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

[User] Eli5 : Why are Jews so hated throughout history?

[Assistant]
Its pretty complicated, and varies depending on which period of time, and what group of people you're talking about, but essentially, it all boils down to the fact that Jews have always been an easy scapegoat throughout history. There are several reasons why.

1) Unlike Christianity, Judaism is not a proselytizing religion.  What that means is that Jews don't actively try to convert other people to their religion, and in fact, try to dissuade others from converting to Judaism. For that reason, Judaism has spread far slower than the other Abrahamic religions, so they have always been a minority in recent eras. Minorities are inherently easy to pick on, because generally they don't have the strength in numbers to fight back.  So whenever a group of people had some sort of societal problem, whether with the economy or otherwise...the go to excuse became, "blame the Jews"...and in most cases, the Jews couldn't do anything about it.   **Edit** To give you some perspective, there are just 22 million Jews in the world, compared to over 2.18 billion Christians, and 2.08 billion Muslims. When you think about the huge gap between those numbers, it seems a lot more crazy how much animosity towards them exists in the world.

2)They have also generally been especially difficult to convert to Christianity, which obviously pissed off Church leaders who saw them as a threat to their gaining total power. In early days, they were viewed as particularly difficult to control & keep under systems of theistic rule. Thus, the powerful religious leaders of the time spread a lot of lies and fear about them to ignorant masses. Many of those rumors have stuck around throughout the ages in one form or another.

3) Some branches of Christianity pushed the idea that Jews were directly responsible for the death of Jesus (even though most biblical scholars acknowledge it was the Romans).

4) Jews typically have had a strong sense of tradition, family, & dedication to work & education. All of this allowed them to excel at trade & business, while maintaining some insular/"isolationist" tendencies. Eventually they became some of the most powerful business leaders around the world. The fact that such a small minority of people held so much financial power, caused some non jews to distrust them, and also made them an easy scapegoat for any country or group of people with financial woes.

5) Also along the theme of insularity, since Judaism is non-proselytizing, the only way to keep the religion going is for Jews to marry other Jews & raise their children Jewish. For that reason, in a lot of countries they never really fully integrated with other groups of people, so everyone else generally saw them as outsiders. People naturally don't trust outsiders living among them.

6) The whole arab/palestine/Jurusalem/Israel clusterfuck is why most Muslims hate them.


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

[User] A lot of people are making jokes about the "irony" of buying water to prepare for a rain storm. Is it actually safe to drink rain water on the east coast?

[Assistant]
A storm blows all sorts of things around. Considering it can blow boats miles inland, you can't really predict what it will blow into your rain water.

You can boil out bacteria, etc, but you can't blow out poison, fertilizer, etc, etc.


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

[User] [DC/Marvel] Is there a significant superhero presence on other, alien worlds? If not, what makes Earth so ripe for the creation super-powered beings?

[Assistant]
Not sure on either of these so people feel free to correct me.

* Marvel: Powers on earth largely a result of Celestial and Kree interference in our gene pool.

* DC: Earth is the center of magic and the source of life in the universe, which increases the chances of powers.


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

[User] Are 10G at a centrifuge for 10h the same as 100G for 1h? (in terms of separation etc)

[Assistant] Ideally the terminal settlement speed of a particle is directly proportional to the centrifugal force acting on it. So, ideally yes. Practically, you'll have diffusion counteracting it more noticeably the slower you spin. So you probably can spin a sample in a benchtop centrifuge until the cows come home and still not get an effect comparable to a fast run in a preparative ultracentrifuge.


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

[User]
CMV - In the USA (and spreading) 'Blackness' has become extremely prescriptive and performative leading to exclusionary and divisive attitudes and sentiments

This is based around a lot of what I see coming from the US during social or political discussions. I first noticed it when the whole 'Kanye West is what happens when Negroes don't read' and him being 'dis-invited from the cookout' thingy was going on.

There often seems to be a dialogues based around whether people are 'black enough'. Basically meaning do they confirm to the right stereotypes with regards to who to vote for, what to eat or listen to and other arbitrary things like that. As a black man with less 'conventional' interests (although I'm UK based), especially as a younger man I've often found myself being called a 'Bounty' or an 'Oreo' etc exclusively by other black people for things as innocuous as listening to Pink Floyd and 'talking white'. This experience is echoed by people fro Tyler, The Creator to Childish Gambino - black guys that grew up with less conventional or stereotypical interests, and they often reflect this in their lyrics.

I feel like this is leading to internal segregation within the black community (characterised even - albeit differently here - with the 'Team lightskin v Team darkskin phase a little while back) as well as silly situations where the likes of Rachel Dolezal can eat the right food, drink the proverbial kool-aid and vote the right way and that guves her confidence to claim she's 'culturally black'. Far too much of black 'Identity' it seems just boils down to embracing stereotypes about our music, food, dialect or politica affiliation.

In my experience the people calling me an Oreo or a Bounty for liking Metal music (white people music) or 'Talking White' (not utilising much slang, speaking in a more refined way) are overwhelmingly if not exclusively other black people. Calling me out for being 'not black enough' or the 'wrong kind of black guy'. This expands to dating - in my experience black girls tend to stay away from 'Oreos' and I've had comments in the past that their brothers/friends/families wouldn't approve because of how I speak or dress (although I get the dirtiest looks from black girls if I'm ever with a white girl so I don't get that) and this experience is definitely not a rarity for people whose interests or experiences fall out of 'traditional' blackness which at this point has basically become synonymous with 'African American culture'.

[Assistant] So are you saying that gate keeping in the the black community in particular is bad? That gate keeping in regards to identity is bad? That you dont like being insulted by people within the black community in particular?


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

[User]
How does one tell the difference between an ancient stone tool and just a beat up rock?

I have seen these tools at museums and can't imagine separating it from a bunch of similarly shaped rocks and definitively saying, "THIS is a stone tool, THIS is clearly just a rock."

[Assistant]
Most tools like scrapers, knives, blades, points, etc...will be clearly shaped and have percussion marks on them from being hit repeatedly. If they are whole they should be easily identifiable depending on the quality of craftsmanship and preservation. The edges will be sharpened and worked.

Some stone tools though do look just like rocks. Larger ones are used to form the smaller tools producing flakes and debotage that can be usually found at a site where tools were made. This context can usually be used to justify calling a "rock" a tool if it does look just like a rock.


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

[User]
How do electrons physically work within an atom?

As far as my knowledge goes,

Electrons behave as both particles and waves. Inside an orbital they behave as a 3D standing wave, so in essence (in an s-orbital) an electron exists everywhere on that sphere simultaneously.

My question is about the particle nature of an electron. How exactly does an electron show particle nature in atom? It all sounds like a wave. What part of an electron's existence in an atom is particle-like?

Also, is it possible to observe an electron as a particle while it's inside an atom?

Please do explain. (I get the basics of the mechanics, but I am at a lost at understanding how it looks physically and experimentally)

[Assistant]
I never liked the term "particle and wave", cause it really isn't true.

electrons, photons, and the rest are all waves.  When they are sufficiently localized, they are a wave packet, when they aren't sufficiently localized, they can be more of a standing wave.

If you think about it this way, and assume that momentum is frequency (which is true quantum mechanically), then everything makes more sense. (a Fourier transform of a narrow gaussian is a wide gaussian).

So in a sense, no, electrons are always waves.

However, shadydentist is right, if you make a measurement on the position of the electron, you collapse its wave function down into a narrow wavepacket, and you can start talking about this wavepackets position and momentum, though its position is much better defined than its momentum.

We are getting to the point of ALMOST being able to observe an electron as it makes transitions from higher to lower energy states.  The problem is that it requires really FAST measurements (approximately attosecond scale), and really small measurements (nanometer scale), which is very difficult.  There are a couple of papers of people measuring valence electrons using attosecond spectroscopy floating around though.


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

[User]
How cold is cold plasma?

I heard someone who I'm pretty sure is a knucklehead saying that temperatures in the Van Allen Belt are around 2000 degrees Celsius. This didn't sound right to me because there shouldn't be enough matter to contain that sort of thermal energy.

I did some reading and apparently the electrons are usually in the several thousands of degrees. But electrons don't have much mass, if I understand right they are mostly going to damage people via ionization rather than excitation. So, really I guess what I'm asking. Superman chills 1000 miles over the surface of the earth with a rectal thermometer of infinite scale sticking out of his ass backwards.

What does it say?

Also should he wear a parka or get naked?

[Assistant]
You can think of temperature and thermal mass like volts and amps.

The temperature of your fluorescant light is a couple thousand degrees, but you don't get burned when you touch it because the thermal mass of the plasma is incredibly low.  Similarly, if you have a slab of copper that's a little warm and you touch it, you feel the temperature difference immediately.


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

[User] [Venture Bros] Who will lead The Guild now that David Bowie has passed?

[Assistant]
Bowie was never the Sovereign, the Sovereign was a shape shifter that took Bowie's form. He tried to stage a coup and assassinate the Council of 13; he almost succeeded but ultimately failed and was overthrown and may have been killed in the process. Dr. Henry Killinger has begun to assemble a new council to lead the Guild, currently consisting of himself, Dr. Mrs. The Monarch, Henchman 21, Watch, Ward, Phantom Limb, and Radical Left.

No word on who the new Sovreign will be or even if there will be one under the new regime. Perhaps it'll revert to Dean?


