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

[User]
I do not think it makes sense to tie the salary of a university president to the salary of the lowest paid worker. CMV

There was a recent story about how St. Mary's College is considering a policy that would limit the salary of the president to ten times that of the lowest paid worker on campus. While this sounds nice in theory, it does not make sense from a practical standpoint to keep the college competitive, and for larger and more prestigious colleges (nothing against St. Mary's) it would be a *major* mistake to implement this. Why should the president of a large university make a million bucks? Because it keeps them at the University. Private sector businesses can pay a *lot* more for skilled managers, and while working at a university should not be just for the money, having a reasonable financial incentive to attract the best presidents makes sense. If you are not offering somewhere in the neighborhood of what these people would be making elsewhere (or even at another university), you are going to lose your prestige and edge (which is really what most universities care about the most).

[Assistant]
This assumes that salary is the only possible motivator for skilled managers (or skilled labor).

Doctors without Borders doesn't pay well, yet still attracts top-tier talent.

Similarly, contributing to a center of higher learning and being of service to the academic community is often held in high regard by society.  For many skilled managers, the privilege of serving, especially at a well-regarded institution, more than compensates for the lost income.  This also includes skilled managers who do not enjoy the private sector environment, or are attracted to the academic world.

This principle applies to many government workers as well.  There are some very, very intelligent and skilled workers on the government payroll, who could earn a large chunk more in the private sector.  However, because they enjoy the work they do, they do not require the additional financial incentive.

Indeed, it could be argued that these workers are even more desirable; offering a lower or capped salary might weed out "mercenary" CEOs or University Presidents who really don't give a crap about education or the University, only the metrics that determine their paycheck.  The kind of CEO or President who would leave if a higher paying offer came along is a liability, and only as good as the targets the board sets.  A mission-driven University president will work because they truly enjoy it, and may be much more productive and effective as a result.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does a graphing calculator with a 4 inch gray scale screen cost more than a quad core tablet with 1080p screen?

[Assistant]
Schools often mandate specific calculators for specific classes.   This is for two reasons. One is that instructions can be very exact: hit this button then that button then enter these numbers and get a result. Also it's to prevent cheating that you could do on a general purpose computer.

So since students have to buy these calculators, just like text books they have a smaller market than general computers (costs are spread over a smaller market), and since buyers are forced to buy them, they can set a higher price and margin.


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

[User] [Witcher]: I challenged a man to a game of Gwent and he used a gold, high level card with his own damn face on it. Whats the deal? Whos regulating this? Should I make a 20 power card with my face on it to guarantee future wins?

[Assistant]
Sure, if you're famous.

Go slay a dragon, kill a few Kings, seduce some sorcereces, have several ballads written about you, and maybe then people will accept a powerful card with your name and face on it.

Until then you can only expect people to laugh as some unknown mook tries to claim the most dangerous folks in the world are their peer.


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

[User] ELI5: Can we strengthen our immune system like our muscles? If so, is there a limit to how strong our immune system can get?

[Assistant] We can and do strengten our immune system. We do this simply by getting ill, when we do our body creates the antibodies to fight that illness and then it store the "memory" of how to make them so next time we get that illness we can fight it off quicker and easier. (this doesn't work for flu because the flu virus is always changing so every winter it needs different antibodies)


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

[User]
ELI5: How can a candy company (Jelly Belly) create flavors that taste like baby wipes, skunk smell, grass, etc., yet the major soda companies cannot create a diet soda that tastes EXACTLY like the original?

Ok, I will say that Diet Dr. Pepper is very close.

Good lord! Did not expect to hit the front page. And now I understand when people say their inbox blew up! Thank you for all the explanations, though. Now someone can do a TIL ...

[Assistant]
You're looking at two different things - artificial flavorings & artificial sweeteners.  Artificial flavors trick our nose into sensing some other food product & are relatively easy to come up with.  Artificial sweeteners trick our body into sensing *sugar*, something that's fundamentally essential to animal survival.

Coming up with an artificial flavor is usually just a matter of finding the chemical that's responsible for most of the scent of something & figuring out how to make it synthetically.  Coming up with an artificial sweetener means finding a molecule that can trick the *very* specialized sensors on our tongue into thinking "sugar".

Nobody's been able to come up with a 0-calorie sweetener that actually tastes like sugar.

So, when you're mixing a diet soda, you can't just substitute your artificial sweetener for sugar because **it tastes wrong**.  You need to change the flavors a bit to compensate for how artificial it tastes.

**Edit:** thanks for the gold!


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

[User]
Accepted funded PhD position for upcoming fall a few months ago, was just told my advisor is resigning after this coming year. Attempting to not over and/or under worry as I have limited information. Best way to approach the upcoming school year?

As stated in the title, I accepted a position as an incoming PhD student for the upcoming school year in a social science field. I only applied to ONE school because I was so sure that this was who I wanted to work with. I was accepted, fully funded, and have made lots of different arrangements in order to make this work as I am returning to school as a somewhat older student with a child.

I received an email recently stating that my professor will be *resigning* (not retiring) as of next summer. This person intends to stay local and stay involved in the research area that I am pursuing, however they will not be an official faculty member. This person states that they do not think this will affect my experience in the program.

I am not as confident, only because I spent time researching the other professors in the department when applying and did not find anyone who truly matched my research interests. Does this mean I will end up with a committee that either will try to change my research, or will not understand it? Is there any chance that I can be let go from the program as a result of my advisors choice to leave? Is there any chance that I will not have funding due to my advisors choice to leave? I have asked these questions to my advisor, as well, but would like outside opinions, if possible.

What can I do in the upcoming year to ensure that I am best prepared for my advisors *resignation* (not retirement)? Other than, of course, establishing a good relationship with other faculty.

Thank you, in advance, for the advice!

Edited in some bolds/etc because I think this persons resignation is an important distinction vs a retirement.

[Assistant] You should set up a meeting with the department chairman to discuss this specific situation ASAP before deciding to begin this program. Although the retiring faculty may mean well and plan to remain involved, this person will not be in charge after retirement in year 2 and thereafter, and the department may make other decisions about the rest of your time in grad school that may profoundly affect what you are allowed to do.


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

[User] ELI5:There are warnings on my microwave that say not to run it while empty. Does anyone now why or how this damages the microwave?

[Assistant] The walls of the oven are designed to reflect the microwaves, intending for them to eventually be absorbed by food. But with no food, they will just keep bouncing around, eventually being reflected back at the magnetron, heating it up. The excess heat can damage it. Best case is that it blows a fuse, rendering the microwave inoperable until it's replaced. Worst case is it gets so hot to cause something like the insulation to burst into flames.


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

[User]
ELI5: that sentence that only uses buffalo

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo. I've tried reading about how it works but I always get confused.

[Assistant]
What helps is replacing the words with near synonyms.

* Buffalo 1 - a type of **bison**

* Buffalo 2 - a city in **New York**

* Buffalo 3 - a verb meaning to **intimidate**

And now we can make the sentence

New York bison New York bison intimidate intimidate New York Bison.

And if we add a few commas and a few words for clarity, we can say:

**New York bison, who are intimidated by New York bison, themselves also intimidate other New York bison.**


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

[User] [The Egg by Andy Weir] Why does God bother having that conversation with every incarnation instead of just sending them straight to the next life?

[Assistant] If the whole purpose of the Egg is to make the human learn ethics and become good enough to become a god themselves, it is only logical to imagine that their god is infinitely good and patient. So, when what is basically a baby comes to you, confused and desperate for awnsers, and you are a good person who loves them, what do you do? You take a few minutes to awnser their questions before sending them back on their merry way.


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

[User] ELI5: why do electric car engines accelerate faster than gasoline car engines?

[Assistant] In a nutshell: Gasoline cars use a combustion engine to turn a transmission, and the engine has to spin up in a sense. Electric Vehicles typically (not all) use a battery to power an electric transmission which is designed to turn as soon as its given power, so theres no engine lag.


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

[User]
When you are listening to radio noise, what does each different sound (or pitch) represent?

I have heard that we are actually listening to the background radiation of the Big Bang. It just sounds completely random, you can hear many sounds of different pitches.

I would like to know what these sounds represent. Essentially,  I am asking what are the sound components of radio noise.

[Assistant]
There's some truth to that.  Radio telescopes can pick up faint signals from space that are remnants from the big bang.

That isn't what you are hearing when you tune a consumer radio and hear noise.  That's thermal/electronic noise in the tuner and amplifier.  You can stub out the antenna entirely and you get the same pseudo-patterns and randomness.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do animals like to be pet by humans?

[Assistant]
Many mammals, especially the kind we interact with, are social creatures - the evolved to work in small family units to share in responsibilities like hunting, care for young, protection, and health.

Part of health is grooming; keeping each other clean and free of disease. Petting is a form of grooming. Animals evolved to seek out grooming, as it is a social behavior beneficial to the survival of these animals.


