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

[User]
[The Lord of The Rings] Gandalf vs The Balrog

Since the lotr has been re-released I had a chance to rewatch on the big screen and this scene still bothers me. The free falling scene with gandalf and the balrog ends in a huge cave with a large lake below. Fast forward to the scene with the two of them battling it out on a mountain later where gandalf strikes the final blow to defeat the balrog. How and when did this jump of location happen.

[Assistant]
In the book it's made more clear how their fight happened.

When they fell into the deepest depths of Moria, the Balrog was extinguished and he fled from Gandalf.  Gandalf chased him through the depths, where there are nameless monsters that are as old as the world itself.  The Balrog eventually led Gandalf to the Endless Stair - a winding stairway that goes from the deepest pits all the way to the highest peak of the Misty Mountains above Moria.  All in all, it was *eight days* between their fall from the bridge and reaching the top of the mountain.  It was a lot of stairs.

Once at the mountaintop, the Balrog was able to rekindle his flames and fight Gandalf again - it was another *three days* of battle before Gandalf was finally able to beat his enemy and cast his body down from the mountain.  And from there we know the rest - the battle was too much for Gandalf's mortal body and he died for a few weeks, before being sent back, now with even greater powers, to lead as Gandalf the White.


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

[User] [Terminator] What if Carl had mistakenly concluded that his target had been terminated when in reality he was just severely injured with undetectable life signs. Assuming the target recovers, given Carl's personal development how might he then react to finding out he was alive decades later?

[Assistant]
Carl would ditch his family and go murder the shit out of the target.

In many ways, Carl is a "philsophical zombie", an entity that does a very, very good job of emulating a normal human thought process and emotional range, but doesn't actually have one. Much like "Uncle Bob" he managed to be a stand up chap in spite of that handicap, but a primary objective is a primary objective. He might pursue that primary objective in a way that wouldn't damage his self-assigned "secondary objective", but he'd still be compelled to go and take care of business. He isn't capable of choosing otherwise any more than the average person is capable of licking their own elbow.


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

[User] [General Fantasy] I am a human and a little person. How do I politely let people know I am not a dwarf or gnome?

[Assistant]
Shaving regularly would be enough in most settings. Male and female Dwarves have thick beards, and if you don't, you won't be mistaken for one of the mountain craftsmen. You probably want to avoid carrying an axe, bantering with elves, or singing baleful songs about the Misty Mountains, as well.

Gnomes are generally less than four feet tall, so unless you're a *very* little person, you don't have much to worry about. Avoid silly hats and, if you hail from the Forgotten Realms, anything that causes explosions, and you should be good to go.


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

[User]
[Arrested Development] Which is worse; Gob as a magician or Tobias as an actor?

And for bonus points which one has less common sense, and which is more of a burden to society?

[Assistant] Gob was accomplished as a magician somewhat. At least enough to form a council of magicians against revealing their secrets. After getting kicked out he seemed to struggle with new tricks or access to proper tools of the trade. Tobias never really accomplished anything as an actor and after leaving his psychiatric practice was just a burden on everyone chasing a dream.


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

[User]
CMV: It is cruel and selfish to ghost people that you no longer want in your life

This is a sweeping statement, and in my mind applies to any kind of interpersonal relationship: familial, romantic, friendly. I want to clarify a few common counterpoints.

1. This viewpoint does not apply in relationships that were abusive.
2. I define "ghosting" as suddenly ceasing all communication without *sufficient* prior warning or explanation. Sufficient depends on the quality, duration, and commitment of the given relationship.
3. EDIT: I'm adding the clarifying term of "dangerous or blatantly one-sided and toxic relationships." This includes relationships where one person has shown strong indicators that they could be violent, are pushing drugs or other unhealthy behaviors, or might otherwise endanger the person doing the ghosting should they choose to allow any kind of communication. This *basically* falls under "abusive" in my mind, but is technically different.

In the vast majority of "breakups" between friends or partners, there isn't usually a "bad" person and a "good" person. Framing things in this way usually only serves to mitigate the pain of having to separate from the other person, and justifies cruel behavior. I've heard many peers and friends say things like "just ghost him" or "just stop talking to her" or, most infuriating, "he's just toxic and you need to get him out of your life" referring to a person who is just behaving in a perfectly normal way, simply not adhering to that specific person's wants or expectations. Even if someone has cheated or done some comparably "unforgivable" act, there is still an obligation to do right by your partner even if you've been hurt.

Now, there may be some argument about what "sufficient" means. In my mind, it is almost NEVER appropriate to simply say "I don't want to talk to you anymore" and then never do it again. Unless you've only met this person once or twice, you owe them the decency to explain what's going on. Being ghosted like that can severely impact your mental health and self-image, even with people that you were only casually friends with. With romantic partners, having a coffee to tie things up, sending a few emails back and forth explaining what went wrong, or meeting a few weeks later to have a post-mortem are basic things that I would expect a significant other to be able to do under normal circumstances.

Basically, I feel that people have an obligation to one another to treat their personal relationships with value and delicacy, and there are very few situations where simply disappearing from someone's life is fair to them.

[Assistant]
In some instances, the person being ghosted is narcissistic; no amount of words will work, and things can elevate further which could endanger the ghoster. There doesn't need to be actual abuse for this to happen, but it can become violent.

A couple meets up on a dating app, and during the dating process one of them is throwing major red flags that makes the other proceed with caution; think like a person that gives off that 'won't take no for an answer', or anger issues; these situations could elevate if the ghoster were to 'officially' close the relationship.

tl;dr some people can't handle rejection, and it can become a safety issue for the person doing the rejecting.


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

[User]
ELI5:What is the difference between PC monitors and HDTVs?

Whenever I walk around electronic stores, I often see PC monitors lined up for display. The thing that I notice is that often times not only do these monitors look outdated, but they seem overpriced. So what's the main difference between monitors and HDTVs?

This may work better if you are a gamer and don't mind bigger displays, but couldn't you get smaller HDTVs and connect it to you PC via HDMI cables and use that as a monitor? After making sure you go into display setting and having you PC detect and use the TV as a sole monitor in case of laptops, of course.

Is there a significant disadvantage to using HDTV as monitor instead of dedicated PC monitors?

[Assistant]
Many monitors are targeted at people who are using it to either play video games or video and picture editing.

A good monitor for editing will feature incredibly **high contrast ratios** along with **deeper blacks** and a brighter display. These features are not quite as sought out on TVs as they are meant to be watched from a further distances anyways.
On the other hand a good monitor for gaming will mainly focus on **input lag**. This is the time a monitor will take to register any changes from the input. For the more hardcore audience they require instant feedback or very fast response times. It can be pretty bad on TVs ranging from 15ms (milliseconds) to 100ms. Gamers often look for input lag lower than 5ms to optimize game performance.

These couple of features along with some other perks such as good build quality and overall design aesthetics can bring up the costs of 24" monitors to match those of a 60" HDTV.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do we put our hands in front of our mouth when we gasp? Is it to instantly protect the mouth?

[Assistant]
A gasp and the hand-over-the-mouth are actually two separate gestures.

A gasp is a reflex.  When we are startled, either physically or emotionally, we draw in air.   This reflex comes from the moment of our birth, when it is very important that we gasp for air.   We gasp, our lungs inflate, we live.   Reflexes never leave us, so a gasp is carried on throughout our lives.

The hand-over-the-mouth is what is called a *self-silencing* gesture.  Its literally the same motion that a person uses to clap a hand over a toddlers mouth when they start telling grandma how old she looks.

We do this to ourselves to tell ourselves to be quiet.  Another self-silencing gesture youll see (or notice yourself doing) include pressing fingers to the lips in a shh motion.  Theres also self-comfort (hugging yourself, rocking back and forth) and a whole variety of other physical gestures like this that manifest when we are trying to control ourselves - consciously or otherwise.


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

[User] [General Fantasy] Whats the most effective weapon against a demon?

[Assistant]
Entirely depends what a demon **is**.

Demons who are fallen angels are weakened by the power of the god(s) they betrayed. You want a holy/blessed weapon.

Demons from the Warp, a realm of malevolent thought, are similarly harmed by holy/blessed weapons, but that's because strong faith is anathema to their very being.

Demons who are from some immaterial plane are weakened by some earthly materials, such as silver or cold iron.

And as elsewhere mentioned, Name Magic usually works too.

So it really varies.


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

[User] If we can vaccinate chickens against salmonella, why havent we done the same for humans?

[Assistant]
It's complicated. The vaccine targeting chickens is primarily an effort to reduce food-borne disease in humans, and it does that pretty effectively. So, we target the source as a means of prevention rather than targeting humans directly. Easier and generally safer. Bacterial vaccines are generally short-lived (6-12mos), so they work fine for short-lived poultry, but would be harder to repeatedly use in humans.

If there were a market for that vaccine in humans, we'd already be there. The fact we don't have one for people in common usage suggests:

1) not enough people are affected

2) not enough people with significant influence are affected

3) the costs of establishing and giving the vaccine outweigh the costs of the disease itself.


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

[User]
(Lotr) are humans in lotr greater than modern day humans?

I feel like all the humans are better and more epic then modern day people's.  With the fading of magic have men become lesser?

