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

[User]
[Family Matters] How did Steve Urkel end up as a super genius?

This kid came on the scene as just a clumsy kid with good grades and accusations of eating a mouse. Then he built a jetpack and a robot version of himself. These events were only a year apart. What happened?

[Assistant] Laura happened. Once Steve Urkel had a goal, to impress the girl he loved, he dedicated himself even more than before towards his studies, and began making more and more outrageous devices in the hopes of getting her love.


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

[User] ELI5: How can my fancy new dishwashers "ECO" mode last 5 hours? How is that good for the environment?

[Assistant]
It takes very little energy to run the pump in the dishwasher.

It takes a lot more energy to run the heater.

When in eco mode, the washer isnt running the heater, and only uses one small volume of water to wash and a small volume to rinse.  It just uses it for longer.

When in regular mode, its preheating the water and not reusing it, so it wastes electricity and water.


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

[User] Is there less oxygen in the atmosphere during the winter when there are no leaves on the trees?

[Assistant]
In the area of those trees, yes, but a negligible amount to humans.

Obviously photosynthesis can't go on without the leaves with the abilities to undergo it (though some parts on the stems will still undergo photosynthesis). Therefore most trees don't undergo photosynthesis in the winter, instead deciding to store up sugar to use for energy until winter ends.

However, it will never become an issue for us because of the vast amount of photoplankton producing oxygen through photosynthesis. This is the plankton's main way of producing ATP for themselves, so they don't stop doing it in the winter, although the amount of sunlight affects them in small amounts also. Photoplankton are actually our largest source of atmospheric oxygen.

Not to mention the fact that winter doesn't even occur in parts of the world, and that when some parts of the world have winter others have summer.


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

[User]
CMV: It does not matter if fetuses are human.

I was writing a long post establishing and clarifying my confusion and disdain with public discourse on abortion. It seems either my values are so warped they're completely distinct from most people's, or most people just haven't seriously considered the fact that murder is sometimes a net positive. I deleted it, probably for the better, and I'm going to state my position here in a more straightforward manner.

I do not care if fetuses are humans. It is entirely irrelevant to my position on abortion. I don't think most abortions kill things that could be considered human, but even if they did, it wouldn't matter. Classifying things as people does not make their deaths more tragic in and of themselves. It is very sad when adults die, but that is because their death is usually meaningful to them and to other humans, not because they are humans. When unborn babies without the capacity to feel pain are removed to the betterment of all who ever knew of their existence, it should be trivial to tell the difference between me walking into a woodchipper.

Assuming these month old conceived fetuses are babies, allowing women to kill their babies under this circumstance is good. Assuming they are not humans, allowing women to abort their pregnanices is good. Whatever the fuck you want to call it, it is the same action and it has the same consequences. Nobody suffers. These debates over whether or not a pack of cells is a member of our species is not in search of some objective characteristic that would make their death intrinsically worse, they're discussions of our own subjective interpretations of the definition of human. That definition and that social status has no bearing on the morality of our actions. Killing jewish people is not OK because your society did not choose to call them human beings. Conversely, killing fetuses is not somehow evil because you named them people and you think it means every death has the same weight of a murder of a live adult person.

Edit: It's three A.M. - heading to bed, will reply more in the morning.

[Assistant]
> It is very sad when adults die, but that is because their death is usually meaningful to them and to other humans, not because they are humans.

So, thus, it's not sad if a street orphan dies, who no one knows about, or an elderly person living alone with no family or friends?

>When unborn babies without the capacity to feel pain are removed to the betterment of all who ever knew of their existence, it should be trivial to tell the difference between me walking into a woodchipper.

Hmm, we could say the same about an elderly person on social security, living alone with no family or friends.


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

[User] ELI5: How come you can use a password, or a combination to a lock, every single day or even multiple times a day and then one day out of the blue you just forget it?

[Assistant] You've probably transitioned to muscle memory. You no longer consciously enter the pin or twist the combination lock to a specific number, you've just got a sense of the pattern to move your hand on the pin, or how long to turn the dial on the combination lock. Once you try to transition back to conscious memory, you realize that you've forgotten the information, since you've relied on muscle memory for so long.


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

[User] ELI5: What makes mathematics factual?

[Assistant]
The ELI5 answer is that math is more or less like a game. Mathematics is carried out by a predefined set of rules on a predefined set of objects. Because the game never changes, the allowable moves never change, and so the possible outcomes never change. Any situation in which the rules of the game are allowed is therefore subject to the outcomes mathematics applies to. So things like basic physics which work on just adding and multiplying numbers representing physical quantities are essentially universal because they are a situation in which you are playing the game, just using different words for the same things.

Sometimes, the rules of the game do change. This can happen because we find out the game is broken (as in e.g. the crisis of naive set theory), and sometimes it happens because we find out that some other games are also cool or useful, or less controversial. Not all mathematicians agree that we *should* be playing the game that we are, and so they play slightly different games, but this doesn't effect the main allowable moves of the game. The basic things like + and x are still the same, it's that there are some weird edge cases involving things like ungodly huge infinities and what you can and can't do with them that some people object to.


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

[User]
[MCU] Was Odin really half a million years old, or was Thor exaggerating?

Loki seemed to think the average Asgardian lifespan was 5000 years, and Odin didnt disagree with him on that.

[Assistant]
A Convergence happens every 5000 years. Odin's father, Bor, was around for the last one (2988 BC) when he fought the Dark Elves. Odin is never mentioned in stories that old. If he was even 16-20 at the time, Odin would have fought with his father. We also know that he has to look up the history of those battles because he wasn't there to give a first-hand account. Odin dies when he is about 5000 years old (give or take a few decades).

We also know that time does not pass differently on Asgard vs Earth based on Asgardian and Human travel between the two places, so it's not some dimensional issue.


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

[User]
How do I publish with a coauthor who isnt my PI?

I'm a 2nd year PhD student in a STEM discipline and I've found some interesting results in some experiments that I'd like to publish, not related to my thesis.

There's an author who publishes in this other area and I'd like them to be a co-author due to their expertise. My PI doesn't work in the area of this experiment at all, and it will likely be published in journals they don't publish in or have any experience with.

Should I tell my PI I want to work with this other author (assuming they are open to working with me), should I offer the PI co-author?

Maybe I'm overthinking this. I just don't want to upset my PI or break norms.

Edit: Someone seems to be downvoting every reply. I'm up voting them as soon as I become aware of them but know it is not me. Your advice is all very appreciated.

[Assistant] You need to talk to your PI. Sometimes what looks like a good idea may turn out not to be worth the shot after an analysis from a different perspective. Also, you need to have your PI involved in all of your research projects and decisions, as he may not like you spending valuable research time on topics not related to your main project.


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

[User]
[Inception] So if dying while heavily sedated sends you to Limbo, why don't they devise a way to get to sleep without 'heavy' sedation?

I know it sounds very Paris Hilton "why don't people just stop being poor"esque, but I really mean why don't they have a team on sedations methods, that allow you to wake up when things get too heavy so to speak.

[Assistant] The sedatives they used were tailored specifically to enable them to go through multiple layers of dreams and to buy them as much time as possible for an incredibly elaborate con. We can assume this is not standard practice with most jobs being only one layer deep, smash and grab work. They did not have a special team because the chemist had been bribed to stay quiet about the risks, and the others kept in the dark about that detail.


