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

[User]
[Marvel/ Fantastic Four] Where does the human torches flames come from, and what sustains them?

I mean like how does he just ignite, and then what keeps them going since its not like he's actually burning?

Do his flames even follow proper physics?

[Assistant]
Johnny Storm requires energy to be able to produce heat, he regains energy by eating food like any other human being but it uses his calorie intake in a more effective way than a normal human.

His fire consist of his own heat and the oxygen on the atmosphere (or other oxidizers). As any fire, it needs some kind of fuel, so there must be a gaseous substance being secreted from his body while flaming. He can also control the amount of heat and it has some kind of mind control over his gas, and it's able to create shapes and projectiles with it.

His energy reserves are not infinite, and he can run out of flame.


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

[User] ELI5: If proteins get denatured by extreme acidic or alkaline environments, how does it survive our stomach acid and go into the small intestine for digestion without any harm?

[Assistant] In simple terms, it doesn't. The aim of digestion isn't to take in whole proteins from food, but to break them down into their 'building block' parts, called amino acids. Protein digestion begind in the stomach, in which ingested proteins are denatured by the acid. However, their breakdown is also accelerated by pepsin enzymes (which are produced in the stomach and work optimally in the acidic environment). By the time your ingested protein is absorbed in the intestine (after undergoing further breakdown by enzymes secreted by the pancreas) it exists as a 'pool' of amino acids which can then be utilised as the building blocks for other proteins your body needs.


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

[User]
[South Park] When Kenny dies, does "Kenny" wake up in bed the next morning, or does a clone wake up with his memory?

Like, does his consciousness/soul/whatever hop to the new body, or is that a whole new entity with a dead boy's memories?

Also: If nobody remembers him dying, what happens to the bodies?

[Assistant] Kenny's ability to not die is explained in S14 E12 "Mysterion Rises". After Kenny dies his mother gives birth to a child and he wakes up in bed the next morning. In that episode it's revealed that Kenny's parents previously joined the Cult of Cthulhu. They don't remember that time very well because they were drunk (there was free beer) but during the episode a picture is shown of cultists performing some ritual involving an infant. No explanation is given for what happens to his dead body.


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

[User]
ELI5 how pulse detection apps work

I have a heart rate monitor app on my phone which works pretty gosh darn well.  I place my finger over my phone's camera and LED flash and it accurately measures my heart rate in real time.

My nurse girlfriend has taken my actual pulse at the same time and it's always very close.

So how does it work?

[Assistant]
Try this: open the camera app on your phone and start recording video while turning the flashlight (LED lamp) on, and then press your finger on the camera lens. You will see a blurred image of your finger and if you look closer you'll see a slight pulse in the color. Thats your heart beating.

It works because the flashlight will penetrate your skin and scatter all the way around in your finger including your artery, and some of the light getting back to the camera gets slightly dimmer when your heart pumps.


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

[User] [Game of Thrones] How rich and powerful is the Iron Bank?

[Assistant]
Wealthy to a point were they could potentially crash the economy of Westeros if they had a mind to do so.

They're said to be more powerful than all the other banks in the Free Cities combined. They have a reputation for collecting on debts, and when kings and queens fail to honour their loans, there is a tendency for new kings and queens to take their place.


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

[User]
[LOTR] Is Galadriel's Mirror really so useless like she describes it in the book?

It's like you get a random view of whatever, so what use can you make of that ever?

[Assistant] It's like all magic that lets you see the future, its one potential path of what happens, whether its already happened or not yet, it just depends on what's being seen.  Its only useless if you're not wise enough to be able to take what's been shown and understand why it might be happening.


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

[User]
How far would a super tanker run aground?

I once heard that if a super tanker ran on shore at full speed it would travel a pretty decent distance on land due to the massive momentum.

Approimately what distance would a super tanker travel on the ground if it ran full speed up on the beach?

[Assistant] There are a lot of variables to this question; short answer, it wouldn't get very far.  Super tankers and other 'deep draft' vessels can draft up to 80' which means the ship would be hard aground before ever reaching the beach.


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

[User]
Why do men grow beards and women don't?

Did women grow beards at one time? Bonus question: why do some races of people hardly grow beards at all?

[Assistant] Women produce less of Androgens and Testosterone, which are responsible for secondary sexual characteristics. Some races of women are quite hairy, and some aren't. It is all about mate recognition. Probably women who produced a lot of hair 100,000 years ago got selected out.


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

[User] ELI5:Why do jeans have little pockets in their pockets?

[Assistant] It's designed to hold a pocket watch, or at least originally was. It's a nostalgic throwback to when men carried pocket watches instead of wrist watches, and when people used wrist watches instead of cell phones for that matter.


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

[User] If I made a clone of myself, but swapped my Y chromosome for my father's X chromosome, how different would my clone sister be from myself?

[Assistant] Vastly different. Swapping out the Y chromosome and replacing it with your father's X chromosome would change the entire DNA set. She would be much closer related to you than a full sibling but far from a clone.


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

[User]
[General] Why no love for air guns?

An air gun seems a perfect weapon for space colonists. Not *that* mechanically complex, not as hard to use as a bow, smaller than a crossbow, propellant is *in the air*, and any chunk of metal with some processing works as a munition. Surely space-age tank materials would make compressed gas cartridges lighter and/or higher-powered, and permit liquid volatile cartridges (with gasses under pressure to keep them liquid well beyond their boiling point) as well.

[Assistant]
Probably because most people don't think of air guns as weapons. But you are right, they would work pretty dang well as long as atmospheric conditions were good.

The colonists could just smelt little balls of metal as ammunition which would be pretty trivial.

The level of complexity could vary depending on the facilities available. If you don't have a lot of tools a tank, barrel, and hand pump would suffice. Then just make it more complex as you get better equipment.

Heck you could even use one is space if you don't mind expending the air. Maybe have some sort of secondary tank on your space suit that holds air with not enough oxygen left in it to breath.


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

[User]
[The Culture] How did the Idirans pose any resistance at all?

The Culture Minds work out and win battles in nanoseconds and the Idirans don't have anything like minds. How did they manage to not be obliterated at once and actually win some battles?

[Assistant]
The Idirans come from a planet of incredibly horrible predators, and they were at the top of the food chain. They were a theocratic warrior species and had been honing the art of war for millennia. They were also biologically immortal and incessantly aggressive. By the time the culture became aware of them, they were already a stage-7 civilisation with an enormous amount of captured space with several other stage-7 and stage-8 allies. The Homomda were one of their biggest allies and were in part, practically on the same tech-level as the Culture.

The Culture had spent at least 8000 years perfecting their own type of utopia - something completely opposite to the hegemonistic and aggressively expansionist Idiran empire. At the beginning of the war, the Culture simply didn't own any war material, and so used Contact as its military fleet. Losses at the beginning were enormous, mainly due to the fact most people in the culture wanted nothing to do with the war. Debates and votes took a lot of time whilst vast expanses of space had to be evacuated from the invading Idirans.

Culture minds themselves (the higher-up ones at least) probably had no doubt about their eventual victory, but couldn't be seen to be aggressive in kind, lest they completely destroy the utopian principles their society was founded on. They retreated, regrouped and coalesced until the Idirans eventually spread themselves thin. At this point (a good thirty years since the war started) they'd had enough time to create war ships and war strategies for actual straight-up fighting. By this time, the Idirans realised they'd underestimated their enemies ability to adapt but also had no idea of the depth of their technical ability. Stuff like being able to hide ships in the corona of a star - such was the excellence of their field technologies.

In short, the Culture could have utterly obliterated the Idirans much sooner, but to do so, would have killed the principles of peace they'd worked close to ten thousand years to achieve, and would have probably been the end of their much-loved society.

The idirans actually did have minds - just slaved ones. When the war was over, the Culture visited Idiran-Prime and installed their own mind, just to make sure everything from then on, was far more peaceful. This probably wouldn't have been possible if done sooner, as it would have seemed like an invasion as opposed to a tactic to ensure future peace.


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

[User]
CMV: All states should set the Minimum Marriage Age to at least 18 (Both male and female)

For the states that have the minimum marriage age set to younger than 18, they all need parental consent. I really think if you are two young to sign yourself away to someone else, you shouldn't be getting married.

Heck, in some states, females can get married as young as 12 and 14 (MA, AK, VT). What 12/14 year old should be getting married if they can't even support themselves economically (OK, unless you inherit a great deal of money, but that's not the majority of the population). And  they'd need parental consent to get married, get a job, pretty much do anything? Looking at all the child marriage problem in the world, it essentially ends their childhood, curtails their education, and minimize their economical  opportunities. And if sex ed wasn't taught properly it really risks the health of both parties and the risk of teenage pregnancy is much higher.

I did not look into when this law was last changed, but maybe if this was the 1800s the age would make more sense since people did have a shorter life span. But this is the 21st century we are talking about... happy to hear how we can justify the age.

[Assistant]
Why 18, why not set it to 24 when peoples brains are fully developed and are more likely to choose a better parter and stay married?

I can see it in cases of teen pregnancy where the teens are living together and sharing assets with a child.  Marriage protects their mutual assets and has tax benefits.  Are you ok in denying these people  most especially the children born in this marriage who are also the most likely to be disadvantaged economically the financial advantages of marriage?

