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

[User]
[ASOIAF] Dating in the Seven Kingdoms

If you are a lords son,  before you are betrothed to cement an alliance, what are your options for dating?

Would it be acceptable to be seen with a lover that you had no intention to marry? Are you forced to deal with whores?

If dating without the prospect of marriage is acceptable who would you be able to date? Id imagine women of your class would need to maintain their virtue, so would having a tryst with a low born be acceptable?

[Assistant]
If you are a male son of a landed noble, you can mess around with as many unmarried women as you like. If they produce children you may have to have it discretely taken care of via giving them money or moon tea. Many medieval nobles had mistresses after marriage too. Just don't sleep with the wife of anyone important or good at dueling and you're safe.

If you are a female though no dating/sex until marriage (to a noble, hopefully from a good house). They were expected to produce true blood children, as any doubt in the heritage would result in a civil war. We never see the punishments before the Sparrow's takeover, but they were probably severe. Their parents may want to keep this a secret though, to avoid the stain on their honor, and will force them to either abort or have to be sent to a nunnery.


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

[User]
Why are swords used in WH40K?

Everyone has guns and shit, what advantages do melee weapons offer?

[Assistant]
Guns run out of ammo and/or break.

In a long engagement sometimes the enemy's refusal to die outstrips the number of ammo packs you brought to the battlefield.

It is at that point one is often glad they brought several meters of sharpened metal, perhaps even roaring with spinning razor-chain, which are quite efficient at convincing the enemy to finish their march toward death.


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

[User] [Fallen London] Why am I basically immortal when playing Fallen London, but very very mortal when playing Sunless Sea?

[Assistant]
It's the nature of the Unterzee- note that you generally can't die on the islands.

While it's hard to make exact rulings in the Neath, in general, death in the Unterzee is death for real. The Fathomking does not let the dead go easily.


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

[User] ELI5: how do we know light is massless and not just a unit too small to measure?

[Assistant] It has been confirmed by observation and experiments which match the theories perfectly that photons are massless.  There isn't an easy ELI5 way to answer it without math or physics jargon.  Photons are energy moving at the speed of light.  Nothing with mass can move at the speed of light.


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

[User] [X-Men] Cyclops glasses/visor are knocked off easily, can we give him special contact lenses instead?

[Assistant] He's done that once or twice. The problem is then he can't use his powers until he takes them out. He's the kind of guy who wants to be ready to go immediately, he's never off the clock. And he always has a spare visor on his utility belt, so it takes almost no time to recover from losing a pair.


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

[User]
Is giving presents to homeless people for christmas moral?

Although on paper it sounds like a good thing I noticed on Christmas eve homeless people receiving many presents and food (I have never seen this on a day that isnt close to christmas). In my eyes people are only doing this because they want to feel good about themselves or justify the ridiculous amounts they may have indulgently spent but for the other 364 days of the year they will likely not go to the same efforts. To help another is a good thing, but is it good if it is not really a genuine wish to help another but in ones own interest? Does this really help those who are out on the street (in the long term) and does this not kind of take the piss? Like here have some food/a drink etc because this is the season of giving but for the rest of the time ill walk by you and assume you dont need help. But its Christmas so to remind you that we're all inundinating each other with gifts here's some food, I bet ive made your day now.

[Assistant]
Classic Utilitarianism vs deontology. If you're just concerned with the end result, or you view morality based on the consequences, it is moral to give homeless people Christmas presents. Regardless of your intentions, you still made them happier (and probably yourself too).

Conversely, some say that morality matters not in the consequences, but only in the intentions. For deontologists, they might say the action is immoral given a similar line of reasoning as you: that the intention is purely selfish.

Immanuel Kant would also be opposed since you're effectively using the homeless people as a means to achieving self-fulfillment. Kant says we need to treat people as ends in themselves.

I guess the answer to your question is it depends on how you view morality.


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

[User] ELI5: For what reason is the snooze timer set to 9 minutes instead of 10?

[Assistant]
Original mechanical alarm clocks had already been standardized by the time the snooze feature was invented, so gearmakers had to mesh the gears with the existing clock mechanism. It worked out that they could best fit a gear set up of about 9-10 minutes, but the opinion at the time was that 10+ minutes was long enough for people to properly fall back asleep, so the nine minute gear configuration was chosen.

Then digital alarm clocks came around; while easily altered to whatever snooze length is desired, they had to compete with mechanical ones and most people already expected a nine minute snooze. That was what stuck.


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

[User] [Captain Planet] Is there any advantage to not having Captain Planet summoned all the time?

[Assistant]
The Planeteer's primary purpose is to prevent environmental disasters and stop pollution.

That is usually handled by the five Planeteers at separate times in separate places. Gi could be in China stopping a tsunami, while Linka is in Miami calming a hurricane, for example.

Having them be separate from Captain Planet and still empowered means Gaia can get five times the work done at the one time. Besides, most of the work the Planeteers do doesn't require the massive accumulated power of Captain Planet, anyways.

When the Eco-Villains manage to get one of their plots in full swing, however, sometimes the five rings just can't work well enough to handle the problem. Hence, Captain Planet. Here when he's needed, gone when he's not.


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

[User]
ELI5 : what causes people to have nightmares

I personally have a lot of nightmares. Very frequent.
So what caused people to have them and why do some have them more frequently than others?

[Assistant]
It is hypothesized that dreams are a way of preparing you for dangerous and/or scary situations. Frequency and intensity of nightmares correlates with levels of stress. We all dream each night, but you will be more likely to remember them if you wake up during the dream.

Also - parasomnias (sleep disorders)


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

[User] [Star Trek] How does vacation time/military leave work in Starfleet? How much time off do you get?

[Assistant]
We never get specifics, but it seems that leave is something that Starfleet members accrue, as Star Fleet recognizes the need for rest and relaxation outside of work.

But "work" is an entirely different thing in the 24th century. It's not an employer-employee relationship because money isn't a thing in Starfleet. People are driven by the desire for self-improvement and betterment of humanity.

That is to say: they actually genuinely like their jobs.

The other factor is life aboard a Starship means you aren't always afforded the opportunity to make use of your leave. The flight path and missions of a Star Ship must be coordinated to afford these opportunities.


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

[User]
[MARVEL] How come Captain Americas family is never mentioned?

Even after he comes out of the ice you would think his family would want to meet their long lost, world famous, relative. But he seems completely alone until the Avengers are formed.

[Assistant] In the First Avenger there is a screen where Steve says his father died fighting in World War 1, and another scene between him and Bucky after his mothers funeral this is actually the scene that sets up the Im with you until the end of the line in Winter Soldier.


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

[User]
On Earth, life has evolved to fill almost every potential ecosystem we can find, even unimaginably inhospitable ones. Are there any plant or animals species that we know of from Earth that we could take to Mars that would have a solid chance of surviving there?

As I look at the images from Curiosity, I'm amazed at how barren of life Mars appears to be considering that in almost every part of Earth, we find that life has evolved to survive and usually thrive an enormous variety of conditions.  Seems like we must have something from Earth that could be used to 'seed' life on Mars so that, even if it took place over hundreds of thousands of years, it could eventually evolve and begin to fill out a Mars-specific ecosystem.  But what would they be?  Any ideas Reddit?

[Assistant] There are certainly some extremophiles mostly bacteria or archaea that could survive on mars. Some of these could potential use the minerals on mars to grow and reproduce, others could go into a state of cryptobiosis kinda like hibernation where they could survive almost indefinitely in a dormant state. These bacteria are found in some of the most extreme places on earth including the inside of hot springs, or at extreme depths under the oceans. One really interesting bacteria is Deinococcus radiodurans, which can withstand the extreme radiation of space as well as being able to survive in a vacume, survive dehydration, survive extreme acids, and can even repair its own DNA after being exposed to radiation. In fact whenever they send things to mars, the moon and other planets, NASA always takes extra precautions to sanitation the space craft and space instraments so that they do not contaminate other words with life from Earth.


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

[User]
CMV: Being in a relationship with somebody with different views is healthy and helpful.

I am young and would like to think of myself as mature, to expand on that I enjoy cmv style discussions simply with the intent to learn. Most people I know that are my age wouldnt continue or pursue a relationship with someone that believes something different from them. I see this as immature and fix-minded. Being in a relationship where you care about the other person helps set an environment where you can learn about opposing views and hopefully learn to understand why they think that way. I dont know though, I could be wrong, but I guess thats for you guys to help me with.

Edit: Im sorry I shouldve clarified, by beliefs I mean  political standpoints.

[Assistant]
Every single possible combination of people share some views in common (for example, you shouldn't walk around town naked) and have some they disagree on (for example, if they like celery).

Some of those views are trivial, and really don't matter, but some make a big difference to the way you behave and live.

If you are cautious with money, work hard, save a proportion of it, and save up for nice holidays, or to buy a house, then it will be very difficult to have a relationship with someone who thinks money is a man made invention which is harmful, who doesn't like working, who gives any money they have away and just lets everyone else buy things for them.

Also: if you want to expand your views in life, there are plenty of people around that you can learn from. It doesn't have to be your partner in particular.


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

[User] Will the 40k universe and story ever be furthered in terms of lore and story? Will the emperor finally die or reincarnate? Or is this as far as the storytelling goes in the universe?