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

[User]
CMV: To oppose abortion access legality is to devalue women as lesser than fetuses which is insulting.

Whether either side wants to admit it, supporting abortion legality is supporting women *at the expense of fetuses*, and opposing abortion legality is supporting fetuses *at the expense of women.*

Therefore it's woman versus fetus: whose rights matter most.

For me, a woman, a person who sees and interacts with other women on a daily basis, but who has never interacted with a fetus, as someone who knows firsthand how insanely extreme your body and hormones change from pregnancy and how all consuming the process is, as someone who knows the financial loss and job instability pregnant women face, as someone who believes bodily autonomy is a fundamental human right that all people have (whether recognized or not), and as someone who understands the unique horror of being trapped inside your body with a pregnancy that you have to carry to term against your will, there is no possible way in my mind that a developing fetus that doesn't know it exists and wont know when it doesn't exist should "win" the battle of abortion over women.

To believe the opposite and choose fetuses over women is to value that developing and unaware life over the existing life of women, thus devaluing women as less important than a fetus, which is incredibly insulting to me. A woman has an existing life, she has thoughts and desires, a fully formed body that exists on its own, she may have a job, an education, friends, family, she votes, she has a favorite food and a favorite show.... A fetus is a developing human made of cells still dividing and creating the human body, organs, brain, nervous system, etc. It doesn't know it exists and won't know when it doesn't exist anymore, it has never met people or formed bonds, it has no desires or opinions, it doesn't yet have its own body that can survive on planet earth. If you had to pick one of those at the expense of the other, and chose to protect the fetus over the woman, then you obviously view women as lesser in value than fetuses, which as I said is insulting.

To CMV you will have to prove how opposing abortion access is not valuing women less than one values fetuses. Attempting to say I was wrong in my wordy descriptions of fetuses and women above (like saying "well what if the woman doesn't have friends or a job, what then?) will not CMV.
-------------------

Term definitions so nobody dives off the deep end...

Legal abortion: one performed by a doctor on a consenting women within the first or second trimester of pregnancy.

Pro-choice: one who supports access to legal abortions, regardless of how he or she personally feels about abortion.

Pro-life: one who opposes legal access to abortion.

Apologies to the mods and regulars who get nauseous and bored to death at just seeing the word abortion. ;-)

[Assistant]
I think there are two obvious faults with this.

First, it ignores the possibility of placing EQUAL value on the lives of two people (assume, for the sake of discussion, that a pro-life person is pro-life because they believe a fetus is a person); you're saying that wanting to protect one life makes it MORE important than another, when it really could as easily mean you just consider it AS important.

But second, and more importantly, the "rights" in question are not the same. It's not as if a pro-lifer (usually) wants to KILL the mother in order that the fetus might live. The right of one person to live overrides the right of another person to not be pregnant for nine months. It's like saying "People have the right to own their clothing. So if a man is bleeding to death on the street, and someone takes clothing from another person by force to stop the flow and save their life, they value the bleeding person more than the person that lost clothing". Not necessarily; they're just willing to violate one right to protect another, more important right.


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

[User]
ELI5: Before VCRs/video rental, if you missed a movie while it was in theater, did that mean you just never got to see it?

If you missed a movie while it was in theaters in, for example, the 50's, were you just SOL?

[Assistant]
Back in the day, movies used to be shown for a long time at the theater. Theaters didn't just play the new movies; they played a large variety of movies. Some movies would end up being played for years at a time.

The popular ones also eventually ended up getting shown on TV.


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

[User] ELI5: What did so many men in North America in the early 1900s wear hatsand when and why did this stop?

[Assistant]
People sent a lot more time in the sun and every other weather condition.

Hats kept sun off your face, helped prevent sunstroke, kept you warmer in the winter, you lose a lot of heat from your head.

With cars and buses becoming more standard for daily commute/shopping etc, hats weren't needed anymore.

around the same time, men started skipping wearing undershirts.  previously clothes were a major expense, you could literally pawn your clothes. so most folks had two outfits, a 'good' one for church/going out and a daily wear, and changed underclothes.  with cheaper labor and industrial sewing clothing got cheaper.  Now you could afford more shirts.

Back to hats, instead of the average worker occupied outside, with mechanized farming more people were working in offices, factories, shops and spending most of their time indoors, traveling in cars...so they weren't wearing their hat that much anyway.

So just as Cary Grant stunned the world taking off his shirt without an undershirt (IIRC) and JFK forgoing a hat it went viral.

similar celebrity fashion sea changes happened before.  We have creases in our suit pants because one day the King of England went to the races, his pants were folded wrong and there was no time to have them pressed, so there he is sporting sharp crease and overnight everyone wore pants like that.


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

[User]
Why and how does baking soda remove odors and where does the odor go?

Recently, I noticed that my shoes started smelling, so I went online to see which spray would be the best to remove the odors.

But then my friend told me not to buy those $4.99 sprays and just buy an 89 cent box of baking soda.

I found that the baking soda works pretty well and I also know that it helps get rid of odors in refrigerators.

My question is: Why and how does baking soda get rid of odors and where does the odor go? Does the baking soda absorb the smell somehow? Is there some type of chemical reaction?

[Assistant] Baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) is known as an amphoretic compound meaning it can neutralize both acid and bases. Some odors have acidic or alkaline groups that are recognized by the olfactory receptors in your nose. When the acid or basic group on a smelly molecule is neutralized, your nose can no longer detect the odor.


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

[User]
[Death Note] How would L hunt a more restrained Kira?

Let's imagine a word where Light Yagami is a more principled individual, and makes a vow - I'm killing criminals, but I'm not targeting law enforcement, even if they're trying to catch me. Everything else remains the same - he's still trying to be noticed, so he can become a god of the New World.

This version of Light would therefore not kill Lindon L Tailor, and would not kill Raye Penber either.  With that in mind, what kind of tricks and tactics L could use to catch Kira?

[Assistant]
He'd still find him,  just not as quickly; He'd already used the tactic of broadcasting decoys names in different areas to see when Kira killed them,  it would likely be similar to that, just not the same speed.

By deducing the way he picks criminals, He'd eventually suspect the correct Kira.

Side note: if this Kira wasn't as crazy to murder law enforcement and believe himself to become a God, he may follow through on light's original plan to destroy the deathnote so there'd be no evidence to convict him.


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

[User] [Beauty and the Beast] If the lesson that the enchantress was trying to teach the prince was that beauty is only skin deep, what lesson was she teaching to the dozens of servants whose lives she shattered by turning them into household objects?

[Assistant] Nothing.  She wasn't trying to teach them anything, she was simply a product of her times and culture.  Where the master goes, so go the servants.  She was of the opinion that the servants were bound to him in this, as they are in all other things.


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

[User]
CMV: Free will is an illusion and your entire existence and sum of experience was inevitable.

Fate is real.  Destiny is real.  Things happen for a reason, but the reason has nothing to do with luck, chance, or anything supernatural.

My position is based on this:  a 100% accurate predictive model is possible if all variables,  variable values, and variable interaction behavior are known.

A very basic predictive model: drop a 1" bouncy ball from 10" above a ceramic tile and measure how high it will bounce back.  For this example, the ball bounced back to the height of 8".  You would then formulate your next hypothesis based on that observation: If we drop the ball from 12" the bounce will reach 10".  You drop the ball and indeed it bounces back 10".  Conduct this numerous times and eventually you can pretty accurately predict the outcome.

This model will not be 100% accurate if not all variables can or will be accounted for: the accuracy of the measurement tools, changes in barometric pressure, changes in temperature, etc.   However, if you could account for every single variable \(currently known and unknown\) with 100% accuracy a predictive model could be developed that would be infinitely accurate.

Let's roll back to the very instant the "big bang" started. \(I selected the "big bang" as it is a theoretical moment familiar to most\).  If all variables, variable values, and variable interaction behavior could be known, then the exact state of a one\-second old universe could be predicted.  Extrapolate this all the way to this very moment that you are reading the last word in this sentence.

Tomorrow, the car directly in front of you is struck by a piece of lumber that fell from the truck in front of it resulting in the driver being severely injured.  The car ended up in front of you because it arrived one second before you at the previous intersection.

The car arrived one second before you because you woke up a second late because you did not sleep well because you argued with your spouse because she forgot to pick up your prescription because she had a meeting run late because her boss had a surprise phone call from a friend that just so happened to be in the area because they were in town for a conference because..........

OMG!  What if I ended up in front of that person and I got the lumber to the face?  OMG!  The divine entity of my choosing intervened and made me wake up one second late!  OMG!  I am sooooo lucky!

There was no divine intervention, it has nothing to do with luck or chance.  The reason it was the car in front of you and not you is because of all the variables, variable values, and variable interactions that occurred up until that very moment.

This same process of rewinding events could be applied to the driver who was injured, the person who strapped down the lumber, the person who designed the tolerance of the strap, the driving speed, the wind resistance, etc.  It all goes back to a single event.