[Assistant]
Men have been to the moon and the bottom of the sea, they have made medicine that can miraculously heal people, they fight with machines that could dismantle all five armies and they fight with entire armies of them, They have built weapons so powerful they could kill all life in a city and the blow would be so powerful it could kill the world. All that and all the knowledge that has ever been made is available to you on a screen you take with you to play games while you take a shit.

The men of today are greater than the greatest wizards from that age they just don't notice it.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do sleep studies provide useful data when theyre taking you out of your normal routine to a strange place, bed, and hooked up to things?

Wouldnt you be basically guaranteed to sleep poorly?

I know just being in a hotel I wake up and flop around all night.  Being observed and tested seems telling me that would just make it worse.

[Assistant]
The fact that a person may have a poor night's sleep in a foreign bed while being monitored actually helps - they want to find out problems, so having you in a situation where you are unlikely to have a randomly good night's sleep is a good thing.

And the things they are looking for aren't just 'I had trouble falling asleep'. The are looking for how well you breathe while asleep, whether you do go through all the proper stages of sleep. These show up whether you are fully comfortable or not.


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

[User]
[Doctor Who] How powerful is the average Time Lord?

I know the species as a whole is incredibly unbelievably powerful but how powerful is the average person?

[Assistant]
An average Time Lord would be considered superhuman.

They are stronger and more resilient than humans.  They have a reduced need for oxygen, they are able to go for longer periods without food or sleep.  They tolerate environmental extremes better.

Time Lords are also psychic; they have limited telepathy, often requiring them to be in physical contact with their target.

Lastly, they have a unique connection to time itself.  This appears to be a form of perception, like an extra sense.

Time Lords also have the advantage of access to extremely advanced technology and the science that underpins it.  Time Lord science and technology appears to still be improving, meaning that they are still learning and growing.

As to how they got here...evolution took them part of the way.  Close proximity to The Untempered Schizm affected their development.  They've also changed themselves, although exactly how much is the subject of some debate.  They're one of the oldest species in the universe, so they've had a while to get where they are.


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

[User]
Did LIGO get incredibly lucky with two black holes colliding or are these fairly frequent?

Also,  Did we know this was going to happen beforehand?  I understand how LIGO detected the gravity  waves but how did we detect the merger in the first place?

[Assistant]
We don't know.  One of the things we will learn from the LIGO/VIRGO collaboration is how often such events occur.

Edit:To answer the other part of the question, no, we didn't know this was going to happen.  The detector is just left on and running (the observing run that started in September went until January 12), waiting to see if it detects a gravitational wave.


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

[User]
Why does water has to boil before I may put the noodles in?

Why is it not enough to be just hot? Does something special happen to the food I put in the water if it starts boiling?

[Assistant]
When cooking noodles you are not simply re hydrating the pasta, but you are cooking the starch.  The starch molecules actually change.  This works best in very hot water.

While the process will occur at temperatures lower than a full boil, there are two reasons for boiling.  First, you want to minimize the time in the water to prevent the pasta from absorbing too much water and becoming too mushy/pasty/gross.   Secondly, as the boiling water bubbles, it is self-stirring to a degree to help prevent the noodles from cooking together in a clump.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does a yawn trigger teary eyes?

[Assistant] When you yawn, the facial muscles around your eyes can tighten, occasionally putting pressure on your lacrimal gland. This gland is what keeps your eyes moisturized throughout the day, so when excess pressure is applied to them, it can cause tears.


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

[User]
[Dark Knight Movie] How would the Joker have fared if he messed with the worst of the Mexican cartels instead of the gangsters and Italian mob of the film?

I'm wondering if he would've still been able to pull off his shtick against them, since they're so much more violent, ruthless, and above the law. On the other hand, he doesn't have any family to threaten and he doesn't care about civilians.

If the events of Dark Knight involved a cartel instead of the gangsters it had, do you think he would've still gotten the best of them?

[Assistant] I don't see things playing out all that differently. Certainly we may have seen a higher collateral damage count but keep in mind that the Joker is highly adaptable and always thinks several steps ahead of everyone else so while he may have adopted a slightly different strategy with them, in the end it would have come down to the same result.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why did Palpatine try to kill Windu instead of standing trial?

Wouldnt it have been smarter to continue hiding his Sith nature from them and standing trial?
He could have easily won the trail and convinced them that the Jedi were traitors or maybe convinced them that Anakin was lying which could have also helped in bringing Anakin to the dark side.
I like to mention that I dont believe he was trying to lure Anakin so if he killed Mace and other 3 Jedi without Anakin showing up then it would have been more difficult getting him to turn and he would have warned the council when they returned that Palpatine killed Mace.

[Assistant] Because public opinion was at a point where a lot of people had lost faith in the Jedi for "starting the war." Sheev could easily push them over the brink by claiming the Jedi had attempted a coup. Much better to switch over quick when his timeline getting Anakin on his side was already extremely volatile. An extended trial risks the possibility that some new variable enters the equation before he secures his control over Anakin.


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

[User]
[Starship Troopers] What, if any, is the strategic value of the Bug Planet? Why do the humans want it?

It seems to be really far from Earth, and populated by very hostile bug alien things. Why are humans going through all the trouble?

[Assistant]
In the novel the bugs are simply an imperialistic society that cannot mutually coexist alongside the human imperialistic society. The value of the planets in the arachnid quarantine zone is irrelevant other than both races wanting to expand beyond their current boundaries.

In the films it's a little more complicated. The initial attack and impetus to war is a false flag meant to move political forces in the Terran government as well as giving an external threat for the population to focus on. The value of the bug planets is unknown but unfortunately irrelevant. Because of the humans attacking planet P and other arachnid worlds the arachnid hive mind has become aware of the value of Terran controlled worlds and begun a counter invasion. To humanity it started as a simple busy work/distraction war but has quickly become one of survival against a species that outbreeds and even out thinks us.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] What made the Yuzzhan Vong so dangerous?

The guys live in organic ships, don't have blasters, and are dressed all funny. So why did they destroy most of the Star Wars galaxy?

[Assistant]
It was the perfect extragalactic storm:

* A weakened New Republic brought on by decades of galactic strife and years of political infighting;
* The YV warpath happened to start in the middle of nowhere, and before an organized defense could be mounted they were already there;
* Advance intel from both a brief campaign in the Unknown Regions and the symbiotic union with Vergere gave the YV an early intelligence lead;
* An absence in the Force enabled the YV to roll over the only real powerful opposition in the galaxy: the New Jedi Order... an organization in its absolute infancy.

The first few years of the war were absolutely brutal, but when the galaxy began to unify and *understand* the nature of their enemy, the war began to balance.


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

[User] [DC Comics] Besides Batgirl, has the Joker ever avoided killing someone because it's funnier that way.

[Assistant]
The same comic he paralyzed Barbara he tortured Gordon to prove all it takes is one bad day.

He also constantly leaves Batman ans his sidekicks alive because without them crime has no punch line...well except for that one time.


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

[User]
ELI5 Why is it necessary to leave the door of the oven open when using the grill ?

I never understood this, surely the oven is designed for high temps so why the need to leave the door open?

[Assistant]
You only leave it a little open (~5cm - the door will stay in position) ,  this is to stop the oven from reaching temp and cycling off the element. This means you get a continuous hot heat on whatever you're grilling.
If you're fan-grilling then you keep the door shut.


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

[User]
How can God not have a cause?

Many religions argue that God does not have a cause, but if thats the case, then why cant the same be said for the universe? Why does the universe need a cause?

[Assistant] Probably the reason differs between theologians/philosophers, and certainly there is nothing stopping a person from in principle claiming that God *does* have a cause or that the universe does *not* have a cause. But one reason why philosophers have argued that God does not have a cause whereas the universe does have one is that causes are not appealed to or cited in order to explain something's *existence* but only its coming-to-be. This is what Plato says at the start of the *Timaeus*, for instance. Specifically, Plato applies what we now think of as the principle of sufficient reason -- or at least some early prototype of it -- in order to show that God exists. But for Plato, God isn't the sort of thing that needs a cause; we identify causes to explain how something has come into existence. We don't identify causes in order to explain that something *exists*. God exists but never *came* into existence; therefore, God doesn't need a cause.


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

[User] ELI5: Is music theory absolutely 'correct', or is it arbitrary because of how we've developed our music?

[Assistant] Music theory is really just a way of describing how we make music. Whenever someone does something new, we find a new way to describe it. Accidentals, microtones, diminished 11th chords, chord substitutions, 11/8 time... these things all had someone *doing* them before music theory had a name for them.


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

[User]
[The Truman Show] Why do all the actors start the day in "first positions" frozen in place? Wouldn't it be more efficient (and less likely for Truman to notice) if they just lived as normal within the Seahaven dome?

Similarly, why do they hire actors who can only pretend to be nurses/doctors/bus drivers? Again, wouldn't it be more efficient to have people who could actually do these things? Surely having Seahaven function as a real town with real infrastructure would be easier than sending a sick extra outside the dome.

[Assistant] Christof doesn't want the real world, with all its foibles and flaws. He wants Utopia. And in his mind, he can only get that with deliberate, careful control. Not to mention all that "real" activity outside Christof's control would dramatically increase the danger both of Truman discovering the truth and of something bad happening to Truman. Both are situations to be prevented at all costs.


