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

[User] ELI5: Why is investing not seen as the same way as it is gambling?

[Assistant]
Investing is gambling, but a type of gambling with favourable odds.  Unless a company goes bankrupt, their stock will trend upwards over the years.  It may not go up this year, or in the next ten years, but over the course of a lifetime, it will probably go up.

Investment isn't normally called gambling because gambling is a term often reserved for betting on improbable things.  In casino, for example, every game has unfavourable odds, so people call that gambling.  It is the same with other things in life.  Education could be called a gamble because after getting a degree, there is a chance that you will not get a job.  However, unless you get unlucky, you will probably find a way to make money from you degree.  This is why education is seen as an investment, not a gamble.


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

[User]
ELI5: What is fire, really? What makes a material flammable at the atomic level?

It can't just be heat, because some materials will just never catch fire. What is it that triggers it, and what is it, other than just energy?

[Assistant]
Fire is hot gasses that result as a product of combustion.  Most commonly in our day to day experience, this combustion is due to reactions with oxygen.

Oxygen is highly reactive.  Given heat and fuel, it will literally rip the fuel molecules apart, generating more heat as it does so.  That makes it self-sustaining; if you continue supplying fuel (and more oxygen), the reaction will continue.

Some materials don't catch fire, because oxygen doesn't react with them.  The form factor of the material matters as well - for instance, a huge cube of zinc wouldn't burn, but powdered zinc would burn.


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

[User]
[40K] I know the god emperor of man is technically alive inside the golden throne... But does his mind exist outside the warp?

I mean is there any direct interaction between the golden throne and humanity in this universe?

[Assistant]
The Emperor is capable of it, but such communications are rare, limited only to averting immediate perils to the Imperium as a whole. There's a lot on his plate, and the Imperium can ill afford the consequences from even a minor disruption of his focus.

I don't think we ever get to see these audiences directly, only their aftermath. When the Ecclesiarchy got a little too big for its armored britches Alicia Dominica, the head of the Adeptas Sororitas, was brought before the throne. Before, she was a fanatical devotee to Gorge Vandire, the Grimdark Pope, but after leaving her audience with the Big E she marched right into Vandire's cathedral fort and chopped his head off, thus ending a religious schism that threatened to topple the Imperium from within.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why did the Emperor and Vader tolerate the ineffectiveness of the Stormtroopers?

Why did the Emperor and Vader tolerate the ineffectiveness of the Stormtroopers? Vader was shown to force choke those under him not meeting his expectations, why did the Stormtroopers remain somewhat ineffective during battle after battle without intervention?

[Assistant]
Storm Troopers were actually not usually ineffective. They were the elite fighting force of the empire, more skilled than the average imperial soldier (as depicted in Solo). In general, we see them as fairly effective, from storming the Tantine IV in a New Hope, to successful invasion of Hoth in Empire Strikes Back. What is interesting is to look at that times they were ineffective, and see what went wrong.

I: The hunt for the droids on Tatooine. Here, the explanation is pretty clear. The rural garrison on Tatooine is really not trained for much besides keeping the planet under Imperial rule. They were good at brute shows of force (massacring Luke's family and the Jawas), but weren't really good at investigating and finding people, because that's not their job.

II: The death star. First, they were caught by surprise. The death star was not a combat assignment, it's more like staffing a base. Nobody imagined that anyone could even get loose in the death star, and so no one was prepared for it (maybe it's another drill). Second, by the time they were alert and prepared, they were instructed to let the heroes go, so they could be traced back to the rebel base.

III: Endor. This is were Lucas' fuzzy Vietcong analogy is relevant. The stormtroopers were on a "uncivilized" planet, where the natives didn't even have laser weaponry or space travel. They were in no way prepared to be brutally massacred by spears and stones, just as modern, developed military's forces fail miserably when faced with a surprise attack from insurgents. Lucas was referencing Vietnam here directly- the Empire's forces being the US.

Tl;dr: Stormtroopers are generally effective, the times where they messed up were situations they weren't trained for.


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

[User] How are we able to flex each digit of the hand individually when the flexor digitorum is one muscle that has attachments to the 4 digits?

[Assistant]
Because there are separate tendons, and the individual fingers have their own extrinsic (superficial) muscles that are primarily responsible for finger movement.

Also, it's nigh impossible to flex your pinky without also flexing your ring finger.  Try it.


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

[User]
ELI5: Can I get sick from myself?

If I am sick and eat out of say a peanut butter jar straight out of it with a spoon and a week or so later when I'm no longer sick eat out of the same jar can I get myself sick again?

[Assistant]
If you are sick from viral infections: no.

The immune system works in a way that it builds immunity from previously encountered viral pathogens. This prevents you from getting sick from the same flu strain a week after it has cleared your body.

If you are sick from a bacterial infections: yes.

When you put e.g. diarrhea causing bacteria on your food and eat from it a week later you might get sick again with the same infection. These bacteria could be in your stool and get onto your hands and transferred to your food.


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

[User]
[Fallout] Is it possible that the Children of Atom are right about nuclear explosions giving birth to new universes, and the Fallout universe itself was born in the bombing of Japan at the end of WWII (which is where its events start deviating from real history)?

In terms of resonating with the series' established themes, I'd say it sounds like a pretty strong theory, but it does leave the question: how would realities subsequently created by additional atomic explosions within the *Fallout* universe, such as the hundreds during armageddon, respectively diverge?

[Assistant]
A major theory of mine is that Fallout endured what was similar to what we Elder Scrolls fans call a "Dragon Break" Back when ESII had multiple, very different ending they explained that massive impacts and events can sometimes result in massive breaks in reality that can diverge universes. A universe may split in two and one could be wildly different from the other. Sometimes the universes converge again and people are left wondering what the hell happened.

Perhaps when the US dropped the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki the impact was so disruptive to the universe it resulted in a similar phenomenon. Some people have even speculated that paranormal events like the Dunwich Building or Listening Point Bravo might be points where the two realities cross.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are large truck brake failures common enough to require the failure lanes on mountain roads?

[Assistant]
Trucks are *heavy*. Driving downhill means the brakes need to constantly be slowing down their heavy loads, building up heat in the brakes. Unfortunately brakes become less effective as they get hot, meaning longer periods of braking are required which makes them *more* hot, etc.

Overusing brakes can result in the loss of braking ability which would lead to a massive uncontrolled load hurtling down the mountain. A slope and some sand built beside the road is a minor investment to prevent a likely lethal crash.


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

[User]
Why does riding a bike last so long in muscle memory?

It's the archetypal phrase when it comes to long-term muscle memory:

"It's like learning to ride a bike"

What is it about bike riding that once it is learnt it is never completely unlearned?

Is bicycling unique in this way or do all dextrous skills "stick" with us for life once we've become competent at them?

[Assistant]
Balance and praxis (learned sequences) are largely moderated in the cerebellum as they are learned, not in the muscles.

Like almost anything that you learn and rely on daily, the neural circuits for them are reinforced, strengthening them, so that even if you don't use them for a while, they remain accessible.


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

[User] [It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia] Just how much money does Frank Reynolds have?

[Assistant]
He's definitely a multimillionaire. He writes Dee and Dennis a check for eight million dollars in Season 11, Episode 2. Of course, he thinks it's still 2006, so who knows what he's worth now, but in Season 11, Episode 3, he buys Party Mountain, with plans to frack it.

So I'd say pretty fuckin' rich. Not Scrooge McDuck rich, but definitely rich.


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

[User]
[MCU] What is Thanos' Infinity Gauntlet made out of?

Title.

[Assistant] Uru metal presumably, considering it was made by the same guys that made mjolnir and that seems to be what godly weapons are made of. Vibranium has shown fantastic physical abilities, but Uru is the only metal shown being able to channel power.


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

[User]
Does my standard PC use more floating point calculations, or more integers?

Assuming that I dont run computer games.

I think that computer games might use a lot of floating points, but what about "normal" programs?

[Assistant]
Integers get a work-out any time you're dealing with pointer arithmetic. Under the hood, this includes pretty much all code that works with arrays or structs, which is the majority of code in general. Even the large floating-point areas of game graphics include a decent chunk of integer arithmetic, from the indices into arrays or matrices of floats (although this is cut down on GPUs that act on whole arrays rather than individual elements).

Almost all data in a real-world application is a compound object represented in-memory as either a struct or a hash table. In either case, a program will access data contained in that struct through integer (or bitwise) operations: pointer arithmetic in the case of a struct, or hashing functions + array access in the case of a hash table. This is doubly-true for programs written in high-level or garbage-collected languages, where even very simple values are embedded in a larger structure that contains type and GC values. Memory allocation and garbage collection are also integer operations.

String & text manipulation is also manipulated with integer math. The encoding of characters to numbers isn't straighforward with Unicode, but all the operations are defined as bitwise or integer operations, not floats.


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

[User]
Why do most people with Downs Syndrome look nearly identical?

I've always wondered this.

[Assistant]
A symptom of those with down syndrome is a specific set of physical traits. Puffy faces, wide eyes, and general disproportion.

Because these difference are so distinct compared to normal people, it's often the case that we notice that before unique physical traits.


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

[User]
How did the n-word go from being a slur to casual slang among African-Americans?