You, your "soul" or being, are a product of a genetic configuration and your environment.  Your genetic configuration and how your body develops is a product of countless reproductive events that occurred because of all the variables, variable values, and variable interactions that occurred prior to each of those previous events.

Your environment is the result of countless variables, variable values, and variable interactions: ground radiation, stress level, the chemical composition of your water, cloud cover, mother's smoking habits while you were in the womb, state of the economy, etc.  Your environment can alter genetics, impact your development, impact the development of your offspring, impact the development of your neo\-cortex that impacts decision making that impacts behavior.

Every moment and every one of your "decisions" is a product of the countless variables \(environment, genetic configuration\), variable values, and variable interactions that previously occurred.  Your actions, thoughts, friendships, favorite food, career choice, vices, were inevitable and could be predicted.

Ultimately, you are soooo predictable.

[Assistant] Quantum theory disagrees with determinism. If our current understanding of quantum mechanics is true, then there exists true randomness in the world. The second law of thermodynamics states that entropy always increases over time, this leads to an increase in information in the universe over time. How does that information spontaneously form? Randomness.


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

[User]
[General] Is it not incredibly dangerous to fire a blaster whilst in a spaceship?

One missed shot, one deflected plasma bolt, one laser hitting the outer wall, and all of a sudden there is a hole in the side of the spaceship suffocating everyone nearby.

I'm of course assuming it's expensive, and not always necessary, to have shot-resistant plating on every wall of the ship.

Edit - if this is a risk, I know full well I'd be arming my boarding parties with wall-penetrating blasters.

[Assistant] It's highly situational. Star trek phasers and star wars blasters use energy that can be modulated to not punch through a hull. They also have shields that can act like patches on any hull breaches. The expanse and halo and similar hard sci fi typically use flechette or similar ammunition that shatters on impact with very minimal armor penetration to preserve hull integrity.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do sites like GoDaddy have access to domains to sell?

Also, are there any regulations?

[Assistant]
ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.) is in charge of .com domains (as well as many others.  They are a non profit, and certify any reseller such as GoDaddy.

They also charge an annual fee for any domain name you register, which funds their operations.

So GoDaddy gets certified by ICANN, and is now allowed to register any unused ICANN name.  For each name they register, they pay ICANN.


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

[User] What environmental impacts would a border wall between the United States and Mexico cause?

[Assistant]
I think one of the biggest impacts would be the alteration of water flow.

I don't think you could successfully build a wall down the middle of the Rio Grande river, which is the border, so the wall would have to be on the north side of that river, denying access to that water to all the animals north of the river. This would probably drive all the larger animals farther north in search of water and would flat out kill lots of them.

For permanent waterways that flow across the border, you're going to have to either divert them or create some sort of grate system. If you divert them, again, you're denying water resources to something.

In arid regions like this, there are a lot of ephemeral waterways that are dry 99% of the time, and full flood the other 1%. Altering these waterways would change the distribution of soil, sand and organic matter that is carried by these waterways.


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

[User]
[Lovecraft] So.. why is Cthulu so scary again?

He's incomprehensible and has no regard for our well being, but... he also got taken out by a ship to the forehead, right?

Maybe it's just that our technology is so much more advanced than it was back then, but comprehensible or no, he seems much more vulnerable than, say, Godzilla.

[Assistant]
Cthulhu isn't frightening for his physical presence, impressive though it is. He's frightening because of what he represents. Yes, it's possible that with modern weaponry we could defeat him, and it's also possible that he was merely toying with the boat that took him out the first time and that we have nothing that could harm him. We don't know. We don't even know if that's what Cthulhu really is, or if that's just our minds trying to make sense of something *impossible* that *is*.

Really, what's frightening about him are what he implies:

1. We are not alone.

2. There are forces at play in the cosmos that don't care about us, at all. To them, we are nothing, less significant than bacteria. Even bacteria can affect a human in great enough numbers, but there is *nothing* we can do against these forces.

3. We exist by accident, in an unforgiving universe that could come crashing down on us at any time.

Those people that Cthulhu drove mad? They didn't go insane, they went *sane*. They finally saw the reality of how absolutely irrelevant everything humanity has achieved is. They saw how infinitesimally small we were compared to even the least of what's out there.

That's why Cthulhu's scary. Because compared to everything else out there, he's not frightening at all. Because there are things to which he is as insignificant as we are to him.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] What makes someone a Jedi?

No one would argue that Luke isnt a Jedi Master but he doesnt even remotely seem to follow the Jedi Code, either by Canon or Legend standards.
So Im legitimately curious now- what makes someone a Jedi?
Luke feels emotions and has a family and all that stuff. By the old standards I dont think theyd even let him train at the Temple. So how is he a Jedi?
Is it merely enough to just use the Light side of the force?
Is that it?
Im sure you can be an asshole and still use the Light side as a tool but thats beside the point- is it merely being good that makes you a Jedi? How is that a quantifiable standard across the whole of galactic history?

Is it just some self-identification or something?

[Assistant]
Jedi is a philosophy, and one which can have different interpretations as time goes by.

Some general points are:

- Force user

- Serenity, peace

- Following the will of the Force

But there are quite a few ways to interpret that. Do you fight to defend life? Do you act passively? Do you become a hermit and meditate? Do you forsake all attachment, because it might lead to clouded judgment? Do you forsake all passion, or do you use some of it, carefully controlled?


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

[User]
[Tron Legacy] How much of a threat did Clu's army actually pose to the physical world?

Flynn and son may have successfully prevented Clu's invasion from breaching into the real world, but if they hadn't, would it honestly have been that big of a deal?

First off, Clu's army did not seem to be terribly large.  It'd be hard to believe it would be much over ten thousand programs.  Could a 30 year old computer even support that many programs at once?

Secondly, the weapons of choice seem to be staves and data discs.  Although terrifying in the hands of a nimble program, they don't necessarily seem to have the destructive power of, say, an assault rifle.  Many weapons of choice in the grid seem to be either melee in nature or at least extremely close ranged.

Finally, would the vehicles work had they crossed over?  The grid runs on an entirely different set of physics, and the energy requirements for many of the cruisers and aircraft would be phenomenal should they be taken off the grid.

Should we really be concerned?

[Assistant]
The computer wouldn't have supported them; they'd be real creatures. Living flesh and blood, translated by the digitiser into the real world. Same with the vehicles. They'd be real artefacts! Physical things!

Problem is that while the power grid can support throwing in or out a few people, even with the upgrades that the Maker made to the power supply for the lab it really can't do much more than that. You'd likely have the bow of a ship and one or two really confused new 'people' to deal with.

The Grid is its own world, and the Maker is its god. The real miracle is that a living being came out of it in the form of Quorra. Not quite Anima Ex Nihilo, but not too far off, either.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does a twin turbo engine actually work?

I understand how a turbocharger works, but when a car has two turbos, do they both work the synchronously, or does the second one kick in when more power is required? Are both of the turbos identical?

[Assistant]
There are a few systems, but typically one is smaller and spools up faster, forcing the air into the second which is larger.

- The first turbocharger doesn't usually directly affect performance, instead it is used to increase the responsiveness of the second. This doesn't typically improve the final amount of boost much above that of a single larger turbo, but improves responsiveness. *End result: responsiveness, but not much extra power*

There are two other main approaches, though, where both do work together

1. Both are the same size, and are used synchronously or independently to either act as a single larger turbo, or to allow "staging" of the turbocharger power (ie half or full boost). This is slightly more responsive than one turbo, but not by much, but provides more boost than one turbo. *End result: lots more power, but not much more responsiveness*

2. One is larger and the other smaller, allowing the smaller to kick in earlier for responsiveness, while the larger gives a larger boost but with normal turbo responsiveness. *End result: More responsiveness and a moderate amount more power, although typically a more complex system*


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

[User]
ELI5 the different kinds of U.S. law enforcement

There's U.S. Marshals, state police, county police, DSS agents, Secret Service, FBI, CIA, military, etc. What is the hierarchy here and what is the jurisdiction of each kind?

[Assistant]
Jurisdiction is limited to what types of laws an agency can enforce as well as where they can enforce those laws. The military, for instance, cannot generally exercise police powers in the United States (there are exceptions). The CIA is not a law enforcement agency, and cannot go around arresting people. The FBI is the general law enforcement agency of the federal government, and they CAN investigate any crime under federal law. However, practically every agency has its own police force to investigate crimes falling under that agency's mandate. For example, the Postal Service has police that will investigate crimes involving the mail. Thus the FBI will not investigate mail crimes. They could if they wanted, but for the most part will leave the other federal agencies to their own devices.

The Secret Service sticks to investigating counterfeiting and threats against the President as well as patrolling the White House. The Supreme Court Police patrol the Supreme Court building. The Diplomatic Security Service act as bodyguards for foreign officials. The US Marshals are primarily tasked with enforcing orders of the federal courts, which includes tracking down and arresting people with outstanding warrants and seizing property. They also provide security at federal courthouses. The Federal Protective Service patrols federal buildings and acts as security.

