutter speed, and more blur in the shot.

Play back a scene at 24 fps which was shot at 24 fps, and there is more visible motion in each individual frame. Blur. Play back the same scene at the same rate which was shot at higher speeds, and each visible frame is sharper, making it seem as though it's stuttering.


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

[User]
CMV: Dental care should not be considered separate from regular health care

Basically the title. Dental care requires checkups similar to regular doctor appointments, and poor oral hygiene is just like any other physical hygiene that can lead to health problems, specifically heart disease.

Obviously, dentists are specialists, but many specialists exist within standard health care, so I don't understand why teeth specifically, this one random part of your body, shouldn't be considered health care like the rest of your body.

Disclosure: Canadian, so talking from a universal health care point of view. We don't pay for checkups at the doctor, but we do at the dentist. If you're American and are going to point out that you have to pay for both/be insured for both, my condolences.

So, change my view.

[Assistant]
So... here's the thing.

Dental care is unlike medical in that almost all of it is routine and expected, and *very* little of the cost of insuring for it is due to exceptional and unexpected events as a percentage of the cost.

So... all that dental insurance does, in practice, is pay for your routine stuff *after adding overhead to the cost*.

Practically the only reason to buy dental insurance is if someone else is paying for it, otherwise you're way better off (as in, will pay less) self-insuring.

And yes, that's from an American perspective of generally getting dental insurance from our work.

But it's true in Canada too... because the government would add overhead to the cost of paying for your dental care *too*... the fact that it's paid by taxes doesn't mean you're not paying for it.

So sure... have your universal healthcare cover the catastrophic part of your dental insurance... but pay for your routine visits yourself and save the government overhead.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does the letter 'Q' always needs to be followed my the letter 'U' for every word in the English language?

Never understood this rule. Its the only letter that needs to be paired together. I cant think of any words that are just Q without the U. Why are these two inseparable!! I need to know why!!

[Assistant]
This is a leftover from Latin's idiosyncratic spelling rules, which were themselves in part due to history even further back.

The Phoenician script had two separate letters kp and qp for the two separate sounds /k/ and /q/. When the Greeks borrowed this script to write Greek, they only had /k/, but for a while they kept qoppa, the Greek version of qp, around to write /k/ before back vowels (/u o/) and used kappa (the Greek version of kp) for /k/ before other vowels. After a while, they dropped qoppa and used kappa for /k/ everywhere.

Before qoppa was dropped, though, the Etruscans borrowed Greek letters to write Etruscan, and brought along both kappa and qoppa. Additionally, Etruscan had no /g/ and thus used Greek gamma (used in Greek for /g/) to write /k/ as well. When the Romans borrowed Etruscan letters, they had three different letters for /k/ - modern <c k q> - and used all of them for both /k/ and /g/, such that <c> was before front vowels /i e/, <q> was before back vowels /u o/, and <k> was before /a/.

After a while, though, the system was altered such that <c> became used for /k/ almost everywhere (and later the new letter <g> was made for /g/). The old letters <k> and <q> were thus deprecated, except in two circumstances: <k> hung around in a few fossilised words like *kalendae* 'the first day of the month', and <q> hung around before /u/ when /u/ was followed by another vowel (and thus pronounced like \[w\]). This <qu> spelling for /kw/ has been preserved in words borrowed straight from Latin ever since, and entered native English words through the French-based respelling English experienced during the transition from Old to Middle English after the Norman conquest. Thus, <q> remains in use, but the only environment where it appears is before <u>.

Note that there are words that are present in English dictionaries where <q> is *not* followed by <u>, but these are all loanwords from other languages where <q> has some other value (e.g. *qi*, where Pnyn <q> has the value /t/!), and most of these loans aren't really nativised in English.

<qu> is used in a number of Romance languages to write /k/ in some environments because Latin /k/ changed to one of several different sounds before /i e/, and then later /kw/ became /k/ in that same environment. Since the spelling of <c> for historical \*k wasn't replaced even when the sound was no longer /k/, this meant that <qu> was the only reliable way to write /k/ before /i e/.

TL;DR: Latin had too many ways to spell the sound /k/ because of the various languages that had used these letters before they got to Latin, and it ended up using <q> in only one specific situation.