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

[User] ELI5: How was the first camera made? How did the inventor come up with the idea and what parts and procedures were used?

[Assistant]
So technically a camera is anything that captures an image, it doesn't have to preserve it. The first cameras were just pinholes. We don't know when the first time someone realized light worked that way, but the first record we have is a book on optics by an Arab physicist in 1021. He also figured out that smaller holes made sharper images, but needed more light.

The first captured image was in the early 1800s. They knew that silver oxide turned dark when exposed to light, so someone tried it with a pinhole camera and it captured the image. They didn't know how to make silver oxide stop turning dark, so his picture wasn't permanent; as it was exposed to more light, it eventually turned all black.

Through the 1800s, other processes were developed (no pun intended) for making a permanent image, but that's really just refinement of the idea.


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

[User]
[The Purge] What would have happened on the night of the first purge?

How would people have acted on the night of the first one?

[Assistant]
The majority of the population would stay inside. Nothing special about it, they'd just mind their own business, and wait for this thing to blow over. Most would be too paranoid about repercussions, the scenario seems like a trap of some sort, to actually consider doing anything drastic.

A minority would do some petty crimes at stores and shops, which would eventually turn into a small mob, which would then evolve into a full blown riot. But, the person to person violence would be kept to a minimum, both on the streets and in home invasion scenarios, for fear of being a catalyst to something horrific.

The few murders on the first night would be very specific. Random murders would be rare. Instead, bitter exes would kill their former lovers, disgruntled workers would kill their bosses, jealous boyfriends would kill their girlfriend's best guy pal, etc.

It's not until after the dust settles from that first night when people will realize that there really are no repercussions. The second Purge would be a nightmare.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why did Palpatine get lazy and hand over rule of the Empire to his advisors instead of ruling himself?

He worked so hard to get control of the Galaxy but doesn't exercise that control himself?

[Assistant]
Because there's a difference between wanting control and taking direct control.

He chose the advisors, he gave them their missions, their instructions and let them take care of the details.

They all know he could kill them all on a whim so it's not likely they'll run off and start their own kingdoms.

There's always going to be levels of management when running a whole galaxy and Palatine was only concerned with the highest level stuff, the biggest of big pictures.


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

[User]
[MCU] What exactly are Thanos' abilities without the stones?

He seems to be super strong/durable but other than that does he have anything? Is he just a smarter version of the Hulk?

[Assistant]
> Is he just a smarter version of the Hulk?

He's a smarter, stronger, more durable, cold, calculating, mostly rational, and also murderously insane version of the Hulk.

Thanos' base physical stats put him in the very top league. He's survived going up against peak Iron Man *and* Stephen Strange *and* the Guardians of the Galaxy *and* Spider-Man.

He not only survived, but absolutely dominated, a fight against Thor and the remaining contingent of Asgardians, which included Heimdall *and* a bunch of gladiators from Sakkar.

He completely clowned the Hulk, who had just kicked the shit out of Fenrir *and* survived Surtur.

He also survived a full on blast to the face from Carol Danvers, who can destroy intergalactic warships with her face.

But most impressively, he survived using the Infinity Gauntlet not once, but twice, in a manner that (endgame spolers) >!crippled Professor Hulk and killed Tony Stark.!<

On top of that, he has the kind of charisma any cult leader would kill for. He's inspired countless legions of powerful beings, like Ronan the Accuser, Ebony Maw and the rest of the Black Order, the Chutari, and even Loki, to lay down their lives willingly, even joyfully, for his cause.

Add to that a tactical mind that has bested some of the most powerful planets in the universe. The Nova Corp on Xandar are essentially the most important military power in the galaxy, and Thanos crippled them so casually that it happened *off screen.*

Thanos is a murderer on a scale never before seen in the universe, but he approaches slaughter with the calm and rational mind of a philosopher. He isn't easily goaded into rash action, isn't easily tricked into over extending himself. He evaluates his prey, stalks them, and methodically destroys them, whether that prey be a man in an iron suit or an entire solar system.

So yes, Thanos is a "smarter version of the Hulk." But what that means is a foe with the tactical skills of Genghis Khan and Alexander the Great, the charisma of Jim Jones and David Koresh, the cruelty of Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong, technology greater than Tony Stark's, knowledge of the Infinity Stones that surpasses Stephen Strange, and durability that is probably on par with Odin Allfather.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is it that 4G internet on my phone feels insanely slow, almost useless sometimes, but years ago, back when 4G and LTE didn't exist, 3G on my Blackberry felt fine?

Could it just be some sort of nostalgia phenomenon?

[Assistant]
It's because websites have put more content into their pages.  If you tried to use your old 3G again, it would be painfully slow.

Even though our computers are getting faster, the actual time taken to run our software is the same across the years.  We keep building heavier software.


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

[User] [Harry Potter] Voldemort wanted Harry dead, but was his hatred of Muggles so extreme he could not have arranged a method of Harry's death that did not involve Magic. Like hire some Muggle lowlifes to gun him down on the street during the summer.

[Assistant]
Voldy wanted to kill Harry by his own hand, out of hatred for what he did to him and a show of power.

Imagine the boy that deformed and wounded the big evil dark lord is killed by a filthy useless muggle? Hed become a joke even if people wouldnt say it to his face.


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

[User] [Harry Potter] Have Wizards been to the moon?

[Assistant]
No, they don't have the means to.

* Long distance Apparition is extremely difficult; not even Voldemort could do it. Only Apparition specialists who devote their entire life mastering this specific craft can do transcontinental travel. Transplanetary Apparition is impossible.

* Other magical creatures like phoenixes and house-elves can Apparate while ignoring charms that block wizards from Apparating, but there's no evidence they can ignore range limits.

* Portkeys don't seem to have distance limits, but international ones require coordination between arrive point and departure point. Also, Portkeys are notorious for messing with magic. For example, Newt took the ship to America rather than a Portkey because Word of God said it would interfere with his magical suitcase. Even if Portkeying to the Moon were possible, you would risk arriving there with all your protective enchantments to resist the harsh conditions undone. This would be bad.

* Brooms have range and speed limitations. Crossing the Atlantic Ocean on one was a recent accomplishment and an incredible feat of endurance and skill. Reaching the moon is impossible without significant advancements in broom tech.

* Other flying objects like carpets and cards would have similar issues as broomsticks.

* Floo Network won't work without a target fireplace.


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

[User]
Explain: The brain is simply second-person perspective of first-person experience

I got this from a Bernardo Kastrup's video where he mentions that this is empirically provided and accepted. I couldnt understand this. Can someone please give a simple explanation to me (newbie)?

[Assistant]
Your brain has an intrinsic appearance that looks like your inner life. Your thoughts, emotions, perceptions, etc. Your brain also has an extrinsic appearance that looks like matter, specifically a brain and its associated processes (neurons firing, etc.). These processes correlate with its intrinsic appearance. So there exists both a first-person and a second-person perspective of your brain.

As a monist idealist, Kastrup extrapolates this idea to the universe as a whole. His position is that the category of experience we call matter is the extrinsic appearance of the mental states of "mind at large."


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do we stretch when we're tired at night and when we wake up in the morning?

and why does it feel so good?

edit, thanks guys! It also brought up some more interesting questions.

[Assistant]
*Circulation!*

Stretching improves blood circulation in your muscles which helps your body regulate your heart rate (for sleeping or waking up), and it feels GREAT!

Don't listen to the BS about calcium in your bones (/u/calzoner), its nonsense.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do cars travel in packs on the highway, even when there are no traffic stops to create groups?

[Assistant]
Faster cars inevitably stack up behind slow cars, generating this pack formation.

Eventually the faster cars will weave through and "escape" until they hit the next pack, but there's always another slow-car-slowly-passing-even-slower-car up ahead to cause another group.

The cars in a group do not stay together long, it's a transient phenomenon that forms and dissolves when cars with different speeds meet.


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

[User] ELI5: what exactly did the early NASA computers, the types used in the Apollo missions, do? How did 32k of processing power actually 'send a rocket to the moon'?

[Assistant]
It doesn't take much processing power to launch a rocket to the moon. The difficulty was the reliability of parts, not how fast it can compute.

The early computers are essentially just large calculators with built in course calculation programs in them.


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

[User]
[Halo] What's the political situation of someone living on one of the colony worlds?

Obviously during the war there's martial law and all that, but if I was a citizen on, say, Harvest before the Covenant, what level of political representation do I have? Am a I citizen of any particular nation-state, and do my rights differ at all from someone living on Earth?

[Assistant]
On paper you are a citizen of UEG and have the exact same right as someone on earth.

But in practice, because the population, wealth, and industries are all concentrated on earth, it means most of the laws passed will be earth centric. And even though you have same vote as the guy on earth, your voices will be drowned out due to sheer population difference and proximity. On top of that, all the major politicians on your colony will be in the pocket of some Earth based corporation or owe allegiance to some Earth based political party.

So it is no wonder why some colonies have sought independence and even resorted to armed insurgency.


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

[User] CMV: Free trade is equality for the world. The people who oppose it is no different than the greedy 1%

[Assistant] Free trade makes economic conditions all over the world converge. However, owners are the most likely to benefit the most from free trade since ownership is the most mobile form of capital. Therefore all other factors have to bend over backwards to accomodate the interests of the owners: that way, a race to the bottom starts where countries have to offer the lowest possible social, environmental and labor standards to attract capital. Even though this will eventually decrease demand and reduce profits, this will cause capital to become even more scarce, exacerbating the race to the bottom. So it will requires a conscious policy of international agreements to mitigate that.


