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

[User] ELI5:How and why does California continue to grow most of America's fruits and veggies while it is in a generational drought?

[Assistant]
A few things. one was access to cheap migrant labor. 2 was plenty of un used land that could be dedicated to farming with consistently good weather.

3 Is that now the farmers essentially have a much smaller amount of regulation on water usage then residential or commercial spaces. The problem really starts and ends with the farming community at large being behind on maximizing intelligent water usage and technology.


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

[User]
When a sound-wave travels in an open pipe, what reflects it back in order to form a standing wave?

I understand that in a closed pipe, the closed end reflects the sound-wave back and forms a standing wave, but there's no physical thing to reflect off in an open pipe. So how does it reflect?

[Assistant]
When inside, the sound wave is exerting a pressure on the inner wall of the pipe. As the compression wave reaches the open air, that pressure causes the air particles to overshoot the end of the pipe sightly. This creates a low pressure area inside the pipe which sucks air back in, creating another wave that propogates back in the opposite direction.
The resultant wave is considered to originate slightly beyond the end of the pipe.


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

[User]
I am struggling with my thesis writing, please suggests sentence starters.

I am currently writing my engineering Ph.D. thesis. One of the challenges I am facing is, I ran out of sentence starters.

I have used 'In addition', 'Additionally', 'Moreover', 'Furthermore', 'Therefore', 'as is evident above' and 'However' a lot. I mean, really a lot to the point where everything looks cliche and uninteresting or even annoying.

So, can you please suggest to me some interesting/unique sentence starters alternative to these words?

Thanks.

[Assistant]
No. Stop using those transition words. Leave them out and your writing will improve immensely. It will go from a meandering walk through an overgrown path to a straight shot down a clear highway. Trust me. They are really only useful in a few situations. Most of the time they are rhetorical fluff or signs of a poorly structured argument, making the sentences longer while adding nothing.

A much better solution is to structure your writing more.  If you have three points, say so, and then use words like First, ... Second... etc. That gives your readers waypoints so they know where they are in your argument and makes your writing much clearer and easier to follow.


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

[User] eli5: what causes fetishes and kinks? is it psychological? is it biological?

[Assistant] It's mostly entirely psychological. People associate one thing with pleasure at one point in their lives for whatever reason, first time, taboo, whatever, and the neural pathways get stronger each time they think about it.


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

[User] [Marvel] Which of Spider-Man's villains does he not hold back against?

[Assistant] Spider-Man nearly killed Morlun by radiation poisoning and went in knowing that they might both die. Peter can't hit Morlun hard enough to harm him under normal circumstances and injected himself with radioactive material trusting that years of natural exposure drove his own tolerance up.


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

[User]
[Batman] Is the Joker more skilled with his fists or with a gun?

I know his main strength is being a scheming bastard but just curious; is he more talented at range or up close?

[Assistant]
Would it surprise you to learn that his skillset can't be neatly summarized?

I guess he *seems* more dangerous up close because that's where his bag of tricks comes fully into play and because most of his opponents are melee threats so it seems more impressive when he matches them, beats them, or in some cases survives more than five seconds within an arm's length of them.


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

[User] ELI5: What is actually happening when you "charge" something that is glow in the dark?

[Assistant] The chemical bonds in the glowing component can temporarily store energy and then release it at a constant rate. When "charging" it, you're exposing the chemical to ultra violet light (or any wavelength of light i guess it depends), the photons excite the molecules and energy is stored. The energy is then released as the molecules go back to their typical energy state. This released energy takes the form of light.


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

[User]
Why am I conscious and aware?

If I am a simply a product of evolution and time. Why am I aware and conscious at all? For example, the universe existed when I wasn't conscious, so why did i suddenly go into existence? Why can't there just be a MaxCL, but my current consciousness didn't exist. Like all our actions can be explained by the atoms, so my consciousness or awareness isn't necessary AT ALL. I think everything is cause and affect but I am freaking conscious for some reason. Sorry I couldn't word this better, I'm having a midnight crisis. I hope you understand my question!

[Assistant]
Good questions; one answer is that certain physical configurations (I.e. Your brain) give rise to minds and so consciousness as well. But why these and not others? Well, that's the problem isn't it?

The whole "why did evolution give rise to consciousness" is a really good question because there doesn't seem to be any reason why we need thoughts to survive; maybe our theory of evolution is missing something, maybe there's a reason why subjective experience is adaptive, or maybe consciousness isn't natural at all.

There's a lot of literature about the topic, but philosophical zombies are a pretty good place to start regarding "conceiving a world where you're not conscious."


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

[User] (ASOIAF) Could wargs control dragons?

[Assistant] You would need to be a very powerful warg to be able to do that.  It would require entering a mind of an unfamiliar creature with a mind higher then that of an animal.  It would be a feat as great as entering another human's mind.  One warg who may be powerful enough is Bran Stark.  As a powerful warg and greenseer, it is likely he could perform such a feat.


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

[User] [Interstellar] TARS & CASE are ex-military, specifically ex-marines. What were their responsibilities/functions as part of the marines?

[Assistant]
It's never elaborated upon in the relevant historical documentary, but based on their functionality, capabilities and limited amount of self-motivation (meaning, they never acted without specific orders) we can reasonably assume a number of functions:

1.  Perimeter security
2.  Search and Rescue
3.  Cargo transportation
4.  Combat support
5.  Reconnaissance
6.  EOD - bomb squad

They're clearly durable, relatively fast in a pinch, able to transport at least one injured human at a decent pace and clever enough to do some independent navigating.


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

[User] [Avatar: The Last Airbender] At the end of season2, Katara uses spirit water from the North Pole to revive Aang. Is the northern water tribe aware of the water's insane capabilities? Why do they not exploit this?

[Assistant] Fool! These are sacred waters bestowed by the mighty spirits, you wish to anger them by using it for commercial or personal use? Aang is the avatar that will restore balance, what makes some peasant or no name chief worthy of its powers. You saw what happens when spirits are pissed where not even armies can save you.


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

[User] [Antz] What would have happened to the colony if the General had succeeded with his plans? Would the colony have survived?

[Assistant]
This is a difficult question, normal ant colonies don't function as we saw. There is 1 queen, and princesses (future queens) leave the nest at the appropriate time of year to form their own colonies (also the drones are all females, or genderless). if the queen dies then a normal colony would usually die out. Some species can replace a queen, but these are not normally colonies familiar to North American cities.

Within the movie itself, again taking from real life situations, the princess (new queen, now NQ) would be prepared to lay eggs. There is usually a male present for fertilisation, the only males the colony will produce (also winged), but for argument lets assume the general will fill this role.

The new colony will have an abundance of older soldiers but this sin't an issue because a NQ usually fends for herself at the start of a colony. Likely the colony will grow much quicker and have a more secure start with leftover soldiers. Though there is also a chance that the soldiers won't recognise the queen and will instead be drawn back to their original colony until it and they die off.

I love ants.


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

[User]
Why is it so difficult to find MH370? Don't we have the technology to find a big metallic wreck at the bottom of the ocean?

Given the properties of water vs. metal, do we not have the type of instrumentation to identify a wreck of that type from the surface, even if it is 2 miles down? What makes this difficult?

I would have thought the depth of the ocean would even work to our advantage as a single boat could target an even larger area of ocean bottom from a particular point on the surface.

[Assistant]
1) You're assuming it's a big metallic wreck.  It's likely a lot of little metallic pieces and a lot of composite pieces spread over miles and miles and miles.  Airlines are not battleships.  They're built as light as possible.

2) There is other metal down there.  Maybe it's ore in the earth's crust.  Maybe it's older wrecks.

3) The ocean is BIG and the ocean is DEEP.  Really, really big and deep.  Sunlight does not reach the bottom of the ocean.  Any kind of microwave scanning like RADAR won't have any more luck penetrating the water.  It's not a vacuum.  It absorbs energy.  It has impurities that block light and radio waves.  That's why submarines use SONAR instead.

4) SONAR detects hard things, not metal things.  (gross simplification)  SONAR still runs into the "the ocean is really, really big" problem.  The most powerful SONAR we have can still only scan a very small part of the ocean floor while retaining any useful accuracy.

So our best tech is SONAR.  Only the best SONAR can reach the deep ocean floor.  When it does, we get a map of various elevations and extra-sonar-reflective hard things that may or may not be very small pieces of MH370 or any other debris.

We also have some magnetic disturbance sensors, but there are lot of magnetic disturbances out there.  If the magnetic disturbance is *moving*, it's probably a ship.  If it's stationary, it could be a lot of barely magnetic stuff or a little highly magnetic stuff.  Including iron ore deposits.  Not terribly useful for finding a debris field that is by now quite settled.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Are some species more likely than other to yield Jedi? And a few other questions.

Actually I have a few questions about speciation in Star Wars. Obviously we see a lot of human characters in the movies because they're easier to depict. But in-universe are humans actually the dominant species in the Galaxy? Is that why most Jedi we see are human, or is there a race that are more "Jedi Potent"? Could any species potentially produce Jedi? What about less developed species such as the ewoks, or animal species such as cows?

