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

[User]
[Flashpoint Paradox] Why was Barry's connection to the SpeedForce removed yet Eobard's connection was not?

If the Flash in the new timeline did not gain the powers of the SpeedForce then how would the Reverse Flash have his SpeedForce?  The Reverse Flash is based from the future and the events in the Flashpoint Paradox's timeline seemed to lead that life on Earth would be destroyed meaning that any future Eobard would not be born let alone gain the SpeedForce.  Did the Reverse Flash utilize the same or similar means of regaining the SpeedForce as the Flash did while he was passed out?(As the JL ring had the Reverse Flash's suit in it)

Guess it's just another Paradox, but I would like to hear some input.

[Assistant] Thawne was running through the time stream when Barry altered the past. Doing so made him a paradox and exist out of the timeline. Before, he never killed Barry because he needed him to become the Flash so that Thawne could exist. But now he doesn't need to anymore as no matter what changes happen in the past it will not affect him.


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

[User]
[Futurama] What is the point of creating robots?

In the show, most robots don't serve to benefit humanity in anyway and just live their own lives. There is no reason for MomCorp to keep spending money and resources to keep producing these robots to just set them free and let them live there own lives.

[Assistant]
Most robots do seem to have day jobs though, and provide a benefit to the New New York economy.  They provide valuable services no human could do.

Who else but Bender could bend unbendable girders? Who else but Calculon could convey every human emotion with his inhuman acting ability?

Not to mention their unwavering loyalty to Mom, and the control that gives her.


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

[User]
ELI5: how come lobsters became so expensive? They used to be poor man's food.

Thankyou in advance!

[Assistant]
Say there are 100 school kids and they all enjoy cheap cheap jello. When 4 of the kids decide they want all the jello (for whatever reason)

 - It's tasty

 - It's sexy

 - It makes them feel rich(er)

 - religious reasons.

Supply and demand kicks in.

They buy up all the jello and that drives up the price.

Fun fact (1): Shark fin soup has very little taste and is mostly pork stock.  It sells for $70 because of the allure and prestige to Chinese people.

Fun fact (2): Conspicuous consumption: The odd behaviour of why humans buy things they don't need.


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

[User]
ELI5: The psychology behind chronic self destructive behaviors?

Like, what kind of events can cause them, or like why does their brain say to do the thing knowing the consequences?

I apologise if I sound ignorant or rude, I simply don't understand and very much would like to!

[Assistant]
Most self-destructive behaviors evolved, as bmingo stated, as ill-adaptive coping mechanisms; i.e, as something meant to help the user deal with stress or other unpleasant feelings and was only minutely harmful, but shows true destructive consequences due to repetitious behavior. These coping mechanisms may have benefits that outweigh the risks to the user at first- for instance, perceived stress reduction. However, due to the side effects of the behavior (hangovers from drinking, scars from self-harm, weight gain from junk food binges), the user may use the behavior more often to compensate for the added stress of these problems, in addition to their original stress which never went away, but was merely pushed into the background. Most behaviors of this sort rely on some brain region (pleasure center or pain relief center, etc) to exert an effect on the body at large - ex: ecstasy tabs allow serotonin, a happy chemical, to flood the brain and keep it there for longer. These feelings are felt as good by the user, who knows feeling this way is preferable to feeling bad. The user experiences life events that favor continuing this behavior the cycle perpetuates.

TL;DR: behavior makes you feel good when feeling bad, brain cares less and less about harm done so it can get its next sweet hit of chemicals.


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

[User]
Exponentiation approaching multiplication?

**Just noticed that for x=1.00...00abc, the more zeroes you have, the more *x^y* approaches *(x-1)y+1*.
Why is that?**

Semi-interesting backstory:
I was designing the mechanic behind a game-mod I'm doing and needed to make something happen 4 times faster in certain cases. Meaning I had to expo my multiplier to the 4th power. Only my multiplier was rather small to begin with. And then I noticed this peculiarity in my maths - it was like raising to the x power multiplied only the fraction by x. Then I tried different numbers and discovered it wasn't a fluke either.

Now I'm both puzzled and curious. But my math isn't that strong so I wouldn't even know where to begin.

[Assistant] You have discovered the first order Taylor series of (1+a)^b , which is 1+ab. (e.g. 1.01^2 is approximately 1.02). This is more accurate when |a| is small compared to 1. In your example, define x=1+q, then x^y =~ 1+qy=1+(x-1)y which is what you found.


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

[User]
[Mass Effect] What would I experience if I were absorbed into the Human Reaper's consciousness?

Reapers are apparently made from the genetic material and possibly consciousness of millions/billions of individuals from a particular species. Because their goal is to preserve the uniqueness of each "worthy" species, does that mean each individual Reaper experiences consciousness differently? Does the term "consciousness" even apply to them?

What would being integrated into a Reaper - not indoctrinated but fully integrated - be like for me?

[Assistant]
I don't think we ever get a clear picture of what Reaper consciousness is in the games.  The Reapers themselves are confident that mortal brains cannot comprehend their thoughts or actions.

From Context clues, I'd guess that something like the following is happening:

* Each Reaper is a gestalt consciousness, representing the overall outlook and cultural facets of a species (i.e. a Turian Reaper will be aggressive and expect its followers to follow orders, while an Asari Reaper will be more thoughtful and cooperative with the Reapers around it).
* Individual minds don't really exist.  "You" are no longer "You".  Instead, you've added your brain pattern, social interactions, method of living, and genetic material to a grand database to help simulate Humanity's perspective on the galaxy.
* Individuals are 'simulated' at a mass scale.  It'd be like flying over a city and looking at the inhabitants: you can tell that there are individuals there, but it's impossible to discern their individual thoughts or actions.  Instead you're left grasping at the cohesive society (the city) that they've created as part of a whole.

That's the choice at the end of ME3: do you allow everyone to join a gestalt intelligence? destroying their individuality but saving their overall 'concept' of species and society? Or do you choose individuality, accepting that life is transient and that death is inevitable?


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] If Voldemort was accepted as a Professor at Hogwarts, disregarding his other intentions, how good of a teacher would he be?

Edit. I would also like to know if there would be a difference on if he was accepted the first time and the second time he applied.

[Assistant]
Voldemort is brilliant, disciplined, and loves knowledge.  He would probably be a pretty effective teacher.  He would be very militaristic but would defending encourage and foster curiosity and creativity.

Downside:  He would be bias and racist as fuck, would definitely punish too often and you would probably be doing a lot of homework.


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

[User]
[40K] Why can't The Emperor just...fix himself?

This has bothered me for awhile, but couldn't He sort of weaken the  Astronomican for awhile or get more sacrifices, allowing Him a bit of psychic freedom, then repair Himself somewhat so that He would need less/no sacrifices and be able to do stuff other than Astronomicaning? Or is that just not how any of that works?

(Please forgive me if this is considered heresy)

[Assistant]
The majority of his efforts aren't spent maintaining the astronomicon.  They're spent keeping the crawling gnashing mass of demons from spewing forth out of the yawning chasm into the warp that is the human webway, ever since Magnus broke the wards and nearly turned Terra into the center of a new eye of terror.

Containing what would otherwise be a light years wide intrusion of chaos into realspace, the astronomicon, and being a corpse, is enough to hold the attention of even the emperor.


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

[User] eli5, if cigarettes are so bad for us with all the chemicals that are in them. why are they allowed to put them in there in the first place?

[Assistant]
While the makers of cigarettes do put stuff in them, the actual smoke from the burning tobacco leaves is really harmful, more so than the stuff they add (though the flavorings that they add makes it more pleasant and makes them more addictive).

So why are tobacco products allowed at all, given how bad they are for the smoker and people in the vicinity of the smoker? Because people want them, spend lots of money on them, and the companies that make them are rich, powerful, and have lots of political power.

People like their vices and don't want other people screwing that up for them. Tobacco's been around a long time and was acceptable for a very long time. Plenty of people don't want to see that change, so it doesn't.

EDIT: to answer the question about why we still allow it, we simply have no agency in the US with the authority to regulate it (other than the ATFE, and they enforce taxes and import duties on tobacco). No law classifies it as a banned substance, it's not recognized as a treatment for a disease, an environmental toxin, etc. The reason is simply that not enough people think it should be banned versus the number of people (and dollars) that think it should be legal - so it's legal.


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

[User] ELI5:Why does turning on and off an electronic device solve as many problems as it does?

[Assistant]
Same reason why when you're giving someone instructions and they're screwing it up, it's often easier to start all over from the beginning than try and fix the mistakes they're making.

Computers simply follow instructions. If an instruction is bad, or causes a problem, it can't necessarily correct itself.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does a camera know when the image is focused?

When you half-press the shutter, the camera adjusts and you physically see the image become slightly less / slightly more focused until it's done - how does it know that what it's showing you isn't blurry?

[Assistant]
3 main ways:

Contrast Detection Auto-Focus (good enough)
Phase Detection Auto-Focus (best)
Laser Auto-Focus (eh)

When the camera picks what the objects it needs to focus on:

Contrast Detection looks for the focus level where there is the most contrast (difference between white and black), as that means there is no blurriness, where they fade into each other.