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

[User]
[Portal/HL2] Where does the gravity gun come from?

So, the resistence have the gravity gun. But the portal gun also have this technoligy, except a weaker version. Who invented it, was it apature or black mesa? If apature, how did the resistence ge their hands on the technology? Did Black mesa, how did apature sceince get their hands on it? Did they both develop it, or did one and the other stole/copied the tech?

[Assistant] Both Aperture and Black Mesa (or the ex-Black Mesa scientists) were looking into teleportation technology. It appears likely that gravity field manipulation is either a key part of any teleportation technology or you necessarily learn something about gravity manipulation when you learn about space folding.


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

[User]
[X-Men] why is Forge considered superhuman for his intelligence, but Richards and Stark generally aren't? What are the upper limits of his "powers"?

Edit: so I understand now that he creates things intuitively. But can he decide what he makes, or does he just put things together and then find out at the end what he made? Abs if he can decide, does he need all the parts easily available, or can he also intuitively know that he needs to buy 8 Tesla coils, 944 screws, and 439 yards of copper wire, etc?

[Assistant]
Richards and Stark understand the underlying science behind their inventions.  They could teach a class on the things they've discovered, if there existed other people who could keep up.

Forge cannot do that.  He couldn't teach you how to build one of his machines anymore than Cyclopes could teach you how to turn your eyes into interdimensional punch portals.


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

[User]
Why are there no Jedi helping the rebel alliance fight against the Death Stars/Empire?

to my knowledge skywalker was the only Jedi (even then he wasn't a fully trained Jedi to help fight against the Death Stars/ Empire, at alongside the rebel themselves

Why? Would exiled jedi not be able to find out about this rebel alliance and help out? Other pilots or strategists or even fighting on the ground at Endor would have been of at least some help

I understand they are on the run and any of the few still alive are in hiding, so their communication would be very limited but they are trained to be resourceful and we see in the films that they can adapt quickly to situations (not the council maybe).

[Assistant]
Darth Vader hunted down Jedi after he turned. The only surviving Jedi were Obi-Wan and Yoda. There are differing opinions on why they survived while others did not.

Some say that they had the ability to "force stealth", hide their signature. When Obi-Wan went on the first death star Vader almost immediately picked up on his presence. Perhaps he could hide from him from light years away, but not miles.

Some think that there is a level of canceling on the planets that they hid on. Yoda was on Dagobah, where the evil cave that Luke visited was. There is evidence that the cave is where a dark jedi who came to kill Yoda died. This evil stayed on the planet, and Yoda made his camp there because he would be hidden by that signature.

Obi-Wan may have chosen Tatooine both because that is where Luke's Aunt and Uncle were (and he was to watch over him), and it held a personal pain for Vader. This pain would 1) Make him less likely to visit and 2) Make him blind to any force activity there.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Mobility seems to be important for lightsaber dueling. Can a sessile or slow-moving species, like a Hutt, become a Jedi/Sith?

How important is it to be good at fighting for these orders?  Do they have scholar Jedi who barely squeaked by in lightsaber class, but are otherwise good at using the Force?

[Assistant]
Sure. Beldarion is a good example. He was ancient and weakened by parasites, but kept his body in reasonable shape through training and the Force. There are also force service corps for those not suited to the order.

Hutts are a bad example though. Hutts are freakishly strong. And tough. They're slippery from mucus, secrete oils and are resistant to acid and blaster fire. They lack a full skeleton - like snakes. As they grow older they grew fatter, but that was mostly a social thing. They even regenerate slowly. A jedi from a race poorly suited to lightsaber combat could learn to leverage their strengths like Vader, concentrate on using the Force offensively or avoid it all together. The latter case probably goes to the service corps as healers or librarians. Maybe farmers or pilots.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do we die instantly when our heart stops? Why don't we asphyxiate from lack of oxygen from blood no longer circulating?

I know this sounds extremely dumb but I've always wondered about this. I can understand dying via shock if shot or stabbed in the heart. But when it just stops because of old age or sickness, why is death instant? They say you can live about 5 minutes without oxygen so why don't we die after about 5 minutes since blood is no longer circulating?

Like I said, I know this sounds really dumb because it's basically like "well because your heart stopped, duh!". But why does it stopping kill you instantly instead of brain death through suffocation?

[Assistant]
You don't die instantly; people with a totally stopped heart often die, but it is possible if the heart resumes in a timely manner you'll survive.

There's a distinction between alive and conscious, though. A total stop in blood flow will make you pass out really quickly; in fact a sudden decrease in blood flow to the brain can easily cause one to faint even without the heart stopping.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] How ludicrously bad would things have to get with Vader before he started to seriously consider leaving the Dark Side and the Empire?

I know Vader was a miserable existence and he essentially had nothing else while he was Vader, but occasionally, little bits of Anakin Skywalkers morality popped up. How bad would things have to get before Vader went; This isnt working, and left?

[Assistant]
He'd probably have to see the Emperor literally murdering his son in front of his eyes before he'd make a move.

Even then he'd likely hesitate and go back and forth before finally making up his mind.


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

[User] ELI5: What is Heartbleed and what should I do to protect myself?

[Assistant]
Let's say that you and a friend are passing notes in class. You want those notes to be totally private, so you and your friend come up with a secret code that only the two of you know. Every note you pass is written in code, and even if your teacher grabbed every single one of them, he wouldn't be able to figure out what they said. That's a very ELI5 version of encryption.

But now let's imagine that every time your friend opens that note in class, your teacher can see a tiny chunk of it - maybe only a few letters or numbers. And let's say that because your code is so complicated, your friend has another piece of paper on his desk (called the "key") that he can reference to actually translate from the coded note to plain text. Now, your friend is really stealthy, so he does his absolute best to hide the "key" under his desk so that nobody but him can see it.

Heartbleed is the equivalent of your teacher having super vision that allows him to see tiny bits of both the notes you pass AND the piece of paper that tells your friend how to translate the message - **even though your friend is doing his best to hide everything**. Your teacher can only catch the tiniest glimpse of those things, but after enough time, he can piece together big chunks of your notes but also (perhaps) the entire "key" that your friend uses to translate your messages.

If your teacher writes down everything he sees - both messages and the "key" - for long enough, he can eventually crack the code and read every single note that you have ever passed to your friend using that "key". It's important to note that your teacher would REALLY have to put a lot of effort into this in the "real world" of the internet, because you and your friend would be among **billions** of pairs of kids in class passing notes. But it's still possible, because your teacher has lots of eyes.

(In this example, you are you, and your friend is your bank or something - and the note you're passing contains your Social Security number, date of birth, bank account number, and list of your fears)

In non-ELI5 terms, the best things you can do to protect yourself include:

* Change all of your passwords to your online accounts - this will not fix the "read every single note that you have ever passed to your friend" part, but it will protect you in the future
* Check with your financial institutions to determine if anything out of the ordinary has appeared - this may protect you from past fraud that has occurred due to Heartbleed exploits
* If possible, request new accounts, cards, etc. from your financial institutions - this will protect you from a bad guy trying to use your old data that he got via Heartbleed exploits

EDIT: Never thought I'd say this, but thanks for the gold!


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

[User] How clean is "clean coal," as opposed to regular fossil fuels?

[Assistant]
The idea behind clean coal is that you are capturing the carbon dioxide before it's emitted, compressing it, and injecting it back into the earth.

The main sources of pollution with coal are:

1) Environmental damage during mining

2) Carbon dioxide emitted during burning

3) Other pollutants emitted during burning (sulfur dioxide leads to acid rain; heavy metals; black dust)

We already control (3) to some extent through scrubbers, by washing the coal before burning, etc. Clean coal hopes to control (2) as well. But (1) will still be a problem.

You can't really compare coal to other fossil fuels -- coal cannot directly replace oil (since it is used to produce electricity rather than for transportation). But, clean coal is a lot "cleaner" than oil, since we can stop most of the carbon dioxide from being emitted. Carbon capture is not plausible for individual cars.


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

[User] [Revenge of the Sith] how do the events and galaxy change if Grievous actually killed Obi Wan?

[Assistant]
When Padme goes to confront Anakin (now Vader) on Mustafar, Anakin convinces her to come with him and that the Jedi turned on the Republic. She doesnt know and will never know that he killed younglings at the temple. She goes with him and gives birth to Luke and Leia, but would still die.

Palpatine needs Padme to die to fully push Anakin to the dark side so she cant live anyways. She must die in child birth.

Anakin raises the twins as power force users in the dark side. The Rebellion is crushed by Vader and his two children. Galaxy falls into permanent darkness as Yoda is eventually hunted down and killed.

The spark is out.


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

[User]
[Avatar 1 &2]Pandora is DEFINITELY the result of massive genetic engineering and not natural. Was it created by the Navi in the past or something or someone else? Spoilers for Avatar 1 and 2.

Before you worry over spoilers from the title and did not see Avatar 2 yet, worry not.  This is not in any way shape or form discussed in the movie. This is not hinted at directly or indirectly and from a Doylist perspective I doubt Pandora is artificial but we don't do Doylist views here, we do Watsonian views and from a Watsonian perspective there is no way that Pandora could be the result of evolution.  So there were no spoilers in the title, but there definitely will be now so heads up for that.

