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

[User] [Lord of the Rings] Why was Sauron visible in the battle at the start of Fellowship? He was wearing the ring.

[Assistant] The One Ring (and all the rings apart from the Three - Narya, Nenya and Vilya) causes invisibility in mortals by pulling the wearer into the wraith world. As an Ainu, Sauron is already a resident in both the Seen and Unseen.


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

[User]
Joints hurting when it's going to rain?

Hey everyone,

I was reading the "what makes you realize you're old?" topic on askreddit and a fair amount of people mentioned their joints (particularly knees) aching right before it rains. I've also heard this in my life but I never thought much of it.

Now I'm wondering if there is any scientific reason as to why joints hurt before it rains? I thought it could be just a case of people hearing it a lot and thus noticing the rain and thinking "Oh my knee hurt before, they must be related"

Can anyone shed some insight?

[Assistant]
I believe it has to do air pressure. Low pressure systems usually precede rain. A low pressure system causes moist ground level air to rise to higher altitudes where the temperature is much colder. The moisture in the air then condenses and rains. The low pressure precedes the rain by some time.

Your joints and tendons are cushioned by sacks of fluids called bursae. These small fluid filled sacks respond to pressure changes, similar to a weather balloon that expands and eventually pops high up in the atmosphere where the pressure is lower.

When these fluid sacks expand it can cause discomfort and pain. Bursae can become infected as well (though this is clearly unrelated to weather) and the inflammation associated with infection is called Bursitis and often requires surgery to help with the pain.

As you get older, the cushioning systems of your joints breaks down and you feel these small things a lot more than in your youth.


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

[User] When Spider man grabs you with his web, would that not break skin or rip off your clothes? It seems like a lot of pressure applied to such a small point.

[Assistant] Spiderman is a gentle lover. In addition what you don't see are billions of tiny little elastic threads that absorb the push or pull force above a certain threshold. It's kind of a built in safety device to stop arms from being ripped off.


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

[User]
What do you do when peer review takes FOREVER?

I have a manuscript that has been submitted to an Elsevier journal and has been in review for 6 months.  All of my other journal papers have gone through review in less than 2 months, so this sort of time frame is completely new to me.

Would it be inappropriate for me to contact the editors and ask for an update and inquire as to why there is such a delay?

Also, if you decide to review a paper and you take this long...screw you.  I'm of the opinion that nobody should agree to review a paper unless they have the time/ambition to do so.

[Assistant] Likely this is an error. No editor would be offended by you asking for a status update.  I've let reviews go (by mistake) and editors contact me the next day. I've had reviews take two weeks longer than average and contacted the editor for resolution (which came swiftly). 6 months is egregious so I'd guess it got lost in the shuffle and maybe never even sent out.


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

[User]
CMV: All musicals need to have official movie releases like Hamilton.

Like everyone else, I recently saw Hamilton and loved it, boy howdy do those slave owners sing real good. But my biggest takeaway was, "why the hell aren't all plays filmed and released like this?" Don't get me wrong, I get why you would keep your play exclusive to live performances for a short period of time. But when it's been out for a while, **I see no reason not to widely release a recording of every play.**

Wide video releases give many, many, *many* more people the opportunity to experience these pieces of art, especially in their original forms. Obviously very few people can afford to see a play on Broadway, and even if everyone could, cast members would eventually leave and be replaced. There's also people who are hard of hearing who need subtitles, or blind people who might need descriptive audio.

Now, I assume the counter argument is that video releases might hurt the profits of live performances, but I don't think this will be the case. If anything, I think video releases would encourage people to see live performances even more. Think about it, you can listen to all the music in the world for free on the internet, but people still pay tons of money to attend concerts (or at least we used to, before *the end times*). Even if sales of live tickets were lost, I think the money made up by video sales/streaming would make up for it.

Really I see no reason not to do video releases. More people get to experience the art, and I think it would result in a larger profit anyways.

[Assistant] Id imagine the simple answer is most Broadway plays/musicals dont make Hamilton money or create the same kind of buzz. Considering the political climate, it seems to be a viable candidate if there would be one. Im not really into musicals, but it seems to me that many popular musicals have had a film version.


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

[User]
ELI5: How can sunburns and sun exposure cause permanent skin damage if your skin is constantly replacing itself?

Recently read something about how a few bad sunburns when you're young can cause a large increase in cancer later in your life. How can you develop cancer several decades after you're burnt if your skin cells are constantly dying, falling off, and regrowing?

[Assistant] One of the best ways to think about it is not as "sun burn" but as a radiation burn. The skin is constantly replacing the top layer but more severe burns penetrate deeper into the skin and surrounding tissues. Sometimes this can damage the skin all the way to the lowest skin layers and when the tissues heal scarring forms as the skin cannot adequately regrow across the  urn.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does a heat mirage on the road that looks like a water puddle actually reflect things around it like an actual water puddle would?

[Assistant]
When you see a reflection on a water puddle, you're seeing light that has struck the puddle from some other direction, bounced off it, and traveled up to hit you in the eyes.

For the heat mirage, what you are seeing is air that has been heated (say by blacktop or something), changing its refractive index. This means that as light passes through it, the angle it is moving at changes.

Some of that light, then, that was heading towards the road is bent away from its normal path, and traveled up to hit your eyes. Since your eyes can't tell the difference (they just know light is hitting them) you see the image back along that bent path and not the street that is actually there in a straight line.


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

[User]
[F-Zero Series] Do Star Fox and F-Zero take place in the same universe?

Or is the Fox McCloud in the F-Zero universe an echo of the Fox from the Star Fox Universe? i'm specifically not talking about the Smash Bros universe.

[Assistant]
No. F-Zero's James McCloud is clearly a human and not an anthropomorphic fox, also his crew was called Galaxy Dog instead of Star Fox.

There are a small number of striking similarities between the two universes but it just doesn't line up all the way.


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

[User] [Dune] Holtzman shields explode with an almost nuclear force if they come into contact with lasers, so why aren't they an enormous liability? Shouldn't it be common for laser-equipped hunter-seekers and suicide assassins to wipe out entire armies and strongholds by shooting one laser?

[Assistant]
The laser explodes as well.

The problem is that the entire point of war is ruined by nuclear explosions. War is about territory and control. If you go around ruining shit the Emperor is going to get involved, and pre Muadib that was some bad mojo right there.

For instance, if you were to shoot a lazer at someone in Arrakeen, you might level the city or breach the shield wall. Both would end the spice production or at least make it really much, much harder to make the imperial quota.

It's basically the same reason that nobody's deployed a nuke on earth since the first two were used in combat. Both the real and the political fallout would be huge.

Moreso in the Dune universe where the spacers guild might just decide to stop carrying you and your cargo, or the emperor and/or all the other houses might just come to your home world and deploy their "family atomics" all over your goods and chattel.

Many things that are technically possible are otherwise unthinkable because of the follow-on nonsense.


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

[User] ELI5: What is horsepower and torque and how do they relate to a car being fast or a truck having a towing capacity?

[Assistant]
Let's draw an analogy.

If Torque and horsepower were people, Torque would be Arnold Schwarzenegger while HP would be Usain Bolt.

Now both of them are tasked with carrying a 100 bricks across a bridge.
Now Arnold, given his sheer power, can carry 20 bricks at a time, making 5 trips in total, which take him 50 mins in total, or 10 min per trip.

Now Bolt, though not as strong as Arnold, can run like a cheetah. So though he only carries 5 bricks at a time, he only takes 2.5 mins per trip, doing the task in 50 mins.

So, horse power is the amount of work done in a given time, measured in HP or Kilowatts.

In order to do the same amount of task, i.e. achieve same amount of horsepower, you can either increase your Tourqe (strength/force) or revolutions per minute (RPM).

HP is a function of Torque and revolutions.

When judging a car, compare the HP, the work it gets done, whether by brute force (torque) or RPM, not just torque.

No point having Mark Henry in your team if he can't see when Ray Mysterio kicks his ass because he's too heavy.


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

[User] ELI5: How did countries in Europe, develop complex distinct languages between each other? Despite them being so close?

[Assistant]
Time and isolation. You have to remember that back in the day, aside from a small minority of merchants and noblemen, most people would have stayed put in the place of their birth. This means that over time, their dialects drift enough to become different languages. Then add wars that can kill off border populations (who would speak an intermediate), and epidemics that would cause general disorder and mixing of people and dialects into something new and distinct. Then add foreign invasions introducing a completely new language to the mix.

Eventually, add nationalism to crystallise and exaggerate any prior differences.


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

[User] ELI5 when you punch someone in the face and they immediately lose consciousness what just happened?

[Assistant] Your brain is floating in a lot of liquid inside your head. When you get hit hard enough, your skull will move as your head does and your brain will bash into it, like a passenger hits the dashboard in a car accident. This can cause enough of a disruption in your brain that you fall asleep.


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

[User]
Wanting to go into data science/analytics/BI analyst/data engineering. Am I at a disadvantage majoring in mathematical econ?

I'll keep it short. Im 25(transfer student) and can finish my b.s in mathematical economics and minor in computer science in 2-2.5 years. Or I can just go for the CS major straight and finish in 4 years-4.5 years. The goal is to work with data whether as an analyst,scientist,engineer,architect w.e doesn't matter.
How much of a disadvantage am I at in terms of competitiveness majoring in mathematical econ and minoring in cs as opposed to being a straight cs major when it comes to this career field?

