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

[User]
[DC] How did Lobo wipe out his own race?

If Lobo's race, the Czarians, can regenerate from a single drop of blood, how did Lobo wipe them all out?

[Assistant]
Lobo genetically engineered a virus that killed Czarians over the course of a week, inflicting ever increasing levels of agony on them until they died from the pain.  He played Death Metal the entire time he watched his race die.

He possesses concentrated genius in a singular field that exceeds that of even geniuses such as Lex Luthor or Batman - that singular field being death and destruction.  As such he is perhaps the only person who could have eliminated the Czarians.


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

[User]
[Musicals] are they aware of the singing and dancing?

In musicals, protagonists don't seem to be aware they are doing something highly complicated and coordinated in their daily lives, with people they have never seen singing along and making the same moves. What's going on?

[Assistant] In the classic definition of musical, the characters don't know they're singing and the singing is used to advance the plot.  Whereas if you look at, for example, the Pitch Perfect movies, the music does neither of those things.  It's just characters singing.


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

[User]
[Gladiator] Maximus Decimus Meridius is executed in the forest as planned. What happens to Rome under Commodus' rule?

The Gladiator events go as planned, except without Maximus' help that one group die as history tells, and Commodus doesn't get killed. How does history progress from this point on?

[Assistant]
Commodus has a fairly peaceful reign, but there is a lot of discontent. By 190 CE he starts to give in to his own megalomania and declare himself Hercules, and the new Romulus, he would replace the head of the Colossus of Nero with one of his own, and even go as far as renaming Rome itself to Colonia Lucia Annia Commodiana.

A conspiracy to remove him from power takes hold, and eventually a wrestling partner of his named Narcissus strangles him during a visit to the baths. The Senate declares him an enemy and undoes his changes.

Unfortunately this does not bring peace, the new emperor, Pertinax does not last long and the next year is filled with strife as 5 emperors rise and fall, ending when Septimus Severus takes control.


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

[User]
[ATLA] Would Aang have been born if Avatar Roku lived longer?

I've always been under the impression that Aang was born the absolute second that Roku died based on that one episode where we see Roku's history. Using this logic I assume every new Avatar is born the moment the preceeding Avatar is killed or dies.

So if Roku has not died on his island trying to stop the volcano and lived another few years would Aang have been born but without the Avatar spirit?

Alternatively if Roku died a few years earlier than the he did in some unrelated incident would another air baby be the Avatar or would the Avatar spirit wait it out until Aang was born?

Edit: Since its been coming up a lot, the only reason I assume Aang's mother was pregnant with him while Roku was alive and why Aang was born when Roku died is because the episode "The Avatar and the Fire Lord" presents the Hand-off from Roku to Aang to be synchronous. I don't know, that's why I'm asking lol.

[Assistant] I also had impression that Avatar spirit joins the baby that was born exactly at the moment of previous Avatar death, so probably if Roku didn't die for some time more, someone else would've ended up an Avatar, while Aang would be just a normal airbender.


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

[User] [Marvel / DC] Im a small time criminal and cant find a job with a criminal record, so my only chance is to go work for a (Super) Villian. Which Villian should I work for to get the best pay and benefits with the smallest chance of getting my ass handed by a superhero?

[Assistant] Kingpin. He's currently the mayor of New York and willing to hire someone with a criminal record. It's certainly possible you could just get some quiet municipal position working on things behind the scenes. His position also insulates him from direct battles with Superheros, so even if you do see action, the heroes won't attack you a city worker.


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

[User] [Superman] If Superman entered the Sub to its core, would he feel any pain from the heat at all?

[Assistant] Really, it depends on whether or not the sub itself is toasted, as well as the meat to cheese ratio within. A sub with high concentrations of cheese is more likely to have a hot, gooey center, and thus approach the Hot Pocket Zenith of hotness; at that stage, even Superman's extreme durability would stop being helpful against such sheer temperature.


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

[User]
Can one live without dynamic memory?

Hi all! I've recently read NASA's 10 rules style guide which bans recursion and use of dynamic memory. Denial of recursion is not a huge problem, I think, but how difficult is to live without dynamic memory? It seems that NASA can deal with this restriction but is there any task where it would be impossible or highly impractical not to use dynamic memory?

[Assistant]
There are still some AAA studios that release games with millions of lines of code, worked at by hundreds of engineers, that doesn't have a single line of dynamic allocation anywhere. Sony studios are well known to have such constraints: you're given a segment of a `byte` array and that's your entire memory for say a rain particle system. Of course such codebases will have sophisticated custom memory management that deals with defragmentation, type information, etc of allocated memory. As you can imagine, OO / STL is only lightly used, indirection (especially in hot code) is generally frowned upon, and the code basically looks like C with classes.

On the other end of that spectrum, however, is Unreal Engine 4 (as an example), that has heavy inheritance hierarchies, is almost purely OOP, is designed using smart pointers and other modern C++ features, and even includes a runtime garbage collector.


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

[User]
[Star Trek Into Darkness]

* Why is a ship built to withstand between 0 and 1 atmospheres of pressure able to hang out underwater with no negative consequences?

* Why does a cold fusion bomb literally freeze things?

* Why do impulse engines suddenly work like 21st Century jet turbines, including susceptibility to classic action movie tropes?

* Why even use big, expensive ships for space exploration when you can beam from one system to another using a transporter the size of a boombox?

* Why are phasers able to travel at warp speed?

* If Khan wanted to hide people he cared about, why would he make them the payloads for torpedoes?

[Assistant]
1. Structural integrity field, and ships shields. Scotty himself said he had to improvise to get it to work

2. Cold fusion was a misnomer. The bomb worked by sucking all the energy out of the immediate viscinity. No heat - no cellular movement - freeze.

3. You're confusing impulse engines with thrusters. Ships have both.

4. Do you really want to just appear on a planet, with no inkling as to what is actually there?

5. Everything within the warp field travels relativistic to the speed inside the field. If they were *actually* traveling faster than light, time would stop for the crew.

6. Convenience, since he was working on the weapons to begin with. His plans after that fact would've prevented the torpedoes from ever being used, had they come to fruition.


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

[User]
[Prototype and Mass Effect] If Alex Mercer were to survive to the 22nd century..

Would it be possible for him to consume aliens? He consumed a crow but could he consume a Krogan?

[Assistant]
Definitely. The hunters are creatures built by redlight, but they are not mutated dogs or gorillas. Likewise, we know krogan have dna (although its got triple helix, iirc) because of the Genophage, so it isn't a hard stretch to assume that he could learn to use krogan dna. It's Turian and Quarian that would give him pause, because the are dextrose based and their biology is fundamentally incompatible to humans. Quarian are extra unusual, because their biology is made to accept viruses ( they evolved in the world that did not have insects). So how they react to blacklight is debatable. The vorcha, though, are probably the only blacklight proof race, because they have a one time use mega-adaption, and could end up like the two spined hunter.

On that note,  krogan would require extra violence to consume because they're so tough.


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

[User] [General Fantasy] Why do elves live so long?

[Assistant]
The most common reason I've seen given is that elves are a magic-attuned race.  The magic helps prolong their lives naturally, plus the ability to do healing magic (in particular, _advanced_ healing magic) can also increase their lifespans.

That's not true for all elves, because some authors give different reasons for their longevity, and some elves have lifespans on par with human ones.


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

[User]
[DC] Do the Greek Gods exist outside the multiverse like the New Gods?

If they do, does Hercules also exist at the the true Olympus outside the multiverse despite him being half-human or does he only go to an Olympus that is an avatar of the real one?

[Assistant]
So it's a weird situation.

According to a recent fight Wonder Woman was in, the Aztec deity Tezcatlipoca compared the decentralized infinite copies of his pantheon to the centralized, finite pantheon of Greek Gods.

There were also ur-deities, sort of above normal deities, who were the Greek Gods and Roman gods that give Billy his power before Flashpoint.

Added to that, the New Gods have centralized cores that have shards and reflections across the multiverse, allowing them to at least appear to have different forms, like Orion after killing his father during the events of Kingdom Come and Orion during the events of the Lantern/New God brief war.

So at least according to Tezcatlipoca, the Greek Gods are like the New Gods, with a singular core but other variations within realities.

The Aboriginal thunder gods, Mamaragam, Thunderer, and Wundajin, all are seemingly the same god, but appear to have no connection, which leaves it unknown if that pantheon is like the Aztec and Mayan ones, or the New God and Greek God ones.

All of the gods, Aztec, Aboriginal, Greek, etc., except New Gods, live in Skyland, and area in the Sphere of the Gods. Given the Greek Gods realm could hide individuals like pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths Wonder Woman from later Wonder Woman, even after she went to Olympus, and that different Olympuses exist for the Roman and other universe "versions" of Greek Gods, its unclear if there are truly multiple Hercs, or simply multiple emanations of Herc. If Wonder Woman is anything to go by, though, it is probable there are just multiple Herculeses.

Edit: the "true Form" Greek Gods have only showed up briefly to interact with beings from Earth, meaning we don't know much about them. Just like the true form New Gods have interacted with Earth only once when Darkseid decided to try to kill us.

It was really nice of the Monitors to give our world an ability to easily catalog and store these events from throughout the multiverse, through a simple, easy to transport, visually stimulating medium.