I'm interested in how this occurred, how exactly did it go from being a racist slur against blacks to being thrown casually thrown around by African-Americans?

[Assistant]
This article speaks directly to your question:

Rahman, J. (2012). The N word: Its history and use in the African American community. *Journal of English Linguistics, 40*(2), 137-171.

**Summary**
The N-word "persists in the lexicon of African American English because it conveys a social meaning that is foundational in the identity of many African Americans. Use of this form allows a speaker to construct an identity representing awareness of the history of African Americans and practical knowledge of the nature and implications of the diaspora experience. The form has been productive in its capacity to convey a range of attitudinal stances related to its basic meaning, including solidarity, censure, and a proactive stance that seeks to bring about positive change."

**From "hard 'r'" to "soft/open-ended"**
Slurs are ostensibly meant to injure, but fundamentally and unconsciously work to discipline "the disparaged group by imposing a negative identity on them." However, those social meanings can be transformed by "licensed speakers."

"The variant that developed among the slaves took an open syllable ending, as is common in West African languages (Bhambose 1969; Dakubu 1988)...A continued desire to maintain distance, distinctiveness, and some sense of ownership (Gomez 1998:177) is among the social factors that contributed to the retention of the open syllable ending and other African features in the language of the slavesThis article posits that in the counterlanguage, discussed below, social meanings developed among the Africans that reflected a view in which they saw themselves as survivors and as humans whose freedom and dignity had been assaulted."

**Different Contemporary Meanings**

* Solidarity - "While projecting identity as an African American who is conscious of survival in the diaspora, n[\*\*\*]a may add a dimension to that identity by projecting an attitudinal stance that shows solidarity with another African American or with the African American community. This solidarity is generally based on perceptions of racial injustice." This use is moderated by gender (not used to refer to women) and situations of social conflict (substituted with "brother").

* Censure - "The core social meaning of n[\*\*\*]a may also be overlaid with an attitude of disapproval or censure, where a speaker assumes the attitudinal stance of judge. Using the term in this way performs the illocutionary function of serving notice that another African American, as writers observe (Kennedy 2002; Asim 2007), has behaved in a way that does not conform to the norms or expectations of the African American community...While the racist use of n[\*\*\*\*]r criticizes a presumed innate moral and intellectual inferiority of African Americans, the meaning under discussion is a biting criticism from within the African American community that suggests that a behavior of the referent lends support to racist claims of inferiority. The expression that someone is acting like a n[\*\*\*]a is similar to acting a fool (Morgan 2002:41-42), with the added dimension that it appears to sarcastically reference the racially insulting form..."

* Hip-Hop - "The hip-hop comedians have been involved in a movement to erase negative associations of the word, turning it on its head by presenting an enhanced version of the African American meaning that emphasizes a self-empowered and self-determined African American identity...The identity that the hip-hop comedians project through use of n[\*\*\*]a is an effect of exercising agency in exploiting the meaning potential that inheres in the tradition where African Americans see themselves as resourceful, pragmatic survivors (Rahman 2004, 2007)."


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

[User] ELI5: Why do colors fade in the sun? And not just fabrics but also painted and plastic items?

[Assistant] The sun's energy is radiation. Basically, any objects in the direct path of sunlight is getting blasted with radiation. The radiation breaks down particals and causes deterioration. This is also how people get skin cancer.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do so many foods have a chicken flavour, when the flavour tastes nothing like chicken?

[Assistant]
Chicken flavored spice packets in things like Ramen noodles are almost always made of actual chicken, so they do in fact taste like chicken.

That said, the reason there is a different flavor is essentially the same reason that orange juice taste different from oranges. Chicken itself is very quick to spoil, so it has to be processed in order to turn it into a shelf stable product. Which in the case of chicken flavoring packets, basically means boiling the fuck out of chicken, grinding up any of the organic material, and drying it out. That breaks up a lot of the larger proteins and other molecules and changes the flavor somewhat.


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

[User]
[Economics] Why does nearly everything feel overpriced?

I know this is a complicated and subjective question, but I've noticed that it is very rare for me to exchange money for goods or services and feel like I got my full money's worth. In fact, any time you actually do get your money's worth on a purchase people proclaim what "a great deal" or "a steal" it is, because the converse is so much more common.

Example (in the US): I go to Five Guys and get a burger, fries and a drink. If you were to ask me what a good burger, fries and a drink should cost, I'd say about $8. However this would actually cost me closer to $11. If you go to McDonalds and get a shitty Big Mac, fries and a drink -- to me this inferior meal is worth about $5, but in actuality costs closer to $8.

It seems everything in the grocery store costs $1 to $4 more than it's worth, and the price/value disparity seems to grow bigger with more expensive items. Do I just have a weird sense of value, or is there any statistical proof that an item is overpriced, and what causes it?

[Assistant]
Consider this: 'Stuff' is actually extremely cheap in our age. We live in an era where throwing out things and buying new is usually more economical than having people repair it. Labor is expensive.

Also you have to take inflation into account. 10 years ago those prices sound about right. Now, not so much. Your perception of value is probably stuck in the past.

Remember, things are only worth what people are willing to pay for them.


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

[User] [Predator] if a predator was hunting and they found a man who was mentally and emotionally unstable and ill due to a tumor would they still kill the man?

[Assistant]
In general they wouldnt, it would be a kill without honor involved. They will generally only attack prey that provides them a challenge or they can handicap themselves to the point it is a challenge. A predator that over prepares and effectively slaughters a defenceless prey effectively shame themselves.

Thats not to say they wouldnt kill the man. If attacked, they will defend themselves, they just wont take any pleasure from it or deem it as a worthy kill. They arent going to spend time judging the mental ability of the prey. But generally will avoid children, the unarmed, the weak and frail, etc. They would presumably figure out the mans worthiness during the stalking phase of the hunt.


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

[User] ELI5:Why Russian rockets have branching thrusters, while American ones don't.

[Assistant]
The Soyuz rockets used technology directly derived from the V-2 missile. The problem the Soviet engineers faced when making the R-7 launcher  for the Soyuz was that, when they attemted to scale the engine larger, the engines became more unstable. They began stuttering and exploding.

The US took years to  solve this problem in the F-1 engine program, which were used in the in Saturn Rockets.

The Soviets engine designers solved the combustion instabilities by using  one large powerful turbo-pump that feed four small chambers instead of a one large. This resulted in more stable combustion. Which, allowed for a larger and more effective turbo-pump.

The Russians have kept this concept of clustering many small chambers  and feeding them with a common turbopump.  The RD-170, the world's most powerful liquid-fuel rocket engine, use the same idea of using four smaller chambers feed by a common turbopump.


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

[User]
Sooo... turns out I don't have security clearance to present at a conference tomorrow. Plan B?

My funding comes from the government, and while the work I'm doing involves a publically available dataset with publically available methods, I need security clearance to give my talk. This is despite having already attained clearance for our publically available paper that the talk is about.

So, yeah. I'm going to a conference where I probably can't discuss our work. Any ideas? I may cut out all discussion of our paper and instead talk about the papers related to the data set and the method.

[Assistant] Wow, that sucks! Im sorry that happened. Had a lab mate have a similar issue with DOE data - approved for the publication but found out days before that somehow the approval doesnt transfer to talks and he needed an entirely different form... no time to get it of course. what he did was present (he had a talk) the motivation, then future work on an upcoming dataset (so basically the intro and future directions of his original talk). It was not ideal but the talk was only 10 min so it was okay. Do you have a talk or poster?


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

[User]
[DBZ] Why the hell hasn't Goku wished for immortality?

He is the strongest being in the universe, guardian and protector of all good. The only thing stopping him from saving the world in any given plotline is him dying. On top of that, gathering the dragonballs is more of a relaxing day trip than some grand arduous journey it used to be.

[Assistant] He basically is immortal. He may be "dead" but he's not some random ghost. He gets to stay himself and train with the kai's. Like you said in your response to the other comment, Goku likes fighting, eating, and training above all else. Being dead really allows him to do this more than being immortal on earth.


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

[User]
ELI5 How does milk put the flame out in your mouth after eating spicy food?

After eating spicy food, if the heat is too much to handle, you drink milk. It makes it less worse, but why is that?

[Assistant] Spicy food is spicy because of an oily compound called capsaicin. Oil isnt soluble in water so drinking water doesnt wash it off, it just glides over it. The fat and protein in milk bind to the capsaicin and dissolve the oily compounds, removing it from your mouth when you swallow.


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

[User]
[Bioshock] Could Rapture have survived if Plasmids were never developed?

We know that the development and use of Plasmids had a direct effect on Rapture's fall. Even if the Rapture Civil War was concluded quickly, having litteral super powered people who go insane with use, creates a very dangerous situation in a city bellow the surface.

If Plasmids were never invented, there would be no genetic arms race, no bands of insane Splicers, no Little Sisters. If Plasmids were never developed, would Rapture have survived? How would its lack have factored into the conflict between Ryan and Fontaine? How does its inexistance play out in Columbia's downfall? In other words, was it the invention of Plasmids that doomed Rapture?

[Assistant]
Canonically it would likely have collapsed sooner, actually.

Rapture was by design a heartless cutthroat society- escaping "petty morality"was one of its explicit aims- and by location a society with no escape and a zero-sum game in terms of space and resources. This rapidly lead to problems- a massive wealth gap, extreme poverty and wage slavery, an elite that was comprised entirely of mercenary assholes and increasing class warfare between rich and poor.

