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

[User] [Star Trek] 1) Why would people risk their life, relationships, and so many other things to join Star Fleet when you can live a great life for free on Earth exploring any/all of your interests? 2) How are there so many "geniuses" capable of basically being galactic astronauts?

[Assistant]
1) Your average Starfleet serviceman is probably not risking his life much.  Starfleet is not the Military of the Federation, the Enterprises & Voyagers are exceptions not the rule, and even still their missions are mostly peaceful (history just pays less attention to cozy times of peace).  Also keep in mind that you don't have to be from Earth to join Starfleet, yet there's only one Starfleet Academy.  Contrast this with 21st century Earth where single nations like the USA have military academies all over that are competitive to get into, and it's not hard to imagine how Starfleet gets its numbers.

2) Even if the proportion of geniuses remains constant, humanity has colonized other worlds and the Federation has several member species that would give an ample supply of geniuses.  Aside from that methods of teaching seem to have improved significantly in post-scarcity society, combined with cultural exchanges with the logic-praising Vulcans who excel at STEM subjects.


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

[User] [General Sic] Hi, I'm just an ordinary citizen. I have no interest in law in enforcement, fighting or anything to do with combat. What advantages are there for me to become a Cyborg?

[Assistant]
you could calculate things faster for anything that needs number crunching

you can build things and work construction with way less effort

your performance in surgery could be more efficient as a cyborg doctor

im not sure if fire fighting is considered combat but yeah it could help with that stuff too.


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

[User] [Star Wars] Is the Falcon actually an advanced ship or is it basically a hot rod?

[Assistant]
A baseline YT-1300 is the freighter equivalent of a stock Toyota. A decent piece of equipment on it's own, but mostly a great starting point for customization.

The Falcon is what happens when multiple owners repeatedly trick out the same Toyota. Han, Lando, and everyone else who had the Falcon all had their own ideas on what to do with it, and they also had to do a lot of slapdash, jerry-rigged repairs in the field to escape life or death situations. It's got an engine to die for and a nav computer that may be unique in the galaxy, but there are also parts of it that are essentially nothing but bondo on top of zip ties, held together by a combination of the Will of the Force and friction. It's a Toyota that can run hot enough to melt the asphalt, but has 3 different colored doors, a length of wire holding the trunk shut, and overheats if you turn down the stereo.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do major competitors such as Burger King and McDonalds put their restaurants right next to each other?

[Assistant]
It's a state of compromise that is reached between two competitors who try to corner the same market. Look at it this way, imagine a beach with a single ice cream vendor. It doesn't matter much where he stands as everyone on the beach has to go to him to get ice cream. Now a second vendor enters the fray. They start off by taking opposite sides of the beach, and each have access to about half the people on the beach.

But if one of them wants to get increase his sales, he can move closer to the middle of the beach, which would make his stall stand closer to a larger amount of people, effectively giving him an edge over his competitor. When the other guy sees his, he'll move closer to the middle as well to negate that advantage. Now they could just keep moving around daily in an attempt to try and get an edge over the other, but eventually they'll both just end up settling on standing in the middle, giving them both the same amount of access to the clientele.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does some tonic water have 33g of sugar per bottle, and yet it tastes like bitter bubbly water?

I've always wondered this.... especially when a bottle of other soda has usually around the same amount, but is extremely sweeter.

[Assistant]
Tonic water has quinine in it which is an anti-malarial medicine. It was used by the British Army in expeditions (or worse) in India and Africa to stave off malaria.

Quinine comes from tree bark and it is extremely bitter. Thus, the quinine and water mixture is loaded up with sugar so it doesn't taste as horrible. This is also why we have gin & tonics, British soldiers had a lot of gin, quinine and sugar. Gin and sugar make quinine water tolerable.


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

[User]
[General] My kid has started using the word "behold". Is it pretty much guaranteed that she's going to end up being a villain?

She also says "you fool".  Is there any hope for her?

[Assistant]
The "fool" part is worrying, but the "behold" isn't so big a concern. She could be a high priestess, for example, or an ancient seer, or an irascible yet good-hearted mentor (which would also fit with the "fool" thing).

For safety's sake, you should encourage her to become really old as quickly as possible.


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

[User] ELI5: Why did my highschool and college instal outlets upside down?

[Assistant] Installing outlets "upside-down" (with regard to standard US outlet placement) is considerably safer.  If the plug is pulled slightly out of the outlet and something falls into the outlet, if the outlet is "right side up" chances are pretty good the object will bridge the hot - neutral prongs.  That can cause the circuit breaker to trip or even set the object on fire.  If the outlet is "upside down" the falling object will strike the ground plug first and it's much less likely for it to short the circuit as it's falling.


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

[User]
[MCU] How thick is Iron man's armor around the hands?

Anything thicker than a glove is hard to wear.

[Assistant]
>Anything thicker than a glove is hard to wear.

Well a metal suit is basically impossible to wear, Tony still manages to get around with relatively high speed.

We can assume they have both servos (like the rest of the joints do) and are armored enough to save his hands from injury (given that the earlier suits can take tank shells with ease)


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

[User]
CMV: There is a zero percent chance 20 Republican Senators will be convinced to convict President Trump during an Impeachment Trial

Ill give a brief ode to our self-evident hyper-polarization simply because theres a minimum word count to these posts.

Because the Republican base gets its news from Fox and increasingly OAN and Breitbart, and view anything else as Liberal propaganda, red state Senators have no motivation to remove Trump from office, no matter how internally disgusted they may be, because they will open themselves up to a backlash from their base, especially the most rabid members who are also primary voters. A few in unique situations (Mitt Romney) or purple states (Cory Gardner) may even feel comfortable voicing support for a vote to convict, but even they will probably not vote Yes unless they are assured there are 66 other Yes votes. Why open yourself to ads from a potential primary opponent from the Right if he wont be convicted either way?

And THATs if McConnell even allows a vote to be taken. He may very well pull a Merrick Garland maneuver and table Impeachment proceedings in the first five minutes after the House votes to Impeach.

No, the only way Trump will be removed from office prior to January 2021 is if he does something far beyond the Ukraine call; something so obscenely heinous that the Senate would have political cover to vote unanimously in favor of removal. Hes going to have to do something akin to shooting someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue.

Edit: I could have worded my CMV more clearly, although I intimated that the stipulation was given the current circumstances when I say at the end that some extreme development is going to have to occur. That said, I am conflicted about rewarding deltas given that no one changed my view beyond the semantical argument that the percentage is non-zero. Given the current circumstances, I believe it to be zero.

[Assistant]
He wouldn't be convicted in an impeachment trial even if he confessed on the Senate floor.

However, if his polls look as though they are going to drag down the rest of the GOP, it becomes likely that the GOP leadership tries to broker a deal where he resigns ala Nixon.


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

[User]
Is my project too difficult?

Is it possible for a complete beginner to create an OS from scratch within the time of a semester?

[Assistant]
Your OS can be as simple as you want it to be. Even just printing out a single sentence is already an OS.

Depending on the features you are planning to implement, this project can be a daily, weekly, monthly, yearly or decades long project :)


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

[User]
ELI5: why does it seem like many lethal viruses start in developing countries but not 1st world countries?

For example bird flu and coronavirus both originated in China, Ebola in Africa. It seems as though the viruses that have the highest mortality rate begin in developing countries. Is this just purely because 1st world countries have better vaccinations and healthcare or does living in a third world country lead to being exposed to more unsanitary living conditions and exposure to carrier animals.

[Assistant] A lot of it is the number of people living in close proximity to domesticated animals. These viruses tend to be ones that have just mutated in a way that results in it being transmissible to people and sometimes contagious between people too.


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

[User] ELI5: What happens if you break the sound barrier underwater?

[Assistant] The water vaporises at the tip of the thing going fast. As the steam bubble expands, the fast thing starts moving through the big bubble created by the expanding vapour. This causes the fast thing to become surrounded by the bubble of steam created at the tip since it is moving through the expanding bubble faster than the surrounding water can cool the steam and return it to a liquid state. That allows the fast thing to move through steam, rather than water.


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

[User]
Why are terrestrial planets with the same mass as our gas giants so rare?

Looking at the exoplanets that have been discovered, terrestrial planets on average are far less massive than gas planets. What stops gravity from pulling all that matter into a solid? Why are the densest planets normally far less massive than the least dense?

[Assistant]
a gas giant is very, very, very large.

it's also very very heavy.

a planet forms from a disc around a star, where smaller rocks are attracted to larger rocks and then even more rocks are attracted to those rocks.

more often than not, multiple planets form from these discs, but so far apart that their gravity never interacts with any other.

in order to coalesce into one single planet the mass of jupiter, the protoplanetary disc would need to be very thin, but at the same time have a huge amount of matter in it.

a star needs to have less gravity for the disc to be thinner, but more gravity for there to be more material.

so it's basically impossible, since a star can't both be heavier and lighter at the same time.

(for example, if you took mercury, venus, earth, the moon, mars, phobos and deimos and smashed them together, they wouldn't even be close to jupiter or saturn)


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

[User]
[Cloverfield] What is Clover's evolutionary background?

Very little about Clover was revealed in both the marketing campaigns for Cloverfield and the film itself. All we really know about him is that he is a newborn and he comes from the sea.