[Assistant] It inches further along very slowly but surely over the years/decades. There's a lot of factors and events for them to consider. Right now a lot of talent is being focused on lore and not new material. The Horus Heresy series for example.  Hopefully after they complete the series they will look to do something similar for new material.


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

[User]
CMV: Many "cis" people don't actually have an "internal sense of being a man or woman"

Many people have traits, but do not identify with them. I'm right-handed, but I don't have an "internal sense of being right-handed." I have a driver's license, but I don't have an "internal sense of having a driver's license."

I understand arguments about gender being invisible to privileged people. It does make sense that a straight, white man might not "feel" like any of those things, because society doesn't force him to think about what it means to go through society with those traits in the same way as non-straight, non-white or non-male people might have to.

However, even accepting that, I think there is a portion of the population, who genuinely wouldn't see themselves as "man" or "woman" even with introspection, but who aren't really "non-binary." If asked, these people would identify as their birth gender, and use the pronouns appropriate to that gender, but if they woke up as the opposite gender it might surprise them (in the same way that waking up with different colored eyes and hair might surprise someone), but it wouldn't cause them dysphoria. Or if they woke up, and society started using the opposite set of pronouns for them, they'd be confused but they'd roll with it. (The same way that some people might be deeply hurt if you got their name consistently wrong, but there might be a guy named "Mark" who doesn't care that his coworker has called him "Mike" for the last three years. To him, "Mike" started off a confusing mistake and then he just rolled with it for three years - it effectively became a nickname that he's okay with.)

Another way of stating my argument is that I think there are a lot of people who might have a gender role (since they were raised a certain way), but who don't have a gender (and who aren't, or wouldn't identify as "agender" or "non-binary.") They just become "cis" because they don't see the need to do anything with their (non-existent?) gender, even upon reflection.

[Assistant]
How many people do you think have no "internal sense of being a man/woman" and would be okay with being identified as the opposite set of pronouns?

I seem to know far more men who would be upset you called them 'she' than men would be okay with that.


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

[User] Why do our nipples get hard when we're cold?

[Assistant] When exposed to cold temperature skin reflexively contracts, causing the nipple to become smaller, wrinkled and "hard." The ultimate function of this reflex is to decrease the amount of surface area on the nipple that is exposed to the cold. This decreases the amount of body heat that is lost to the cold and ultimately the amount of energy it takes to sustain homestasis (keeping normal body temperature) in an organism. So decreasing surface area is the ultimate reason why nipples get hard in the cold. It's the same thing as goosebumps on other parts of your skin.


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

[User] ELI5: How do police radar/laser speedometers work while the police car is already in motion?

[Assistant]
They subtract the speed the police car is driving at from the speed that they measure with the radar speedometer, which gives them the speed the other car is going.

Edit: If the other car is driving the opposite direction than the police car, they subtract their speed to get the other vehicle's speed.
If the other car is in the same lane in front of the police car, they add the measured speed to their own speed to get the other vehicle's speed.


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

[User]
If a mother breastfeeds while infected with a virus does the baby adopt her antibodies for life? Example chickenpox

My mother breastfed me while she had chickenpox i didnt get chicken pox and i never have, is it possible that ive already gotten the antibodies?

[Assistant] Antibodies obtained from breast milk only last a few months after stopping. Chances are you just got lucky with not getting chicken pox later on in life. This means you probably should get the chicken pox vaccine as getting it as an adult is much worse then when youre a child.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does fountain soda from the gas station seem to taste way better than bottled or canned soda?

[Assistant]
Soda is created by taking a flavored syrup and carbonating it, which means adding carbon dioxide to create the bubbles.

When it's bottled/canned, it's carbonated at the factory and sealed, sent to a store, and then you buy it, open it, and drink it. When you buy it from a fountain at a gas station or fast food place, the syrup is carbonated in the machine right before it goes into your cup. This "freshness" accounts for the difference in taste.


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

[User]
ELI5:How do corrective lenses correct one field of vision (nearsighted or farsighted) without distorting the range we can already see?

I am nearsighted and everything goes VERY blurry about six inches from my face and beyond. My glasses / contacts are a single prescription (not bifocals or trifocals). Wearing them I can see everything clearly. How do they let me see far away while NOT distorting my current vision?

[Assistant]
When you are nearsighted or farsighted the lens in your eye is either too powerful or too weak.  If you're nearsighted, the lens is too strong, it focuses an image too quickly so that its in front of the retina.   The corrective lens diverges the light coming in more, spreads it over a wider angle, than it would be, so the too powerful lens focuses the image where it should be.

Why does this affect vision at one distance only? Because the lens of the eye is actually made to change shape and change focusing when little muscles pull on it.  Your eyes change how well they focus naturally if you're looking at something near or something far away.  If you're nearsighted, the range of focus you can get is all close up, and not enough far away.  So corrective lenses shift the whole range to farther distances, so that you can get a more "normal" range of distances covered.  For farsighted its the opposite.

The eye is designed to be able to focus on a range of distances, corrective lenses shift that range as a whole.


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

[User]
Are people born with different types of brains or are they just clean slates?

What I mean is, are people born with brains that have certain personalities (ex; extroverted vs. introverted) and/or with brains that can do certain things very well (thinking critically vs. something else) or are there personalities developed strictly through experience?

[Assistant]
Somewhat boring answer, but both make significant contributions. Much about personality is genetically loaded (your extroverted vs. introverted example is quite high on this actually) but a ton of it is environmental as well (even highly heritable personality traits have significant environmental contributions). There is also some overweighting of genetic factors because the pre-birth environment (the womb) has a lot more effect than you'd think and researchers are not always sensitive to this.

There is also the issue that environment and genetics is very difficult to disentangle, they are often mutually reinforcing (genetic predisposition causes person to seek a particular environment which reinforces the predisposition and so on).

The nature vs. nurture debate has kind of gone out of style, possibly because "well both make measured contributions with varying levels depending on trait blah blah blah" isn't all that exciting.


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

[User]
ELI5: Explain how the touch sensor works on an iPhone or iPad, and why some objects work (e.g. stylus, other objects) but not others.

I haven't been able to figure this out. I'm sure a Google search could figure it out, but I bet other people would like to know as well. I know that styluses work, and if a glove is thin enough it will work, but I recently saw an odd looking stylus and couldn't see how that one could possibly work, but it did. Any ideas?

[Assistant]
It's a capacitive touch screen, which means that it detects touch by the presence of an electrically conductive object, not by actual pressure on the screen (which is how older, resistive touch screens like a lot of GPSes have work, which is not nearly as sensitive or responsive)

Only things that conduct electricity work. A plastic stylus won't, so they started making styli with a silicone tip that contains some metal particles, to get a conductive tip that won't scratch. Your fingers are conductive, but thick gloves aren't. Thin gloves can work, because it's sensing the presence, not requiring physical contact.


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

[User]
How to think philosophically

How can I foster a philosophical mindset to be used throughout my daily life?

Are there methods of thinking that I can practice that would allow me to formulate arguments based on everyday observations?

In other words, what are the best ways to approach thinking with the goal of thinking like a skilled philosopher?

[Assistant]
>In other words, what are the best ways to approach thinking with the goal of thinking like a skilled philosopher?

You read lots and lots of original philosophical work and it will come eventually. You might not always be right, but eventually you'll find certain parts of your life come to look like certain philosophical concepts, and might benefit from philosophical models or philosophical conclusions. Most of the time philosophy classes help people enormously in this process, but some people can do it on their own. That's really all there is to it.


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

[User]
ELI5: What has come of the Russia/Crimea situation? Is the Crimean peninsula now part of Russia?

Most news outlets say that Russia has "annexed" the Crimean peninsula. Assuming that Russia now has control in the region, does that mean we will soon see the Crimean peninsula marked as Russian territory in future maps?

[Assistant]
It's not over yet.

Russia now controls the Crimean Peninsula *de facto*, which means "in fact" (as opposed to *de jure*, which means "in law"). That basically means that the Russians are there taking over. Russia has also declared the Crimea to be a republic within the Russian Federation, and the city of Sevastopol to be a federal city. That would be the equivalent of, say, US forces occupying Newfoundland and declaring it to be the 51st state.

The question is, what about the other countries of the world? So far, apart from Russia, only Afghanistan, Nicaragua, Syria and Venezuela have recognised the legitimacy of Russian rule over Crimea. Belarus is sitting on the fence, saying that Crimea is *de jure* Ukranian but *de facto* Russian.

So at the moment, sovereignty of the Crimea is "disputed".


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

[User]
Why do things prefer to be in the lowest energy state?

Why does something naturally go to its lowest energy instead of the highest? Is that just how it works?

[Assistant] Things in a higher energy state can spontaneously transition to a lower energy state, even of nothing else is around, by releasing energy. But they cannot spontaneously go to a higher energy state if nothing else is around, as thank to energy conservation, this requires an input of energy.


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

[User]
Why are super-clusters the largest objects in the observable Universe?

After recently watching a video about the Laniakea supercluster, a question arose about what prevents super-clusters from forming ever larger structures. Why for instance don't they form into spirals or discs made up of many super-clusters? Is it simply that the distances involved are too great? Any insights are much appreciated!

