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

[User]
[Star Wars] Could the Separatists have won the Clone Wars?

So this is less a question about the material/political/military ability for the CIS to have successfully beaten the Republic, and more a question about Palpatine's overarching scheme to control the galaxy. Considering that he was in control of both sides of the war (on the one side, directly as Chancellor, and on the other side indirectly as Darth Sidious), did he really care too much about which side won the conflict, since either way he would still be in control? Had the CIS won, would the Empire still more or less come into being as it was, just with a different logo and slightly different trappings (no Imperial Senate, no stormtroopers who were based on clones, etc.)?

[Assistant]
Palpatine cared that the Republic won. There is one part of of Palpatine's plan which is extremely important: the public perception. He needs the public on his side.

This is a large part as to why droids and clones were picked for the fighting. Droids are brainless monstrosities - made propaganda extremely easy for the Republic.

Clones are somewhat interesting. They're still human, but they're also not responsible for anything bad they do (especially with how Palpatine can twist stuff) - the blame rests entirely on the people leading them. Which happens to be the Jedi.

This is one aspect that's not written about often (although aspects of it can be seen via records from "The Clone Wars") as Palpatine managed to do it in a noticeable way. From the start of The Clone Wars to the end of it, the public's view of the Jedi morphed form peacekeepers, to war leaders (who seemed to become less happy with the Senate over time) to betrayers.

Palpatine would have trouble keeping people in check if the CIS won.


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

[User]
Would disease really be more widespread if hand washing wasn't the norm?

Are we really "cleaner" as a result? I began thinking about this while at the airport. What if hand washing wasn't an option in public restrooms? What could we begin to expect?

[Assistant] Hand washing is sometimes credited to Ignaz Semmelweis, who instituted its use in doctors delivering babies. It dramatically reduced the incidence of puerperal fever. It was not uncommon at that time for doctors to participate in dissection of corpses and then go deliver babies. That's a pretty clear cut case - if you have infectious agents on your hands, antisepsic hand washing can be a big plus.


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

[User]
Eli5: two-in-one shampoo/conditioners

How do these products work? Don't shampoos strip oils and conditioners put them back in?

[Assistant]
Yes you are correct shampoos will strip away the oils in the conditioner.  Sometimes these products will contain oils that the shampoo won't strip away, but they wont condition your hair as well.

Basically you are right, they are a scam (mostly).  You are always better off shampooing, THEN conditioning.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do sailboats / ancient ships steer if the wind isn't blowing in the direction they want to go?

Forgive me if my terminology is off. But I've always wondered how long voyages were made given the unpredictable pattern of winds. How are ships able to go where they want if the wind is, say, blowing in the wrong direction?

[Assistant]
A sail can catch wind and push the boat forward from just about any angle greater than 70 degrees from directly in to the wind.  A sail boat has a big fin on the bottom that keeps it from being pushed sideways, and the sail is at an angle so the wind is redirected, which all together pushes the boat forward.  So as long as the boat isn't going directly into the wind, it can often just sail straight forwards in the direction it wants to go.

If the boat wants to travel in to the wind, then what the boat does is it picks up speed going across the wind, and then turns into the wind.  While the boat is facing in to the wind, the sail is not catching the wind, so there is much less force trying to slow the boat down as it turns.  AS the boat loses speed, it will turn far enough that it is going sideways to the wind again, but in the other direction- and once it picks up enough speed again, it will turn back in to the wind again, which creates a zig-zag pattern that slowly moves them in the direction they want to go.  This is known as Tacking in to the wind.  Depending on how close to directly in to the wind they want to go, they could just go in mostly the right direction, hoping that the wind will shift in their favor and then tack in to the wind to correct their position once in a while if the wind doesn't change.


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

[User] Why are there no magnetic monopoles in existence but monopolar electric charges (protons electrons) exist?

[Assistant]
There is ultimately no good answer for this (yet) and intrinsically there isn't a good reason either to the question "why isn't electric charge the absent charge and magnetic charge the norm?" either. Couple things we can say however:

1. If magnetic charge exists, it is conserved in the same fashion that electric charge is conserved. This is just a result of how the photon field theory works.

2. If magnetic charge exists, it probably comes in integer multiples of e_M = 1/2e or e_M = 1/e. This is an important point because it does two things for us: (a) It means the simultaneous existence of magnetic and electric charges then requires that both be "quantized" and come as integer multiples of some value. (b) It also means that magnetic charge is huge because electric charge is small.

3. Magnetic monopoles seem to be a generic feature when you consider grand unification theories which combine the electroweak interaction and strong interaction.

4. If magnetic monopoles are a natural consequence of symmetry breaking which separates the electroweak and strong interactions then their mass is huge, because the unification energy is presumably large. A calculation can be performed to determine that the scale of monopole is probably on order 137M_W where M_W is the gauge boson mass of the unified theory. The estimate of M_W is roughly the Planck mass which might indicate some connection to gravitation is required for the full picture. That 137 factor basically is saying the monopole mass scales with the size of the magnetic charge or equivalently the inverse of the size of electric charge.

5. Because the monopoles are predicted to be so heavy it's not surprising we don't see them being created in processes around us. If they do exist, they likely were only produced during the very early universe and since the universe has expanded they must be incredibly rare.


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

[User] If the Joker began his criminal career today in real life with no connections, belongings, or criminal reputation, how far does he get? How does he do it?

[Assistant]
We have a lot of experience with criminals, but a villain? No.. we wouldn't know what to do with that.

Without a Batman, it'd be the beginning of one of the most prolific killers in history.

Because you see, the Joker doesn't have any connections, not really. He doesn't need them. He burns every bridge he uses, when he needs something new, he lies, scares or breaks whoever he needs into working with him. And belongings? He has nothing in his pockets but knives and lint.

It's part of his 'art'. You can take everything from him and plaster his face on every building and he'll still think boxes around you, tearing everything down from scratch just because he wants to. That's the scary thing. You think you know what he wants and stop him, and you'll still wake up to him about to carve open your face.

And reputation? One child puking his guts out while laughing himself to death on video is all the reputation he'll ever need.


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

[User] ELI5: When I have a runny nose, why only left/right side is really "runny" and not both of them?

[Assistant] Because only one of our nostrils is active at any given time.  It switches about once every 4 hours.   The other side isn't breathing so the mucus isn't being "pumped" out, but you will notice, when your nostrils "change guard" the other side will quickly become runny.


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

[User]
CMV: Britt Slabinski, who yesterday recieved the US medal of honor, showed bad and irresponsible judgement.

Yesterday, on the 24th of May, former US Navy Seal Britt Slabinski recieved the medal of honor for his actions during the battle of Thakur Ghar. At one point, one man, Roberts, fell out of a helicopter. At that point Slabinski had to make the call whether to escape with the rest of his team to relative safety and wait for reinforcements, or to go and rescue Roberts, who may or may not have been still alive. In an act of apparent heroism, they chose to fight while clearly outmanned and outgunned. This action cost the lives of multiple of his teammates. Roberts could not be saved either. The action had no tactical or strategical value. It's only value is as a propaganda opportunity which is what we are currently seeing.
The way I view it, what Slabinski did is brave. You have to be brave to run into a hail of bullets. But braver would be to not act as a warrior but as a commander, to take actual responsibility for his remaining team. You can be both brave and stupid, and these are the qualifications that should be applied to Slabinski. If that is what the medal should signify, courage with utter disregard for consequences or reason, then the award is warranted. If not, then this is both a propaganda effort and a debasement of the medal.

[Assistant]
> no tactical or strategic value.

Whether dead or alive Roberts would be a significant asset to the enemy.  If he were still alive he could be used to film propaganda videos and employed in bargaining strategies by the enemy.  He would probably be tortured with a significant risk that they might extract important information from him.

Even if dead his remains could be used as to bargain with the US and photos/video of a dead American serviceman have significant propaganda value.

Early on in the Afghan conflict the story of a Navy Seal being abandoned to his fate on a mountain top and being tortured/desecrated by the enemy could have had a significant effect on popular support for the war and marked, negative effect on military morale.


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

[User]
Explain Greece abandoning the Euro like I'm 5  using Disney Dollars

Wouldn't greece adopting the Dracma to solve it's debts be very much like Disney deciding to pay it's employees in Disney Dollars so it can use US Dollars to pay off it's creditors?

How can that solve anything?

[Assistant]
Assuming the Disney employees aren't spending anything outside Disneyland, it'll work just fine. It's all about the perceived value of fiat money. If this Disney dollar in your hand will buy you just as much bread from the shop as the euro you previously used, why would you complain?

It also allows the government (Disney Board of Directors) to change the value of the currency as they see fit, something they couldn't do before on the euro. So you switch to a new currency, massively devalue it, people stop buying stuff from outside because now it's too expensive, external debts decrease (or at least slow down), everyone's spending their money locally instead of buying expensive imports, local economy gets a boost. Also has the added benefit of making your exports look comparatively cheaper, though Greece doesn't really have a significant export market.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does war have rules?

Why is ok to kill people in some ways but not others? Why can you try and kill someone, but if you fail and only injure them, you cannot interfere with the people trying to save them? Etc....