[Assistant]
Human beings are the dominant species in the galaxy by a wide margin, though exactly how they achieved this is up for debate. One theory is that human adaptability and relatively short life span and relatively high reproductive rate provides them with both the means and motivation for expansion, another is that Humans or their ancestors acted as a servant species for a race like the Rakata and/or Celestials and were spread across the galaxy during the expansion of their ancient dominions.

Humans being the dominant species in the galaxy means that other race's force sensitivity is generally judged against theirs.

Some species are always force sensitive: The Miraluka, Neti, Jungle Felucians, Shards and Red Sith for instance. They're poorly represented in the Jedi and Sith orders due to either their relatively small population, limited contact with the rest of the galaxy, or in the case of the Red Sith, their apparent extinction.

Some species seem to have an equal or slightly better chance to be force sensitive than humans. Kel Dor, Zabrak, Twi'lek and Ithorians are probably the best known of these. While each of these species has expanded throughout the galaxy, they are not as numerous as Humans. Also, each of these species and many others like them have their own force traditions which some choose to honor instead of joining the Jedi or Sith order.

Some species are much less likely to be force sensitive: Wookiees, Hutts, Toydarians and Gamoreans for instance. In the case of Hutts and Toydarians, this lack of force sensitivity has evolved alongside a resistance to some force techniques. Of these four species, there have only been recorded instances of Wookiees and Hutts among the Orders, most likely due to their relatively high populations.

There are some non-sapient force sensitive species, two of the most well known are the Ysalamir and Vornskr, natives to the Neti homeworld of Myrkyr. In an evolved predator/prey relationship the  Vornskr has developed the ability to use the force to sseek out it's prey, while the Ysalamir have developed the ability to negate the force in a small radius around themselves, hiding themselves from the Vornskr.


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

[User]
Why is it so hard to cure baldness?

What exactly are the challenges that make this such a difficult task, despite all the other amazing advancements in medical science?

[Assistant] our current advances in medical science excel at repair. if you broke your leg, we can easily repair it. if you cut your finger off, we can likely repair it with some luck and skilled surgeons. what we cannot do is grow a leg or finger back. on a similar vein, we have products like rogaine that can be used to maintain the current hair follicles but we do not have the tools to grow them back where they've died/atrophied (apart from a hair follicle transplant).


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

[User]
ELI5: How did AMD which is a much smaller company than Intel manage to produce a competitive Ryzen CPU?

I am curious to find out how did AMD manage to pull a rabbit out of a hat and get such a competitive well priced CPU like Ryzen. It is great from a consumer perspective but I want to find out if Intel just got lazy and were caught with their pants down or if they simply are holding back on releasing a new CPU architecture that would decimate Ryzen?

Intel is a much much bigger company with massive R&D budget, and a lot more resources. Besides historically with the exceptions of few periods of time they were always in the lead. So my question is how did AMD manage to achieve this, did they reverse engineer Intel CPUs? Was the technology that Intel was using become more widely available. Or did they simply get lucky?

I do sincerely hope that whatever AMD did is sustainable and that they can continue to exist and remain competitive for many more decade.

[Assistant]
The thing is that in IT you need good engnieers.

If we go back to the K6-3 and K7 generation, Intel had its P3 Coppermines and wanted to develop a new CPU which was geared more towards higher Mhz figures then efficiency,

And at the same time they aquired 2 companies, Nexgen and Alpha DEC, They aquired them for patents and let go most of the engnieers, which went to work for AMD.

Thats how the K6-3 and the K7 lead to a period in which AMD dominated the market, The athlon series was able to out run and out price Intels Willamette, Northwood and prescott processors which were less efficient and more expensive.

The thing is that this came off a period in which intel was "coasting" on the success of the P3, so basicaly they were improving a bit the processor, raising its speed abit and since they had no real competition, the processors from Cyrix and AMD at the time couldnt compete against the P3.

And then AMD smacked them over the head with the K7.

The same thing happened now. the only real competition they had was AMD.

The i3, i5 and i7 had a significant performance lead over the AMD phenom chips and were able to performe around 15% better then equivalent AMD parts while consuming around 30% less power,

Intel chips were running 95 watt and then 75 watt while high end processors from AMD were struggling to provide comparable performance with 120 and 145 watt TDP, and as a act of desperation AMD released a 200 watt TDP processor.

So basically this gave Intel very little reason to innovate, you had series 2000, 3000, 4000... core i3/5/7 processors in which each generation would basicaly only improve  slightly bumping performance around 5-10% between generations basically stagnating CPU arquitecture.

so AMD started a core redesign project which allowed them to catch up.

The good thing is that every time AMD catches up, Intel does a major redesign, so its very probable that the next generation core processors will bring some real innovation.


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

[User] ELI5: How can a solar flare "destroy all electronics" but not kill people or animals or anything else?

[Assistant] You know how radio waves induce an electric current in wires which then makes the speaker emit sound? If you emit really powerful radio waves then the induced current becomes so high that the radio receiver gets fried. It works the same for all electronic devices because they have a lot of small wires and other conductors inside them. Humans and animals dont, so strong radio waves and EM pulses do not affect us the same way.


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

[User] [The Culture/The Matrix] How would The Culture respond to encountering a planet with the Matrix scenario, that is where AI have effectively subjugated the original dominant organic species into a virtual simulation without their knowledge? This also assume a freed minds resistance exists as well.

[Assistant]
A mind may come along and effector the Matrix, making it more agreeable to negotiating.

The Culture could offer the Matrix a source of power and safe new home in exchange for handing over the simulation. Prob just run the Matrix as a subroutine in a Minds own consciousness.

Contact could drop agents into the simulation to set people free and start an uprising. The Matrix may never even know its been infiltrated and there already seem to be a few independent AI running around.

Could also take over the Matrix and load it into a simulation of its own. The Matrix goes on believing its running battery farms, while the humans are given the option of the real...


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

[User]
[Everything Everywhere All At Once] Why is the hot dog finger universe so similar to ours?

In that universe humans had hot dog fingers for the entirety of their existence.  But their homes and technology look the same as ours.  Wouldn't their world look different to reflect the vastly different evolutionary path?

[Assistant]
There are infinite possibilities. This is a universe where everything is the same except people evolved with glizzy fingers.

That's it. Doesn't matter that it is unlikely. It happened, through sheer statistical probability.


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

[User] ELI5: how do engineers make sure wet surface (like during heavy rain) won't short circuit power transmission tower?

[Assistant]
They space the wires far enough apart (for their voltage) that rain won't cause an arc between phases.

If you were to hover between them, it might cause an arc.

There was a lot of testing done to determine how close is too close for electrical safety.


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

[User]
[DBZ] Where does Vegeta rank in Frieza's army?

I used to think Vegeta was a low ranking member, kept around as an amusing bauble for Frieza. But after rewatching some episodes, it looks like Vegeta was only concerned about Frieza, Ginyu Force, and Zarbon/Dodoria.
It seemed before his zenkai boost most of Frieza's men weren't intimidated by Vegeta, but I can't tell if that's because they felt safe in numbers/protected by higher ranking officers rather than confidence that they could neutralize him themselves.

[Assistant] It appears that Frieza is the head, Zarbon and Dodoria are "commanders", and The Ginyu Force are "High Level Executive Class"...after that it goes down to "Elite Warriors" the likes of Vegeta and Cui. DBZ Kakarot also gives a bunch of ranks below the Elite, the likes of which are made up by those like Raditz, Nappa and Appule. And Freiza occasionally mentioned that Vegeta was one of his favorites, so that is why the other Elites are afraid of him, even though he doesn't out-rank them...though he does out-rank almost all of the characters we see in DBZ outside of Ginyu Force, Dodoria, Zarbon (and probably Abo and Cado, as they were said to be equal to Ginyu in rank).


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does music help us work more efficiently, if it's just an additional thing for the brain to process?

Um... Is it because the brain then tries to consciously keep the distraction out or something?

[Assistant] From what i have seen is that music is entertaining enough that you wont get angry or bored, but not so interesting that i makes you stop paying attention to your work. The easier the task the more complex the music can be.


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

[User]
ELI5: How are stores able to make a profit on Black Friday if they mark everything down so much?

It seems like they must sell most sale items at or below cost and most people seem to only buy sale items. Do they use lower-quality products specifically for the sales? Are the stores actually in the red before these sales, relying on them to get into the black?

[Assistant] Most people *don't* just buy the big sale items. Yes, they have deeply discounted items to bring people into the store, but that's the point -- to get them in the store, where most of them will also buy other things at a higher margin.


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

[User]
eli5 Why do people iodize salt?

Was in a cafe today and saw this salt canister that said iodised salt. Why do they do that to the salt? What does it add?

[Assistant] Iodine, in tiny amounts is necessary for the human body.  It was found in the early 20th century that people were not getting enough in our diets.  Salt is an easy delivery mechanism because it doesn't spoil and generally speaking it's a predictable delivery method for the amount necessary.


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

[User] [wh40k] How do orks get names?

[Assistant] They're either 'krumpy enough to have people call them by an awesome name (like SkullKraker), or they're weak enough that they're named after something they did to deserve a name (like Squig-petter).  Just like the rest of Ork society: people more powerful than you get to decide your destiny unless you hit them over the head hard enough.


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

[User] Why is candle wax transparent when melted but opaque when cool.