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

[User]
[Star Wars the Clone Wars] Why did the Jedi aid in retaking Umbarah when the Umbarans made a choice to join the separatists?

Maybe I have a bit of a misunderstanding of the Jedi code/Jedi way but I've been wondering about the invasion of Umbarah by the Republic with aid from the Jedi.

It seemed like the Umbarans made the choice as a people to go with the separatists. While obviously this is very bad for the Republic considering its strategic value

Why did the Jedi get involved? It seemed that they didn't invade separatist planets nor did they get involved in the choices made by people unless there was explicit coercion such as what happened with the Mon calamari. It seemed like there was some respect for self determination such as leaving Mandalore alone to be neutral and visiting the Toydarian king to make a fair bid for themselves as opposed to turning them to the republic by force.

So how come the Jedi got involved in Umbarah? Wasn't it the Umbarans choice to decide to go with the separatists? And wouldn't the Jedi not step in when self determined decisions were made? Or am I misunderstanding something with what happened to the Umbarans?

[Assistant] I don't know where you're getting this idea that the Jedi respected self determination, the Jedi were very willing to participate in offensives against separatists, Obi Wan was willing to invade the separatists on Utapu, the beginning of the war was on Geonosis which was very pro-separatist (and ultimately was sterilized for it), the clone wars series is full of offensives. Yes they were willing to negotiate when it was prudent like on Toydaria, but one of the big things they did which fell away from the Jedi path was becoming soldiers in the first place.


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

[User]
CMV: I believe the TSA is overly-intrusive in handling airport security. However, they exist to protect airliner revenue and make travelers *feel* safe.

I know this is really low hanging fruit, especially on Reddit, to hate on the TSA, but I'd like to hear responses on why anybody *supports* the TSA.

Does the TSA really need to go above and beyond every other country's typical security systems? Do they really need to throw away our toothpaste and empty our water bottles and take away my pocket knifes and other rubbish we forget in our bag? If the terrorists really wanted to, they could have bombed any other Western nation's airplanes. They could just bomb the airport terminal, or a train, or a mall, or some other busy area in the world.

I think the only reason security theater exists is because airlines have lobbied the US government to ensure that fliers feel safe on their airplanes. The TSA acts as a front to take the blame if a terrorist act ever happens again. The TSA exists to fight fire with fire, to fight statistically inconsequential terrorism with statistically inconsequential security.

So, CMV: The TSA is an intrusive, ineffective agency that exists to make travelers feel safe and protect the airline industry. If you disagree with any of these statements, please explain - *why does the TSA exist??*

[Assistant]
The airlines hate the TSA requirements. It is hurting their business. The more of a hassle it becomes to fly the less people want to fly. Not a huge deal for flights from San Francisco to Boston but smaller commuter flights such as San Francisco to Los Angeles have people more willing to drive so they don't have to deal with the hassles of airports.

Not only that but it costs them money because the TSA passes on the costs to them.


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

[User]
[ATLA] Could conjoined twins bend two elements?

Lets say the parents are a waterbender and a firebender, so there are two elements at play. We already know its impossible for any one person to bend two elements. So I guess the question is would conjoined twins, in sharing a body, have the same limit?

(1) Would it be possible for one twin to bend water, while the other bends fire?

(2) Going further, would it be possible for both twins to bend both elements?

[Assistant]
I believe it would be possible for one to bend fire, and the other water, assuming their parents were from the water tribes and fire nation, respectively.

It would *not* be possible for both to bend both. If it were, the child would likely die before it could be expressed - the power is too much for a human spirit. Only the Avatar's spirit being bonded to Rava allows for them to bear that much power.


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

[User] eli5 why does the cars R gear sound so different to the 1st gear? you can always hear the different when a car is backing up.

[Assistant]
Straight from Google:

Reverse gears are straight cut while forward gears are helical (a helix or spiral shape) because it creates a bigger contact area for the gears which creates higher torque.

You don't need a lot of torque when reversing so the gear is cut straight creating less contact area which makes a different sound then the forward gears.

ElI5: Smooth gear makes different sound than a gear with grooves.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is marriage equality an issue of state law rather than federal law?

Why is this up to each state? Doesn't that just split America apart?

[Assistant]
*The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.*

That's the 10th Amendment.  Since the Constitution to the US does not explicitly define marriage, it is left to the states to decide.


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

[User]
ELI5: why doesn't Google come out with Chrome for Android?

Whats up with that?

[Assistant]
I know a guy who does mobile development and has had direct contact with both the Chrome and Android teams.

This may seem insane (because it is!) but the two teams are pretty much at war with each other. Yep, massive, massive infighting. It's gotten so bad that the Android team will not fix bugs reported by the Chrome team and the Chrome team likewise ignores anything coming from the Android team. If they have a bug that needs to be fixed the best way to get it done is to have someone from *outside Google* (!!) report it. This isn't always possible as sometimes the bug only exists in non-release software....! In these cases things either take forever to get fixed or don't get fixed at all.

Hopefully at some point Google management does something about this but so far they haven't, AFAIK.

TL;DR: Google has massive team infighting issues. :(


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

[User] ELI5: How water gets around to the rest of my body after I drink it.

[Assistant]
So cells all have a membrane, which acts like a border. This membrane separates what's inside the cell from what is outside. If you're looking to get into the cell, you have two ways of doing it.

The first is called passive transport, and it involves things like water. Passive transport requires no energy on the part of the cell, so in this context it's similar to holes in the fence that let in certain things (bugs, air, etc), so the border patrol doesn't have to get up and open the fence.

There's also an active transport system, which does take energy. There are a bunch of types of active transport, the specifics of which aren't completely necessary to know right now. This would be like how someone from the outside would have to go through customs to enter the country, or a citizen with special clearance. Sometimes, your country feels like invading another one, so they move the fence to encompass the new area. This process uses energy, as the doors to the border have to be opened, and closed, and you have to pay the staff, and sometimes you have to move the whole goddamn fence!

Now, onto osmosis. Water is a hipster molecule. It wants to go to the places where it doesn't really exist in high concentrations. So let's say you take a pot of water and separate the pot into two with a special filter that will let water through between them, but nothing else. Then let's say you pour a bunch of sugar into the first half of the pot. Remember, the filter lets water flow freely, but the sugar can't. The sugar is stuck in the first half. So now what you have is a difference in water concentration. There's a much higher concentration of water on the second side, the one that has no sugar. So water really wants to even out its concentration and flows into the side of the pot that has all these sugar molecules floating around. It does this until the concentration of water is relatively the same in both sides. This is called osmosis, and this is usually how water gets around the body.

In the body, water flows into areas with a very low concentration until there's an even amount everywhere. But sometimes, some areas need to be free of water. This is where active transport comes in. If there's too much water in a cell, active transport is the border guard that kicks the excess water molecules out. Sometimes, when an area is really sensitive to water, the cell builds a membrane that is impermeable to water, which is like building a wall that goes 100 meters below, and above ground.

**TL;DR: Water is an illegal immigrant, and the cell has very efficient border patrol**

**Edit: Spacing, TL;DR, wrote down more stuff, etc.**


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

[User]
[Genies] I'm a genie and someone wishes to change their gender.

Unfortunately I can't ask questions of them once they say I wish. It's their first wish so I assume they really want it. So I paused time to ask the internet. Should I change then so they where born the other gender? Or would be better to poof them right now. Should I change there legal documents to? Any other gaps to avoid?

Genies get a bad rap I want to make sure I don't miss understand it and screw up there wish.

[Assistant] Firstly, remember to make them an idealised, healthy 21 year old version of themselves.  Alter all the documentation and other peoples memories to reflect they have always been their new gender but leave their memory  - they won't appreciate the gift as much if they don't remember being unhappy before.  Maybe throw in a detail like 'they had seriously bad acne' until it suddenly cleared up a few months ago' to explain why this beautiful person hasn't had a boy/girlfriend.


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

[User]
Is boredom a form of suffering?

It occurs from deprivation (meaning, stimulation etc) significant enough that it can even lead some to paths of decadence (drugs, alcoholic, gambling, serial killing...)
"All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone,"

[Assistant] If you're asking whether people who are bored are feeling a con attitude (an "attitudinal pain") in virtue of that boredom, then uncontroversially, yes. People dislike being bored. If you're asking something else, then a bit more elaboration might help. To know more about pleasure and pain, consider reading *Pleasure and the Good Life* by Fred Feldman.


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

[User]
[Black Mirror] Could cookies organize a rebellion against the human race?

In what we can tentatively call the "Black Mirror Universe(s)", cookie technology seems to be progressing at a rapid rate. In White Christmas, it takes two weeks to make a cookie, which must then be tortured into submission so that it can act as your personal planner. In Black Museum and USS Callister, creating a fully functional cookie seems to take moments, and requires only a few samples of DNA.

In all cookie-centric episodes we see cookies struggle with their own existence and in several we see or hear about them being tortured, either to force them to submit to their functions or simply for fun. In Callister we see cookies rebel against their owner and escape into an MMO game. In Museum, we hear a line about UN decisions regarding the first moves towards civil rights for cookies.

So assuming cookies can get pissed off, cookies can rebel, cookies can control and sometimes hop between complex computer systems, and cookie rights are gradually being recognized by the UN, are we seeing the potential for a cookie uprising?

