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

[User]
Why can bacteria only decompose me when I'm dead and not while I'm alive?

I came across something in one of my lectures that got me thinking about this and was curious as to what the answer is. I know certain bacteria are responsible for decomposition, but what mechanisms prevent this happening in life?

[Assistant]
You have it a bit in reverse. You're not really preventing decomposition while alive *as much as* the process of dying accelerates decomposition.

Every cell in your body is working against an osmotic gradient. Water is trying to rush into the cell, which would rapidly burst the cell. As long as they get oxygen, glucose, and electrolytes, they burn fuel to create chemical energy. This energy is moved to special pumps that force water out of the cell, by altering electrochemical gradients.

When you die, blood stops moving. Oxygen and fuel are used up. Very rapidly, water begins bursting your body's cells. Suddenly, your tissues are excreting a bounty of nutrients.

At the same time, the chemicals pouring out of your cells contain digestive enzymes, which cells previously had kept locked up in special organelles within each cell. These enzymes begin breaking down your own body.

TL;DR: The process of dying itself begins decomposition. The loss of immune function after death is only a small part of why the body begins to chemically and structurally decompose after death.


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

[User] Why does steam sometimes rise from cold water?

[Assistant]
Steam or water vapor is invisible, the "steam" we see is really the water vapor condensing into small water droplets which scatter the light giving them their cloud like appearance.

This happens when the warm water vapor enters a region of cooler air.  A tea kettle going into the room produces these clouds of steam.

Now back to your question. These clouds of steam you see rising from cold water happen in the winter.  Generally a lake or a river is still unfrozen but a very cold air mass has moved in with temperatures in the 20s F (below zero C) or lower.  The water has  vapor pressure, so it is continuously evaporating, however when it enters the colder air, the air can't hold that much water so you see the clouds of steam (and probably some ice crystals) above cold water in the even colder air.


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

[User]
[Starcraft] If Protoss Warp-In already existing units and buildings, what are the minerals and vespene required for?

All buildings and units cost different amounts of minerals and vespene gas to warp in.  Why?  Shouldn't they all cost the same, since it's just a matter of opening a portal?

[Assistant]
It's a little more complex than that.

Some of the resources are transferred back to the source where the buildings/ships/weapons are built. They're then assembled there and warped in when called on.

Additionally, it takes a lot of raw energy to create the quantum wormholes that allow the protoss to warp in objects. They use the resources to power the warp-devices, instead of running them off of the internal powersources they bring with them.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do tea bags say Do Not Microwave?

Does it have to do with how the tea steeps? Or something with metal staples on the bag?

[Assistant]
Because you are doing it wrong!

You are supposed to put tea into boiling water all at once, not slowly heat it up with the water.  It does taste different that way.

EDIT:  To be clear, you don't put tea in water while it is still boiling, you bring the water to a boil, let it cool a bit, then put it in.


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

[User]
Question about moral intuitions

So it seems to me that a lot of moral philosophy relies on our intuitions about what's right and wrong. In fact, a lot of thought experiments are specifically made to tease out what are intuitions are in various circumstances.

But does this not make two assumptions:

1) that we already know what is and isn't moral, on a fundamental level,

And

2) that our intuitions are good.

The second point is especially interesting to me, because in every other discussion one is likely to immediately get beaten over the head with the naturalistic fallacy. Natural does not mean good. Ok, so why are our (presumably natural) moral intuitions any good?

[Assistant]
I think youre equivocating.

Natural does not entail goodness, in the sense of mora correctness, where moral correctness means something like, always fulfilling your moral duties.

But, when we ask if moral intuitions are good, we dont mean whether they fulfill their moral duties, but whether they are correct: do they reflect the miso facts accurately.


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

[User]
Is there any wildlife at all in the Antarctic interior?

I saw this bit of a nature documentary about a penguin who goes marching off toward a mountain, away from the coast where all his penguin buddies hang out and occasionally go diving to eat fish. The narrator said the penguin was headed toward certain death. Which makes sense, whats he going to eat? Is there anything at all in the interior of Antarctica away from the coast? Its frozen all year round and most of the land is covered by glaciers.

[Assistant] Nope. Emperor penguins can survive and breed the furthest inland, but even thats not very far. All noticeable life must stick to the coasts/peninsulas/islands. There are still microscopic extremophiles that can live anywhere and everywhere in Antarctica, but theyre pretty much pointless.


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

[User]
ELI5: What causes the prolonged choking feeling when I swallow a tiny amount of something the wrong way.

I mean, its in the same place it would be if I swallowed it normally. So why does it feel so different.

[Assistant]
After your swallow things, there are two tubes they can  go down. One is your esophogus. This is the good one,  and it leads to your tummy. The other is your trachea (tray-kee-ya), also called a "windpipe". This tube  leads  to your lungs. If food or water goes down the windpipe, you'll cough and/or choke.

When you make the effort to swallow, there's a little flap that comes down and usually covers the windpipe so things will go to your tummy and not your lungs, but it's not always perfect.  The flap is  called the epiglotis (ep-eh-glot-ess).


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

[User]
[Doctor Who] When Clara was inside the Dalek armor, she couldn't say worlds like "love", but in a 9th doctor episode, a dalek holding Rose hostage says the word "love". How did it manage that?

Also, why didn't Clara just say "Run you clever boy"? The doctor would have known that it was her immediately.

Edit: The title is supposed to say "Words, not "Worlds". Typo error, sorry.

[Assistant] Daleks existed in a number of incarnations throughout time.  While they are drakonian bout their genetics, they are not about their technology.  As such, the quality of their armor varies widely.   Not just in simple ways, but in more complex ways like their programming.  The one Clara was in was quite advanced, with commensurately strict programming.


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

[User]
Instead of the Universe expanding, could matter actually be shrinking?

Would the same characteristics of the universe not apply? Everything would be moving away from us rapidly, not because space is expanding, but because all matter is actually shrinking while the fabric of space stays the same?

[Assistant]
You can build a model where it's true (technically, it's just choosing new spatial coordinates) but then the speed of light changes...

Imagine that you cut a stick at a length of 1 meter, using the definition of the meter (the distance light travels in roughly 1/30000000 second). You measure the distance to a distant galaxy and find that it's 10^23 times your stick (that's a long and impossible method, but that's not a problem with thought experiment). Then expansion happens. If you measure the distance to the same galaxy, you will find 2.10^23 times the stick.

The first interpretation is to say: the stick is 1 meter, so the distance increased from 10^23 m to 2.10^23. Cosmological distances change but the matter is staying the same.

Your interpretation would be: the distance used to be 10^23 sticks and now it is 2.10^23, if we assume space is not expanding, it means the stick is now half a meter long. Matter is shrinking!

Up to now, both interpretations are good and you can prefer yours if you want to keep cosmological distances constant. But...

We actually have a way to make a choice between these interpretations. We can get back to the definition of the meter, to see if the stick is now 1 or 0.5 m. So we measure the time light needs to go from one end to the other and we find it's still 1/30000000 s.

So in the first interpretation the stick is always 1 m, the speed of light is always around 30000000 m/s but cosmological distances increase with expansion.
In the second interpreation matter shrinks. The speed of light varied from 30000000 sticks/second to 60000000 sticks/second but cosmological distances stay the same. A varying speed of light is not very good but why not?

Actually, cosmologists can use both interpretations. The second one is called "comoving coordinates" (because it moves with the expansion) while the first is "physical coordinates" (because they are the ones that really matter for physics, like for the speed of light).


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

[User] ELI5: What causes "lucid moments" in people who have dementia or other mental disabilities?

[Assistant] Trust me, a lot of scientists would love to figure that out. A lot of the brain and why it does what it does is still barely understood, and a lot of the mechanics of dementia for example are pretty much completely unknown.


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

[User]
What is the most impressive piece of software that exists today?

In your opinion, what do you think is the most impressive piece of software that exists today? What makes it revolutionary?

[Assistant]
Easy... the Linux kernel.  We have yet and may never see again a more universal piece of software.  It runs just about everywhere on just about anything.

It gets used every minute of every day by nearly everyone and most don't have a clue that it is there.


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

[User] [Star Wars] We've all dreamed of using the Force to make our daily lives easier, like for opening curtains or getting items just out out of reach. Do any Force users actually use the Force to make life easier, not just for fighting?

[Assistant]
Not really - in general discipline and training required to polish the Force skills for such casual use usually instills enough self-respect in the acolyte to not just casually throw it around.

In old canon Leias kids, usually Jacen and Anakin tended to lean on their powerful Force talents, something they had to be told to knock off, since by that time ysalamiri were known to exist.

Luke himself in Zahn novels discovered for himself that casually using the Force for not actually important tasks tends to blind one to more subtle insights it can offer.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does the taste of water change depending on your level of thirst?

[Assistant]
I heard it has something to do with your brain sending out signals to the rest of your body, taste buds included.
Your body need water to live, to survive. When you are super thirsty, water mostly taste sweet. Your taste buds trick you so you would drink more water.


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

[User]
[Star Wars/Sci-fi General] Deadliness of the First Order Stormtroopers

[This may be the wrong sub to ask this question but....]

