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

[User] How does the "I am not a robot" checkbox know I'm not a robot?

[Assistant]
The verification is based on many different factors such as-

Mouse movements, clicks and keystrokes: Many of the bots work by directly generating a click on a certain position of the screen or requesting a browser to send a click to a certain element of the website (button, link etc); they don't bring the mouse cursor to that location. We on the other hand bring the cursor to the buttons, links etc before clicking them and our response time to do so varies as well. The pattern in which we hover the cursor is random and hard to imitate for bots. An ai system is trained to look for these cues.

Our browser caches, cookies and other information sent through browser request: Google has its trackers on countless websites in the form of google analytics, google ads etc so, it can create a basic idea about the sites you visit. Bots on the otherhand are made to do certain tasks on certain websites. This can be used to detect them as well.

The model checks for many other factors and create a score of how likely are you to be a bot. If the chances are low, it predicts you to be human. If the chances are high, it proceed to show an image based captcha.


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

[User]
ELI5: If every cell in our body is replaced every 7 years, how do we retain scars and other signs of battle?

Furthermore, what about scars as children? Surely the body is growing fast enough to heal that up... What do I know though, I'm 5.

[Assistant] Your skin gets replaced by skin cells. Your hair gets replaced by hair cells. When you get a scar you have a wound. The wound gets filled by fixer cells. The fixer cells don't really have a purpose other than to fill in for the other cells that got damaged when you got the wound. So the cells that fix your scar on your arm aren't specific arm cells or the cells that fix your liver aren't liver cells. They are generic fixer cells. Because of that, when your cells are replaced, you get the same generic fixer cells to replace the scar cells.


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

[User] ELI5 Why Does Microwaved Food Usually Taste Worse Than Putting it in the Oven?

[Assistant]
Microwaves act much more strongly on water molecules, and also heat much faster than ovens. Which means often that water will quickly exceed the temperature of the surrounding food and can evaporate, leaving food dry or rubbery. Ovens heat much more evenly and solely from the outside in, usually 'crisping' up the outside of the food in a much more pleasurable tasting way. Microwaves aren't as easily able to char/crisp things due to the aforementioned inability to heat things other than water.

Added to that is the usual suspect of unevenly heated food due to microwaves not being dispersed entirely evenly within, even when turntables act to counter this flaw.

Lastly microwaves are often used almost solely for heating up left-overs or convenience foods, which means the initial quality of food going into microwaves is lower to begin with.


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

[User] [Star Wars] If you dropped a lightsaber pointed straight down, would it keep drilling its way down to the planet's core?

[Assistant] No: the beam is narrower than the hilt, so it wouldn't be able to penetrate past the hilt until the blade's energy melted the rock and earth the handle it would have to pass through, at which point the molten rock that process created would proceed to melt the handle and destroy the saber.


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

[User]
[Pacific Rim] How come Jaggers fight without any kind of support?

Jaggers go on one to one melee combat with Kaijus without any kind of support. No spotters, no artillery, not even diversions like flares.

This is not how a modern military operates, even a tank gets a lot of support from ground troops. And they couldn't do it for a billion dollar robot?

Each Kaiju should be received with a round of missiles and torpedoes to the legs. Even if that doesn't kill it, it gives the Jaggers a great advantage since the Kaiju is in shock/distracted.

Drones should also blanket the sky above the Kaiju, ready to drop bombs or even crash into the Kaiju if the Jagger needs crucial seconds to recover.

[Assistant]
Firstly, the Jaegers are accompanied by helicopters, which serve in a spotter and support role.

Secondly, the Kaiju pretty much shrug off anything we can throw at them, short of a nuke or a Jaeger.  For example, witness how Trespasser pretty much ignored all the tanks and planes firing at it during the attack on San Fransisco.  Nuking the Kaiju every time they show up is not an acceptable solution, which is why Jaegers are used instead.

Finally, you've made the mistake of trying to apply modern military doctrines against the Kaiju.  That's the same mistake the governments of Earth made when they fought the first few Kaiju.  The Kaiju are not an enemy army comprising many different participants.  It is one singular entity, with its own set of capabilities and strengths, which have never been encountered before in human history.  Throw out every piece of conventional wisdom you have when it comes to fighting.  This is a whole new ball game.


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

[User]
[Death Note] Was Light ever going to reveal to the whole world that he was Kira?

Or did he think giving Kira a name and face defeated the whole god thing?

[Assistant] I don't see why he would. There's no real benefit to it, and significant costs. As you said, people might be less likely to see him as a god. This is a problem both because it means that they'd know they can still get away with crimes, and because they'd know he can be killed. In addition, anyone with a Death Note could kill him immediately. Given that Misa got her Death Note completely independently at nearby time and nearby area, they don't seem to be all that rare.


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

[User]
CMV: When driving on the highway, it is much safer to pass on the right, than to tailgate until the person in front of you moves over (USA).

Following too closely is one of the most dangerous things you can do when traveling on the highway, and there is never an excuse for tailgaing in *any* driving situation, ever.

If someone is going slower than you in the left-hand (passing) lane, it's much safer to pass them on the right hand side, than to follow them closely to try and force them to move over. If passing on the right is not an option, you should wait patiently until a passing opportunity presents itself.

If someone is already traveling over the speed limit, and you choose to tailgate them because they aren't going as fast as you would like, you are an overly aggressive driver posing a dangerous risk to everyone on the road.

While it's true that, legally, the left lane should only be used for passing, this is not realistically what the lane is used for. Arguments from a legal perspective will not sway my view.

[Assistant]
It might be a viable option from an individual's standpoint, but passing on the right is much worse for entire driver community.

1. It "promotes"  slow driving in the left lane. If passing on the right becomes acceptable, the slow driver is no longer holding up the entire highway anymore, so there's less initiative for him to move.

2. It "promotes" staying on the left lane. If all the passing is done on the left, merging back into right lane is trivial, because the one merging is always faster than all the cars already in the right lane. If one can be overtaken on the right, merging back becomes slightly more difficult and dangerous. (Yes, you have to check the mirrors in both cases, but in the first case it is only to be completely sure, while in the second one actually has to be cautious about faster vehicles)

3. It destorts speed gradient on the multiple-laned highways. Let's assume that ideal speeds for three laned highway are 80-65-50 mph. The speed difference between adjanect cars is 15 mph. If you used the middle lane to overtake, you are probably doing around 80, which makes speed difference between you and the far right lane 30 mph, thus preventing the far right lane to safely merge into center lane to overtake.

4. Tailgating is not as dangerous as passing on the right. When you tailgate, there is only one type of accident to expect: rear ending a car in front. The closer the cars drive, the less speed difference there is. Even if the first car slams on the brakes, the speed difference at the moment of collision will be very small thus the accident will not be that dangerous. When passing on the right, speed differences are greater (see point 3.) and the impact is going to be much more severe, with geater chances of immediate injury as well as greater chance for completely loosing control. When overtaking on the right, other types of collisions are more likely to occour too (sideways, police-like PIT manouver chrash...)

Btw, does flashing high beams or using left indicator while driving behing a car not work in the USA?


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

[User]
[ELI5] Why does parallel parking only work when reversing at the start?

edit: Thank you all for your explanations. I believe I now have a firm grasp of why reversing is easier to complete a parallel parking maneuver.  Thanks everyone again :)

[Assistant] Because your turning wheels are only at the front of your car. As your back wheels get where they need to be while reversing you can turn your front end in. Otherwise you would need to drive onto the curb or much farther ahead to drag your back wheels into the parking space. Its not that you cant do it forwards you just need less space while reversing.


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

[User] ELI5: Why did the NASCAR road race in Indianapolis have 3 stages and how do you have overtime in a race? Did two cars finish at the same time?

[Assistant]
Nascar implemented the stage system a few years ago to award points to drivers that had run the race well for 199 laps and then wrecked on the 200th.  A lot of endurance racing series also award points at intervals to reward *consistency* and not just dumb luck at the end.

Nascar coupled the stages with their traditional yellow flag re-start system to stack up the field and make sure the leaders dont build too much of a gap.  Whether thats good or bad has been controversial.

Theyve also implemented a overtime procedure to run an additional two laps (time and weather permitting) if a race is set to finish under a yellow flag.  Since laps on ovals can be quite short and every wreck requires a full course yellow to clear, you can easily click off 5+ laps under even a short yellow and a lot of races were finishing behind a safety car.  Anticlimactic.  The overtime system adds two laps after the green flag to get a green flag finish.  You can do this repeatedly if the field continues to crash on the restart lap.


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

[User] [General] What would happen if someone with regenerative powers (ie Deadpool, Wolverine) was sliced cleanly in half and seperated? Would both sides regenerate thus resulting in say two Deadpools.

[Assistant] Both wolverine and Deadpool have suffered many many injuries over their time in the comics. Their healing factor can restore them from a single cell. As is the case when the phoenix melts wolverine in the sun. He regenerated from one of his cells and was fine. One cell. It is often hinted at that wherever  in their body their energy (soul) is that is the part that regenerates.


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

[User] When a massive star crumbles into a neutron star, the protons and electrons of the atoms that make up the star combine to become neutrons. But since the electric charge of a proton and am electron is equally opposite, so is one proton fuse with one electron is enough to become a neutron?