[Assistant] I has to do with crystallization in the wax.  When solid, the long alkyl chains align and crystallize, and these crystallites scatter light which leads to higher opacity.  When heated, the crystallites melt, and the resulting amorphous liquid no longer scatters light.


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

[User]
What is happening at the atomic level when I cut something?

This is something I have always been curious about: What is happening the atomic/particle level when I do something like cut a piece of paper with scissors or slice a big piece of meat in half with a butcher's knife? How do the atoms comprising the edge of cutting implement interact with the atoms of a substance such that it is separated?

As a kid I used to wonder if the armos were being cut apart when you do this, though I now understand the distances between individual atoms are remarkably vast. Still very curious what atomic (or even sub-atomic?!) processes are linked to the physical action of cutting, chopping or otherwise sundering a previously whole object.

[Assistant]
Not much at the atomic or even molecular level chemically speaking. Physically a knife edge is pretty huge and even though it seems to cut, it's just smashing things out of the way. The sharper the knife, the thinner the edge, the less it has to smash to either side of the blade to make the 'cut'.
Edit:to answer the question that got deleted..

You would have to build the tool out of subatomic particles and break the standard quantum model in order to get them to stick around to be useful. Based on our current understanding, 'cutting' atoms is a thought experiment.


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

[User] ELI5: Are there any other practical theories of the beginning of the Universe besides the Big Bang?

[Assistant] Just as a note, the Big Bang theory is more precisely a theory of the evolution of the universe, starting from a very early age, but it not an explanation for the actual origin of the universe itself.


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

[User] ELI5: What happens when someone breathes in a brown paper bag and why is it supposed to calm them down?

[Assistant]
One thing that happens when you panic is that you hyperventilate. This means you are breathing too fast and you over oxygenate your system, which is great if you are having to flee a tiger and need the oxygen to fuel your muscles but bad when you are having a panic attack and have no outlet for the nervous energy.

What breathing in the bag does in slightly increase the concentration of carbon dioxide that you breathe thus reducing oxygen intake slightly, and it gives you a visual representation of your breath rate as the bag inflates allowing you focus on something to slow the rate of breathing.


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

[User]
[General] I'm Immortal. Can I still retire?

Say I stopped aging around age 35. Worked for 30+ years at a company without aging and am now 65. Since I've put in the time, can I still collect retirement and social security indefinitely until these things no longer exist? Asking for a friend...

[Assistant]
It's likely that you'll eventually be discovered and purged from the system as a bureaucratic mistake. Since you continued cashing checks well after a reasonable lifespan the IRS will likely launch a fraud investigation. Now you're not in a great place. Since you look 35 they'll probably assume you're your son or grandson that continued to cash the checks after the original applicant died.

You can now either reveal (and prove) you're immortal and sign up for all the MK Ultra experiments the government wants to do on you, or you can plead guilty, do your several years in a white collar prison, and then start a new life at 35 when you get out.


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

[User] Would a bullet eventually completely degrade if it were shot in space?

[Assistant]
Yes. It would degrade all the same though if it were just placed in space rather than shot. What will eventually degrade it is the constant bombardment with high energy particles that are abundant near stars but will be found in any place with differing frequency.

Edit for clarification: The process might take billions of years or even longer than the current age of the universe, depending on how small the broken down chunks have to be in order to be considered completely degraded. But yes, it's going to be dust eventually.


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

[User] [LOTR] How exactly did Gandalf and the Balrog go from the depths of Moria to fighting on a mountaintop?

[Assistant]
A little bit more detail:

Gandalf says at some point that nobody really knows how deep the chasm below the Bridge of Khazad-Dum is, as nobody has delved that deep. When he and the Balrog fall, they fall into a lake, and the Balrog's flames are extinguished. Gandalf mentions that in this area there are "nameless things" that gnaw at the foundation of the Earth.

The passage describes it in a way that makes it seem like Gandalf and the Balrog are both eager to get out of there, and away from those "things", as fast as possible. Gandalf describes following the Balrog around desperately, as only the Balrog knew the way out of those areas; he alone would have been hopelessly lost. So he tails the Balrog for an unspecified amount of time until they finally reach the Endless Stair, made by the Dwarves, which lead up all the way to the top of Zirakzigil, and they fight/run to the top where they eventually do battle.

It's unclear exactly where the Endless Stair ends. It's possible the Dwarves just stopped digging, and so below the Endless Stair is just uncharted tunnels, or the Dwarves ran into some of these "nameless things" and stopped for that reason. In any case, Gandalf and the Balrog first have to navigate dark, uncharted tunnels for a while before reaching the Endless Stair.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does obesity cause so many health problems?

It seems that almost every diseases have obesity associated with a risk factor with it. I saw that as you get more obese you develop more female hormones that in mass can cause imbalances, but I don't understand why your body does this.

[Assistant]
There's a lot of health problems that come from being obese.

First, when you get very large, your heart has to work harder to pump enough blood to cover your entire body, but the muscles in your heart aren't like the muscles in your arms and legs that get stronger with effort. Your heart gets put under more and more strain the larger you get.

Next, when you get a lot of fat in your body, some of that fat ends up sticking to your veins and arteries, making it harder for blood to flow. Some of that fat can also sometimes block the flow of blood, which causes a heart attack or stroke.

The joints in your knees aren't strong enough to handle the extra weight, and can make it painful to walk.

There are other problems that come from being obese as well. It's not very healthy.


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

[User]
[MCU] Why did nobody else try to stop Thanos in the universe?

So obviously for the movies sake they focus on the Avengers and Guardians but what about all the other powers in the universe. After half of all life was snapped did nobody else try to find the stones, track down Thanos, or try time travel. There must be millions of civilizations more advanced than anything we've seen where were they during all this?

[Assistant] Most government are reeling from the effects of the snap.  It's implied that maybe bad things are happening because of it.  Piracy and war could be out of control.  Many leaders disappeared, and power struggles probably resulted.  Captain Marvel said "Not everyone has you (the avengers).  Many places are too busy dealing with their own problems to muster the vast strength it would take to challenge Thanos with a full gauntlet.  Earth is uniquely equipped to handle the job with their unusual amount of superheros.


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

[User] If the atmosphere of Mars is less than 1% the density of Earth, why are there large dust devils and sand dunes?

[Assistant]
Two factors are involved there.  First, windblown sand is not like beach sand, it's much finer, almost like talcum powder.  Desert sand dunes are not much like beach sand dunes, which is a very common mistake people make, as most people are more familiar with the latter rather than the former.

Second, since the grains of sand are very small, they don't take very much wind to get aloft.  The faint whisper of the winds of Mars is sufficient to shift its very fine sands.


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

[User]
CMV: Developers of games that require their servers to play should be (morally) obligated to compensate players when they eventually shut down servers

These days there are quite a few games that require company-side servers to run, the most notable group of which being MMOs but recently there's also a growing trend of non-MMO games that have some form of always online DRM. Now eventually all of these games will be no longer profitable for the company and the servers will be shut down, preventing anyone from ever playing the game again.

The two examples that hit me the most were EA's BattleForge (a RTS game with trading card elements) and NCSoft's City of Heroes (a MMO about being a superhero/supervillain).

Whilst I think it's perfectly within the company's ethical and legal rights to shut down servers for something they want to discontinue, I do however feel that often nothing is being done for the fans that still played the game.

My view is that if a company decides to shut off the servers to one of their products they need to do everything they can (within reason) to allow people to play their product outside of their servers. What I mean by "within reason" is that, if required, they should upload the entire game's source code and all required server files aswell as allow everyone to download their own unique account data so they can continue playing with their characters. Or, if possible (so not an MMO), simply remove the always-online DRM.

What I consider not to be in reason (although if the company wants to, all the more props to them) is for the company to have to make the server files compatible with a normal PC, for them to create modding engines, etc.

The fans of the game can certainly find ways of making the game work for them, it's just that companies currently refuse to give them anything to work with.

I believe that there's no real reason not to give players a chance to continue playing your game. If you're done with your product there's no reason to not make your code publicly known, nothing is lost for you.

[Assistant]
The biggest problem is the idea that a company "is done with their code" simply because they discontinue hosting their servers for a single game.

Chances are that it's full of proprietary code that they will repurpose (or probably already have repurposed) for another game.  It also may contain code licensed from third parties, who certainly wouldn't consent to violating the license in the way you describe.

Technology goes obsolete.  Particularly in a case like this, no consumer should have an expectation of an limitless utility for a game with online functionality.


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

[User] How does extracting venom from animals help us create antidotes?

[Assistant] Let's use snake venom as an example. Venom is extracted from a venomous snake and then dosed (carefully) into a mammal, often a horse or sheep. That animal develops antibodies to fight the venom. Those antibodies are harvested (from blood serum), processed, stabilized, and packaged into antivenom for humans or pets. The antibodies can be included in whole (generally more effective but high risk of allergic reaction) or just certain parts (less effective, lower allergic risk).


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

[User] My girlfriend insists on letting her restaurant leftovers cool to room temperature before she puts them in the refrigerator. She claims it preserves the flavor better and combats food born bacteria. Is there any truth to this?