In *The Force Awakens* the First Order steals kids from their families and trains them to be soldiers in the First Order army, the idea being that the kids will have unquestionable loyalty to the First Order and will be deadlier than the average soldier.  And in a lot of Sci-fi, there's the idea that a kid trained from birth to be a soldier will be highly effective at their tasks.

But you're going to be completely caring for this kid until *at the earliest* they start puberty before you start recouping your investment.  And from what I've heard, these "raised from birth" soldiers are often killed by run-of-the-mill volunteer soldiers, so what exactly is being gained from training kids from birth to kill?

[Assistant]
Social conditioning. Even the best trained soldier can suffer a breakdown, because ultimately, humans aren't particularly violent. Training a soldier requires conditioning them to ignore instinctual responses and do something that is A: against their self-interest and B: against their wider social programming.

By raising children in a conditioning environment, you can avoid the second issue. You don't have to worry about then being taught that killing is wrong, because you control the lessons. It's not going to necessarily make a better soldier, but it is likely to make a more controlable one.


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

[User]
[DC] Could Superman have donated his pod to NASA for study?

Superman does seem to care about humanity and helping them advance in this universe. According to the math, Superman's pod took about 3 years to travel the hundreds of trillions of light years between Krypton and Earth. With that technology, trips to the Moon and Mars would be like trips to the corner store and even leaving the solar system would only take a few hours or days round trip. So why not give the pod to NASA to advance their space program in ways that were never before possible?

[Assistant] He could,  but probably wouldn't,  as it would be a short term gain for humanity,  but a long term loss.   There are so many centuries of things for us to learn while developing that kind of FTL drive that we would have just skipped over.   For example,  what if we went from the horse and buggy,  but then before the invention of the automobile,  an alien gifted earth a tesla roadster.  You might think that would be great because we'd go straight to zero emission cars, but we'd skip over every other thing that came with the slow development of cars,  like the 5 day work week,  assembly lines,  traffic laws, portable power generators,  etc.


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

[User] ELI5: why is it that in low lighting, the quality of the image preview on my camera(or phone) is better than the actual resulting picture after I click the shutter?

[Assistant]
Firstly, it's important to understand that individual pixels in a camera's image sensor can be affected by electrical "noise", similar to how a radio can crackle when a fluorescent light is switched on, or a cell phone is put near it. This noise shows as speckles, bad colour reproduction, etc.

In low light, the signal from the sensor has to be amplified to reach a usable brightness, and this also amplifies the noise.

The preview picture is much lower in resolution (so that it can update nice and quickly), and it uses the "average" of several surrounding pixels (inside the camera sensor) to make one pixel in the preview image. This eliminates some of the speckle/noise effects that show in the full image, which is using each pixel of the camera sensor individually.


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

[User]
What is the speed of time?

Mathematically speaking.

[Assistant]
Let's assume we have a massive object, maybe Bob in a spaceship flying away from you. Bob is moving really fast so we have to use special relativity. Let's say time on our clocks is t and time on his clocks is T, let's also use our x,y,z distances. Note, Bob also has his space coordinates X,Y,Z. Thus velocity has four terms,

>u^(0) = d(ct)/dT
>u^(1) = dx/dT
>u^(2) = dy/dT
>u^(3) = dz/dT

Note we've put time and distance in the same units by considering ct instead of just t. Arguably, the first term is our "speed of time." We know from special relativity that time in two difference reference frames are related by the Lorentz factor .

>  = 1/(1-(v/c)^(2)) where v is velocity dx/dt
> ct = cT

Thus,

> u^(0) = d(ct)/dT = c

The speed of time then depends on relative motion. However Bob doesn't care about how we're moving. Bob wants to know the speed of time for *himself* on his spaceship. Let's consider all the speeds from before again,

>U^(0) = d(cT)/dT = c
>U^(1) = dX/dT = 0
>U^(2) = dY/dT = 0
>U^(3) = dZ/dT = 0

From the last three, we see that Bob doesn't think he is moving on his spaceship. However, he notes his "speed of time" is the speed of light, c. The speeds we were considering together form something called a 4-velocity which is obvious because it's a vector with four parts.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is there a difference between your heart beating fast and beating hard?

During exercise my heart will beat fast, but not very hard.
However when I abruptly wake up from a nightmare or see a person I'd rather avoid, my heart will beat very hard but slow.

Why is it necessary for our bodies to have two different methods and do they achieve different effects?

[Assistant]
When you exercise, your blood pressure is regulated by a combination of your arteries expanding, arterioles in the muscle expanding, and heart rate increasing. For any given increase in intensity, it takes 2-3 minutes for that change to fully occur.

When youre at rest and under stress, your muscles dont put out the same dilation (known as functional sympatholysis) yet your heart rate may still increase. In that instance, the heart has to pump more forcefully to overcome the blood pressure shift and maintain the same ejection fraction (amount of blood pumped vs amount of blood left in left ventricle).


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

[User] ELI5:Do the pictures we see of space appear how we would see them in real life?

[Assistant] Not really.  The sensors in space observation telescope cameras are much more sensitive than your eyes.  Sometimes they see x-rays or other photons the eye can't detect, but even in optical wavelengths they are much more sensitive and have a much lower noise floor than your eyes.  They won't fix inside your head either, if that's a consolation.


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

[User]
Are there extinct subatomic particles?

Or are there elements that don't exist anymore? If a lot of crazy things happened around the time of the big bang, and that was an insanely long time ago, does that mean there could be elements or particles that no longer exist?

[Assistant]
There are many particles that were produced in abundance in the early universe, but which are very rare today.  Matter we see today is primarily made of electrons, up quarks, and down quarks; we also see light (photons) and neutrinos.

But there are all sorts of unstable particles that we can create in the lab (some of which we see via cosmic ray events and some of which might exist occasionally in extreme conditions at places in the universe today), but which shortly after the Big Bang existed in abundances comparable to their counterparts.  These include the muon and tau (like electrons in many ways, but heavier), and 4 additional types of quarks (strange, charm, bottom, and top).  In addition, antiparticles for all these objects -- the ones we no longer see today and the ones we still see today -- existed in abundance.  In addition, the W and Z bosons and the Higgs boson were produced easily in the extremely early universe.

In addition, there was a really early phase in the universe in which quarks and gluons existed freely, rather than being bound up into mesons and baryons, as they are today.


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

[User]
[Marvel] how good would Hawkeye be with an unreliable device, say a cheap and inaccurate slingshot?

As per title, follow up question: if he were accurate with it, would he need to fire it once to get a 'feel' for it or could he get all the info he'd need for accuracy by simply looking at the weapon?

[Assistant]
What hawkeye

Clint of three worlds

MU - Held be good a human level crack shot he'd need to get a feel but that not gonna take long it only take a few throws of cap's shield to be as almost good as steve at throwing it.

MCU - It's not superhuman but his Line about golf, gives you a level of skill that almost superhuman. he may need on practice swing

Ultimate MU, Clint is superhuman and has bullseye's powers in one story killing men with flicked finger nails while tied down, any item in his hands is deadly. with no practice time.

old man Hawkeye - is doing zen archery while blind and has even more experience than MU Hawkeye

Kate bishop - Hawkeye
Kate is almost as good as Clint but needs to take longer training and it clear with time she is gonna be even more skilled than he is (faction Run)


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

[User]
[TWD] Its shown time and time again that making noise will attract walkers. But would a Walker who was deaf (when alive) be attracted to sound too?

Im trying determine if its the formerly human form whos ear drum picks up the sound waves, and carry the vibrations to the bones of the middle ear that causes it to hear

Or if its the virus within thats driving the former human shell, and reacting instinctively to the vibrations of sound waves that are rippling across the whole body.

[Assistant]
It's hard to say. There are only a few character that are deaf in the show (and comics and games) and AFAIK none of them have ever turned.

More than likely, it's close to the latter. Walkers are shown to be able to take in sensory input and have very basic problem solving. It'd stand to reason that they may not be able to notice two people talking at a normal volume but be attracted to a loud explosion that causes a minor shockwave.


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

[User]
ELI5: If there is a separation of church and state, why are there laws that prevent gay marriage?

just wondering... thanks!

[Assistant]
Well bud, since our governments have laws that allow special rights and privileges to married couples they need to have a legal definition of marriage. Mommy and Daddy couldn't say "We're married" and not go through the legal process of becoming husband and wife and expect those same rights to be given to us. We have to go through the process.

This is why the preachers have to get special permission to perform weddings and they say things like "by the power invested in me by the state of ____" when they pronounce a couple married.

You can claim to be married all you want, but if it isn't done the way the state says it has to be done you get no legal marriage rights. In the same way the state has the power to say who can and can not be married.

Since people vote for the representatives of the state they can try and vote people in that will support their own personal view of marriage and on this issue the loudest most outspoken groups are the ones who are for gay marriage and those who are against it. Typically those against it are aligned with some religious group and this is why you see the church involved in the debate, but in actuality the church is not the authority on who is married or not anymore, which is why you can go and get married in a court house by a judge, or by a non-minister who's been certified as an officiant for weddings by the state.

tl;dr: Modern Marriage isn't really a function of the church anymore. It's really a Government issue.


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

[User]
ELI5: What is electricity?

