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

[User]
[Lord of the Rings] If Sauron regained The One Ring, why would that ensure that evil would triumph eternally? How would he be any more of a threat than he was already? What is to stop someone just cutting the ring off of Sauron's finger again and starting the whole cycle over once more?

Even assuming that Sauron could regain his corporeal body and use the ring if it was returned to his possession, it's not like he was utterly unstoppable when he possessed the ring. He had been defeated in battle and forced to retreat in the battle of Gwathlo, and taken as a prison in Numenor, even before the Last Alliance of Men and Elves defeated him in the battle of Dagorlad. His new military was continuously losing to the forces of good while the Fellowship had been taking the ring to Mount Doom, so it's not like his new army would deliver any better results for him than his old one. He had lost the manufacturing power of Isengard, all of the Orcs Sauraman had been breeding were defeated, and any allies from Harad had long since fled. All of this happening didn't really depend on Sauron getting the ring or not

You can say that Sauron would just know to expect that trick used on him again, but the siege of Barad-Dur kind of proves that he can be forced into joining the fray himself, and once he is forced into a fight, if the entire army knows his weak point and aims to damage his hand, of course he would lose the ring again.

He also still retains absolute control over the Nazgul, so it's not like he ever stopped using the Ring of Power to control the wearers of the other rings. So if Sauron regained the ring, what would materially change about the heroes situation, and the War of the Ring in general?

[Assistant]
Well, you've hit on one important thing already:

Sauron didn't need the Ring to win. The Ring had to be destroyed not because he would win if he found the Ring, but because destroying the Ring was the only way to stop him before he inevitably won.

>His new military was continuously losing to the forces of good while the Fellowship had been taking the ring to Mount Doom

Not really. He was not going all-out against them and the wins they were pulling off were costly and often reliant on one-time advantages or even outright miracles they wouldn't be able to rely on if he kept pressing the attack. You can ask about why it wouldn't go the same way it did during the Last Alliance, but there are no forces of Men or Elves on that scale anywhere in Middle-Earth anymore by the War of the Ring-- the good guys simply aren't that strong anymore.

However, having the Ring would have made it much easier for him to dominate and coordinate his forces, making the war a lot easier for him. Worse, it would give him direct control over the Three, which would mean one of two things happens. Either Gandalf, Elrond, and Galadriel have to ditch *their* rings fast, leaving Lothlorien and Rivendell defenseless and Gandalf with his own power to motivate and coordinate the free peoples significantly reduced, or he gains direct mental control over three of the most magically powerful leaders among the other side-- they serve him just as the Nazgul do. (And likely without anybody *knowing* he's just turned them into his personal Pokemon.)


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

[User]
Why should we study hard Philosophers like Hegel?

I met up with a friend of mine the other day. I told him I was studying Hegel and he scoffed. He has no time for people like Hegel, Heidegger, Deleuze and Kant, he calls them deadwood. He said they are too up themselves and they are not good writers. He believes that the role of a good writer and philosopher is to be understood, which he argues Hegel and people like him are not understandable. He likes Locke, Hobbes, Popper. Now, of course, I didn't like hearing this and he hasn't read any Heidegger and he has only read a summary of Hegel's Philosophy of History. But his challenge and negation of technical philosophers remains. Why should we study Hegel? Why can't Hegel just be clearer, why speak about ontology or metaphysics when we can just speak psychologically and with common sense ? Why not get rid of the deadwood. His question is why justify a deep study of Hegel and technical philosophy? I am interested to hear your thoughts.

[Assistant]
The transcripts we have of Hegels lectures aimed at student are quite clear, and they were a big part of his popularity in his day. You of course have to spend a bit of time understanding his context and terminology, as is necessary of any text or discussion not specifically aimed at you.

Also some things are difficult because the subject is difficult. So the more challenging texts arent introducing difficulties for their own sake, but helping us think through things that are inherently complex and difficult.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do people go bald with old age while other animals do not?

[Assistant] We have two types of hair follicles, vellus follicles and terminal follicles. Most of your skin is covered with vellus follicles, which produce tiny light colored hairs. The only places that have no hair follicles are the lips, palms, soles and parts of the genitalia. Terminal hair follicles develop from vellus hair follicles. During puberty in males, vellus follicles develop into terminal follicles on the face to form the beard. Somehow, aging causes terminal hair follicles on the heads of some men to revert back into vellus follicles. Most other animals just have one type of hair that doesn't go through weird transitions, so their hair follicles don't contain instructions for how to be tiny invisible hairs.


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

[User]
[Sherlock] Why didn't Mycroft gave false info about Sherlock's past to Moriarty in the season finale of season 2?

Why did Mycroft tell true stories of Sherlock's childhood and past rather than telling false stpries so as to serve both the purposes : getting info from moriarty and also preventing any use of the info in a harmful way in the future.
Judging by his intellect, Mycroft must have guessed that the info he was giving to Moriarty about Sherlock could be sensitive... So he should have given false information... That way no one would believe the newspapers and it could have failed Moriarty .
Am i missing something here?

[Assistant] Because Sherlock and Mycroft wanted to lure him DEEP into their trap. Moriarty is smart and has almost unlimited resources if they even hesitated or played a little too much safe. Moriarty would have known it and counter reacted. The Holmes brothers were exceptional because they will hug their target with them to hell to make sure they are destroyed.


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

[User] Why are the first 2 leaves on seedlings a different shape to all the rest?

[Assistant]
They are called cotyledons, and actually only a subgroup of flowering plants have two, the dicots. Monocots like grasses have only one.

They are embryonic leaves that differ from the ones formed later because they have additional functions, for example storage or access to nutrient reserves of the seed and protection of the early stem.


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

[User]
How do we know how to build large scale, but rare, civil engineering projects? (e.g. subways)

Melbourne (Australia) is building its first subway since the 1980's.  Building subways doesn't seem that common around the world in general.  When a project like this is undertaken, how do we find people who have expertise in building them?  Furthermore, when the project ends, how is the expertise gained in building that project kept/maintained for the next one?  Since these sort of projects are so rare, it seems hard for people to build up their experience to do each subsequent project better (as one would building multiple skyscrapers, or websites for example).

Are these projects mostly done by people doing it for the first time?  Are they informed by past successes and failures somehow?

EDIT: Thanks everyone for the fantastic responses so far!  A lot of people are focusing on the 'subway' example, which was which first prompted my question, but apparently aren't as rare as I first thought.  So a side question would be, are there any projects where maintaining knowledge and experience in building it does become a problem, simply because the projects are so uncommon?  My other thought was dams, but they seem common too.

[Assistant]
Rarely will you find an expert in something like building a Subway. You'll find some engineers who specialize in designing tunnels, and some who design railroad systems, and people who design high-traffic spaces (like stations). They'll all work together, as well as with other people who have experience in the subparts of those tasks (electrical system design, HVAC, geologists, interior design, etc).

All of these people can apply their skill sets to a variety of projects - it's all about gathering the right group of people.


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

[User]
[Pokemon] When did they illegalize marrying Pokmon?

Im sure some of you you have seen the meme about the library in the original Diamond and Pearl games about how people in Ancient Sinnoh used to marry Pokmon, and now, conveniently, a new game about Ancient Sinnoh is in development. What made people decide to ban it?

[Assistant]
I ask you this.

Your evidence that they illegalized it is what? The only evidence that we had is that people used to marry pokemon, never that it is no longer illegal. Probably just taboo since so many people are treating them as pets these days.


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

[User]
Why do some species use copper to transport oxygen through their blood while most other species use iron?

I'm under the impression that copper is less efficient at transporting oxygen, so why don't all animals use iron instead? Did some just never evolve to be able to use iron even though it would actually be better for them?

[Assistant]
So, this is a very abbreviated explanation, but you have to think of it in terms of evolutionary problem solving. Life finds new answers to new problems all the time in evolution, and this is a great example. Consider that the main disadvantage to hemocyanin is that it does not bind the oxygen as effectively or plentifully, so it's just not as effective as hemoglobin. Hemocyanin also performs better in colder, less oxygen-rich environments, like the oceans. The groupings of creatures that use molecules other than hemoglobin to transport oxygen through tissues are much more primitive, and their bodies are much smaller (which is a big part of it). Hemocyanin is less efficient, but in a small body that doesn't have far to transport stuff, it can work just as well as hemoglobin. They don't need to evolve using hemoglobin, hemocyanin works fine for their use case. Hemocyanin users are also cold-blooded, so they tend to just need less oxygen in general because they're not thermoregulating. They are not lacking anything by using hemocyanin because it works perfectly for their life history.

Hemoglobin is something that evolved to solve two issues unique to vertebrates: thermoregulation and being big. Thermoregulation is a problem particularly in mammals; they expend energy and oxygen warming their bodies, therefore they need more oxygen to reliably reach their tissues. Hemoglobin is the answer to that problem. The other thing to consider is that a blue crab only needs the oxygen to make it a matter of inches, so the binding between the oxygen molecule and the metalloprotein does not need to be that strong. In a blue whale, the oxygen may need to reliably be transported hundreds of feet, so we need hemoglobin, to which oxygen bonds much more strongly, to make sure that happens. So yeah, animals using hemocyanin are not at any disadvantage because they don't NEED hemoglobin to meet their oxygen needs. For a smaller, cold-blooded creature hemocyanin is more than enough. Hemoglobin is necessary for animals that have a much higher oxygen demand and potentially a much farther oxygen transport distance.