People werent getting married as teens because they had shorter lives, they were getting married because they were teens who wanted to have a sexual relationship.  This hasnt changed, but social norms have.


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

[User]
Do we lose memories, or only the ability to access them?

For example, I can't recall what I did on a particular day one month ago. Is that information no longer available in the brain, or is it still hidden away in there?

When looking at people such as 'rain man', and others with a similar condition, they're able to recall nearly everything they read, the weather on any given day in the past, what they had for dinner June 3rd, 1983, etc. Do we all have that information somewhere inside of us? Do I know what I've eaten every single day of my life, but I'm just unable to recall it?

[Assistant]
This question hinges on some hotly debated topics in memory research that try to define how and where memory representations are stored in the brain. There is no good, definite, or agreed upon answer to this at the present time. However, the simple answer to your question is that a loss of memory is usually a loss in ability to access that memory. I'll give you a scenario that is easy to relate to first, and then mention some published research.

You are going to the grocery store, and you have five different item to buy that a friend, parent, or significant other asked you to pick up, and don't have a list or any way to contact them. If you remember the first three items perfectly, but don't quite remember the last two, do you give up and go home? You would most definitely walk around the store, hoping something would cue your memory and you would be able to buy what you need. You memory of the 'forgotten' items was not immediately accessible by free recall, but would be accessible with better cues.

Events at the time of test/recall/recollection are very important in determining whether you will be able to produce a certain piece of information. There is a ton of research in this area. An interesting paper by Malthup (1995) that used a 'false fame' procedure created by Larry Jacoby. This procedure involves asking participants to read/pay attention to a list of made-up, non famous names. Then after some time (a day, a week etc.) bring those same people back into the lab and test them on a new list of names that contains some names from the previous list, some new nonfamous names, and some names of famous people. Then participants are asked to rate the fame of the names presented. Names that were studied from the previous session, although they are fictitious and not associated with any level of fame, are consistently rated as being more famous than fictitious names presented for the first time at test. Older individuals are reliably shown to be worse at this task (i.e. rate studied names as famous more often) than younger individuals. Malthup manipulated this task by specifically telling participants the three options for names they will see (i.e. famous name, new nonfamous names, and old nonfamous names). In this context older adults performed as well as younger adults. This is just one example of how memory for certain events can be thought of as 'lost' because they are simply inaccessible at the moment, or need to be probed, cued, accessed in a different way.


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

[User] If your spaceship was travelling near speed of light, would hitting a piece of space dust make it explode?

[Assistant]
Depends on how close to the speed of light.

The way to approach it is to assume that the spaceship is at rest, and then take the space dust as traveling close to the speed of light.

Let's say this space dust has a mass of 1 microgram (10^-6 gram). If you are traveling at 99% of the speed of light, then the space dust would contain 5.5x10^8 J of energy. In contrast, a 25 g bullet traveling at 1000 m/s has 1.25x10^4 J of energy. So that space dust would be like 10 000 bullets hitting the space ship.


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

[User] ELI5: How come if one boxer is clearly destroying the other, the score is always still ridiculously close, like 109 to 106 or something like that?

[Assistant]
Most boxing matches are based on the 10-point must system. One participant must score 10. The other typically scores 9, but can receive 8 or 7 due to knockdowns or a particularly lopsided round. Anything that would warrant a 6 or less usually results in a fight stoppage.

Boxing matches can vary in number of rounds, in a five-round fight, someone who loses 50-45 was pretty much dominated even though score wise it looks a lot closer. Even in a 10-round fight, stealing a couple rounds but losing the majority looks closer on the cards than may have appeared to the observer.

Boxing is also subjective and many rounds can go either way. In such cases, sometimes a judge may side with the favorite or score a 10 for one of the boxers for any number of other motivations.

The judges are also at ring-side, so they don't have all the advantages of television, and that too could contribute to some of the variation. The judges each sit on a different side of the ring, so their vantage point is also different from one another.


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

[User]
How do we have accurate records of hurricanes before satellites?

For example, the 1899 San Ciriaco hurricane. We have a track for it, and even a time frame for intensification and weakening.

[Assistant] Reports from different places at the same time and different times in the same place, from ships at sea as well as land-based observers. Put the data together like pieces in a puzzle. Fill in the holes with educated inference.


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

[User]
(LoTR) Can mortals become immortal?

We see that Elves can give up their immortality, but can a mortal (ie man or dwarf) receive immortality without using dark magic like Sauron or sailing to the undying lands like Gimli?

Also could Orcs and Uruks give up their immortality?

[Assistant]
No.  Even the Valar cannot take away the Gift of Men, mortality, that Ilvatar decreed.

Mortals that sail to the Undying Lands do not gain immortality.  They are the Undying Lands because of the fact that the immortals dwell there, not because there is any special property of the land itself to grant life.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do mathematicians like Stephen Hawking "explain" things like black holes etc using only equations?

Just saw The Theory of Everything and it got me wondering. I mean, it's all math!?!?!?!?!

[Assistant] You know how authors write long  stories using letters and words and the rules of grammar and writing? Its just like that. With enough knowledge of how to read (math), these kinds of explanations make sense. Dont feel bad that you cant read it. Its just like if you tried to read a story in a language you dont know. You can learn.


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

[User]
Is it appropriate to defer a PhD because of no housing available?

Edit: got some ideas on how valid this is and how to seek help from the department. Would like some more examples on deferring a PhD. Thanks!

Original post:

Hi there.

Background: I am an incoming PhD student in STEM of a public university in US. The program has a very small cohort size (<5 ppl every yr) and the first year of the program is mainly coursework.

My situation: I am applying for F-1 visa in Canada, and there's no regular appointment available until school starts. I will apply for an expedited appointment but I still don't know whether I can get the visa in time. I have a cat with me, and I don't drive.

Housing issue: the school is in a small town and there are not many pet-friendly apartments. I have called a bunch and most of them are already full until mid September. The left are very expensive ( ~$1500 for 1b1b) and my scholarship may not be enough for daily life if I rent there. I don't have an SSN or valid credit record yet so I can hardly negotiate with the apartment management or other landlords. I haven't seen any post of roommate recruiting in school FB groups or other social media for ~1 month straight.

My questions:
1. Should I wait until the visa decision is available and then tell the department about the housing issue?
2. Is "I have nowhere to live with my cat" a proper reason for deferring PhD?
3. If this is a valid reason, how should I communicate with the department so they won't think that I am very irresponsible?

Thanks in advance!

[Assistant]
Generally, being unable to relocate human dependents on time is not considered a valid excuse to defer admission, and furry dependents are pretty much never given special consideration beyond what is granted to human dependents. So, the chances seem slim that your inability to find affordable pet-friendly housing will be sufficient grounds for deferral.

I think it would be best to let the department know now that you are trying to move with a pet and are having difficulty finding affordable housing within that constraint. They may be able to assist you while you wait on your visa appointment, such as by advertising your housing request more broadly or connecting you with other pet owners in the department to discuss options you may not be aware of. This will also avoid blindsiding them if your visa is granted on time but you still struggle with moving.


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

[User]
[Power Rangers] Are the rangers, powered by magic or science? What is "The Grid" and how does it function?

Are the enemies they fight magic or science based as well? Rita seems to be a sorceress but Zordon seems to be some type of techno mage, at least the rangers seem anyway.  I understand some rangers are also more mystical in nature, but magic clearly seems to play a part in the universe as evidenced by the movie and other times in the series.

What are the Zords?

[Assistant]
The Morphing Grid is a universal energy field that draws upon the life force of all living beings. Some ranger teams use magic to draw power from it, others use technology to draw power from it. But all Rangers use the Morphing Grid's energies to transform into superpowered beings, summon weapons and zords. A "Morpher" is a singular device that generally uses a powerful item, be it magical, or technological, to jump start the connection to the Morphing Grid. The Power Coins used by the original Mighty Morphin team, the Zeo Crystal shards.

A morpher's specific energy signature manifests as a color, with bright primary colors being the easiest to align to. A specific team of Rangers will be using the same type of morphers, and operate on a similar wavelength of energies from the Grid, but each with a slightly different connection to it. It is very difficult, but not impossible to have two Rangers with almost identical color-wavelengths, such as the Red Time Force Ranger and the Quantum Ranger. That required futuristic technology.

As the Morphing Grid is aligned to life force, many Rangers use animal avatars as a ways of focusing their power.

Zords are giant robots, or magical constructs powered by Grid energies. Some Rangers are able to use the Morphing Grid to summon them, or teleport them directly to their location. Others have to pilot them to a location from a docking bay or other dimensional pocket realm.

Basically, Power Rangers are heroes who draw from the same energy source, and thus have similar powersets, but conjure and manifest those powers in different ways.


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

[User]
[Lord of The Rings] Why was Elrond uncomfortable when Gandalf was uttering the Black Speech of Mordor?

Elrond was clearly facepalming (or hiding?) his face. Gandalf later had to apologize to him.

Why is that? How can mere words cause this? I was even thinking if the speech seems to cause the elves physical pain. I wonder if this is because elves are beings of immortality and purity (which is how they're portrayed, for the most part), while black speech comes from a source that is the exact opposite, evil and twisted- a language of darkness and death, to be overly dramatic.