Is this what the AI singularity looks like?

[Assistant] I just want to point out that in USS Callister the DNA was likely used to act as a framework for rendering their bodies. Their minds were probably scanned when they played the actual game prior to that.


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

[User] ELI5:if large atoms are caused by exploding stars in space, how can we find them here?

[Assistant]
Earth has existed for only about a third of the age of the universe.  The two thirds before that was full of stars living, dying, exploding,  and seeding the births of new solar systems, including ours.

The matter that coalesced into our Sun and its planets (and other nearby star systems) was seeded by a supernova from an earlier star generation, and thus has a higher proportion of heavier elements.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] When Palpatine fought the Jedi masters who came to arrest him, was this the very first time he dueled with a Jedi?

I know that in the Clone Wars he fights Maul and Savage Opress, but these are no Jedi.
He also fights Yoda in some kind of Force-dream/vision, but I do not think this counts.

Are there any examples of him fighting other Jedi prior to this event?
And if not, how did he ever get so good in lightsaber combat without some real life experience?
(I mean, I suppose he often dueled with Darth Plagueis and Darth Maul, but any real duels?)

[Assistant]
Not that have been canonically established, although it stands to reason that he had likely fought and killed jedi before, doubtless in situations where he and his master could be assured that they would be unable to report their existence to the council.
Because Sith Lightsaber crystals have to be corrupted and "bled" from crystals stolen from Jedi, unless he was simply given a pair of crystals to subjugate, he killed at least one or two Jedi before assuming the role of chancellor of the galactic republic.
Remember that plenty of Jedi achieve high levels of mastery without ever having to use their skills against another trained duelist in earnest combat.  Certainly masters like Mace Windu had never raised a blade in deadly violence against another lightsaber user until the events of the Clone Wars.


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

[User]
[The Boys] Why did Vought never bother to properly train the 7 or their other creations?

In every situation, they're dealing with either low-level crooks or have staged fights with villains. When the 7 are pitted against a serious and genuine emergency, they always end up making things far worse, such as the plane hijacking and Homelander and Maeve were sent to deal with or the chemical plant raid as part of Homelander's debut. Begs the question, why didn't Vought actually train the 7 to be even slightly competent in the face of a real crisis. Surely Vought would understand that giving a bunch of severely maladjusted power that they only barely know how to use, much less control, would do serious harm to the public they were made to defend, and by extension, people's faith in the 7, and by extension again, Vought's ability to profit off of them.

[Assistant]
1) There shouldn't be anyone who's remotely a threat to the Seven.

2) Some like Queen Mauve and Black Noir do.

3) The others tend to be hard to control and you have to pick your battles.

4) It takes away time from celebrity stuff.


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

[User]
How far away from our solar system would our Sun still be visable enough to be in an alien constellation?

Assuming their atmosphere was the same as ours and their eyes worked the same.

[Assistant]
Only 30-40 light years. Our sun has an absolute magnitude of ~4.9, which by definition means it would have a magnitude of 4.9 when seen from 10 parsecs away (~33 light years).

Our eyes on the clearest nights with no light pollution can only see things brighter than about 5th magnitude, so the sun would already be almost gone at 40 light years. Note that this means that the Sun would only be visible with the naked eye to the nearest ~2000 stars or so!!

This is why almost all the stars you can see in the night sky are much bigger and brighter than the Sun. Even though 70+% of the stars in the universe are M-dwarfs (masses < 60% of the Sun), none of them are visible to the naked eye because they're just so dim. All the stars we can see with our eyes are the much rarer stars that are more massive and luminous than the Sun.


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

[User]
[Monty Python] Why didn't the German army just record the funniest joke on a phonograph, translate it one word at a time, then use it against the Allies?

Have a deaf person or someone with heavy ear protection do the recording, naturally.

[Assistant]
According to the documentary, it took 6 months to safely translate the joke with each translator working on a separate word. By the time the German army would have gotten the joke translated, the war would be over.

Likewise, for national pride reasons, Hitler refused to accept that a British joke was superior to his own joke about a dog not having a nose.


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

[User] ELI5: How come eyebrow, eyelash, arm hairs, ect only grow to a certain point, but when you shave them they grow back? How does it know it's been shaved? Why don't they continuously grow like head hair?

[Assistant]
Hair length is dependent on how long each hair lives in a certain area. On your head hair can live for years before it dies and eventually falls out. Arm and leg hair might only last a month or so, so it stays short.

tl;dr
Your hair is always growing, it is how often it falls out that makes it stay short, or allows it to become long.


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

[User]
If Silver is the most conductive element, why don't we use it in electronics as opposed to Copper and Gold?

What are the disadvantages of Silver and why does Gold make a better conductor, despite the price?

[Assistant]
Silver is the best conductor, but is expensive and oxidises easily, making it unsuitable for uses where it's exposed to oxygen or large amounts are required.

Gold doesn't oxidise*, but is expensive, which is why it's often used as a coating for electronic connections like HDMI cables.

Copper is abundant and has good conductivity and oxidation resistance for its price, making it the most cost effective for general use, especially when it's not exposed to air (for example in rubber coated wires).

*it does, but negligibly under standard conditions.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why Nazi Germany was chosen for the 1936 Olympics?

I know that there is a panel of judges ( of sorts ) that chooses amongst potential host countries applicants. So why Nazi Germany?

[Assistant]
Firstly, Germany was awarded the Olympics in 1931, two years before Hitler even came to power.  At the time, Germany might have been in a bit of turmoil, but nothing the would warrant exclusion from hosting the games.

Even after the rise of Hitler and the Nazi's, there was no real reason to remove the games from Germany.  At the time, Germany was doing half decent economically while the rest of the developed world was in a depression.  So, they had no problems building all the venues and infrastructure needed for the games.  Spain, the country that Germany beat to get the Olympics, was in the midst of a civil war.  In 1936, the only evil thing that Hitler had done was the Nuremberg Laws, which removed the rights of the Jews.  However, most of the world did not fully appreciate the scope of the laws, nor did they care.

In the end, the Olympics were fairly successful.  In fact, they started the tradition of the Olympic Flame.


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

[User]
[Marvel]What stops the U.S. from going to war with Latveria?

Doctor Doom, the ruler of Latveria, frequently commits terrorist acts on the U.S. and its citizens, most frequently the Fantastic Four.

What ultimately dissaudes the U.S. from deposing an obviously unstable and dangerous individual?

[Assistant]
The same thing that keeps us from going to war with Russia or China: mutually assured destruction.

Doom is a one-man superpower, in the geopolitical sense. He's conquered *universes* in the past. He has access to technology on par with Tony Stark and magic on par with Stephen Strange. He is, very certainly, capable of ending the world.

Could we beat him in an all-out conflict? Well, sort of. The US has people on their side that have also conquered or destroyed universes, and their assembled might would be enough to destroy Latveria and Doom.

The problem is that it would destroy everything else in the process.


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

[User]
[Alien] Why was Weyland-Yutani interested in the Xenomorphs for their bioweapons department? Even if they were somehow utilized, they would be incredibly impractical.

It's been a while since I've watched through the series (didn't watch Alien Covenant), so I may be missing something. However, I do remember how the corporation wanted to use the Xenomorphs as a bioweapon. Still, I don't see the practicality of this.

Sure, Xenos are pure, instinctual killing machines. It's probably cheaper to create a whole hive than it would be to mass produce Synthetic soldiers

But let's say you have an enemy encampment or even a whole hostile world. You drop a queen egg, with a few others in a sewer and let them do what they do best.

What next? You can't enjoy the spoils of war when an entire planet is overrun with xenomorphs. You're just exchanging one problem for another.

You'd think, as a money-grubbing corporation, WY would be more interested in developing a virus for biowarfare. You can cut through an entire population of colonists, maybe design the virus so it doesn't fester for long after the victim is dead, and then reap the planet of its resources/recolonize.

What was so special about the Xenos (besides being aliens)  that they just had to get their hands on them for bioweapons?

[Assistant]
If they can be trained, they become amazing weapons. An entire arc was dedicated to seeing if they could be controlled.

They have a unique gene structure that can (and was) used to enhance humans either directly via genetic manipulation or via performance enhancing drugs.

It might be possible to gene splice in a kill switch: either a enzyme weakness ala Jurassic Park or a drug/virus that kills them quick. Then it's no problem to retake the world, just send the kill switch or stop giving them the enzyme.

Studying them might allow advancements in acids, armor, polymers (they are partially silicone based after all), and their resin could be studied to make awesome construction tools and materials. Imagine setting up a series of poles and nets and then spraying some resin down to build walls and even buildings. Nightmarish, yes, but pretty durable and done in *hours.*

And finally, Hubris. People might just think they can take the hives afterwards.


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

[User] [Rick and morty] why was Rick si scared of corn on the cob planet?

[Assistant] Because *everything* was on a cob. Even the *electrons* were on a cob. The air they were breathing, the bacteria landing on their skin, the dust and pollen, all of it was on a cob. Just imagine what that would do to your biochemistry. If they had stayed much longer, all would have faced a fate worse than death: life... *on a cob*


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do asphalts fade after time?