Phase Detection splits the light into 2+ beams and each beam goes into 2 sensors, and both sensors are focused until they are both "in-phase":
> When the light reaches these two sensors, if an object is in focus, light rays from the extreme sides of the lens converge right in the center of each sensor...Both sensors would have identical images on them, indicating that the object is indeed in perfect focus.

Laser Autofocus is just sonar with light, a beam of light is emitted from the camera and the time is takes for the light to bounce back to the sensor is used to determine the focus.


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

[User] ELI5 why do paper cuts hurt so much more than larger lacerations?

[Assistant]
For one when the paper cuts you its generally on your hand or fingers which is a much more sensitive part of your body as it is packed with many more nerve endings

Two, when you cut yourself with a knife it is straight and clean where as paper is very rough, flexable and uneven. It also leaves a very shallow wound which leaves all those nerve endings exposed to the wind, dirt, and other irritates causing the cut to hurt more than a general knife cut.

Hope that answers your question!


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

[User]
[Mandalorian] Baskar is very durable. How do they get it hot enough to melt?

Their armor can withstand blaster and can tank a lightsaber direct hit. That's several thousand degrees.

How does that machine melt the metal without itself also being destroyed?

[Assistant] Some metals undergo what's called "reentrant melting", where at extremely high pressures their melting point drops significantly. Maybe the machine they use is some kind of extremely efficient pressure cooker.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do we get the motivation to change our lives around late at night, but it's gone the next morning?

For example, start working out, eating healthier, studying more..

Edit: Thanks for all the answers!

[Assistant] Because when you're in your bed at night you know you won't start doing those things right there. So it's easy to start big plans and feel like you can change your life, because you don't have the obligation to actually do it. It gives you that confidence that everything is possible. But when you wake up in the morning and have the possibility of actually doing it it's less motivating because you have to actually move your butt and do it.


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

[User] [Warhammer 40k] Could a Psychic Blank kill Lucius the Eternal without being possessed by him?

[Assistant]
No, Lucius's curse has two factors that prevent that.

First, the curse is on Lucius himself; not whoever kills him (I actually have kinda a long copypasta about how exactly Lucius is cursed, if you'd like to hear more).

And second, the curse is empowered by Slaanesh him/herself. Powerful enough psykers have been known to overwhelm even the most powerful of blanks (being a blank is actually a spectrum, like being a psyker); the Emperor kept an entire cadre of them around; and the Master of the Astronomicon has two that escort him around the Imperial Palace, and seemingly cause him no ill effect. The blank *would*, however, be essentially invisible to Slaanesh; similar to how the Craftworld Eldar attempt to mask themselves from her gaze. Thus, it may take much longer for Lucius to emerge before the body is "found"; perhaps he'd even be forced to wander the Warp for a while, similar to Saint Celestine between her rebirths.


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

[User] ELI5: Are reflective objects reflective in all spectrums of electromagnetic waves? also, how do objects "reflect" heat when heat is something else entirely?

[Assistant]
Nope. Nor are they transparent across the whole spectrum.

For instance, many optics used in infrared research have lenses made out of germanium. It's not transparent to us in the visible spectrum but it is transparent in the infrared. Another example is x rays, which are a much higher frequency electromagnetic radiation than visible light. Your skin and flesh are transparent to x rays but your bones are not, so you can use them to look at your bones. There is even a part of the spectrum, mid infrared, where air is not transparent. So every physicist who works in the mid infrared has a hard time doing his experiments because he has to get rid of all the air in order to see anything.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Are Tauntauns in danger of going extinct?

It's clear that they aren't built to survive the cold nights of their home planet, and since the Hoth system is supposed to be devoid of humanoid life, there can't be a wide spread effort to domesticate and preserve them. How close are we to losing these gentle lizards forever?

[Assistant]
No, they're not in danger.  They can survive the nights just fine, they'd hardly have evolved to their current state otherwise, eh?
What they can't survive is being ridden hard out onto the most exposed areas at night time.  Left to their own devices they'll find a nice sheltered area and sleep through the night just fine.


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

[User] [SCP] What is the SCP Foundation's reaction to all their information being leaked online?

[Assistant] The same as the Men in Black when they allowed the movies to come out. Its fine. It allows plausible deniability if someone stumbles on their effort and reports it. The person is obviously confusing real life with this fiction world they saw online.


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

[User]
ELI5. How did St. Patrick's Day turn into the get drunk holiday?

Title says it all.

[Assistant] Because the Lent restrictions on drinking alcohol were historically lifted on March 17 in Ireland. It's a Catholic holiday, they were a Catholic country. So it became the day during Lent that you could drink.


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

[User] [Sandman] If Hobb was maimed would his limb grow back?

[Assistant]
I view it more as "he would never lose a limb, or be seriously injured at all".

Death didn't give him some sort of Wolverine powers, she just sort of rewrote reality for him. Which is exactly how he wanted it, he was bragging that he was never going to die just because he'd decided not to.

Sandman is very much a story about stories. Despite being nominally set in a superhero universe, it's not a superhero story. The Endless aren't just powerful beings, they're not even gods, they're *functions*, facets of the story they inhabit. Hob can't even be in any real danger, of the sort that losing a limb would entail, because Death won't have anything to do with him unless he consents to it.


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

[User]
I believe that there's nothing racist or sexist about a series with an all-white cast and male lead. CMV

It's my belief that it's an artist's choice to make their characters whatever race or gender they want. If someone believes that their race or gender is under-represented in the media, it's *their* obligation to support or create shows that better represent them. Asking or forcing artists to change their characters for the sake of "correctness" is insulting and counter-productive.

[Assistant] The anti-racism and anti-sexism movements want us to acknowledge the degree to which white folk and men are *subconsciously* over-valued in the collective mentality. In a world where we were in fact free of prejudice, you're absolutely right, but we're not, and it doesn't hurt to attempt to compensate a little bit actively, if it's done right.


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

[User] Can my dog distinguish between my whistle and another persons whistle? Is there anything distinct about a whistle like there is with a voice?

[Assistant] The answer is yes with an asterisk.  At least some working border collies can distinguish between the whistles of different people, but they have been being selected for for about 430 years to be able to understand language and whistles.  Other breeds would be less likely to be apt at this skill.  It also depends whether you are asking about a mouth whistle or an actual device whistle that you use.  Whistling with your mouth would have more variability, and thus be more distinguishable.


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

[User]
CMV: College students should be allowed to retake and completely replace the grade previously earned.

To a certain degree, this is already allowed. My old university (USA), for example, allowed people to retake classes they took in their first two semesters. However, for later semesters, people can retake, but the GPA will average out.

In my mind, retaking a class is not necessarily a bad thing. The true meaning behind it is simple: the first time you learned a subject, you could not get it. The second time you learned the same subject, you were able to learn it efficiently.

Let's ignore people who cheat on exams and projects for now. That's a discussion for a different CMV.

Why should students be punished for trying again? Why is it bad for a student to take the time and effort to re-evaluate their failures, and try again? Isn't the purpose of the course to *teach* the student the material anyways? If a student does very well in their second try, doesn't it mean they learned it successfully?

Of course, I do think there should be restrictions as well. I know that the *entire purpose* of a GPA is for companies and grad schools to evaluate your capabilities. Companies should be able to see how many times you've taken a course. For example, on your transcript, the old grade could be eliminated, the credits revoked. Then, it's completely replaced with your new grade, and a notification that you've taken it twice.

Because in the end, some people learn slower than others. Some people might have a very bad semester, with uncontrollable events. Having a second chance should be permitted, especially when you're *paying* the university to give you that material. If I understand it in the end, why shouldn't my records show that I have a full understanding of it?

Take a math course for example. If I fail the first time, it means I don't understand it. If I get high grades the second time, it means I understand it now. It doesn't mean I understand it *less* than the person who gets high grades the first time. It means it took me longer to understand it, but regardless, that material is in my head, I know how to do it, I know the logic behind it, and I know how to approach those problems.

Of course, one argument for replacing the grades is that a lot of times, the exams are the same from year to year. For this, I say that's not a good excuse. Many professors provide previous years' exams. If the exam from year-to-year is too similar, you can't stop people from finding out anyways. But that is also a different discussion for a different CMV.

[Assistant]
>Isn't the purpose of the course to teach the student the material anyways?

Not always. The most difficult programs usually start off(freshman,sophomore) with a lot of "general" courses and then allow you to specialize in the later years. Often times, some or even many of the courses you take will not be relevant. The purpose of taking these courses, however, is to prove you are a capable and quick learner that can master new material the first time.

This is important because in these types of professions, such as specialized engineering programs, there is simply not enough time in university to learn everything. You cannot graduate and walk into the field as an expert.

In reality, you require extensive training from the company that hires you; they want to know you are capable of learning it right the first time. In university, sure, you can pay them as much as you want to take classes over and over. But when you have a real job, they are paying you, and they are not going to pay or tolerate you learning over and over until you finally get it.