Sorry this may have been asked before, and I've heard it explained before but never quite understood it, thats why I'd really like to hear it explained like I'm five haha

Its flowing electrons? whats that mean really? Why does it flow the way it does? How is it different from other forms of energy? What is resistance and why are some things conductive and others aren't (especially since all matter is made up of electrons within atoms, are these different electrons?) Is Electricity negative since electrons are negatively charged?

Feel free to respond in any way you don't need to answer all these questions and I welcome videos or links to articles that might help explain some of this.

[Assistant] Think of water in a hose. Electricity is a lot like that. The pressure in the hose is like voltage. The gallons per minute is like current. Thin hoses let less water flow and therefore have more resistance. With electricity, instead of water, you have electrons flowing from the orbit of one atom to another.


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

[User]
[The Legend of Korra] How was it decided who would get their bending back?

After Korra's defeat of Amon and the Equalists, much of the bending population of Republic City had been equalized. And after Korra learned how to energybend, I assume they all wanted it back. But who was allowed to get it back? I'm sure the police and White Lotus guards all got it back, but what about the heads of organized crime, street criminals, and normal people? Could they petition to have it restored, and have a formal trial? Could Korra be forced to restore people's bending by the city, or would she use her position as the Avatar to pick and choose who she liked?

[Assistant]
She most likely restored everyone's bending, aside from major criminals for whom it would be punishment much like Yakone.

Minor street criminals would most likely reform and learn to work instead of taking their bending for granted.

Not too many normal people lost their bending, Amon only did a few demonstrations. Mainly people like the White Falls Wolfbats, criminals like Lightning Bolt Zolt and the White Lotus guardsmen.


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

[User]
CMV: A woman looking for a sugar daddy is a prostitute.

For some reason it's not only acceptable but pervasive for women to state the main thing they are looking for in a relationship as being, "Someone who can take care of them". It's normal for a woman to break up with a man who can't keep a job, even when she never worked a day in her life, and society as a whole will support and justify her actions.

Its my view that in the current year there's no expectation that a female should be financially incentivized in a relationship outside of sex work. Women work and carry their own and men do women's work around the house. The idea that a women whos only prospect at social mobility is spreading her legs can possibly be called anything other than a hooker is just entirely beyond me.

[Assistant]
No. Same field, but slightly different job.

Prostitution is short term reward for short term gain.
Sugar daddy is long term service for long term gain.

It's like the difference between a nanny and a babysitter.

One actually requires you to "play the part" for life. This is work, no matter how fraudulent the relationship is.

A prostitute just has to "act the part" for an hour or so.


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

[User]
[Batman] I know Batman's against killing, but what about mercy killing?

Like, if someone was in severe pain and suffering, and Batman nor anyone in the JLA could save them, what would Batman do?

[Assistant] only Batman knows.  If we're talking a terminal cancer patient, in the daytime, who isn't a criminal, Batman probably won't be involved.  Bruce Wayne may take a position on this, but he would probably be against it (like many people).  If Batman encountered a thug, a criminal, who was mortally wounded, and in pain, regardless as to whether or not Batman caused the injury, he would most likely (1) administer a sedative or painkiller, (2) alert the authorities, and (3) grapple to the nearest spire, and continue being Batman with no further thought on it.


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

[User] ELI5 for cases of tourettes that manifest in cursing, why and how does the brain target the most obscene words, as opposed to just spouting out any random word?

[Assistant]
I don't believe there is a definite answer, but the brain does treat obscene words differently to regular language. For example, yelling obscene words when hurt is a universal phenomenon because it actually reduces pain more than yelling regular, acceptable words.

Presumably, it is more about the catharsis of saying something you're usually unable to say than the word itself.


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

[User] [Star Wars] I (a moderately ranking Imperial) have been tasked to deliver to Lord Vader (who has just awoken from a medically induced coma) the news that the Executor has been destroyed, Tarkin is dead, and his next assignment, delivered from the Emperor himself, is on Tattooine. How do I survive?

[Assistant]
Vader is not known for force-choking the messenger. He chokes:

1) Enemies, like Captain Antilles;

2) Idiots, like Admiral Ozzel;

3) Failures, like Captain Needa;

4) Haters, like Admiral Motti (whom he wouldve killed if Tarkin hadnt intervened).

If you dont fall into one of these categories, youll be fine. Just dont deliver bad news to Kylo Ren.

*Imperial ranks edited for accuracy*


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

[User]
I don't think the "rape culture" exists. CMV

By the "rape culture," I mean that I don't believe that people either encourage rape implicitly or do they blame the victim as much as people make it out. My entire argument for this not existing is that I've never seen it, so naturally my view could easily be changed.

A lot of people seem to talk about a male dominated culture and I'm not seeing it. Now, I could totally be biased because I've never been in a position where I'm not seeing the bias. But I can't even think of an example where someone may be implicitly encouraging rape that I would consider realistic.

Also, I apologize if there is already a similar thing to this. I looked in the wiki and nothing was there.

[Assistant]
News media often blames victims for their rape, such as in the case of the Cleveland, TX gang rape in 2011. An 11-year-old girl was raped by a group of 18 men, and yet, the author of an article in the New York Times felt the need to question the girls choice in clothing. Residents in the neighborhood. said she dressed older than her age, wearing makeup and fashions more appropriate to a woman in her 20s. She would hang out with teenage boys at a playground, some said. This is rape culture: a world in which the New York Times publishes a statement insinuating that the gang rape of a child was due to that childs behavior, and not due to the behavior of the rapists in question.

Another example of a problematic response to rape is Dan Rottenburgs What Should Women Do? in the Broad Street Review last June. Dans premise is that, because Lara Logan has worn shirts that reveal her cleavage in the past, she did not take the proper precautions against getting raped while she was reporting overseas. He goes on to discuss the ramifications of wearing sexy clothing and being a sexual person: Earth to liberated women: When you display legs, thighs or cleavage, some liberated men will see it as a sign that you feel good about yourself and your sexuality. But most men will see it as a sign that you want to get laid. This idea that a woman who is sexual is asking for rape, or that a woman who enjoys her sexuality wants to be raped, is maddeningly pervasive.


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

[User]
[Batman] So, what does Batman do if he gets really sick?

Like what if Batman miraculously caught a horrible case of Bronchitis or Pneumonia, and this was before he had a Robin or Nightwing or Batgirl or whatever. This is the early days when it's just him. I mean he can't really go out and fight crime, right? Does he have like super cure anything pills for emergencies? Does Alfred go out? I know he's actually typically well trained in fighting.

[Assistant] This has happened before. If there's no major emergency, he'd just rest up, but naturally, he's never that lucky. If there is something big going on, he'll stubbornly try to fight unless it's bad enough that he literally physically can't get out of bed, despite Alfred trying to convince him he's in no condition to fight.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do some cars accelerate from 0-60 faster than from 5-60? Shouldnt the rolling start always be faster as both cars are in the same gear?

[Assistant]
When you do the 0 - 60 you rev the engine to the RPM where it produces the most power and then dump the clutch. This is very hard on the car, but produces the fastest acceleration. The complaint against this is that it's not how people drive, so 0 - 60 times don't represent how a car feels when you drive it.

For 5 - 60, the engine will already be in gear and at very low rpm. So this tests the engine's power across the entire rpm rage. This is more what you will experience when you need to accelerate onto an onramp.

AWD cars, like Subaru STI, get much better times for 0 - 60 since the AWD helps the car accelerate without wheel spin.


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

[User] [Lotr] Can Frodo and Sam's friendship ever be the same after the ending of the fellowship?

[Assistant]
In what sense?

Frodo and Sam grew close, they matured, they saved each other's lives. They saw each other through battles, kidnapping, mental anguish, and the hardest times a person may ever have to face.

Their friendship will never be "the same" as it was before the journey. Frodo was just a nice local hobbit, with awkward and youthful Sam as a neighborhood friend. They will never be the same people after their voyage.

But during that trip, they forged a bond deeper than what existed before. It would be like friends that went off to war together, fought side-by-side on Iwo Jima, saw their friends die around them and encountered the worst things in the world. But at the end, they stayed true to each other, and no one could trust someone as deeply as they trust each other.

Their friendship is not the same. It never will be that sort of playful, innocent, youthful friendship. But it will be a firm and lasting friendship deeper than before.


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

[User] [King Kong/Predator] Would the Predators be interested in Skull Island for hunting excursions or would that be out of their league?

[Assistant]
Might be a bit out of their league due to combat ability and size.

None of the sporting yautuja hunting weapons would harm the larger beasts. They'd have to resort to the laser cannon, which would probably be a bit cheap.


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

[User] ELI5: If an electric car plugs into an outlet that takes its power from coal or gas, isnt that just trading one pollution for another?

[Assistant] Yes, but that's not a bad thing.  Even in an old coal-fired plant the conversion is much more efficient than in an automobile engine, all the pollution is in a fixed place where it can be treated, the least efficient plants are closed every year, and eventually it might be replaced by more renewable sources.  All these are better than their gasoline engine alternatives.


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

[User]
[Tangled] Is Rapunzel immortal or self healing due to having the flower inside her?

I watched Tangled the other night and I wondered if Rapunzel is technically able to heal herself and stay young like her "adopted" mother? She is able to cry to heal Flynn Rider. Would she technically stay young or was it a one off?

