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

[User]
ELI5: Why is AC (current) accepted to be better than DC?

I'm currently studying Electrical Engineering and still haven't quite gotten a straight answer. Any ways of explaining/thinking about it would be great, thanks!

Edit: As a student studying Electrical Engineering, I'm going through my classes but it still feels as if I have very little practical knowledge.

For example, when any individual is taught to code, they're given information piece by piece to learn and then implicate (output statements, arithmetic operators, for-loops, etc.).

However, with electronics, I feel much less secure due to the fact that in the teaching process, I've spent several semesters now only analyzing circuits and not necessarily using any of it. To me, AC and DC feel like tools that I'll be expected to use down the road but are still very odd to me... Thanks for all of your replies!

[Assistant]
It's easy to convert voltages using a transformer with AC. High voltages are very dangerous but they travel easier. So what the electric company does is convert the power to high voltage to distribute it from their plant to a city, then gradually convert it to lower voltages, and by the time it reaches our house, we have 110V. Which is still dangerous, mind you, but at least we don't have lightning coming out of our sockets.

There are some things that can run directly off AC (like specially constructed motors or light bulbs), but if you want to do something sophisticated with the power, like run a computer, it's converted to DC first. Here ^(*points at power brick of laptop computer*)


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

[User] ELI5: why is blue generally associated with boys and pink generally associated with girls.

[Assistant] It's funny because pink was originally the color that was associated with boys and blue was for girls, but the Nazis in world war 2 started to use pink as a label for gay men. This in turn caused people to stop associating it with boys and flip the color to gender trope. Not sure what caused people to associate certain colors with certain genders.


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

[User] ELI5: How can meat be aged for weeks but will go rancid in the fridge after 3-5 days?

[Assistant]
All in the KIND of refrigeration. Aged beef is kept in a VERY dry cool stable environment that has air constantly moving in it to wick the moisture the meat releases away. Your refrigerator tends to be a little humid and the opening and closing of the door disturb the temperature to the point it varies a lot. Its essentially working exactly like salting it would, pulling out the moisture in the meat which bacteria need to thrive, while at the same time breaking down cell walls in the meat which tenderizes it and concentrates the flavor.

Your fridge also has a ton of other shit all releasing gases into the fridge, some of which can accelerate spoilage.

Also its not a perfect science. Meat can spoil in the aging process as well. So while they work really hard to keep the spoilage low, there are times when shit goes south and they are tossing hundreds and thousands of dollars of meat away cause something went wrong.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] How come the Marauder's Map can detect people underneath the Invisibility Cloak when not even Death could find people under the cloak?

Secondary Question: How did a group of teenagers manage to make this map?

[Assistant] The deathly hallows aren't real; they're an allegory. Perhaps there really was a trio of brothers back in the day, and maybe they did create these great tools, but it was never influenced by death. The story juts highlights the flaws that led each brother to their doom, and the folly of using those tools without first examining yourself. Death was never there, and he was never fooled.


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

[User] ELI5:  Why only one person gets knocked out with a head-to-head headbutt.

[Assistant]
You get a concussion when your brain gets shaken up inside your skull.  So, the cause of a concussion is less about a forceful blow to the skull, but rather a blow that rattles your head.

When you headbutt someone, your head is moving rapidly and firmly.  When you make contact, your head still keeps moving forward from the momentum; it doesn't shake.  However, the fellow that gets hit recoils his head upon impact.  It's the sudden recoil that shakes his brain around, giving him the concussion.  If buddy held his ground, and didn't move his head or body back, the momentum of the impact would come back at you and stop your movement.  That sudden stop of movement could give you the concussion instead.


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

[User]
Given current technology and information, what will ultimately be the death of our solar system?

Bonus questions: How long would this method take?

[Assistant] The Solar System will die when the Sun becomes a red giant star whose outer envelope reaches as far out as Venus, or perhaps even the Earth. Even if the envelope doesn't reach the Earth, the immense radiation given off by the Sun in this phase will eliminate all life on the planet. The Sun will then transition to a white dwarf star and slowly cool for the rest of time. Interactions with the material given off by the Sun during the red giant to white dwarf transformation may disrupt the outer planets as well.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does moon in daylight looks transparent?

[Assistant]
1. We imagine the daylight sky is blue and everything is in front of it.

2. But actually, the sky is just the atmosphere, and the moon is behind the atmosphere.

3. So the sky is *in front* of the moon.

4. It's the sky that's transparent.


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

[User]
If an electron in an atom emits a photon but no lower energy orbital is available for it to drop to, does the electron leave the atom?

I understand that if an electron absorbs a photon it can be excited to a higher orbital and the only way to drop back down is to emit a photon. My question asks if an electron is already at its lowest possible orbital and emits a photon, does the electron simply get knocked from the atom?

Also would an electron that is in a higher orbital emit a photon naturally without any outside excitation in order to drop down and fill the lower orbitals? Or can photons only be emitted by outside excitation?

[Assistant]
The electron only emits a photon _because_ there is a lower energy state available.

But more importantly, to make the electron "leave the atom" you have to increase it's energy, quite the opposite of emitting a photon.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are cells living? I know theyre the building blocks of life but what defines living? Are plants a different type of alive because they have a different cell structure?

[Assistant]
The current definition of life simply states that for an organism to be considered living, it has to maintain **homeostasis**, which is the technical way to say "it has to maintain itself through its metabolism".

A cell maintains itself by breaking down resources to extract the energy and elements it contains, making up complex structures to achieve survival and reproduction. From bacteria, to protozoa, to algae, to plants, to fungi, to animals, we observe this behaviour, regardless of the cell type.

In a sense, all lives are the same, they're just living - and have been living - under different circumstances that greatly affect how they "express life".


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

[User] [Zootopia] What about whales, dolphins, and seals?

[Assistant] They have built their own society in the depths of the ocean. Tensions are high as land mammals desperately overfish to keep the predatory population under control, and the Pandas and Japanese Macaques keep huntings the whales for a thriving meat industry and the belief their testicles provide fertility.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Are there wizarding communities/ethnicities that don't map 1:1 on to Muggle communities/ethnicities?

We see that there are French wizards, British wizards, Ugandan wizards, etc. But are there unique, wizard only ethnic identites?

Furthermore, given than the Statute of Secrecy is implimented in the late 17th century, are there wizards around who still identify with fuedal communities? Do wizards in Berlin identify as Prussian? Do Viennese wizards still elect a Holy Roman Sorceror?

[Assistant]
It appears that there is no divide between Ireland and Great Britain on the international wizards' stage; aside from students in Ireland primarily going to school in Hogwarts, it's implied that the Irish Quidditch teams play in the same league as the British teams.

There *is* a sort of sense to this; when the Magna Carta (which is the legal document that stripped the English king of control of the empire which *also* has the Statute of Secrecy) was signed into law, Ireland was a territory of the British Empire. Since Ireland only received it's independence in the 1920's then wizards may not have bothered separating the two.


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

[User] [LOTR] If Gandalf The White had died in battle, would he have been resurrected again? How many "lives" would he have gotten?

[Assistant] He would likely be resurrected as many times as he needed to, at least until he fulfilled his role in the fall of Sauron.  As a Maiar spirit, he's functionally immortal.  If his mortal form is destroyed, he can either spend a long time gathering power to return, or he can be restored by a Valar god.


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

[User]
The Prince Thought Experiment

Imagine a long time ago, let's say in the 1400's, there lived an Indian prince named Viraj. The prince was brought up his whole life being cleaned, fed, and groomed entirely without him needing to do anything. He would wake up, walk to breakfast, sit down, and be fed. Then he would walk to his throne and sit all day until he was fed lunch, then dinner. He was then groomed and went to bed. And so on.

One day the prince embarks on a journey to travel to another land. Along the way, the prince's group of protectors were attacked by wild animals and all were killed except the prince. Traumatized, the prince walked until he found a village were many peasants lived. The prince was given shelter and warmth and began garnering a relationship with the people there. Once dinner time arrived, the prince was given food.

"What is this?" Prince Viraj asked.

"Food" a peasant said.

Angrily, the prince said "I understand that, but why is no one feeding it to me!"

Prince Viraj and the peasants argued for a few minutes on whether they should feed him the food, and eventually the peasants conclude that if he does not want to pick up and eat his own food, he would not eat at all. The next day comes, and the prince refuses to eat unless fed. And the next. Eventually three weeks have passed and the prince is utterly starving, if he does not get food in his stomach soon, he will perish...

If the prince will not eat, do the peasants have a moral imperative to feed him in order to save him from dying?

[Assistant]
>If the prince will not eat, do the peasants have a moral imperative to feed him in order to save him from dying?

Yeah sure. As things go that you ought to do to prevent someone from dying a horrible death feeding them is pretty low down on the list of inconvenient and unpleasant things you should still do.


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

[User] Why do people never forget how to ride a bike once they've learned?

[Assistant]
The fear of falling is the main reason why it's hard to learn in the first place. You need a certain amount of speed to keep it upright, but a higher speed = a more painful experience if you fall. So the tendency is to want to start off slowly, causing a wobbly ride. The intricate details of which gear to use, how to pedal properly, to brake without flying over the handlebars, those could probably be forgotten.
What "clicks" in your head is that you actually have more control over the bike if you get it moving a little faster, and less if you slow down. This is such a simple cognition, and something you won't forget.