[Assistant]
In a perfect world, no one would fight wars.  We know this isn't a perfect world, though, so we have to make it as good as we can.

One way we do that is by setting up rules that nations agree to follow.  If they don't follow those rules, other countries can refuse to trade with them or threaten to go to war.

The rules we make about war have two main goals - to reduce the amount of suffering and pain inflicted on civilians (anyone not involved in the fighting), and to avoid 'unnecessary' suffering for those who are fighting.

For example, rules against attacking medics helps protect civilians by making sure that all the trained doctors don't die in the war.  If all the doctors and hospitals were attacked, people who were never involved in the fighting wouldn't be able to get medical help after the war.


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

[User]
[Marvel] Is the world full of minor mutants?

I'm assuming that their powers come from random mutations in their DNA. I don't know what the statistical distribution would look like, but we do know that there are all sorts of mutations from barely-noticeable to godlike.

So wouldn't it stand to reason that there are mutations that are so subtle the person would never even realize they were a mutant? Would Cerebro be able to detect these people?

[Assistant]
All mutants share a certain specific mutation called the X-Gene, and it's not necessarily random. It can also be hereditary.

Any expression of the X-gene leads to the potential for superhuman powers. Although the same hormones that start puberty usually start the manifestation of the X-gene, some people with the gene do not express a power at all, because another specific stimulus is needed to activate their powers and they never receive that stimulus. Once it is activated though, something superhuman will manifest in that person.

It is suspected that unlike other genes, the X-gene is not subject to the whims of heredity, as it was programmed into the human genome by the Celestials, and is actually the normal state of a new species of human, Homo sapiens superior.

Cerebro can detect any human with the X-Gene, activated or not.


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

[User]
If a werewolf is on the moon, moon's orbit or around another planet, when does he become a wolf?

Are werewolves affected only by our full moon or any moon will suffice? If he is on the moon will he become a werewolf if he sees the "full earth"?

[Assistant]
Years ago, a friend of mine emailed this very question to Mike Brown, the astronomer whose discovery of Eris led to the demotion of Pluto. He responded thusly:

> Really, of all of the possibilities you discuss, the Pluto-Charon
werewolf scenario presents the most interesting case. Charon goes around Pluto every 6.3 days, so the werewolves would appear quite frequently. But, in an odd twist, they would appear only on half of the planet. Pluto's rotation is also 6.3 days so the two always present the same side to each other (sort of like our Moon does with us, but better). So half of Pluto doesn't even know that a moon exists, while the other half always sees it at precisely the same position in the sky. Imagine the fabulous experiemental control that you have here! Do werewolves occur when the moon is full *and you can see it*? Or just if the moon is full. Are there differences that occur if the moon is overhead vs. right on the horizon? For the earth we will never know. But the opportunity now exists to test this knowledge.


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

[User]
ELI5: How is data encoded on light?

For example, subsea fiber optic cables are responsible for nearly all of the information transmitted on the internet. These cables carry light (i.e. information) from one end to the other. What Im struggling to understand is how this light can even hold information that we can then interpret.

[Assistant]
Imagine two kids live across the street from each other. They want to talk at night, but don't have phones. They DO have flashlights. So they find a guide to Morse Code in a magazine. By flashing patterns of long light, short light, and pauses at each other, they can send words and sentences. Slowly. Life was pretty boring before phones but it was what it was.

Now imagine instead of two kids, it's computers. They can detect minuscule patterns of fluctuation in the light's brightness that last for fractions of a second. They're connected via a wire that carries the light. So one "listens" and looks at the patterns of light, and the other "talks" and sends the light. Software decodes the fancy patterns into data.


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

[User] I am a student and when i was done learning for my chemistry test i was wondering how people measured atom masses, for example magnesium (Mg) has a mass of 24,3U (according to my textbook) How did scientists scale the weigh of an atom?

[Assistant]
It's easy to forget what was known historically, and what we've learned recently, and answers like "just use a mass spectrometer" forget that the atomic masses were known long before mass spectrometers were invented.  It was all worked out by comparing weights of reactants and products, and using logic and math.

Here's a simplified "toy" example.  Suppose you react some hydrogen gas with chlorine gas to make hydrogen chloride.  You play around with the mixture, and find that you get a complete reaction, with no hydrogen or chlorine left over, if you start with 35 grams of chlorine for every gram of hydrogen.  From experiments that react hydrogen chloride with other things, you're pretty sure it has 1 atom of hydrogen and 1 atom of chlorine -- it's HCl rather than H2Cl or HCl3 -- and so this tells you that chlorine atoms are 35 times heavier than hydrogen atoms.

Now you do some other reactions, say hydrogen chloride with sodium hydroxide to form sodium chloride (table salt) and water.  You find that mixing 40 grams of sodium hydroxide with 36 grams of hydrogen chloride gives 58 grams of salt and 18 grams of water.  This is a more complicated reaction, but you can use the known masses of hydrogen and chlorine to find the unknown masses of sodium and oxygen .... and you continue like that through the periodic table.


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

[User]
[Marvel Comics] Why arent the heroes more sympathetic to the Hulk?

Wolverine knows what its like to be savage.

The Thing knows what its like to be a monster and hated by society (sort of, not as much now, but when the F4 started, yeah)

Yet the both of them fight the Hulk whenever they get the opportunity. Some other heroes do this too. Why arent they more sympathetic?

[Assistant]
Because he keeps going on city-levelling rampages.

It's not that they're not sympathetic, per se, it's that they still need to stop him. However sympathetic his reasons are, he's still a rage-crazed monster of potentially godlike power.


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

[User] What is the significant of Nietzsche and Proust in the movie "Little Miss Sunshine"?

[Assistant]
There is probably more to it but part of the reason Nietzsche is brought up a lot is because it is the kind of stuff covered in high school or intro courses that people really first start thinking about that kind of stuff. It is suppose to show that he is being "emo" or sort of a typical secluded teenager who hates the world kind of character.

There might be more to it than that but it is primarily character building, regardless of his interpretation being correct.


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

[User]
[General Science Fiction] Why do alien species name themselves after their home planets?

Sure, if humans meet aliens from Mars, *we* call *them* "Martian." And if aliens visited Earth and met us, *they'd* call *us* "Earthlings" or "Terrans." But we call ourselves "Humans" while our planet is called "Earth."

So why do aliens name their **own** species after their planet? Wouldn't the names have different origins?

[Assistant] They might have a name for themselves in their own language, but when speaking in a foreign tongue (especially of the other speakers lack the necessary vocal appendages), it's important to have clear lines of communication, similar to Terrans/Terra thing.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do we know DeepMind is right?

I read that DeepMind AI solved the baffling problem of protein folding which is supposed to open new worlds in science.  But if the issue is so baffling, how do we really know DeepMind is correct?

[Assistant]
There's a class of problems, ones called NP-complete, that we know how to verify in a reasonable amount of time, but cannot solve in reasonable amount of time. Protein folding is one, so we can verify the solution and whether it's sound fairly quickly, even when finding the solution can baffle us for a long time.

Think of a jigsaw puzzle. It's a lot easier to verify if somebody completed it (is it a perfect rectangle?) than it is to actually complete it. NP-complete problems are that, at a computational scale.


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

[User] ELI5: why do the glass doors of washing machines extend so far inward? Wouldnt there be more room for clothes if the door was flat like a dryer?

[Assistant]
It prevents clothes from getting trapped in the door cavity.

The door further extends inwards to act as an obstruction for clothes which agitates them, distributing detergent more evenly and helping to remove grime and debris.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is it so hard to get over things? Like breakups?

[Assistant]
There's a part of your brain called the amygdala that links emotions with memory and decision making. When your brain is recording memories, the amygdala can color that memory with the emotions you are feeling at that time. Stronger emotions can lead to more powerful memories.

When you do have those emotionally charged memories, anything that reminds you of those memories will cause you to feel those emotions associated with it. In terms of a relationship, you have spent so much time together that many of the daily things you do are colored with emotions. When you break up (break ups can also be very emotional to give you another strong memory), all those daily things that you still do are now tinted with emotions and memories of your ex. This can lead to a spiral where thinking of memories of your ex reinforces the emotions of wanting to get back together (despite the reason behind breaking up in the first place).

This is why to get over a breakup, people often change themselves (new haircut) or change part of their lives so those emotional memories will fade in intensity. It also helps to get rid of objects that remind them of the previous relationship.


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

[User] [General] Not all humans are one ethnicity yet aliens and other non-human species in scifi and fantasy never seem to be portrayed as having ethnic diversity within their species. Are there any good examples of non-human species that have similar variety of ethnicities as humans do?

[Assistant] In the Robert Heinlein book Space Cadet there's a scene where two humans are arguing about not being able to communicate with aliens from Venus. One human says that he thought the other spoke Venutian. The other human responds that he speaks a specific Venutian language, yes, but that doesn't help him here any more than speaking Spanish will help you talk to an Eskimo.


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

[User] ELI5: What is fire made actually of? Is it even matter?

[Assistant]
So there are some very different sources of light from a standard fire.