[Assistant] Yes - this is called electron capture, or inverse beta decay. Beta decay is when a neutron spits out an electron and transforms itself into a proton. Inverse beta decay is when a proton captures an electron and they combine into a neutron. Though there's also neutrinos involved to make sure things are properly conserved. When protons & electrons combine to make neutrons in a neutron star, they spit out so many neutrinos that it actually helps to push out the gas a bit, and gives a bit more energy to the supernova.


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

[User] Why doesn't the human iris produce a red color?

[Assistant]
Do you mean why aren't there red-eyed people? Simple:

There are two pigment proteins in humans, eumelanin (black) and pheomelanin (reddish). Usually people have more eu- than pheomelanin. In the iris, if you have mostly eumelanin the eye will look brown. If you have a lot less eumelanin, the eye might look hazel - with none, it will be blue.

So why no red, if pheomelanin is a reddish pigment? The answer is: the same reason the sky is blue. Light traveling through the stroma of the iris gets scattered - the shorter the wavelength, the more it scatters. Blue light scatters more, so the light that you see coming out of the eye will tend to be bluish. Redder hues will be shifted blue-ward, so they'll look greenish or hazel.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why can I sit at home and drink 10 beers and it not affect me in the slightest, but go out to a bar and drink the same and feel significantly more drunk?

As the title says, I can be at home and drink consistently throughout the night, either with my wife or by myself and feel absolutely fine to watch TV, work on my laptop etc, but if I go out to a pub or bar and do the same with friends, drinking a similar amount, when I get home it has affected me a lot more, even to the point of being "blackout drunk" and not remembering things in the morning?

[Assistant] It also may be the rate at which you drink the bees.  A consistent and even 10 beers at home may be different than how you drink at a bar.  If you "front load" your drinks early at the bar they will hit you differently.  Drinking your first 4 or 5 beers in the first hour is going to make the night go differently.


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

[User]
ELI5 Why do electonics that display the time (ie microwaves) not have a small battery to ensure the time to saved in the event a power outage?

My clock/radio has a battery and it costs approx 10 of the microwave.

[Assistant]
A battery costs money. The circuit to integrate the battery costs money. Designing the circuit to integrate the battery costs money. Assembling the circuit to integrate the battery costs money.

No customer at the store chooses which model of microwave to buy based on if it has a battery or not. It is not a selling point.

So, adding a battery would cost extra money while not adding to the price the unit could be sold for. Appliances are about the bottom line.


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

[User]
ELI5:How do shows like the Daily Show pull clips that may be several years old to make very specific points?

With the second coming of John Stewart on Colbert this week, I was reminded how specific some of the clips they find are.  Is there like a data base for every news anchor somewhere? I have no idea.

[Assistant] This has been asked before and iirc, the answer was that there are companies with the sole purpose of recording TV and categorizing it on servers that shows like the daily show can pay to search through.


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

[User]
CMV: Fast food places shouldn't wrap the burger unless you're taking out

If you're eating in-house then they should just make it, plate it and serve it.

If Macdonalds, BK or KFC did this then their burgers would actually look like on the sign, instead of being compressed into a flat sandwich-like abomination.

I've never worked in any such place but I assume that when you fry up the paddy, put on the sauce, pickle, onions and salad, and then just let the top bun rest ontop of all this it looks fine. It's not until they compress them into wrappers that they start to look like shit.

One issue I can see is that you wouldn't be able to make use of the "ready-shelf" they have where they stack ready made burgers that sit and wait for several minutes. Probably useful during rush hours. But quality would be vastly improved with the same ingredients and essentially same manufacturing process.

[Assistant]
This would slow down the process because now they would have to look at every order to see if it is a eat-in or to-go order and then treat it accordingly.  It is much faster just to treat all of the orders the same.

Furthermore, the burger will never look like it does in the pictures on the menu.  Those photographed burgers are made with non-food ingredients to look a certain way when photographed.


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

[User]
ELI5: What dictates the power of passports?

Do governments decide what countries could visit their country visa-free or is there a process on deciding the strength of passports? Is it based on the power of a countrys currency and economy?

[Assistant] Governments decide based on mutual agreements. IE, 2 countries have good relations, trade is good, people are happy. They decide to have a visa free travel for both sides to encourage growth and lessen burdens on your everyday travellers. Hope this helps.


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

[User] ELI5: If all human cells replace themselves every 7 years, why can scars remain on you body your entire life?

[Assistant]
Human cells can replace themselves, this is correct. But they need a scaffold to replace themselves ON for them to be in the right place. And the nature of that scaffold is why scars stick around forever.

Let's compare our bodies to a multi-floor brick building that King Kong or Cloverfield or Godzilla or something punches a big chunk out of.

You have a couple choices to do something about that building before the weather gets in and wrecks it worse. But a feasible one of them isn't a complete tear-down and rebuild using scaffolding and heavy construction to recreate the building properly. People have got to go on living in there and there's not enough free spending money around to do it.

So you patch that hole as best you can and maybe brick up the opening, and that's good enough for people to keep living in it. But it leaves a not-very-pretty gap in your building. It's functional even if some of the electrical stuff or elevators don't work due to the still missing area, and it looks ugly because you couldn't quite get everything perfect without bringing in super-expensive heavy machinery and shutting everything down, and the bricks don't match. So you're left with a serviceable building with ugly spots that you can't ever afford to make perfect-looking again.

Scarring's the same. The body doesn't have the ability to regenerate huge missing areas because it can't create scaffolding once you're out of the womb. All of the 'heavy equipment' necessary for it is no longer available. This wasn't critical enough of a skill for us to evolve as a species because enough of us survived and had kids even without it to take over the world. So the body goes with a "walling off" strategy without coming with a bunch of perfectly set-up scaffolding to build new clean supporting structures for the new cells to grow back into their perfect original shape.

And those wall-offs are dead 'hard' tissue that is permanently set into their walled-off shape and can't be replaced. Again, perfect-looking repairs weren't necessary to the survival of our species so we didn't evolve them.


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

[User] ELI5: How does a turtles shell grow while the turtle grows? What is it made of?

[Assistant]
The shell is made up of panel-like things called scutes. With most types of turtles, these scutes shed periodically to allow bigger scutes to form. They are made out of keratin - same as human hair & nails.

Source: Im a turtle fan.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is Australia so heavily invested in the MH370 search?

I read somewhere Australia has earmarked A$100m for the search. It was the Malaysian national aviation company, most passengers were Chinese - apart from going missing supposedly 2000 miles off the coast of Australia, there doesn't seem any sense in them taking the search upon themselves....does there? The cynic in me asks 'what's in it for them?'

[Assistant]
Australia wants to assume the mantle of regional power. By doing this it shows "We take care of our own, Malaysia owes us nothing but earmarking 100m is what regional powers can and will do to it's smaller neighbours". It's a show of power wrapped in solidarity.
By helping Malaysia this way, future leaders of Malaysia will gravitate towards Australia and help it in establishing a local power group with Australia at it's head.


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

[User] How come the inner four planets of the Solar System are rocky and the outer four are gaseous?

[Assistant]
A general reason is that it is more difficult to hold onto gasses the closer you are to a star, because planet temperatures get so high. The surface temperature of, for instance, Mercury is such that the random motions of gas particles (proportional to the local temperature) cause them to fly away from the surface. When planets are forming, it is believed that rocky cores build up until they get massive enough that they can capture lots of gas. For there to be cool enough gas to fall onto your planet, you need to be far away from the star.

This is, incidently, the same reason that gasses like nitrogen and oxygen are much more common in our atmosphere than, say, hydrogn (despite hydrogen being much more abundant in our solar system). Smaller particles move faster in the same temperature conditions, so the light elements were able to escape the Earth's atmosphere, and the heavier elements were retained.

Since exo-planets have started being discovered, astronomers have found many gas giants that are very close to their host stars (inside the orbit of Mercury, in fact), but these probably migrated in from farther out after they were formed. It is still an open question how this happens.


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

[User]
[Star Trek] Does the the shiny computer interfaces have a autocleaning function ?

Watching TNG right now. If they use their computer consoles like I use my tablet, they should be all messed up with fingerprints. At all time.

[Assistant]
Commander Riker once told a colonist that she could leave a mess behind, as the ship "pretty much cleans itself" ("Up the Long Ladder", Season 2 Episode 18).

She went back to cleaning up her mess, saying something like "Well good for the bloody ship."


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

[User] ELI5: suitjacket, sportcoat, and blazer? which situation calls for which jacket?

[Assistant] Sport coats have patterns, unlike blazers, which are solid and have contrasting buttons. Suit jackets are smooth, have tonal buttons, and should never be worn with anything other than matching suit trousers.


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

[User]
[WH40K] How powerful are the Imperium's non Astarte armies?

How far can you really get with only Guardsmen and their variations?

[Assistant]
They are, arguably, more potent than the Astartes, overall.

While the Space Marines, in their various forms, act as special forces, decisive strike teams, behind-enemy-lines insertions, and massive force multipliers for larger armies, it is the Imperial Guard that holds the ever expanding vanguard of enemies of our Emperor at bay. The Guard are almost always the first to show up and the last to leave, and you can bet they'll be bringing the pain for their entire stay. People like to poke fun at the "little" guardsmen and their "flashlight" lasguns and their "paper-mache" armor, but if they were as utterly ineffective as people like to joke, then there's no way the Imperium would continue using them to the extreme degree that they do.