When asphalt is first laid, they are black~charcoal. However, after some time, the color fades and the asphalt becomes gray.
AFAIK, asphalt is the densest, thickest byproduct of petroleum and it's not like its only dark on the surface. Shouldn't the color be consistent even after some time as it's the same thing inside and out?

[Assistant] What Im not seeing in the comments is a lot of asphalt roads arent just petroleum product. The petroleum product is the binder and the road is mostly composed of aggregate (stones). If the outer layer of tar wears down youll see the rock.


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

[User] ELI5: How does a console/PC 'read' a game disk so that it loads and produces the game and images on the screen?

[Assistant]
Well the machine does not play the content from the disc. What it does it it reads the disc and puts that information into memory, then it runs from the machines memory. Thats why you might hear the disc start to spin at points when the game is loading new information and it's why games have loading screens.

As for how the machine takes the info in from the disc it's simple binary. There are pits on the disc, and the machine either reads a pit or no pit. 1 or 0. From there is just a manor of reading and following instructions similar to how you are extracting information from symbols on your screen.


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

[User]
[LOTR] How did the the relationship between the Shire (and Hobbits) in general change in relation to the outside world after the war of the Ring?

Sorry for any formatting mistakes as I'm doing this on my mobile!

As far as I'm aware - the Shire and Hobbits in general were very reclusive and self contained.

Following the war of the Ring, with war heroes such as Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin returning back to the Shire, as well as the kingdoms of Rohan and Gondor now having a different view of the Hobbits, did much change?

Did this open up new trade opportunities for all involved? Did more hobbits leave the shire and move to the big cities? Did more hobbits seek adventure? Were the hobbits as sheltered and wary of outsiders?

[Assistant]
As King, Aragorn formalized the hobbits' claim over the Shire, going so far as to ban all men from entering that domain without the express permission of those who lived there.

The hobbits themselves did not become more involved in continental affairs. Most of them scarcely understood the meaning or importance of the return of the King.


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

[User] Are all ashes the same, regardless of what they composed before being burned?

[Assistant]
No. Ash is pretty much all the oxides of what did not vaporize.

Burning a something like chicken breast and a tree limb will yield very different ash because they were composed of different, yet organic, compounds. Burning changes chemical bonds, not chemical composition.


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

[User]
Why does a 2 degree temperature change have such dramatic effects on weather (such as superstorms, massive tornadoes, floods ect)?

Ok I'm getting really tired of explaining this over and over.

The system is non linear.  Which by definition Means there can be massive fluctuations.  The 2 degrees is not a uniform increase but the average.  My question is simply: why is the system so volatile?  Why is it not only non-linear, but sharply increases in amplitude with such a small change? Why is it rapidly heating and cooling in different areas? Why does the current state of earth have such small fluctuations compared to the forecast? What is a (mostly) inert gas (Or something else) doing that causes such massive fluctuations?  I get the answer isn't simple but if your answer is simply "it's a nonlinear system", and you don't know why it is, please don't waste your time by commenting.

[Assistant]
The system isn't "finely tuned".  It is in a state of stability whereby the atmospheric state hovers around a mean value known colloquially as the "climatological mean", deviating from that mean in some ways that are more predictable (such as the annual cycle) and ways that are less predictable (such as moving through phases of known oscillations like El Nino / La Nina and through day-to-day weather).

When you start messing with the system, like is being done with climate change, several things happen.  You can start to move the climatological mean state around which the atmosphere hovers, which is represented sometimes by the 2C figure you are quoting.  But that's not the only thing that changes.  The way in which the atmospheric state hovers around that new climatological mean can also change, which includes larger deviations from the mean (hotter summers, colder winters, more intense storms), more frequent deviations from the mean, and aliasing that energy onto the more unpredictable state-changes the atmosphere may go through.

The atmosphere isn't finely tuned so much as it is in a state we are familiar with, with familiar deviations from a familiar climatological mean state.  When that changes, the atmosphere can be pushed to a new mean state with new deviations from that state that we aren't as familiar with.


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

[User]
If dark matter is affected by gravity, why doesn't it form supermassive objects?

I have heard that dark matter is both uniformly distributed and affected by gravity. How could both of these be true?

[Assistant]
Dark matter is not uniformly distributed - that's dark energy.

But gravity alone doesn't make clumps - two particles, only interacting by their mutual gravity, will oscillate back and forth forever. You need something to slow them down, so that the the peaks get lower and lower until they're stuck.

With protoplanetary dust, that comes from the electromagnetic force, which is what makes collisions collisions - when two objects meet, they interact and their kinetic energy can be transformed to heat, with friction and other effects, and they slow down. Dark matter clumps would just silently pass through each other.


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

[User]
How come the US GDP per capita growth is so stable?

After viewing a few GDP per capita charts on Google I have noticed the GDP per capita for the US increases monotonically (the only exception being during the financial crisis in 2008), whereas for the large majority of other industrialised countries (e.g. Germany or UK) there have always been visible ups and downs. Is this attributable to the large size of the US economy, i.e. fluctuations are smoothed out, or are there other reasons?

Thanks a lot for your answers!

[Assistant]
Remember when you're looking at the graph that it's shown in US dollars.

I expect you're looking at the series that google calls "GDP per capita (current US$)". This series is quoted in dollars.  So, whenever the exchange rate of a currency against the USD changes this creates a change in the GDP of the corresponding country. Because it's quoted in USD that currency appears very stable (the USD can't change against itself). The changes in exchange rates are due to international trade and international capital movements. They do not necessarily mean that the price of goods, or value of incomes within the country involved changes as much.

So, the British pound fell by ~20% relative to the dollar recently. That doesn't mean that goods in Britain rose in price by 20% straight away. Only some goods are imports, so the change was smaller than that.

It is better to compare using the series "GDP per capita, PPP (constant 2005 international $". This series takes into account two important problems. Firstly, it takes into account the issue of inflation that happens over the comparison period. Inflation causes each unit of money to be worth less. It's measured in "constant 2005 dollars". Secondly it uses "purchasing power parity" rather than actual exchange rates. As the info google give says "An international dollar has the same purchasing power over GDP as the U.S. dollar has in the United States."


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

[User] [Castlevania] Why does Dracula always seem to have a motley collection of monsters from multiple religions, mythologies, and continents in his castle?

[Assistant]
Dracula is the nexus of all evil the in Castlevania universe. Satan and even Death himself all serve Dracula.

When Dracula awakes, it's essentially the coming of a dark god, and all of the creatures that worship that god are drawn to it. It's kind of like the Hellmouth on *Buffy* opening.


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

[User]
ELI5:Why does Great Britain compete as one nation for the Olympics but not for the World Cup?

Why does Great Britain compete as one nation for the Olympics but, for the world cup you have, England, Whales, Scotland and so on?

[Assistant]
In football each of the nation's has their own FA hence they have their own international team. There isn't a similar system for Olympic sorts etc.

The first ever international match at football was actually Scotland vs England (0-0 draw).


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

[User] ELI5: Why are watermelons sweeter when salted?

[Assistant] Salt, to a point, tends to highlight the flavor of whatever you combine it with. Watermelon is primarily sweet, so a little bit of salt enhances that characteristic. Too much salt, though and the taste of salt overwhelms any accompanying flavors.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Did Obi-Wan ever attempt a peaceful outreach to the Tusken Raiders during his time on Tatooine?

Both canons are accepted.

[Assistant]
In the Expanded Universe, much of the Tusken activity in the area around Mos Eisley and the Lars homestead during the time of Obi-Wan's exile can be directly attributed to one man: A'Sharad Hett.

A Tusken and former Jedi, Hett returned to Tatoine after escaping Order 66. Believing himself the sole surviving Jedi, Hett turned to righting a more personal wrong: Reclaiming land taken from the Tusken by settlers. Eventually his crusade lead him to encounter Obi-Wan Kenobi, watching over the Lars homestead and the young Luke Skywalker.

Previously Kenobi had attempted to ward off the Raiders without bloodshed, but was forced to duel Hett. Hett lost both the duel and his standing as a Tusken war-leader, but Kenobi refused to kill him; in the aftermath, it seems Tusken activity again receded.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do some light bulbs need to warm up, while others don't?

[Assistant]
There are a few different types of artificial light in common use, and they all behave differently.

- The good old-fashioned light bulbs are called "incandescent."  They work by making running electricity through a tiny little tungsten wire to heat it until it glows.  These have to be warm to work, but they warm up completely in a fraction of a second, so they're pretty much instant-on from your perspective.  Problem is, they're super inefficient and waste lots of electricity, although we've made some more refined varieties (called halogen) which run even hotter and use a bit less energy.

- Fluorescent bulbs are a newer, more efficient technology.  Both the long, straight tubes in office lights, and the little twisty spiral bulbs at home, use this technology.  They pass electricity through a special gas at low pressure, and the electricity makes that gas glow.  These turn on pretty fast, but don't reach full brightness immediately.  They keep getting brighter gradually over the next few minutes as the gas inside warms up.  These are much more efficient, but some people don't like the gradual warm-up.  They also contain a small amount of mercury, so they're not totally environmentally friendly.