And just for fun, hemoglobin (red blood) and hemocyanin (blue blood) are not the only options out there. There's also Chlorocruorins, used in many annelids which makes the deoxygenated blood green, vanabins in sea squirts that use vanadium as the metal binder (it doesn't work very well), and coboglobins which appear yellow (there's a few more, but those are the fun-colored ones). There is also a group of fish called cod icefish which live in environments so cold and so-oxygen rich that they don't use any oxygen transport proteins at all, so their "blood" is clear. But yeah, everything evolves to solve a new problem, and hemocyanin users have no need for hemoglobin, and hemoglobin users could never survive using hemocyanin. One is not "better" than another, they're just different use cases.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is it so much harder for women to achieve orgasm (vs men)? [NSFW]

[Assistant] Because their orgasm doesn't matter from an evolutionary viewpoint. A man needs an orgasm to ejaculate in order to impregnate a woman. A woman doesn't need an orgasm to get impregnated. Simply put, men have evolved to ejaculate faster.


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

[User]
[Marvel/DC] What do their periodic tables look like

So both of these universes have elements that are not in our periodic table such as vibranium and n-th metal, I've searched it up and gotten nothing so what is the periodic table like in the Marvel Universe and DC universe?

[Assistant] For the most part it looks the same as our periodic table.  The exotic metals are either alloys (combinations of other metals) or exist on the island of stability.  The island of stability is a theoretical group of super heavy elements that have become stable despite being much larger then the know stable elements.  This is a theory our chemists actually think may exist.


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

[User]
[Rick and Morty] How much of Ricks drinking is to cope with the things he's done and how much is to cope with the things he's seen?

And how much is because he's a hedonistic asshole.

[Assistant]
Impossible to say from the scant info we're given on his past (which he's intentionally obfuscated), but it's clear from the wedding episode that he's had battles when he was younger and more idealistic, and it's clear that the side he was on lost, making him bitter and jaded.

He probably started young thinking he could change everything or fix the universes problems, maybe that's the difference between the council and our Rick, they formed a secret government while ours tried to year down the galactic government.

I'd guess he's seen too many friends die, seen his hard work go up in flames, and had his talents twisted by those he trusted, and the combination has made him a misanthropic old man who's given up on helping others and just does whatever he wants, which is usually getting drunk and having one off adventures.


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

[User]
Is it possible to land something(a probe, a shuttle) on a gas giant like Jupiter?

I've a feeling this is an idiotic question, please bear with me. Since Jupiter is a gas giant, does that mean it has no surface to land something? For example the rovers on Mars, is it possible to land something similar on Jupiter/other gas planets? If not, what would happen?

[Assistant]
There's likely a core that's solid, near the center of the planet...but otherwise no, there's not really a surface. No material we could possibly make on Earth could withstand the pressures and temperatures to land a spacecraft way down there.

There is quite a bit of *liquid* metallic hydrogen in Jupiter's interior. Our best estimates are that it starts somewhere about 30% of the way from the cloud-tops down towards the center, so it's really more the equivalent of Earth's mantle.

Now, inside of that, there may be a rock/ice core, estimated to weigh in anywhere between 5-30 Earth masses. For the accretion theory of planetary formation to work out, a proto-planet most likely needs about 5 Earth-masses of material before it can start sucking up gas in the protostellar disc to add to the mass of the planet.

We think the accretion theory is most likely to be correct, so we expect there should be some kind of core left over from those days...but there may not be any core at all, either because 1) Jupiter formed by the gravity of the gas collapsing in on itself, or 2) the core has dissolved while immersed in all that metallic hydrogen (which is a very good solvent).

We'll know more for sure in 2016, when the Juno spacecraft is set to arrive at Jupiter. It will make a series of very tight, precise orbits around Jupiter. By watching how those orbits change over time, that will map out the gravitational field very carefully and tell us if there's a core hiding deep down there.

So at the end of the day, nobody's gong to be sending a lander to Jupiter. We did send a probe into Jupiter from the Galileo spacecraft. It descended about 100 miles down to a pressure of ~22 atmospheres, at which point it stopped working. The probe material probably kept descending long after this, the metal eventually melting and dissolving into the surrounding mass. However, we could send a balloon to float around in the clouds, and sort of idea this idea gets people like me very excited.

**TL;DR**: There's likely a core deep, deep down, but not really a "surface" to speak of. We're better off floating a balloon in the atmosphere.


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

[User]
Is it possible for a sound outside your hearing spectrum to be loud enough to cause deafness?

I was pondering this the other day and couldn't think of anything definitive.

[Assistant]
Sound is a pressure wave in air. "loudness" describes the energy of the wave and "sound" describes qualities such as frequency, timbre etc.

The ear is basically a bandpass filter. Frequencies within a certain range get amplified and frequencies outside of that range are attenuated. But its not a perfect filter... so you can still get minor resonance even at frequencies above or below your hearing range. If the wave is powerful enough, these vibrations can cause severe damage to the internal structure of the ear.

We could even explain this with an extreme case, like an extremely powerful pressure wave @ high frequency that would turn you into jelly.

Hearing loss isn't even limited to physical damage... because all sound is interpreted by our brains. So if the neurons arent firing properly to stimuli, youve got hearing loss.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do your muscles feel "good" when you stretch them?

After sitting for a while you get stiff from not moving. When you take a break and stretch a little, why does it feel so good?

[Assistant] When you stretch, you create micro tears in your muscles. Your brain releases endorphins, the feel good stuff, to cover it. As long as the tears are small, you feel good. When the tears are big, like when you tear a pectoral muscle, sorry bud, them endorphins just won't cut it and you scream bloody murder.


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

[User]
[The Matrix] What are the metrics by which The One chooses humans from within the Matrix to repopulate Zion?

The thought has recently occurred to me that each iteration of The One has been witness to the destruction of Zion and the slaughter of every human being living in Zion. So the machines attacking Zion did not just destroy the city itself, but also the people living win in the bounds of the city.

Zion is of course repopulated. This process of repopulating a destroyed Zion is based on a nucleus of human beings chosen from people connected to The Matrix. And as we all know, The One is required to make that selection of human beings.

The selected people are entering into a world where the future of humanity is concerned. After The One dies, his returned is prophesized by the Oracle. The One returns in one hundreds years or more.

So, what is the criteria or metrics by which The One would choose human beings capable of handling the devastation of the 'real world?'

[Assistant]
I would imagine that the One will choose people who are technologically capable of setting up a new external community out of the ruins of the last.

He'd need engineers, programmers and survivalists, people who are able to understand the technological nightmare which they will be in rivalry with.  He can only choose seven males and sixteen females, which means that until they get some new people out of the matrix, they're gong to have to be careful about inbreeding, so he'd probably choose fairly open minded folk too, who weren't hug up too much on monogamy.

Realistically thought this presents a lot of issues, as 23 people are going to be ripped from their lives, told the "truth", told they need to create a new human resistance and then have their leader die, leaving them alone with little guidance.

It's almost unbelievable that time after time they have survived and managed to set up working Zions - most people would give up, petition to be allowed back into the matix and decide that humanity can go fuck itself.


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

[User] ELi5: When something painful is about to happen to someone, why are they given something to bite down on?

[Assistant]
There are a number of reasons. One is that biting down can be a reflex to pain, so giving you something "safe" to bite down on prevents you from biting your tongue or damaging your teeth.

Secondly is it provides extra stimulation that can act as a distraction to your brain from the pain. Your brain can only focus and process a certain number of sensations at a time, so by giving it more sensations you can divert some of its attention away from the pain.


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

[User] Eli5 how do faraday cages block electromagnetic waves?

[Assistant]
The waves we use to transmit information are typically quite large, usually from a few centimetres to a few metres. These are called microwaves or radio waves.

Metals pick up these waves and conduct them, thats how antennas work.

Whilst you could block these signals with a metal box, a cage would be just as effective as youre dealing with large waves that cant get through the gaps.

For example, your microwave glass is just ordinary glass, the metal grid embedded in the glass is what stops the microwaves getting out and cooking your face off as you watch your food heat up.

However, if youre dealing with high energy waves like UV, X-Rays and Gamma Rays, a Faraday cage wont suffice as these have very tiny wavelengths, you need thick sheets of a very dense metal, like lead, to protect from these.


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

[User] [The World's End] How would Gary King's second attempt at The Golden Mile have fared if the invasion of the Blanks had never taken place?

[Assistant]
His friends bail on him after the 4th pub, The Crossed Hands. Gary ordered shots for everyone and went to the restroom. He left his phone and it rang when his mom called him, and he had gotten a lot of sympathy by telling everyone she died from the big 'Cancer'.

The friends leave, Gary drinks all of the shots and attempts to complete the Golden Mile solo. He gets to maybe pub 7,  the Two Headed Dog, before he "accidentally" walks in front of a bus and is tragically killed.


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

[User] How can the corona of the sun be hotter than the surface?

[Assistant]
The top comment is not correct. Nobody knows how the corona is heated. It is an excellent question to ask but no one can answer you for certain.