So, hypothetically, what would Clover's evolutionary history be? Where is his place in the animal kingdom?  Is he a reptile? Arthropod? Amphibian? Mammal? Fish? What time period is his genus from?
All we really have to go on is his design and where he lives, so this should be interesting.

[Assistant]
Fairly confident that the creature is simply ripped into existence during the events of the Cloverfield paradox when the particle beam tore a hole in the fabric of spacetime the creature is pulled through from another dimension or just fabricated from nothingness.

This is allued to due to the creature appearing in New York at the exact moment that the particle beam incident occurs.


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

[User]
[Fallout] Are Mr. Handies self aware? If not, can the develop this trait?

I made this question with Codsworth in mind, to me he seems *different* from than other Mr. Handies I found in the wasteland. Perhaps it's because of all the free time he had to think in the last two centuries.

[Assistant] It's kind of like droids from star wars, the longer they have been around the more individual events and experiences affect the droid. They are designed to respond to a situation with ease and adapt, Codsworth has just had a hell of a lot of time to experience his own personality.


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

[User]
CMV: The connotation of the word "retard" should be no different than the connotation of "idiot", "imbecile", or "moron".

Basically the title. I think the word retard should have the exact same connotation as idiot, imbecile or moron. What many people dont realize is that idiot, imbecile, and moron were once clinical terms for intellectual disabilities, just as retard was. All four of these words are outdated medical terms to describe the same thing: an intellectual disability.

The words idiot, imbecile, and moron arent exactly kind, but theyre nowhere near as offensive as retard has become, especially in the past few years. Idiot, imbecile, and moron are now used just to mean a person who is perceived as unintelligent. And retard can have that meaning too, but it's not considered very offensive. The history and meaning of all 4 of these words is the same. Yet 3 of them are at the worst rude, but the fourth is extremely offensive? This makes absolutely no sense to me. Change my mind!

[Assistant] Words don't have to make sense. They just have whatever meaning we agree they have. It literally doesn't matter if all these words have the same origins, if we disagree on their connotations then their connotations are different.


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

[User] ELI5: What are cookies and why do websites ask me about them?

[Assistant]
At its most basic, a cookie is a small text file stored on your computer, which is associated with a specific website and can be read by that website. When they were first introduced, they were designed as a way to "save state": for example, if a website allowed you to change the font size (for example), that setting could be saved in a cookie so you wouldn't have to change it every single time you visited the site: it would "remember" your setting.

However, since then, cookies have been used in more sophisticated ways; they can, for example, track which pages you visit, and this information can be read by an ad agency so that they can run ads based on what websites you visit frequently.

Although this is usually benign, some people find it worrisome. This is particularly the case in, for example, eastern European countries, which spent nearly half the 20th century under governments that regularly spied on them -- they're not comfortable with the idea of a central database holding information about their browsing habits.

So the European Union passed a law requiring all sites that use cookies to inform visitors of that fact. That's why you're constantly being asked to confirm that you're happy to accept cookies.

If you're not in the EU, of course, this law doesn't apply to you; but many sites might still show the dialogue to everyone, simply because it's easier.


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

[User]
CMV: Pascal's Wager is ultimately meaningless because it ignores the existence of other religions.

Arguments for the belief in a god or gods fascinate me, but none have ever really made me question my agnosticism as much as Pascal's Wager.

What immediately occured to me, however, is that the wager assumes that there are only two possibilities: the Christian God exists, or he doesn't, describing it at one point as a 'con flip'. However, the way I currently see it, there is no reason to rule out any other number of possible gods. In fact, one could even suppose that there an infinite number of such possible gods.

I think logical proof should be answered with logical proof, so I drafted a quick counter argument. I am by no means a logican or a philosopher, so I fully expect there to be holes in my argument, and I would welcome criticism of it so that I can either improve it or discard it. I think arguments 10 and 11 are where this argument is weakest, and Id love to hear suggestions for how to prove the probabilistic application of averages.

1. God is, or God is not. Reason cannot decide between the two alternatives.
2. The existence of any God is unknowable.
3. Choosing the correct God provides infinite benefit.
4. Given that the existence of a God or Gods is unknowable, it is equally likely that there are an infinite number of gods as that there are no gods, or one god.
5. It logically follows from #3 that the set of all possible values for the number of gods is the set of all natural numbers. Since the existence of any given god in this set is unknowable, no number of gods can be more likely than any other.
6. Since the set increments at a linear rate, the median of the set is equal to the average.
7. The position of the median in a set can determined by dividing the size of the set by two.
8. Any infinite number divided by a finite number is infinite. (The limit of f(x)=x/n as x approaches infinity is infinity)
9. It could be said then, that the average value of this set is infinity.
10. In a universe where it could be proved that there were between one and three gods, it would be most logical to make probabilistic decisions assuming there are two gods, just as it is most logical to make decisions about dice considering the average result of that die.
11. Thus, it makes most sense to make probabilistic decisions assuming that there are an infinite number of possible gods.
12. If there are an infinite number of possible gods, the chance of choosing the right one approaches 0, just as the rewards from picking the correct one approach infinity.
13. If one has an infinitesimally small chance at an infinitely big reward, one can say that the expected value of the choice is undefined and that the reward is thus irrelevant.

I'm pretty sure this makes sense, but if you disagree, then please, CMV.

EDIT: I have to leave on a trip in few hours so I won't be able to continue commenting on this post. My apologies to all of the people who have posted thoughtful replies I won't have a chance to respond to. I have really enjoyed all of the fruitful discourse that has come of this. Thank you all!

[Assistant]
That's not the real reason the wager sucks. The real reason is that it can be inverted.

Imagine a god that hates being worshipped. Anybody who worships him is punished with eternal pain. All others are rewarded. It is literally the same argument and the conclusion is that one must not worship any god.

Since the argument proves both A and ~A it must be invalid.


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

[User]
[Darkest Dungeon] Where the heck is all of this treasure coming from?

So, long story short, I'm in the middle of a major campaign to drive eldritch horrors out of my ancestor's manor. We've been at it for almost two years now. Every week I send a party down into the manor or the surrounding property and, without fail, they come back with thousands upon thousands of gold pieces. That's not even mentioning the piles of jewels and the relics.

I know my ancestor was rich, but this is ridiculous. Where is all the treasure coming from?

[Assistant] In those cursed halls time and space aren't like they are in the village. Haven't you run into your own teams corpses yet? Nothing is right there. The treasure you bring back has value to you but not to the manor. The manor will always provide treasure. How else will it get you to go inside?


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do employers reject applicants on the basis that they are overqualified?

I mean wouldn't that be a good thing?

[Assistant]
The hope when hiring someone is that you will find a dedicated worker of an appropriate skill level, who will then get the opportunity to be promoted as their skills improve over time - ideally staying with the company long term allowing them to have a better understanding of the companies practises and systems, and removing the need to be hiring as many staff (which takes time, money and effort).

To hire someone overqualified, means they are likely accepting a job below the grade they actually want but have not yet been able to find, so are much more likely to view this job as a short term stand-in and leave to a preferable job as soon as they can.
If you have a decent engineering degree, you probably won't want to last out your time as a manual laborer in a lumber yard if you could use that job to keep you adjust for the moment until something better appears, while if you have no certification beyond high school, that job in a lumber yard is a better sounding prospect as it gives you the chance to increase your sales and management skills over time and incremental promotions.


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

[User] What is the difference between the streaks left behind from plane/jet engines that disappear quickly, and the ones that stay there for hours?

[Assistant] Depends on the moisture content of the air in that layer.  If there is a lot of moisture, a contrail will form, that is basically an artificially created cloud.  That cloud can then be dispersed by upper level winds, so the length of time it remains varies.  When you see a jet overhead at high altitude and the contrail disappears almost as fast as it forms, that means that it is pretty dry in that layer of air, and there isn't enough moisture to form a strong enough cloud to maintain itself, though the disturbance in the air can condense it for a short time.  It is not the exhaust of the engines that forms the contrail, it is the disturbance of the air causing moisture to condense.  That is why propeller-driven aircraft can form a contrail at high altitude as well, and a contrail can form from the wingtip vortex created by the wing moving through the air in addition to the disturbance from the engines.


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

[User] [Superheroes] What happens when someone gains powers but has no interest in fighting crime or breaking the law? Are they monitored? Actively recruited by other heroes, villains, or the government? Can they really be left alone to quietly live their lives?

[Assistant]
Depends on the powers, the individual, and the world.

In one of the Sentinel-ruled dystopian futures from the X-Men comics, it wouldn't matter whether you wanted to break the law if you were a mutant. You'd get killed or put in a labor camp either way.

If you were in something like Strikeforce Morituri, where humanity was doomed unless people with powers stood up to the alien invaders, then they would probably recruit you.

But if you can lift a truck and live in a small town in the DC universe, no one is going to care.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are so many books "bestsellers?"

Almost every book cover I've seen (even brand new books a week after release!) are labeled as "bestseller." From my understanding of English, BEST means #1, which only one book can take. So why are there hundreds, and maybe thousands of bestsellers?