The first is from the chemical reaction itself.  Combustion is an oxidation reaction, where some element (usually carbon, in the fires that we're used to) combines with oxygen.  In a candle, this results in a pale blue flame close to the wick caused by "molecular radicals" that are excited, and emit light as their electrons fall back down to more stable orbitals.

The orange/yellow part of the flame is from an entirely different process.  If the fuel is incompletely burned, it will release some soot particles, which are mostly pure carbon (in the case of burning carbon, of course).  These will glow because of blackbody radiation (the same reason heated metal glows).

In more powerful flames, such as a Bunsen burner with an increased oxygen supply, the flame will be hotter than normal (as it is able to burn the fuel more completely), and this will result in a blue color as it ionizes the gasses around it.

So to summarize, fire is a chemical reaction that releases heat and light.  The light is what you perceive as "the fire", and it comes from several different origins depending on the type of flame.


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

[User]
What happened to pensions?

For children of the 1950's and even 1960's, pensions were rather common.  In 1960, roughly half of private-sector workers had access to a pension, as well as workers for larger companies (GE, Goodyear, AT&T, etc).

401k's arrived, but didn't fully replace pensions.

What happened?

[Assistant]
I believe what you are referring to are "defined benefit" plans. These were set up by companies and were supposed to deliver future payments based on your income and years of service (and other factors). The payments were often adjusted for inflation. These seem great, but they created huge liabilities for the companies. The benefit was defined, but there was no limits put on the costs.

These were largely replaced with "defined contribution" accounts. In these accounts your employer would deposit money based on a set of criteria... The amount is much more easily predicted and does not create the potential for a large future cost.

So, the cost of pensions ended up being just too high for companies to maintain. These have been almost totally replaced with defined contributions -- The effect on employees is they generally receive much less total money from the company.


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

[User] Whats happening when cloths are bleached by the Sun?

[Assistant] Energized photons from the sun (likely in the UV spectrum) are spontaneously hitting the pigment molecules in the clothing, causing them to break apart. By breaking apart, they lose their color properties. Over time, enough pigment molecules are destroyed to cause the garment overall to lose its color.


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

[User]
ELI5: What caused America to turn out so vastly different from other modern day British colonies?

Everything from accents to city planning is radically different from England and it's colonies, despite having the same cultural nucleus. What happened?

[Assistant]
For one thing, the American revolution happened relatively early on in the history of the British Empire, so American culture has had more time to diverge from British culture.

Where as Canada had continued British influence, even to the present day to some extent. Other colonies such as Australia and New Zealand didn't even exist at the time of the American revolution.

I assume you are only really talking about places which were settled by large numbers of British people. India is a former British colony, but obviously very different as the vast majority of the population are natives.


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

[User] ELI5:why are our fingers different lengths?

[Assistant] Hands are useful for graspinghanging onto a tree limb (or hanging onto a ladder), picking berries (or picking up groceries), throwing a clod of dirt (or throwing a baseball). If our fingers were the same length, our hands wouldn't be such flexible tools. When we hold a spherical object like an orange in the palm of our hand, the fingers actually curve around evenly, giving us a firm grip. Tapering fingers (and strong thumbs) allowed early humans to use specially-shaped stones to smash, scrape and cut other objects. (A long pinky finger would be more likely to get caught and squashed itself.) Besides precision grips, our different-length fingers also provide a balanced support for crawling or leaning on our hands.


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

[User]
ELI5: What is different in the brain of a person having add or adhd?

In comparison to a average brain what is different in someone having a attention deficit disorder ?
I tried googling it but I couldn't find a real answer
Also can someone please tell me what causes adhd ? Is it genetics ?

[Assistant] A 'normal' brain filters all the senses and focuses on what matters most. An ADHD brain rates more/most things as important and floods the brain with too much input. It's the difference between talking to a person and hearing what they say, and talking to a person and hearing traffic and static, seeing a blue poster, red pants, a stain on the carpet--is that a light?--smelling garlic, and somewhere, faintly under all that, hear their response.


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

[User]
ELI5: What happens when a person goes to the hospital for being suicidal?

What is there procedure? How do they treat the patient? How do they make sure he won't attempt suicide again?

[Assistant]
Depending on the state a doctor can put a 48-hr psych watch on the person. That's about it, assuming they've done nothing illegal or threatening. And depending on the state/hospital, there's very little treatment. If you're lucky you might get a counselor; you're more likely to get a "minder," a low-level hospital employee who monitors your every move (yes, even the bodily ones).

Now, a person can check him- or herself into the hospital for being suicidal and the procedure may be very different. The above is the result of an unsuccessful suicide attempt -- even if the person immediately regretted the pill swallowing/wrist slitting/whatever and was themselves the one to call the hospital.

Source: sat with sister through 48-hr hospital stay following her failed suicide attempt.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] How did Tatooine's economy fare after the death of Jabba the Hutt?

Leia just straight up murders the crime boss who runs essentially the entire planet in RotJ.  Wouldn't that have a major negative effect on the economy? Did another Hutt inherit the planet, making Jabba's death pointless? Did the Empire step in and take control of the planet, giving them another foothold against the rebellion?

[Assistant]
Kill one crime boss and his organization will find another, or split up and engender competition.

Same as if you kill a queen bee, the hive will rush to the nursery and start feeding royal jelly to a select few.

Nature abhors a vacuum and it's not like every street tough and numbers runner was doing dead drops straight to Jabba. Who has time for that?

Most organizations will do just fine if you chop a head off here or there since the day-to-day operations will just keep going.

Indeed at least one crooked accountant probably got very rich from being the only one to know about certain bank accounts.

Besides, Jabba probably had a syndicate boss at some level. Some council he was on that let his organization interface with suppliers and "foreign talent".

So likey "mechanisms were in place" at different levels. Hell, maybe his mom just appointed his brother or sister to take his place.

(May not be canon, but it is the way these things tend to work.)


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

[User]
8 year old reference? bit embarrased to ask...

Salutations all,

I'm a bit embarassed to ask my undergraf proffs for a reference, as at age 30 I'm now JUST applying on grad programs...

They have given me references in the past, and did so happily as I was a great student in their classes, but that was about 5 years ago. So now it's been about 8 years since the first time I asked them for a ref...

Bascially my question is: have other people here had to do this? Is this frowned upon? I really didn't want to bother them as its been too long... but might have to. They probably remember me.. but should I say "hi there xxx... I know it's been 8 years.. not sure if this is appropriate etc... but I am applying on xxx.. "

edit: you guys made me much more relaxed about reaching out to them. thanks!

[Assistant]
Just ask straight forward. Introduce yourself with your name, student id number and courses you have taken along with transcripts. Then tell you are applying for grad school and their recommendations will help advance your case. Almost all professors oblige and try to help. If not then you move on to another professor.

Remember that by assuming they wont give so i am not gonna ask  will give you worst outcome than ask them. Because in fist instance your failure rate is 100%. In second case, your chance is 50%. Take a chance :-).

Goof luck and all the best for your successful application and subsequent graduation.


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

[User] ELI5: How do micro-states like San Marino, Andorra or Liechtenstein maintain their independence while being surrounded by states much more powerful than them?

[Assistant]
The overwhelming majority of European micro-states and city-states didn't manage to maintain their independence, and did indeed get swallowed up by the larger countries that surrounded them. For example Venice, Naples, Ragusa, Krakow, Danzig, and Saar, among many others, all of which are now part of large European countries.

The few that remain have been fortunate enough to keep their independence into the modern era, when countries don't usually go around invading weaker countries just because they can.

How did these micro-states manage to survive? Either by being very wealthy (in the case of Monaco, Liechtenstein, and Vatican City) and hence being able to pay off potential invaders,  or insignificant and difficult to get to (in the case of Andorra).


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Is there any sort of power limitation to the harry potterverse killing curse?

Say for example if lord voldemort used it on ss4 gogeta and taking speed completely out of the equation and when it hits gogeta would he instantly die?

[Assistant]
The Killing Curse directly targets a victims soul, wrenching it from it's body without causing any harm to the body itself. Any mortal being with a single whole soul would be killed by the curse regardless of how powerful they may.  Neither the best shield spells nor being at peak physical endurance would assist in surviving the effects of the curse

The only two definite known countermeasure against the curse is the use of a Horcrux to protect part of your soul though that will leave you as a formless shade until you can find a new body. You can also sacrifice yourself for another in an act of love. which will reflect the curse back onto whoever casts it and protect the intended victim from the caster to some degree.

There is also a possibility that a creature who is already dead or soulless such as Inferi or Vampires may be immune to the effects of the curse. Though given how little we know about these creatures and the exact rules regarding the curse that is mere speculation.


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

[User] [Halo] Do Spartans Have an Extended Lifespan?

[Assistant]
The problem with asking about lifespan in the Halo-verse is that aging is constantly being disrupted by cryo-sleep and space transit. So someone might be frozen for three years and not age physically, but how would you classify them?

With regards to the Spartans, the soldiers were in such high demand that there was never an opportunity to study aging.


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

[User]
ELI5: What is the justification for homeless people receiving less government assistance than prisoners?