[Assistant]
Essentially, because 1) the universe hasn't had time and 2) the universe is flying apart rather rapidly, which makes it harder for structure to grow indefinitely.

If you had a static (meaning neither expanding nor contracting), infinite universe with a fairly smooth density distribution, then yes, you would expect structure to continue growing over time. However you would not expect gravitationally bound structures to have gotten very far beyond the supercluster scale, since the age of the universe is a pretty serious limiting factor. In reality, of course, our universe is not just expanding but expanding faster and faster, so it's getting pretty late in the game for large-scale structure to be really growing. Even the Great Attractor is actually receding from us. The matter in our supercluster will never all collect in the same place, we're receding too fast. The diagrams only represent the deviations in galaxies velocities from the Hubble Law (i.e., the change in their motion due to the tug from other matter). For most of our supercluster, the Great Attractor is only causing a moderate decrease in the rate at which the galaxies are flying apart.


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

[User] ELI5: How do they make perfectly geometric rock walls that are pieced together from seemingly random stones?

[Assistant] They put the flattest side forward. They fill in the odd-shaped gaps with mortar, and the larger gaps with small stones and mortar. Ultimately the top is still a bit jagged, so they usually top it with more mortar and some carefully hand-cut stones.


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

[User] [LotR] At Helm's Deep, why didn't the orcs just bomb the front gate? Why did they need a special torch bearer to blow up the bomb anyways?

[Assistant]
The front gate is up a narrow ramp, which was in range of most of the archers on the walls. Any bomber or torch bearer would easily have been stricken down.

As for why they needed a torch bearer, they could not have the ignition device and the bomb together or risk uniting them too soon and the bomb only damaging their own army.


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

[User]
How do Google's driverless cars handle ice on roads?

I was just driving from Chicago to Nashville last night and the first 100 miles were terrible with snow and ice on the roads. How do the driverless cars handle slick roads or black ice?

I tried to look it up, but the only articles I found mention that they have a hard time with snow because they can't identify the road markers when they're covered with snow, but never mention how the cars actually handle slippery conditions.

[Assistant]
Although driverless cars use GPS to determine where they are going they need to use a light radar (lidar) system for the fine details of the road layout.

Currently, this lidar technology doesn't work in the rain due to the different reflective properties of the road surface and so the car requires the driver to take over.

There would be a similar issue with ice on the road, even if the car can compensate for the slippery conditions via some PID type system.


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

[User]
If heavier elements 'sink' towards the core of a star, why does fusion still occur there?

Wouldn't the Hydrogen and Helium primarily used for fusion be in the outer layers, with the inner layers being mostly unfusionable elements?

[Assistant]
The core of the star is the only place with enough pressure and heat for fusion, it doesnt happen in the outer layers because it isnt hot enough there.

In stars that fuse hydrogen like our Sun there isnt enough helium yet to prevent hydrogen from fusing, and there wont be for billions of years.  Eventually there will be enough helium to prevent hydrogen from fusing though.  Fusion creates an outward force which prevents stars from collapsing in on themselves, so when that happens the Sun will collapse a bit causing its core pressure and temperature to go up until the conditions are right to fuse helium into even heavier elements like carbon.  When this happens the star enters its red giant phase, and if its a smaller one like our Sun it will cause powerful solar wind which effectively blows the star apart into a planetary nebula.

In larger stars though the gravity overcomes this powerful solar wind and once the helium is depleted it fuses carbon and the cycle continues with each phase lasting less time than the last.  This creates many layers of different elements in older larger stars.  This will happen until iron is produced in the core, any atoms the mass of iron larger are special because they take more energy to fuse than they produce, so that drains the star of a lot of energy and quickly causes a collapse resulting in a supernova.


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

[User] ELI5 why can you fry things in oil but not in boiling water?

[Assistant]
When liquid water hits 100 C (212 F), it stops getting hotter.
If you add more energy into the liquid water, that energy goes towards turning the liquid water into a gas rather than making the water hotter.

The chemical reactions involved in frying tend to happen at temperatures above 100 C.

For most oils the boiling temperatures is well above 100 C.
Though you rarely reach it. Most of the bubbling in oil is water that was mixed with the food boiling.


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

[User]
Can Bruce Banner stay disease free by turning into the hulk from time-to-time?

Same goes for trips to the dentist? Hulks teeth don't care about tartar. Is Bruce Banner biologically immortal as himself? What about as the Hulk?

Edit: tartar!

[Assistant]
Turning into the Hulk every so often might purge his system, but if Bruce doesn't want to turn, he has gotten pretty good at doing so.

The real question comes when Bruce contracts a deadly disease. The Hulk wouldn't let him die, he'd just hulk out when the disease got bad enough. You have to wonder how effective this is, and whether it would work against things like Cancer or Old Age.


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

[User]
Why does scalding water sometimes feel cold?

It's usually when your hands (or whatever body part, usually an extremity) are already cold. Sometimes it's hard to gauge the temperature of running water, which kind of seems dangerous.

What's really weird is it kind of feels hot and cold at the same time, and it feels like it should hurt so that you instinctively pull away. Then you realize that it's only a feeling *akin* to pain, but isn't actually painful at all.

[Assistant] Very interesting subject. The reason lies in the cold-receptors of your skin, that measure cold. If you slowly increase the heat of the skin you observe this: They usually have a maximum activity when they reach 25 celsius degrees, stopping at about 30-35. A curious phenomenon, though, is that they start being activated again when the skin reaches about 40 celsius degrees. So even though your hand is scalding, your brain thinks it is quite cool. Fortunately for us, there are also heat sensors that have a maximum activety at 43 celsius. (Curiously enough, they stop at 45 degrees) This phenomenon is called an inappropriate stimulation of receptors. Another example is the stimulation of cold receptors in the mouth after eating a mint. Menthol stimulates this receptor.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is it that a 7 year old console with only 512 MB of ram can run modern games with pretty decent graphics?

[Assistant]
A lot of corners are cut to make it possible. Low resolution, low fps, blurs, pop-in, low view distance.

GTA V taxes a console to its complete limit, and that took 7 years of the industry figuring out tricks for that specific piece of hardware. Still, it suffers from all the above problems.

The only reason you call it decent and modern, is because you haven't seen what PC is capable of.


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

[User]
Why exactly is a 100% efficient process impossible?

So I've built a perpetual motion device and need your help...

No, actually I'm a BSc Physics grad working on a book and trying to sort some things out in my head. I've been doing a bunch of reading on the topic and am trying to pin down one particular point. I get the basics of the four laws of thermodynamics, I remember the statistical explanations of entropy, and (actually, mostly thanks to a few reddit posts), I'm starting to get a hold of the idea of heat being "unusable" energy.

Ok, so my actual question is this: How valid is it to say that you cannot reach 100% efficiency because you cannot escape friction, and friction always results in a heat transfer? Am I thinking on too much of a macro level?

Thanks for any help you can give.

[Assistant]
Friction is a good culprit in mechanical systems, but equivalent types of loss occur in other systems (e.g. viscosity leads to drag in fluids; randomization of electron paths leads to ohmic resistance in electrical systems).

I think the concept you're reaching for is this:  it is never, in practice, possible to create a completely ordered system, and slight amounts of disorder in any energy-transducing system will yield loss of ordered energy (mechanical, electrical, chemical) to disordered energy (heat at uniform temperature).   Friction is due to lack of order in the physical shape of sliding solids on the molecular scale, or to viscosity in liquids or gases -- which in turn is due to momentum transfer by disordered molecular motion perpendicular to applied shear.  Electrical resistance is due to disorder in the electron-nucleus interaction in a conductor.  Etc.

The problem is that such statements have to be so general (to encompass all the forms of disorder and of ordered energy) that they just boil down to restatements of the second law of thermodynamics.


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

[User] ELI5:ELI5: If "yellow" colored urine is a sign of dehydration, why does the body get rid of that liquid instead of using it to hydrate me?

[Assistant]
*Because that is exactly what the body is doing which is why the urine is yellow!*

Your body needs to get rid of waste on a regular basis. This is excreted into the bladder for periodic release. The waste products need to be carried in a fluid, but as our bodies dehydrate they try to hold onto water. As a result the waste products are more concentrated in the remaining water and the color darkens.


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

[User] ELI5: How does carbonation work? Why does it not dissipate immediately after opening your beverage?

[Assistant]
Carbonation is basically carbon dioxide CO2 dissolved in water.

CO2 naturally dissolves in water somewhat, but to make a fizzy drink it's forced in at high pressure.  Increasing the pressure allows (forces really) more CO2 to dissolve.

When you open a bottle or a can the pressure reduces and the CO2 can begin to escape.  That's why you get the noise.

Dissolved CO2 can't instantaneously detach itself, since this requires energy.  Notably, since most fizzy drinks are consumed cold there is a reduced amount of energy available.  So, it will release over time.  The reason it'll release quickly if you drink half, replace the cap and give it a really good shake is that you're giving it the energy needed to release.

But, not all the CO2 will release even in a 'flat' drink.  If you drink a thoroughly flat carbonated drink it will still taste fizzy.  That taste is dissolved CO2.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why don't lightsaber users quickly turn their lightsabers off and then on to get around parries and blocks?

To elaborate, let's say that you're swinging your lightsaber towards your enemy, and they put their lightsaber up to block your blow. Just before your saber makes contact, you switch it off and once it is past the enemy's saber, you turn it back on and continue your swing.