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

[User] [Wh40k] Who is the most excessively violent mortal in the empire? I mean someone even a Space Marine thinks should calm down a little.

[Assistant]
Probably Bjorn the Fell-Handed.

First of all, he was chapter master of the Space Wolves and fought alongside, and was a respected ally of Leman Russ at one time, so that should tell you quite a bit right of the bat.

Super early in his career, he was at the Burning of Prospero and almost single-handedly (I mean that both figuratively and literally) defeated a Daemon of the warp, even after having pure Warp energy forced through him, causing his arm to decay and die. He remained uncorrupted from this encounter, as well.

After this, he led a group of men, and would often be sent where the fighting was expected to be the heaviest and the most grueling, because he would wade through that shit like knee-high water. In one such encounter, Bjorn and his "Pack" attacked fucking Arvax the Arch-slaughterer, Daemon king of Khorne, and every one of his men were killed in short-order, but he, miraculously, managed to claw his stubborn ass out of there and survive. This Daemon King then went on to systematically murder basically everything it came into contact with. Bjorn would then go on to lead a counter-assault that would finally drive it from the field. And after all of that he mostly felt cheated for not having been granted the glorious death that his brothers had.

He would then spend the next 5 years doing basically nothing but look for that fucking Daemon King that killed his men. He was SO fucking determined, that he beat his Primarch, Leman Russ, a guy with basically unlimited resources and a mind and spirit DESIGNED to hunt and kill, to the punch. Not only did Bjorn beat Russ there, but Russ was actually present to witness Bjorn, again single-handedly, kill the Daemon by climbing the motherfucker like a rabid squirrel on a tree and tearing its throat out. Russ, fucking flabbergasted, just invented a personal "Wolf Guard" and placed Bjorn there as its first member, because that is exactly the kind of guy you want alongside a whirlwind of slaughter like a Primarch.

Then, after the disappearance of Russ, and after serving as Chapter Master, he would finally be killed trying to save his own men....

They then took his broken and worthless body and shoved it into one of the most devastating Drednaughts in the Imperium, and he would spend the next 10,000 years at the forefront of countless battles, always where the fighting was the thickest, because nobody could imagine a world where a war didn't have Bjorn the Fell-Handed tearing things to shreds.

Even after DYING, he continues to be one of the greatest weapons in the Imperium.


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

[User] ELI5: Why did the ".us" domain never catch on compared to other countries' domains?

[Assistant]
.com is viewed as more prestigious and was already in use by most US sites, and most commercial businesses and online businesses.  .com was essentially .us already.

.US holds no interest to companies in the US, and would be viewed as weird and cheap, since  .com is essentially the defacto .us and used for US-based sites anyways.

It may be a better question to ask the opposite: Why did things like the .uk or .nl become more common? Well... because .com catered to the US based audience, not to the UK or Dutch audience!

Especially in the earlier days of the internet, when geolocating was uncommon (now a site can automatically determine your location and route you to a local site), but back then, for example if you wanted a UK version of the site, you go to the .com, and go through a, often unintuitive method on the site, to manually change your country to UK to get the right local site.


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

[User]
[General] Evolutionary purpose of pointy elven ears

If we're to assume elves were a product of their environment and not magically created, what reasons would there be for them to have their distinctive ears? In what ways would they be beneficial for natural selection?

[Assistant]
First of all, natural selection doesn't work like that. Natural Selection isn't as much "survival of the fittest" as "survival of the meh, good enough".

The most notable things big ears could help with are better hearing, or a for helping the body bleed heat.

These are purely physical advantages, though. Ears can also be used for portraying emotion or moods, which is beneficial for social creatures.
Their purpose can also be as simple as being an biological ornament for attracting a mate of the opposite gender.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are some Americans so patriotic about the flag, army, tech, the moon, WWII, music etc. but so unpatriotic when it comes to taxes and welfare?

[Assistant]
It's not something new, it's been around since the country started basically. The country wanted to avoid being tyrannical at all so let a lot of governmental power fall to the states and local governments, that's why even today states can have pretty drastically different laws than others (like gun laws). This mentality passes down to the people to varying degrees.

You have the conservatives who believe the government should stay out of most people's lives, more power to local and state governments and less to the federal. Because of their distrust of a stronger federal government as opposed to states and local communities they also believe in more power to private enterprise, and that includes things like colleges and health care.

Liberals here tend to be more of a socialist(ish) view with more federal government power, for things like public colleges, more and more towards a socialized medicine, etc.

And of course you have every color of the political spectrum represented too, but those are the tendencies.

Nationalistic pride isn't related to social programs. Conservatives just tend to put their trust more in private industry and local governments instead of the federal government.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are we more tired waking up than we are falling asleep?

[Assistant] Your body produces a chemical (adenosine) which makes you sleepy. It takes time for your body to make it, and time for your body to get rid of it. You wake up feeling tired because there's still adenosine in your system, once it clears out you feel awake.


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

[User]
[Team Fortress 2] Why doesn't the pyro's flamethrower burn down all the wooden buildings in the game?

They don't even catch fire; are they made of something other than wood?

[Assistant] Asbestos.  Asbestos *everywhere*.  It turns out the TF2 classes we play are highly advanced tumors scraped off the original members, which is why gameplay doesn't match the *"Meet the Team"* videos or comics.  It's also how you can have a team of 9 Snipers, since they're literally cancer.


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

[User] [Game of Thrones] Which three deaths would have done the most good to Westeros when Arya got to choose them?

[Assistant]
Judging by what has already happened, and with the assumption they die when she says them, probably Edmure Tully, Illyrio Mopatis, and Tyrion Lannister. At the point in the story where Arya gets the three deaths, Jaime is captured and the Tyrells haven't joined the Lannisters yet. With no Tyrion, the city falls to Stannis, and with no Edmure then Tywin is captured by Robb.

Illyrio's death means that Aegon and Daenerys have no help from him, so Barristan never goes to Dany, and she is killed by the Warlocks, meaning no impending dragon-invasion.

Aegon loses his funding, so he can no longer recruit an army, making his invasion either delayed a lot or not happening at all. This also stops the potential plague that Jon Con might have brought with him to Westeros.

Stannis kills all the Lannisters, and Robb sues for peace so he can reclaim the north from the Greyjoys. Stannis turns his eye to the other threat to his kingdom, and reinforces the Wall against Mance, making the Wall storyline effectively the same as before.

Stannis cleanses the small council. Littlefinger, Varys, and Pycelle are all killed or flee the city.

Euron doesn't return to the iron islands, since he has captured three warlocks who tell him how they have control of three dragons in Qarth. The crow's eye turns east and Asha is elected queen of the Iron Islands, since Vic is a fool and Theon has been executed by Robb Stark, Warden of the North.

With Petyr dead/lost, Lysa Tully either kills herself and her son, or is forced out of the Eyrie by the Lords Declarant, who tell her she has to either declare independance or go swear fealty to the new king. Her nephew, Robb fosters young Robert Arryn.

After a short while all the Starks are reunited, save for Bran who seems to have disappeared with the Reeds. They are assumed dead.

Up until the Others arrive, Westeros seems to be recovering, then it is thrown into a supernatural war it cannot hope to win, Stannis dies at the front line with his phony lightbringer, and with his only heir being a child, the control of the realm passes to his Regent, Davos Seaworth.

Davos, seeing what urgent need the country is in need of help, recruits groups of mercenaries from the Free Cities. One such group is the Second Sons, led by Daario Naharis.

When all seems to be lost, the others have reached the capital, killing everyone in their way. The Starks and Tullys are all dead, as are the Baratheons and Targaryens, Azor Ahai reveals himself.

Back from stealing the dragons from the Warlocks, Captain of the Second Sons, and First Ranger Benjen "Daario "Euron "Crows Eye" Greyjoy" Naharis" Stark rides the Dragons into battle. The Prophecy is complete, and the Dragon has Three Faces. He obliterates the White Walker Army with the dragons, fights the Great Other with Ice, tempered in the neck of his brother who warged into it to become Lightbringer, and takes his place on the Iron Throne with his Paramour and fellow Second Son, Prince Oberyn Martell of Dorne. Westeros embraces gay marriage, and Benjen and Oberyn adopt Shireen, showing their support for the disabled. Westeros enters a new age of tolerance, and there is an ever-lasting peace. King Jaqen rules Westeros well, and any attempt to breach the peace is met by two words:

"Not today."

The End.

Edit: Added more tinfoil.


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

[User]
[Star Wars]If Sidious follows the rule of two, why does he have so many other Sith underlings?

In the movie and TV shows cannon we have seen Dooku, Maul, Asajj Ventress and the Inquisitor (also is there a Sith inquisition?) and maybe others. Are these not considered "true Sith?"

[Assistant]
No, they're not technically Sith. But the rule of two is basically made to be broken. A Master will often cultivate several potential apprentices so that if the official one dies, they can be replaced. And the apprentice will often take on secret apprentices so that they have someone ready to go when they overthrow the master.