[Assistant]
Most CS students don't know shit about data analysis. Finish your degree ASAP and while you do it learn as many practical skills as you can:

* Git
* SQL
* Web scraping
* Linux basics
* R and/or Python and common programming tools (R/Shiny/ggplot or Python/pandas/Jupyter/numpy/malplotlib....)

Build a few out-of-univeristy personal projects, write them up, put them on internet, print money. You can do more for your career in a few months of focused self-study and out-of-class projects that 2 years of school will. Your degree is like 30% of the hiring criteria and most students think it's 90%, because their univeristy told them so.


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

[User] ELI5: When and why did humans begin to wear clothing?

[Assistant]
When is tricky. Clothing is unlikely to survive as long as other tools, so we can't say with certainty that the earliest tool-users (Australopithecus) didn't wear furs or other clothing.

As to why? That's also tricky. There's no historical or archaeological record of early clothing, so your guess is as good as anyone's. Common guesses include for warmth, for religious ceremonies, or to display dominance by wearing furs as trophies.


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

[User]
[Rick and Morty] Why doesn't Rick ever explain things to Morty, or prepare him in any way for their adventures?

Even if I accepy Rick is a self-centered, abusive psychopath and bully who has no scruples about tormenting and belittling Morty for his own amusement, it seems like his inability to take mere moments to explain things to Morty would save him a lot of inconvenience.

"Morty's Mind Blowers" has plenty of good examples of Rick self-sabotaging through keeping Morty in the dark. The squirrels incident, for instance. Why would Rick not explain to Morty that listening to animals is a bad idea because the hyper intelligent squirrels could discover it? Or the leftmost light switch. Why not just say "pleasr hit the lightswitch on the left. The one on the right will kill some astronauts I have stashed in a storage locker on the moon"?

Rick has no issue wasting time chewing Morty out AFTER Morty's made a mistake that he had no way of knowing was a mistake. Is Rick really such a dick that he needs to intentionally set Morty up for failure so he can berate him, possibly at the cost of huge amounts of resources, time, and safety?

[Assistant]
Rick is not nearly as smart as he portrays himself. Yes, he's smart in many areas, most of them are in science and technology. However, Rick often displays an alarming lack of self awareness, impulse control, foresight, and overall lacks the ability to see things from other's perspective.

Rick doesn't think to tell Morty a lot of things, largely because it doesn't immediately occur to him that Morty doesn't know everything he knows. Another part of it is a sort of laziness on Rick's part, perhaps even a bizarre need for a scapegoat in the form of his grandson.


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

[User]
[1984] What is Eastasian "death worship"?

Can it be fajia legalism of Shang Yang?

[Assistant]
Eastasian "death worship" is doubleplusungood wrongthink

The Ingsoc government aren't referencing a real thing, they're using words to rile up hate - and "death worship" sounds like a thing you should hate.


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

[User] ELI5: why does crying and being sad make you so tired? [Psychology]

[Assistant] Emotional stress and trauma is both physically and mentally draining. Being overwhelmed in some cases can lead to blackouts. Tears, for example, obviously use water and potassium-so excessive crying can lead to dehydration.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Was Anakin allowed to go into the Archive Vaults after being seated on the Jedi Council?

In The Clone Wars, Jocasta Nu says to Ahsoka Only members of the Jedi Council are allowed to go into that part of the Archives. She doesnt necessarily say Masters because she herself is a Master and she hasnt even been in since her days on the Council.

We know Anakin was on the Council, but they did not grant him the rank of Master. But when Palpatine said The Dark Side can influence whether people live or die couldnt Anakin just go into the Vault and see if there were any Dark Side texts to teach him how? Or at least know whether or not Palpy was bullshitting him?

[Assistant]
Excerpt from the Matthew Stover novelization.

>...if the Force was ever to show him a way to change the dark future of his nightmares, it would do so here.

>The Jedi Temple also contained the archives, the vast library that encompassed the Orders entire twenty-five millennia of existence: everything from the widest-ranging cosmographical surveys to the intimate journals of a billion Jedi Knights. *It was there Anakin hoped to find everything that was known about prophetic dreamsand everything that was known about preventing these prophecies from coming to pass.*

>His only problem was that the deepest secrets of the greatest Masters of the Force were stored in restricted holocrons; since the Lorian Nod affair, some seventy standard years before, access to these holocrons was denied to all but Jedi Masters.

>And he couldnt exactly explain to the archives Master why he wanted them.

>...

>Anakin Skywalker. Master Windus tone was so severe that the dragon inside Anakin coiled instinctively. The Council has decided to comply with Chancellor Palpatines directive, and with the instructions of the Senate that give him the unprecedented authority to command this Council. You are hereby granted a seat at the High Council of the Jedi, as the Chancellors personal representative.

>...

>Anakin was barely paying attention; in his mind, he was already leaving the Council Chamber, riding the turbolift to the archives, demanding access to the restricted vault by authority of his new rank

>You will attend the meetings of this Council, the Korun Master said, but you will not be granted the rank and privileges of a Jedi Master.

The archives are restricted to Masters because holocrons generally posses AIs that can influence the "reader". The only reason why Anakin got on the Council in the first place was because he was the Chancellor's pet.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Do different colours in lightsabers have any direvt impact on their performance?

I'm watching the Phantom Edit and drinking heavily and just.. had a thought. Sorry if this question is stupid or has been asked before.

[Assistant] (Is this still canon?) Red light sabers use a synthetic focusing crystal. it tends to give them a higher energy output, but also makes them more finicky. Jedi sabers use naturally formed crystals, which are more stable.


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

[User]
eli5 that why do all energy drinks have various B Vitamins? Is there any specific feature about the B Vitamins?

I've often noticed a lot of energy drinks specify vitamin B1, B2, B5, B6, B9 and B12 but rarely other vitamins are listed. Is there any property about B Vitamins which makes it taste or energize better?

[Assistant] If you have B vitamin deficiencies, that sometimes feels like being tired. So if some fraction of customers are walking around suffering from undiagnosed vitamin B12 deficiencies, those customers will feel really great after drinking a fortified energy drink, and they'll be more likely to buy another and recommend that brand to friends.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are bubbles round?

[Assistant] Not all bubbles are round but for to answer the question it is a force called surface tension. It pulls the molecules tightly together and the closer they pull the more compact they are leading to a spherical shape. A sphere is were you achieve the tightest possible grouping of particles.


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

[User]
[Riddick universe] Why do prisons pay bounty hunters/mercs to deliver them dangerous criminals to be housed?

In the beginning of the game *Escape from Butcher Bay*, Johns demands Riddicks bounty +50 to Hoxie, the prison administrator.

In the movie *The Chronicles of Riddick*, Tombs and his crew deliver Riddick to Crematoria, demanding 750,000 (or so).

My question is, why do these prisons go out of their way to house incredibly dangerous fugitives who have penchants for prison escape?

Is it prestige? Clout to house more notorious criminals? Is there any wiki or information source that can glean some light on this?

[Assistant]
The reasonable inference is that they're for-profit prisons, and they're getting paid to do it.  Regular law enforcement won't want to do it, and also won't want to do the transporting if they can help it.

So these prisons think they have the edge on containment, usually through brutality, and will essentially take contracts to confine these people.


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

[User] [Star Wars] Would Star Destroyers be able to blow up a planet if they bombarded it long enough?

[Assistant] In theory, yes. Orbital bombardment is actually what Star Destroyers are designed for. A Star Destroyer with a huge amount of time an infinite supply could destroy a planet. It would take years, possibly even decades, of constant bombardment however. In practicality, no. Even a fleet of Star Destroyers wouldn't be able to do that feasibly. It would take too much time and far too many resources. What a fleet could do in minutes and even a handful of ISDs could do in hours, though, is glass a planet. They would bombard it so much that everything on the entire surface is destroyed and almost nothing is left alive. That is certainly possible, and a lot of people even think that we did that to Emberlene about 20 or 30 years back. It's all lies, of course, they just pissed off their neighbors so much the neighbors hired a merc army to do it. It's not the first time.


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

[User] ELI5: what would happen if the U.S attacked Iran?

[Assistant]
The muslim world would become more galvanized against the west, oil prices would rise because the persian gulf would be a war zone making transport of oil from that region more expensive, a lot of warmongers and business men would get richer, a lot of soldiers would die, several orders of magnitude more civilians would die, the U.S. economy would fall further into debt and recession, non nuclear countries would redouble their efforts to become nuclear as that has been the only proven deterrent to american aggression, china would further strengthen its position as the dominant world force as america declines, leaving everyone to wonder if russia and china would ever go to war or unite under a quasi communist/socialist association.

The ironic thing is that unlike its government, the people of Iran are fairly modern and open minded.  So destabilizing the Iranian government could in the longterm speed up democratic reforms in the region as Iran has sway in several other countries, such as syria.  But if that was the real goal, then the U.S. should invade Saudi Arabia instead, but that won't happen because they sell oil to the U.S. at prices we can live with. They keep us happy enough to overlook the oppressive theocratic saudi despotism.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does Mongolia still exist today, how hasn't it's massive yet virtually unpopulated land been taken?

The country is technologically around Dothraki level and it's huge land the size of India is populated by less than 3 million people.

It also has basically no military and a piss poor economy.

I could capture the capital of Mongolia myself with 500 Kangaroos.