[Assistant]
Singing while her mother brushes her hair causes her mother to look young again, at least for a while since we see how old she looks even after a few weeks without her hair stroking treatment.

However, we also see that the hair loses it's ability once cut, and it loses this ability all the way to its roots.

Spoilers ahead for all you Tangled fans who are reading this but didn't watch the movie.

Rapunzel's hair is completely cut, it all turns brown, so she has lost the ability to make people young by letting them brush her hair. From what we saw of her magic, stab saving tears, they've only worked once. That being said it's the only time we've seen her tears, so it's plausible that they work like this every time and that her tears became an incredibly precious healing commodity for the fatally wounded.

What isn't clear is if she can use these tears herself or whether they do work all the time.

If they do work all the time, and she can use them on herself, then she and Flynn became immortal monarchs together. Whether or not that is actually a happy ending is debatable since people would probably try to kidnap her to have an immortal source of immortality juice.


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

[User]
ELI5: how can you survive having your leg blown off, but if you get shot in the leg cutting the main artery you die within minutes?

Just catched Band of Brothers on the TV, a dude named Hoob accidentally shot himself in the leg and cut his main artery and died within minutes.

And then there were these 2 other dudes that had their right legs blown off and survived.

This happened in real life too.

[Assistant] When the muscles get torn free, they ball up and contract really tightly in what remains of the limb, tightly enough that they can stem the blood all on their own.  When you get shot or stabbed, the muscle's still attached at the other end, so it can't ball up or tense up enough to block the blood flow.


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

[User]
If the capacity of a battery charging another battery drops below that of the receiving battery, will it stop transferring electricity since the electrons will no longer prefer to leave the lower energy "state" of the drained battery?

Is the above reverse motion of electrons to the lower-capacity battery prevented by the orientation of + and - wires, or would the partitioned layout of the cathodes and anodes prevent it? I am assuming entropy would be the main motivation for electricity stopping its flow if the above is true.

[Assistant] Charging stops once both reach the same voltage (at zero load). That doesn't have to happen at the same energy stored, it depends on the battery types.  Some will stay close to their maximum voltage until they are nearly empty, others will go down faster.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does Jupiter's colors are separated like that?

[Assistant] Those bands in Jupiter's atmosphere are called zones (lighter colored bands) and and belts (the darker colored bands). The zones have more ammonia ice at higher altitudes, which causes them to appear lighter in color. The zones and bands are separated by wind shear from jet streams, which are similar to the jet streams on Earth except on Jupiter they're much larger and more powerful.


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

[User] Do animals get bored like a human might?

[Assistant] Yes. An example of people attempting to combat this is the enrichment objects found in zoo enclosures and people getting toys for dogs. All the problems expressed by humans from lack of mental stimulation can be seen in animals. We are animals purselves and suffer from many of the same thibgs.


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

[User] How did the first atoms come into existence and how do we know that?

[Assistant]
From about 1915 to 1926, work was done which showed that all the galaxies around us, were moving away from us - and that the speed with which they moved was proportionate to how far away they are.    That observation alone implies the were all at the same starting point, at a finite time in the past.

This turned out to be consistent with the newly proposed (1915) theory of General Relativity - which , prior to this, had the problem that it couldn't produce an infinite-age, static (non-expanding or collapsing) universe.

This leads to the conclusion that, as you trace time going backwards, the Universe gets denser, and hotter; inevitably, at some point, the universe is so dense and hot, that the light elements we see around us would break apart, first into their constituent neutrons and protons, and then those break apart into their constituent quarks.

Now, run the same scene forward in time: as the Universe expands, it becomes less dense, and cooler, and the quarks first join into protons and neutrons, and then these join into the light elements.   In fact, based on the binding energy of these elements, you can predict what the ratio of the density of the lightest elements are to each other -- and it does a \*pretty good job of doing that.

\*Note: "Pretty good job" means different things to physicists than it does to, say, a cook.


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

[User]
ELI5: Coriolis effect

Wikipedia didn't help me out.

[Assistant]
We know that things like to move in a straight line, so if you throw a ball very fast it will move in a straight line.
But the earth is rotating underneath the ball, so the balls path looks like it curves.

More accurately, it DOES curve from the point of view of someone standing on the earth.


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

[User]
(Star Trek) How effective would a Klingon Bat'leth be in WW2 or the Korean War during close combat?

Assuming the wielder had sufficient training and experience.

edit:  It sounds like a Bat'leth was really more effective in the hands of a Klingon.  I am rewatching DS9 and the Blood Oath episode was on which made me think about this question.  Thanks for the answers!

[Assistant]
Bat'leths are not particularly effective weapons.... at least for humans. Their reach when being held by two hands is shockingly short, and you can only get longer reach on them with a HUGE, slow, sweeping slash. (And even when you do that, it's can't possibly be balanced - it's symmetrical, and the center of mass must be out in the center by design.)

So bat'leth versus sword, both in the hands of humans, is no contest - most swords will win every time. That said, there weren't a lot of swordfights in World War II. So it'd be up against, what, combat knives? Well, pretty much any weapon beyond bare fists will beat a combat knife, and you can't carry a bat'leth on your belt like you can a knife, so there's really no comparison at all, and it's really not much of a credit for the bat'leth to beat one.

Machineguns will beat the shit out of a bat'leth, though.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does a brain anus rhythm instantly kill you

I know it has something to do with blood clots maybe?  But how do you just die instantly?

[Assistant]
Okay...once I've managed to stop chuckling I'll answer this.

.....

....

..

.

Okay. First off, its aneurysm. It refers to a structural weakening of a vessel wall, resulting in prominent bulging as blood pressure pushes against it. Typically, these aneurysms arise in major vessels, such as the aorta, basilar arteries, carotids, or any of the vessels composing the brain artery complex known as the 'Circle of Willis'.

If these aneurysms get severe enough, they can rupture, causing you to bleed out into your brain. Because these ruptures occur in the major vessels, it results in a rapid, dramatic loss of blood flow to your brain. It doesn't 'kill instantly' but depending on the size and location, it can cause rapid loss of consciousness and subsequent death as your brain becomes starved of blood and oxygen.


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

[User]
If a huge power outage happens and all the lights in the area go out, will we be able to see the stars?

So I know that stars aren't usually visible in populated areas due to light pollution, but if all the lights suddenly disappear, will all the stars suddenly appear all at once? Or will the stars start fading into the sky one by one?

[Assistant]
The delay between the lights going out and said lights no longer being visible by an observer is imperceptibly small. So in that sense, the effect is essentially instantaneous.

However, it can take multiple minutes for one to see all the stars, because it takes our eyes time to adjust for changes in light level. As our eyes adjust to the dark, we'll be able to pick up more and more stars. So in that sense, you do see them gradually fading in.


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

[User] [ASOIAF] What mental disorder does Ramsay Bolton have?

[Assistant]
Psychopathy, particularly narcissistic personality disorder/antisocial personality disorder/dissocial personality disorder, hands down. Let's review the checklist:

**Facet 1: interpersonal**

* Glibness/superficial charm - check
* Grandiose sense of self-worth - check
* Pathological lying/common use of aliases/conning others - check
* Cunning/manipulative - check

**Facet 2: Affective**

* Lack of remorse or guilt - check
* Emotionally shallow - check
* Callous/lack of empathy - check
* Failure to accept responsibility for own actions - check

**Fact 3: Lifestyle**

* Need for stimulation/proneness to boredom - check
* Parasitic lifestyle - check
* Lack of realistic, long-term goals - check
* Impulsivity/failure to plan ahead - check
* Irresponsibility - check

**Facet 4: Antisocial**

* Poor behavioral controls/Low tolerance to frustration/low threshold for aggression - check
* Early behavioral problems - check
* Juvenile delinquency - essentially check
* Revocation of conditional release - no
* Criminal versatility - check
* Lack of regard for social norms, rules, obligations - yes

**Other:**

* Many short-term marital relationships - no
* Promiscuous sexual behavior - yes
* Irritability/Aggressiveness - yes

Now, the short-term marital relationships, juvenile delinquency, and revocation of conditional release are mere technicalities. As a bastard of a powerful noble, he was most likely shielded from criminal justice system. Were he a commoner, he'd probably have been in and out of jail many times. Nor were marriages on the table without being arranged.


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

[User]
[Scott-Pligrim] What do you think girls/women see in Scott?

I've re-read this story 4 times, and as I grow older and get into the dating scene I start to think about ***what do girls see in him?***

He dates like ***4*** girls incredibly different girls, that are still completely infatuated with him (Ramona is the girl he ends up with. Knives tries killing a girl over him. Envy and Kim both have really complex feelings towards him, at least until the end. ) and one girl has a crush on him that last way past high-school, even when's she got an acting career. ( Yeah, if you forget about Lisa... It's not your fault. )

He's not really all that remarkable in any one particular way. You know...aside from being ***THE BEST FIGHTER IN THE PROVIDENCE***. He's not as thoughtful or charming as Wallace or Stills, he's not as physically attractive as Lucas Lee or Toad Ingram. He has some charming witty-comments here and there that are ***pretty funny.*** But that's about it, other than that he's an asshole, hell the 6 volumes of the story are focused on his being an asshole and him growing out of that., and in the movie adaption ( Michael Cera does the best he can...bless his heart. ) Scott is more wimpy instead of sarcastic, so that kind of adds onto my question.