However Sidious did *not* believe in the Rule of Two. His own philosophy was a Rule of One: That he was the culmination of the Sith order. To him, his apprentices were merely tools, and he intended to rule eternally over the galaxy.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Different canons

I know this is probably a stupid question but what is the different canons? I see people using canon and legends on this sub but I don't actually know what the difference is.

[Assistant]
The new canon includes all 6 movies, the Clone Wars (movie and show) and Rebels TV show, and select books/comics (basically, anything after Disney's acquisition) as well as a couple games.

Legends is anything released prior to Disney's purchase.


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

[User] [Warhammer 40k] If the Tyranids devoured all organic life in the galaxy outside themselves, would the Chaos Gods die? What about if the Necrons eradicated all organic life?

[Assistant]
Yes and yes.  The Chaos Gods are basically made of emotions - they're the aggregate Warp presences of uncounted trillions of sentient beings.  Lose the sentient beings feeding emotions into the aggregates, and the Chaos Gods vanish.  The collapse of the Imperium alone would starve Chaos, as humans are its main food source - Orks, Necrons and Tyranids don't feed Chaos, and Eldar and Tau are too few to matter.

(Fun fact: according to at least some Daemon Primarchs, Chaos *has already won*.  The state of constant war and misery that is the Galaxy in 40k *is* the win condition for Chaos, because it provides maximum emotional energy for the Chaos Gods to fatten on.  Stalemate is victory.  If Abaddon's Black Crusade actually destroyed the Imperium, Chaos would go down with it.)


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

[User] [Witcher series] I always hear that the in-game Witchers, and Geralt in particular, are severely nerfed from their book counterpart. How so?

[Assistant]
In game Gerlat moves fairly similarly to a human as far as following his movements. In the the books Geralt can swing his sword so fast people can't see or follow it.

The games adjust a lot of the things you see just to be fun to play. In the books monsters are dying out, they aren't anywhere as common as in the game where you get drowners every 30m of shoreline. Larger monsters are also significantly more dangerous and not taken lightly, whereas game Geralt dispatches many of them with ease.


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

[User] Why are our intestines so dang long?

[Assistant]
Having long intestines is an evolutionary advantage to get the most out of your food. By having a large amount of time to go through you will have more time to extract nutrients. Arguably more importantly, it increases the surface area that your food will be exposed to (especially with villi and microvilli) which enables more thorough enzyme exposure and nutrient uptake.

You will see other animals have different lengths of intestines. Herbivores have longer intestines than carnivores and omnivores because the cellulose in plants has beta glycosidic linkages which takes longer to break down. They will have very large cecums filled with prokaryotes  that can break down those linkages.

Basically larger intestine = less wasted energy from food, and different animals will find different ways to utilize this.


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

[User]
ELI5 How to tasers put out 1,000,000+ volts when all they require to use is a couple AA batteries?

Always wondered about this.

[Assistant] They use a coil to raise the voltage while simultaneously limiting the current, so they don't electrocute the target.  The coil is powered by the batteries much like the spark plug in a car is powered by the 12 volt car battery, which is only huge because of the current needed to start the car, not to make the spark.


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

[User] Obama mentioned yesterday "cutting out the middle man" and making student loans directly to students rather than using banks as a middleman.  Canada still goes through banks, why?  What's the benefit of that?

[Assistant]
Banks have to make profit/loss calculation, and therefore use the price system to allocate capital toward student loans.  In other words, banks care whether or not they get paid back.  Government, much less so.

This is actually a positive thing because it regulates the supply of student loans.  The question is, how many student loans is *too many*?  Too few?

Consider the fact that US student loan defaults are rising and are at decade-highs.  In theory, lenders *should* be becoming less willing to risk their capital.  In practice, there are other government interventions (Sallie Mae) that are already distorting the market and creating moral hazard.  To have government issue loans directly is merely the next tier in moral hazard.

The government can declare "we need more student loans!" regardless of price signals, just like they did with houses.  It is a bubble similar to every other bubble the government blows.  When it is finally revealed that those loans cannot be paid back, the taxpayer will have to again "bail out" the insolvent institution holding the loans.

To add to all that, the government has to get its capital from somewhere.  It must either levy a tax, print the money (not possible under Federal Reserve system), or borrow the money.  In the US the government borrows by issuing Treasuries, which it sells to Primary Dealers (banks).  So, in reality, Obama has not "cut out the middle man" whatsoever.  Well, you can say he "cut out" smaller independent banks to the benefit of very large, well connected banks.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are us humans naturally afraid of the dark?

For example; when we're alone in the dark, in the stillness, we feel scared. We feel that there is someone behind us and our hearts being to race. Why do you think we're afraid? Why do we feel this way about the darkness, even if and when we know what's around us.

[Assistant] Because the night is long and full of terrors. At least it used to be. For the major part of our evolution as species, remaining alone in the dark long was a huge increase of chance of being horribly killed and eaten by a predator. It's also less safe to travel or do pretty much anything else whe  you can't see. Both seeing in the dark and instinctively avoiding it is thus an evolutionary advantage, and so we fear the dark.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are baker's hats shaped the way they are?

They're mushroom shaped, which seems like a waste of cloth. Is there a practical reason, or just traditional like chef hats? I've heard chef toques have something to do with " number of ways to cook an egg."

[Assistant] seems like it was just a popular sort of hat in general at the specific time french bakers got prominent so that random fashion of the time got stuck as the 'traditional" hat of bakers. It's like how all flight attendant uniforms look vaguely 1950s because plane flight got popular enough in the 1950s to have a standard uniform and even if stuff changes it still keeps elements of what everyone thinks of when they think of what a normal uniform would look like.


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

[User] ELI5: In WWII, they had war bond drives so the government could raise the money to pay for the war. Why doesn't the government need to do that anymore for deficit spending?

[Assistant]
They don't need to. The US government has no problem borrowing money right now (plenty of people are happy to buy US government debt for really cheap) through its regular financial programs, so why create a whole new program when the current ones are doing the job just fine?

The US Dollar is the global reserve currency. It's basically the foundation of the way that global trade is structured. So lots of people/organizations/countries are interested in holding dollars/US debt. This wasn't the case before and during WWII, so it wasn't as easy for the US to borrow money as it is today.


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

[User]
[Fairy Tales] A man and a woman get married and have a child. However, each parent had previously promised his/her firstborn child to a different witch. What happens next?

Do the witches just fight it out? Is there some kind of witch court system that handles this kind of dispute? Will there be any consequences to the couple if it's discovered that they had set up this conflict intentionally?

[Assistant]
I could see a few potential scenarios if it was unintentional:

* Witches brawl it out, because they both want the child for something important
* Witches have some kind of hierarchy that determines who 'gets' the kid (age, seniority, when the contract was signed, etc...)
* Magic happens and the family has twins, so each witch gets a kid

If it was intentional on the part of the couple, woe betide them at the hands of scorned witches.  Best case they have a hex put on them that they need to work off.  Worst case their lives take a dramatic turn for the worse and they die penniless, in pain, with broken hearts.


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

[User]
[MCU] In Endgame, when Steve goes back to love with Peggy, does he just remain a normal citizen, not helping Bucky it taking out Hydra? (More questions in the text column)

So as mentioned before, does he just live a normal life?

Is there another version of him in that timeline that wakes up in 70 years that he just watches do what he did?

How would he explain to his close friends that hes actually from another universe and that Captain America of their time is the real him? Wouldnt that make their relationship disingenuous if neither Steve or Peggy end up with their *original counterparts?

[Assistant] Well, he gets that shiny new Vibranium shield from *somewhere*, which suggests he did go Captain America-ing on the side. Peggy was a hero in her own right, and Steve isn't the type to sit at home which she risks her life to stop HYDRA.


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

[User] [MCU] How much more powerful than Mjolnir is Stormbreaker?

[Assistant]
Many orders of magnitude. It's hard to say for certain, because we don't have anything resembling "power levels," but look at it this way:

If the Bifrost is left open too long, it could destroy a planet. Stormbreaker can channel the bifrost. In theory, one could use Stormbreaker to destroy worlds.


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

[User]
I believe that men shouldn't get as much of a say as women in regards to abortion. CMV

I'm pro-choice and believe that the choice to get an abortion is highly personal and that it's not fair to tell strangers what to do with their bodies.

That said, I don't believe that men have the right to tell a woman whether to get one or not.

I feel that ultimately whether or not the woman wants to get an abortion should be her own choice, yet a part of me feels like this isn't completely fair to the father. I'm kind of torn, and also feel like a hypocrite for holding this view, so CMV!

Edit: Thanks for all the replies guys! I really liked reading your arguments, and they've helped me sort out my own view on this. :)

[Assistant] If not the right to influence the mothers choice to keep the child, then maybe fathers should have the right to a 'financial abortion'- That the father forfeit any claims to the child, and in return not be held financially responsible for child support if the mother would choose to keep the child.


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

[User]
[World War Z (novel)] What nation or group of nations would have had the best possible scenario in either preventing the spread of the Zeke or combatting them after it had taken hold? What nation or group of nations had it the worst?

There was a mixed bag of countries that managed to defend a Iarge portion of their population and resources and combat the Zeke in a major way, regardless of what stage in the war they were in. But which country was the absolute best out of all of them at minimizing the infection rates during the Great Panic, the reclamation of overrun territories throughout the way, and the rebuilding of their governments and economies? And which country fell the hardest during the war? Iceland because it remains completely overrun? Or possibly North Korea for the complete disappearance of it's people?

