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

[User] [Planet of the Apes]Why did the underground mutated humans not take back the planet? Clearly they were strong enough though their powers of illusion/telepathy.

[Assistant]
the radiation from the bomb was the source of their mental powers.  in ancient times some mutant humans had tried to retake the planet, and succeeded in conquering isolated areas, but without their god their powers weakened in a generation and they were exterminated.  these occurrences did of course exacerbate ape-human antipathy, but in modern ape society stories of such were taken no more seriously than we do tales of witches.

the other reason of course is that their numerous mutations made breeding difficult, many children were born with virulent cancers, many of the mutants were sterile and barren.  Indeed their society had been much larger but was in a slow state of attrition, with their population falling every century.

mutant society was also quite insular and against outside exploration.  there was a deep and prevalent cultural fear that any members who left would inevitably lead the hordes of apes to them.  while their mental powers certainly gave them *an* advantage over the apes, the apes' greater strength, ferocity, and  most importantly their massive populations would have easily overwhelmed the small and isolated mutant community.

*disclaimer; i haven't seen any of the planet of the ape movies.  most of what i know about the series comes from a mad parody of them i read like 20 years ago, so most of this is made up from whole cloth.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do your socks not feel sweaty until you take your shoes off?

[Assistant]
Because you can't actually feel wetness (skin don't have sensors for that). But how do you know then? Well, your skin is good at detecting heat loss, so if it feel heat loss that match water exposed to air, your brain understand your skin is wet. But when you're still in your shoes, the wet socks are kept warm, and you don't feel that heat loss. That is, until you remove them.

That's why if you have latex gloves on, you can feel fake "wetness" if you touch water, even though water never touch your skin. That's because the heat goes through the glove then through the water and out, which trick your brain in feeling water.


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

[User]
ELI5: If plaque is bacteria from food, why is it white?

When you get to the end of a day and are just about to brush your teeth, you have a small bit of white plaque. If you eat food that's chocolatey or strong in colour, why does the plaque not stay that colour? Sorry if this is really obvious and stupid.

[Assistant] Because it isn't bacteria from food. Plaque is produced by bacteria that live in your mouth. The reason it shows up after eating is because the bacteria use the sugar in your food as tgeir energy source and the more energy they get, the more active they get and so they produce more plaque.


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

[User]
[Monsters Inc] Question about banishment

So when monsters in Monsters  Inc are banished they are sent somewhere in the human world and the door they are sent through stops working, but exactly what is stopping the banished monsters from searching for the nearest child room to use their door to return to their world with just like Sully did? Did the company not think about the monsters trying to return this way?

[Assistant]
A few reasons.

Firstly, of course, they're in the middle of the wilderness, far from civilization. The nearest child's door is generally quite far away, by design.

Secondly, humans tend to react badly to monsters running through the streets. Most will shy away from civilization out of self-preservation, and those who don't tend not to make it to a door. You need to be pretty clever and stealthy to get to a child's bedroom as an 8ft hellspawn.

And lastly, most times a child's door is just a child's door. Get there and you'll just be stood in a closet like a dumbass. As we see with Scully's return, someone needs to be coming through the door from the monster side for an escape to work.

Are these *unsurmountable* barriers? No. They expect a few people to return, just like we expect a few people to escape from prison occasionally. But they're big enough barriers that the company can generally write off an exile as gone.


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

[User]
[MCU] Are Celestials evil?

At least in the Cinematic Universe we saw one of them incinerate an entire planet, killing its inhabitants. I'm not sure if that's one of their hobbies in the comics.

[Assistant]
They experiment on planets and populations like we do on fruit flies. So yeah if youre on one of those planets while they decide to clean the Petri dish that sucks.
To them we are insects, nothing more. We dont come up in their calculations of right or wrong.

Theyre not a force of nature like Galactus.


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

[User]
ELI5: What's paternalism?

So definition-wise, I got this:

*the policy or practice on the part of people in authority of restricting the freedom and responsibilities of those subordinate to or otherwise dependent on them in their supposed interest.*

Can someone flesh out on this and give me an example, using this definition, with different kind of placeholders?

[Assistant]
It is when you try to remove someone's autonomy because you think it is in their best interest and that they will not make the correct decision on their own.  In other words, treating them like a parent would treat a child.

For example, some people complain that seat belt laws are paternalism, the government saying it knows best and that people cannot be trusted to make that decision on their own.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do we never use (most) contractions on their own?

"Are you cold?"
"I'm"

"Have you showered?"
"I've"

"Is it raining?"
"It's"

"Am I ugly?"
"You're"

You get the gist. Why is it so weird to say these instead of "I am, I have, It is, You are"?

[Assistant]
Linguist here.

It's phonological stress.

Where the stress is one of the things that distinguishes a vinyl *record* from to *record* a video.

Unstressed syllables have a tendency to be reduced or elided altogether, like *prob'ly* for *probably*. Even when you say all of the syllables in *probably*, the second syllable is unstressed and is a reduced uh sound instead of the more distinct sound a short a normally makes.

In "It is me", *is* is not normally stressed (except for added emphasis) so it can contract. It "It s" as an answer to "what's making that noise?", *is* is stressed so it cannot contract.

Predicates (basically the part of a sentence that is not the subject, the verbs+ any objects or or any predicate nouns/adjectives) have to have one heavy phrasal stress in English. In phrases like "It is" there is no following word to take the stress so it has to fall on is. In "It is making the noise", the heaviest stress falls on *mking* so is can be unstressed, reduced or contracted.


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

[User] [Animal Crossing New Horizons] What do Tom Nook and Isabelle do at night? Surely the paperwork isn't that complicated?

[Assistant] You see how they're always ready to help you out whenever you need it? That's why Nook, Inc. is so profitable: amazingly efficient customer service. They're there to satisfy your needs 24/7, fostering client loyalty and earning that revenue to further expand their operations.


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

[User]
[ATLA] How did the fire nation society react to the end of the 100 year war?

Was it like a Germany post-Hitler society where Ozai was vilified by the fire nation society as a whole or did citizens of the nation not like the fact that Aang removed his bending while Zuko replaced him as Firelord?

What was their general opinion of about everything that happened throughout the series post-war?

[Assistant]
The comics go into this, but in a word:  Poorly.

A hundred years of propaganda had instilled in most Fire Nation citizens that the War was just and good, the Fire Nation was spreading its prosperity and civilization, and that the War was a fight for the very survival of the Nation and its ideals.  Zuko's personal friendship with the Avatar, whom Fire Nation citizens had spend years learning to vilify, didn't help.

Worse, Zuko's first decision as Fire Lord was to >!withdraw the Fire Nation colonies within the Earth Kingdom, which provoked the ire of everyone who had made those colonies their home. !< While he did eventually walk that decision back, it didn't do much to endear him to the broader population.

Zuko was the target of a string of failed assassination attempts, >!reaching the point that Mai decided no one in the Fire Nation could be entrusted with his safety and she decided to bring in the Kyoshi Warriors to serve as his bodyguards!<.  The New Ozai Society formed to try to force Zuko to abdicate and restore his father to the throne, bending or no.

Eventually, citizens began to see the benefits of the peace agreement.  The troops came home to grateful families and conscription dropped dramatically.  The Fire Nation didn't lose access to the Earth Kingdom goods they had been importing.  Fire Nation engineers were suddenly in high demand everywhere and the Fire Nation began selling engines and ships.

Zuko reformed public education and the press to be more accurate and less jingoistic.  This presented Fire Nation citizens with a hard look at what they had contributed to in the other nations.  Some rejected that understanding or even doubled-down on their belief that the War must have been good.  Others accepted what had been done and looked to prevent such a thing from occurring again.

By the time Zuko stepped down as Fire Lord, he was immensely popular, the War was widely viewed as a national shame, and much of the blame for it was laid squarely on Sozin and Ozai.


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

[User]
How does an economy suddenly just 'crash'?

Please explain thoroughly yet with simple language.
Edit: Upvoted everyone who took the time to write a response. Thank you.

[Assistant]
One possibility is feedback loops:

For example, a few years back information became widely known that a large amount of loans weren't worth the money that everyone had thought they were worth.  It was discovered these loans were owned by a lot of different companies.  Quick investors sold their shares(stock) in those companies because they (reasonably) expected the share price to drop.  The selling of stock in those companies caused the share price to drop quickly.  Less quick investors learned of this information and decided they wanted to try to limit their losses so they sold their shares too.

Eventually with everyone selling shares, few were buying, which made the price drop dramatically.

With easy access to information and real **huge** issues (like widespread billions in bad loans) it's very easy for a stock to crash.  Since companies are so interlinked this often brings down other companies as well.

Eventually this might lead to companies unable to attract investors needing to lay of workers.  These workers who are now unemployed purchase fewer products from other companies.  Since those other companies are now making less money they also start layoffs.

Finally people unable to afford their mortgages start getting foreclosed on, dropping the value of real estate all around them, which up until recently was the basis for a huge amount of the wealth in this country.  Lower property values, lower demand for their products, few investors and low stock prices cause issues for everyone.

Let me know if you need more explained.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] How did Galen's flaw make it though oversight and engineers while building?