The comment suggest flares but they have been ruled out. They simply do not provide the energy that is needed where it is needed; they are too occasional and they are limited in number during solar minima yet the corona does not cool when the Sun has no flares, even for extended 100 year minimums. This would be very surprising if flares were responsible as the corona is radiating strongly so requires a constant supply of heat.

One of the interesting things about the coronal heating problem is that it is not a question of there not being enough energy. Despite the corona being over a million degrees K, due to it's low density, there is far more energy stored down below, in the chromosphere and photosphere. We only need about 1kW per square metre of the Sun's surface to heat the corona to it's several million degree temperature. The problem is instead one of dissipation and transport, we can not deposit the energy in the right places in the right amounts to get this power there.

The two favorite candidates right now are reconnection (but again not flares) and waves. For reconnection we are talking extremely small scale reconnection events, sometimes called nano-flares, that could occur all over the transition region (the area between the chromosphere and the corona) or the chromosphere. They would not be delivering power by energetic particles but by MHD modes or perhaps Ohmic heating. They have never been observed but that maybe is not a surprise due to their small size and our instrument resolution - spatial, spectral and in intensity.

The other strong candidate right now is waves, particularly Alfven Waves (although there is no easier way to start an argument than to discuss categorizing waves at a soolar physics session), these could start off as motion of the plasma in the photosphere causing the embedded magnetic field lines to wiggle. This resulting wave can propagate out to the corona. The problem with these are they are difficult to dissipate in the right place.

Modeling problems are present for both of them, it is not possible to model flares that we do observe let alone ones that we have never seen and it is challenging to get waves to deposit their energy in the right place in the right amount. There are also always new ideas being suggested and studied.

Either way, this is definitely a problem worth solving and people will absolutely keep trying.


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

[User]
ELI5: Before alarm clocks, how did people regulate their sleep schedule and wake up at different times?

Let's say a king wanted to have meeting at 7am back in the 1400s. How did people wake up at a precise time to make it to that meeting?

[Assistant]
> Let's say a king wanted to have meeting at 7am back in the 1400s.

They didn't, because they didn't schedule like that. They would say "an early meeting at daybreak" and then the king would start the meeting at this convenience.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do we feel sometimes more tired when we sleep more than usual?

[Assistant] Because you're waking up in the middle of a REM cycle instead of at the end. Sleep happens in different stages that last several minutes, depending on the stage. When you wake in the middle of a deep sleep stage, you wake up exhausted.


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

[User]
"A man can do as he will, but not will as he will" please explain

I'm a high-school student who just started reading Albert Einstein's "The World As I See It" and he mentioned this quote by Schopenhauer and I can't wrap my head around it. I may have an idea but I'd rather hear some explanations from some wiser heads than myself. Much appreciated.

[Assistant]
Say you like chocolate ice cream. And say there is a tub of chocolate ice cream in front of you.

You can eat the chocolate ice cream. Or can put temptation aside and choose not to eat it. In other words: You can do as you will.

But you can't choose not to like chocolate ice cream.


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

[User]
Can k (the curvature of spacetime) be complex?

So in our cosmology lectures we've looked at k from a basic "if it's positive, it does this, if it's zero it does that, if it's negative it does this other thing" point-of-view,with the lecturer saying that a full General Relativity treatment of k will be left till the fourth year.  So I'm wondering; can k be complex/imaginary?  Is that a thing which can happen, perhaps when doing the full GR treatment of it?  If so, what would the physical meaning of such a value be?

[Assistant] The parameter k shows up only in maximally symmetric spaces, but the curvature is always real-valued in GR. General Relativity is basically differencial geometry in a space with a lorentzian metric. The metric only has real-valued entries and thus the Riemannian curvature tensor also is real-valued (it can be constructed from the derivatives of the metric).


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

[User] Why Gigabit Ethernet cables can be very long (100 meters?) but USB, HDMI, DisplayPort, etc. cable only so short?

[Assistant]
1. Ethernet has built-in noise reduction because of "twisted pair" cable.

2. HDMI and DisplayPort require transfer up to 18.0 Gbit/s with much lesser lag tolerance, because they stream uncompressed video and audio. Also HDMI can be relatively long (10m).

3. USB allows up to 20 Gbit/s plus up to 100W of power.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are Islamic extremist groups predominantly Sunni Muslims rather than Shia?

[Assistant] Sunni Muslims make up about 85-90% of all muslim groups, however there are a pretty large percentage of Shia Muslim extremists, because of the Shiite population in Iran, Iraq and other areas in politically unstable regions (Sunni's are also in this area, but are more concentrated to Eastern Asian areas and Northern Africa.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are the leaves of plants hanging down when they are low on water?

[Assistant]
The leaves of plants have water inside of them that builds up a certain pressure. Imagine a balloon. If you blow air inside, the compressed air inside presses against the rubber of the balloon. If you find a balloon with air sideways, it stays horizontal.

If the leaves don't have enough water, they are like an empty balloon that you hold sideways: because of the lack of pressure against the outer layer of the leaf it hangs down.

If you water the plant, new air can enter in the balloon and it goes up again.

I hope this helps :)


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

[User] [Superman] If scientists were to study Superman's physical biology, could we learn to make better/more efficient solar panels?

[Assistant]
Possibly. But superman is generally pretty cautious with sharing information about his biology and kryptonian science in general for fear of how it could be used in the wrong hands (Lex Luthors more specifically).

Keep in mind that Luthor has tried to clone him on several occasions and even succeeded in a few of them (most notably Connor Kent).

Superman has allowed S.T.A.R. labs to conduct experiments on him a few times, but whether this is something he would allow them to look into is uncertain, as this is probably something that could very easily be misused.


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

[User]
Why should I peer-review a paper? (Honest question)

Today I received two emails from a journal I never published in. In the first email, they communicated to me that I was added to their database. In the second email, I have been asked to I) review the paper before the 1st of Jan, or II) suggest another expert in the field.

My question is: why would I ever work for them, for free? And why is it even acceptable that I get registered on a database of a journal that I have never had anything to do without my consent?

I completely understand the idea that I should do it for science, and that someone else did the same for my manuscripts. But isnt that crazy? I mean, they are asking me to work on a tight schedule entirely for free, on a paper that they will most likely ask money to access. And I dont even see one way how this will benefit my career.

Am I missing something here? Should I accept this review for some reason obscure to me?

[Assistant]
Speaking from an entirely 'selfish' point of view, you review papers for two reasons:

1. Forces you to keep up with the literature in the field and will give you new ideas.
2. Reviewing journal articles is seen as an 'essential' part of your job as an academic. You have to show that you regularly review papers for applying to fellowships, grants, tenure, etc.


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

[User]
[MCU] are Iron Mans repulsers slow, or does Thanos have good reaction speed? How powerful would that charged up repulser have been?

I noticed Thanos often manages to block the repulsers. Is Thanos abnormally fast for someone his size?

For the repulser, Im talking about when Thor zaps Iron Man. How powerful were the repulsers? We dont really get a good gauge at them because the only thing they hit is Thanos super sword.

[Assistant]
> Is Thanos abnormally fast for someone his size?

Yes, Thanos is an unbelievably powerful combatant in terms of speed, strength, and durability.  The repulsors probably wouldn't have caused much damage, but they would hurt.  No reason to feel pain if you don't have to.


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

[User]
ELI5: Radiation

Just what IS it? What does it do? What creates it?

[Assistant]
Some atoms are not meant to be.  Like a house of cards, they will eventually fall apart.

When they do, little bits fall off.  Some of these little bits are matter, like neutrons, protons, and electrons.  Others are forms of light called gamma rays.  Collectively, they are called radiation.  They typically are shot out with a lot of energy, and can break down molecules in your body.


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

[User]
How did complex systems like our circulation system evolve?

I have a scientific background mainly in math and computer science and some parts of evolution make sense to me like birds evolving better suited beaks or viruses evolving to spread faster. These things evolve in small changes each of which has a benefit.

But a circulation system needs a number of different parts to work, you need a heart at least 1 lung, blood vessels and blood to carry the oxygen around. Each of these very complex and has multicellular structure (except blood).

I see how having a circulation system gives an organism an advantage but not how we got here.

The only explanation I have found on the Internet is that we can see genetic similarities between us and organisms without a circulation system but that feels very weak evidence.

To my computer science brain evolution feels like making a series of small tweaks to a computer program, changing a variable or adding a line of code. Adding a circulation system feels a lot more than a tweak and would be the equivalent of adding a new features that required multiple changes across many files and probably the introduction whole new components and those changes need to be done to work together to achieve the overall goal.

Many thx

EDIT Thanks for all the responses so far, I have only had time to skim through them so far. In particular thanks to those that have given possible evolutionary paths to evolve form a simple organism to a human with a complex circulation system.

[Assistant]
Here's an intuitive description of one candidate pathway:

(1) Some very simple sea creatures started eating bacteria that floated into them.

(2) Some creatures (like sponges) evolved pores to filter more food from the water. This made them more effective at gathering food.

(3) These pores evolved into long digestive (somewhat vein-like) channels for the water to pass through. This gave them more area to use to digest the food.

(4) Some creatures began wiggling to pump more water through their digestive channels. This gave them the evolutionary advantage of getting more food.