[Assistant]
It doesn't have to be #1 to be a bestseller. Every week, the New York Times publishes their lists of bestselling books. They are divided by category and format (fiction, non-fiction, e-book, print, hardcover & paperback). If a book was listed as the #10 best-selling book for young adults by NYT last week, the book could legitimately be called a bestseller.

And that's just the New York Times list. Other publications have lists as well, and they often feature different books. Amazon's lists get updated every hour. If you have a book that shows up on their top 100 list for an hour, you are an Amazon Bestselling Author.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Do lightsabers have friction?

Without friction, a lot of lightsaber combat that I've seen in the Imperial Archives wouldn't be able to take place.

ex. When two lightsabers clash and are then pushed against each other in that kind of lock where one combatant tries to gain the upper hand, they'd need at least *some* friction to push against each other without sliding off, or the force applied by the combatants against each other would have to be infinitely precise.

I'm sure that there are more applications where friction would be required, but this is what leaps to mind.

And if what is said about these lightsabers is true and they are made of plasma, it wouldn't really make sense for them to have friction anyhow (if my education on Naboo taught me anything).

[Assistant] Not exactly. Lightsabers are arcs of plasma bound within strong magnetic fields. Those fields interact in ways that generally are "sticky," with very little sliding like a weapon made of a physical material would have.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do buffets stay in business?

It seems that people who eat a $5 buffet usually consume more than $5 of food. Why don't the buffets lose money?

[Assistant]
In the food service industry, most of the costs aren't food costs, but rather operational ones. Electricity, rent, and the big one: payroll.

Buffets, being self service, are able to cut down on the cost of employees, as they don't have to hire servers. They can cut down (somewhat) on cooks because they're not cooking to order. In exchange is a minor increase in food costs.

Further, most buffets will buy lower quality food (the ones that offer higher quality food tend to be more expensive than $5), which makes a difference, but not as much of one as most people think.

Really, though, the big one is payroll. Not paying waiters makes a huge difference.


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

[User]
[Narnia] Why are the two older siblings "too old" to return when they all literally became adults in Narnia in the first book/movie?

They were still kids in real life but they spent years in Narnia after defeating the Witch. They were literally adults put back into kid bodies, were they not?

I also read that in another book an adult was taken there despite his age.

[Assistant]
Growing up in our world teaches you different things than growing up in Narnia. You get into habits of thought and action and perception that would make life in Narnia confusing, and indeed terrifying.

The only adult who Aslan has ever brought to Narnia *deliberately* was Helen, the first queen; she was brought at the request of her husband, Frank the hansom cab driver, who had been present at the world's creation.

Helen and Frank were able to adapt to their new role as king and queen of a magical world thanks to being simple country folk of the sort frequently idealised by people who've never had to spend a day shovelling natural fertiliser.

By contrast, Andrew Kirke - the magician who was, ultimately, responsible for Frank's presence (as well as that of Frank's friend Strawberry, the first talking horse) - was unable to process the reality of a magical world full of talking animals sung into creation by a lion who was also a god, and basically went completely delusional as a consequence. He was a rational, educated, worldly man who took a rational, educated, approach to things, and this was his undoing.


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

[User] ELI5 Usually planes are able to fly when air moves across the wings which generates lift. But how do fighter jets able to maintain lift while performing aerobatic maneuvers?

[Assistant] In the 1960s and 1970s, NASA performed lifting body experiments...and concluded that if you put enough power on any aircraft, ANYTHING will fly! It does not need wing to fly (see rocket), it just makes it more efficient. Now we add vectored thrust, and you have super maneuverability on aircraft.


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

[User]
ELI5:Why is it safe to inhale noble gases

I was watching hamilton's pharmacopeia and he was inhaling xenon and seemed to think it was pretty safe. As a layman, my intuition tells me inhaling anything besides oxygen is not safe. Why can you breath pure gases other than oxygen and be fine?

[Assistant]
Noble gases don't react. The only real issue is that it takes up lung space where there could be oxygen.

You can breathe in helium to do a funny voice, but make sure your next couple breaths are normal air.


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

[User] ELI5: How do flies react faster than us?

[Assistant]
Flies are smaller and simpler.

When you start talking about fractions of a second and automatic nerve reactions you can literally take into account how long it takes for a nerve impulse to get from point A to B.  Because our nerves are longer, it takes more time for us to know the nerve sensed something and more time for our reaction to get where it needs to be.

We're also a much more complicated creature and the way we move on our feet is much more complicated than twitching fly wings.  A move like "jump out of the way" is going to be hundreds or thousands of little movements and coordination over the entire body to move your trunk and limbs into the correct spot, wrap toes, push off, and stay balanced during the whole operation.  A fly just sort of twitches in the opposite direction of a stimulus, or pulls wings and stops moving because gravity will drop them to a safer spot.


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

[User]
Would it be possible for a 'dead' star to gather enough mass from it's surrounding to restart the fusion cycle and effectively 'seed' a new star?

...and if not, why not?

[Assistant]
Sort of, but not really.

Take the case of a white dwarf star which gathers mass from a close main sequence neighbor. The mass will pile up, sometimes you'll get a nova as the piled up mass undergoes a flash fusion reaction rather rapidly. However, if you keep on piling on mass eventually you'll start to raise the temperature of the core, and you'll get a period of convection. And then you'll start to get Carbon fusion in the core. Hey, the star is coming back to life! Right? Not exactly. In a white dwarf star the matter is under electron degeneracy conditions, which means that it's already at the maximum possible pressure, so the normal method of increasing temperature causing an increase in pressure causing expansion causing cooling which would serve as an escape/regulation valve for the energy of fusion simply doesn't work.

Instead what happens is the pressure remains constant and the energy released from the fusion reactions increases temperature, which increases the rate and extent of fusion reaction. This is a positive feedback loop which rapidly ticks over from fusing Carbon to fusing Oxygen and in fact a significant fraction of the total amount of Carbon and Oxygen in the star is burned up in fusion reactions in a matter of seconds. This releases more energy than the gravitational binding energy of the star, consequently the star blows itself apart in a Type Ia supernova.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] why are battle droids so dumb?

Like their robots everything they do is programmed in. Why even give them self awareness if theyre also gonna be idiots? Why not just make them mindless kill its?

[Assistant]
B1 battle droids (the skinny "roger roger" types) were not meant to be soldiers. They were designed to be security droids in extremely low-risk environments, like VIP rooms and expensive theaters that catered to the upper class. They were mostly just mobile blaster platforms that made a small area appear safe, even if the droids weren't seriously meant to shoot at anything.

On top of that, they were built as cheaply as possible. Their programming is bottom of the barrel to go along with their clunky joints and relatively limited movement. They used to be so cheap that all of their processing was done from a control ship, rather than inside the droids themselves, because it was a massive cost saving measure. This combination of bad programming and intentionally weak combat ability is why they gained their infamously stupid reputation.

But they could be built in the millions in a very short amount of time, so their incompetence could be overshadowed by sheer numbers. Even if half of the forces deployed in a battle are destroyed, there are still overwhelming numbers of survivors who could tear down what little was left of the Republic resistance.

We've seen droids like magnaguards and even dark troopers with much more expensive programming and physical bodies, so it's entirely possible to make a very threatening combat droid army that can dominate in battle. But no one is willing to bankrupt themselves to purchase an army of several million units. (which is coincidentally exactly what the Republic did when purchasing another wave of clone troopers near the war's end)

And one final note, Darth Sidious may have forced the separatists to keep using faulty and cheap droids for the entire conflict as part of his grand pantomime. The separatist army looked huge and scary at the war's beginning, which scared a lot of people into giving him the power he craved. But when his narrative needed to shift toward a Republic victory, suddenly all of the holonet news channels were flooded with footage of battle droids being blown apart in spectacular fashion. That might not have been so easy to orchestrate if the separatists used a more competent fighting force.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are horses killed instead of being helped in recovery if they sustain an injury or fall sick?

Thank you everyone for your answers! My question has been solved.

[Assistant]
In order to recover from an injury like a broken leg, the horse would have to stay immobile, laying down, for a long period of time.  Horses are bred to be active animals.  By their own will, they would never stay idle long enough to recover.  Because they would refuse to take it easy, there is a good chance they wouldn't properly recover, and would be in constant pain.

You would have to tranquilize the horse for months in order to have it fully recover, which is not a practical solution.


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

[User]
[Spider-man] How could Peter afford the materials for the web-shooters?

You know the drill with Spidey: before the 2000's movies, he had to use gadjets to create the mechanical web-shooters in order to sling through town. Considering how a huge deal of Peter is that he had a low income, even before uncle Ben's death, how did he afford the materials to create the web-shooters?

[Assistant]
Originally; Steals them from his science teacher (if youre keenly observant youll see him doing it in Homecoming)

After that Im guessing that buying web fluid is part of the reason he IS so financially desperate

As an aside, Spider-Gwen just got Janet van Dyne to make her some web shooters that can recharge on the fly from moisture in the air. Peter has never done this even though he knows a Janet van Dyne too. For a genius hes an utter moron.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is Quantum physics considered "scary" to people who understand it?