However, general police powers are reserved to the states. That's why the FBI won't pull you over for speeding. The states have their own levels of law enforcement, starting with the statewide police force which may be referred to as state troopers, highway patrol, state police, or some other variant. They can enforce any state law throughout the state, but are typically confined to rural areas and highways. That's because there are county and municipal police forces.

County police forces are the sheriffs - typically elected officials. They will hire a number of deputies and are usually responsible for providing a county jail. They can enforce state laws throughout the entire county, but with an emphasis on areas of the county that fall outside a city limits. That's because cities have their own police force. The city police force will enforce state laws within the city limits.

Now, state laws are the laws we are most familiar with. These are things such as speeding, murder, assault, domestic violence, possession of drugs, theft, etc. There are many cases where federal and state laws overlap.

A city police officer may arrest somebody for having cocaine under a state law. However, it's found out that this guy is a major drug dealer. So the federal police go ahead and charge him with a federal crime relating to drugs. In this instance, the federal law will override the state law and the state charge will be dismissed. He will be arrested by the federal police and have to go to federal court for the offense.

Basically, each agency is tasked with investigating certain types of crimes. They will give preference to those types of crimes. The only rule being that federal police can only enforce federal laws and state/county/city police can only enforce state laws (for the most part).


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Shouldn't Draco get expelled or at least get a detention for what he did in Chamber of Secrets?

In Chamber of Secrets, after the chamber is opened and Filch's cat is petrified, Draco sees the writing on the wall and says "You'll be next, mudbloods!"

That would be like if someone wrote "The KKK Is back in town" in a wall, with a dead cat next to it, and then some kid said "You'll be next, n1gg3rs!". No way the kid would get away with this.

So, why wasn't Draco punished for this? This sort of behavior is not something that most wizards accept, when Draco called Hermione a mudblood in front of the gryffindor quidditch team Fred, George and Ron tried to attack him.

[Assistant]
>That would be like if someone wrote "The KKK Is back in town" in a wall, with a dead cat next to it, and then some kid said "You'll be next, n1gg3rs!". No way the kid would get away with this.

it would be like if someone did that...in the 1940s. racism is alive and well and very noramlised in the wizarding world, which is how voldemort was able to take over the minestry so easily.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why did America violently revolt, while the other British colonies didn't?

What factors were present in America but not in the British Caribbean or Canada?

Edit: TLDR: British navy stronger, too little people, too dependent on Britain, French people in Canada.

[Assistant]
I think it's important to look at this the other way around. What factors were present in Canada and British Caribbean that weren't present in America? The fact that there had been a successful revolt against British rule.

The American revolution made the British far more open to amicable independence movements from other colonies and possessions -- *especially* in the Americas.


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

[User]
[Star Wars OT & EU Canon/Legends] Did the Alliance ever tell Luke about any of the other Force Sensitives who helped them?

In both canon and legends there were folks like Starkiller, Ahsoka, Rahm Kota, Kanan, and Ezra who aided and even helped establish the Rebel Alliance way before Luke showed up, and none of them really made too much of an effort to hide the fact that they could use the Force and cut down Stormtroopers with their lightsabers. Heck Leia even got rescued by a dude who could crush a freaking AT-ST with his mind.

Did anyone ever tell Luke, either during or after the war, that he wasn't the first Jedi to join the Alliance? Or did they think it would've been demoralizing for him to hear; "Hey we had a bunch of other Jedi helping us who were way more powerful than you but they're all dead... I'm sure you'll be different though."

[Assistant]
In legends a lot of what the rebellion did was kept secret from everyone else in the rebellion.  Basic cell operations it wasn't until after hoth that most of the rebels were destroyed or abandoned the cause that things got pretty simplified and leadership more streamlined.  Post endor Luke likey found records of a handful of former jedi and force sensitives that helped the rebellion but it wasn't until later that he reached out to every known force user to join him.  By 25bby he had collected a large number of jedi exiles and former students and a large amount of force sensitives to have a respectable size order to fight the vong.
In canon it's not really made clear how many jedi survived the purge or even the galactic civil war to be a part of his order but it's been mentioned he did gather everyone that was left in the rebellion to start his order prior to kylos massacre.  Haven't seen any eu mentions of who and how big his order was or if the cameos in the new film add up to anything.  I'd assume Luke in canon had less access to rebellion information about force users tho.


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

[User] [Star Wars ROTS] What was Palpatines plan when he told Anakin that he was a Sith and let him pull a Lightsaber on him. All those decades of work could have gone very wrong, very quick, what the hell was he thinking?

[Assistant]
I assume you're asking what if Anakin had decided to kill Sidious right then and there?

Powerful as Anakin was at that time, Sidious was still significantly stronger than him.  Plus, Anakin's emotions were very much evident to Sidious, who could easily sense Anakin's fear, doubt, and anger through the Force.  Therefore, if Anakin had really decided to kill Sidious there, Sidious would sense the attack before it was made, and would block the blow with the lightsaber hidden in his sleeve.

In other words, even though Anakin was pointing his lightsaber at Sidious's face, Sidious was nonetheless confident that he was under no danger.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is it that you never think anything is weird when you are dreaming, it's only when you wake up you realise how strange things actually were?

[Assistant]
To be brief, during a dream it's basically your brain taking a rest. So like a computer it shuts off all non-essential functions, and one of them is called the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. This part of the brain controls things such as memory and judgement. Thus, without this part of the brain "on" you lose the ability to a) remember the real world and b) judge that the dream you're in is weird.
On top of that, a dream is only weird because it doesn't usually follow the same laws of science that you're used to in reality. So after waking up it might be weird, but during the dream without the ability to recall the "true" laws of science, you don't think it's weird.


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

[User]
[LotR] Why doesn't Durin's Folk morn the lost of their holdings in the Grey Mountains like they do for Kazad-Dm and Erebor?

After the fall of Kazad-Dm most dwarves settled the Grey Mountains while the King founded Erebor but eventually left to join his people.

They were there for like 400 years and forced out by dragons, founding the Iron Hills and refounding Erebor.

Also, why does the majority of Durin's folk never settle with the king, most went to the Iron hills when forced out of the North and Erebor?

[Assistant] Because the Grey Mountains were merely the birthplace for dwarvenkind, whereas Khazad-dm and Erebor were where Durin's folk were at their golden age. Where Dwarven craft was respected and Dwarves could hold their heads high. The loss of both Moria and Erebor robbed them of their pride and turned them into refugees, ekeing out their livelihoods as travelling merchants, iron mongers, and miners of lesser minerals.


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

[User]
[Dune] In Dune, the Emperor sides with House Harkonnen to attack House Atreides after Atreides is given fiefdom over Dune by the Emperor...

In the last part of the book, they ask why the Emperor decided to side with the Harkonnens to attack House Atreides. We are told that it's because House Atreides now had the ability to train a fighting force to equal the Imperial Sardaukar troops.

House Atreides was able to do this because they had the Fremen on Arrakis...the planet they were given by the Emperor. How the Sardaukar were created (soldiers bred in incredibly difficult conditions from birth) is supposedly a big secret, so the Emperor couldn't assume House Atreides would know what it was getting with the Fremen.

Why did the Emperor give Dune/Arrakis to House Atreides in the first place? The canonical reason is because Atreides could amass an army of Fremen, but they couldn't have done that if they had never been given fiefdom over Arrakis. Why not just leave them be on Caladan?

[Assistant]
Atreides were in the process of developing a stronger fighting force before they met the Fremen. At the time, none of the major houses were fully aware of the true strength of the Fremen, even the Atreides only partially could grasp it.

Before the events of Dune, House Harkonnen believed that the Fremen were just desert bandits. Annoy and incredibly skilled bandits but basically a small problem.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do so many password requirements specifically forbid spaces?

[Assistant]
Because they have always had that requirement.

Many years ago, passwords were stored as plain text in a database, or sometimes in a text file. When the computer read the password back from storage to compare it against the one it just got from a logging in user, a space in the password could be interpreted as the end of the password. This caused issues when comparing the passed password to the stored one.

Issues could also be caused by certain special characters ( like  and $) being used, that also meant something to the computer program, causing confusion and errors. So many times some special characters were not allowed either. Also, many programs had a tight limit on their storage space, so password length was also restricted.

Since then, standards have changed, passwords normally arent stored directly anymore (T-Mobile????) Instead, a password is fed into a complex math problem and the result is stored. This means that most of the limitations that were imposed by the previous issues no longer apply. Unfortunately, the past rules are still used, even though theyre not needed, because they worked before and people are used to them.


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

[User]
Are organs sensitive to touch?

If I could somehow touch one of my organs, would I feel it? I can push on any muscle or organ and I only feel it on my skin. But at the same time, liver shots exist which seems to me that you they do feel pain. Im guessing organs only cause you pain during acute trauma and not regular activities but Im curious what the truth is.