[Assistant]
* Most Jedi and Sith are precognitive, meaning this gambit wouldn't work nearly as effectively as against Force insensitive people (who presumably can be bisected without fear anyway).
* Lightsaber ignition and dousing is not as fast as all that, in a fast-paced duel the tactic would be as slow as a haymaker.
* If your blade is past theirs, their blade is past yours.
* Sudden changes in the gyroscopic force on the hilt would make the move difficult to execute with precision, and the time to drill would be better spent on finessing your form or maximising your Force abilities.
* For some reason lightsaber users rarely give point, despite it being a big deal in most fencing.
* If you're going to be that pragmatic: use a blaster in your off hand and learn how to bind the opponent's blade and then shoot them.
* How the hell do you even practise this without killing your partner?


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

[User]
[MCU] Is Hulk in love with Black Widow or is Banner?

She has an uncanny ability to calm down the Hulk and get him to revert into a human.  Is this because Hulk or Banner is in love with her?  Or is she just a really nice lady that can calm world-ending anger in a way that doesn't involve romantic love?

[Assistant]
Bruce and Natasha shared a couple of intimate, awkward moments during *Age of Ultron*, when they were hiding out in Hawkeye's farmhouse. They both have clear feelings for each other, and both think they're too much of a monster to deserve to be loved.

The reason Banner is afraid of that relationship is a factor, too. He's worried that, if they're intimate, he will turn into the Hulk and hurt or kill her. This is a valid fear, since it almost happened in the first *Avengers*.

So when the Hulk sees Natasha, he's seeing the one problem he can't solve by smashing. This is the only time when his anger doesn't serve him. Instead, his rage is replaced with sadness. This is enough to trigger a reversion into Banner.


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

[User] [Dune] Why do they have a feudal political system in place?

[Assistant]
Two reasons: spice and anti-computer sentiments.

After the Butlerian Jihad, humanity turned away (for the most part) from AI and advanced computers. This made trillions of people reliant on highly-trained humans to perform the tasks necessary to run enormous societies. And institutions like the Bene Gesserit and the Mentats required heavy investment of time and money, which along with a closed training tradition, made it easier for the patrons and allies to consolidate power in the feudal structure.

Spice, being restricted to one planet among thousands, also facilitated this consolidation. As long a single feudal House could occupy, fortify, and defend Arrakis (with CHOAM and the Guild's tacit support and the explicit support of the Emperor), they held an effective monopoly over the most important substance to humanity. And true monopolies, while not impossible in non-feudal societies, are much more rare.

In short, with a single important resource and human-based technologies, the ruling classes of post-Jihad humanity were able to grab power and restructure the galaxy back into a feudal state.


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

[User]
Why is data transferred between cache and RAM in blocks?

Why blocks?

[Assistant]
When you get the mail from your letterbox do you go there and get one letter, go back inside, rinse and repeat?

Or, do you pick up all the letters in one go?

The same is true for getting stuff from RAM.


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

[User] ELI5: How did human civilisation come to a consensus on how long a second is?

[Assistant] It originated with the ancient Sumerians, who had a sexagesimal system of mathematics (a numeral system with sixty as its base). The Babylonians adopted the Sumerian method, which later was adopted by the Greeks, and then adopted by the Romans. Thereafter the practice spread throughout Western Europe and eventually the world, via the Roman Empire and later, via European colonization and trade.


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

[User]
If the Higgs boson isn't found, what is the next best model?

From what I understand, one of the things that scientists working on the Large Hadron Collider are looking for is the reason that particles have mass. Currently, the best guess is the Higgs field.

My questions is if we don't find evidence for the Higgs field then what is the next best model?

In other words, if they found the Higgs Boson who would be pissed that their pet theory just got disproved?

[Assistant] Everyone would be kinda mad, since there are problems with the standard model without the Higgs. But there are some models where the Higgs is replaced either by something more complicated (like technicolor), or simple (like classicalization). But finding the Higgs as it is is also a bad scenario, since the standard model with the Higgs has some consistency issues (it's called the Hierarchy problem).


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

[User]
[Comics] Are there any obscure superhero characters like Superman who Dwarf him tremendously in terms of strength and powers?

Like while it's a 50/50 chance with Superman vs Darkseid fight, this other character would slap him into a KO in a minute tops.

[Assistant] Captain Comet: The powers of Superman, Martian Manhunter, Flash, El Dorado, Lex Luthor, and a few others.  No weaknesses.  Oh and for those occasions his powers aren't enough / don't work for some reason, he also carries a gun.


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

[User] ELI5 the current eurozone 'crisis' and the situation with Greece.

[Assistant]
Oh god, any answer to this is going to be complicated.

Imagine in your class everyone pools all the sweets together and shares them out.  That is a bit like Greece.  If there aren't enough sweets for everyone, then the teacher gives out more that she has loaned from other classes on the basis that they will give back 6 sweets for every 5 they have, because she thinks that tomorrow you'll bring in more sweets.

Then it turns out that all the other classes in your year group do the same things with their sweets, so it makes sense to do it all together.  You make up a big lie about the number of sweets in your class, how many you have loaned from other classes and how many you owe back.

Except now the person who loaned sweets to your teacher wants them back and your teacher doesn't have enough to give them back.  To keep your class with the right number of sweets and pay back those that she owes sweets to, she borrows more sweets at an increasingly rubbish exchange (5 sweets given, 10 given back next week).

Now it turns out that your teacher has been borrowing sweets from people in other classes in your year as well as other years.  The head of your year says that enough is enough and puts down their foot.  They tell all the people that your teacher owes sweets to that they're only going to get half the number that they originally asked for back and that your class now has to make do with fewer sweets.  The head of year makes up for this by giving out a load of extra sweets to all the people in your year.

There seems like no winners:

* You get fewer sweets in your class than you did before
* The people your teacher owed sweets to only get half of the number they did before
* The teacher gets rapped on the wrist for being irresponsible and lying

However the only alternative to this situation would have resulted in your year pulling out of the group sharing system:

* You would have had to make do with the number of sweets that you have, without having any from other classes, which would be fewer than you've had for a long time (and fewer than under the head of year bailout).
* Your teacher would be unable to borrow sweets any more because everyone knows she's lying about being able to be pay back, so there wouldn't be an option of getting more in the future.
* All the people you owed sweets to would be livid and may not have enough sweets in their own classes now.


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

[User] [Paw Patrol] How do puppies become first responders in this universe? Can all dogs attain human-like sentience?

[Assistant]
There was a flashback episode that showed how Rubble joined the Paw Patrol and he could talk already, so there isn't a process they need to go through on becoming part of the Paw Patrol that allows them to talk.

AFAIK every single dog on the show has human-like sentience and can talk.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is a flight to London more expensive than a flight to Edinburgh, Scotland when I have to connect in London?

My wife and I recently came back from our honeymoon in Edinburgh, Scotland. When we originally researched destinations, we looked at London and round trip tickets for both of us were around $3,000. We ended up choosing Edinburgh and bought the tickets, which ended up being $2,200. The thing was, we had to connect in London to get to Edinburgh. Why was it less expensive? What's stopping people from just buying a ticket to Edinburgh and purposefully missing their flight to stay in London and save $800?

[Assistant] Never confuse the price of something with the cost of something.  The price of something is a reflection of how much people are willing to pay.  The airline made a profit flying the two of you to Edinburgh via London.  They're making $800 more profit from the ones getting off at London.


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

[User]
[MCU] In the 90s Nick Fury learned of aliens called Skrulls that can perfectly replicate your physical appearance. So when he's the director of SHIELD, why is its entire database only secured by an eye scan?

And more that, SHIELD has developed technology that can disguise your face including eye colour. And more than *that*, there's an established technique for dealing with Skrulls - they can only absorb recent memories, not a character's past.
 Strong security should include this *anyway*, as there are three elements you should use to verify someone's identity, things they:

* Are (biometric)

* Have (physical key)

* Know (password / security questions)

EDIT: Oh yes and Loki can change his appearance too.

[Assistant] Do we ever see a Skrull fake a biometric scan?  Talos mentions that there is a spectrum of talent when it comes to how good Skrulls are at duplicating people so it's possible the scanner is good enough to see through a disguise.  Also, the most secure database is tied to an eye that no one knows still exists, which is basically the second factor (security question).


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

[User]
CMV: The apartheid analogy doesn't really describe what is happening in Israel/Palestine

It has become common in recent times for activists to compare what is going on in Israel/Palestine today to what went on in apartheid-era South Africa. According to this line of thinking, Palestinian Arabs are analogous to black South Africans and modern Israel is analogous to apartheid-era South Africa. I consider this to be flawed for reasons that I will explain below.

The first reason why the apartheid analogy is flawed is because unlike the black South African struggle which was based on fighting for equal rights, the Palestinian Arab struggle is based on ethnic nationalism. The Palestine National Charter, the official document of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), doesn't explicitly advocate for a state where equal rights for everyone are guaranteed. Rather, it is full of rhetoric alleging that Palestine is an Arab homeland that was stolen by the Zionists.

