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

[User]
CMV:The Jaegers from Pacific Rim are an incredibly bad solution to the Kaiju problem

EDIT: Shit, edited the wrong post

First, let me get this out of the way. I understand that this is a movie, and that the idea of giant robots fighting monsters is a far more appealing concept for a movie than a destroyer shooting a missile at them.

That said, the Jaegers are an awful solution to the kaiju problem. There are other methods which would work far more cheaply, easily AND effectively than a gigantic, expensive robot that only a few people in the whole world can crew.

For example, we see Striker Eureka employing anti-kaiju missiles in the film effectively. Since these missiles exist and are proven to be effective, I have to question why the jaeger is necessary. Why can't these missiles be fired from ships, vehicles or airplanes?

I understand that kaiju are evasive and fairly quick for their size, but we already have cruise missiles that can travel at over mach 7, and targeting systems capable of hitting targets far faster, more evasive and smaller than any kaiju.

Instead of, say, attaching these effective warheads to cruise or ballistic missiles, we instead build gigantic, expensive, hard to crew, hard to produce and frankly not that effective robots.

That's not even mentioning the plasma cannon, which could also be employed without the Jaeger. Something like a gigantic tank with anti-kaiju missiles and a plasma cannon would be a superior weapon to the Jaeger in just about every way.

Hello, users of CMV! This is a footnote from your moderators. We'd just like to remind you of a couple of things. Firstly, please remember to read through our rules[1] . If you see a comment that has broken one, it is more effective to report it than downvote it. Speaking of which, downvotes don't change views[2] ! If you are thinking about submitting a CMV yourself, please have a look through our popular topics wiki[3] first. Any questions or concerns? Feel free to message us[4] . Happy CMVing!

[Assistant]
I don't necessarily disagree, but the explanation they gave was that the carcasses of the kaiju were extremely toxic to the environment, so they needed to be killed with blunt trauma that left them in one piece rather than with explosives which would spread their remains around poisoning everything.  So the solutions was to create essentially giant rock-em sock-em robots that could punch them to death. The more destructive weapons on the Jaeger's were mostly used later on once the kaiju became too powerful to kill using brawling tactics.

Granted, all that is said with the sort of wink and nod from the narrative whose actual explanation for the Jaeger's existence is more like, "because it's totally fucking awesome," but they at least gave a half-hearted effort to make sense of it.


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

[User]
CMV: Quitting a 1v1 game when you're losing and there isn't much time left in the game is poor sportsmanship

I was recently playing a certain 1v1 online game. The game in question had matchmaking and ranking, but it's still basically just a casual game, not pro-level or overly competitive.

Now, I'm alright at this game, not great, I lose more than I win, so when I do win I like to savor it a little. That might be coloring my opinion. Recently, I've had three incidents where I was clearly winning a match (in all three cases I believe victory was less than 60 seconds away) and the other people just dropped out. The game doesn't switch over to AI, it just ends and awards you the win. I found this really frustrating, and frankly a little childish. I never quit when I'm losing, I see it through.

My opinion is, barring an absolute need to leave, quitting an online game just because you're going to lose is poor sportsmanship and rude.

EDIT: Okay, clearly I'm in the minority on this one, I'll try to re-frame my thinking, I was frustrated to not get to finish the game, but I never considered that I was making other players grind out a victory (though, in most cases I don't think I take an excessively long time to defeat!) so I will try to be cognizant of that. Thanks to everyone for your clear arguments. Some of you called me petty or juvenile for wanting to see my efforts through, and I don't know what to tell you, I enjoy winning a game on occasion. Not going to feel bad about that.

Can I do some sort of global delta thing?

[Assistant]
You're less than 60 seconds away from a win.. and instead, you get a win in 1 second. Why is that frustrating? You lost a total of 3 minutes of continuing to stomp a player who was in a weaker position, is that last 1minute of the game really that enjoyable for you?

Very few games of chess end by checkmate, they end when someone knows that they will reach an inevitable checkmate, and if anything it's seen as rude to waste your opponents time when you both know that the game's outcome has already been determined. This same behavior shows up in most competitive games like starcraft where the actual win condition is to destroy every single building which takes a long time and can lead to prolonged losses if you're willing to do things like hide your buildings.. but whats the point of doing that? why lose in 45 minutes when you could lose in 25 minutes and go to the next game?    Why even wait until the point of having any buildings destroyed if you just lost all of your army and they have a large enough army that they're obviously going to win?


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

[User]
Art as a philosophical concept doesnt make sense to me and Im an art student. Help.

Maybe Ill provide you with a little background. Im 18yo, whose family gave unintentionally some barriers to explore world freely and to develop my own opinions. I was taught by a antivaxx, flat earth, science denying aunt, that art is harmony and art must be beautiful. I werent allowed to express myself freely through painting - If I drew something uncomfortable  during bad days and mental health problems, I was mocked and humiliated. For this reason I found only academic, renaissance or ancient creations as art. All new, modern or postmodern stuff looked very pretentious and made without any skills, just unnecessary shock value.

Its still hard for me to understand the beauty of Natalias LL works or performances made by Marina Abramovic. They arent harmonical, they arent beautiful by the standards I was taught to believe art should be like. One of my teacher said that art isnt about beauty at all, but about emotions. And this is all so ironic, because what I want to study in the future is intermedia art. Can someone explain to me what is art and who is an artist? This word feels so overused that I want to throw up and I feel so lost...

[Assistant]
Another point to make, besides the ones that you'll see about modern art not being about beauty, is that pre-modern art also isn't about beauty. You'll find that most pieces had a meaning to convey, for instance The Coronation of Napoleon, The Death of Marat or Liberty Leading the People were painted in a very specific context that makes it clear to see why they were painted. On top of that, they were classically beautiful. Medieval art, on the other hand, had an entirely different reason to be altogether, it needed to tell a (religious) story, and not capture a single moment, there was no use for things like proportions and perspective like renaissance art and therefore it seems weird and ugly for now, like a stepping stone for renaissance art. However both of them are still considered art.

Meaning is a central pillar in art, and modernity came to enhance it and destroy it.

I suggest seeing Ways of Seeing, by John Berger, you can find the episodes on youtube. The first one is about Walter Benjamin and his concept aura and if you study art you'll probably know already, since it's a pretty widespread studied, so it may get a bit boring, the other ones are fascinating even to the already initiated in art study.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is the Tea Party Republican? Why aren't they their own party?

[Assistant]
You and a bunch of your friends decide to vote on what to do this afternoon.

You want to play baseball.

Jimmy wants to play baseball.

Mike wants to play soccer.

Tommy wants to play soccer.

Jenny wants to play dolls.

Mary wants to play dolls.

Anne wants to play dolls.

3 people want to play dolls.

2 people want to play soccer.

2 people want to play baseball.

If everyone votes what they want to do, dolls wins.

But if the two people who want to play baseball dislike playing with dolls more than they dislike playing soccer, they can switch their vote to football and play soccer.

The Tea Party is like the boys who want to play baseball.  They want to play baseball, but they will accept playing soccer over playing with dolls.


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

[User]
ELI5: What do the U.S. Supreme Court Justices actually do during a regular work day?

I don't mean "What is the role of the Supreme Court in general", but what does a Justices day look like?

Do they sit in some library with stacks of old books, looking up various laws relevant to their current cases, or do other people working for them do that and make reports? Do they all show up at the Supreme Court Building every morning? Are they sitting around in some boardroom, discussing official things every day?

[Assistant]
A big part of what they do is deciding what NOT to decide on.  Tens of thousands of cases are submitted to the supreme court every year, but they only have the time to decide on a handful.

Many that are submitted have already been decided on, and the justices generally know they're not going to change their minds this time.  Others haven't been presented in a way that would set enough of a precedent for the issue.

It takes time to review each submittal to the supreme court and decide if it's worth pursuing.  Then they take the shortlist and review it even deeper before deciding which cases to actually hear in the next season.


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

[User]
ELI5: Is there a reason why we hate certain smells or are we trained from the beginning to hate them?

I just rewatched the futurama episode where Zoidberg's gf liked his nasty smell because she never smelled anything else before.

[Assistant] Evolution has weeded out most people who do not respond negatively to rotting smells.  Being repulsed by smells like that prevent someone from dying by eating spoiled food and thus live on to pass those smell genes.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do we get the "red eyes" effect on photos?

[Assistant]
It's the result of the light from the flash on the camera being reflected from the ~~irises~~ retina of the eyes directly back to the lens of the camera. For this to happen, the flash must be located close to the lens, and the problem can be fixed by placing the flash some distance apart from the lens. On small pocket cameras, the flash is by necessity very close to the lens, and therefore the world is full of photos with red eyes in them.

Edit: red-eye reduction in cameras with integrated flash units works by flashing the light several times before the shutter is released and photo taken. The preflashes make the pupils of the eyes contract, which makes for a smaller potential red area in the eyes of the subjects. The better way to get rid of the problem is to use a separate flash unit that is not fixed to the body of the camera and that you can point on the subject from some other direction rather than right into the eyes.


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

[User]
[The Matrix] Why did the Agents have to obey the law of physical reality?

Make that "law**s** of physical reality".

I imagine that, if only they had used noclip or texture hacks, they'd have had a much easier time dealing with the Resistance.