[Assistant]
I forget whether Israel's quarantine held throughout the war but if it did it'd probably be them.

Honorable mention to North Korea, who is mentioned in the interview as being a country built to not only survive, but thrive in a zombie apocalypse. However, it's unknown if the bunkers still held anyone, or if it was just an underworld full of ghouls by the time the interview was recorded.

Worst might be either Iceland(still a densely-infested white zone) or China(I know they eventually rebuilt but from the sound of it they had a whole-ass civil war on top of the zombie apocalypse to deal with, and it culminated in their leadership getting nuked)


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

[User]
[DCEU] Why didn't the other superheroes/metahumans help when Zod invaded earth?

Zod was a treath to the whole planet, so it would be on everyone's interest to stop him

He also announced his intentions to the entire world and the invasion lasted at least a day, so you can't give the "It ended too fast" excuse.

Yet only Superman and Batman tried to help.

Why didn't Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, the Flash, Cyborg, or any of the supervillains who would want to save earth because they live here fight agains Zod?

[Assistant]
While we know Wonder Women had been doing super hero stuff, the implication of Man of Steel is that Superman is the first super hero (which was consistent with DC's New 52 storyline at the time establishing the rise of Superman as the start of the era of heros).

Yes Batman had been doing his thing, but he wasn't a hero, but a vigilante. We see that Bruce Wayne did go to Metropolis, but that was to ensure his people were evacuated. Wonder Women may have been in Europe already. Cyborg was brooding at home. The Flash may not have suited up yet. And Aquaman may not have known it was happening.


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

[User] ELI5: animals that express complex nest-building behaviours (like tailorbirds that sew leaves together) - do they learn it "culturally" from others of their kind or are they somehow born with a complex skill like this imprinted genetically in their brains?

[Assistant]
It's instinctual.

Birds reared in plastic containers build their own nests just fine. They need not ever see a nest to build one.

Further, the nests they build don't necessarily model the nests their parents built. If a researcher provides a bird with only pink building materials, the chicks reared in that pink nest will choose brown materials over pink for their own nests, if they have a choice.

There is an instinctual template, thank god. Imagine being compelled to build something but having no idea of what or how. Torture!

That's not to say that birds are slaves to their instinctual templates. They gain experience over successive builds and make minor changes to the design and location.


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

[User] ELI5: How and why does our body function relatively normally if we don't eat healthily?

[Assistant]
The calorie is THE main form of energy, and unhealthy foods tend to have a ton of them. Without calories, you will die. A good analogy is a car.

Calories are the gas to help keep the car running. If you eat too many calories, you start storing that extra gas in the trunk. It then requires more energy to move the car because it's heavier, and the other parts of the car will wear out faster because of heavier workload.

All the other parts of the car - the pistons, transmission, engine etc are your organs and body parts. They need regular upkeep (nutrients such as vitamins/minerals) to run efficiently. The car may run a long time if you neglect these areas because you have gas, but it won't run as smoothly or as long as you may have liked.

I hope this helps!


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

[User]
How long would it actually take to learn programming from zero?

I'm a synthetic biology PhD student and I have recently realised the strong need for dry lab skills! Ive always had an interest for modeling biological systems, but the thought of learning programming seems overwhelming. Also knowing that it probably will take so much time to only achieve average coding skills makes me feel like I will never be able to achieve novelty/ publication standard understanding. Do you think I'm just being scared or should I concentrate on what I'm good at?

[Assistant] Im going to disagree with others advice here and say that it would be most effective for you to take an intro to programming course. This is because although you can learn most coding by working on a project and googling, even knowing what to google (keywords etc) is challenging for complete beginners. Taking an intro course gives you the mental representation and vocabulary to become self-sustainable and helps you progress much faster. There are many free ones offered on Edx/Coursera etc, and since Python is probably the most useful and beginner-friendly language, perhaps start with that. Its going to take a while. For me it took around a year  of frequent coding to become comfortable and two years to become relatively fluent for research purpose.


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

[User] ELI5: Why did we have to learn farm animal sounds as a kid?

[Assistant]
It isn't really about "what the animal sounds like", it's just teaching children how to make different sounds and about our culture. As a quick example, in most English speaking countries, the cat goes "meow", but in Dutch it's "miauw", and in Greek it's "miaou", and in Japanese it's "nyan nyan" or "goro goro" (for purring).

Each word and sound are particular to the culture, and learning these differences is key to forming a relationship with your child and your culture; which is always an important step in childhood development.


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

[User]
CMV: I don't think Nintendo had to apologize for not including gay marriages in Tomodachi Life

Nintendo fell under a surprising amount of heat for their recent "life simulator" game Tomodachi Life, because they allowed people to get married, but not same sex couples. In my opinion, he fact that this was controversial is somewhat ridiculous: this is a game which sole purpose is to be silly. You can make your friends/celebrities/fictional characters, and watch them interact with one another. One aspect of the game is that characters can get married and have a child, which is a mix of the two characters faces. There is a work around that allows same sex marriages, which is to make a male character a female or vise versa. You aren't restricted whatsoever to physical appearance, which allows quasi-same sex relationships.

Now, this is a silly handheld game, which will likely be played mostly by children. Since their target audience is, in my opinion, children, I can't imagine the majority of them have decided whether they are gay or straight. And it affects the gameplay itself: If two of the characters get married, I want to see the ridiculous offspring of my roommate and Jennifer Lawrence for example. This element would be lost with the addition of same sex marriages (small factor, but still).

This whole issue strikes me as one that is getting brought up by people who won't play the game, but are offended they weren't included. I can't make a female character in Madden, not can I make a black character in animal crossing, why did this become such a hot topic? I am completely accepting of gay couples, and wouldn't have complained if they had been included/will be included in the game, but it's so silly to get upset with a children's game company for staying out of a hotly debated topic.

[Assistant]
It's true that this game is aimed at children, but that's exactly why it's important to include the possibility of same sex marriages.

In a modern, western society we accept homosexuals and give them the possibility to marry, because we view all those couples as equal. By not including same sex marriage in the game, Nintendo isn't relaying this message. They're not necessarily saying that they disapprove of same sex marriage, but they're implying that same sex marriage is abnormal. And that implication will be taught to or 'absorbed' by the kids that are playing.

Nintendo would greatly contribute to a more progressive society by allowing same sex marriage in Tomodachi Life, by showing kids that love can exist between two of the same genders.

> This element would be lost with the addition of same sex marriages (small factor, but still).

And this element isn't present in real life gay marriages as well, so it would be weird to include it in same sex marriages.

The game isn't supposed to be social commentary, ofcourse, but it still will influence this generation's children, and it would be wise to include these messages.


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

[User]
[This Little Piggy nursery rhyme] How many little piggies are there?

For those who don't know, this is a nursery rhyme that is usually said while counting off one finger/toe for each piggy:

This little piggy went to market

This little piggy stayed home

This little piggy had roast beef

And this little piggy had none

And this little piggy went wee wee wee wee all the way home

I originally thought there were two piggies - one went to the market and got roast beef, and the other one stayed home and got nothing, but then is the "wee wee wee" piggy one of those or a third one?

Or are there supposed to five - one for each finger/toe?

[Assistant]
Well the existence of a market implies that there is at least one civilization worth of piggies, probably both little and large. So it's entirely likely that there are thousands if not millions of little piggies out there.

Though in the story we only get to meet 5 of these piggies.


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

[User]
Why is ductility often listed as a separate property of a material from malleability?

To my understanding, malleability is a material's ability to be shaped (as opposed to being brittle and failing) and ductility is a material's ability to be drawn into wire.  Is drawing into wire not simply a certain way to shape something?  Are there materials that are malleable, but not ductile?  Are there materials that are ductile, but not malleable?  If these materials exist, why do they behave the way they do?

[Assistant]
They refer to doing the plastic deformation using different methods.

Namely, ductility is the ability to be plasticly deformed under tensile stress, whereas malleability is the ability to be plasticly deformed under compressive stress.

Lead is an example of a material that is very malleable, but not very ductile. It gets deformed easily under compressive stress, but trying to draw it into wires will result in shearing.


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

[User]
ELI5 - Why are Railguns such a complex feat of technology? How is the Railgun any more than just 2 very large magnets and a generator?

I also understand there's some form of issue about the rails overheating (particularly in the U.S. Navy project), but isn't the solution to simply add more armor to them? How much funding could possibly be needed to do R&D on more heat-resistant materials?

[Assistant]
Well for one a railgun doesn't need magnets. In it's simplest form you have two parallel rails and a conductive projectile.

A railgun passes huge amounts of current through one rail, into the projectile as it slides forward, and out the other rail.

The huge current combined with the sliding contact is the single biggest problem. The rails themselves erode from arcing under millions of Amps of current, and a gun that fires 5 shots isn't exactly acceptable.

Of secondary concern, because they are somewhat solvable problems with the careful application of money and existing technology:

The rails themselves are pushed apart with the same force that drives the projectile forward. Consequence of the design. So you need a hella beefy set of rails and mounts for them.