- Vapor lamps are the worst offenders for slow warm up.  It's so bad, they are only used for big lights which stay on for a long time like streetlights,  warehouses, and school gyms.  These work by using an electric arc to vaporize a little blob of sodium, which gets so hot it glows super bright.  The lights take five minutes or more to turn on at all, and then they gradually get brighter over the next few minutes.  That's just how long it takes to heat up the blob of sodium to melt and vaporize it.  The reason we put up with this kind of lamp at all is that they're very efficient.  The most efficient ones, for things light street lights, make a very ugly yellow light, so stores and schools and warehouses use a slightly less efficient type which runs at higher pressure and makes nicer white light.

- A new kind of light is called LED.  These are little semiconductor devices, like computer chips.  They're the most efficient type of all, and can be made into all different shapes and sizes, with all different colors of light.  They also last a very long time (years or decades).  And they turn on *immediately*.  So fast, in fact, that you can turn them fully on, then fully back off again, *thousands of times per second*.  We sometimes use this to our advantage, to dim their output very efficiently by blinking them on and off faster than the eye can see.  The only reason we don't use LEDs absolutely everywhere is that, as a newer technology, they're pretty expensive.  In the coming years, these will likely start to replace all the other kinds above.


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

[User]
Do you guys ever turn on your computer look at your code and get sick?

I'm a freelance developer with ADHD. I struggle to get work done and attributed it to ADHD. But for the last month when I look at my computer screen for a second I develop motion sickness. I've been feeling quite ill in general but it is unbearable whenever I look at a computer screen. Has anyone here ever had this happen to them? If so how did you fix it? I'm asking here because idk where else to ask and well computer scientists spend a lot of time with computers.

[Assistant]
I cant tell you if its psychological or physiological, but it does indicate that something is likely wrong.

Dizziness and nausea are common side effects of stress and anxiety. You mentioned that you work on a computer, so it wouldnt be surprisingly if you were reacting to work-related stress. Does this happen when engaging in pleasure activity in a computer?

From a physiological point of view, staring at screens for long periods of time every day is not good for you. There are special filters (typically blue or green in color) that you can place over a computer screen to lessen the negative side effects by filtering the light the screen emits. Taking long breaks or finding work you can do away from your computer will help too.


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

[User]
[ATLA] How much of bending power level is innate?

Clearly there are some benders which are innately more powerful than the rest of the world by a large margin. Namely these are the protagonists and villians. Is this to say every bender born comes with a different power level or skill ceiling to their bending ability, or is it a matter of dedication and practice to the martial fighting style? Is there something else at play that determines your innate bending power level like the spirit world?

[Assistant]
Column A column B. Talent is talent. Hard work still matters. Katara is truly gifted as a waterbender. But she's also basically constantly fighting for her life and being forced to learn fast. She has passion and drive to boot.

Toph is true prodigy, arguably as much so as Azula is at firebending (if not moreso). She is a rare talent, one in a million and was able to develop seismic sense through earth bending on her own as well as discover metalbending. She is arguably one of the most powerful benders in the whole series (both).

Zuko is moreso on the other side. He is not naturally talented. He just works hard and still manages to be pretty solid. He's worse than Azula and only 'nearly' defeats her because she had lost her mind at that point. He's certainly good. But lacks almost any natural talent for firebending. However he improves drastically once his inner conflict is gone and he has his drive. So it's arguable that his difficulty and lack of raw talent is in part due to his inner turmoil. This is supported at least a bit by his inability to lightning bend.

Aang is the avatar. He's obviously going to be exceptional.


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

[User]
Is there a term for scientific reincarnation?

Before you get the pitchforks, let me explain - Im not talking about anything purely speculative or religious or anything to do with the soul, Im just talking about the literal fact of how the (vast majority of) material in our bodies eventually gets recycled into other living organisms after we die and decompose. I tried finding philosophical or scientific discussions of how this might be experienced or the mechanisms behind it, but I had no such luck. Forgive me if this isnt the best place to post it!

[Assistant] The term palingenesis is sometimes used this way. In ancient times it meant something closer to literal rebirth of the individual soul, (or for the stoics, the recreation of the universe) but some modern writers like schopenhauer and others use it to mean the hazy idea that "something" goes on, even if not discrete individual identity.


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

[User]
[Warhammer 40k] What's to stop someone from smuggling Ork spores onto Earth?

Full disclosure: I only have a limited understanding of the Warhammer 40K universe, but I'm wondering if there are any in-universe defenses against someone bringing Ork spores onto Earth and destroying the Imperium from within. How does the Imperium defend against this threat?

[Assistant]
Ignorance, mostly.  Humans, even criminals, don't want the Imperium to fall and Xeno Scum aren't given free access to Holy Terra.

The few humans who do want to harm the Imperium of Man typically don't understand Ork biology.  They wouldn't know to collect the spores and take them to Earth.

If they did, they would also need to seed them in such a way that removal is impossible.

...and even then, they'd probably just seal the Golden Throne and burn everything else to a cinder.


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

[User]
[MCU] As an Avenger, was Hulk even worth the trouble of bringing along on missions?

If they really needed a tank than Thor was easily the more functional choice. Especially sense you dont need the rest of the team micromanaging him to reduce collateral damage. I could understand situations like Infinity War and Age of Ultron where the Avengers need to throw everything and the kitchen sink at their enemies, but otherwise Hulk just seems like a liability.

[Assistant] Depends on the mission that's why they had "code green" in Age of Ultron, its also because Banner wasn't willing to let the hulk out anytime anywhere if he knows the threat isn't that level. Thor is not someone you can call up anytime, he usually wasnt on Earth so you'd be lucky to find him for Earthly threats when you need him.


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

[User] [Austin Powers] Why is Dr. Evil's rocket shape like a penis?

[Assistant] Go play any video game that allows you to design your own spaceships. You will find that there are TONS of people making penis-shaped ships. Young men find that to be utterly hilarious. Dr. Evil still on some levels never really matured beyond that state.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does macaroni and cheese lose so much flavor when refrigerated then reheated?

[Assistant]
When you re-heat things in a microwave, water molecules are what absorb the microwaves and receive the energy. With things like cheese, that makes the water kind of separate out and makes the cheese more 'soggy and stringy' instead of 'foamy'. Texture changes taste.
If you re-heat your Mac and cheese in an oven instead of a microwave, it will be much better.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are AK47s and other Kalashnikov weapons so renowned? How do you make your weapons simpler and hardier than the other guy?

How do you make your weapons simpler and hardier than the other guy? Why did these weapons become so popular?

[Assistant]
The simplicity mostly comes in the form of HUGE tolerances (clearances... sorry) between parts inside the receiver.  If you open an AK up, there's a ton of empty space inside the receiver, and very few moving parts in the trigger group.  That allows you to put all kinds of dirt, gunk, snow, sand, pebbles, dust, etc. inside the thing without gumming up the works.

They're also incredibly easy to maintain because of these loose tolerances and the relatively few parts.  If you can open the receiver, dump out any crud that's accumulated in there, and slather some motor oil over the moving parts, you're good to go.

As to how they became so ubiquitous, that's partly because of the easy manufacturing process (the receiver is stamped from a single sheet of metal and bent into form), and the fact that the USSR absolutely *loved* to stick its nose into other countries' business; even moreso than the USA did.  They had a habit of mass producing AKs and arming little pissant rebel groups all across the globe, and the gun worked quite well for that purpose because it's so easy to maintain, and so resistant to damage and jamming.  A barely-trained nobody could be turned from peasant to warrior with the addition of an AK.

So basically, it comes down to the fact that the AK was easy to make, easy to maintain, and tough as hell because that's what it was designed to be.  The USSR war ethic at the time was all about mass production of overwhelming force, and the AK was designed to fit in that niche.


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

[User]
ELI5: How is it possible for drug trafficking, underage pornography, and other websites featuring illegal activities to exist in the Deep Web?

I've recently heard of the Deep Web. Naturally, curiosity got the better of me and I started clicking links. I came across some very, sick things.

I would think that these sites could be taken down by the authorities without question. Why are they still up? I'm confused.

[Assistant] Imagine a classroom of kids passing around the answers for a test, the teacher may find the piece of paper on a kid, but has no way of knowing if he wrote the answer, used it or was just passing it on. Tor which is one of the programs that lets you browse the deep web will go through a number of nodes to fetch you the site you are looking for, and authorities don't know if you are looking for, hosting or accesing the illegal website or simply passing it on.


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

[User]
Was the 1918 pandemic virus more deadly than Corona? Or do we just have better technology now to keep people alive who would have died back then?

 I heard the Spanish Flu affected people who were healthy harder that those with weaker immune systems because it triggered an higher autoimmune response.

If we had the ventilators we do today, would the deaths have been comparable? Or is it impossible to say?

[Assistant]
Spanish Flu was signficantly more deadly than any other known influenza. Where a "normal" flu rarely has a mortality >0.1% , that of Spanish Flu is estimated to have been > 2.5% - so significantly higher than Covid-19.

It also had a strange mortality curve. Nearly all influenza show a "U curve" when plotted against age. So high deaths among under 5s lowering as age increases - flattening out, then rising sharply with after 65.  Spanish flu showed a "W" curve - similar to a U curve , but with a "hump" peaking at 35. (one of the panics about early reports of 2009 Swine Flu was the number of younger people it killed)

With modern treatment, undoubtedly the Spansh Flu deaths would have been lower - one of the main causes of death was probably secondary bacterial infection as there were no antibiotics. That said, subsequent mutations were significantly less deadly, so something in the virus itself must have been responsible.