I know this doesn't happen everywhere, but I hear many stories about homeless people seeking incarceration for this reason.

Disclaimer (personal bias): I identify as liberal and somewhat socialist, but I try to keep my mind open and my mouth shut (especially on economic issues).

[Assistant]
Here's the justification:
When the government takes custody of someone, it has an obligation to provide them the basic necessities of life -- food, clothing, shelter, sanitary conditions, and basic medical care.  The Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution requires it.

The "state" otherwise owes no obligation to ensure that its citizens are fed, clothed, or sheltered.  And while many states have programs to provide food, clothing, and shelter to homeless folks, there are not enough resources, or homeless folks don't want them, or life circumstances (mental health issues, lack of ID, etc.) prevent them from taking advantage of those services.

Note that incarceration doesn't come "free."  Almost always a person convicted will have to pay fines, assessments, and may even have to pay for the costs of their incarceration.  When someone doesn't have the ability to pay, these debts aren't collected on, but if the person were to come into money, the state might put liens on the person's property or accounts to require repayment.


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

[User]
ELI5: What do anarchists want? A lawless society with every person fending for themselves?

I'm reading the controversy started by John Jay College professor, Mike Isaacson @vulgareconomics

Do people like him really think they would be better off without police and government? Are they prepared to survive in a society without law and order?

Unless he has an arsenal, his physique doesn't strike me as being capable of holding its own in a lawless society...

[Assistant]
Anarchists certainly don't want a society where people have to fend for themselves, no. Community is a central feature of anarchism.

Anarchists don't reject structure in society so much as hierarchical structure. They want power to be decentralised and they want communities to organise by democratic means, namely consensus-building. Anarchists believe that humans are capable of resolving interpersonal conflict without the need for state intervention.

Also, just because there is no codified law, doesn't mean that anarchists don't expect there'll some sort of normativity, they simply envision this to be in the shape of living customs as opposed to (what they regard as) dead law, which is slow to change in the face of constantly changing moral precepts.

Obviously, whether this is at all feasible is... controversial.


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

[User]
ELI5: In high school, why do teachers make you do projects but give you the determiner "Only 2 of the x resources you use can be from the internet?"

Small backstory, I had to help my niece do a science project for high school. She had to quote sources for a specific physics problem and her solution and how she got there.

I found all of the sources online in 5 minutes and she got her project done in around an hour. However we then had to spend 4 hours driving to various libraries to "prove" she did not get the sources from the internet.

TL:DR I got sources for my niece's project from the internet and spent 4 hours driving to various libraries for library reference cards for the books I found online.

[Assistant]
Because the teacher wants some way to ensure that students know how to get information from books or other printed materials.

The internet is a phenomenal resource, but it's important to maintain some small ability to locate information without the internet, like at a library.


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

[User]
[MCU] If Peter Quill has a universal translator, why couldn't he understand Groot in the first Guardians movie?

Peter received a universal translator after Yondu took him from Earth, it's brought to our attention when he's arrested in GOTG Vol 1.
Now, if he had that translator, why couldn't he understand Groot? We know in the MCU that Groot is a language that can be taught because Thor claims to have taken the class, which is why he can understand Teen Groot.

~~We also know Groot is the last of his kind, meaning not many others would know how to speak his language.~~

Could the translator possibly be able to auto-update and delete languages it thinks are no longer spoken? Or be able to adapt to new languages but had to listen to samples of Groot's language for awhile before it would be be able to translate?
Could this explain why Peter couldn't understand Groot in the first movie but seems to understand what he's saying by the second?

Or could this just be a plot hole?

[Edit: Its not stated in the MCU that Groot is the last of his kind like in comics and the cartoon. I didn't think about the differences when I first posted this.]

[Assistant] All words in his language sound just like the phrase "I am Groot" in English. Since Quill speaks English, it tends to assume people are speaking it unless there's a particular reason to think otherwise. Basically, it's a software bug.


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

[User] [General] I just found a genie! For my first wish, I want to be rich, but this guy doesn't seem to like me very much. How can I word my wish to make sure that he doesn't screw me over?

[Assistant]
You don't.  You put down the lamp / ring / condom wrapper or whatever else it is containing the genie, and back away slowly.  Never talk to the genie again, and never speak to anyone about having found a genie.

Genies are, *at best*, capricious.  At worst, they are openly malevolent.  There's no telling where this genie falls on the scale.  He may be *everywhere* on the scale, and will either screw you over or only mess with you depending on his current mood.  The fact that he's already showing dislike towards you is a bad sign, because it means he's probably going to be on the "screw you over" side of the scale.

And, quite frankly, no matter what you wish for or how you wish it, there's always a way to append a feature to it to make you regret it.  You want to be rich?  So you wish for a billion dollars.  He gives you a billion dollars in coins and dumps it on your head.  You wish for it in the form of a check.  The check appears in your hand, but you get a paper cut, which gets infected, and you die a torturous death.  You simply ask for the billion dollars to be added to your bank account.  The bank is then quickly shut down by the government for financial irregularities.  You ask for goods worth a billion dollars to sell, or you ask for a billion dollars in small installments, or you ask for, or you ask for, or you ask for... it doesn't matter.  If a genie wants to screw you over, you will be screwed.

So seriously, dude, get the hell out of there before things get really bad.


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

[User] [Every Santa movie]where do parents think the presents come from if they aren't putting them there?

[Assistant]
I said this in another post where this was brought up:

>Santa's gift to the parents is that he changes their memories to make them think they bought the gifts but their bank accounts don't reflect it. They never know, but Santa takes pride in knowing he helped them.


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

[User] If light cannot escape from a black hole, wouldn't the objects being pulled in be going faster than the speed of light?

[Assistant]
Sort of.... the thing is, you can't measure distances and speeds *globally*, i.e., looking at spacetime as a whole. From that standpoint they're dependent on the coordinates you choose. The only physical way of defining distance is *locally*. In other words, observers near each other can measure their distances, before they get so far apart that the effects of gravity (i.e., the curvature of spacetime) become important.

Locally, no speeds can ever go faster than light. But that's fine: inside a black hole, you'll never measure your neighbors exceeding that speed. From a local perspective, all speeds inside a black hole are below the speed of light.

*But*, when you look at those speeds from a global perspective (which you can only do theoretically, mathematically - it's not possible in practice), they all tend inwards towards the center of the black hole. No matter what direction you look like you're going locally, forwards or backwards, left or right, from the global point of view, *everything* inside the event horizon points inward towards the black hole.


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

[User] [Vampires] Is actual Holy Water needed in realities where it affects vampires or is simply the belief that one is wielding Holy Water sufficient for it to work? Could I hand someone a flask of un-sanctified water and tell them that it was and have it work just as effectively on their faith alone?

[Assistant] That seriously depends on the universe in question. In universes where only faith matters, then the belief that it is holy will make it holy. In universes where actual artefacts hold the power, then faith may not be enough and it would require an actual blessing.


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

[User]
[Attack of Titan]Why hasn't humanity focused their efforts of technological advancement and weapons.

The weapons are very premitive. Shouldn't the humans be concentrating their efforts of building more powerful and effective weapons to combat the Titans.

[Assistant] They hid all their advanced mechs in this one dude's basement for safekeeping, but when his neighborhood got overrun, they decided to spend the next 24 episodes NOT GOING INTO THE BASEMENT BECAUSE WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU JUST GO INTO EREN'S BASEMENT ALREADY.


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

[User] [Star Trek] If time travel just makes an alternate timeline, does that means there's thousands of alternate timelines left over from the Temporal Cold War? Are there any ramifications from the abuse of time like this?

[Assistant]
Only *some* forms of time travel make alternate timelines. Many instances of time travel have changed what the Department of Temporal Investigations would call the "prime" timeline. Here are some examples:

* On stardate 5373.4, Captain Kirk and Commander Spock of the Enterprise were visiting the historians investigating the Guardian of Forever. Kirk and Spock went through the Guardian to observe the dawn of the Orion civilisation. Although nothing *seems* to have occurred, Kirk's and Spock's logs indicate that when they returned to the present, they found that Spock no longer existed. They report an Andorian was First Officer of the Enterprise. After determining that the cause of the timeline change was Spock's absence from certain events in his own youth on Vulcan, Spock travelled back to be present at those events, which ended up restoring his presence in our timeline. If their logs are to be trusted, both their instances of time travel changed our prime timeline.

* On stardate 50893.5, the crew of the Enterprise-E joined the battle against the Borg in Sector 001. A small sphere was observed leaving the Borg cube during the battle, heading towards Earth. The Enterprise's sensor records show that, after the Borg sphere entered a temporal vortex, the Earth changed: it showed the presence of 7 billion borg. This demonstrates that the Borg's travel into the past changed our prime timeline.

* On stardate 48481.2, Commander Sisko and some of his staff were lost in a transporter accident. Chief O'Brien determined that Sisko and the others were transported back in time due to the presence of chroniton particles. Sensor records from the Defiant show that all Starfleet installations and communications disappeared from the present. This shows that Sisko's presence in the past changed our prime timeline.