[Assistant]
In Middle Earth language, words and music have special meaning; they're magical. Uttering the Black Speech was invoking the evil started by Morgoth and continued by Sauron.

Elves are tied to Middle Earth in a way hobbits, dwarves and humans arent and are especially sensitive to these things, it's one of the reasons the elves are departing Middle Earth and going into the West.

So, Gandalf brought all that up in a place that is especially "Elvish". The Last Homely House is one of the last bastions of Elves in the Third Age. It caused Elrond discomfort and Gandalf, being a good being, apologized for causing it.


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

[User]
[Men In Black] Just how many MiB agents are there?

There's no way that an organization that big could function with only 26 agents.

[Assistant]
Zero. They don't exist. In fact, look at this little device here, what you saw was actually a group of suited individuals going to a business meeting.

This conversation never happened though, because that was just another random, forgetful event, your perfectly average life.


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

[User] ELI5 Why does a fridge need to be disconnected for hours after it has been transported? What happens if connected immediately?

[Assistant]
The compressor oil settles in weird places when it's being transported. So you want to let it sit in the usual position for a while so the oil goes back to where it should be. It's thick and takes a while to settle.

If you don't let it sit long enough, the motor could overheat and get ruined, and they aren't cheap to replace.


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

[User]
Are some "irrational" numbers rational in other bases?

This is more AskMath but I thought someone here could help.

First, I may need an explanation of how decimals in other bases work in general.

I started thinking about binary, and how decimals should work there.

I assumed the following (binary on the left, base 10 on the right):

    .1n==.5n
    .01n==.5*.5n=.25n
    .11n=n(.1+.01)=.1n+.01n==.5n+.5*.5n=.75n

And so forth.

However, aren't there many decimal numbers in base 10 that can't be easily represented with this system?  You run in to the old problem of "dividing in half forever" and never reaching your goal... But we should be able to represent the entire number line using binary, so I suppose this is just an issue of infinities... it's just super inconvenient to represent certain values?

This made me think that there may be numbers that are inconvenient to represent in base 10 that are easy to use in other bases, and I made the jump to rational/irrational numbers.

However, my intuition is that stuff like PI wouldn't be rational no matter how big we made the base, right?  It's an infinite, non-repeating string.  This should be true for all irrationals, right?  They are defined as numbers that can't be represented as an integer ratio, so should have nothing to do with what base you are working in...

Any info/random musings on decimals in other bases, as well has the interplay of irrational numbers as bases change is appreciated.

EDIT- sorry for the confusing terms, I know "decimal" is often used to mean "base 10" when talking about binary, but I here mean "numbers between 1 and 0"

EDIT 2: OK NEW QUESTION WTF are irrational bases?  Does that question even have meaning?  How do they work?
IE: Do they include whole intigers up to the value of the irrational, or fractions of the irrational:

base Pi:
1, 2, 3, Pi, Pi1, Pi2...
OR
1 (pi/pi), Tao (pi/2..wait does 2 exist in this world???), Pi, Pi1, PiTao.. some other thing... I don't even know what this looks like.

[Assistant]
You can have a rational number that terminates in one base but which repeats forever in another. In a base-3 system 1/3 (in base-10) terminates as 0.1 but in binary 1/3 is a repeating decimal, just as it is in base-10 (0.333333333.....).

But a rational number is rational in any base (i.e. can be expressed as the ratio of two integers) and an irrational number is a non-repeating infinite decimal in all bases. Integers are integers in all bases so the inability to find two integers whose ratio is, say, pi, in base-10 means that no such integers can be found in any base because all bases share the same integers just expressed differently.


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

[User]
[DC/Green Lantern] Would Joseph Stalin make a good (powerful) Green Lantern?

Obviously, Stalin was a monster- but it is clear that he had a pretty serious will. Seeing as the GL rings are fueled by Will and not really concerned with the morality of the people that use them (so far as I know, mostly thinking about Sinestro)- would that help him be more powerful? Or, is it the "wrong" type of will?

[Assistant] Maybe, but the ring (or rather Mogo the Living Planet) would 'see' that Stalin had a habit of instilling great fear, which amongst the GLC was a high crime (that was what Sinestro was kicked out for).


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

[User]
If you explain 3^2 as three multiplied by itself twice, how do you explain 3^-1 using the same language convention?

E.g 3^2 = 3 x 3

3^1 = 3

3^1 = 1/3

As in, you can explain positive powers by saying the base multiplied  by itself x number of times. But how do you explain negative exponents in the same way? Can you even? 3^-2 isn't 3 x itself negative 2 times, it's just 1/3^2.

How do you explain this using language?

Source: A friend asked me this, had no idea.

[Assistant]
You forgot a factor that explains the relationship, one!

3^2 = 1x3x3 = one multiplied by two threes.

3^1 = 1x3 = one multiplied by one three.

3^0 = 1 = one multiplied by no threes.

3^-1 = 1 / 3 = one divided by one three.

3^-2 = 1 / (3x3) = one divided by two threes.


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

[User] ELI5: what are the palace guards in England trained to do?

[Assistant]
They're active duty troops from several elite regiments (and sometimes commonwealth units), and a lot of them have extensive experience in Iraq and/or Afghanistan.  They're regular army.

So basically they are trained to kill you if necessary, and are damned good at it. Don't test them.


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

[User]
[Half-Life] Why doesn't the Combine just exterminate the human race?

In the half life series, the Combine have destroyed the vast majority of the human race. The planet has undergone total ecological destruction and humans cannot reproduce due to the Suppression Field the combine have installed. The few 'official' humans that remain live in numbered cities e.g. City 14, City 17.

The combine obviously want to discover the portal technology, but why do they maintain a civilian population? What good do ordinary humans serve to the Combine? The combine soldiers created out of humans are only used to police humans and are unlikely to be used elsewhere. Earth is it's own self contained environment in that regard.

As for the 'negotiated surrender', what is stopping them from breaking it? It's not as if Breen has any power. It's clear the combine want to kill humanity, but why not just get on with it?

[Assistant]
They don't so much consider the remaining humans to be their enemies as they consider them to be their property. The Combine more or less think of them as livestock, so they aren't going to just throw them away.  They aren't the type to be wasteful - for example, consider how they often repurpose existing structures, or how they're slowly stealing the entire ocean.  Even the resistance cells may have been thought of more as "problem animals that need to be broken," rather than real threats.  After all, they did conquer Earth in only seven hours, and that was twenty years ago.  Plenty of time for the occupying Combine force to fall into a sense that humanity has been thoroughly "pacified."

Of course, once the Freeman returned and catalyzed the Resistance, the Combine probably reconsidered this stance.


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

[User] ELI5: If humans and chimpanzees share ~98% of their DNA with each other, then why do human siblings share only 50% of their DNA?

[Assistant] Humans and chimps share 98% of the available selection of genes from which the choices which define an individual could be made.  Human siblings share 100% of that measure - they share 50% of the actual choices which are made from that.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do we retain memories if all of our cells replace themselves after a small amount of years?

[Assistant]
The concept that all your cells regenerate within 7-10 years is based on some misconceptions. Different types of cells regenerate at different rates. Some only last a few weeks while others last your entire life. Most of your brain cells are in the later category. The 7 years is based on an estimated average of all your cells.

And while we do not know much about how memories work there is some evidence suggesting that memories gets refreshed when you are asleep so that even if brain cells do not last your entire lifetime but gets damaged somehow the memories will get restored and refreshed from time to time.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is tupperware wet coming out of the dishwasher, when plates and glasses are all dry?

[Assistant]
Ceramic plates and glasses have a higher heat capacity - they can "hold" more heat, which is why they are hot when you take them straight out of the washer.  Because they're hotter, they cause the water on their surface to evaporate.

Plastic is less dense and has a lower heat capacity, so the water that collects on them doesn't evaporate as easily.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why didnt the Jedi do more to end slavery in the galaxy?

Ive been thinking about this a lot lately. But firstly I want to be fair to the Jedi and make a few concessions first

- I understand they cannot be everywhere at the same time
- I understand they are not all powerful despite their considerable abilities
- I understand that even at the height of the order they probably didnt have a ton of qualified manpower to fight a prolonged conflict

That being said these are the reasons I still dont find the aforementioned reasons excusable:

- The Jedi were absolutely aware slavery was still rampant, Anakins mothers enslavement was a known fact by at the very least the Jedi council, Obi-Wan and a few senators. Why was no effort made to free her?

- Slavery was especially rampant in Hutt space in the outer rim so a prolonged war would not be desirable. But arent the Jedi skilled communicators and negotiators? Why could they not come to a new arrangement or implement embargoes to put pressure on them to stop?

- Slavery had to be in existence in the galaxy for hundreds of thousands of years. Why did the Jedi not have a task force dedicated to eradicating slavery or rescuing slaves when and where they could?

- Why didnt slavers face more pressure from the republic in the form or regular Jedi inspection of planets to see if illegal activities were afoot?

The Jedi clearly have tremendous power, with such fantastic power they share more responsibility for the injustice in the galaxy.