[Assistant]
Touch sensors (discrete for pressure, vibration, temperature etc) are different from the proprioceptors like stretch or pressure sensors in internal organs, they inform different parts of your brain. So a real "touch sense" only applies to skin and mucosa (think mouth, nose, rectum etc).

Nerve endings sensing pain are another, different type of receptor, those exist in almost all organs (but not in every tissue). The brain for instance doesn't have them, only the vasculature, the 'wrapping' = meningues and the skull. Once you've reached the brain, it can't feel touch or pain if you avoid the vessels. Syphilis or other brain infections are painless.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does Congress "want" to pass surveillance bills like CISA?

Like the title says, why do Congressmen (and women) keep introducing and working to pass these bills? What is the motivation? What do they get out of it? I would think by now voters would be sufficiently against it such that it wouldn't be something they'd want to do since what they want most of all is to get reelected.

[Assistant]
People are afraid and some of them are willing to sacrifice elements of their privacy for their security. Some of those people are elected officials who don't want the responsibility of being accused of not doing enough to stop the next terrorist attack.

If you watched the Republican Presidential debate this week, there were several candidates up there who were upset that Congress recently stopped the NSA metadata program, which collected metadata on every phone call in the country, because they felt it made us more unsafe. Liberty vs. Security. It's a pretty old dichotomy, and you could insert that old Ben Franklin quote right about here, but it's a trade-off that still exists and the threat of terrorism has made it ever more real.


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

[User]
CMV: People wearing something risque or revealing shouldn't be surprised that they get a couple of head turns

#####I have no idea how popular or unpopular this opinion is, so that's why I'm posting it here.

I think that it's perfectly acceptable to look at someone's notable features when you're wearing clothing that shows off precisely that. In my opinion, you should know what you're wearing and what you wear might get looks from the other sex (or whatever else).

For example, if you're wearing tight leggings that sit so tight that you literally can see the outlining of that person's underwear, I think that you should then accept that people may look at... well your butt. If you don't like being looked at, why would you wear this then? It's not like you can't see this at home or in the fitting room when you're buying that article of clothing. The same could be said about such situations on a person's torso (read: breasts or noticable abs).

Yeah, that's right. I'm tackling the male side of this issue too. I think such situations could very well also apply to men, to some extent. And before you might think that I'm one of those guys that just wants to justify his obsession with staring at women's breasts 24/7 on the clock, that's not (entirely) the case.

While I do think people shouldn't be too surprised or shocked if people look at them if they wear something risque, **I do certainly think that it's still very rude to droolingly keep staring at someone's highlighted features while they're walking past**. I think (4th time I said this so far) that looking at someone's highlighted features should be done discreetly and at a glance. I also think that it's disrespectful to look at such noticeable features if the person in question is either a parent; married or pregnant.

Last point I'd want to bring up, I think that sometimes people (myself included) don't look at a person with significantly highlighted features (read: extraordinary large breasts/buttocks or incredibly ripped abs) to objectify that person or for sexual reasons. Sometimes it could spark up a conversation (if you're with someone else) or a thought to think about, like for example what life must be with a nice six-pack or how awful the back pain must be for people with large breasts.

*tl;dr (for the lazy people): You know what you're wearing and you should be able to accept the fact that certain things could get noticable depending on what you're wearing. Looking at such features should be done discreetly as possible, though.*

**Sidenote: I really hope I don't upset a huge amount of you guys. I wanted to post this opinion a while ago, but I was too busy trying my ass to actually graduate. Luckily, I did. Like I said up top, I have no idea how popular this viewpoint is, I might be the only one that thinks this way.**

[Assistant]
Looking at people is certainly not a problem. Nobody complains about getting looked at out in public, that's one of the risks you take when leaving your house. The problem starts when you start staring at people instead of just looking and then continuing your buisness - staring is generally considered rude and creepy.

Also, you should be careful with statements like "they wear X so obviously they want Y". Maybe they want to look good for their friends, or maybe they want to think of themselves as good looking, or maybe the clothing is comfortable, or maybe everything else is unusable. You have no idea why they wear what they wear, it's none of your business, and their clothing doesn't gives you any special rights when interacting with them.


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

[User]
How can a double bonded oxygen to a carbon form additional polar contact to water molecules?

I'm looking at the polar contact shared between a phenol oxygen of an aromatic ring and a double bonded oxygen to carbon of a carbonyl carbon.

Both of these oxygen's are forming polar contacts to water within the protein of interest and I'm confused as how a double bonded oxygen which can only have two bonds form this polar contact of water with it's oxygen?

[Assistant] The interactions with water are not additional covalent bonds, they are Intermolecular Forces. Dipole-dipole and H-bonding are attractive forces between two separate molecules (or two parts of the same, large molecule) but they aren't the same as covalent bonds so it's not like Oxygen is breaking the octet rule or anything.


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

[User] ELI5 Landfills are becoming large concentrations of materials like plastic, aluminum and other. What part of the process of mining landfills and processing the materials for new products, makes mining raw materials from the earth and processing them cheaper?

[Assistant]
Mining engineer here. The reason it is cheaper to mine directly from the Earth is because sorting Mineral X from a bunch of rock is a fairly straightforward process. Rock has a set of properties and Mineral X has completely different  set of properties. So you can use the differences to extract what you want. For example, magnets and density separation could remove iron from rock.

If you were to mine from a landfill, you would have to sort out countless different types of material. All these materials act differently, so you would have to individually process for each type of material. It is possible, but there would be so much contamination and the process would be very expensive.

In the future, landfills will be mines, but right now it's too expensive.


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

[User]
ELI5 if spider silk is multitudes the strength of steel, why isn't spider silk farmed to any degree?

If it is so much stronger, why hasn't it been farmed in any significant way? Surely we can see the benefits of it over steel. It's bio renewable, non invasive and requires very little upkeep for the silk.

[Assistant]
The tensile strength of spider silk is greater than that of steel, but there are other aspects of materials that matter too, such as rigidity, heat and cold resistance, resistance to abrasives and chemicals, etc.

Besides, do you want to run a farm with thousands of spiders?


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

[User] Eli5: On survive shows like Man vs Wild, Survivorman, etc., why can't the people just eat grass or leaves? It's not poisonous, would provide them with some nutrients, and could save their lives if the situation were real.

[Assistant]
This is an important question. Many animals can digest foods that we people can't use at all. If we ate the grass on our lawn, it wouldn't do us much good - we would slowly starve if that were all we had to eat. Grass and other plants have plenty of the chemicals that we need to live and grow, but our digestive tracts can't digest them and so we can't use those nutrients. But an animal like a cow will eat grass or hay and little else and do just fine. What's the difference between us and the cow? The answer is in those extra "stomachs" and what lives there.

The biggest part of the cow's stomach is called the "rumen" and it contains billions and billions of friendly germs. These germs are microorganisms that we can see only with a microscope. These germs - there are many different types in the rumen - are not harmful, in fact, they are badly needed by the cow so that it can use the nutrients in grass and other plants. The nutrients in grass are in the form of complicated big molecules that must be broken down into smaller pieces that can then be used by the cow's digestive tract and so used by the cow for growth of the body and to maintain life. The germs can do that job of breaking down those plant molecules, and that is why they are so important. So cows can live on grass and we can't - and it's all because of those extra "stomachs" and their friendly germs!


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

[User]
Why can icicles drip when its below freezing?

In the upper Midwest right now and the temperature has been in the mid-20s for a few days, but all of the icicles around my house are dripping. Is this truly melting, or is it something else? Thanks!

[Assistant]
The air temperature may be 0 degrees Celsius, but the sunlight, for example, could be heating the ice well beyond the air temperature.

Think of it like hot asphalt in the summer, which, because of the build up of heat from sunlight, gets much hotter than the air temperature.


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

[User] Is their a math question that should make sense on paper but is actually impossible?

[Assistant]
* Finding analytic solutions to polynomial equations of order greater than 4.
* Squaring the circle - constructing a square using only straight-edge and compasses that has the same area as a given circle.
* Trisecting an angle - constructing an angle using only straight-edge and compasses that is one-third the size of a given angle.


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

[User] ELI5: How are Blu-ray versions to old movies made?

[Assistant]
Until *very* recently like minutes ago, in the grand scheme of things  movies were shot on film. This produces a set of camera negatives. The negatives are printed, then the prints are edited, then once the edit is locked, the same edits are applied to the original camera negative. The cut negative is then printed repeatedly to make the release prints.

It's no problem to go back to the original cut camera negative (or a first-generation interpositive) and scan it to videotape in high definition, a process called "telecine." (From "television" and "cinema," obviously.)

In fact, it's become well, not *commonplace,* but not unheard of, to scan the negative not to videotape, but rather to computer files at resolution significantly higher than videotape. From there you can do exactly the same kind of digital-intermediate post workflow you'd do if the film had been shot yesterday.