This lead to serious worries of full-scale revolution a few years after founding - what likely stopped it was ADAM, acting as an opiate of the masses and boosting the economy enough to help the people at the bottom.

Columbia is a good example of the issue: its collapse had nothing to do with vigor or dimension travel, it was due to being an incredibly bigoted society that crushed large chunks of the populace until they snapped. Replace racism with classism, and same applies here.

The Rapture Civil war would have always happened- when most of the population are starving and the elite are throwing elaborate parties, how can it not? If it wasn't plasmids, something else would have brought them crashing down.


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

[User] ELI5: How do "Moon Pools" work? How can a ship have a big hole in it yet not sink?

[Assistant] Other top explanations are forgetting that moonpools can be below the water line. This is because the air in the moon pool room is the same pressure as the water outside the moon pool. Experiment to show a similar effect: invert a clear glass over some water push the glass underwater, there eill be an air pocket in side. That is a moon pool the air compresses until it is the same pressure as the water outside so the water cant get in. On a ship they can pump more air in to push out more water to make the water stay at the same level.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is it Universally accepted that Green means GO and red means stop?

[Assistant]
I don't know about green being universally accepted as "go", but the fact is that red is accepted as "stop"

The reason for this is simple:
Red light penetrates better (whether it be through fog, smoke, rain, etc), due to its wavelength.

Now say you're driving on a super foggy day, and approach a stoplight. If it's green, but you didn't see it and you drive past the intersection, everything is a-okay. Now if you're suppose to stop, and you drive through the intersection, that's just disaster waiting to happen.

That's why you need a color that can penetrate well to represent "stop". Of course, throughout the years after it was implemented, humans are now programed through habit to relate "red" with ''stop"


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

[User]
[Pokemon] Team Rocket always gets hit with powerful moves and "blasts off". How the hell aren't they dead?

Seriously, how come no one brings up the fact that sees three are some kind of immortal beings? Countless times they've been hit with moves that cause enough force to fling them out into the sky and they always magically land safety. Not a broken bone, no cuts, clean as ever the next time Ash and his gang run into them.

What gives?

[Assistant] In the games, specifically in Gen 4's canalave library, there are texts that would suggest people and pokemon share a common ancestor, so Jesse and James would be taking "Hp damage", but not enough to kill them, perhaps they have the ability sturdy.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does sweat smell distinctively different in different areas of the body?

[Assistant] There are two distinct types of sweat glands found in humans: the eccrine and apocrine sweat glands. While eccrine sweat glands cover every area of your body, apocrine sweat glands only appear in axillary (armpit), external genital, perianal and areolar (nipple) areas. While secretions of both glands are initially odorless. The content of apocrine sweat glands' secretion includes proteins and lipids along with water and minerals while the secretion of eccrine glands only contain water and minerals. Bacterial breakdown of the apocrine glands' secretions is what causes the odor, not the secretion itself. As there is nothing to break down, the secretion of the eccrine sweat gland remains odorless.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Did the Clones receive any specialised training beyond basic soldiering?

Kind of three questions here, because I don't want to spam the subreddit with multiple posts.

1) **Did they train in hand to hand or melee combat?** I've noticed that a certain popular Stormtrooper has been trained in wielding a staff, but obviously he's likely to be a recruit rather than an original clone (plus the Clones are going to be dead or extremely old by that point). **Were Clones trained with lightsabers or taught how to handle lightsaber users**? On the face of it it seems like a pointless training exercise, but surely with Palpatine's ulterior motives with Order 66 it could've come in handy. Jango Fett clearly had trouble facing lightsaber'd opponents, so that seems like a weak spot in the Clone's skillset.

2) Jango was a skilled assassin and bounty hunter, expert marksman and tactician amongst other skills. He never comes off as an open combat soldier, and yet his Clones *are*. **Do the Clones possess Jango's stealth/assassin capabilites?** Or were they dropped in lieu of overt combat skills? Are they all equal to Jango in level of skill, or were they purposefully dialled down a bit?

3) Obviously the Clone army was part of Palpatine's master plan. But **did he** (through "Syfo Dias") **alter the training and Cloning programs the Kaminoans used for the Clones to ensure they were effective carrying out Order 66**? Was he relying on generic firepower and potential element of surprise overwhelming the Jedi, or were the Clones trained in dealing with Force-Users and lightsaber wielders (perhaps carrying Force-suppressing darts or wearing lightsaber resistant armor when near lightsaber users)?

[Assistant]
Like any functioning military clone units were trained based on personal skills. Some proved to be rash and agressive, given heavy weapons to fight on the front lines. Others proved to be natural born leaders, given leadership training or were invited to join the elite ARC forces.

Clones were given basic hand to hand combat training but their entire battle policy was often mid range volleys of blaster fire in great numbers. A Clone did something wrong of they were fighting hand to hand.

None of them had any lightsaber training, those things are too expensive to just hand out. Clones killed Jedi with sheer numbers. Sure a Jedi can block some blasters...not from 200 clones though.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do different types of pain feel, welldifferent?

I know that pain is a signal sent along nerves to the brain, but how do different types of pain actually feel different? Like what causes the difference between a stabbing pain vs a dull ache vs burning pain, etc?

[Assistant]
Nerves from your brain go to your spinal cord then split up and reach your internal organs then go to your skin.

* Stabbing pain: There are many pain receptors on your skin and they are close together. So the ones that are damaged report pain to your brain and the ones right next to them that aren't damaged don't report pain. So you can point to the exact spot that hurts. This is sharp stabbing pain because it's like a fine knife going into your body.

* Dull ache: This is often used to describe pain on internal organs where the pain receptors are more spread out. So you can't pinpoint exactly where the damage is because one pain receptor is covering lots of area.

* Burning pain is often used to describe when the nerves themselves are damaged.

* Colicky pain is when a hollow organ squeezes over something hard. Your gut pushes food forward like when you squeeze the last bits out of a toothpaste tube. If there is a hard mass inside, you'll feel pain when it squeezes around that part then the pain goes away when the squeezing moves forward. Then it comes back at the next squeeze. The same goes if you have a hard stone in your urinary tract.

* Radiating pain is when your brain confuses the internal organs with the parts of skin that share the same nerve. For example, the nerves that cover your heart then go on to cover your left arm. So if you have a heart attack, your brain might confuse the heart pain with left arm pain. This feels like the pain starts in your heart, but then moves out to your arm.

There are many other terms, but this gives you an idea of how specific injuries and the anatomy of nerves affect the terms we use. The actual terms aren't that important. There are hundreds of languages, but all humans experience the same types of pain. They're just helpful for doctors to try to narrow down what's going on when they first meet you.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Rogue One Spoilers

Why did Saw Garrera just give up? I guess I can understand narratively why his death fits, but it was portrayed as though he could just as easily have escaped with Jyn and company. I'm wondering if I'm missing some of his backstory (I only know him from Rogue One) that might make the "I will run no longer" line sound a bit less melodramatic.

[Assistant]
He was using a mask to breathe, and it doesn't look like he adapted to that as well as our favorite Dark Lord.  It's uncertain whether he would have made it to the ship, or whether he's able to run at all.

He also seemed to be losing his mind a bit with his treatment of the defected pilot, really paranoid fellow and not without reason.  That probably was getting to him.

(He apparently has some additional backstory coming up in a to-be-released episode of Rebels)


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

[User]
If nylon stockings rip all the time, why don't we use another material?

Surely another, more suitable, material exists?

[Assistant] There is.  Silk stockings don't rip nearly as often as nylon.  However, they're much more expensive and still run occasionally.  Most women buy the cheap ones, knowing that multiple pairs of them will ultimately cost less than a really good pair of silk ones.


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

[User]
How do we define what is rotating in the universe?

In relativity, we find that if a moving observer would look at the distant stars and it would seem as if the he is stationary and the stars are moving about him/her, it does not matter whether it is the observer moving or the universe is moving past him, they would experience the same relativistic effect, however, if there was an object spinning in space, there are 2 ways of looking at it. Either the object is spinning, or the observer and the entire universe is rotating around the object. So which inertial frame of reference is the right one or does it not matter? also since rotating bodies experience centripetal force, would the spinning body experience the centripetal force or would the observer experience it?

[Assistant]
You kind of answered your own question: pseudo forces appear in accelerated systems.

Rotation is an accelerated movement and acceleration is Lorentz invariant. That means, all observers in every inertial (un-accelerated) frame of reference measure the same acceleration of a given system.

Thus, there will always be an experiment that tells you whether or not you are being accelerated at a time.


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

[User]
Accomplished academics of reddit: if you could give one piece of advice to yourself when you started your first tenure-track job, what would it be?

Edit: so much helpful advice coming in. I love this community. Please share and keep it coming!

[Assistant]
Work 9 to 5.
Protect your time.
Write first thing in the morning.
Trust your gut.
Ask for help.
Be social.
Realize you cant save students.
People will stop asking if you say no.
No one is accomplished. Everyone is faking it.


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

[User] How is the USA able to print money month after month with no consequences, but Venezuela and Argentina entered butt-destroying levels of extreme hyperinflation in 5 minutes after printing?