[Assistant]
It is easier for the system to handle them with just buffs  instead of whole new subroutines loading everywhere they show up. Imagine how energy- and computational power-consuming running the Matrix is. Now imagine that you have programs running around that need completely new subroutines to calculate how there surrounding has to react when they jump up 150 meters from stand still it is just to much and completely unnecessary.

Only the Chosen One (a temporal bug in the system) is able to bet them and the typical resistance fighters normally just run away from agents. Diverging that much extra calculating power just to give them some extra skills was completely unnecessary. Also to remember the agents are not supposed to defeat the resistance they just have to keep it in check and around the minimum numbers so that humanity doesn't reject the Matrix subconsciously.


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

[User] ELI5 -- If baby birds imprint on any other species they're around as hatchlings, the way they do in those baby chick experiments we did in high school, how do cowbirds recognize each other as mates when the time comes? NO cowbird is raised to know it's a cowbird, so..?

[Assistant]
Brood parasites like cuckoos and cowbirds dont think theyre the species that raised them - they instinctively harass their nestmates and even their parent until its time to leave.

Once they mature, they do the same mating song and dance that all songbirds do.  Nobody ever teaches a cardinal what a cardinals mating song sounds like or what a nest looks like, its built in behavior.  The same is true for lazy brood parasite birds.


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

[User]
ELI5: Gambler's Fallacy

Suppose a fair coin is flipped 10,000 times in a row and landed heads every single time. We would say that this is improbable. However, if a fair coin is flipped 9,999 times in a row and then is flipped--landing on heads one more time--that is more or less probable. I can't seem to wrap my head around this. If the gambler's fallacy is a fallacy, then why would we be surprised if a fair coin always landed on heads? Any help is appreciated.

[Assistant]
Gambler's fallacy is basically an incorrect line of thinking that previous outcomes somehow affect the next outcome.  So if you just flipped tails 9 times in a row, then the "gambler" would be thinking *this next one has GOT to be heads because 10 tails in a row is just ridiculous!* and he bets heads.

It's a fallacy because the odds were still 50/50 on that coin, yet he *thought* heads had a higher chance.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does vitamin D work? Is it a real substance that comes from the sun or is it created by our body?

I'm pretty sure it's just magic.

[Assistant]
Vitamin D is a real substance. It doesn't "come from the sun" at all, the sun just sends energy...

Your skin is full of oil and fat and stuff. One of the things it contains is cholesterol.

When cholesterol is exposed to Ultraviolet light, particularly "UV-B", the incoming photons knock some of the atoms in the cholesterol molecule around.

The result of that knocking is Vitamin-D.

Now unlike photosynthesis, which only happens in special sub-components of cells in plants, the Cholesterol->Vitamin-D thing can happen anywhere. Like if you put a blob of it out in the sun on a dinner plate it would convert.

You sort of ooze out cholesterol, and then it gets converted into "vitamin D lotion", that soaks back into your skin.

So there are some surprising things here to "Get Vitamin-D from the sun":

- Depending on where you live, you may only be able to make significant quantities around noon (or 1pm on Daylight savings time) because that's the only time of the day that enough UV-B can get through the sky. The further towards the poles you get the smaller the window.

- If you shower or bathe too soon before you sunbathe (like six hours) you can wash away most of the Cholesterol and there is nothing to convert.

- If you shower or bathe too soon after you sunbathe (like eight hours) you can wash away the "Vitamin-D lotion" before it really soaks back into your skin.

- It is very easy to get sunburnt without really getting any Vitamin-D in your system at all.

So basically most people get little or no value from going out in the sun because they don't do it near-enough noon or they are too clean.

The wikipedia page for Vitamin D discusses the particular form of cholesterol and how it all happens and looks like a good place to start if you want to know more.


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

[User]
ELI5: Talking on radio transmitter at 50% speed of light.

What would it sound like if I am traveling at 50-90% the speed of light and communicated to a stationary person via a radio transmitter?  Would my voice be slow?

[Assistant]
There are two things that are going to have an effect here.

1) Doppler effect (which depends on the relative locations of you and the stationary observer)

2) Relativistic effects (time dilation primarily)

In any case, the effects will likely result in the fact that the radio reciever won't even recognize your signals, unless it's designed to account for that.


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

[User] [Harry Potter] If I approach the Veil in the Department of Mysteries and put my hand inside, what would happen? Would the hand be stuck in the land of the dead?

[Assistant]
The veil is magic, so the physical bounds of your body aren't really relevant. As far as we know, you need to pass through entirely to reach the other side.

That said, remember that those who look at the veil are drawn to it.  If you're at the point where you've stuck your hand through, then you're probably going to walk the rest of the way. Assuming something from the other side doesn't just grab you and pull you through, of course.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do modern CPUs have such little cache?

Modern CPUs ( I'll use the 5950x for example) only have around 64mb of L3 cache. Why can't we just put gigabytes worth? I always wondered why they don't just build larger CPUs to fit the cache. Or maybe with the shrinking of components, they could fit larger amounts in the same size chip.

[Assistant] The point of a local cache is that it have a very low latency. You could have more cache in the CPU but this would probably give a higher latency. Imagine you are drinking lemonade and have a small glass of lemonade and a large mug on the table. You might ask yourself why you just don't drink straight from the mug, why bother with the glass. But that would be quite inconvenient as the jug is quite heavy so you would have to put it down all the time and it would be slower to take a sip of lemonatde. And it is no big incovenience to have to fille up the glass from time to time. It is the same thing with memory cache. The small fast cache is right there next to the CPU cores and responds very fast. If you spend money on a larger cache it would be further away and use more power so it would be slower. And there is not much slowdown in getting the data from the memory into the cache from time to time.


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

[User] [MCU] MCU characters read the 616 comics of themselves. What do they think?

[Assistant]
Steve, Natasha and Rhodey are largely unchanged from the comics so they'd react positively.

Scarlet Witch would be really confused about who this "Magneto" guy is and feel awkward about House of M.

Groot would be stunned to learn that he started out as a world conquering bad guy.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is blood pressure important?

I notoriously have low blood pressure when I go to the doctors, and today they made a big deal because it was very low. I thought high blood pressure was bad.

[Assistant]
Think of a hose, or pipes in your house leading to the shower.

Too low pressure and the liquid inside has trouble getting to the end at a decent pace.  In your house/hose this would mean your shower just dribbles water.  In your body, your farther parts don't get the oxygen they need.

Too high pressure and the pipes might burst, or your pump has to work too hard to push against the pressured liquid, and then the pump might stress and fail.  (In your body this is your veins/arteries and your heart)


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

[User]
ELI5: How does emptying the recycle bin on your computer work?

What happens to the files? Where do they go?

[Assistant]
Your hard drive is like a book with a table of contents in the front.

When you write a file to the hard drive you've essentially written a page in the book, plus you've made an entry to the table of contents.  Writing the page in the book takes some time, but there's no way around that.

Then, when you delete it you go to the table of contents and you put an asterisk next to that entry that says "Hey, this is in the recycle bin now."

When you delete the file from the recycle bin you go to the table of contents and you erase the entry.  Note that the page is still written with all the data, which is how un-deleting applications are able to restore files.  At this point if you were to need to write another page you might select that page and write over it (our pencil in this case has the magical property of erasing whatever is already on the page as you write).

There's one more level of deleting, which is offered by some programs:  you erase the entry in the table of contents, then you go to the page and you erase everything on the page.  It has, in the past, been possible to still recover some data left on the page (hard drives are actually analog media, although they are used to store digital data).  If you erase pencil from paper you're left with paper that is more blank than it is filled with writing, but under the right light you can see what was written before.  Similarly, when you write all zeroes in a section of the hard drive you have a bunch of values that are closer to 0 than anything else, but a sensitive tool could tell the difference between a 0 that was overwritten with a 0 and a 1 that was overwritten by a 0.  Modern hard drives tend to be too dense for this to work.  To combat this some programs will write over the page with all zeroes, all ones, random combinations of zeroes and ones, and so on.  This is obviously the slowest option, but for the very paranoid it offers peace of mind that the file has been completely deleted.


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

[User]
ELI5 | What is the event horizon as described by Stephen Hawking and what does it mean for time, space and light?

*Edit*

Thank you to everyone for the enlightening responses, Ive learnt many many things and many have them have been in such clear terms that a giant idiot like myself has been able to understand.

The internet is excellent at times.

[Assistant]
The closer you get to the centre of a black hole, the stronger it pulls, and the faster you need to move to escape that pull.

At some point the speed you need to escape its pull becomes greater than the speed of light. Because speed of light is the fastest speed anything can move with, nothing can escape it. This point is what's called event horizon.


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

[User]
Whats the counter to solipsism?

Is there any way to disprove it?

[Assistant] Typically the solipsist doesn't provide a positive argument for solipsism but, rather, gives skeptical arguments against the knowledge claims of any non-solipsist. Since there's no positive argument for solipsism, there's nothing to be disproven.


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

[User] ELI5:Why do certain machines need helium? Can't there be an alternative?

[Assistant]
Helium is particularly good for cooling things to very low temperatures. There are occasions where (until we come up with higher temperature alternatives) very low temperatures are unavoidable. Mostly these are connected with making very strong magnetic fields, which require very large currents in electromagnets.

To make this manageable the magnets are made from superconductors - special materials which, at a low temperature - have no electrical resistance. This means they don't get hot and can be made manageably small.