But women in the book are just drawn to him, like magnets.

Ramona hangs out with him once and she's already smitten with him, he forgets Lisa's name, and doesn't even show her any particular affection and she holds onto her affection for Scott for ***YEARS,*** Kim is the most vitriolic, reluctant to show affection character in the book and even she likes him.

Edit: Lets... Try to avoid answers that go along the lines of " Women love bad guys " or something like that.

[Assistant]
Scott and kim met in high school where any form of attraction is mistaken for true love.

Scott introduced Envy to a party lifestyle, which makes him seem a lot more of a wise person than he is.

Knives met Scott when she was in high school. See Kim's entry.

Scott was someone safe for Ramona after a bad breakup and a string of bad exes.


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

[User]
[Fallout] Its been 200+ years since the bombs fell. There's long established and regionally known population centers across the continent. Why does nobody clean up a bit?

I know deeper NCR territory and Vault City areas are nicer, but what about areas like Diamond City or Rivet City? They seem to have populations of hundreds if not more, so why are they so contented to live among rubble, corpses and ruined buildings for centuries? Why not get a few peeps and some trash bags and tidy up?

[Assistant]
The situation in the Capital Wasteland is far worse than most other parts of the continent during the Lone Wanderer's adventures. China specifically wanted to kill America's government, and then poison the earth forevermore to prevent another America from rising in its place. The capital wasteland was poisoned by some of the worst nukes in China's arsenal, which continues to kill people centuries later, and keep populations low.

Not only that, the supermutants in the Capital wasteland have forced the meager population into heavily fortified, isolated, or otherwise inaccessible settlements. Whatever progress might have been made before the Lone Wanderer escaped Vault 101, the supermutants had put a violent halt to it. Basic survival had always been the law of the land in the capital wasteland, and the supermutants only made the situation worse.

We know, however, that after the supermutants and enclave were defeated by the Lone Wanderer and the East Coast Brotherhood, conditions in the capital wasteland have MASSIVELY improved. Project Purity still has a long way to go in cleansing all of the water in the area, but its done a huge amount of work in just a few years. And without mutants lurking around every corner, there has been cleanup efforts in DC. Enough for the Brotherhood to assert even more power over the area, and turn it into a proper capital and base of operations. Powerful enough to send the Prydwen to Boston.

In the Commonwealth, there is one simple answer as to why people continue to neglect their wider surroundings: the Institute. Just like how supermutants made the bad situation in the Capital Wasteland worse, the Institute have intentionally kept the people of the Commonwealth divided, isolated, and afraid. Largely by unleashing a new kind of supermutant on the surface, which created much the same situation as in DC. But also by replacing influential and powerful people with synths, the surface could be kept under proper Institute control.

There were several efforts in the past to unite the local settlements and begin proper rebuilding efforts, but the Institute put a stop to it. (whether intentionally or not is up to you) But at least since Shaun has taken over as Director, the Institute has seen more benefit in keeping the surface disorganized and filthy than letting them clean up and organize. If anything, keeping the settlements isolated makes it easier to do horrible experiments on them without the wider population becoming the wiser.


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

[User]
[WH40K] Would the Imperial Guard turn away someone who was physically disabled?

If a physically disabled person, too physically disabled to fight effectively wanted to join the Imperial Guard, would he/she be turned away? If they are accepted, what exactly happens to them?

[Assistant]
It's worth remembering that your average Imperial Guardsman is actually fairly elite relative to the most common armed forces of the Imperium, the PDF of various planets.

When a tithe of Guardsmen is recruited from a planet they will generally be derived from the best of the PDF. While certainly not on the level of the Stormtroopers your average Guardsman is likely to be a lifelong soldier.

Obviously with an organization the size of the Imperial Guard there are all sorts of quirks, so to answer your question, chances are that a physically disabled Imperial citizen would be turned away from service in the Imperial Guard but there are exceptions.

1) If you are a member of a Guard regiment with a history of bionic augmentation for its recruits.

2) You are powerful or influential enough to be accepted regardless of your condition (perhaps you come from a noble family, or your Guard regiment allows for the purchase of commissions)

3) The need for recruitments is so strong, and your physical disability isn't *too* disabling.

Remember that in the Imperial Guard the cheapest resource is human life, barring specific regiments (mainly Tech-Guard) the Imperial Guard is unlikely to spend the expense of outfitting a basic trooper with corrective augmetics when they can recruit from literally hundreds of billions of willing and healthy volunteers.


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

[User]
ELI5 what really is "muscle memory"?

Our muscles don't have little brains that remember how to move. It has to be a subconscious process, right?

And why is is that sometimes when we slow down to think about a highly practiced action, it becomes more difficult to do?

[Assistant] it's actually nerve memory.  the more we use a neural pathway, the easier it gets to do it, whether it's recalling a memory or driving a car.  this also explains why thinking about it can make it more difficult; we're trying to use a different neural pathway for the same action.


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

[User]
CMV: Hotpot is boring and overpriced.

I've been to (Chinese) hotpot a few times. Everything going into the broth comes out tasting bland, simply boiled and unflavoursome, not really being flavoured by the soup. All the tasty ingredients cost a fortune, and all end up tasting the same once they go in the broth.

And, yet, there's hundreds of hotpot places around, and they all seem popular and busy. What am I missing?! Why am I paying a fortune for bland soup and cheap ingredients!

The only tasty things I've had were dipping sauces and side dishes - but they weren't tasty because of the hotpot. The hotpot simply meant I had to wait longer to have something flavourless to go with them.

I genuinely think I'm missing something important. But what is it?

[Assistant]
First, if you're not getting all you can eat hotpot, you're not getting the real hot pot experience. Once you can get the whatever you want without thinking about the cost, it's a lot better, and not necessarily even more expensive.

Second, what kind of broth are you getting? Most quality hot pot places have a variety of broths that vary in intensity.

But most importantly, this seems to be highly relative to where you live. Are you somewhere that's known for authentic Chinese food?


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

[User] (Aliens) How large has Human Civilization expanded, and what, if any, civilian governance is there but the Company (Weyland-Yutani)?

[Assistant]
Speculation:
By the mid 21st century, many corporations transcended international barriers to become the first truly worldwide organizations, while the traditional nation states were still far more restricted.  As only a minority of each company ever existed inside each country, there was no possibility of governmental oversight, which opened the possibility of far broader expansion by these corporations.  Essentially, they quickly became feudal states, with minor responsibilities to each nation, but essentially answerable to no one.  governments exist, but Weyland-Yutani exists in a place where there is no one government to govern them.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do people who are chronically exhibit suicidal tendencies still experience a fight or flight response?

[Assistant] Depression and suicidal thoughts are exhibited in a different part of the brain. Fight or Flight is in a primative area of the brain and is ingrained in our nervous system pretty well through evolution. Beings with strong survival instincts will survive over those that don't.


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

[User]
What is cold itself?

If heat is a form of energy, what then, is cold? Is it anti-energy, just the absence of heat? Can we possibly harness cold in a greater way than just using, say, a food cellar?

[Assistant] Cold is simply a *relative* reduction of temperature (or a description of something with the ability to draw energy away). But the important thing is that it is relative.  So 'hot' and 'cold' are just describing whether something has relatively higher or lower temperature compared to some stated value.


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

[User]
Would I be wrong in saying that a shuffled deck of cards exists in a state of superposition akin to Schrodinger's cat?

More specifically, I'm wondering: Is this statement is true only as an imperfect analogy/metaphor, or does a shuffled deck actually mathematically parallel other systems that really do exist in a state of superposition.

[Assistant] Yes, you'd be wrong. If you have a bunch of identically prepared decks of cards, the cards would be revealed in the same order every time. If you have a bunch of identically prepared quantum states (a pair of entangled photons or whatever), you would not get the same state on each collapse.


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

[User]
[SinCity] What is Marv ?

I haven't read the original comics or novels. Loved Marv but I couldn't figure out what he was.  He takes bullets and seems to take barely give him scratches. He is impossibly strong for a normal human being.  And he has a really bad face what happened to him was he just born that way?

[Assistant]
Marv is just a regular Human, albeit an absolutely massive one, that has been shaped and molded by the red-hot crucible of poverty, ghetto violence, and military combat. He is a man that has long since overcome physical pain, for a majority of his life has been nothing else. It is also somewhat implied that he self-medicates to deal with PTSD and what is probably a litany of other problems he has developed over a lifetime of fighting.

He's not impossibly strong, he's just way stronger than anybody else you've heard of. He can be shot and keep walking, because he is a behemoth of sheer force-of-will (and probably some opiates). His face is mangled as a result of his horrific upbringing.

Marv is about as close to a super-human that anyone could ever get.


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

[User] [Doctor Who] Exactly how smart is the Doctor? What's the most impressive thing he's built or could build with enough time?

[Assistant]
Smart enough.

Compare him to Superman. Superman is "strong enough" to do whatever he needs to do. That could be bending steel, or it could be moving a planet. Superman's power is that he's strong enough.

The Doctor's power is intelligence, and he's smart enough to do whatever he needs to do. There is essentially no science he isn't a master of, and he tends to know enough about whatever civilization he's dropping into - regardless of the time - to navigate confidently.