Surely a system as bureaucratic as The Empire would have had oversight to approve Galen's plans for the Death Star and then an engineering team would have had to have gone over the plans to build the base, surely someone somewhere would have spotted the flaw?

Side note: laser grid over the thermal exhaust...

[Assistant]
He was an energy enrichment expert and clearly a genius in his field. So when Galen Erso says "we need a thermal exhaust port to properly vent heat for the superlaser to work and not cause a reactor meltdown", you damn sure better put in a thermal exhaust port to properly vent heat for the superlaser to work and not cause a reactor meltdown.

Plus as explained quite vigorously in A New Hope, it's clear that the thermal exhaust port is considered a very minimal weakness. A necessity for the Death Star but also only a *minor* weakness.

Sure you could have others go over the plans, but would they know as much about crystallisation and energy diffusion as Erso? The heat was on for Krennic and Tarkin to get the Death Star operational, so they couldn't exactly decide that Erso was a traitor and any one of his suggestions for the Death Star construction *could* be an intended weakness. If he did sabotage it, which part is the weakness? Perhaps he set up the crystal to work in such a way that when the trash compactor on the detention level activates, the crystal is destabilised and the Superlaser would end up backfiring. You don't know. And the thermal exhaust port is something that *needs* to be there to vent heat into space. Erso would have made that *vehemently* clear to those who want the Death Star up and running pronto.

The laser grid could have worked, but Erso likely would have insisted that such a strong grid or shield (enough to resist a torpedo) *that close to the exhaust port* would cause even more heat and energy usage, and could be an even greater risk having those systems and laser generators that close to the vent to the reactor. You also have to remember that it's not too long after Erso is outed to be a traitor that the Rebels are planning their attack on the Death Star. While the Empire could have installed some laser grid or one way shield on that port, how long would it have taken? Probably quite a while. Did the Empire consider it to be a big enough risk? Nope, just look at that initial meeting aboard the Death Star in A New Hope. Would there have been arguments around the risk of having more generators and power circulating around the exhaust port, and potentially less energy for the superlaser if it's diverted to the shielding/grid? You bet your ass there would be. Did they underestimate the Rebels? Well certainly.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does oil fry things but water boils things?

[Assistant] The oil can be heated to a higher temperature before it vaporizes, meaning that you can drop food into it and have the water boil in the food while the oil isn't boiling itself. This forces the water out, forming crispy bubbles frozen in cooked starches and allowing the oil to soak into the food.


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

[User]
ELI5:What happens when I lose consciousness?

So I was thinking about this while falling asleep last night. What happens exactly? I know you could drift into 'what exactly is consciousness territory' here. But what's my brain doing/doing less of and why does it mean I lose consciousness altogether?

Also as a bonus question - whats the difference between being knocked out and falling asleep in this respect?

[Assistant]
Your brain is compartmentalized.  Different bits of it handle different tasks.  When you lose consciousness, the part that handles being awake slows down to a crawl while some other parts are still partying like it's 1999.

When you get knocked out, it is because the base of your brain gets jarred badly enough to smack against the inside of your skull.  The parts of your brain controlling motor function and consciousness reside there, and they're taken offline for a bit.  Consciousness is usually regained and motor control returns after a brief respite.  Sleep is handled chemically.  Your brain literally shuts off your ability to move in order to prevent injury while your consciousness is offline.


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

[User] [General Fantasy] How do I create cheap magic resist gear so that my armies doesn't get annihilated?

[Assistant]
If you are dealing with powerful wizards, you are already fucked. They are basically gods already.

Magic armor is expensive, and won't help much. Focus on training your troops to avoiding pitfalls like throwing spikes, hitting People with guns, or attacking one and one in a melee, instead of supporting each other to distract and minimalize casualities.

What more, you need a SEROIUS attitude adjustment. Those "heroes"? they are a bunch of terrorists. Your troops are the real heroes, so act like it!

Mutual respect means they will be loyal, and fight to the death. Get respect by treating them well.
The same goes for civillians. They will be a lot less opposed to you taking over the town if you provide aid to get them back on their feet, and increase the standard of living. Taxation is a lot easier if the subjects feel they are getting something back for the taxation.
Nobody rebels against the dude who came in, built a well, and has a nice frendly garrison who stopped the monsters.


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

[User]
ELI5:what is the difference in economic policy between Republicans and Democrats? (U.S.)

edit: thank you all for your comments. all quite helpful. I was also interested in the explanation of the Republican and Democrat viewpoint of International economic policy as well.

[Assistant]
Democrats want to put money into social programs.  They believe that given the chance, most people will work.  However there are a significant percentage of people who are not working because of issues surrounding education, child care, health or other aspects of being poor.  Essentially they want to "help people up, so they can get back to work"

Getting more people to work will improve their quality of life AND bring in additional tax money (because working people pay more taxes).  Basically they want to soften the landing so when people fall off the ladder they can get back on and keep climbing.

Democrats feel that if you give extra money to rich people they are only going to spend it on rich people things and that won't benefit poor people at all.

Republicans are the opposite.  They think that if you give money to people who are not working, you create an incentive to be a lazy ass.  They think that if you make it harsher to be poor, fewer people will want to be poor and therefore more people will work.

They also feel that if you give tax breaks to the wealthy then those wealthy people will use that money to invest in businesses who will turn that investment into jobs.

Generally republicans favor lower taxes in an effort to increase the tax basis.  Democrats want to increase the tax basis by spending money to bring poor people up to a level where they can be productive workers.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are Republican candidates so against Planned Parenthood?

As the title suggests. Thank you.

[Assistant]
Planned Parenthood is an organization of clinics offering primary care and sexual health services on a sliding scale cost (making them affordable to low-income populations). Services include things like cancer screenings and physical exams. It is also, however, the largest provider of U.S. sexual health services like pregnancy tests, contraceptives, STD tests, and - most controversially - abortions.

Most Republican candidates are religious, typically Christian, and abortion goes against their religious values. Therefore, defunding the abortion-offering Planned Parenthood supports their goals. About 1/3 of Planned Parenthood's funding comes from federal family planning grants. While this money cannot legally be used for abortions and is technically supposed to support the organization's other services, some argue that leftover funds may be used for abortions. Others are against supporting an abortion-granting organization in any way.


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

[User]
How does cancer kill people?

I understand that cancer happens when a cell reproduces incorrectly and then creates a tumor by reproducing out of control. But how does that kill people? In other words, how do you die of cancer?

[Assistant] The tumor cells interfere with the normal working of the organ.  They may also release hormones or other substances which they shouldn't be releasing.  Furthermore, the tumor may metastasize, or drift around spawning other tumors, which then interfere with other organs.  It all ends up screwing with the body's biochemical balance.


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

[User] ELI5: How does Chik-Fil-A not struggle financially relative to other fast food franchises, considering they are open one day less than all the other businesses (They are closed on Sundays)?

[Assistant] That also reduces their costs (not rent, but cleaning, upkeep, etc...).  The key metric isn't just absolute amount of money they make, but amount of return on the money they spend, and they do quite well on that score.


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

[User] [arrested development] How long was Gob in a roofie circle?

[Assistant]
Some say he is still in the cycle today.

But seriously lets treat it like the movie momento. Eventually he will figure out that time is passing perhaps because he wakes up with a beard or the power gets cut to the apartment because he forgot to pay bills. He'll figure out a method which is far more effective at breaking the loop than the lipstick on mirror system he currently employed.


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

[User]
How much is Obama to blame for this latest domestic spying scandal.

I know Obama promised to get rid of the NSA's warantless spying as a candidate and clearly hasn't done that. He's also arresting any whistleblowers who bring forth evidence documenting the illegal activities of the government or his policies, but how much is Obama to blame for this and how much of it is due the pre-established laws such as the Patriot Act and other branches of government acting of their own discretion? If we had elected McCain would things have been different or was this just an unavoidable scenario that the president alone couldn't control?

[Assistant]
Obama can be held quite clearly accountable for the NSA's activities, since it's a branch of the gov't that falls under his control.

That he hasn't curtailed the NSA's spying is different from how he hasn't closed down Gitmo: The latter required legislative approval (and approval was NOT granted).

To break down the rest of your questions:

Repealing the PATRIOT Act would need legislative approval, so Obama's not entirely responsible for that. He could have asked for it, and not asking for it is points against him, but he probably would have gotten turned down anyway even if he did (as in closing Gitmo)

The IRS scandal, AFAIK, has not been directly linked to Obama. It's possible that the persons involved in this did not receive a directive from on-high, which clears Obama (although he's still involved in a very indirect way, as he's the head of the gov't)

No, the NSA thing is and was avoidable. However, it's unlikely that things would have been different under McCain or Romney, as Republican policy is also hawkish with regards to 'counter-terrorism', which all this surveillance would ostensibly fall under.


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

[User]
[Metal Gear] What makes the Metal Gears/Shagohod/Sahelanthropus so special?

I mean... tanks on legs? And some of them can launch nukes? What's the fuss all about?

[Assistant]
In that reality nukes were disarmed fairly early on in the Cold War, so having a giant walking robot scaring armies and firing tactical nuclear weapons is kind of a big deal.

Plus metal gears are (supposed to be) nearly unstoppable to normal forces, and require special operation units to take down.