[Assistant]
It's scary to the following groups of people:

- Much of the physics community from when it was first being discovered.  All of science depends on experiments being reproduceable.  Things will happen the exact same way in response to the exact same stimulus every time.  Discovering the way things work and defining it mathematically allows us to do phenomenal things, like build skyscrapers and be sure they won't collapse under the load.  Quantum physics seems to defy this, quantum-level events happen according to probability, rather than being deterministic.  If quantum rules applies to macro-level physics, a lot of what we understand about the world would be useless.  Fortunately, this turned out not to be the case, and few people would take this fear seriously anymore.

- Science Fiction writers.

- Philosophers discussing the existence of free will.

- Students who don't actually understand Quantum physics, and are afraid of the next test.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are The Beatles often considered to be greatest rock group of all time?

[Assistant]
Because they were really good songwriters, they were INCREDIBLY popular, and they changed the face of music more than perhaps any artist since the beginning of rock music.

When they entered the scene, they were just moving beyond skiffle; and the music of the day was largely still do-wop, easy listening, and barbershop-based groups.

By the time they broke up, they were ushering in the era of acid rock with stuff like "I Want You", and also mature thoughtful songs like "Something."

They took the music world from The Shirelles to The Doors, and probably did more than any group in history to bridge that gap even as they created it. They did for rock music what Miles Davis did for Jazz.


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

[User]
ELI5 how does the restaurant get the tip from my card when they have already swiped it?

I'll get the bill, hand them my card, and they'll bring me back the receipt where I write down the tip amount. At this point I take my card and go.  How do they get the tip off the card?

[Assistant] They don't actually charge your card until the end of the night.  When they swipe it they're just getting the information off of it and checking that it's valid.  Later somebody goes through the signed slips, adds the tips, and runs the charges.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why you need to drive in a high gear on ice?

Technical details are very welcome (as long as they aren't too advanced)

[Assistant]
The idea is to prevent the wheels from spinning out.

If you apply too much torque to your wheels (on or off ice), they will end up spinning out. However, on ice this can be achieved with far less torque than it would take to make them spin out on asphalt.

Lower gears will create more torque - that's why you use them to accelerate quicker. However, this also makes you more likely to spin out, which on ice can be very dangerous. One way to prevent this is to switch to a higher gear.


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

[User] ELI5: what's the difference between 4-wheel drive and all-wheel drive?

[Assistant] Usually, but the use is subjective, 4WD is a driveline designed to work as 2wd, but can be put into 4wd in low traction situations. This usually means the front and rear drive are able to be locked, which causes binding in good traction, which is why it's not for use all the time. All-wheel-drive is a system that is meant to deliver at least some power to all 4 wheels, allows full differentiation in speed between all four wheels, and can be used in all conditions without unnecessary wear.


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

[User]
Department forcing me to teach a course even though my advisor has funds available to fund me from a grant

 TLDR: My department is forcing me to teach a course even though my advisor has funds available to pay me from a grant. Is this even legal? Should I contact the dean of students or graduate school?

My advisor has funds for me to use for research from his grant so that I don't have to teach in my final semester. Unfortunately my department is denying the request and forcing me to teach a course to be funded since they are low on teachers. 75% of other students are being allowed to use research funding in my department, and I am one of the 5 who is not being allowed. The reasoning is because of timing and a change of policy that once the department determined they were running low on instructors they started denying requests for research funding.

I have exhausted avenues within my department and have still been denied. I do have a lot of savings and could afford not to be funded at all. Honestly, I am tempted to deny teaching altogether. Of course I would not earn my 10-15K + health insurance + tuition benefit that I would get for research funding or teaching or being on the grant for research, but it is doable and honestly tempting to me right now. I am really upset about this. Teaching takes 20-30 hours a week of my time.

I am going into my last semester and need time to finish my thesis, find a job, and everything else that comes with graduating. I simply do not have time to teach and have been counting on this funding from my advisor. I think it is completely ludicrous that the department is telling my advisor he cannot fund me using the grant money which was set aside for me.

Can you think of anything I can do to fight this? It seems both immoral and illegal to me. Should I contact the graduate school or the dean of students? Do I have any legal recourse for this? It just feels they are stealing the grant money from me because they won't allow my advisor to give me the grant money meaning I am forced to teach if I want to get paid.

If anyone has any ideas, I am open to hear them. I can also clarify things if anything is unclear. Thank you.

[Assistant]
Its worth asking, but chances are your advisors grant funding is only partially supporting you (stipend) with the department funding the rest of the cost (tuition, benefits).

This means that your department has a legitimate say in who that funding gets applied to based on the work that needs to be done, and probably means you dont have much avenue for fighting this. Its well within your employers (departments) purview to offer you one job over another based on their needs, just like faculty often have little to no say in what they teach, which is largely determined by need.

::edit:: A possible intermediate would be for your advisor to pay you a salary for your research, rather than as an assistantship. It might mean forgoing the stipend and insurance, but would be easier than self funding if the issue is the departments funds towards a RAship.


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

[User]
[Superman] The Kents 'find' a lost infant. The police, doctors, IRS & other important organizations don't know this kid. How do they explain the appearance to the state & other such communities & people?

I don't know much about Superman.

Did he get vaccines? Was his skin unbreakable from first arrival? When the Kents wanted to bring him to the doctor after first arrival were they surprised by the test results or did they keep him hid from fear of losing this new family member?

[Assistant]
People can have natural births without the assistance of a doctor. Clark was still a baby when he arrived so it's not impossible for them to get him a registered birth certificate later. They also saw the alien technology that brought him to Earth, they can probably figure that he's not a normal child.

Clark just wasn't vaccinated but it's not a problem for him.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] How did nobody in the Senate or the Jedi Order question the extremely convenient timing of a massive army of clones?

Yes yes Palpatine IS the Senate and all that jazz.

[Assistant]
It was this moment that is the beginning of the three year-long process where the Republic senate bends over and lets Palpatine have its way with them, foisting more and more emergency powers on him to solve the crisis at hand until he can form an Empire to thunderous applause. They basically were shitting bricks at the fact most of the corporations and nearly the entire Outer Rim had **just declared war for the first time in a thousand years**, and when that cool centrist Palpatine whips out a massive clone army so they dont need to make a draft and threaten their power, the senate goes oh thank god we have an army and doesnt look further.

As for the Jedi, they thought they had all the pieces. Jango was a bounty hunter, him taking multiple jobs for different people like jizzing in a cup for the Kaminoans before helping out Dooku isnt that out of the ordinary. Plus they dont learn that Dooku is Tyrannus until well into the war, so it gives them even more of a justification.

Now its safe to say that they should have tried to investigate more, and reevaluated as the war went on. But Sidious had exploited their attachment and dependancy on the Republic to his advantage, knowing they would choose to break their principles and lead a slave army to protect the corrupt government rather than face the PR nightmare and massive rebuilding theyd have to do by distancing themselves and staying true. Its all how he manipulates people-giving them choices, and shaping things up so they take the easier one that really only benefits him.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is it that drugs like marijuana & cocaine are banned in most countries, yet alcohol isn't?

Does alcohol not have as bad (if not worse) mind altering properties? Is it not as addictive as other drugs, and costs the health industry millions every year? Is it a money thing when it comes to governments, or because it's more socially acceptable?

[Assistant] Because alcohol is much more engrained into our culture than marijuana or cocaine. The government would love to take it away but they can't due to the severe impacts on society. Plus, it's so easy to make alcohol yourself that all it would mean is that people weren't paying tax on their alcohol, but they would still drink it.


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

[User]
[HALO] Why doesn't John 117 hate the UNSC?

I understand that SPARTAN III soldiers were recruited from orphaned children who hated the Covenant but SPARTAN II were originally supposed to fight human rebels. John 117 was the best and most loyal of them but how come he didn't hate UNSC for making him a Spartan? He was stolen from his parents as a child and cast into a harsh world of a military discipline, replaced by a weak clone who died afterwards making his own family think he was dead. If I were him, I'd do all I could to escape the program and try to rejoin my parents or at least, let them know I am alive.

[Assistant]
He have been indoctrinated to serve the UNSC since the day he arrived on Reach. The Spartan training program made damn sure the kids were busy and never got the chance to think about stuff like that until they were indoctrinated enough for it not to matter.

His fellow Spartans are the only family John got now. He and the other Spartan IIs considers Halsey their mother more than their forgotten biological parents. And the only purpose he got are to keep fighting on behalf of the UNSC.

Some recruits did try to escape the program. Some even succeeded. Some rebelled later, too. John simply was not one of them.


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

[User] [Star Trek Original Series Episode 1] If the aliens controlled everything the captain saw, heard, and felt, and their goal was to make him breed with the woman, why not just make him feel unbearably horny?

[Assistant]
Doylist note: >!I assume by "Episode 1" you mean "The Cage". This was not in fact Episode 1, but the first pilot, which  was rejected by the network and never aired as originally edited. Material from this was later edited into the 2-part episode "The Menagerie". The pilot the network eventually accepted was "Where No Man Has Gone Before", which ultimately aired as Episode 3. "The Man Trap" aired as Episode 1, but was actually the 6th filmed. The first regular episode filmed after the series was green-lit was "The Corbomite Maneuver"; this aired as Episode 10.!<

They created illusions, and had no mental powers over reality. This meant they could alter a target's sensory perceptions, but could not make any actual alterations to his body. Thus, when Pike is choking one of the aliens who then threatens to destroy the Enterprise, Vina assures him they'd do it by their powers of illusion, making the crew operate controls in such a way as to wreck the ship. They couldn't do it directly by, say, mentally destabilizing the warp core.