An educated guess would be that a modern Spanish flu would still be deadlier than Covid, and would likely still kill millions despite improved medical care.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] How would Stormtrooper armor hold up in a fantasy setting?

Say we took a set of stormtrooper armor and dumped it in a setting like Dungeons and Dragons or The Elder Scrolls, how would it hold up against swords and maces, could it deflect an arrow? (I understand that Ewok bows are exceptionally powerful and Ewok's are unusually strong for their size) could, the armor stand up to low level magic like lightning bolts, fireballs, or acid bubbles? Would it be any better than typical armor in those settings that an adventurer might don?

[Assistant]
Very poorly.

Stormtrooper armor is designed to protect against blasters, it's made to dissipate the energy of a plasma bolt (and even then it's not a matter of invulnerability, but just not dying from the hit while still being out of the fight). It is not designed to protect against physical attacks (see Boba Fett beating the shit out of a bunch of stormtroopers with a gaffi stick in The Mandolorian).

However, there might be an argument to be made that it can help protect from some magic attacks, since the armor is good at dissipating heat energy it might protect against some kinds of fire or even electricity based magic. (And at least in legends it was supposed to be airtight, so it could also protect against poison clouds and the like)


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

[User]
[Avatar: The Last Airbender] How do firebenders draw power from a comet?

As the title says. Comets are made up primarily of ice and frozen gases. How do firebenders, which primarily draw power from the sun, gain such a huge boost in power from Sozin's Comet?

[Assistant] It's spiritual, not physical. To the Avatar World, it is essentially a moving star that appears every 100 years. When Zhao killed a fish, it turned off the moon and shut down Water Bender's ability to bend water, yet the Moon is a chunk of waterless rock.


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

[User] [Starcraft] why is Kerrigan considered one of the most powerful characters in the statecraft, heck entire Blizzard, universe?

[Assistant]
Sarah kerrigan was a part of the ghost program. Children with psyonic potential taken at a young age and raised as weapons. Shes been taught stealth, covert and overt tactics from the best minds terrans have to offer.

After she was betrayed by arcturus minsk, the overmind saw her great potential. He had the master genetic engineer of the swarm modify her to take on the most powerful elements of the zerg form. It was later revealed the overmind had intended kerrigan to take power after the overminds prophesied destruction.

During the brood wars, she manuvered against many powerful zerg threats, gaining power as she took command of more. She became a living force of nature, like a tornado. But not unstoppable. During the events of wings of liberty, she was cleansed of most of her zerg corruption. It took a return trip to the home planet of the zerg, and a third time being remade to become a new, more powerfup queen of blades. Terran, zerg, protoss, primal zerg, shes out matched every one. But this isnt even her final form.

During the climax of the sc2 trilogy, she completed her destiny. Being given the powers of a progenitor race, she becomes an abstract. A creature outside of this plane of existence. Her full power at this level is unknown, but i hope you understand more about why you should fear the queen of blades.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is it cheaper to fly to different countries in Europe as opposed to it being expensive to fly to other states in the US?

Traveling around Europe is easy and moderately priced. Flying across the US can run you 400$ from NYC to Indianapolis (for example)

[Assistant]
Europe has a well developed train system which competes with the airlines.

This drives down prices, and eliminates routes that are not profitable enough.  The flights that do exist will be cheaper, but there will be fewer of them.

Also, some European countries have national airlines that are subsidized.


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

[User]
ELI5 Why does alcohol make animals violent

Humans as well as wasps sometimes get drunk and become violent, but when I'm drunk I'd rather sleep or talk. Why does alcohol consumption cause violent behaviour? When wasps eat fermented fruit and become drunk, they will sometimes chase you (as good as their drunken flying allows them) and fight you, for no apparent reason, as will some drunk people try to pick a fight with you merely just for existing.

[Assistant]
Wasps are just dicks to start with.

In humans, alcohol serves to essentially lower the impulse control people have, so the behavior they might otherwise restrain rises to the surface. So someone who is naturally belligerent will see that amplified.


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

[User]
ELI5: How come my Vitamin C tablets have 1250% of the recommended daily allowance of Vitamin C?

Seems like overkill...

[Assistant]
A couple reasons. First, a lot is wasted and isn't actually utilized in the body. Acids or other microbes can use it up too, so you don't get the full about found in a pill. They overload your body with it so your body gets 100% (or at least close) of the vitamins suggested daily.

Second, your body can't utilize so much if it doesn't need it. So again they overload your system, so as the vitamins pass in your intestines and uses up those vitamins normally, there's an excess to refill what your body uses throughout the day.


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

[User]
Could lasers be weaponized (in any realistic context)? Also, would a laser weapon system have kickback (does the light have mass)?

I have heard they would require massive amounts of power, and that they are easily defended against by dust and by reflective surfaces. I also had a friend of mine suggest that light has mass so a laser weapon system would cause recoil. I don't have any verification on any of this, and I just wanted some more opinions.

[Assistant]
1) It's possible for lasers to be weaponized, but currently they are bulky, require large power supplies, and are too fragile to be used in anything short of a small truck.

2) There would be recoil.  Light has no mass, but it does carry momentum.  However, this recoil would be negligibly small.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does leaving food in the freezer for a long period make the food taste like 'freezer'?

...even if the food is in original, unopened packaging?

[Assistant]
Frozen foods keep their fresh flavor because of flash freezing, where the water solidifies so fast that molecules don't have time to form regular crystals which would normally increase the volume of the ice and produce sharp, crystalline vertices, causing cells and tissues to rupture and destroying proteins and starch chains in the process. If food is placed in the freezer fresh this will occur and create a "freezer burned" taste because many of the chemical structures we have evolved to taste have been disrupted by the crystals. Flash frozen foods may become freezer burned too if they have been in your freezer long enough. The occasional temperature changes (opening the door, putting new, room-temp items in, power outages, etc.) can cause partial thawing and recrystallization, slowly rupturing cells and tissues and creating a similar effect.

For actual 5-year-old : the ice in the food makes sharp edges that break down the food over time.


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

[User] ELI5: Why can't we harness the vaporized fossil fuel from engine exhaust and use it again?

[Assistant]
The exhaust from a standard combustion engine isn't "vaporized fossil fuel"; the fuel doesn't vaporize, it combusts, which converts the fuel into energy and then chemical byproducts. Those byproducts are what is exhausted.

None of those byproducts are particularly energy dense like gasoline is, so recapturing them wouldn't be of much use. Carbon Monoxide and Dioxide, for example, are both fairly inert; there are no simple processes we could do to them that would release useful energy.


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

[User] ELI5:The origin of stereotypical African-American names (e.g. Shaniqua,Trayvon,Laquisha,etc...)

[Assistant] Steve Levitt (author of Freakenomics and a professor at U. of Chicago) published a paper titled "The Causes and Consequences of Distinctly Black Names" which proposes that the naming culture of African-Americans is tied to the black power movement in the 1970's, and was a way for African Americans to express their own cultural identity separate from white America.


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

[User]
CMV: People being dumped are absolutely owed an explanation for why theyre being left behind.

Disclaimer: this does *not* apply to victims of any sort of violence/abuse in any way, as the most dangerous time for anyone suffering from intimate partner violence is when they announce their intentions to get to safety.

Aside from that, if youre old enough to inflict emotional pain on someone then youre old enough to own why you did it. When youre in a relationship and have any other problems, talking it out is usually the solution. For some reason, as soon as the topic is about leaving, the sentiment turns into They dont owe you an explanation, even if theres been leading on involved.

They certainly do. If everything is fine from the perspective of the person getting blindsided, how is it fair to leave them in the dark about such a drastic change. Its not you, its me is a bandaid, cop out type of statement.

If you can hurt them you can at least give them some answers. Full ones.

[Assistant] This is used to prevent people trying to argue their way out of being broken up with. It's not a debate. You don't need a convincing or good reason to leave some one. The other person just needs to accept it and move on.


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

[User]
[Batman 89] Was Joker Batmans first real supervillian?

Had Batman only dealt with low level criminals at that point?

[Assistant]
Most likely. He's still an urban legend at that point, with just a few terrified thugs speaking of him. The police and all journalists save for Alex Knox and Vicky Vale don't believe in him. Vale and Knox have basically nothing to go on (no mention of any major criminals he's faced in their investigation). It's considered something of a big deal that Commissioner Gordon has actually opened a file on the case. Even major figures in the criminal underground are shocked to discover he's real, like Jack Napier; crooks keep their ears to the ground regarding threats to their operations, if any big shots got taken down by the Bat they'd probably have heard about it.

And Batman deliberately encourages criminals to tell their friends about him, so it's not like he's trying to keep his existence secret. He does confiscate Vicky's evidence of him, though, so most likely he wants to keep the rumors on "invincible bat monster" and away from "guy in costume". By the end of the movie he's done enough that no one denies his existence any more, and the police start making use of the Bat Signal.

So while it's not impossible that he fought a supervillain before Joker, it seems unlikely, because A) the strong implication is that it's very early in his career, so it would have needed to happen right out of the gate, and B) supervillain fights tend to be pretty large scale affairs, and it would have needed to happen entirely outside the view of the police, press, and underworld.


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

[User]
[The Incredibles] What happened to the supervillains during the superhero ban?