Most instances of time travel do not make alternate timelines. Only one known instance of time travel appears to have created an alternate timeline, and this involved the use of red matter. Therefore, it is reasonable to conclude that the temporal incursions of the Temporal Cold War did not create thousands of alternate timelines.

However, it is known that there are many different quantum realities out there. On stardate 47391.2, Lieutenant Commander Worf of the Enterprise-D reports having transferred between different quantum realities after encountering a quantum fissure. Rather than being caused by time travel, these quantum realities are formed through the different choices and outcomes of various events: when a coin is tossed, two different quantum realities result, one where it comes up heads and one where it comes up tails. The existence of all these quantum realities, without any negative effects on any individual reality, can lead us to conclude that the universe is quite capable of handling multiple timelines. Therefore, even if the Temporal Cold War had created multiple timelines (and we believe it did not), this would not be a problem for the people living in those various timelines - we already exist in multiple realities anyway.


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

[User]
[General] Why are magical societies so backwards?

By backwards I refer mostly to how almost all societies with magic are more or less stuck in the medieval age.

While some of such societies are placed in a general medieval world, others don't have such excuses. Others are excused by saying that magic mix badly with technology. (but the Weasley car was awesome!)

The most jarring example I can think of is Thundercats. The tech savvy lizards kicked the lions ass so hard they went from apex predator to near extinction in one day. All because they refused to adapt to technology. Other examples include Star vs Foe where the monsters was starting to get the upper hand by using technology. I'm also peeved by the attitude of wizards in the Harry Potter universe sans Mr. Weasley.

At least in Adventure Time, PB tries to talk some sense in the wizard community but to no avail. The wizards are too arrogant to hear her out.

So why? Why do magical people reject technology even when their sustainability is at stake?

[Assistant]
Lack of selective pressure. Magic pretty quickly leads to post-scarcity, or nearly so, and also makes you the biggest, baddest power around.

If you don't have any credible competition for a few generations, you forget how to compete. Tech-based societies are built on continual, gradual advancement, however. Eventually they reach a point where they're competitive with magic, and perhaps even superior.

If we consider *Harry Potter*, magic has allowed the Wizarding community to exist more or less undisturbed for generations, but the Statute of Secrecy still exists, because if muggles got serious, their war machines would stand a chance at taking the wizarding world out en masse. And if muggles advanced to the level of the Federation, a wizarding victory actually starts to seem remote.


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

[User]
[Wreck-It Ralph] What would happen if a game that was previously unplugged, became replugged in?

It's well known that you die if your game gets unplugged, if you don't get out in time. So what if the game was plugged in again? Would the characters be gone or would new versions of them be generated?

[Assistant]
Well, it would depend on how long it was unplugged for. Video game consoles are just like any other computer, and have small CMOS batteries in the mainboard. If the console isn't left unplugged long enough for that battery to die, then no harm, no foul. The game picks up where it left off. Of course, if some of the main characters *did* escape, and then the console is plugged in at another site, well, it'll probably get unplugged again as defective.
If the CMOS battery *does* die, when the console gets plugged in, a few things will happen. For starters, it will have to be reconfigured with basic information again, such as the time and date, and any other special settings the BIOS has. Once it's booted up, it's a brand new game. You'll have very similar characters, who of course won't have any of the "life experience" of the previous ones. And, of course, if that CMOS battery doesn't get replaced, they won't have much of a chance to get any, either. The first power outage to come along and they're gone again.

Man, that would suck. Being in the consoles next to them, knowing that their friends will get wiped out any time the power goes out? After a few  outages, do you think they'd stop making friends with them? Would the new characters wonder why no one else really acts friendly to them, no one invites them to their parties or games, or in general has the time of day for them? If they explained to the fresh chatacters what was going on, would they develop a complex? Decide to hang out outside their game, maybe at first only during the hours the arcade is closed, but then eventually decide to stay in the grid, abandoning the game that they know will kill them otherwise?


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

[User] [MCU] Could someone wielding the Mind Stone make Thanos change his mind about his plan?

[Assistant] In theory. Probably. Only real brainwashing we saw performed was the Loki Scepter, and it was used only on humans so we can't really say if an MCU Mind Stone would work on Thanos. But should you manage to poke him in the chest with the scepter, and should it work, then it seems that control is strong enough to fully convert a person to the will and way of the Scepter holder. So if it works, then Thanos would probably abandon his convictions and do his best to find alternative.


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

[User] ELI5: Since the president of Comcast said, "We don't enforce data caps." publicly and there is proof that they do, why couldn't a civilian sue them?

[Assistant]
"Suing" isn't that simple in American common law. Strictly based on what a Comcast executive said according to your post and not in regards to any other business practices of the company, no civilian would perceivably have legal standing in court.

The first hurdle of holding legal standing (even in class actions if you were involving Comcast and not just the President) is injury-in-fact: that the plaintiff suffered or will suffer actual and particular injury (financial, physical, etc.). There are two more hurdles in proving legal standing, neither of which are relevant because a case based purely on this information would not make it past the first step.

Again, this is in regards to the information of your post and exclusively that. Other factors and information regarding the business practices of Comcast and their executives' actions and legal responsibilities would of course change the situation.


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

[User]
[Stick of Truth] How does the combat work in-canon?

(warning, there might be some slight spoilers to get my point across, don't read if you're not done with South Park: The Stick of Truth)

I know i might be looking too deep into this, but how exactly does Cartman's LARP battle system work on the various enemies that are unaffiliated with the game? Especially some of the attacks like Butters' lightning and Professor Chaos.

The new kid's abilities make enough sense since he's using realistic items to horribly maim the enemies, but how does Butters zap people, and how does Stan's fake sword do such serious damage to people? And why are people like the aliens and secret service playing by LARP rules of turn-based combat?

Is there a reason, or is it just rule of fun because South Park?

[Assistant] It's because the Stick of Truth *really does* control the universe. When Cartman & the gang instituted the rules-based form of combat, the Stick of Truth caused everyone, in-game or otherwise, to become beholden to the LARP rules that the kids playing by. Similarly, it caused e.g. Butters' "Smite them with Lightening" attack to *actually* smite someone with lightening, because the rules of the game said that's what was actually going on and The Stick says that the rules are real.


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

[User] ELI5: What it means to "pop the clutch" and why you would do it?

[Assistant] Also known as "dropping the clutch", it means releasing the clutch very quickly, sometimes by slipping your foot off the pedal or fingers off the lever letting it "pop" to its resting position. One reason would be, with high revs, to break traction and engage in a "fuckin sick burnout". Another reason would be when trying to roll start a vehicle, where quickly disengaging the clutch is needed to transfer energy from the wheels back into the engine forcing the engine to turn over.


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

[User] ELI5: What is the protective pink liquid that YouTubers often drink before eating something extremely spicy and how does it work?

[Assistant]
Pepto-Bismol

Bismuth subsalicylate, sold generically as pink bismuth and under the brand names Pepto-Bismol and BisBacter, is an antacid medication used to treat temporary discomforts of the stomach and gastrointestinal tract, such as nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, and diarrhea.

So for the 5 year old explanation, it is medicine that coats your stomach to protect it against spicy foods and other bad things.


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

[User]
Are supposedly "habitable" exoplanets that have 5 times the mass of Earth really habitable?

I just read a new article stating that a habitable exoplanet has been found. However, it states that it has 5 times the mass of Earth. Doesn't that mean that it will have 5 times as much gravity? It seems like that would make the planet inhabitable, having the much gravity. Am I wrong?

[Assistant] Habitable usually means that the surface could support liquid water (assuming the atmosphere is right for that).  In terms of mass and gravity, a planet 5 times the mass of Earth would actually probably have surface gravity closer to twice that of Earth, because the greater radius of the planet reduces the gravitational pull you feel.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does the deep internet work?

How does one get there and what happens on all of the levels below the surface which I barely scratch?

[Assistant]
The "deep web" or "deep internet" is mostly an urban legend for people who don't know very much about computer networking. The term "deep web" originally meant the part of the Internet not indexed by public search engines.

This includes the internal networks of companies, universities and other institutions, as well as private data on public websites. For example, you will only be able to access a tiny fraction of data on facebook, making most of facebook part of the deep web.

The term in this sense was created when the shift from static web (HTML documents on a server) pages to dynamically generated web pages (generated on request from information in a data base by a computer program) happened. For example, the Google site offers a wealth of information, but if you don't enter a search term, you won't find any of it. This makes Google search results pages part of the dark web by that original definition. To access all of Google, you would have to enter all possible search terms, which is not feasible. This didn't use to be like that, in the beginning of the internet, it was possible to see pretty much all content there was. The term "deep web" was created to state this change of internet structure from mostly-available to mostly-protected.

Apart from that, there are also encryption services like tor or i2p, that allow users to visit and host websites anonymously. They are mainly used by technology enthusiasts, but also by criminals, whistleblowers and political dissidents. This is because only those people need such strong protection of their information. As you might imagine, sites where you can buy and sell stolen credit card information, drugs, child and other illegal porn, and similar can be found on such networks. These sites are interested in visitors, just like any site, so they will advertise on places like the hidden wiki, an indexing service on tor which is publically accessible.