(5) As digestion evolved, some of these digestive channels became internally separate. (So food first passed through the main digestive channel, then was further circulated in secondary channels.)

(6) Some of these secondary digestive channels started evolving "special" water to help transport the food. (This was the precursor to blood.)

(7) Eventually, the circulatory system began to be quite different and separate from the digestive system, although they were both still just a series of tubes.

(8) Instead of pumping the blood by wiggling, some creatures could save energy by just flexing the muscles immediately around their veins.

(9) Gradually, this evolved in to a heart.


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

[User]
ELI5:Why doesn't Japan allow dual citizenship?

My mother is Japanese, and my father is British, meaning I am a citizen of Japan, and the United Kingdom. Under current Japanese law, I will need to give up my My Japanese citizenship or my British. I would be really upset about giving up either citizenships. Since Japanese is in Demographic Transition stage 5, and the population is decreasing why doesn't the Japanese government allow dual citizenship?

[Assistant]
to put it in simple words:

A government/country is essentially nothing without it's citizens, so they want to keep you.

Another reason is that it's an awful lot of bureaucracy if you have multiple citizenships and travel around and something happens etc.

Actually being allowed to have multiple citizenships is is the exception.


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

[User] [Dungeons and Dragons] What is a cantrip?

[Assistant]
Short answer, it's a spell that a caster can pretty much pop off all day long, no problemo.

Long answer, wizarding spells are normally very complex things. Keeping one on deck and ready to fly is tough, and is an ability that requires special training. "Memorizing" a spell is an act of will, effectively holding a spell most of the way cast in the mind, where it can stay more or less all day before the caster does the right things to make the spell go off, at which point it's gone for the day; either they memorized it more than once, or they need to wait until after a good night's sleep/trance to re-memorize it.

A cantrip by contrast is something that the caster can keep on deck constantly, no problem. A wizard who knows a cantrip essentially has it permanently "memorized", and can snap it off at will. Someone who knows Ray of Frost can let that thing rip every single turn, no problemo.


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

[User] Why do you start trembling/shaking if you havent eaten in a while?

[Assistant] When you start trembling due to hunger, this is likely caused by hypoglycemia, which is low blood sugar. When your brain detects low blood sugar, it activates your stress response, which releases hormones such as epinephrine and norepinephrine, which will raise your blood sugar levels but also cause you to become shaky. The condition is called physiological tremor.


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

[User]
ELI5: Who/how do horoscopes get put together each day?

I have a horoscope app, everyday they come out with new and different horoscopes.  Most of the time they are very specific.  How do they come up with ths stuff?

[Assistant]
This is known as the Forer Effect.  Other names are Barnum Statements and Cold Readings.

So what are they?  Basically, statements which are worded in a way that make you believe that they apply to you.  If you were to be given horoscope paragraphs without context (zodiac sign, month) then you would assume that the statements are just as accurate.

The story you will find on Wikipedia is that a psychologist named Forer once gave a personality test to his students and asked them to rate how well they thought it applied to themselves.  He gave them all the exact same paragraph and they rated it highly.

The eventual conclusion is that you lend credibility to the horoscope by assuming that the horoscope provider is of a good authority, and it is bolstered by you wanting to believe in the horoscopes.

To answer your question directly - now that you know how these horoscopes work, you can see that it is easy enough to construct enough horoscopes and randomize them over a period of time and assign them to various signs.


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

[User] ELI5: How can a program teach itself to play a game like mario cart?

[Assistant]
Software that learns how to play a game is usually based on a machine learning technique called 'reinforcement learning'.

The problem with learning games is that you don't immediately know wheter a certain action or turn will lead to success (Imagine Go or Chess), so you lack labels for unique actions in the game.

So you need a different approach - the reinforcement learning:
A reinforcement learning program interacts with the game in time steps. At each time, the program receives an observation which typically includes the reward (like which rank, how many points it got) It then chooses an action from the set of available actions (randomly, or based on previous rounds or actions). At the next time, you see whether this improved, decreased or held the reward.
When the programs performance is compared to that of an program that acts optimally or really good (e.g. a good human mario player), the difference in performance gives rise to the failure or 'regret'. In order to get better at the game, the program must 'reason' about the long term consequences of its actions (i.e., learn patterns that maximize the end result).


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

[User] [ATLA/TOK] Would identical twins, triplets or more born of parents or grandparents of two or more different tribes necessarily have the potential to develop completely different bending abilities? I'm working on a story based on the idea of quadruplets masquerading as a single person - the Avatar.

[Assistant]
Theres a pair of twins in Aunt Wus village; one is an Earthbender, the other isnt.

Theres also Mako and Bolin, Fire and Earth respectively while being full-blooded brothers from a mixed-race family; mom was Fire Nation, dad was from BaSingSe. Hell, even earlier, look at Katara and Aangs kids: one non-bender (gained Air later after Harmonic Convergence), one Waterbender, one Airbender, in that order!

So yes, theres plenty of precedent for families of varying nationalities to have multiple bender-types, though it would take a few generations for all four to converge.


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

[User] [Marvel movies] I was under the impression that Black Panther is an Olympic-level athlete and martial artist. But then he runs 60kmh, catches arrows aimed at him, and holds his ground against Bucky and Steve. Is he supposed to have superpowers I don't know about?

[Assistant] He is a super human. First off, he inherits the wisdom and knowledge of all Black Panthers before him, and his body is enhanced with the heart shaped herb, which enhances his body almost to the level of the super serum. But he has superior skills and heightened senses. He is about as strong as Captain America.


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

[User]
Do Monotremes have a single occipital condyle?

Mammals have paired occipital condyles. I read that monotremes have only one. What besides milk classifies  them as mammals?

[Assistant]
Yes, you are correct. Monotremes, which are a group of mammals that includes the platypus and the echidna, do have a single occipital condyle. This is a feature that is unique to monotremes among mammals, as most mammals have paired occipital condyles.

Monotremes are classified as mammals for a number of reasons, even though they have some unique characteristics that set them apart from other mammals. For example, in addition to having a single occipital condyle, monotremes are the only mammals that lay eggs instead of giving birth to live young. However, like all mammals, monotremes have mammary glands that produce milk to feed their young. They also have hair on their bodies and are warm-blooded, which are both characteristics of mammals.

In addition to these physical characteristics, monotremes also have certain physiological traits that are characteristic of mammals. For example, they have three middle ear bones, which are used to transmit sound from the outer ear to the inner ear, and they have a neocortex, which is the part of the brain responsible for higher cognitive functions. These traits are present in all mammals, including monotremes.


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

[User] [Marvel/Harry Potter] What would happen if Ghost Rider performed the Penance Stare on Harry while he still had Voldemort's soul fragment in him?

[Assistant] Harry would be fine and the soul fragment would be destroyed. Well not fine, even at the beginning of the series he would have been badly hurt and probabally need to be hospitalized as it reflects all the pain you have ever caused another back onto you and harry has more than likely at that point caused a little pain to a number of people and that is if the dursleys don't count. If they do count then harry would die instantly drowning in the hatred of the three people whom he has spent 11 years making suffer.


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

[User] ELI5: What is the "cringe" feeling caused by?

[Assistant] Empathy. When you're watching someone go through another experience, you view their experience from your standpoint. If they are going through something that makes you feel uncomfortable, be it because they brought it on themselves or someone else is putting them in that situation, you start to feel like withdrawing from the whole predicament altogether.


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

[User]
ELi5 how is it possible to build such a massive underwater pipe like Nord Stream?

It's a huge ass 1200 km long pipe  and being as deep as 110 metres and has a diameter of 1.153 m I just can't comprehend how are humans able to build something like this. Where do they start from to build the pipes how they remove the water and so on I would like a detailed answer like the whole process of building.

[Assistant]
Building a 1200km pipe is as easy as building a 12 meter pipe a hundred thousand times in a row (and mass producing the same thing over and over is something we've gotten quite good at the last few hundred years).

Putting it on the bottom of the ocean is as simple as letting sections roll off the end of a ship while attaching more sections at the other end.

Digging an underwater trench is another of those things we got good at long ago, and letting the stuff you dug up fall back into the trench after the pipe can be handled by gravity.


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

[User]
ELI5: how doesn't high blood pressure from exercise destroy our bodies

Everyone says that high blood pressure is destructive on blood vessels and can lead to heart attack and stroke. When you do physical exercise, your blood pressure rises for relatively long periods of time. However, physical exercise... reduces your chance of having a heart attack? How does that work?

[Assistant]
A healthy body with healthy blood vessels is designed to accommodate relatively large increases in pressure and flow from time to time. This is the whole basis of "fight or flight", if your body breaks down because it can't withstand the blood pressure and heart rate when you're running from a bear, well that's not very good for humans as a species under natural selection.

The problem arises when you have damage to your heart and vessels from chronic problems. The main culprit is atherosclerosis due to high cholesterol and fats. Without going into too much detail, cholesterol and lipids will slowly mess up the flexibility of your cardiovascular system. It makes your vessels physically narrower, it will make arteries less stretchy, it will decrease blood flow to your heart itself. Eventually, your whole cardiovascular system will be under stress and high pressure even at rest. Ultimately your heart gives up, or you do something suddenly intensive and your heart can't keep up anymore. This is why lots of people die from heart failure in old age, or really unhealthy people just drop dead when they suddenly exert themselves to shovel snow in their driveways.