[Assistant]
It serves as a nice buffer zone between China and Russia. Russia and China seems to be friends in many aspects of geopolitics, but make no mistake, Russia is wary of China when it comes to Siberia.

For most of its recent history in the last century, Mongolia is under the Soviet sphere of influence. Some would actually say it was a Soviet puppet. So China couldn't really lay a claim on Mongolia during those times. When the Soviet Union collapsed, with various republics declaring independence like Kazahkstan, Uzbekistan, etc., it pretty much cemented Mongolia's status as an independent nation.

But China wouldn't dare lay a claim on Mongolia even after the Soviet collapse. Russia still exists and it has far more nuclear weapons than China. Mongalia may no longer be part of Russia, but Russia won't want China laying a claim on it. Siberia would be next if the Chinese claims Mongolia.

Oddly enough though, the same can be said to Russia as well. Russia can't now claim Mongolia because it may upset the Chinese. Russia would rather have an independent Mongolia and peaceful China, than having the two of them superpowers having a tug-of-war over Mongolia.


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

[User] ELI5: How does the emotion of fear lead to the emotion of anger?

[Assistant]
Emotions are like shortcuts to certain behaviors that are meant to help you deal with the situations that trigger them.

Fear helps keep you safe in potentially dangerous situations by encouraging behaviors meant to extract you from those situations.

Anger is a response to unresolvable problems that can help you break through whatever barriers are in the way preventing you from figuring out a solution to the problem, which is why people are often more motivated to act in general and more likely to resort to reckless or violent behaviors when angry.

If you are unable to resolve the situation that is making you afraid, this can result in an anger response.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Is technology improving or just adapting to new situation?

If we go back to the era of the Old Republic and compare the tech they had back then from blasters to droids to engines has much changed between the time of Revan and the time of Luke Skywalker? The laser pistol that is most common in Knights of the Old Republic looks fairly similar to the DL44 blaster favored by Han Solo, the droids seem to be similar both in size and intelligence, hyper drives are obviously a thing back then.

[Assistant]
The short answer is: both. There is in fact technological improvement - but it's often set back by major conflicts that leave worlds burning, or otherwise adaptations of existing tech to new ways. Hyperdrives in the Film Eras are faster and more reliable than they are in the Old Republic eras, shields and armor plating are better, droids are smarter and more reliable, blasters have more stopping power, reactors are stronger and more efficient. Just a thousand years before KotOR happens lightsabers required external battery packs attached by cables, then they introduced internal power packs for them. After that they don't really *need* to change, except for more efficient parts.

Even the Death Star tech isn't new, Yoda mentions in one of the Clone Wars story reels that in the distant past Jedi and Sith fought with capital ships using the kyber crystals in their weapons - the Death Star is simply that kyber weapon tech scaled up massively.


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

[User]
[W40k] What marketing campaign can I create in order to sell this drink, "Coca-Cola"?

Please think of me as of an entreprenous Rogue Trader that has found a STC with a recipe for such a drink. I'm going to show it to Adeptus Mechanicus and want to get atleast a planet or two for it. Since Techpriests have limited tasting abilities, I need to create a presentation to help them understand the importance of my discovery. If you help me, I will make you rich.

[Assistant]
The invention of Coca Cola was first given to us by the Glorious Emperor of Mankind prior to revealing himself to humanity. The beverage recipe was believed to have been introduced some 39,000-ish years ago.

Rumor has it that this beloved beverage was the choice of the God Emperor himself  however while out guiding other sects of humanity an insidious plot by chaos caused the recipe to become tainted and it was rebranded New Coke (As if anything created by the Emperor needed improving  to even think such a thought is heresy!).

Fortunately years later on his return  the Emperor learned of this and became proud of the people for rejecting this New Coke and he brought back the original recipe. It was in this moment that his resolve was sealed and his faith in humanity was cemented and he would become its champion and leader.

To consume this beverage is to become close to the Emperor himself  this fizzy beverage will eradicate the thirst and chaos inside of you and fill you with his refreshing light!


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

[User] [Thor] Could MCU Thor handle the point blank eyeball gun shot like Superman did in Superman Returns?

[Assistant]
We don't know a lot about MCU Thor. Comic book Thor? Yes, unequivocally.

Given the kind of punishment Thor took in the first Avengers movie (that casual side-punch from the Hulk was no small impact, and he walked away from it still at full fighting strength), I'd say yes. But there's room for interpretation.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] How would you play devil's advocate in favor of the separatists?

After watching an episode of the clone wars that showed how the views of the two sides weren't so black and white, I wondered what are the reasons one would favor the separatists over the republic?

[Assistant]
1) The Republic had never had the fastest means of reaching decisions, thanks to the fact that it was a democracy that governed an entire galaxy. Shit takes time to decide. But over the last thousand years, the Republic had become measurably bloated and stagnant, if not outright corrupt in certain areas. People elected to represent their home planet had become career politicians rather than public servants, money made more decisions than debate and careful consideration, and a thousand years of increased procedural custom had ground the senate to a near-total halt. (A lot of this was intentionally done by the Sith over the centures)

2) Related to this stagnation and bloating, it made it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for the Senate to really do anything worthwhile. They never paid much attention to the outer rim in centuries past, but soon became *completely unable* to govern sections of their own territory due to this corruption. To many people in the galaxy, it was clear that the Republic no longer cared about the people. The Naboo crisis was built to be a perfect example of how the Republic senate had begun to fail, as they couldn't resolve a clear-cut example of lawbreaking. They had to vote the previous Supreme Chancellor out of office just to get something done.

3) Times were changing in the galaxy, and the Republic was still acting like it was a thousand years ago. Massive corporations, clans, business ventures, and other financially-powerful groups had begun to enact de facto control of millions of people, and actually enact policies and changes before the Senate even had a chance to finish the opening speeches of their meetings. They were the legit governments of hundreds of worlds and massive chunks of territory, because the Senate literally could do nothing.

4) In the rare times someone in the Senate got something rolling (Like, say Padme) through sheer force of will, it was often in direct opposition to the interests of those mega-powerful groups. The Senate wanted to enact their legal control over them, and return government oversight to places that had seen no official governance for centuries. To those groups, the total lack of regulation was exactly how they remained viable. Nosy politicians with goals of "protecting worker's rights" and "reduce environmental destruction" were terrible for business.


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

[User]
[40k] Can there ever be enough dakka?

Without using the Emperor's description from TTS.

[Assistant]
Enough Dakka is a philosophical concept, by its very nature there is never "enough" Dakka because "enough Dakka" is a state of being to be striven towards. It's like Orkish Nirvana, you are to live your life in the pursuit of Dakka because it is good, but the idea that you may someday have too much of it is suggesting there is some upper limit on goodness in the universe. It's not like there can ever be too many guns firing at once, after all. Orks don't generally appreciate the concepts of subtlety or conservation; to them ammo is to be shot, not saved, and running out of it just gives you a good excuse to use your choppa.

And no, you can't have enough choppa either.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does the sound of an engine change when it drives past you?

Cars, planes, jets anything with a motor.

[Assistant]
The Doppler Effect is super easy to understand with a good animated diagram, that you can find easily with Google. But Ill try to explain it in text.

Imagine your annoying friend is pelting you with balls. He throws the balls at you at a constant rate, for example once every second.

If hes running toward you while throwing the balls, the balls hit you more frequently. Thats because each ball has less distance to travel. As your friend gets closer to you, the balls can reach you more quickly.

On the other hand, if hes running away from you, each ball has more distance to cover than the last, so you dont get hit as frequently.

Sound waves are like the balls, and the pitch of a sound depends on its frequency. When the source of sound is moving toward you, the sound waves hit you more frequently, so you hear a higher pitched sound, and the opposite when its moving away.


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

[User]
Eli5 Why can't traffic lights be designed so that autos aren't stuck at red lights when there is no traffic approaching the green lights?

Strings of cars idling at red lights, adding pollution, wasting fuel and time when no traffic is approaching the green light. Some side streets apparently have sensors that trip the light, so a steady flow of traffic is immediately stopped so that one car doesn't have to wait. Why can't traffic lights on main strips be engineered so that we aren't stuck at red lights when no traffic is approaching the green? Why are sensors placed to stop a dozen moving cars so that a single car on a side street gets an immediate green? Living in a big city with heavy traffic, this is maddening and never made sense to me. Please explain it like I'm five.

[Assistant] Many are. There are ones that have sensors which need to be triggered to begin the cycle of switching from red to green, say exiting a busy parking lot. During business hours, you need the light, but when the businesses are closed, no point in stopping traffic on the road.


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

[User]
How are complex instinctual behaviors (like how beavers know how to build dams) encoded into DNA?

It seems like many animal behaviors (mating rituals, beavers/birds building nest, ants creating colonies etc) would be things that are so complex that they would have to be  learned through example or observation, and yet somehow most of these skills are hardwired into their DNA.

I don't understand how DNA, which I think of as the blueprints for the physical construction of living things, can also contain such incredibly specific behavioral routines. I hope I am explaining this question clearly, because I would be fascinated to hear the answer. Thanks in advance!

[Assistant]
Well, it's not 100% of the mechanics behind dam construction, but a major component appears to be that beavers have a compulsion to pile sticks on the sound of flowing water until they can't hear it any more.  If you stick a speaker playing the sounds of running water in the middle of a field, they will pile sticks on it.