Helium is, in many cases, the only safe way to do this.

As a lifting gas, helium is also the only safe way to do the job. There are other gases which are lighter than air but they're either dangerous, or not sufficiently lighter to be worth using.


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

[User] [MCU] In Dr. Strange, he fights Dormammu in the Dark Dimension where time doesn't exist. How does time not exist?

[Assistant]
On earth time is linear, it goes 1,2,3 in a sequence in 1 direction.

Time in the dark dimension might just not follow this linearity. It might go 1,2, 433245, 5, 7, 985444, B, 33, *$, 1, 2, 3, Apple.


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

[User] ELI5 Why has the nightclub fire in Bucharest led to mass protests against corruption and the resignation of Romania's PM.

[Assistant] This was just the straw that broke the camel's back. The fire killed 32 people and injured over 100 in a club that had no authorization from the city hall or the firefighters unit. The owners were conducting business "covered" by a declaration that they are responsible for conducting business in this old communist factory. This could have been done if they had bribed the local authorities. Romania's bureaucracy is very, very intricate and there is a strong propensity to evade the laws and regulations by bribing several officials. Romanians have had enough with bribing, corruption and abuse of power by the local and state officials. Now they finally realized that corruption kills. Previously to this gruesome accident, the  Romanian PM was involved in an aggressive borderline illegal govt take-over - 2012, a plagiarism scandal - 2012, a slew of outright lies, and a formal corruption accusation - 2014, 2015. Both local and central govts are accused constantly for decades now that they hire relatives and close friends, and keep the corruption circle going. On a side note, the mayor general of Bucharest was arrested last month while caught taking a 5000 euros bribe. The Romanian anti-corruption department - DNA - is decimating the corrupt political class. The Romanian citizens see that every day, every week, on and on, and want a whole new political class. Let me know if you'd like more. :)


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

[User] If light takes so long to reach Earth, isn't the viewable Universe COMPLETELY different than what we are seeing?

[Assistant]
Yes. Even light from the sun takes around 8 mins + 19 seconds to get to us.

When we see a star, we often see it from many, many years ago, so it's quite possible it doesn't exist anymore.

Not much we can do about it!


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

[User]
How a non-academic can support someone in the academia, relationship-wise?

Hey,

I've recently started dating a 33/M who has PhD in Astrophysics and works as a researcher at the university. I (33/F) have no degree (dropped out of four(!) degrees due to previously undiagnosed ADHD), but I haven't ruled out getting one (or finishing one of the previous ones) in the future. Currently I'm working in IT with a permanent full-time position and life is stable in that way.

He is currently under lot of stress due to applying for research grants, reviewing papers and preparing a talk at a seminar, all having deadlines next week. This has now resulted in that we haven't had time to meet in a week (live in the same city), and probably won't have time to meet until the end of next week. Have been pretty much been contact via WhatsApp only. As I have other academic friends as well, I understand the pressure and haven't pushed for a meeting.

The question is: How could I best provide support for him? I show regular interest towards his work and research to the best of my abilities, though I know absolutely nothing about physics (other than what I've read from Wikipedia - funnily enough, we ended up talking about Hawking radiation at the first date!) I guess I have to just back off now, for the time being, considering if he's so busy there's no time for setting up a date - but how could I show support and interest in the best way in the future?

What are the things you appreciate in (non-)academic partner's behaviour during stressful times?

[Assistant]
Being understanding and flexible is the most important kind of support. You show interest the same way you do about anyone's career. Ask how things are going, let them talk and listen. You don't have to become an expert in their subject.

That said, a lot of other comments here mention cleaning up and cooking and doing other household tasks. While this is certainly a very nice gesture, you should think long and hard about the role you want to take on in the relationship as it develops. A lot of academics have partners who do everything for them, because it is a stressful and demanding career. Is that a role you want to take on? Or will you want your own demanding career, or even just to devote time your own interests and hobbies? The patterns you set early in the relationship will effect expectations down the line. Don't act like this guys' mother/maid unless you are prepared to accept that jobs(s).

I really wonder if you were a guy writing this, whether you'd be getting that same kind of advice.


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

[User]
What is happening when something is sticky? What causes stickiness? Is it Viscosity?

Always wondered what is happening physically when something like honey or sugar is sticky to the touch.

[Assistant] If you're touching something like honey or a sugary solution, and it's sticky, it's because the molecules are forming interactions, like hydrogen bonds, with the molecules on your skin.  Hydrogen bonds are what keeps oxygens and hydrogens together to form water, and they're also involved in keeping proteins and DNA together.  Honey is made of fructose and glucose, which both have lots of sites that can hydrogen bond.


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

[User]
After going through a modern embalming, how long does it take a body to decompose once buried?

I've always wondered what our bodies look like a week/month/year after being buried...

Any thoughts?

[Assistant] As a funeral director, this would depend on the condition of the body prior to embalming. Obesity, trauma, advanced decomp and other factors influence the efficacy of the formaldehyde. Also, the strength of the embalming fluid (mixed by the embalmer) will determine how long a body holds up. In summary, it depends. Worst case, one week, best case, months. Expert embalming and good body condition may preserve for years. *note; Decomp begins immediately after death.


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

[User] [Star Wars] Anakin was fantastic with the clones that served under him, how was Darth Vader viewed by the storm troopers that he led?

[Assistant] The 501st Legion, a.k.a. ''Vader's Fist". Is the most elite Stormtrooper unit in the Empire. They are fanatically loyal, but most of this is due to fear. Darth Vader does reward competence, in as much as staying alive to move up into a "recently vacated" position is a reward.


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

[User] [MCU] Did Captain America's existence change the military compared to ours or was he just another war hero (I.e. not unimportant but the military industrial complex just keeps on rolling)?

[Assistant]
He showed a way of warfare (small regular human squad led by superhuman captain) that seems to have impressed the military and that they seem to have loved to keep going (based on all of the super soldier experiments that continued on after his supposed death at sea, even into recent times with Bruce's attempt and the centipede project stuff in Agents of SHIELD). But, since the serum was never stable enough to go into production, they mostly had to rely on regular old tactics.

So, while there was certainly a good amount of government money put into redeveloping a super soldier serum, it never fully eventuated and so by necessity a lot of the modern military developed the same as if it was a world where Captain America never existed.


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

[User]
ELI5: Where did the term "S.O.S" come from?

I mean, save our souls isn't the first thing that would come to my mind if I had to think of an emergency message.

[Assistant] In morse code,  SOS is very easy to send and is identifiable as a pattern even if done wrong, "... - - -... ".  So even if you did four does or just two dashes,  it still would be understood to be SOS.


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

[User] ELI5: Gross topic, but curious. How does eating bad or greasy food result in immediate diarrhea when it takes up to 24 hours for the food to actually digest?

[Assistant] Think of your GI tract like a race track, and the food you eat like race cars. The finish line is a bowel movement. The fastest race cars are the ones your body has marked as waste or unwanted. So something your body doesn't like is going to win the race.


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

[User] ELI5: What makes Glass and some types of Plastic clear? Why couldn't we make clear metal or other "clear" Materials?

[Assistant]
The structure of the atoms/molecules forms a pattern that lets light through, usually by having gaps that are the right size for the visible light to pass through.

We can make transparent versions of (some) metals, for instance aluminum oxynitride, we just dont because the process is very expensive and difficult for little benefit.


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

[User] ELI5: What causes the noise a flame makes when blowing in the wind?

[Assistant]
When something burns it isn't actually the solid or liquid that burns. It first off gases or evaporates creating a gas that is flammable. This gas however is too rich to burn immediately it rises and mixes with air until it makes a mix that can burn. If you look at a log for example you will see a very small space between the surface of the log and where the flame starts. When you blow or the wind blows you increase this mixing of flammable gas and oxygen creating a more rapid burning that essentially creates a series of small explosions.

Edit: the crackle too is due to more rapid boiling of pockets of water in the wood which causes it to expand and pop the structure it is contained in.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] What type of "civilization" is the Star Wars galaxy according to the The Kardashev scale?

Title.

[Assistant] Less than you'd think. Construction of a Dyson Sphere is required to become Type II, but they're not really at that point. Starkiller Base was an extreme example of energy harnessing for their capabilities, essentially cutting edge technology harvesting a sun's power directly rather than through ambient radiation.


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

[User]
[Lord of the Rings] If an Elf and a Human bore a child together, would the child live forever?

Considering Elves are immortal and men aren't...

[Assistant]
You are asking about the Halfelven, and the basic answer is that they have to choose whether they are counted among Elves or Men. When the Man Tuor married Idril Celebrindal, daughter of Turgon, High King of the Noldor, there son Erendil was required by various circumstances to accept the life of the Eldar, though his heart lay more with Men. The sons of Erendil were able to choose freely, however. Elros chose mortality for himself and his descendants, and became the first King of Numenor, distant ancestor to Aragorn. His brother Elrond chose to become one of the Elves. His children faced the choice as well, though they were permitted to delay the decision until Elrond left Middle-earth. To remain immortal, they would have to leave for Valinor with him; staying behind meant accepting mortality.

Now, you may have noticed that Elrond's descendants got to choose, but Elros' descendants had the choice made for them. This has because mortality is a Gift to Men from God himself. The Elves are bound to the world, never to leave it until its ending. Men dwell in it for a time, but then get to leave it for whatever lies beyond. Nothing short of God himself, not even the Powers that rule this world, can stand in the way of this Gift. In receiving it, Elros entitled his children to receive it, as well.