[Assistant]
Currency is affected by supply and demand.

USA are able to print money month after money with little consequences because it is the most demanded currency in the world, and usually it is even more demanded through crisis. Even printing more, most of people don't untrust on the currency (so far) and keep demanding it.

Venezuela and Argentina don't have the same demand, neither the same trust. The supply increase affects in two ways: increasing the supply for the first demand, and making people untrusting on the currency and thus decreasing the demand for the currency.

Note that although it is unlikely, if people started to untrust USD, it would have bigger consequences, and it is hard to win people confidence again after the first breaking in the confiability, that's why most of countries that suffer with a monetary crisis tended to launch a new currency through the history.


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

[User] [Fallout 4] Who taught the inhabitants of the Commonwealth to read and write?

[Assistant]
Their parents? Their family? Their community? Their school, if they're lucky enough to have one? The signs, journals, books, and ads plastered all over the world?

 It's not like all human knowledge was wiped out and they crawled out of nothingness from a rock. They learned from their parents who learned from theirs who learned from theirs.

How did you think a real-world person learns? Its the same thing.


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

[User] ELI5: why do we sleep 8hrs on/16hrs off instead of, say, 24hrs on/48hrs off?

[Assistant]
Daylight. Our bodies release different chemicals when the sun goes down to encourage sleep.

Interesting to the second part of the question, a famous experiment was done where a scientist remained underground cut off from time and day/night. It found that her body became confused and eventually she remained awake for about 24 hours and slept up to 12 hours, creating a 36 hour day for her.


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

[User]
How far back in human history would we have to go before modern humans could not reproduce with their ancestors?

i.e. how far back would we have to go to be technically considered a different species?

[Assistant]
Other great apes have 24 chromosome pairs while humans have 23. There is speculation that this happened when human population was very small and was a mutation that spread through the entire population.

If you were to try to breed with a human from before this mutation you would probably be unsuccessful.

I dont know when this happened, it must have been during Homo Erectus or earlier since we know that Sapiens bred with at least two other descendants of Erectus the Neanderthals and Denosovians.


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

[User] ELI5: Whenever I hear a fork scratching the surface of a china plate, my body shudders. What causes this to happen?

[Assistant]
AFAIK, there are 2 different explanations proposed:

- The primate heritage hypothesis:  Hypothesizes that the sound bore some resemblances to the alarm call of macaque monkeys, or it may have been similar to the call of some predator.

- Physical hypothesis: Hypothesizes that the unpleasantness of the sound is caused by acoustic resonance due to the shape of the human ear canal which amplifies certain frequencies, especially those in the range of 2000 to 4000 Hz (the median pitches mentioned above), at such a level that the sound would trigger pain in our ears.


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

[User] [Superman] What does Clark Kent do at The Daily Planet? Is he considered a decent journalist?

[Assistant]
Clark Kent is an investigative journalist. His specialty is deep research pieces on public interest topics, but he also does a lot of low level reaction and personal interest stories in response to disasters and super-powered incidents.

He is a solid writer, but not nearly as passionate or focused as Lois Lane.


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

[User] [MCU] What does the Punisher think of the Avengers, especially Captain America?

[Assistant] We have no data yet in the MCU as we haven't seen the Punisher interact with the Avengers and we haven't heard his thoughts on them.  However, traditionally, Frank Castle usually has great respect for Captain America because he was a soldier just like Frank.


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

[User] ELI5: Why can i skype across the world with no significant delays, but a news channel can't have a proper conversation with their reporter?

[Assistant] Often times their reporter is in a remote location and communicating via satellite instead of hard wired networks. This introduces the massive delay you might see as satellite communication isn't as stable.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is the ocean sometimes really dark, like in the north Atlantic yet in some places a turquoise colour like in the Caribbean or South Pacific?

[Assistant]
Its because dead animals and plants sink in water. That might seem obvious, but it means that any nutrients in sea water are rapidly used up by animals and plants and when those organisms die they sink to the bottom taking the nutrients with them. The only way those lost nutrients can be replaced is if water from the ocean bottom, where all those dead organisms go, can be moved to the surface again.

That cycling cant happen in warmer regions because the surface water is warm and warm water floats on the cold water of the ocean bottom. As a result warmer waters very rapidly become nutrient deficient.

Because they are nutrient deficient very little actually lives in tropical waters. Very few algae, very little plankton and so forth. And because nothing much lives in tropical waters they remain clear. That means that light can get go waayyy down into the depths, and as light passes through the water the blue wavelengths get scattered. That produces a vivid turquoise blue ocean.

In contrast cold waters are dirty and full of life due to the upwelling of water from the ocean bottom. All that dirt and all the life it supports absorbs sunlight very fast. Light will only penetrate a few meters in cold waters. With very little penetration the light also doesnt have much chance to scatter. That produces an ocean that is very dark colored, and where the blue wavelengths are muted by the reds and greens to produce a muddy blue-gray.

So what it all comes down to is that tropical waters are clear, and they are clear because they are sterile and nutrient deficient. Coral reefs thrive in tropical waters precisely because they are clear and sterile and that allows enough sunlight for the photosynthetic symbiotic algae that live in the coral and that provide most of their food.


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

[User]
Does the "location" of a headache have anything to do with the cause?

I guess this is based on the premise that headaches that "feel" like they're in different parts of your head have different causes, which may well be false.

Assuming it's true, could you reason that a headache in the back of your head is related to eyestrain (occipital lobe)?  Alternately, is a headache caused by dehydration located in a different place than one caused by ice cream?

I'm guessing migraines are an exception to this.

[Assistant]
Some conditions classically present with pain in specific paces, e.g. Subarrachnoid haemorhage classically feels like someone hit you on the back of the head with a baseball bat and that is where the pain is typically localised to, despite the bleed being spread all over the place. Others however like acute angle Glaucoma can present with pain localised around the orbital area.

The majority of headaches however are termed tension headaches and while their aetiology is essentially unknown, they are quite benign with no underlying pathology identified. The idea that stimulating your eyes could cause pain in the corresponding brain area is flawed as the brain is incapable of feeling pain and therefore the perceived location of the pain is unlikely to have anything to do with the inputting sensory organ.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does multiplying two negatives give you a positive?

Thank you guys, I kind of understand it now. Also, thanks to everyone for your replies. I cant read them all but I appreciate it.

Oh yeah and fuck anyone calling me stupid.

[Assistant]
I give you three $20 notes: +3 × +20 = +60 for you

I give you three $20 debts: +3 × -20 = -60 for you

I take three $20 notes from you: -3 × +20 = -60 for you

I take three $20 debts from you: -3 × -20 = +60 for you

Edit: Gold thanks! $ signs, and quick note - the result is the gain or loss from where you started.


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

[User]
CMV: Its valid to feel sad about growing up in this era. I missed out and the world is worse in a lot of major ways

Im 19. Over and over again I see adults feeling sorry for people my age for growing up with x (usually social media or tech or Covid or polarization or whatever), and missing out on y (when music was good or some random nostalgia like that).

I know that every generation since forever has done that to the next. But I cant help but feel like theres some truth to it, and that I was born at a bad time and that life without the internet was more fun and that I have forever missed out on some good times simply by being unlucky to be born this time.

Basically: can you deinstall the this generation and time is bad message Ive been fed my entire life?

[Assistant]
With exponential technology advancement, each subsequent generation is living in the best time to be alive as a human. With the advent of the internet/widely distributed free information, today, a five year old has more information at their fingertips than the US President did 50 years ago. Today, HIV isnt a death sentenceheck, properly treated, an infected individual will live a normal lifespan. Thats wasnt the case 30 years ago. Today, many cancers are treatable.

Sure, there are some things from the past that some people describe with rose colored glasses on, but the vast majority of the world has more wealth, information and autonomy than they had a generation ago.


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

[User]
I am making a bank program in java, I'm trying to generate unique bank account numbers

So I'm doing homework for a class and I have to make a banking system where you can sign up and make an account. However I have difficulty trying to create an account number that wont repeat itself. Can anyone help me with this please?

[Assistant]
usually you would use a database to store the accounts, the idea of signing up would mean you need to store that data and create an account number which is like a key to that data.

Most databases have an Identity column which is ideal for Primary Keys and could be used as a unique account number.

I am keeping in mind this is for school so sequential numbers is not likely an issue.


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

[User] ELI5: Where do deleted files go when you delete them?

[Assistant] nowhere, they stay on your hard drive.  the os keeps pointers and only deletes the pointer to the actual location on the hdd, until they are over written.  so if you could manually look at the data in your hard drive and knew exactly where all the pieces are, they you can reconstruct the original file.


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

[User] ELI5: How are certain foods made to be instant? Such as instant oatmeal, potatoes, pasta, etc.

[Assistant] Each product is prepared in a different way, but the general strategy is this: Do most of the cooking process, then dehydrate it so it will last in a package, then package it. That way when the customer gets it, they simply have to add hot water which will rehydrate it and finish the last 10% of the cooking process.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] If it's so easy to go to the Dark Side, why are there so few Sith?

Anger, hate, jealousy, rage, personal attachment and only two Sith in the Galaxy?