Heat generated from a shot needs bled off with cooling so your whole gun doesn't melt after a few shots in a row. Lots of current means lots of heat in the rails. (Adding material increases heat capacity to an extent, but you need surface area, like a radiator to actually remove it long term)

You need a crazy amount of current dumped near instantly which means big high power capacitor banks and beefy low resistance cables.

You need to recharge said capacitors which also means that they can only go onto new generation ships with big powerplants.


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

[User] If you put all the black holes of the universe on one side of an imaginary scale and all the rest of the universe on the other side, then which side has more mass?

[Assistant] The non blackhole side. There are several hundred billion stars in a galaxy, the lightest of which have a mass of around 1/10th of our Sun, overall the total mass of our galaxy is nearly a trillion times the mass of our Sun. In comparison, the supermassive blackhole at the center of our galaxy weighs only around 4 million times that of our Sun. The smaller blackholes around the galaxy don't significantly affect the balance of mass much. The same overwhelming ratios of mass hold for other galaxies as well.


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

[User]
What does lava smell like?

How is it supposed to smell?

[Assistant]
It's tough to remember smells, much less describe them, but growing up in Hawaii I've smelled lava several times.  It doesn't have a really strong odor on its own, it's like ... well, hot rocks.  A bit like hot metal, say a soldering iron or a hot stove, a bit like regular stone, say a pile of dry gravel or concrete mix.

Sometimes, especially right near the vent, there's sulfur gases mixed into the lava, in which case there's a strong sulfur smell, like overcooked hard-boiled eggs.  But most of the time I've been near a lava flow, it's just a clean hot stone smell.


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

[User]
[Disney] Are all humans aware of talking and anthropomorphic animals?

We know a good part or the Disney univere is talking intelligent animals and it's hard to imagine the humans don't know that the animals are on the same intelligence levels as us. They are very human like and live around humans and even wear clothes on occasion. You can't exactly miss a team of rodents dressed in clothes constantly chasing after a cat that is stealing jewels.

Some of the animals, most of the super intelligent ones actually, are even anthropomorphic such as Mickey and gang and we know humans know about them, house of mouse has them all hanging out together but outside of that and theme park appearances they don't seem to run into humans.

So we know humans know but do all humans know?

Bonus questions, how did the animals evolve and why are there still basic animals? You have animals that are still at regular animal intelligence, the smart animals that talk and act human (I know they don't speak English and it's translated for us, that was shown in Tarzan) and then there's the actual anthropomorphic animals that do speak English and have human like lives. And how is it that their lives don't intersect out lives? The anthropomorphic animals have towns of their own with no humans.

[Assistant]
There are two levels of reality in Disney.  At the higher level, Mickey and Donald, Jiminy Cricket, Bambi, and all the other characters exist as actors working for a studio.  They are aware of the audience, and in the olden days Mickey would sometimes have conversations with Walt.  Everyone is aware of everyone else.

At the lower level of reality, its whatever makes sense for that story.  Generally the only human characters who are aware of talking animals are the princesses, but thats not absolute.  To everyone else, the group of mice trying to assemble a dress just look like regular mice.  The humans dont see the clothes and dont understand the squeaks.  Disney princesses tend to have a greater connection to nature magic (or whatever) and can see the wondrous things that exist in the world.  Everyone else simply fails to see what is really happening.


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

[User]
I believe that suicide should be legal and the government should provide a painless suicide options to all citizens. CMV.

**UPDATE:** There are too many comments to reply now, so I will summarize my opinion. I think that the subreddit did a great job at trying to convince me otherwise and provided many excellent counterpoints. I won't award anyone a delta since I haven't changed my view completely, but the following ideas deserve half-a-delta:

1) The effect on friends and relatives of those who kill themselves is unclear and we cannot be certain the net effect is going to be positive

2) Allowing legal suicides could in fact cause a lot more people to consider that option. It is unclear whether the long-term outcome would be positive or negative.

---

Original post:

Assuming that:

**a)** Each person has complete body autonomy

**b)** The government's goal is to maximize individual happiness of all citizens

I don't see a reason why the government shouldn't provide "suicide booths" to all citizens for free, regardless of their current health condition.

This would solve two problems:

**a)** People who suffer from depression, terminal diseases, life in prison, lack of money, or simply general dissatisfaction in life will get the opportunity to end their suffering, fulfilling their right to body autonomy

**b)** Society as a whole will become more happy on average, fulfilling the goal of the government.

Potential counter-arguments:

**1)** How can someone be 100% sure they want to kill themselves? Aka the "False dilemma" fallacy.

Well, nothing is 100% sure. I'm not 100% sure I want to take out a loan, but I would still have to repay it later. A murderer was not 100% sure when he wanted to kill someone, but he still has to go to prison. Why not let people kill themselves when they're 51% sure? It's their choice, their responsibility.

**2)** Depressed people need treatment, not suicide.

Yes they do. But someone who is depressed still has bodily autonomy over themselves and they are still responsible for their actions (otherwise depressed people would never go to jail). Forcing them to go to a doctor instead of taking the easy route violates their basic human right.

**3)** The government will abuse their power and kill off innocent people

It already does that with the law enforcement. Thousands of innocent people go to jail because of the government. There should be a complex system involved in the "suicide booths" to prevent misuse by the government, but ultimately nothing is 100%. We can't fix the system for all people, but why not try to make it right for 99% of them?

[Assistant]
I reject premise (b). The goal of government is not to maximize individual happiness. The purpose of government is large scale coordination of activities limited to enacted laws.

Side notes: its irrelevant if suicide is legal. there can be no consequences for a successful suicide.


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

[User]
Do we have any photos of the moon landing sites taken from earth? How strong a telescope would you need to see any remnants of the landings from earth?

Just thinkin' 'bout how people say we didn't land on the moon n stuff.

[Assistant] No, there are no photos of the moon landing site taken from Earth.The equation for determining if a telescope can resolve a feature is called the Rayleigh criterion. It says that in order to resolve a feature with a telescope you need a lense with a diameter 1.22*(wavelength of light)*(distance to object)/(size of object). So in order to see a 1 meter feature on the surface of the moon you would need a telescope with a lens 250 meters in diameter. The largest optical telescopes in the world are about 10 meters so it is basically impossible take a photo of the site from Earth.


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

[User] ELI5: If all drugs were legal wouldn't criminal organizations still have an advantage since they don't have to pay min-wage, taxes, and can sell at a cheaper price?

[Assistant]
For a possible parallel, look at alcohol.

Some people in rural areas still distill and sell moonshine, both as a sort of "Screw you" to the government, and also because it's strong and cheaper to buy with no taxes attached.

However, bootlegged liquor is many, many orders of magnitude less popular than it was during prohibition, and the confrontations between moonshiners and the law are normally restricted to the odd standoff between a few people and a few cops or forest rangers out in the woods, rather than constant drive-bys with automatic weapons in urban areas (which we saw during Prohibition).

So yes, there'd still be a smaller trade in illegal drugs, but the demographics would probably change drastically. Instead of powerful foreign-based cartels moving weed over the border by the bale, for instance, you'd probably have survivalist types and anarcho-libertarians growing it, illegally due to bypassing regulations, in the woods here and there, because "it's the principle of the thing".


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

[User] ELI5: why are there rain delays in certain sports, like baseball, but not football (American or non-American) unless, of course theres lightning.

[Assistant] Because football is less affected by torrential weather than baseball. While the passing and kicking game is *impacted* by heavy rain, you can still play a somewhat functional game of football no matter how heavy the rain is. Baseball, however, is simply not playable if rain is too heavy. For one, pitchers cant grip the ball, and fly balls cant carry at all. Puddles in the infield make grounders unplayable. There is really no way to adjust for these things.


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

[User]
Since there isn't any resistance in space, is reaching lightspeed possible?

Without any resistance deaccelerating the object, the acceleration never stops. So, is it possible for the object (say, an empty spaceship) to keep accelerating until it reaches light speed?

If so, what would happen to it then? Would the acceleration stop, since light speed is the limit?

[Assistant]
The most intrinsic problem is that Newton's second law (F=ma) is actually only a low speed approximation. If you are thrusting in the direction of your motion, the force is actually:

F = (1-v^(2)/c^(2))^(-3/2) ma

When v is much less than c, that first term is basically 1 and you get F=ma. But as v gets closer to c, the first term gets bigger and bigger, and starts to asymptote towards infinity.

This means that the faster you go, the more force you need to get the same amount of acceleration. And the force you need ends up increasing so rapidly as you approach the speed of light that you can never beat it, and never reach the speed of light.

(Side note: it used to be taught that your *mass* increases as you approach the speed of light, but we generally prefer to say that *force for a given acceleration* increases instead, because the required force actually depends on the direction of the force, and it's more weird and confusing if your mass depends on what direction you're being pushed from)

But as a secondary point, space isn't *entirely* empty. There is a thin medium of ionised gas throughout the Milky Way, containing clouds of denser "molecular" gas. Even though the density is extremely low, as you approach the speed of light, you are going so fast that you are smashing through a pretty large volume of space every second, and you do indeed feel a drag force from smashing into these interstellar plasma particles (mostly protons). And not only does this slow you down, over time these high energy protons are going to cause significant damage to your ship!