In practice, this results in beaverdams.  Water in a stream is noisiest at the shallow riffles.  Beavers pile sticks on this point.  water gets channeled around.  Beavers pile sticks on that, and so on until there's a full dam with water just seeping through.

Now, there's good evidence that more than just this goes into dam building, because beavers do some more advanced engineering tricks if needed....but it does go to show that complex behaviors can originate from relatively simple underlying causes.  In most cases there's not a hardwired "final plan" there's just a series of a few "if X, do Y" instructions that result in the final product.


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

[User]
What % of people got long covid who were vaccinated VS those who weren't?

Interesting to see if any research has been done on this subject.

[Assistant] As the other user pointed out, long Covid is incredibly problematic because until rather recently, every researcher used their own definition of the condition, that's why you would get one study saying 3% have it, and another saying 30% have it. On top of that, almost all studies I've seen have used self-assessment by patients of whether they think they have it, which of course has a ton of issues as you would imagine.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why don't game developers release old games to be bought and downloaded?

There are a number of games I'd spend money on and yet they cannot be bought and downloaded.

Why is this? Is there a cost to doing it?

Edit: consoles make sense but what about PCs?

[Assistant] Old games are built on old platforms and need to be re-engineered to work on modern platforms. Game devs do release old content all the time. You can go on your phone right now and download a ton of Square Enix's old games that have been ported to Android and iOS, but there has to be a financial incentive for them to do it.


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

[User]
Had Campus Visit Then Job Was Reposted on HigherEdJobs

I had a (virtual) campus visit at an Elite SLAC in early December for a TT humanities position that went really well. I'm assuming I was one of  three candidates since I was given three dates to choose from for the visit. From those dates, I was the first to be interviewed while the last date was the second week of December. The chair told me that they hoped to have a decision and inform their top candidate before Christmas. I received a follow up email the week before the school's holiday break thanking me for my patience, which I took as a good sign.

I haven't heard anything since then. This was basically my dream job (school context, class sizes, teaching/research balance, etc.) out of all the positions I've applied for. I've moved past my anxiety and accepted that I probably wasn't their top candidate. However, a couple of days before Christmas the job came up again in my daily HigherEdJobs email. The listing on HEJ website said "Posted 12/22" even though the October application deadline (but "open until filled") remained the same.

Does HigherEdJobs regularly repost job listings that have remained open, or is the most likely scenario that the committee didn't agree on anyone from the visits and the position was reposted to seek more applicants?

[Assistant]
So, its now well after Christmas. Reach back with a hi hope the holidays were great email and ask for any updates on the search. Dont guess, just ask. A good search chair will tell you what they can, even if it is nothing to update.

Also, while it may be your dream job, dont fixate on it. Keep your search active as possible.


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

[User] ELI5 why is loan sharking illegal but pay day loans which can have an interest rate of over 350% are legal (in the US).

[Assistant] Because the pay day loans still operate within the parameters of the law, such as paying taxes on the loans, paying for a business license and not physically harming the people who owe them money, while sharks purposefully choose to engage in that illegal activity by shirking tax and licensing responsibilities and physically harming their clients who do not pay up.


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

[User]
Are Aristotles forms real things?

Plato clearly sees his forms to be real existent things, but its not clear to me if Aristotle sees his version of the forms to be real or simply explanatory properties of things. Are forms substance?

[Assistant]
For Aristotle, forms are certainly real, but they are not substances. Substances are composites of form and matter (more precisely, matter organized by a substantial form is what makes it a substance).

Unlike Plato, Aristotles forms dont exist in some separate realm apart from the physical world; forms can only be said to exist insofar as they are in a physical substance. Similarly, matter doesnt exist separately from form (although things get a bit confusing when you look closely at prime matter); matter is always organized by a form in some way or the other.


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

[User]
[The Sims] So... I was just going about with my life, when I saw the neighbor hop into his swimming pool, and then the ladder just... vanished. Other weird things happen with him... can someone explain any of this?

Sometimes, his doors and windows disappear, and when they re-appear he comes out looking and smelling like shit. Another time, he just put his baby on the floor to do a cannonball into his pool.

[Assistant] Bomb lap ga doh hogey sha boom ad dif woaha. Guy josh guy gorp meep mo. Blen so meh me zoe. Gink flee flgh la lee la dor kor bingy dew. Jam bam be Q T toh. X plexy ski pooh. Dee mee numin ron be mau mau geng gee dohz.


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

[User] ELI5: why do so many names in anime/manga's have names ending in what sounds like "maru"

[Assistant] The suffix "-maru" can have several meanings in Japanese. It's very often used to in the names of large ships and at the end of a person or important item's name where it can mean "circle", or be used to indicate that it is precious, or of great value.


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

[User] [Mass Effect] What are some everyday, non-military applications of the Mass Effect?

[Assistant]
The mass effect has many applications and usages throughout the galaxy, ranging from utility, military and pleasure.

One such application is the one used on the citadel to help simulate an atmosphere on the wards. While it frequently uses oxygen reclamation to provide fresh air, the breathable air in the streets of the wards only exists up until a height of seven metres. After that, the vacuum of space exists unexposed. The only way to travel beyond the seven-metre safe zone is in a flying car.

Omnitools - whether combat-oriented or civilian models - are another application, as the mass effect is used to use moisture to refract light and produce a holographic display around the user's arm. It is also used to provide haptic feedback in computer interfaces where a mass effect field would push against the user's hand... although this requires sensory peripherals, either gloves that need to be regularly washed or small microchips implanted into the tips of fingers to interface with.

According to Cerberus Daily News, a newsfeed ran through the Mass Effect 2 title screen, there was also a form of sport called Densing that was created when element zero's market price crashed, serving as a form of Sumo wrestling. Anti-gravity chambers are also abundant in asari space and Peebee turns the evac shuttle in the ship from Andromeda into one such chamber to float about.

Finally is the primary usage in manufacturing - forging under high pressure gravity field in order to produce extremely durable metals.


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

[User]
[General Fiction] Are dragons warm blooded?

Especially the fire breathing kind. Or do they sometimes still need to leave their caves.

[Assistant]
Depends on the Dragons.

D&D dragons sort of are, though it's not thermal energy they, but Elemental. A White Dragons blood is ice cold, but that's because of the Dragons elemental nature, and it doesn't interfere with its metabolic functions at all. In fact, cold POWERS them.

In TES, they could sort of be considered Warm Blooded, though I'd hardly consider them blooded at all, being physical manifestations of moments...

In Warhammer, Dragons are cold blooded, though certain varieties react differently to heat than others. The greatest of the Dragons find too much heat lethargic, and have been mostly sleeping since the Old Ones moved the planet. Presumably they could more be considered gigantothermic... Smaller varieties, like those generally seen by mortals, are very much cold blooded, but too large to effectively Sun themselves, and congregate in volcanic areas to bask in the warmth of thermal vents.

In Might and Magic, no, Dragons are not cold blooded. The same can be said for Age of Wonder and Desciples. And Warcraft.


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

[User] Do you hear a sonic boom every time your mach speed increases (i.e. accelerating from mach 2 to mach 3), or only as you reach mach 1?

[Assistant]
If you're inside the aircraft, you never hear the sonic boom at all. There's no shockwave there.

If you're observing the aircraft from outside, no there is no other "boom" at other multiples of Mach.

I suspect you have a misunderstanding of how this works though; a "sonic boom" isn't a one-time-thing where an aircraft makes a sudden loud noise that just stops. It's continuous -- the shock front follows with the plane.


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

[User]
[Lovecraft] Would Cthulhu be so frightening to a non-racist 21st century person?

I mean, when you have protagonists going into long freakish details about just a dead black dude, is it so strange that tentacle aliens freak them the fuck out? I know I don't know everything so couldn't give less of a shit about trying to comprehend 4th dimensional beings or whatever, know Earth is insignificant, wouldn't be surprised if God was evil, and wouldn't give a shit about all powerful beings. Would it still break my mind?

[Assistant]
Yes. Even worse, as someone who has been exposed to things like 3D movies, your brain will work harder to try to make sense of what you see, and the higher dimensional distortions will be even worse.

Ignorance is a protective shield.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do people put resistors for LED lights, when they can function when connected directly to a power source?

[Assistant]
A LED has a forward voltage, if your power source is below that voltage, you get very little current, and the light doesn't turn on. If you're above that voltage the LED doesn't limit the current, and burns out instantly. If you're very close to that voltage, you might get away with relying on the resistance of your wires and traces, but that's a rather extreme cost cutting measure, and if you're running on something like a battery with variable voltage, doesn't give good results.

A "white" LED might have a voltage drop of 3 volts. If your power source is 5 volts, then there is a 2 volt drop across your resistor, if you don't have a resistor, that 2 volt drop is effectively short circuited. Maybe your power source can limit the current to a safe number, maybe it can't. Adding a resistor to the LED lets you control that current, a 20 ohm resistor would drop the current to say 100mA.

There are more efficient ways to drive LEDs, but you always need to control current somehow, so you'll still have a very low value resistor in series with the LEDs, so your driver knows how much current is flowing through them.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does sunburned skin become white for a bit when we press on it?

[Assistant] There's more blood currently closer to the surface of your skin. When pressed the small capillaries are being compressed and the blood moves away. When it comes back it's called refill and can be a quick tool for potential blood gas issues.