Horniness is a hormonal condition, and they couldn't directly affect Pike's hormones. So they had to make him horny indirectly, by putting him and Vina in scenarios they thought might appeal to him.


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

[User]
[Captain America: the First Avenger] Why did SHIELD use recordings of a baseball game from when Steve was conscious?

It's such a small detail, but we're talking about the main spy organization on the planet. If they truly wanted to wake up Cap slowly and acclimate him, why not use a baseball game from late 1945 or such, when it would be reasonable for Steve to wake up?

[Assistant] They underestimated his memory of sports. Most sports fans even super fans can't recall every game they've watched or every play except for the truly memorable ones. Shield didn't expect Steve to recall that specific game and probably used the best quality recording available from the time. It was just bad luck on their part that they chose one from before he was lost in the ice.


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

[User]
CMV: The only belief that matters is that you shouldn't hurt others, unless in doing so you stop more people from being hurt.

My beliefs:

1. Prioritize your own happiness, otherwise you will not even be able to have the energy or motivation to avoid hurting others.

2. Do not intentionally hurt others, unless in doing so, it stops even more people from being hurt.

I hear a lot of motivational speeches, quotes, tidbits of advice and they all say to chase your dreams, put yourself first, be competitive, ignore everyone else and do what makes you happy.

But it is my personal belief that hurting, or pain, is the worst possible type of existence, and we should avoid it at all costs. That if you are hurting others, you are only contributing to the overall hurt in the world. Therefore, whenever you do something, your number one questions should be: is this going to hurt myself, and is this going to hurt others?

But many people seem to identify with ideals of putting themselves first, working to make money and have a luxurious life where they only care about themselves or those really close to them. Many people say that people are too sensitive, and that "insensitive" humor or mannerisms is just everyone being too soft, and we should just "get over it".

But to me, this type of thought process only causes more hurt in the world, and while it might make them satisfied, it reduces the overall happiness of everyone *unnecessarily*. They don't *have* to behave this way, but they do, and it makes others unhappy.

[Assistant]
Are you familiar with the transplant dilemma?

>A brilliant transplant surgeon has five patients, each in need of a different organ, each of whom will die without that organ. Unfortunately, there are no organs available to perform any of these five transplant operations. A healthy young traveler, just passing through the city the doctor works in, comes in for a routine checkup. In the course of doing the checkup, the doctor discovers that his organs are compatible with all five of his dying patients. Suppose further that if the young man were to disappear, no one would suspect the doctor. Do you support the morality of the doctor to kill that tourist and provide his healthy organs to those five dying persons and save their lives?

How would you resolve this situation with your 2 beliefs?


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

[User]
ELI5: What causes anger?

Neurologically ?

[Assistant]
Let me try to tie some of these responses together.

The connection between the brain and the body is a constant circle. The brain sends signals to our body and the body sends information to the brain. The amygdala is the area of the brain that is responsible for determining the emotional value of those incoming stimuli. Although inhibition is possible via the neocortex, emotional stimuli can illicit strong responses like the "fight or flight" response.
Fight or flight is an operation of the sympathetic nervous system, which normally maintains homestasis within the body, however during the F or F response the SNS slows blood flow to many areas of our body that would not be useful in a F or F situation. One of these areas is the frontal lobes, which are responsible for inhibition, critical, and logical thinking, with these shut down our body is ready to defend or run.
Anger theoretically can arise when a person is confronted with a stimuli that has illicited an emotional response in the past, and with the frontal lobes not functioning at full capacity the person may lash out in verbally or physically, which is percieved as anger.
Think of a time when someone made you so angry you did something irrational, childish, or violent. Thats your brain trying to defend itself from something that was damaging in the past.

TL;DR
The amygdala, the part of the brain that determines the value of emotional stimuli, can initiate the fight or flight response via the sympathetic nervous system This in turn shuts down many of the higher brain functions, which can result in a verbal or physical outburst.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does saved data not weigh anything?

Why is it that when you save things to an empty hard drive it does not get heavier, why does data not have weight?

[Assistant] In general, data is just a bunch of lightswitches turned on/off. Without something saved, everything is turned off. When you save something it's a lot of on off on off off on on off on off, so there's no difference in the amount of lightswitches. Your harddrive "filling up" just means "we're keeping track of these lightswitches"


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

[User] ELI5:Why do trucks that carry liquids have cylindrical tankers? Wouldn't you be able to carry more volume in a rectangular container?

[Assistant]
A cylinder doesn't create weak points, like corners or like the middle of flat sides (which can bulge).

A cylinder uses less surface material to enclose the same volume, compared to a rectangle. (To help understand this intuitively: rounding off the corners saves a lot of material with only a small loss in volume.)


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

[User] [Marvel Comics] How the heck does SHIELD keep losing so many Helicarriers? Not crashing, outright losing track. Put a GPS on them.

[Assistant]
Helicarriers are stealthy, GPS tracker jammers are one of the most basic bits of stealth equipment they have.

For every SHIELD researcher coming up with ways to track their helicarriers, there's a SHIELD researcher developing countermeasures for it. So some days are better than others when it comes to keeping tabs on them.


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

[User] ELI5 What is bankruptcy and how does it work?

[Assistant]
It's a formal declaration to the courts that you [as a business or individual] are in a situation where you have more debt than you are able to pay off (under the current terms of the loans/etc) and that you are seeking protection from the courts to remedy the situation.

  The overall idea is that bankruptcy protections are in place so that overwhelming debt loads don't permanently cripple someone: instead we give a "second chance" of sorts

The courts will often force the sale of non-essential assets and use any available funds to repay what can be paid, and discharge the rest.    Alternatively, the repayment terms of any debt may be modified to be more favorable to the debtor.


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

[User]
How and when does a newborn begin to breath air?

How exactly is oxygen delivered to the baby in the uterus, and when does that process stop and the breathing start? What part of birthing the baby triggers that? Also, in the uterus, isn't the baby surrounded by fluid? Does that fluid need to be coughed up on birth?

[Assistant]
In utero, oxygen is delivered to the fetus directly from the mother's blood via the umbilical cord. The lungs are developed by about week 38, but are not used until after birth. You'll notice after birth, the doctor or nurse will suck out some fluid from the baby's nose - that's the amniotic fluid being removed. Also, you'll notice that when babies on TV are born they're smacked to make them cry - aka, breathe. That cry is the first breath babies take. In the real world, though, we haven't been practicing this since the 50's - these days if a baby hasn't started breathing by the time it's out of the vagina, some mild physical stimulation will be applied (it will be rubbed, its feet flicked, etc.)

**Edit**: Fixed some vagueness in stimulating newborns to breathe.

Interestingly along these lines, there's a sort of movement of giving birth to babies underwater. The theory is that going from amniotic fluid to water is less shocking for the baby than amniotic fluid to air, and as long as the baby's umbilical cord is still attached, the baby will still be able to receive oxygen. Interestingly enough, babies also have the reflex to not take breaths in water even directly after birth.


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

[User]
Is string theory still a prominent theory in understanding the universe?

I am reading Brian Greene's The Elegant Universe, is String theory still viable? If not, what are some of flaws?

[Assistant]
Well, that depends on what you mean by "viable." It's viable in the sense that it _could_ be correct. But it's also not viable in the sense that we may not ever be able to know whether it's correct or not.

The thing about string theory is that all the predictions it makes (that we know of) either require impossibly huge amounts of energy to test, or are identical to predictions made by other, simpler theories. That's not a good status for a theory to be in. The way that a theory gets to be taken seriously is when it makes a prediction that differs from other competing theories, the prediction is tested with an experiment, and the results of the experiment decisively show that the prediction is correct and the competing prediction is not. For example, general relativity was tested by the prediction of how much starlight was deflected by the sun. Newtonian gravity predicted something like 0.87 arcseconds, GR predicted 1.75 arcseconds, and the Eddington expedition in 1919 measured 1.65 arcseconds. (Of course GR has been tested and confirmed much more accurately in other ways since then.) A lot of people are looking for some way to extract a distinctive prediction out of string theory which we can test with our current technology, but so far they haven't found anything, which is why string theory is still considered speculative.


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

[User]
ELI5: High fantasy/Low fantasy

I never really understood it. I know it has something to do with primary and secondary worlds, but what does that even mean?

[Assistant]
Generally high fantasy involves worlds where magic and fantastical creatures are common.  Example: LOTR

Low fantasy is when there are subtle fantastical elements in a more realistic world.  Example: Game of Thrones (at least so far in the first half of book 1)


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

[User] ELI5: Why did French suppress other languages like Occitan to become the national language?

[Assistant]
This is somehow "normal" when it comes to nation building. Many countries as we know them today had to push their national language from varieties spoken in the capital city, which was usually considered the educated language of the elites. If they hadn't done this, maybe that country wouldn't have become a single entity as they exist today.