[Assistant]
From Foodsafety.gov
Mistake #5: Letting food cool before putting it in the fridge
Why: Illness-causing bacteria can grow in perishable foods within two hours unless you refrigerate them
Solution: Refrigerate perishable foods within 2 hours (or within 1 hour if the temperature is over 90F.


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

[User]
[Avatar: The Last Airbender] So, is the impetus for the Hundred Year War the development of capitalism in the Fire Nation?

I mean, we have lots of evidence that the Fire Nation is indeed a burgeoning capitalist state. First off its the Fire *Nation* nations being the political organization of capitalist states (in contrast to the Earth *Kingdom* and Water Tribes), second the Fire Nation was clearly going through a period of rapid industrialization prior to and during the Hundred Year War (Fire Nation technology far outstrips that of other peoples), third, the Fire Nation started the war specifically to expand its resources and established colonies around the world to do so (Avatar extra states the idea of spreading prosperity was bullshit and the Fire Nation was looking for land and resources and a larger labor pool).

It seems like the actions of the Fire Nation are analogous to those of the European colonial empires more than anything else, the Fire Nation as the first state in Avatar to develop capitalism, while the Earth Kingdom is a large feudal state (heavily decentralized, seemingly based on, well, feuds) and the Water Tribes are split between a pre-class society and a society akin to the early civilizations to have sprung up on Earth.

[Assistant]
Yes and no.

Sozin specifically mentioned the idea of spreading the Fire Nation's prosperity to other nations and framed it under the narrative of unifying all four elemental countries under one flag-- the Fire Nation flag. He clearly thought that Roku, being a Fire Nation citizen himself, would be on board.

After Roku said no, Sozin went ahead and established some colonies in the Earth Kingdom anyway-- maybe thinking that Roku would look the other way. But when Avatar Roku came and warned him to stop, he did so.

In this sense, the burgeoning industrialization and need for more resources and a larger workforce absolutely contributed to Sozin's plans for world domination. However, the Avatar kept him in check in much the same way that Avatar Kyoshi and, later, Avatar Korra would keep their respective Earth Kingdom dictators in check.

So the impetus is at once the need for a larger workforce and more resources to support the increasing industrialization of the Fire Nation, but also (and not insignificantly) the death of Avatar Roku and subsequent disappearance of the Air Nomad Avatar (who would later be revealed to be Avatar Aang).


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

[User]
CMV: Most of us are kind of bad people for supporting ethically bad companies

I consider myself among these people and I really sincerely wish I didnt have this opinion because it makes me hate myself.

Basically, regularly most people support bad companies with very bad ethics that we do not support, for non-essential frivolous goods. Im sure wed agree on that.

You may say that were not directly contributing to these horrible working practices in rare metal mines, factories, etc. well then someone who pays for ch1ld p0rn or snuff movies or whatever. No one would say oh just because theyre not directly committing these acts, only paying someone else to do it, then theyre just free of sin and responsibility, would they?

[Assistant]
Isn't this the plot of the good place?

Do you have any idea of a solution? If the outcome of your perspective is that we should all feel bad all the time, many actually do, and do struggle with the realities of building even an average life on the back of so much torture and death.

But realistically most people are numb to it and are able to get on with their lives despite it.


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

[User] What is the largest number of sides a single dice could have before it began to act like a sphere?

[Assistant]
You need to define what "acting like a sphere" means.

A coin can only flip over if it bounces, a six sided die already sort of rolls over a hard surface, a twenty sided dice rolls (I don't feel like what they do needs a qualifier). A 100 sided die moves almost like a smooth ball, but it will land on one of 100 discrete points.


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

[User] ELI5: Mars has no GPS system, and it can't be controlled remotely due to radio delay, so how does the mars rover navigate?

[Assistant]
It's controlled remotely.   There is a delay but that's fine.  We just send the instructions to the rover, along with when to start performing it's actions.  The message gets there at some point and then the rover follows the instructions and reports back afterward on what happened.

It's like playing game of chess by mail.


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

[User]
Would someone flying a fighter in space feel the same type of "g-forces" pulling complex maneuvers that a fighter pilot here on earth feels?

Assuming you took a small space fighter (think X-wing or Tie fighter) and placed it in a vacuum sufficiently far away from any major planetary body to the point where the gravitational force is 0: would they feel g-forces? Correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding is that the g-force is really the normal force of the earth acting counter to the force of gravity so if there were no gravitational force then you wouldn't feel any g forces.

[Assistant]
Yes, they'd feel it. The math for acceleration is the exact same math as gravity.

To wit: if you were in deep space and accelerated 9.8m/s and stepped on a scale, your weight would be the same, you could only jump as high as you can now.

Gravity and acceleration are indistinguishable.


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

[User]
Do quarks actually have electric charge, or is it just an emergent property of having them bound into hadrons and the "fractional charge" we assign them is merely a helpful convention?

I have a mere armchair understanding of particle physics. Part of what I know is that there are no free quarks in nature. They always have to be bound into hadrons or some kind of theoretical high-energy quark soup. Trying to force quarks that are already bound apart simply results in pair-production of more quarks from the energy you put in trying to separate them.

For me, it raises the question, do we actually *know* whether individual quarks *have* so-conventioned "fractional" electric charge? Is it really a property that a hypothetical free quark (whatever that would mean) would possess, or could it perhaps only be an emergent property of the group? Is it even meaningful to distinguish between these scenarios?

To clarify, my goal with this is not to speculate on what it *could* be, or to dwell on the philosophical. My questions are:

* Is this even know*able*?
 * If yes, *do* we know?
     * If yes, which is it, and *how* do we know that?
 * If no, or if it is ambiguous/meaningless, could you explain why?

[Assistant] Quarks are "free" in quark gluon plasmas. They can't leave the plasma as isolated quarks but they are not bound in hadrons within it. But the better process to look at is hadron production in electron/positron collisions. You get a virtual photon splitting to quark+antiquark as dominant process. Without electric charges of the quarks that process would be impossible. We can do more than that, we can look at the relative frequency of them compared to leptons, that ratio depends on the quark charge. The observed frequency perfectly matches the prediction for 2/3 (up-type) and 1/3 (down-type) quark charges.


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

[User] Can radiation be 'removed' or neutralised in anyway? (Even if just in theory)

[Assistant]
By removing the radioactive isotopes producing it. Without this source, the radiation in an area will escape/be absorbed very quickly.

This can be done by sealing the material in concrete or something else dense enough to absorb all its radiation. The problems start when the source material is particulate or soluble, because then it can be carried off by rain and even make it into the water table. This is what has happened at Chernobyl.


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

[User]
Did Palpatine even need a lightsaber against Mace Windu and CO?

I mean, the general opinion on that fight is that Palps could have easily won. Could he have battled down the Jedi with the force only? I'm asking this because he later considered lightsaber battle not to be an option for him any more anyway. Or is that because he doesn't consider fighting in general not an option any more because he's so ridiculously good at manipulating people?

[Assistant] No, he definitely didn't. He could have picked them up and used them as puppets and they would have been powerless to stop him. The only reason he did is he knew Anakin would show up. Palpatine was actually disdainful of lightsaber combat. He considered it to be primitive and thought the Sith had grown beyond them, which is slightly ironic as he was one of the most powerful lightsaber duelists ever.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] So, if we treat a master/padawan relationship more like a lineage - Asoka, padawan of Anakin, who is padawan of Obi-Wan, padawan of Qui-Gon, padawan of Dooku, padawan of Yoda, etc. - then what great or notable "lineages" are there in Star Wars?

The one mentioned above is notable due to it's deep connection to both galactic civil wars. But what other lineages exist? And how far back does Yoda's go that we know of?

[Assistant] Ezra Bridger was padawan of Caleb Dume, Padawan of Depa Billaba, Padawan of Mace Windu. Ezra and Caleb are, in a way, Windu's legacy. These two individuals would be instrumental in the fight against the Empire, alongisde the Ghost Crew, their most notable achievement being the salvation of the Lothal System.


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

[User] Eli5: [ELI5] What qualifies a chemical or mineral as a "vitamin?" Are all vitamins good for you in proper dosages?

[Assistant]
The word was originally "vitamine" in 1920 mean to refer to chemicals thought to contain amino acids necessary for the function of living organisms. This was changed to "vitamin" when we learned that amino acids were not necessarily a component of these substances.

Generally, a vitamin has the following properties:

* It is an organic molecule (That is a molecule built around the element carbon with carbon-hydrogen bonds)
* It is an essential nutrient (It plays a part in the biochemical processes that keep your body alive and help sustain it and allow it to grow and function)

In contrast we have things like fatty acids, minerals, and amino acids. Both fatty acids and amino acids are organic compounds, but have some more additional requirements above being merely an organic compounds and minerals are basically "everything else".


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

[User]
[WH40K] What's in the holy texts of the ecclesiarchy?

Is there an 'old testament' written by Lorgar that chronicles the unification wars, the great crusade, and the emperor's divinity?

Are there additional sections after that that record the struggle for Terra, the emperor's great sacrifice, and his interment on the golden throne? I know there's supposed to be a holiday which celebrates the incredable effort and bravery Sanguinius showed while defending the emperor, and that in some places there are smaller shrines to Sanguinius's inside/next to those dedicated to the emperor.