Exercise will lead to better energy management by your body in the long term. It will promote better utilization of fats for energy and prevent the accumulation of cholesterol in your small vessels. Good exercise and nutrition will change the fundamental energy balance processes in your body and reduce the risk of cardiovascular events overall. High blood pressure at rest is one of the earliest markers of coronary artery disease, but thankfully also the most manageable with diet, exercise, and pharmacologic therapy.


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

[User]
What would really happen if a small piece of candy entered the abdominal cavity during surgery and was sealed inside like in the Seinfeld episode "The Junior Mint"?

Could it cause an infection? How does the body get rid of it? Let's say it's a Junior Mint if that makes any difference.

[Assistant]
We refer to these kind of objects, be they Junior Mints or otherwise as foreign bodies. A retained foreign body in the abdomen can undergo two types of response - a non infective or an infective response.

If the object is relatively biologically inert, then its likely to cause a mild response from the body, just resulting in a fibrinous coating around it. This results in what is called a granuloma, which can often sit quietly in the abdomen causing no symptoms whatsoever. Granulomas may be completely undetected ,or be discovered accidentally during scans for other reasons. They often require no treatment.

Other types of foreign body though may stimulate a more active  response resulting in a a florid inflammatory reaction, often ending up as an abscess. This is much more serious and can cause all kinds of complications, including obstruction or perforation of the gut, or fistulas which are  abnormal connections between the gut and outside world which leak abdominal contents and can be very difficult to treat.


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

[User]
Think Biff from Back to the Future. If time travel exists and I go back in time to bet on sports, will the outcomes occur exactly as they did?

For example, let's think of basketball. Even the best players only shoot around 50% from the floor. So let's say I'm betting the money line on the Lakers to beat the Mavs. The Lakers are down 99-98 with 1 second left. Kobe drains a fade away at the buzzer, Lakers win 100-99. Realistically, Kobe only makes that shot 50% of the time. So if I go back in time to that exact moment, does he hit the shot every time? Or, instead, will he make that shot 50% of the time when I go back and miss it the other 50%?

[Assistant] Even if you change the past (which, by BttF rules, you will, just by existing there as a time traveler), the change will ripple forward to the future and your knowledge of the outcome of any event will be updated to match the new timeline. So when Biff went back and won all those bets and created the Hell Valley timeline, his sports almanac was constantly changing to reflect the new outcomes.


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

[User]
[Fallout New Vegas] Why is a mailman so damn talented in Diplomacy and using a gun?

He/She has brain damage too.

[Assistant]
The protagonist is not a *mailperson*, they are a *courier*. Their job is to take an object of extreme value, and move it from one end of the earth to another.

Couriers are essentially paid travelers in the most dangerous and hostile environment the world has ever seen. They have to step across warzones to deliver their goods. Not to mention the various bandits and 'interested parties' that follow people of such consequence.


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

[User]
CMV: Support for the Confederate flag, and monuments honoring Confederate heroes is unamerican

There is a lot of back and forth about the racism aspect of honoring the Confederate history. I personally do think there is a racist component but there's another aspect I think is overlooked.

How can you have pride for and fight for symbols that sought to separate from the US and still claim to be a proud American?? It represents an organization and people that fought and killed their fellow Americans TO LEAVE THE UNITED STATES! You can be proud of your Confederate heritage or you can be a proud American, to claim both is hypocrisy.

To add a different perspective think of something in your personal life that you regret or are embarrassed about. Is that something you constantly flaunt or celebrate? Brag about?

History should be remembered and learned from but the more shameful parts should not be celebrated. Memorials of tragic events are made and honored without being revered. No one celebrates the memorials for 9/11 or the holocaust but they are there as sobering reminders so that we may never forget and learn from them.

[Assistant]
>
How can you have pride for and fight for symbols that sought to separate from the US and still claim to be a proud American?

Because being American is being a part of a culture, not a nation. We are a people first and a nation second.


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

[User]
CMV: At this point, people who claim that Black Lives Matter means ONLY Black Lives Matter or some variation thereof are arguing in bad faith and/or are willfully ignorant

Hello, CMV community,

My CMV is pretty much the title. I find it hard to believe that people who take BLM to mean that ONLY Black Lives Matter or some variation of that are either arguing in bad faith and/or are willfully ignorant. I believe that people who think this are attempting to discredit the BLM movement or are refusing to do even a little bit if research into what BLM actually means.

The interesting part of this discussion, I think, is that proponents of the "counter-movement" (if you want to call it that) -- Blue Lives Matter -- do not seem to insinuate that ONLY blue lives matter. I take this to mean that they know exactly what BLM means and are being hypocritical about it.

Ypu can change my view by showing me how someone might still somehow not understand what BLM means, or by showing how proponents of Blue Lives Matter are NOT being hypocritical.

[Assistant] If BLM cared about police brutality in general theyd also advocate for white victims of police brutality, but they dont. There are many more white victims than black ones, yet 99% of the posts BLM supporters make and 99% of the protests they organize are for black victims and That leads me to assume they only care about black victims.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do Americans use dryers for their clothes?

I live in Italy quite near the alps, where it's quite cold in winter and I've never ever seen a dryer in my life. I've just seen advertising in the last two years. Apparently instead on the US it's as common as the washing machine and it has always been. Even in warm stated! Why is that?

[Assistant] I live in Iowa, clothes lines are still used quite a bit in the spring and summer. But as stated before, dryers are quick and convenient. If you live in a rural area, traffic can kick up a lot of gravel dust. Our "urban" areas have a lot of them. But a lot of people don't like the stiff feel of clothes that are air dried. And also the feeling of putting on hot sweatpants in the winter is the best feeling ever.


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

[User] If the Earth was a giant eyeball, how far would it be able to see into space? Would it outperform modern telescopes?

[Assistant]
In a sense, the Earth *already is* a giant eyeball. By placing telescopes on opposite sides of the Earth, you can combine the data using interferometry to get the same resolution you'd get with an Earth sized telescope.

However, this is easiest to do at longer wavelengths - like radio waves or even microwaves. It's much harder to do with infrared or visible light, and we can only do that on a small scale - like two telescopes on the same mountain. So an Earth-sized eyeball would have a similar baseline to a worldwide radio telescope interferometer, but at shorter wavelengths than we can currently manage. Also, shorter wavelengths are inherently "less fuzzy", so a world-sized optical telescope (or eyeball) would have higher resolution than a world-sized radio telescope.

But in addition to resolution, a world-sized eyeball/telescope would have incredible *sensitivity*. We can use interferometry to combine multiple telescopes to make a high resolution image, but for *sensitivity* you really can't beat just having a huge collecting area.

The night sky actually has lots of nebulae and galaxies that are big enough that you could make them out with the human eye - but they're too dim to be seen well at night. *Sensitivity* is what makes the difference here: if the human eye was bigger, you could pick up a lot more light, and see lots of galaxies and nebulae in the night sky that aren't normally visible.

Currently, the biggest visible light telescopes being built have a mirror 30m in diameter. If the pupil of the world-eye is even 1% of the diameter of the Earth, that's an aperture of ~130 km, and would collect about more than 10 million times as much light, and have thousands of times better resolution.


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

[User] Why can we only see a certain spectrum of light, and what is keeping us from seeing "more" light?

[Assistant] The cells in our eyes only respond to certain frequencies of EM radiation. Other frequencies don't interact with the chemical receptors in your retina and don't generate an optical signal to the brain.


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

[User]
ELI5: How Septic Tanks work.

Explain like Im 5 how septic tanks (US if it matters?) work please. I hear so many horror stories of plumbing backing up that I am terrified its going to happen to me.

Do I need to try to limit water usage (or pouring extra water) down the drains instead of outside?

[Assistant] Septic tank attaches to the outgoing pipes of your home. They are generally a large concrete box that houses the waste from your toilets. There is a pipe that leads out to a tube with holes in it surrounded by limestone allowing the water to escape. This is called a leach field. While inside the tank bacteria and yeasts break down the waste. The broken-down waste is constantly taken out by the water that runs out into the leach field. Occasionally septic tanks require being pumped out, but generally, as long as the bacteria and yeasts that break down the waste remain healthy this is not very often. You can buy yeast that you flush down the toilet occasionally, flushing large (abnormally large) amounts of chemicals down the drain can hurt the life in your skeptic, but regular use is fine. Don't flush anything that will not break down naturally like wet wipes, and paper towels are not a good idea. Now you should have warning signs before you need to have it pumped like the smell of waste in your yard or water leaching above the surface of the ground where the caps of the tank are.


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

[User]
Where does my poop go?

I know there are sewers and stuff, but does it stay there? If so, why doesn't it overflow? WHERE IS MY POOP?

[Assistant] It goes to a sewage treatment plant. When it gets there, it is collected in a pool filled with water and aerobic bacteria. The bacteria eats the organic compounds in the poop. The remaining sludge is collected, dried, and shipped to landfills.


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

[User] ELI5: Japan homes only lose value. How? Why?