The Iberian peninsula has Romance varieties like Catalan/Valencian, Castillian (modern Spanish), and Galician/Portuguese, and Basque, a language that is not Romance, but in its own family. From there two countries were born, Spain and Portugal. At some point in history they were a single country. If history had played differently, today the entire peninsula could have been a single country, and maybe Portuguese would be a regional language like Catalan is today. Instead, currently we have two countries, and some Catalans and Basques want to create their own countries.

Italian has many varieties as well, Venetian, Florentininan, Sardinian, Sicilian, etc. They eventually settled in the varieties surrounding Rome and Florence as a standard Italian.

The German world has very heavy dialects in the South, Bavaria and Baden-Wrttemberg, but also Austria and Switzerland, while in the north there are dialects in Niedersachsen and Nordrhein-Westfallen that are closer to Dutch. When the Prussians became the principal German kingdom, they basically created the Standard German by pushing their Berlinesse-Brandenburg dialect.

If you don't define a national language, you have fractures, like the process of Balkanization that occured in the Balkans, where Serbians, Croatians, Montenegrins, Bosnians, etc., basically speak the same language but with small differences and regionalisms. They consider their languages to be different, although most linguists classify them as just being varieties of the same language. Yugoslavia was supposed to be that single country, but it didn't work, and it just broke up.


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

[User]
[Fallout] What are the Brotherhood of Steel's limits on technology?

I know the BOS wants to take away lots of tech from "the unwashed masses" as it were, but what do they consider dangerous tech?
Are Energy Weapons too dangerous?
The Fatman is just an oversized slingshot with a stupid powerful pebble, is that out of bounds?
Pre-War armor is beyond production capabilities for many places, is that too much to ask to keep my armor?
What about Defense Turrets and Robots? Is Codsworth gonna be stolen in the night?
The problem is they are so nebulous with their beliefs that I don't know if I should worry about my boys over at the Castle being raided for the most low tech laser weapon ever, or if I'd be in trouble if I repaired a Corvega to driveable standards and went on a road trip.

[Assistant]
Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

If it's fancy tech, they want it - especially if it helps in the killing process, armour or weapons or things for making armour and weapons. How rabid they are about it depends on the chapter, D.C. guys are pretty chill about it, except for Outcasts, most others would kill you on site if you refused to hand over their stuff, but they're isolationists so they don't go out of their way to steal your tech unless your making serious gains in territory and power.


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

[User]
What difference does water temperature make on plants? Would a river of hot water have unique foliage?

For instance, if a hot spring produced enough water to have a steadily flowing river, would its surroundings still be similar to normal rivers?

[Assistant]
What you will get is a slightly different microclimate and absolute boatloads of animals. In Florida all the manatees cram into the powerplant outflows to stay warm in the winter, and there are parks built around most of them to go manatee-watching.

Hungry manatees will trim overhanging mangroves once in a while, but land plants are mostly safe from their aquatic gluttony.


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

[User]
[DBZ] When did Goku & Vegeta learn how to go SS Blue?

In battle of the gods they were just Super Saiyan God then in Resurrection F they were able to turn SS God SS (or Blue) when did they learn to make this transition?

[Assistant]
SSGSS (Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan) is just a regular Super Saiyan transformation after tapping into God powers.

Basically, after you become Super Saiyan God, then you lose your Full God powers, you do retain some of the power. Going Super Saiyan once you have reached SSG before automatically gives you SSGSS. It's not a new transformation, just a more powerful version that comes with blue hair.

It's worth noting that Super Saiyan God isn't a Super Saiyan stage. It's a boost to *base* power. It makes the user more powerful temporarily and some of the power is permanant. It's more akin to Kaioken than Super Saiyan, really.


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

[User] ELI5: What is fire? Like, I know when you burn something, it makes fire, but what is the fire?

[Assistant]
By "fire" i'll simply assume you mean the flame. Otherwise i'd have to go various other chemical and physical mechanics aside of oxidization, which would blow a five year old's mind (not sure if oxidization is not already stretching the limit).

Simplified, the flame is the burning mechanism. It's the reason and not the result for/of burning things.

A flame is the burning material in its vaporized form, in which it reacts with various chemicals called oxidizers in the air, like oxygen for example (which also gives it its name). This reaction called oxidization is usually a very hot process. The heat of this reaction will result in more of the burning material being vaporized and repeat.

The color of the flame is dependent on the temperature and material being burnt.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do Mexican drug cartels display violence and ruthlessness far greater than other criminal organizations?

[Assistant]
Control of resources and cash flow. They want anyone that would like to enter the drug smuggling business to be too terrified to attempt to cut into their market because it would weaken their monopoly. They want the mexican military to fear them, and the mexican police to fear them. If enough people are terrified to a sufficient degree, then its not likely any sizable force will have the courage to take the neccessary steps to defeat them.

In short, its all about greed and preservation of power already acquired. Fear of them is what deters people from taking action against them, violence is simply a means to inspire the level of fear they need to maintain their empire. Its a tactic that has been used against populations for centuries.


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

[User]
[Batman/ Jack West Jr] Could Batman put Joker in a trophy tank?

For those who haven't read The Five Greatest Warriors by Matthew Reilly (I highly recommend it), it features tanks of formaldehyde which keep people alive (they are provided oxygen and an IV drip too, but only enough to keep them alive and in a weakened state), essentially turning them into living trophies. This doesn't hurt the person, or kill them, but simply keep them living for as long as it takes for the IV stuff to run out.
My question is this; would this work for Batman and Joker? For example, if Batman made one of these, and put Joker in it, and kept him in some secret safe in the Batcave. Then Batman gets what he wants and Joker has to live out his sentence, and then Joker can't hurt anyone from the confines of his tank, keeping everyone generally safe. It's also a better option than Arkham, since the place is essentially a revolving door, with people coming and going all the time.
So.... would it work? Why/ why not?

[Assistant] Based on our studies of the vigilante known as the "Batman," our conclusion is that this would not be a viable option.  Batman's pathology shows definite signs of intense obsession around his concept of "Justice," and as such he continues to leverage the criminal justice and mental health system after apprehending suspects.  "Batman" feels that while his actions are beyond the reach of the law, he does not have an ultimate authority to pass judgement over the criminals he apprehends - if he did, we suspect we would've seen no end to dead or permanently maimed suspects years ago.


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

[User]
Do long-distance fibre optic cables ever make mistakes with the data they transmit?

For example, could I send an email and the recipient views it with a misplaced letter because the fibre optic cable was damaged or just because something weird happened in transmission?

[Assistant] No, what would actually happen is a packet would be checked (for instance with a cyclic redundancy check at the hardware layer) and if there were a detectable bit error, the packet would be discarded. With a reliable transfer protocol like TCP, the lost packet would be retransmitted and no corruption at the application layer would be occur. There is an industry standard bit error rate for fiber optic connections and it's something like one in a trillion, so it's rare, but does happen.


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

[User] [Jurassic Park] What is the best way to defend yourself against raptor attacks?

[Assistant]
The #1 critical factor is to choke down their avenues of approach; raptors are pack hunters, and are fond of using one or more members of the pack as a diversion to cover the movements of a rapid and brutal flank attack. By limiting the directions from which an attack can come, you can properly commit your attention and resources.

In a pinch you can make do with a spear, or any other melee weapon that will beat them on reach and can be put between you and them for defense, but a firearm is highly recommended. Of particular use is a semi-automatic rifle or shotgun, something with enough raw killing power for a one or two shot stop, but with the ability to rapidly respond to additional attackers, though a handgun can be a lifesaver if something goes wrong with your primary weapon, while you are maneuvering into fighting position, or if the beasts get too close. Avoid scopes other than low-powered, long eye relief optics; the temptation of an easy kill at range is powerful, but the resulting 'tunnel vision' could get you disemboweled. Other optional accessories include night vision gear (to rob them of the cover of darkness), single-point slings (to rapidly bring the main firearm into play in a sudden encounter) and bayonets (to give the cocky little bastards a taste of their own medicine if they catch you mid-reload).

When in the field with loose velociraptors, situational awareness is a literal matter of life and death; they're not going to give you many chances to spot them before they move in. Once you know you're in their sights, don't stand and fight, start maneuvering. Find a place that has 'cover' (obstructions that will hide a raptor, but also physically obstruct their attacks and movements) and lacks 'concealment' (obstructions that will hide a raptor, but not hinder their movements), preferably with a limited number of entrances, ideally with more than one entrance they can't take advantage of. Escape options are always nice, but pick carefully; if you can use it to get out safely, they might be able to use it to get in.

The 100% solid gold ideal would be an observation tower with straight legs, one ladder up, a rope ladder for emergencies, and no elevator, ramp, or similar handicap access; you could pick them off at will, they can't get up the ladder, and in a pinch you still have a way down if something goes wrong with the ladder. Other good places are buildings, especially ones that have lockable doors; raptors can work door handles and break windows, but if you can lure them into a long hallway you can reduce them to pink mist before you can say "apex predator".


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

[User]
[LOTR] Why didn't Sauron give any of the Kings of Nmenor a ring of power?

They wanted immortality right? It shouldn't be that hard to sway them.

[Assistant]
The Witch-King was *a* Numenorean King, not *the* king though. Several numenorean lords carved out kingdoms in Middle Earth, so it was to these lesser kingdoms that rings were given to power hungry kings.