[Assistant]
There use to be tons of Sith, there was an entire Sith Empire that was constantly at war with the Republic, but the Empire imploded due to lots of infighting among the Sith.  That's when Darth Bane came along killed all the other Sith and invented the Rule of Two, which stats that only two Sith Lords could exist at any given time: a master to embody the power of the dark side of the Force, and an apprentice to crave it.

Also Dark Force User != Sith Lord, Sith are a very specific "cult" of dark force users, for example Kylo Ren is not a Sith, he is a Dark Force user.


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

[User]
ELI5: How close are we to WWIII right now? What single thing has to happen?

I'm not asking for karma, I'm asking for an answer. A simplified one.

[Assistant] World War 3 isn't even on the horizon at the moment. In fact, it's going to be totally impossible until we can develop a way to neutralize the danger posed by nuclear weapons. The Cold War might be over, but MAD is still in place; none of the major players on the world scale can fight it out without killing themselves. Until we perfect missile defense technology, or develop missiles which can be delivered across the world faster than an enemy country can retaliate, all of the big countries are going to be relegated to proxy wars at worst.


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

[User] ELI5:Gravity aids us in our digestion. However, in space, how is food digested? Does it float around in your digestive system?

[Assistant]
Remember

>Gravity ***aids*** us in our digestion.

Which means there are other ways to move food down the digestive system. The answer is muscles. Food in your mouth is pushed to the stomach by muscles in the lining of the tube between mouth and your stomach. Then, in your stomach the digested food is pushed again into your intestines. While in the intestines it is pushed all the way to the, well, to the end.

As a simple experiment, try drinking water while standing on your head. You will be amazed that you can indeed swallow the water. You could even eat a full meal on your head and you would have no problem getting your food where it belongs.

Also your digestive system, when empty, isn't just full of open space where food can float around inside like you see on cartoons. Your stomach shrinks down as food passes from it and can expand as much as 50x in size! But when empty your stomach isn't just a gallon of empty air.


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

[User] ELI5: Why Does it seem like every single country sells arms to Saudi Arabia, and why does Saudi Arabia need so many in the first place?

[Assistant]
Most advanced western nations, particularly and overwhelmingly the US, sell weapons to just about everyone willing to pay, and if they are even willing to sell you weapons, you get all the money together to buy them because they are so wildly good that you will never be able to produce them yourself even in 50 years. Its that wild. These weapons are worth far more than their weight in gold. We sure rename Weight in gold to weight in US weapons, its better than gold, silver, diamonds, anything. It jumps your military up decades in an instant.

Saudi Arabia has tons and tons of money. They also have minimal domestic military production. But they want to field a modern military. So they use that money to buy weapons (they cant make their own) from everyone who is selling them, and as much as they are willing to sell.


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

[User]
Where does body heat come from?

I understand that blood is warm and the cardiovascular system distributes blood/oxygen/heat throughout the body, but how does the blood get hot in the first place?

[Assistant]
The catabolism of sugar, fat, and protein with oxygen to make ATP (basically transferring energy from chemical bonds to a different type of bond that is used by the body's cells as fuel) is not 100% efficient. This produces heat and thus warms our blood. The blood circulates to your core and warms your body.

Heat and sound are types of energy leaving a system. An engine, for example, is not efficient and loses a lot of energy from combustion of fuel to heat and sound.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why did the NFL choose the small town, Green Bay, to have an NFL team over Milwaukee and Madison?

Over all the cities in Wisconsin, why Green Bay?

[Assistant] The team was founded BEFORE the modern NFL. Back in the early 1900's "pro football" was concentrated in the Midwest and tons of towns like GB or Duluth had teams, GB is just the one that survived till the sport got big.


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

[User]
What is the ELI5 for how RegExp works?

For me, Regexp feels like magic. It's like you can parse anything with a few short keystrokes. Prior to Regexp, I'd be writing extemely complicated for item of string.split loops, to get the things that I would need.

I'm pretty curious as to how it works under the hood.

[Assistant]
First, that gibberish-looking `[a-zA-Z_][a-zA-Z_0-9]*\s*=\s*\d+\s*;` syntax is just some notation. The regex engine reads this notation and builds its internal representation - a _state machine_.

A state machine is basically a directed graph whose nodes represent questions about the next symbol in the input stream and the edges are the possible answers to these questions _and_ instructions to go to the next question.

For example:
 1. Is the current symbol one of `a-zA-Z_`? If yes, read next character and go to state 2, else _NO MATCH_;
2. Is the current symbol one of `a-zA-Z_0-9`? If yes, read next character and go to state 2, else read next character and go to state 3;
3. Is the current symbol a kind of space (the syntax is `\s`)? If yes, read next character and go to state 3, else read next character and go to state 4;
4. Is the current symbol a literal "equals" sign (`=`)? If yes, read next character and go to state 5, else _NO MATCH_;
5. Is the current symbol a kind of space (the syntax is `\s`)? If yes, read next character and go to state 5, else read next character and go to state 6;
6. Is the current symbol a digit? If yes, read next character and go to state 7, else _NO MATCH_;
7. Is the current symbol a digit? If yes, read next character and go to state 7, else read next character and go to state 8;
8. Is the current symbol a kind of space (the syntax is `\s`)? If yes, read next character and go to state 8, else read next character and go to state 9;
9. Is the current symbol a literal semicolon? If yes, __FOUND A MATCH__! Else, _NO MATCH_!

Say, your string is `"abc = 82;"`. You read the first character and go to state `(1)`.

If you arrive at state `(9)` and get a match, this means that, well, the regular expression above matches the string, or, in other words, that string can be generated by the grammar encoded by the regular expression.

If you arrive at `NO MATCH` _anywhere during the execution of the algorithm_ (not necessarily in state `(9)`), you stop and report an error because the regex doesn't match the string.

As you can see, this can be easily implemented with `goto` statements and labels:

```
azAZ_ = "abcd...xyzABCD...XYZ_";
azAZ_09 = azAZ_ + "0123456789";

START:
 ch = getchar();
 if (ch in azAZ_) goto _2;
 goto ERROR;

_2:
 ch = getchar();
 if (ch in azAZ_09) goto _2;
 goto _3;

_3:
 ch = getchar();
 if (isspace(ch)) goto _3;
 goto _4;

_4:
 ch = getchar();
 if (ch == '=') goto _5;
 goto ERROR;

// and so on...

_9:
 ch = getchar();
 if (ch == ';') goto MATCH;
 goto ERROR;

ERROR:
 printf("ERROR at character '%c'!\n", ch);
MATCH:
 puts("Yeah, everything is OK!");
```

Now, you wouldn't normally generate that code from the regex string above (although you could). Instead, you'd build some kind of graph (like a linked list, but a graph whose node can link to _any_ other node, including itself), whose nodes will execute some functions that can return, for example, a pointer to the node where the algorithm will jump:

```
node *start; // will be filled up by analyzing the regex string

node *current_node = start;
while (1) {
 current_node = current_node.step(string_to_match);

 if (current_node.tag == NODE_ERROR) {
  printf("ERROR at character '%c'\n", current_node.character);
  break;
 } else if (current_node.tag == MATCH) {
  puts("Yeah boiiiiiiiiii!");
  break;
 }
}
```


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

[User]
[Marvel] Why is Mephisto present in the abstracts meetings ?

He is a skyfather level demon and thus very powerful, but why is he present in the meeting of abstracts ?

He is not a cosmic entity,and is ruler of his own hell,so why is he there ?

Or any of the skyfathers or hell lords for that matter ?

[Assistant]
I suppose the simplest answer would be "Because he wanted to, and nobody bothered to banish him out".

While he isn't an abstract entity, he is, as you've said the most powerful archdevil in the Lower Realms, so he's powerful enough to make anyone's business his business.

I would assume other Skyfather gods are more preoccupied with their own pantheons, especially considering that in Chaos War there was a whole slew of godslaying going on, and thanks to Thor, Asgard pretty much pushed aside most of the other pantheons in the mind of the mortals. Even though Russian Winter Guard managed to get their hands on Perun and Chernobog of slavic pantheon, Perun is clearly not as strong as Thor, and Chernobog is basically uncontrollable and does whatever it pleases -\_\_-"

And Japanese pantheon is probably still ashamed that one of their own started the Chaos War in the first place...


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

[User]
[Dead Space] Origin of the Necropmorhs?

What is the origin of the Necromorps and the Markers? Are they a bioweapon developed by an unknown alien species that they lost control of when they deployed it or had an accident with it or are they just a fluke product of evolution?

[Assistant]
Prevailing theory is that they're a race that has ascended to evolutionary perfection. Functionally immortal and able to exist for billions of years. They're the true end of existence a perfect harmony between life and death. Reproducing by seeding worlds with their markers and waiting millions of years to gestate into a new moon.

Another theory is that they're the natural universe and we're the aberration. That death and lifeless rocks are the natural order and worlds like tau volantis and earth are freak mutations the brethren moons correct.


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

[User] ELI5 why Serbia and Kosovo still are in a conflict und why is it getting more aggressive atm?

[Assistant] They are in conflict as Kosovar Albanians desire independence, while Serbia refuses to recognise this. There was a recent escalation as the Serbian Prime Minister claimed the Serb minority in North Kosovo are being threatened, and that the NATO-led Kosovo force is failing to protect them. The PM also stated they may deploy troops to Kosovo which would radically raise tensions.