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

[User] [BvS] Why couldn't Superman see thru the smoke bomb Batman threw? Was is lead smoke?

[Assistant]
> Was it lead smoke?

Yes.  During the Bruce training / preparation montage, he sets his three grenades in the foreground.  You can see "Pb" scratched into the side of the grenade.  Pb is the periodic abbreviation / chemical symbol (from the latin plumbum) for the element Lead (atomic number 82).


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] If Tom Riddle (say his real name!) had just dropped baby Harry into a full bathtub to drown, would Lily's accidental protective charm have still caused Riddle's first defeat?

I thought about this because of the evil emperor/adopted son question I asked yesterday.

Apologies if a similar question has already been covered.

[Assistant]
Yes.

Lily's magic wasn't your everyday Charm with specific, logical, predictable effects like mundane technology or a piece of code. It was more raw and primal than that, closer to LotR-style magic.

Voldemort would've been unable to harm Harry. He wouldn't have been able to touch him. Trying to move him with magic would have just failed. A knife would have broken against his skin or slipped from Voldemort's hand. A Conjured boulder would have popped back out of existence or miraculously missed. Even just leaving him there to starve would have somehow failed.

Of course, there probably wouldn't have been the same backfire, so Voldemort would still have been around and very possibly won.


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

[User] ELI5: How much power does a US president really have?

[Assistant]
The president has certain powers, which, depending on the relative strength and composition of the legislative and judicial branches, can be quite extensive.

Primarily, however, the president is the head of the executive branch, which means he's in charge of a bunch of powerful federal agencies and departments as well as responsible for carrying out and enforcing laws. The executive branch is huge, and encompasses departments such as Defense, State and the Treasury. The president, while not directly overseeing day-to-day operations, he does appoint department heads, set broad agendas and goals and directs activities. The president also has the power to veto laws passed by congress and issue executive orders (which aren't laws but carry the force of law when issued under proper authority).

All of these powers have checks on them through the other branches. Congress can override vetoes, for example, or the Supreme Court can declare an executive order unconstitutional (or, at least, outside of presidential authority).

It's important to note just how much power executive departments and agencies have. They all report directly to the president and their leaders serve at his pleasure. The Department of State, for example, is in charge of all foreign relations. Or the Department of Homeland Security, which is responsible for all sorts of fun stuff like the TSA or Border Patrol.


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

[User] If you touch a live wire at a rate equals to the line frequency (i.e. 50 Hz) such that the touching is synchronizeed with zero crossings, will you be conducting electricity?

[Assistant] If you have an load and you connect it to AC for very brief periods of time during which the voltage across the leads is zero, no current will flow. Your body would not be able to achieve that type of precision of movement, but an electrical component like an IGBT or MOSFET could.


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

[User]
[General] What are the advantages and disadvantages of having a weapon physically fused to your body?

In several works of fiction characters will often have a weapon fused to their bodies, swords to arms, guns to legs, bladed legs etc... So for exanple would someone with a blade for an arm (below the elbow) facing someone of equal skill but with a traditional sword, would he be at an advantage as the blade is effectively an extension of his arm or would he face an issue with flexibility because of lack of a wrist?

edit: only for combat situations, obviously you cant just bring your sword arm to school.

Edit 2: how does having a sword arm become an advantage? Giving it a wrist?

[Assistant]
I'll go with the sword arm as an example.

There would definitely be an issue with flexibility of the wrist. A lot of sword fighting techniques require you to twist the blade around. That becomes difficult  when it's fused to wour arm. You also lose the ability to use that body part for anything other than fighting. You may be able to kill someone with a punch, but you lose the ability to do anything that requires two hands. Sure, it's a convenient way to carry your weapon around, but you'll likely be band from any place where weapons are prohibited.


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

[User] ELI5 // If microorganisms are mostly responsible for decomposition, what stops our bodies from decomposing when were alive?

[Assistant]
The germs that eat us only do that when there's enough of them. Being alive keeps their numbers low enough so they don't grow out of control, but once we're dead the helpful germs die too.

Plus, natural biological processes other than that take over too. Living cells replace dead cells, but if all the cells are dead then there's nothing to use as replacement.


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

[User]
How does the helicopter on Mars work?

My understanding of the Martian atmosphere is that it is extremely thin. How did nasa overcome this to fly there?

[Assistant]
A thin atmosphere is still an atmosphere, so it works by the same principals helicopters work here on Earth. Mars has famous dust storms, which require air that flows which is important for helicopters and air travel.

Also note Mars has much weaker gravity than Earths, so even though the atmosphere isn't as thick as Earths, a helicopter on Mars doesn't need as much downward force to gain lift. But the key here is generating that lift.

Which turns out is just a (relatively) simple matter of mathematics. Cause the atmosphere is so much thinner, to achieve the lift, the helicopter had to be small and light. Then its rotor-blades had to be longer and spin faster than a craft of equivalent size would need on earth.

The fact is all the stuff *required* for flight is on Mars, just at different levels, and so we take our knowledge of flight and adjust for those conditions.


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

[User]
[Spider-Man 2004] Do Doc Ock's arms have their own language, personality, etc.? Or do they all sound the same to him?

So I know the arms are somehow rooted into his spine/brain and allow him to communicate with them, and sometimes they influence him.

But when he "listens" to them, how do they sound? Can he hear them in English? Do they communicate as voices in his head, or just force him to do something? And are the arms ONE being, or are each of the arms a mind of their own, with own personality, accent etc. ? I was wondering since they are attached to HIS mind, so their voices must be related to the people in Doctor Octavius' life, no? Unless the good doctor gave them individual speech patterns.

[Assistant]
They don't speak, so much as they convey their ideas directly into his brain. Him listening is actually him just processing the information before fully understanding it. It takes a bit of work, but once he's got it down he's able to communicate near instantaneously with them.

Each arm has their own personality, as implied by that scene where one arm nips at the other one for getting to close. That being said, they do work together near flawlessly, so they may have a partial hive mind.


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

[User]
Could increased snowfall mitigate the reduction of the ice caps in regards to reflection of sunlight?

To my understanding increases in snowfall are a consequence of global warming as more water is vaporized. Where I live we've had two record snowy winters in a row, and with things like the Texas blizzard some time ago I started thinking if this increase in snow coverage could somehow mitigate the reduced reflection of sunlight from the melting of the ice caps? Or is it completely negligible?

[Assistant]
Short answer is not really.

There simply isnt enough snowfall, and when there is, it doesnt stick around for long enough.

Ice caps cover some 10% of the earths soil surface, and about 15 percent of the oceans, although oceanic ice fluctuates a great deal.

By comparison, the united states covers about 3% of the earths soil surface.

So to make up for the ice caps receding, (note, just ice loss over soil), the whole of the united states would need to be covered in snow 100% of the year. (Longer term, the actual amount of loss isnt quite there yet, but it will be soon).

To add to that, snow often comes down dirty, so its reflection is a low lower, and we are adding carbon black coverings to existing ice sheets, making them non-reflective and accelerating their melting.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] how powerful are practitioners of brujera, Native American magic, voodoo, Santera, and the like? Do they have different abilities than European wizards? What's wizardry like in the United States and Latin America?

For example, are there gun-wielding Texas cowboy wizards? Are there Native American shapeshifters and mystics? Could sacrificial blood magic still exist in Mexico? What possibilities do exist?

[Assistant]
I recall there is a little bit of insight into different countries in Goblet of Fire when they are walking around the campsite before the World Cup. We definitely know that there are magic users abroad (The Salem Witches' Institute as an example). Presumably other countries outside of Europe are able to enchant broomsticks to be able to complete, and there is some allusion to enchanted flying carpets (so perhaps middle eastern magic on par with Europe).

Wands may also not be the only tool used by magic users worldwide (though certainly popular in Europe). Magic can be done without one, and objects can be imbued with magic (I guess Hagrid's umbrella could be a bad example off hand). Perhaps magical items (unicorn hair, dragon heartstrings...) could be placed in other ritually used items such as staves.

Also in Goblet of Fire, one of the dragons is described as a Chinese Fireball, which presumably means there are dragons as widespread as the far east, necessitating some sort of magic users to keep them hidden (though perhaps not so will given their depiction readily in the culture).


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

[User]
Just started reading Kierkegaard, as an atheist, how am I supposed to interpret a leap of faith?

I am an atheist and I'm trying to get something from Kierkegaard's christian perspective of existence. Is a leap of faith just about leaving rationality behind? Is it about stop looking for meaning of life in objectivity?

[Assistant] I think that the best way to explain it is that SK thinks that rationality has an end, in some sense. We will live rational lives and at some point, that will leave us wanting. Reason will fail to provide answers for all the questions that we seek, and reason will leave us to conclude that life is meaningless, empty, and without any value. Reason brings us to despair. At this point, we might look to something else to improve our lives, to give us hope. That thing is faith. However, faith does not make sense from the standpoint of reason, and reason is all that we know. So, in order to even try faith, we have to abandon reason, even if just temporarily. SK doesn't think it's a complete abandon, though. Once we've tried faith, we see how reason fits into the picture, we have a kind of hindsight. However, from the standpoint of reason, faith is nonsense, so we somewhat have to abandon reason in order to gain faith, yet when we do so, we also regain reason.