The second reason why the apartheid analogy is flawed is because the ideology of the State of Israel is not the same as the ideology of apartheid-era South Africa. The ideology of the latter was centered around segregating people on the basis of race and ethnicity and awarding rights based on these attributes while the ideology of the former, Zionism, simply states that Jews have the right to national self-determination in what is arguably their historic homeland. It is true that Palestinian Arabs living in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip don't have the same rights as Israeli Jews. This can't be likened to apartheid South Africa however because unlike black South Africans who were citizens of South Africa only to later have their citizenship revoked by the government, Palestinian Arabs living in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip were never Israeli citizens to begin with. The Six Day War was the only reason why they ended up being under Israeli control.

For the reasons mentioned above, I consider the thought process likening what is happening in Israel/Palestine to what happened in apartheid-era South Africa to be flawed. I am not stating this as someone who is firmly in the Zionist camp: personally, I think that the best solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a binational state where both Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs have equal rights under the law. I just think that an analogy that is based on shaky grounds makes peace harder to achieve. If this view is flawed, I would like to have it challenged respectfully.

[Assistant]
It's an analogy, not a 1:1 reproduction. In your own words, people using it are "likening what is happening in Israel/Palestine to what happened in apartheid-era South Africa." *Likening.*

Focusing on the obvious differences between the Israel-Palestine conflict and Apartheid South Africa doesn't defeat the analogy, because the analogy is about their similarities. Do similarities exist? Undeniably.

So the question isn't whether there are differences, its whether those differences are sufficient to make their similarities coincidental, trivial, or just generally meaningless. You make no real effort to show that.


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

[User]
What has more "stopping power", a bullet that goes completely through you, or one that doesn't?

Force = Mass * Acceleration, so of two identical bullets, the faster moving one has more force. Basically, a faster moving bullet has a higher chance of going completely through you. My question is, "If a bullet is moving fast enough to go completely through you, does that have an effect on the transfer of kinetic energy, making it less 'powerful'?"

[Assistant]
If the bullet is completely stopped, its kinetic energy is completely transferred to the target. If however the bullet passes through the target, slowing down in the process, you will get only a partial transfer of that kinetic energy, so less force would be transferred.

However, thinking in real world examples, it's not the force that kills you, it's the getting-holes-in-your-squishy-body. Body armour stops bullets so the wearer only suffers a kinetic blow rather than being perforated.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do colourblindness correction sunglasses work?

I saw a video on Facebook today of sunglasses that allow colourblind people to see the full colour spectrum. I'm assuming that this is obviously doesn't work with black-white colourblindness, but how would it effect the most popular colourblindness disorders? I thought that this had to do with the inability to see certain colours, like red and green looking the same for example. I don't understand how looking through a specific substance could fix this?

[Assistant]
If you take the most common case, which is red to green colour blindness, The persons red and green photopigments have more overlap than normal, making them unable to see certain colors. Colour blind glasses work in a way to alleviate this by creating a specialized lens that filters out specific colors.

You can use these filters to target specific photopigments so you can affect  what wavelengths (or colours) the person can see depending on what colours they are struggling with.  Just because a person is colour blind doesn't mean that the colour they can't see  is completely invisible to them, they just need some fine tuning which means blocking out the overlapping wavelegnths to enhance the less common ones.


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

[User] [General Fantasy] So apparently this "oil" stuff is made of ancient fossilised corpses. Could I use necromancy to bring the oil to life?

[Assistant] Yes, but the result would be far less impressive than you might expect. Rather than being able to resurrect zombie dinosaurs, you'd find most of the oil to be made up of huge amounts of ancient plankton and algae, both of which don't work too well outside of water, living or reanimated. You would however be capable of becoming Zombie King of The Oceans with your swarm of undead plankton capable of crushing sea life under the pressure of them surrounding whatever poor fish has incurred your wrath.


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

[User] [ASOIAF] How did Howland Reed defeat Arthur Dayne?

[Assistant]
The only living person that knows the full circumstances of that fight is Howland Reed, and so far he hasn't said anything.

He saved Eddard's life, but didn't defeat Dayne on his own. It was seven on three. Eddard, Reed and five others vs Dayne, Oswell Whent, and Gerold Hightower.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does software "bloat" and generally get crappy over time?

It seems like for the last 20 years I've been in a constant state of upgrading, tweaking, hot fixing, patching, uninstalling, defraging, formatting, and generally getting under the hood of my PC like it was a cheap car from the 1950's. My question is... why are computers designed like this, why does software have to be so... delicate? There has to be a better way to go about this, if we could do it over again knowing what we know now would there be a fundamental shift in how software is coded or is it just sort of the nature of the beast to be inherently unstable?

[Assistant]
Basically the problem is actually that things are advancing but not at the same time.

Okay programmer rarely make something purely from Scratch. They tend to build upon some else work. This is because no one want to reinvent the wheel each time they want a persons mouse to move the cursor on the screen.

So let's taking just moving a mouse for instance. The first mice had one button. So a person at say Microsoft wrote a piece of software that made it easy to use a mouse that used one button. We'll call this software version 1.

Now someone is like 2 button is better for a mouse. So Microsoft make a software called version 2. Version 2 support mice with one button and two button.

If your making new software you'll use Version 2 because it supports both two button mice and one button mice. But alot of lazy programmer won't bother changing their software and keep using Version 1.

Now new features are added, we've got optical mice, we've got three button mice, scroll wheel mice, touch screen mice, tablet suddenly your up to Version 12 and the code is getting really complicated. In Version 1 for example alot of old computer needed something Serial to control a mouse, but now everyone uses something called USB. The serial part of your code is really old and no one really understand it any more. There is a decision at Microsoft to remove Serial support from Version 13 because it's slowing everything down and no one uses it.

But now you have a problem. Some program are using still using Version 1, their programmers are that lazy and some people really need to use software that using Version 1. Some people need version 7 for some reason. And people with Serial Mice need version 12 cause version 13 doesn't work with their mice.

So now programmer start including multiple Versions of the mouse software in their software. If they want everyone to be supported... well they have to. Now their program is starting to get bigger because of all different version they have to include, and it's running slower as well. This is where Bloat happens.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Why didn't the Potters choose Dumbledore as their Secret-Keeper?

Okay, it's quite understandable to me why they didn't go to the obvious choice, which is Sirius. Brave as he was, there is no guarantee that he could withstand all the curses that Voldermort would throw at him.

But Peter Pettigrew? Really? As much as they didn't know he had already betrayed them (kudos for counterintelligence, Albus), he is still Peter Pettigrew! His main characteristics are being cowardly and servile, and anyway it was known to the whole school that he was their friend. Once Sirius was tortured to death, who did they think Voldermort would turn to? Hell, anyone could assume that Voldemort would make a list of all their acquaintances and start torturing them one by one until he found the right secret keeper.

The only absolutely foolproof solution, the only one who would never be subdued by Voldemort, was Dumbledore. Had they relied on Dumbledore, they could have stayed hidden for decades without any problem whatsoever. And perhaps, if indeed desperate Voldemort had tried to defy Dumbledore, they would have solved the root of the problem with the death of the dark lord.

So what on earth was James thinking when he did not choose Dumbledore? Had deer antlers drilled into his brain?

[Assistant]
Dumbledore offered, but the Potters chose Pettigrew. As far as anyone knew, Peter Pettigrew was fiercely loyal to his friend James Potter. For example, the other Marauders all expected that they would willingly die before they would betray their friends.

Furthermore, Pettigrew had the advantage of a long line of decoys in front of him. It was naturally expected that the Potters would ask Sirius, or Lupin, or Dumbledore, or another member of the Order to be Secret Keeper, rather than meek and cowardly Peter Pettigrew. Think of it this way: As far as Voldemort and the Death Eaters knew, Dumbledore really was the Potters' Secret Keeper. There's no way they could've known otherwise. They would've had to capture Dumbledore and extract the truth from him somehow, and only then would they realize that he wasn't the Secret Keeper at all. Similarly with Sirius, and Lupin, and all the other more likely candidates. In effect, the Potters would've gained the advantage of actually having Dumbledore, Sirius et al as Secret Keepers, without actually burdening them with the secret.

Of course, all of this is based on the assumption that Pettigrew was actually loyal to his friends, which as we know wasn't the case at all.


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

[User] (X-Men) If Magnetos helmet is made of metal and can block telepathic attacks/mind control. And wolverines skull is pretty much metal...how are telepathic mutants able to read Logan's mind?

[Assistant] Magneto's helmet isn't solely metal there is technology wired into it.  magnetism has been hinted at dampening telepathy, and it's also been hinted he has latent telepathic power. This all coming from the comics.


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

[User]
ELI5: How and when does the body recognize food poisoning?

For example, you can eat something off, and the stomach says O HELL NO and you are vomiting within 20 minutes. However you can also eat something bad, and the body doesn't seem to notice until a few hours later it reaches the intestines (or maybe colon?). Then at that point, the body says, "Please use the nearest exit. The nearest exit may be behind you." So your abdomen is in pain (for hours) as you have to empty your bowels until the 'poisoned' waste can be evacuated.

Does it have to do with the stomach detecting some things and the intestinal tract another? Different bacteria present at different times?

ETA: Not to be too graphic, but the times I've had food poisoning diarrhea, the smell is exceptionally foul. Is that a function of the bacteria itself or the fact that I'm passing 'unprocessed' waste? If that makes sense.