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

[User]
[Chicken Run] At the end... (spoilers)

(I know it's a twenty-year-old film, but I still don't like to spoil.)

At the end, after falling from the chickens' makeshift plane, Mrs Tweedy is crushed (and presumably killed) by a barn door. Did it just happen to fall on her? Or did Mr Tweedy push it over deliberately, as revenge for all the abuse he suffered?

I always assumed it was the latter (and thought it made for a more satisfying ending) but on a rewatch there isn't that much evidence for it.

[Assistant]
Looking at the scene a few times, Mr. Tweedy's movement is somewhat ambiguous. It could be pushing over the door, or it could be someone trying uselessly to stop the door from falling over. Other evidence points me to a non-homicide conclusion. Mr. Tweedy doesn't seem in a murderous mood at that moment, and (if you pardon the Doylism) it would be really odd for a kids show to have a murder.

Also, in this claymation universe, it would take more than a falling door to kill someone.


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

[User]
ELI5: How are space rockets steered? I don't see any fins or flaps like on a plane

Do the engines move to direct the rocket? What's to keep them from getting off course?

[Assistant]
During launch, the engine nozzles do indeed swivel a bit to help steer-- this is called gimballing.

In space, very small thrusters pointing different directions are used to control the orientation of the spacecraft so that engine burns are made in the right direction. There is also a technique called spin-stabiliziaton, where spinning a spacecraft rapidly will keep it stable along the spin axis.


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

[User]
CMV: According to a utilitarian ethics system, certain forms of slavery are permissible (perhaps a moral requirement), and this makes utilitarianism a dangerous philosophy.

As I understand it, the basis for utilitarian philosophy is that whatever action produces the most happiness in the world is good, and those actions which produce less or take away from global happiness are less moral or evil.
The enslavement of the minority by the majority, with the minority doing all manner of unpleasant jobs, or working to facilitate happiness for the majority, would produce more total happiness.
Because I regard slavery of anyone as fundamentally evil (except for the forced labor of convicted felons) utilitarianism is therefore an unacceptable and horrific moral philosophy. Change my view!

[Assistant]
What you are describing is a common critique of utilitarianism (which is fairly common). What you are describing:

> whatever action produces the most happiness in the world is good, and those actions which produce less or take away from global happiness are less moral or evil.

Is close to *act utilitarianism*. However, *rule utilitarianism* is the idea that the an action is right if it conforms to a rule that maximizes utility. So a rule like no slavery maximizes utility (because the positive gains of slavery our outweighed by the negative of the slaves for example).

Alternative discussions include, do you maximize average happiness, or total happiness?

But what you may be thinking, (because a rule like no slavery is a bit of a dodge) is also called the *utility monster* (a monster who derives so much happiness from eating food, much more so than people, than we should give all the food to the monster).

A common patch for this is *Rawls maximum or difference principle*: when utility cant be evenly distributed, it should be distributed starting at the member with the lowest utility and increasing towards the highest. So slaves have a lower utility than free people, so utility should be directed towards them (by freeing them). Once they are no longer the lowest utility member, then other people get utilities.

So yes, thats an issue you pointed out, but it was patched a while ago.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does pushing our eye gently against a closed eye lid make us "see" things?

[Assistant]
In order to process sensory information (light, sound, touch, taste, etc.), it must be input through a receptor. The sensory modality (type) a receptor is most sensitive to (made to interpret) is called the adequate stimulus.

Photoreceptors (what ultimately turn light into an electrical/neuronal signal which can be then interpreted by the brain) in the eye have light as their adequate stimulus. However, (as you have illustrated) they can be stimulated by things other than light (touch/pressure--mechanoreception, electric current, salt concentration, etc.).

But there is one problem: photoreceptors are adapted (built/"hooked up") to interpret their adequate stimulus only. This means that any stimulus provided to the photoreceptor will be interpreted *as if* it is light--your brain will interpret it (touch, etc.) as vision.


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

[User]
Were there any programming languages Edsger Dijkstra actually liked?

I see quotes all over the internet in which Edsger Dijkstra throws shade at some programming language or another (Fortran, BASIC, COBOL, etc). I know he was primarily a pen-and-paper CompSci theory guy, but is there any record of him actually expressing admiration for a particular language?

[Assistant]
Dijkstra participated in the design of ALGOL 60, which Hoare said "was an improvement on all its predecessors and almost all of its successors."

Dijkstra publicly condemned ALGOL 68 for abandoning the "simplicity and elegance" or ALGOL 60.

So...ALGOL 60.


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

[User]
ELI5: This year, Hanukkah and Thanksgiving fall on the same day and apparently this won't happen again for another 80,000 years. Why is it so rare and why 80,000 years?

I assume it has to do with the lunar/solar calendar thing, but what exactly is going on?

[Assistant] You already said it. A lunar year is simply shorter, about 354 days, which is not the about 365 days the solar year is. Since they are based off different standards, the dates do not always coincide. There are corrections every few years for the slight differernces between the length of the day and year, which keep their months in certain seasons.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is walking in bad/old shoes considered unhealthy, but walking barefoot isn't?

[Assistant]
Shoes wear unevenly and because of this puts unnatural pressures on your foot affecting your entire posture which can damage muscles and other connective tissues all the way up into your shoulders and neck.

Walking barefoot only puts bad/unnatural pressures on your musculoskeletal system if you have a deformation like flat foot.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why didn't the Jedi have a "defense against the Sith arts" class in the Jedi Temple?

Every Jedi thought the Sith were extinct. I feel like it would've been wise to still learn how to fight against the Sith or any dark side user just as a precaution should they return...even though they never left.

[Assistant] Because Jedi may have thought the sith extinct but dark jedi were still a problem. The darkside is extremely corrupting so even trying to understand it without a strong will can lead to your downfall. Many Jedi have fallen just by simply being in the presence of sith artifacts let alone trying to master their fighting styles and force abilities.


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

[User]
ELI5: How could laser ignition be sustained?

Regarding nuclear fusion - I'm aware this problem has not been solved yet but I'm wondering if anyone is familiar with the intended roadmap.

In a tokomak design, fuel can be injected, so I can see how they'd plan on getting a sustained fusion reaction - just keep feeding more fuel into the device.

In laser ignition, you just have a little target sitting on a pedestal of sorts that gets blasted and destroyed. Once they figure out how to generate ignition based fusion energy reliably, what's the plan to "fuel" such a reactor? How do you get continuous energy out of an ignition fusion reaction? Is the intention for it to be intermittently generating power, like an ICE engine with some sort of ignition, refuel, ignition cycle?

[Assistant] In inertial confinement (laser) fusion, the idea is to ablate/detonate a pellet, collect the energy, set up another pellet, and repeat, machine-gun style. Like you say, most ideas for commercial-scale magnetic confinement (tokamak) fusion instead  involve a steady state plasma with continuous injection of new fusable material.


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

[User] Why does extremely spicy food make me feel euphoric?

[Assistant]
It triggers your pain receptors which causes increased endorphines (naturally occurring opioid painkillers) to combat the pain but which also results in euphoria.

Normally you don't really notice as you are also actually hurt, but because the capsaicin just tricks your nerves into think they are burning you can enjoy the effects more.  Similar to a weightlifter's or runner's high.


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

[User]
[Batman Beyond/DC] If all it takes to break the Joker is to treat him like a joke, why hasn't Bruce used this as a strategy?

Terry managed to find the Joker's weakness: laughing at him, like the pathetic clown he is. For all his genius, why didn't Bruce ever employ the tactic?

[Assistant]
I think a few things are at play here:

1: Bruce explicitly tells Terry to power through and block him out, because he knows nothing the Joker tells him will be of any substance. The man's a serial killer and career criminal, the first priority is to get him off the streets and into jail.

Terry's dilemma is that he can't power through this Joker because he's a better fighter than him. Thus, Terry had to think outside the box and attempt something Bruce never would: Break the image of the implacable Batman and laugh.

2: Just like Joker's not fighting the "real" Batman, Terry's not fighting the real Joker, he's fighting one of the Robins who's been brainwashed by a computer chip. While it is likely the chip has a comprehensive list of mannerisms and thought pattern changes to emulate the Joker to a T, it's still dealing with a brain that's not the Joker's.

This puts Terry in an interesting position to exploit that.

The knowledge base it has to draw from is Robin's memory, and thus, lacks most, is not all, of the original Joker's experiences. He has none of the events that color the Joker's perspective nor any ingrained ideologies beyond what the chip tells him to have.

When Terry starts laughing and making fun of him, the Joker has no way of countering his points. Literally everything Terry is saying to him runs contrary to his programming, and you can see it in how agitated he gets, the heavy breathing, the lack of a response beyond denying he's listening or telling him to stop.

**TL;DR**: It works because Terry had to/was willing to break Batman's character to win and because Joker knows nothing about the Joker.


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

[User]
[Stargate] Why don't the goa'uld continually dial Earth's stargate to keep it busy?

It's well established in-universe that any stargate can dial any other stargate, that they form one-way connections, and that when a connection is made, the gate will be "busy" for a total of 38 minutes.

At first, it's clear the goa-uld simply don't take Earth seriously as a threat and largely disregard it (despite the death of Ra). It's mainly Apophis who actively attacks Earth, through a variety of schemes.