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

[User]
ELI5: In humans, what is the functional difference between wide, flat noses and narrow, pointed noses?

Or is there a difference?

[Assistant]
The various shapes of noses appear to be tied to adaptations to climate.

The nose must properly heat and humidify the air that you breathe. In a cold climate, it's advantageous to have a narrower nose. That's so that when a person inhales, more air comes into contact with the mucosal surface of nose, which provides moisture. The narrow nose maximizes the surface area.


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

[User]
Why is it recommended to completely finish an oral antibiotic prescription, while topical antibiotics (ex. polysporin and other antibiotic creams) can be applied as needed?

Hello! I understand that when taking oral antibiotics, you're strongly recommended to finish the entire prescription, since finishing early could allow resistant survivors to reproduce and cause an antibiotic-resistant infection. However, with topical antibiotics like creams and ointments, it's recommended to apply liberally as needed either with or without a bandage. Is there a reason that topical antibiotics can be used only as needed? Wouldn't using them in this way enable antibiotic resistance?

Thank you so much for your help!

[Assistant] It's because most topical antibiotics work by mechanisms that bacteria can't build resistance to ie they rip cells open.  They're too toxic to use systemically but resistance isn't really a problem.  Plus to be honest anything you can "treat" with a topical antibiotic probably doesn't need to be "treated" in the first place.


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

[User]
ELI5: What is buckling in structural engineering?

According to Wikipedia, it's a sudden change in shape due to an applied load that is parallel to the beam. How does this differ from compression in beam theory?

[Assistant]
For ELI5: Imagine a dollar bill folded zig-zag, standing on it's edge on a table. If you are very careful, you can put a brick on the dollar bill and it will hold it up, because the paper is strong if the weight on it is exactly up and down (vertical). You know that if you poke the bill sideways, you'll make a crease and the brick will come crashing down. If you don't touch the bill, then you hope it will hold even more weight so you start adding dominoes to the brick. However, nothing is perfect, so some of the force isn't exactly vertical. Because of bumps on the brick or wrinkles in the bill the brick will cause a tiny bit of force sideways on the parts of the bill. Eventually you add enough weight that the sideways forces from an imperfect bill and imperfect brick cause the bill to crease and rapidly collapse. The point where that happens is buckling.

Even in 'perfect' vertical loads, imperfections or non-uniform parts in a beam will eventually cause buckling with increased load.


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

[User]
[5th Element] What was the plan to recover the stones if everything went according to plan?

In the movie the Mondechiwans presumably have the stones and 5th element on board the primary ship that gets blown up. Secretly they have surgically implanted the stones in Pava Laguna who has a prior commitment and presumably scheduled to deliver a world famous opera concert at the exact time the stones are needed on Earth several systems away.

So, let's assume the Mondachiwan's ship is not attacked. They are smoothly escorted to Earth. Zorg doesn't get involved. How were the stones that were surgically implanted in a galaxy famous opera singer going to get out of her and to Earth?

[Assistant]
The same way they actually were picked up, just with considerably less shooting and explosions.

They'd land, Lelu (or the Mondechiwans themselves) would explain the ruse, and they'd fly out to Floston and pick them up from the Diva.  Remember the Diva wasn't surprised to see Lelu there, from her perspective it was all going according to plan until she got shot.


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

[User]
[The Martian] Why didn't Watney just use the RTG he dug up to power the rover?

From the recent documentary film on the incident of leaving behind Dr. Mark Watney on Mars, it was noted that in order to extend the range of the rover, Watney did a battery swap routine as well as powering down all non-essential systems such as the heater. So he dug up the Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator which I think powered the MAV's ISRU to provide a level of passive heating.

Given that he did have some power limitation issues, why didn't he plug the RTG into the rover's power system to passively charge the batteries as he was going about? I know that RTGs aren't exactly powerplants that could power all the systems but it could at least passively charge the batteries that weren't in use as he was going about.

He might not have had the technical know-how at the time but it puzzles me that he didn't try to do so after re-establishing contact with NASA who could have guided him on it during his journey to the Ares IV MAV.

[Assistant]
He does for the pathfinder trip. It ends up cutting his recharge time from 13 hours to 12 hours.

For the trip to the MAV, he has the RTG inside a plastic bag, in a tank of water. Not a very attractive situation for wiring.

Also, over a day the RTG would only produce 2.46 pirate ninjas of power.


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

[User]
Can chimps pass down cooking?

Hi, I was wondering if you could teach a whole generation of chimps to cook, and have it pass on down generation after generation to perpetuity.

So let's say you give a whole tribe of chimps a sort of relatively safe reusable firestarter device, and a frying pan/stand setup. You teach the whole tribe to use them using cooked food as reward.

I'd expect some chimps to reject the notion of cooking food (some humans reject it too) but the one's that do would lead healthier lives, survival of the fittest, etc.

Now as the children grow up, they are taught/observe how to cook food. Is it possible for this continue forever as long as the devices last and they have a supply of cookable food? Sort of like creating a culture of cooking?

[Assistant]
I studied chimps for several years. One big issue with teaching them how to cook is you must first teach them how to make fire. Making fire would likely prove a bigger obstacle than actually learning that cooked food is better than uncooked.
Chimpanzees have been demonstrated to have a capacity to understand cooking and even prefer cooked food to uncooked food: Cognitive capacities for cooking in chimpanzees. Warneken & Rosati. Chimpanzees have developed and use intricate toolsets to get to termites, honey, hunt galagos. Unless provided with human technologies (ovens, stoves, etc.) chimps would be unlikely to learn how to make a fire but even if the skill was learned, the act of fire-making would be difficult if not impossible due to the morphology of their hands. (They have tiny thumbs)


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

[User] ELI5: Why is it so easy for hackers to disrupt government services and access private information but no one has erased all credit card debt for everyone?

[Assistant]
Because, no matter what movies and TV shows teach you about hackers, in the real world we have redundant servers and offline backups to prevent what you're talking about.

Sure, it's remotely possible to delete all of that data at an institution -- but just for a few hours. Then they restore it, and you get 10 years in prison and the bank is just inconvenienced.


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

[User]
CMV: Your degree is not at important as the network you create and maintain

Higher education is important and essential for a higher paying job, and to have a skilled job. However, the degree you obtain does little to no good without a network of people looking out for you.

After graduation, it is important to have people to reach out to. They can vouch for your work ethic and are able to use their network to survey job openings, and informational interviews. Without a strong network, having a successful career is much harder.

I would like to say that it isnt all about who you know but for the majority of work done after college, it is about who you know. This only becomes more prevalent when you continue to move up in the working world. You need to manage and maintain your network in order to get information about jobs. Moving throughout your career path it is essential to reach out to previous colleagues and others in order to find the next job. Without a network getting your foot in the door of a company is hard.

[Assistant] This issue is entirely job specific. Some careers are completely unavailable without the degree (doctor, nurse, lawyer, psychologist, social worker, engineer) while others put very little weight on a degree (sales, assistant). You've essentially taken a hard stance on an issue that is completely continent on the situation and is entirely not true in some situations and entirely true in others.


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

[User] [MCU] What makes Kingpin such a good crime boss despite being very temperamental? What is he able to do that other crime bosses cant?

[Assistant]
Capital is a big part of it. Other crime lords slowly amass power and wealth through crime, then use that power and wealth to attract more, but their wealth is derived from criminal activity, will always be criminal, carries a lot of risks, and can easily be lost in a second.

Fisk has an incredible amount of legitimately earned clean money. Fisk doesn't need to rob banks to raise money for stealing the Super Mega Death Ray, he can just buy it via a shell corporation. Working for Fisk means you're just as likely to be doing a legit job as you are a criminal one.

There's also the stability that comes from that. If other crime lords are arrested and charged their assets are siezed, they go to jail, there's a power vacuum, and things get messy real quick. The organisation now has no leadership and no money. If Fisk is arrested... he posts bail, he hires the best lawyer money can buy, if the worst comes to the worst he does some jail time and has one of his lieutenants take over while he's indisposed. The money he legitimately has doesn't get seized, wages are still paid, and for your average goon way down the ladder nothing actually changes.


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

[User]
ELI5:Why we have evolved with the ability to physically shut off our sense of sight, but not any of the others.. hearing, smell, taste and touch?

Sitting on the tube and realising i made huge error of leaving my headphones at home it got me thinking, why can't i "close" my ears. That is, without of course sticking my fingers inside, why haven't i evolved to protect my hearing at will, much like how eyelids protect eyesight? I have been reading many papers on our senses and haven't come to any solid conclusions. Hopefully someone can answer this in a way that i can understand.

[Assistant] Just because you close your eyes, you don't "shut off" that sense. You're still very much able to see the light that get through your eyelids. Furthermore, eyelids were not evolved to turn off your sense of vision, but to protect them from different stuff that can get in to them and damage them, and keep them moisturised so they don't dry out.


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

[User]
[Buffyverse/MCU] Would the First Evil/Hellmouth have a lot of impact on the MCU?

Basically the Hellmouth opens in a small Californian town and for the fun of it we'll just assume vampires and demons have been roaming Earth without SHIELD or any other organization catching wind of them. Does the Hellmouth and the First Evil stand a chance in the MCU? You can use any time period during the movies.