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

[User] ELI5 What makes trains so appealing to graffiti artists?

[Assistant] Cuz it's fun, and it will get noticed all across. The perfect blend of entertainment and anonymous fame. Tagging a train car means you weren't skulking in some alley, you were theoretically behind enemy lines.


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

[User]
[The Flash] If two speedsters hooked up, would their powers basically cancel each other out, or would they be able to use their powers to... 'uniquely' spice things up?

I can't decide if everything would seem like it was in real time, or if one or both of the speedsters could tap into the speedforce to get funky with their love-making.

[Assistant]
Speedsters can choose to move in normal time, or in their hyper-kinetic new reality.

So basically, it would be as hot as either/both chose to make it. Now that doesn't mean that Kid Flash can zoom up and bust on Wonder Woman and make her feel it.

It means that the ability to be faster on the receiving end is always a bonus.


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

[User] [ELI5] Why is Japan's shrinking population such a huge problem?

[Assistant] Like most developed countries, Japan has a social program that the younger workers pay into to assist the older, retired population. It may not be sustainable in its current form if the number of young workers paying into the system keeps shrinking while the number of aging, retiring individuals that are drawing benefits from the system increases.


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

[User] [Teen Titans]can Beast Boy turn into a Tamaran and get all StarFire's powers?

[Assistant]
He's capable of transforming into creatures that aren't from Earth, including both aliens and demons, but we don't know the full extent of his ability to replicate their functions. It's said that his ability to transform into terrestrial creatures is instinct-driven but his ability to transform into extraterrestrials is "harder" in some way, something that doesn't come naturally to him.

I lean towards thinking that he might have something resembling her powers, but maybe not full mastery. If he could completely replicate an alien's powers by taking their form, he could transform into a Kryptonian and be as powerful as Superman, which seems like it would be a catch-all victory for him.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do commercial airplanes have to fly at around 35,000ft? Why can't they just fly at 1,000ft or so and save time on going up so high?

[Assistant] Fuel economy is much better at high altitude, with lower density air.  Additionally, altitude allows for recreational flying, local flying (e.g. helicopters etc., balloons, etc.) to use lower altitudes safely assuming safe distance from airports).  It also keeps the visual pollution of the amount of airplanes in the sky such that we basically don't experience airplanes above us even though there are a TON of them.  At 1000 feet, people on flight paths would really notice!


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do mobile websites frequently have a "Read full article" button rather than simply showing the full article?

Often on mobile news sites, only the beginning of an article will be shown, followed by a "Read full article" button. Why is this so common?

[Assistant]
Its typical user engagement. It tells the website that you *really* want to read the article and its not just clicks and page views.

You are also more likely to read the full article after reading the first paragraph. You would immediately go: *hmmm... what happens next?* or *I would like to read more about this story.*


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

[User]
[Star Wars: TMP] How were Obi Wan and Qui Gon prepared to fight Maul?

Follow my reasoning here. In the movie it is mentioned that the Sith have been extinct for a millennia. So no Jedi has been in a real life or death lightsaber duel in that long.

Jedi do learn basic lightsaber techniques and they have many varieties of fighting styles. Which they do learn and practice. But these are only PRACTICE duels. Learning by dueling other light sided Jedi. But when you fight a Sith you are fighting a different animal all together. Sith fight using the full dark side, using aggression and dirty tricks.

Wouldn't it be like taking a person who learned boxing under The Marquess of Queensberry Rules and having them square off against someone who grew up learning back street fighting.

[Assistant]
> Wouldn't it be like taking a person who learned boxing under The Marquess of Queensberry Rules and having them square off against someone who grew up learning back street fighting.

Yes.  Which is why Maul was capable of holding his own against the two of them at the same time, and only lost to Obi-Wan when he got stupidly overconfident.


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

[User]
CMV: Developers shouldn't be allowed to clear cut lots to build homes

Since the late 90's in metro Atlanta, GA new subdivisions/neighborhoods are built by clearing 99% of all trees and grading the land. They also have tried to squeeze more and more homes on the smallest lots. This wasn't how home builders built subdivisions previously.

Yes they would have to remove some trees for the homes footprint, driveway, pool ect. But they would leave many of the old growth trees.

This has many benefits:

1. Privacy between homes and from the street, absorb noise and wind.
1. Provide shade on homes, reducing energy usage during summer. Also reducing heat island effect.
1. Increasing home value.
1. Prevent erosion and help from run off.
5. The land can still support wildlife such as deer, birds of prey, turkeys, rabbits, and foxes.
1. Trees also absorb carbon ~330 pounds of co2/per year, and other greenhouse gasses and toxic compounds.

Why developers remove trees:

1. It is cost effective and more efficient to build homes this way.
2. Many people find it annoying to rake/remove leaves in fall/winter.
3. People like large grass lawns.

Atlanta has been called "the city in the forest" for years but that is really changing. I'm a free market guy, and I don't want this to be about climate change. I personally feel that our forests and parks are a public good, we should have some regulation on developers about leaving/replanting native trees. It's their property and they should be able to do what they see fit with it, but it has externalities that need to be addressed in my opinion.

This goes against every economic bone in my body, but I think this is something that the positives of this outweigh the negatives of regulation.

CMV: Land developers should have to leave and/or replace trees on lots when building homes/commercial buildings when possible.

EDIT: Yes, I know that trees have to be removed for engineering purposes (roads, utilities, infrastructure)

[Assistant] If you generally favor free market, but the issue is an externality, then there's a simpler solution: rather than requiring that trees stay on the lots (which is a fixed prohibition); figure out what the actual value of the externality is, and make that a fee for removing trees from the lots (Separate from the actual cost of doing so), with the proceeds from that fee going to other efforts that support public good/deal with the externality issue (i dunno what, town tree planting programs or something, or park maintenance).   Then the free market can decide when it's still worth it to remove the trees or not.


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

[User]
Does air sink in water at the bottom of challenger deep?

Weird question, but I was reading that the water pressure that deep down is over 1000 times that at the surface level. So a bubble of air would be compressed to 100x the density, correct? Air is *roughly* 1.29g/L, while seawater is 1.04 **kg**/L. At that depth the density should make the air heavier than the water, and sink, correct?

[Assistant] 100\*1.29 \[g/L\]=129 \[g/L\]=0.129\[kg/L\]. Air would still be less dense than water there. The required pressure to make air the same density of water is 827 atm. However, air will probably dissolve into the water before reaching that pressure.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are wifi upload speeds so much lower than download speeds?

[Assistant]
It's probably not the wifi itself, but the Internet connection that the wifi base station uses to talk to the target machine. Many (most?) Internet connections are asymmetrical (larger download than upload) because for most users the download side is more heavily used than the upload side. You can get symmetric connections (I have one), but they may be hard to get in some areas, or more expensive, etc.

All most people upload is requests, form data, and maybe some small amounts of binary data, like pictures to an online album, etc. As such, the asymmetric connection is not really a problem for those users. If you're trying to run a web server out of your basement, then yes, the asymmetric connection is going to be an issue for you.


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

[User] How can a lightning bolt have a "rolling" thunder clap that lasts upwards of ten seconds?