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

[User]
CMV: Adding /s to a statement kills the joke. Always.

A sarcastic joke or remark should stand on its own merit and no additional indicator should be provided to emphasize or clarify that there is humour. In fact, the doubt that the statement creates, the "is this person serious?" plays a major part in creating a humorous payout.
Poe's Law may be invoked in defense to the /s but again, a quality sarcastic statement will take Poe's Law into account and use it to its advantage! The danger is that it may sometimes lead to failed zingers when the audience takes the statement as non-sarcastic. If this happens, then so be it. Safe, fail-proof humour is worthless. The value of comedy lays in the inherent risk to flop.

It is a travesty that we as a society have grown to accept this diluted brand of comedy as standard or even acceptable.

I've also seen the /s being used in non-comedic context which I find equally offensive. Often in political subs, you will see people attempt to belittle or mock an opposing point of view by making grotesque statements followed by /s. Once again, adding the /s only creates an obvious "please clap now at my cleverness" which completely kills any pertinence of the words.

I understand the /s originated from the loss of tone and visual cues from face-to-face interactions but it's been turned into an instant-funny or instant-clever writing shortcut and it is an embarrassment to the written language.

Anyone who uses /s is automatically not funny or clever.

[Assistant]
In face-to-face conversation there are multiple factors that mark sarcasm, body language, tone, pitch, pace.

Without these markers it would often be impossible to tell if you are joking or if you are completely serious.

On the Internet, these contextual clues are missing. All you see is a black text with no indication as to tone whatsoever.

A lot of times without /s, many people would think you are being completely serious. Just pick your favorite joke and try telling to people in drone monotone. You will see why it does not work.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is the musilm holy site mecca instead of the cave Muhammad showed the Quran?

[Assistant]
Theres a great documentary about this from the BBC. Essentially its to do with the politics of the time and the prophet Muhammad's actual teachings.

One of the core concepts of the Koran is that people should NOT worship holy sites or holy people but should only obey the word of God himself, which is the Koran. This is why there are such issues with creating images of the Prophet, because such images would invite worship of the person and not the message he brought from God.

However during the actual time when he was alive and he was writing the Koran there was major political issues with what he was doing. His birthplace of Mecca was controlled by the Quraysh tribe and as the major centre of trade in that area of the world there was a lot of money and power flowing through it. One of the Prophets main goals was to stop people worshiping the pantheon of tribal gods whos central meeting point was at the Kaaba.

I'd have to describe the entire story of the Prophet to explain it well but essentialy he ends up being thrown out of Mecca, leaving and traveling around (which is when he went to Jerusalem and created the Muslim ties with that city) and then finally returning to Mecca on pilgrimage with ten thousand devotees. Mecca lets him in and the pagan images around the Kaaba are destroyed. Mecca is declared the first holy sight of Islam. Obviously this awkwardly contradicts the idea of NOT worshiping sites or people but then religions tend to be self contradictory.

Essentially the question of 'Why Mecca and not Jabal al-Nour?' is that at the time Mecca was the centre of financial and political power and for Islam to survive and spread it had to be intrinsically tied to Mecca and despite the Prophet and the Koran expressly forbidding the worship of sites and individuals an exception was made for the case of Mecca in order to solidify Islam and create a centre of power.

Edit: some awkward spelling mistakes. Pls no bomb me ISIS :(


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

[User]
[Kung Fu Panda] Why didn't they just execute Tai Lung?

I mean, the guy's a walking nuke and required the constant supervision of possibly hundreds of armed guards in one prison. He has no followers, no one who cares for him other than Shifu (and *maaaybe* Oogway? like a lil bit? but thats a stretch), and they're making zero efforts to rehabilitate or otherwise pacify him, meaning that they just have someone who could carve a bloody path across all of China for the sake of his ego sitting around doing nothing but plotting his escape and what he'll do after his escape.

I understand that Shifu's soft spot for Tai Lung might have been the major (and possibly only) factor that kept Tai Lung's head attached to his shoulders, but surely even his influence must have limits? With the clear destructive power of Tai Lung demonstrated after getting denied an honor that was never his to begin with, no one had the idea to make sure it could never happen again by getting the headsman's axe? Even if Shifu protested, him and Oogway are more respected local advisors than government officials. Their words aren't laws or orders. And with the rampant destruction Tai Lung caused to the village's homes, businesses, and families, there must've been outrage at Oogway and Shifu for sparing such a monster.

[Assistant]
Note that, when heavily restrained and chi-blocked, he's still able to pick locks using his tail and lfit the weights  holding him down. We also see him deflect a ballista  bolt with his bare hands.  It's very possible Oogway and Shifu's advice wasn't "Please  don't kill our son" and more "You physically can't kill our son and if you try it might give him an opportunity to escape when he moves  just enough that the Axe  breaks the restraints." Especially as he's captured and securely imprisoned, ending the threat. That' s good enough.

>there must've been outrage at Oogway and Shifu for sparing such a monster.

He was severely punished and the threat's over, so what would they be outraged at? There are lots of governments that never execute ever, and they  don't face constant outrage.

The populace is generally less bloodthirsty then "Why don't they just kill.." questions tend to assume.


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

[User]
[DC Comics] What technologies can harm Kryptonians?

What technology in the DC Universe can injure or kill Kryptonians? Said technology must be able harm Kryptonians exposed to a yellow sun like Superman because Kryptonians did not have powers on Krypton. The technology must be able to harm Kryptonians without relying on their weaknesses like Kryptonite.

[Assistant]
There are no human technologies that can harm kryptonians really, other then cloning. Every other instance of technology used successfully on Superman is exploitation of a weakness, usually either kryptonite based, exploiting red sun radiation wavelengths, or toxins designed to strip him of his powers.

The green lantern rings are one of the few technologies in the universe that can actually harm Superman without exploitation of one of his weaknesses or depowering him, the other noteworthy technology would be the bio-weapons program that resulted in Doomsday.


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

[User]
[Avatar/Firebenders] Why don't firebenders need the element to use it?

Other benders need the element to be near them while fire benders can create fire and lightings out of nowhere even in freezing conditions. Also how do they explain the lighting. Please not respond that their hits are fast/strong enough to heat the air and create fire.

[Assistant]
Firebenders use their chi to create their fire though to do this and be in any way proficient at it they need some sort of drive, their own 'inner fire', and draw much of their power from the sun.

Lightning is called the cold-blooded fire and is created when a sufficiently powerful firebender is able to seperate their energy into its yin and yang forms. When the yin and yang are brought back together the lightning is created and can be guided by the firebender in question. To do this requires peace of mind and absence of emotion. Screw it up and at best nothing will happen, at worst you'll hurt or kill yourself.


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

[User]
ELI5: What happens when a movie flops and loses millions of dollars?

Is there some kind of Hollywood Bank that directors owe money to and you can't make another movie until you pay it off? Sorry if this is a stupid question... I just don't know how money on that scale works.

[Assistant]
The TL;DR of movie making:

* have a script
* find investors to put up money
* make movie
* find distributor to show movie (sometimes this is done before making movie)
* movie gets shown, people buy tickets, money comes in
* distributor gets their cut
* investors get their cut

I've grossly simplified that and skipped over a few steps. Basically, no, there is no "hollywood bank". But the companies / rich people who put the money in to make the movie end up losing money if the film flops.

There are many studios that have gone bankrupt and closed due to having an expensive movie flop.


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

[User] ELI5: how do racing games typically angle cameras to look as nice as they do when turning? How do they make it look natural and gradual, yet still functional?

[Assistant]
It's actually pretty hard.

As a rule of thumb, the camera should not be fixed with regard to the vehicle, else it feel "stuck".

Something what works well is to point the camera towards the point the car will be in a second. When on the road you assume the player will follow the road, but when outside the road it's harder. You assume the car will continue turning and moving at the speed it is moving. That's why the camera is more annoying when the car just stopped, it does not know in which direction you are going to go next.


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

[User] [Star Wars/Star Trek] Would a version of the Borg if they existed in the Star Wars universe be more, or less of a significant threat given the available technology and cultures available to them in that reality?

[Assistant] If they started in an isolated area of the galaxy that has sufficiently advanced technology, they would definitely be a major threat in any universe. If they tried to start on a major planet, they would be squashed very quickly. This is true for pretty much all universes.


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

[User] Prior to the moment of aggressive inflation of the Universe, all matter was compressed into a space smaller than a proton. I understand the hypotheses leading to an expanding Universe, but why didn't all matter in such a tiny space simply result in a Universe-massed black hole?

[Assistant]
1) most of the matter in the Universe was created well after inflation, and most of the energy was presumably created *by* inflation during the inflationary era, and the vast majority of it in the very last part. So it wasn't there in the beginning.

2) apart from this, a key hypothesis for the criterion that a sufficiently compressed mass makes a black hole is that if you move sufficiently far away from the mass spacetime becomes empty and flat (or, relatively emptier and flatter). So the black hole can then be a sac of spacetime which is "cut off" from a "normal" rest. In the very early Universe, this hypothesis fails because the Universe filled with uniform energy density is all there is, you cannot go away from it. It's impossible for a piece of it to be "cut off" from the rest because there's nothing special about any place in the Universe, at each time it's the same everywhere (that's the Copernican principle aka homogeneity).