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

[User]
[Mad Max: Fury Road] What is the world like outside of Immortan Joe's sphere of influence?

Gas Town and the Bullet Farm are about as militarised as Joe's lunatic death cult, so clearly they need that firepower against someone. The Rock Riders have no clear means of surviving other than robbery, and the Buzzards are clearly regular raiders themselves. The Vuvalini/Many Mothers are also used to ambushing travellers.

Joe's citadel is the only place we see actually grow food, but who are all these other people brutalising? Clearly there must be a fair amount of prey to support this many predators.

[Assistant]
It's generally believed that the land is divided up into zones where different warlords take control of the area *or* different survivors attempt to eke out a living among the wastes.

From the closest that we see of the world to the Fury Road movie, the video game developed by Avalanche, there are a variety of settlers around the area which is only tangibly related to Immortan Joe's operations (you still explore Gas Town and the enemies are War Boys, however).

We see people attempting to settle a disused oil refinery in Mad Max 2 and there are two warring warlords who are trying to keep order in another town in the third one.


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

[User] [1984] something I always wondered about 1984 is who is actually reading the old newspapers that Winston edits. It's hard to imagine anyone from the porles or outer party doing it.

[Assistant] It doesn't matter if anyone *would*, just that they *could*, and if they were to they must not be allowed to believe any differently from the current part orthodoxy, no matter how nonsensical or mercurial that standard may be.


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

[User] [Super Heroes] Ive been planning on developing some unique super powers. Any suggestions as to which radioactive animal bites would give me some amazing atypical powers. Something novel to help me stand out from the typical super hero?

[Assistant]
I've thought about this before.

The obvious answer is a flea:

- super fucking insane jumping power

- tough as fuck and really goddamn difficult to kill

- drinks blood (uh maybe you want to be a villian?)


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

[User]
ELI5: The levels of police officer

What's the difference between a sheriff, deputy, lieutenant, detective, etc? Why do I only see police cars with "sheriff" on them?

[Assistant]
Sheriff is an elected position which generally derives it's powers from the Constitution of the state. Sheriffs Deputy or Sheriffs Officer are "deputized" to act on behalf of and have the powers of the Sheriff. They're also usually officers of the court and have power to enforce civil law, which is why they serve civil writs, documents related to child support, divorce, etc.

Police departments and state police are the law enforcement arm of state, county and local governments. They enforce traffic and criminal law, but cannot enforce civil matters.

Sergeant, Lieutenant, Captain, etc. are part of the rank structure, both within Sheriffs departments and police agencies. They are typically supervisors in charge of deploying resources, management and oversight.

Detective is a specialized position who focuses mainly on the investigation of crimes and apprehension of criminals. This can vary from insurance fraud to homicide to high level drug smuggling. They specialize and take courses above what a patrol officer would need for his typical day to day interactions.


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

[User] ELI5: How exactly does a 401(k) work?

[Assistant] Untaxed money is taken out of your paycheck, and put into an investment account. Your employer matches what you put in up to a certain amount. That money grows tax free, and you pay taxes once you withdraw it in retirement. Very basic lowdown, a lot more info can be said.


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

[User] [The Culture] What does gridfire look like?

[Assistant]
Blinding white light.

Gridfire is just energy manifested in this universe. Its the "fabric" that separates dimensions and that fabric is pure energy. We smash the atom to release the energy in the bonds holding it together resulting in a very large explosion. This is the same principal just removing the atom smashing part. Just opens a door to the explosion dimension.

Gridfire simply opens a hole in that fabric, that hole can be pretty much any size and at any location.

You can*t defend against it, all you can do is avoid it.


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

[User]
Does the observed state of a particle at a given time affect future evolutions in its wave function?

I'm struggling to reconcile the physical and mathematical interpretations of the evolution of quantum particles.  If an individual particle can be observed in a random (but predictable) state, does this observed state affect the probability of it being found in a given future state?  If so, how can the properties of the wave function evolve deterministically?

[Assistant]
If you know the initial state of the particle and you allow it to undergo unitary time evolution, you can determine what its state will be at any subsequent time using the time-dependent Schrodinger equation.

The state at some time in the future will in general be different for different initial conditions.


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

[User] How is our liver able to regenerate itself, when our other organs cannot?

[Assistant]
Many other organs can regenerate. For example, skin, bones, blood vessels.

But liver is the only internal (visceral) organ that can regenerate.

The reason for this is that the main function of liver is to remove ingested toxins from blood before they reach main circulation, and liver cells are relatively often killed off in that process. (Because toxins are, well, toxic.)

Most other organs have no strong need to replenish their cells, and as a result they are unable to recover from a significant loss. But again, organs that *do* have a strong need to replenish their cells (like skin) can (and do) regenerate from significant damage.


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

[User]
Does price influences demand, or does demand influences price?

How would you answer this question? Sounds like a chicken and egg problem but I would like to hear some thoughts on it.

[Assistant]
Demand affects price, which then affects quantity demanded.

In other words, the general demand of a good (how much people want to buy it at any given price) intersects supply somewhere to establish an equilibrium price. This equilibrium price then determines quantify demanded (not the same thing as the demand curve from before). Quantity demanded is the actual number of units of a good that are bought at a specific market price after the market clears.


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

[User]
ELI5: What makes plastic surgery look so obviously overdone?

It seems you can always tell when someone has had work done on their face, but what is it exactly that gives it away? Shouldn't the goal be to not tell you had work done in the first place?

[Assistant] It's like CGI in films. You don't notice a lot of it. You only notice what stands out. Tens of thousands of people undergo cosmetic surgeries every day, and you'd have no idea. It can be simple things like having protruding ears pinned back, eyelids changed, lip lifts, nose jobs etc etc.. if surgery is done well, you'd never know. It's when people go crazy with lip filler and augmented cheeks that things start to get noticeable.


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

[User]
Eli5: Why does research take so much computing power?

I always hear about scientific research needing crazy amounts of computing power but I have no idea why. As someone with an interest in hardware, Ive always been intrigued by this.

[Assistant]
A lot of of problems that come up in science are not solvable by straightforward algebraic methods. Things like protein folding, fluid dynamics, stress/strain, gravity/orbits with multiple bodies etc end up with fairly complex differential equations. In the past, the only method was do make a lot of simplifying assumptions in order to make the problems tractable. As computers develop, there needs to be fewer assumptions and the computer could do a lot more grunt work calculations to get more accurate answers. But there are still classes of problems that are best approached using simulation. These generally require stepping forward in small increments (usually time) and solve the state of the problem, then step forward in time and use the end result of the previous stage to calculate the current state.

This requires huge amounts of computing power if the time steps are small and if the systems for each state are complicated (say modelling movement of all the stars in the entire Milky Way or weather patterns).

Then there are classes of problems requiring optimization - for example complicated molecules like proteins can be "folded" in many ways (think in terms of trillions and billions of ways) There is no way to predict what "works" so each configuration has to be simulated separately and tested.

Then there are just the complicated observations (say astronomy) and experiments (say the LHC) which generate terabytes and petabytes of data. It would take thousands of years for a person to analyze the data by hand to extract meaningful data and patterns that might be useful.

Some of the examples in research that take advantage of computing power.


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

[User] Why is it that animals such as birds are "scared" of humans, while smaller insects like flies are not?

[Assistant]
Birds have a lot more "brainpower", which is metabolically expensive but gives them greater behavioral flexibility than insects.  In general, birds are more capable of learning about humans (or even recognizing them as distinct entities), while insects rely on high reproductive rates and a series of inflexible but very fast and effective escape maneuvers.

EDIT: flies in particular might be better off being attracted to humans, since we aren't particularly good at killing them and tend to be associated with good food sources.


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

[User] ELI5: If your body reacts to certain foods it perceives to be a danger to you for the purpose of keeping you alive, how is it that the allergic reaction itself is so often what kills us anyway? Is it just bad at this?

[Assistant] Essentially yes, it is sometimes bad at this. Allergies are your immune system mistaking something harmless for something dangerous. Your body can then massively overreact to the percieved threat, and do you harm.


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

[User]
ELI5: If I have 600 MB of storage left on my phone, why do I get a warning for "insufficient storage" when downloading a 15MB app?

Per the title. My phone only has 8GB of storage. Sometimes I get to the point where I only have 600 MB of storage left. If I try to download an app that's only 15 MB, it tells me there is insufficient storage and won't download. Can someone ELI5 why this happens?

[Assistant]
Super simple answer: Your stomach tells your brain that you are full before the food is backed up to your throat.

I think most operating systems try to reserve a little space in case it's needed for something essential.


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

[User]
Can someone explain to a dumb person like me how printing that much money won't increase inflation?

There seems to be two schools of thought when it comes to economics,

And on Twitter I mostly follow right-wing, conservative, pro-bitcoin influencers that say we will soon enter hyperinflation as the government is printing too much money.

The US government doesn't seem to think so...

Can someone explain to me HOW printing that much money won't cause super high inflation?

[Assistant]
If the economy were operating at its potential output level, then you would be right. However, in a recession (such as this one), the economy is operating at an output level lower than its potential. This means that there are unused resources in the economy -- things are not operating efficiently.