[Assistant]
Imagine a bolt of lightning a mile long.  The lightning has heated up a huge cylinder of air a mile long to millions of degrees, and this air expands suddenly and then collapses back on itself, and this is what creates the thunder.

So imagine the lightning bolt a mile away, perpendicular to you.  You see it almost immediately but the sound reaches you a few seconds later in a huge boom / crash because the entire wave of sound rushing towards you hits you all at once (well not quite - imagine the lightning in a big semicircle around you and it will be 100% simultaneous).

Now imagine a bolt of lightning that starts one mile from you but runs a mile straight away from you, 2 miles away.  It's the same lightning bolt, makes the same amount of energy, but you will first start hearing the lightning 5 seconds after it strikes and it will keep rumbling for 5 seconds.  Somebody else who is miles away to the right or left might hear a huge crash instead if they happen to be perpendicular to the bolt.


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

[User]
CMV: A minimum wage increase would lessen the value of what a middle class worker makes

_____
I always hear about increasing the minium wage and how it helps the people who make minimum wage which would be great, but I also realize wouldn't that be hurting the middle class? I think this because with a minimum wage increase what would happen is inflation would raise the prices of common items, and while the increase in minimum wage helps the poor afford things, the middle class who make more than minimum wage don't get a pay increase but rather have to pay more for less. I understand minimum wage is used to help the lower class but wouldn't increasing it just make more of a burden on the middle class? Wouldn't it also make the middle class have less money and only increase the wealth gap between the middle and lower class?

[Assistant]
Two things. First, inflation is a largely monetary phenomenon -- a function of the *amount* of money available rather than its distribution -- so redistributing money to minimum wage workers from elsewhere shouldn't affect inflation very much at all. Second, less than 4% of American workers make minimum wage, so any effect on the macroeconomy, whatever effect there is, is going to be pretty tiny.

Really, what you'd expect to happen (discounting employment effects) would be a small, one-time bump in the prices of goods and services supplied largely by minimum-wage labour. The rate of inflation itself would be unchanged, and even if it were pushed one way or the other the central bank has a mandate to keep it around 2%.


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

[User] ELI5: Why would it be illegal to collect rain in barrels?

[Assistant]
"Rainwater harvesting is not illegal.  It was heavily restricted in Colorado, Washington and Utah until 2009, but all three states have since relaxed their bans.  In six or seven other states, rainwater harvesting is regulated -- you have to obtain a permit, which is in most cases is about making certain that your harvesting equipment doesn't contaminate groundwater -- but not illegal.  (You have to obtain permits to construct houses or drive automobiles, but that doesn't make people claim such activities are "illegal.")
The guy in Colorado who was jailed for 30 days in 2012 had been denied his permit, but went ahead and built three giant reservoirs anyway -- in other words, his real offence was defying the state regulatory agency.
Anyway.  The theory behind regulation of rainwater harvesting is simple: water falling from the sky is public property, not private property, and belongs in the water table where it can restore diminished streams and reservoirs.  Those who collect it privately are "hoarding" it.  Of course the opposite theory is: a person who uses rainwater first is consuming less public water.
The Internet, not being subject to any kind of screening or editing, is a great place to plant and spread misinformation for political purposes.  Re-read any of those "rainwater collecting is illegal" articles and you'll note the political spin, which is a first hint that the article is exaggerated."

Found this after a quick Google search.


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

[User]
Why do remote and isolated lakes have the same species of fauna as other less isolated lakes across the globe?

I would think that (like islands) these remote lakes with unique pressures would produce vastly different versions of fish and supporting animals.

[Assistant]
It would depend on your definition of remote. Some places that seem remote may not in fact be as remote as perceived, for instance bird movement to and from lakes can carry organisms, even fish and amphibian eggs so transfer of genetic material is still occurring. In truly isolated lakes and regions, evolution does often produce genetically divergent species (think cave lakes, the Galapagos Islands, lake Vostok etc) depending on the level of isolation and on the time the water body/ region has been isolated.
Also, populations may seem to be phenotypically the same as their cousins in other regions, (for instance, their outward appearance could be similar), but genetically they are divergent. And finally, if selective pressures are similar in the different regions, divergent evolution could proceed at a slower rate.

Roughly, divergence equals time of population isolation + rates of any genetic exchange if this occurs + selective pressures + genetic mutation rates + original population numbers (was there a bottleneck?) and a range of other factors.
Edit: spelling of lake Vostok.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do wealthy people manage finances?

How does investing work for someone who is in the 1%? What about the .0001%? I assume they have financial advisors taking care of this for them, but what techniques/institutions do people with tens of millions of dollars use that normal people don't? What does Jeff Bezos do with his cool 150 billion to make it grow (not that he needs to, obviously).

[Assistant] They hire accountants. Once you reach a certain level of wealth and income, unless you study accounting and financial management, you're not going to be able to take care of it, so you hire someone who can.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Harry Potter never discovers the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets and Tom Riddles diary regains a corporeal form. What is this version of Tom Riddles legal standing?

There would theoretically be a young Voldemort made from the life essence of Ginny and there would still be our Voldemort floating around in Albania. Does this new Tom Riddle, split from Voldemort from a young age, share all his memories, is he responsible for his older versions crimes, he certainly wouldnt be as experienced or as powerful, and would potentially be relatively easy to capture. What happens if he is arrested and appears before the Wizengamot? Furthermore if he Avada Kadavras his way to avading capture what happens? Which aspect of Voldemort is the real one?

Also I understand that we may not want to prosecute Tom for Voldemorts crimes but Tom did kill Ginny to regain his form. Is that a crime? Should children whose mothers die in childbirth be held accountable? I know a sentient diary is different than a child but I am looking for discussion, not judgement.

[Assistant] Tom Riddle's diary contains a soul fragment of Lord Voldemort, he is literally Lord Voldemort and would be treated just as Voldemort would be. The diary is aware of the crimes Voldemort committed, even after the soul was split, so there is no reason for him to be treated any differently.


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

[User] eli5: How can the police find the gun just by having the bullet that's been shot from it?

[Assistant] They can't "find" the gun, what they can do is test a gun and see if it makes the same marks on a new bullet as does the old bullet the marks or lands and grooves are created as the bullet moves down the barrel of the gun and are unique to each gun.


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

[User]
[Biology] Since air is only about 25% oxygen, does it really matter for humans what the rest of it is, as long as it's not toxic?

Pretty much, do humans need the remainder of the air we breathe to be nitrogen, or would any inert gas do? For example, astronauts on the ISS or Felix Baumgartner have to breathe artificial atmosphere comprised of the same gases we breathe on Earth, but could they still breathe a mixture of, for example, xenon and oxygen, or is there something special about having the nitrogen as a major ingredient?

EDIT: Quick note, although in the title, I said air is "about 25% oxygen", I've had a few people correcting me down below. I was aware that the figure was a little smaller than that, but thank you for the correction because the detail *is* important. The actual proportion is more like 21%.

P.S. I'm glad this was interesting enough to reach the front. Your comments are very informative! :)

[Assistant]
Helium-Oxygen is sometimes used in divers tubes, because it performs better at deep pressure ( ~~helium is less likely to form bubbles in your blood vessels when you resurface than nitrogen is~~ *EDIT:* So people tell me that it's actually because nitrogen is narcotic at high pressures).