Where there are enemies of the Imperium, you will find the Imperial Guard in massive numbers, filled with zealous rage, and with the singular goal of destroying anything that stands before them, even if that means laying down their lives. They may be small and comparatively weak compared to many of the horrors that await them, but here we are 10,000 years after our Emperor's fall.

It was not the million Space Marines that have made this possible, it was the countless trillions of faceless and thankless men and women that gloriously give their lives every single second of every single day in every single corner of this godforsaken galaxy.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do farts sometines feel like bubbles popping when they come out?

[Assistant] The gases that were initially roaming free and occupying the wider breadths of your intestines now have to squeeze into the narrow constriction of your sphincter. This pressurizes them akin to packing into a bubble, and as the sphincter relaxes and contracts that gives you your pop.


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

[User]
ELI5: How come when you close both eyes you see black but when you close one eye you just see nothing?

Why dont you see black on that one eye when you close it?

[Assistant]
Your brain is a very sophisticated computer. Youll notice you actually can see red through your closed eyelids, if you look at the lights.

What happens is your brain filters out the one eye thats seeing all red as unnecessary information and only utilizes the eye that can see a full picture.

Try closing one eye and holding your hand over the other, but far enough that you can see light leaking around the edges. Youll notice the eye you closed is actually visible now as a reddish blob.

Our brains are really good at filtering out constant signals like the hum of machines or say the tick-tock of a clock. We only notice changes to our environment, and with a closed eye there is no change to notice. Its kinda like how your nose is in your field of vision but you dont notice it 99.9% of the time.


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

[User]
Did Mars have an atmosphere like Earths in the past?

If it did what happened to it? If not is it just because we lucked out in that department?

[Assistant]
There are a few factors going on there.  The atmosphere is held on the planet by gravity.  Particles moving too fast escape into space.  That happens on a regular basis, but on Earth, we have plate tectonics, which causes volcanic eruptions that replenish the atmosphere.  But the larger the mass, the better able to hold an atmosphere a planet will be.

On Mars, early in its history, it probably had a somewhat denser atmosphere, at least at the beginning.  There was almost certainly abundant liquid water at the surface of Mars, and the internal heat of the planet was much higher, allowing volcanoes to erupt and emit gasses.

But Mars is much smaller than Earth.  The crust is proportionally much thicker, and plate tectonics does not exist on Mars.  The core of the planet does not generate as significant a magnetic field as Earth.  Volcanoes rose at hot spots, instead of at plate boundaries as on Earth.  As the planet cooled, there were fewer hot spots capable of reaching the surface and emitting their gasses there.  The atmosphere would have dissipated fairly quickly.

It is unlikely that Mars ever had an atmosphere as thick as Earth's, because of its lower mass.  Note that it does still have an atmosphere -- just not as thick as ours.

It might be said that we lucked out.  Venus provides a point of comparison -- it has about the same mass as Earth, and it actually has a thicker atmosphere than ours (of much different composition).

One word about composition -- our oxygen rich atmosphere is not what we had at the beginning.  That didn't come around until about 2.5 billion years ago.  The other planets have carbon rich atmospheres, with a fairly low amount of oxygen.  Life was necessary to give us this atmosphere.  If you got in a time machine and went back 3 billion years, you would not be able to breath on Earth.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is a conductor necessary for an orchestra?

And is he anything more than a glorified metronome? I mean, even the dynamics are written down on the sheet music...

Edit: I guess I really have two questions:

1. What exactly does a conductor do?
2. Could an orchestra, er, "conduct" itself ok without the conductor?

[Assistant]
99% of what the conductor does happens outside of the performance.

He selects the music, arranges the music, organizes rehearsal, manages the musicians and basically does everything required to put on the performance.

The part where he waves his arms around, that's just the culmination of many months of works.  That is important too, he set the tempo and cues the musicians, but compared to the rest of what goes into preparation, that part is minor.  If the conductor was ill, an reasonably skilled assistant who has been involved in the process could take over baton duties without losing much.


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

[User]
[I HAVE NO MOUTH AND I MUST SCREAM] How can AM create a huge bird but not create more human life?

If AM can create a huge bird, then how isnt he god?

Also Im having a hard time imaging the setting, is it snowy, barren or just the electric circuits everywhere?

Help!

[Assistant] The bird has no mind of it's own. In video game terms, it's an NPC. AM can make all the NPCs it wants, probably even human shaped ones, but they'll never have human brains. They will never be PCs, and (In AM's mind) only PCs are interesting to play with.


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

[User]
Why can the Hubble Space Telescope view distant galaxies in incredible clarity, yet all images of Pluto are so blurry?

Can't we just point the telescope at the planet and actually get some high resolution, detailed images of its surface?

Are there certain technical/practical limitations that most people are unaware of?

**Edit**: Thanks guys, this thread has been some interesting reading.

[Assistant] Hubble can see things incredibly far away but only if they are incredible large. The Hubble's angular resolution is 0.1 arcseconds. Pluto's diameter is about 1200km and is about 4.2 billion km from Earth at its closest, giving it an angular diameter of about .06 arcseconds.  For comparison the largest of the Pillars of Creation is about 7 light years long and about 7000 light years from Earth giving it an angular diameter of over 200 arc seconds. If you could see them and Pluto the Pillars would take up a much larger portion of the sky than Pluto, since they're bigger than they are far away (compared to Pluto).


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does all my body fat go on my stomach?

It doesn't seem to accumulate across my body evenly.

[Assistant] It's called hormones. It starts distributing evenly until you reach a certain bf %. At that point, you produce more aromatase enzyme than normal, leaving you with elevated estrogen and lower testosterone. At this point, fat accumulates on your midsection.


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

[User]
[Family Guy] is beastiality illegal in the family guy universe because Brian THE DOG fucks a lot of human women

Like Brian who is a dog has sex with humans and from what I remember it is never addressed that this is illegal.

[Assistant]
Family Guy's world has different legal distinctions on what defines a *person* and what defines an animal.

The law is kind of open to interpretation at times, suggesting that sapient animals (or objects) like Brian have access to the same legal rights and public services as regular humans. It can also be interpreted by those who would mistreat sapients like Brian (such as opposing council in legal trials) that Brian (etc) is too animalistic to be considered a person, referring to Brian's many dog traits like licking his balls, barking at mailmen, chasing squirrels and eating shit.

Generally speaking there are enough anthropomorphic creatures and objects (like Peter's couch that goes to Couchella) in the world that people aren't too surprised when Brian acts like a person. Dog traits are still taken into account which *some* people judge (and occasionally chastise Brian's sexual partners due to sleeping with a dog), but generally Brian and others like him get treated similarly to humans until they do something incredibly animalistic and socially unacceptable.

TL;DR If it acts like a person in Family Guy, it's treated like a person. If it shows non-human behaviour, it gets ostracised as such. It's why Brian can bang a hot chick one minute, and then get laughed at for having no worth due to being a dog the next.


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

[User] ELI5: How come old Gameboys looked great in direct sunlight but modern screens are unusable in bright conditions?

[Assistant]
Old gameboy did not use back lighting and they were designed for the light to be provided externally.

Modern screens use backlighting and are designed for the light to come internally.

As a result excessive external light will cause glare on newer devices.

Back lighting is when the light source for the screen is provided from behind the screen.


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

[User] [Left 4 Dead] How is the world outside the United States doing? Has the Green Flu spread beyond its borders?

[Assistant] Containing normal infected is easy enough, but after awhile theyll eventually evolve into specials. Specials are much harder to deal with and its likely the Flu spread to South America as a result. As far as the other continents goes, they probably isolated themselves from the West.


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

[User]
[Toy Story] What are the rules and who established them?

When planning against Sid, Woody mentions "breaking a few rules", what exact rules? I understand the basic idea is that no one can know their alive, but what are the specifics? how does Woody know these? how do all the toys at other houses, stores, etc. know these rules, even Buzz Lightyears who have no idea that their even toys?

[Assistant]
The rules are not rules at all, being far closer to laws of physics than to actual rules. The only reason they are called rules is because most toys interact mainly with children, who are more frequently bound by rules than laws, and by the time toys figured out what laws even were, there was no reason for a name change. We cannot know who set these rules in their world more than we can know who set the laws of physics in ours. The rules are likely basic laws of the universe, implanted into toys in the moment of their creation. The toys found that they were mostly unable to move when played with and discovered their own rules, just as we discover the laws of physics. The rules likely have to do with toys not making their sentience known, as shown with Buzz who never even fidgeted or attempted of escape throughout months upon months of play, despite being entirely unaware of being a toy, so we can assume that these rules are concrete and function like laws for most toys. The only reason Sid's toys could break these rules is because they were the toy equivalent of zombies. They have been broken,("killing" them) recombined, and reanimated into a state where they are no longer considered toys, giving them the unintended side effect of being able to defy the rules which bound the rest of the toys.

tl;dr The Toy Story world has some strange physics with toys, it's probably quantum.


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

[User]
ELI5How does bleach work? What does it do to color?

I thought it made things colorless, but then it turned my green couch yellow! please explain.

[Assistant] Bleach is a really intense base. It oxidizes the materials it comes in contact with. Chromophores are the parts of molecules that reflect light and give color to those molecules. When bleach is introduced to material, the oxidation process alters the chromophores in such a way that they no longer reflect only the light that gives color to the material. This is how bleach essentially strips away color. However, different materials, colors, and amounts of bleach can affect the oxidation process enough to produce a range of shades from white to yellow.