I would say in the vast majority of cases, your system would work better. Most people don't pursue these types of degrees, and usually go for something easier that they can learn and more or less master in university; in those cases, the final result is all that matters.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are indefinitely high speeds allowed on the Autobahn? How can the freeway design account for such high speeds (in terms of safety)?

[Assistant]
German driving tests are hard and the minimum age is 18.
Strickt car checkups every 2 years.
Good condition of the roads.

So you have better drivers, cars and roads.
Don't be fooled though, not everywhere you can drive as fast as you want. Crowded parts of autobahn near the urban are usually limited.
The recommended speed is 130 KM/h on the places where there is no limit.


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

[User]
CMV: Student leaders should not be required to state their pronouns when introducing themselves to a group.

 My university has a pretty strict requirement for student leaders to introduce themselves with the standard - name, year, course - but has recently been requiring these students to also state their pronouns. My understanding of this is that it is to promote a more inclusive environment for non-binary and transgender students.

We get asked by new students and their families more often than not why we introduce ourselves and our pronouns. The majority of the team, besides maybe two or three people, are cis-gender.

It feels a bit counterintuitive to have everyone say their pronouns when only maybe two people of a team of 50 identify with something besides the binary. Is this creating a safe space for non-binary and transgender students or is this enabling a more hostile environment? Additionally, I feel like this negates some of the teams' identities, especially if they are questioning or not entirely comfortable identifying themselves publicly as non-binary or transgender.

My view is that we should not require students to disclose their pronouns when introducing themselves, however if they would feel comfortable sharing then they can.

[Assistant]
You seem to be conflating whether this is the students themselves, or student *leaders* giving pronouns throughout your post.

I think to require all *students* to do this in a given setting can be problematic. It can call unwanted attention to the one trans student in a roomful of cis students, or force them to use a pronoun they don't identify with in order to avoid problems. Sometimes this is a healthy exercise, but not categorically.

For the student *leaders* to do this, from their position of formal, institutionally sanctioned leadership, makes complete sense. It sends an unambigious message that the institution and their agents (the leaders) are trained on these issues, have awareness of atypical pronouns, and are open to hearing & respecting someone's pronoun preferences.


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

[User] [StarWars] What would have changed if the Confederacy had won the clone war? What if they hadn't destroyed the republic, just successfully seceded?

[Assistant]
That was a near-impossibility, as Darth Sidious was controlling both sides of the conflict and he wanted the Separatists to lose and the Empire to form from the remains of the Republic.  But if it had...

*Phase I: Shadow War*  The only way the Confederacy could have remained an autonomous entity is if Count Dooku had betrayed his allegiance to Darth Sidious.  (Other events would have had to occur too, but definitely Tyrannus would have had to rebel against Sidious.)  And what are we left with?  A Confederacy and an Empire both secretly ruled by Sith Lords.  So the first phase would be a shadow war of Tyrannus and Sidious attempting to assassinate each other.  If one should succeed in killing the other, then the loser's Empire/Confederacy would be severely weakened and would be prone to splintering.  This would make them easy pickings for their enemies. The Empire/Confederacy would rise if the enemy Sith Lord were killed.

*Phase II: Consolidation of Power*  Assuming that neither Sith Lord managed to kill the other, what would follow is a period of power consolidation.  Both leaders would kill, imprison, or force compliance from all potential competitors for power.

Most likely, to ensure that the populace would follow their leadership, they would need an enemy to unite them.  So...

*Phase III: War*  Having a definite enemy is useful for uniting the populace under one's leadership.  So the Empire would be at war with the Confederacy, and vice versa, for a long time.  Because even if they are not progressing in the war, they can still use the common enemy to consolidate their own power.


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

[User]
ELI5: What's the functional different between different types of image files?

What's the actual difference between JPG, BMP, PNG, TIFF etc?  I know how a GIF is different.  It moves, right?

Edit:  thank you very much.  These are very helpful answers.

[Assistant]
BMP is the most basic one. It contains basically a list telling what color each pixel is in a predefined succession. It needs little processing to go from the device's memory to the display, but being generally uncompressed (or weakly compressed without loss) the file size is quite high.

GIF and JPG were all over the place in the 90ies, being some of the few formats browsers could handle. They had specific use cases based on their characteristics.

GIF can move, doesn't have to. Its main usage in the early internet was for graphics (as in not photos but more like drawings, fancy text, graphic elements like arrows). This because it has a low max number of colors (however, transparency is supported) and uses a lossless compression that takes advantage of large areas with uniform colors.

JPG, on the other hand, specializes in photographs and complex, colorful, photo-like art. It can dramatically reduce the file size of an image compared to the same image in BMP. To do that, it uses a lossy compression that divides the pic into squares and compresses those. The higher up you crank the compression, the smaller the file becomes, but also the more obvious the squares and the degradation of the image become.

TIFF is a complex format that allows for a lot of specialties. It can contain multiple images, sometimes layers, different coding algorithms (mostly lossless). It was (don't know if it's still the case) often used for exchanging graphics with print shops because it allows for a large amount of colors, also in the CMYK format (others often use RGB).

PNG is somewhat the successor to GIF and, to a certain degree, shares its applications. It supports a much larger number of colors, so it ends up being used for large photos much more than GIF. It uses lossless compression.

BTW, lossless means the image can be reconstructed from the file exactly as it was before being compressed. Lossy is when more or less obvious, irreversible changes to the image are done to reduce the file size.


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

[User]
I believe baseball is boring and requires little athleticism. CMV

I don't understand why baseball is such a popular sport. People stand in one spot for 95% of the time, and many seem to not even exert much effort when it is required (when people hit a ground ball to third they often just jog to first, knowing they will get out without even sprinting 30 yards in the off chance that there is an error.

[Assistant] Baseball has a zen like presence to it because it is so calm the majority of the time. When crazy things do happen they matter that much more like a double play or a massive HR. It is a calming sport to watch and when anything exciting happens it is really exciting because of that calming effect.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does a candle not burn all at once?

As you know, when a candle is burning there is a pool of melted paraffin around the wick.

How is that not getting ignited? How come paraffin only burns when it's saturating the wick?

[Assistant] Paraffin wax only burns when it is a gas and mixes with air. To become a gas, it must first be a liquid. Liquid paraffin in bulk, like a puddle, conducts heat away from the surface too quickly to burn under normal conditions. Small flecks of it will burn, as they have more surface area compared to how quickly they lose heat through the bottom. The result is that as wax melts, the wick sucks it up. Then the fire boils it off of the wick, and it mixes with air and burns. The paraffin at the bottom, meanwhile, does not receive enough heat to boil. A little bit of it will evaporate, and may get sucked into the fire, but very minuscule amounts.


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

[User] ELI5: How are movies filmed in multiple formats simultaneously (2D, 3D, IMAX, etc) while still being able to maintain their cinematic integrity?

[Assistant]
You start with the best quality and prune out stuff to get to the lower ones.

3d is captured by taking two 2d camera images and using polarized light or alternate frame rates or some other vehicle to make them 3d to the viewer. So when you film 3d you get 2d free by simply not combining the two camera outputs into one, and just going with one of the two camera outputs.

IMAX is a high resolution, so you simply process it down into a lower resolution film by removing pixels.


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

[User]
If electricity from wall outlets is AC, how come some plugs have a left-right orientation?

As in, some plugs have one side bigger, which forces a specific orientation when plugging it into the outlet.

[Assistant]
Its not a matter of which direction the electricity is flowing when the appliance is on (because its AC as you pointed out) but which side of the circuit is live when the switch is off. In the US, polarized plugs use the smaller prong to supply current to the appliance and the wider prong as the neutral.

If both prongs were the same size, you could have the hot leg on either prong and therefore on either side of any switches. While this wouldnt matter when the switch is on, it could matter if the switch is off. If you plugged it in backward, the appliance will still turn off but all of the internals will still be live at 120v which could pose a hazard.


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

[User]
ELI5 - What stopped dinosaurs re-emerging as the dominant species after the meteor event?

I know that the meteor event made them extinct, but why did humans emerge ahead of dinosaurs? Was it something about the state of earth and the relative advantages species like humans had?

[Assistant]
Well they were dead, for starters - even if the world had returned to the Cretaceous climate quickly the dinosaur lineages had been annihilated, save for some small birds.  They would have had to re-evolve from scratch, a process thats both slow and random.

Reptile and mammal lineages fared much better during the extinction event, and were positioned to flood the newly opened environment with mammal descendants that played the same general environmental function.  Once large grazing mammals showed up theres no space for large grazing reptiles or birds to compete with them.


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

[User]
Why did a leap second break the internet?

I see lots of stories about how a leap second broke the internet, but no one is explaining why. What about the systems breaks everything? Wouldn't stuff just... be a second off? What implications am I not seeing?