3) minor point and mostly for fun... even if you relax homogeneity, the Universe in the inflationary era is exponentially expanding, or in another name it's a de Sitter spacetime. This shape of spacetime has a maximum size of black hole it can host, the faster the expansion the smaller the maximum BH. In the case of the inflationary era the upper bound is minuscule, and no significantly-lived BH can form.

3bis) during the later stages of the history of the Universe, where the acceleration rate dropped enormously in magnitude and became negative (so that the expansion slowed down) it's possible for inhomogeneities to have made black holes. These would be called primordial black holes and would be experimentally distinguishable from astrophysical BHs because they could get quite smaller than what a BH formed in stellar collapse can. They might have been small enough at formation to be finishing evaporating through Hawking radiation right now, so there are ongoing searches for the death signature of this hypothetical population.


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

[User]
Why is Germany key? What will happen if Euro fails? What does this mean for Americans?

Financial things are talking about Germany more and more saying they are the key to the future of the Euro. If they realize the Euro is holding them back, the Euro will collapse entering most of Europe into a depression. They say this will effect the Chinese and the Americans.

Why is Germany key to the euro? Why will they enter a depression? Will the depression be horrible? What exactly will the depression do? Why do they say this will effect Americans and Chinese people?

[Assistant]
Germany is the healthiest economy in the Eurozone and the only country with the resources to bail out all the countries in trouble. In the original treaty they signed (the Maastricht Treaty) to create the European Union, all the countries agreed that they'd never force any other country to bail them out, so whether or not Germany helps is up to the German people.

This will effect the American and Chinese people because a lot of us have in one way or another given loans to a lot of the countries in Europe whose economies are in trouble. Without Germany's help, those countries probably won't be able to pay back all of the money they owe us and so it'll hurt us all.


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

[User]
[Warcraft] Green skin permanent?

How long is the green skin, caused by the blood curse going to last in the Orcs? Obviously while they were still cursed and subject to the Fel babies born would be green but what about now? If a baby orc is born now, with the curse broken, shouldn't they start to be born brown again? Maybe not this generation, but the next one, when their parents have had nothing to do with the curse or Fel?

[Assistant]
Thrall's son Durak was born with green skin, and Thrall was born with green skin even though his parents had never tasted the demon blood - their tainted skin was indirect, and his was even more indirect.

So for him to have a green-skinned son with a brown-skinned mate in Aggra, it looks like the green skin is here to stay, at least for the forseeable future.  No orcs still have brown skin besides the group that stayed in Nagrand in Outland (aside from those on alternate-Draenor), so that trait is not likely to last long.


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

[User]
How did the East India Company fit into many classical economists' theories (Smith, Ricardo, Say, Mill and Marx)?

I ask because it was such a dominating and novel economic force at the time, yet in all my economic history classes I have yet to read excerpts from any of the classicals discussing this company.

[Assistant]
I can answer about Smith:

It fit into Smith's theories as the perfect example of what he wanted to get rid of.

Remember, in Smith's day it was more or less impossible, technologically, for a big business to compete without government protections. Take away those protections, and big businesses would fall of their own weight.

>To buy in one market, in order to sell, with profit, in another, when there are many competitors in both; to watch over, not only the occasional variations in the demand, but the much greater and more frequent variations in the competition, or in the supply which that demand is likely to get from other people, and to suit with dexterity and judgment both the quantity and quality of each assortment of goods to all these circumstances, is a species of warfare of which the operations are continually changing, and which can scarce ever be conducted successfully, without such an unremitting exertion of vigilance and attention, as cannot long be expected from the directors of a joint stock company. . . . The only trades which it seems possible for a joint stock company to carry on successfully, without an exclusive privilege, are those, of which all the operations are capable of being reduced to what is called a routine, or to such a uniformity of method as admits of little or no variation. Of this kind is, first, the banking trade; secondly, the trade of insurance from fire, and from sea risk or capture in time of war; thirdly, the trade of maintaining a navigable cut or canal; and fourthly, the similar trade of bringing water for the supply of a great city.

In the EIC's case, it had a monopoly of trade to Asia. To Smith, if the Asia trade was profitable, there was no reason to keep people out of it. If it wasn't, there was no reason to encourage it (except for a limited time to establish it in the first place, that time having long passed when he was writing).

True, the EIC, being big and awkward, would probably not be able to compete with small, entrepreneurial traders. That was fine. Smith, contrary to popular belief, did not like private enterprise and hate government per se--he disliked powerful private capitalistic interests getting favors from government. In fact, he distrusted capitalists *as a group*--to him, the interests of society as a whole were cheap goods and high wages, while the interests of capitalists were the opposite.

>The proposal of any new law or regulation of commerce which comes from this order, ought always to be listened to with great precaution, and ought never to be adopted till after having been long and carefully examined, not only with the most scrupulous, but with the most suspicious attention. It comes from an order of men, whose interest is never exactly the same with that of the public, who have generally an interest to deceive and even to oppress the public, and who accordingly have, upon many occasions, both deceived and oppressed it.

On the colony trade specifically, he had this to say:

>Some nations have given up the whole commerce of their colonies to an exclusive company, of whom the colonies were obliged to buy all such European goods as they wanted, and to whom they were obliged to sell the whole of their own surplus produce. It was the interest of the company, therefore, not only to sell the former as dear, and to buy the latter as cheap as possible, but to buy no more of the latter, even at this low price, than what they could dispose of at a very high price in Europe.

>Of the greater part of the regulations concerning the colony trade, the merchants who carry it on, it must be observed, have been the principal advisors. We must not wonder, therefore, if, in the greater part of them, their interest has been more considered than either that of the colonies or that of the mother country.

And the following quotes refer to how the EIC had recently conquered Bengal and quickly turned it into a disaster area:

>It is a very singular government in which every member of the administration wishes to get out of the country, and consequently to have done with the government, as soon as he can, and to whose interest, the day after he has left it and carried his whole fortune with him, it is perfectly indifferent though the whole country was swallowed up by an earthquake.

>No other sovereigns ever were, or, from the nature of things, ever could be, so perfectly indifferent about the happiness or misery of their subjects, the improvement or waste of their dominions, the glory or disgrace of their administration; as, from irresistible moral causes, the greater part of the proprietors of such a mercantile company are, and necessarily must be.

>The government of an exclusive company of merchants is, perhaps, the worst of all governments for any country whatever.


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

[User]
What are the most interesting yet obscure psychological studies you can think of?

Sorry if this doesn't conform to the sub rules. I'm in a mid-level university course and need to do an in-depth report on a specific psychological study. I'm hoping to find something obscure and interesting, as the post said. Again, sorry to the mods if this doesn't conform to sub rules.

[Assistant]
I came across this one recently.

Bernard Bass in Organizational Psychology (1965) has studies showing that, because of distance of accurate facial expression perception and other specific metrics, meetings should take place with no more than 12 people. Basically, adding more after that point gets you one more unheard voice per person added.


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

[User]
[Final Fantasy 8] Hey so, why isn't anyone doing anything about the moon?

Y'know, the origin of all monsters? The reason why Monsters exist on the planet to begin with?

The reason why every so often, a lunar cry happens and monsters just STREAM downward onto the planet like a biblical plague, as if declaring this world is damned?

Why haven't we tried to destroy it, what with the tech level of the world and the existence of Guardian Forces that could plausibly trivialize this? Or at least, sterilize the planetoid mass, and investigate the reason for this phenonmenon?

We have a space station you get mass driver'd into, which we use for research on things that are too dangerous to leave on the planet. We also have not one, but several spaceships used to not only fight in a war against sorceresses, but to tow the stasis chamber of one out of the planet. And these spaceships have control interfaces simple enough for a bunch of teenagers who have never seen their tech base, or have any level of aircraft/spacecraft piloting, be able to casually comandeer and utilize as they wish.

Even if the other nations lacked the capacity, I'm fairly certain it would at least be in everyone's best interest to not have  a huge monster-spawning spacerock constantly threatening the world. Back Esthar and make it easier for them to cut off the source of these monsters, and we can start making progress towards a world where monsters may no longer exist.

[Assistant]
Money and basic survival.

By and large the monsters dont cause that much of a problem. Unless you are an incredibly small town without say 4 or 5 healthy average fit men. You really have nothing to worry about.

You also have literal mercenary children schools that need those small fry to cut the teeth of the kids they are raising into their military and whom you can hire on to take care of said monsters for you. For a modern society affording this doesnt seem to be much of an issue.

Also on the economic side of things. Entire industries need parts from those monsters. Every last weapon on the planet requires those monsters to assemble new weapons. Those monsters are a source of food for many. There seems to be almost no indigenous wildlife aside what comes from the moons other than chocobos and those have other industrious purposes. So it seems for the whole planet thats how they eat.

The short version is they dont pose any real threat and they are essential to survival as counter intuitive as it is.


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

[User]
[WH40k] What's so great about the Emperor of Man?

What has he done or do to be considered a god and be renowned throughout the galaxy?

[Assistant]
Oh man, where to begin.

Aside from being the most powerful psycher which humanity ever has had or ever WILL have, the short list of the Emperor's awesomeness is as follows:

1) Quietly and subtlety guided mankind for millennia.