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

[User] ELI5: How does light have momentum if photons have no mass? Momentum is mass times the acceleration (p=mv), so something with no mass should have zero momentum.

[Assistant] Well because p=mv isnt the only way to describe momentum. De Broglie said that p=h/lambda, with lambda being the de Broglie wavelength. Waves can have momentum without mass, as they still travel through space and can act on other matter/waves/fields.


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

[User]
[Marvel/Harry Potter] How would Dr Victor Von Doom deal with muggleborns and wizards in Latveria?

Dr Doom is the dictator of Latveria and has his own magic i cant see him letting any Latverian citizen attend Hogwarts. would he have his own Latverian magic school that he controls? what if Latveria becomes the 4th school to compete in the quad wizard tournament in goblet of fire?

[Assistant]
Dr. Doom would have his own state sponsored school. Most of its graduates would graduate to work for him as either magical assistants or as state workers of some sort.

It would definitely have a reputation for the Dark Arts, as Dr. Doom would be less interested in the morality of what is taught there, and more concerned with the practicality. Spells would be banned if they were threats to his rule (the imperious curse) or extremely dangerous, not because of any moral calculus.


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

[User] ELI5: if an unconscious person is operated upon by a hospital, is there an enforceable contract between them, even in the absence of an express agreement? Specifically, what kind of a legal obligation is that patent under, if not a contractual one?

[Assistant]
Medical ethics, backed by law in English speaking countries, require that doctors to do whatever is immediately necessary to preserve a patient's 'life and limb'. (Within the facilities available to them and without putting themselves at risk.) So if you arrive at a hospital unconscious, they will do what they can to reverse that.

Who ends up paying for it in the end depends on where you are and what the health service is like. Here in NZ, the state pays. Even if the patient is a stupid tourist with no travel insurance who just fell off a mountain.

But if the unconscious person is in the USA, he or she has just inadvertantly handed over all their assets to the hospital. You guys need a single payer system so badly ...


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

[User] ELI5: Why is it harder to breathe if there is air being blown into our face?

[Assistant] Your body's respiratory system does not just suck air in and push air out, it also regulates the amount of flow on those two activities because your air filtration system is only efficient at certain flow rate, so if you inhale while air is being blown at you your body will try to limit the speed of air flow proportional to the speed of the air being blown at you by involuntarily resisting how fast you suck air and it will make you feel as if inhaling is hard.


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

[User]
Given that Dark Matter interacts gravitationally, does that mean that Dark Matter black holes are possible?

Is it possible for a clump of dark matter to grow so dense and gravitationally strong as to create a black hole comprised largely of dark matter?

[Assistant] If you put it in that configuration, such a thing could happen, but it wouldn't happen naturally. Because dark matter interacts so little with itself, it doesn't lose velocity when particles get near each other (the way atoms do), so it doesn't clump or coagulate.


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

[User] ELI5: Laws of thermodynamics.

[Assistant]
Zeroth law:  Temperature is a thing.  Hot things warm up cold things, eventually.  If you have three things and the first two are the same temperature and the last two are the same temperature, all three are the same temperature.  Nothing terribly profound in this law, but it's important to set some ground rules for a branch of physics that cares so much about temperature.

First law:  Conservation of energy.  You can't create or destroy energy.  If you add heat to a system then that increases its energy.  If you remove heat it decreases the energy.  If a system does work (e.g. a steam engine) then the energy to do that work came from the system, which now has less energy than before it did that work.  If you do work on a system (e.g. compressing the air inside a cylinder) then you're adding that energy to the system.

Second law:  There's this weird concept called "entropy."  In a closed system it can only ever go up (on average, over time).  Entropy can best be thought of as "disorder."  If you have a system that's highly ordered then it can only get more disordered over time.  For example, if you have a tank of air that's sorted such that all the fast-moving molecules are on the right and all the slow-moving ones are on the left then that's fairly ordered.  If you leave this tank to its own devices then the molecules will move around until they're no longer sorted.  This is less ordered.  The tank won't go back to the first state on its own, and if you want to put the tank back the way it was then doing so requires you to mess up some other place to do it.  Note that stars are extremely concentrated locations where there's a lot of very high energy molecules.  It would be more disorder if that energy were spread out across the universe.  Very often when something makes the world more ordered (e.g. an air conditioner making it cool inside and warmer outside) it's by taking advantage of the increasing entropy from the sun radiating heat out into the universe.

Third law:  That "entropy" thing from the 2nd law has some minimal value.  In normal matter molecules are vibrating or moving around.  That's disordered.  It would be more ordered if all the molecules were lined up in perfect rows and not moving at all.  That state is "absolute zero" and is "zero entropy."  In addition to establishing the existence of "absolute zero," the 3rd law also says you can't get there.


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

[User]
Why did Socrates not write anything ?

From what I understand, unlike many other Greek philosophers of his time (Plato, Aristotle, Xenophon, etc.), Socrates is not known to have put his thoughts in written form, not even lecture notes.   First question...is this correct ?  If yes, are there any ideas why not ?  One thought that comes to me is that it is possible there was a lesson Socrates was trying to teach his students concerning how the soul [mind] is released from the body after death ?

[Assistant] Since he didn't write anything at all, we don't know why he refused to write. One very likely answer is that he claimed a lot that he had no knowledge, so there'd be nothing for him to write. He also couldn't have ever produced lecture notes, since he didn't lecture to anyone -- he interrogated them in face-to-face conversations.


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

[User] ELI5: Quantum Zeno Effect and how it relates to Zeno's paradoxes.

[Assistant]
I'll try with a toy example and cover the important points in quantum mechanics. Take out pen and paper. :)
 Draw a coordinate system and a unit circle of radius one with center in (0,0). This is the *quantum system*. Now consider a vector pointing from (0,0) to some point on the unit circle. This is the *state* of the quantum system. Also known as the *state vector*. Such a vector is *always* of length one.

At any point you can tell the state vector to "collapse " to either the x axis or the y axis. You can't choose which one, it will do this randomly. The bigger the projection is on the corresponding axis, the more likely it is the state vector will collapse to that axis. This is called a *measurement*.

Sometimes the state of a system can be *time dependent*. It changes over time. In our case that means the vector will rotate around the unit circle according to some rule.

Now, the Zeno effect! lets say you start out with a state vector in  (1,0), that is at one on the x axis and zero on the y. After a tiny fraction of a second you tell it to collapse to the x or y axis. But the vector is so close to the x axis it's almost certain to collapse to it. Then after another fraction of a second you ask it again. And again and again. The vector never gets a chance to get close enough to y axis to ever have any real chance of collapsing to it. That's the Zeno effect. *You keep measuring a quantum system over and over again and thereby forcing it to remain in the same state forever.*

Edit: Clarified a few things.


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

[User]
[40k] Is there any rivalry between Imperial Guard and Space Marines?

 Obviously in some cases help is deeply appreciated if it's truly needed  to turn the tide, but do Guardsmen ever think "oh here come the damn  astartes at the 11th hour to throw the last punch and take all the  credit, we already have the situation under control!"

[Assistant]
Almost the exact opposite. If a situation is bad enough to deploy marines to (marines are much much rarer than your rank and file soldier) then their arrival is probably the best chance those guardsmen had for survival.

And thats just from a practical angle, many guardsmen actually worship space marines as aspects of the emperor or his holy emissaries. While there are certainly guardsmen who might hold some personal biases against marines (its impossible to make 100% statements about a population well into the trillions) theyre rare and quiet.


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

[User]
How many giga/terabytes does an average brain have the potential to hold?

Is this question even possible to answer?  I guess I'm okay with vague approximations.  Thanks.

[Assistant] Part of the answer is that the brain does not, for the most part, store information digitally. Neurons do have some binary (clearly defined on/off) ways to store states, but for the most part memories are stored in an analog fashion. This means that "storage capacity" isn't well defined, but that there's a tradeoff between capacity and fidelity, or precision of recording and retrieving.


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

[User]
[E.T.] Why did the extraterrestrials seem really worried about being discovered by humans during their initial landing, but didn't seem to care at all when they came back for E.T.?

In the beginning of the film, the extraterrestrials are really on edge as they perform their research excursion, reacting to the slightest noise. When the humans show up, they collectively panic and high-tail it off planet, leaving E.T. behind.

When they return, there's a bunch of humans milling around the landing site (including the ones who were chasing them initially!), but they don't seem to care at all.

What changed? I got the impression that they didn't want to be discovered during their research mission, but when they return they don't mind at all that humans know about their existence. Were they afraid of humans' potential violent capacity at first, but then realized they weren't a threat?

[Assistant]
Imagine a team of human scientists travel to a nature preserve to study the local wildlife. They will be careful not to disrupt the natural balance.

Then one of the humans is injured and becomes separated from the group. They broke their sat phone and take refuge in a cave near a clan of chimpanzees. A baby chimp brings them some food and some random sticks and rocks it thinks are pretty. The human notices one of the "sticks" is actually an old antenna that fits in their sat-phone!