[Assistant]
so there's a difference between **food poisoning** and **foodborne illness.**

in food poisoning, the bacteria grew in the food, and released toxins into the food. So what makes you sick is the bacterial toxins  that are already in the food when you eat it. In many cases, cooking won't eliminate the toxins, but it will kill the bacteria.That's going to make you sick very quickly.

Foodborne illness is when there are bacteria or viruses in the food, which cause an infection in your digestive system when you eat it. That takes longer, because the bacteria have to mutiply inside you before the symptoms start. Salmonella and E. Coli are examples of this. The symptoms sometimes don't show up until several days later, and they tend to last longer.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why did Yoda and Obi-Wan emphasize that Luke needed to go after Vader when it was Palpatine that was the true enemy?

It's pretty much agreed that Vader didn't have the political finesse to hold the Empire together so the Vader issue would resolve itself.

[Assistant]
Because they were related and had a powerful emotional bond.

Remember Luke's failure in the cave?

Defeating Vader was as much about defeating his own issues as it was fighting Vader. And Luke had serious daddy issues.

It was about making Luke into a Jedi, not about saving the galaxy. If Luke became a true Jedi then yoda believed the rest would kind of work itself out through the will of the force.


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

[User]
What will you find in a typical cubic meter volume in space (lets say between earth and moon)?

Is it absolutely nothing? Or are there any traces of gases or whatsoever?
Thank you!

[Assistant]
David Deutsch summed it up in "The Beginning of Infinity" (Viking Press, 2011):

>What is a typical place in the universe like? Let me assume that you are reading this on Earth. In your minds eye, travel straight upwards a few hundred kilometres. Now you are in the slightly more typical environment of space. But you are still being heated and illuminated by the sun, and half your field of view is still taken up by the solids, liquids and scums of the Earth. A typical location has none of those features. So, travel a few trillion kilometres further in the same direction. You are now so far away that the sun looks like other stars. You are at a much colder, darker and emptier place, with no scum in sight.
>
>But it is not yet typical: you are still inside the Milky Way galaxy, and most places in the universe are not in any galaxy. Continue until you are clear outside the galaxy  say, a hundred thousand light years from Earth. At this distance you could not glimpse the Earth even if you used the most powerful telescope that humans have yet built. But the Milky Way still fills much of your sky. To get to a typical place in the universe, you have to imagine yourself at least a thousand times as far out as that, deep in intergalactic space.
>
>What is it like there? Imagine the whole of space notionally divided into cubes the size of our solar system. If you were observing from a typical one of them, the sky would be pitch black. The nearest star would be so far away that if it were to explode as a supernova, and you were staring directly at it when its light reached you, you would not see even a glimmer. That is how big and dark the universe is.
>
>And it is cold: it is at that background temperature of 2.7 kelvin, which is cold enough to freeze every known substance except helium. (Helium is believed to remain liquid right down to absolute zero, unless highly pressurized.)
>
>And it is empty: the density of atoms out there is below one per cubic metre. That is a million times sparser than atoms in the space between the stars, and those atoms are themselves sparser than in the best vacuum that human technology has yet achieved.

So yes, there is Matter everywhere, and Energy; but it is so minuscule in a "typical" part of space that we would need to travel very far to leave our bubble of boiling matter.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do some people wake up with puffy faces after a night of sleep? What is going on inside that makes this happen?

[Assistant]
Gravity makes the fluids in your body (the ones in your blood vessels and the ones between cells, outside of your blood vessels, called interstitial fluid) to redistribute evenly through your body when you lie down. So when we're standing up most of the day most of the fluids distribute downwards, but when we lie down there technically isn't any force to promote that...

If there's enough force in the blood vessels (called hydrostatic pressure), such as when more blood rushes into them, but the diameter of the vessel stays the same, then the pressure will increase within it and promote fluids to leak out of the vessel into your tissues (becoming part of your interstitial fluid). So this makes your face swell up.

That's why people recommend putting ice packs or cold spoons on your eyes to get rid of the puffiness. It constricts blood vessels, redirecting the accumulated fluid in your tissues back to the rest of your body.


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

[User]
[Snowpiercer] Is there a reason the train has to circle the entire world?

 It seems that circling the globe leads to some problems, especially when dealing with mountain ranges. Would it not have been better just to run a circuit of some large flat bit of land like the West Siberian Plains or the American Great Plains? It would be more geologically stable and have no chance of avalanche.

[Assistant] If the train had been planned from the beginning as a lifeboat for mankind it probably would have been a more conservative route in a more ideal region. But the train was designed to be this grandiose marvel, hence why the train goes through mountain passes, tight winds, and other things that make great tourist vistas but add an element of danger to an already dangerous exercise.


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

[User] ELI5: Where would dogs' intelligence be had we not severely domesticated and selectively bred them?

[Assistant]
That of wolves. Simple as that.

It's worth noting that there are plenty of breeds of dog that are actually smarter than wolves; it all depends on what the dogs were bred for. Herding dogs like Border Collies, for example, are extremely intelligent.


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

[User] [Star Wars] How intelligent are Wookies?

[Assistant] About as intelligent as you or I, perhaps even moreso. Although their planet might seem 'primitive' in comparison to the rest of the galaxy, Wookies were known for their ability to rapidly pick up and make use of any new technology - suggesting the lack of development might be more due to cultural or environmental factors than intelligence. Similarly, their infamous bouts of violence when provoked might make them seem primitive, but it masked some of the best hands-on engineers in the Galaxy.


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

[User]
Why do we need Rosetta when changing from Intel to M1 chips if applications nowadays are written in high level languages?

From my understanding, high level languages are compiled into machine code readable by the chip. Why do we need to translate things on the fly with Rosetta if we can just take the source code of the application and just recompile it for the new chip? Let me know if Im missing something here.

[Assistant]
Yes you are right. We can compile high level code into native ARM instructions. But developers will not compile their applications and make it available overnight for Apple's new computer. Moreover some programming languages do not yet have decent ARM compiler.

There are hundreds of thousands of x86 programs that needs to be available on Apple's silicon. Otherwise users will not be intersted in buying their shiny new computer. So Rosetta emulates x86 to make all those programs available to run on M1 on day 1 rather than wait for years for developers to publish native apps. So users can happily run their existing programs unmodified and Apple can make billions from their new computer.


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

[User]
[Star Wars TFA] Luke's lightsaber

Luke lost his (Anakin's) lightsaber in his battle against Vader in Cloud City. It fell deep into the clouds' depth.

How did Maz get her hands on it? I get that she's force sensitive to a degree, but how could she find it? Can you even survive beneath the cloud layer?

Why is that saber of such importance to Kylo? It never belonged to Vader, only to Anakin.

Why is that saber of such importance to Luke? He built another one right after losing his first one and never seemed to mind having lost it.

[Assistant]
The light saber did not fall into the planet's atmosphere. It simply fell into Cloud City's gas collectors, where it was probably picked up on a routine debris cleaning and put in a refuse pile.

Maz got it from someone who recovered it from that refuse pile, most likely. Who knows how much junk might fall into the collectors, and people probably scavenge it. Sell the saber for a few credits.

Kylo knows that Anakin *is* Vader. So of course he wants it.

We don't know that the saber is important to Luke.


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

[User] [Harry Potter] How did Harry come back to life at the end?

[Assistant]
Harry's body was a horcrux for Voldemort; it contained both Harry's soul in its entirety and a fragment of Voldemort's.

Avada Kedavra works by simply ripping out the soul from the body, but being presented with two different sorts of soul at the same time presented the spell with a choice to rip out one or the other.

Harry was at the time the master of Voldemort's wand, so when presented with a choice it would choose not to kill its own master, and instead would take out Voldemort's soul fragment. Such a thing was still massively traumatic for Harry's soul, but it was enough to use the horcrux as a sacrificial shield and allow Harry's soul to survive.


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

[User] ELI5: How did Jack become a nickname for John?

[Assistant] >The name Jack dates back to about 1,200 and was originally used as a generic name for peasants. Over time, Jack worked his way into words such as lumberjack and steeplejack. Even jackass, the commonly used term for a donkey, retains its generic essence in the word Jack. Of course, John was once used as a generic name for English commoners and peasants, (John Doe) which could be why Jack came became his nickname. But the more likely explanation is that Normans added -kin when they wanted to make a diminutive. And Jen was their way of saying John. So little John became Jenkin and time turned that into Jakin, which ultimately became Jack.


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

[User]
[Star Wars: TCW] Why did the Seperatists only build a single 'Malevolence' Class?

The single ship seen was extremely powerful - Surely it would be in their best interest to mass produce the super weapon?

[Assistant]
It was not only huge, which massively increased the cost and materials to build it, but the ion cannon weapon built into it only increased the cost. The Confederacy of Independent Systems had a great deal of money and manufacturing capability, but it was not infinite. And the longer the war dragged on, the more they lost while the Republic grew ever stronger. It was a smarter move to put their remaining manufacturing toward more efficient and smaller ships/droids to try and hold off the strengthening Republic and defend what they had left.

Naturally this was intentional. The Separatists looked like a massive existential threat in the beginning, but were ground down by an increasingly larger and more powerful Republic military until they were in the perfect place to become the Empire.