Surely the Jedi would realize that an injustice like slavery if allowed to perpetuate is a threat to justice everywhere. Why do they seem to turn a blind eye especially in the case of Shmi and slavery on Tatooine?

[Assistant] The Jedi were very few in number and slavery was a very widespread problem. Most slaves were held outside of the Republic and galactic center making it difficult to approach with any legal authority as a Jedi. Numerous cultures kept slaves as a traditional and cultural purpose making it even harder to overcome their practices. And finally the Jedi focused on imminent dangers to life and the Republic which slavery for all it's awfulness wasn't that threatening to them. The Jedi did often free slaves and stop slavers but without institutions to support the freed slaves as soon as the Jedi left another slavery would turn up and undo everything the Jedi had done.


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

[User]
[DC] How dumb can a member of a Lantern core be?

All that's required is a strong connection to an emotion.

[Assistant]
Never mind dumb, you don't even need to be *sapient*\- the red lanterns have a totally normal housecat.

As you say, it's all about strong emotion, and as long as you have enough of a mind to feel things you're a candidate.


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

[User]
[keeping up with appearances] Why does Richard stay with Hyacinth after her bullshit

Being in a relationship with Hyacinth would seem like torture and built around it. High demanding, non-social and lacks any or sympathy for her partner. For what reason would Richard possibility have to stay with her?

[Assistant] Inertia. Richards life is reasonably comfortable and while his wife is annoying, getting a divorce and having to potentially find another place to live is probably more so. Its logistically easier to stay and wait for death.


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

[User]
What makes toast taste so much better than regular bread?

I understand that putting something in a toaster heats it up and makes it warm and crunchy, but what about this process makes bread so different?

[Assistant]
The maillard reaction!  It's what happens when toast gets browned and meat gets roasted.  It's a chemical reaction between proteins and sugars, usually requiring heat.  The exact flavor you get is dependent on the kinds of proteins and sugars in the food.

As to why it tastes good, nobody really knows - but it *is* known that cooking food increases the digestible calories available, so we probably evolved to enjoy the flavor of the maillard compounds, because they indicated that the cooked food was more nutritious.


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

[User]
[Star Trek] Why exactly did the Borg piss arse about so much trying to assimilate Earth?

Several times the Bord decided it was worth their time to attempt to assimilate Earth. And they send one solitary cube? They know full well at this point that yes while a Borg ship is a formidable force against most federation ships and even fleets but also that the federation are dangerous.

Dangerous enough to feel the need to assimilate them. What possible reason other than having the slightest hope of letting the federation win (which is the doyalist answer imo) would the borg have to only send one cube?

We know they have cubes for days, so why not send 2 or 3 or fuck it 10? If they borg had just sent 2 cubes they would have basically walked up to earth and assimilated them almost without incident.

[Assistant]
A predominate theory is that the Borg aren't really trying. They don't necessarily want to assimilate the Federation, they make half-heated attempts to in an effort to fatten the Federation up.

The Borg has enough resources to take out any native species (except, possibly, the Founders, and a singular example in Species 116). Yet that would actually be counter-productive. The Borg are interested in *adding* biological and technological distinctiveness to their own, which is defeated if they simply obliterate a nascent civilization before it has developed any biological or technological distinctiveness to begin with!

So if the Borg send a fleet of ships to... anywhere, there is a single outcome: the species is conquered. But that doesn't really tell us anything about the species and what they are capable of.

Send a single cube and you get three possible, informative answers:

The cube takes out the whole civilization - meaning they were probably too underdeveloped to be of interest anyway.

The cube is handily defeated - an advanced society that merits more direct attention.

The cube is barely defeated - a technology that is on its way to become worthy of more direct attention.

The Federation fell into the latter category.

Prior to Wolf-359, the bulk of the Federation Fleet were transport, medical, survey, and scientific vessels. Post Wolf-359 you get Defiant, (and later) Akira, Saber, Sovereign, and Steamrunner class ships. Ships that aren't just scientific vessels with lots of weapons, but actual warships.

This wasn't just about technological advancements, but a cultural shift from the Federation's "we're explorers" mindset.

You know one way of getting the most out of your hot peppers? You inflict damage on the plant. It produces more chemicals designed for its protection which leads to spicier flavor. You get more bang for your buck.

So basically the Borg are poking at the Federation, forcing a defensive response to encourage them to develop more advanced technology that they'll be interested in assimilating later down the road.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do canaries show symptoms of poisonous gas before humans do, in the context of canaries in coal mines?

In elementary school, I was told by the teacher that canaries have smaller lungs than humans, making them more susceptible to poisonous gas but that answer never sat well with me because smaller lungs should take in less total poison dose. Also birds are smaller than humans so the poison concentration should be fairly similar on a per weight basis. The only way I could see the bird showing symptoms first is if it has a disproportionately increased respiratory and metabolic demands compared to humans, resulting in faster accumulation of poisonous gas or that poisonous gas of equivalent dose is more potent towards canaries than to humans?

[Assistant]
Canaries have small lungs, rapid breathing, and fast metabolism. The end result is that they go through a disproportionate amount of air for their size.

Carbon monoxide also isn't "poisonous" so much as it disrupts your circulatory system, there isn't a fine level and lethal level like Hydrogen Sulfide or other poisonous gasses.  CO preferentially bonds to hemoglobin preventing oxygen from bonding to that site the next time the blood passes through the lungs.  A long exposure to a low level of CO can slowly build it up in your blood stream, the faster you go through air the faster it will build up, then you'll become confused and tired.  If you're a canary that means you stop chirping well before you die.

Canaries in coal mines were really just early CO detectors that stopped chirping when there was gas.  The body weight doesn't actually matter because its not really a specific level that causes problems, a low level and long time or high level and short time can both cause similar issues(confusion, drowsiness, and eventually death)


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

[User] ELI5: Why are genitals/buttholes darker than the rest of your body typically?

[Assistant] The same hormones that cause that area to develop during puberty also cause the skin to overproduce melanin (dark pigment). It's leftover evolution from when people didn't wear clothes and getting sunburned down there wouldn't feel great.


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

[User] [Star Wars] Could Qui-Gon Jinn have tried appearing as a Force Ghost to Vader to attempt to guide him back to the Light Side? Would there have been any risk in taking this approach?

[Assistant]
Qui-Gon died before finishing his training/preparation in becoming a Force Ghost. He was unable to appear visually without help from other Force Ghosts. However, as he was the first Jedi to have success in millennia, he was alone until Obi-Wan and Yoda and Anakin joined him. Together he was finally able to appear to Luke with their help after the death of the Emperor.

What he *did* do was appear as a disembodied voice both to Yoda and Qui-Gon, and taught them how to become Force Ghosts. With his guidance they were able to fully complete their training, and become full ghosts.

So by the time Qui-Gon could *appear*, Vader and the Emperor were dead. He *could* have spoken to them, like when he tried to stop Anakin from slaughtering the Sand People, but probably wouldn't have accomplished much.

Plus, who knows what the Emperor was capable of if he were to discover the existence of the Force Ghosts. This unique Light Side ability is arguably the single most powerful technique there is! To live after death, able to communicate at will with the living across the galaxy, able to train and assist their followers for years. All while being invulnerable and perhaps even immortal (so to speak). With this technique the Jedi could be totally wiped out, and return from the grave over and over. Unless the Emperor had someway of disrupting it, like he clouded the Force during the Clone Wars. The Jedi couldn't risk jeopardising their greatest weapon, and their own afterlife, just to "talk them out of it".


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Were the death eaters convinced Harry was some immortal being?

I'm assuming the death eaters, hell, most people, did not know the intricacies of Harry's survival of the killing curse. He already became a legend, the boy who lived, after the first encounter. And now all those death eaters saw him survive yet again right infront of their eyes.

Harry must've come off as some unkillable being to them. Might even explain why some of them fled the scene when Harry revealed himself alive.

So yeah, what was the gossip around town? Do most people think he's unkillable? Did Harry "master death" in the minds of the people?

[Assistant]
It seems, based on what we see, they didn't think he was *immortal*. They thought he had some incredible supermagic that let him defeat the dark lord even as a baby. A lot of their plans in the first few books were explicitly based on figuring out what it was, before lord voldemort revealed he was just lucky.

Presumably, after he was revealed he was alive, a lot of them thought "Oh shit, he *is* a superwizard!" and ran away.


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

[User] ELI5: Why don't we constantly see skeletons from dead animals/birds everywhere? Do they hide before they die?

[Assistant]
Scavengers

If a fox finds a dead squirrel, he's not gonna sit down by the side of the road and feast right then and there. He's going to drag it back to his den so a larger scavenger (like a coyote) doesn't take it from him. And thus the bones do wind up hidden.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Is there any realistic benefit to the way Starkiller holds his lightsaber?

I like the look of it quite a bit, it just doesn't seem ideal for any situation.

[Assistant]
It allows for attacks at unexpected angles, which might confuse some opponents.

Realistically, Vader knew that apprentices tend to murder their master in the Sith, and so intentionally trained him to hold his saber in an indefensible stance to assure Vader's victory in the event of confrontation.


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

[User]
[The Matrix] How is Neo able to see into the Matrix even when he's in the real world?