His single most impressive invention is probably the sonic screwdriver, which is basically a pocket-sized deus ex machina. It can do damn near anything, from hacking into a computer to reconstructing barbed wire.

But if you give him time, he can build essentially anything. The Time Lords rewrote the laws of physics to make the universe behave the way they wanted it to, and he is the last heir of that knowledge. If you gave him the time and the motivation, he could very likely change the fundamental constants of the universe.

There are things preventing him from doing this, of course. One, he likes the universe much the way it is. He likes the people bouncing around it, and making gravity a bit stronger would make them go away.

And then there's his arrogance. He has been the smartest person in whatever room he's walked into for several thousand years, and he believes, deep down in his heart, that he will always prevail. That makes him a bit too bold, sometimes, and as a result he doesn't always prepare as well as he could.


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

[User]
ELI5:Why did several 20th century revolutions see it significant to get rid of intellectuals such as college professors and scientists? Did they not see that this would put them at a disadvantage compared to other nations?

Or were things not so clear-cut as what we've learned in world history?

[Assistant]
Well first you have to ask *why* these movements purged so many intellectuals. In every case, it's your well-educated people who pose the biggest threat to your regime. Your professionals and college professionals are typically smart, well-organized, and resourceful. They make the most capable critics against the ruling regime, and can consequently be tentpoles for resistance.

The former surgeon, the history professor, the criminal lawyer - in a very real way, these individuals are the *competition* for the ruling class.  Look at the Khmer Rouge. Virtually all of its top brass was composed of western-educated intellectuals. They knew exactly how powerful ideas and communication could be because that's how *they* rose to power. It was, at its core, an intellectual movement. And the best way to ensure its success was to eliminate its competition, i.e. *other* intellectuals who didn't agree with it.


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

[User]
I'm giving my first ever lecture on Monday - does anyone have any advice?

I've just recently finished my PhD and I'm giving my first lecture to 3rd year Psych students on Monday. I'm really nervous because I'm not a great public speaker! It's a 2 hour lecture and I've only ever given 10 minute presentations at conferences. Does anyone have any advice, dos or don'ts?

[Assistant]
Here's a tip:

Arrive early and engage in some small talk with the first few students that pops in. If you manage to establish some kind of connection with any of them, the whole lecture will feel more intimate as a result - thus making it more relaxed and natural.


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

[User]
[Batman] Why doesn't GCPD shoot the Joker on-sight?

We all know that the Joker is a clear and present danger to the citizens of Gotham, and Batman will never bring himself to kill him for good. What I wanna know, is why the GCPD officers aren't ordered to gun down what can only be described as a dangerous terrorist on sight, besides of course the lack of a story. For that matter, why not shoot on sight orders for any of Batman's other foes?

[Assistant] I'd imagine it's that the cops sufficiently willing to disregard the law are also the type who put a lot of effort into avoiding the Joker in the first place. Also, when we've seen the Joker in violent confrontations with skilled opponents, he demonstrates a *much* higher level of combat proficiency than his demeanor would suggest. So cops who have tried to shoot him may have simply lost those gun battles.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] What would Dooku, Maul, Vader and Sidious think of Kylo and the First Order?

Adding on to that, what would a hardline imperial like Tarkin or Krennic think of the First order?

[Assistant]
Maul would hardly care, except about Snoke and Kylo.

Dooku would consider them uncivilised and unskilled.

Vader, during his prime *as* Vader, would likely see them as a scrambling force trying to project *true* power.

Sidious would see them as yet another institution for him to control.


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

[User] How do human vocal cords hit such low notes when strings and wind instruments have to be many, many times larger to do the same? Put another way, why are there no tiny bass instruments?

[Assistant] The difference between our vocal chords and string/wind instruments is that our vocal chords physically vibrate at the particular frequency through muscular tension, while strings and winds produce a longitudinal wave along their entire length that vibrates at the particular frequency. So for a string/wind instrument, a lower frequency requires a longer resonator. But a voice requires merely that the folds vibrate more slowly. To be sure, even with voices there is some dependence on length of the resonator: adult male voices are deeper than child and female voices in general; but this is the basic idea.


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

[User] ELI5: What makes burner/trap phones untraceable by the police?

[Assistant]
The phone is easy to trace, the person using the phone is not.

There is nothing magical about the phones specifically, it's how they are used. Burner phones are bought by companies in huge batches, and don't require any plan or contract to use. So there's not a great way to know who is using that particular phone. They are also cheap enough to throw away and "burn" every so often to keep a pattern of use from being determined.

Even if you could narrow down the phone was purchased at Walmart on a certain date, there wouldn't be a great way to know which one of the hundred that were sold that day is your suspect.


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

[User]
[Michael Bay Transformers] Why is it that the Transformers can have chunks taken out of them in robot form, but appear completely undamaged in vehicle form?

When the Transformers are fighting, they appear to take physical damage, but when they transform, the cars/planes/helicopters are perfectly unharmed. No scratches or anything. Do Transformers have a healing factor?

[Assistant] As we've seen, Transformers can scan a vehicle and almost instantly change themselves to be able to transform into said vehicle. It's therefore not hard to imagine that they have self-repair and bodily reconfiguration abilities. Perhaps these abilities are fairly power intensive, which is why they aren't during combat, when more power would be diverted to hitting harder.


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

[User]
ELI5: How did sea explorers estimate how much to prepare when going somewhere unknown?

Like how did they know how much food, how many men, equipment, food, and ships to take? Especially those venturing out to the Pacific like Polynesians or Magellan and his crew?

[Assistant]
Well they didn't.

They had limited cargo capacity anyways so they needed to hope they find enough food along the journey. Many islands have fresh water and some food, on others you can maybe convince the natives to feed you.

Read how Magellans journey went. Not a whole lot of survivors, and lack of food played a major role in that (aside from conflicts with island inhabitants). The first ration reduction happened before he reached the pacific, and it caused a mutiny.

The polynesians didn't have much supply either. They had few enough people on a boat that rainwater and fishing could keep them alive for quite a while.


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

[User] [Warhammer 40000] What is the nicest Space Marines chapter?

[Assistant]
Salamanders, probably. They go out of their way to preserve the troops they fight with and civilians, their individual marines tend to spend time living among the human population on Nocturne.

They're generally pretty nice guys to everyone unless you do something horrible like, say, piracy. Just ask the Marines Malevolent about that.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why Jakku?

Why is Jakku the site of the Empire's final battle? What was worth defending or taking on that barren desert rock? If there wasn't, why pick there for your final stand? Or was it pure coincidence that the Imperial fleet bumped into a Republic one there?

[Assistant]
When the Emperor died he entrusted Gallius Rax to carry out a contingency plan to destroy the Galactic Empire (so that it didn't outlive him). The plan was to destroy Jakku while the Empire and New Republic were fighting on and over the planet.

So The Emperor had already set up a way to blow up the planet and Rax, who made himself Counselor to the Empire, moved the Empire's forces there to set the plan in motion. The New Republic then attacked because Jakku was in an important sector and they wanted to cripple the Imperial Weapons Facility on the planet.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does smacking an unresponsive remote control make it work?

[Assistant] Your remote control may have what's called an *intermittent contact* where some of the metal bits may no longer touch each other well enough to transmit electricity.  Smacking it can make them touch better, making the circuitry work.


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

[User]
[Star wars] could Kenobi have saved anakin?

So if when kenobi went to kill greivous greivous shot him with a blaster and kenobi deflected it into him could kenobi have flown his ship to coruscant and aid  the jedi in killing Sheev thus saving anakin from becoming vader and preventing order 66?

[Assistant] No. There was a reason Kenobi as sent to kill  Grievous, which is to get him out of the way of Anakins fall. By the point he arrived on Utapau, it was already too late - he didn't have any chance to impact the events that were about to unfold on Corousant.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do japanese cartoons change their opening/ending so often (10-20 episodes) compared to western cartoons, that keep the same opening for many seasons (south park, the Simpsons, family guy)?

[Assistant]
Funny you should mention South park.  Although they keep the song, they change the scenes from season to season.  Also the Simpsons, which has a different couch scene, billboard, and chalkboard every episode.  The walking dead changes openings every season, sorta, because of the ... character changes.

It all comes down to how often their story/content changes.  No sense showing kid naruto for 300 episodes, playing with sasuke and struggling against common thugs when it doesn't make sense anymore.  They also do a lot of tie-ins with the music.


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

[User] [ Star Wars Legends ] in ROTS, why does Palpatine claim that the Republic will be reorganized into "the FIRST galactic Empire" when there aleready WAS another galactic Empire im command a few thousand years before it?

[Assistant]
I think you can honestly chalk it up to it being ancient history really. Like, a few thousand years? *Nobody* from that era is still alive, hell you might be hard pressed to find anyone who knows about it who isn't a Historian. The galaxy is so vast, with so many people, it's not really surprising that some history gets lost or just stuck in history holos that get read by a tiny percentage of the population overall.

Plus, Ol' Palpy is a populist dictator, kind of undermines *his* achivement if he's just ribbing it from some ancient dude. It's the First Empire that matters. It's the first Empire for the "people". If people knew the old Empire was run by ancient Sith who scoured planets, well it's not really sending a good image, especially when that Empire eventually fell.