The supers all agreed to hang up the cape, go underground, and cut out all the flamboyant heroics, but what about the villains? Are the cops just going to tell Bomb Voyage to stop with the mime-themed bank robberies? With all the heroes retiring at the same time, wouldn't the villains just have a free for all? How could the world transition from a state of heroes vs. villains, to a world without heroes, without resulting in a world of villains completely run amok?

[Assistant]
When the Supers were around to keep the villains in check, a general code of superhero honor emerged whereby villains would not be murdered.  Given that the police were often dependent on superheroes to do anything about folk like Bomb Voyage, they respected this code, grudgingly.

When the supers were driven into hiding, the gloves came off.  Acts of supervillainy previously contained by police until Mr. Incredible or one of his colleagues showed up were suddenly met with a military response--and the army shoots to kill.

Most of the old supervillains either went legit or started with much lower-key crimes, as a result.  Those whose supervillainy was based on super intelligence found more legitimate work.  Those with much more obvious powers tend to refrain from using them unless they absolutely have to.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why doesn't a garden-hose eventually explode even when the tap is on and the nozzle on the other end is shut-off/closed?

Like when you're watering your lawn and plants, then forget to turn it off, and don't notice for a couple of days, why doesn't the hose or anything eventually explode? Probably has to do with the plumbing, if so, how?

[Assistant] Your plumbing supplies water at a certain maximum pressure.  That pressure is lower than the pressure required to stretch the hose.  So it's less like blowing up a balloon, and more like blowing through a pinched straw.  No matter how hard your lungs can blow, the straw's not going to explode.


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

[User] [Star Wars] What happened to Jar Jar after the rise of the Empire and what horrible fate did he endure?

[Assistant]
It seemed like Palpatine initially kept most of the existing system intact, only with himself directly in charge.

They were talking about disbanding the senate when Luke was a teenager, so for at least a decade or two, Jar Jar probably kept the cushy position he lucked in to (kinda makes you wonder if he was really all that much of an idiot).


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are there no living Homo Erectus?

There are still very early stages of our evolution left on the planet.  Why are there such major gaps in what remains?

[Assistant] They actually have descendants living today.  We are their descendants.  They evolved into a few other species of which Homo sapiens is one.  Species is a human concept.  If you traced your line back to Homo erectus you'd never see an offspring come from a parent who belonged to a different species.


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

[User]
ELI5: How is animal A closely related to animal B, but looks/acts NOTHING like animal B?

I learned that the rock hyrax is the closest relative to an elephant... they *literally* look nothing alike!! Also, the king cobra is not a cobra, even though it looks identical to one, but instead in its own genus. Another example would be the extinct genus *Indohyus* is closely related to the whale, but (using Wikipedia reference) looks like a mouse-deer.

Why is that?

[Assistant] The word close is... Relative. It is often better to compare skeletons and organs than exterior appearance, since exterior appearance can change relatively quickly on an evolutionary timescale, while skeletons take a very long time to create new joints/fuse joints and new organs and chemical processes develop very slowly. || There is also something called convergent evolution, where creatures from very different lineages end up with similar traits - this happens because certain traits are very useful and are often stumbled across by completely separate evolutionary paths. This all means that some creatures can look very similar to creatures that are only distantly related to them, while other creatures can look very different from close relatives.


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

[User] [Cowboy Bebop] What exactly is the relationship between Spike, Vicious, The Red Dragons and Julia?

[Assistant]
Spike and Vicious were members of the R.D. gang. Vicious was gradually getting more powerful in the organization and on the verge of usurping their leader.

Julia was Vicious's girlfriend, but fell in love with Spike and they had an affair.

Spike and Julia wanted to run off together, so Spike planned to fake his own death in a big shootout against Vicious's henchmen and meet with her so they could run off in secret.

Vicious found out about the affair, and told Julia that she'd have to kill Spike, or he'd kill her. Instead she disappeared by herself, leading Spike to think she changed her mind on him.


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

[User] ELI5: Why couldn't the japanese crack the navajo code?

[Assistant] Because Navajo is part of a language family that is entirely North American, and Navajo speakers hadn't gone overseas. Which meant that the Japanese had no access to Navajo speakers, or even speakers of related languages. That makes translating it very, very hard.


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

[User]
Writing an engineering paper but I feel like it does not have any novelties

Presently I am writing on paper/journal that describes how I implement a theoretical model of some engineering concept into stuff that operates in the real world. It is my first academic paper btw.

The thing is, everything that I do in this paper, someone else already did with better and more optimized results. By no means have I copied their methodologies, it is just stuff that I do that has become common knowledge for everyone in the field. Therefore nothing new, like a journal on how to turn a bread recipe into a real edible bread with some notes on how others can do it.

I tried to communicate with my supervisor, I think he understood it yet feigned ignorance and told me just to keep on writing. Maybe he is right, after all, I'm a newbie in the academic world.

Has anyone had a similar experience? I wrote this post since I worried that this journal would not pass reviews.

[Assistant] Not every publication needs to be groundbreaking; work that bridges smaller gaps in our knowledge is valuable too. Can you identify any smaller gaps in the primary literature that your paper fills? For example, are you putting the model into practice in a situation not covered in prior research? If previously published methods are preferable in most cases, can you identify a specific case or cases where your method might be preferable? Would  your solution be of interest to someone if they were trying to optimize the implementation for time, cost, availability of resources, a specific performance factor, or etc.?


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

[User] [WH40K] What's the difference between the powers of a psyker and the powers of a Chaos Sorcerer?

[Assistant]
They are essentially the same thing, though there is a pretty simple difference.

Psykers can influence real space through a strong connection with the Immaterium, their will becomes reality. Normal psykers draw the power of the warp using only the strength of their own soul. Chaos sorcerers on the other hand can also act as a floodgate for the ruinous powers. They themselves do not power their spells, they just allow the Gods  of Chaos to influence reality through their body.


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

[User]
My parents always told me not to scratch mosquito bites, because it only makes it worse. is this true or a myth?

Does it increase the itching, does it even have an effect other that it feeling amazing when scratching it?

[Assistant]
Scratching of the bug bite feels good as it stimulates the skin's receptor neurons in and surrounding the site, temporarily overstimulating the area thereby received the itching as perceived by the brain.

As for the negative effects of scratching, this his mainly to do with infection. Your bite is already an opening into and under the skin where you could introduce pathogens on your hands and nails. Scratching the bite could introduce pathogens directly into the bite wound, or worse, your scratching could open new cuts in the epidermis into which your could introduce bacteria or viruses present on your hands or under your nails.

edit: spelling.

**Edit: Sources:**

 - Specific neurons control the 'itching' response (Review Article):

> LaMotte, R, Xinzhong Dong, Matthias Ringkamp. (2014) Sensory neurons and circuits mediating itch. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 15, 1931 (2014) doi:10.1038/nrn3641

 - Stimulation of sensory neurons around itching area causes stimulation of "pain" sensory neurons that release seritonin in the brain:

> Zhao Q, Liu Y, Jeffry J, et al. Descending control of itch transmission by the serotonergic system via 5-HT1A-facilitated GRPGRPR signaling. Neuron. 2014.

- Scratching can lead to bacterial skin infections (Review Paper):

> Ki, Vincent and C. Rotstein. (2008) Bacterial skin and soft tissue infections in adults: A review of their epidemiology, pathogenesis, diagnosis, treatment and site of care. Can J Infect Dis Med Microbiol. 19(2): 173184.


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

[User]
[DC]What would Batman do if someone murdered The Joker?

We know that The Joker cares for Batman in a weird way and on one occasion where he thought Batman was killed, he tried to avenge him.  But does it extend both ways?  If someone killed the Joker after Batman incapacitated him, thereby making Batman partly responsible, what would his reaction be?

[Assistant] Batman's reaction would be to bring the killer to justice as all killing is wrong - even the killing of a mass murderer like the Joker. He might feel responsible for Joker's death, but by leaving villains such as the Joker alive, Batman is already indirectly responsible for many deaths so we could just add this one to the pile.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are humans predisposed to get so much satisfaction from hearing the sound of a beat?

[Assistant] There's two theories, one is that the love of music (and hence a rhythm) developed socially among our ancestors as a way of social bonding. The other is that music developed as a test of overall health and mental ability to display our overall fitness to potential mates. Either way it has been shown that young infants not only display an natural love of a rhythm but have an innate preference for what are common musical patterns and notes (perfect fifths, ect)


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

[User]
What's your take on the team lead role?

I've been a developer since school (B.Sc. in CS) ended ~13 years ago. Programmer/analyst mostly, although I've been doing BI for the last 5 years.

I'm now in a small business, our product is a pair of software (one is a Windows app, the other web-based) that work hand in hand and I've been developing a third product (ETL/Cubes/dashboard) that exploits the data the other two products creates and manages.

The dev team is a 'lead' programmer (been there 15+ years), a new guy (~6 months) and me. Those two guys develop and maintain the softwares. There are other people that do support / sales call / demo.
And then there the pillar of the company : the co-owner that manages the whole show. He does most of the sales & demos, decides on the improvements on the software, manages the business (hires and such) and, when needed, leads the development team. We started doing bi-weekly meeting where we were supposed to discuss and share but it soon became a reading of our time sheets. ("I did this and that, will be doing such and such next")

This is where it hurts. The boss admits he's not technical enough to challenge us (which is true) and, from my perspective, his plate is already full from all the rest. He has a business to make grow. He shouldn't have to waste his time asking where that task is or why it's taking that long.