While SGC manages to implement the Iris before the goa-uld realize they need to mount a serious assault, it seems like the goa-uld have a simple solution to keep SG-1 out of their hair:

Just dial Earth over and over, preventing an outgoing connection and preventing Earth from gaining resources and allies. Even a weak goa-uld is implied to control several stargates. It would seem  to be a simple plan to arrange for a Jaffa garrison to dial Earth in this manner. SGC would be effectively neutered and Earth would once more be the non-threat the goa-uld took it to be.

[Assistant]
There are a couple instances of the goa'uld do this. They only manage to keep the earth gate busy for a couple of days, due to the 38 minute limit of gates being able to maintain a connection. It was simply a matter of the SGC finally being able to dial out quicker than the goa'uld could dial in. This tactic becomes pointless once the SGC gets its first space ship, especially if Asgaardian teleportation technology is aboard, then in conjunction with the alpha site they can maintain a galactic presence.

Additionally, by being continually dialed into Earth that gate is tied up, and the System Lords' are not known for being understanding so this might open up whichever goa'uld to attack from another.


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

[User]
ELI5:What was the Nazi plan for explaining the Final Solution to the German public?

The general historical consensus is that the Final Solution was not general public knowledge since the average citizen would be against genocide.  Theoretically, if the Nazis won, did the 3rd Reich have a plan/idea in place on how they were going to explain the complete absence of Jews in Europe?  Or were they going to pretend they were all alive and well "somewhere else"?

[Assistant]
I don't think they really thought that far. Actually, most of the Nazis' plans were half-baked: for example, they were building huge structures all over Berlin and Nuremberg (the few they completed can still be seen today), but didn't have a clue how to actually pay for them.

At the time they explained to the public that Jews were being sent to labour camps. There's a lot of dispute over how much the people really knew, but the important thing is that anyone who dared voice any misgivings could be terrified into silence.

It wasn't just the Jews who were being sent to concentration camps, of course: there were also homosexuals, Roma and Sinti (what we call "Gypsies") and later religious and political enemies as well.

The vague idea was, presumably, that once all these "enemies of the state" had been removed from Germany, the people who were left would eventually forget them and rejoice in their utopian lives. No need to explain their complete absence: it would, in time, just become accepted.


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

[User]
Professors who only teach, what's it like to not have research responsibilities?

I have been considering applying to some colleges (smaller local/community colleges) that have postings for teaching only professor positions, but I am wondering what the workload and lifestyle is like. I've noticed the expected weekly work hours are 45hrs/week, so I assume it would mean being responsible for teaching a few classes per semester. I did a thesis based PhD in Health Sciences in Canada and have since been working in a hospital doing clinical research, but at times have considered a career change. For any professors who only teach and don't do research, can you provide some pros/cons and insight for this type of career?

[Assistant]
I have had friends who have done this. Pros are it seems less stressful without research productivity, and it does allow for people who really love teaching to fluorish.

The cons are that teaching-only colleges are likelier to see issues related to funding, as well as the fact that your personal mobility is much less (fewer institutions to move to).


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

[User] ELI5: why does French have so many silent letters?

[Assistant]
It's non Phonemic, meaning that the writing system and the actual spoken language don't align. In fact technically there are no silent letters in the language, there are extra (vestigial) letters in the writing system.

Also French is mild compared to English (at least to me, as a foreigner to both). Night?  Are you kidding me?


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is it if a stereo unit cannot decode a lossless audio format (e.g. flac) it can still receive lossless audio from another source (e.g. phone) and play it back at lossless quality?

My car stereo doesn't support FLAC for playing music on usb or sd card storage, but I can stream lossless music from my phone (via Bluetooth 4 or auxiliary) to it. Surely it must support high quality audio codecs if it can play them back via an alternative source?

[Assistant]
It doesn't support the codecs, at that point it's receiving the output of the phone, which is an analog output (in the case of the headphone/output jack) or a mutually supported digital output.

To ELI5 analogy it: humans can't digest grass, but we can digest beef. Just because we are eating a cow that ate grass doesn't mean we can suddenly digest the grass that made that beef possible. Likewise, just because a stereo system can accept an analog signal generated from a FLAC file doesn't mean it can accept the FLAC file. The phone converts it to a readable signal.


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

[User] If weight is the measured effect of gravity on an object, and gravity is stronger the closer to the objects center of mass the measuring object is, do objects high in the atmosphere weigh less than those on the ground, from a physics standpoint?

[Assistant]
Yes, but the difference isn't very big. The radius of the Earth is about 6400 km (depending on where on Earth you measure). So if you're 10 km high in the atmosphere (the cruising altitude for long haul commercial aircraft), you're only 0.15% further away from the center of mass.

Since gravity is proportional to the square of the distance, that means there's a difference of about 0.31%. On a fairly average adult male of 80 kg, that's about a quater of a kg difference. This difference is certainly measurable, but it's also well within daily fluctuations of ones weight (a drink, a meal or a bathroom break could cause differences of similar magnitude).


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

[User]
How are rockets test fired without moving?

How is all of the energy the rocket produces which would normally increase it's velocity upwards absorbed or dissipated? My first thoughts would be attaching a large amount of mass to the rocket somehow or putting a large amount of mass above it that it is not capable of breaking through, but I feel like it would have a more advanced answer than that.

[Assistant]
They're fixed, ultimately to the ground.

Even the SLS boosters produce a thrust of around 15,000 kiloNewtons or 1500 tonnes. For a rocket engine that's a lot, but for a force that a structure must take, it's really not that much. The wind loading on a decent sized skyscraper in a storm can be more, albeit spread out whereas the rocket engine concentrates its thrust. The weight of a structure on its foundations can be a LOT more.


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

[User]
[MCU] Why did Thanos give Loki the mind stone?

He was trying to gather all the stones, so why did he give Loki the mind stone? It was obviously risky since it was eventually taken by humans.

[Assistant] Because to Thanos, having a stone in someone else's possession but easily trackable is better than having it in his own hand.  Thanos is a major player, and people pay attention to what he does, and while he is damn powerful there are people out there (especially while Odin was alive) that can beat him.  He did not want to attract the attention of those people until he was ready i.e. by knowing where the stones were and being able to get them.


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

[User]
What conditions caused what we know as human consciousness to begin?

Would it have begun out of the blue in an adult person or would it have begun as early as when a child develops consciousness today as a result of a new evolutionary development in the human brain? What was the evolutionary purpose for consciousness as an advantage to human survival that was so needed as opposed to the limited consciousness that other animals possess? Please elaborate as much as you can.

[Assistant] This is a million dollars question. Nobody know why or how consciousness emerged in the first place. We can barely define what is is to start with. All we know is that the brain evolved and then at some point consciousness happened. Or vice versa.


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

[User]
I believe it is morally wrong to smoke cannabis solely because it is against the law. CMV.

This can be explained fairly briefly.

As citizens, we are bound to obey the laws of our government. This same government is elected directly by the people and enforces its will (at least in theory) through the same people. When we break the law, whether it is in the form of illegally smoking cannabis or some other illicit action, we not only disrespect the government, but the American people as well.

Your state allows for proscriptions? I still believe smoking would be wrong because first of all, it's still illegal on the federal level, and second, you're more than likely abusing the system to get high.

I don't mean to say that we should never question our government or laws. If what the government is doing is blatantly immoral, it would be our duty to do the right thing (sheltering Jews, etc.). However, these instances are highly exceptional, and the desire to get high should not be listed among them.

[Assistant]
So you agree that there are at least some instances in which breaking the law would be morally permissible, if not an obligation- such as speeding in order to get an injured or sick person to a hospital quicker? Or your example of sheltering Jews in Nazi Germany?

Where, then, do you draw the line, and why is it arbitrarily placed between the different infractions? If there are certain circumstances under which you can morally break a law, why does any law have any moral value in and of itself?


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

[User]
[Star Wars] If Obi-Wan had been upfront and understanding with Anakin's fears in ROTS, could he have prevented his fall to the Dark Side?

Say before Obi-Wan is sent to Utapau, he notices somethings wrong with Anakin. He knows it's about Padme, and decides instead of donning the whole stoic Jedi mentor role he's going to just be open and honest like a best friend or mentor. He remembers how he felt about Satine after all, and how hard it was to deal with. So he takes Anakin to a nice bar and they discuss things over drinks without any "the Jedi wouldn't approve" BS.

If Obi-Wan hears Anakin's concerns about the Order and Padme, and (after thinking about how he'd give anything to save Satine) he promises Anakin they will not allow Padme to die like Anakin sees in his premonitions, can Anakin still be saved? Will Anakin be more likely to allow Mace to go arrest Palpatine if he knows Obi-Wan is fully behind him and there to help? What would happen? And if it isn't enough, could any additional Jedi offering their support and understanding be enough to keep Anakin from falling to the Dark Side?

[Assistant] Basically, Anakin's fall is entirely due to no support system. If Ahsoka had still been around or if Obi-Wan had been the brother he should've been, Anakin would've been better off. Maybe not saved, but Palpatine turned Anakin by emotionally supporting the poor boy.