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

[User]
What is "strangeness"? And how does it affect subatomic particles?

I'm learning about leptons, baryons and mesons and some of them have a value called "strangeness", my teacher doesn't know what it is a measurement for and everyone gives me weird looks when I ask what strangeness is.
My point is, some particles are charged, with that charge, they repel other particles with the same charge and attract particles with opposing charges, that's how charge affects particles. But how does strangeness affect particles? At the moment, it's just a meaningless, faceless value to me. :/

[Assistant] Strangeness is just the number of (anti) strange quarks in a particle. Protons and neutrons have zero strangeness, whereas more exotic particles like K-mesons have 1 or -1. It was a useful quantity to define when considering its conservation during particle decays, because it is conserved during strong nuclear interactions but not during weak interactions, and this was figured out before we fully understood what quarks were.


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

[User] ELI5 Whats the purpose of inverted controls in video games?

[Assistant]
A lot of us older dudes started playing flight simulator games back in the day. At that time you could move up and down (y axis) and left and right (x axis)  through the air.

To simulate an aircrafts flight mechanics, pulling down on the joystick caused your plane to point upwards and go higher or gain altitude.

When FPS games came along, you again had access to left and right, and up and down movement. The camera functioned in much the same way the plane did. Therefore, all of us that learned down is up on flight sims brought that same muscle memory to FPSs, and the inverted y-axis option was born.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is it that whenever snow is stepped on it makes that muffled crunching sound?

[Assistant] The snow is made up of small ice crystals that are lightly stacked on top of each other. These crystals compress down under your weight, and as they pass each other, they scrape together, making that crunching sound.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does my voice sound different (and awful) when it's recorded and I hear it replayed?

I recently decided to change my voicemail greeting, and hearing my own voice through my phone speaker made me cringe. Why does it sound different, and why do I not hate hearing it when I'm speaking?

[Assistant]
When you normally hear your own voice you are hearing two distinct things. First, you hear the normal sound waves coming through the air, into your ear just like everyone else. Second, you are hearing the bone conduction. This is the vibration that your voice causes in your bones that gets transferred to your inner ear. The combination of these two is what you think of as your own voice. Other people only hear the first part.

It sounds so awful to you because it sounds kind of like your voice, but slightly off. The familiar thing that is changed just a little is more disconcerting than a completely different voice.


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

[User] ELI5: why its common to have 87-octane gasoline in the US but its almost always 95-octane in Europe?

[Assistant]
Mostly because the USA and Europe don't measure octane the same way.

Europe uses RON or the "Research Octane Number" which is measured by running an engine under controlled conditions.

In contrast the US uses the AKI or "Anti-Knock Index" which is an average of the RON and MON, the "Motor Octane Number" which uses a similar test engine to RON, but operates it under different standardized conditions.

Roughly speaking:

87 AKI = 91 RON

91 AKI = 93 RON

93 AKI = 98 RON

100 AKI = 104 RON

104 AKI = 108 RON

A similar kind of misconception occurs when people think that the UK has more fuel efficient vehicles because they get more miles or kilometers per gallon. The truth is that the US gallon is 128 fluid ounces and the UK it is 160 fluid ounces, and the vehicles generally have equivalent fuel economy.


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

[User]
Is De Morgan's Theorem true for more than two things?

De Morgan's Theorem states that (not A) and (not B) is equal to not (A or B) (or, if you prefer that, A nor B), and vice versa.

My question is, is this also true for more than two things? For example, does (not A) or (not B) or (not C) equal not (A and B and C)?

Tagging this as maths because I reckon boolean algebra counts as maths!

[Assistant]
Yes. You can show this directly via truth tables, but it is nicer to show this for three objects based on the result for two objects.  We use the associativity of AND and the associativity of OR (which is important, as otherwise something like  "A and B and C"  which you reference above has no meaning without parentheses).  Here's how you go from two to three:

    not(A) and not(B) and not(C) = not(A) and (not(B) and not(C))
                                 = not (A) and not(B or C)
                                 = not (A or (B or C))
                                 = not(A or B or C)


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

[User]
Eli5: How come some homemade cleaning solutions call for a mixture of an acid (vinegar or lime juice) and a base (baking soda)? Doesn't that turn into water and salt?