2) United the warlords of Terra following the Age of Strife

3) Led humanity in the Great Crusade, uniting worlds which had become lost during the Age of Strife, colonizing thousands of planets, and expanding the borders of the Imperium to massive levels.

4) Made the Primarchs, who were (supposed) to be the paragons of everything it meant to be human.

5) Knocked the teeth out of so many alien species, demons, cultists, and rogue humans that we can't even hope to count them.

6) Is so powerful psychically that it made the Chaos Gods spoil their collective chaos britches. Seriously, they were so scared of him that they had to cause a giant civil war to deal with it.

7) Even after half of all imperial forces rebelled, the Emperor was knocking shit around, to the point where only an attack on Terra itself would be able to force his surrender.

8) Despite all of his, the Emperor almost completed a Human version of the webway. Once that got scuttled, he A) Kept it closed through sheer force of will, and B) Did this WHILE fighting said great civil war.

9) Killed Horus so hard, that it obliterated his soul.

10) Despite his terrible injuries, he's been able to keep the Astronomicon rolling for the last 10,000 years.

11) Despite said terrible injuries, he can still project his psychic influence across the galaxy, intervening in battles, giving strength to his chosen, and even reviving them from death.

12) People are scared of his death. If he dies, we're all either saved, or we're all doomed, with nothing in between. Either he comes back as a God and saves us all, reincarnates and saves us all, or he stays dead and we're all screwed.

That, you see, is why he is renowned. He is the God-Emperor of Man, and he MUST be praised.

FOR THE EMPEROR!


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

[User]
ELI5: When cloning an animal (let's say a dog), how much of that cloned animal is exactly the same as the original animal?

Like looks, personality, habits, etc.

[Assistant]
Essentially, a clone of an animal is the same thing as an identical twin. 100% match genetically, but everything else is a wildcard.

Anything that is directly genetically controlled will be the same, such eye or fur color.

Anything that is affected by environment, habits, temperament, coat quality, size, health, etc... Will be up to chance essentially.


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

[User]
Why aren't Socrates and Plato considered as skeptics?

After reading several of Plato's Dialogues, i feel as though they were both skeptics at the end of the day, and that Plato wrote the dialogues specifically in a certain way, so as to deceive the masses or superficial readers of his time from his skeptical/nihilistic views, as in the dialogues were maybe only meant to be fully understood by his inner circle.

[Assistant]
Some of Plato's heirs during the Hellenistic period, often called the "New Academy", interpreted Plato's writings in a skeptical manner.

But in regard to the thesis you suggest that the dialogues were written to fool people, it does seem to me that we have to be awfully wary of this sort of occult interpretation.  Our interpretation should be based on the evidence, and the texts themselves are usually our main source of evidence--and there is something methodologically backwards about starting with a hypothesis about what Plato really meant and using it to disregard the evidence we have about what he meant.

Anyway, in the case of Plato we do have some influential accounts of what his private teaching is like, from Aristotle and on the basis of what we know of Speusippus and Xenocrates, and these accounts suggest the opposite of your hypothesis: that Plato's private teaching strongly emphasized the dogmatic content of his philosophy (in the sense of its positive, systematic metaphysical claims) rather than its skeptical side.  So that the skeptical aspect of his dialogues look, on this basis, more like a *reductio* of common views meant to motivate the turn towards his metaphysical system--i.e., rather than a case for general skepticism.


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

[User]
ELI5: How a plasma cutter can achieve temperatures of over 45,000 degrees Fahrenheit?

I was watching Man At Arms on YouTube and he briefly mentioned that his plasma cutter achieved temperatures of 45,000 degrees Fahrenheit. How is that possible? Wouldn't temperatures like that be too hot for a human to be around?

[Assistant] A small plasma cutter requires ~2500 watts. A small space heater burns the same amount of electricity, so there isnt a lethal amount of energy. Also, with a plasma arc, the point that reaches extreme temps is very small, and the energy is quickly dissipated into the metal and the air.


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

[User]
eli5: why is x = 1 instead of non-existent?

It kinda doesn't make sense.
x= x

x = x\*x

x= x\*x\*x

etc...

and even with negative numbers you're still multiplying the number by itself

like (x)- = 1/x = 1/(x\*x)

[Assistant]
Lets look at powers of 2:

2=2
2=4
2=8
2=16
2=32

So to get the next power of 2, you just multiply by 2 (22=4, 42=8, 82=16, ). Which means to get the previous power, you need to *divide* by 2. So 2 should be 2/2=2/2=1.


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

[User]
[DC Comics] What exactly makes Superman the strongest in the league and how is he able to defeat the rest of the justice league by himself when you have people like MM and WM or Super girl and Power girl not to mention Orion who are a match for him even at "full power" and also ganging up on him?

like him "holding back" shouldn't mean his full power is somehow magically stronger than people of the near the same/comparable  ,the exact same, or far more power than him. Hell WM alone has shown better feats against him by herself but all of sudden her and like 4 other powerhouses can't take superman at "full power"???

[Assistant]
He isn't. Atleast not on pure strength.

Martian manhunter is just as strong as him, but with more powers. Same with captain marvel. Wonder woman is almost as strong and fast. Green lantern on a good day might be even stronger. And all the other kryptonians have the exact same powers as supes, so on paper they are just as strong.

It's worth noting tho, that the kryptonians are probably the most durable ones of the league.

However, what makes superman stand out is A, he knows his powers to their very limit, and knows both how to control them better but also how yo use them better, draw our his power to its fullest potential. Unlike other kryptonians, supes grew up with them and have had ages to explore them.

Beyond that, its just that he has a very strong will, a very strong soul, and his position as The Most Important Story gives him some specific powers that are only useful in very specific situations.

So he isn't the strongest, he is just the leader and the most important member. But he probably is the most durable.


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

[User] Why isn't there much interest about the "sound" of Mars?

[Assistant]
There are several reasons. One is because the atmospheric pressure on Mars is about 0.03% of Earth; there really isn't very much stuff out there to listen to.

But the main reason is that there was no good reason to carry such an instrument. What could they possibly listen to that would provide useful scientific data? They are not going to be able to listen for the signs of life, they can't listen for geological data or atmospheric composition. They couldn't hope to get much back other than some generic wind sounds.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do our hearts and lungs not get tired?

I presume it's something to do with their proximity to a fresh oxygen supply and that the toxins such as lactic acid would be pumped away quickly, but even then how do our hearts beat 24/7 without giving out?!

[Assistant] Our heart and muscles like the diaphragm that controls the lungs do simply have an incredibly rich oxygen supply. They don't generate lactic acid - lactic acid is what the body produces when there is a shortage of oxygen to muscles that require energy, so they revert from the much more efficient aerobic respiration to the lactic acid producing anaerobic respiration. The body provides these organs with enough oxygen so as to allow for aerobic respiration to continue.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do bugs survive when I bend my muscular middle finger, placing it behind my thumb, tense with the power of thirty arched bows, release with the explosive force of Thor himself, and flick them across the room?

No, really. No coma? Trauma? They just keep. fucking. walking. Is it their relative light mass? Doesn't the sudden inertia shear off appendages?

[Assistant] Excellent description of flicking a bug. A full paint can is really heavy and when you drop it, it dents. But an empty paint can is really light, and when you drop it, it's fine. Same thing goes with living stuff but living stuff is squishier. If you drop a horse from fifty feet, it squishes. A person: squishes but a little less messily. A dog: Squishes even less messy. A cat: breaks. A mouse: breaks less. And as you go down small enough, the landing is lighter and lighter.


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

[User]
[General] How would you deal with a growing metahuman problem?

People everywhere are getting powers. They're putting on costumes and having really expensive fights. You're a person with resources. What do you do?

[Assistant]
Invest in construction companies, hedge your bet by also investing in insurance.

Start a meta-powered training course for collateral damage mitigation to train as many of the hero capes as possible to not break things. Harvest as much data as possible on the capes your people are training, use that data to determine better tactics and try to determine if there's a pattern in powers awakening.

If you can predict which people will have powers you can invest in those specific people when they're young to remove them from potential sources of abuse and cruelty in their lives and with a team of sociologists, psychologists and neurologists sculpt their upbringing to minimize chances of them turning to cruelty or crime.

You now have an army of indoctrinated power users. You win.


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

[User]
Are there moons with moons of their own?

Are there any moons that have moons of their own? Is this even a theoretical possibility?

[Assistant] It's theoretically possible, but no one found examples. It needs pretty extreme mass and distance ratios to make everything stable. You could put Mars with its moons in a distant orbit around Jupiter, for example. There is no agreement how to name such a moon of a moon - probably because it's a hypothetical concept so far.


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

[User]
[Inside Out] Do the emotions in the control center have emotions running a control center inside their own heads?

If so, do *those* emotions have their own emotions? How deep does this go??

[Assistant] This was asked yesterday, they do, but its only one layer deep. The deeper you go, the more like the central emotion it becomes. People filled with all the emotions acting in unison are fairly well balanced, displaying the entire range of emotions fairly normal. The reason the emotions we have are so much like the emotion they control is because inside their heads they have all the emotions, but the one they exhibit takes control. Inside the head of *those* emotions, is one emotion and it has so limited energy it devotes very little of it to what it deems nesscary. In this case what's nesscary is for their star emotion to be the way they are.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] What are my chances of coming across an Old Republic era ship that is still functional in the ABY era?