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

[User]
Concerns about medical condition and going to job talk/interviews at universities (USA)

This question is for those of you who have served on hiring committees. I have a stomach issue that requires I take a pill in order for *things to work*. I have to take it at a certain time, the stars have to be aligned just right, etc etc etc.

I am a candidate on the market and I am very concerned about upcoming job talks, full day meetings, etc. My current univ does 2.5 days per person. Meaning that the person comes in and spends an evening, full day, half day and then flies home. That would not work for my pewp sched. How do I handle this, logistically? I am freaking out.
(I am using a throwaway for obvious reasons).

[Assistant] There is always some particular person who is in charge of a visiting candidate's schedule -- generally either a secretary or a member of the search committee. When you are invited for a job interview, ask for name & contact info for this person. Then contact that person as soon as possible, and tell them that you need breaks at certain times (which you specify). If pressed on why, say it's for "medical reasons".


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

[User]
How does capitalism deal with automation?

Lets say there is an imaginary town of 100,000 families. Each family has one person working 40 hours a week. That worker receives in pay enough to buy everything his or her family needs. The town is self-contained, 100,000 workers are able to supply enough goods and services for 100,000 families.

Now lets say that because of advances in technology and automation the town only needs half of the hours worked per person to produce the same amount of goods and services.

My question is how do you address this problem? You could require people to cut their hours in half so that everybody still has a job.  But if you did that you would either have to cut prices in half or double wages, so every worker would still have enough money to buy everything they need just like before.

As technology advances and fewer hours are needed to produce the same output, what mechanism is available to capitalism where all the workers are able to earn enough to buy everything their family needs?

[Assistant]
Well, look at history. Southern Democrats in the 1920s were concerned that mechanized farm equipment would destroy the world economy, because in that period for countries of the United States' economic type about two-thirds of the workforce worked in agriculture. Every robot and automatic device since the lever has reduced the number of people needed to do something. In the US today, farm and factory output per worker is at an all-time high, and is pretty much every year.

The people in your example would simply find something better to do.


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

[User] ELI5 How do direction work in space because north,east,west and south are bonded to earth? How does a spacecraft guide itself in the unending space?

[Assistant]
Spacecraft are able to determine their position and orientation through a combination of on board sensors (like star sensors) and off board trackers (like radar). Beyond that, it is typical to describe their position and velocity as an orbit. These orbits can be described using a few variables that indicate the size, orientation, and direction of the orbit. These are called "Keplerian Elements."

So, for example if you wanted to convey information about a satellite above the Earth, you wouldn't say "It's 500Km above the ground, moving 7km/s in the Northwest direction" but you could say, "The satellite's orbit has a semimajor axis of 6800km, with an eccentricity of .01, inclination of 23 degrees..."

Of course, there are other ways of keeping track of and describing these, but that's one of the most basic ways.


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

[User] [MW2] If Pvt. Ramirez survives, what kind of military honors would he receive?

[Assistant]
He'd deserve a metric ton of them, but there's going to be so many worthy recipients from the action in the East Coast that the proper authorities are going to be backlogged for years.

In addition to any campaign-specific ribbons issued for the Ultra-Nationalist conflict, he'd probably be a Medal of Honor contender just from the sheer amount of physical peril he was exposed to during the battle, as well as his role in ensuring that the White House didn't get reduced to a crater by an American strike mission.


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

[User]
[Star Wars: The Clone Wars] Why did Pre Vizsla think it was a good idea to ally himself with Maul, a self-declared Sith, and therefore an enemy of Mandalore?

In Legends, but it may carry over into current Canon, the Mandalorians *had* made alliances with the Sith. However, it's well established in both timelines that Sith betray *literally everyone* they ever work with- and sure enough. the Sith Empire backstabbed Mandalore and made themselves an enemy of the Mandalorians.

Now, Pre Vizsla, a rabid fanatic Mandalorian, would obviously have read his people's extensive history, including Mandalore's enemies. If he had read about the ancient Sith, he'd know that, again, Sith betray *everybody* who allies themselves with them even when it would hurt them in the long run. Which brings me to this: Why did Pre think teaming up with Maul and Savage Opress wasn't going to bite him in the ass if he knew they were Sith?

[Assistant]
He knew they werent reliable allies, but he assumed that he would be able to get the better of them rather than the other way around.

Sure, he was dead wrong in his assessment, but overconfidence is a hallmark trait of villains.


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

[User]
We're living in a musical golden age. CMV

For every post about Miley Cyrus and the downfall of music, I just want to scream. How are we not celebrating how great music is now? It's easier than ever to find new music, and listening to it is just a click away. Electronic music is exploding, and there's great music in every genre if you look. People who say Pop stars are at a new low are fooling themselves- popular music has always sucked- for every Beatles song there was an equally hollow, contrived song, like "Achey Breaky Heart," and "Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini."

A side rant-People are always knocking Kanye West, which I find ridiculous, because he's an incredible artist. You may not like *him* but his music is thought-provoking and well-made.

EDIT: Here's a list of people/groups I like who have released albums in the past few years: A$AP Ferg, Air, Daft Punk, Arcade Fire, Autre Ne Veut, Azealia Banks, Flying Lotus/Captain Murphy, Chance the Rapper, Chromatics, Ciara, Com Truise, Danger Doom (Danger Mouse and MF Doom, both of whom I like, as well as Gnarls Barkley), Destroyer, Drake, Earl Sweatshirt, Frank Ocean, Grimes, Grizzly Bear, Grouper, Hot Hot Heat, The Internet, Juliana Barwick, Justin Timberlake, Kaiser Chiefs, Kanye West, Kendrick Lamar, Kurt Vile, Madeon, Miguel, Neon Indian, Passion Pit, Purity Ring, Solange, The Sizlacks, STS9, Major Arcana, Vampire Weekend, The Weeknd, Wild Nothing, and 3LAU.

EDIT 2: Because of some comments, I would like to clarify why I think we're in a musical golden age. It all boils down to a) availability b) production.

**AVAILABILITY**

Go on google right now and search for the early 90's hit Whoomp! There it is. 2 seconds later, you have access to the music video, the lyrics, and an encyclopedic entry on the history of the song and its creators. You can also browse similar music, and even own the song in seconds.

You think you would do that before the advent of the internet? No! You would sit around, trying to remember that song that went, Whoomp! There it is, before putting it out of your mind.

You can access music from thousands of years ago from around the globe! You can listen to amateur musicians at the click of a button. Want to learn to play guitar? As long as you have a guitar, you can become a master for free, just by searching on the internet (and approximately 15000 hours of practice) Hell, you can even upload your own music. That's something special, right there.

**PRODUCTION**

I'm 18, so I've grown up in an era full of electronic music. If you don't like it, fine, but you cannot deny that there was a genre explosion once ordinary people could start making music on their computers. From Daft Punk to The Haxan Cloak (just look it up), there's a niche for you. Plus, production is much cheaper, and you can find quality production outside of big names and big labels nowadays.

EDIT 3: Also, I would just like to say my mom is a full-time Jazz musician, fairly well respected in the Bay Area, but definitely not big time.

[Assistant]
There's no such thing as a musical golden age, because there's no reliable metric to gauge the quality of music of a given period, and the reason for that is that the only metric one could point to for such a quantification (the success of a given artist/song among the population it's made available to) is a constantly shifting dynamic influenced by an interplay of a shitload of factors.

Also, you cited A$AP as being an example of good music today... and you picked *Ferg* ? Rocky tears his shit up.


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

[User]
Will we ever reach a point where it must become necessary for people to specialize their entire lives?

Like will a soft cap, where research has gone so far that it takes a lifetime to catch up, ever occur? Will we avoid this by specializing kids after they have learned all they need to research? Because eventually, it will take an immense amount of time to learn what you need to know to research, right?

[Assistant]
No.

Because specializations and abstractions.

If single specialization would become too big for single person to learn, it will begin split into multiple sub-specializations. This is slow, but natural process. As part of this process, abstractions happen between those sub-specializations. And some of those sub-specializations might become fields by themselves.

Take computers. No single person can understand whole process that happens on the lowest of levels in chip as you visit a website. There are at least dozens of abstractions that are involved. One person might understand low-level chip design, another might understand how chips communicate, another might understand how bits are handled by OS, another might understand how web browser operates and another how website itself works and many inbetweens. Historically computing was just extension electrical engineering, but as it grew it became it's own field. And then it divided into software and hardware. And even those are divided into many sub-specializations.

Same thing happens both in science and engineering.


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

[User] How do scientists still find new elements?

[Assistant] It's not a matter of *finding* them (in nature) anymore. New elements are *created* in particle accelerators by smashing smaller atoms together. Sometimes the nuclei combine for a vanishingly brief moment in time before undergoing radioactive decay.


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

[User] ELI5: Why did so many pirates use swords when firearms existed?

[Assistant] Firearms existed, but were hard to reload. What you would likely have at the time period you are referring to is a flint lock pistol. It took about 90 seconds to reload, could not hit a person across the length of a ships deck, could not be wet, were not powerful enough to reliably kill someone, might not go off at all and blinded you first with a flash and then with a huge cloud of smoke. So if you were able to get a shot off you would likely be charged and had to find another weapon within seconds. Some people carried multiple pistols which allowed them to fire multiple rounds before reloading. However you would have to rely on close combat weapons that did not have any of the problems of a gun. Even as guns improved soldiers were still using knifes to fight in WWI. However in WWII guns and tactics had changed so soldiers rarely relied on their knife, although they were used in some situations where guns were inferior.