Are they just fooling solutions?

[Assistant]
You are correct and the vinegar and baking soda immediately neutralize each other.

Those solutions are written by people who don't understand chemistry, think "the fizzing means it's working!", and don't realize they're essentially just cleaning with water (which is a perfectly good solvent for many messes). Then they get repeated from blog to blog as everyone just copies what everyone else is saying.


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

[User] [Star Wars] how do mynocks fly once they are in the vacuum of space? Their wings would only work in an atmosphere.

[Assistant]
The organs contained within the Mynocks wings can interact with gravity and magnetic fields. Kind of like a biological version of the repulsor lift that you can find in any speeder. This lets them move around in a vacuum by flapping.

I suspect this is mostly just used to move from host/ship to host/ship they aren't going to be flapping between systems.


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

[User]
ELI5 how a smoke detector can detect smoke

If it detected air quality, which is what would make sense to me, how does it specifically know that there is smoke and not something else?

[Assistant]
it depends on the type of smoke detector.  Ionization smoke detector uses a radioactive element and measures the conductivity of the air.  If there are fumes/smoke in the chamber then it's less conductive and puts it in alarm.
photo smoke detectors just use an LED and a light receptor and measure how much light gets reflected off of anything in the air.  They are easy to false alarm with dust or anything fine enough to make its way inside.  I've had spiders set them off before.


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

[User]
Why do things take "4-6 weeks" to ship?

If I can get a car shipped from Maine to California in a week I should be able to get any generic as seen on tv item from jersey to CA in less than **4-6 WEEKS!!**

What gives??

[Assistant] This is not always the case, but especially with infomercial trinkets, it's not uncommon for the products you're buying not to even be manufactured yet. By allowing long lead times, the seller can gauge response and manufacture just enough to meet demand.


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

[User]
[Pokemon] What is the course of action if a strong pokemon ends up somewhere it shouldnt be?

Say a level 80 Salamence decides it wants to hang out just outside of Littleroot town and terrorize all the new trainers setting off on their journeys?

Who deals with that and how?

[Assistant] Some of the lore implies that Gym Leaders are meant to be some kind of pillar in the community, an outstanding citizen who leads the town through its hard times. The anime seems to show the police, Elite Four, and even champion being more competent and solving problems when there, but the Gym Leader is most likely the first line of defense.


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

[User]
ELI5:If you are paralyzed from the neck down, why do your organs still work?

shouldn't your heart, lungs, intestines etc... stop receiving signals from your brain?

[Assistant]
Even though your lungs are organs the way they work is a little different as they require help. The process of breathing uses skeletal muscle (The diaphragm) and thus has no "Automatic" control. There are 2 nerves arise from up in the neck at C3-5 ( C3, C4 and C5 keep the diaphragm alive), there is one on either side called the phrenic nerves. If lets say a tumor on one side compresses the nerve this is reflected in one side of the diaphragm becoming paralysed.

Someone mentioned the heart. The nerves that supply the heart are NOT all directly from the spinal cord they come partially from spinal cord but also from two cords that run parallel called the sympathetic trunk. The heart is a weird one. If you removed all the nerves from the heart it would beat at around 100 bpm. So it takes nerves (these ones from the spinal cord) to slow it down. This is called a parasympathetic tone and comes from the longest nerve in our body called the wonderer (Vagus X).

Intestines are really weird. They are tricky to learn about and even harder to explain. Basically remember i mentioned the sympathetic trunk well that and the top and bottom of the spinal cord (Called the parasympathetic outflow) both help regulate a third nerve system called the enteric nervous system (ENS). The ENS is the one that regulates the movements of the intestines along with a few hormones e.g. motalin

Interesting bonus points: Stomach acid can be released via a few mechanisms but one way is by the same nerve that slows the heart. Years ago when people had stomach ulcers one of the treatments used to be to remove the nervous supply to the stomach and thus reduce acid secretions.

As for the Kidneys, Liver and Spleen the nervous supply is primarily to do with blood flow rather than function.


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

[User]
[Family Guy/Simpsons/South Park] Are the kids destined to become their parents?

title.

[Assistant]
I don't think Cartman can top being as big of a whore his mom is.