Apart from the two categories mentioned above, there also exist darknets. A darknet is simply a network of people who privately share information of any kind, using any networking technology. Darknets become dark because they do not advertise publically, but are in no other way affiliated with illegal or immoral actions. A group of people with a private server to share their vacation pictures - who need a password to access the server - is a darknet, for example.

In conclusion, the "deep web" is a somewhat technical term that got turned into a meme by people who do not understand the workings of the internet. Some people (well, shitty "info-graphics") nowadays even associate completely public sites like 4chan with the deep web, which makes no sense at all.


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

[User]
Why does the Delorean have flame trails when it hits 88 mph?

As I understand it, the sonic-boom type effect is the temporal barrier being broken, but what about the flame trails?

[Assistant]
Relevant points to consider when answering:

* The flame trails exist **after** the DeLorean has disappeared through time, not before.

* The flame trails even occur when flying through the air.

* The flame trails persist on the ground, i.e. something has literally set the asphalt on fire (or something flammable has been spread across the ground). The trails also seem to have at least some persistence in the air, i.e. they don't immediately waft away like most gases would.


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

[User] What is the upper limit of atom size (atomic number), and why?

[Assistant] I can only answer the why in a hand-waving way. Atomic number is equal to the number of protons (in the nucleus).  Nuclei are build up from neutrons and protons which attract via the relatively short-range strong nuclear force. Note that neutrons essentially do not attract each other via the strong nuclear force (hence, you do not find di-neutrons). In addition, protons repel each other via the long-range electrostatic interaction.  When you have relatively few protons, you can get enough neutrons together so that the effect of the strong interaction overcomes the electrostatic repulsion.  As the nucleus gets bigger and bigger, if you add one more proton, it feels the repulsive effect of all the protons present and the attractive effect of only the neighbouring neutrons due to the short range of the strong nuclear force.  There comes a point where this short range attraction can not make up for the long range electrostatic repulsion.


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

[User]
[Toy Story] At what point in it's manufacture does a toy become Animate?

At what point in the manufacture of a toy does it become a living being? For the simpler toys, like the army men, it's reasonably obvious - Once the toy has been cast, and the plastic cooled. But the more complex toys, such as Woody, or ones which are made of different materials, like Bo-Peep?

Or for example, at what point would a Warhammer model become animate? The plastic parts are cast into frames, and then shipped out to the purchasers, who assemble, and then paint them. They are manufactured similarly to the Army Men, but they are not completed until they are in the player's hands.

So, at what point do toys, of any variety, become animate?

[Assistant]
Toys become alive when children open the package, give them names and start playing with them. In rare exceptions they can become animated by encountering other animated toys, but it's a rather traumatic experience and they tend not to understand the differnce between reality and what's written on the box.

That's why toys are terrified of not being played: it's like losing the reason you are alive.


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

[User] ELI5: When large groups of people sing (e.g. stadium fans chanting), they always sound the same. Why is this "mean" voice identical regardless of the group size, race, gender...?

[Assistant]
Well, 100 women would sound different from 100 men and 100 of one race might well sound different from 100 of another...

That aside, if you pick a population type (stadium goers) and pick 100 of them, the average pitch of their voices will approximate the 100 of another random sample. You can't really tell if 60% have a relative deep voice on one side versus 52% on the other.


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

[User]
ELI5: Dune by Frank Herbert

I've just finished reading Book 1 of Dune, which concludes shortly after Duke Leto's death, and I've found myself with more questions than answers.

I'm going to continue reading, but I can't help but feel that I am missing something. If there are any fans of the book here, please take a look at my questions and tell me if they are eventually answered, because I am quite confused.

Why does the Emperor want Leto dead in the first place? From multiple accounts, it seems they are (were?) good friends. I'm guessing political intrigue, which is the most sensible, but this never gets touched on! I have no idea what is behind the motivation of the central plot of Book 1.

More importantly, why is the Emperor so invested in Leto's death that he is even willing to commit Imperial troops? From what I understand, the Great Houses and the Emperor are two separate and powerful political bodies right, so what is so important that he is willing to put his personal stamp on the death of a leader of a great house?

What the heck is spice?

What exactly happened in the Buterlerian Jihad?

Was the Bene Gesserit actually able to implant the entire workings of a religion into Fremen culture?

[Assistant]
The major parts of the economy in the Dune universe is controlled by one super-corporation called CHOAM (Combine Honnete Ober Advancer Mercantiles) which in turn is ruled by the Emperor and the Great Houses (through the Landsraad).

House Atreides is up-and-coming in the Landsraad and the Emperor feels threatened and recruits House Harkonnen to make a indirect power-grab of CHOAM and through that the spice trade.

The importance of spice is two-fold: the most popular use is to become very old so it's used by the rich (such as the Great Houses) and commands a very high price. The Bene Gesserit also use it as a means to delve into past memories of their ancestors.

The original series is a bit vague on the Butlerian Jihad but the aftermath basically boils down to "We relied too much on computers a long time ago and it ended badly and we will not do that again".

Possibly slight spoiler, the Bene Gesserit doesn't implant "entire workings" but more of a framework to further their own future interests.

I think I've been a bit vague but that was on purpose. Please read the rest of Frank Herberts Dune novels. Frank Herbert wrote "big", there where wheels within wheels and deep plots but the characters motivations are still central.

There are many like me that feels that the  prequels and sequels that his son Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson wrote aren't that good. Basically it goes from "what, that can't be right?" to "wtf, this is what you came up with as an ending???" for the last book.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do tractor trailer trucks need 18 large wheels, but very large planes only need 6 small ones?

[Assistant]
Trucks drive a lot of miles and weigh a whole lot, so their weight needs to be distributed.  Otherwise they're causing a lot of wear on the pavement.  Virtually all wear and tear on highways is caused by trucks, so spreading out the load is very important. Planes only "drive" a short distance on pavement, so there's less infrastructure being damaged by having the load more concentrated.

Additionally, putting more tires on a truck is fairly cheap (you have a nice rigid frame to bolt the axles to) and can make the truck safer (losing one tire out of 18 is relatively minor; losing one out of 6 is a bigger deal).  By comparison, putting more tires on a plane means that you increase the weight by quite a bit.  Losing a tire on landing is pretty inconvenient, but there aren't other planes out there that you're going to hit if you get a flat, so the safety issue is less present.

Then you look at the life of tires on trucks versus planes.  A truck is looking to drive thousands of miles before they have to replace their tires, so you want to have lots of tires to reduce the wear and spread the load.  A plane would ideally like to do a couple hundred landings on a set of tires, which is likely under 1000 miles all told; some planes may only do 10 landings on a set of tires (looking at you, SR-71).  It's OK to have to replace tires all the time on a plane since carrying around more tires would cost even more.

Finally, note that while planes are larger than trucks they aren't *that* much heavier.  A truck may be 100,000 pounds, all told, while a 737 (6-wheeled aircraft) maxes out at about 150,000.  Meanwhile, *very* large planes like the 747 have far more wheels18 for that model.  The C-5 Galaxy has 28 wheels.  The An-225 has a whopping 32 wheels.


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

[User] ELI5: How do small book stores, psychic shops, and other relatively small market businesses make enough profit to keep their business going?

[Assistant] In addition to what hatterson said, it's important to remember that a lot of small businesses like this *don't* make enough money to keep going, especially with internet stores like amazon becoming a dominating force.


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

[User]
I will be graduating from my master program in a few months. Would it still be acceptable to publish despite the lack of institutional affiliation?

I've been publishing with my prof (well, only 2 articles unfortunately, and 1 is still under review) while I'm doing my master. However I'm at the end of my study and will be graduating soon.

I've been using "Master student of anthropology of X university" as my academic title. If I have graduated from my master, that means I can no longer use that title right?

Would it still be acceptable to publish without institutional affiliation? I've read around this sub. Some people said an unknown with no institutional affiliation is considered less than a grad student.

I have plenty of materials I want to work on but I am unable to take PhD or apply for a teaching position yet.

Thanks!

[Assistant]
If you are planning to publish the results you obtained during your work at the institution, you use that affiliation, especially if it will be still in association with your professor.

We had PhD students and PosDocs move to industry or teaching, and papers come out sometimes years after they finished their work with us. They still get the affiliation. People who moved to another academic position get a note with \*current address: XYZ University, but the published work is still with the old affiliation, as that's where the research was done.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Assuming Anakin remained true to the Jedi code, what would he have done when he found out that Tusken raiders tortured his mother to death?

Would he have just told them "Please don't do that again" and gone away? You can't very well bring a whole village of Sand People to court on Tatooine.

[Assistant] Walk away. He isn't the law on Tatooine. It isn't his job to shank every punk, gunsel, savage and scumbag in the galaxy. He isn't even supposed to have a horse in this race; the only reason he's there is a personal attachment he shouldn't be maintaining in the first place.


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

[User]
[DC] Why is Wally West so much slower than Barry and Bart Allen?

Didn't Wally do the same experiment that Barry did? Why is it that he turned out so much slower than Barry and eventually Bart?