[Assistant] It's kind of a weird quirk.  After WW2, the Japanese slapped together a lot of crudely built homes to house its population.  Those home were so shoddy that they didn't have much resale value, years later, as it was actually cheaper to tear them down and rebuild them than to repair them.  And that became kind of a "thing," in Japan.  They would manufacture cheap, pre-fab homes that were not designed to last a long time, and building codes changed and improved, so it was more practical to just tear them down and rebuild them.  And all of that because a part of modern Japanese culture.  People just view older homes as "crap," no matter what their actual condition or appearance, so nobody really bothers to properly maintain them and fix them up for resale, because they know they're not going to get that money back.


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

[User]
How do all the power plants on the grid ensure that their output AC is in-sync with the grid's?.

If I plug in my laptop, for instance, into the wall here in the U.S., it will be charged by a 60 hz AC current. Presumably, multiple power plants are responsible for supplying this current at 60 hz. How do the designers of the grid ensure that all of these gigantic powerplants are perfectly in sync? What happens if one or more falls out of sync? Could the current become wonky and break a bunch of people's electronics?

Thanks in advance!

[Assistant]
When connecting a generator to the grid, the output from the generator needs to be synchronised with the grid (or the local busbars) with the same voltage, frequency, phase order and instantaneous voltage. The voltage is controlled by the generator's voltage regulator, frequency by the prime mover's speed. Instantaneous voltage refers to ensuring the voltage waveforms are completely in phase, and is checked using a synchroscope and adjusted by altering the generator's speed slightly. Phase order is only adjustable by reversing the direction of rotation of the machine or altering cable connections, and so usually isn't an issue in permanent installations. If any of these factors are not correct, significant damage can be caused to the generator and electrical cabling so there are normally blocks to prevent it from happening.

Once connected, as most generators are synchronous machines they are locked to the grid frequency. If the grid frequency slows down, the generator will slow down too, causing greater load on the prime mover as it attempts to maintain speed. Similarly, if the grid speeds up (or the prime mover slows down) the load will reduce, and in extreme circumstances will cause the generator to go into "reverse power" i.e. it acts as a motor.

A similar synchronization is required when linking multiple grids together. Alternatively, they may use a DC link with rectifiers and inverters at either end to allow power transmission whilst allowing the grids to remain unsynchronised.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do we still feel the rocking motion at night after being on a boat for a day?

[Assistant] Your ears have little tubes in them with fluid in the tubes. When you lean one way, the fluid stimulates one side of the tube and it gives you the sense of motion. On a boat, the tubes are constantly stimulated in the same pattern, your body gets use to this and anticipates it.


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

[User]
What does gravity feel like of Europa?

Hello! I was wanting to know what gravity would be like on one of Jupiter's moons, specifically Europa. Would there be a massive tidal effect that takes place doe to Jupiter's massive size? If so how drastic is it? Would the entire moon be shifted towards Jupiter? Would this cause an odd speed for acceleration due to gravity?

[Assistant]
Europa is close enough to Jupiter that it is tidally locked.  That is the same side of Europa always faces Jupiter.  Also, the moon becomes slightly elongated at its closest approach to Jupiter, and returned to mostly spherical as it moves away from its closest approach.  It is thought that this flexing can make a possible subsurface ocean.

However if you were on the surface you would experience around 13.4% of the gravity we have on Earth regardless of how close you are to Jupiter.


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

[User]
ELI5. I am near sighted and wear contact lenses. I also just finished Half life Alyx in VR. I tried playing without my contacts, but it was as blurry as ever. Why? Since the screens are so close to my eyes.

And also, could my vision potentially be fixed within the headset if I could somehow input my prescription and adjust the focus? Could it also work for far sited people? Thus allowing people who wear glasses to play in VR?

[Assistant]
The lenses make everything appear like it is about 2 meters from your eyes, this is actually the cause of the visual distortions most of us get when we first play vr - two parts of our brain are interpreting the distance differently.

It's also why if you hold things close to your face in vr they become blurry, even if nearsighted.

I am far-sighted, and it's amazing to see things a meter away in full detail again without glasses (I don't do contacts) .


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

[User]
Seems like bad code is often more profitable than good code?

I wrote some code 10 years ago for a project. It basically imports user records from one a large enterprise database system to another. It took me about 4 weeks to do this and I was very careful to cover all edge cases and make sure it would work without issue even though they were pressuring me to get it out the door faster. Sure enough it worked every day for 10 years without having any issue at all. I worked my butt off for this.

Now I learned they put a new guy to rewrite the code for the main system, and in order to integrate they wrote a replacement for my software as well. Turns out every month for the last year there have been errors with the new import code and user records are failing to import and people are getting locked out. And the new programmer has to go onsite and tinker with the code and run tests and updates (the enterprise client has a closed network). So they pay him to fly out there and stay in a hotel and pay for meals every month or 2 and he gets paid the high consultant rate for this. So basically since the code always seems to have bugs he keeps getting paid to fix them.

Makes me wonder about things. What are your thoughts?

[Assistant]
There are many industries where this happens.

If you're too good at your job, people wonder why they even need you and you get canned.

Meanwhile, those bad at their job, which would then require them to get good at justifying their existence, will often be promoted.


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

[User] ELI5: How is data stored in the brain, and why is it difficult to forget traumatic memories?

[Assistant]
Memory is something we're still learning about, but basically it seems to be stored in network form. Activation of a memory is a series of neurons firing and activating each other. While the hippocampus is a specific area very important in forming memories, storage is all over the brain.

For trauma memories, let's get cognitive-behavioral. Ordinary forgetting happens passively over time as memories are not accessed and lack relevance. Trauma-related memories are often stored somewhat incoherently, and cause intense distress when recalled. The brain is both trying to figure out the puzzle and recoiling when it finds any puzzle pieces. Unfortunately, this often leads to furious attempts to avoid recalling the memory, which are about as effective as trying not to think about a polar bear (you already did.) This vicious cycle prolongs the memory and intensifies its effect.

Trauma-focused psychotherapy does the opposite. By recalling memories in detail, we force the brain to confront memories, tolerate them, and reprocess them in a more coherent way. By removing the avoidance part of the cycle, it allows for forgetting to take place.


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

[User] [MCU] Are the events of the various Marvel movies considered the entirety of the activities of the Avengers, or is it implied that they also foiled various plots and supervillains that we just never saw in movie form?

[Assistant]
The Avengers definitely did more stuff than is shown in the films. In age of Ultron they briefly mention that they have searched other hydra compounds for Loki's staff before the one they attack at the start of the film.

The quinjet is leaving the avengers base in the end of Spider-man and in infinity war Captain America's costume has damage. These also strongly suggest the avengers are doing stuff between the films.


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

[User] [Raimi Spider-Man] Is Spider-Man the only superhero?

[Assistant] There is a reference to Doctor Strange in Spider-Man 2, and while he never appeared, Wolverine did at one point have a planned cameo. So while Spider-Man is the only hero in that universe we see, there is possible room for others.


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

[User] If all the satellites currently orbiting the earth were left unattended, how long would it take them to crash back down to us, and what would be the contributing factors leading to their downfall?

[Assistant]
Low orbit satellites (most of them) travel in what we call "vacuum", but it's not really a perfect vacuum. There are still some particles out there that slowly but surely slow them gradually, also you have the effects of gravitational bumps caused by an uneven distribution of mass (northern hemisphere, for example, "pulls" more than southern hemisphere; or big accumulations of mass like mountain ranges).

In general, satellites gradually slow down and require external thrust to correct their trajectories from time to time. When their fuel runs out, they gradually lose their orbit and "eventually" fall from orbit. This could take months, years or centuries depending the altitude and many other factors.

Even high orbit satellites experience these inconveniences, but much less pronounced as you might expect.


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

[User] ELI5: Why, historically, do socialist countries often experience economic collapse?

[Assistant]
An open market allows consumer needs, wants, and demands to match up with producer supply spontaneously and organically. A top down planning approach fails because leaders and decision makers in overly socialized economies are not capable of actually anticipating and providing for consumer needs and wants.

To bring that down a bit, you cannot build a car that fits everyone, because there is no best car for everyone. There is no diet or housing situation that is ideal for every family. In free trade each spender picks the one that best fits them, and less popular options downsize to fit their lesser needs while in a top down controlled economy that does not happen.

In a socialistic society time, effort, and resources are wasted because they don't have free market signals to drive their production. You end up with things like the Trabant being forced on unwanting citizenry at prices that are very inflated compared to their actual value.


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

[User]
[MCU] Is the accident that made Carol Danvers Captain Marvel reproducible?

Could someone highly motivated and resourceful get (or give someone else) the same powers?

[Assistant] It was very much reproducible. Though a different Stone was used, Wanda and Pietro were empowered by experiments involving an Infinity Stone. Though Carol's experience was less an experiment and more an accident, this shows that the process can be replicated.


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

[User] Years are ~365.2564 days long. We have leap year, but are we accounting for that .0064 at all?

[Assistant]
The rule for leap years is actually quite complicated. A year is a leap year if 1) it's divisible by 4 (e.g. 2012 is a leap year), 2) it's not divisible by 100 (2100 won't be a leap year) or 3) it's divisible by 400 (2000 was a leap year).

In the end, it's more precise than 365.25 and we have several thousands years before we need to correct it.


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

[User] ELI5: What's happening when a commercial plays for a second or two before skipping to the next one?