The human scientist repairs the phone and calls for help. Then a rescue party is formed and sent to bring the scientist home. The rescue party doesn't have any scientists in it though, that would be dangerous and could risk another getting injured. So they send appropriately trained individuals like military, police, or emergency medical services to go pick up the hapless scientist.

The rescue team cares little about disrupting the local wildlife, as long as they bring everyone home safely.


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

[User]
[Star Wars]Why do people own slaves when droids exist?

Watto was shown to own a whole host of pit droids that are designed with the sole purpose of fixing things and yet he kept a ten year old Anakin around just for laughs?

Why does anyone even own slaves? Surely it's more expensive to feed them than maintain a droid that you can pretty much abandon as soon as you don't need it anymore.

[Assistant] Look at the droids available for purchase in A New Hope. The first one Uncle Owen tried to purchase exploded before even reaching home. Say what you will about slaves but if you buy one it's unlikely that it's going to have a massive heart attack a day or two after the slave trader skips town.


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

[User]
CMV:I am trans(MtF) but think non-binary is stupid.

For being trans it seems more about helping yourself and fixing your body where as non-binary seems like control freak behavior(telling others what to say and think).

You cant assume people have a gender,what there pronouns are(your supposed to ask every time you meet them in case they changed),and if you ask them there gender they say its discrimination.

But for something to be discrimination dosent it have to be a matter in which you have no choice(skin color,wealth,birth defects,country of origin).
(on this I also don't see how Islamophobia is discrimination since practicing a religion is a choice(I still don't think it is OK to openly call all Muslims terrorists or that your religion is anyone elses concern.))

If you can choose male or female how is it discrimination?
You can still be a tomboy trans-girl or feminine trans-boy.(or just crossdress)
I dont follow strict stereotypes either.(I love physics,chemistry,coding and gaming.)

I have met non-binary people and they all seem way to focused on what other people do/say,its not about being equal(I just want to be treated the same as a cis-girl,not as special.) its about "fixing peoples assumptions" and wanting a special category or to be special.

From programming I know if nothing was ever assumed or standardized nothing could be accomplished because all of your time would be checking what is already known or redoing it.(Cant assume what OS I am running on,or that the device even has a display,guess there will only be terminal output,but that wont work ether because there's no text standard.)

I know this is hard for some and I am not mean to those who are non-binary but some things need standards and there will always be someone or something that falls outside of them.

[Assistant]
>I have met non-binary people and they **all** seem way to focused on what other people do

What about the ones that aren't?

Your selection group consists only of those nonbinary people whose behaviour annoys you. Who's to say how many you've met that haven't made their gender experience a wide open part of their life?


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

[User] What makes a Zebra, A Zebra, and not just a differently colored horse? How far apart are they genetically?

[Assistant]
They have different numbers of chromosomes. A donkey has 62 chromosomes, a horse has 64 and the zebra has 32 (or 46 depending on species). Even within zebras there are different species, so keep this in mind. Viable hybrids are possible (think mules or hinnies for horseXdonkey crosses). These hybrids are called zebroids; zedonks are well-known.
A hybrid has a number of chromosomes somewhere in between the sire and dam. This chromosome difference makes female hybrids poorly fertile and male hybrids generally sterile due to chromosome segregation problems during meiosis (a phenomenon called Haldane's Rule).
As an example of this difference in chromosome number, but similar overall gene content, zebras have two longer chromosomes that contain similar gene content to six horse chromosomes. Overall, most of their genes are the same, which is why they can interbreed. But because they're packaged differently into chromosomes, such that a bunch of horse genes on chromosome 5 may be split acros two smaller chromosomes in zebras, they produce infertile offspring.


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

[User]
[Matrix] Why didn't the machines just build towers with solar collectors to rise above the scortched sky?

Previous to the nuclear winter we know they used solar power for energy.  Surely that would have been easier than enslaving  humanity, turn each person into a battery and create The Matrix.

[Assistant]
When they say the "sky", it really means that humanity has surrounded the earth with a "cloud" potentially all the way up to orbit level. It was too high for any structure to reach up so they would simply become unstable. Buildings more than a mile or two are just not worth bothering to build and it would be easy to have the "cloud" stretch much higher up than that - low earth orbit is about 100 miles up.

it also wasn't needed, the machines would have had no problem extracting energy from geothermal sources - we see their huge drills and they are unlikely to have been built specially for drilling into Zion, it's not efficient, to build them just for that. They were designed to drill down into the earth to allow the machines access to as much geothermal energy as they needed.

The machines didn't really care about using the humans as a power source, people are an awful source of power, needing more energy to go in than comes out. Machines were just keeping humans safe. they had no desire to exterminate the creators, simply put them somewhere they they would be happy, out the way and no longer trying to destroy the machines.

(META: it should also be noted that the original plan for the movie was for humans to be being used as a network, their brains being efficient processors, but that was scrapped as being too confusing and the idea of them as batteries used instead, despite it making no sense.)


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

[User]
ELI5: How do movies deal with casting overweight and ugly people?

There are so many times in movies in which characters make fun of other characters for being overweight, but do they look for people who are initially fat to do the character? How are the characters okay with just being berated?

[Assistant]
They put out a casting call for "big" or "unconventional" types.  The actor knows they are going for the ugly role but also they will get paid decently.

Plus, the fat/ugly character is usually made up and costumed especially unflattering so the actor can take solace in the fact that they don't actually look as bad as the character does on-screen.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] What does uncle Owen mean when he says Obi-Wan is a "crazy old wizard"?

Does that imply powers? Is anyone else ever called a "wizard" in the Star Wars universe?

[Assistant] He's using it sarcastically/ironically. He doesn't think Obi-Wan is literally a wizard. In this sense, he is basically saying that Obi-Wan is some sort of kooky hermit with associations to the occult or is some sort of wannabe wise man.


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

[User] ELI5: How does the LHC not melt when it produces temperatures of 5,500,000,000,000C?

[Assistant]
Imagine dropping a lit match onto a frozen lake.  It's hot enough to melt the ice, but it's too small to do any significant damage.

The high-speed particles are even smaller compared to the LHC than the match is to the lake.


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

[User]
[WH40K]My squad of guardsmen discovered an ancient cache of "MREs" and the Admech went nuts over them, and rewarded me a planetary governorship. So... how do I run a planet?

From what I've been told the Departmento Munitorum has assigned my new planet to be a production facility for lasgun battery packs.  They're shipping in a bunch of colonists, but I'm just a sergeant, I've never commanded more than 20 guys at a time.  I have no idea what I'm doing, please help.

[Assistant]
Running a planet requires a massive bureaucracy in order to get anything done. You should have a few thousand people at least who can tell you what you need to know on any problem.

If you listen to your underlings and sign whatever they tell you to then you'll be considered a pretty bad governor, but you'll get stuff done.


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

[User]
How can some animals eat just one thing and get all nutritions and vitamins and all that?

We need to eat a balanced diet to get everything we need. Some our bodies can just create (classic vitamin D using our skin), but others we just have to consume.

How can certain animals (how many are there? What is the percentage) just eat one thing. Like blue whales only eat krill. Does Krill just happen to contain everything they need? Or Pandas and eucalyptus leaves.

I know cows occasional lick salt. Do those animals that we (mainly I ;) perceive to be single item eaters also snack on other items? But how does a blue whale, with very specialized eating habits, eat anything else?

Side question: Does every animal need vitamin C? Scurvy must be horrible for an animal...

[Assistant]
Humans can't make their own vitamin C. Apes can't either. Other animals produce vitamin C in their liver. So, fresh liver is a good source of vitamin C.

Worth remembering if you are ever decide to leave civilization and hunt for food.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does our brain actually get rest?

I know sleep is the correct general answer. I understand our bodies get tired. But exactly HOW does this work? Even when you are sleeping your brain is still working, and studies suggest its actually more active, so how does sleeping rest you if your brain is still active?
Also: isnt it interesting that every creature needs sleep?

[Assistant] You get tired because of a buildup of adenosine in your brain throughout the day - caffeine blocks adenosine from binding those receptors and prevents you from feeling tired when you consume it. Your brain is performing house keeping functions and consolidating memories while you sleep.


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

[User] [Marvel/DC] Have The Presence / The One Above All appeared before any character/event? Why? How powerful were they? What did they do?

[Assistant] The One Above All had a one on one with Spider-man. Spider-man was going to quit and The One Above All showed him all the people he had saved. It was thousands and thousands of people. Spider-man didn't quit.


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

[User]
Is there an upper limit to temperature?

Either a theoretical or practical limit. Absolute zero is as cold as it gets, what does the other end of the spectrum look like?

[Assistant]
Yes...there is a theory of "absolute hot". According to this theory, the highest attainable temperature in our universe is the Planck temperature. The value is 1.416785 x 10^32 K.

This value is assumed to be the highest temperature because conventional quantum physics relies on Planck's law which has a lower limit for the wavelength of electromagnetic radiation. The Big Bang theory assumes that the universe passed this temperature 10^-42 seconds after Big Bang due to expansion of entropy.  If we tried to go hotter than Planck temperature, physics as we know it break down. This is why many assume it to be highest temperature in conventional physics.