[Assistant] Wally West was "flashed" when he was a kid.  His body responded to it differently.  As he grew, if he sped past a certain point, it'd hurt him.  In addition, he had some psychological issues that occasionally prevented him from accessing his full range.


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

[User]
ELI5: How did the United States function until 1861 (temporary) and then the 16th Amendment passage without an income tax on the people?

I know that we had tariffs for imported goods, but did this give the government enough money to operate? And if so, is it possible to create a system where our citizens aren't taxed?

[Assistant]
Ok, let me chip in as an economist.... a very general explanation.

There are four ways a government can finance its operations:

*  **taxation** of income, wealth, trade

*  **borrowing** on the market or from the citizens

*  **state-owned enterprises** producing income such as monopolies or land sales.

*  **money creation**  which causes the so-called Cantillon effect (transfer of wealth through extraction of purchasing power from the existing money by increasing the amount of money in circulation)

The early US governments used all of those methods to finance the operations but the main one - since the rebellion was about taxation and not everyone was as rich as George Washington to just give their own money - was borrowing and money creation.

That was essentially the main reason behind the creation of the first Bank of the United States - to consolidate all the states' debt and state-issued money floating around and continue on the credit issued abroad. There was a very serious economic crisis resulting from the debt the US incurred fighting for independence.

In the subsequent years there was very little need for taxes because governments didn't need money for social services or the like. But in the 1820s and on there grew two movements - industrial protectionism and internal improvements - which required money. Some of that came through sale of land, some of that had to be collected through taxes.  The taxes at the time were mostly **tariffs**. Tariffs were import taxes - especially against foreign industrial production and it led to many conflicts along the North-South lines because North was undergoing intense industrialization and started to produce its own industrial goods while South was heavily agricultural but also export-oriented and it used its cotton production to buy everything it needed.  North wanted South to buy northern stuff and lobbied heavily for protectionist tariffs against British and other European products.

Over time - as North grew in population, wealth and influence they managed to pass more and more tariffs which the South really didn't like and it was one of the foundations of the upcoming war. By the time of the Civil War the overwhelming majority of the taxes in the federal budget would come from the tariffs (IIRC as much as 70%) the majority of which were paid by the then "richer" South so you can clearly see how the tariffs were going up and down depending on who currently held the advantage in the government. The taxes were actually quite severe - around 1830 the tariffs were close to 50% - although the US had a serious war debt to pay off (1812).

Still you have to remember that at the time the US government was practically nonexistent compared to the organization known today.  There was no large standing military and a fairly symbolic navy. There was no social security, no medicare, no agricultural subsidies, no apollo program etc.It was just a bunch of politicians, some bureucrats and some cronies. The idea that this was what government was supposed to look like was so strong that even after the Civil War (which cost a fortune and required both tarriffs, and income taxes, and debt and money printing, and confiscation) when the feds started the railroad subsidies they would subsidy it with land rather than direct financial investment and only create bonds and bond markets off of those land grants.

-----

As for the question whether it is possible to create a system where citizens aren't taxed. Yes it is - it is called **anarchic society** and depending whether you lean left or right it would be anarcho-collectivism or anarcho-capitalism.  You find people who think like you do and you work together to achieve the same goals the state is providing for you now.


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

[User]
ELI5 If two people are singing next to each other at the same volume, how does this affect the volume? Does it double / stay the same / somewhere in the middle?

How would progressively increasing the number of singers impact the volume?

[Assistant] The volume does actually double, but we cannot perceive it as doubled. We would need about 10 singers to hear them twice as loud than one. Many things in our perception work logarithmic (I hope this is the correct word in english).


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

[User]
[star wars] where do the lasers go in space?

In large space battles there are dozens of large ships and potentially hundreds of fighters shooting wildly at eachother and missing multiple shots

Do those lasers that miss just keep flying through space forever until they hit something?

[Assistant] While in Star Wars ship cannons are usually called "turbolasers", actual description says that the bolts actually are agitated tibanna gas plasma, so it actually dissipates harmlessly relatively fast after being shot. Actually.


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

[User]
[Mad Max: Fury Road] What was Joe's plan before the War Rig turned around?

Before they notice the War Rig returning to the Citadel, Joe's crew is taking a break. Were they planning to continue the chase or give up and go home?

It doesn't seem like they'd be able to catch the bikes, since they're faster than the Rig.

It's just that Joe seemed weirdly calm before the scout pointed out the Rig.

[Assistant]
They had gone through the storm and lost them by that point, he was probably regrouping his scattered troops and sending out bikers as scouts to find a track, maybe trying to deduce where they could be heading while his commanders were bitching about how many bullets and gas they were wasting. The battle was lost but not the war.

Had they not returned he probably would have stayed personally for a short time until all leads were exhausted then return to the citadel to try and recover her another way. He doesn't seem the kind of man to accept a loss like that, but he also doesn't seem capable of leading from the front for long periods.


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

[User]
ELI5:Why CPU clock speeds havent seen major increase even tough we made major improvements on nm scale?

It's always around 2.8GHZ to 3.5 GHZ. Why there are no 10GHZ or so? Please explain thank you :)

[Assistant]
You cannot cheat physics.

Every CPU has a clock that lets it synchronize its internal workings. The higher the clock the more operations can the proccesing unit perform in a unit of time. This value cannot be infinite because of propagation delay, which is time a logic gate needs to "open" and "close". If the clock would be faster than its internal gate limit it wouldnt work because operations would be "cut off" by the clock cycle.
Also higher clock speeds mean higher power draw and problems with internal heat dissipation.

Intead of going for higher clock speeds, manufacturers go for more cores. Which means that instead of one unit doing everything very fast you have 2,4 or even 12 slower units doing the work together. This is also better when you go to smaller architectures, because instead of having the same core smaller, you just put 4 instead of 1 in the same space.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is it that humans need such complex nutrient balances while cows just chill and eat grass all day?

[Assistant]
It's more accurate to think of humans as being able to subsist off a large variety of diets, as compared to cows which can really only subsist off one or two forms. This is partly the reason why humans as a species, like rats, were able to spread across the globe and survive in all kinds of habitats.
We don't necessarily *need* the complex nutrient balance -- we can live long enough to reproduce and multiply off a narrow diet of whatever we can gather/kill in the near area, but in today's society where most people want to live a maximally healthy lifestyle for 80+ years, the complex nutrient rich diet is advocated.


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

[User]
[300] Hey guys, I know we're all ripped with six-packs and everything, but considering there are swords, arrows and spears aimed at our naked flesh, shouldn't we be wearing armour or something?

I mean, seriously, all we're wearing is capes and loincloths. Surely there's got to be a better way to go into battle...

[Assistant] They were phalanx. Their combined shields made them impenetrable. Anyone dumb enough to step close got a spear. If they got closer they got a sword. There is no need for armor if your shielding was as good as theirs.


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

[User] ELI5:Why has Tiger Woods gone down in golfs world ranking so much these past years.What factors have caused this?

[Assistant]
The direct answer is pretty simple - he's not winning as much. But there's a number of reasons behind this.

For one, talent is not perfectly reliable. It comes and goes as time passes. Tiger isn't golfing as consistently and as effectively as everyone else, due to a combination of age, injuries - he's lost a fair amount of course time - and possibly some of the distracting screw-ups in his personal life.

A big factor is that other golfers in general are a lot better. A natural talent could go out there and win in the days before Tiger. When he came along, they realized they had to PRACTICE and had to get the best gear and so forth, so they worked at improving their own talent a lot harder. As a result, the field of competition is much stronger than before.


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

[User]
[Herucles] Why did Hercules choose to stay with Meg?

At the end of Hercules rather than joining the gods on Olympus and being with his family again for the first time since he was a baby, Hercules chooses to remain on Earth with Meg. Why?  I mean he finally had a chance to be with his family again after so long. And  I honestly don't think being with Meg was worth it and he shouldnt have loved her that much. He didn't really know her that long, they haven't been through as much as most other Disney couples have been through together to make their relationship strong, and she betrayed him.  I just don't think the love he had for her should have been that strong, strong enough for him to choose her over being with his family again.

[Assistant]
People do crazy things when they're in love.

More cynically, if there's one thing Olympians in general and Zeus specifically are known for, it's having *zero* capacity to consider long term consequences when it comes to the possibility of banging hot people. Guess the apple didn't fall far from the tree.


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

[User]
[Dune] How does the feudal system work in Dune?

Leto Atreides is a duke and Vladimir Harkonnen is a baron. From what I understand about feudalism Leto should be immensely more powerful, in fact Leto's vassals (counts) should be more powerful than a baron. How is it that they both seem to relatively equal in military and land, the baron is also more wealthy but I understand that is because of the spice. Neither seems to have their own vassals either, which a Duke should.

[Assistant]
Leto's title of Duke reflects his royal heritage and having earned it through inheritance and stature, rather than wealth.

Vladimir's title was one acquired through wealth. Though it isn't outright stated that he "bought" the title, it is stated that "the Harkonnen titles came out of the CHOAM pocketbook."

The Atreides and Harkonnens both have power, but of different kinds. Atreides have honor and the respect of the other houses of the Lansdraad. They also are have quite potent military force.