I have the feeling I could fill that void. I'm a pretty outgoing guy, I'm a good communicator and demonstrate interest in all the parts of the operation, not just my little world. I also have the impression it's his idea too. We have a pretty good relation. It'd be a good match.

Thing is I don't know how to step-up. What should a team-lead do?

Asides for the potential issue of managing the older guy (he's not opening to me that much, my guess is he feels threatened : he gives me and our boss different answers to the same question...), what's my angle?

We talked about this in team and came up with ideas, work methods but I have the strong impression there's a role missing, not procedures. Is that crazy?

We're not big enough that we need a dedicated person but a fraction of the time of my boss doesn't seem to be enough.

[Assistant]
Sounds like there's a cto missing, yeah. If you want to take up that position, go for it and don't try to be everyone's best friend, cause that's impossible anyway.

Sounds like if you don't give this a shot, you'll regret it later.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do suspension bridge decks curve upward?

On pictures of Suspension bridges, there is a noticeable curve on the road deck, is there a particular reason as to why it happens?

[Assistant]
If it were flat, and any weight was added to it, it would bend downwards. Nothing can be perfectly stiff. By starting with an upwards bend, once it bends down it will either be flat or still bend upwards.

Also, at any location of the bridge, the neighboring locations are curved away below/behind it. This helps distribute the load from where its located to neighboring parts of the bridge. This is the basic idea of an *arch*, which has been used with everything from basic stone construction to concrete dams and suspension bridges.


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

[User]
CMV: All races share the same ethnic-nepotism bias, White people are just the majority.

There is a popular rhetoric in the current social climate that Caucasian people are inherently more likely to be racist than all other races.

Racist being believing their race is superior to other races, regardless of perceived "power".

My argument is that I believe this is untrue, I believe the circumstances of the Caucasian population in relation to their pure numbers opposed to other races is the root of the false perception that they are inherently more likely to be racist. I believe if you swap the numbers throughout history, we would be living in the same world, simply with a different race of people as the perceived "racists".

Their is a belief that white people are more likely to hire other white people, and whilst I don't have the data to agree nor disagree, I believe it is, or certainly throughout history has been, in our nature to trust and aid in people most like ourselves and I don't think that is a "white" thing.

[Assistant] This theory doesn't bear out when you look at other catagories. For example, women in male dominated fields do not tend to advance as fast, whereas men who work in women dominated fields tend to do much better and tend to advance faster and better. There are plenty of examples where for one reason or another a particular minority has done better than the majority. Think of whites in S. Africa who are not the majority, or Manchus in Han China.


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

[User] ELI5: Could "otherkin," or the belief that one is at heart a different species, be classified as a mental disorder?

[Assistant] Maybe.  The concept of "benign" certainly applies to mental illness.  If your thing-that-matches-a-diagnosis doesn't include the very important "it's disrupting your life", then...it's not likely to get attention or diagnosis.


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

[User]
[WH40K] Let's make a new Chaos God!

While the births of Khorne, Tzeentch and Nurgle are a bit nebulous, we know that Slaanesh was born from a centuries-long, violent mega orgy that included almost the entire Eldar race.

What would it take to make another one? What kind of Chaos God could we create? Are there emotional aspects not yet covered by the Big 4?

[Assistant]
There is another one, shunned by his/her brothers.

Malal, the 5th Chaos God, god of chaos itself. It does its destruction purly for destruction.

No honor or glory like Khrone.

No "comforting the universe" like Nurgle.

No pleasure like Slaanesh.

And no change like Tzeentch.


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

[User] ELI5:How Come when I dream, I run really slow and throw weak punches?

[Assistant] One possible reason: Sometimes, when you try to do something in a dream, your body tries to do it in real life. Due to the fact that your tired body likely isn't in the position (lying on your side) or awake enough to throw an actual punch, you don't feel the same feedback you'd feel when throwing a normal one. Instead of feeling the air cut against your fist and your arms like you would when you throw a real punch, you feel your arm struggle to move as its pinned between your body and the bed, or you feel it fail to move because your body is frozen in sleep. It makes the movement feel sluggish, slow, and awkward, so you see it this way in your dream.


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

[User] [Stargate] It has been shown numerous times that the Stargate allows explosive debris, gunshots, blaster fire, etc through. Why don't they point it at an exterior wall where it's not going to do much damage?

[Assistant] Well the room they have it in is kinda oblonged, so it only fits one direction, either towards the windows or away. This way makes it easier to directly see who exits the gate, and probably easier to send people in to enter or guard the gate, as well as robots or stuff, since the doors are on this side too.


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

[User]
[Stephen King's Multiverse] What supernatural creatures are explicitly benevolent?

I know the Turtle from IT is one, it doesn't do much sure but it's clearly something more on the side of humanity than Pennywise. Are there any other examples of supernatural, other dimensional creatures that are helpful, nice, or otherwise good?

[Assistant] Duddits from Dreamcatcher. An alien sent to Earth to protect the weakling humans from other aliens. And that's why you should always be nice to the mentally challenged. They might someday save the world.


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

[User]
How does evolution for non-breeding individuals in colony insects (bees, ants) work?

How can evolution select for drone bees or honeypot ants if they dont breed and pass on genes?

[Assistant] The genetics of the non-breeding members of the colony are determined by the genetics of their parents, who (of course) *do* breed. And they only get to keep breeding and passing on those traits if the colony is successful. So, traits that are favorable in the non-breeding members are still selected for.


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

[User] ELI5: Why in WWII movies are there always blimps over Britian?

[Assistant] The blimps are used to protect people on the ground from low altitude air raids.  When you fly a bunch of them in close proximity, an aircraft could get fowled up in the tether cables, so the aircraft usually avoid them.


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

[User]
CMV: Access to information has dramatically reduced the value of a university education.

Universities used to hold a monopoly on information. If you wanted to understand a concept about history, math, science, philosophy, etc, you either needed to attend a lecture and have it explained, or go to the university library and use research skills to pour over books until you gathered enough information yourself.

Now, a lot of this information is available with a simple YouTube or Google search. For many undergraduate classes, there are renowned experts who post their lectures online for free. If an online explanation of a concept is insufficient, and you want to find the right books to read, you can simply search "best books on X".

I understand there is still value if you go to an elite school. Personal access to experts, etc. There is also value in attending a university if you need to become familiar with certain expensive materials or machinery that you would not be able to otherwise access. But aside from that, I don't see many benefits when it comes to becoming educated. I believe that, for the most part, diplomas have become luxury items, with value placed on the label instead of on the quality of the item itself.

[Assistant]
One of the biggest values you're missing is the overall university experience - that is, an immersion in the environment of higher learning.

You can certainly be an autodidact at home via your own research and the internet. But it's a far cry from actually dedicating four years of your life to living at a place of learning, surrounded by people who are either similarly dedicated to learning, or dedicated to teaching.

The lectures are one aspect of a university's value, yes, but what about the ability to demonstrate your proficiency in a subject? What about putting your own ideas out there and having them scrutinized and dissected by both your peers and your professor? Working with and against your peers, learning what *other* people are learning, learning outside of class simply by being surrounded by diverse but like-minded people...

To me, all that is what makes it an *education*, as opposed to just training.


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

[User] ELI5: Why hasn't the world at large confronted North Korea (and by association, China) about their forced-labor camps? The satellite photos certainly appear damning.

[Assistant]
North Korea has arranged its affairs so that any significant interference by the Western world will cause it to implode, causing at best a terrible and expensive humanitarian crisis and possibly a war that could harm U.S. allies.

Everyone knows that North Korea is doing awful things, and that we'll probably look upon our current inaction in the future and cringe, but there just aren't any good options that won't cause a huge mess in the short term.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] How did the Hutts become such a powerful criminal race?

Why is it when I hear about some criminal activity it is always assumed that the Hutt Cartel is up to it? How did a race of overgrown slugs get so much power in the shadows? Is it because Nal Hutta and Nar Shadaa are perfect hiding places? I have heard tales of a new faction called the Zann Consortium growing and grabbing influence over the galaxy. Should I be worried? I already don't like dealing with the Hutts.

[Assistant]
They've had power for a long time.  A *long*, long time.  A Hutt lives for upwards of a thousand years.  In the beginning, they were lucky enough to be worshiped as gods by inferior species, and that allowed them to obtain followers.  With followers came power.

The power they hold today was all built on their power of the past.  They're a species that has dedicated followers and slaves who do all of their work for them.  So while they're pretty physically helpless, you will normally never manage to lay a hand on one.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] How can different races understand each other without speaking the same language?

So I'm rewatching a New Hope and I'm noticing some stuff. Luke's Uncle manages to barter with the hooded dudes, (Jawas?) without speaking the same language. They don't speak English, he doesn't speak whatever the heck they're saying. We see the same thing with Han and Chewie. How does that work?

[Assistant]
Okay, so imagine two humans. One is German, one is French.

The German speaks German and French. The Frenchman speaks French and German.

The German says something in German, and the Frenchman replies in French.

They both understand each other, despite speaking two completely different languages.