[Assistant] Doctor Strange would be horrified to learn that the only people protecting the biggest source of magical turmoil from overflowing into the normal world was a group of teenagers and a middle aged librarian.


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

[User]
ELI5: How can electronics with rechargeable batteries tell how much energy is left?

My laptop can tell me exactly what percentage of the battery is remaining, but what is this number based off of?

[Assistant] A fully charged battery will be at a certain voltage. As the batteries energy is depleted the voltage will drop. A fully depleted battery will have a voltage of zero. By monitoring the battery voltage the device can estimate available battery power.


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

[User] (ELI5) How do hot teas help with sore throats?

[Assistant]
Other commenters have commented on the chemical compounds within tea leaves, but there are also the important elements of heat and hydration.

So even drinking warm water without tea leaves (sometimes with honey and/or lemon, or even just plain), can provide immediate relief for sore throats because:

- **heat** reduces muscle tension, so warming up the throat helps throat muscles relax which can reduce soreness. Think about how having a hot bath or shower helps bodily muscles relax. The reason heat relaxes is because it encourages blood vessels in the area to dilate (widen) so that circulation improves.

- **hydration** is an important general treatment for illnesses that often cause sore throats, such as viral or bacterial infections. These illnesses often cause dehydration because the immune system's response is to try to expel the pathogen from the body through processes like coughing, sneezing or even vomiting or diarrhea. All of these processes cause the body to lose fluid. So rehydrating is an important priority.


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

[User]
CMV: In the Naruto series, the idea that "Naruto is the hard worker, Sasuke is insanely talented" is flipped.

I know that among the fandom,  it's common to say that Neji was right and hard work doesn't matter as much as "fate". I more or less agree, but that isn't exactly what this thread is about. Now obviously,  both Naruto and Sasuke both work hard and are both talented.  However, I'd say if they each lean more towards one, they actually lean the opposite way implied by character statements.

Sasuke - so obviously Sasuke is more than a little intelligent and he got some powerups. However, in comparisons with Naruto, Sasuke's work ethic seems underestimated by the characters. He literally spent the whole series training. Since the massacre, which happened when he was a child, he focused his entire life training to kill Itachi. Sasuke was certainly a prodigy,  but any child who dedicated every speck of free time outside of killer training school training to kill would be a killing prodigy.

Then, he graduated top of his class and got onto a team with jonin sensei who also focused all of his training efforts on him. Im not at all implying this is anyone's fault, but it still means Sasuke technically "worked harder" at this stage.

Then, he decides he isn't getting enough training, so he goes to Orochimaru, and constantly trains for three years.
After that, he shifts to basically field training.

Naruto - Naruto was highly disadvantaged,  but that wasn't due to lack of talent, and while he worked hard,  I'd say he didn't work as hard as Sasuke. We see at the beginning of the series that Naruto is bottom of the class and spends his time pretty much just fucking around pulling pranks. Despite this,  he masters shadow clones in a few minutes with no help.

Then,  when he gets on his team, he matches Sasuke in tree climbing,  and then gets unfairly ignored before the chunin exams. He spends his time fucking about trying to avoid Ebisu and then trying to help Jiraiya spy on girls before Jiraiya remembers to show him how to use his parentally installed nuke.

Then after spending three years training with Jiraiya (technically a wash with Sasuke's time skip, although I'd argue that the results and personalities of the teachers indicate otherwise) he realizes he's been born with so much chakra, he can just use clones to train faster without any real consequences. This allows him to master extremely difficult abilities out of reach of people stated to be geniuses.

The end of the series is a wash since both end up fighting a lot and being given powerups willy nilly. However,  overall,  I think it's clear that out of the two,  Sasuke's hard work overshadows Naruto's, and Naruto is also more talented in terms of power due to birth circumstances.

[Assistant]
Note: time=/=effort

Sasuke is a gifted learner. When he puts in X effort to his training, he sees Y reward in his abilities.

Naruto is not a gifted learner. When he puts in X effort to his training, he sees <Y reward in his abilities.

In order for Naruto to  increase his abilities at a rate similar to Sasuke, Naruto must put in more effort to his training. This is why the idea that "Naruto works hard, training comes easy to Sasuke" is true.


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

[User]
[DC COMICS] Who are the top 10 smartest people in the New 52 DC universe?

I know Batman, Lex luthor, Superman, and mister terrific. Who else?

[Assistant]
I cant give a list but characters like Static, Braniac 5 and that scientist who created Firestorm (Name escapes me)  would probably place on the list as a starting point. The problem with many of the Smart people is that there skills are not transferable or broad enough, e.g. while Bruce Wayne is smart at business and being Batman he probably cant come close to Mr Terrific in the physics department, even though most people say Bruce is smarter.

Also (No Disrespect just making a observation) New 52 superman is pretty stupid, he hardly thinks his movements through and while he's by no means dumb, his recklessness and lack of knowledge show he isn't the Super smart guy he was pre-flashpoint.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why aren't there many engineers or scientists in congress/politics/government?

I get that people think differently but why isn't there an effort for this? I DO believe there are SOME issues that engineers would solve/attempt to solve better than current politicians.

[Assistant] Engineers do what they do generally speaking because they like to solve problems. Engineers design better things, fix broken things, make things more efficient. Making an engineer work in government would essentially be putting him into some sort of engineer-specific dante's circle of hell.


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

[User]
[Marvel] Have Apocalypse and Juggernaut ever fought?

We've got the Juggernaut, who throws around Hulk like a doll.

We've got Apocalypse, who is nigh-unstoppable on Earth.

Have these two beasts ever fought each other, have they ever thrown hands at each other? If not, why not?

[Assistant] As i recall Apocalypse once didnt have enough to chip in for the sampler appetizer and clearly ate most of it and Juggernaut changed his shared netflix password and didnt talk to him for like three weeks.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do share owners lend their shares to short sellers?

This is in relation to the gamestop short squeeze & short selling in general.

Why do the original share owners offer up their shares to short sellers.  Aren't they getting the same amount in 3 months as if he just sold them himself three months down the line? Is there some sort of benefit for the original share owner I don't understand?

Bonus question: How / where do share owners list their shares for short sellers.

Maybe do a ELI4 instead of ELI5. Thanks!

[Assistant] When a share owner is lending a share out like this, they are being paid a fee for it.  Not a very big fee but...  That is still more than getting nothing during that same period from the share just sitting in your account.


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

[User]
[Terminator] What if Sky-Net had sent one of the rubber-skinned infiltrator models back in time?

So, in the first movie, Kyle Reese talks about rubber skinned terminator models that people spotted easily.

How would the 80s world that the Terminator is sent back to going to react to that sort of thing?

I mean, how rubbery are we talking? Like, is the average person from the Eighties going to think "killer robot" or something like that?

How would that impact the film?

[Assistant] Imagine a big ken doll that's built like a Mack truck coming at you.  It's human from a distance but too big to be normal unless a weight lifter and doesn't act human except to say a few phrases.  If it were sent back instead of a t 800 it'd be spotted pretty quickly and be involved in a massive shootout with police since the 600s were slower and bulkier than 800s and could barely trot.  For reference watch the scene in salvation where marcus gets attacked by a 600 that was on patrol in the city. And the skinless 700 the new 800 rips apart at the end of the film.


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

[User]
[ASOIAF] What does the other three quarters of the planet look like?

So it's been mentioned that Westeros, Sothoros and Essos only encompass three-quarters of the surface of the planet. Has the other three quarters been conquered by the Others? Has Bran the Builder set up an empire in Northoros? Is Ibben simply the outpost of a gigantic whaling empire? Is Asshai bigger than anyone thought? Is everything else just Merling territory?

Edit: Westeros, Sothoros and Essos only encompass one quarter. Forgive my error.

[Assistant] nobody knows, and anyone who has seen the rest of the world never survived a return trip, even the fastest ship takes months to get from Dorne to Quarth, and King Brandon Stark who sailed west with the most of the Northern fleet to find new lands, was never seen again. in this new age of dragons and the resurgence of magic, new discoveries are bound to occur.


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

[User]
CMV: There is NO legitimate reason to be an "anti-masker" and NO good reason anyone should refuse to wear masks. It is one of the most pointlessly selfish things someone can be in times like these.

So I work as a security guard. Lately a big new part of my job has been reminding people that they need to wear their masks. This as you might imagine inevitably has lead to many a heated conversation with people who just cannot wrap their heads around why I'm asking them to follow this simple rule. Even aside from what I consider to be obvious reasons for enforcing the rule, it's also just my job, which I need to y'know survive and stuff. But even when I try to make an appeal coming from that position, it just falls on deaf ears.

Even if I did believe that this whole pandemic was overblown or some kind of elaborate hoax or conspiracy (just to be extra clear I absolutely do not believe that) I still would like to think that I would at least begrudgingly follow the rules out of courtesy for other's to put their minds at ease.

As far as I've seen, any claims about actual medical conditions or arguments saying that masks reduce oxygen etc. have been thoroughly shown to be absolute bullshit time and time again. And don't even get me started on people who just can't deal with the discomfort of wearing masks in general, news flash: no one enjoys it but it's just how it is.