Speaking of Sanguinius, is there a  heiarchy of "holy people" starting with the space marines and imperial saints and ending with the loyalist primarchs and the custodes like there's a heiarchy of angels and prophets and such in Christianity? I know that being in the presence of a space marine is a profound religious experience for most people in the imperium.

Do they even know about the existence of the traitor primarchs and/or Chaos? I know the fact that there are daemonic incursions and Chaos cults is supposed to be a secret, but why do they think the emperor is on the golden throne instead of leading his people and kicking ass like in the old days? Does it just say "and so on this day Horus and half of his brothers decided to be dicks"?

[Assistant] Ironically the majority of the Imperium's religious text is directly based on the "bible" that logar wrote about the emperor. The masses have no idea about chaos or the gods of it, back when the emperor walked he kept even the primarchs ignorant about the true nature of the warp. The religious texts basically just give vague moral lessons on why the age of technology was bad, the age of strife and how the god emperor emerged to lead us only to be betrayed. But remember citizen, the Emperor protects.


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

[User]
How are commercial amounts of Citric Acid produced?

Are there groves of Citrus Trees dedicated for this purpose, or are there other means of production?

[Assistant]
It's not cost-effective to prepare citric acid by extraction from fruit.

Instead, it is produced in bioreactors by the action of *Aspergillus* type molds on various sugar sources. By engineering the conditions just right, most of the sugars are turned into citric acid, which can then be isolated from the "broth", purified, and packaged for distribution.


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

[User]
CMV: I believe no man should be able to slap my SO's ass no matter how gay they are. (Or any other activity that would be unacceptable for straight men for that matter)

I have no ill will or prejudice against homosexual men but I find it uncomfortable when a man gets overly friendly and physical with my SO. I feel like its a slap to my face and insulting to both me and my SO's dignity. Its like I have to let something really disturbing to me slide because it would be "narrow minded" of me to try to stop it. While I do know its not all about me and that if my SO is cool with it I should be cool with it too... right? But Is it really so bigoted to simply not want other men to grab my girls boob and ass?

EDIT: First of all thank you all for your insights. All I wanted is to be open but I also want to be able to distinguish the line that is not to be crossed. While honestly I am still uncomfortable with it I have decided to try to be more open to it assuming there really is no harm to my SO. Maybe I just need more gay friends before I can make an informed decision ( cause im too one sided on the issue).

[Assistant]
It isn't your call. It's hers. She's the one who has to set the boundaries to her body.

If she doesn't do this, or thinks the attention is fine, and it bothers you, the real issue is between you and her and the parameters of your relationship.


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

[User] ELI5:Is a Native American reservation a sovereign nation? How do a reservation's laws interact with US Federal law?

[Assistant] Indian reservations are not sovereign nations, which we can see from the fact that they do not belong to (and have not been invited to join) the United Nations, they do not require passports for anyone entering or leaving the reservation and do not levy tariffs on goods entering or leaving the reservation; the laws of the United States can be enforced within the reservation, and the ultimate authority which governs reservations is the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which is part of the federal government.  That said, they have some degree of local autonomy, and even if they are not sovereign nations, they preserve the traditions of sovereign nations which used to exist prior to the conquest of North American by European settlers.


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

[User]
[The Avengers] Why the hell did SHIELD send Captain America to bring in Loki in Germany?

"I'd sit this one out Cap...these guys come from legend; they're basically gods," says Black Widow after Thor nabs Loki from the back of the plane. Good advice. He would get absolutely creamed. So...why would SHIELD send him in the first place? Captain America vs. an Asgardian? Please. How exactly did they expect that to go down? I think it's implied that Fury was the one who sent in Iron Man as well, for backup, but yeah, that's hardly any better. The way I see it there's no way SHIELD would have known that Loki would bow down after tanking a few punches from Cap. They're damn lucky they didn't lose three Avengers in about five minutes down there in that German courtyard.

[Assistant]
One must note what exactly Captain America's power is. First off, he is a physically perfect human. He has what are basically superhuman reflexes and maneuverability. Against anyone with anything close to human reflexes, he has an inherent advantage in close quarters combat.

However, this is not the biggest reason. Captain America is simultaneously the strongest and weakest Avenger. He is physically strong, fast, and strategic, and has great leadership. But he's close quarters, and ultimately human. SHIELD didn't know quite how Loki took control of people. All they knew was that Hawkeye, one of Fury's most trusted men, was quickly brainwashed into helping him, complete with all his knowledge. Now, herein is the dilemma. They need someone competent to take Loki down, but is not a major risk, should Loki take control. Tony Stark is capable of hacking into the whole SHIELD network. Black Widow has all the security codes, and the ability to infiltrate basically anywhere. And the Hulk? How could they risk him?

Steve Rodgers is a relic, he doesn't even get Pulp Fiction references, let alone be capable of hacking security. Worst case scenario, Loki gets a new bodyguard, who can be dealt with by the Hulk or Thor, easily. However, IF anyone can resist brainwashing, it would be him. If anyone could disarm a man a midst a crowd of hostages, it would be him.

Fury went against his superiors orders to send in Iron Man. It was a risk, for to lose Tony's genius would doom humanity. Captain America's value is in his leadership and ability to take on large numbers of enemies with ease. His loss would be great, yes. But to lose Iron Man, Black Widow, or the Hulk would be greater. To the people at the top, it was an easy choice. Send in one above average soldier who Fury talks up all the time to stop a situation. Little risk to perhaps end it there. Fury knew that they needed to guarantee Loki's capture as best he could, so he chose to send Iron Man, and risk losing Tony. The bet paid off.


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

[User]
[Tolkien] I'm an orc. What's in it for me?

Am I nostalgic for the old days when Morgoth ran things? Does Sauron offer some kind of great benefits package?

What's my motivation here?

[Assistant]
A home.

Orcs are slaughtered on sight in every land of the world except Mordor. Granted, they are sometimes cooked for food in some parts of Mordor, but your odds are still far better.

Sure, you're working for an evil force that wants to wipe out the world and remake it in his own image, but that image includes you. It's the only place in the whole world where you have a place. It's the only place you can belong.

Also, you get to slaughter and eat elfmeat, and who doesn't want that?


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

[User]
[Star Wars] How much did an average citizen notice the influence of the Empire during its reign?

I'm wondering what interaction average citizens on average planets had with the Empire during Palapatine's reign. I'm assuming there may be different answers as to what planet the person lived on. What I've read before is the Empire had less control in the outer territories.

Were there taxes? What did the Empire mean to a moisture farmer on Tattooine? What about a store owner on a planet closer in? Did it really matter to these people whether it was the Empire or the Republic?

[Assistant]
Like you said, it varied.

Some high-profile worlds, like Mon Cala, were brutally invaded and occupied because they were strategically important. This was the kind of thing that didn't *directly* impact vast swathes of people, but happened against somewhere prominent enough that a lot of people would notice.

Some worlds saw a short-term improvement in their security and quality of life, but only because they had something the Empire needed. There's currently a bounty hunter in the comics whose main reason to want revenge on the Empire was that they rolled into his home planet, swept it of criminals, and turned it into a prosperous mining community.... only to *immediately* cut and run when the expense  of defending the colony outstripped the profits made by the mines operation. This resulted in raiders savaging the planet and leaving them worse off than they'd ever been before. Imperial support was extremely conditional.

Some worlds were stripped and turned into industrialized death pits that couldn't support the indigenous population; the empire hired fleets of scouts to seek out worlds that were far enough off the beaten path that it wouldn't be immediately obvious what was happening, but a ton of "rural" worlds were colonized and forced into slavery. It's unclear how many worlds this was done to during the Empire's tenure.

Seperatist space got reamed. As the losers of the clone wars, it was basically open season on their planets- enslaved, made second-class citizens, occupied, strip mined, the works.

The overall catch, of course, is that although the Empire would have inevitably ruined every world in the galaxy this way if it had held together long enough, they reached a critical mass after 25 years due to worlds not immediately in the line of fire organizing the rebellion. So it's not clear how many worlds they were able to sucessfully fuck up, and how likely it would be that any given person was directly fucked by their oppressive policies.


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

[User]
ELI5: why is smokable marijuana prescribed?

With all the other ways of introducing marijuana into the body (edibles, supplements, etc.), why is smokable marijuana prescribed? It just seems to be not healthy to me as youre inhaling smoke, which cause all kinds of other health issues. Is there some benefit that smoking it has vs ingesting it?

[Assistant] Ingesting marijuana by smoking it causes the effects to become apparent almost immediately, which is desirable in many cases where medical marijuana is prescribed.  This can include pain management, and anxiety management.  The faster you can stop the symptoms, the better, and inhaling marijuana smoke is the fastest way for the effects to become apparent.  It does, however, present many of the same health risks as tobacco smoke, but most users would probably say that the benefits of feeling the effects relatively quickly outweigh the damage done to the lungs and respiratory system.


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

[User]
What's happening in my brain when I ask someone, "What?" then immediately realize what they said?

Is asking "What?" just reflexive and if'd I'd waited a moment I would have figured it out? Or is something else happening?

[Assistant]
You have a spacial-temporal loop or "scratchpad memory" in your brain that has a high fidelity recording of the last couple seconds. During the time you said "What?" your brain replayed it and made sense of it the second time around.