Monetary policy (manipulating the quantity of money in the economy) is a tool that is used to help correct this. In the case of a recession, increasing the money supply theoretically stimulates the economy, and helps us return to potential output. This happens because in a recession, the velocity of money is lower than usual, so the quantity theory of money (which assumes the velocity of money is constant), doesn't really apply. The quantity theory of money is where economists get the idea that generally, an increase in money supply leads to an increase in the general price level.

Despite a low interest rate, people are still saving, when we want people to be consuming (putting money back into the economy). So money is being stored away as opposed to being circulated (this is what's meant by low velocity of money).

For example, you can take a look at the stats after the 2008 recession. The Federal Reserve increased the money supply in a similar way, but it didn't result in hyperinflation.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do old people sometimes have shaky voices?

What physically causes it?  Thank you.

[Assistant]
Vocal cords vibrate - thats part of their function. And vibration is a really great way to cause wear and tear on any material. Especially over long periods of time, vibration can wear down vocal cords and the muscles that move them so that motor control over them degrades.

Certain medical conditions associated with old age are also associated with a loss of muscle control which can affect the vocal cords. And being older also increases the risk of regularly inhaling things like cigarette smoke which can also damage tissue along the throat.

Another cause is the respiratory system. Older people are at higher risk for respiratory conditions which make the power of their lungs reduced. At that point, they may have trouble sustaining airflow for a stable voice.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is it ~40% more expensive to buy a laptop/phone in England than it is in the US? (Trying to bring mom out of stone age)

 Insane what it costs to buy the exact same phone/laptop from .co.uk (play store/amazon/e-shops) than from US.

(+Kudos for helping me make it affordable. Right now im trying to find if even with 'import fees', will it be cheaper than buying it in England).

Why is this? Regulation hurdles? Import tariffs? Exchange rate (this one i least understand)?

[Assistant]
There are a number of things to consider:

* VAT (value added tax) adds 20% to the price of any taxable items, and unlike in the US, advertised prices have to include all applicable taxes.

* Warranty coverage. Within the EU, consumers can make a claim for faulty/misdescribed goods within the first two years, and British law goes beyond that in some cases. Because by law consumers essentially get a 'free extended warranty' and retailers/manufacturers have to bear the costs for that, this will usually result in higher prices.

* Manufacturers do set different prices in different countries partly because they can.


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

[User] ELI5:Why do Power Transformers explode?

[Assistant]
Power transformers run at fairly high voltages. The voltage is so high it can actually throw lightning around inside, so they put oil inside the box to keep the electricity going where it needs to, since oil can hold back higher voltages before it throws lightning.

Unfortunately, in some worst case scenarios, the oil can't hold back all of the voltage, so it gets ignited by the lightning in the box. Then it builds up pressure that the box can't hold. In the end you get a giant fireball, and lots of people lose power.


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

[User]
Why do small spiders have venom so strong it can kill a human?

If it can kill a human, it would certainly seem very overkill for its intended pray?

[Assistant] Venom is required not only to kill the prey, but to subdue it quickly. While there are some snakes who will bite prey, then track it while the venom goes to work spiders have the integrity of their web to worry about while scorpions actually hold their prey in their claws actively fighting against the prey. Thus, the battle needs to be over quickly. Stronger venom assists in this.


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

[User]
Math as synthetic a priori

I just had my first lecture on Kant. My teacher of course talked about the synthetic a priori, but only went on to talk about it in regard to Kant's description of space and time.

I remember reading about Kant asserting that synthetic a priori knowledge also presents in the form of math, for example. My teacher stated during the lecture that math is analytic a priori, as David Hume claims. I stayed behind after the lesson and asked him about it, but he didn't seem to agree that math can be viewed as a synthetic a priori.

Doesn't Kant indeed say that math IS synthetic a priori, and if so, is that view accepted in contemporary philosophy?

[Assistant]
For Kant, mathematical judgments have an intrinsic connection to space and time.  He thinks of math as involving geometry and arithmetic, and the basis of geometry being the quantity we apprehend as extension in space while the basis of arithmetic is the quantity we apprehend as extension in time.  Accordingly, for Kant the question about the nature of math's bases becomes the question about the nature of our apprehension of the quantities of spatial and temporal extension.

So, on the basis of taking space and time to have an *a priori* source he infers that mathematics has an *a priori* source.  But the nature of this *a priori* source, on his view, is not merely one of recognizing the content of concepts we already possess (like when we judge that a bachelor is unmarried), but rather has its basis in our capacity to synthesize spatial or temporal extension in order to arrive at propositions describing geometric or arithmetic quantities.  So, by taking mathematical judgments to be acts of syntheses involved our apprehension of space and time, he takes them to be synthetic *a priori*.

I don't think that there's any consensus about the foundations of mathematical judgments these days; it was a heated dispute in the early twentieth century.  On one hand, there was definitely opposition to this Kantian account, which argued in favor of an analytic *a priori* basis for math, and this has had a wide influence on how philosophers think of mathematics.  On the other hand, one of the major proposals during the crisis about math's foundations, which remains a significant though minority interest among people working in this area, was deliberately modeled after Kant's view, which was articulated in a systematic way as a basis for thinking about and doing (it had some consequences for how math is done) mathematics--this is Brouwer's "intuitionism."


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

[User]
[LOTR] Why does the Ring abandon Isildur after only a few years when it stays with Gollum for centuries and Bilbo for decades ;

Was Isildur great enough that the Ring could actually be effectively used against Sauron and thus would be too dangerousto keep in Isildur's custody?

[Assistant]
The Ring abandoned Isildur at a time where there was a relatively high chance of it falling into the hands of the enemy; during the middle of a battle against Orcs. The likeliest outcome was that the Orcs would claim it.

Same thing happened with Gollum. It abandoned Gollum in the depths of a goblin infested cave. Again, the likely outcome was it being claimed by the enemy. As for why it abandoned Gollum when it did and not sooner, until that time it was content to wait. There was no rush for it to get back to Sauron, who was still recovering his strength from his defeat on the plains of Dagorlad. But once Sauron was ready and was actively preparing for war, the Ring took the first opportunity to leave Gollum.

And no, no one could truly use the Ring against Sauron. In doing so, they would end up falling in exactly the same ways he had, and he would just wait to take it from them. Unless the Ring was destroyed, Sauron couldn't be beaten, He could be scattered, weakened temporarily. But only the destruction of the Ring would defeat him permanently. Thus, all he would have to do is wait for the bearer to become corrupt, and then take it back from them.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] How does Tatooine sustain a breathable atmosphere?

How does Tatooine sustain a breathable atmosphere without any vegetation or trees?

[Assistant] A long time ago Tatooine was covered with rainforests and oceans, but something happened to turn it into a desert. The breathable atmosphere was developed then, and gravity keeps it there now. The population is so small that any drain the atmosphere basically won't cause problems for millions of years.


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

[User]
[General] Werewolves usually have the traditional fatal weakness to silver. What if a metahuman with the ability to turn into (organic) silver and/or has silver-coated bones is bitten by a werewolf?

Does the transformation still occur? Can they even be infected?

If so, will the person die when they transform, or - thanks to required secondary powers - their werewolf form is resistant/immune to silver?

[Assistant] If there's silver physically present in the victim's body then usually the infection is either warded off or kills the victim, depending on how far through the body the infection spreads before it reaches the silver; the werewolf is usually greatly injured or even killed biting into them. If the victim can transmute their own body into silver at will, however, then they could still be infected, though their body would probably instinctively begin the silver transformation whenever the werewolf transformation occurs. This would partially counter the latter metamorphosis, and result in a more humanoid, metallic werewolf, with the victim maintaining most of their normal mental functions instead of becoming an animalistic monster.


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

[User]
[illuminated Medieval Texts]From wherth doth come the snails of size most great, jousting the flowers of nobility and threatening all of Christendom? How can ye gentle serfs protect thyselves from such devilry?

Why doth such fell beasts vex us so!?

[Assistant]
Like the colossal rabbits and flesh-eating cabbages, they are demons sent by God to test the faithful.

The common man can rely on bows, crossbows, and slings to defend his home. Though the Pope has banned their use against Christians, they are acceptable arms to battle animals, demons, and Saracens.


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

[User]
ELI5: How did LED lights become so cheap to produce?

Through the 90s you never saw LEDs, and their lifespan was awful.  Now, they are so ubiquitous you see them embedded in every cheap thing you can imagine -- and super bright ones, at that.

I have an LED police flashlight that could blind Zeus.

So, what advances were made that allowed them to be produced so cheaply, and so efficiently?

[Assistant]
I don't think that an extended lifespan is the main reason why they are so popular nowadays, but it's rather the color:

LEDs have been invented in the 1960s, but the colors which could be produced in a cheap and efficient way were red, yellow and to some extend, green. However, in the early 1990s, a Japanese physicist, Shuji Nakamura, found a way to produce LEDs which emit blue light.

Using red, blue and green LEDs together, you can mix these and get white light (light of any color, actually). It took some time for these to come from the lab to the consumer (probably also advancing in lifespan and brightness).

Essentially, without blue LEDs we wouldn't be able to use LEDs to light a room or as a flash light.


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

[User]
What are some ethical issues/dilemmas in computer science?

Im trying real hard to find a topic for a paper I have to write for an International Baccalaureate (IB) class. The topic has to be about an ethical issue or dilemma that is occurring in computer science.