[Assistant] The local cable companies are given windows where they can show their own advertising (Advertising specifically meant for that locality, not necessarily that the company is a local company).  If the cut wasn't clean, that means the local cable company blew it.


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

[User]
Why do fillings or braces not present a danger in MRI scans?

As braces are usually steel and fillings are often a mercury, why does the strong magnetic field of an MRI machine not induce a magnetic field in these objects, either exerting a force on them or causing them to heat up through eddy currents? I realise they interfere with MRIs focused around their vicinity, but I don't understand why they don't present a health risk considering the strength of the magnetic field.
Thanks!

[Assistant]
The amount of magnetism induced in a material depends on its magnetic susceptibility, with some materials being much easier to magnetise than others. Mercury is what is known as a diamagnetic material, which means when exposed to an external field it gets magnetised in the opposite direction to the field, but its susceptibility is extremely low. For comparison, it is only about 2-3 times larger than water, and around 1-10 billion times weaker than iron. Similarly, the types of steel that are used in braces (stainless steels of the 300 series) are also comparatively non-magnetic when compared to standard steels and pure iron.

Simply put, any forces or currents that are induced in the mercury are extremely weak and will go unnoticed by us.


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

[User]
If I had my own testicles taken out and someone else's implanted in their place would my sperm have my dna?

This is, of course, assuming that testicular transplant is possible.

If I had my friends testicles implanted in me would I have my kids or his?

[Assistant]
His kids.

Sperm are created from precursor cells at the "outside edge" of the seminiferous tubules called spermatagonia, which migrated into the testes at about 6 weeks gestation. No new spermatagonia are available to migrate after this point and therefore your "pool is set". You could hypothetically transfer your friends spermatagonia into your testes, but your immune cells will recognize them as foreign, and no one wants their testes swelling up due to that (opinion).


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

[User]
If a disc was spun at 1 RPM, how large would this disc need to be in order for the edge of it to reach the speed of light?

Such a weird question, but I've been thinking about this for much longer than I'd like to admit.

[Assistant]
The total circumference of the disc is 2 * pi * radius. At 1 RPM, a point on the edge travels 1/60th of the circumference per second.

So the required radius can be found by solving: ( 2 * pi * r ) / 60 = c

Or: r = 60 c / 2 pi or about 2.86 milion kilometers (8-9 times the distance between Earth and the Moon).

Of course, in reality this wouldn't be possible as it would require infinite energy to spin such a disc. And long before it would reach that point, it would probably tear itself apart.


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

[User] [Ghost Rider] If Johnny Blaze uses Ghost Rider as more of a superhero persona rather than doing the devils work, why doesnt get get his powers revoked?

[Assistant] He still works for the devil.  Just because he's not hunting down innocents and doing the devil's bidding he still sends damned souls to hell and will capture escaped souls and upstart demons for the devil when the occasion arises.  If he were to say ally with blackheart or another powerful demon against satan then his powers may be revoked but currently he maintains the status quo of hell rather than causing issues.


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

[User]
ELI5: the difference between variance and standard deviation

Thanks to everyone for the guidance. It may not seem like much to some of you, but it has been a huge help to someone who is getting off the ground in this area.

[Assistant]
Standard deviation is the square root of variance.

Variance is used in calculations because it makes a lot of maths easier - a lot of things like error propagation are done in quadrature (i.e. on the square of the values).

Standard deviation has the big advantage that it's got the same units as the original data so you can more easily interpret what it means.


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

[User]
Why are intuitions taken so seriously in philosophy?

Initially, it seems like an obvious component of critical thinking that we don't just accept our intuitions at face value. Anyone who has experience with how science proves things, or even with having his or her intuitions frequently turn out wrong in everyday life, should know that intuitions are not a valid form of proof. Moreover, neuroscience and psychology indicate that our only means of access to reality is through sensory input to our brain - there is no independent evidence for a reliable non-sensory faculty. So we have a lot of observational evidence against the reliability of intuition.

In spite of this, intuition is frequently appealed to in every branch of philosophy. Metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, philosophy of religion, you name it. Although I think philosophy is valuable in principle, I see this current practice as a serious problem for the credibility and value of philosophy as an academic discipline.

The standard argument for intuition seems to be that there are things that we want to say are knowledge that we don't know how to account for using actual evidence, so we have to grant the validity of these extra areas of knowledge as being based on intuition. This is backwards, though - either these areas of knowledge have an as yet unknown sensory basis, or they are not areas of knowledge. It is not rational to posit that intuition is reliable when (a) there is very good evidence that intuition is not reliable, and (b) the only reason to do so is that you don't like it that some of your beliefs aren't actually knowledge. This is not dogmatic of me, quite the opposite - I am asking for evidence, which is not dogmatic, and the intuitionist is holding on to an intuition for which there is no evidence in its favor and significant evidence against it, which is virtually the definition of dogmatism.

I think philosophy needs to face this problem head on, not just appeal to incredulity when its intuitions are challenged. So, is there some argument or evidence in favor of taking intuitions seriously that academic philosophers are privy to that I haven't heard of yet?

[Assistant]
> there is no independent evidence for a reliable non-sensory faculty.

There's all sorts of evidence for reliable non-sensory faculties.  Mathematical inferences, deductive inferences, inductive inferences, abstractions, and so forth are ubiquitous aspects of human cognition with excellent track records.

> ...intuition is frequently appealed to in every branch of philosophy. Metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, philosophy of religion, you name it.

This is a contentious view of what's going on in philosophy.  Moreover, it's unclear just what you might mean by intuition, which often has a very specific sense in mind which might not be the sense someone unfamiliar with the background of the argument would have in mind.  Sometimes 'intuition' is short-hand for one's background beliefs, sometimes sensible evidence is counted as a kind of intuition, sometimes what is *prima facie* evidence is counted as an intuition...  Could you give a specific example of the sort of thing you have in mind and are objecting to?

> The standard argument for intuition seems to be that there are things that we want to say are knowledge that we don't know how to account for using actual evidence...

Count you give an example?

> This is backwards, though - either these areas of knowledge have an as yet unknown sensory basis, or they are not areas of knowledge.

This judgment assumes that the only basis of knowledge is sensation, but hardly anyone would agree to this premise, and in general it seems wildly untenable.


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

[User]
[General] Why do shapeshifters not use their powers to its fullest potential?

Usually it's just to impersonate another person for a short period, for an immediate objective. Why not do it for world domination?

[Assistant]
The huge advantage of being a shapeshifter is the ability to be anonymous - to take the shape that's needed in the moment, and to be unrecognised when the situation calls for it. If a shapeshifter impersonated someone in order to take over the world, they'd have to *keep* impersonating that person in order to hold onto that power. And since ruling the whole world is actually a huge responsibility and entails lots of work, they'd have to be that person pretty much all the time. And that's pretty much the opposite of what most shapeshifters would want to do.

Now, a shapeshifter could easily seek out and accumulate vast quantities of wealth by impersonating people in the short term. Shapeshifting is ideal for committing crimes, especially if the shapeshifting includes stuff like changing everything including fingerprints. And if a shapeshifter is versatile enough to take the forms of animals and/or objects in addition to impersonating people, that opens up whole new levels of versatility. It's much easier to impersonate someone if you've been scuttling around their house as a spider for a while, gathering personal information about them first. For that matter, blackmail is totally an option too. Or assassination! Turn into a venomous spider or snake and bite them in their sleep.


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

[User]
[Simpsons] Were Kang and Kodos serious about not wanting to eat the Simpsons?

The first time we met the aliens (along with Cirrok the Preparer), it seemed pretty obvious that the Simpsons were going to be eaten, but they claimed they were not.

Were they just covering for themselves after being discovered?

[Assistant]
I too want to know this, that book was odd.

How to cook humans

How to cook for humans

How to cook forty humans

How to cook for forty humans

How to cook for forty humans so that you can eat them at Rigel 5.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] What's the point of wizard's chess?

Honestly, I don't see it. Is it literally just because you're too damn lazy to move the pieces yourself? Because it takes about the same effort to move a tiny chess piece with your hand as it does to tell it where to go.

In HP1 when they're shown playing it, it's not like they're both lounging by a fireplace with food and drinks in hand, which I'd understand. They're just sitting there with their hands folded.

In regular old muggle chess, you don't have to announce your moves to the room, you can play in silence. And you just remove a piece from the board when you capture it instead of some pointlessly theatrical little fight between the pieces.

Do they just need a special wizard vision of chess to feel superior? Is it just a fun novelty version of chess like Simpsons Monopoly?

[Assistant]
In modern times, it's a bit pointless, but back when chess was seen as a battle in miniature, it was actually useful, because the pieces are a little bit sentient.

During the first book, Ron plays using his grandfather's set, while Harry has to borrow a set from (I think) Seamus. Ron's pieces do what he says without question, while Harry has a hard time commanding certain pieces (in particular, a knight tells him off for sending him into danger rather than a pawn)


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

[User]
ELI5: Storing an electric car vs a gas car

We recently pulled a car out of a field that sat for 5 years and had to replace all the fluids in the car, among a few other things. It got me thinking about the difference between storing gas cars vs electric cars. I know very little about cars, aside from changing out many of the fluids, and I would like to know what would happen to an electric car if it were garaged for a couple of years.