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

[User]
How is battery capacity calculated?

Today had a lot to with batteries, and I feel very confused. I was reading about teslas new battery in australia that had a capacity of 100MW, bought a new 10800 mAh battery for my phone, and also read about the 44 MAL 740 battery cell that the germans used in WW2. the german battery held 12000 Ah of power. I dont really know how to relate, and I also feel like a modern battery should be able to hold more than 1/12000 of a battery from the 40s. As a basic consumer, how do I figure out how to compare batteries? Especially when they use differing unit types, Wh vs Ah.

[Assistant]
A Watt-hour is a unit of energy equivalent to 3600 Joules. An Amp-hour is a unit if electric charge equivalent to 3600 Coulombs. The two units measure different things, one the total energy that can be supplied by the battery and the other the total charge that can be supplied by the battery. A rough convention is to multiply the Ah of the battery by it's operating voltage to get the Wh.

Second, the U-boat battery is the size of a person, much bigger than your cell phone battery.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do water and oil not mix, but water washes off detergent and detergent washes off oil?

Its like a big love triangle and detergent is the one in the middle.

Bonus points if you can explain like I'm a chemist. (I'm not)

[Assistant]
Because detergent sticks to both oil and water, while oil and water don't want to touch (oil is "hydrophobic" meaning it repels water, while water is hydrophilic, meaning it likes to stick to water - ie itself - and thus form water droplets even if nothing else is around).

Soaps have molecules with two different ends.  One end loves oil, the other loves water. So the detergent bonds to the oils on one side and the water on the other, which lets the water wash away the oil.


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

[User]
What exactly are Goosebumps?

What are goosebumps, and what really causes them? Do they actually do anything and if so, what do they do?

[Assistant]
They are an evolutionary trait that humans no longer need. Originally it made your fur stand on end. This achieved two things: one, it trapped warm air next to your skin to keep you warm  and  two : it made you appear bigger and more frightening.

This explains why you get goosebumps when you are cold and when your flight/fight response is activated.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is it impossible to transplant a bladder? It seems strange to me that a heart can be transplanted and a bladder can't.

[Assistant]
It's not impossible, it's a weighting of the positives and negatives of a procedure. Transplantation is drastic, dangerous, and life altering. The patient will have to take drugs that suppress their immune system for the rest of their life along with the many side effects that patients will now have to live with. So we generally only do it for stuff that's either not prone to rejection that the patient won't have to spend a lifetime on anti-rejection drugs (i.e. cornea) or for stuff where if the patient doesn't have it they will die.

A heart? You can't live without it. So transplanting easily edges out the risks and possible complications. A bladder? Not so much. Surgeons are good at fashioning bladders from bowel or small intestine, they can create urine accumulation pockets to be drained by cathater, they can route the ureters to a port on the body to be collected by a bag. These are a mere minor inconvenience compared to a lifetime on anti-rejection drugs and a weakened immune system.


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

[User] ELI5: How exactly does a caterpillar turn into a butterfly?

[Assistant] During the process of metamorphasis, all of the internal structures of the caterpillar seem to liquefy. As a result, modern imaging techniques for looking at living things without cutting them open have proven unhelpful, as all of them depend upon differences in density or tissue composition, and it all becomes pretty similar. The butterfly gets reassembled from the goop somehow.


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

[User] eli5: what Hedge Funds actually do?

[Assistant]
The term hedge fund is a pretty generic term so there is no single answer to this question. Very broadly speaking, hedge funds take in funds from investors and invest them in a set of financial instruments in order to make money.

The term "hedge" was used because some of these funds target specific types of risk and were designed to protect against them. For example, if an investor owned lots of property and earned money from rents, they are exposed to interest rate risks. Purchasing a hedge funds whose value moved in opposite direction of property rentals, "hedges" their risk on interest rates.

In modern terms though, hedge funds are now just seen as a fund for investors to make money. Because these funds can be a bit more focused in terms of risk exposure (ie greater risk and greater rewards), hedge funds are typically only for experienced investors.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] How did the French deal with the International statue of secrecy before it was founded in the French Ministry was founded?(1790)

 The French ministry of Magic was created during the French revolution in 1790; but the statue of secrecy was created 100 years prior. Was the Magicians of France under the control of the King and his government?

[Assistant]
Magical Britain was ruled by an organisation called the Wizard's Council before the ministry was founded and the Wizard's Council became the Wizengamot.

I think it's likely that the French Equivalent of the Wizard's Council would have ruled in France before the French ministry was established.


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

[User]
[Attack on Titan] Why is Marley so short-sighted?

Throughout AoT, Marley is shown to absolutely hate Eldia, to the point they shoot themselves in the foot multiple times out of sheer discriminatory hatred. For example, they often treat Eldians as lesser, even Titan Shifters, people who can heal from basically any injury and turn into giant monsters who can in some cases destroy entire nations. They also force Eldians to fight for them on the front lines, which obviously means the race they treat so badly now has extensive combat experience, and as we see in one of the latest chapters, the Eldians in the Marleyan military outnumber the Marleyans. Marley is also arguably entirely to blame for the Rumbling, as they attacked Paradis knowing full well that Eren Jaegar hsa control of the Coordinate, and even though he may not be of royal blood, there are people of royal blood on the Island who he could simply touch to basically end the world. So why in all of this time don't they ever take a look at the long-term consequences of subjugating the Eldians so much? Is it simply blind arrogance?

[Assistant]
There's definitely more emotion than logic to their hatred of the Eldians.  They hate them because they're terrified of them, and it's not surprising they fear people who can turn into the monsters that causes so much terror and death.  But it's ultimately hypocritical, because they abuse the power of the Titans the same way the Eldian empire did.

In the "loading screens" (I don't know what you'd call them in an anime), Marley is described as a military dictatorship.  Many dictatorships on Earth control their people through fear of the other, and through a belief that the government can protect them from the same.  So in a way, it's in their interest that the Eldians remain a low-key threat in the minds of their people.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do conservatives not typical push for conservation of the environment and of natural resources?

This is not just a semantic question. Conservatives favour family, the economy, a strong country and a continuation of the status quo. It would seem that the degradation of the environment and the overuse of resources would be a being threat to these values than, say, terrorism. So why is conservation of the environment and of natural resources not generally a prominent part of the conservative platform?

[Assistant] Generally conservatives are against regulation of business, and conservation of the environment requires businesses to be regulated so that they don't exploit it. This is a case where their economic stance of "making laws that regulate businesses is bad" outweighs any other considerations.


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

[User]
[Mass Effect] How did humanity become so powerful/influential so quickly?

I have not played the first 3 ME games in awhile and I am confused as to how we became such a big part of intergalactic politics. What separates us from any of the other species? What makes us so special that a human is able to become a specter in such a short amount of time relative to the other species who are part of the council?

[Assistant]
"Being average" is often humanity's hat in a lot of fictional settings. Some species are better at war. Some species have better tech. Some species breed faster, or are individually more powerful. Each of them is superior to humanity in one particular thing, but overall we don't do so bad.

Thing is, a lot of things in life are more like pentathlons, with a gauntlet of different challenges. Some species will dominate a particular sport but it's the generalist that's going to reach the finish line first.


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

[User]
How do Beauvoir and Camus compare in their accounts of existentialism?

Mainly are there any themes or areas they have strong similarities or differences in?

Ive found a lot of resources comparing each to Sartre but not many direct comparisons. Thanks :)

[Assistant] Trick question, Camus was not an existentialist. Beauvoir and Camus have the same starting point in absurdity, but their way out differs. Beauvoirs way out is engagement with the world via projects, building relationships, extending your ego. Camus way out is a fellowship between people and love for others. Camus is a humanist.


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

[User]
Does your weight (meausred by a scale) change based on where the moon is in relation the Earth?

Obviously not by much, but a little?

[Assistant] Yes, it does. It works in the same way as tides; the earth's gravitational field pulls you in one direction, the moon's in another. The force of the earth is just so much greater on you that the force of the moon is negligable. It is an extremely minimal change in weight, but there is a change nevertheless.


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

[User]
what powers the RFID tags in passport etc

A passport lasts like 10years and has RFID chips,how do such chips recharge?

[Assistant]
There are several kinds of RFIDs, but passports use a passive chip -- it has no internal power source.

Instead, the chip is charged up for use each time you try to "read" it. all radio antennas work by generating electricity when hit by radio waves. With an RFID, the electricity from the receiving antenna is enough to power up the chip, which emits back a tiny signal from its own transmitter.


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

[User]
As the light of more stars reaches the earth, will the night sky become brighter and brighter over time?

Looking forward billions of years, if someone was able to look up at the night sky from earth (lets assume its still here), will there be some point in the future where the night sky is saturated with light?

[Assistant]
The opposite will happen, actually.

Space is expanding faster than the speed of light. Except for a small bubble around the milky way, galaxies will move outside the observable universe until there are no stars left except ones in the milky way. According to the big rip theory, eventually, even those will go away as well.