Xenon cannot be used as it is not sufficiently inert. It may be a noble gas, but it can still influence your brain. It is in fact quite a powerful anaesthetic. It's what we would use to keep people asleep during surgery if it was not so damn expensive.

It is possible for human to "breathe" fluorocarbon liquids as they are sufficiently inert and carry enough oxygen. The problem is that human lungs generally cannot circulate the liquid very well, so you'd have to use a pump for it.


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

[User]
[Ocean's Eleven] How did Terry Benedict "torpedo" Reuben's casino?

I heard Reuben Tishkoff ranting that Terry Benedict "torpedoed my casino, muscled me out..."

What did Benedict do, exactly? I always thought that Tishkoff was a rock-solid businessman.

[Assistant] Generally, the "old school" Vegas natives operate on a notion of "gentleman's rules"; there are things you *can* do from a legal perspective, but which *simply aren't done* among the players of the game. By following these rules, everyone can get in, stay in, and get paid. Benedict chose to go more aggressive, applying leverage to the various regulatory boards to work things in his favor and against Reuben (a la the conversation Reuben has with Banks in 13 where he's able to convince the city to reroute one-ways in favor of the new casino), making vendors and suppliers make "us or them" decisions, and generally playing rough. He didn't do anything illegal, but he also didn't abide "the rules"; consider how both Reuben and Danny Ocean get extremely worked up in 13 about the notion that having shaken Sinatra's hand means something, while Banks doesn't care. Reuben, as the kind of guy who cares about things like shaking Sinatra's hand, spends the entire franchise playing at a disadvantage against guys who don't care about the traditions.


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

[User]
ELI5: Neutral Switzerland - how did they do it ?

on the drive in to work this morning, i started wondering how Switzerland was able to stay neutral during world war 2 .  given the choice, i am sure that France, Poland, Czechoslovakia and the rest of Europe would have preferred that status.  Was it the terrain that made it difficult ?

[Assistant]
The immediate cause of World War 2 was Hitler's desire to dominate the European continent.

However, domination doesn't necessarily require an invasion. Switzerland allowed the Nazis to continue banking with them throughout the war, and Swiss factories produced some vital military components for them too. Given that the Swiss were willing to freely offer that much cooperation, additional gains from invading and occupying Switzerland would not have been worth the cost.

Hitler wanted a similar arrangement with the United Kingdom, but the Brits were completely opposed to a German-dominated Continent.

>France

The Germans wanted French territory lost after WW1, which the French were unwilling to give up, and the French were historical enemies of Germany. The people of France would not have accepted neutrality and even if they had, the Germans never would have trusted a neutral France at their backs to stay neutral.

>Poland

One of Hitler's war aims was to depopulate Eastern Europe and repopulate it with German settlers. Again, this is something the Polish people never could have rolled over and accepted.

>Czechoslovakia

Ditto Czechoslovakia


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Does love thwart any other form of dark magic other than the killing curse?

Also, why wasn't James's love for his wife and Harry Potter enough to bring down Voldemort?  I'd hate to think that the reason Lily died was that James didn't love her (or love her enough).

[Assistant]
As others have said, it wasn't actually love. Dumbledore just figured Harry would take that better than "Ancient protective magic fueled by human sacrifice"

And it works on all kinds of magic. When Harry sacrificed himself to save the other students of hogwarts in book 7 Voldemort couldn't even silencio them.


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

[User]
ELI5: When people say they can feel knots in your back, what exactly are those knots made of?

Are those knots stress? How do they form exactly?

[Assistant]
After a muscle experiences an extended period of strain or some awkward use, some of the fibrils in a band can remain contracted or clenched, even though the muscle is signalled to relax.

Imagine a thick rope, being made up of several smaller strands all tied together.  Now imagine if a bunch of those smaller strands shrunk, while the rest remained loose.  That's a knot in your back.


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

[User] Are the blueprints for building a penis solely on the Y chromosome?

[Assistant] No. The important thing about the Y chromosome, as far as sex goes, is that it contains a gene (called *sry*, or 'sex determining region of Y chromosome') that can turn on or off a bunch of other genes. Those other genes don't have to be on the same chromosome. In fact, if you had a Y chromosome but the *sry* gene was broken, you would develop as a female. (Though not normally: You would almost certainly be infertile and might fail to develop normal ovaries / a uterus, although you would develop a vagina and some other internal female organs.)


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

[User] ELI5: Why people get so much more fascinated by bad news on tv rather than focusing on good news?

[Assistant]
Good news is typically the absence of news - Things are working as intended. All the planes that took off landed safely, all the kids that left for school came home, the forest didn't catch fire, etc.

Bad news is typically the deviation from that, and new and novel information is more interesting. When good news is novel ("We found a cure for X disease", "Longtime sad sack team wins championship") then it gets attention.


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

[User]
[Family Guy] For characters who cant understand Stewie

What does it sound like to them when those who can understand them are talking to him? (Ex. Brian and Chris)

[Assistant]
The onlookers hear a baby goo-gooing gaga-ing.

Also it's not odd to them and it pretty much goes unnoticed.

People talk to their babies (and their dogs) as if they're having intelligible conversations with them, even if they really arent.   The fact that the Griffins may, in fact, be engaged in a meaningful conversation with Stewie (or Brian) would just look like the usual baby (or dog) talk to others who don't comprehend any differently.


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

[User]
[Hellraiser] If I open the Lament Configuration in the middle of a large field, then drop it and run as fast as possible once I solve it, is it possible to avoid the Cenobites?

After having searched for it for years, I finally found the Lament Configuration. Fortunately, because of all my research I am fully aware of what will happen once I solve it. I've heard that most people that used it in the past have solved it in enclosed areas (attics, hospital rooms, etc).

If I go to the middle of a large field, solve it, then drop it and run at the very moment I've solved it, can I escape the cenobites? Will the opened Lament Configuration just sit in the middle of the field and sort of function as a landmine, waiting to ensnare whoever next walks by it?

Are the cenobites aware of who solves it from the moment of the solution, or only once they travel to this plane and see the person visually? If it's the latter, there seems to be a chance I could avoid them.

[Assistant]
The earth can split open just as easily as a wall.

Desire summons the Cenobites, not hands. If you open the Configuration, they're gonna find you. The doctor in Part II tried to solve the configuration by proxy, but Pinhead knew it wasn't the girl that brought them through, and tracked down the real summoner.

You can't use semantics to escape Hell.


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

[User] If I put 3 of the same item in the oven, the time to cook does not change. If I put 3 of the same item in the microwave, it takes considerably longer to cook all 3. Why?

[Assistant]
A conventional oven maintains a more-or-less fixed temperature, which means that its energy output increases when there is more to heat.

A microwave oven maintains a more-or-less fixed energy output, which means that it takes longer to heat larger quantities of food.


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

[User] [PORTAL] If you put one portal on the ceiling, and one portal on a tiny asteroid, would the gravity of Earth pull nearby objects into the asteroid portal?

[Assistant]
I dont think that gravity is conducted (for lack of a better word) though portals.