The high kings didn't need power rings to rule as they were already the ultimate power on earth.

Now as to why sauron didn't make more later to enslave the king under his sway;
1. He was already in control of the King, he didn't need a ring.
2. Some works can only be wrought once and only once. Rings of power are one of those things
3. Finally, Sauron's hatred of Numenor was so complete that he didn't want them enslaved, he wanted them *exterminated*


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

[User]
Why isn't it always light?

On a clear night, without light pollution, I can follow the path from Cassiopeia to the Andromeda galaxy, which appears as a dim smear of light.
I assume that the closer I travel towards Andromeda (as impossible as that is) the brighter and more visible it will be and therefore it stands to reason that if I am *inside* Andromeda it will be incredibly bright. I mean, I'd be standing inside something which is giving off enough light to be seen from *Earth* in a whole other galaxy.

I assume our galaxy looks the similar from the perspective of an Andromedan so why does it ever get dark?

[Assistant]
Suppose you had several floodlights on stands, at varying heights and set a distance apart but angled so that theyre pointing at the same place. A person walking up to the spot at which theyre pointing would, for awhile, just see a wide swath of very bright light. But at some point, they would get close enough to start resolving the individual points of light from the separate lamps, and eventually they would get beyond the point where the lights are pointing and thereby see the darkness behind and around the lights.

An imperfect metaphor, because stars emit lights in all directions, but it does illustrate the point: multiple light sources that are all emitting light towards you will blur as if they were one larger light source, but the light will individualize as you get closer and you can better resolve the actual space between them.


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

[User] ELI5: What is it about french fries in particular that make them nearly impossible to taste good once reheated in the microwave?

[Assistant] Microwaves cook by heating up water molecules inside your food. When the molecules warm up they are drawn to the surface and tend to make the food soggy on the outside and dry inside. That is the opposite of how you want french fries.  Try reheating french fries with an oven.  It will keep the outside cooked and the inside relatively moist.


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

[User] [Comics] How many calories does the average superhero consume a day?

[Assistant]
Daily Regimen.

*Morning.* 10 dozen eggs, two loaves of bread, 20 pounds of bacon, 3 full chickens.

*Noon.* 20 packs of Oscar Meyer hotdogs, 30 packs of Oscar Meyer Bologna. 200 slim jims, about 15 extra ham sandwhiches.

*Night.* 350 Hogwings, 25 Burgers, 10 pounds of hogfries, 26 bologna cutlets. End the dinner with 3 more whole chickens.


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

[User]
ELI5: When people talk about "rendering" a video for x amount of time, what is the process that is taking place?

Do they leave the computer turned on until the video renders? What about a video that takes weeks, or even years?

[Assistant]
Basically the computer program needs to calculate what exactly will appear on each point of the screen, for each frame. It needs to take into consideration the objects that are in the scene, their location and appearance (colors, textures etc.) and especially the lighting.

> Do they leave the computer turned on until the video renders?

Yes.

> What about a video that takes weeks, or even years?

Each frame of the video can be rendered separately. This allows the rendering process to easily split to multiple computers on a server farm - instead of having one computer work for 5 years, you can have 100 computers work for two and a half weeks.


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

[User] [The Office: UK] How can David Brent, after all his years on the planet, be so utterly self-unaware?

[Assistant]
Some subconscious part of him knows. It knows, and yet cannot bring forward the information to his waking self. His conscious mind dares not accept the cold truth, knowing that acceptance of such crippling character flaws leads inevitably to suicide.

He cannot accept himself, because his cringe is beyond redemption. There is only the solace of the noose for David Brent.


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

[User]
If I turn on a fan in a room that's 70 degrees fahrenheit all through it, would it get hotter since I'm adding energy to the room (the fan is)?

Edit: Good responses! Thanks for all the input, hope someone else learned something too.

 Keep in mind this is a theoretical question, kinda like how in physics you disregard the air resistance of a falling object here we are disregarding any possible temperature variance as well as your own perspective on what it *feels* like.

[Assistant] Yes, it would. The fan doesn't actually cool off a room, it only moves the air around. The breeze you feel makes you feel like the air is getting cooler, since more air particles are hitting you; if the air is cooler than your body, the heat transfer between atoms is going from you to the air. However, if the air is hotter than your body, you'll feel like the breeze is making the room hotter.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do horses need to have their hoofs trimmed? How do wild horses hooves not grow out of control and cause them pain? How does the hoof trimming process work with horse shoes?

Basically, I am really curious about the overall horse hoof care and maintenance.

[Assistant]
Wild horses wear down their hooves from walking on hard ground and rocks and things. Every 6-8 weeks, domestic (and some feral/wild) horses get their hooves trimmed to make sure they grow in an appropriate shape that doesnt destroy the horses joints over time.

The farrier would remove the shoe, then proceed normallytrimming the hoof, trimming the frog, filing the hoof, sealing/conditioning the hoof, and applying a new shoe if necessary. Oh and hoof picking first, but everyone does that all the time.

Anyway, shoes can stop horses hooves from wearing out too fast on asphalt, getting stuff in them (sand shoes), or from destroying the horses joints once arthritis, metabolic, or degenerative disorder sets in. Its very interesting to watch.


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

[User]
When I point my contactless IR thermometer straight up, what am I taking the temperature of?

It's currently 85 degrees F on the ground here at 10 pm at night. That's the current nighttime air temperature. It's also the temperature I get when I point the IR thermometer at the grass on the ground. When I point my contactless IR thermometer straight up it registers 57 degrees F. That temperature increases as I point it more towards the horizon presumably towards denser and lower layers of air. So what am I measuring straight up? The cosmic background radiation temperature? An average of the stars and deep space in view? The average temperature of the atmosphere? A layer of IR-opaque water vapor in the troposphere? If the latter, how high up is it? How can I find out? Would the temperature it records be different in a dry desert area?

[Assistant] You are measuring the infra-red radiation given off by gasses in the atmosphere. Many atmospheric gasses give off infra-red - mostly it is the water vapor. But as the IR they give off is very different from the IR given off as black-body radiation from solids, you aren't getting an accurate measurement of the temperature of anything.


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

[User]
In oil/gas drilling, how is torque applied effectively to the drill bit a mile or more below the surface? Is there a significant spring effect on the shank?

It seems to me that it might take many rotations at the surface to start the bit spinning against the rock, and that the extremely long shank of the drill gets twisted up somewhat. I probably have some bad assumptions.

[Assistant] Your assumptions are correct- the amount of twist in the shaft is proportional to it's length and the torque input.  For oil drilling shafts that are many miles long the number of turns in the shaft is quite high, can be in the tens to hundreds of turns depending on how long the shaft is.  Crazy to think about- but that is reality.


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

[User] ELI5: How do our ears create ear wax? Is it actually wax? Where does it come from?

[Assistant] Ear wax is a waxy mucus that your body produces from glands within your ear. It is used to trap dust and other things that get into the ears and clean them out naturally. Your body has several mucus systems.


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

[User] ELI5: How are animals like felines able to jump and leap insane distances? What makes humans unable to do the same?

[Assistant]
The design of the hind legs has a lot to do with it.

Animals like cats and deer walk on their rear toes.  The "heel" is quite high off of the ground.  So their rear legs have three major segments instead of two, giving them more power and range of motion.  This leads to bigger jumps.

And you also have to be able to land safely.  Humans have to land on the same legs that they jumped with.  Four legged animals jump with their rear legs, and land with their front.  The front legs and their joints have evolved to be great shock absorbers.  For example, the shoulder joint of a deer has an incredible range of motion, because there's no direct connection from the leg bone to the bones of the torso.  It's all just connected by soft tissue.


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

[User] [Harry Potter] How fast to Bludgers move? How much damage would one do to a Muggle?

[Assistant] They wouldn't go after a muggle, they're charmed to go after the Quiddich players.  They move at a good clip, not quite baseball speed, but at least 20-40mph, I'd say.  You have time to react, but they're also moving enough to break through bones too.


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

[User] [Star Wars] After the death of their mother, Luke is raised on Alderaan by Bail Organa and his wife while Leia grows up on the Lars Moisture Farm on Tattooine. How different are the events of Episodes IV-VII?

[Assistant]
They don't change much in terms of overall effect on the Galaxy. Leia has the same force potential as Luke, and being cooped up on Tattooine would make her want to escape like Luke did.

The biggest difference would be Leia and Han would probably never become romantically attached. Without the affluent upbringing of Alderaan she'd have never needed the "scoundrel".

The biggest effect would be what the effects of upbringing would have on the temperament of the twins. Leia has the temperament of their father, where Luke is more similar to their mother. But Leia's in your face attitude likely stems from the stress of growing up knee deep in the rebellion which Luke would probably have inherited too.

So ultimately there wouldn't be much of a difference besides the actual context of events on Cloud City.


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

[User] [Lord of the Rings, Movies] Was there a Population of Isengart before the Orcs and Saruman's creation of the Uruk-Hai? Or was it just Saruman in his lone Tower?

[Assistant]
At that time, the fortress of Isengard had no population until the orcs arrived.