Stan probably won't end up like his father, bit let's wait till college.

If Kenny lives to see adulthood he will probably he white trash just like his mom and dad.

Kyle had moments his where he was like his mom, so he might top being the biggest bitch in the whole wide world.

Stewie and Meg will most certainly not end up like their parents. Meg is...Meg and Stewie is too smart. Chris might be a loser like his dad.

Bart, Lisa, and Maggie will grow up wildly different. Lisa will grow up being successful and Maggie has shown a times to he even more intelligent or cunning. Bart will be mostly likely like his father if he doesn't clean up his act.


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

[User]
Would you be able to de-salinate ocean water by using a centrifuge?

This is a conjecture I made based on the fact that centrifuges separate materials based on density, like how the plasma is separated from the other things that make up blood. Since salt and water have different densities, I figured you might be able to separate them in a similar manner. Am I missing a key part of the puzzle, like the fact that salt is dissolved in the water and not suspended? Thanks! :)

[Assistant] No, as salt water is a solution in the chemistry sense of the word. You are correct that the salt is dissolved. Given even mixing and other reasonable assumptions, the solution should be pretty uniform. So it's all at the same density.


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

[User]
How are nutrients/chemicals in food dispersed to where they are needed in the body?

For example, how does the calcium in milk you drink find its way to enamel in your teeth, or anticoagulant chemicals in medicine reach the blood stream?

[Assistant]
Almost everything is extracted from food in your intestine and directly transferred to blood. There are lots of blood vessels right next to your intestine that make that work.

(The only exception is fat, which is extracted from food in your intestine and transferred to your lymphatic vessels and *then* transferred to blood.)

From there everything goes to the liver, which removes a bunch of things that are toxic, dumps them into bile, which is then dumped back into your intestine and eventually excreted. After filtering, the liver transfers everything that's worth keeping into your main circulation.

(Fat is again an exception; it bypasses filtering in the liver and goes directly to your main circulation)

Once in main circulation, the nutrients are spread all over, and cells that need them pick them up as they go by. (There are lots of simple and complicated ways for cells to pick up nutrients, so there's a whole another complicated story buried in there, but that's the gist of it.)


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

[User]
What are some lesser know statistics career options?

Im going to keep it short and to the point. Im a college student who enjoys statistics and would like to enter the field after Im done uni.

From my limited understanding, most jobs are corporate jobs helping the company optimize production or academia. What are some other things you can pursue as statistician?

[Assistant] Marketing, social planning, policing, urban planning, utilities, forensics, auditing .... Any thing that asks Why does this happens ?  What will happen ? Can we make it better ? Is this really a problem ? How do we know ? Are we safe ?


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

[User]
Can I preemptively get lots of sleep to help stay awake for a long time?

Basically, if I sleep ~6 hrs a night, can I sleep 10 hours tonight and have an easier time pulling an all-nighter tomorrow?

Please do not lecture me on how all-nighters are a bad idea.

[Assistant] If ALL you want to to do is decrease your sleep drive for one night, then technically the answer is yes it *can*, but it doesn't mean it *will*.  The amount of benefit you'll get really depends on how well rested you were to begin with, and the quality of your sleep over the several weeks preceding the "all-nighter".  If a person averages 6 hours a night they may be somewhat under-rested and one night of 10 hours is unlikely to make a huge difference.  Obviously there are a whole host of reasons why not to do this, but it seems that isn't relevant to the current question.


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

[User]
For Profit Prisons

How do they work? Is it entirely private, or does the government still cover some of the costs? Why are some prisons privatized while others aren't?

[Assistant]
Lets say the Townsville government is looking at it's budget - it's spending $50 Million a year on prisons! Well, ACME Prisons, Inc. comes to the Townsville treasure and says:

 "Listen - pay us $40 Million and we will take care of the prisons"

It makes complete sense financially to outsource this - they claim to offer the same or higher capacity prisons for a cheaper price.

Since the prison is now privatized, it will be run like any business - budget cuts, stuffing more people into each room because they can having more prisoners yields a higher profit for ACME Prisons, Inc. Many times this leads to worse conditions.

The government covers all the costs; not every government has hired a company to take care of prisons for them, however.