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

[User]
Why has no satellite ever been put into lunar orbit at an extremely low altitude, like a couple miles above the highest landmark?

There is no atmosphere to slow the satellite down afterall, and I imagine it would allow for much more defined pictures of the surface, using a properly timed camera with low exposition time...

[Assistant]
The first and most important reason is that there is no need. Since there is no atmosphere, there is no distortion of images. We can take pictures just fine from far up. In addition to that, congress has decided that high resolution pictures of the lunar surface aren't very important, so therefore there aren't a lot of missions that do that.

Secondly, spacecraft orbit determination is tough. Around Earth we know the field fairly well, but around the moon, things get tricky. You don't want to crash a satellite into the moon just because you wanted to get fancy. There would be no living that one down, especially when a higher orbit would have been sufficient.


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

[User]
Quick question, how does a rocket engine like Merlin 1D NOT melt the rocket's nozzle?

What kind of material withstands so much heat and energy from that kind of rocket engine? How can they be reusable? I saw a testing video from SpaceX that lasted 3 mins and couldn't stop wondering how is it that the nozzle of the engine didn't melt away.

[Assistant] Those engines have cooling channels in the nozzle where cold fuel is circulated before it's being injected in the engine. Some of them will also inject a thin layer of cold gases along the inside walls of the nozzle to cool it down.


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

[User]
Can someone explain bernoulli's principle?

I am supposed to use it for a project but I can only find complex explanations. Not sure if this is the correct subreddit.

[Assistant]
Take a piece of paper and fold it in half. Then open it slightly and set in on a a table (or other flat surface) like a tee pee, with the fold pointing upward.

/\

What will happen if you blow through the opening between the paper and the flat surface? Will you blow the paper off the table? No. The paper will pull flat to the surface because the increase in the velocity of the air underneath the paper will lower the pressure, allowing the ambient pressure to push it flat.

That's Bernoulli's principle in action.


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

[User]
[Batman] Front page of the Daily Planet: Private jet carrying billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne and four models goes down over the Atlantic ocean. What happens to Bruce Wayne's billion dollar fortune?

Would it go to Dick Grayson, his oldest legal son, Damian, his only legitimate son, or maybe even Tim or Jason? What does the recipient do with it?

Bonus Question: Does the whole world, or at least Gotham, know about Bruce's adopted sons? Does no one find any of it suspicious?

[Assistant]
Yes, the public knows about Bruce Wayne's adopted sons.

It would probably be split equally between Tim and Damian as they are his children, and they would keep Wayne Enterprises running just like they did when Bruce was "killed" by Darkseid. Dick would leave Spyral and become Batman again.

Dick and Jason are legally dead so they wouldn't get anything officially.


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

[User] [LOTR] How come Gollum didnt age super fast and die when he lost the Ring? He had it for many centuries longer then Bilbo.

[Assistant]
Bilbo didn't age super fast. According to the book several decades passed between Frodo getting the ring and the scene in Rivendell.

Gollum had the ring long enough to be changed by it into something... other than Hobbit, and this thing didn't age as a hobbit would.


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

[User]
Why are Goku and Vegeta so much stronger than other Saiyans?

It's not like the standard Saiyans didn't spend their entire lives fighting and training too. What makes Goku and Vegeta and their children so much more powerful than any other saiyans (excluding Broly)?

[Assistant]
There are three key points explaining Goku and Vegeta's strength :

* They are many times beaten almost to the point of death, which in Saiyans boosts immensely their power level. If they survive. Most notably, Goku spends the whole journey to Namek training to the point of near death and then eating a Senzu bean to recover. It is said that's why Frieza exterminated the Saiyan race : he feared their limitless potential.

* They both unlock the Super Saiyan state through their emotions. Goku was raised on Earth, where he developped human feelings of love and compassion. When Frieza kills Kulilin, his incredible sorrow and rage breach his last restraints and he's able to reach Super Saiyan state.  Vegeta's story of becoming a Super Saiyan is a bit more elliptic, but it is said that his jealousy, anger and self-hatred for letting Goku surpass him in such a crushing way led him to reach Super Saiyan too.

* And to top it all, they both assimilate Earth fighting techniques, which rely less on raw power and more on subtle control. Goku is trained from infancy by great masters, while Vegeta is an elite fighter who recognize and  "steal" superior techniques (and notably learns to sense power levels when he understands that scouters are useless against Earth and Namek fighters).

As to why their children are even better, it is also explicitly stated that mixing Saiyan and Human blood creates the strongest fighters. As Gohan showed in his fight against Cell.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is cyber security not an important topic in the Presidential election? Are they giving us the silent finger?

With the emails being hacked, just as a start, it seems as if politicians are using cyber security as a tool against their enemies. Instead, why are we no longer on the forefront? Why are we no longer pressing this issue? We can be mindful as users and white hats can do a lot to bring up the holes, but if we get any more holes, our country's theoretical firewall would be better suited for catching fish! Why isn't this topic on the forefront?

[Assistant]
truth is, young people dont vote as much as old people. (who are mostly clued in on this stuff)

basically, you can gather signatures on the net to something on the like of millions of signatures, but they don't translate to votes.

does not really mater to politician how you feel about something if you are not voting at all.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] What if Anakin left the order to be with Padme?

Lets say the Jedi Order found out about Anakin and Padme sooner and wouldn't allow it so he decided to leave the order and be with Padme. How will this affect things?

[Assistant]
Palpatine loses his primary pawn.  Depending on *when* Anakin leaves, he either continues with Dooku as his apprentice or he's forced to find and train a new one.  If he needs to find a new apprentice, he probably needs to stretch out the war.

One way to do this is to have the Seperatists pull back and consolidate what they have gained.  General Grevious takes a back seat while Dooku orchestrates a Cold War.  This, plus some actions by "unreconstructed elements of the old way of thinking" on both sides keep hostility ticking along nicely so Palpatine keeps his position.

However, Palpatine is forced to scramble.  He can't keep the Republic on a war footing indefinitely - neither the economy nor the people will stand it - so his new apprentice is not nearly as powerful as Darth Vader would have been.

Once Darth Newguy is appropriately trained, Palpatine reheats the war and things proceed more or less as they would have...except...

Kenobi never goes to Tatooine.  No point.  No one to guard.  He and the remnants of the Jedi order flee and go into hiding, a mere handful of the order's best and sharpest: Obi Wan, Master Yoda, Mace Windu and a couple of others.  The Empire rises and the Death Star is built.  The Rebellion begins, until the Death Star is completed.  The events of Rogue One play out minus Vader.

As it becomes apparent how much doo doo the Galaxy is in, Obi Wan Kenobi emerges from hiding and seeks out Anakin Skywalker.  He finds his old friend, his wife and children, living very quietly on a small estate.  Naboo has been kind to the Skywalker family, so kind that Anakin has put aside his Jedi ways entirely and dedicated himself to being a good husband and father.  Obi Wan eventually persuades him to aid the Rebellion.

It's a desperate play.  The plans of the Death Star fell back into Imperial hands and the Rebellion doesn't have any idea of how to destroy the station.  General Kenobi leads an attempt to gain technical data on the station from inside the station itself.  To do this, he assembles a team he can trust made up of some Jedi (Mace Windu has survived, older and embittered) and the underworld figures he hid himself among while he was being hunted by the Empire.

They successfully breach the Death Star and discover the flaw in the reactor.  On the way out, Mace confronts Palpatine's apprentice.  Darth Newguy proves to be no match for the more experienced Jedi, and is left maimed.  The escape is a close run thing, and worse still, the Death Star tracks the fleeing rebels to Yavin 4.

The Battle of Yavin 4 is a slaughter.  The Rebels have not had time to analyse the Death Star's capabilities sufficiently and the pilots of Redf, Blue, Green and Gold squadrons are under prepared.  They do their best.

In the end, it's Anakin Skywalker who manages to get through the enemy guns and TIE fighters.  Obi Wan, running the show from the base on Yavin 4, helps Anakin reconnect with the Force just in time to land the fateful torpedo hit and the Rebellion is saved.

Palpatine's fury knows no bounds and his first action is to send an invasion force to Naboo.  This is a curb stomp battle that Naboo loses.  Anakin returns just in time to collect his family and flee, but by the time he finds the rebels on Hoth the Empire are on his heels.  Hoth is evacuated, barely, and the Rebel fleet heads off in search of a new home.

Anakin's concern for his family leads him to flee back to Tatooine, but Palpatine confronts him there.  The Emperor notes that Anakin's feelings for his family have been his undoing.  He offers Anakin the chance to save his family by choosing to stand at the Emperor's side.  The alternative is that Anakin and Padme will die and Palpatine will take their children as new apprentices.  In a chilling prediction, he explains how he will turn the siblings against one another so that one will slay the other - as is Sith tradition - to become his sole heir.

To save his family, Anakin accepts.  He becomes Darth Vader, the Emperor's right hand.  Palpatine puts him in charge of constructing the new Death Star.

Learning of this, the Rebellion  believes it has won an intelligence victory against the Empire and begins an operation to destroy the station before it is completed.  However, this turns out to be a trap set by Vader to entice in the remaining Jedi.  The team that arrive to take the station out includes Kenobi and Windu.  Yoda, now too old and infirm to help, remains behind.