I'm going to make one big assumption going into this, that the laws of nature and physics and chemistry and biology work the same in the Avatar universe as they do in our own. If they don't and some strange quirk of chemistry or something could produce results which to us seem impossible.

What I want to know is, is Pandora the result of a technologically advanced Navi in the distant past becoming post technological and becoming primitive after making a world for themselves or did some other species make Pandora as it is and why?

Why am I so sure that Pandora is not natural?  Is it because of the world-mind of Aeywa which is made up of lots of life forms working together?  Actually... no.  Well no, not primarily.  It seems implausible but even in the real world trees sometime share resources through their roots and send information to each other about environmental conditions, so if you fast forward a few tens or hundreds of millions of years it doesn't seem impossible just very unlikely.

What seems impossible is the freaking whale USB.

A common argument for intelligent design in the past was that the world seems to be so perfectly designed for us, which is silly, species which came before us slowly adapted to conditions over time and we today are a species well adapted to our environment as a result.

Those freaking whales in Avatar 2 have a feature of their biology which is impossible to evolve on their own. One which is TOO complicated and wouldn't provide any benefit before reaching the current level of complexity.

For those who have not seen yet, the whales have a USB slot on the back of their throats, sort of near where a human has a uvula that they can unlock and
Navi can connect that USB slot the same way they can connect everything else in the planet, which is already damn suspicious of course. But for that USB slot in the back of their mouth to be present that would have to mean but there was some kind of environmental pressure to allow system that complicated to either appear spontaneously, which is impossible, or for the precursors leading up to it to be beneficial in some way. This is an actual thing in biology. Modern eyes are way too complex to have arisen on their own all the once, but even primitive eyes which were nothing more than spots to detect light would allow microscopic organisms to detect which way is up which is beneficial for various reasons and slowly over a great deal of time they improved.  Eyes actually evolved several times.

The wings of birds and bats or too complicated to suddenly appear, but things leading up to them could be useful and they slowly changed over time and became more complicated.   Feathers help with temperature control long before they helped with flight, longer flaps between the limbs of primitive mammals in the case of bats can help already arboreal mammals glide between trees.

Eyes and wings are too complicated to suddenly appear but less primitive versions provided a benefit so they slowly changed over time becoming more complex

A USB slot in a nearly impossible to each place in the back of the throat of a carnivore which only the NAVI can access?  Impossible.  There was no possible benefit to a less primitive structure in such a ridiculous location I can think of which means it has to be artificial.

Who made Pandora as it is and why?

[Assistant]
I think the mistake here is to try and analyse Pandoran life in Earth terms, and indeed that was the mistake that Humans made when they interfered in Pandora in the first place.

Pandoran life should be viewed as something like a hive mind, a living example of the Gaia hypothesis. They are individual beings to a degree, but they are also 'cells' in a larger organism, Eywa, that shares their memories, consciousness, thoughts and emotions. This does not just extend to the Na'vi but all Pandoran creatures.

I think it is possible, actually probable, that Eywa excerpts considerable control over the ecosystem, either unconsciously or on a superconscious level that we can't understand (or both). Eywa likely influences the development of animals and plants on Pandora to suit the greater whole, to keep the systems in balance.

So the 'USB' you speak of (the neural queue) is likely a feature Eywa finds advantageous to the greater being as a whole, since this means creatures can contribute to its shared consciousness, becoming its eyes, ears - nodes in the network. So it's maintained across all of the animal species on the planet so that they can share in the collective consciousness both with eachother and with Eywa itself.

Any animal with a 'defective' neural queue would likely be locked out, left to die, and be reabsorbed. There is thus an extremely strong selection pressure to keep it, and keep it working and 'compatible' with all the other creatures on the planet.

And we don't even know if Pandoran creatures are capable of mutation and evolution - it may be that in a sense, they are intelligently designed by Eywa, or at least heavily 'domesticated' by the hive mind, shaped to suit its needs.

So yes, there is an element of genetic engineering, or at least generic selection, going on - just probably not in the way you thought!


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

[User] [Spiderman into the Spiderverse] Did Miles dad already know Uncle Aaron was Prowler when he discovered his dead body?

[Assistant]
I don't think he knew about The Prowler full stop. The way it was set up it seemed like Aarons whole deal was surgical precision and leaving no trace or evidence of himself, so he wasn't on the police's radar. He just found his brother, dead, in a weird suit.

I think he knew that his brother was involved in SOMETHING criminal, which is why he didn't like Miles hanging out with Aaron, but not that it was being a ruthless killer. If he had even suspected that part, he would have just severed all ties with him and forbidden Miles to even see him.


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

[User]
[Marvel] Would Vision Die If He Went To An Alternatw Universe?

The mind stone is apart of vision and he needs it to survive, at least in the MCU. But the infinity stones do not work in alternate universes so would vision just die if he left his universe?

[Assistant] Yes, he most definitely would. Shuri mentioned in *Infinity War* that there were other components that made Vision who he is, so his entire life isn't solely dependant on the Stone; however, a complex process was being performed to him in order to successfully remove the Stone and keep him alive. To cut off this vital component suddenly would prove extremely lethal to him, resulting in expected death or at the *very least* incapacitation and a Vision no longer functional, let alone one we could recognize.


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

[User]
[Witcher] Why don't more witchers quit?

Witchers are extremely skilled and well-equipped fighters against either monsters _or_ men. They would make excellent shock troopers, bodyguards, or assassins, and would be worth their weight in gold as mercenaries.

But it's mentioned that most witchers are desperately trying to hunt down what few monsters are left, and end their days alone in some swamp, killed by drowners.

So... why don't more of them find other careers? Not all of them seem to enjoy monster hunting, or at least see it as a viable way to make a living, but the only witchers we see who've gone into other work are the kingslayers.

[Assistant]
They may *pretend* to hate it, like SWAT team members complaining about their jobs, but that career is what they've been indoctrinated into and is the top of the heap.

When it comes down to it, if you've made it that far through all the weeding out, nothing else would ever feel right.  The power and respect and feeling of satisfaction of being one of the handful who can actually do what you do.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does the naming system behind classical music pieces work?

symphony 4 movement 6 concerto 9 op 16 no 32 in g major.

i just made that up obviously, but how does one make sense of it?

[Assistant]
Good question. "G major" and the like refer to the key of the piece (that is, the scale on which the piece is based).

Opus number indicates the order in which a particular composer's pieces were published. Since Mendelssohn's A minor string quartet was his 13th published piece, it's called op. 13.

Sometimes composers publish several pieces at the same time in one big collection. In that case, the collection as a whole gets an opus number, and each work in that collection gets a number of its own. For example, Beethoven's F major string quartet was the first in the collection of quartets known as Opus 18, so we label it op. 18 no. 1.

A movement is a discrete section of a piece that usually stays in one tempo. For example, the "Allegro con brio" section of Beethoven's op. 18 no. 1 quartet is the first movement of that quartet.

Symphonies and concertos are two different types of pieces. A symphony is a long piece for orchestra with usually four movements (fast - slow - triple meter - fast). A concerto is a piece for orchestra *plus* a flashy, virtuosic solo instrument part, like a violin or piano. A concerto usually has three movements (fast - slow - fast).

The number you sometimes see next to the word "symphony" (or "sonata," or "concerto"...) just refers to how many symphonies (or sonatas, or concertos...) that composer wrote before composing the one in question. So Beethoven's Symphony no. 7 is the seventh symphony Beethoven wrote.

One more complicating factor: scholars have created catalog numbers for the works of some of the great composers. These are like Dewey decimal numbers at the library in that the number can tell you the genre of a particular piece. For example, Bach's first sonata for solo violin is labeled BWV 1001. The BWV stands for Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (Bach Works Catalog), and the fact that it starts with 100- means that it's a solo instrumental piece.

As you can see, there's great opportunity for redundancy in these naming systems, which is why you'll rarely see a piece labeled with all the information you provided in your example. For instance, if you say "the second movement of Beethoven's fourth piano concerto," everyone will know what you mean.


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

[User] [MCU] Thanos states that half of all living creatures in the universe would cease to exist after the snap, so why does buckys metal arm and falcons metal wings bite the dust ?

[Assistant]
Everyone's clothes went with them too. Items worn by a sapient creature were apparently considered a part of them as far as the infinity stones were concerned.

It kinda makes sense that whatever magic the stones used would do something like that, since a lot of natural parts of our body are also dead matter. Like if you make a person disappear, does their hair go too? It's just dead keratin protruding from your body, and isn't really a part of you any more than an artificial article of clothing.


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

[User] ELI5: How different are each and every sperm? Everyone is unique, but would a different sperm from the same man really change child anything close to drastically?

[Assistant]
One sperm vs. another sperm would definitely change the child (as would one egg vs. another egg) but "anything close to drastically" is in the eye of the beholder.

The children produced from two different sperm from the same father would be very similar and have many of the same genes, but they would be as different as any siblings you know. They might be practically twins or they might not even look particularly related.

If "as different as two siblings" is "close to drastic", then there's your answer.


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

[User]
Is there a maximum possible temperature?

I have a scientific background, and feel kind of embarrassed asking this but here goes...Absolute zero (273.15C, 0K) is achieved when all of the energy of a particle has been removed, and it is therefore, stationary. I am aware that reaching absolute zero is not actually possible, but we can get pretty damn close. Increasing the temperature therefore increases the energy of a particle and it moves more quickly.