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

[User]
[Sherlock Holmes] What does Holmes do when he doesnt know something?

Holmes has a vast knowledge of information, and is known for his skills of deduction. So what happens when Holmes gets to a crime scene and doesnt have an answer?

[Assistant]
He looks harder.

It's not as though he gets to a crime scene and just automatically knows what happened. There are multiple incidents in the books where he's initially stumped because he doesn't have enough information to make a full determination of the crime.

There was at least one instance where, when he was fairly certain the crime would be repeated, he went so far as to use himself as bait to figure out exactly what was going on.

Effectively, he has more than just observation and deduction in his arsenal, and when those fail, he resorts to other methods of investigation, both traditional and nontraditional.


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

[User]
[Marvel Cinematic] At the end of the battle with The Chatari

So While i was cowering in fear in a cafe in New York during the attack by The Chatari (hey screw you they had giant flying worm monsters) I noticed Iron Man fly into the huge portal they were coming out of with what looked like a huge missile of sorts. After he shot into it there was a flash of light then every single on of The Chatari including the giant flying worms all just died kind of like the scene in Star wars 1. What gives?

[Assistant]
According to leaked information, several criminal organisations have been attempting to get their hands on Chitauri technology. One such organisation was in possession of a Chitauri neural link device which allowed instant command and control of the entire Chitauri force. Apparently, this device also provided the wearer with protection from Earth's foreign environment. This device is now in the possession of S.H.I.E.L.D.

The destruction of their command ship cut off the neural link with the unintended side effect of cutting off their life support devices.


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

[User] ELI5: What is socialism?

[Assistant] There is no unified definition for what socialism is, but generally it means something that is owned and operated by a community of people, or a government. Which is, in turn, owned by and operates as a part of the constituency of people who established and elected that government. Just about every developed country operates as a mixed economy, where some stuff is established by entrepreneurs as a private enterprise, and some shit is established under government funds and is operated as a public program or utility. And some stuff is an odd mix of both.


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

[User] Is it possible that cost of living increases at a greater rate than inflation? Has this been measured?

[Assistant]
Inflation is measured as the average increase of a "basket" of goods. Thus, the inflation rate is dependent on how much the prices of these specific goods in the "basket" change.
So if there are goods that aren't included in this "basket" whose prices are increasing significantly then it could be the case where the actual cost of living in a country is increasing faster than inflation. Although, the "basket" of goods is fairly comprehensive for most countries.

An example where this could possibly be the case is in South Africa where electricity prices, which have been rising at rates way above inflation, are not included in the "basket".


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

[User]
ELI5 Scientology

What is it? Why is it so bad? or such a big deal?

[Assistant]
Some governments have special benefits for religions, like not paying taxes.  L.Ron Hubbard wrote Science Fiction, which didn't do so well, so he used the same ideas and started a religion.

This would be no big deal, it happens all the time (c.f. John Smith), but in this religion, Scientology, you have to give ALL your money instead of the more typical 10%, AND Scientologists believe that psychiatry is a scam, so some people who need help, and medicine, don't get it and get hurt.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] What could the Rebel Alliance do with Grievous's remains?

I know that in Legends Grievous is partially revived as the Droid N-K Necrosis after being jacked from one of the Emperor's various secret U-Haul trucks, but what if the Rebellion got their hand on the infamous Jedi Hunter? Could they manage to macgyver the remains into something effective for battle?

[Assistant] The General currently exists as a multidirectional lamp in Lando Calrissian's Condo in Cloud city. Grievous's potential military applications were dismissed when the re animated corpse's coughing affected rebel morale.


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

[User] ELI5: What makes certain types of cardboard (like pizza boxes) un-recyclable?

[Assistant] With pizza boxes, it's not the type of cardboard that makes it unrecyclable; it's the oils from the pizza that soak into the cardboard.  Those oils cannot be separated back out from the paper fibers, so they're no longer any good for making paper/cardboard out of.


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

[User]
[Fallout] Is the world really doomed?

A lot of smart people (Shaun, House, and Eden I think) seem to think that this planet isn't worth trying to save or rebuild, and so make their ultimate goal to evacuate this one and find a new planet. Is this world really not worth saving anymore? Will humanity ever be able to rebuild what it once had?