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

[User] [WH40k] What is the single most coveted artifact that a rich nobleman can purchase to symbolically represent my power and awesome financial wealth?

[Assistant] A Jokaero digital weapon. Probably in the form of a signet ring or scepter or whatever. They are the among the most difficult objects to obtain in the 40k universe without direct involvement in the Inquisition or Astartes (Like a rosarius or the Crux Terminatus). Also super useful to have a Lascannon that fits in your pocket.


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

[User] [Star Wars] How did Slave 1 get its name?

[Assistant]
Legend has it that Jango was sold into slavery to the governor of Galidraan after he and his True Mandalorians were defeated by a group of Jedi led by Master Dooku. After two years as a slave on a spice ship, an attack by pirates let him escape.

When he lost his ship, Jaster's Legacy, he commandeered a prison's patrol ship (destroying the only other 5 of that class), and eventually renamed it - perhaps in memory of his own slavery - as Slave 1.


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

[User]
As a reformed creationist I am now thoroughly convinced that evolution is true. I do have one question though.

Why is it that we don't see information being added to the genome? We always hear about "dormant genes being reactivated" or something along those lines, but where did the genes come from? Why don't we constantly see new information in subsequent generations of animals? If we do, where can I read about it?

[Assistant] You get duplication of genes.  These duplicate copies made either by mutations or transposons (jumping genes), can then be mutated to have new properties.  This is essentially how organisms become more and more complex.


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

[User]
ELI5 Why does England compete in some sports but participate in others as Great Britain or the UK?

I'll try to add some context.
So in the Olympics, they compete as Team GB with Northern Ireland instead of being called the UK.
In Soccer and Rugby, England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland all compete separately with their own National teams.
Someone like Rory McIlroy is from Northern Ireland and is represented during the PGA with a Northern Ireland flag but represents UK but called British.

[Assistant]
Association football was invented in England. It spread first through the UK, so the first games between countries was England vs Scotland, but Ireland and Wales got their own teams around the same time.

Later, when FIFA first started the World Cup, each nation's football association (FA) was invited. The UK had 4 different FAs (one for each country) so they joined individually. There was once talk of combining to one team in the World Cup, but the French were adamantly against the idea since a combined UK team would be too good (at the time)

These days, the nations of the UK are too well entrenched behind their national teams to ever consider playing on the same side.

A similar story goes for Rugby.

Things get a bit more confusing because Northern Ireland and The Republic of Ireland used to be the same country when these sports were invented. Soccer is the exception here, most other sports are played under a United Ireland.

Cricket is a bit older, and was invented back when Wales and England were the same country in practically every way. The England Cricket Team represents England *and* Wales internationally.


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

[User]
CMV: You can separate the art from the artist, and you shouldnt feel bad about enjoying it.

So, Im going to keep this short, sweet, and to the point. Its 2021, you can most definitely separate the art from the artist* (for the most part). Just because an artist, musician, film maker does something shitty doesnt mean you ever have to feel bad about indulging in their respective form of media or expression. With modern day technology, yo I can enjoy anything with multiple avenues both legal and illegal of enjoying these works with out the artist ever seeing a dime from your pocket. For example, I can buy a records second hand, you can stream movies for free, you get the drill. So, I think its absolutely ridiculous anyone should make you feel badly about enjoying something just because a person did something bad in these modern times. You have infinite amount of ways to enjoy these things with a guilt free conscious.

[Assistant]
But being a fan of them... is money in their pocket frankly. Its not as direct as buying their stuff but it isnt entirely gone.

The more people that seem to like their music continues their relevance and often they use that power to continue doing bad things.

People like Weinstien and R Kelly and Bill Cosby all went down right? And have all done bad things. It is no coicidence they all only went down in their most unsuccessful and less culturally relevant years.

Making them less relevant makes them less relevant to everyone including people who would make deals with them.


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

[User]
CMV: Pansexuality is just bisexuality

This is not a diss to anybody calling themselves pansexual, this is simply a question of why the term even needs to exist. For reference, I am bisexual myself.

Sexuality refers to what you are sexually attracted to, right? This means you are attracted to penis, vagina, both, or neither. There are no additional parts.

Here's a common definition of pansexual: "sexually attracted to people regardless of their sex or gender." And here's the definition for sexuality in general, "capacity for sexual feelings."

There's an issue with pansexuality in this case. It seems to be implying that people who bisexual stay with their partner strictly because of sexual desire, which is not the case in most people. Bisexuals also like people regardless of their sex, and this isn't an argument for gender. It just feels like a way to further stereotype bisexuals as promiscuous, poly, and/or not able to commit. Pansexuality, by existing, implies that it is more inclusive than bisexuality.

I don't think both terms should exist considering they basically mean the same thing. This argument has nothing to do with gender expression by the way, it is purely for parts, because that's what the 'sexual' means in the words. Please give me alternative views though, I genuinely just want to understand why the term pansexual needs to exist along bisexual.

ETA: There is a common misconception about what bisexuality is. It doesn't just mean cis men and women, it includes nearly every gender/sex that exists. Also, my mind has been changed regarding this, so please stop attacking if you haven't read all of the comments.

ETA2: If anybody would like to have a further conversation regarding this topic or anything you may agree or disagree with, feel free to send me a DM! It's getting a little hard keeping up with the sheer number of comments but I want anyone who has something to say to me to be able to do it!

[Assistant]
Bisexual is just an umbrella term, from which pansexual falls under. Pansexual is essentially bisexuality but more precise. As in, all pan people are bi, but not all bi people are pan.
The meanings can differ depending on times and who you ask, but generally bisexual people can or can not have a preference towards certain genders. In other words, gender may or may not play a role into attraction.

Pansexual, on the other hand, means that gender does not play a role into attraction.
Just like the other side is omnisexual, where gender does play a role in attraction.

Both if these fall under the bi umbrella as they are just more specific terms.


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

[User]
CMV: The Flash is the most broken, op hero ever.

Some of you may be thinking "the flash, the dude just runs fast what's so overpowered about him?" well ill tell you why. The Flash, specifically Wally West, is powerful, very powerful. He can casually ran the speed of light, not crazy enough for you? How about the time he ran 13 trillion times the speed of light? Or how about the time he outran instant teleportation.

There are more stupid things but I'd be here all day if I had to list them all. In addition he can also perceive things faster than an attosecond, for reference sake in one second light can travel from one side of earth to the other, in one attosecond light would barely reach one from end of an atom to another and he can perceive things FASTER than an attosecond. He can also steal other people's kinetic energy to make himself faster or turn others into statues and phase through solid objects by vibrating his molecules. Finally he has his IMP, what does the IMP stand for? Infinite. Mass. Punch. Now considering this is a comic real world physics don't necessarily apply here but basically what how it works is Flash runs so fast he punches with the force of a condensed star, this punch was able to take down a character that was, at his absolute weakest, Superman level.

 So how can he do this you ask? The answer is quite simple actually: Speed Force, the dimensional force that speedsters draw their powers from. This allows him to not only run at ridiculous speeds but also BREAK THE LAWS OF PHYSICS AT WILL, which is how he can grab someone at lightspeed and they won't die, or how he doesn't die from running at higher speeds. So with everything I've told you how does Flash have any meaningful physical interactions from anyone other than another speedster?

Tldr: Flash can run over a trillion times the speed of light and take down Superman level people in one punch among other ridiculous abilities so how does he ever get taken down ever?

[Assistant] I'll grant you, speedforce is absolutely broken, but even despite this The Flash may not be the most OP hero. He can be stopped by a few heroes such as Captain Cold and similarly perhaps Iceman due to being able to reach absolute zero. Zoom also stands a pretty good chance as well. Also if we really want to go truly OP, then the answer needs to be Squirrel Girl. The hero that exists solely to be unnecessarily OP.


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

[User] ELI5 How did patent offices make sure that they didn't register the same invention twice without the use of computers and modern search engines? Did the patent officers have to memorize every invention?

[Assistant] There's a very elaborate and detailed and thorough patent classification system still in use today that is designed to avoid this sort of thing.  The original system was adapted to work in digital storage.


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

[User] ELI5: As a scandinavian who isn't very in the loop on american politics but very interested. Who is Bernie Sanders? What has he done? How likely is it for him to win? And can he pull off the things he wants without support from super corps if he wins?

[Assistant]
Bernie Sanders is a senator from Vermont. He's well-known because he's one of the few American elected officials who runs as an independent, rather than with the Republicans or Democrats, although he's affiliated with the Democrats' ideals (which is why he's running for president as a Democrat).

He won't win because he's a socialist. Socialism is not popular in the United States. His running for president is mostly just a big deal because he's the first Democrat to run other than Hillary Clinton, who a lot of people don't like.


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

[User]
If competition for faculty positions is so intense, why are there so many complaints about the quality of research?

I hear the following two claims quite often -

1. Getting a faculty position is tough, and even the top graduates from the top grad schools have trouble finding faculty positions at the most prestigious schools.

2. Most papers that are being published are not of high quality, while innovative and meaningful research is only done at the top schools and research institutes.

If the first claim is true, then shouldn't those top students and postdocs that end up at less prestigious schools and research institutes still be producing high quality research?