What happens when the speed of this particle approaches the speed of light? Is it then impossible to heat this particle any more? If so, is there a maximum possible temperature that a particle can have?

I have a feeling I'm forgetting something fundamental here, I welcome your answers!

**[EDIT]** Thank you all for your fascinating answers, clearly there is more to this question than immediately springs to mind. The comment about flipping the spin of an atom in a magnetic field to increase the entropy is especially interesting. Cheers everyone!

[Assistant]
The speed of light is a speed limit, but not an energy limit. You can add as much energy as you want to a system of particles, and never reach the speed of light limit.

Temperature is a sort of measure of the average kinetic energy of particles in a system, so even though you might get to a point where the average speed of particles is not really increasing, you will never get to a point where adding more energy won't increase the temperature (providing the system is not losing heat or doing work).


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

[User]
CMV: The "Harry Potter" magical community could win a war against muggles

I've seen it repeated often that, if the muggle community ever discovered the magical community, the muggles would win. I believe this is wrong.

For starters, wizards have all sorts of hideouts that are completely inaccessible to muggles(for example, Hogwarts, Diagon Alley). So, *at the very least*, they can avoid being conquered indefinitely.

Which leaves them free to pursue an asymmetrical strategy against the muggles- between invisibility, teleportation and various spells that allow them to spy, they're set. They don't even need to kill anybody, just waiting for opportunities to zap muggle leaders with the Imperius curse would be sufficient.

If they really want to fuck up a target, they need only let loose a quick Fiendfyre spell and apparate away immediately after, leaving the Fiendfyre to lay waste to the area.

This assumes of course that they're not completely incompetent, and aren't crippled early on due to overconfidence before having a chance to learn from their mistakes and pivot to a more cautious/assymetrical strategy.

[Assistant]
The fundamental problem with a Wizarding World warring asymmetrically on the Muggle world is that wizards have no fundamental understanding of how the muggle world works.

Arthur Weasley, whose career involves research on muggles, doesn't understand how a toaster works.

The trick to subversion is that you understand the systems you intend to subvert.

 A wizard may be able to vanish, to take control of a muggle leader, and to exert degrees of control on policy, but wizards also appear to have no sense of redundancy and oversight. The Ministry of Magic is easily subverted, and we see little in the bureaucracy that is anything more than medieval level overt inquisitorial methods of rooting out corruption. It follows they would expect similar responses--they have no concept of metadata or analysis that would reveal in a hot minute the behavioral discrepancies between a compromised person and anyone else.

They wouldn't even be aware of wire taps.

Intelligence gathering is key to warfare, and while muggles may puzzle at how exactly wizards use chimneys to move between places, the results are clear. Muggles are far more adept at intelligence gathering, and any sort of guerilla warfare that goes beyond "apparate in, killing curse, apparate out" would likely fall flat.


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

[User]
Do larger people have larger organs?

I'm an above average male, 6 foot 7 inches and 240ish pounds. Are my internal organs like my liver or heart significantly larger than someone like my s/o who is 5 foot 5 inches and 130 pounds?

[Assistant]
Yes. It all starts with your skeleton. A larger frame needs larger muscles to move it. Larger muscles will need more nourishment. This leads to a larger digestive tract and a circulatory system with more volume. A larger circulatory system has more RBC's which need a larger spleen to filter them, has more fluid which needs larger kidneys to filter it, and carries more oxygen which needs larger lungs to supply it. Of course, all your RBC's are made in your bone marrow, which needs to be larger to make them, which completes the circle.

That's the logic behind it, but the real reason is simply that your growth hormones act in equal proportions on all of the parts of your body.


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

[User]
What do we know of precolonial African philosophy?

What were the major civilizations and centers for philosophy in Africa, who were the major philosophers of the African tradition?

Should African philosophy be thought of as regional such as western philosophy/eastern philosophy? was there as much disagreement about philosophical issues as we can find in the east and west? Do Africans have a philosopher on par with Confucius, or Aristotle, in terms of shaping the culture of the entire region? Etc.

[Assistant] Are you specifically interested in sub-Saharan Africa, perhaps?  North Africa, especially Egypt, has an important place in the Western philosophical tradition, in spite of the stereotype that "Western" maps onto "European." St. Augustine, perhaps the single most important Christian philosopher pre-Aquinas, was from a city in what is today the country of Algeria.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Where do Human's come from?

Human's are a very common species in the Galaxy and yet unlike Twi'leks, Zabraks, Hutts amd other distinct races we don't know the planet they originated from. Is there any information that sheds light on the subject?

[Assistant]
Ohh you have to love wookieepedia. Here is the answer, though since cannon has changed recently then they might change it.

Having a recorded and civilized history reaching back far beyond the beginning of space travel,[4] the origin and early history of Humans was lost to their scientists in the depths of millennia. Whatever the original homeworld was, it was universally accepted that Humans evolved on one of the Core Worlds near the galaxy's center. Humans were among the few sentient species in the galaxy whose homeworld was unknown, the Ryn, Yoda's species and the Baragwins being some other examples.

According to an inscription found by archaeologists Dr. Ualp Xathan and Fem Nu-Ar on Seoul 5 around 4 ABY, Humans originated on the planet Notron,[5] an archaic name for Coruscant.[54] The ancient Zhell nations, who drove the Near-Human Taung from Coruscant, may have been the progenitors of later Humans.[4] Coruscant's ground had been several kilometers below its inhabitants' feet for millennia, with the lowest depths of its planet-wide city dating back to 100,000 BBY. Thus, it was impossible to carry out the historical study and archaeological research on the planet's prehistory necessary to prove or to disprove that theory. In addition, Coruscant's natural climate was said to be too cold to support Human life,[55] a claim difficult to be reconciled with the theory that it was the original Human homeworld. Tarnese Bleyd believed that the ancestors of Humans favored trees and high ground based upon his observations of human hunting behavior. [56]

It is possible that some ancient civilization, such as the Celestials or even the Rakata, transported early Humans from their original home planet to others. It was, in fact, alleged that they had once been a slave race of the Infinite Empire[4]; however, any knowledge of Human enslavement was absent from Rakatan records as of 3956 BBY. Some of the far-flung 'colonies' eventually diverged genetically from the Human baseline, giving rise to various Near-Human races and species.

During the Jedi Civil War, the Jedi Revan discovered evidence in the oral traditions of the Sand People on Tatooine that the human species may have originated as slaves taken from that planet by the Rakata, the Sand People being the genetically distinct species that evolved from those who were left behind. The fact that the Sand People's legends indicated that the planet had once been far more temperate and habitable before an ancient war with the Rakata adds credence to this possibility. However, millennia of distortion introduced into the historical record combined with the Sand People's extreme hostility to the idea of introducing new interpretations into their oral tradition made it impossible for Revan to investigate this further.[57]
Expansion

Humans discovered space travel themselves, early in their history; in fact, they were already present on a few scattered colony planets of the Core Worlds even before the development of hyperdrive, thanks to the use of sleeper ships. Coruscant had grown to a planet-wide city and from there, they spread to such Core Worlds as Alderaan, Corellia, Corulag, and Chandrila.[4]

During their early history, Humans seem to have been subjugated by the Rakatan Infinite Empire. Though some sources indicate that they were enslaved workers on Rakatan projects such as the Star Forge,[4] the fact that the droids and computers Rakatan ruins on Dantooine dating from that era did not recognize the Human species points to the contrary.[58]

After the fall of the Infinite Empire circa 25,200 BBY, the Humans of the Core used Rakatan technology to set up a true interstellar civilization. At first, a network of hyperspace cannons linked Coruscant with other Human-populated worlds, as well as the Duros civilization. Corellian Humans were one of the first societies to develop hyperdrive starships sometime before 25,053 BBY, spreading the technology to other Core Worlds. With the hyperdrive, their scouts and explorers traveled and met with other species, in a time known as the Expansionist Era.[4]

The Human colonies, which had expanded through the Core Worlds through slower-than-light travel, later established daughter colonies of their own in what became the Colonies region. During the last pre-Republic years, Humans reached the Outer Rim and populated planets as far away as the Tion Cluster. The Tionese warlord Xim the Despot, whose conquests reached from the Cronese Sweeps to the Si'Klaata Cluster at the edge of Hutt Space, was one of the most prominent Humans of the pre-Republic period.[4]

TLDR: Coruscant then taken as slaves by space aliens and spread around the galaxy. Also the explaniation talks as if it isn't confirmed because its using in universe explinations from characters a thousand years later. But in the Dawn of the jedi comics, KOTOR games, and the guide to warfare book it gives direct answers that yes humans are from coruscant.


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

[User]
Are there any regions of interplanetary space where a human could survive without a space suit?

To clarify, is there any reason to believe that there could exist a nebula or gas cloud where the gases, radiation, and temperature could permit an exposed person to survive for any period of time without dying?

[Assistant] No. Even in a nebula the gasses are absurdly sparse, and not even within several orders of magnitude of the density we'd need to breathe. And that's assuming it's pure oxygen, which it obviously wouldn't be.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Did the general public really know about Darth Vader at all?

Was Vader a public figure? I ask because when Obi-Wan tells Luke about his father, he says he was killed by "A young jedi named Darth Vader." Luke doesn't react at all, not even when he says that he was a former pupil of Ben's. So it seems that Luke had never heard of him, or else he would say something like, "Holy shit! You were Darth Vader's teacher?!" So was Vader someone that would be known to the general public?