The Planck temperature is believed to be nearly reached in the last stage of the evaporation of the black hole. The minimum black hole  that already decays to the final "several" particles of the Hawking radiation  nearly has the Planck temperature. However, because such small black holes are also rapidly disintegrating, the system is far from equilibrium, so the temperature can't be accurately well-defined in any way.

EDIT: ~~By the way, the hottest temperature ever reached on Earth was 3.6 billion F. It was achieved by the Z machine(a type of X-ray generator) at Sandia National Laboratories~~
The hottest temperature achieved on earth as of now is 5.5 trillion K in CERN labs.


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

[User] ELI5: How do bankruptcy lawyers make money if all of their clients are broke?

[Assistant] Rarely do companies go bankrupt because they have no money. They usually go bankrupt because they owe more money than they have. Most bankruptcy lawyers demand payment upfront, before the work is done. So, the company will take money from their dwindling reserves and use it to pay the lawyers who will help them through the bankruptcy process.


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

[User] [Star Wars] If Palpatine was killed by Mace Windu or Yoda, how would it change Anakin's fall to the dark side?

[Assistant]
I have two thoughts.

1.) Spookie Ghost Palpatine comes to Anakin in his dreams, whispers in his ear during his most frustrating moments, and eventually manifest to train him. This Anakin would often be seen muttering to himself, arguing alone, and eventually either become Palpatine Vol 2 or just a slave.

2.) Anakin, still under the belief that only Sith magics can save his wife, will go out on a pilgrimage across the galaxy in search of locations and relics strong with the darkside of the force. Maybe he picks up a ghost-dad, maybe he learns off holocrons and wall tablets. Either way, he's a more Anakin sithlord than Vader. Probably cocky. Thinks he's inherently better than the jedi for exploring the dark side.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] If Yoda didnt think/want Luke to know Darth Vader was his father, why did he tell him facing Vader was his last test to become a Jedi?

As opposed to say, defeating the Emperor. Did Yoda think he would kill Vader without eve knowing he was his father?

[Assistant]
Vader was a greater source of anxiety/fear for Luke (even before Luke knew the secret) so he represented the grand mountain that Luke needed to overcome to be in control of himself.

Side-note, but Luke's choice to forgive and spare his dad is a grand departure from what Yoda/Ben had in mind, so that could be a seen as a sign that Luke's Jedi Philosophy was already on its way to being better than the Prequel Era Jedi.


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

[User] [Star Wars] Why weren't all the clones as good in combat as Jango and Boba Fett?

[Assistant]
Age and experience. The clones were aged at an accelerated rate, and were only between ten and fifteen years old, most times you see them.

Most times you see a Fett, he's had many more years of combat experience.

Plus the Fetts focused on single combat, not squad or army-based tactics.


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

[User]
How do fish in the ocean not get dehydrated?

Humans can't drink salt water because it has so much salt right? So how do fish stay hydrated if they never access to fresh water?

[Assistant]
First, some background.  Water flows from areas where there's not much dissolved (low salinity), to areas where there's a lot of stuff dissolved (high salinity).  This is called osmosis.   Dissolved things (like salt) flow in the opposite direction, from high to low concentration.

Hagfish have blood at the same salinity as seawater, so they don't have to worry about water loss due to osmosis.

Sharks and stingrays have low concentrations of salt in the body (similar to humans and bony fish), but they have high concentrations of urea and TMAO in the fluids.  The total amount of "stuff" in the fluid is the same as seawater, it's just that most of it is urea instead of salt. So they don't have to worry about water leaving their body.  They _do_have to work to pump out extra salt ions that try to enter their body.

Bony fish have blood that is less salty than seawater (just like humans-this is why if you are stranded on a raft you should try drinking fish blood instead of seawater).  So water is constantly trying to leave their body and salt is constantly trying to get in.  The fish make up for this by drinking water and excreting the extra salt ions out of their kidneys and gills.  You can't just drink seawater because your body isn't good enough at getting rid of the extra salt.  But marine fish are better at pumping out the salt, so they can get their water through seawater (and food) without being dehydrated.  Some land animals (eg, cats) are good enough at excreting surplus salt that they can actually drink seawater without becoming dehydrated.


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

[User]
What is happening chemically which causes your mouth to taste bizarre if you drink orange juice after brushing your teeth?

We've all done it - at least those of us who brush. Why does it happen?

[Assistant]
Toothpaste contains sodium laurel sulfate, which block your sweet taste receptors and destroys phospholipids that typically act as inhibitors of your bitter taste receptors.

Brushing your teeth with SLS toothpaste blocks the sweet, removes the inhibitors from bitter receptors, and you get to taste all the terrible parts of OJ.


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

[User]
What happens to splinters that never get taken out of our bodies?

I get so many splinters stuck in me and I'm curious if they are good or bad or amazing.

[Assistant]
Depending on the depth they could be brought slowly to the surface by the new layers of skin , but if it's deep enough it will become stuck , and either cause an infection or even remain there causing zero to mild symptoms.

But most everyday splinters are the first kind.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do the first 4 numbers of my IPV6 Address never change?

Ive noticed lately that the first 4 numbers of my ipv6 address never change. For example my ip address looks like this xxxx:xx:xxxx:xxxx:fd50:56d4:8e2d:c6c4

Where the x's remain constant and the last 4 numbers change constantly. What do those first 4 numbers mean and why dont they change?

[Assistant]
The first 64 bits of your ip address is your network. It is assigned or given to you by your provider. Just like your house number never changes (without a lot of extra planning) your network won't change (without a lot of extra planning).

The last 64 bits are your device address. Depending on your network configuration and type of device, it may change frequently, or may not change at all. A server's IP is likely to be static, and a desktop, phone, or refrigerator will have a temporary IP so someone can't use your IP to scan or hack your device.


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

[User]
Why isn't minimum wage tied to the consumer price index?

Or inflation? Why is minimum wage adjusted so infrequently?

[Assistant] Because if it was indexed, lowering it would require an active political decision, which would be politically costly. As it is, the real minimum wage can be lowered simply by doing nothing. This allows for more flexible fiscal policy.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does our brain sometimes not initiate the fight or flee but make us unable to move when we experience intense fear?

[Assistant]
Thing is people wrongfully call it fight or flight but the real thing is freeze-flight-fight, in that order.

Freeze is the first natural response. It not only is the most convenient way of dealing with most threats, but it also gives you time to think about what you want to do next.

Then, if necessary, we go into flight mode. This is because even if you can win a fight, you will probably still get hurt, which can mean certain death in the long run (unable to hunt, run away etc)

Lastly, we fight.

You can read more about it in Joe Navarro's book What Every Body Is Saying.


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

[User]
[Jojo's Bizarre Adventure] Do the Jojos/Jobros ever get worried when they hear band names?

I mean, a good portion of the names of villains are bands.

So when Woodstock happened did someone like Joseph say "OH SHIT! SANTANNA IS BACK!!!" Or really any of the pillar men to be honest, all of their bands would pop up during Joseph's life time.

What about Polnareff's face when like two years later he hears that Vanilla Ice is around and about?

[Assistant]
Most of the villains have archetypical names which existed long before the bands, and also long before the villains.

Like, "Santana" was a name that existed long before Joseph's time. It's just an alternate/variant form of "Santa Anna" which is a relatively common Spanish name. Tons of people and places have that name, perhaps most famously Antonio Lopez Santa Anna.

REO Speedwagon probably took him by surprise, though. That one's a bit odd.


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

[User]
I believe that the human race as a whole is not as advanced or intelligent as we would like to think we are. CMV.

I go out everyday and see people who have been conditioned to live up to certain expectations that society gives to us. As I've traveled and met new people in different countries I've found that freedom does not exist in the way people would think. Sociologically speaking each society has it's own set of expectations set up for it's citizens. Because of this I've come to think that we are easily "sheeped" into thinking we are free and intelligent based on standards that humans set up for ourselves.

Looking at the amount of time humans have been in existence from a science perspective, we may have had fast growing technology to our own standards but we also have had many set backs in what I would believe to be the wrong areas. These things include not learning from the past, genocide, racism ect. All these things keep us from advancing in my opinion. Put this along with the amount of low socioeconomic families that have a constant cycle of poverty each generation as they procreate creating a never ending cycle of de-evolution I find that our most basic pack instincts prove just how not evolved we are and that the only thing that separates us from the apes is that we can contemplate our own morality, have higher reasoning skills and do what we consider advanced math.

I've also heard somewhere that 50% of the things we believe to be true are false. I don't know where I've heard this and I have no idea if it is true or not but I would tend to believe it.

Human error runs rampant and is part of our everyday lives and we've created computers that have surpassed us in intelligence, (Which is awesome) but I also tend to believe that the standard of intelligence is set by ourselves and from the looks of it we are only inherently intelligent to a degree.

Because we have only been around for such a short amount of time and we are small creatures on a large planet in an even larger and greater universe I've come to believe that we has a race is rather dumb in our self superior thinking.

My thinking is not really all that cynical, I just kind of ranted so I apologize for this being all over the place.

Before someone points out the obvious I also accept that I may or may not have been conditioned to think this way from my elders and the influence of information overload.