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

[User]
[SW] Why doesn't a Jedi just use the Force against Grievous?

Does he have some sort of anti-Force technology? Do they just never think to?

[Assistant]
Crushing things with the Force takes time and concentration for most Jedi, and Grievous is so fast that they rarely get the opportunity to do it. The one time that a Jedi got a chance to utilize a telekinetic crushing maneuver on him, it **did** work: Mace Windu caused severe damage to his human lungs, which is why Grievous coughs all the time.

What Jedi *can* do without much concentration is a simple Push or Pull maneuver on a target's entire body at once, but the soles of Grievous' metal feet are magnetically locked to the ground, so that doesn't work very well.


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

[User]
ELI5: What happens in our brains when we realize we've driven miles/minutes and don't even remember consciously driving them?

Side note- doesn't this happen in dreams? You go places and can't remember how you got there...is there a relation?

[Assistant] This happens when your subconscious mind starts handling processes that you normally control consciously. Normally, you're paying attention to the road and staying alert. When you're an experienced driver, you can pass the task of staying between the lines to your subconscious, and stop being alert for hazards. Because you're performing subconsciously, your mind doesn't bother to record these times to memory, so you won't remember more than a hazy idea of driving those minutes/miles. When something snaps you out of the subconscious routine, you realize you haven't been alert for hazards, which is a decidedly unsettling feeling.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] What do we know about the Knights of Ren?

Are they all force users? Are any besides Kylo alive?

[Assistant]
**From the Star Wars: The Force Awakens: The Visual Dictionary**

The Knights of Ren operated in the decades following the Galactic Civil War. They were under the command of Supreme Leader Snoke, who used them as a tool of the dark side of the Force alongside the First Order. Rey, a Force-sensitive scavenger who hailed from Jakku, saw the Knights of Ren in a vision.


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

[User] [Game of Thrones] In what world is it reasonable to deprive your military force of testosterone? Why should I buy an army of eunuchs even if they are "disciplined" if none of them can be stronger than a woman?

[Assistant]
What decides medieval battles, 95% of the time, is which army breaks first.  If a single soldier loses morale, and figures that's there's no way he's going to survive a battle, he might break rank and run.  If another soldier sees him run, he's more likely to run as well.  It starts a ripple effect until the entire army is in retreat.  And soldiers are so much easier to kill when they're running away.

Unsullied have no fear of death or pain.  They have no families to protect, and have no emotion to speak of.  Any unsullied would fall on his own sword if if master told him to.  They have perfect discipline, and that's what makes them such effective soldiers.  Testosterone is a small price to pay for that.


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

[User]
ELI5 the difference between colonialism and imperialism

 And why is colonialism painted as much darker? Isn't imperialism just colonialism within the same continent?

[Assistant]
**Imperialism** is one nation taking over another nation's land or territory and establishing political and/or economic control over that land and its native population.

**Colonialism** is one nation taking over another nation's land or territory, establishing political and/or economic control over that land, moving *their own* population into that land, and usually eradicating or forcing out the native populations.

The prime difference is between *just* exercising political & economic control of a conquered land (imperialism) vs actually displacing -- in part or in full -- the native population of the land with the conquering nation's own population (colonialism).

What the British colonists and later the United States did to the native populations of North America was colonialism, because they forced the native populations off their land and slaughtered (or otherwise caused the death) of the majority of indigenous peoples on the continent.

What the British empire did to the Indian subcontinent was (for the most part) imperialism. They exerted political and economic control over the populations of that continent, but (for the most part) they did not displace those populations and ship in a bunch of British people to settle the lands that had belonged to displaced populations.

There's a lot of "for the most part" caveats in that, because when something flips from imperialism to colonialism is a big grey area.


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

[User] ELI5: What is the science behind the feeling of butterflies in your stomach?

[Assistant] It's caused by a reduction of blood flow to the stomach. This is a result of the release of adrenaline (when going into the fight or flight response) which causes increased heart rate and blood pressure, consequently sending more blood to the muscles.


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

[User]
[Battletech]Why do we still keep centuries-old Battlemechs?

It's not like we lost the technical know-how to build new ones and that battlemechs are rare. Heck, even Periphery pirates can field Heavy battlemechs like no tomorrow. So why do the nobility treat Battlemechs as heirlooms and such?

[Assistant]
In 3025, Battlemech production is extremely low. The Inner Sphere was just recovering from 250 years of extremely brutal war. The technology and industrial base was extremely battered. Most scientific knowledge has been lost. New Jumpships can't be built. Battlemech production is extremely low. House Davion's newest model is a mech with an axe. Some planets can barely maintain tractors let alone 'Mechs.

The people that have maintained technology throughout the war are not sharing it with anyone, as it is their main advantage.


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

[User] How long would it take Batman to catch Jason Bourne?

[Assistant]
It depends on how old Jason Bourne is at the time. If Bourne is still active in the field then Batman might never be able to find him- they don't call David Webb the *Chameleon* for nothing. He can change his appearance on a whim, speaks many dialects of quite a few different languages, and has a bunch of resources to draw on.

Once he's settled down he would be much easier to find, especially if Batman found his real name. It's a lot easier to find a college professor with a wife and kids than an active field agent.


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

[User] ELI5: If bacteria and fungus make us sick by producing toxins, then why aren't anti-toxins more commonly used to treat/prevent bacterial and fungal infections?

[Assistant] If you remove the toxin but leave the bacteria, it will continue creating more toxins. Also, toxins will leave your body automatically, so there's not much need to treat it directly except in cases where the toxin might cause organ damage if untreated.


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

[User] After light slows traveling through a medium, does it accelerate back to c upon reentering a vacuum or does it remain the same velocity as it was the moment it exited the medium?

[Assistant]
The idea of "the speed of light in a medium" is really just a helpful trick for simplifying a more complex phenomenon.

What's really going on is that the incident wave, as it propagates through a material, causes charges in the material to oscillate and in turn radiate EM 'wavelets'. The combined effect of these 'wavelets' is a wave with the same frequency as the incident wave, but out of phase with it. It's important to understand that these waves still propagate at c, however the light we observe is the sum of these waves. In transparent materials, the resulting wave has the same frequency, but a shorter wavelength, resulting in a wave transmitting slower than the oscillations in the field propagate.

In a vacuum, there are no such interfering 'wavelets', and therefore no apparent slowing.


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

[User] I heard a snippet on NPR that we are pumping so much water out of the Ogallala Aquifer that it is effecting the earths gravitational field. Can someone please explain this too me? How is it changing, why is it changing, etc.

[Assistant] Gravity is a function of mass. Any movement of mass affects earth's gravitational field. If you move a shoe from one room to another, you affect the gravitational field. This is just the sort of 'framing' people use to generate anxiety or fear about specific causes.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does "I'm not a robot" - captcha work?

Would not be a script able to just check the box?

[Assistant] Those checkboxes are doing more that just observing when you click the box. If it was a script doing so, it would have happened immediately after the page finished loading. So the captcha is watching how long it takes for the box to be checked. Its also watching cursor movements. If the cursor makes a laser straight line or "snaps" to the checkbox control it knows its a script as well. Its looking for an uneven (by computer standards) shakey human looking mouse movement.


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

[User] [Star Wars] If Mandalorians never take off their helmets, do they have any sense of facial/oral hygiene?

[Assistant] I imagine there's a parallel between the mandalorian armor restrictions and cultural/religious wardrobe mandates; you never let anyone take your helmet, and you don't walk around with it off, but taking it off in proper circumstances is accepted.


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

[User]
[Subnautica] Why are there no tides or currents?

The ocean of Subnautica is weirdly stationary.  On Earth, tides were caused by carrying gravity from the Earth, Sun, and Moon, and currents are caused by varying ocean temperatures. The planet of Subnautica has moons and a star, and the ocean has a variety of temperatures, so why are there no tides or currents?

[Assistant]
The current thing might be explained given that this section of the ocean is basically inside a giant crater which insulates it from the rest of the planet. This might inhibit or break up an currents that would otherwise flow through the island.

As for the tides, yes, the tides should be huge given two close moons, but there aren't. We do know, however, that the planet is under a strict quarantine which is enforced by some advanced tech. It's possible this tech inhibits the tides (either locally or globally) as a way of keeping things... contained inside the crater.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] I'm a Star Destroyer captain that wants to desert to the rebellion, what do I do?

I've grown tired of the atrocities the Empire does and I want to help out the rebellion with this kick-ass Star Destroyer.

I have most of the officers on my side and about half of the crew.

Can I make it?

[Assistant]
What you want to do is:

 Get a small group of like minded senior officers

 Kill the political officer and make it look like an accident

 Fake a reactor accident and get the rest of the crew to abandon ship

 Fake the destruction of the star destroyer

 Take the Star Destroyer to the rebellion

Bonus points if, at some point, the crew sings the imperial anthem

More bonus points if a Rebel intelligence officer tracks you down and helps achieve your goal to defect.