Darth Vader springs his trap, but Obi Wan and Mace Windu suspected their progress had been too simple.  The assault on the shield generator on Endor was just a ruse to focus Vader and the Emperor's attention on one place.  A rebel team has inflitrated the location where Padme, Luke and Leia were being held.  Vader, furious and believing that Kenobi plans to use his family against him as Palpatine has, goes rogue.  It takes the combined efforts of Mace Windu and Obi Wan to sight him to a standstill.

As the Emperor goads Vader on, Kenobi appeals to Vader as the friend and brother he once was.  Kenobi promises Vader that no matter the outcome of the fight, Anakin Skywalker's wife and children are safe.

Something of this reaches Anakin, but he's unable to stop fighting while Palpatine lives.  He knocks Mace Windu into the air and sends the Jedi Master apparently to his doom.  Vader and Kenobi clash in a duel that showcases the sheer brutal power of Darth Vader and the calm, masterful technique of Kenobi.  During a particularly tense clash of blades, Kenobi tells his old friend that this is a fight he, Kenobi, cannot afford to win.  Anakin understands immediately what his old friend is planning to do, but does not understand why.  Kenobi sacrifices himself.  As Darth Vader stands triumphant, Palpatine joins him to crow over the final defeat of the Jedi Order.

And is beheaded by Mace Windu.

Mace reveals that Yoda has also sacrificed himself, using the last of his power to hide Mace from Palpatine for a few vital minutes.

The Empire is left in disarray as the second Death Star is destroyed by a largely intact rebel fleet.


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

[User]
[Star Trek] Where are our emergency space suits?

Here I am stationed on the Federation's flagship, and more than a few times can I recall our "triply-redundant" life support systems going out. This latest problem is caused by some ooze-pooping metal eating virus, according to Commander LaForge!

Now, we trained in hazardous environment suits at the Academy, and I've seen them in use on the news-holos, why doesn't the greatest starship ever built have alternate life support options? Instead we rely on the one crew member who doesn't even *breathe*.

[Assistant]
Your emergency option is the escape pods.  If life support is failing in a way that doesn't instantly kill you, that's where you go to keep breathing and stay warm.  It's quicker and easier than putting on a full environment suit.
Now, in the case that you need to go outside, or fix something in an area of the ship where life support isn't functioning, we do have plenty of suits around for qualified personnel.  They're kept in a few strategic places around the ship, such as in engineering and near the airlocks and transporter rooms.


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

[User] ELI5: How come spiders don't catch themselves in their own web while other insects get stuck?

[Assistant] Spiders dont catch themselves because its only the circular lines that stick. The radial ones, aka the ones that come together in the middle, arent. This way, the spider can move around without catching itself in its net.


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

[User] [Batman TAS] What year is it?

[Assistant] It's sometime in the 1990s, presumably close to when the show aired (1992-1995). The prologue of Batman Beyond takes place in 2019, which is about 20 years after The New Batman Adventures, which are a couple years after BTAS.


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

[User]
ELI5: why mammal females often are smaller than males?

Females have to carry fetus and protect themselves and babies, why are they often smaller than males?

[Assistant]
Mammals typically live in groups, and males typically compete for mates.  Both this competition and the need to defend territory and protect the group leads to natural/sexual selection favoring typically larger males.  A larger male can defend against threats better, can fight other males for mating rights better, and females who want to choose the best mates will favor them.

Females don't have as much luxury in being able to grow larger/stronger/etc., because their bodies' effort goes more towards rearing children.  A male only has to survive long enough to bang, basically, so his body can be large, energy-hungry, and shorter-lived.  A female has to be able to devote a significant chink of her effort and nutrition and time into raising young.

(Note this doesn't hold true always, or as a blanket rule.  It's how it works out for many species, but the ins and outs of sexual dimorphism go way deeper than this.)


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

[User] [Half-life] Why are all Combine signs and notices written in English? Wouldn't it be in their own language, and if not, than in Russian, since City 17 is in what used to be a Russian-speaking area? This seems to be the case even for things that appear to be only read by Combine soldiers as well.

[Assistant]
This seems to be a decision made by Breen. He's the leader of humanity, so he made English the official language of humanity. Most of the world had learned it anyway, right?

We don't know whether other cities use languages appropriate for their locations and populations. It's quite possible, but information is very tightly controlled. If this is the case, City 17 being in the Soviet Bloc still makes sense because North America is a big red X on the map, a lot of Americans were relocated there, and it's where the Combine built the Citadel and all their infrastructure. Maybe also the tropics are infested with alien flora and fauna.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is bleach so toxic to all living things?

[Assistant]
Because it has reactive chlorine in it.

Chlorine tends to form strong chemical bonds with organic molecules.These bonds change how the rest of the molecule reacts and can displace certain groups of elements from the molecule, or even trigger a chain of reactions that result in a drastically different molecule.

Living organisms depend on consistant reactions in order to function, so the disruption of the chlorine screws up their patern, thus preventing them from continuing life-functions.


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

[User]
[MCU] What level does a threat have to be before the Avengers step in?

I guess this is specifically pre-Civil War, but presumably Iron Man and War Machine were still somewhat active under the Avengers title since Tony was planning on inducting Spider-Man.

In all, we see the collective Avengers in 4 battles as a team before splitting up:  the Chitauri Invasion, the battle at Strucker's Castle, the Ultron fights, and the fight with Crossbones' terrorist group.  Out of those, only the Chitauri Invasion and the Ultron fights were potentially world-ending.  The battle at Strucker's Castle seemed to be more about cleaning up Shield's loose ends, but the fight against Crossbones could be considered either that or a general battle against terrorists.

What qualifies a threat as being Avengers-worthy?  Would Cap have slipped into a telephone booth to suit up if he saw a bank getting robbed on his day off?  Did they typically only deal with groups like Hydra?  How common would a fight against something like Abomination or the Maximoff twins be?

[Assistant]
All the Avengers weren't even in Lagos for the fight with Rumlow.  That was just the team on duty at the time.

They normally act like a police force or fire station, with members pulling shifts.   If you're on the clock when there's an alarm, you respond to it.  When you're working and there's no emergency, you're following up leads and tracking down criminals.  Otherwise you're off duty and living your life.

Ultron and Thanos were four-alarm fires that brought out everyone on the roster.  And the assaults on HYDRA had everyone on deck too, when they needed the extra firepower.


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

[User] What kind of current is lightning? AC or DC?

[Assistant]
It isn't really DC, but it is closer to DC than AC.

You have a charge built up between the cloud and the ground.  When the Arc is formed, the charges move in in one direction.

For example you have a Negativly Charged Cloud, a positive charged ground ( relative to cloud ).  The Arc is created, and electrons move from the cloud toward the ground.  If the cloud was postive, the direction is reversed.

However this isn't like a DC power source, the voltage and the current change *very* rapidly over time, far faster than your AC current does from the wall.  This isn't like a power supply, its a shock.


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

[User]
ELI5: With all the cancer research, public education and millions of deaths, why do so many people still pick up smoking cigarettes as a ling term habit?

I will say, I did smoke for almost 6 years, from 16 to 22, and have not touched one since (I'm in my 30's now). My reasoning then was "why not, I can always quit", mostly because I had no role models or adult figures in my life really paying any attention, and I was a bit self destructive... even then, I knew it was bad and it took a good 5-6 years for my lungs to really feel like they were healing and for my lung capacity to feel normal again. Is it because education still does not reach certain demographics? do people just ignore it? I am not referring to someone older who has maybe been smoking and addicted for years already, but mostly I mean younger folks who are just now being presented with life's various vices. What would make something like this appealing  in 2016 with all the negativity that surrounds it?

*EDIT: Typo in title, I meant "long term habit"
*EDIT: Thank you all, there some very genuine responses in here. I would like to say, I wasn't juding anyone for the act of smoking, as I said, I smoked for several years basically because I had nothing better to do and no one caring enough about me to pay attention. It just seems like in the past decade there has been a huge surge in public outreach and anti-smoking campaigns, more so than I ever remember when I was a kid... geez, just about everyone I know even in middle school was smoking outside the shoproom hallway door lol. It seems like you hear more about it in recent years and about the drastic effect its had on social circles now that its no longer looked at as "cool" as it was in previous decades, but from everyone's responses, it seems the same old reasons are well and alive, and the human spirit lives on. Thanks for the awesome answers!

[Assistant]
Because no one really picks it up with the intention of becoming a long term habit. cigarettes aren't just a habit, they're a delivery system for a drug. As with most highly addictive drugs, it starts with "just this one", then you have another the next weekend, then you have a stressful day at work and decide you could use a little something to unwind, then it's every weekend and sometimes on weekdays. After a while, your tolerance builds up and next thing you know you're smoking every day.

Its the same cycle every time. You know it's bad from the get go, but your infrequency of use means you don't really worry about the negative effects of addiction. It eventually turns into an addiction, and then they health effects take a back seat to feeding your addiction.

Source: former pack-a-day smoker, heroin addict, overly frequent coke user, and physician enabled amphetamine addict.


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

[User] Why is it beneficial to remove pus from a wound instead of letting it settle naturally?