Ok, let's say I am a scavenger going around the galaxy doing scavenging things.

Is there a likely chance I could bump into something from the Old Republic era like a ye olde Fury Class Interceptor and can I fix it up back to working conditions?

What sort of environment would I likely encounter an Old Republic ship that is not past restorrability?

Edit: People seem to be confusing the Old Republic era with the more recent Clone Wars era Republic so I'm just gonna say that I am referring to the era that the Old Republic games are set in.

[Assistant] So it's a bit of a mess answering this. But yes you could find old republic vessels in the galaxy during and after the imperial age. The vast majority are going to be woefully underpowered and under equipped compared to modern vessels. Your best bet would be to find drifting vessels lost during wars and taking millennia to reach other stars. Or examine junk planets with old republic layers buried deep from the surface. Still it's gonna be a chore trying to find anything museum worthy and even less likely to find something fully functioning.


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

[User] ELI5 Why huge companies always have servers problems when launching a new product? They should have good expectations of what's to come and already have the experience and the means to deal with it right?

[Assistant] Because it's expensive to build for peak demand.  Most businesses will take a hit on having problems at launch time as opposed to having infrastructure that's only 20% utilised ongoing when things go back to normal.  Despite cloud, scaling up and down isn't always as easy as some people think.


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

[User]
LOR Help

Edit: I want to specify that this is for my law school application, which means that the deadline is technically still a few months away (some schools don't close applications until next year), but law schools use rolling admissions. Most schools have already opened their applications on Sept. 1. This means I need to submit my application as soon as I can for the best chance of getting accepted and getting a scholarship.

I have two professors that I requested a LOR from. They both agreed to write them two weeks ago. I emailed them again on Thursday (10/1) to see how they were doing on the letters and one of them said that she'd have the letter submitted on Friday (10/2) and the other said that she'd have it submitted by the beginning of the week (tomorrow). However, I still haven't received a letter from either of them. Would it be rude or rushing them too much to email them again and ask about it? Because I've already emailed them a few times the past week and I don't want to bother them too much. Thanks in advance!

[Assistant] Are you applying to grad school? Typically they would receive an auto generated email from the school after you submit their name and email as LOR writers, and you can see in your application account whether or not theyve submitted it. They wouldnt email it to you directly.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do cold drinks tend to taste better than warm drinks?

Cold drinks as in water, soda, iced tea, etc. Not coffee, hot cocoa, etc.

[Assistant]
You're culturally conditioned to prefer them. There are other parts of the world (China for instance) where many prefer warm water over cold, and will find that more refreshing as well.

Culture is a ridiculously powerful force, and explains a lot of things that we mistakenly assume to be common to all humans.


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

[User]
ELI5: What does it mean to refinance a house?

I know someone who is refinancing their house. He was telling me about it, but I really couldn't follow. So what happens?

[Assistant]
Most people take out a loan to buy a house and they use the house as collateral for the loan. This means that if you don't pay the loan, the bank can take the house and sell it to get its money back. These loans are called mortgages. They have certain terms, such as the interest rates and over how many years the loan has to be paid off.

When you refinance you find a lender who loans you the money to pay off the original mortgage. You once again use your house as collateral for the new loan and now have a mortgage with a different lender.

People refinance to get better terms on their mortgage. If your original mortgage has an interest rate of 6% but you can get a new one with a 4% interest rate you can save money by refinancing. Reasons you may be able to get a lower interest rate include better credit on your part (maybe your credit score rose since you took out the original loan) or a better lending environment (federal interest rates are low so banks are generally giving lower interest loans).


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

[User]
CMV: A churro is a doughnut

In my experience, a large majority of people try to exclude churros from the doughnut club.  I understand their arguments, but I have found yet to find a credible reason for considering a churro to be in a completely different category of pastry.  Some reasons why I think a churro has to be considered a doughnut:

1. Tons of doughnuts are stick shaped, even if they might not be as long and skinny as a churro.
2. Some churros are filled with stuff, some aren't, just like doughnuts.
3. In some places, Colombia being one of them, they have a specific type of ringed, dulce de leche filled fried doughnut that they call a churro.
4. Doughnuts make sense to be the highest level of sweet fried pastry with subcategories below it like churro.

Some arguments that might work:

1. As I mentioned, some doughnuts are stick shaped, and some are more crispy than others.  I think that there may be some arbitrary ratio of length to width or volume to surface area where you can say that one side of that ratio is a doughnut and the other side is a churro.  I'm not aware of any specific rules like this, but maybe they exist.  There may also be a similar way to look at the density of the batter.
2. A specific argument about why a churro should be categorized under some other umbrella category or why considering a churro as a doughnut is bad for some reason.

Arguments that almost definitely won't work:

1. Churro have been common in cultures where other types of doughnuts weren't prevalent.  While this is true, I don't see why we still can't choose to simplify the world by categorizing these churros as doughnuts.
2. Churros are better than doughnuts.  Well yes, that's true, clearly, but grilled cheese is better than all sandwiches but it's still a sandwich.

EDIT: I've really appreciated the responses so far and I've been entertained by the discussion.  I need to step away for the night.  But, I'll check the thread tomorrow and respond to any new points.

EDIT 2: Wow this blew up and the number of comments keeps going up while I type this edit.  I believe that I have responded to all unique arguments in some thread or another and any comments that I haven't responded to, I skipped because the point was already made in another thread.  If you believe that your argument is unique feel free to tag me in a reply and I'll go and respond when I have more time.

A couple misconceptions about my argument that I want to point out:

1. I am not advocating that we completely ignore all the unique characteristics of churros and just lump them in as a doughnut and call them that.  I understand this would diminish not only the allure of a churro but the rich history it has.  I think we can call a churro a doughnut at the same time as respecting it for its beauty and rich history.
2. I am open to the idea that all doughnuts are churros based on the historical timeline.
3. There are so many churro haters in here.  At least half a dozen comments saying "if you asked for a doughnut and someone brought you a churro, wouldn't you be pissed." No way.  I would have a new best friend.  And now, hopefully all of you will not secretly hope that your doughnut request ends with a churro.

[Assistant]
Imagine this scenario.

You're working for the police as a hostage negotiator. You get a call. There's a situation at a nearby bank. A robbery went wrong and the suspect started taking hostages. Now he's surrounded by the police who have set up a perimeter outside the bank.

You rush over and get briefed by the officers at the scene. The guy's holed up with 20 people and he's armed. They managed to get him on the phone, and he says if you don't meet his demands, he's gonna start killing hostages right now.

You pick up the phone to talk to him. He only has one demand.

'Get me a donut'. He hangs up. And you're on the clock.

In that situation, do you get him churros?

And yes, you can replace 'donut' with 'sandwich' and 'churro' with 'hot dog'.


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

[User] [comics] how would the wolverine or deadpool build any muscle? Wouldn't their healing factor heal the tears caused b the lactic acid immediately, negating any gains?

[Assistant] That sounds about right, and it explains why Logan maintains a similar amount of fitness whether he's working as a schoolteacher or a lumberjack. Their healing factors would have to have a pre-programmed "ideal form" that they were rebuilt to each time they heal though, otherwise they would just wither away.


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

[User]
How does schizophrenia effect people who lack a sense of sight and/or sound? Are visual and/or auditory hallucinations still experienced?

Would these effects be different between those who were born without one or more of these senses, and those who lost these senses later in life?

[Assistant]
We haven't seen any blind schizophrenics yet (Sanders et al. 2003).

Deaf schizophrenics seem to have many visual and tactile hallucinations, with auditory hallucinations not usually attested (Schonauer et al. 1998).

References:

Sanders,Glenn S., Platek, Steven M., and Gallup, Gordon G. (2003). No blind schizophrenics: Are NMDA-receptor dynamics involved?. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 26, pp 103-104.

Schonauer, K., Achtergarde, D., Gotthardt, U., & Folkerts, H. W. (1998). Hallucinatory modalities in prelingually deaf schizophrenic patients: a retrospective analysis of 67 cases. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 98(5), 377-383.


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

[User]
What would happen to a stack of paper if compressed with an obscene amount of weight?

Assume a simple stack of printer paper.

What would happen if you were to apply an obscene amount of weight to the paper?

I imagine it would undergo compression and likely become incredibly brittle, but past that, I have no idea what would happen.

[Assistant]
Wood fibres are hugely resistant to compression. Imagine how much pressure rests on the wood at the base of a redwood tree without damage. And wood fibres are not brittle under compression (except for very dry or damaged wood fibres).

Basically, the paper would flatten (as the air between layers was squeezed out and the pages forced together) but wouldn't change much because the wood fibres that comprise the paper would largely survive in their original laminar orientation. The pages would not bond with each other. Once you released the weight, it would look like a slightly flattened version of what you started with.

You need to add something to relax the wood fibres.

With a little water/steam, the fibre relax/reshape and compress paper makes a solid board that looks like cardboard but has properties closer to dense wood.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] I'm a pretty old Imperial/First Order engineer. I've now seen two Death Stars, one planet-sized superweapon, and a Dreadnought supercarrier destroyed by small attack fighters our turbolasers couldn't touch. Can we PLEASE start installing point defense systems?

I would think we could start utilizing weapon systems that, I don't know, *actually work against the tactics our enemies have been using for decades now*.