EDIT for clarification: My curiosity isn't so much based in "why the patches sucked and borkt the world" but more "Why does my server care in the first place what NTP has to say, to the point of self destruction"

[Assistant] The leap second itself didn't do anything. It's that some computers had the leap second implemented while others hadn't, so the time stamps in the packages made the one computer think "wow, these packets are really old" and so it sped them up, and started transmitting faster, but then those other systems were like "shit, those packages are from the future" and lost their shit and decided to block the one thing until those packets became back into the present, so the whole thing spun around itself and made some sort of time loop.


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

[User]
Why are tides much higher in some places than in others?

For example in the UK and the Atlantic coast of France, there are some of the highest tides (in amplitude) in the world but not to far away in the Atlantic coasts of Scandinavia there is almost no tide at all. Why is that? Shouldn't the moon's gravity affect the ocean similarly everywhere on the same side of the earth or how does it actually work?

[Assistant]
Tides are a dynamic phenomenon. Imagine a big, wide bowl partially filled with water. Now imagine tipping the bowl slightly back and forth (meaning: tip it very slightly to the right, then tip it very slightly to the left, and so on). This is analogous to tidal forces, you're changing where the "flat" level of the water is in relation to the bowl. You can think of the high and low spots on each side where the water level ends up as being "tides". If you move the bowl very slowly, the water will stay fairly flat all the time, and the tides will be very simple and predictable if you tilt the bowl the same amount every time. But once you start to tilt the bowl faster then the water starts to slosh. If you had a complicated bowl shape, this would add further complications.

This is basically what happens with Earth's tides. The tidal forces from the Sun and Moon drive the tides, but they do not entirely dictate them. How the water "sloshes" and interacts with the local coastline effects how high and low the tides will reach.


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

[User]
Phone interview!

Tomorrow I have an hour short zoom interview  for my dream position. I feel pretty prepared (I think) but tell me.how do folks screw up these short interviews? Do they really matter that much?

Edit: I think it went pretty well! Not sure if I blew them away but I was succinct, specific and shared my vision. Thanks for all your advice! Now for 3 weeks of waiting to find out if I get invited for the in person

[Assistant]
Yes they matter. People screw them up by thinking they dont matter. This is how we narrow down 10-12 highly qualified candidates to 3-5 for final interviews/campus visits.

1.	Make sure your connection is stable and reliable. Plug into Ethernet.
2.	Wear headphones and use an external mic if you have one.
3.	Practice your responses to commonly asked interview questions. You want to be conversational, but practicing your answers allows you to remain clear and concise and shows that you are prepared.
4.	Have a short list of questions ready to go. The questions you ask tell us a lot about you. Are they insightful questions about our program or are they things you could have found by browsing our website?
5.	Know the program. Know the faculty. Know what their objectives are and how you fit in with those/how you can contribute.


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

[User]
[General] To kill a werewolf, does the bullet have to be pure silver? Or will a silver alloy bullet do the trick?

And if a silver alloy bullet can kill a werewolf, which alloy would be the most effective?

[Assistant] This is one of those questions you can't do as a general.  It's totally lore dependant.  Some will need all silver, some an alloy would do, some even silver plating might be enough.  Still others silver isn't even a thing.  You need to specify what lore you're asking about.


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

[User]
CMV: Paying taxes cannot be considered virtuous because it is compulsory.

Everyone has to pay taxes for being part of a "civilized society". Because we do not have a choice about whether we pay taxes or not, taxpayers cannot and should not be hailed as virtuous for paying taxes.

If a person does not pay taxes, they are simply breaking the law. There should be no moral judgement against that person beyond their affinity for breaking laws.

Jeff Bezos is often demonized for not paying his "fair share." This should not be considered as an aspersion to Bezos' character but rather a shortcoming with the current tax laws in America.

Virtuous behavior is determined via personal choice, not forced behavior. Paying taxes is forced behavior (regardless of their necessity) and thus should not be viewed as virtuous behavior. CMV.

[Assistant]
Suppose you had a way to cheat on your taxes. You have checked it for risks and stand minimal punishment if caught and high gain if not caught. So that the selfish choice would clearly be to cheat.

Now suppose that person chooses to pay the full share of taxes.

That person, if not driven by fear of being caught, but by altruism of paying to the good of the country, would be virtuous.


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

[User]
Can a pair of binary planets share an atmosphere without exceeding the Roche Limit?

Can the distance between a pair of binary planets be close enough that the gasses making up their atmospheres could mix at the L1 Lagrange point, without either planet being pulled apart by their partner planet's gravitational field?

[Assistant] It depends on what you want to count as an "atmosphere". If you're willing to let it be thin enough, sure. Anything of substantial density would require the planets to be too close, and would also cause too much friction for them to remain in orbit for long.


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

[User]
How did the first single celled organism come into existence?

Had this question thrown at me today in a Religious Studies class (essentially philosophy and ethics) and I couldn't answer it. But I know there has to be someone out there with a good idea of the current theories surrounding this issue. Thanks!

[Assistant] The name of what you are looking for is abiogenesis. The short answer is: with out a time machine, we would never be able to re-enact that specific historical event. However, we know about half a dozen processes that each could have created initial replicating proteins, and its probable that some combination of these did the trick, as they are not mutually exclusive.


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

[User]
What are the differences between a REST api and other APIs?

if a mobile application communicates with a web application is it called a restful api? When is json not needed in rest?

[Assistant]
REST a information transfer standard. It is an agreed upon contract on how to read and write information over the web. There are other standards such as SOAP and GraphQL. It may use other data formats but JSON is the most common.

JSON is data format. JSON is in the same category as CSV, YAML, TOML, XML. These are all data formats.

Think of JSON as the equivalent of the conventions when writing a physical letter,  how you include your name and address and the recipients name and address before the message body, then think REST as the postal system that you have to adhere to in order to have your letter delivered.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are the leaked, internal emails from professionals so sloppy?

Whenever there's a cache of internal email revealed through court or hacks, I'm always astounded by how poorly they're written. Not just informal, but horrible grammar and spelling.

Given these are often from very accomplished and educated individuals, I feel like I'm missing something here.

[Assistant]
Several reasons that all add up.

Firstly, many of these emails are written on a phone while multitasking or traveling, so punctuation and verbose language is avoided for practicality.

Second, a lot of these emails are quick, informal communications between people who talk all the time and just want something quickly in writing as a reminder. They're just augmentations to previous discussions.

Third, they're not writers for a reason. As long as they get the point across, who cares? If the communications are meant to be public, they'll get someone else to write them or re-write them before releasing them.


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

[User] ELI5: if building muscle is caused by microtears then how come we dont get bruises from doing it?

[Assistant] Bruises are from tears/ruptures in blood vessels. Muscle growth is from tears in muscle tissue. You can tear muscles without tearing the blood vessels around them. Its like if a part breaks but it's still hanging by the wiring, because the wires inside are still intact - except in this case the wires are your blood vessels.


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

[User] Would the night sky look very different on a planet orbiting proxima centuari compated to ours?

[Assistant] It would depend a lot on the exact stars, but only moderately different. eg: there's a new fairly bright star somewhere around Cassiopeia (Sol), and Sirius would have moved a lot, but Betelgeuse very little and Deneb not at all.


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

[User] [W40K] Will the Emperor ever 'wake up'? And if he does, just how pissed will he be at what has happened to the Imperium?

[Assistant] The throne is all that keeps his physical body alive, it's important to note his conscious is still active in the warp. He's not some coma patient, he constantly exerts massive amounts of will to do all the stuff he does that makes the Imperium possible. That being said it's a theory that if his physical body dies, he'll be reborn in a new one ( there's also a theory he'd turn into a fifth Chaos God.)


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

[User]
CMV: If a company can afford to pay it's full time employees a living wage, they should have to reimburse the government for any government assistance received by any of it's employees.

I am of the radical opinion that a person who works full time should make enough money to support their family, on one single full time income.  While I fully acknowledge that this is a radical dream, I think a fair compromise to take as a reasonably achievable goal would be that no one working full time qualifies for government assistance.  Any full time worker who is on any form of government assistance is not on welfare, their corporation is.  Many of these companies are capable of paying their employees a living wage and yet chose not to. I recently saw numbers indicating that one third of the employees at Amazon qualified for food stamps, and yet the CEO of Amazon compensates himself to the tune of $105 Million per day in total compensation.  Cases like these are clear cut examples of the government subsidizing the employer's expenses for the benefit of the highly compensated workers/shareholders.

[Assistant]
So for this argument, you are taking the position that a "livable wage" is anything that doesn't acquire the employee to draw from welfare?

Most business owners will now prioritize hiring single people over people with families as they don't need as much income to support themselves.


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

[User] ELI5: How does prion disease work? Why does it happen on identical species only? (ex. cow eats cow, or human eats human)

[Assistant]
If youve ever seen salt crystallise from salt water,  It works the same way.

A tiny miss-folded protein from a Mad cow youve eaten moves through the blood brain barrier and into a gets into one of your neurones.

Your neurone has lots of similar proteins, to the Mad Cows   protein. When these two proteins (yours and the cows) knock together it cause a change in your proteins it stacks together like lego with the miss folded cow protein and wont come apart easily.

As more of your proteins hit this miss-folded stack they add and add to it.