[Assistant]
Darth Vader was not a public figure.  When the Emperor was really, *really* mad at someone, a dark, shadowy figure would make them wish they were never born.  High-ranking military officials and people who were "in the know" would be more or less aware of Vader, but the common citizen would not.

That being said, we do know that he appeared on early Imperial broadcasts.  Obi-wan saw something like a news video that depicted Vader soon after their battle on Mustafar.


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

[User] Why is the quantization of gravity so hard to prove? If mass if quantized, why does it not follow that gravity is also quantized?

[Assistant]
>If mass if quantized, why does it not follow that gravity is also quantized?

Mass isn't quantized.  There is no reason, a priori, why a particle cannot have any value for its mass.  Indeed, in the Standard Model, the masses of the fermions are parameters that must be fixed according to experiment.

Also, energy is not quantized either; this is a frequent misconception.  Electromagnetic waves are quantized into packets of energy, proportional to Planck's constant and the wavelength of the EM wave.  Planck's constant is constant, but an EM wave can have *any* wavelength.  To say that it is quantized doesn't necessarily mean that only certain amounts of energy are allowed (although for some systems, like atoms, that may be true); rather, it means that EM waves interact with matter via discrete packets of (any particular value of) energy -- which we call photons.

>Why is the quantization of gravity so hard to prove?

For two main reasons:  (1) gravity is such a weak force that we can't even directly detect coherent gravitational waves (which, if gravity is quantized, would be made up of many, many gravitons); so far we only have indirect evidence of gravitational waves.  That makes it very hard to "prove" (edit:  i.e. demonstrate to arbitrary level of accuracy) things about gravity, since we can't yet measure those waves directly.  Secondly, (2) our current technique for successfully quantizing the other forces doesn't quite work for gravity.  If gravity is quantized, its quantization must be described through some other mathematical framework besides renormalization -- one which we haven't figured out yet.

Also FYI, it's worth mentioning that the recent BICEP2 observation of primordial B-mode polarization in the CMB, if it is independently confirmed, *would* constitute ~~proof~~ demonstration to a high level of accuracy that gravity is quantized in nature.  Though recently there has been some concern that the BICEP2 result might be explainable via polarization due to dust clouds in space.  It remains to be seen whether the result will hold up to peer review, or be confirmed by another experiment.

Hope that helps!


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

[User]
Why doesn't anyone ever fix up or clean buildings in the Fallout universe?

It's been hundreds of years since the nuclear war, hasn't it?

Maybe brick and cement are hard to come by, but every building is falling apart and crumbling and nobody seems to be doing anything about it even when it's someone's house, or the NCR's regional headquarters!

Jeannie May Crawford runs a motel and doesn't even bother to clean out the room with some bleach and rags!

Why is there no progress towards any reconstructing, even on a small scale?

[Assistant]
When life gets hard, you have to prioritize.  Food and drinkable water are scarce, there's danger everywhere, and it's very difficult to eek a living out of this unforgiving land.
In that kind of situation, a little dirt on the floor and a couple of holes in the walls don't seem like that big a deal.  Even for folks that are relatively well off, having a spotless brightly lit space just isn't high on the priority list anymore.  That kind of thing is for an age that has come and gone.


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

[User] [King Kong 2005] how many people were killed during kongs rampage in NYC?

[Assistant] The composer he goomba stomps at the start is 100% dead. There was a part where he knocks several awnings off which crushed the few people underneath. Each plane he hit, both crew members of each were 100% dead since they couldnt bail. All in all, I'd say a dozen people died with over 100 sustaining injuries.


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

[User] Is there a 4 dimensional analog to a sphere like a tesseract is for a cube?

[Assistant]
Yes, the sphere *S*^(3), which is the *three-dimensional* sphere (embedded in Euclidean four-dimensional space), is the set of points (*x**_1_*, *x**_2_*, *x**_3_*, *x**_4_*) such that

*x**_1_*^2 + *x**_2_*^2 + *x**_3_*^2 + *x**_4_*^2 = 1

Similarly for higher number of dimensions.


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

[User] eli5 : How do popular flouride/tooth sensitivity toothpastes & mouthwashes actually repair and treat tooth enamel when enamel is supposed to be irreparable?

[Assistant]
Tooth enamel doesn't regrow, but it can be remineralized.  That means minerals move into the enamel, making it harder and stronger.

Enamel is made of a mineral crystal called hydroxyapatite.  Inside your mouth there's a natural cycle of mineral loss and remineralization that happens every time you eat.  Acidic foods and acids produced by bacteria growing in your mouth and on your teeth cause tooth enamel to lose minerals.  Acids react chemically with the mineral structure of the enamel, basically dissolving it.  Physical wear, such as from chewing or brushing, can also cause loss of minerals, especially when the inside of your mouth is acidic like it is right after eating.  But once your mouth is clean, the saliva goes to work putting minerals back into the enamel.  Saliva is not acidic, and it contains calcium and other ions needed to remineralize the enamel.  It's basically growing a mineral crystal inside your mouth, much like how rock candy grows in a supersaturated solution of sugar.

Each time you eat you lose minerals from your enamel, and then between meals, if your mouth is clean, the minerals are put back.  But if you eat a lot of starchy, sugary, or acidic foods, or you brush your teeth too roughly, or you don't get your mouth clean enough after eating, the mineral loss will happen faster than the remineralization.  This eventually leads to tooth sensitivity or cavities.  Cavities can't be reversed by remineralization.  When you have a cavity, the enamel is gone from a section of your tooth, so there's nothing to grow the mineral crystal onto.

The food you eat contains starches and sugars, which are sticky.  They stick to your teeth.   Saliva breaks down starches into sugars.  Bacteria eat the sugars and make acids.  This all happens right on the surface of your teeth, where the acids are in a position to cause damage to the enamel.  Bacteria also make a sticky film, a kind of scum that sticks really well to your teeth.  It's called plaque, and you can brush it off.  But if it isn't removed completely, over the course of several days, eventually the older bacteria die, and become mineralized by your saliva, in much the same way that your enamel is.  But this mineralized old bacteria isn't smooth like the surface of your tooth.  It's crusty and porous - the perfect place for new bacteria to live, hiding within that crust where your toothbrush can't reach.  This mineral crust is called tartar or calculus, and it can't easily be brushed off.  It's a little bit too hard for that. It needs to be scraped or polished off.  Once tartar forms on your teeth, it's a vicious cycle: the tartar keeps getting thicker and crustier, all the while harboring more and more bacteria that produce more and more acid that cause more and more mineral loss in your teeth.

That's why it's important to brush and floss soon after every meal.  Brushing and flossing clean away the food and the bacterial plaque before too much acid can be produced and before the plaque has time to be mineralized into tartar.  Just don't brush too hard, because that also causes wear in the enamel, at the exact time when it is most vulnerable (right after eating, when the bacteria are feeding and producing acid).  You want gentle circular motions.  Brushing too hard can also wear down your gums.

Toothpaste contains cleaning agents (detergents) that help to wash away food and bacterial films, and mild abrasives that give a little extra cleaning power for the surfaces of your teeth.  Flossing is important for the sake of your gums.  Food stuck between your teeth and next to your gums is food for bacteria that make acids, and the acids are harmful to gum tissue.  When you lose too much gum tissue, you'll eventually lose teeth.

If you keep up with your flossing and brushing, for most people that will be enough to prevent gum disease and excessive loss of minerals from the tooth enamel.  But some people are a bit lazy or need a bit of help, and that's what fluoride does.  Without getting too technical, when there are fluoride ions in your mouth, it changes the remineralization process.  The fluoride ions act in place of one of the other ions naturally found in saliva, causing a different mineral called fluorapatite to be formed during the remineralization process, instead of the normal enamel mineral, hydroxyapatite.   Fluorapatite is less vulnerable to acids than hydroxyapatite, and so teeth remineralized with fluoride are actually less likely to develop cavities than teeth remineralized without fluoride.  Remineralization also happens more quickly with fluoride than it would with just the ions found naturally in your saliva.  But fluorapatite is not as strong or white as hydroxyapatite, and so you don't want to overdo it with the fluoride.  When your teeth incorporate too much fluoride, it's called fluorosis.

Most people who do a good job brushing and flossing frankly don't need any fluoride.  But too many people aren't good at brushing and flossing or for whatever other reason are susceptible to cavities, and so as a public health measure, fluoride is put into toothpaste, some mouthwashes, and even in the municipal water where some people live.  Fluoride is controversial.  Some people say fluoride does more harm than good, or object to the idea of giving a drug to everyone even when they didn't ask for it.

Toothpaste for tooth sensitivity has nothing to do with remineralization.  Most toothpastes for sensitive teeth contain little bits of material that temporarily fill in some of the holes in your tooth's surface, blocking acids and other irritants from reaching the nerves inside your teeth.  The effect is temporary.  To really get a handle on tooth sensitivity you need to improve your basic oral hygiene, avoid the sugary and acidic foods that contribute to tooth sensitivity, and drink only water between meals.  Of course, see a dentist if there are problems you can't solve on your own at home.


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

[User] Why are prices of goods, commodities etc. decided by free markets but interest rates like the fed funds rate is not?

[Assistant]
Because unlike most goods, the supply of money is controlled by the fed. The fed prints money and controls the supply.

For a goods price to be controlled by the free market, businesses must be able to influence the supply.


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

[User] [The Purge/DC] How would the Justice League, in particular Batman and Superman view an event like "The Purge" given it is a legal event that permits the suspension of law and order and consequence for one night?