[Assistant] Pus is a sign of infection.  It is your body's immune cells that have died fighting the bacteria and no longer serve any purpose and is actually getting in the way.  If it can be removed without damaging surrounding tissue, spreading the bacteria, or is required as there is so much of it, then it should be as it greatly reduces the number of bacteria in the body.


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

[User]
[Children's Fears] Do monsters under the bed respect the sanctity of the radiator foot?

Sometimes I stick one foot out from under the covers because I get too hot, but I don't want to risk my foot getting bit off.

[Assistant] The kinder ones do. the more law bound ones. but the darker ones. when you can feel them watching. There are even those that well destroy blankets holy power. those that hide your words from mother, father as well. and those are the ones to truly fear.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do mobile phones, unlike a laptop, still operate smoothly despite not being shutdown for days/weeks?

I know if I leave my MacBook running all day long for about 2 days applications will start opening slower, more freezes, etc. But my phone hasn't been shutdown for days (maybe even a week now) but still runs fine.

[Assistant]
Nothing in theory means your laptop or other generic computing device need to be restarted. In practice it tends to be bad programming causing things like memory leaks or issues that accumulate over time.

Plenty of servers and datacentre computers measure their uptime in years.


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

[User] ELI5: Why did two sexes become the norm for species instead of three or more?

[Assistant]
The whole reason for sex (and therefore sexes) is to offer greater diversity of genes which help make a species healthier.

But if you added 3 or more sexes, then the process of sex becomes complicated, too complicated to make the extra diversity worthwhile.

Two sexes is a happy middle ground between diverse genes with not too much complication.


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

[User]
CMV: Medical necessities should not be allowed to be priced above a certain amount more than the complete costs of manufacture and disposal.

There is no reason epipens and insulin should cost many times more than it costs to make them. There is no reason a saline bag should cost more than a dollar. It is greedy and it litterally gets people killed. It is on the same level as murder in my mind. There really should  be a price ceiling on the cost of medical supplies. I understand that a business needs to make money, but at a certain point it is just a corporatist monopoly held in place by government over regulation limiting competition and there is no excuse for it. For context I am in the USA if that was not clear already.

[Assistant] Why not fix the lack of competition instead by allowing drugs to be imported from Canada/Europe/Japan/Israel/Australia/etc?  If you don't fix the supply but cap the price, you exacerbate shortages.  Which are a huge problem in the US, with the average hospital seeing like 50 shortages a year.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does everything that moves in outer space seem to move at extremely high velocities that could never be attained on Earth?

Or: Why does it seem that nothing moves slowly in outer space?

[Assistant]
Firstly, it's a question of scale.  Space is huge compared to Earth.  What seems like an incredible speed here on Earth is actually very slow out in space, and it will take a long time to get anywhere.  For instance Neptune is travelling at 5 kilometers every second - a stupendously fast Earth speed - but it takes 168 years to go around the Sun.

Secondly, things on Earth don't move very fast for very long, because of air.  Travelling through atmosphere at space-speeds would be like slamming into a wall, simply because of how much air you need to move out of your way every second.  The fastest man-made objects are rockets, which gain most of their velocity way up high where the atmosphere is relatively thin.  They simply couldn't reach that speed at ground level.

Thirdly and perhaps most surprisingly, even if you could somehow overcome the atmosphere, you run into another problem.  If you're going fast enough (even on the ground), you'll reach escape velocity, and never come back down!  As you're tearing across the landscape at a few km/s, the Earth's surface curves away underneath you faster than gravity pulls you down, and you rise up into the sky and disappear.  So anything travelling at space-speeds on Earth would soon be flying away in space anyway.

It's not really that things in space always move very fast; it's that things here on Earth can only move very slowly.


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

[User] [Fallout] I've literally got millions of random pieces of crap in my inventory. Luckily, my Pip-Boy shows me the exact number of each item I possess. Did I actually enter each one manually into the system? Or does my Pip-Boy somehow know precisely how many pencils and dinner plates I'm carrying?

[Assistant] You know how the terminals you see are actually just interfaces for controlling a giant computer somewhere else in the building? Well Pip-Boys are the same way, except the computer they're connected to is actually your brain. That's how it instantly knows everything you do, and why it can project a simply display directly into your optic nerve.


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

[User] ELI5: If Verizon and the FCC were to overturn Net Neutrality laws, what will REALLY happen?

[Assistant]
A combination of the following (one, the other, or both, to varying degrees of limitation and/or price):

* You own a website, online service, or mobile app; but Verizon slows it so it takes a long time to load *unless* you pay them.
* You subscribe to the internet as an end user. Facebook and Google load slowly, Netflix and YouTube run at standard def only, and LiveLeak and BitTorrent are totally blocked. Your ping time in games is abysmal UNLESS you pay extra for a "Premium Subscriber" package.

ISPs then introduce their own content services, which will of course run much faster than anyone else's over their own connections. They take all the ad revenue, and you are stuck with their service which they can do whatever they want with (including charge for it - but charge less than what they charge to use a competitor's). The original content providers slowly die off, as people don't want to pay for the "Netflix" package since they already pay for Netflix, or for the YouTube package since YouTube is supposed to be free.

They make all the money and control all the information flow. Little startup companies who can't afford to pay for all their user's bandwidth? Gone. With the competition eliminated, these companies have no reason to really innovate, and the internet becomes a crappy text-based version of cable-TV: super-high subscription fees, crap content, and no freedom to innovate.

It's really a shit excuse to sap as much money from people as they can, but if it happens it will cost much, much more.

EDIT: One silver lining is that we may see more startup ISPs who DON'T pull this kind of crap - but that will be very difficult because the big boys provide all the "information superhighway" wires that connect the internet across long ranges, and they'll just charge the small ISPs to lease bandwidth from the big connection lines.


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

[User]
Is all of a persons dna in every cell?

Ie in all cells is the complete set of chromosomes in the nucleus even if the cells function is not being used by more than a tiny part of dna.

[Assistant]
All nucleated cells (note, red blood cells and platelets lack nucleus) contain complete set of chromosomes. Epigenetic changes, not DNA, determine which genes are expressed and how much depending on the function of the cell.

In case of germ cells (eggs and sperms), they contain half the amount of chromosomes of course, aka "haploid."


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is patient zero of such significance?

The wife and I yesterday watched "contagion" and we were wondering, why there is always such a hubbub about "patient zero". What's so special about the first person to catch a transmittable disease, that the second or third or four-hundredth person does not have?

[Assistant] Viruses mutate as they travel to different hosts, so the first patient to get it has the most basic form of it that has the most in common with the daughter strains, which may evolve in completely different directions.  Thus, if you find a cure based on the original patient, is has the highest likelihood of working on the daughter cases.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Who is the person least close to Luke as a friend that would have elicited a Force vision in Luke if tortured in Bespin?

Say that the asteroid worm ate the Millennium Falcon and Vader needed alternative victims to provoke Luke to leave Dagobah. Who are eligible candidates? Wedge Antilles, Admiral Ackbar, General Rieekan, etc?

[Assistant]
Probably Wedge. They were wing-mates and pretty friendly in a work-friend kind of way, but Wedge was mostly doing his own thing and had been with the Rebellion for longer.

I don't know that Luke *knew* Ackbar yet at that point? He didn't show up in person until ROTJ at least.


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

[User] Why don't we feel most comfortable when the weather is 37 C/ 98.6 F?

[Assistant] It's been asked in the past, but in any case, the human body generates heat that must be dissipated. Heat flow is governed by temperature differences between two sinks. When the outside environment is at the same temperature as your body, then you cannot effectively dissipate the heat you generate.


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

[User] ELI5: What's the big difference between the Julian and the Gregorian calendar that made the world switch?

[Assistant]
So, astronomers found that a year was approximately 365.25 days, so to account for this, they added a leap year, a year where an extra day is added every four years. So, to the normal 365 calendar, they added this rule.

- If year is divisible by 4, it is a leap year and an extra day is added at the end of February.

 This is known as the Julian Calendar, named after Julius Caesar. However, they were slightly off, which was found by later  astronomers, and they found that a year is slightly less than they thought, so they were adding too many leap years. So a new calendar was made, with these two new rules.

- A year divisible by 100 is not a leap year. In the Julian Calendar, it was.

- If year is divisible by 400, it is an exception to the rule above.

This is known as the Gregorian Calendar, named after Pope Gregory XIII, who enforced the conversion to the new calendar. Currently, they are 13 days off, with the Julian calendar ahead by 13 days.

Modern astronomers now know with more precision the length of a year, but Gregorian measurements were precise enough that we won't have to worry about inaccuracies for another tens of thousands of years or so.

Edit: Formatting and elaboration.


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

[User]
ELI5:Why do pain killers such as ibuprofen and acetaminophen help with fevers as well?

Suffering through a cold right now and thought I'd pose the question.

[Assistant] Don't know what the second one is but can answer for ibuprofen. It belongs to a class of drugs knows as nonsteroidal anti-inflammitory drugs(NSAIDS). Basically inflammation is your body ramping things up to deal with a situation. This involves the release of chemicals that cause inflammation, which(among other things) create pain through direct contact with nerves. They also create fever through a number of mechanisms that basically serves to create a hot hostile environment for what ever is invading your body and increase blood flow to the affected area. NSAIDS work by reducing the amount of these inflammatory chemicals being released in the first place.