(also, the Malevolence was partly inspired by the real life Nazi battleship the Bismarck, and the dramatic battles that eventually destroyed it. The Bismarck was a monstrously powerful battleship and an enormous cost drain. So when it was destroyed, the Nazis could not afford to replace it.)


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

[User]
[MCU] Yet another Endgame question

Why didn't they go back to the brief period  (20 days or so?) between the snap and the stones' destruction by Thanos? They had the complete gauntlet in place, a weakened Thanos, and the element of surprise. Even an injured titan is no joke, but it seems a lot less risky than splitting and going on an extended time heist on several different planets.

Edit: to be clear, I'm not asking whether it's a viable option or not *objectively* speaking, but why it didn't come up in their own mind. From the A's point of view, confronting gauntleted Thanos is viable (since they were ready to do it anyway), and time shenanigans aren't an issue (since Banner didn't hear the Ancient One's spiel).

[Assistant]
A couple of things:

First and foremost, they only had enough Pym Particles for one trip; there were no do-overs, and that means they had to be certain that their plan would work. That makes the next points critically important.

If they try to take the gauntlet from Thanos, it means a fight, and there's a significant chance that the Avengers lose. Yes, they had Thor with Stormbreaker and Captain Marvel, but Thanos had the full Infinity Gauntlet. Fighting him was absolutely not a sure thing. Hell, they barely beat Thanos with *no* Stones at the climax of *Endgame*; taking a fight to him when he has all six is a suicide mission.

Also, the Avengers didn't know when Thanos arrived on Garden. He probably went there directly after the Snap, but they couldn't be sure, and that means they would be gambling with the fate of half of all life. If the Avengers arrive too early, Thanos might detect them and run. This means they've lost their only shot at ever getting the Stones. Or, he might launch an attack, where he has the advantage of surprise.

The Time Heist is risky, but not as risky as fighting a near-omnipotent maniac who will respond to your attempts to undo his Great Plan by unmaking the universe.


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

[User]
ELI5: Howcome English text is used so frequently in countries such as China Japan and Korea?

Something like a billboard for McDonalds, it would have English text saying "Fast Food". Why is this?

[Assistant]
English-speaking cultures are extremely powerful in the world if you haven't noticed, to the point that people involved in international business are going to learn English as a necessity. Once this is known people can communicate even if neither has English as a first language; a Japanese businessman might speak to an Indian businessman in English because they both learned in order to also do business in American markets.

The result is that English is also very important as a tourist language. Americans traveling will want to understand the sign but also visiting businessmen will be looking at such signs as well. Since both probably speak English it makes sense to have such a translation.


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

[User]
[Star Wars]Could Luke have really killed the emperor?

I know that Luke didn't strike down the emperor to show he wouldn't give in to hate and fulfill the Jedi way and so on so forth, but say he was a bit more pragmatic and wasn't really angry be knew that killing Palpatine really was just something that needed to be done for the good of the galaxy, could he have actually killed him? I assume it was a trick but I have no idea how powerful any of these guys are supposed to be due to toned down the action is in the OT compared to later works.

[Assistant]
Luke, at that point in time, didn't have the strength or skills to kill the Emperor. At that point, Palpatine killed multiple Jedi Masters, forced a former Sith Lord into exile (Darth Maul), killed a Sith apprentice (Savage Oppress), and forced Yoda into exile. Himself. Luke couldn't have beaten him on his own.

Darth Vader could have helped him but when Palpatine tells Luke to strike him down, Vader was still firmly on the Dark Side.


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

[User]
[Pokemon] Why is half the world so incompetent?

I mean really. I'm ten years old, I leave for fifty hours, and when I come back I'm the World Champion, I have God in my pocket, and every time I duel someone it's just one Hyperbeam and they're done. Why aren't more people like this? It wasn't even hard for me to do.

[Assistant]
I read an answer on a similar post, that said something along the lines of the whole world, or economy technically is just a ploy set in place by Giovanni, yes the leader of Team Rocket, as a means of getting the kids to support the economy by going out and buying things from his company. This would also explain why you get some money from even the bad guys when you win, and why the bad guys never try to do any more damage to you than roughing your Pokemon up a bit.

The pokedex entries are also, according to this theory, all false, since they are just the kid's say so, to allow the kids to feel like they have some kind of power over this world.


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

[User]
ELI5: AFL/Australian Rules Football

My Australian friend introduced this too me but I find it too confusing, a little help?

[Assistant]
There are two teams with 18 players on the field. The goal of the game is to kick the ball between the goal posts at your designated end of the field, this is worth 6 points.

On either side of the goal posts are 2 smaller posts. If you get it inside the smaller posts you score a point which, as its name implies, is worth a point. You also only score a point if it goes between the two goal posts but the last touch of the ball by a player was not a kick. For example if an opposition player touches it on the way through.

You may not throw the ball at any point. To transfer from player to player you must either kick the ball or do a 'handpass'. A handpass is holding the ball in one hand and punching it with the other so it flies in the direction you want. Because you punched it you get around the rule of no throwing the ball.

If the ball is kicked and then caught without touching the ground it is called a 'mark' and the player that marked the ball has the option to stop and kick the ball without the opposition trying to stop him.

If a goal is scored the ball is taken back to the middle of the ground by the umpire and thrown in the air. The teams then try to get control of the ball to kick it through their goals.

If a point is scored the team who is in opposition of the team that controls that goal gets to kick it out from that goal to (hopefully) their own players.

This is the basics of the game, everything else is just little nuances that you will pick up as you watch.

Go Blues (even though we seem to be losing right now)


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

[User]
[40k] How do Genestealers know who to infect and who to slash to ribbons?

Also, do they instinctively know that the Terminators aboard their Space Hulk are no good for reproduction?

**Edit** - After thinking about the question on and off overnight (as well as rereading relevant portions of some Ciaphas Cain books), I have a new working theory: Genestealers will kill everyone in a group and then only incapacitate one or two "lone survivors" and subsequently infect them and eventually let them go to spread their now-tainted genes.

The survivors will be disoriented, as "The implant messes with brain chemistry, so the host remains unaware of being infected.  All they recall is a confused impression of fighting and assume they've escaped."  This is chalked up to PTSD and the hapless dupe goes on to spread genestealer taint.

As to the question of Terminators, it's possible that 'stealers are able to tell if their implant "takes".  They shred *most* of the Terminator squad, incapacitate the last one, give him the implant, Astartes super immune system kills off the infection, Genestealers know the implant didn't work and dispatch the helpless space marine.

Good working theory?  Anyone see any holes?

[Assistant]
Genestealers in particular aren't stupid, they know what is prey and what will give them a fight (i.e. They know terminators are to tough to take down non lethally). In general though, the Hive Mind has no doubt encountered Space Marines before and has worked out, and passed on this information, that SM's don't reproduce.

It's possible that an old group of genestealers that hasn't been in contact with the hive mind and hasn't encountered SM's before might give infecting a go.


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

[User]
Do people that speak different languages get different located wrinkles?

Since one language require certain facial/mouth movements, while another language require other facial/mouth movements  does that mean different locations on their wrinkles?

[Assistant] Although possible, wrinkles dont nessecarily form due to repeated flexing of skin at the same point. Instead, wrinkles are normally formed either habitually due to muscle developments, or more often due to specific weakening of the collagen present in the skin at that point.


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

[User]
[Star Trek] Why does the Captain and high command/bridge crew go on field missions?

I'm sorry if this question has already been asked. I tried searching this sub, but couldn't find anything.

The question is pretty much in the title. In our current Navies you would never find the captain of a ship or head of engineering (for instance) going out into the field to conduct missions. The risk of losing those individuals would certainly compromise future missions. Entertainment value aside, I keep finding myself thinking that there would be an elite team of operatives/scientists/sociologists/etc on board to conduct missions while the bridge crew observed.

[Assistant]
Strictly speaking, the Captain *isn't* supposed to go on away missions. There are several Starfleet regulations that explicitly state that the Captain must remain on the ship if there is any element of risk and that, if high-level command is needed on-site, then the First Officer goes instead. Presumably there are similar regulations for other department heads onboard the ship.

The thing is, that's exactly what happens during the routine missions. Ships do have dedicated teams of specialists for field work that they send down on away missions while the command crew go about their normal duties. It's just that those are the missions nobody ever hears about. It's the exceptions that make the rounds, the 1 mission in 100 that isn't the bog-standard survey where nothing out of the ordinary happens.

For every mission that ended with Kirk fistfighting a Gorn there were dozens where he sat in his ready room reading reports and doing paperwork while the Enterprise scanned a comet for three days.

As to why some Captains and crews are more well known for it? Well, that comes down to circumstance. The various Enterprises tended to be right out on the frontier of known space, Voyager was stuck halfway across the galaxy, while DS9 and the Defiant were at the center of a years-long war. Hardly times or places where normal operating procedure could apply all the time.


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

[User] ELI5: Can a soap be dirty? In a sense that there are still some bacteria living on it.

[Assistant]
Bars of soap do get "dirty". A bar of soap helps clean your hands and body by latching onto grease, dirt, and oil more strongly than your skin does. When you're using soap you're washing away those loose, dirt-trapping, dirty soap molecules.
A bar of soap does not clean itself, however. A Bar of soap gets cleaned by scrubbing. It's the same mechanical action that you use to clean yourself when you wash your hands, So you should also rinse off the soap bar before you put it back instead of leaving it covered in the soap suds from cleaning yourself.