Two topics Ive found so far are How much protection is enough for web users and Are victimless crime better received than crime with human victims (for example is hacking someone as bad as physical assaulting them).

Thank you to anyone who helps!

[Assistant]
Some obvious ones:

* Is mass surveillance for counterterrorism ethical?
* Are you obligated to falisfy data when not doing so causes an unethical outcome in machine learning? Consider a simple machine that decides whether or not to approve a loan - it works well, but looking at the weights of the net tells you it only really considers ethnicity. Removing this from the data results in noticeably worse predictions. Are you obligated to remove/falisfy the data? What if the net is so big and complicated that you can't tell exactly how it makes its decisions? What if, instead of removing the data, you just increase the size of the net massively and retrain it (starting with random weights again)?
* A machine learning based industrial machine fails in software and kills a worker. To what extent are the developers of the machine to blame for the death? Inverted: you use machine learning to build an industrial machine. It's much better than the standard, but, unlike the competition, it has an error rate, and this could result in deaths. Is it ethical to release/sell the machine?
* Related to the above: should machines be able to own copyright? Consider a machine that reads all the novels in the world and learns to write novels, and ends up successfully publishing, with the programmer only acting as its agent. Does the machine own copyright? Is the programmer stealing from the machine if they claim the book is their own?
*  Is mass-publishing/social media ethical? Consider the Arab Spring, organised via Facebook, and the recent phenomenon of 'fake news'.


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

[User] ELI5: When your first response to hearing a new song is negative, what happens in the brain that makes us start to like it after hearing it over and over?

[Assistant]
One theory that explains why we enjoy music is that our brain rewards us for making correct predictions. Being able to predict things had obviously been important for the survival of our ancestors, that's why our brain evolved to be this way.

So when we listen to the beginning of a melody, the brain tries to predict the rest. If the prediction is right, we are rewarded with joy and consider the melody logical and beautiful. This also explains why we enjoy rhymes.

Now, if the sequence of sounds didn't make much sense in the beginning, with each repeated listen we kind of get used to it. Our brain remembers how the melody ends, so it predicts the ending right this time and we start to enjoy it. Of course, for this to happen we should be free from stronger feelings (like the annoyance of being forced to listen to a song when it happens against our will).


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

[User]
eli5: Why are there so many bad chemicals in cigarettes?

A cigarette is basically just paper, tobacco and a filter. So how do so many harmful chemicals get in them?

[Assistant]
While a lot of the additional chemicals are naturally present as part of the tobacco, there are a lot of additives as well, added by tobacco companies to help the smoker better enjoy the smoking process and increase tobacco consumption.
Smoke by itself is quite harsh, and so compounds like menthol are added in varying degrees (even cigarettes not marketed as containing menthol) to numb your throat.
Bronchodilators are added to help the tobacco reach inside of your lungs better, something typically not present in cigars where the smoke is intended to stay in your mouth.


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

[User]
[Diablo 1/2/3] Who keeps all those candles lit?

I keep finding lit candles in all these dungeons, oftentimes no monsters present except for some zombies and the like.  Who performs candle maintenance within Sanctuary's dungeons?

[Assistant] Well, with how prevalent magical loot is in all 3 games, it's not a large stretch to imagine that magic has crept into all sorts of professions.  When even the most basic wizard or sorceress (read level 1) can conjure a fireball, a magically extended life for candles surely isn't that hard.


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

[User]
ELI5: What are Lobbyists?

Example: people say there are special interest groups who "lobby" to keep marijuana illegal. What does that exactly mean?

[Assistant]
Lobbyists are hired by a group of people to talk to legislators.  Their job is to persuade them into your way of thinking.

Suppose you owned a logging company and people said "We want to end logging!"  You would hire someone whose whole job it is to talk to the legislators and get them to vote no on banning logging.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do fish survive tall waterfalls?

Not only survive the impact, but wouldn't they still hit the rocks at bottom? Why aren't there fish corpses all along the river banks at the bottoms?

[Assistant]
Couple things contribute.

Fish are fairly small so they don't gather much kinetic energy. They're also shaped much more streamlined than most animals so they enter water much more smoothly and gracefully.

The surface tension of the water, which is usually what would kill, say, a human, is broken by the water tumbling down onto the pool underneath. That "impact" is more or less gone as long as the fish can reach the water "inside" the stream of the waterfall.

Usually there's also enough depth underneath for them to decelerate without dangerously impacting rocks.

That being said, it's not always a given that a fish will survive a fall. Whenever one of these conditions no longer exist, such as if the fish leaves the stream of falling water into falling through the air, there's a good chance of the fish being killed or at least stunned on impact. In fact, they can be stunned even when all of those conditions are favorable, simply if the fall is big enough.


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

[User]
ELI5, Is the FBI and NSA running Tor?

Ever since the big bust of The Silk Road, why wouldn't the FBI or NSA build its own Tor network to track users in the dark web?

[Assistant]
The relevant software is open-source and known to be reasonably secure. The FBI itself said it was mostly helpless against Silk Road and whatnot until the people messed up in their use of TOR to reveal themselves. (Things like client-side scripts, for example, should be off as it could potentially be used to figure out who you are despite TOR.)

It is theoretically possible to create TOR entry and exit nodes that are compromised to get some information, and if you have the majority of entry and exit nodes in your pocket you can basically consider TOR itself useless as a means of anonymity.


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

[User]
I'm no computer expert, so forgive me if this is a ridiculous question: What would happen if computers switched to trinary instead of binary?

I don't know if this is even possible, but what if, instead of just 0's and 1's representing off and on, computers understood 0's 1's and 2's for off, half-way on, and completely on. Would that speed things up? Make hard-drives able to hold more data, etc?

[Assistant]
Binary it's really better than any other system, it just happens to be the simplest and easiest to design.  Any theoretical increase in performance has to be weighed against the additional work needed to design it, and in almost every case it just isn't worth it to do computation using something other than binary.

Designing hardware to operate on boolean logic is dead-simple, since you only have two states you can peg your logic voltage levels at the limits of your power supply and not really worry about it.  Determining logic levels becomes a matter of "Is it below X volts?  Logic 0.  Is it above Y volts? Logic 1".  This can be done pretty easily and wickedly fast, both essential properties for making fast circuits.

With >2 states, hardware complexity takes a decidedly nasty leap forward.  It's a lot harder to make digital hardware that operates on 3 or more discrete logic levels than one that works off two since you have to include additional hardware to discriminate between them at every step of the process; you can't use the supply limits as easy references anymore since you'll have a third logic level floating somewhere in the middle that's annoyingly difficult to efficiently detect with great accuracy compared to how easy it is to differentiate just two.

That said, it's very common for circuitry to have a quasi-logic level called 'high impedance' or just 'high-Z'.  Putting a logic line into high-Z effectively disconnects it entirely from any other inputs or outputs it's connected to, allowing useful functions like multiplexing lines together that you're sure will never have to drive it at the same time.  It isn't true ternary operation since it really isn't a "true" logic level, but it's a quick glimpse into the strangeness that goes on when digital circuit design meets the real-world analog craziness that reality consists of.


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

[User] ELI5: In reading about NSA PRISM, I've seen multiple statements about how cellphones can monitor you even when powered off. How is this possible? Does this mean that cellphones are never really "Off"?

[Assistant] Yes, provided they have a warrant to do so, the FBI can remotely activate the microphone and monitor you.  This came to light during the federal trial against John Gotti and the Gambino crime family.  To make the gathered evidence admissible in court, they had to display the warrants and explain how the gathering took place.  If you would like to research more about it (free of paranoid conspiracy theory) that's a really good starting point.


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

[User] [DC/Marvel] Let's say the Kansas of the Marvel Universe was where Superman landed as a child and was raised similarly by that reality's version of the Kents so he establishes the same ethics and connection to humanity. How would this world react to having Superman in it?

[Assistant]
For starters, Captain America and Superman are fast friends. They form a quick bond, akin to his friendship with Batman.

People of his power level aren't unheard of in Marvel (Thor, The Sentry, Hyperion, etc.), so he doesn't change the superhero game too much. Ultimately, Marvel's heroes just became more effective by the measure of one Superman. The public sees him similar to how they view Cap, usually on his side but capable of being turned against him. He joins the Avengers at some point, likely as a founding member (maybe one of the times they broke up then reformed). Clark can always be found where he's needed.

I haven't read many major Marvel events, but I'll comment on Superman during Civil War. Clark starts off on Tony's side, due to the destruction of the school. As time goes by, he grows more and more worried with the brewing conflict and Tony's increasingly desperate responses. Eventually, Clark defects and chooses to focus on minimizing damage and not picking sides. The absolute latest this could happen is the death of Goliath. If Superman is there when Bill dies, he takes the Thor clone down hard.


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

[User]
ELI5: How come when you stretch or get up fast you black out?

Sometimes, if I've been been sitting for awhile and get up to stretch, I black out. Usually, I lose my eye sight and have a headache, but only momentarily. Why is that?

[Assistant]
When you stand up quickly after sitting for an extended period of time the blood pressure to your brain decreases as blood flow increases to your legs, and you experience a mild form of "postural hypotension". Postural Hypotension is a more severe form, that often results in fainting and is a real medical issue- often related to things like diabetes.

Edit: Used hyper rather than than hypo.