It's similar to how you can not be paying attention in class but repeat back a question to your teacher when they ask you.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do fridges work? How can energy be used to make something colder than it's surroundings?

It's been bothering me for a solid five minutes.

[Assistant]
Your intuition is right: you can easily transform energy into heat, but you can't transform energy into cold.  What you can do, though, is use energy to **move heat around.**  What a fridge does is take heat from the insulated inside and release it in the back.

Your next question may be: how do you take heat from the inside of a fridge when it's colder than ambient temperature?  Here's the gist of it: it uses a property of compression.

You may have noticed that a bicycle pump gets warm when you use it.  It's not just due to friction, it's also because compressing air makes it warmer.  On the opposite, a spray can gets cold when you use it.  That's because you're releasing pressure, and that makes it colder.

So a fridge use these principles of compression: there's a fluid that goes through the radiator in the back, then through the insulated inside.  When it's in the radiator, it's compressed so that it gets hotter and will lose some of its heat to the air around it.  Then it goes inside where it is decompressed, which makes it colder and able to take more heat.


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

[User]
[The Witcher] Why do Witchers use swords instead of spears or other polearms to fight monsters?

Wouldn't a spear be the better option against most monsters? It allows for greater range and thus a better tactical advantage for the user. Plus a sword could still easily be carried as a backup weapon if needed.

[Assistant] I'd be willing to bet there was more diversity of weapons used among witchers before the sacking of Kaer Morhen, but afterward Vesemir was basically the sole mentor of the remaining witchers; they are probably all swordsmen because that happened to be the skillset he brought to the table as the sole man-at-arms and trainer.


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

[User]
ELI5:Why do (AA & AAA) batteries in a package seem to very rarely leak even after sitting in the cupboard for years and batteries left in a dormant device leak after a much shorter time?

Why do (AA & AAA) batteries in a package seem to very rarely leak even after sitting in the cupboard for years and batteries left in a dormant device leak after a much shorter time?

(....And then ruin the controller unit on my gas fireplace)

[Assistant] The corrosion is caused by hydrogen gas escaping the battery, allowing the battery to leak, this still happens when on the shelf, but at a slower rate. When your device is 'off' there's a small amount of drain happening causing extra gas to be produced, also depending on what the contacts are made of on the device they made corrode as well (causing it to look like more battery corrosion).


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

[User] [Star Trek] What is the most advanced and powerful (weapon wise) ship that the Federation has ever produced and how much damage could that ship due to current earth and it's militaries before it was stopped?

[Assistant] You don't need to find the most powerful Federation ship ever made, the average cruiser would be able to solo every military force on earth. The only thing we have that could harm it would be nuclear weapons, and those would be casually avoided or neutralized with phasers. It could casually destroy every military force on earth of any significance, given the time and inclination to do so. And we couldn't do a damn thing about it.


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

[User]
Why is it that we can "see" and even guess the composition of planets that are hundreds of light years away, yet we are unsure of the existence of other planets in our own solar system?

I've heard lots of talk of other planets that may support life based off of guesses at their composition and atmosphere, and these are often hundreds of light years away. Yet we are still not sure if there are even other planets in our solar system beyond Pluto (Planet nine, for example). Is this due to a difference in how they are detected, or is our knowledge of the potential life-supporting planets heavily exaggerated?

[Assistant]
Planets don't emit light of their own, but only reflect light emitted by the star they orbit. So planets that we try to detect in our solar system can only be seen because of the sunlight they reflect. And small and distant objects (such as the trans-Neptunian objects) are therefore extremely dim and hard to see. They require a powerful telescope to be pointed at the right location to be observed directly. We therefore try to first observe them indirectly, by measuring slight differences in the orbit of more nearby objects that may be caused by the gravity of the unknown body. But even that becomes very hard to do when the objects are so small and so far away.

Exoplanets are discovered in a different way. If while looking at a star a planet moves in front of the star (between telescope and star), the star will appear to be slightly dimmer for the duration of this crossing. By measuring the magnitude of this dimming, an estimate can be made of the volume of the object passing in front of the star.

The mass of an exoplanet can be estimated with help of the Doppler effect. The exoplanet will exert some gravitational force on its star, causing it to move around slightly. When the star is moving away from us due to this effect, its light is Doppler shifted ever so slightly in the direction of the blue side of the spectrum, while when the pull of the planet brings the star a bit closer, the light is slightly redshifted. The size of this effect depends on the mass of the planet.

With volume and mass, density can be computed. The density is then compared with that of planets in our own solar system to make a prediction on whether the planet is a rocky planet, like Earth, or a gas giant, like Jupiter.

The contents of the atmosphere are determined by examining the spectrum of the light coming from the star as the planet is in front of it and some light passes through the atmosphere. Different elements absorb different wavelengths of light and by looking at which wavelengths show a slight drop in intensity as the planet moves in front of the star, we can say something about the contents of the atmosphere.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Is Voldemort a lich (what with the splitting of his soul into objects or living things)? More generally, is someone that has "used" a horcrux undead?

I'm primarily asking the lich question to try to use something I already understand to clarify how splitting your soul works in the Potterverse. By "using" a horcrux I mean dying impermanently like Voldemort did after the killing curse backfired on him.

[Assistant]
Well, how do you define the word "lich"?

Are we talking a "traditional lich", an undead(where by undead, we mean "fueled by energy from the negative energy plane") spellcaster with a phylactery(which is an object that automatically makes them return from death, unless destroyed)?

If so, then no, Voldemort is *not* a lich, because he's not undead(though his non-corporeal ghost-form may arguably be undead), and his method of returning to life is not automatic(it required a pretty big ritual, he was basically a ghost otherwise).

If by lich you mean something more broad, like just "a wizard with an object that stops them from completely dying", then sure, by that definition Voldemort is a lich; but that's similar to saying that wyverns and dragons are the same thing.


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

[User] [W40K]The strength of a WAAAAAAGH is based upon their numbers. And orcs can warp reality, based upon their numbers. Would a sufficiently large army of them attacking earth and believing that Big E is alive, actually result in Big E standing up and being alive again?

[Assistant]
The reality warping capabilities of an ork are often overstated for comedic and quite frankly heretical purposes.

Yes, would it be that we should invite the greatest WAUUGH ever known to Holy Terra just to see if the raucous rabble can wake the Master of Mankind.

While the techpriests we have permitted to review ork technology have come away with more questions than answers *at times*  other times the equipment is understood to simply be rudimentary  this does not mean the equipment is magical and the orks, magical beings.

Bear in mind the orks believe they are the strongest, yet they know defeat at the hands of our astra militarum. Would that it be that their belief rendered our lasguns ineffective, yet it is not so.


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

[User] How do antibiotics destroy foreign bacteria without harming our own body as well?

[Assistant]
It depends on the antibiotic, but in some cases, it can harm the human body.

The easy answer is that antibiotics are selective for specific molecules which exist in bacteria, but not humans. Since humans don't have these molecules on their cells, the antibiotics can't target them, and therefore don't kill the cells. Penicillin, for example, targets and inhibits a protein which is involved in cell wall synthesis in gram positive bacteria (a classification of bacteria which creates cell walls made up of a molecule called peptidoglycan). Since the cell wall of these bacteria can't be finished, basically it becomes too big (it can't divide properly) and therefore the bacteria bursts and dies. Human cells don't make cell walls, therefore penicillin isn't involved in killing human cells.

However, the reality is a bit more complex. Different categories of antibiotics have different targets, and not all of them are as selective as penicillin is. Another class of antibiotics, called aminoglycosides, interacts with the ribosome in a bacterial cell. The ribosome is involved in translating mRNA into amino acid sequences to make proteins, which do a lot of different things in the cell. By binding to the ribosome, aminoglycosides stop the cell's ability to make proteins, which eventually causes it to die.

But both bacteria and have ribosomes. The main reason why aminoglycosides target bacteria selectively, is that bacteria have ribosomes that are slightly different- they have 30S and 50S subunits, but human cells have 40S and 60S subunits. Basically, the bacteria ribosomes are smaller than human ribosomes. This difference makes aminoglycosides more likely to interact with bacteria cells, because the smaller ribosome has the right structure for it to interact better. However, aminoglycosides can and do bind to human ribosomes, and can cause human cell death too. It just binds a lot less frequently, so it causes less human cell death.

I only described how antibiotics directly affect bacteria cells versus human cells, though. Killing bacteria in the body can have effects on human health too (for example, killing bacteria in the intestines can have an effect on digestion, and can cause health problems). And in rare cases, antibiotics can interact and trigger the immune system to attack the body, when it shouldn't, causing harm to the body.


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

[User]
[Sci-fi General] Let's say you can produce a crystal such that when an object of a certain mass approaches it with a certain speed, it repulses it. Beyond its use as a shield, what other uses of these crystals can there be?

It is possible to produce crystals for different speeds and masses.

[Assistant]
i mean since every action has an equal and opposite reaction, set the mass  very high and speed very low and boom, hover tech since its constantly repulsing the ground and thus pushing itself up

also put it on the end of a stick, since theres functionally no difference between  between it approaching you and you approaching it you have basiclly created a gravity hammer, capable of launching people or even vehicle

if the field is large enough and the settigns low enough it could even repulse just liquids, creating a safe bubble to travel underwater or even threw lava and other dangerous materials(still need to bring your own air)


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

[User]
[300] so what exactly was the goat headed creature chilling with the Persians?