Put two portals on the floor so that jumping down into one would have you jump up from the other as you went through. If gravity was transmitted, then the two gravities interact and cancel out leaving you floating at the portal horizon. But what actually happens is your momentum is maintained and you bob up and down as you switch instantaneously from one gravitational field to the other.


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

[User]
[DC] How is it that Batman hasnt beat someone to death?

Lets be honest, Batman beats the crap out of criminals but has the no kill rule. How does that work? How is it that he hasnt gone overboard and accidentally killed someone? Enough head trauma and you could have a seizure and die. Maybe one of them has a brain aneurysm they dont know about. Gets punched the wrong way. Bleeds to death. Hit to the spleen. Ruptures. Also bleeds to death. Broken bone goes the wrong way. Punctures the aorta. Same thing. There are so many things that could go wrong, just from a beat down like the ones he dishes out. How can he have a no kill rule but run the risk of unintentionally killing someone? Wouldnt that make him guilty of manslaughter?

[Assistant]
Base level DC humans can survive much more damage than people in our world. In our world, hitting someone over the head long enough to tie them up in a chair means they have permanent brain damage.

Doing the same thing in the DC universe means they might develop a headache if it happens daily.


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

[User]
[General Vampires] Why do you think vampire hunters always seem to wait until night to kill a vamp?

Wouldn't it make more sense to go to Drac's lair during the day?

[Assistant]
In some circumstances the problem is finding the lair. Any bloodsucker worth their centuries is going to have a well hidden lair that has additional protection built into it.

On the otherhand a vampire that has to go to an urban center to feed is at a disadvantage since they can't control every single variable of who and where each time they go out. A hunter with a good plan and bait has a better chance of success in taking out a vampire than having to stumble around during the day to find the coffin.


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

[User]
[Buffy the Vampire Slayer] what are the power levels of vampires?

In some episodes, a single vamp gives Buffy some trouble whereas she many times she jumps into a group of them and wastes them within seconds. Angel and Spike are both quite strong and well trained. Are they equally on a Slayer (at her peak)'s level? How about the average vampire?

[Assistant]
I think the slayer is on average stronger than a vampire, but vampires are tougher.

As in, Buffy can dish out more damage than vampires, but can take less.

 IIRC, Anngel even says that he is not as strong as buffy. But he does have more experience and fighting skills.


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

[User] [Matrix trilogy] Was the "real world" (Zion, the machine city, etc...) all just another layer of the Matrix?

[Assistant]
Yes, but not in the way you are thinking.

The Matrix is inherently unstable. In order for the Matrix to work, the human minds have to "choose" to accept it as their reality, even if only on an unconscious level. The vast majority do. However some don't, and as time goes on this causes cascading faults in the Matrix and will cause it to fail. The Machines solution to this problem was The One and Zion.

Zion is a real place, in the real world, and for a time, some of the humans who reject the reality of the Matrix are allowed to escape to it. Only a small percentage ever do, but as time goes by that number increases, especially as the ones who have escaped start trying to free the minds of ones still inside.

Enter the role of The One, The One has a special role in the Matrix in that they have the coding inside them to reboot the Matrix. This solves the problem of Choice,  because The One would Choose to accept the Matrix, and in essence make that choice for everyone.

Now in order for that to work, the Machines have a devious plan. They allow The One to escape the Matrix and join Zion. Then the Machines come in and attack Zion, wiping it, and all humans in it out. They then offer The One a choice, they could enter the Source and reboot the Matrix for another cycle, in which case they will be allowed to take a limited number of humans from the Matrix and restart the city of Zion in the real world, or the Matrix could fail in which case all the humans in it would die and the species would go extinct. For the most part The One chooses to save humanity and rejoins the Source.

Zion is definitely a part of the Machines control over humanity.


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

[User]
ELI5: If every action has an equal and opposite reaction, why can a bullet do tremendous damage to someone, while the recoil from the gun cannot?

Think about this, a large bullet that hits someone in the upper arm can dislocate the person's shoulder, but the recoil cannot. Sure, the bullet focuses the energy onto a smaller area, but is that alone the reason? That doesn't make sense to me, because incredibly large guns (for instance, a anti-material rifle firing a .50 BMG round) can take an arm or off even when they hit a good distance away from the point where the limb is torn off, but the rifle's recoil is enough to be managed without injury. Similarly, some bullets can knock a soldier unconscious if they hit them in the helmet (dispersing the energy over a large area), but the rifle doesn't damage the shoulder, despite the fact that A) the but of the rifle has less surface area than the inside of a helmet and B) the shoulder doesn't take that much to be dislocated.

Does it have something to do with the difference between force, energy, and momentum? Or the difference in velocities? Really confused here.

[Assistant]
A bullet exerts a ton of pressure, much more than the gun does when it recoils.

Pressure = momentum / surface area / impact time.

Momentum is the same for the bullet and the gun, but the surface area and impact time vary drastically. The surface area of a gun is the area of the grip, while in the bullet's case it is less than a square centimeter.

But much more importantly, is the impact time. As the bullet accelerates along the length of the barrel, a continuous force is applied to the gun. Additionally, because the gun is much more massive, this force goes into accelerating the gun, which acts as a buffer when translating momentum from the gun to the hand.

When a bullet hits someone, travelling at hundreds of meters per second, the time of impact is tiny, resulting in a huge pressure. Even if the bullet was the size of your head, the time of impact is still so small that the pressure felt would be massive. This is why getting shot in a helmet can cause concussion or death.


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

[User] [Neon Genesis Evangelion] Are the Lilin just humans, or all life on earth? Do animals have souls? Plants?

[Assistant]
Humans only. Humanity is one massive oversoul divided into a trillion trillion pieces, which are walled off with an AT field to allow for individuality (This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move).

The Seed did interact with evolution though - it turned up 4 billion years ago and helped to shape life in a manner acceptable to its spawn, though these influenced life forms were nothing special. It mostly just nixed anything particular bad - something that would cause a runaway replacement of the atmosphere, from oxygen to chlorine? Yeah, no. Accidental replacement of h20 with liquid Pu somehow? Yeah, no.


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

[User]
Does cancer grow faster in someone who is healthy as opposed to someone who is not as healthy?

Example, person A eats healthy, and exercises.  so he gets more nuetrients and they are transported throughout his body more effeciantly, and therefore, would "feed" the cancer more.  As oppose to some unhealthy, sedentary person, assuming there are no other factors for cancer growth, genetics, ect.

Add on, if someone does find out they have early stages of cancer, what would be the best way to slow down the cancer growth?  what foods should the person avoid or eat more of, and if possible, should the person try to remain active (if possible)?

[Assistant]
Different tumors have different mitotic rates. Healthy people are overall less at risk for tumors, in part because they have better metabolic balance (there are few "spare" calories in circulation), and optimally functioning immune systems (glycosylation of surface receptors inhibits all sorts of responses, decreased blood flow of a sedentary life style decreases average tissue patrolling by white cells, etc, etc, etc).

If someone has, for example, low-grade squamous intraepithelial neoplasia, or ductal carcinoma in situ, that is, truly dysregulated cell division with a natural population history of disease known to statistically lead to invasive carcinoma in a subset of cases, the best treatment is generally early excision.

Diet is a good preventative, but once the cells are misbehaving, they need to be removed.