All of that being said, if there are any actual legitimate points against any of this I genuinely want to hear them. I feel like it's important that I know in case I do find myself in a situation where I am wrong about this, regardless of the requirements set by my employer. So if you've got em' please do share.

[Assistant]
There's one medical issue that actually collides with masks: Trigeminal neuralgia. Patients with that condition can't wear one since the mask itself would cause them immeasurable pain.

But those patients know how to handle the issue and how to behave/handle their daily tasks including going outside. And they're the last to complain or rant in public about it.


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

[User]
Disregarding the fact that people are considered mature or an adult at age 18(in most countries). At what age do different philosophers consider a person an adult?

I'm guessing that people have different ideas of what's the ideal adult age. I think that I could consider myself an adult at age 25 and beyond. I could call myself an adult at age 18 anytime but I wouldn't feel like one.

[Assistant]
What we mean when we say that someone is mature is that they have developed a certain set of capacities. These capacities can be a number of things, including things like the capacity to drive a car well. But the most important type of capacity we tend to associate with maturity is rational capacities. The reason that we dont punish children as much when they commit the same crime as adults, or that we dont let them vote, is that we feel they dont have sufficient rational capacities to fully understand what they are doing. Rational capacities seem especially important for assigning moral responsibilities to people. The problem is that there is no clean line we can draw where before the line someone lacks rational capacities and past the line they have them. Further, its possible that there exists some very mature 15 year old who has developed sufficient rational capacities, and that there is also a very immature 25 year old who does not have these capacities.

The law draws a line at a certain age because of pragmatic considerations. It is simply impossible to go case-by-case and decide whether each person is currently rational enough to take on the full moral responsibilities of an adult. So we draw a somewhat arbitrary line that we decide is good enough, but not perfect. Philosophers dont have to draw such a line, so theres no age that a philosopher is going to tell you that someone is an adult outside outside of the political community theyre in.


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

[User]
[Star Wars]So I'm a newly fallen Dark Jedi, where can I get some troops, starships, and a few super-weapons to take over the galaxy?

So I'm a newly fallen Dark Jedi.  I don't feel like joining up with Snoke, Kylo Ren, and the First Order (my neck gets sore looking up at tall holograms, and Kylo Ren's a bit too whiny).  How do I go about procuring legions of faceless stormtroopers, powerful starships, swarming starfighters, and a few super-weapons?

Is this all just leftover Empire stuff?  A lot of these designs are new, are there still evil researchers out there improving the equipment for armies of doom?

Who's paying for all of this?  Do I need to enslave a few planets to form a tax base first?  Mind trick a couple of weak-willed venture capitalists?

How do I learn more powers of the Dark Side?  I don't really want to do the Master/Apprentice thing, I'm worried about being killed failure/promotion.  Do I need to dig around ruins for ancient Holocrons, or would it be better to just surf through a bunch of Holonet videos and try to find something useful?  Do most local libraries have guides on using the force (or the Death Star plans tucked away in historical archives)?

[Assistant]
You think you can just up and decide you're a dark Jedi and that troops, ships and doomsday devices will just fall into your lap?

Fuck off grasshopper, Papa Palpatine worked his entire life to build the Empire.

Either you take it, or your don't.

There are no handouts.


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

[User]
How do scientists schedule time with the JWST Telescope?

Im assuming its an appointment thing, but Im just curious if anyone knows how the process works?

[Assistant] Astronomer here. Almost all telescopes (JWST included) have a peer reviewed proposal process. We write proposals for using the telescope, explaining what scientific goals we have, how it impacts the rest of astronomy, why we really need JWST, and how it extends work we have already done. These are scrutinized by specialized panels of other astronomers and ranked in order of their merit. In most cases even if your proposal is good, you may not get time because the telescope is oversubscribed. The regular peer review process takes place about 6 months in advance and only once or twice a year. A small fraction of the time is kept as director's discretionary time, which is used for urgent new observations (e g. A new, unexpected supernova nearby). The director sends out the urgent proposal to senior astronomers in the field to do a quick peer review and decides on whether to grant the time.


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

[User]
ELI5: When a movie star signs up for a big budget movie how/when does he/she get paid?

Do they get a weekly or bi-weekly paycheck? A lump sum?

[Assistant] Talent agent here... they get paid multiple times in various ways.  There's the lump sum upfront guaranteed money (ie We'll pay you $10M dollars to do this film), royalties (plus 2% of box office sales, TV broadcoasts and DVD sales), and bonuses/incentives (plus another $1M if you do a publicity tour in Europe, with another $500k if we do $25M in box office sales there), plus numerous other ways depending on the particular movie.  The timing of how each of those is paid out (1 giant check vs regular payments) is completely negotiable, and varies from deal to deal based on what the actor prefers... some need money asap, some want scheduled payments to make taxes/finances easier to manage.  Even who gets to hold the money before it's paid is negotiable (is it put in escrow, or does the studio get to hang onto it?).  There's no one answer unfortunately... every last bit varies every single time.


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

[User] ELI5:Why are the hairs that grow in moles thicker and blacker?

[Assistant]
Moles are basically a tumor. The unusual cell cluster pushes on the follicle, making it grow hair faster than usual. They're darker because of the extra melanin in the area from the mole. It's actually a good thing if your mole grows hair because that's a sign it's not cancerous.

I copy/pasted it from another ELI5 from a few months ago, credit goes to PurpleOrangeSkies.


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

[User]
Does pressure affect the way atoms bond? Are there any compounds/reactions that are not possible at NTP but could be if the reactants are placed in a chamber with a higher/lower pressure?

We all know how pressure affects intermolecular forces, but how about *inner* molecular forces?

[Assistant]
This might not be quite what you are looking for but there are actually many fancy materials that you can form at high to extreme pressures.

For things achievable on earth a common example would be diamond. Less well known would be the various different types of ice (like ice V, VI, VII, XI).

More theoretical and possibly existing inside of gas giants like jupiter would be metallic hydrogen. Something infamous for being a bit of a holy grail of material science.

At ridiculously high pressures things start becoming exotic theoretical physics research such as the neutron pasta matter inside of neutron stars and other strange degenerate forms of matter.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] I am Lord Voldemort. I control the Ministry, including its supply of Time Turners. Should I issue one to each one of my Death Eaters, to use to reverse time in case I am killed in action?

Time turners are obviously very dangerous, and I wouldn't want my followers using them while I am still alive, lest they unintentionally erase me from the timeline, but if I am killed, what do I have to lose? I could always cast a spell upon them that stops them from working while I am still alive.

The Ministry should have tons of them, for Merlin's sake, they issue them to 13-year old girls who struggle with class workloads, they can't be that rare! Muggle schools don't issue Ferraris to students who struggle with getting to school on time, and if I really wanted every one of my followers to have a Ferrari, I could still easily do that!

Even given my large amount of Horcruxes, regenerating a body is hard! It's so much easier to send someone back in time than to send an imposter to rig a months-long international wizarding sports competition to get some enemy blood again!

[Assistant]
In the HP universe, time is fixed in the sense that the modifications done due to time travel have always happened- there is no changing established events since time travel becomes part of established events.

So if Voldemort dies, he dies, end of story- time travel is not going to change that. Any attempts to do so have already been attempted and failed.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do chameleons walk like they're pondering every step?

[Assistant] They are trying to look like a branch or leaves waving back and forth in the wind, instead of like a walking chameleon. If they just strolled along then their prey would spot them and they would starve, or predators would spot them and they would be eaten.


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

[User] [The Matrix] What's so special about a hard phone line that allows it to bring someone out of the matrix?

[Assistant] Hardwired phone lines are part of the Matrix infrastructure. When someone hacks into the Matrix, encryption prevents them from leaving. So you need to get to a connection that is not being encrypted to get back out.


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

[User]
[WH40K] Can Dark Eldar revert to a lifestyle similar to the normal Eldar?

So one day a Dark Eldar wakes up after the usual 2 week long sadomaso torture orgy with a terrible hangover, takes a look at all the blood drenching his carpet, the pieces of brain matter hanging from the ceiling and the partially eaten corpse of a human child lying in a corner, realizes that he has to clean all that and thinks *'fuck this shit'*. He then has an epiphany, decides to repent his wicked ways and become a pacifist.

Is it possible for him to stop staving off 'She Who Thirsts' their usual way and adopt a non-dark Eldar lifestyle of strict discipline and meditation while hiding behind a few walls of wraithbone?
Or is their corruption and the grip Slaanesh has on their soul irreversible?

[Assistant]
I think its possible.... but insanely unlikely. There would have to be some heavy shit go down for an Eldar to feel bad about anything non-Eldar.

A human childs corpse in the corner torn to shreds is meaningless to a dark eldar. Do you ever get home and see an ant corpse in the corner of the room and have a life changing epiphany?

Even if for some reason they do decide to repent they are bent beyond recognition and are basically coming down off the most intense high the universe has to offer, including some real actual highly addictive drugs...

Once an addict always an addict. They might try to clean up but they will always know the feeling on flaying a human keeping them alive for days so they can sleep to their screams while pumping drugs and god knows what into their bodies so they can maintain a prehensile erection for 3 months.

You dont just go home after shit like that.

>Thought for the Day: Do not ask, "Why kill the alien?" rather, ask, "Why not?"