Its been a while since I've watched the films, but IIRC Neo is able to 'see' even after he is blinded in the real world by looking into the Matrix (this is how he kills the bad guy and later on is able to guide the ship). Would this imply that the real world is also a Matrix, and the Matrix is actually a Matrix within another Matrix?

[Assistant] Neo isn't exactly like the rest of the Matrix born humans. He is basically a failsafe system for the Matrix itself. In the incredibly convoluted speech the Architect makes in The Matrix Reloaded, he explains that "The One" was designed to come along and reset the Matrix when it becomes unstable. All the machines in the real world are all connected wirelessly to The Source, when Neo went to see the Architect he too became connected to The Source. Now he was supposed to enter it and reboot the system, but instead he chose not to. However he still had that connection, he was in essence both human and machine at this point, and his wireless connection to the Source allows him to "see" how the machines perceive the real world, as well as having a physical effect on them.


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

[User] ELI5 : How does the TV viewership calculated ? How do they know I am watching the TV program ?

[Assistant] They don't.  There are a bunch of families who have a special box attached to their TV, provided by a company called Nielson Media Research.  The box transmits what you watch back to Nielson, and the company uses that data to figure out roughly how many people are watching.


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

[User] [MCU] Which Olympic Events Would Steve Rogers NOT win? If team sports are included, could he bring a gold medal to the worst qualifying team from a non-host nation?

[Assistant]
Probably some of the Equestrian events, particularly dressage.

I don't think I've ever seen him showing any more than a normal ability with horses, and most of those events require a lot of practice and coordination between horse and rider.

Though I'd have to check the rules.  He might be able to do some of the jumping events carrying the horse instead of the other way around.


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

[User] ELI5: How do water towers work?

[Assistant] When you pump water from point A to point B, sometimes everyone wants more water than a pump can handle. Say everyone flushes during a commercial break during the Superbowl. The water tower holds a bunch of water high up in the air so when there a drop in water pressure, gravity pulls water down and keeps the pressure up so everyone gets water.


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

[User]
[General Sci-Fi] What happens if you get the female version of you from another dimension pregnant?

Would the baby come out as a clone of the mother or father? Or would it be more like incest, resulting in a deformation of the baby?

[Assistant]
For there to be a female version of you from another dimension, it requires that either that you have different genes or that somehow biology works differently.

Ignoring those concerns, the most likely outcome is high likelihood of problematic genes.  Our eggs / sperm don't always contain the same genes as each other (or a specific half), so there's no reason to expect that the child would get complementary halves from the parents.

There are some stories that deal with a similar issue -- notably, [](#s "Predestination") which is based off of [](#s "All You Zombies") -- but in this case, they're about [](#s "time travel and impregnating yourself") which results in [](#s "your own birth").


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

[User]
[Marvel] Why don't advanced alien civilizations like the Chitauri and Xandar have technology better than Iron Man?

Or for that matter, Captain America's shield or Ant Man's shrinking suit? 1940's technology trumps interstellar travel?

[Assistant]
Technological progression isn't linear.

Some civilisations achieve FTL space travel before they split the atom. Hell, one particularly backward arse bunch of apes split the atom before curing cancer... bloody savages.


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

[User]
ELI5: why is private education in England called "public school"?

It's confusing.

[Assistant]
A small number of older private schools are known as "public schools". When they were founded, the name made more sense because it indicated that they were open to the general public rather than being tied to membership of a particular church or other organisation.

Other private schools tend to refer to themselves as "independent schools", emphasising their independence from the government, but "private school" is also used. Government-funded schools are known as "state schools".


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

[User] ELI5: Why is it that when it is really cold outside, you can see steam coming from a vehicle's exhaust for several minutes, but then it becomes much less visible after the vehicle "warms up"?

[Assistant]
One of the main components of exhaust is water. As the exhaust cools the water vapor becomes visible. For the first bit of driving the exhaust system is cold and this point happens inside the exhaust. After the vehicle warms up this point happens outside of the car and the effect is minimized.

In addition water usually accumulates in the exhaust and it takes a while to "dry out" the muffler and tailpipe.


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

[User]
Where do I learn how to code?

I want to get into video game design and computer science b it dont know where to start. I can do basic stuff like hello world and GET requests but thats about it. Does anyone know anywhere that could help me?

[Assistant]
The best way, on the side of actual programming at least, is to actually do it. The best way is to build off tutorials...tutorials are helpful but you need to break away from them, use them as a reference point, not a guide.

The easiest way to do that is to take a tutorial, complete it, and then add extra stuff on your own.

If you have for a example a tutorial about making pong, add some extra stuff like a timer at the top, a top score board, etc...small things.


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

[User]
CMV: State governments should have far more power than they currently have.

Over time, Congress has almost completely ignored Amendment X, which reads "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people," and the Supreme Court has failed to preserve it. My argument won't focus on this, for the same reason that pro-gun arguments solely revolving around the fact that Amendment II *exists* are poorsomething being in the Constitution doesn't automatically make it right. I just wanted to introduce this to show how forgotten this issue seems to be.

The United States is, as I'm sure you all know, a geographically large country and also a very diverse countryin many ways, not just racially, as often springs to mind. Because of this, not everyone will be affected equally by laws passed in Washington, DC. This principle applies to a lot of groups, but here we're talking about different stateshow Wyomingites would be affected differently than Californians. I hate to bring guns into this, but they're a good example. Idaho had a gun murder rate of 1.5 per 100,000 people in 2015, with one of the highest gun ownership rates in the country, 56.9%. At the same time, they had very few gun control policies. Missouri also had very little gun control, but had a relatively meager 27.1% gun ownership rate with a gun murder rate of 6.9 per 100,000 people. I won't dive into why these numbers are so different, and this is not necessarily indicative of a trend of "high gun ownership rates=fewer murders" but it is clear that gun control is much more necessary in Missouri than Idaho, if it is necessary. At this point, I feel like I don't even need to say that federal gun control might solve problems in Missouri, but is an unnecessary waste of resources, not to mention the potential harmful effects, in Idaho. Again, this is just an example. My point here is not about gunsit is about the undeniable fact that not everywhere will be affected identically be federal laws. If Missouri passed gun control laws, it would affect Missouri without affecting states like Idaho. Federal laws affect all statesnecessary or not.

When this country was young, you could knock on the White House door and ask for the president. Like it or not, those days are gone. The average American has little influence on what happens in the Capitol and the White House. They have far more influence on what happens in their state legislatures. It's as simple as the fact that these governments have fewer people to listen to, and thus can listen to each individual more. This point isn't very complicatedif states had more power, they would be better equipped to respond to the needs of the people.

The United States is too big to be ruled by one centrally located entity. State governments are more in touch with the needs of their state than anyone in Washington, DC. We can stop the federal government from harming certain parts of the country while benefiting others with its legislation by letting the states take care of their own problems.

[Assistant]
It's not the 18th Century any more.

Things that happen in one state are, today, *far, far, far* more likely to affect people in other states than they were 200+ years ago.

And the Constitution gave the power to the federal government to regulate things that have impacts across state lines. And, indeed, who else *could* do so?

States are prohibited from dealing with interstate problems for very good reasons. Indeed, it's one of the main reasons to form a country out of them in the first place.

Furthermore, the 14th Amendment made it clear that states are prohibited from restricting the rights, immunities, and privileges of  U.S. Citizens without due process.

This means that a lot of thing guarantees the constitution provides against federal interference have applied to the states since the mid-19th century.

The fact that states are much more interconnected now than then doesn't change the 10th Amendment, it just makes it apply to increasingly small numbers of things, because the states *are* prohibited from doing more and more things as time goes on and actions in one place affect more places more quickly and more directly.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do games look better on PC then on consoles even though consoles are built specifically for the function of playing games?

[Assistant]
Consoles are also built to meet a price point & their specs are cemented at the time they are released.  The PS4 was released almost 2 years ago at a price of $400.

PC's aren't limited that way.  You can spend (nearly) as much as you want on one.  You can also build them with the latest & greatest hardware.  A $2000 PC built today will have more advanced & more powerful hardware than anything you'll find in a 2 year old console.  That will allow it to play more demanding games that look better.


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

[User]
[Dresden Files] How strong is this universe's magic?

I just got to changes and I am kind of curious how strong this universe's magic is compared to others. Can you recommend me some cool magic books?

[Assistant]
*Very*. But it depends on who, or what, is using it.

Dresden himself is shown to grow throughout the books. Early on, a few fireballs would exhaust him. In later books, he's throwing a few fireballs with ease to start with. The island of Demonreach itself is horrifically powerful, as it was made by Merlin. Merlin, Merlin. Although it is on a leyline, so that helps. But it's a prison that holds incalculable prisoners, all of which are immensely powerful creatures of all planes of existence. It's not wonder the White Council is worried that Harry is in charge of it, the reckless scamp.

Random magic users can throw around enough juice that they can kill a person entirely on accident, and a **lot** of people, if done on purpose. There's even rules and provisions against it, along with explicit rules against time travel, which implies that any accomplished wizard could do it no problem so they had to implement a rule telling them not to. Hell, they had to create the Blackstaff to go after wizards of unchecked power and stop them before they do something that even magic can't undo.