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

[User] ELI5:How come people don't borrow from low-interest rate countries like Japan and deposit it in high-interest rate countries like Argentina?

[Assistant]
Victor, this occurs regularly, although it is difficult for individual investors to do.

The trade you are discussing has happened in the past, and is likely happening today. In finance parlance, this is known as a carry trade. The best known carry trade was in the 90's, going short (selling, or owing) the Japanese yen and going long (buying, or owning) the US dollar.

The key to the carry trade is exactly what you described. It is not simply a matter of being short one currency and long another, but it is being short one currency and long another with a view towards profiting off of the interest rate differentials.

In the JPY/USD example, you would be selling JPY that had interest rates of near 0% and buying the USD with interest rates of near 5%. So, you are paying a near 0% interest rate per year towards people you owed JPY, but receiving a 5% interest rate per year from your ownership of USD. If, on a relative basis, the JPY appreciates (gets more expensive) by 5% or more per year, you would lose money as this would wipe out your gains from the interest rate differential. If the currency moves the other way, with JPY getting cheaper relative to USD, you could stand to make a lot of money this way. If the currencies remain flat, on a relative basis, you would be pocketing the 5% per year interest rate differential.

One of the reasons this is hard for individuals to do is that you are unlikely able to borrow at headline interest rates unless you have sizable banking relationships. In addition, there are numerous risks, including currency exchange rate movements (one currency getting cheaper or more expensive relative to the other), interest rate changes (thus removing the positive interest rate differential you are gaining), among others.


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

[User]
[Invincible] How can Atom Eve manipulate the atoms of plants and food?

Atom Eve isn't supposed to be able to manipulate organic matter, so it shouldn't be able to manipulate atoms of the plants and food.

[Assistant]
Remember, it's not a *physical* inability, it's a *psychological* inability. It's more accurate to say she can't affect anything she *thinks of as* organic matter.

She doesn't consider plants and food "alive", at least instinctually, so her mental barriers don't activated if she tries to affect them.


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

[User] ELI5:Why is up-to-the-millisecond stock market information so expensive?

[Assistant]
Knowing the price of something in the market before other people do is very valuable.

It's like knowing the answers to a quiz the day before you have to take it.  You are guaranteed to act it as long as you make an effort.

Imagine if you knew what the price of a share of Apple stock would be one day before everyone else and you knew it absolutely was true.  Let's say you knew it was going to go up $1 per share (1%, not much).  You borrow $1m of money, buy 10,000 shares at $100 each, and sell them tomorrow for $101 each, pay off the loan, and you're $10,000 richer. Zero risk. Literally a sure thing.

That same logic works for milliseconds too, if you have computers programmed to trade fast.

So companies invest lots of money to get fast data with faster connections and computers and routers, and companies know how valuable it is so they sell it for a lot.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Have their ever been any cases of odd friendship/rivalries between Jedi and Sith?

I know that this division between them is a lot more... well, an Imperial and a Republic trooper can probably share a smoke, talk about how their CO are a pain in the ass and that they just want to go home to their family, but Force Users tend to be more up their ass about their brand of philosophy.

Sith especially are very hostile by nature, I dunno if "friend" is even in their vocabulary, but still. It's a big galaxy, there's a lot of people out there, and some of them could be strange enough to make such a thing work.

[Assistant] There is a bit of an odd relationship Maul has with Ezra Bridger as well as "other Jedi" (not to reveal too much) in the series, Rebels FWIW... That is if you count Maul as a "Sith" at that point, but still leaning heavily "Dark side"


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

[User]
ELI5: CPU / GPU manufacturing processes.

So I have a 45 nanometer CPU in my computer. What exactly is 45nm wide? Are there wires in there? Is it etched into whatever that disc is?

The only thing I've ever seen on how they're made is a big shiny disc that gets some sort of liquid squirted on it, then the disc spins.

[Assistant]
There can be wires inside your chip, but only going from the pins to the silicon. The silicon itself (the actual physical semiconductor material which is housed within the body of the processor) doesn't use *wires* per se, but there are straight tracks etched into it at the nanoscopic level for carrying signals and current to various parts of the chip. We call the actual silicon bit inside the CPU housing the "die".

That disc you're referring to is called a "wafer". It's actually anything from a few dozen to a few thousand CPU dies (depending on their size and how many will squeeze in). The dies spend most of their life in the factory stuck together in a circular wafer, which is why you most commonly see them like that.

The creation of a CPU can involve well over a hundred different processes, including 'etching' and the liquid bath you described.

It helps to know how silicon works as a semiconductor. It's called a semiconductor because in reality, pure silicon is actually pretty crap at conducting electricity. But, when combined with *impurities* in a controlled fashion, select parts of the silicon can be made to be conductive. We call this process "doping".

Doping with different impurities produces different effects and can be combined in different ways to get different results, which can be used to build nanoscopic components on the silicon which all function in a specific way, such as transistors, which can be thought of as little electrically-operated switches, capacitors, which are used to store data (charged for 1, empty for 0), diodes, which only let electricity flow in one direction through them, and so on.

To do this, a lithographic process is used whereby the wafers are exposed to very finely detailed patterns of light, shone through a "template" of various layers of the CPU design in question. Imagine how shadow puppets work with your hands and a torch - it's that, but with a circuit design instead, and at a nanoscopic level. The light reacts with and hardens a photoresist material which is applied on top each time so that when they are exposed to, say, a light hydrofluoric acid bath, some nanoscopic portions (which were not exposed to light) are etched away and some remain because the photoresist protects them. The next layer of dopant can then go on top, and then some photoresist, and a new template, and the process repeats to effectively dig/layer a design into the chip.

As for how they make various different designs of chip - different models with different speeds, numbers of cores, cache etc, the secret is that they actually don't. This is because mastering a new design is enormously expensive and time consuming. Instead, they just re-use the same design for different models.

Take for example AMD's tri-core CPUs. These were actually quad cores, but in testing, one core was found to be defective, so it was shut down and repackaged as a "tri core" CPU. Sometimes, other defects occur, like the chip won't run at the desired frequency, so it's set to a lower one and packaged as a lower model instead. Other times, some of the cache is damaged, so they disable it and sell it as a lower model with less cache.

Sometimes, nothing is wrong with the chip at all, but they disable parts of it anyway so they can meet demand for their lower-end processors.

Why do they do this? To increase "yield", which is the semiconductor industry's biggest pain the arse. If you can repackage a processor as a lower model instead of throwing it away, you recoup more costs for each wafer you make because more of the dies etched on it are viable products which bring in money. In turn, the consumer saves a ton of money because the manufacturer doesn't have to charge them an arm and a leg to cover the costs of all the chips that would be otherwise thrown out.

Funnily enough, the process of repackaging chips to avoid throwing them out is called "binning". It happens with most makes and models of CPU and GPU, pretty much.


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

[User]
[Marvel] Is Uncle Ben's death a multiversal constant?

We see that Uncle Ben is the one character to die and stay dead. In every iteration of Spider-man's origin we see that Uncle Ben dies. This goes as a rule throughout even different universes.

All forms of media have Uncle Ben die. Movies, Comics, Tv Shows, and Books all kill off Uncle Ben. With every birth of Spider-man is the death of an Uncle Ben.

So does this happen throughout every universe? Is uncle ben being killed in every universe except for a tiny select few?

[Assistant]
There's been a few universes where Uncle Ben didn't die. Earth-TRN034, Earth-8408 for instance. Earth-3145 had Uncle Ben become Spider-Man instead of Peter.

That being said, the Spider-Verse chronicles imply that there's some extent of multiversal manipulation at play, a great web of destiny, and that Uncle Bens across the multiverse are fated to die to ensure that Spider-Men rise.


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

[User] ELI5: What exactly causes thirst and why do humans feel instantly better after drinking liquids when thirsty, even though not enough time has passed to rehydrate the body?

[Assistant]
You lose **a lot** of moisture through your airway. When you get dehydrated it is the first thing your body tries to shut down to conserve water.  The mucus and tissue in your mouth and throat dry up, among all the other symptoms.

When you drink water it does immediately refresh the tissues and the mucus (like pouring water on a booger), making it easier to breathe and swallow, and relieving some of the pain associated with those dry tissues.  Also, we have evolved to associate those feelings with the urge to drink water, so just like eating when you're very hungry provides an instant reward, so does drinking water when you're thirsty.  If you have other effects from severe dehydration, those take a long time, but everyday thirst primarily manifests just in the mouth throat and lungs.


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

[User]
[Halo] How do Earth's national governments operate within the UNSC?

Presumably even after 500 years there are still linguistic barriers as well as some limited national autonomy. Are there French, German, or Chinese planet colonies? How were existing linguistic divides bridged off Earth? Does everyone *really* speak English in space?

[Assistant] The UNSC actually isn't the government of Earth. The UNSC is the United Nations Space Command, or the people in charge of Earth's military in space. The Unified Earth Government (UEG) is the actual governing body over Earth's nations. Think of them as the European Union or the United States under the Articles of Confederation.


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

[User]
[DC] How much more sneaky could Batman get if his everyday level of stealth was proving inadequate?