[Assistant]
Both would work tirelessly through the night of the Purge to prevent as many people from being victimized as possible. Neither Bruce nor Clark give a whit about legality or they wouldn't operate as vigilantes and operate with no respect to various national borders.

They care about justice, and protecting the innocent from those willing to do them harm.

Now, Deadpool and Punisher on the other hand enjoy the ever loving fuck outta Purge night. Just a great opportunity for them to scratch a few hard to reach names off their naughty lists.


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

[User]
[Doctor Who] Would the Doctor have actually been stranded had Clara destroyed the Tardis's keys?

Say Clara had pulled it off and destroyed the keys for real, couldn't the Doctor have just opened the doors with a snap of his fingers?

[Assistant] As you say, the Doctor could simply open it by snapping his fingers. The TARDIS likes the Doctor and would probably let him in and get right to work on growing a new key ASAP. Clara's plan was destined to failure-- she probably should have just asked the Doctor to help.


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

[User] [1984] Is there much to support the fan theory that the rest of the world isn't a dystopic ruin and in fact airstrip one is the outlier as an information censored nation, and the rest of the world is relatively normal?

[Assistant]
The issue with 1984 is that we never receive *any* clear evidence on the world- it's all from actively unreliable and deceptive sources.

Basically any theory is possible- in a world without truth, there's little to support *any* fan theory over anothr.


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

[User] [Scooby-Doo] What would the actual sentencing and Punishment be for the people that dress up as Monsters?

[Assistant]
Depends on the individual. The Mystery Inc. gang are based out of California (a town called Crystal Cove, specifically), where "Intimidation" can have misdemeanor or felony charges under California Penal Code 422. This would apply to nearly every "monster" they encounter throughout the series.

Other crimes are more variable. Assault, battery, kidnapping, trespassing, breaking and entering, stalking, harassment, fraud, theft, destruction of property, booby trapping, child endangerment (for a lot of canons, the gang are minors)... Comes down to the individual case.


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

[User] [the crow] why was eric brought back instead of shelly?

[Assistant] We can only assume that it might have something to do with him being immediately killed on Devils Night, while Shelly was left in a coma for days. Also it's possible that his lust for blood and vengeance was just stronger.


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

[User]
CMV: Better to destroy humanity instead of another human ending up in hell

Change my view:  It is better that all of humanity be destroyed entirely, rather than another human being end up in eternal torment.

Base assumption:  Pre-existence is not real, and the choice to procreate is what introduces a conscious, self-aware life into this reality in this universe.

Base assumption 2: Hell is a real consequence for some non-zero subset of humans who have not yet been born.

Base assumption 3: Destroying all of humanity will actually prevent any further humans who have not yet been born from ending up in eternal torment.

Mathematically, the impact of infinite torture upon even ONE human is far greater than all of the suffering that will ever have occurred in the most horrific of ways for all of humanity in this universe, and will occur.  Therefore, the impact of one human ending up in a form of hell (technological, spiritually induced, or however) is significant enough that, if real, and if any humans not yet born would end up in hell, that it's far better that we destroy all of humanity.

Reddit, you're being visited by aliens.  DNA capture by aliens who force procreation of human entities into a technological hell is a non-zero probability, and one that is possibly certain in the context of the multiverse.

I believe that, if hell is real, we should destroy ALL of humanity at the first possible chance.  Change my view.

[Assistant]
If we're being utilitarian in a very mathematical sense, we have to ask if there is a heaven to consider here? Because if more total people end up in heaven, you can have potentially have more infinite joy than infinite suffering such that the suffering will never be more than the joy(or whatever opposite of suffering term you like).

Achieving that could become the moral imperative, rather than ending the possibility of it. We can speculate how "heaven" would come about, but technological progress is one possibility that's just as plausible if not moreso than aliens capturing our DNA and making a hell for us. They're at least equally possible if we're just using "non-zero".


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

[User] What is the difference between the Taliban and Al-Qaeda?

[Assistant]
The Taliban and Al-Qaeda are two very similar organizations in their origins, but they are distinct from one another in their goals and mission.

The history of the two dates back to the Soviet war in Afghanistan during the 1980's. An organization called the Mujaheddin was created as a rebellion against the Soviet puppet regime in Afghanistan. This organization was financed and supplied by the United States under the Reagan administration. Following the withdrawal of the USSR from Afghanistan, the Mujaheddin failed to create a united government in Afghanistan, and the organization disbanded into several different factions.

A man named Mohammed Omar created a new extremist political movement out of the ashes of the once united Mujaheddin called the Taliban. The Taliban went on to fight their way into power in Afghanistan, established a regime, and the rest is history.

Meanwhile, over in Pakistan, Osama Bin Laden began recruiting Mujaheddin fighters and other extremists to expand the mission and operations of the Mujaheddin across other fronts of Islamic fundamentalist fighting around the world. Eventually, Al-Qaeda sought refuge in Afghanistan and became closely aligned with the operations of the Taliban, but the two remained affiliated but distinct organizations. Al-Qaeda continued to expand their operations, and today have closely affiliated extremist organizations in places all over the world which makes Al-Qaeda a pretty expansive and powerful organization, even though the base organization has been largely weakened as a result of the 2001 War in Afghanistan.

Thus, the biggest difference between the two organizations comes down to the focus of their missions. The Taliban is largely focused on what happens domestically in Afghanistan, while Al-Qaeda is more concerned with forwarding their ideology on a more global scale.


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

[User]
[LOTR] If no man can kill the witch king, then why bother with the army and why not just send the witch king to fight the entirety of Theoden's supposedly all men army'?

Sorry for that massive sentence?

[Assistant]
Because it was a prophecy, not a special power he had. And because he still can only be in one place at any one time. And is vulnerable to fire. Afraid of it. And, in a an entire army, a *few* of those people are going to be able to overcome his fear aura, and swamp him.

Besides, Sauron had a massive army. The biggest. Heck, *half* of his army was *way* bigger than any other army in the world. What, is he worried about throwing away orc lives to achieve his goals?

Of course not.


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

[User]
ELI5: The difference between "antibiotics important to human medicine" and "antibiotics"

I saw Pizza Hut come out with a press release titled "PIZZA HUT PLEDGES ALL CHICKEN TO BE RAISED WITHOUT ANTIBIOTICS BY 2022" but the release goes on to say, "...commitment to serve chicken raised free of antibiotics \*\*important to human medicine\*\* (per World Health Organization) by 2022.

[Assistant]
Some antibiotics have major negative sideeffects when used on humans, so they won't become important until a disease with worse sideeffects than that becomes resistant to everything else.

Someone had a great idea for how to seem like you're doing something to save the world (and which may in fact help) without harming profit margins.


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

[User]
[Star Trek] Is there any history of using transporter technology as a weapon, or would this be considered a war crime?

The Federation describes having a variety of technologies that enhance and disrupt transporter use. The also have some mention of the transport of biological and conventional weapons aboard spaceships, along with boarding parties to take over a ship. Is there any history of just massively transporting a starship's crew into the vacuum of space, or into a nearby star? And as a follow-up, would that be considered a war crime, or fair tactics?

[Assistant]
Rather selectively. First,

>The Vulcan Chu'lak modified a projectile weapon by adding a micro-transporter, allowing him to fire bullets through walls into other rooms.

Other than that, it's tremendously situational. There are thousands of things that disable transporter travel. So it's a bad weapon to rely on.

Biological weapons are useless in a ship-on-ship battle - too slow.

>And as a follow-up, would that be considered a war crime, or fair tactics?

It will very much depend. The Federation would definitely demonize it because it makes capturing ships easy, incentivizing piracy.


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

[User]
Do crickets respond to TVs and video audio, with their own sounds?

I was watching something in my room, and every time Id start playing audio it would start making noise, whether scratching a box or chirping Im not sure.

[Assistant]
Entomologist here. Yes*

*each species has their own song and will only respond to their song.
Some insects songs are too high pitched for you to hear/your speakers to reproduce, but most are easily reproduced.


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

[User]
Are all planets we have observed generally a similar shape as Earth ?

Are planets any other shapes for example triangular or square ? If not why ?

[Assistant]
Gravity forces all planets that are larger than about 300 km in diameter into a spherical shape.

However, many are not perfect spheres, due to the centripetal force of their rotation making the equator bulge slightly (this is more pronounced in gas giants such as Jupiter).


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

[User]
What is the limiting factor on hydraulic cylinder size?

Could you lift a house with a sufficiently large hydraulic cylinder and a small hydraulic pump? If hydraulic force is just pressure times surface area of the cylinder, what happens as you increase the size of the cylinder? Does that put more force back on the pump until it breaks?

[Assistant]
Note that for a piston to sit securely in a cylinder without tipping, it has to be sufficiently long compared to the diameter of the cylinder.  If you start making huge diameter pistons, you'll need them to be long, too.  The volume of the piston would become huge, and it would be heavy and expensive.  And hard to fit where you need it.

That might mean that you'd want many moderate size pistons instead of one giant one to lift a house.  You could pipe them all the the same pump, and you wouldn't need any extra pressure because of the many pistons connected, assuming they are plumbed in parallel. You'd just need many pump strokes to move them a significant distance.


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

[User] Why is Holland also called The Netherlands, but their people are called the Dutch?