There's also the fey and such. They hold some damn near god level power, but they're bound by their purposes and rules, thankfully. Then there are *actual* gods, like Odin/Santa.

The short answer, at least when it comes to mortals, is that the magic is a strong as you've made it. If you're gifted and you studied, you're pretty powerful. Preparation and knowledge is also literally power in Dresden Files, so knowing what you're fighting is half the battle. Magic is like nature itself. You can shape it and use it to your advantage, or let nature overrun you.


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

[User] ELI5 What js the difference between unconsciousness and sleep?

[Assistant]
Imagine your brain is an office building.

During the day, when you're awake, all kinds of stuff is going on. During the night, much less is going on, but there's still a regular schedule for who's supposed to be there overnight and what's supposed to be happening. There will still be security guards on duty, janitors cleaning, and probably some office workers working during the night. That's what being asleep is like. It's something your brain does intentionally. It's scheduled, and your brain has certain maintenance work scheduled for sleep time.

Unconsciousness is more like "there was a fire in the building and everyone has been evacuated." A lot of the normal stuff your brain does while asleep is not happening.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are humans attracted to unnatural smells?

Why is it that humans are not attracted to smells that the human body produces like urine or sweat? Every perfume/ cologne is manufactured specifically to mask natural scents and replace them with something completely different. What is it about a cologne or perfume that makes it "smell good" to us?

[Assistant]
The smells of perfumes may be made synthetically, but they resemble the smells of things which people are drawn to. Many of them are made to smell like pleasant-smelling fruit or oils.

People are not attracted to urine and other bodily excrement because since they often contain noxious substances and pathogens, we evolved to develop a feeling of disgust around them. Sweat is interesting because many people are attracted to the sweat of people they are attracted to.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] where does the First Order's name come from?

What makes it "first"? Surely it is the 2789th Order in the galaxy's history. Is it someone's first attempt at something? Is it supposed to be revisionist, so that in a century, after the Jedi have been wiped out or something, people of a future order would look back on this one as the first ever? What's the evil reasoning behind calling it that?

[Assistant]
No idea why the people in this comment section are giving such blatantly wrong answers when they clearly dont know.

The real answer is from Aftermath:Empires End. The name comes from Rae Sloanes (the creator of the First Order) promise after the Battle of Jakku that they (The Empire) will start over on a fresh slate, That is our first order. To begin again. And to get it right, this time.

At some point or another this promise got codified and became the groups name. Its the same way countries call them selves Peoples Republics to show their goal and what the purpose of the state is, though like in these real world scenarios, that promise did not stand the test of time.


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

[User]
How to pursue a PhD without feeling like (being) a massive financial burden to your SO?

Hi all,

I am very interested in pursuing a PhD, however I am really struggling to reconcile doing this with my situation. I have been with my SO for more than 6 years now, and we are still very young without much in the way of savings. He is completing a Master's degree soon and has no intent of pursuing a PhD, and will soon go on to make a lot of money. I want to be able to help support us and save for a family, but if I go for a PhD, I will essentially will make nothing until we have kids. I also don't want my SO to feel guilty about making so much more $ and feel like he has to support me financially either. I realize it sounds like there's a clear answer to this (don't get a PhD), but my heart is in doing research, and I'm sure I'm not the first person in this position. I just want to hear some other experiences. Thank you very much.

[Assistant] Relax.  Stop thinking of your relationship as a financial transaction.  Relationships are multidimensional and (hopefully) long-term.  Your Ph.D is an investment in the future of your family, not just you.


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

[User] ELI5: How do the differences between 91, 95 and 98 unleaded petrol effect a car? Im trying to understand the physical differences happening between them in a car that can use all 3.

[Assistant]
Octane in fuel changes its ability to withstand compression without detonating/preignition. Detonation at the wrong time in gasoline engines is bad*, because youre getting combustion (and therefore, expansion force) of the fuel charge at the wrong time - when the piston and crank arent in the right position). This is both inefficient (youre burning fuel that isnt actually used for motion), and destructive. When combustion happens at the precise millisecond the piston and crank are ready, theres no damage, because the piston is at/just past the top of its arc, and down is the path of least resistance. When combustion happens before this point - especially when the piston is moving upward - the path of least resistance is to eventually blow holes through the cylinder walls, piston head, or cylinder head.

Higher octane fuels withstand higher compression in the combustion cylinders without detonating. This is useful, because higher compression means you can pack more  fuel+oxygen molecules into the same volume in the cylinder without it igniting before the spark plug fires, leading to higher power output potential (and, to a certain extent, higher efficiency).

Engines that specify low-octane fuels are relatively low in compression, so they are much less likely to have detonation issues. They run on higher-octane fuels without any effect, negative or positive.

Engines that specify high-octane fuels have relatively high-compression, and they need a fuel with detonation resistance - the octane - to run at their most powerful and highest efficiency. When you give a high-compression engine low-octane fuel, youll get detonation, but the effect is compensated for using *knock sensors.* Knock sensors listen for the particular sound of detonation/preignition - knocking and pinging - sending the signal to the engine management computer, which adjusts things like fuel/air ratio and spark timing to stay one step ahead of the detonation. The trade-off is lower power and reduced performance.

Basically, no compensation is needed moving up in octane vs. spec, but compensation is needed when moving down in octane vs spec. All modern vehicles have knock sensors, even those with low-compression engines, as a way of compensating for varying fuel grades and octane availability.

>*Not so with diesels, where detonation from compression is actually their means of combustion.


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

[User]
[MCU] (Infinity War Spoilers) Could Vision have bargained with Thanos?

The movie tells us that Thanos wants to kill the least possible amount of people, so if at the end of IW Vision had said "we'll give you the Mind Stone, just let them download my  Consciousness to another body so i don't have to die" would Thanos have accepted? Or at least considered it?

[Assistant]
For that specific thing, yes.

Thanos was shown to bargain in other instances.

Loki exchanges the space stone for Thor's life. Thor survives the snap.
Gamora exchanges knowledge of the soul stone's location for Nebula.
Nebula survives the snap.
Dr. Strange exchanges the time stone for Tony's life.
Tony survives the snap.
He even trades the life of Gamora for the soul stone.

Pre-Infinity War Thanos probably would not have bargained, but you can tell Thanos is less interested in his KDA by the time IW rolls around. He just wants the stones. If he can get them an easy way, great. But if he has to kill to get them, fine.

This change is best exemplified after he gets the reality stone. He only fights on Titan until Strange offers the stone. After affirming that it isn't a trick, Thanos takes it and leaves. He could have finished them off, but screw that, he got what he wanted and he's out.

It is further shown at the battle of Wakanda. He doesn't kill any of the people once he shows up. He just pushes them out of the way or disables them. He could kill them, or he could shield up and just get the last stone. He could have straight up crushed Scarlet Witch while she was crying, but didn't bother because it wouldn't help him get the stone any faster. (TBF Scarlet Witch might be able to kill him, but she mentally done right there).


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

[User] ELI5:If a store is on the corner of the street, how do they determine the address?

[Assistant]
The address is given by the street the front door/main entrance faces, as a rule of thumb. Sometimes, especially for large complexes (malls, office buildings) the address is where the main entrance/driveway is, not where the front door faces.

Think of it as the road you'd have to be on in order to access the building. Same rules apply for residential buildings. There are exceptions, especially in cases where roads/buildings/parking lots have been changed or don't comply with rules.


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

[User]
What are the differences between Quantum Mechanics and Classical Mechanics, and how and why do they manifest?

The equation

x(t) = x(0) + p(0) t/m

is arrived at after applying the commutator value \[x, p\] = i to the Heisenberg Equation of Motion for position of a free mass which says

dx/dt = i\[,x\].

In classical mechanics, x and p can be determined simultaneously with infinite precision, that is to say, the Uncertainty relation, the Quantum Commutator is at the heart of which, does not exist in CM, and yet the classical analogue of the Quantum Commutator, the Poisson Bracket {x,p} = 1, leads to the same equation as above for the classical position of a free mass after using a classical Hamiltonian.

So why do these apparent similarities lead to different (*for ex., the abovementioned uncertainty principles, which I know arises due to Cauchy-Schwarz inequality restrictions on the Hilbert vector space, but what prevents this in CM vector spaces?*) as well as similar (equation of motion) results? What actually makes CM different than QM?

And what are some more such examples where CM and QM differ in results?

[Assistant]
>What actually makes CM different than QM?

The canonical Poisson bracket and canonical commutation relation look similar on the surface, but the interpretations of those equations are very different. Just look at the postulates of QM versus the postulates of classical mechanics (Shankar has a good comparison in his QM text). x and p mean very different things in QM and CM. In classical mechanics, they are continuous, real-valued functions, parametrized by time. And to find them, you just solve Hamilton's equations. In QM, these are Hermitian operators. Particles don't have well-defined positions or momenta, they have state vectors (or wavefunctions, in the coordinate representation).

As for how they differ in results, see any of the major experiments in quantum mechanics (double slit, Stern-Gerlach, etc.). Classical mechanics would not correctly predict the results.


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

[User]
Can you explain Quantitative Easing (QE) to me?