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

[User]
[Marvel] Is the Inhuman Kingdom recognised by the UN?

As they live on the moon, would they be viable to become a member of the UN, or NATO? Would all of the moon be considered their territory, or just the areas which theyve settled on?

[Assistant] Un Yes, Nato. Most of ,,active" Inhumans were In Attilan , and even then Inhumans are very closed down society. They send exchange students but It was very short program. Until Destruction of Attilan. Attilan is their country and city like Vatican pretty much. It was originally set In Himalayas, and they didn't,t mingled with other people. It landed on the Moon years after contact with F4. They came back to earth and landed on Atlantic sea. They came back to space after Maximus wanted to organize a coup and leaked Alpha Primitives existence to public. And after this Black Bolt was replaced with Skrull Infiltrator and they gone into to Kree space to take out rest of the skrulls. But they got into war with Shi Ar, and Black Bolt went missing. Only after coming back they hovered within borders od New York. But then Thanos invaded and wanted all children within certain Age Group killed. Instead Black Bolt evacuated city and detonated terrigen reserves. Remmants were scattered until Medusa united them, and New crops of Inhumans Descendants appeared. From remmants New Attilan was created and It was showed that UN and Goverments of the Countries helped when new Inhumans were Born. Crystal was following Terrigen cloud and looking for new inhumans and evacuating mutants.


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

[User]
[MCU]A question about the Soul Stone that can *probably* be answered with only Infinity War spoilers and not Endgame but should probably stay away to be safe if you haven't seen it.

So to get the Soul Stone, you have to go to this planet, sacrifice a loved one.  How did that come about?  Is that the stone's natural habitat or did someone put it there to protect it?  All the other stones moves around a fair bit in the few decades of the timeline of the movies, but the Soul Stone does not.  People have seeked out the stones before, so how did no one retrieve it from there and put it somewhere else safe / lose it?  Does it automatically pop back into the lake on it's own after some amount of time or what?

[Assistant]
I think its a two-fold protection.

1. Its hard to find, simply. Vormir was only found after some serious digging by Gamora, and shes a top-notch assassin/get-things-done person Im betting many whod seek it simply couldnt find it.

2. Supposing you do find it, what kind of people are seeking out these stones? Someone with ruthless, vile intentions typically doesnt keep anyone close enough or care enough about someone to be able to sacrifice. And thats the point, isnt it? If you dont have a soul, this is the Hard No. the do not pass point for you.

Furthermore, if you do have someone you love, the secondary effect is... why kill your beloved companion? Is it worth that much to you?

We may never know of the people who found the soul stone, only to realize that there was a price too steep to pay. And, maybe a bit upset, they just walk away. But in the end... they keep their loved one.

I think it put itself there... the stones may be more alive than we realize.


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

[User]
CMV: Forcing Everyone to Memorize Neopronouns is Ableist

I wrote a full piece explaining why I think this way. But I'll try to summarize it here. The first issue is that not everyone has the same skill in memorizing names and assignments between names and people. There's something called "dysnomia" which is an extreme case of this phenomenon.

The idea that it's no problem to have to memorize pronoun assignments is ableist. It assumes that everyone simply can learn these things. I'm personally not able to remember names well at all. I would have to ask repeatedly. And even then I'd be very likely to forget. At that point, someone would want to know ***why*** I keep asking. Thus, I would have to bring up my neurodivergence every time I want to have a conversation, and reference someone who does not accept "they" as a neutral and universal pronoun.

One counter argument is that it's not "forced." Technically true. There's no law. However, it is considered offensive to use the wrong pronoun. Sometimes doing so, even unintentionally, results in a significant amount of tension. "They" works fairly well. And even if we don't converge on the use of "they" so long as people were only with gender neutral pronouns in general, regardless of which one was used, eventually English would converge.

***Update***

I'll try to update this part as I go. I think one of the most absurd responses to this CMV has been "just do better." Well, if it were that easy, we wouldn't have accommodations for people with differences in ability.

Additionally, respect goes both ways. I respect people who are gender non-conforming. I have no issue with people who express their personal gender identity. I do have an issue with people who make it my business. Another person shouldn't have to know your gender to engage with you. It's really that simple. Requiring otherwise is not mutual respect. It's trying to dominate the relationship.

[Assistant] ... Who is forcing anyone to memorize tons of "neopronouns"?  It's really not rude to ask for clarification or to say the wrong thing on accident.  If somebody asks you to call them a particular thing and you make a good effort to do so, that's pretty much all anybody is asking.  Nobody is being honestly asked for perfect recall.


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

[User]
ELI5. How do websites like Ancestry and 23 & me work?

I am not sure if it is the altered state I am in, but I cant seem to understand how these websites are able to track back so far before DNA could be analyzed and understood or even known?!

[Assistant] They compare your DNA to the DNA of modern people in other regions. Their equipment is meant to search for certain common markers with other groups. So lets say they take your DNA and run it through their database. They find that your DNA is most similar to people who live in southern Italy and you also have some similarities with Hungarians. Your results come back mostly Italian and partially Hungarian.


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

[User] ELI5:Why is the gold standard bad? Feel free to explain how the gold standard works while you're at it... for... you know... the people who might not know.

[Assistant]
The gold standard, for those that don't know, means that each dollar you have can be exchanged for a specific amount of gold. So, instead of having to carry around gold bars, we can carry dollars bills around, and those dollar bills represent a fixed amount of gold.

Some people like the gold standard because it means the money is actually worth something inherently (it's worth so many ounces of gold), and it means that the government can't mess with the money supply on a whim.

The reason it's actually bad is because the government can't mess with the money supply. The supply becomes tied to some shiny metal. Now, if you have a society with 100 people, and 1,000 dollars (each person having 10 dollars), then this is fine. But in 20 years, those people will have children that will grow up and be part of the economy. But there's still 1,000 dollars, only for 150 people now. That means each dollar is worth more, which is called deflation.

So why is deflation bad? Because then nobody will take loans. A loan works because you think you can eventually pay off the loan, but in a deflationary economy, each payment becomes worth more and more. So, while your payment might be $100 each month, the first month that $100 could buy 100 apples, but the next month it buys 200 apples, and the next it buys 300 - so you're paying more each month instead of the same amount.

The other issue, which is less of a problem, is that inflation can't be controlled either. If the money supply is tied to gold, and then a lot of gold is found somewhere, then the money is worth less because, well, gold isn't so rare anymore. This happened to Spain in the 1500s and 1600s, when they plundered the Americas for gold, but caused runaway inflation. This is the opposite problem as above - nobody will make loans because the money will be worthless when the final payment is made.

Turns out that the right amount of inflation or deflation for a growing economy is close to 3%. Which you can't control if your money supply is tied to some metal. Which is why every country in the world has moved off the gold standard. Some people don't like the idea that the government can change the money supply, but the benefits of being able to adjust in a recession or in a boom economy outweigh the concerns.


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

[User]
[DC] How do you kill The flash?

I read when he passes through something he can choose to have it explode, can't he hypothetically get anyone to explode? Or go back in time and prevent something from happening, etc., Can move faster than the speed of light, no one can catch him.
How OP is this guy?

[Assistant]
The Flash can't casually time travel. Nor travel at lightspeed.

Now, before you downvote, hear me out. The Speed Force is an otherdimensional energy source that gives speedsters their speed and allows them to alter reality enough to perform their speedhax. However, the more speedforce you use, the more the Speed Force tries to draw you into itself, to contain you forever. If you don't have some kind of anchor to reality (like Linda Park and Barry Allen for Wally), you'll never even make it to lightspeed. Breaking the speed of light is a serious thing and that's the usual limit where the Speed Force goes from a gentle tug to grabbing you by the short hairs and dragging you towards it.

Wally West and Barry Allen are unusually resistant to this, but they have powerful anchors. If they slip, if they forget their anchor, if they're forgotten by their anchor, then there's no emotional connection to keep them in this dimension as opposed to the Speed Force dimension. And the nasty part is that the more speedforce you draw on, the harder the Speed Force works to *make* you forget.

People toss around things like the infinite mass punch, outrunning Death itself, and running faster than instant teleportation. What people forget is that these aren't casual uses. Whenever Wally performed the IMP, he was going near the speed of light, meaning he was dragging against the Speed Force. When he outran the Black Flash, he almost didn't make it back. He almost didn't beat the Black Flash, it nearly caught him before he even made it there. If he had been just a fraction slower... Well.  And when he ran faster than the teleport, he absorbed the speed of *everyone on Earth* as well as an *entire planet of sentient radio waves*. Radio waves move at the speed of light. He absorbed the speed of millions. And, again, he almost didn't make it. He had to focus to do it.

And when you go back and alter history, well. Bad things happen when you do that. The Time Masters exist to keep people from fucking with history, and they have no problem with killing people who do it too much.

Barry, especially, is unusual because one of his powers (that no other Flash has) is *perfect molecular control*. While Wally can go fast and vibrate through objects, they explode because he excites the molecules too much when he passes through them. Barry can simply realign his molecules and leave things undisturbed. He once survived an assassination attempt when he was on the Cosmic Treadmill by throwing half of his molecules into the future.

Killing the Flash, now. That may seem difficult, but only because his reputation is so overblown. People look at him during his desperate, struggling moments where he's thrown caution to the wind, has absorbed the speed of millions of people, and think that's his norm. It's like "How do you kill the Hulk?" where his reputation outstrips the reality.