[Assistant] To succeed in academia, you need lots of publications.  You can spend 2 years crafting a great paper that will get into a top journal, or you can pump out 5 mediocre papers to mediocre journals.  Generally speaking, the latter is much better for your career, so that's what happens.


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

[User] When you breath out underwater, why does it come in bubbles and not one long air stream?

[Assistant] Because a sphere is the smallest surface area that pressure can make with a given volume.  Same reason the planets are round.  As each blob of air is released its buoyancy causes it to rise quickly from its source, resulting in a stream of spheres.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do we easily confuse (left/right) and (east/west) but we easily distinguish (up/down) and (north/south) ?

[Assistant]
There is a psychological disorder called "left right discrimination", which is a very complex neuro-psychological process involving a the use of sensory and visual information, language function, and even memory. There is no corresponding disorder with up/down/north/south, though.
The reasons for the latter are probably that our basic sense of balance and direction directly involve our sense of up and down (things fall down, gravity pulls us down, etc). It's even in our language, we get up from bed, the thing is up there, it's down there... whereas with left/right it's over there, or by the bed, or on the desk, not "to your left" most of the time.


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

[User]
[DC] How adept is The Joker with technology?

He doesn't come off as a guy who spends time fiddling with complex tech. If Joker woke up say, in Brainiac's prison cell, can he tinker with any of the machinery or make something work?

Hell forget brainiac, is Joker even capable of dealing with high-level earth tech? At the end of the day he's just a street criminal of Gotham, a dangerous and sadistic one, but not adept at computers and tech right?

[Assistant]
He's not a computer hacker, although the gadgets he employs do imply at least a notable competency with engineering and chemistry.

In a situation where he's trapped in Brainiac's prison, those skills, plus his brand of chaotic psychopathy, which can be a pseudo-superpower in some stories, could *possibly* let him figure a way to break enough stuff in the right way to get out eventually.


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

[User]
ELI5 Why do nuclear power plants produce so much energy?

If nuclear power plants boil water to turn a turbine to make energy then why do they make more energy than a coal power plant that does the same?

[Assistant]
They don't produce much more energy per power plant. If you compare big nuclear reactors and big coal power plants they produce about the same amount of electricity.

Nuclear power plants produce far more energy *per fuel mass*, because splitting the nuclei of atoms releases far more energy than chemical reactions (a few million times more): You need several tonnes of coal to match the energy a single gram of uranium can release.

Nuclear power plants tend to be more complex: You need more precautions handling the fuel, the reactor and so on, no matter how large or small the reactor is. That means making a small nuclear power plant is less attractive, while making a smaller coal power plant can make sense in some places.


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

[User] [Eli5] How do they make eye glasses for infants?

[Assistant] At just a few weeks old, a baby with healthy eyes will track you, moving their head and eyes to follow you. If your baby isn't doing this significantly later than most babies exhibit this behavior, they may have eye problems. The optometrist may then use a machine to get more information about the eye and determine what kind of prescription is needed. It would likely have to be updated fairly frequently as the baby's eyes develop, but it could lead to allowing a baby born with moderate vision problems to see more clearly.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] [Alien] A Jedi is infected with a face-hugger. Would the Xenomorph have force powers?

So not my original idea but sent to me by a friend today. (If OP of the image asking the question is out there thanks for melting by brain today!)

If a jedi was to get infected with a facehugger, knowing what we have seen in Alien canon with xenomorphs taking on DNA in the hosts, or modeling themselves after the hosts DNA, is it possible that the xenomorph would be force sensitive?

Edit: more specifically would they pick up the midichlorians through the host and therefore could the be force sensitive?
Not implying they'd be a full on xenomorph jedi (or more likely sith).

[Assistant]
So the answer would ultimately boil down to whether or not the Force is actually hereditary.

A xenomorph wouldn't have the higher thought necessary to utilize the Force to its full potential, or at all.  It could be Force sensitive to a degree that would be useful as a predatory animal, but it's not going to be choking out subordinates or throwing lightning from its conjoined fingertips.  For a point of comparison, consider how Anakin was able to "see things before the happen" and have it appear to be unnaturally fast reflexes; a xenomorph, in turn, might know just where to be to intercept fleeing prey.

But again, all of this assumes that the Force is carried in the blood, which it may well not be.  Anakin Skywalker's children would become powerful Force users, but it's important to remember that Anakin himself was also a direct machination of the Force itself.  Ki-Adi Mundi had wives and children thanks to his species' endangered nature, and there's no indication any of them were Force sensitive, for example.


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

[User]
[serious] I need to unlock my sisters iPhone

My sister recently died and I need to find a way to unlock her iPhone without deleting the data, I found a lot of ways on google but it all delete every thing.. I am sorry my English is not the best, I can give a proof that my sister past away for the moderators because I know some people would say that I am trying to open a stolen iPhone, the only problem is the papers with the proof is all written in Arabic, so if by any chance that there is an Arabic moderator or a moderator who understands Arabic who is willing to help, I would much appreciate it.

[Assistant]
There is literally no way to do it. Passcodes are specific to the device and not stored by Apple, so there is nothing you can really do as far as unlocking it.

If she plugged it into a computer to back up, you can plug it in and back it up, then restore the backup, but thats the only option.


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

[User] ELI5: Do bone conduction headphones work on people that are deaf?

[Assistant]
Depends on why they're deaf.

For certain causes of deafness, yes they do work. Although most of those are now fixable through surgery. For the vast majority of deaf people bone conduction doesn't offer any real benefits.


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

[User]
[Dragon Ball Z] The Dragon Balls become inert if Kami/Elder Guru diesso why would they not just wish on the Balls themselves for immortality, to prevent this? Seems like that would be pretty easy, especially given how long-lived Namekians already seem to be.

Same question for the whole if the Supreme Kai is killed then the God of Destruction is killed as well thingwhy then wouldnt a Supreme Kai take it upon themselves to wish for immortality to avoid such an eventuality, especially in the wake of foes like Bibidi/Buu or Moro, as it would mean the whole universe falling out of wack if this were to happen?

I mean, hell, why doesnt *anybody* wish on them for immortality?? The only ones I can think of who even tried that plan were Frieza (actively prevented by the Z Fighters), Future Zamasu (who did it, was successful, and *they had to get Future Zeno to destroy the universe* to stop him), and *Emperor Pilaf* (joke character), and *maybe* Vegeta (and Nappa)but only in the interest of beating Frieza, who also had that plan.

EDIT: Did more research and apparently more characters succeeded at this than I rememberedGarlic Jr. and Lord Slug both succeeded at wishing for immortality, and King Piccolo succeeded at wishing for eternal youth, which isnt exactly the same.

[Assistant]
In the case of characters like Goku and Vegeta I'd imagine they would not want immortality cause it would remove all the stakes of becoming a better, stronger fighter. Their whole life is pointed towards becoming stronger through training and fighting stronger opponents becoming immortal would be considered cheating or at least boring by them.
Also if you can just teleport from the afterlife back to earth you are kinda immortal.


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

[User] [40k] What happens to Space Marine trainees that don't make the cut?

[Assistant]
Space Marine chapters still need an untold number of hands to help them in their ever vigilant crusade against the enemies of mankind, despite their infinite combat prowess, a thousand holy battle brothers could not pilot small fleets of spacecraft that number in the tens to hundreds of kilometres.

They also need people to generally help around the base, farm, move supplies. The Astartes are entirely dedicated to War, everything else is done by serf/acolytes/failed recruits.


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

[User]
ELI5: The merits of the various image file types? (jpeg, tiff, png, bmp, etc.

I'm a little stumped by the variety of image files. Could someone please give me a run-through of the various file types? Ideally, I'd like to get a quick note on what makes it special and what its strengths and weaknesses are.

Also, if I forgot your favorite image file type, please enlighten me.

Thanks reddit.

[Assistant]
* bmp:  Very, very simple.  It's really easy for the programmer.  However, it is uncompressed, leading to large file sizes.

* jpeg:  Good compression, especially for real-world pictures (e.g. photographs).  However, that compression can cause loss of information, leading to weird artifacts (hence "needs more jpeg").  It's a good format for distributing images once they've been created.

* png:  Good, lossless compression.  It's designed with the internet in mind, so it only supports the Red-Green-Blue color space that monitors use, not things like Cyan Magenta Yellow Key/Black that printers use (although conversions aren't terribly difficult).

* tiff:  Very powerful image format, but consequently a very large file size.  It is a good format to use while working on an image, but isn't ideal for distributing it.

* gif:  Fairly old format that is able to do pretty good lossless compression on images that have only a few colors.  Also one of the only formats that can support animations, making gems of the '90s like hamsterdance possible.  Their limitation in colors makes using them to store things like clips of movies a poor choice, but until HTML5 there was no better alternative.

* You should also be aware of vectorized file formats, like CGM, Gerber, or SVG.  All of the above formats are rasterized--they store data about each pixel.  Vectorized file formats give a mathematical description of what the shapes should be.  This is a necessity for images that will be printed in large scale and/or at extreme resolution.  If, for example, you tried to represent a circle with a bmp you would have a jagged edge that you can see by zooming in.  If you used a vector format then the lines would remain perfectly crisp at all levels of zoom.  Naturally, these formats are poorly suited for photographs but they are great for things like logos.