As the stack grows your neurone detects a drop in that specific protein and produces more, which only grows the crystal stack of miss-folded proteins more.

This cycle continues until the neurone cant function and dies due to the crystallised protein within in it.

Once dead the neurone is broken down by the body causing pieces of miss-folded proteins to be spread to other neurones.

This is why it can take awhile before symptoms can appear, then degrade rapidly. The crystallisation is exponential.


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

[User]
ELI5: On the radio, why can the dj's say "pussy" (and not referring to a cat) but not "dick"?

Edit: This came up because on Bob and Tom this morning they had one of their characters call in and he always calls them pussies.  Then they were playing a comedy song and it kept bleeping out dick.

[Assistant]
Long story short: The FCC is only effective if it's reported.  The FCC doesn't monitor every minute of every day for bad words, it will only investigate if it receives a complaint from a listener.

And it's also all in context.  Here are the FCC rules on indeceny:

* An average person, applying contemporary community standards, must find that the material, as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest;

* The material must depict or describe, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by applicable law;

* The material, taken as a whole, must lack serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.

**So in your specific case, pussy (not referring to a cat) could be considered an offensive, sexual description without serious artistic, political, etc value.   In all honesty, 'Dick' could be taken the same way.**

**Essentially, you CAN say anything on the radio, so it's really just a game of 'would someone report this?'**

[Legitimately, you can say anything you want between the hours of 10p and 6a.  Those are 'safe harbor' hours where the FCC doesn't give a toot.]

So it's all a matter of opinion on what to say and not say on the radio, what the general public will or will not be offended by - or convinced to report.

On cable TV/Satellite radio, the FCC has absolutely no ruling on what goes over the air, since people are choosing to pay for that programming.  Generally, the thing stopping shows from cursing or showing flat-out porn is, "Will our advertisers still show commercials during this?"

Which is why South Park says anything and everything - they are at the point where their sponsors know what they're getting into and still buy time.

Addendum:
"He's being a Dick"  = okay.  Not sexually offensive.

"He sucks Dick." = Sexually offensive.


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

[User]
ELI5: When an organ is replaced with someone else's, the body needs immunosuppressants because of the foreign object now in the body. Why is the same not true for a blood transfusion?

Basically title! I was wondering about this. Thanks!

[Assistant]
Blood cells don't live very long (~120 days).  The transfused ones live less time than "new" ones anyway, because of the time they lived in the donor.  The idea is to keep you alive long enough for your body to make some new blood cells that match.  The immune response kills a few along the way, it's no big deal.

Transplant a kidney, and the concept is that it will continue to function for the rest of your life.  That means it's not OK for the immune system to kill it off a little at a time.


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

[User] ELI5: How come when I am laying in bed at night and left with my thoughts I want to start working proactively in my life, but when I wake up I couldn't care less?

[Assistant] It's the difference between living "idealistically," which can stay a dream, and actually doing the hard work it takes to make those dreams come true. When you lay in bed thinking, tomorrow seems like forever away. When it's morning, the hardships of reality kick in.


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

[User]
ELI5: Redbull & Alcohol. What is happening to our brains when we combine them?

Google seems to turn up conflicting information. Red Bull's website says there is no scientifically proven effect while some articles seem to suggest the effect is similar to cocaine.

EDIT: I hope this flair is appropriate/correct.

[Assistant] Alcohol is a depressant in that it slows down the central nervous system. When you're drunk you lose balance, become more emotional or angry and violent, and become tired. Red Bull has caffeine which is a stimulant in that it increases central nervous activity. However, when you take both at the same time, the alcohol will still depress your central nervous system while the caffeine in Red Bull will make you feel as if you're sober and alert. The key word here is feel because the alcohol will still affect your reaction time, balance, and emotions. The danger of drinking alcohol and Red Bull is that you could feel sober causing you to drink more alcohol and/or doing something that you shouldn't be doing while intoxicated.


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

[User] ELI5: If it's bad for the battery for a computer to be plugged in while at 100% charge, why can't the charger detect a full charge and disconnect the power?

[Assistant]
It can and does.

(Speaking for Lithium-Ion batteries)

If it didn't, the battery would overcharge, which would result in the battery failing (possibly catastrophically, read: explosively).

What's bad for the battery is remaining at 100% battery for extended periods of time.  It can result in the chemicals in the battery becoming crystalized, and unable to discharge.

Imagine if you had a bottle of water and ice formed if you left it filled for too long, and that ice never melted.  The total drinkable capacity of the water bottle would be reduced by the ice.


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

[User]
[Marvel]What would happen if Juggernaut ran at Thor, causing Thor to throw his hammer at him?

If Juggernaut and Mjllnir collided, what would happen?

Edit: Okay, other question: Can Juggernaut trip over Mjllnir?

[Assistant]
It took a godblast from an Odin-powered Thor to stop the Juggernaut during one of his charges, and even then it was only temporary. With just his body or with a hammer throw, Thor cannot stop Juggernaut.

tl;dr - The hammer bounces off Juggernaut harmlessly, Thor gets run over.


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

[User]
Have any intellectuals written about "mess" or "untidiness"?

I was looking at my unwashed dishes, thinking; 'Mess' is interesting to define:

Have any Academics or Intellectuals written about what 'Mess' or 'Tidy/Untidiness' is or why it exists?

My observations, (feel free to challenge them or add any of your own):

1. Only man-made objects can be 'Messy': A garden can, but a forest cannot.
2. Something that is "a mess" is a) in transition from one position or state to another. or b) something complex someone intended to hide that is exposed (e.g. the inside of a poorly soldered light switch or even an extra-marital affair)
3. Mess is usually unintended and undesirable.
4. Mess = entropy. If all humans were to disappear, buildings would gradually disintegrate, and trees would grow through windows: IE: Nature would create 'mess'. So the 'tidying' of mess is the infinite resistance of nature.
5. Mess is different to dirt: Mess is sometimes clean, but dirt is always messy.
6. To perceive Mess requires the understanding that order was intended and that it is failing.
7. Mess is entirely subjective.
8. Only visible things can be Messy. A box of tangled cables in a cupboard is not, but when you open it, it is.

[Assistant]
I know there has been some work on the topic of workspace disorder, messy or untidy workplaces, and outcomes such as productivity or creativity:

Manzi, A., Durmysheva, Y., Pinegar, S. K., Rogers, A., & Ramos, J. (2019). Workspace Disorder Does Not Influence Creativity and Executive Functions. Frontiers in psychology, 9, 2662.

Vohs, K. D., Redden, J. P., & Rahinel, R. (2013). Physical order produces healthy choices, generosity, and conventionality, whereas disorder produces creativity. Psychological Science, 24(9), 1860-1867.


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

[User]
[fallout] has the vault where the heads of vault tec Hid during the war ever been explored or discovered?

What vault did the big shots of vault tec hide in?

[Assistant] It's important to note that not everyone that survived the war hid inside Vault-Tec Vaults, you had the Enclave and BOS that made use of military instalations and more important, extremely wealthy people like Mr. House, simply had enough money that his home was sturdy enough to endure it, so assuming the big shots of Vault Tec were pretty good if it came to cash, it wouldn't be far fetched to assume that they had a separate bunker.


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

[User]
[An American Werewolf in London] What happens after London police publicly kill a werewolf?

At the end of the movie a huge, freakish wolf goes on a rampage in public, then runs down a dead end alley. Cops kill it with scoped rifles, and a few seconds later they find a naked man dead of gunshots.

Clearly they saw what they shot at and there is no place for the wolf to have vanished off to, so it's not like it can be written off as some kind of mistake. So do the papers report "**Werewolves Real??**" the day after? What goes into the police report? Does humanity in general come to accept lycanthropy as fact?

[Assistant] Dresden Files actually does a pretty good explanation for this. Obviously the police can't say that they shot and killed a werewolf which turned into a man. It's on them to come up with another explanation. It was a man wearing a wolf cloak and mask, which must've gotten lost in the chaos.


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

[User]
ELI5: What is a major key and a minor key?

My musical background is required elementary school recorder-playing music class.

I can read basic sheet music ("Every Good Boy Does Fine" and "FACE") and know quarter, half and whole notes. And what a treble and bass clef are and that the treble clef indicates that C is the baseline...and that's about it.

What is a "major" key and a "minor" key, exactly?

[Assistant]
When learning a song by ear, usually a good start is to ask "is this a major or a minor key?"
If a song is "happy" sounding its in a major key. If its "sad" then its in a minor key... then from there you can figure out what exact key the song is in by playing a lead of sorts over it.


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

[User]
When Matter and Anti-Matter annihilate eachother where does the energy they make go? Further if you had enough anti-matter could this energy be used to make a bomb?

The Bomb is just an example of a hypothetical way to harness it.

[Assistant]
When a fundamental charged fermion (e.g. an electron) meets its antiparticle, the annihilation typically produces a pair of photons.

However, something like proton-antiproton annihilation (since protons are composite particles) will typically produce a mess of electrons, positrons, muons, neutrinos, photons, kaons, pions and other light mesons.