Driving backwards does not roll miles off your odometer. You have to do something entirely different.


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

[User] [Scrubs] How did The Todd get to being a surgeon?

[Assistant]
He's a brilliant surgeon,  and can focus his mind when he wants. He's also very active and driven. He puts on a goofy personal to help add some levity to his coworkers lives,  and because it's fun.

The Todd was the highschool jock who was also acing the tests.  He was probably prom King too.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do distressing events or trauma lead to PTSD and other disorders?

When someone experiences a distressing event, what goes on inside their mind to increase their likelihood of developing a mental illness? Does it depend on how each individual reflects on and deals with it? Can somebody witness such events and not be effected in the same way or process it differently?

[Assistant]
In a very natural very human way. (It's a little more complex than this but it's the gist)

If you are in a war zone for example, where your life is constantly in danger. Your body naturally reacts to protect you - this means highened awareness of surroundings, your body is more tense because it wants to be ready to run away or fight at any moment.

The thing is, once your life/safety has been threatened (or when your body perceives a threat), your body often stays ready to fight or run away even when the danger is gone.

Once your are in safety and your body is still acting like it's in danger, some problematic things can happen. You might have problems functioning "normally". Like you might be unable to trust enough to date or hold a job. Other people who haven't shared your experience won't understand why you act the way you do. They may think youre crazy since the threat isn't there anymore. Also, when your defenses are on all the time, physically it can very exhausting. Basically it's like high stress 24/7 - just unsustainable.

Treatments for PTSD often involve teaching someone's brain and body that a) their reaction is normal but also b) the threat is gone.


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

[User] ELI5: Why should I (the average person) use online privacy tools VPNs, Ghostery, etc?

[Assistant]
If you don't care much about privacy, the number one use of a VPN or proxy is to make you appear to be connected from another country, which then allows you to circumvent region-locking (think certain YouTube videos, the varying lists of movies and television series available on Netflix, and some regional censorship like the UK's piracy prevention system).

If you are in the UK and want to access a site blocked by your ISP such as Pirate Bay - switch on your VPN and access away.

If you are in France and want to access a movie on Netflix only available in Canada - switch on your VPN and watch.

More seriously, if you are in a country that enforces strict Internet censorship, the VPN allows you to skirt these blocks, vital to free speech and the flow of ideas and information.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] What would the Ministry if Magic do if another power system emerged?

What would the ministry  do if certain people started to use Stands, hamon, Alchemy, Nen; or any other power syste.. Would they classify those people as wizards and introduce them to the magical world? Or would they leave them alone?

[Assistant]
* Alchemy is a form of magic in the series, but not widely practiced; it's an elective at Hogwarts, but it may be cancelled if there aren't enough applicants. Yet, the one from FMA is a science that Muggles can use so they may try and tightly control it.
* Hamon isn't an actual form of magic, more a controlled form of meditation/skill. But given how dangerous vampires are in Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, the Ministry of Magic may not try and suppress Hamon among Muggles since they're descendants of the Hamon Tribe but may try and protect them instead.
* Stands are a bit difficult since only a Stand user can see Stands... in theory. They could be considered a form of Spirit meaning Wizards can see them, so Wizards can identify them... but since they're awakened by an artifact that could be magical, they may share an interest. They may also try and suppress Stand powers due to Pureblood supremacy theories or blatant racism as well as how dangerous Stands can be - most villainous Stand-users became assassins, remember?


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

[User] [Quantum Leap] does Sam age as he goes through his leaps? Or does he stay the same age as when he began?

[Assistant] Actually, yes.  Due to the type of time travel involved, Dr. Becketts body continued to age normally while it was in the visitors lounge back in the lab, playing host to whatever consciousness was being displaced by him that week.   Pshycologically his aging is more difficult to gauge accurately because of the swiss-cheese effect the jumps have in his memory.  He has perfect recall of some leaps but cannot reliably recall basic details of his own life at times.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does a pencil eraser work?

In addition, why do some work well, while others just smear around the pencil and leave a pink residue?

[Assistant] Erasers are made of rubber that, when dragged, will pick up the graphite flakes that are left on the paper from a pencil.  They literally abrade off the pencil marks.  Some erasers work better because they are softer and thus will conform more to the surface they are being applied to, while harder erasers will keep their shapes and not hit as much of the paper's surface area.


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

[User]
Why can't we just put some dead COVID-19 viruses in a syringe and call it a vaccine?

Isn't that what vaccines are? I know there's a reason why but I'm too ignorant to know it.

[Assistant]
Viruses aren't really alive in the first place, they're basically a twisted knot of proteins and DNA which has a specific shape that encourages living cells to absorb them, then make more and more until the cell explodes, dumping all the new copies into your body.

Other than this, they don't eat or breathe or respirate or anything, they just hang around like a burr waiting for a passing sock until and unless their proteins denature to the point where they're no longer viable.

The trick with making a vaccine is creating a variant that looks similar enough on the outside that your immune system can learn to recognise the real thing, but either can't actually infect your cells, or causes them to make broken versions that don't work instead of replicating properly - but *without* the altered version doing any *other* nasty stuff by mistake.

Folks would be rightfully livid if they were given a brand new superbug labelled as a vaccine for the current one and pretty jaded if the vaccine didn't work at all, so development has to be done *quite* carefully - which takes time.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is it when you watch a DVD or stream a movie on your tv, it isn't completely full screen?

If I watch a movie on Netflix the movies take up my entire TV. But if I watch a DVD or stream a movie there are black bars on the top and bottom of my tv. Why?

[Assistant]
Because that movie was formatted for a resolution different from your TV.

For example, if it was more widescreen than your TV then it would either have the sides cut off (which means you miss seeing anything happening at the sides of the screen) or they fit the width to your TV width and thus leave bars along the top and bottom.


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

[User]
ELI5: If the Berlin wall was built to separate East Germans from West Germans, why was it only built across Berlin?

Trying to research the history behind the Berlin Wall but i dont understand why the wall only separated Berlin. Wouldnt it make more sense if the whole of East and West Germany were separated by a wall?

[Assistant]
West Berlin Was surrounded by the DDR (or east Germany) which made it a high risk location when it comes to illegal border crossings (many people, they can come from all sides, pretty much no distance between the two states). Therefore they decided to build a wall in order to control it more efficiently.

However, the large border between east and west wasn't uncontrolled either. There were many border guards and posts on the roads while the rest was mainly secured by fences, towers and even self-firing systems as well as anti-personnel mines.

Escaping over the border was a very risky and often deadly project no matter where.


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

[User] Why do veins appear blue underneath the skin?

[Assistant] Veins themselves are actually dark red (the color of deoxygenated blood), with the exception of pulmonary veins that carry oxygenated blood. They appear blue because subcutaneous fat will absorb a lot of the low frequency light, letting mostly the higher frequency blue reflect off of the veins.


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

[User]
ELI5: Ethiopia has blocked mobile internet within the country. How are they able to block mobile internet specifically?

Is it by demanding the satellite owners stop providing access within the country?

[Assistant] By forcing all cellular providers to block their internet. Cellphones don't connect to their network through a satellite, they connect to a nearby cell tower which is connected to their service provider's network. The service provider's simply needs to block data communications, just like they can do if someone chose to disable their data plan.