Prior to the War of the Ring, it was populated by the Dunlendings who started raiding Rohan. Rohan eventually defeated them (they starved the out in in a siege) and left a small garrison there until Saruman appeared and offered to guard the fortress.

Incidentally, Orthanc - the tower itself - was there long before Isengard was, built by the Dnedain. Gondor later built Isengard around it.


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

[User]
Can You Do Research In More Than One Topic During Grad School?

I am interested in two different fields: genetic engineering and tissue engineering. At the moment, I'm in my fourth year as an undergraduate engineering student, and I found two professors who do those things, respectively. However, I don't think I have time to work in both their labs. I would like to ideally focus on both of these subjects and integrate them into something I can study when I proceed to grad school, but I can only choose one of the two for now. If I were to stick with the professor who focuses on genetic engineering research, is it possible to do research in tissue engineering later on without any hindrances? Or will I be forced to stick to one of these fields and never really get to diversify?

[Assistant]
Rather than frame this problem as genetic vs tissue engineering, frame it as Prof A vs Prof B.

Think about the messy factors that have nothing to do with engineering. Your relationship with your professor and lab mates can amplify or nullify your efforts. The amount of funding a lab gets can be a huge deal and at the very least establishes a lab's prestige. What about lab alumni? Do any of them run a biotech company you'd like to work for?

*If all else fails, go with your gut. Being smart enough to worry about this question is a larger safety net than most people get!*


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

[User] Alpha and Beta rays can barely get through a sheet of paper, How much mass do you need to block gamma rays?

[Assistant]
Typical gamma ray shielding you find lying around in a nuclear physics laboratory is blocks of lead a few inches thick.

If you shoot a monochromatic, collimated beam of gamma rays directly at a piece of material, the gamma ray intensity falls off exponentially as a function of distance into the material.

The exponential decay constant is called the "attenuation coefficient", and it grows rapidly with increasing atomic number. That's why materials like lead are good for gamma ray shielding.


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

[User]
ELI5: why all the obviously 'bot internet comments without URLs?

Over the past several years I've noticed that there are a lot of blogs with almost no comments, except some that are so vague as to be useless ("I love your blog I want more see"), "WOW", or obviously randomly generated.  None have URLs.  Are these comments that had the URL filtered, are they trying to build some sort of "cred" so that they don't get autoblocked on other blogs, or something else?  Thanks!

[Assistant] Sometimes it is about cred, sometimes it is about testing the defenses of the comment system to see what gets through and what doesn't.  In many of the cases, if you checked the same comment a month later, there would be a link; comment systems often allow you to edit your own comment later on without the same intensity of auto-moderation.  Sometimes, also, the spam is trying to game search engines... there may be links hidden in the text that are not intended for you.


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

[User]
[MCU] Thanos says that everything should be balanced. We know he massacres planets that have too many people and all. But does he touch the planets that have already found a balance with their planets? Does he actually help planets with less people/creatures on them? How does that work?

Watching Avengers 4 right now and seeing Gamora's planet massacre prompted me to ask it.

[Assistant] Speculation: In his mind, a rule must be applied evenly to be effective, even if that's unfair in individual cases. Otherwise you get exceptions and precedents and the whole thing slows way down deciding whether it's OK to balance each one.


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

[User]
[The Punisher] Why doesn't Frank Castle use his vigilante skills to topple oppressive regimes and dictatorships?

I was thinking about the logic behind the Punisher's actions - he goes around killing criminals because he believes that this is the only way to "get the job done" and clean up the streets. Ok, fine, his morals are fairly "flexible" to not call him outright ruthless and psychotic and the man himself is implied to have lost part of his sanity a long time ago back when his family was killed. But if left me thinking. If Frank truly wants to fight crime and "human scum"... why doesn't he go to oppressive countries and liberate them using his peak human abilities?

While the comics world is obviously different from ours - i doubt it also doesn't contain countries with dictatorships and innocent people being killed and arrested. North Korea, Syria, Saudi Arabia - all of them have governments infamous for their arrests of journalists and protestors fighting against their regimes who body counts are probably in the hundreds of thousands right now, and yet Frank would ratter go around killing muggers and serial killers than doing something about them with his big guns, even though his entirephilosophy is based around punishing the wicked and those who would hurt the innocent. Why?

And just to leave this clear - i know some people are going to say that fighting against an entire army is different from murdering criminals - and i admit it is. But..... Frank is also no common hired gun, he has fought against entire criminal organizations before on the same level of The Zetas in Mexico, if not even stronger and more resourceful. Even if he alone can't take on the government of these countries, he could join a rebel or insurgent group and act as a special forces fighter for them, going on one man missions in strategic locations to give them the edge necessary to topple the regimes. And it's *Frank* we are talking about*,* it's not like he can't take on a army base with some preparations beforehand.

[Assistant] Because frank is realistic about his capabilities and what he can accomplish. Kill a few drug dealers there's less product on the street for a few weeks or months. Kill a murderer there's only frank left. Changing regimes takes time. Killing the top leaders leaves a nation in chaos as middleman and strong men assume power in the vacuum. He'd go from killing 5 or 6 really bad people to suddenly a dozen more pop up to replace them. He would need to groom a replacement. Empower them to take control. And ensure they have support of the right people and the population. Killing a gang is like stepping on an ant. Killing a dictator is like kicking over an anthill. Frank can't spend 15 years playing kingmaker behind the scenes for just one isolated dictatorship when he's better suited helping neighborhoods and people today.


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

[User] ELI5: What is the actual difference between a clementine, tangerine, and mandarin?

[Assistant]
I've tried all of them.

Mandarin is basically just a small orange.

Tangerines have a big bump on the top and are extremely tart. Much more sour than normal oranges. It's a good thing. Sometimes one can be nearly as sour as a lemon but extremely sweet at the same time. The skin on tangerines peels away much more easily than an orange.

Clementines are probably the smallest and are usually wider than they are long. Like someone took an extremely small orange and squashed it a bit. Their taste is hard to explain but it reminds me more of a berry mixed with an orange. Their skin also peels away very easily with little effort.


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

[User]
ELI5: What are bearer bonds? How do they work?

Just watched Die Hard and in the film the excellent antagonist Hans Gruber is trying to steal over $600 million in German bearer bonds from the Nakatomi corporation. It occurred to me that I have no idea what they are or why a company would have them.

[Assistant]
There are two parts, Bearer, And bond

Back to front, for the purpose of explanation.

a bond is just a debt to be paid back in a certain manner, normally with interest, at a certain time.
X loaned Y $100. Y will pay back $200 in 2 years.
Bearer just means who ever holds it, or *bears* it, is owed the debt.
So its who ever has this paper, Y will pay back $200 in 2 years.
Effectively its just a piece of paper that has value to it so its nearly as good as cash for a lot of purposes.

Theyre not common anymore due to them being used in various manners like money laundering or theft.


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

[User]
[General] Why aren't people allowed to know about the supernatural existing?

Be it the SCP Foundation, The Secret World, Devil May Cry, Charmed, Vampire the Masquerade or Supernatural, regular people are either not taught that supernatural entities exist or they actively hindered to gain knowledge about them and I always wonder why.

I kind of understand the whole point of trying to prevent a mass panic, but with how common incidents involving demons and monsters actually are, I think the supernatural would become natural pretty quickly.

And wouldn't it also help to lower the casualties of demon and monster attacks, if your regular Joe knows that they exist?

[Assistant]
In Dresden Files series, there is a unsaid rule to not involve vanilla mortals(general population) into the dealings of the supernatural.

It's said that while humanity as a whole is weak, but they get dangerous when they get scared of the unknown. Humanity has numbers and now, nukes.

So while a Vampire lord can come and kill a whole city, but when Humanity realizes that there are these creatures hidden among them, they strike back like a cornered animal.

Most recent book spoilers.

>![In the latest book(Battle Ground) this rule is broken where half the city of Chicago and probably US gov agencies now know there is supernatural in the world, we'll see the consequences in the future books.]


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

[User]
ELI5: What exactly happens when a person twitches?

Does it have to be set off by something? If so are the triggers often similar amongst those who do twitch?

[Assistant] Twitching is due to something called muscle fasciculation, which is basically a small contraction. Damaged or stimulated nerves can cause twitching. A few common reasons for minor, benign twitching might include things like stress, anxiety, lack of sleep, exercising, nutritional deficiencies, too much caffeine, or a bad reaction to drugs (stimulants, estrogen, etc.). Twitching can also be due to more serious diseases, like Lou Gehrigs disease (ALS).


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do so many Asian nationality adjectives end in "ese" (i.e. Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, etc.) where so many other nationality adjectives end in "ish" or "an" (i.e. Scottish, American, German, Egyptian, Italian, etc.)? I know there are exceptions, but in general, this seems to be a thing.

Edit: I mean nationality adjectives in English, not their native languages.

edit edit: For instance, Portuguese and Korean are exceptions, and then you have nationalities like "Czech" and "Filipino" which don't end in "ese," "an," or "ish."

[Assistant]
We get our language/nationality names from European explorers who first made contact and had to call them something pronounceable.

Those ending in "ese" were countries first visited by explorers speaking Italian, Portuguese, or a similar language -- this ending is normal in those languages.

Those ending in something else were first visited by explorers speaking other languages.