In either case, most if not all of the energy will be in the kinetic energy of the decay products.

Antimatter could in principle be used destructively, if you completely ignore what an impossible engineering task it would be to produce enough of it. There are much more energy-efficient ways of blowing stuff up.


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

[User]
[DC] Could Superman actually save everyone in the world if he worked non stop?

I was thinking about The Flash comic where The Flash is haunted (mentally) by the people he couldn't save. If Superman wanted to, could he actually stop all crime from happening himself without outside help or going full injustice?

[Assistant]
Im not sure he *can* like physically, he cannot be everywhere at once, and crimes are happening simultaneously all over the place. He would, eventually, need to triage and prioritize.

Thats not even taking into account the question of *how* he would get from place to place, stopping crime Superman doesnt use the Speed Force, he just moves *really fast*. And theres somewhat of an upper limit on how fast you can move through atmosphere before it has significant local effect. No good showing up to stop a mugging if your arrival comes with a shockwave turning air into plasma.


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

[User]
Why hasnt an NHL franchise ever tried to sign a very large man to play goalie?

I mean a huge guy. Like a sumo wrestler or even just a huge fat guy. They could just stand him or sit him in front of the net and nobody would ever score. I know its a strange question but Im serious. It seems to me you would be able to find someone that is big enough to fit in the net. I also know that you need to be a good athlete to be a goalie but if you were so big you didnt have to move you wouldnt need to be an athlete.

[Assistant]
There are pad size limits, so although the morbidly obese man may physically obstruct the goal, he will end up absorbing NHL slapshots without pads covering his body.

Nobody wants to see a fat guy get stoned to death by pucks.

There's also the non-trivial issue of pulling the fat man for a sixth attacker if needed, since he can't skate.


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

[User]
ELI5: did playing video games shape my intelligence and personality in a positive way?

Basically all my life (age: 27) I have played video games so I'm wondering whether they had any positive effects on me (especially on my brain) or they just robbed thousands of hours from me. I read it once that playing e.g. Tetris can have a positive effect on brain functions, but I wonder whether it's true if a grownup does it and not a child who is getting more and more intelligent by the years.

[Assistant]
No idea.

The studies are really variable because the things are very broad, vague and relatively new so there are more questions than answers. E.g., Do we mean specific games? Only violent games? Strategy games? What about when they overlap? Only certain methods of gaming, like PC or console? Is it only during certain periods this works? Is it related to playing particular game as particular ages, e.g., are violent games at 5 are bad, but at 15 are ok? If there is an effect, for how long does it last? Is there a threshold for when these effects begin ? Is there a threshold for when the become/stop being good or bad?

It would be wrong to extrapolate those to say that taken together they have had a net 'good' or 'bad' effect on you.


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

[User]
[General] Why where Ancient Civilisation so good at capturing evil but apparently so so soo lazy when came to deliver the finishing blow?

In every second fantasy story you find and ancient evil once trapped now threatens the world and the protagonist has to defeat it. Most of the time they even use the artefact left behind by the original capture of the ancient evil so apparently they had the menace but what?

Ancient Civilisation incredible powerful and incredible lazy when it comes to deliver the final blow.

[Assistant]
Well, you know, capturing them is easy to get people in on. Monster comes along, starts tearing up the countryside, releasing inhuman abominations, killing tax collectors--the government gets concerned. But when you've actually got them locked up, the order to kill them just gets caught up in committee.

You try passing a bill to initiate a blood ritual to banish a demon to the hell from whence it came when assholes keep putting cotton subsidy riders on it.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do airplanes require so many buttons/switches to be turned on?

 I know you have to have control over every part of plane in case something goes wrong when flying so you have all those knobs/buttons/switches in the cockpit, but why not make startup process a push-one-button process?

[Assistant]
Large commercial aircraft are just too complicated to have an "On" button. There are dozens of systems, indicators, and pieces of equipment to be checked before you even want to get in the plane, let alone start it up.

There are too many variables for one big button. And while you could certainly program a computer with a default start-up sequence it would be wrong in too many instances to be worth it.

Plus, we sort of *want* the crew to be actually checking everything and making sure each individual system is working.


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

[User]
Is it possible to form any real number angle in a 2d grid system?

Say you have a grid system (2d) with an x an y axis. Is it possible to form any angle with a vector, measuring the angle between the x-axis and the vector? I was wondering about it the other day when discussing complex numbers.

[Assistant]
If you mean that the vector must have integer components, then no, you can't form every real number angle. There will be a countable number of such vectors, and as such there will be at most a countable number of angles, while the total number of angles in a circle is uncountable.

The same argument holds if you let the vector components be rationals.

The consequence is kind of amazing. There is a straight line through the origin that does not hit a rational point anywhere (except the origin, obviously).


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

[User] [Dc] is the speed force a living thing?

[Assistant]
Kind of. The Speed Force is semi-sentient, and sometimes displays something very much like will and intention.

The Speed Force is a fundamental aspect of the DC cosmos; it's the "stuff" that makes time and motion possible. But fundamental concepts are anthropomorphised all the time; the Speed Force has had avatars, and one of those avatars has gone to war against the other fundamental forces.

In the TV show, the Flash managed to kill the Speed Force, which implies that it was alive in the first place.


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

[User]
Why is it more difficult to breathe warm air?

When I get into my car when the sun has been baking it all day, I feel like I can barely fill my lungs.  In cool air, though, breathing is much more comfortable.  Why is body-temperature air stifling vs cooler air?

[Assistant] Its not harder to breath, but there is less oxygen per volume of hot air compared to cold air. Cold gases are denser, meaning more oxygen per volume, your body feels this lack of oxygen in the air and tells you to breath harder to make sure you continue to get the requisite amount of oxygen that your body needs to survive.


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

[User]
[DC] What exact force is making Superman fly?

I know he gets his power from the a yellow sun, but when he does, what is propelling him through the air?

[Assistant] Well, he doesn't seem to ruin telecommunications, so electromagnetic is out. Weak and strong nuclear forces are pretty much out. He's not expelling matter, so it's not a simple application of Newton's third law. Gravity manipulation? Would also explain lifting large objects without them breaking, etc.


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

[User] How does a phone call on loudspeaker not result in a feedback loop?

[Assistant]
Two ways. With a slight delay so the loop doesn't start from the slightest sound, then you basically subtract the speaker sound from the sound microphone is picking up, either with a circuit or on software.

For hardware level work a differential amplifier circuit is used. For software you just hold on to the audio being played to speaker, match the delay, and remove it from the microphones input, then send the result to compression and to the other phone.

This is not always perfect, which is why you can sometimes hear the speaker, if it is for example reflected from somewhere, and sometimes you can hear the other person's mic quality go bit wobbly if it is loud on your end.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are boys considered blue and girls considered pink?

I mean: clothes, etc., for baby boys are always blue and for girls they're pink. I'm wondering how that came.

[Assistant]
For most of history, colour has not been associated with a gender. In the 19th century, the reverse of the current situation became fashionable in Europe -- pink as a colour for boys, and blue for girls. Rumour was that this originated in using blue for blue-eyed babies or blond(e) babies and pink for brown-eyed or brown-haired, with girls being more likely to be blonde or blue-eyed -- but there's no way of knowing if that is the origin, or just what some magazines happened to advise.

This fashion spread up until around the mid-20th century. In 1948, Prince Charles was born. His nursery was decorated in pale blue, and he was seen wearing pale blue clothes. Magazines did colour-photograph features on the royal baby, and it was something of a sensation, like the royal wedding was recently (Charles being the future king, and all). It's often said that this was the event that made blue a fashionable colour for boys, as mothers around the UK started dressing and decorating like their Queen did, then catching on in other English-speaking countries.

There's no way to know if that's definitely true, because this isn't some iron law that was signed into effect on a given day, but it's *probably* true, or at least a major influence, because that is the time that pink and blue reversed their positions and became actual gender signifiers (prior to this, blue was generally associated with girls and pink with boys, but it wasn't taboo to wear the alternate colour and those colours weren't used to *represent* girls and boys).


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

[User]
ELI5- Why is it that salt and pepper are the only two prevalent spices to be found on the dinner table?

I thought this was weird.  I know that spices were popular long ago because food tasted awful, but back then they were outrageously expensive. So why is it that we have choosen salt and pepper as our only go-to spices that we actively put on the dinner table?

[Assistant] Blame the French.  Basically there was a super picky French emperor that disliked most other spices so he banned them.  French cuisine adapted and became the dominating cuisine of Europe and consequently the rest of the world.


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

[User] would there be muzzle flash if a firearm was fired in a vacuum?

[Assistant]
The muzzle flash of a firearm is the explosion that is propelling the bullet out of the barrel following the round and exiting behind it. That explosion is produced by the propellant inside the bullet's casing (or the casing itself for caseless ammunition). The explosion would still be present, though it may appear differently in a vacuum.

Edit: Also, the propellant contains its own oxygen and would ignite within a vacuum.


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

[User]
How come when when you wipe to hard after going to the bathroom that there's blood that you never get an infection from fecal matter getting into your bloodstream?