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

[User]
ELI5: How are plastic microbeads in facial washes and soap so much more dangerous than sand, which is already common in lakes and oceans?

Also pumice and ground peach pits, which we've been putting in soap for decades?

[Assistant]
It's not the size of the beads that's the direct problem, it's what they're made out of. Ingesting plastic can lead to hormonal changes and other impacts that don't happen when ingesting those other things.

In a sentence: Plastic is toxic, pumice, peach pits, and sand aren't.


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

[User]
[Avatar:2009] If you were Jake Sully how would you make sure that the humans won't come back to Pandora?

The ending of Avatar always bugged me, as if the humans won't come back with a stronger army. Scenario: It is the end of the battle for the tree of souls you remembered from the history books you read a while ago, that any failed attempt of colonization, the colonizers will be back stronger than before. So what will you do to the remaining hostile humans on Pandora, besides sending them back to Earth (which is a very bad idea) to make sure they won't be back to take their revenge?

[Assistant]
Very simple, **BAD PUBLICITY**.

*humanity* isnt at war with pandora. This isnt a Race War. The RDA is a private company that owns a license to extract extraterrestrial resources. SecOps is a Private Security Company contracted to protect RDA facilities.

The News that the Head of Security went rogue and lost a war he started would be very bad for business. Public backlash would severely limit RDA response. They cant just return to burn villages.

And jake sully isnt against humans returning as the scientific mission remained on Pandora. The RDA is going to have to return to negotiate as equals.


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

[User] Eli5 what is anti matter?

[Assistant]
Antimatter is exactly the same as normal matter, just "opposite". Normal hydrogen for example is composed of a proton and an electron, with the proton being positively charged and the electron being negatively charged.

For antimatter the positively charged proton would be replaced by a negatively charged antiproton. Same mass, same strength of charge, just flipped. The negatively charged electron would also be replaced by a positively charged positron. Again identical to an electron except with opposite charge.

Antimatter seems to behave exactly the same as normal matter we are familiar with, at least as far as we can tell. This means we would expect all the same elements to be made, and even chemical reactions to work the same with antimatter. Of course we can't test this very well because handling antimatter is very difficult since if it encounters normal matter they annihilate each other and release huge amounts of energy. Making antimatter is very difficult and can only be produced in small quantities so the testing we can do so far is limited.

And yes, it is a bit strange that matter is the way it is and not the flipped antimatter version. Scientists are still trying to figure out why the universe seems biased towards one kind (the one we are familiar with).


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

[User]
Mental Health and Philosophy of Mind

Any literature I've come across on "Mental Health" seems to implicitly assume an internalist philosophy of mind. Has any work been done by externalists on this matter?

[Assistant]
It might help if you provide some examples of what you've been reading so we can see what you mean about implicitly assuming internalism.

Perhaps philosophical discussions specifically around mental illness might seem to imply internalism because mental illness is fundamentally an epistemic disconnect between mental states and facts.  The process of belief formation is itself flawed, so we never even reach the starting point of externalist arguments.


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

[User] ELI5:Why do people put shea butter in their coffee, and does the butter even do anything?

[Assistant]
Regular butter - yes, Shea butter - never heard of it.  Look up 'Bullet proof coffee'.

Basically, natural fats (butter, coconut oil, heavy cream) are good for you.  Put them in coffee for a morning pick-me-up that doubles as a meal.  Goes great with a low-carb diet and/or fasting.


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

[User]
[A:TLA/LoK] With technology progressing, how do you think the role benders in society changes?

In A:TLA, bending is used a lot as a martial art and also just in every day life of benders (Iroh heating his tea, Toph using it for sight, etc).  Benders were also seen as the powerhouses of society.  If you could bend, nonbenders wouldn't mess with you.  In LoK, to me it seemed like it was used less as a martial art (in the traditional sense) and more of just a tool (police metalbending) and a source of entertainment (pro-bending).  More advanced technology also helped level the playing field between benders and nonbenders.  As technology progresses even more in the bending universe, with the eventual invention of many of the weapons and machines we have in our world, how do you think the role of bending in society changes?

I think it'd still be largely used as part of a way of life.  Benders are going to apply their abilities to their everyday lives.  But I think that bending would be used less in battle with the invention of guns, tanks, etc, and if it is used in battle, it's in very specialized units to accomplish a specific task.  Also, bending may also be considered inferior to things such as guns, and people may not be as threatened by them.  I also think some people would practice the traditional martial arts bending as a hobby, similar to how many people practice tradition martial arts today.

[Assistant]
Far from it, an elite squad of benders would absolutely rip into enemies during covert actions.

Air, Fire, and Water benders provide a nearly limitless source of energy. Air nomads would have massive wind farms around their temple homes. Waterbenders could direct rivers and other sources to power Hydroelectric dams. And we've already seen how Fire benders are used to power entire cities.

On top of that the entire environment is at the will of benders. Earth benders can level land for building, move massive objects out of the way for roads during landslides or construction, or instantly dig deep mines and have metal benders extract ore from stone.

Most benders will take on civil and mechanical engineering roles and allow the Avatar world to completely bypass the era we are in on harmful fossil fuel usage and energy shortages.


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

[User] How did we create precision-engineered components without a precision-engineered machine to make them?

[Assistant]
Patience and Polishing.

Basically how you create anything with precision. Rough cut. Smooth cut. Smoother cut. Coarse polish. Fine polish. Super fine polish.

You just have to do this to the machine. It's feedback. Measure and cut repeatedly.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why exactly do aircraft need to bank when they need to turn?

Why exactly do aircraft that wish to turn left- or right-wards need to bank? I understand that it's necessary, but not really very keen on the why.

(Also, am I correct in assuming that banking in space would be needless/pointless, and that shows and films showing spacecraft doing that are wrong?)

Thanks.

[Assistant]
banking the aircraft changes the direction of lift and angles it towards the direction of the turn. In effect, the wings now push the plane in the direction of the turn, rather than simply hold the plane up. However you do lose lift, and for long or particularly steep banks you have to apply power and yaw to keep the nose level.

You can turn the aircraft using yaw (rudder) only. But you risk stalls and spin of you do it too sharply.


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

[User]
[Mario] How does Mario escape the paintings in Mario 64 and Sunshine after he completes the level?

After he collects the Stars/Shine Sprites, Mario somehow always manages to leap out of the level without trouble. He's able to do this even if he collects the item on some platform in the middle of nowhere. How is he able to do this?

[Assistant]
Star power.

EDIT: Downvotes?  This is a literal in universe thing that Mario uses in several his games.  You even get an SP gauge in 2 of the paper mario games.

He uses Star Power to warp out of the level, like he uses Star Power to unlock doors.


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

[User]
[Futurama] Is it legal for clones to get married if their original is already married?

Legal precedent states that a clone and its originator count as the same person in terms of double jeopardy. Does this apply to marriage as well? Since polygamy remains illegal, what does than mean for the ability of a clone to get married if their originator is already married?

[Assistant] I do believe that in a rare "Double-whammy" decision, the Earthican supreme court did rule polygamy constitutional (see Earth V. Zoidberg). If this applies to non-clones, it would stand to reason that clones would be afforded the same rights and privileges.


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

[User]
ELI5: With world record calculations of pi, how can we be sure that the digits calculated are accurate to the extent claimed?

For example, if someone claims to have calculated the new world record for digits of pi (or some other irrational number), how can we be sure that they didn't just make up the numbers? What structures are in place to double check that the digits are accurate without the ability to cross check it with the "true number"?

[Assistant] Short of, as you hinted, actually calculating it yourself, there are algorithms (google "Bailey-Borwein-Plouffe" if you want the gory details) which allow you to calculate the n-th digit of pi without knowing the preceding digits.  Using this, one can spot-check random digits until they're satisfied it looks good.


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

[User]
CMV: News Sites Should Be Banned From Using Clickbait Headlines

Very simply, it's annoying reading a headline that overstates or clickbait's its reader into reading an honestly boring or mundane story. In a perfect world, a news headline would work like a name for a thesis paper; a rough amalgamation of all the important details. If you're writing a paper about some new climate change research, have the research company in the name, and a summarization of their findings. For example: Climate-Initiative has recorded a new world-record temp. of 140 Degrees in Death Valley. Boom. If you want to know more about how they recorded the temperature or death valley's history with high temps, you read the article.

The only issue I see with this is that, at least in the U.S., due to the first amendment, you would have to be very tricky in how you handle it.

[Assistant]
>you would have to be very tricky in how you handle it.

This is the main issue. How do you differentiate between "clickbait" and not clickbait? You'd need some sort of mechanism for deciding this which would inevitably be abused. Alternatively, you could use our current legal system, but that would take a lot of time and energy to manage.


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

[User]
ELI5: why planes can't take advantage on Earth's rotation to travel faster ?

I know they can't but how come they cannot?

[Assistant] Airplanes don't fly "around the Earth", they fly "through the air".  Since the air rotates with the Earth, and planes fly through the air, their ground speed is relative to the mostly stationary air above the surface.


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

[User]
[Mortal Kombat] How can they keep fighting??

I just watched Scorpion drive his knee into Johnny Cage's jaw, obliterating Johnny's jaw and teeth. The impact of the blow was strong enough to launch Johnny about 6 feet straight up. Scorpion then impaled Johnny through the skull using his chain spear, and then slammed Johnny into the ground, head first, which completely shattered 3 vertebra in Johnny's neck. And then Johnny hopped to his feet and kicked the shit out of Scorpion.