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

[User] ELI5: Why and how is there so much money in boxing?

[Assistant]
Imagine all the money for an entire season of football for a team.  That's one of 32 teams each with coaches, 55 (I think) players, huge expensive stadiums bespoke for such events, ownership takes a cut, etc.

Granted, football is way more popular in the US than boxing, but with boxing a top tier fighter will fight only a few times a year instead of 16 games.  It's just one guy, a small training staff and that's it.  Also instead of 32 teams, there are maybe a handful of fighters in serious contention for a title in the near future.

So really, there's just not as many hands in the pot to collect the money, but people still pay good money to see these rare events.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] What if Yoda killed Palpatine and Anakin killed Obi-Wan in RotS?

Obi-Wan is my favorite character so it hurts me to even write that.

[Assistant]
Anakin takes Padme to the nearest medical facility and assumes that "his" Empire is in full force.

With Sidious dead Yoda announces the events that transpired, declares the Empire to have never existed, and the new remaining Jedi help the Senate rebuild the Republic.

The Jedi kill or capture then execute Anakin. Then they rebuild the order far away from the political realm.


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

[User]
Why does the physical size of computer parts in desktops stay roughly the same?

So I've been building my own pc's since around the late 90s. Since then we've had single cores, dual cores, quad cores, 6 cores and now 8 cores each with varying transistor densities. Why has the actual physical size (the piece of metal you hold in your hand) roughly stayed the same (2cm-2.5cm^2). Why did we land on that size in the first place?

Even in servers I've seen, they are around the physical size of a desktop cpu just with multiple on one board. Is there a reason they don't make for example, a 10cm^2 cpu and cram like 16 cores into it instead of 4 quad core cpus?

RAM has also stayed roughly the same size.

TL;DR: What is determining the physical size of computer parts.

[Assistant]
Firstly, there's the fact that there are standards according to which your computer parts are built (see, for instance, ATX). Diverging from those is a very big deal, and incurs massive costs. Processors don't directly fit in those standards, and their slots change every few months (usually with pin count) - i'm sure you've experienced some amount of discontent when you've had to upgrade a m/b together with a CPU.

Secondly, there's the problem of heat dissipation. Assuming constant physical dimensions of, for instance a CPU, the amount of heat it emits will be greater as its fabrication process gets better (i.e. more transistors & memory fit in the same space). _EDIT_: Although this is a general rule of thumb, it might not always apply; some newer processors, for instance, are clocked at a lower frequency while packing more cores than their predecessors, leading to less heat emissions. At any rate, the greater dimensions allow for better heat dissipation through cooling fans, liquid, and so forth.

Thirdly, we've only recently had a serious incentive for reducing physical size of components, namely _smartphones_. As you can see, engineers have been very successful in tackling that issue, but this comes with certain tradeoffs (battery life, limited processing capacity, etc).


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

[User] [Marvel] How would Domino know if her luck ran out?

[Assistant]
She has the ability to alter the probability field around her with random telekinetic events. All subconsciously to work in her favour.

Her luck doesnt really run out, its just when shes in a situation with basically 0% odds of surviving, shell get a gut feeling telling her Theres nothing you can possibly do to win, leave now.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do popular shows (Futurama, Invader Zim, Johnny Bravo, Dexters labratory etc) get cancelled seemingly in their prime, while shows like The Simpsons and Spongebob are still making episodes for decades despite a large majority of fans not liking newer episodes?

[Assistant]
The percentage of the fan base that enjoys the show matters less than the raw number of viewers.

Just looking at the fan reaction, it may seem like a lot of shows get cancelled, despite most people liking it, while other shows only get a tepid response, but remain on the air.

Let's throw out some imaginary numbers to make it clear:

If you have 40 million people who are fans of the Simpsons, but only 45% of them like the new episodes enough to watch every week, that's 18 million viewers.

Now, imagine you have 10 million fans of Futurama, and 90% of them like the new episodes enough to watch every week, that's 9 million viewers.

So, despite being twice as popular among its fan base (90% v. 45%), Futurama still gets half the viewership of The Simpsons (9 million vs. 18 million).

Advertisers and studio executives see the raw number of viewers of The Simpsons and support that show.  They see the raw number of viewers of Futurama and decide it's not worth supporting.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is the tomb of the unknown soldier guarded so thoroughly?

[Assistant] It began in the 1920's to keep people from having picnics on top of the tomb.  We keep the tradition going to honor the unnamed dead.  The guards are called Sentinels and are all volunteers from the 3rd Infantry.  They are awarded the Tomb Guard Identification Badge after some time of service and some tests.  It is one of the highest non combat honors the Army awards.  It is a special wreath pin that is worn on the right pocket.


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

[User]
[Star Wars]What did the Galactic Public know about Darth Vader?

So, I'm assuming that the official line was that Anakin Skywalker died in the Jedi Rebellion, either being killed by his clones or by the Jedi for not siding with them.

So, what's the public's reaction when Palpatine names this random guy in a black suit commander of the Imperial Military? I assume that anyone with a sliver of historical knowledge would know that "Darth" Vader is either a Sith or has aspirations of being one, and Vader wasn't exactly shy about using his lightsaber/force powers.

Related, would the public *care* that Vader was a Sith? And did anyone know that Palpatine was his master?

[Assistant]
The general public knows he's a cyborg in a very high place in the Empire. There's even been songs written about that.

But the Sith aren't known about at all, except by historians and Jedi. None except the innermost circle of Palpatine know the truth.


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

[User] [Star wars] How did yoda not sense mace windu was in danger or the fact that three other Jedi had been killed?

[Assistant] The same way Palpatine hid the fact that he was a Sith for so long, and how he defeated the Jedi so quickly. He can suppress the ability of other force users to sense things (danger, dark side use) via the Force.


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

[User]
[DC] Does The Flash always need to re-set his watch?

He regularly reaches relativistic speeds, which should make time pass more slowly for him than the rest of the world. If he's wearing a watch, it would appear to be slow (ironically).

[Assistant]
Maintaining temporal relativity seems to be one of the benefits of the Speed Force for speedsters. The most interesting thing is it seems to be an at will thing, or relative to their rate of speed. There have been some instances of speedsters exceeding this and aging to death within seconds, but it's far more rare than one would expect.

Given this, they should only have to keep track of timezones like the rest of us, as long as they don't exceed the Speed Force's protective abilities.


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

[User]
[Star Trek] What if the Federation had refused to give the Founders the cure?

Short, and long term ramifications?

[Assistant]
The Facts:

* The Founders are not above acting out of spite. Remove a sense of survival and they'd literally have nothing to live for other than to cause as much harm to the Alpha Quadrant civilizations as possible.

* The Jem'Hadar were genetically bread to be fanatical soldiers, and would have no objection to engaging in massive-scale kamikaze attacks if the Founders ordered it.

* The Dominian War was a Phyrric victory for the Federation/Klingon/Romulan alliance. The invasion of Cardassian was a desperate push to end the war then and there. It was a last-ditch effort.

Short-Term Effects:

* The Founders declare everyone in the Alpha Quadrant to be an enemy of the Dominion and order all forces to kill as many enemies as possible. The Founders themselves, where-ever they maybe infiltrated, will try and cause as much chaos as possible.

* Jem'Hadar all over the Quadrant go on unstoppable rampages. The Fleet around Cardassia would probably be annihilated. Jem'Hadar would roam the quadrant, destroying everyone they come across until they die of lack of Ketracel white. Expect massive causalities among Cardassian, Bajoran, Ferengi, and Human territories.

Long-Term Effects:

* The Dominion collapses. The Vorta might try and maintain hold of it, but the Jem'Hadar do not respect the Vorta. The Jem'Hadar would suicide out a sense of honor or establish their own rogue armies. Ultimately, we would have massive rebellions among subjugated nations while certain client states try to carve out their own empires out of the remnants.

* Jem'Hadar begin dying by the millions. They'll undergo the effects of Ketracel white withdrawl, first going berserk, killing everyone, then themselves. A small percentage may have the necessary mutation to make them not dependent on the white, creating a small band of independent and self-sufficient Jem'Hadar with no loyalties to anyone. Not a pleasant thought.

* The Alpha and Gamma Quadrant are in shambles and will have to spend massive amounts of resources rebuilding. The Gamma quadrant will probably succumb to large scale infighting and conflict as people try to fill the power vacuum created by the Founders. In the Alpha Quadrant, the Romulans probably come out on top as they are far enough away from the fighting to be less effected by rampaging Jem'Hadar and did not commit as many forces to the war as the Federation or Klingons.


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

[User] CMV: If a Person has been accused of Rape, they should be presumed innocent until proven guilty.

[Assistant]
As far as the law is concerned, the accused *is* presumed innocent. There's no controversy there.

Do you mean that everyone (including the alleged victim's friends, family, doctors, etc.) should presume that no rape occurred?


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

[User] How do extended release medicines work?

[Assistant] They work by encapsulating different parts of the pills in different materials. So as the acid in our systems break it down, some dissolve right away and some take 12-24 hours to dissolve and enter our systems depending on how long of a time release is needed.