The Harkonnens have plotted and schemed their way into power, buying, bribing, blackmailing, extorting to get what they want. The main boost, of course, being them getting Arrakis as a quasi-fief.


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

[User] ELI5: What is Category Theory?

[Assistant]
As math progressed through the 20th Century, we kinda realized that there were tons of relationships between various mathematical objects that looked the same but weren't actually related at all. This was a bit because we tend to look at the components that make up a mathematical object, like elements of a set, numbers, points in a space, loops in a space, operations, equations, etc, etc, etc. But, if instead we looked at mathematical objects themselves as the constituents of a theory as a whole, we could illuminate what these theories are a little bit better.

For instance, we have the theory of sets. And when we look at things in terms of set theory, we generally want to know what things make up the elements of a particular set. But the category theory of set theory does not care. It cares about how different sets relate to each other, and the way sets relate to each other is functions between them. So instead of understanding the set A by asking what its elements are, we understand the set A by asking what are all the functions from A to other sets.

This mindset is incredibly useful, because it allows us to ignore unimportant specifics and focus on the important structural components instead. Moreover, it allows us to explicitly compare different theories together. We can transform the theory of topological spaces into the theory of linear algebra, allowing use to easily conclude tough things about weird spaces using simple algebra.

**TL;DR:** Look at the relationships between things, rather than the components of a thing.


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

[User] If plant life existed on mars in the past, would there still be coal/oil under the surface today?

[Assistant]
In theory yes, but that's dependent on how geologically active Mars was back then and whether the planet had any significant amount of life in the first place.

Need the life first to create the raw materials for the coal beds/oil fields, then you need the geological activity to bury it and convert it into oil/coal.

Someone smarter than me can give a much more detailed answer, though.


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

[User]
[Stargate] What's going on with the International Space Station in Season 1-8

By the end of season 7, the Stargate is made known to other governments, this is depicted as a monumental development.

But the ISS has always been an international thing, right? Given the name and stuff. The folks up there should have probably noticed huge pyramids or a crashing asgard ship, no?

[Assistant] The two biggest partners in the ISS are the Americans (who want to keep shit quiet because they don't want to admit they have the Cairo Stargate) and the Russians (who want to keep shit quiet because they don't want to admit they have the Antarctic Stargate). After a while they were more or less equal partners in hiding the truth, but for a few years there there was probably a lot of awkward dumb-playing as both the astronauts and cosmonauts needed to pretend they didn't have orders to not notice anything weird, even though both sides had more or less the same orders.


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

[User] [Far cry 4] What is going on in kyryat in 2016?

[Assistant]
There is a high chance of continued civil war, regardless of who you side with. If you sided with Pagan in the beginning, the Golden Path might finally be breathing its final breathes and at risk of being completely snuffed out. If you killed Pagan before he hands you the keys, then Amita and Sabal are going to try and kill each other if you haven't killed on of them. Even if you did kill one, their followers would continue to fight for their own side. Or, if you let Pagan hand you the keys, its up to you what happens in Kyrat. Do you hand power to the people? Or have you seen through the backwards and extreme views of the Golden Path leadership and seek to end their lies?

For in the recent age of 2016, there is still only war...


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

[User] What makes someone smart?

[Assistant]
From a psychometric perspective smartness is a relative measure of ones' problem solving ability compared to the rest of the population, and it can be divided into two categories: fluid and crystallized intelligence.

Fluid intelligence is ones' ability to solve novel, previously unencountered problems with nothing more than just raw brainpower and with minimum additional knowledge. It's the most culturally fair aspect of the general intelligence, highly correlated with ones' biological makeup and is the hardest part of intelligence one can ever hope to change in any significant way. It's correlated to reaction time, working memory capacity.

Crystallized intelligence is the knowledge and skills based part of the general intelligence. It's the collection of knowledge and the mental skills acquired through lifetime, like language proficiency, factual knowledge, etc..

Generally we don't quite know what intelligence is. We would have already made super AIs by now if we knew. But you can think of it as the ability to use the environment to set and achieve beneficial goals efficiently.

What can you do to increase your intelligence? For fluid intelligence; be mentally and physically healthy: have a good and nutritionally balanced diet, be physically active and fit, socialize as broadly as you can. For crystallized intelligence; learn as much as you can, don't shy away from complexity, learn how to manage the things that you don't understand (no one understands everything, smart people learn how to manage the unknown), learn to simplify, and don't think that you are not smart enough.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does reverse psychology work?

[Assistant]
When you dont trust someone, your brain automatically generates counter-arguments towards anything they are saying. It takes a lot of mental energy to be able to notice and adjust for this effect. If someone cant do that, they take the path of least resistance and coast on this flood of reactionary arguments.

If you know someone is susceptible to this due to fatigue, lack of trust or personal disposition, you could use that to trigger their brain to always advocate for the opposite of what you are saying.


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

[User]
What makes a chemical able to pass the blood brain barrier?

Why can theanine pass the BBB but vitamin C can't?  What specifically is stopping the nutrients from most things we ingest from crossing?

[Assistant] Unlike in normal capillary endothelium, the endothelial cells of the cerebral capillaries are connected by tight junctions that prevent the diffusion of molecules between the endothelial cells. Normal capillaries have gaps between the cells that allow free diffusion of many molecules between them, but the cerebral capillary endothelial cells are held directly in contact with each other by the zonula occludens that forms a seal between the cells, preventing any movement of molecules from the lumen of the blood vessel in the the cerebral interstitial fluid. Thus, in order for a molecule in the blood to enter the CNS, it must pass through endothelial cells. To do this, it can take one of two pathways, diffusion or transport. To travel by diffusion it must be a small, lipophilic molecule, such as O2, CO2, NO, some hormones, etc., that will diffuse directly through the luminal plasma membrane of the endothelial cell, the cytoplasm, and then the abluminal plasma membrane. Otherwise it must be transported by the endothelial cells through a membrane protein. Transport can occur through one of many types of transport proteins, but is strictly regulated.


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

[User] [Halo] What sins were committed that are referred to in the Monument to All Your Sins? Wasn't Master Chief just defending his people and not doing anything malicious like war crimes?

[Assistant] The Gravemind isn't referring to Chief specifically. He's referring to the human race, themselves being viewed as a proxy for the Forerunners ("The sins of the father pass to his sons") for what they did to the Precursors so very long ago.


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

[User] ELI5: If someone believes in the welfare queen why wouldn't they quit their jobs to live on welfare?

[Assistant]
Pride or morals, would probably be the common explanation. That they are somehow intrinsically better than "those people" and wouldn't be able to live with themselves if they did it.

There's also the "qualifying factors." Maybe they think the government is only willing to bend over backwards for women, single mothers, black people, whatever, and they don't fall into that category.


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

[User] ELI5: How can someone define the age of something? (mummy, dinosaur's bone, etc) I just read an article "Baby bird discovered in 99-million-year-old amber"

[Assistant] There are various dating methods, and they can be checked against each other to make sure the results are consistent. The age of fossils is usually determined by radiometric dating. How it works basically is that there are a bunch of elements that occur on Earth naturally, and a bunch of elements, or different isotopes of certain elements, that only exist on Earth as a result of one element radioactively decaying to the other element. The decay always happens at a constant rate. Based on how much of the source element and the result element are present in the sample, we can evaluate how old it is.


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

[User] ELI5: In the US, is there a way to break up the two party system?

[Assistant]
The two-party system is an inevitable consequence of Plurality Voting, aka "one man one vote." Smaller parties always either die off or get absorbed into one of the two biggest ones. If we switched to, say, Approval Voting (you can "like" as many candidates as you want, most likes wins) or Instant Runoff Voting (rank the candidates in order, the guy closest to the top of most people's lists wins) or almost _anything_ else, then this "vote splitting" behavior goes away and you can have numerous parties again.

tl;dr: We need more mathematicians writing voting laws.


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

[User] [Man of Steel/BvS] If Bruce wore the same armor suit as Zod, would it benefit Batman against Superman? Or is the suit more effective because the wearer was Kryptonian and/not human?

[Assistant]
IIRC the armor was basically to dull the effects of Earth's atmosphere/ yellow sun. In that way they gained some superpowers but not the full  disorientating range of super senses that Clark has and has had a lifetime to get used to.

It wouldn't do anything for Bruce.


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

[User]
[Game of thrones] If the red wedding did not occur, would Robb Stark have been able to take Casterly Rock?

lets pretend that The Freys weren't dicks and the Boltons weren't traitors and the red wedding was just a normal wedding, what would have happened next in the course of the war?

[Assistant] Robb's best hope was the Battle of King's Landing. After Edmure delayed Tywin's army and Tywin managed to get back in time to crush Stannis, the Lannisters had uncontested control of the South with all the forces of the Tyrells at their backs. If the Boltons and the Freys had remained loyal, Robb might have been able to negotiate some sort of settlement, but more likely the Freys, Boltons, and Karstarks would all have turned on him at some point, and with the Greyjoys running wild through the North, it's hard to imagine Robb would've been able to do much of anything. The Red Wedding was really just Martin's way of sparing us having to watch Robb's slow, inevitable doom.