Why wasn't Johhny Cage even phased by a completely fractured jaw, skull and neck??

[Assistant]
All of the fighters in Mortal Kombat are, from a practical standpoint, immortal. The Elder Gods who created the universe decreed that one fighter, championed by each of the eighteen realms, must fight for dominion over the others. Gods, demons, and humans alike are each given the opportunity to fight to defend their home or to conquer another, but certain beings have innate advantages over others by their very natures. Immortal gods, for example, would beat any of the mortal races simply by outlasting them. And if two gods were to fight, neither could possibly win (which would result in a stalemate).

In order to allow the mortal races to have a fighting chance as well as to allow a tournament to progress, The Elder Gods seem to have instated some special rules about the tournament:

1) No fighter shall permanently die while the tournament is under way. After all, the gods could not be killed by their nature, so the others had to be raised to their level.

2) Injuries sustained in combat will never incapacitate the fighter's ability to continue fighting.  This means that when Johnny Cage's jaw and teeth are turned to mashed paste, he is restored to full fighting condition almost immediately by the laws of the tournament. Each fighter continues pushing forward not until their body is unable to continue, but instead until their will to fight is overcome by the pain of injury. Once their will to fight has been overcome, this ability seems to shut down temporarily, allowing for the "fatalities". However, there was a side effect to this, in that...

3) Fighters who have sustained lethal injuries will be revived to full fighting condition shortly after they are defeated. The warrior, having been beaten soundly, is not filled with despair. Instead, they are filled with the desire for revenge! Once their fighting spirit returns, even while their body is dead, they will be restored to health. To truly give in to death is the only true way to die for them, and none of the fighters will ever permit this. Thus, the blood sport continues in tournament after tournament, violent death heralding violent death again and again until the end of time. And The Elder Gods' laughter echoes through eternity.


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

[User]
[Various Godzilla movies]I would imagine that if an invincible monster hundreds of feet tall and capable of flattening cities showed up, people probably start worshiping it. How widespread is the worship of Godzilla and what are some of his religions like?

How did pre-existing religions respond to Godzilla?

Almost every culture in human history has a sun god, people tend to worship visible powerful things. It is hard to get much more powerful than Godzilla. One would imagine that his worship would become widespread quickly.

[Assistant]
It varies wildly between depictions and eras. In most modern settings excluding shin and monsterverse and the original hes seen as a sort of protector of humanity albeit a highly destructive one. Most people don't worship him outside a few fringe lunatics but some see him as a sort of cleansing force of nature that avoids or protects them. Rarely does Godzilla attack unprovoked and he often defends humans even if it's coincidentally rather than purposefully.

In shin Godzilla hes seen more as an abomination and a problem than anything god like or worthy of worship. Hes a leaking nuclear reactor melting down not a force of good or natural order.

Og Godzilla is just a straight up monster and death incarnate to people unfortunate enough to be in his way. No one worships him but lives in fear that the oxygen destroyer didn't kill him or that there's more of him out there.

Monsterverse he or at least his species was worshipped by ancient humans as a god. Modern humans see him as a deadly and dangerous threat but treat him as a natural part of the world now. Fringe cults remember his deeds stopping ghidora and the mutos but most remember the thousands killed by him and other titans. Only a handful of people don't want to kill him and most realize it's nearly impossible to kill him with human weapons so better to learn to live alongside him.


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

[User] [Chemistry] Why is it unlikely that symmetrical molecules can turn plane-polarized light?

[Assistant]
If you had *one* molecule, and *one* plane-polarized photon, and an extremely sensitive detector (way more sensitive than is probably physically possible), you might see that photon's plane of polarization rotated by an interaction with an achiral molecule.

The thing is though, there are lots of molecules and lots of photons, leading to lots of interactions. It's not that an achiral molecule can't affect the light in that way - it's just that there is no bias towards any particular direction. Each interaction is equally likely to rotate a photon's polarization plane clockwise or counterclockwise, so averaged out over many interactions you end up with no net rotation.


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

[User]
Eli5: Voyager II

With the Voyager II spacecraft millions of miles from earth and continuing on, how are we able to send/receive data from deep space?

[Assistant]
There's a number of factors involved in allowing the Voyager probes to be able to communicate out so far.

**very large antennas** - Voyager uses a antenna 14 feet in size, and the opposite antenna on Earth is 34 feet in size. Which is 10-30 times the size of your usual satellite dish.

**directional** - The antennas are aligned to be pointing directly at each other, which increases the chances of relieving a clear signal

**interference** - The radio channels used by Voyager are very quiet by human standards, this cuts down on interference. If we had used a common band like 2.4ghz for example there would be so much interference that we couldn't hear Voyager.

**power** - the radios use a lot of transmit power. The radios on Voyager are 23 watts compared to the 3 watts of the average cellphone. But even this is pretty weak Big radio stations on Earth transmit at tens of thousands of watts and still fade out quickly. This is the benefit of transmitting through empty space, the signal is less likely to degrade. The transmit antenna on Earth however is several tens of thousands of watts to make sure Voyager can here us.

As for receiving from Voyager it helps a lot that we know exactly where Voyager is, and what it's transmitting.


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

[User]
Can you keep a ''stable'' orbit inside an event horizon?

Let's say a photon flies into the event horizon, it'll never be able to escape and we cannot ever see or know what's going on in there, but knowing that some event horizons are HUGE there has to be some distance between that and the singularity. So if you're coming in at the speed of light at the perfect angle what happens when the particle ''dips'' inside of the no-return point?

As we can't really get information from there do we even have theories, if so what's the most likely? I couldn't really google this well enough as I'm not even sure if the vocabulary I'm using is correct, so I hope someone with the knowledge to either answer or point me to a direction in google sees this.

Thanks in advance.

Edit: this has taught me a lot, thanks for the great answers!

[Assistant]
An orbit inside the event horizon would require a speed greater than the speed of light. So with our current understanding of physics, the answer would be a very simple: No.

There exists an orbit for particles with the speed of light outside the event horizon. This is called the *Photon Sphere* and it is located at 1.5 times the radius of the event horizon (for a non-rotating black hole). In theory, photons could orbit the black hole here. However, this orbit is unstable and even a tiny deviation from the orbit would result in the photon either falling into the event horizon or escaping into space.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] What are the differences between the trials to become a Jedi Knight and those to become a Master?

Are they the same, just more difficult? If not, whats different about them?

For that matter, what do any of the trials entail?

[Assistant]
There's not an actual set of trials to become a Master, for one.

To become a Knight, one must succeed at a set of trials focusing on: teamwork, isolation, fear, anger, betrayal, focus, instinct, forgiveness, and protection. No specific order, and they're generally pretty informal about it.

To become a Master, the most common way is simply by teaching a Padawan to the point where they successfully pass the trials and become a Knight in their own right.


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

[User] ELI5: If all the cells in a persons body have their individual DNA imprinted in them, then what happens after an organ transplant? Does the organ eventually adapt the DNA of the recipient or is the donors DNA permanently a part of the recipient?

[Assistant] The donors DNA is permanently a part of the recipient. In fact, the recipients body will treat the organ as a foreign agent, and will try to get rid of it. Organ recipients have to take immuno-suppressants for as long as they have the organ, and even still their body may reject the organ.


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

[User]
Is Plato's Republic a Serious Political Proposal?

I was recently listening to the Partially Examined Life's episode on Plato's Republic and later on in the episode one of the hosts had mentioned that in academia, some treat Plato's Republic as a straightforward political proposal while others treat as a metaphor for the soul and other abstract answers.

What is the general consensus regarding what Plato meant?

[Assistant]
In *A History of Western Philosophy*, Bertrand Russell says the following which if accurate gives some credence to the idea that it could have been a serious model:

> Plato's Republic, unlike modern Utopias, was perhaps intended to be actually founded. This was not so fantastic or impossible as it might naturally seem to us. Many of its provisions, including some that we should have thought quite impracticable, were actually realized at Sparta. The rule of philosophers had been attempted by Pythagoras, and in Plato's time Archytas the Pythagorean was politically influential in Taras (the modern Taranto) when Plato visited Sicily and southern
Italy. It was a common practice for cities to employ a sage to draw up their laws; Solon had done this for Athens, and Protagoras for Thurii. Colonies, in those days, were completely free from control by their parent cities, and it would have been quite feasible for a band of Platonists to establish the Republic on the shores of Spain or Gaul.
Unfortunately chance led Plato to Syracuse, a great commercial city engaged in desperate wars with Carthage; in such an atmosphere, no philosopher could have achieved much. In the next generation, the rise of Macedonia had made all small States antiquated, and had brought about the futility of all political experiments in miniature.


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

[User]
ELI5: From the United States, you need visas to travel to some countries, but for others, passports will suffice. Why?

I understand that for some countries, like Cuba, the need for a visa is due to strained relations between countries. But what about for other countries, which we don't have bad relationships with? What's the determining factor?

[Assistant]
It's not so much that you only need visas for countries with which the US has strained relations, it's that only countries on very good terms (and who do a lot of business) with one another allow visa free travel.

Countries treat visa restrictions as the norm and negotiate among themselves if they want to lower them. The US visa waiver program began in 1986 to help lower costs for tourists and people doing business.