I know very little about things of this nature but I was thinking about this the other day. I know that keeping a wound clean is a large factor in avoiding an infection but wouldn't wiping so hard you bleed get some very nasty stuff right into your bloodstream?

[Assistant]
The immune system isn't the same everywhere in your body; it does different things in different places. Your gut-associated mucosal immune system is very well adapted to prevent this from happening.

In a healthy intestine, the immune cells live just under the epithelial surface in an area called the lamina propria. They constantly "sample" the bacteria from the GI tract and produce IgA antibodies that match those bacterial proteins. (For reasons that would take twice as much time to explain, your body reacts differently to pathogens than to the normal flora, so this only applies to "probiotics".) IgA is a class of antibodies that don't really do a good job of promoting inflammation - but they are really good at "neutralizing" bacteria and toxins. Basically, they hang out in the mucus layer that coats the epithelium, and bind to the various surface proteins of the bacteria. It doesn't kill them very effectively, but it does prevent them from using those surface proteins to attach to the epithelial cells and invade the body.

Okay. Now that we've got that set up.

When something goes wrong with this system, say, a small tear in the epithelium, those bacteria do gain access to the underlying tissues. However. The broken blood vessels that are the cause of the bleeding are already the site of an inflammatory/clotting response that will quickly kill and/or contain any bacteria that do make it in, and the other blood vessels aren't literally *right* under the epithelium... they are contained in the lamina propria. It's a very small distance to travel, but for a bacterial cell, it is a significant one. We've already established that your body is constantly producing antibodies and immune cells that target these bacteria, and that those immune cells live right where the bacteria have to travel through. And we know that the antibodies are non-inflammatory. What this essentially means is: when those bacteria enter the lamina propria, there's already a shitstorm waiting for them, and it's a shitstorm that won't cause inflammation. (Inflammation makes the blood vessels a little more permeable, so that immune cells can squeeze out and reach the site of infection. That can also backfire, obviously, since cells could also get *in*.)

In summary: the only bacteria that get into underlying tissues have a fully-primed and active immune response already waiting for them, and they don't make it to the bloodstream in numbers great enough to cause disease, if at all. Also, the reason you don't detect any symptoms of infection (itching, swelling, redness, pain) is that this particular immune response is not inflammatory.

Immunology is *awesome*. :)


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why wouldn't Watto accept Republic credits?

It seems that Republic credits are the closest thing in SW to a universal currency, it'd be like some junk dealer in Africa refusing US dollars.

[Assistant] The value of the dollar is sustained by a stable American economy and a relatively strong central government. The Republic is *not* a strong government, it's at best confederate and at that time can't muster a response to a shipping company blockading a major world.


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

[User] eli5 Circadian Rhythym. how do people that don't know what time it is when they fall asleep still wake up at the same time every day?

[Assistant]
The circadian rhythm is driven by a hormone called melatonin. When we have little melatonin we are awake but also start producing melatonin. When we have a lot of melatonin we get tired but also start breaking down the melatonin. If left completely alone this rhythm will repeat itself roughly every 24 hour. In some people less but in most people more. But things like light and meals will cause the melatonin levels to go down in order to tune the circadian rhythm to an even 24 hours which matches the day and night cycle.

In addition to the circadian rhythm the entire brain does not fall asleep. Part of your brain never sleeps and is able to wake up other parts on demand. This is how we have been able to stay alive for millions of years without getting eaten by predators or taken by landslides even though we need sleep every night. So even when sleeping you are constantly listening out for cues that it is time to get up and might even open your eyelids to scan the environment before falling back asleep. This means that things like a clock in the room, the sound of garbage men outside, light through the window, the neighbors alarm clock, etc. can cue your brain onto the idea that it is now time to wake up.


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

[User] ELI5: why do many stereo receivers display their volume "backwards" (where zero is the loudest)?

[Assistant] Because the volume knob is not an "increase the sound" knob, it's a "decrease the sound" knob. The zero point is the spot where the amplifier is "normal", believe it or not. Everything below that is called attenuation which is a fancy word for "reduce the signal". Anything above zero will be distorted.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do brain bleeds (like stroke or aneurysm) kill us? Isn't there plenty of other veins in our head that can transport blood around while the broken one heals?

[Assistant]
Strokes (like heart attacks) occur when a vessel that supplies blood  becomes blocked, cutting off blood supply distal from the area of blockage and causing cell death.

You are correct that brain tissue is very vascularized. The brain can be subdivided into main vascular 'territories' that are each supplied by a major cerebral artery. Although a given part of the brain has a 'main' blood supply, it also has other 'collateral' blood vessels that it can draw blood from if the main artery becomes blocked. However, the collateral vessels tend to be much smaller and cannot supply as much blood compared to the major arteries, and thus cannot fully compensate for the loss of a major cerebral artery. So collateral vessels can limit the extent of damage to the brain, but they cannot fully eliminate it.

Regarding brain aneurysms, they are not deadly because of blood loss - most brain aneurysms are quite small, and the amount of blood loss from an aneyrysm rupture is relatively minimal (not enough to kill you). The reason why brain aneurysms are deadly is the blood itself. Blood contains a lot of substances that cause inflammation. Blood has a toxic effect when in direct contact with brain cells. Blood normally does not come into direct contact with brain cells, but when a brain aneurysm ruptures, blood leaks into the subarachnoid space (the fluid pocket in which the brain bathes) and damages brain cells. The inflammatory reaction also causes vasospasm (sudden constriction of blood vessels) which cuts off blood supply to the brain and further damages brain tissue similarly to a stroke.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does "manual" gear work in fully automatic vehicles?

I have a Chevy Equinox and I always thought it was for pretending like I actually own a manual car. BUT,
       I've lately learned that you're not supposed to move around like that so what exactly are we supposed to do with it?

[Assistant]
In addition to the other comment, manually downshifting an automatic can be useful for controlling your speed without cooking your brakes on long, steep downhills.

There are some cars (mostly enthusiast/ sports cars) with automatic transmission that are intended to be manually shifted at least semi-regularly.  They usually have paddles near the steering wheel to shift up and down.


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

[User]
[Logan] Spoilers inside!

Where were X-23 and her entourage going when they made it to Canada? Who were they talking to on the radio?

[Assistant]
It seems like it was left intentionally ambiguous who it specifically was, but it was implied that Canada's government has an official amnesty program of sort for mutants, so we could assume that their contact was either an official liaison for the government or someone who runs or is part of a non-governmental group that facilitates bringing mutants into Canada, as exists in the real world for refugees.

The more entertaining and sequel-jerk unfounded possibility is that it's Alpha Flight and they're going to be the ones who create a New Mutants team since the X-Men are kaput.


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

[User] ELI5: How did people begin to disprove the geocentric model?

[Assistant]
Early evidence: the visible planets follow bizzare paths across the sky that are difficult to explain with the Earth at the center.  Mercury and Venus never leave the Sun's proximity, the others lazily wander through the sky on multi-year cycles that confounded early astronomers.

Eventually (1500s) telescopes got good enough to resolve details about the planets, and astronomers noted that Jupiter had objects that seemed to orbit it instead of Earth and that Venus went through distinct moon-like phases.

This suggested that Venus was orbiting the sun and not simply moving in some bizzare path ahead or behind it, and that it was possible for objects to orbit other things.

Taking that observation and making a model with the Sun in the center produced a much cleaner series of nice circular orbits instead of labyrinthine explanations of retrograde motions, and it soon became the established teaching (despite some infamous early resistance from religious figures)


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

[User]
What is the real world equivalent of video game "gold sinks"?

In MMO games (e.g. World of Warcraft) there's something called a "gold sink", which is when the developers add mechanics to the game which remove excess money in order to prevent inflation. For example, they might add a gate which costs you 1,000 gold every time you go through it, and this gold is essentially deleted from the game.

Is there a real world equivalent of this? I thought it could be taxes, but on second thought I don't think so, seeing that the money goes to the government and isn't destroyed.

[Assistant]
I mean, the whole point of gold sinks is to solve an issue that happens due to video game limitations.

You *could* remove money from the economy via taxes if you wanted to, but the central bank themselves could also simply sell government bonds and destroy the money they receive from that. Generally things like that aren't necessary since slowing down the economy in more "mild" ways (like raising interest rates) is sufficient.


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

[User]
What causes shingles (and the zoster virus in general) to manifest as a rash?

Shingles is a reactivation of the varicella-zoster virus. In searching online, I havent been able to find out what triggers the virus to exhibit a painful rash with blisters. Why is it a rash instead of, say, a sore throat?

[Assistant]
The virus first causes chicken pox then when that disease subsides the virus crawls along your nerves and finally hides inside the ganglia (that is the bodies of the neurons your nerves are attached to) and replicates just barely to survive there for a long time.

these are the same ganglia that correspond to that specific patch of skin the virus came from.

Fast forward like ten years, and your immune system falters for whatever reason and the virus, still hidden in the ganglia, takes the chance to replicate more vigorously and crawls once again along the nerves in the opposite direction to reach the same corresponding patches of skin.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Why aren't the mages taking a more active interest in Muggle affairs?