Was it a pagan god, a demon, baphomet? Was he summoned through ritual or has he physically visited the party? Is it just a captured cryptid? Is he a slave, a guest, an entertainer or a being of worship?

[Assistant] What you have to realize, is that the whole thing is being told from the point of view of Dilios. He was the only one to survive the battle. Hes trying to rouse the troops at Plataea. The whole movie is basically told from an unreliable narrator. So, the goat-man, the guy with the blades for hands, everything that seems unnatural, is a complete fabrication and exaggeration to make the Persians sound fantastic and evil.


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

[User]
[Warhammer] How much should a Daemon fear true death?

While in most every case, a defeated Daemon will just reform in the warp and be ready for another go however many years later it takes for the Daemon to reform in the achronal madness of the warp; sometimes a Daemon can be confronted with actual complete annihilation; never to return or exist again in any form.   Such as M'Kar whose daemonic essence was completely burned out when he was defeated at Maccragge or Aghalbor by Vulkan.

Yet the sources I can find on the subject never seem to delve into how the prospect of a final, irreversible death and the obliteration of consciousness is seen by a Daemon.   If a Daemon knows that it picked the fight with the wrong person and its true death is imminent, how would it respond?  Trembling fear and pathetic begging to be spared?  Rage?  Denial at the idea that it can die forever?

[Assistant]
I dont think they ever go into the POV of a demon. We can get hints of how afraid they are of it in Master of Mankind.

The Emperor personally goes into the Webway to counter attack a demon horde. Just the sight of him terrifies them so much that some just run away right there.

I can only assume that because the Emperor is called the Anathema by Chaos, he has the ability to give demons a true death. We know he accomplishes it at least once when he kills Horus.


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

[User] I just wondered if E=mc2 and light has no mass E=30000000*0=0 so wouldn't that mean light has no energy. This is probably wrong but why is it?

[Assistant] The full equation is E^2 = p^2 c^2 + m^2 c^4 . If a particle is at rest it simplifies to E=mc^2 . However, light can never be at rest, and has no mass, so its equation simplifies to E=pc. Now the reason E=mc^2 is so popular is because we'd never imagined a particle at rest had energy just in its own existence. We'd always figured energy had to be kinetic like 1/2 m v^2 , or potential energy like mgh.


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

[User] What did Nietzsche think about revolutionary wave of 1848?

[Assistant]
I don't know if he ever wrote specifically on the March Revolution, but from BG&E:

> The over-all degeneration of man down to what today appears to the socialist dolts and flatheads as their man of the futureas their idealthis degeneration and diminution of man into the perfect herd animal . . . this animalization of man into the dwarf animal of equal rights and claims, is possible, there is no doubt of it. Anyone who has once thought through this possibility to the end knows one kind of nausea that other men dont know.


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

[User] Why do our bodies decompose when we die but not when were alive?

[Assistant]
We actually do, we normally would only see it as an infection.

We are constantly under attack by plenty of microorganisms but we most oftenly than not, manage to keep them at Bay with white blood cells or other defenses.

What happens when we die is living cells are no longer fighting the invading microorganisms for which they manage to get a foothold of our bodies without resistance.


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

[User] ELI5: What's exactly a Turing Machine and what is the "minimum Turing machine" that Stephen Wolfram discovered?

[Assistant]
A turing machine is a kind of hypothetical very simple computer.  It consists of four parts; an infintely long tape, a read/write head, a set of symbols, and some rules.  The symbols can be anything, but are usually represented as numbers; you can have as many or as few symbols as you like.  The tape can have any initial symbols on it, anywhere (or everywhere) on the tape; this is important.  The rules are of the form "if the value under the head is X, then 1) write symbol Y (which may be the same as X), 2) move the head left or right one spot, and 3) either terminate the program or keep going)".  That's all the rules can be.  It turns out that this very simple-sounding computer can be shown to be just as theoretically capable as the computer you're reading this on; that is, any computation your laptop, desktop, or phone can perform, this computer can perform with the appropriate set of rules.  Even more interesting is the fact that, with certain specific sets of rules, the turing machine can perform *any* computation that you want.  The computation to execute, then, is defined by the initial state of the tape.  This is called a "Universal turing machine", because the same set of rules can execute any program.  The minimal turing machine Wolfram discovered was (maybe still is) the smallest set of rules and symbols that produce a universal turing machine.

This is interesting because it gives an abstract way to reason about computers (and programming languages) in the general case.  This model of computation is in fact equivalent to a few other common models (The Lambda Calculus being the other famous one).


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

[User] [Star wars] What does a Jawa really look like?

[Assistant] The popular(and generally accepted) theory is that they are rat or rodent-like in appearance. The two glowing orbs under their hood are NOT their eyes, and that's about the only canon description of them we get.


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

[User] ELI5:Do donated organs age according to the donors age or do they adapt to the age of the new body?

[Assistant]
The organs stay the age of the donor and generally deteriorate with time. Organs have a finite ability to generate new cells and wear with time. Also because even with immune suppression the donor organ is still subjected to intermittent attacks from the immune system, as well as the whole host of problems that can arise for immunosuppressed people (usually infections, vascular problems).

Organs are assessed before they are given to someone so that the recipient isnt given a poor quality donation. But a healthy 45 year olds heart likely still has some coronary artery disease.  the 20 year old recipient may start to get problems with angina or heart attacks in their 30s because of having a then 55 year old heart.


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

[User]
[Religion/Mythology] Which belief system has the most awesome sounding paradise?

And as a corollary, which has the least painful hell/anti-paradise to be sent to? Just in case I qualify for being a bad person according to that belief.

[Assistant] Valhalla. You eat meals and drink meads fit for the kings and jarls. Everyday you train with the greatest warriors on Earth and if you die during training, Odin would resurrect you and you'll rest within the halls served by Valkyries.


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

[User] [Fullmetal Alchemist] If they're literally rearranging atoms to make new things, can't you just make anything out of thin air because there's always oxygen handy?

[Assistant]
Alchemy isn't a random piece of magic that lets you convert anything from anything, but is a collection of techniques developed using applied chemistry and physics via powers that may or may not originate from a supernatural entity.

In particular, alchemists are limited by the Law of Equivalent Exchange, which states that masses must be converted one-to-one *and* that the two substances must share similar physical properties. Lead can be converted into gold because they are both heavy and malleable, but oxygen cannot be converted into lead or gold because it is a light gas.

On the other hand, you can convert nitrogen into oxygen and set it on fire. But that's only possible because oxygen and nitrogen have 'similar' properties.


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

[User] [WH40K] Do followers of Nurgle enjoy their diseased state or is it something they have to suffer?

[Assistant]
It's a mixed bag really. Nurgle isn't just the god of plague and disease but also hopelessness, stoicism, decay and death. Nurgle appreciates those who accept their fate instead of fighting it.

Nurgle grants his boon to those who want it. Nurgle appreciates the man who prays for the strength to endure famine or disease rather than a cure or a meal. And Nurgle's first reward is the ability to do just that.

His followers look so diseased because Nurgle doesn't heal them. He grants them the ability to suffer any hardship without discomfort and without dying from it. You'll still rot and fester but it won't bother you.

And that opens the door to true devotion. You start to see the world for what it really is. Death, decay, ruination. It's inevitable, it can't be stopped and those who try are fools who oppose father Nurgle's great works.

Nurgle's warriors fight against those who try to resist decay. They spread Nurgle's gifts of plague and ruination while stopping those who have a chance to halt it's progress.


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

[User]
Is physics a part of philosophy?

First of all, sorry for my ignorance in philosophy.

I am currently majoring in physics, and I've been wondering how physics connects to pholosophy, since both physicists and philosophers asks much of the same questions about nature. Is physics part of philosophy or are they different branches that have arisen from a logic foundation, with physics using mathematics as a logical system and  analogously philosophy using language? Or is this all nonsense?

[Assistant]
Historically, physics came from what was called natural philosophy. It used to be that there was no real separation between the two.

Now, there's clearly separate departments where philosophy and physics get studied. They have different methodologies, and different goals. But even in the present day, there are important interactions between the two.

For example, there is a serious debate going on right now about whether String Theory counts as scientific. That debate involves both physicists, who know the details of String Theory, and philosophers of physics, who are experts in the question of what counts as 'scientific'.

So while they're separate disciplines now, they still interact in important ways.


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

[User] ELI5: What's the purpose of the Wingdings font?

[Assistant]
The font was not meant to be used as a way to write words. It was a way to basically store symbols that people could use for whatever reason. So, if you wanted an image of a thumbs up, you would use Windings upper case C.

Now with internet access to images and emojis, it's not longer as useful as it once was, but it still exists.


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

[User] [South Park] What will happen to Kenny once his mom dies?

[Assistant] Well, recent Kennys have generally been living longer and longer,  really only dying once a year, compared to upwards of 15 times a year a decade ago. It is obvious a metaphor for Kenny growing up and needing his mother's support less.