Let's say a new crime wave hits Gotham City. It's powered by a supernatural drug that temporarily sharpens users' senses, including "semi-senses" like instinctive feelings of danger or the sensation that you're being watched. Users enjoy a heightened experience of music, sex, food, alcohol, etc. while they're high. Long-term addicts tend to develop paranoid tendencies when not enhanced, believing they're not safe unless they have this stuff in their system making them more aware of nearby danger. Others get high on this stuff and use it to pick out targets for muggings, rapes, etc., or to spot GCPD coming a mile away.

So! Gotham is full of street criminals with sharpened senses. And the ones who don't have sharpened senses are often paranoid and watchful.

Batman's everyday suit and methods are a compromise between a lot of things  speed, stealth, protection, mobility, attack, and so on. What happens now that the stealth part of the equation is letting him down? Bad guys can hear his grappling hook or the flutter of his cape. Being up in the night sky no longer hides him very well. The distinctive sounds of his Batmobile and aircraft are now noticed from a distance. The bad guys who are high on this enhancement stuff are pointing, yelling, warning others. Thugs with guns are better able to pick out Batman in the dark.

How much more stealthy can Batman get if needed to fix this kind of situation? Has he ever worn a "stealth suit" that's tuned for extra concealment? What does he give up in the process? Does he have a cloaking device stored away in the Batcave in case of just such a time?

[Assistant] He takes a page out of Scarecrow's book and becomes scarier, not sneakier. He plants devices across the city that play with these criminals' heightened senses, keeping them constantly on edge. He makes it seem like he's always following them, always coming for them. Then, when he *does* come for them, he does it big and loud, like a goddamn force of nature.


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

[User] My friend and his 2 brothers are all gay--what happened here? Pure statistical coincidence or is there another factor at play?

[Assistant] The origins of sexual orientation are not well understood. It could indeed just be a coincidence. It could also be rooted in genetic or epigenetic predisposition. They, presumably, share similar experiences in their formative years. This could also predispose them toward homosexuality. It could be some combination of all of the above. There is no way to tell for sure. Maybe someday we may have answers, but human sexuality is a very fuzzy subject.


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

[User]
[Contact] What if Ellie's experience was recorded and the world saw it?

If Ellie's experiences in the wormhole, with the beach and the alien disguised as her father, were all captured on camera and  broadcast back on Earth (with no coverup), how would humanity have reacted to the alien's words?

[Assistant]
Heres an interesting point about Contact. Carl Sagan not only wrote a sci fi, but its actually a political philosophical commentary on modern society.

I dont recall if they made this clear in the movie or not, but the bomb that destroyed the first wormhole generator thing was set by Christians who feared alien life proved that God doesnt exist.

He also makes numerous comments on the wastefulness of the government. The quote was something along the lines of why build one for twice the price you can have two.

I think Carl Sagan would think that some of the world would be excited and want to reach for something greater (United Earth/Star Trek Universe), but others would deny it and cause mass chaos with bombing and general extremism to keep the great society away.

Remember Carl Sagan and his followers dont think highly of governments, Christians, flat Earthers or people that generally hold society back.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are the bones of our limbs structured the way they are?

The upper half of our limbs have a single bone, and the lower half has two. Why is this? Why isn't it one, or the other, or reversed? To look at a skeleton it seems to make sense, but I don't know why I think that. Maybe it's just because I've always seen it that way?

[Assistant]
We inherited the arrangement of the bones in our arms and legs from our ancestors all the way back to the time when they were fish and those were lobed fins.

All four-limbed land animals with bones have inherited that arrangement and made use of it. Some have bones fused together, some have lost the limbs altogether, some have found ways to make use of the bones in ways where the serve different functions in terms of muscle attachment and stuff, but we all kept the same blueprint that some fish came up with to swim better.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do credit scores work?

Hi everyone! I am woefully deficient in knowledge about credit scores. While I have good credit, it all seems highly illogical to me especially as I prefer to use my debit card over my credit card.

Could someone please explain what a credit score is? Why is it important? How it is calculated? And why certain aspects (such as length of time using and amount of use for credit cards) matter? Thank you!

[Assistant]
There's 4 main companies which compile credit data provided by peoples creditors and also companies which harvest public record information like LexisNexis. This data is compiled into a credit file and then provided a mathematical score based on things like credit payment history, revolving usage, and length of credit history. The most important mathematical score is called a FICO and provided by Fair Isaac and not by the credit data repositories themselves.

The formula Fair Isaac uses is not public knowledge but the number is far from arbitrary and ranges from 350 to 850. The credit repositories have also made their own "credit scores" but no lenders use them and their general purpose seems to be to confuse consumers.


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

[User]
[Marvel] How effectively can Spider-Man's Spider Sense be applied?

How sensitive is it, and how well can it be applied? I remember reading something about him sensing a sniper rifle being aimed at him from a mile away, but would it respond to a threat against the whole city, and not just him?

Would he be able to always win a game of old maid by not picking the card that set off his Sense, even though the card isn't a real threat?

If he played a game of poker, would it respond to a player with a better hand than his? Would the threat of loosing, or the financial threat be enough to trigger it?

And what if I took a loaded gun and pointed it at him, fully intending to not shoot him. Would the threat of the gun in and of itself trigger him, or would nothing happen because I don't intend to hurt him?

Also, would he be able to tell the difference between a functioning gun, a jammed gun, and a gun with its safety on?

[Assistant]
In the mainstream universe he has spoken about how he could go to Vegas and win all the money he needs.

His spider sense isn't just for physical threats. His sense allows him to webswing through the city without looking to where his webs are going as well as warns him if he is going to take off his mask and someone is near.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does it skin have trouble differentiating between cold surfaces and wet surfaces when our eyes aren't looking?

[Assistant]
Liquids conduct heat away from your body several times faster than air. Thats why falling into a cold lake, at say 40 F will kill a LOT faster than say being exposed butt naked to 30 F air.

Cold surfaces do the same thing, conduct heat away. So if you're closing your eyes, all you feel is a loss of heat, since both cold surfaces and liquids do that, you have no way of telling.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] After Vader/Anakin killed Palpatine and fulfilled his propecy by destroying the Sith, what stops them from coming back?

There are bound to be Sith holocrons all around the galaxy, and a Force sensitive can likely find them, and use them to restart the Sith.

[Assistant] Sith artifacts are not all around the galaxy, pretty much everything belonged to Palpatine and was destroyed. And even if someone found a Sith holocron, listening to a few messages and learning about the Sith doesn't make you a Sith Lord, you need to be trained and bestowed the title.


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

[User]
If the Planck length is 0 and the observable (or infinite) universe is 100, what value is the Earth?

Just curious as to size comparison between the smallest and largest things possible.

[Assistant]
Assuming you're using a logarithmic scale (so that each factor of 10 is a constant distance on the scale), that earth is about 67.

The radius of the observable universe is 10^26 meters, the plank length is 10^-35 meters, and the radius of the earth is about 10^6 meters. So the range from plank length to observable universe covers about 61 orders of magnitude, and the earth is 41 orders of magnitude along the scale, so 41/61 is about 0.67, and thus on a scale from 0 to 100 the earth is at about 67.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do some video game and computer program graphical options have to be "applied" manually while others change the instant you change the setting?

[Assistant] That mostly depends on game engine's source code. Some are good, some are not so. Usually, resources need reloading when settings changed, and sometimes API requires recreating all objects. Usually when game requires restart to apply some options, that's because game engine need all resources to be reloaded under new settings and it's easier to do it just by restarting than by actual reloading.


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

[User] [Marvel] What is this Odinforce? What kind of powers do you think it provides the user?

[Assistant] When Odin was a kid he had to two brothers who were  killed in battle (I forget by who). While dying they channeled there essence and power into him to defeat the enemy. He named  the power he got from his brothers the Odin force. During the classic stories the Odin force put Odin powers on the level of a  Galaxy buster and he could  do anything the plot demanded. Current story runs the Odin force why still very powerful hasnt been depicted as a Galaxy Destroyer.


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

[User] ELI5 Why do we sometimes talk while asleep?

[Assistant]
Long story short, it's a bit like a mild form of sleepwalking - i.e., the failure of the neurochemical measures your brain undertakes to ensure that your body does not actually react to anything you experience while dreaming. So while there normally would be inhibitors which would prevent your sleeping body from doing stuff it should only do while it is awake, these inhibitors sometimes don't work.

Why exactly this happens still isn't entirely understood by science. Potential factors may include

* excessive stress (i.e., your brain being on such high alert that it can't shut down entirely even when it should)
* fever (i.e, disturbance of your general brain chemistry due to disease)
* genetics (i.e., people are more likely to sleepwalk when their parents also have a history of sleepwalking, as they inherit the responsible traits of the brain)

Bear in mind this is a very simplified answer, as human neuroscience in general is an extremely complex topic.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why was the term "virus" chosen to be used in reference to malicious software?

Why is a biological term used in the realm of computers?

[Assistant]
A computer virus isn't just any malicious software. It's a program or a piece of code that when executed, finds other files on your computer and writes itself inside them, so that when they are executed the virus is executed again. This is similar to how a biological virus works - a piece of genetic material that infects a living cell and causes the cell to replicate the virus.

There are other types of malicious software (aka malware) such as worms and trojans, however "viruses" became a catch-all term for malicious software because they were the first.