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

[User]
ELI5: What is the biological purpose of crying when youre sad?

Is there a purpose?

[Assistant] Aside from the answer given the other "biological" (I deem this as why evolution made it that way) is because it expresses sadness without any form of language. Like all of our muscles that allow us to make facial expressions tears help convey emtoions, which is incredibly useful for our species which has evolved with social ability in mind.


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

[User] ELI5:Are there modern day artists like Da Vinci or Michaelangelo who are masters in many different art forms? And if not, why?

[Assistant] Yep. There are just so many of them that they don't enjoy the celebrity status that some historical artists did. Plus, access to supplies and information is 1000+ times more common than in the Renaissance or Baroque.


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

[User]
CMV: "Right-Wing" politics are basically a justification for selfishness.

According to Wikipedia:

> Right-wing politics hold that certain social orders and hierarchies are inevitable, natural, normal or desirable,[1][2][3] typically supporting this position on the basis of natural law, economics or tradition.

For the purposes of this discussion, that is the definition I will use, and want to be convinced is anything but selfishness that is afraid to admit to being so. If you have a different definition of "right-wing", then feel free to comment but I probably won't reply because that would be a different discussion.

My reasoning follows thus: Lets assume there is some natural law that says that hierarchies arise naturally in complicated systems - I actually believe that is true. Let's also assume, at first, that you are the type of right-winger who *doesn't* see these hierarchies as a good thing. As conscious beings, we have the choice to counteract the negative effects of these hierarchies while acknowledging their existence, or even inevitability. I think disease and medicine are a perfect analogy. Everybody will inevitably die of some disease whether by infection by external organism or by the natural degradation of our own body. But as a society, we have decided that in the process of dying, we should mitigate the negative effects of disease and aging to the best of our ability. We have committed enormous effort into the field of medicine. Similarly perfect egalitarianism will never be achieved in any stable way, but assuming again that you *don't* believe these hierarchies are good, why other than for purely selfish reasons would you invoke "natural law" to defend them to defend socioeconomic systems that keep people oppressed, sick, hungry and uneducated when we could easily eradicate these social ills? You may as well say that studying medicine is pointless because everybody will die anyway.

Now, onto those who *do* see these hierarchies as a good thing. Unless you are at the bottom of these hierarchies and have little chance of traversing up them, you are benefiting from them. To defend them, except from the very bottom, is for purely selfish reasons.

EDIT: I'll have to log off for a bit, but I'll try to get to everybody's top level responses later.

[Assistant]
Right wing individuals don't see economic inequality as a major issue. Why is it a problem if someone has more money than you? We care more about the overall prosperity and think the cost of economic equality is too high.

We are strong supporters of supply side economics. We want to make it so that businesses can succeed, so that it can create more jobs, increasing the demand for workers. We also want to foster an environment where multiple businesses can succeed and then compete with each other. When businesses compete with each other for customers, the prices of goods drops and new products are invented. When businesses compete with each other over employees, wages increase. We see redistributionist policies as dangerous to the success of businesses and thus dangerous to everybody buying from or working for american companies because they stunt the ability for new businesses to arise and for businesses to create new products or create more cheaper ways to produce products. People get rich by spending money, creating jobs and new technologies that benefit everyone.(Increasing the size of the pie) They don't get rich by doing nothing with their money.

Right-Wingers also donate more than those on the left.


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

[User] [Pokemon] How come we dont see other inventions which use pokeball technology? Direct matter to energy & energy to matter conversion is incredibly advanced technology, but its seemingly only used to store pocket monsters.

[Assistant] Theres teleporting in some gyms, and in at least one reason there are highly advanced cities that can somehow sustain themselves on solar power, indicating that the Pokmon world has somehow managed to attain a ridiculous level of efficiency in energy conversion.


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

[User]
[Who Framed Roger Rabbit] Why is patty cake the toon equivalent of sex?

What is the significance of Patty Cake as a sexual act between toons and apparently humans.

[Assistant] Because the toons you see there are G and PG rated and they are a product of their environment, the R rated toons have more conventional sex but most of them live in Japan so aren't seen much in toon town.


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

[User]
ELI5: the pit in the stomach, the physical sensation you get when something bad happens.

What exactly is this?  When you hear really bad news or see something terrible you get a physically uncomfortable feeling in your gut.  For instance my ex-wife is a drug addict and she called me the other day, as soon as I heard her slurring speech I got this physical drop in my stomach.  What is this, how is it useful, and how does it work?

[Assistant]
When dealing with an unpleasant situation, your brain releases adrenaline. This is to prepare you to either confront a problem, or run from it. This happens very fast, and is the 'rush' sensation you feel when you trip or something similar.

The feeling in your stomach is one of the effects of this system: reduces the activity of your digestive system, in order to increase blood flow to the areas vital for immediate survival.

The part of your brain that triggers this can't actually observe reality itself, so it has to interpret it through other parts of your brain. Ultimately, it can't distinguish emotional pain from physical pain, and responds as if they were all real.


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

[User] [Star Trek: Voyager] We know they had a backup for the EMH program which means he could be copied so why did they bother with transferring him back and forth from the mobile emitter instead of just running an extra copy. Wouldn't two doctors be better than one and reduce the risk if they lost one?

[Assistant] He's an executable program, not merely an inert data file. While plenty such programs are standalone and can be easily copies, many need to be installed in a specific way to work. It's possible that Voy grew lacked the ability to install additional instances of the Doctor.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do we know what colors are visible to other animals and why are the visual spectrums so diverse?

I have heard the old addage that dogs are colorblind, but what do people really mean when they say that? Because of science we know that dogs have a very limited visual range, yet butterflies can see more colors, and don't even get started on Mantis shrimp.  As if they were not already the most badass creature on earth, they get to have godlike perception as well?

I know there must be a sciency way that people have used to figure out the visual perception of creatures... But for the life of me it does not make sense in my head.  As humans we can use our imagination, technology and bad CGI to see the world as some of these creatures do... But how did we find out what they can see to begin with?  I am especially interested in how we know what dogs see, and how the heck that was figured out... But I would also like to hear about other creatures eyesight capabilities and limitations and how we as humans came to those conclusions.

[Assistant]
We can know because vision works in a similar way in all animals (including humans).

For humans, our eyes, have two kinds of vision cells. One kind is called 'cone cells'.  Cone cells are in charge of detecting colour. Cones themselves are further divided into three types depending on what wavelength (colour) of light they absorb. One type absorbs red, one absorbs blue, and one green. (Technically all three absorb all colours, but peak in red, blue, and green). Every other colour we see comes from these three colours. Our eyes and brain work together to process and create the remaining colours. Since we have three colours we detect, humans are called trichromatic.

Dogs are dichromatic. Which means they do not have three different types of cones. They only have two. They have vision equivalent to red-green colour blindness in humans. This means for them red and green look the same. In general, most mammals are dichromats.

Cool fact: Some humans (mostly women) have four different types of cones which means they can distinguish and see colours normal humans can't.


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

[User]
ELI5: what is actually happening when paper becomes fragile when it gets wet?

Ok, this is one from my literal (almost) 5 year old. We all know that paper gets fragile and tears easily when it's wet... but why? What is the water actually changing in the paper to make it so fragile?

[Assistant]
Paper is made up of two main parts (as far as this is concerned).  You have the long fibers, and glue.  "Glue" in this case is other substances such as starches or proteins.

When paper gets wet, the glue loosens, and stops holding the long fibers against each other, allowing them to slide apart.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do some 'Antidepressants' increase the risk of suicide?

Surely they're meant to make you feel better? Why does this cause an increased risk of taking your life?

[Assistant]
Understand that depression comes with both mental and physical symptoms.

Not only are depressed people not motivated mentally but physical also.

It takes at least two weeks for anti depressants to kick in before you see mental results.

However, the effects on the body happen quicker than the effects on the mind.

So for a short period you have someone who is still mentally depressed but physically not.

It is during this particular time period that the risk of suicide is highest.

Once the mental effects catch up, the risk ~~disappears~~ diminishes.


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

[User]
CMV: Government spending should be referred to as money spent per person living in the country, not the absolute amount.

Lets take the latest US infrastructure bill as an example: 1 trillion dollars spent. That is an amount I can't really grasp. However if you were to divide it by the US population (330 million) it would come out to be $3030 spent per person living in the country. That's an amount I can actually relate to.

This could also be done state level i.e. state spending divided by state population.

Of course the amount wouldn't be exactly what you pay for it (in taxes) as thats obviously dependent on your income etc. but as a ballpark estimate it would still be way more relatable than the absolute amount.

Another reason against it would be that the US also taxes citizens living abroad which are therefore also paying for the spending but they won't be included when dividing by the population. However that would still be a small amount. And also this is specific to the US as other countries generally don't do that.