[Assistant]
Here's the biggest problem with your thoughts: the only benchmark we have is ourselves.  That is, we don't have some advanced race to compare ourselves to and say: "gee, our society sucks," or "gee, our technology sucks."

So if you look at human history, we're not doing too bad for ourselves as a whole.  Yes, there's still plenty of bad things going on and we have plenty of room for improvement -- no argument there.  However, we can look at just 100 years ago or so and consider that we've jumped forward a reasonable amount in societal changes and immensely in technology.

Just 100 years ago, women were not allowed to vote nor really expected/allowed to hold jobs, blacks (and other minorities) were lawfully discriminated against, and a homosexual person would have to stay in Narnia to be safe.  Again, it's not perfect now and it varies country to country, but we've come a little ways.

Just 100 years ago, a computer was a far off dream.   There were adding machines, but anything resembling modern computers wouldn't originate until much later.  Modern rocketry was in its infant stages.  There was no such thing as the internet.  In about 50 (much less 100) years, our technological progress has skyrocketed -- literally in some ways.  We've sent men to the moon.  We've sent probes out of the solar system.  We've sent probes to mars.  We've sequenced the human genome.  We've developed computers that fit in our palm, that would have taken warehouse upon warehouse of computing materials to match just 50 or so years ago.  We have the internet.  Instantaneous connection to the world at our fingertips.  If you looked at a graph of technological progress alone, it would steadily rise until it spiked ridiculously hard from about 1950 onward.

I think the human race still has a ways to go until it reaches its final cultural/technological evolution, but we've come a reasonably long way.


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

[User] ELI5: How are wild and sometimes dangerous animals in documentaries filmed so close and at so many different angles without noticing the camera operator?

[Assistant]
lots of different ways of doing.

1. So really long lenses is one reason - the photographers are not near the animals and can zoom in close. They can also utilise hides (Like camouflaged huts) or ghilli suits or whatever.
2. Camera traps are another method - just hide cameras everywhere and only have them activate when theres movement, dont need a camera man stakes out for days then.
3. Oddly enough, befriending the animals is also an option. Planet Earth II had the film crew integrate into a troop of monkeys.
4. Shooting animals in captivity is also an option - portions of Blue Planet were shot in a aquarium.
5. This is perhaps the most surprising one - its not real! All the different shots of animals at different angles telling a vivid story of fight and flight - is very very often the animal on different days edited in such a way to tell a good story (not even  always the same animal) and capture all of the behaviours that need to be showcased. So if theres a lot of cuts in a wildlife sequence theres a pretty good chance its not all shot at the same time.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do smartphones not have SSD-Chips inside instead of their slow and small storage?

[Assistant] They do :). The type of memory cells are the same (NAND or NOR on feature phones). The biggest difference is the controller. SSDs have better controllers that do whole lot of other stuff. For phones, you have to take power consumtion into account.


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

[User]
How do two gas stations coexist on the same street if one always has lower prices.

Theres an intersection where I live where theres a Shell and an Arco across from each other. Every time Ive been there, the Arco has had lower prices than the Shell. How does the Shell station stay in business?

[Assistant]
Because eventually one of them will hit their break-even and/or they would both hit their break-even. Gas stations don't make a ton of their money from the gas they sell, so break-even pricing on gas makes sense when there's downward price pressure.

Also, typically the difference in pricing between gas stations on the same street isn't high enough and/or the lower priced gas doesn't have enough pumps to literally capture all the business of the other gas station.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] How in the hell is the Dark Side of the Force so attractive?

Ok, I'm pretty sure this has been asked before, but hear me out.

Everyone says the Dark Side is seductive. Once you dip a toe in the pond, it snatches you and drags you in. I don't see how that would even work. Unless you lost everything and everyone, where the Dark Side truly can provide for you.

Isn't it rational to have some self-awareness after having committed a Dark Side worthy act and try to become a better Jedi?

"Oh shit I gave in to hate... looks like I'm a Sith Lord now" doesn't even seem believable. Is it the Jedi Council's weird "hate leads to..." schtick that forces a Jedi to choose? Is it a self-fulfilling prophecy? Why is redemption so hard for a Dark Side user?

[Assistant]
>after having committed a Dark Side worthy act

You have a major misunderstanding of what the Dark Side and the Jedi way is. It's not an act or a series of acts, it's a **mindset**.

Non-attachment and serenity are the heart of the Jedi code - the ability to accept what life throws at you and give up things when it is time to let them go. To peacefully surrender to and listen to an outside power so you can act independent of your emotions.

The Dark Side on the other hand is easy. Take charge, anger, fear use your emotions to twist the Force and power will just come.

But those two are opposites. The more you depend on your emotions and your rage and fear, the harder it is to summon serenity. The more you struggle and fear and hold on to power or people etc, the more difficult it is to let go. By the time you've done something undeniably horrible, you've spent so long surrounded by fear and hate that it's near impossible to give it up.


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

[User] Why is There a Speed of Sound? Shouldn't the Speed of Sound Vary With the Intensity of the Source?

[Assistant]
Nope, it only varies with the density of the medium in which it travels.

Think of it this way: you drop a pebble and a big rock into a lake. The waves created travel at the same speed, the pebble's waves are just smaller and fade to nothing sooner than the big rock's waves.


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

[User]
If the human liver can regrow itself, why don't other important internal organs regenerate?

People's livers can be cut and transplanted into other people, and then they regrow into full-size livers eventually. As far as I know, the liver is the only organ that can do this. Why can't a kidney? Or spleen, etc?

[Assistant]
Much of an organ's ability to regenerate has to do with the importance of fine structure for the function of that organ. The human body is unfortunately kind of crappy at rebuilding fine structure past development. The kidney is a perfect example - the entire system is an intricate "pipe structure" (know as nephrons) which conduct reverse osmosis and filtration. This structure, once destroyed, is very hard to rebuild.

The liver is a different story. While it has a structure, liver cells, for the most part, all perform the same function and do it in relative isolation of one another. When part of the liver is destroyed, neighboring cells divide to fill the gap. It is important to note that even in the case of the liver, structure is lost; a single lobe will regenerate enough tissue to restore function but would not restore the multiple lobe structure of the original.


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

[User]
ELI5:How did the European Colonials bring so much disease to Natives when they were quarantined on ships for months at a time?

I understand that the European colonists brought diseases that destroyed the native peoples who lived in the places that where colonized. But if the colonists were on ships for months at a time and were essentially quarantined, how were the diseases (besides STDS) still around by the time they landed?

[Assistant]
Because those diseases were significantly more fatal to the natives who had never been exposed to them before.

For Europeans, small pox was a common disease, chances are many many of your ancestors had it, and over generations Europeans built up a resiliency to small pox.

Then, they expose someone whos ancestors didnt experience it and therefore didnt have the same resiliency, and the disease was significantly more deadly.


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

[User]
[Marvel] Could Daredevil drive a car?

Would his enhanced senses allow him to stay in his lane and avoid collisions? What about lights and stop signs?

[Assistant]
He would be able to stay in his lane as long as there were other cars on the road.  And if there weren't other vehicles then it doesn't matter so much if he sways in and out a bit.

He probably wouldn't notice turn signals but his reflexes are good enough to compensate.  Plus, he wouldn't need to worry about his blind spot when merging.

The real problem would be the risk of people recognizing him behind the wheel.


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

[User] [ST:TNG] Is Data's desire to become and feel more human part of his explicit programing, or an indigenous development of a sufficiently-advanced positronic brain?

[Assistant] Explicit. Soong attempted to make a human-like Android right out the bat, and ended up with the Lore. Then he constructed Data so that he could naturally mature to a point where he could accept emotions without going crazy.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does a phone message fail to send instead of just continuing to try?

[Assistant]
In general it's a bad idea to program a device to keep on trying to do something forever until it succeeds.  That's how you get programs that lock up and just wait.

If the message doesn't send within some amount of time then there's probably some reason why it's not going to send.  It's best to have it abort the process and give an error message instead of just sitting there and trying forever, likely draining the battery incredibly quickly.


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

[User] [Marvel] Does Black Panther has other suits/panther habits for some specific threats or situations like Iron man has?

[Assistant]
In the comic book continuity, the suit is also a religious garb that demonstrates T'Challa's faithfulness to the Panther Spirit that empowers him.

To discard it for another suit would be to discard the Panther Spirit as well!


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

[User]
[SpongeBob] How can Pearl sleep underwater without fear of drowning?

Sounds like an oddly specific question to ask. Why not ask "How can Pearl breathe underwater". But we do have answers to that.

One episode revealed that Krabs taught Pearl how to breach (meaning go up for air), another episode revealed she keeps air in her nose, and a "Kamp Koral" episode had baby Pearl with an air bottle. That same episode also revealed that the narwhals have a vintage air tank as they are also mammals.

But what about when she's asleep? Pearl literally sleeps in an underwater house. And it's not like she can float to the surface in her sleep, because she will hit the ceiling first.

[Assistant] Whales do sleep underwater. As part of going to bed, she probably takes a big breath beforehand, as her sleeping body uses far less oxygen. Alternatively, similar to a dolphin, she might only sleep with one half of her brain at a time.


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

[User] ELi5: What anyone has (or is trying) to gain from shooting down a civilian jet?