In the books, the only contact we see between the Ministry of Magic and the Muggle government of the U.K is when the Ministry informs the Prime Minister of their existence.

Why are they limiting themselves to just that? They have the means and the ability to infiltrate the government at any level and manipulate existing members to do their bidding. Why aren't they doing more to suppress us muggles and elevate themselves, or at least give themselves a greater ability to preserve the statute of secrecy?

[Assistant] Why don't they just combine with muggles slowly, you know how awesome combining magic with science would be, and if everyone becomes half wizard slowly through genetics (it would take a lot of generations) there can be choices far beyond what normal humans can study.


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

[User]
[Ant-Man movie] How exactly can Ant Man go subatomic, which requires he be smaller than atoms, when he himself is made of atoms?

Are his atoms somehow significantly smaller than the other atoms?

[Assistant]
Pym Particles

"They're Marvel's Speedforce!"

Edit: They allow him to reduce the space between atoms. Then when there is no more space between atoms it reduces the space between the things that make up the atoms, the sub atomic parts. Allowing Ant Man to go sub atomic.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Did Vader know that Boba Fett was a Jango clone?

Anakin spent plenty of time with Clone Troopers and was fond of them. When he became Vader and started employing Boba, did he know that Boba was a clone? If he did, at what point did he learn that?

[Assistant] He never knew. Only a handful of people were aware of Boba being a clone and most were dead by 17bby long before Boba became a professional. Most people assumed he was a natural child of Jango and only later in legends was it ever an issue that he was a clone. In canon even mandalore considered Boba a natural child.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do space travel vehicles usually get launched from static vertical positions? Would it be more energy efficient to take off like an airplane then accelerate while gaining altitude?

[Assistant]
The problem is the atmosphere; down near the surface, the atmosphere is thick enough to cause significant drag (and potentially damage) to any ship that's going to want to get to the very high speeds needed for achieving orbit.

So instead, rockets will launch more or less straight up, and then when they've gotten high enough that the atmosphere is sufficiently thin, they'll nose over and start gaining speed parallel(ish) to the Earth's surface.


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

[User] ELI5: How can dishwashers at restaurants clean dishes in two minutes where a home dishwasher needs an hour?

[Assistant] A lot of the time spent by home dishwashers is to let water into the machine, heat it up and pump it out as well as having the dishes soak and rinse. However a restaurant dishwasher is switched on at the start of the day and will make sure to have lots of boiling water in its tub. The dishes are also fresh from the tables and are rinsed manually before put into the machine. So the only thing that needs to be done to get the dishes clean is a few minutes of steam jets to disinfect them and melt any fats on them. And unlike home dishwashers the dishes are taken out wet and then dried outside. So to clean just one load with a restaurant dishwasher it would still take several hours, especially if the dishes have been sitting before being cleaned. But since the restaurant is doing lots of loads they are able to make it into an assembly line where each step only takes a few minutes.


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

[User] What are the .1% of germs that are not killed by Purell, Lysol, etc?

[Assistant]
[comment removed] was incorrect.  That 0.1% can be just about anything.  It completely depends on what you are sanitizing and what was on it to begin with.  It also depends on what sanitizing agent you used, and how well you followed the "real" directions for use.  Didn't let it soak in long enough?  Then it won't kill everything.  The sanitizing agent couldn't penetrate all the way?  Then it won't kill everything.

This is an easy lab we do with intro micro students.  Take paper clips and soak them in a bacterial solution.  Then expose each paper clip to sanitizing agent, perhaps one at 5 seconds, one at 30 seconds, one at 1 minute, 5 minutes and 10 minutes.  After growth, you see a clear trend.  The ones soaked longer have less growth, until hopefully you found the time point where everything was killed.  This is also a great way for students to compare that some things kill quicker than others (one test item might need 10 minute to kill everything while another might only need 5), and that concentration matters (why does 70% ethanol in a lab matter, and not other {lower} percentages?).

The short of it really though is that those companies can't claim that you, as an average household user, will be able to completely sterilize something.  Unless you know what you are doing.


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

[User]
ELI5: How did we figure out how many protons each element has?

If we can't look at a molecule of an element how do we know how many protons it's nucleus has?

[Assistant]
Originally we couldn't, you can measure electronic charge, and with some effort the number of electrons, modern but early efforts at building a periodic table got very confused because lots of elements have the same number of electrons.  That, as you might imagine, didn't work very well, but everyone knew it didn't work very well and there had to be something else happening, ok but try ordering by atomic mass then!  Easy enough.  The periodic table looked a lot like it does now, with this series of problems for elements that appeared to have the same charge (which quickly people realized, had different atomic masses, but then two elements can have the very close to the same atomic mass and different charge).  The particular standouts are nickel and cobalt, which electronically are the reverse order of their atomic weight.  But just about everything else is ordered atomic weight early in the periodic table.

Enter Bohr and Moseley.  Bohr came up with something akin to the model of the atom that you classically think of (along with Thompson and rutherford), that's the idea that there's these things called electrons, they have certain stable levels of excitation and they orbit a nucleus.

Moseley looked at xray emissions from atoms - he shot xrays at them, and then looked at how the xrays come out.  And what you get is basically a sequence, which corresponds to nuclear charge.  That pretty much gives you the modern periodic table, shoot any pure element in a vacuum with some xrays and they'll scatter in a predictable way based on the number of protons.  (The square root of the xray frequency increases in regular steps for each increase in atomic number basically).

In 1935 the neutron was discovered and at that point we get a fairly complete (if not deeply quantum mechanical) understanding of what an atom is.

The discovery of the proton also made clear that there were quite a few gaps in the periodic table, elements that hadn't been found or isolated yet, and the search was on.


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

[User]
do we know where the center of the universe (place of the big bang) is?

we are at the center of a sphere which the ends are the edges of the *observable* universe, which is not necessarily the edges of the actual (hypothetical, if there were real edges) of the universe, because we are certainly not a helio/geo-centric universe.

with the whole big-bang theory, we might assume (is this correct, this assumption?) that the universe would expand from that origination point equally in all directions, and therefore theoretically discoverable (i.e. the point from which all matter is speeding away from)

if so, do we know where we are relative to that point, and is it in this "sphere" of the observable universe?

**edit** there are a lot of very good points, which require further reading on the internets (i cant afford books, and dont have ready access to a library. Im going to read what i can, and when i have a better understanding, ill come back.

[Assistant]
The universe is infinite. It has no center. (as best we can tell)

edit: pre-emptive discussion for the inevitable shitstorm that follows me saying this here.

1) A universe with borders makes no physical sense. We would need to say that physics changes with location, and that's weird

2) Our universe, as best we can measure, is either flat or "saddle" shaped, not shaped like a sphere. Almost definitely flat though. To be specific, we have measured the curvature and feel confident that it is a non-positive value.

3) If a universe is flat, and doesn't have boundaries, it's infinite in size.

A) the universe has always been infinite in size. Even in the big bang, our *observable* universe likely occupied some insanely small volume that was itself a region of some infinite region. Since the big bang, the universe has grown less dense by stretching the space between everything.


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

[User] ELI5: How is Dr Pepper bottled by both Coca Cola and PepsiCo ?

[Assistant] Dr Pepper is it's own company. It sometimes licenses itself out to other manufacturers in different areas instead of building their factories all over. Also since it's smaller they use 3rd party distribution, so placed that order through just  coke or pepsi can still get Dr Pepper through FSA/Sysco.


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

[User]
[Zombies] If a cure/vaccine was produced during a zombie apocalypse, how would it be administered?

Surely it would be impossible to vaccinate on a worldwide scale during the conditions of an apocalypse.

In worlds like The Walking Dead or The Last Of Us, the aim (for the most part) is to survive but also to create a vaccine. But if a cure is found, then what? People are used to the world of zombies, people have devolved into killing machines.

Even if a vaccine was somehow given out on a worldwide scale it would not be possible to come back from an apocalypse and have life like it is as we live it today. It's never actually tackled in anything I've ever come across, like I Am Legend (the movie at least) a cure is found but then the movie ends, as far as I'm concerned that's as far as they got.

So basically if a zombie apocalypse were to begin; We're fucked.

[Assistant]
This assumes the zombie apocalypse is based on science, not magic.  It also focuses too much on the initial conditions but not the longer term low-zombie concentration equilibrium.

For The Walking Dead, the dead rising seems to have become widespread very quickly, possibly instantaneously at some point  This points to origins more like "Hell was full" more than a biologically transmitted disease.  However, even if it is an rapidly transmitted disease, the apocalypse part is only for a few years.

The future for such worlds is just to survive the initial few years when the zombies vastly outnumber the living.  However, while that is the normal setting for these stories, its only temporary.  After the initial zombies decay off, they will subside to background predator numbers.  Cultures will adapt to dealing with newly dead people coming back, making sure the dead do not rise, and low numbers of zombies in the wild that are probably unavoidable.

Society will restart with this new information - no vaccine needed even if it is science based.