How to kill the Flash. Poison is pretty much out. Unless you get something extremely powerful or tailored to him, he'll metabolize it too quickly for it to be an issue. That said, something with a disorienting effect would probably work, keep him too off-balance to do anything.

That's rule 1 that people tend to skip over: The Flash's natural state is at normal speed. He isn't in goesfast mode all the time, he doesn't have Pietro Maximoff Syndrome. If he were always in goesfast mode, it would be impossible for him to socialize. Now, as soon as he sees danger, he usually skips into goesfast, but if you can hit him before he realizes there's trouble, you're in the money. (That said, his reactions are usually in goesfast mode. Wally West is the guy who can suddenly go from a happy, normal conversation to going several thousand feet a second because he felt the heat of a bullet on the back of his neck.) If you drop something in his food, it might actually take him until after the poison's hit him for him to realize that he's in trouble.

Rule 2: He can't react when he's sleeping. Kill him however you like if he's asleep. Just don't do anything that would wake a normal person up.

Rule 3: Keep in mind the environments he's capable of working in. Get him on a plane. One of Barry Allen's worst fears was being on a plane when it exploded, because there's nothing he could do except wait for the fireball to hit him or the remains hit the ground. He can't fly and he can't go fast enough to run in thin air. He hates flying. Pop him on a commercial flight and place a bomb nearby. You could also get him underwater, but that's very elaborate. You'd have to drop him down to a level where the pressure change would kill him or he'd get the bends at a fatal level and trust he can't make it to a pressure chamber in time.


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

[User]
CMV: As a feminist, I believe Stormy Daniels threatening to release confidential images/texts are a form of revenge porn.

Sorry, not to spark debate about the incompetent person in White House, but I believe this is a form of revenge porn.
A male threatening to do so would be like a crime. Feminists would stir up a storm, but in this case some feminists are donating to this cause.
I am amazed by the bigotry and hypocrity of some feminist celebs taking the side of Stormy in this case.

Looking for simple logic here to change my open mind. Just change my feminist mindset, this is not at all feminism in my opinion. No political debates please.

- posted with love from India.

[Assistant] Taking Stormy Daniels at her word, someone approached her and physically threatened her and her daughter. If someone threatens violence against you to keep you quiet, the biggest card you have to play is to get loud - because then any subsequent violence would lead right back to them.


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

[User]
Why did primates evolve to not internally manufacture an essential vitamin, vitamin C, whereas other herbivorous, carnivorous and omnivorous species did not lose this trait?

I understand that we (~~homo~~ homo sapiens sapiens, and other primates) rely on consuming animals and plants that create this vitamin themselves, however, why has natural selection singled us out and (for all intents and purposes) caused us to not produce it ourselves? Why haven't herbivores, which eat flora that is vitamin C rich lose this trait? Same thing goes for carnivores, which eat other fauna (which contain vitamin C themselves from either flora or other fauna)?

Since it is an essential vitamin, and can cause a myriad of problems if there aren't sufficient quantities of it in our body, why have we evolved to not produce it when other animals haven't?

NOTE: I am presuming that the ability to produce this vitamin was present earlier on in our evolutionary timeline (hence why the vast majority of living things have the ability). If this is incorrect (ignore, otherwise), then a similar question: Why are we one of the very few species to not develop this trait, yet?

Thanks guys! :-)

[Assistant]
The ancestors of old world primates lived in an environment that was abundantly rich in vitamin C in the form of citrus fruits. In this environment, being able to produce vitamin C didn't matter and genetic drift lead to it being removed from our genome. It only causes problem for human because the have spread out of this environment.

Source: The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins.


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

[User]
[Rick & Morty] Why do the Alien Parasites take such wacky forms?

Wouldn't it make more sense for them to just stick to more mundane forms like Uncle Steve, Cousin Nicky and Sleepy Gary?

I mean, they can clearly manipulate memories to make their unusual forms seem normal, but why bother with that in the first place?

It seems like it would be easier for them to become members of the family, friends, neighbors and co-workers instead of weird animals and living fridges and stuff.

[Assistant]
Evolution. There's no selective disadvantage to the wacky forms so that behavior survives to the next generation. The memory trick is so incredibly effective it renders their perceived forms irrelevant to the species survival.

From an outside perspective it seems like a dead giveaway, but to their prey it doesn't even register.

But why wacky forms at all? They are interdimensional beings. Those forms are probably held in their genetic memory from all the dimensions they have successfully conquered before. And since it doesn't matter which form they take, they just randomly generate an image from a species they've already encountered.


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

[User]
[Marvel] Why does Wolverine have PTSD?

I understand Wolverine has fought in almost every war since the 1700's. He's been around a long time and has fought, "died" and been revived by his healing factor countless times.

But the thing I don't understand is this. Wolverine knows he's immortal. He has nothing to fear from either hot steel or cold steel. Neither blade nor musket will harm him. This means he can go into combat without any fear, because he cannot be harmed by combat. Any injury will be healed up within moments.

Why does Wolverine have PTSD if he has nothing to fear from combat? It would be like a soldier being able to respawn after being killed in combat. Without the threat of death there's no fear, and so because of this war would be almost like a game for Wolverine. It certainly was for his brother, who apparently looks forward to combat as a form of entertainment.

[Assistant]
What you're describing is basically his brother. We see him as a ruthless soldier who isn't bothered by anything he does and kills as easily as he breathes. He does not seem to have any signs of PTSD whatsoever.

Wolverine, however, is seen to be bothered by the killing. This is the reason he quits the 'team' of mutants in the first origins movie. His PTSD revolves around the atrocities he committed and saw being committed during the wars.


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

[User]
[Death Note] Was Light Yagami always evil?

Basically, what i want to know is: Was Kira always inside Light Yagami and the death note alongside the "I want to bring justice to the world" speech were just excuses for him to reveal his true identity? Or was he just a victim who was corrupted by the power?

[Assistant]
To butcher a quote by Robert Caro we might say absolute power corrupts absolutely but Power doesn't corrupt it reveals what someone does with absolute power.

 Given absolute power over a person's life or death Light almost from the beginning shows a complete disregard for the magnitude of taking someone's life.

It's very telling that when ryuk first introduced himself to light he notes that a normal person does not write as many names as light has.

I think without getting the Death Note while light might not have turned into a megalomaniacal figure with deific aspirations. He would have still become a man who thinks his intellect gives him the right to judge the guilt or innocence of the people he comes across.

For an example of someone almost exactly similar except for that notion that he should be the final judge of someone's guilt. L. Al several times in the story L sets up death row prisoners to be killed to further his investigation. But he never signed up anyone for death sentence who hasn't been tried and convicted.


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

[User]
[Star Trek] What would happen if a Romero-style zombie bit a Borg

Let's say a zombie ends up on a Borg cube, and manages to bite one of them. What happens?

[Assistant] Non-threat, honestly.  The Collective would detect non-normative biological activity in a drone (or a few, depending on how it spread) and would deactivate it or have it head back into its alcove for repairs.  The dangerous thing in this scenario would be; what happens if the Borg successfully figure out how to use the zombie viral agent as a weapon, or as an enhancement to their drones.  Example - prior to assimilation, Borg cube seeds an atmosphere with a modified zombie virus that basically puts the existing population into a passive, already drone like state.  Assimilation becomes much more efficient and the Collective becomes stronger.  Shudder.


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

[User]
How does "burning fat" physically work?

Like, do the fat molecules actually just fall off your body and into the environment? Meaning that gym floors must be filled with people's invisible ex-fat (I thought of this question while working out)?

[Assistant]
When fat or sugar are burned, the result is CO2 and H2O. The CO2 exits your body when you breathe. The H2O hangs around in the blood, but will leave the body through various means.

An average 140 lb person will lose about 1 kg of CO2 per day from basal metabolism. That takes about 270 grams of carbon out of your body. Fat is mostly chains of CH2, so about 85% carbon, and the rest mostly hydrogen.

The conversion of fat to CO2 and H2O happens during cell respiration. Cells prefer to use sugar for energy, but of course our bodies have processes to pull out and break down fat into molecules that can be used for energy in cells. These two usages happen at the same time, along with breaking down and burning proteins, but they happen at different rates.

We don't have control over the rate most of our cells work, but we do have control over our muscles. That's why we have to work out if we want to lose more weight than our basal metabolism will burn. When you're working out hard, you can lose 8-10 times as much CO2 as when being a couch potato.


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

[User]
Why Does My Small Game Cause Massive Slowdown While Much Bigger Games Do Not?

This is something that has kind of baffled me for a long time.

So I have a little game I'm working on in C++ using OpenGL rendering. It's essentially a re-creation of Wolf3D. All it does at the moment is render a small map with a handful of enemies (which are literally drawn as billboards) in it you can kill. They don't fight back yet, all they do is walk around randomly when they spot you, and change direction when they hit a wall.

However, if I push the number of enemies up to about 20+, the game slows to an absolute crawl.

Obviously, my code is inefficient in some way, likely the collision detection between the enemies and the walls.

What confuses me is how can my code be SO inefficient that it slows to a crawl in such a small game, when there are VASTLY bigger games with seemingly INFINITELY more going on in them that can comfortably run on the same machine at over 100fps?