[Assistant] It probably was a mistake. AFAIK, Ukrainian troops in that area had recieved supply drops from cargo planes earlier, also a Ukrainian jet was reportetly shot down by a Russian jet the day before. So, both sides had reasons to have very itchy trigger fingers. Why this airspace was not closed down for civilian traffic is beyond me.


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

[User]
ELI5: how can sites like godaddy.com sell domains? do they buy them? if so from who?

I mean do they just say "alright this domain is ours, if you want to buy it you need to do so from us" or how does it work?

[Assistant] they are authorized by ICANN, the organization which controls the domain name system.  They collect and pay a fee on every registration to ICANN, which helps fund the organization.  There are multiple registrars for each TLD (com, net, org, etc) and you can buy a name from any of them, as long as it is available.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do blind people often seem to have eye discoloration.

I've noticed that they eyes of the blind are often white, or (for lack of a better word) strange in general. Why is this?

[Assistant] It all depends on what's causing the blindness. If they're eyes are whitish, it's typically because something has caused the lense (the clear part where the light comes through) to become obscured or foggy.


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

[User]
[General spies] Why does everyone just answer the phone and talk freely?

James Bond is a good example, he just uses the phone and assumes he is talking with MI6. No security handshake, no tests for people being under duress. Nope, just go straight to talking about secret stuff.

Wouldn't intelligence agencies be more cautious about this? I would expect at least two factor authentication: "This is James Bond, security code Delta-5-7-Alpha requesting contact with officer Lima-8-2-Tango" And then they change the codes daily/weekly/etc.

[Assistant] All of that is already in the phones they get issued. When they have to use public phones, they go through all that hassle but if theyre just using their issued phone, they just assume all that stuff has been handled already.


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

[User]
ELI5 Why does construction start before most work hours?

I have to wake up to trucks dropping off supplies and roofers roofing every morning. I don't need to wake up until an hour later.

Why can't construction start the same time as everyone else? 9 to 5? I understand that it would be nice to have all your supplies at the work site when you get there but why start working before people around you wake up? They also quit working or have left the job site before I get home.

EDIT: I guess I was unclear or maybe some people just didn't read the description. What I'm asking is why do households have to abide by noise restriction laws (loud parties at midnight) yet construction companies get preferential treatment and can be earth-shakingly loud at the crack of dawn?

[Assistant]
You kind of answered your own question. The main purpose is to get home earlier. In the summer, 2 or 3 in the afternoon is the hottest part of the day. It's not fun to be out there in the heat when you're doing construction.

Another reason is that construction isn't always a 5 - 8's job. (5 days a week, 8 hours a day) If the job needs to get done, and you need to stay late, you don't want to be leaving the jobsite at 9 at night, getting in at ten. You want to be there by dawn and use as much of the daylight as possible. If there's a night shift, you're usually doing 12 hour shifts, and switching at 6.


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

[User] Could CRISPR eventually allow us to borrow genes for limb regrowth from things like lizards?

[Assistant]
The short answer is yes, as CRISPR can be used as a 'knock-in' tool, we could add genes to our gene pool (and, importantly, the regulatory mechanisms to control the turning on and off of those genes).

The longer answer is that for any complex trait that you can think of, there are a vast number of genes that can be involved in a complex set of interactions. We likely have the genes required for limb regeneration -- what we don't have are the appropriate pathways set up to turn on and off those genes in the correct sequence to result in limb regeneration.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is diplomatic immunity even a thing? Why was this particular job decided to be above the law?

[Assistant]
Its to prevent diplomatic incidents and/or bullshit where the hosting country rounds up/arrests/harasses diplomats. The idea is that no matter how bad relations between two countries get the diplomats will be safe and should relationships sour to the point of total diplomatic breakdown the diplomats will be sent home, rather than imprisoned.

**Most** of the time countries try to make sure their diplomats are well behaved and avoid incidents, nobody wants that.


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

[User] ELI5:What would happen if every single American with student loan debt simultaneously defaulted on it?

[Assistant]
The banks would be bailed out by the government, who insured the loans.

Taxpayers, including those newly-graduated and working debtors, would have to make up the losses in higher taxes.

Deadbeats would lose their credit rating, and have to pay exorbitant interest rates for years to come.

Student loans would become prohibitively expensive and fewer of the next generation would be able to attend college.

The job market cannot find adequately-trained Americans and seeks visas to hire foreign guest workers.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does a nearby lightning strike make the power flicker?

[Assistant] Electromagnetism is one of the forces of nature that acts at a distance.  Gravity is another example. Just like two magnetic north poles will repel each other, electrons repel one another, push against each other from a distance, because they have the same electrical charge.  The sudden and enormous blast of current that flows through a lightning bolt creates an electromagnetic field that can briefly interfere with the electrical currents flowing through nearby power lines, jiggling the electrons in the power lines, even if the lightning doesn't strike the power lines directly.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do wild animals know what is safe to eat and what is not?

Let's say you're a bear growing up somewhere in the tundra. How do you know which berries are OK to eat and which are poisionous?

If it is something "taught", then are there studies about orphaned animals in the wild eating foods which are potentially poisonous?

[Assistant]
Smell and taste warn both people and animals what is poisonous and what is not. There are some things which are hard to identify as poisonous because they have no telltale smell, taste, or appearance, but most things warn off people and animals.

The aversion to the smell and taste of poisonous objects is driven by evolution, since only those who found poisonous objects awful in taste or smell would survive to pass on their genetic traits.

The natural instinct to detect poisons in humans has decreased precisely because humans learned to communicate and pass down their knowledge. While decreased, vestiges of this instinct is still obvious. The smell and taste of rotten food is awful to us. Our taste buds developing the ability to taste bitterness is also a consequence of this evolution.


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

[User]
I think Bitcoin is fundamentally flawed and it will ultimately collapse. CMV

I have a limited understanding of finance so I could be entirely wrong here.

But I feel like Bitcoin the commodity and Bitcoin the currency create a problem for eachother. As Bitcoin becomes accepted by retailers its value has shot up immensely. But this volatility ultimately makes it more difficult to use as a currency, because the value of bitcoin paid for something today could be much higher in another year or so. So this makes retailers wary of it, perhaps even causing some of them to drop it, which will make the value plummet, give it more of a reputation for being volatile, and cause a snowballing collapse of the currency.

Change My View Reddit.

[Assistant]
I think bitcoin will ultimately collapse, but not for the reasons you give.

Retailers accepting bitcoin has some effect on it's value, but the much larger effect is the speculation that is driving it's value up.

People are buying bitcoin, for the most part, because they think that the value is going to go up, and they want to get in cheap, not because they want to buy things with bitcoin.

That's the chief reason that it makes a bad currency; the fact that few people are actually using it as a currency.


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

[User] [GoT] In enumerated figures, how much money does the Throne owe to the Iron Bank of Braavos?

[Assistant]
Littlefinger once said that the Iron Throne owed in total six million gold dragons in debt, and about half of that belonged to House Lannister. Other sources mentioned (in the books) that two million dragons were owed to the Iron Bank and other creditors during Robert's rule.

Now with the Lannisters in control and unable to pay themselves back, and after the convoluted loans, debts, and disastrous financial decisions Cersei has made over the years (she basically raises a middle finger to the Iron Bank in the books, which causes them to look to Stannis), we really don't know the true scope of what the Bank claims the Throne owes them.


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

[User] ELI5: What is a savant, and what percentage of the world's population is considered to be savants?

[Assistant]
Typically, people who are considered to be savants excel dramatically at one thing, such as painting or writing. However, they also tend to have difficulties in other important areas, such as social interaction.
Often, savants have learning disabilities such as Autism Spectrum Disorder.
A good example of a savant is Daniel Tammet, who is an Autistic Savant - Daniel is able to count pi to over 22.5 thousand decimal points using only his brain.


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

[User]
[MCU/DC] Who's richer? Tony Stark or Bruce Wayne?

More specifically Tony from the MCU and Bruce from the Dark Knight trilogy.

[Assistant]
If we only count the resources that each of them can freely use to advance their agendas (versus assets that can't leverage or liquidate, corporate holdings that are as much other people's money as their own, etc.) Tony appears to have more on deck. Batman's got a DIY 1984 level surveillance state, but Tony has a DIY space program. Further skewing things, Tony has some assets up his sleeve that are literally priceless; if he ever said "fuck it" and sold a man-portable arc reactor to the highest bidder he'd probably be able to buy a small country with the proceeds. Wayne, meanwhile, mostly works with gear that Wayne Enterprises *couldn't sell* because the original buyers balked, so none of his hardware could be easily liquidated.

The comics or animated Justice League versions of Batman would be able to put up a stronger fight, but film canon Batman can be outspent by Tony.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] How well do wizards need to aim their wands?

Does a spell just kinda find and hit the general person they are aiming at? Can it hit someone close by making it a risk to try to hit someone with a spell if they are by or holding someone you don't want to hit?

[Assistant] On the one hand, we never hear anything about marksmanship in the books. On the other hand, we know that spells can miss. Given that information Id infer that rather than spells flying on an unerring line from the tip of the wand like a laser pointer they have some basic ability to adjust their trajectory similar to aim assist in a video game.