Please do so as if you were explaining to a four-year-old with next-to-no understanding of the Federal Reserve. He has a good grasp of fiduciary responsibility, though, so maybe you can incorporate this into your analysis.

[Assistant]
A bonds yield moves inverse to its price. Much like Christmas season when people demand a certain toy with limited supply, the price increases. So is true of bonds when buyers want to purchase numerous bonds. This causes bond prices to increase and their yields to fall commensurately.

When the Federal Reserve prints money to buy government bonds, bond prices increase and yields decrease. These yields largely dictate the yields of all bonds.

When yields fall, it makes debt cheaper to take out by companies and individuals. People use debt to buy things, thereby leading to economic growth.


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

[User] [Marvel] Could Magneto have ended WW2 by himself if he was older and in his prime instead of a young mutant just discovering his powers?

[Assistant]
Yeah and fairly easily too. At this time there's almost no one powerful enough to stand up to Magneto on the planet, let alone working for the nazis.

Prime Magneto could effectively shut the entire country down in an instant, disabling tgeir communications and effortlessly ripping out all of the nazi's railway lines. What's more, he is a talented leader and would undoubtedly free/rally those who've been forced into concentration camps.


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

[User]
[X-Men] How does Magneto manage to fly?

In various comics and movies Magneto is shown to be able to fly. Sometimes it's easy to see that he's just standing on a metallic surface and using that (such as his escape from prison in X2) but in others there's no discernable metal under him (when he carries the stadium in Days of Future Past for example). How does he manage to make that happen just with magnetism?

Side question: how did he manage to completely control the sentinels in Days of Future Past? Magnetism doesn't explain how he could activate all their functions instead of just move them.

[Assistant]
1) He wears metal specifically so he can fly.
2) He explicitly was not controlling the systems, when he released his control of one of the Sentinels, it immediately started to try to attack him until he redirected it.  He has enough metal in there to physically control the guns (and all other physical systems) rather than controlling the "software".


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

[User] [Toy Story] Andy has brought home furnished Warhammer 40K figurines from varied factions. Are they animated with individual, sentient identities as the other toys are? Do they retain their vicious, ruthless, without-morality approach from the mythology? What becomes of Andys toys?

[Assistant]
So, the big trick here is that while the 40K armies are vicious and ruthless in their backstory, as miniature war figurines they are just as dangerous as a Barbie. Like the Little Green Army Men, they retain the military training and approach of their backstory, but they adapt to being a preteen's plaything, focused on their charges happiness through play.

Presumably, they gloat and tease the other toys about how Andy likes them now, and spends all his time painting them and taking them to competitions, while Woody and Buzz are ignored, but are more like cruel bullies than existential threats to the other toys.


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

[User] What is the neurological difference between a schizophrenic's belief in a 'spirit' and a religious person's belief in angels and gods who intervene in their daily lives?

[Assistant]
Without delving into other aspects and to put it simplistically, a delusion is defined as a false, unshakeable idea or belief which is out of keeping with the patients educational, cultural and social background; it is held with extraordinary conviction and subjective certainty.

The difference in the diagnosis would be social and cultural acceptability.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does carrying 40 pounds of water feel heavier than carrying a 40 pound child?

[Assistant]
Because the kid wants to be comfortable, and the water doesn't.

Deadweight, like the water, is harder to carry because it doesn't do anything like, say, maintain it's own center of gravity---or, in the case of an older kid, actually hold on to you, thus distributing the weight across more of your muscles.

As a result, you need to use your own power to do all the little things necessary to keep the weight oriented they way you want it to be oriented.  That makes it seem heavier.  The water might slosh around or get slightly off center from how you are carrying it some other way, and you then have to consciously or sub-consciously correct it.  The kid, on the other hand, probably wants to stay generally upright and generally in the same place/orientation as after you lifted them, taking that pressure off.*

*assuming not a toddler. Their weight is effectively quintupled from sheer madness.


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

[User] [Marvel] does the super-soldiers serum extend lifespan as well as turning the person into a peak human? If so, how long would someone live to if they died of old age?

[Assistant] [616 answer] Yes.  Cap was once sucked into another dimension controlled by Arnim Zola, what felt like minutes for his companions back home was years to him.  When he came back he looked to be the same age as when he left, it took carbon dating on his clothes to corroborate his story.  Banner and Pym concluded that Cap doesn't age normally.


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

[User]
[MCU/WandaVision] Shouldn't SWORD have returned that vibranium to Wakanda?

When Wanda shows ups at SWORD HQ to try and reclaim Vision, Hayward says that she can't just walk out of there with billions of dollars worth of Vibranium. But... wasn't that metal stolen from Wakanda by Klaw & Ultron? Did the U.S somehow steal Vision after the events of Infinity War? Did Wakanda just not want him back even though he died in their territory?

Anyone have any ideas for why no one from Wakanda showed up to reclaim Vision's remains?

[Assistant]
Okoye wouldn't disrupt their relationship over something like that. Vision was an Avenger and the Wakandans had been working with the Avengers for the past 5 years during the chaos.

Plus, Vision was a living being. The Wakandans seem to have more reverence for the dead than SWORD.


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

[User]
[LOTR] Why is gandalf's horse such a big deal?

(Shadowfax?) It looks like any other horse yet it leaves everyone in awe when it shows up.

[Assistant]
In the old days of the men of Rohan, more than 500 years before the days of Shadowfax, the Rohirrim lived in the North of Middle Earth near the Carrock. The ancestor of the Kings of Rohan, a man named Lod, captured a young foal and raised it into a strong and mighty horse. When he attempted to mount and ride it for the first time however he was thrown from its back and killed.

Lod's son Eorl held this against the great horse and being mighty in will and strong of hand tamed the great horse and named him Felarf. Eorl rode Felarf into battle when their people came to the rescue of Gondor when the Southern kingdom was in danger of being overrun by the Wainriders. As a reward for their help the Steward of Gondor, Cirion, gifted the land of Rohan to the Rohirrim and they were to forever be allies with the Kingdom of Gondor. Eorl the Young thus became the first of the Kings of Rohan and Felarf in the new land of Rohan sired a race of horses nearly as great as himself called the Mearas. The Mearas are said to have been long-lived and of great intelligence, and Felarf himself is said to have understood the speech of men.

This is the ancestry from which Shadowfax emerged, and in the days of the War of the Ring not even the King of Rohan had ridden Shadowfax. Gandalf when he visited Rohan tamed Shadowfax, and from that point forward was the only being that Shadowfax would bear, and begrudgingly King Thoden granted him as a gift to Gandalf. Though they were separated shortly before the outset of the Fellowship of the Ring, when Gandalf returned to Rohan he was reunited with Shadowfax and rode him into battle both at the Hornburg and the Battle of the Pelennor Fields. It is even said that Gandalf took the mighty steed over the sea with him when he departed for the land of Valinor, allowing them to stay long united in the country of the Valar.


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

[User] ELI5:If molecules are constantly moving, why does water in a bathtub feel still?

[Assistant]
The short answer is that molecules are too small to sense their individual movements. Bear in mind that your nerves, which sense movement, are made up of cells which themselves are comprised of uncountable molecules. If you **could** feel molecules moving, you would feel as though your whole body was constantly vibrating. Your skin would literally crawl all the time.

The body of water as a whole may be very still, but individual molecules are still moving around and bumping into each other. The rate and ferocity at which they do this is what we perceive as heat. When the water is warmer than you, its molecules are moving with more kinetic energy than yours. When you touch it, water molecules bombarding your hand transfer some of that energy to you, and we perceive this as heat.

So, in a sense, you can perceive the movement of molecules through your sense of hot and cold. Until it boils, hot water is just as  still as cold water, just not at the molecular level.


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

[User]
ELI5: Apparently a Monkey on a typewriter with an infinite amount of time would write the complete works of Shakespeare, this makes sense to me. But people studying probabilities have said it's by no means certain it would, even with an infinite amount of time. Why not?

I liked the idea of infinity giving the monkey time to write anything and everything, I can't get my head around the monkey *not* writing all of Shakespeare. :/

[Assistant]
There are a lot of very misleading answers here. There is one fact to know: All random sequences are normal (which will imply all finite sequences occur infinitely often). So if by a monkey banging on a keyboard you mean to imply that the output is random, then there is no doubt that not only will the monkey eventually type out all the works of Shakespeare (in order, no less) but the monkey will do it infinitely many times.

However, if by using a monkey you mean to say that the typing is not random but is "monkey like" then the question is impossible to decide as "monkey like" typing in not determined to a satisfactory point to give an answer. (for instance, "monkey like" typing might favor certain letters or letter combinations)

So as long as the sequence of events is random, then every (finite) possibility will occur infinitely many times. That includes a random roulette wheel, not matter how many times you get red in a row... eventually there will be a time when you get a googlex consecutive blacks... and that will happen infinitely many times... no matter how many reds you get to start with (as long as it is truly random).


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

[User] ELI5: why sleeping on a harder bed is better for your back?

[Assistant] If youre a stomach sleeper, as you get older, larger, and have a weaker back then when you sleep on your stomach your lower back will arch the wrong way on a soft bed. A firmer need will prevent this arching and feels much better.