Take a game like Doom Eternal, for example. The visuals are all handled by the GPU, of course, but when you consider exactly how much is going on in a given scene, how can it run so fast? It needs to handle updating all the enemies, handling collisions for all the objects in the scene, handling projectiles flying everywhere, handling AI updates and pathfinding, just a TON of stuff.

There's obviously something I'm missing here.

[Assistant]
If your collision code is algorithmically bad you can easily kill performance.  You need to profile your code and see where it is spending the most time.

Old-school OpenGL can also tank performance if you use the naive "send a single triangle per draw call" code that most tutorials start with.  GPUs can work amazing magic but only if you instruct them in the right way.


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

[User]
Am I breeding super bacteria in my kitchen sink? If not, why?

So I cook basically all of my meals every day.  This leads to the generation of a lot of dishes, and in turn the semi-frequent cleaning of said dishes.

First off, I avoid using anything anti-bacterial in my home.  I don't want to contribute to the strengthening of bacterial strains through inherited resistances.  In short, I took high school biology years ago, and I'm trying to be a good global citizen.

However, unless I misunderstand the process, washing with hot water and lathery(?) dishsoap kills bacteria through heat and suffocation.  How is this any different?

I have a giant metal petri dish in my house that's filled with consumable organic matter on a daily basis, and then washed maybe every other day.  Shouldn't I be breeding strains of extremely hardy thermophiles?

I'm an engineer, so I'm scientifically literate in the basic sense, but most of medical science is sorcery to me.

[Assistant]
No, and the reason is because antibiotics and soap and water work in different ways. Antibiotics kill bacteria by messing up some biochemical process in the cell, breaking down enzymes and pathways unique to bacteria.  Soap and hot water physically remove bacteria, and antiseptics like alcohol and bleach destroy them (and any other living cell).  It's much easier for bacteria to evolve to tinker with their metabolic pathways a little than it is for them to deal with the other sorts of more serious disturbances.

To make an engineering analogy, if a bacteria is a computer you are trying to disable, antibiotics are the equivalent of hacking the computer to make it nonfunctional.  Soap and water are the equivalent to coming along with a bulldozer and scooping away the computer.  Alcohol and bleach are the equivalent of shooting the CPU with a shotgun.  All of these will get rid of the unprepared computer, but it's a lot easier to upgrade the software to prevent hacking exports than it is to keep someone from physically scooping up the computer or making it shotgun-proof.


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

[User] [Halo] How can Spartans survive a fall from space but can be killed by normal bullets?

[Assistant]
A Spartan coming out of atmospheric reentry is traveling at subsonic speeds. Spartans have reinforced skeletons. The impact is distributed over their entire body. Mjollnir armor has a distributed pressurized gel system for medical purposes which can be repurposed as an impact cushion. Statistically speaking, Spartan atmospheric and quasi-atmospheric reentry has a greater than 50% injury rate, and a 100% chance of moderate to major materiel failure.

A bullet, on the other hand, travels at supersonic speeds and concentrates all of its force on a small point. ~~All recorded one-shot kills on armored Spartans were high-caliber armor-piercing rounds to the head.~~ An armored Spartan can be killed in one shot by a high-caliber armor-piercing round to the head.

You do the math.


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

[User]
ELI5:Why is there a 'Bee' in 'Spelling Bee Competition'?

We could simply call it Spelling Competition.

[Assistant] Historically the word bee has been used to describe a get-together where a specific action is being carried out, like a husking bee, a quilting bee, or an apple bee. Its etymology is unclear but possibly derived from the Old English word bn, meaning prayer.


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

[User] If i have a human fingerprint of just the index finger ,can an ai generate the rest of the palm's prints if the AI is trained with a huge dataset of human palms and will it be accurate?

[Assistant] The fingerprints form by how the skin develops in the womb.  This is a random process, not unlike how paint can wrinkle.     AI works on matching patterns,  and random data is the worst for this.  Best case is finding some weird population trends e.g. some minor loop variation  statistically more likely in men, or a specific whorl is not found in people whose ancestors lived in part of France 20 generations ago, but would not be able to extrapolate the other prints.


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

[User]
[Injustice] Why is Starfire so nice to the villains?

When Starfire encounters villains like Black Manta or Mr. Freeze, she always says things like, "You hide a wounded heart" in a sympathetic voice and trying to convince them to surrender without a fight.

Why? These guys are murderers and criminals. Black Manta in particular has done really bad things (like killing babies) for no good reason. At least Mr Freeze has a legitimate excuse and (as far as I know) hasn't done anything as horrific.

Isn't Starfire an alien warrior princess? Why doesn't she just blast them immediately with no remorse? Why all the sympathy?

[Assistant] Starfire is compassionate at her core - that's one thing that didn't change in the Injustice universe. She's an alien warrior princess, and she may not always understand Earth customs, but this idea that she's a heartless warrior with no remorse or sympathy is one that isn't true to her character.


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

[User] ELI5: When a judge strikes something from the record and instructs the jury to forget that portion of what was said in a trial, how does he make sure they do not use that information later when they deliberate?

[Assistant]
You literally cannot, save for occasions where one juror rats out another. This is why good judges try very carefully to guide the lawyers and witnesses to avoid any fatal missteps. If somebody says something that's sufficiently improper or inadmissible, it can result in a mistrial or a verdict that's overturned on appeal. The courts recognize exactly what you have: that some things simply can't be cured with an instruction.

And to be clear, judges don't tell the jury to "forget" the testimony, again recognizing that humans can't do that. The judge will normally instruct the jury to wall it off in their mind, and to remind themselves that they can't consider the stricken testimony.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do everyday electronics usually require more than one battery to be inserted to work where others, such as cars and phones, only require one?

[Assistant]
Every day batteries are a standard size - 1.5V or occasionally 9V. Never seen something need multiple 9V batteries so we'll stick to 1.5V.

Using multiple gives you whatever voltage you need. 2 gives 3V. 4 gives 6V. Bigger batteries give you more duration. So, having lots of small batteries means you can switch the same batteries between your TV remote and gameboy or smoke alarm while still being flexible.

Phones have one battery designed specifically for that phone. You can't transfer it. That makes that battery less flexible and more expensive since only that phone can use it.

Cars were all standardised on 12V, so we make one single 12V battery - again because there is no need for changes in voltage, we just make bigger batteries as needed. Although some larger vehicles do need 24V and have 2 batteries like smaller devices.


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

[User]
If stars in a galaxy increase in velocity the further they are from the center, why do galaxies have spirals? Wouldn't spiral arms indicate slower speeds as you approach the edges of a galaxy?

I understand dark matter plays a role here, keeping the galaxy spinning as one like a dinner plate.  Does this indicate the spirals form before enough dark matter appears?

[Assistant] Despite normal intuition when looking at a face on picture of a spiral galaxy, the spirals aren't exactly what they would seem. They are not concentrations of stars as you might assume and they have little to do with the motion of the stars. They are in fact density waves with in the material of the galaxy, namely gas and and dust. The slightly higher concentrations of particulate matter lead to the formation of larger, brighter stars. This leads to the characteristic spiral, not the motion/velocity of the stars.


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

[User] ELI5: How can one companies 5G be better than another? Doesnt 5G refer to the speed/strength of the connection?

[Assistant]
It all has to do with "coverage."  5G is a *standard*, agreed upon by industry.  The only difference has to do with how close you are to a 5G-capable cell tower (signal strength), which determines just how much you'll be able to do.

Anything anyone says apart from that is...marketing drivel.


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

[User] [Edge of Tomorrow] I'm Cage and I've died too many times to remember. Can someone help Rita and I figure out how many times we've died?

[Assistant]
In the screenplay for Groundhog Day, Phil Connors measures time by reading one page of a book in a library every day. This lets him track how many days it's been, since he can add up how many pages are in the books he's read so far.

Of course, this isn't a foolproof solution - Phil eventually finishes the whole library - but if you're stuck in a loop that last less than the centuries or millennia he experienced (or you have access to multiple libraries) that should work.

Other problem is, this only helps you keep track from the time you start counting. No idea how you'd go about figuring out how many times you've already repeated.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] How do Vader and Tarkin compare in regards to rank? Does one of them outrank the other or do they have roughly the same authority?

They both seem to answer to Palpatine, so they seem to sit roughly in the same area in regards to the Imperial hierarchy. Does either one have any sort of authority over the other? If they were to give conflicting orders to a trooper, lets say Vader orders them to shoot a Rebel while Tarkin says let them live, which order would take precedence?

[Assistant] Its basically up to the emperors discretion. Vader has absolute authority when it comes to carrying out the Emperors orders, but sometimes those orders include yielding to Tarkin. They are not on the same ladder so to speak.


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

[User]
ELI5 How come insects are so small?

I watched this series that said it has something to do with the amount of available oxygen while they're developing. If that's true then would it be possible to just pump an ant colony up with hella 02 and make like puppy sized ants?

[Assistant]
Insects don't have lungs, they absorb oxygen directly through their skin. This limits how big they can get, because the amount of oxygen they need scales with volume but the amount they can get scales with area...as they get bigger, the ratio gets worse and eventually they literally can't breathe (there's an entire Doctor Who about this with a giant spider).

Insects have evolved under this constraint, making them the size they are. If you suddenly give them 100% O2 then they can certainly breath better (just like us) but they don't suddenly grow bigger anymore than you eating 4000 calories a day makes you get taller or fertilizing your carrots a lot will make them 100' tall. In theory, over very long periods (thousands of years) they could evolve to be bigger if there was a survival advantage to doing so. But 100% O2 is also extremely toxic to most organisms long term, so it's not that simple either.