[Assistant]
It depends how its stored. If its stored with a decent charge it could be good for a couple years.  If the charge rate is too low then battery damage could occur.

Similarly ICE cars stored incorrectly can have engines seize up, dead batteries, etc.

How you store a vehicle is super important.


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

[User] ELI5: If we become dissatisfied with the way the Internet is run, what stops us from creating a new worldwide computer network?

[Assistant]
The biggest thing stopping you (or *anyone*) from creating a new computer network is simple: where do you put the wires?

You can't just start digging up streets and burying them; you have to get permission from your local municipality to do that, and they won't grant it because they already have a deal with whoever your ISP is.

You can't hang them off telephone poles, because the phone company owns those poles, and they aren't going to lease them to a potential competitor unless they are ordered to by the municipality (who won't do it because they already have a deal).

Even if you could get the permission to dig up the streets and/or string up the cables, then you actually have to go and *do* it. And you have to wire up everyone's houses. And that gets hellaciously expensive very quickly. It's so expensive that not even the biggest ISPs in the US want to do it.


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

[User] ELI5: why is it that we can't drink sea water to quench our thirst?

[Assistant]
Seawater is saltier than the maximum saltiness that your cells can operate in. Therefore, your kidneys have to expel that extra salt in the urine so that you don't die.

Unfortunately, there's a maximum amount of salt per litre that your kidneys can dump into the urine, so they have to keep taking more and more water out of your bloodstream to flush out the salt.

The amount of water they have to take is *more than* the amount of seawater you drank.

So if you drink a cup of seawater (and no fresh water), you'll pee two cups of urine - and be twice as thirsty as you were before.

So now you're desperately thirsty, and you drink two more cups of seawater... and half an hour later, you pee four cups of urine and are *way, way* thirstier. So you drink...

Yeah. This doesn't end well. It ends with a really horrible death, in fact.

The seawater itself isn't going to kill you, but seawater without a large amount of fresh water to hand absolutely will.


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

[User]
ELI5: What does the reading on a Geiger meter equate to in physical effects?

I know 0.2 isnt very worrisome but 1.5 is. What is the difference in the physical effects between these readings and readings 2.0+?

Thanks :)

[Assistant]
It (of course) depends. In this case, it depends on the units that the counter displays.

Usually a Geiger counter measures something per unit of time. If youre looking for contamination, that may be events per second. If youre using it as a radiation exposure meter, its usually a unit like microGray per hour. Total dose is then calculated by integrating over the time youve been carrying the meter.

These alternative measurements are all based on the counts per second metric, where a count is an electron cascade initiated by ionizing radiation entering the Geiger tube. Usually this count per second measurement should be adjusted for dead time.


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

[User]
[Halo] In Halo 2, first mission for the Arbiter campaign, how can you even move after cutting the cable?

So you're hunting the Heretic through a mining facility of some kind suspended via a cable that the Arbiter cuts to force him out of hiding when some sort of storm hits. But if the station is in free fall after you cut the cable, why isn't everyone weightless and floating? How is it you can even walk around like normal? Then later on Tartarus shows up in a Phantom. Wouldn't this Phantom have to be chasing them down into the planet's atmosphere as the station falls?

[Assistant]
You may recall that if the Arbiter attempts to "Jump" during that section, then he flies upward into the atmosphere.

I always assumed that his armor magnetized him to the ground, allowing him not to immediately fly off the base.


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

[User]
[Capitan America: The First Avenger] So Hydra's tesseract powered weapons made things disappear... so are they weaponised teleporters?

The Space Stone can be used for generating power sure, but it also teleports the user if needed and the people being hit are disappearing a bit of blue gas that disappears, they aren't being blown up that's for sure (although those guns can blow stuff up no problem). Are they just being teleported somewhere random (which given the composition of the universe basically means floating somewhere in space)?

[Assistant]
One of the ironies of the Tesseract was that when Humanity (Hydra) discovered it they suddenly obtained one of the most powerful artifacts in the universe.  Instead of understanding it though, all they saw was a neat little power source that they could siphon energy off of to charge batteries in disintegration rays.

Also note that the energy they were pulling off was relatively minor on the galactic or multiversal scale.  It was like discovering a functioning nuclear reactor in the forest, and only noticing that you could take a warm bath in the water coming out of the building's outflow pipe.


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

[User]
[Star Wars]What is the benefit of an AT-AT over a conventional APC?

I've been reviewing battle footage of the battle of Hoth as well as the battle on Endor.  I'm sure most of you have noticed some pretty glaring disadvantages to using a troop transport that uses legs rather than old fashioned tank treads or hovering technology. Namely, the high center of gravity and relative slowness that makes them extremely easy to out maneuver and trip.  So, why transport your troops in these behemoths with legs rather than treads or hover?

[Assistant]
So we're comparing AT-ATs to tanks and speeders today.

The advantages of a speeder: Obviously speed, since an AT-AT only moves at 40mph, an tanks usually top out at 70 or 80. Speeders can travel at over 200 mph. And as long as the terrain is flat, what the terrain is made of is irrelevant - dirt, sand, snow, calm water. However, speeders can't carry anything. Most speeders are just two-person vehicles - a driver and a gunner. Somewhat like a Earth Hummer with a .50 cal machine gun.

Tanks are slower, but faster than an AT-AT. They usually have full-turret heavy weapons, so are better than the other two options for field of fire. Way more heavily armored than a speeder, and comparable to an AT-AT. The most limited of the three when it comes to terrain, and their treads are not armored and can be blown off with hand-held heavy weapons, immobilizing them.

And then, the All-Terrain Armored Transport. It easily equals the firepower of a tank with its two MS-1 linked heavy cannons, and it has two independant pairs of FF-4 repeating blasters mounted on the sides of the head. Far outranges a tank or a speeder because of it's height - this also gives commanders an advantage of overseeing the battle, rather than being stuck in a tank at ground level.

A speeder has two people. A tank-transport (say a Warhammer Land Raider) has 10. An AT-AT has 40 in full battle gear, in addition to the 3-person crew. It also carries 5 speeder bikes for scouting when the troops disembark. A variant cargo-outfit can carry two AT-STs instead. They can handle a variety of terrains, including being able to talk in water as deep as their hull.

And they scare the piss out of people watching them come at them.


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

[User] ELI5: Are womens X chromosomes both the same? If they are different, does that affect how genes are passed down?

[Assistant] No, like all pairs of chromosomes we have, there are slight differences between the two copies due to one coming from one parent and one from the other. The genes that are passed down aren't really any different from any other chromosomes. A process called "recombination" will basically cut the two copies at random places and then splice them together, so you get an X chromosome that's part of one copy and part of the other. That's what then gets passed to an offspring. Each offspring gets an X chromosome that's spliced together differently.


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

[User]
[1984] Supposing they can, how will The Party eventually fall?

How would it happen?

Does it happen gradually or all at once?

What is the catalyst for the fall?

What takes its place?

How is life different for the average citizen? How is it the same?

[Assistant]
Ingsoc fell in the same way that long-ago North Korea had fallen. At some point, during some egregiously wasteful, stupid public event held to fawningly honor some worthless Inner Party ninny, someone stood up and yelled "Fuck You!". Horrified, surrounding spectators shrank back. Then someone else yelled "Fuck You!" from elsewhere in the stadium. Then the crowd, *all realizing that everyone else felt exactly as they did*, rushed forward as one and tore the Party guards and the Secretary-General limb from bloody limb. Seizing weapons they ran through the streets to the Party halls of power, gathering numbers as they ran. *Everyone*, without exception, had been waiting for the match to be lit. Party guards tore off their uniforms and joined the throng. Outer Party apparatchiks pleaded fruitlessly for mercy. The last of the Inner Party were impaled on makeshift spikes, struggling and screaming, and with their deaths died the regime. Big Brother, nothing more than an animatronic, was thrown from the roof of the Hall. The days after were celebratory, the weeks were terrifying, the months disastrous. Ingsoc was the only system they knew, and freed from the boot on the neck, they rejected all structure. Ingsoc rested on a delicate balance of competing interests, held together by mutual terror of disappointing Big Brother. In the absence of that, all was chaos. No-one watered the crops, no-one weeded the fields, no-one tended the livestock. Upwards of sixty percent starved.

Oceanian troops invaded three months after the Fuck You Revolution. They shot the wild men and women, and bought with bread and water the peaceful surrender of the semi-civilized survivor enclaves.

Integrating the former Ingsoc workers into Oceanian society has proven difficult, however their numb obedience has reasserted itself and places have been found for them in factories and on farms. They are content to be fed and mostly left alone. Some have constructed their own model viewing screens, in memory of the long gone eyes of Big Brother. Some have begun to integrate a little better with the Oceanian lower castes, competing in the sex games and sharing blissful soma with a friend or two. We believe that within three generations their descendants will be as miscegenated as any other Oceanian, and fully capable of assignment to any caste.


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

[User] [40k] Can/Could the God Emperor of Mankind be corrupted by the forces of Chaos?

[Assistant]
No. The Emperor is, at his base, the same type of entity as the Chaos Gods. He is a conceptual warp-force, bound to a human body.

The Gods of Chaos cannot corrupt him, any more than they can corrupt eachother.