EDIT: Just to add my two cents on the aliens:
The fact that there are aliens is definitely canon, but I think we can assume that aliens didn't cause the Great War, partly because that fits with nothing else in the story, and partly because it destroys the series' theme.  It would turn "war never changes. Man's destructive and hateful nature will always cause conflict and suffering, even to the point of his own destruction" to "aliens like to fuck with humans".

[Assistant]
We would have to do it with far few resources, but it's certainly possible. The US just mastered fusion, which is a clean source of energy that the Brotherhood has mastered with their power armor and old cars. With fusion power they can power the wasteland, but it will take time to do so if they continue to be so closed minded.

The problem is their are people who don't want that happening, the Zetans. It was hinted on Mothership Zeta that they caused the Great War, and perhaps will wipe anyone out who tries to go to space or master certain tech, like fusion.


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

[User]
Would it be possible to create a Zeppelin with very low pressure containers instead of a lift-gas?

So, I have a very stupid question...

There is a talk on AskHistorian on Zeppelins, and someone mentioned the fact the fixed frame airships has internal containers of Helium or Hydrogen as lift gas, instead of the lift gas filling the interior of the airship.

Would it be possible to instead create a container which is rigid enough so that you would fill-it with a gas pressure low enough to provide a lift, but strong enough to resist implosion?

I do understand that Helium and Hydrogen provide a lift because at roughly the same pressure as air, they would be lighter than air.

But if we cheat by making a light, but very rigid, container which allowed to resist the pressure differential, could we achieve the same goal without rare Helium or flamable Hydrogen?

[Assistant]
Absolutely. A container full of vacuum would be buoyed by the weight of the air it displaces. So a 100 liter vacuum chamber is "lifted" by the weight of 100 liters of air.

If you could make a container capable of supporting 14.7psi on it's surface without collapsing, but lighter than the equivalent weight of air it displaced, it would float. You don't need to fill it with anything, vacuum would be most efficient.

Totally dry air at sea level weighs about 1.2 g/L, so if your vacuum chamber held 100 liters and weighed less than 120 grams, it would float.


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

[User]
How do stains work on the molecular level?

How are the particles that become stuck on clothing so difficult to remove? And as a follow up question, how do stain removers work?

[Assistant]
I can tell you how bleach works on some types of stains.  So some Compounds have color because of the molecule is a conjugated system. Meaning that more than 8 groups of alternating double then single bonds in a row all share electrons. When light hits this conjugated system it absorbs then releases energy that we see in the visible spectrum. Bleach comes in and breaks  double bond(s) in this system making them single bonds.   This breaks the conjugated system up either completely or into smaller conjugated systems. So  for example, where you had 8 groups of alternating double then single bonds you now have 2 conjugated systems of  4 groups which emit light in the ultraviolet spectrum and its not visible, BUT the stain is still there, you just cant see it.
I suspect the stains are hard to remove because intermolecular forces between the stain maker to the fabric.


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

[User] [Aladdin] If Gene was trapped in the lamp for 10000 years, what was the world like at that time? Cavemen?

[Assistant]
It comes down to a combination of the facts that Gene has been utterly isolated for an indeterminable amount of time and that Genies are known liars.

To re-iterate: taking anything a genie says at face value is beyond foolish, and expecting a being that has no frame of reference to estimate the passage of time equally so.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are vegetables more consistent than fruits?

Everybody's had that awesome clementine that's sweet and juicy, and the one that's dry and a little sour.  Or the grapes that aren't as firm as they should be \(even sharing the same cluster as awesome grapes\).  Or the flavorless pineapple.  But broccoli is always just broccoli.  Asparagus can be skinnier or fatter but it's still asparagus.  It seems like it's more than just ripeness.  Why does the quality of fruit seem so much more inconsistent than that of vegetables?

[Assistant]
Vegetables can be bred faster since most of them are annual plants (they grow and produce seeds every year). In contrast, many fruits come from trees that often take ~5-10 years before fruiting. Therefore, it is easier to select and breed vegetables for desirable traits.

For supermarket vegetables, the main properties you would want are that they look good and that they store longer. Taste is usually an afterthought. Therefore, supermarket vegetables taste consistently "meh".