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

[User]
[Watchmen] Why is the pirate comic book so dark; is this considered normal in the comics industry of the Watchmen universe?

Since "superheroes" became a real thing and eventually a *problem* in *Watchmen*'s timeline, they never took off as the long-term prime subject for comics like in real life, and hence there are a bunch of *pirate* comics instead. Now, that much makes perfect sense, and is furthermore *hilarious* or at least one would think if these pirate comics weren't apparently *straight-up horrific*.

Seriously: *WTF* is up with the pirate comic we're shown in the series? It's even darker than most of *Watchmen* itself! Now, as a literary device in and of itself, paralleling Veidt's actions, it makes sense, but what confuses me is the seeming implication that *all* the popular pirate comics in the *Watchmen* world are comparably depraved, especially considering that in 1985, most of the darkest mainstream comics we know today didn't exist yet; *Watchmen* itself was what largely opened the gateway for such content to become common.

Is it possible to assume that *Tales of the Black Freighter* is to other pirate comics, more in the vein of *Pirates of the Caribbean*, as *Watchmen* is to normal superhero stories?

[Assistant]
I assumed that the comic was an uncompromising graphic novel adaptation of a classic novel in the vein of Robert Louis Stevenson, Mary Shelly, or Victor Hugo. Many of the most famous adaptations of the classics are heavily edited or sanitized to make them more palatable to a mass audience, and pop culture heavily distorts the original themes and message of the work. But often times, the actual original text is full of very dark material and heavy scenes. *Tales of the Black Freighter* could be a very old story full of darkness and cynicism that modern 1980s audiences would have eaten right up.

I doubt the majority of other comics at the time were that dark. Even in a world like that, people would have also clamored for the lighter entertainment while simultaneously seeking the darkness in a dark time.


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

[User]
[LOTR] Why was Gandalf's arrival so decisive at Helms Deep?

Near the end of the Battle of Helms Deep, the 10,000+ army of orcs and uruk-hai had breeched the wall and was on the verge of victory. Then Galdalf showed up with what looked like less than 1,000 soldiers (horsemen in the film, I think mostly foot soldiers in the book), and the orc army completely falls apart within a few minutes.

How did this happen? How did the orcs go from imminent victory to total defeat, just because of an army that was less then one tenth the size of their own?

[Assistant]
Based on the movies: The flanking charge was used to its greatest effect. High ground, cavalry charging undisciplined troops with the rising sun to their backs. (Orcs dont like the sun.) They even had a damn wizard fighting on their side.

Even worse, those handful of scrappy human defenders who have killed hundreds so far just came back out for more.

Its a huge change of momentum in the battle that was almost won. It would have been a morale killer for the Uruks, which may have played a bigger role in their defeat than casualties from the charge itself. They may not have even realized they still had a large numerical advantage.

As for the books, the troops coming to their add was actually a more established army under Erkenbrand (Eomer himself was at the battle all along). In addition, there were allies of the Ents called Huorns that made the trip to help out. Creepy moving murdering forest is also a morale killer.


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

[User]
[Samurai Jack] Why doesn't Jack just kill Aku?

It seems like whenever the two fight, Jack is dramatically superior to Aku, and the two seem to run into each other every other week. They fight, Jack kicks ass and then... just let's Aku run away to scheme again. Wouldn't it be easier to just finish Aku off, then find a way to the past without continued interference?

[Assistant]
He would if he could. The problem is two-fold. Firstly, for how much Aku sucks in a fight he is REALLY good at running away or otherwise stalling confrontation. Hell, that's the entire crux of the series, Aku bitched out and sent Jack forward in time rather than fighting him. Jack, for all his strength and skill, has no magic or whatever that would let him keep up with an Aku in retreat.

Secondly, for most of the series, it really seems like Aku may be the ONLY way back in time. If Jack killed him prematurely he might also very well be killing his only ticket back home.


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

[User]
[Edge of Tomorrow/Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Sekatsu] How difficult would it be to tell if someone was reliving a day over and over from the perspective of an outsider?

What are some telltale signs that a person has travelled back in time upon death and are reliving the moments up to said death?

[Assistant]
Sudden shift in personality would be the biggest tell (see RE: Zero), followed by extreme competence or luck. Unfortunately it's hard to distinguish this from mental illness, or other superpowers like precognition, telepathy, probability manipulation, etc.

Even if you are certain, you would have severe difficulty taking advantage of that knowledge. As soon as the person in the time loop becomes aware of you, they can use knowledge from previous timelines against you to avoid you, kill you, or otherwise manipulate you at their leisure.

That said, there are characters in fiction who are observant enough to detect a time traveler and clever enough to provide significant obstacles (see Undertale). Usually they only suspect it, and are very careful not to reveal this knowledge until the time is right.


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

[User] Can atomic radii be reduced by pressure?

[Assistant]
If you take a block of metal and attempt to compress it, the centers of the atoms will be closer to each other than usual.

What prompted you to ask this question? It's actually an interesting one for chemistry.

If you respond with more details it might be possible to talk about more specific things.


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

[User]
Do bees know that they die if they sting?

Came upon this question while talking about bee stings. I know there probably is no definite answer to this, but are there any theories?

[Assistant]
Putting aside any speculation about the capacity of a bee to have knowledge, bee stings are not designed to be fatal to the bee.  The bee only dies when it stings a creature whose skin is thick enough to "catch" the stinger, like a mammal.

So, even if a bee had the sort of cognitive capacity to have expectations, then it would not generally expect to be killed upon stinging another creature.


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

[User] why were most of Nietzsche followers/readers leftist (deleuze, camus, Sartre etc) even though his philosophy is one of the most radically anti-egalitarian, anti democratic, anti working class etc?

[Assistant]
In the French context, Nietzsche served as a useful foil against the prevalence of Hegel's philosophy: where Hegel was understood as totalizing, subsuming, striving for the absolute, logicist, etc etc, Nietzsche stood for the fragmentary, the perspectival, the sensuous, and the playful. In the post-war period, the spectre of totalitarianism and the holocaust meant people were looking for a way out from systems of dominance, of which Hegel's was seen as emblematic. Incidentally this was the case not only among the French, but the Germans too (re: the Frankfurt school).

Basically, Nietzsche was seen as a kind of escape. His iconoclasm was apposite for a time in which everything seemed to be up in the air: it was a time of surrealism, avant-garde art, experiments with form, and irony - and Nietzsche seemed to fit the bill. After the horror of two world wars, the ideas like "God is dead" would have seemed pretty resonant! His 'proto-existentialism' also seemed to follow nicely from the philosophers who were de jour at the time: Heidegger (who wrote two influential volumes on Nietzsche), Sartre, Jaspers, etc, all found in Nietzsche resources to draw on for their own work, especially with respect to the 'anti-metaphysical' bent that Nietzsche exhibited.

Basically, tendencies in Nietzsche - tendencies that ran alongside his anti-egalitarianism, which was definitely one of them - were tapped into, and powerfully enough that his aristocratic sympathies could either be creatively appropriated or simply ignored.


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

[User] [Star Wars, Star Trek, Warhammer 40k, Halo] Which mode of transportation is more efficient? Hyperspace? Warp Speed? Travelling through the Warp? Or Slipspace?

[Assistant]
How do you mean efficient?

If you mean fastest, then technically travelling via the Warp is fastest, as you can arrive instantly, quickly, slowly, never, or even before you leave. The Warp is unpredictable like that.

However, that's not what I'd call *efficient*, what with the chance of you being permanently stranded in a hellish dimension where you are likely to be set upon by demons.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is the FF7 remake such a big deal?

[Assistant] It's not even the anticipation of the remake. It's seeing the characters and landscapes in a graphics quality that is relevant to now. We're taking about 18 years. The graphics at the time (especially the backgrounds) were cutting edge. The music was enough to make anyone emo at times. The story was deep and unpredictable. It was a game for isolation and getaway. Most people played alone, and got very emotionally involved with it. It's like seeing the first girl you kissed in 5th grade all grown up into a hottie saying "do me"


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

[User] ELI5: Why doesn't the United States have bullet trains?

[Assistant]
The main reason is that aside from the northeast corridor from Washington DC to Boston, the national passenger train company (Amtrak) doesn't own any rail.

It leases time on tracks from freight operators. And since it operates on the same lines as freight trains, all of its engines and passenger cars have to be rated to be passenger survivable in a collision at maximum speed with a freight train. This imposes heavy weight requirements on them.

Way out in the west even a regular Amtrak passenger train will do 80mph.


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

[User] ELI5: Why after having rich natural resources most of Africa is poorly developed?

[Assistant]
There are a handful of reasons.

First and foremost, colonialism. Europeans colonized much of Africa and created "artificial nations" that cut apart groups that worked well together and grouped fighting nations into the same area (such as in Rwanda).

Secondly, lack of necessity. "Necessity is the mother of innovation", one major necessity of most other "civilized" nations is winter. Winter caused farmers to learn how to be most effective so as to feed themselves on the surplus in the winter, it taught inventors how to create things that would help someone travel and survive in the cold, it taught leaders how to plan for the future. In places without winter, such as most of Africa, every day could be lived the same as the one before and the one after leading to a lack of major innovation.