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

[User]
[Under the Dome] What would've happened if the dome had erupted on a more populated city like New York, Beijing or Moscow?

What would the general populace's reaction be? Would governments consider this a new type of weapon?

[Assistant]
With such a large population, and also such an enormous amount of space, things would be very different.

First of, things would probably remain calm for the first couple hours or even days. People would need time to process what is going on, transfixed on the dome.

Some would stay inside for a while, some might try to find a way out anyways. All major roads leading to the outside world would be swamped with a perpetual traffic jam as people tried leaving that route anyways, not realising how futile driving up to an impenetrable wall is. Other might try to tunnel out or blast their way through.  That's also the point where word of mouth spreads and the people truly realise that they're trapped.

This phase might take days or it might take weeks/months depending on how well the local government and other bodies manage to maintain the order. Either way, expect to see a spike in crime as people realise they are trapped and metropolitan areas like this rarely have their own food supply, instead relying on imports.

After that point, expect martial law and much much rougher times for a long time. Setting up things like a steady food supply will take a while in even the best sircumstances. Expect people to split off from society and governing bodies to begin their own micro states within the dome. These micro states might be friendly or hostile to each other. In a way this is random, it all depends on the way they split off and the governments reaction to that. This fragmentation is also necessary, i highly doubt that the local govt can control the population adequately with just it's police force. They'd still be a major player, but they can't spread themselves too thin.

This period would see a lot of die off, especially in the later stages. Violence and crime would take a portion, but most of those perished will be taken by starvation or untreatable diseases. It's hard to put a number or percentage on this die off, but expect it to be incredibly significant. Think about it like Stalingrad, except there is no way out and no supply line for either sides. And now there are dozens of them.

At the end of this period the die off will slow down as the population reaches a more or less sustainable level again. Any surviving micro states will logically have set up a food source and makeshift economy, possibly by trading with other states. Life within those states is rough, but mostly resembles the culture before the dome. unoccupied territories outside of micro state land will be much much rougher and wilder. The states won't have the resources to control them, and as such a sort of dead mans land exists between states.

Various loners, groups or even tribal like entities probably live in this dead mans land, competing with eachother and the states for food and resources. While the states probably work together to some extent, these other entities are smaller and much more likely to be thieves or even raiders. Micro states will probably maintain their borders fiercely for that reason, and trade caravans will be armed. It's likely that this divide will cause resentment on both sides after a while, possibly ending in conflict.

As time goes on and the micro states solidify their local power, they'd probably start competing with eachother aswell. Don't expect all out war, but skirmishes and quick coups are likely. Eventually only the most powerful states will remain. Any dead mans land tribes left at this point will pick sides, be absorbed or entirely cease to exist.

At that point you either get multiple large states of roughly equal size and power, forever stuck in a status quo or one giant state. Either way, it is likely that things will conglomerate en you'll end up with one big entity focused on food production and surviving within the dome. I'd say wars are less likely due to renewed food stocks, unless some significant event takes place. An enormous loss of crop, some kind of hostile action or completely incompatible states.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does it seem like Coca Cola is sold in nearly every country of the world, even underdeveloped ones, but bottled water seems hard to come by?

[Assistant] Bottled water is available there also, but you hardly hear about it because bottled water doesn't have the marketing budget of a small country like Coca Cola pumps into marketing for it's Soft Drinks.


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

[User]
[Superheroes] How do metahumans, like Superman and Captain America, learn and practice traditional martial arts when they are not bound by the same limitations as normal humans and have practically no one to spar with?

Why do they bother with things like judo or karate?  Wonder Woman can do a quadruple backflip kick with a twist, no sweat.  Isn't repetitively practicing a *kata* that normal humans do sort of limiting her potential?

Are there modified forms that take into account the ability to fly, stretch, phase, etc.?

[Assistant] In the Supergirl show Kara trains in a special room that emits very low levels of Kryptonite radiation. Not enough to harm her, but enough to bring strength down to near that of an average human, so she's able to spar with people. Other powered individuals either use similar measures to temporarily limit their power, or find other powered individuals to train with.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are hippos so dangerous?

I was recently told that they kill a disproportionate number of people - and from what I understand, they are herbivores. Why are they so dangerous?
E: wow you all know quite a bit about hippos! thanks!

[Assistant]
They weigh in excess of 5,000lbs, so they are more powerful than you think.

They can swim 30mph and run 20mph, which is incredibly fast for their size. You will probably get closer than you should because you have a false sense of security, thinking "I can outrun that thing."

Their front teeth can reach nearly 15" in length, so they are essentially small swords, and they can open their mouths wider than just about any other animal.

Their skin is several inches thick, so most guns won't even penetrate it. The gun you are carrying for protection is most likely not strong enough to hurt them unless you hit the soft spots (eyes, belly).

They are extremely aggressive and territorial. Because of their shape and stature, the best method of defending themselves is attacking.

TL;DR You have a 5,000+lb animal with bulletproof skin and swords for teeth that can out run and out swim you.


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

[User]
[General Superheroes] How does normal law enforcement deal with the criminals captured by superheroes?

Say Spiderman catches some street criminals and leaves them beaten and webbed up in an alley nearby. The police arrive and find them. What sort of charges can be brought against them? Does "being attacked by a superhero" caught as probable cause?

[Assistant]
In the Marvel Universe at least, there's a specially-built prison for super-villains since their powers would make it unlikely they'd be able to be held in a normal prison.

In the inFamous series there's Curdun Cay Station where they lock up any conduit prisoner in the US. Most haven't done anything, people just really hate conduits for some reason.


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

[User]
Are we 100% sure there are no undetected planets in our solar system?

If so, how?

Edit: Thanks a lot foe the answers guys!! Got what i wanted..

[Assistant] By definition of what a planet is, yes. Planet must be massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity, is not massive enough to cause thermonuclear fusion, and has cleared its neighbouring region of planetesimals. While there are many object still in the Kuiper belt that have not been discovered, none of them are by definition planets.


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

[User]
[WH40K] Which faction has the best average standard of living?

I know, I know... WH40K is nothing short of suffering and if a million people die, nobody gives a shit.

But which faction has the best average standard of living? How so? And what do other factions have then?

[Assistant]
I really like the answer I've seen to other questions that says Orks have it best.

To them, their favorite thing to do is fight, they literally exist for it. So in a universe based upon unending war, they're really loving their life.


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

[User]
ELI5: why do TV remotes get weak when the batteries start running low?

Id instinctively expect it to be more of a binary thing: they work, then when the batteries get to a certain level they completely stop working.

Instead you get this in between phase when the batteries start getting low, where you have to get closer to the TV for them to work. Why?

[Assistant] Most television remotes work by flashing an ~~ultraviolet~~ infrared light on the front which is seen by a receiver on the TV. A weak battery means a dim light that can't be detected from as far away.


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

[User] Is there a sequence of moves that can be applied to a Rubik's Cube that results in iterating the cube through every possible state exactly once?

[Assistant] No. Take two moves, a and b, that don't commute, that is, doing a then b results in a different state than doing b then a. For example, twists of two adjacent faces. Now say that your magic move, g, done m times, results in a, and done n times, results in b. Now ab=(g^(m))(g^(n))=g^(m+n)=g^(n+m)=(g^(n))(g^(m))=ba, a contradiction.