We don't even need to get rid of the turbolasers, even.

And the first person to say the words hubris, pride, or overconfidence gets vented out into space. Those excuses only work two times at most.

[Assistant]
The turbo lasers you are referring to are the point defense system. The Death Star in particular was covered with them. Unfortunately, the speed and maneuverability of small fighters makes them extremely difficult to defend against.

Edit: Basically youll see this same problem in the future with Earth navies. Their capital ships have little effective defenses against enemy fighters besides just employing enemy fighters of their own.

Other things to consider:

* The principle problem with the Death Star was the sabotage done by its principal engineer. They didnt have more robust defenses because there was no reason to think the Death Star could so easily be compromised.

* The Second Death Star was defended against small fighters. It had a massive protective shield that prevented them from penetrating inside. It was only after their defenses were sabotaged that they could launch an attack. The same thing can be said for Starkiller base.

* The dreadnaut attack was cause by General Huxs incompetence. This is a simple case of garbage in, garbage out or an ~~ID10~~ ID10T error. You cant expect a ships defenses to be adequate when the brass is woefully dumb.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do humans like to kiss each other?

[Assistant]
It releases hormones that feel good, such as oxytocin.

Why does it release hormones like that? Because a kiss is a good way to determine the health and immunological compatibility of a mate. If it is good, hormone are released and you want to do it again, because you get a good response from the partner. This encourages mating with a good partner.

Bad kisses do not release the hormone, and a single bad kiss early on can greatly diminish sexual attraction. A bad kiss can occur for a number of reasons, but an unpleasant hormone response serves as an early warning system for mating.


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

[User]
CMV: The lower case t has a little curve at the bottom

This should be an easy one. I have always learned to write the lower case t with a little curve at the bottom, even in printing style. I was surprised to learn that it is being taught today to write it as a cross with the bottom straight. Searching online, it seems that a lot of videos are also teaching kids to write it as a cross. I then took a look at several children's book, the letter t seem to be very inconsistent. Sometimes it has a curve, sometimes it's straight. Yet everywhere I looked on the Internet, t seems to have a curve. To me the little curve at the bottom is part of the letter, not a curly style. Am I wrong? Should t be written as straight?

Edit, I think I am convinced. Thanks for all your answers.

[Assistant]
It can be written as either. In some circumstances - such as math and science calculations, where you have a T and a plus sign near each other - using the curly version is helpful. In others - casual writing when math isnt part of the text - it isnt.

Neither is right or wrong, just different.


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

[User] [Star Wars] Vader seems like he hates Palpatine and wants to overthrow him. Why didn't he propose a team-up to Luke when they were both on Endor? Would the two of them together be able to take out Palpatine?

[Assistant]
He tried that at Bespin but Luke was too resistive.  By the time ROTJ was going on, Palpatine was involved and Vader didn't want to be seen openly defying Palpatine as he could sense deception and would likely punish Vader for it.

Vader doubted Luke would seek him out.  Palpatine said he would. Luke did that. Vader likely became concerned that his plan to turn Luke against Palpatine was exposed.  If Palpatine could see things even Vader couldn't that was not good.


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

[User] [MCU] Did Ironman really need the hulkbuster when his normal suite could battle thor?

[Assistant]
When Thor first hit him, he damaged his suit, and when he grabbed him he cracked it.

If Thor had focused on just punching him really hard he would have probably broken the suit.

Hulk is about as strong as Thor and doesn't use lightning. As we saw, he was able to quickly damage the Hulkbuster and focused on doing that more than Thor does. He needed Hulkbuster.


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

[User]
[X-Men] How does Jean Grey ever get defeated?

She's a more powerful telepath than Professor X (if I'm remembering right), she has some seriously good TK, and also wields a cosmic force. What's stopping her from ending all conflict by just reading everyone's mind to find out whatever she needs to know, mind-controlling everyone, and/or immobilizing all her enemies with TK?

[Assistant]
Well, she really hasn't had a lot of time to be super powerful.

In her early years, Xavier installed mental blocks to prevent her from using TP (instead, she was only about a 10-20 tonning TK user) and shortly after he released those she was dead for a pretty long while (though not really, the Phoenix placed her in a cocoon and posed as her up to the end of the Dark Phoenix Saga). After her resurrection she was only mildly powerful before her powers started to grow again and she began calling herself Phoenix for a few storylines, then Onslaught happened. Then shortly after that she died again due to ~~Marvel editorial~~ Xorneto and remained that way *again* for like a decade. Recently she's been resurrected again and gave the Phoenix the bird.

So yeah. She's either been dead, possessed by the Phoenix, or a decently powerful telepath who fights other telepaths/people who have some way of getting around telepathy for most of her appearances.


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

[User]
Is there a way to allocate rooms in a house based on preference, rather than randomly?

So last year my housemates and I drew names out of a hat to determine the order we picked our bedrooms. This left me with no choice so this year (we decided we would change halfway) I'm adamant that there is a way to optimize it.

 Rooms| Lily | Marshall | Ted | Barney | Robin
---|---|----|----|----|----
A | 4 | 5| 4| 5| 4
B | 1| 2| 1| 3| 2
C| 5| 1| 2| 1| 1
D | 3| 3| 3| 4| 3
E| 2| 4| 5| 2| 5

This table is my specific example (names obviously changed) and the numbers are our preference 1 through 5. To be honest I'm not sure where to begin (or what terms to google to get answers). The current allocation is:

A-Lily (4)

B-Ted (1)

C-Marshall (1)

D-Robin (3)

E-Barney (2)

I'm not sure if this is the best way to assess how optimized this is, but the sum of everyone's ranking of the rooms comes to 11, I guess I'm really asking is there a way to get it lower?

[Assistant]
Hold an auction. Put up real money. Whoever bids the most for the room gets it and pays up.

All cash collected either gets split evenly between the participants at the end, spent on utilities or rent, or spent on a house party.


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

[User]
CMV: Democrats should stop worrying about Bernie-or-Bust voters.

Worrying about Bernie-or-Bust (BoB) voters (here defined as voters who either will, or threaten to, either vote for Trump in the general, vote third-party in the general, or stay home in the general) is either pointless or actively counterproductive. In either case, Democrats should stop doing it. Let's walk through the hypothetical situations, and explain why, in each case, worrying about BoB voters is pointless or counterproductive.

1. Bernie Sanders is the nominee. No need to worry about the "Or Bust" part.

2. Bernie Sanders is not the nominee. In this case, we go to a next question: Do the Democrats need BoB voters to win in November?

3. If "no", then worrying about BoB voters is just wasted energy since they can all go stay home or whatever and it won't matter.

4. If "yes", then worrying about BoB voters is counterproductive because you're not going to get their votes by making them feel attacked.

5. If "maybe", then points 3 and 4 both apply.

[Assistant] There is one case where Bernie supporters might decide to not support the nominee. Let's say he has the most delegates going into the convention but not enough to claim victory. Then you have a contested convention. If there they then choose a different nominee for whatever reason that could then make a lot of his supporters extremely angry and feel like the process was rigged. That could in theory cause enough of them to turn against the Democrats for Trump to win a 2nd term.


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

[User]
[Babylon5] How did Psi Corps come about?

And how did it turn into a terrible organization?

[Assistant]
Psi Corps got established as a part of Earth's government due to public fears caused by the emergence of documented psychic phenomenon. It was seen as a way to protect, document, and more importantly *control* psychics, most critically by giving the government a pretext to oppress any psychic who operates outside of the Earth Alliance's command and control.

As for how it turned rotten, it's essentially a paramilitary/secret police outfit with minimal oversight, an extremely broad mandate to interfere with civilian and government life, and a monopoly on mental powers. No outside organization is equipped to oppose them in their field of choice; literally no one outside the Corps has the training or the power to stand up to a Psi-Cop. Without extremely rigorous self-policing, some form of corruption was inevitable.


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

[User]
[X Men] If the Juggernaut's power is to be unstoppable once he has momentum, wouldn't him falling be enough to send him through the earth's crust to the center of the earth?

Forgive my lack of formal physics knowledge, but best I can tell, if one were to fall, there would be a momentum build up.  What keeps the Juggernaut from falling through the earth?

[Assistant] Juggernaut has the power to stop his momentum.  Otherwise if you dodged a punch from him he'd just keep going, forever.  Not to mention all of the involuntary movements generated by his body, heartbeat, breathing, even blinking - if all of this momentum wasn't arrested by the Juggernaut he probably would have exploded by now.


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

[User] Why does China defend North Korea so often at the international level?

[Assistant]
1. North Korea is already a huge humanitarian crisis, but collapse of the regime means that a huge portion of that becomes China's problem more or less immediately. Millions of North Koreans would flee into Northeastern China, which already has a large population of ethnically Korean citizens. Actually keeping these people alive after living their entire lives in the DPRK would be enormously expensive and a logistical nightmare.

2. China likes having North Korea as a buffer state. Regardless of who would take over the area that's currently North Korea in the event of a collapse, China likely winds up with a US-allied country on its border, if South Korea would reunited with the North (which would cost South Korea trillions and take a very, very long time; the Reunification of Germany was a cakewalk compared to the situation in the Korean Peninsula). It would rather that didn't happen.

They know how bad things are in the DPRK, but by nominally supporting the Kim regime, everything is contained, from China's perspective. The status quo is the least bad option, in China's view.