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

[User]
Is it bad to use different brands of batteries in the same device?

For years my parents always told me never use different battery brands in electronic devices because even though they emit the same voltages, they are manufactured differently there are slight variations in voltages and this will cause them to leak. Now that Im older and moved out, plus it being the year 2011, very few of the devices I own use batteries. I was only reminded when I had only two fresh batteries left for the remote but they were of different brands. So is there a problem with this?

[Assistant]
Electronics engineer here.

It depends a lot on how the batteries are used in your device (serial/parallel topology):

* if they're in a serial connection, the batteries most likely won't be affected (i.e. leak) but the device might or might not perform well, especially when at least one of the batteries is low. In a series connection the whole set of batteries is as "strong" as the weakest one in the set, so if one battery, being from another brand dies out quicker... you get it.

* in a parallel connection, unbalanced power supplies (that don't have the same output characteristics) behave really really bad (potentially hazardous); if we're talking about batteries they might heat up, leak, do some damage.

So basically, you don't need to know the intricacies of your device and how it uses the batteries; overall it's a good idea to have same-brand, same-model batteries of the same age, whenever possible.


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

[User] [General Scifi] Who are the villains who lived long enough to see themselves become the hero?

[Assistant]
Angel and Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Over a century each of bloodshed, and then they both join the good guys and die saving the world.

Apocalypse from X-Men. Thousands of years as an existential threat to humanity are revealed to have been him attempting to prepare them to fight an army from another dimension; then he leads his champions back into battle, and saves the Earth.

Magneto, again from X-Men. Years spent fighting the X-Men, and then his enemies actually come around to his way of thinking in a lot of ways, and he realises he's willing to compromise on the details and work with them peacefully.

Arguably, the Operative from Firefly. A self-professed monster willing to commit any atrocity in pursuit of a higher ideal, ultimately he realises that the dream for which he is fighting is built on lies, accepts this, and begins working to aid those he once hunted.

Several Terminators in the Terminator franchise, although that was less "see themselves become the hero" and more "get reprogrammed to actually be the hero" - with the big exception of >!Carl from Dark Fate, who simply chose to change sides!<.

And, the biggest of all: Prince Zuko, in Avatar: The Last Airbender.


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

[User] [The Matrix] Was there a Roman Empire in the Matrix? How much of human history does each iteration of the Matrix simulate? Why don't the machines just maintain a pre-digital society so the humans can't even comprehend the Matrix?

[Assistant] If i remember correctly, it is because the 21st century is the earliest period the machines 'remember', or have a detailed knowledge of. So they physically can't recreate a period earlier, because they didn't have the sufficient sentience (or even existed) at those times.


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

[User] [Star Wars] why do they keep building super weapons? Have any of them ever been tactically or strategically worth it?

[Assistant]
The Death Star might seem like some overly-grandoise design scheme. And it is. But that's the point.

The Death Star isn't designed to be used, it's designed to exist. It's a living, breathing symbol of the industrial might of the Empire.

Consider the modern equivalent of the Death Star: Nuclear Weaponry. Only two nuclear weapons have ever been used in a tactical environment, yet the past ~100 years of geopolitics has occurred around nuclear weapons.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] How were Jedi and non-Jedi distinguished by Order 66?

How did the Clones know who they were killing as "traitors"?

Seems like this order, since it was initiated by a simple code phrase, would've required a mechanism for alteration outside of the command itself. While I'm sure the easy answer is "Palpatine kept a roster of who to kill", I have a hard time imagining Palpy updating an Excel sheet throughout the war.

This leads us to a weird inconsistency regarding Anakin and Ahsoka. Ahsoka was no longer a member of the order, and they tried to kill her, while Anakin still a Jedi (at least as far as everyone but he and Palpatine would've been concerned), and he was able to lead the 501st into the Jedi temple.

There are a few other complications, as well. It couldn't have just been an order to kill their non-clone superiors, since we know Yularen survived. And it couldn't have been an order for just any force users/lightsaber weilders, since the clones work with the Inquisition and Vader (not to mention Palpy himself). And then we've also got Maul who definitely wasn't a Jedi, but was clearly on the list as well.

How did this general order work?

[Assistant]
In the canon comics, the clones fired on Vader(in the suit)  the first time they saw him with an ignited lightsaber. Their Commander ordered them to stop because he was on their side and actually their boss, not a Jedi.

Another incident was when a Jedi was cornered by several inquisitors and clones and he noted the clones were a fresh batch, he named off the inquisitors as former Jedi Padawans and remarked, "once a Jedi, always a Jedi." The clones immediately executed order 66 on the inquisitors because of the force suggestion that they were Jedi.

Basically the clones attack whomever they believe to be Jedi. If their superiors say someone isn't a Jedi, that's good enough for them as long as they trust their chain of command.

This is also one of the reasons the clones were decommissioned after the war, if someone in authority convinced the clones that Palpatine was a Jedi, he would lose all authority over them and they would try to kill him.


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

[User] ELI5: In terms of hacking, what are zero days?

[Assistant]
It's the number of days that the problem has been revealed outside of the hackers who found it.

For example, if Home Depot sold a door lock, but it had a problem where you could stick a magnet on it and it would unlock the door, then that would be a hack burglars could use to break into anyone's house who used that lock.

If Home Depot discovers this problem before the burglars do, they could publicly announce it and tell everyone who owns that lock to get it fixed. Then it's a race between home owners to fix their locks before burglars use the hack to break into their homes.

The more days that pass between the public announcement and a burglar trying to hack someone's lock, the more likely it is that the home owner has already fixed the lock.

So a "one-day" would be a burglar trying to hack a lock one day after Home Depot announced the problem, and a burglar might have a decent chance of breaking in if they picked a lazy or slow home owner's home. A "30-day" would be a lot less likely for the burglar to succeed, since most home owners would have hopefully fixed their lock by then.

A "zero-day" would be if the burglars found out first before Home Depot did. Then any burglar who knows about the hack could break into the home of anyone who owns that lock, since no one would have fixed it.


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

[User]
[Buffy the Vampire Slayer] I'm a patriotic vampire in the 1940s who wants to use my powers to help my country. How do I convince the government to let me enlist and do they best use me?

Let's say British or American.

[Assistant] Just show up on the battlefield?  According to one of the books, that's what a lot of vampires did, though it was more because the battlefield was a smorgasbord than any sense of patriotism, though many vampires (like Spike) did focus on the soldiers opposing their birth country.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does Human Trafficking work in America?

I hear about human trafficking being a huge problem in the modern world but I don't understand how it works, especially in the developed parts. So here are a few questions about trafficking...

1. Is human trafficking slavery, and if not, what exactly is it?
2. What purposes do trafficked humans serve?
3. What would a scenario of a human being trafficked in America look like? Prostitute? Garment workers? Etc.?
4. How can actual human beings be trafficked in developed nations where surveillance and documentation seem like they would make the act very difficult to hide?
5. And lastly, who exactly is doing the trafficking? Gangs?

thanks, and sorry if my questions sound ignorant, but I very much so am in this area, which is why I am here!

[Assistant]
1) Is it slavery? It depends on the specific circumstances, but usually yes it is exactly that. A person is forced by somebody into a position to do a task with no way out - that's pretty much slavery. Some will argue that technically its not and argue over semantics, but for all intents and purposes it is slavery.

2) What purpose do they serve? Generally speaking it is either prostitution or to provide labour for menial jobs for next to no money.

3) Scenario? The end work (prostitute, menial labour) makes no real difference - the story is usually the same. Criminals target individuals in poor countries, these are people who have nothing. They are told that for just $x they can start a new life in the West - the criminal will tell them that for this money they have a job lined up, somewhere to live sorted, food arranged, all transport, travel documentation,  etc. The criminal makes it seem like such a good deal that they somehow get the money together, often entire families will work and save for 2-3 years to get enough cash together to send their child away to this better life. The criminal gets paid and buys a plane ticket and the person comes to the new country full of hope. They then arrive where they are thrown into the harsh reality. They will be put into a small apartment with 10 others living in the space suitable for only 1 or 2 people. They will then be told that they have to work to pay-off their debt. The criminal will tell them that they now owe a huge amount of money, the kind of money that they can never realisticly earn doing their job....  and their job will be horrible menial labour or prostituion. They will have to work every hour of every day, for next to no money, living in these horrible places. And there is no way to escape. The criminal gangs will keep them locked in, they have no contact with the outside world, they cannot call for help.... they just vanish. Hopefully some day the police will find out or someone will escape and raise an alarm, but this can take years and may not even happen. Its tragic. Also, in some cases, the criminals are now skipping the entire first step of convincing people its a good idea to pay money to have a new life, and are simply kidnapping people and smuggling them in on boats like cattle. Unimaginable but it happens sadly.

4) How can it happen with surveillance etc? See answer 3 - they are locked up, no one knows they exist, they are under lock and key 24/7, their criminal keepers basically hold them hostage. Unless they can somehow escape, there is no way to raise an alarm. Law enforcement have large efforts to try to find and stop these rings, but its a drop in the ocean sadly.

5) Who is doing it? See answer 3 - its large international criminal organisations. As for who is buying the service, its the men seeing the prostitutes and its the unscrupulous employers who will pay the criminals for the cheap labour.