[Assistant] Holland, the Netherlands, and Dutch. In Old English dutch simply meant people or nation. (This also explains why Germany is called Deutschland in German.) Over time, English-speaking people used the word Dutch to describe people from both the Netherlands and Germany. (At that point in time, in the early 1500s, the Netherlands and parts of Germany, along with Belgium and Luxembourg, were all part of the Holy Roman Empire.) Specifically the phrase High Dutch referred to people from the mountainous area of what is now southern Germany. Low Dutch referred to people from the flatlands in what is now the Netherlands. Within the Holy Roman Empire, the word Netherlands was used to describe people from the low-lying (nether) region (land). The term was so widely used that when they became a formal, separate country in 1815, they became the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The word Holland literally meant wood-land in Old English and originally referred to people from the northern region of the Netherlands. Over time, it came to apply to the entire country. Got all that?


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

[User] ELI5: Why did entire ancient mega-important complexes like the Roman Forum fall into such neglect and disrepair, while others like the Pantheon remain in such good condition?

[Assistant] With no disrespect for the other comments, which are both true, often the distinction between what was torn down and what was kept was whether or not they were repurposed. In your example, the Pantheon (despite it's name) became a Christian place of worship. The forum didn't really (apart from a couple of spots, like the Mamertine Prison). Similarly, Hagia Sophia is in tremendous shape, mainly because it became a mosque instead of being destroyed in war. The theatre of Marcellus in Rome became palazzi and although large chunks are missing, it is still in better shape than many ruins and has people living in it to this day.


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

[User] [Avengers] so how did Tony not find anything about Hyrda when he infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. computers?

[Assistant] For much the same reason that Director Fury was unable to read the data on the thumb drive Black Widow obtained from that SHIELD ship. HYDRA had a computer-based consciousness, Dr Zola, to create their encryption, which was designed to keep SHIELD network security, those not part of HYDRA anyway, away from the system.


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

[User] [Death Note] Did the Death Note reveal Light's true personality or did it corrupt him like it would any other user?

[Assistant]
When Light's memory of the Death Note was taken away he ended up being a perfectly upstanding guy who just wanted to do good.

Light simple wants to make the world a better place, he just completely lost it when he was given power over life and death.


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

[User]
[kingsmen the secret service.] so how many people do you think died while valentine had his SIM cards turned on?

I mean sure they stopped him, but Valentine still had his hands on his doomsday device for a good few minutes. You cant honestly tell me that at least few people died from shootings, car crashes, or other accidents that could be caused in the span of a few minutes. So whats the body count?

[Assistant]
Probably low millions at most. Majority of people were driven to blind animalistic rage. Instead of maximizing damage they were utterly destroying whatever was in front of them. Im sure the initial body count was fairly low but later trauma and every hospital suddenly being at max capacity afterwards turned serious wounds into fatal ones.

Im not sure about the comics events but given that the Golden Circle shows a world mostly recovered completely it's unlikely to have been a massive global event in bodycounts. Few million across the globe is awful a few thousand in each city is traumatizing culturally.


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

[User] ELI5: why does it take >24 hours to "feel" a hard workout?

[Assistant] It's called DOMS, or delayed onset muscle soreness.  People often reach peak soreness the day after a workout, or even the day after that.  We aren't entirely sure about the specifics what drives muscle soreness.  People historically said "something something lactic acid something", but that's probably not what is really doing on.  Eccentric exercise seems to cause more soreness than concentric.


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

[User] ELI5: how does dry cleaning work and why can some items of clothing only be dry cleaned?

[Assistant] Dry cleaning uses other solvents instead of water and detergents. There are no fibers that cannot be washed in water, but some are much more difficult to wash in water. wool can felt, rayon can tear when wet, silk can get water spots. some printed fabrics will run in water but not in dry cleaning. There are however some things that absolutely cannot be dry cleaned, such as some plastic buttons, screen prints will dissolve.


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

[User] [Harry Potter] Before Voldemort gets resurrected in GoF, he's initially a thing that looks like an evil deformed baby. Was that something that was magically created to be an in-between vessel for his spirit, or did he just demonically possess an actual baby?

[Assistant] Just a magical construct. He explained that in his monologue at the end of Book 4. It's a potion he invented using unicorn blood and Nagini's venom, and it was prepared by Wormtail. It creates a rudimentary body for his shattered soul, but he needs to drink it every day or the body dissolves.


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

[User] ELI5: What is the FCC thing in the USA that people are talking about?

[Assistant]
It is the Federal Communications Commission.  A US agency originally charged with regulating over-the-air broadcast of radio waves.  It has come to govern other forms of communications distribution, such as telephone.

While the regulations it puts in place are generally useful, it is widely considered out-of-touch, slow, and in the pocket of telecommunications companies.


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

[User]
Is movie popcorn not moving with inflation?

Sorry if this is a weird question, but Ive been at movie theaters in multiple different states over the last couple weeks, both rural and urban, major chain and local, and in every case movie popcorn is about $7-8 for a medium popcorn. However, every internet search I have done has movie popcorn in 2019 being around $8.

Movie ticket prices seem to be going up (perhaps limited because they want to encourage people to start coming back, which may be the same as popcorn), but popcorn doesnt seem to be rising like other food costs.

Maybe Im crazy or wrong or this is the wrong subreddit but idk thoughts?

[Assistant]
Inflation measures are simply a weighted average of price increases - it's not even across the economy.

This is one of the core reasons why inflation is damaging: it interferes with price discovery, disrupting the smooth operation of markets. If all prices & wages increased by 10% per year in a uniform and predictable manner, people would just factor it in and inflation wouldn't matter so much.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do we have to restart our PC after uninstalling an app?

[Assistant]
Depends on the OS, most times, a restart is unnecessary, but in some cases it may be required.

###Windows:

On windows, applications are stored as files and registry keys. Registry keys are never cleaned properly, and an unnecessary large amount(talking a hundred uninstalled apps) may slow down your PC a bit (not by much though, it's just that windows loads every registry key on startup, even empty ones).

A restart is necessary if :

- The app has a daemon running, as executables that are currently run on your machine cannot be deleted
- the app has stored data in protected areas of your system (system32 for example)
- The app installed shared DLLs that are currently run by the system

###Unix:

Unix based operating systems use only files to store app data, and the executable files, restarts are only necessary if a daemon is running, even though linux kills pending processes to not interfere with the uninstall.

###And in general :

It's always a good idea since it may free up some RAM, and don't forget to defragment your HDD afterwards.


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

[User]
[Fullmetal Alchemist] What's the advantage of not having to draw a transmutation circle?

It basically just saves you a couple of seconds and that's it. Am I wrong?

[Assistant]
Depending on how complex the circle is, it can take you minutes to even hours to draw. And most indications are that you have to get the angles and structure exactly geometrically correct  not something you can just do ad hoc, not without a lot of skill.

Its the reason a lot of combat-capable alchemists just carry pre-made circles somewhere on their body, armor, or weaponry.


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

[User] I heard we are running out of helium on Earth. How true is this, and is anyone working on a way to find/create more of it?

[Assistant]
Helium is produced as a byproduct of natural gas.  During the Cold War, the US subsidized helium production and created a massive stockpile.  Over the past decade, they have been selling it off, which has made helium very cheap...so cheap, it hasn't been profitable to capture it from natural gas wells, so it gets released into the atmosphere instead.

This is the helium we are running out of, the cheap stuff.  As helium becomes more expensive, it will once again become profitable to capture it from gas wells, and the price will stabilize at a higher level.


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

[User]
[LOTR] How many hobbits are there?

We can see on maps of Middle Earth about how much space the hobbits have: Hobbiton, Bywater, Bree, and the less densely populated rural land of The Shire.

But approximately how many hobbits live there? How many others are there?

[Assistant]
I would guess in the thousands, but not a massive amount. The Shire is based on rural england, so it is likely the small villages are under a hundred households, perhaps a few dozen, and the larger ones are probably only in the hundred to couple of hundred. For instance Tuckborough is one of the larger villages, and everyone from Tuckborough and the outlying areas of ~~Tuck~~Tookland are able to hide in the Great Smials, which is home to a few dozen took families normally.

I wouldn't guess anymore than 10-15,000, personally, in the whole of the Shire.


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

[User] [Mass Effect] Krogan playing American Football is apparently canon so... are there any special Krogan rules?

[Assistant]
It's less that there are special rules, and more that there are *fewer* rules. Krogans aren't ones for rules measured in subsections and the like, only basic concepts. So everyone lines up and waits for "hut", then the defense tries everything possible to stop the ball from moving forward. The aim is to get touchdowns (field goals aren't as well suited to krogan legs, so they wouldn't really have kickers).

That's basically it. Pass interference, unnecessary roughness, etc? Nope, no rules for that. Just a bunch of krogans fighting over a football. Casualties and even death are not unheard of.

Krogans joining human teams have a *hard* time learning all those restrictions, and serious injuries aren't uncommon around them. Even if they *do* follow the rules, there's a lot of ways for a krogan to hurt you.


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

[User]
[The Witcher] [Pet Semetary] Would Geralt of Rivia be able to dissipate the curse of the Micmac burying grounds?

I imagine that includes defeating the Wendigo somehow.

[Assistant] Assuming the wendigo is the cause of the curse rather than a symptom.  Wendigos appear to be very closely resembling leshens so it'll be a tough fight but doable.  Once you kill a leshen it's hold over an area immediately vanishes but leshen don't curse land so it may take extra work.