[Assistant] The idea seems good on its own, but how would you mandate it? News agencies often change the way they present numbers depending on whether they want to make it seem big or not, wouldn't they also choose whether to use this method or not based on what they want to make you think?


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do glass bottles have to be recycled?

Why cant companies just sanitize and refill them?

[Assistant] Some do - beer bottles for instance are reused that way.  But there are a lot of those.  For the most part, there are small numbers of a lot of different bottles scattered across the country, and collecting, sorting, and then returning those to the specific places that use them is not economically viable.  Easier and cheaper to melt them down and make new stuff.


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

[User] ELI5: What is "Economics of Scale" ?

[Assistant]
Say that you want to make a chair from scratch. You would need to buy tools such as a saw and enough wood and glue etc to build that one chair.

Now imagine instead that you wanted to build 100 chairs. You only need one saw and chances are that the lumber yard will give you a break on the price of the wood because you are placing a big order. Same for the glue and other materials you might need.

Divide the cost of building 100 chairs by 100 and the answer is less than the price of the first example where only one chair was built.

The idea that it is cheaper to build or make a whole bunch of things is called "Economy of scale" because Economy means "cost" or "money" and scale means "how big" or "how many".


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

[User] [Doctor Strange] Why was Dr. Strange allowed to keep the eye of Agamotto after he was caught using it recklessly? From that point on in the film he never returns it to its place in the hall in Kamar-Taj. Wouldnt possession of the eye fall to the sorcerer supreme if anyone? Not even she carries it.

[Assistant]
The Ancient One put all her chips on Strange. She'd been waiting for him for years - she was fully aware of him and his activities at least as early as the first *Avengers* - and everything she did, like making him sit outside for a few hours before offering to teach him, was designed to groom him as her replacement.

The Ancient One was also smart enough to know what she didn't know. She trusted her instincts that Strange would be "the best of them," and if he decided that he needed the Eye, that was good enough for her. The rest of the Masters simply followed her lead.

Also, the Ancient One *did* carry the Eye when necessary; we see that when Professor Hulk visits her in *Endgame*. Being ready to use the Eye in the face of world-ending catastrophe is common practice, and Dormammu breaking into this reality certainly qualifies.


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

[User] [Star Wars] If there hasn't been a Sith for a millennium then why would Dooku specialize in Makashi?

[Assistant]
At first it was because it suited his personality; lots of Jedi find a style that just clicks with them, and even though they study the others it becomes their go-to method. It's graceful and elegant form, rewarding tactics and maneuver over raw power, which was right up his alley.

And when he hooked up with the future Emperor, his potential target list went from zero Sith to every Jedi in the Republic. Suddenly a lightsaber form specialized in blade on blade combat with little emphasis on lightsaber defense was very useful.


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

[User]
Why do most animals on earth live roughly the same time frame?

Most animals survive between like 5 years and 100 years. I know some outliers like turtles end up living to like 150 but whats stopping things from living to 1000, 10000?

Im guessing theres some smaller beings or 1/not-very-many celled organisms that last a long time but Im not aware of anything thats not microscopic that lasts ages. How come?

[Assistant] There is an evolutionary downside to living a very long time. Climate and habitats can change pretty drastically and if you evolved to live in one, the new version may not suit you well. It helps the species to be able to evolve quickly enough to continue. If a species is over populated by 1,000 year old individuals who haven't changed their DNA over generations then they can't generically respond to the new habitat's needs. You have to pump out babies that are changing over generations in order for the species to survive by adapting over time.


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

[User] [Fallou] I'm the Overseer of a Vault, the time to leave the vault has come, but the door mechanism broke. What can we do? Is there a "Plan B"?

[Assistant]
Overseer, it is now time for you to open the envelope labeled "Opening Day" in your Vaul-Tec Model 301 Super-Secure Atomic Safe.

Congratulations, you have been selected for the Vaul-Tec 9000 "Authority Survival Simulation OD-301". Over the last week, the rations issued to 15% your population have been laced with the aggression hormone supplement Might-O. 24 hours after you receive your all-clear message, all terminals, public announce systems, and Vaul-Tec PipBoys in your Vault will begin displaying a message stating that the door to your Vault has been sealed by your direct order. The experiment will conclude and the vault door will open under one of the following conditions:

1) The Overseer is deposed and slain

2) The Overseer can maintain order in the population for 28 days

3) The Overseer can survive for 56 days despite open rebellion

As part of this experiment, you are provided with an Alaska Armories 2000 Personal Laser Weapon, along with 60 energy cells. 14 days into the experiment, weapons lockers across the vault (many of them hidden) will open, allowing your population to arm themselves.

Thank you for your participation in this experiment!


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

[User] ELI5: Why do muscles shake when tired? Doesnt that take even more energy?

[Assistant]
The basic mechanism that causes muscles to contract is very similar to a person reaching out their hand, grabbing on to a rope, then hauling on that rope.

If you want to picture how a muscle contracts, imagine a bunch of boats lined up front-to-end in a lake, with a group of people in the front and back of each boat, and each boat connected to the one before (and after it) with a rope. The ropes aren't tied to anything, the people in the boats are holding on to them like they were going to play tug-of-war. (the people in the front of one boat are paired up with the people in the back of the one ahead, and so on)

Suddenly someone gives an order, everyone pulls smoothly (nobody screws around and plays actual tug-of-war, they're cooperating) and the whole line of boats gets shorter - no one boat has enough rope to make a big difference, but if you have 10 boats with 20 feet of rope between each, and they all pull, the first and last boat will end up 180 feet closer together. If nobody screws up.

Now, imagine that everyone is tired after doing this for a very long time, and someone asks them to do it again. Some people are distracted and miss the orders, others are so tired their grip slips and they barely manage to grab the rope again, in one of the boats someone starts throwing up, etc., and they just barely manage to pull the boats together, but it's really slow and sloppy and uneven. That's the "shaking."


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

[User] [The boys] What was Soldier Boy's shield made of?

[Assistant]
We don't have a definitive answer (military secrets and all that) however, I'd guess inconel (or another similar nickel superalloy).  It's very heavy, incredibly strong and with outstanding resistance to repeated thermal cycling (say from a user with a habit of setting off routine massive explosions).  Unlike depleted uranium it's also very tough and not especially toxic even when aerosolized (from high energy impacts).

It also would have been potentially easier to procure during WW2 (although both would have been available).


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

[User]
[Doctor Strange in the multiverse of madness] Does the MCU take place in a diffrent multiverse?

The majority if not all of Marvel projects take place in the same multiverse, some of the animated series even have official designations, the MCU included, it being Earth-199999. But now it's being refered to as Earth-616, which is the name of the mainline comic universe.

First, it was refered with that number by Mysterio in Far From Home, but fine, Mysterio wasnt actually from a different universe, and it was probably some bs he came up with. But now, in Multiverse of Madness, Christine Palmer of Earth-838 refers to the MCU as Earth-616.

There's also the fact that Amrica Chavez says she is the only one of herself in the Multiverse, due to never dreaming, since dreams are windows to other universe.

So has is the MCU still a part of the same multiverse as the comics, or is it from a different one in it's entirely?

[Assistant]
It seems likely that it is a different multiverse, yes- the existence of different multiverses is canon in the Marvel Universe, and it seems fundamental cosmic things like the Dark Dimension, the Cosmic Entities, Asgard, the Infinity Gems, the laws of multiversal travel and so forth are all different as well as more "small scale" changes.

If we want to speculate, it might be a "meta multiverse"- just as a multiverse contains countless different versions of one universe, perhaps there's a higher structure containing countless different versions of the one multiverse. Earth-616-B in multiverse-b. Or maybe it's just a freakishly similar multiverse. Either way, yeah, it's pretty definitively a different multiverse now.


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

[User]
ELI5: What is going on with SoureForge?

I've been seeing lots of articles about how everyone is jumping ship from SourceForge. What did they do to make their user-base turn on them?

[Assistant]
They hijacked a whole bunch of their users projects and forced malware to be bundled with their installers.

And Slashdot is owned by the same parent company, and they suppressed this information there, while all other news outlets have been commenting on it for a week, so now the /. community is jumping ship over censorship.


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

[User]
What language do the deaf and blind think in? What about deafblind people?

I'm interested to know what they would think in. I have no prior knowledge.

[Assistant] Deaf people, if they were deaf from birth and raised speaking a sign language, think in their native sign language much like you think in your native spoken language. Hearing blind people obvious have no issue acquiring or using spoken language.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do bags form under our eyes when we don't get enough sleep?

[Assistant] It's because of gravity. When you're awake for a long time you're almost entirely in an upright position so gravity continuously pushes the retained fluids downward and it creates the bags. When you lay down facing up the fluid is then pushed into your body and travels to the air cavities where the body will do what it needs to with it. If you sleep brilliantly for a long time but on your stomach or on your side the bags don't go away bc gravity again is pushing them. Hence, it's recommended you sleep on your back and with your head propped up (also bc to keep composure of your cervical spine)