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

[User]
[Stranger Things] Where do all the Hawkins National Lab personnel live?

I live near Hawkins, and it just occurred to me that I've never run into one of these Hawkins Lab eggheads in town or at the local tavern or anything.  Funny that nobody seems to actually know anyone who works there.

[Assistant]
Hawkins National Lab most likely provides on site accommodation for the staff. This the scientists and guard most likely come from around the country they would all live pretty far away from Hawkins.

The reason why you never run into anyone from there is either because they don't wear lab coats or M.P uniforms while off duty or they generally just don't leave the facility for breaks in order to prevent possible leaks of information.

It's also very possible that you have met people from the lab but you just didn't know they worked there.

EDIT: At the very least the lab most likely provides some sort of housing for the staff. Either in the lab or in Hawkins or a near by town.


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

[User]
ELI5: Can the legislature effectively dissolve the judiciary by refusing to confirm justices?

If Congress can simply refuse to seat justices, doesn't that defeat the point of checks and balances?

[Assistant]
The key word there is effectively.  Congress could also choose not to pass any laws ever to thwart the executive branch.

In both cases, Congress pays a high political price for not doing its job.  McConnell is being slaughtered in the media, and ultimately his choice to do nothing could cost his party seats in the Senate and an even more liberal judge on the bench.

What if there wasn't a political cost?  Then what they were doing would reflect the will of people against a president they didn't trust.  Sounds exactly like checks and balances to me.


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

[User] [The Dark Knight trilogy] Did all members of the League of Shadows have to go through the training that Bruce experienced?

[Assistant]
The League of Shadows trains all of its assassins to an extremely high level, but if you are asking, was Bruce Wayne treated any differently, then the answer is also yes.

The League had planned to pull Gotham apart from within and this plan had been being put together for a long time. Bruce Wayne was a favoured son of Gotham, one of the most wealthy and connected people who could have used his influence to make this plan go off with greater ease. Had Bruce been with them, the plan would have been easier and their connections greater. This is why they targeted him and brought him to be trained. They knew he was a rich boy with issues who was looking for power and a way to deal with the world, they just decided to make it *their* way that he would do this.

Bruce received broadly the same training as everyone else, but most of them would have been trained from a young age and so he was offered extra work and special attention from Ducard to indoctrinate him and test him to see if he would assist them.

Even with all of this, they underestimated Bruce and his ability to resist them, leading, ultimately to the failure of their plan to destroy Gotham.

So the training that Bruce received was not identical to the training that everyone else received, as his training was more intense and for more than just to make him just another assassin.


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

[User] ELI5: If Android has ~80% of the smartphone market share, why do most apps still come out first on iOS?

[Assistant] Mainly because of the number of devices. Apple has just 2, the phone or iPad. But on android, you have to design the same app to be compatible on many phones that are different from one another in many tiny ways.


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

[User]
[MCU] Would thanos have even been able to go through with his plan in endgame?

So in Avengers: Endgame, we hear Thanos say "I will shred this universe  down to its last atom, then build a new one...". But I've always  wondered, would he have even been able to do this? We saw that he and  the gauntlet were severely damaged just from doing the snap and  destroying the stones. So, would he have even had the strength necessary  to go through with this plan, or would it have killed him?

[Assistant] Somewhere in the multiverse, theres a Twilight Zone-esque scenario where Thanos is able to shred the universe down to its last atom but is so wounded and the gauntlet is so damaged that he cant do anything else. Hes left alone in a universe of one.


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

[User]
eli5 When you shine a laser beam into space and then shut it off, will it continue to travel through space and why?

For example, if I had a strong green laser pointer shot it into the sky and turned it off, would the light continue to travel even though the source is shut off?

Does it just look like the light disappeared to the human eye due to it traveling so fast or will it actually disappear?

[Assistant] It keeps going. But the atmosphere has a lot of stuff to interfere with it, and it is so small and faint that it diffuses to basically invisibility pretty quick, so even if you had a super fast and super sensitive iphone following the beam at the speed of light, you would lose it in a really short time. But yeah, the photons keep flying away into space forever.


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

[User] With the naked eye, you can see Mars from Earth. It appears as a star like orbital being. Of you were on Mars, would you also see Earth in a star like fashion?

[Assistant] Yes, it would even look brighter. Earth's albedo-- the fraction of incoming optical light that it reflects, i.e. shininess-- is around 0.35, while Mars' is around 0.2.  Earth also is bigger, with about 4 times the cross-sectional area of Mars. Earth is also closer to the Sun, which means it is more brightly lit and thus there is more light to reflect. Mars gets only about 40-45% as much sunlight per unit area as the Earth does. Altogether, this means that Earth will appear something like (.35/.2) * (4/1) * (1/.45) ~= 15 times brighter from Mars than Mars appears from Earth.


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

[User]
Why is it that batteries cannot be charged quickly?

It seems it takes no time at all to drain a battery but to charge it is just the opposite. What gives?

[Assistant] chem eng here. well recharging a battery is reversing a chemical reaction and the rate at which you can do this is limited by the rate of ion transport to the electrodes. if you go pumping high voltage and current into a system which cannot react fast enough, you will risk decomposing your reagents and damaging the battery. there are different media such as solutions, gels and pastes, each with different properties. a paste may be slow or impossible to recharge but offers the advantage of no spills.


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

[User] Why does shaking a carbonated beverage cause it to violently erupt after opening it?

[Assistant]
This is more of a physics question.

The beverage is a solution of carbon dioxide, various flavorings, and some kind of sweetener. The beverage is pressurized, which is important because the solubility of gases increases with increasing pressure. This means that the beverage has more gas dissolved in it in the closed state than it could hold if it were at atmospheric pressure in the open state. However, gas coming out of solution is not instant and takes time (which is why carbonated beverages take many minutes to become flat). The main way to speed up the dissolution of the dissolved gasses is to introduce nucleation sites or bubble formation. Both of these are somewhat related. Starting a bubble is hard. For a bubble to form, it has to break the surface tension/adhesive forces of the liquid. Growing a bubble is a lot easier than starting one since the surface tension component is proportioal to the bubbles surface area where as the bubble grows with volume (and volume is proportioal to the amount of gas within the bubble). This means that as more gas goes into the bubble, it's easier for the next one to go in.

When the beverage is shaken, tiny bubbles form (that are for the most part formed irrespective of dissolved gasses). Since you've introduced a bunch of bubbles, when the beverage is opened, all the dissolved gas has an easy "exit point" and can go into all the existing bubbles. So all those tiny bubbles in the closed beverage rapidly expand when the beverage is opened, leading to the violent eruption.


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

[User] eli5: What is the difference between a cosplay and a costume?

[Assistant] At the core, the difference isnt the outfit, but whether or not the wearer is behaving in character. Essentially, a costume is merely a fancy outfit, but cosplay is adopting a personality, whole or in part.


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

[User]
Moral responsibility according to hard determinists

Hello! I consider myself a hard determinist and I have the following question  for other fellow hard determinists ; is there any moral responsibility  if we have no free will, that each one of our action or thought is the  inevitable result of causes we have no control on, then are we morally  responsable for any of our actions? Sure, the baron dHolbach and others  said that we need to criticise bad actions and encourage good ones for  the common good, but that doesnt mean criminals are, for example  morally responsible for their actions, it just means that society can  take the necessary means to prevent criminals from harming society more.  Are hard determinists forced to become some kind of nihilists? Thanks  in advance for your answers!

[Assistant]
Since free will is normally constructed as 'the control necessary for moral responsibility' without it then people are not morally responsible, yes.

>Are hard determinists forced to become some kind of nihilists?

About moral responsibility yes, about other things, not necessarily.


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

[User]
[Dune] Are there any negative side-effects to spice use?

The spice melange is often described as a drug and a narcotic. But other than the fact that withdrawal can be painful to the point of being lethal, I don't recall any negative side-effects being mentioned (and lets assume at this point that "prescience actually kinda sucks" doesn't count as "negative").

So, are there any, or is it purely beneficial so long as you have a constant supply?

EDIT: I guess you can overdose on the thing and too much exposure can mutate you, but lets ignore those for a while, too.

[Assistant]
The addiction and mutations ARE the only side effects and both so severe you can't put them aside as ignorable.
I don't think it's possible to overdose on melange, after all navigators lived in tanks full of gaseous spice.

The drug was cripplingly addictive and missing your dose meant death. Given that its a hard to obtain drug for those that aren't ruling class or navigators thats as big a downside as you can get.

Those that did get a constant supply mutated mostly eyes changing colour but navigators mutated so badly that it was rare for anyone outside of teh guild to ever see one.  They ended up being sluglike fish-men with v shaped mouths and no nose.


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

[User] What would happen if you held a plumb bob/line directly at earth's center?

[Assistant] There's no net force of gravity at the center of the earth, so it would float freely, just as it would in space. More generally, for a spherically symmetric mass (which the earth is *very* nearly), the only force you'll feel at any location is the force of all the mass closer than you to the center. All of the mass farther than you from the center will cancel out, producing no net force. As you get closer to the center, the total mass closer than you decreases, so the net force decreases as well, until it reaches zero at the very center.