If you do have the chance to grow your own vegetables or eat fresh from the farm, you will find that vegetables can also have variations in taste. But in general they taste much better than supermarket vegetables.


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

[User]
CMV: I believe in the right to die

I believe in the right to die because the alternative is preposterous. One shouldn't be obligated to live against their will if they genuinely aren't interested in living. That goes against another fundamental human right: freedom. Now, I'm not saying that suicide is fine under all circumstances. For example, if you have kids that are dependent on you, it would be pretty shitty to put yourself above them. But if someone doesn't have kids or any of the sort, I really see no argument for keeping them alive anyway. It's just not fair to. It was never their choice to be born.

[Assistant] What about people who have mental illnesses that make them sometimes suicidal and at other times, not? Can we justify not preventing the death of the suicidal version when the non-suicidal one would object to its own death? And if not, how can we tell the difference between this and rational, reasoned, and consistent suicidal desires?


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

[User]
ELI5 - Black barns in Kentucky, why?

Ive been driving through Kentucky a lot lately for work and everywhere I go I see barns painted black. Even the bourbon distilleries where they store the bourbon, many of these are painted black or a very dark color. Do they want the barns to be hot? Why are they painted this way? Im used to seeing barns painted red.

Edit: Wow! You are all amazing!  Just ask awesome Reddit users and you shall receive. Thank you!

[Assistant] Kentucky has historically been a major tobacco producing state. Tobacco curing barns are covered in black creosote. The creosote keeps wood-eating insects and other critters from making a meal of the barn, and also helps raise the internal temperature, which speeds up the curing of the tobacco.


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

[User]
[The Matrix] Is it ever explained how Neo can be connected to the Matrix without the need for plugs?

So, the end of Reloaded shows Neo using his One power ^((One power to rule the code, One power to find the Smith; One power to bring them all and in the Matrix bind them.)^) to shut down a Sentinel. Given how his power is meant to work, subconsciously warping and rewriting the code around him, in the Matrix this could make sense since both the Matrix and the Sentinels are controlled by the Machines (the Source), so Neo could hypothetically connect to the Sentinel's firmware from the Matrix and shut it down. But he isn't in the Matrix - there is no physical connection.

It's possible that this is a an effect of his presence in it earlier, that he could have subconsciously written programs to intervene if his body were in danger, but in Revolutions he's shown in the Matrix normally and it's never explained how. He even does something that flatly breaks the rules of the series, by somehow sensing Bane's position without him *or* the Matrix having any way of telling.

I have read an honestly plausible and interesting theory from this very sub that Neo wasn't completely human and was designed to be the One by the Machines, but I'm interested in if the series itself ever tried to explain this.

[Assistant]
It was explained in the (canon) *The Matrix Online* game.

Thomas Anderson had been given an experimental wireless connection to the Matrix, like a machine; which was going to become standard-issue in the next Matrix once the kinks were worked out. That was his original purpose in the machine's plan; bug testing.

In a moment of crisis, he used his powers to rewrite the code and connect to the machine network, allowing him to both mess with Sentinels and (later) see the machine code when he was blinded. This was why he found himself trapped in a coma, having to make his way through the machine network back to the matrix via the Trainman's private domain, the connection between the machine world and the "human world" (the Matrix.)

The reason this wasn't made clear in the films was that the final two movies were originally intended to be *one* film; it would have been revealed in the final movie, which covered the machine side of things. Elements of this scrapped third movie went into the animated shorts (especially *The Second Renaissance*) and the videogames, both of which are considered canon.


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

[User]
[WH40K] How are Chaos Space Marines produced?

As far as I know, there has been millennia since Horus Heresy. In the meantime IoM has the means and resources to train and supply more SMs, build Dreadnoughts and other tools of war.

How does Chaos get their SMs? Surely they cannot be relying on the one time supply quiet a while ago. Do they have their own means to create them or turn the Marines of the Emperor? Or maybe they are demons who happen to only look like Space Marines for some reason?

[Assistant] Fortunately the Imperium supplies most of all Chaos Marines to the Ruinous Powers on a consistent basis and practically for free. This eases the burden of having to maintain multi dimensional logistics and supply lines, a problem that is almost exclusive to Chaos.