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

[User] [Infinity War/Ultron] Would the snap would have affected Ultron? What if his intelligence was in multiple bodies un connected, how would that manifest itself?

[Assistant]
The Snap seems to have affected those with a soul.  In the MCU's Agents of SHIELD, the artificial intelligence Aida is shown to have a soul, so maybe it would work on Ultron too.

Also, if Thanos' goal is to prevent exploitation of resources then it would be a huge gaping hole to exclude von Neumann machines.  The universe would be bereft of biological life while it's being happily devoured by self-replicating swarms.  Though that oversight might just be a flaw in Thanos' logic in the way he "worded" the Snap.


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

[User] ELI5: Wind.

[Assistant]
There are many factors on Earth that contribute to the behavior of wind, but I'll give the most basic description of what's happening.

If you've ever walked into a large department store, you might have noticed the wind that blasts you in the face when the doors open. This is because the air pressure inside the store is higher than the air pressure outside.

Wind on Earth works the same way, only on a larger scale. If you have high air pressure in the north, and low air pressure in the south, the air will move from the north to the south (wind).

~~It also helps to know that when air is heated, its pressure increases. So you can imagine one of the reasons why different places may have different air pressures, which will result in wind. Just as a simple example, imagine a cloudy day in Pawnee. One town over, in Eagleton, it is bright and sunny. The air in Eagleton heats up, increases in pressure, and moves towards Pawnee. You now have a gentle breeze.~~

Edit: Removed misleading entry. Read DickBilledDick's comment below.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is the seemingly more complicated part of playing the guitar done with the non-dominant hand?

When a right-handed person plays guitar, they typically use their right hand to strum the strings while manipulating their left hand on the neck to adjust notes and chords (or something; Im not a musician). It seems to me the fingerings along the neck require more dexterity than the strumming and would be easier to do with the dominant hand.

[Assistant]
If you try playing guitar the opposite way it becomes pretty obvious that the strumming is actually the more difficult part. Much of the time youre just forming your off hand into the correct fret positions to play chords. Even if youre playing more melodically or a solo, its less difficult than youd think to move your fingers around, and you have the neck to guide that hand if need be.
Strumming and picking end up taking more control and effort so your dominant hand is better at it.


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

[User] Those huge cargo ships and oil tankers have a really small anchor compared to the overall size of the ship. How does such a small anchor manage to keep the ship in place?

[Assistant]
Holding at anchor is the chain. The chain is what is the part that actually keeps the ship in place.

The anchor is only set to keep the chain from dragging around and will represent the circle that the ship will swing at while at anchor.

Normal anchoring is done by setting the anchor, then playing out at least 3 to 5 times the depth of the water in chain. The chain is lying along the bottom and weighing down to hold the ship. For the ship to move it has to either drag the chain or lift it up. That is what keeps the ship from going anywhere.

In a open area with tidal changes or wind shifts the ship will swing with the changes. But the anchor holds the center of the circle it can move in.

You can actually anchor a ship and keep it from going too far with just chain. The issue is in strong winds the chain will drag and the ship will shift slowly.

As an experiment take about 20 feet of chain. lay it out in a long line and try and lift the chain from one end. It gets way heavier as you lift it higher and each link comes off the ground.  Additionally if you lay it out in a N/S arrangement and grab the north end and try and walk it to the south, the longer the chain the harder to drag. (another example. Every try and walk back to the hose spigot while dragging the hose after it was fully extended? The further you walk dragging the hose the heavier it gets. It only takes a relatively small weight to anchor the end once you include the weight of the chain.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does alcohol make you feel awake at first but then really sleepy at the end of the night?

[Assistant] Alcohol in the blood at a concentration of <0.02 actually affects the human body similar to the way a stimulant would. Once your BAC rises above that, it has the opposite effect depressing/relaxing/sedating the nervous system. This results in a drop in slowed heart rate and decreased blood pressure.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does the body respond to someone else's DNA during a blood transfusion?

Do the red blood cells "convert" or do they sort of die off and get replaced? How does the body not really reject the blood like you hear about with transplant surgeries? I am a bit confused. Thanks!

[Assistant] Red blood cells don't have nuclei. The only way our blood is meaningfully differentiated from another persons in a way the immune system would pick up is via proteins that dot the cells' surface. There are a few different types (A and B and another one called the Rhesus factor are the ones we care about) and they're what determine your blood type. You can only get blood from someone with at least some of the same proteins as you (or no proteins at all which is O type). Usually, other types of blood cells like white blood cells are separated out and not transfused.


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

[User]
[DC] Solomon Grundy smash consistency!

I know that Grundy's perpetual state of reanimation is the reason why his power is so inconsitent (like between being dealt with by Bats or smacking around the JSA/JLA).  What about the reanimation process determines Grundy's power and intellect?  I don't see why he would become weaker or stronger with each death while retaining most of his personality without any predictible pattern.

[Assistant]
This is covered in the legendary Starman series.

Basically, Grundy has a lot of personalities and tends to develop new ones as he dies and comes back. These personalities are better or worse at controlling his strength, and they're alternately smarter or stupider.


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

[User]
What happens when I take a USB drive out without ejecting?

Or a camera? I've been doing this most of my life and nothing has ever happened.

Edit: Wow!! Thanks for the replies guys

Edit 2: what I've learned from this thread: when in doubt; don't pull out!

[Assistant]
When you eject a USB drive, the operating system flushes all buffered data to the drive and closes the software device.  This guarantees that everything you wrote to the drive is actually physically written there.  If you do not do this, you stand a chance of losing data or corrupting files.

The long version: Most operating systems maintain a memory buffer for each drive connected to the system.  The buffer is used to cache data written to and from the drive, to speed up operations.  Data written to the drive is first written to the memory buffer, then after a certain amount of time passes, or when enough data is written to fill the buffer, the contents of the buffer are actually written to the drive.  Until this happens, the data is not actually on the drive, so if you lose power or yank the drive out the data will go missing.  This could cause files to be lost, or if you were making changes to a file, the file could become corrupted because only part of it was updated.

The reason you have never experienced any problems is basically luck.  Most devices and computers will flush their drive buffers periodically, so if you haven't written anything to the drive in a while it is probably safe to yank it out.  But it is always better to eject the drive, to be certain everything has been flushed.


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

[User]
What are the downsides to a Molten Salt Thorium Reactor?

Seems like its sort of an energy dream other than obtaining funding. Whats the fine print?

[Assistant]
not an expert but...

"Molten salts can be highly corrosive, more so as temperatures rise. For the primary cooling loop of the MSR, a material is needed that can withstand corrosion at high temperatures and intense radiation. Experiments show that Hastelloy-N and similar alloys are quite suited to the tasks at operating temperatures up to about 700 C. However, long-term experience with a production scale reactor has yet to be gained. Higher operating temperatures would be desirable, but at 850 C thermo chemical production of hydrogen becomes possible, which creates serious engineering difficulties. Materials for this temperature range have not been validated, though carbon composites, molybdenum alloys (e.g. TZM), carbides, and refractory metal based or ODS alloys might be feasible."

"Salts must be extremely pure initially, and would most likely be continuously cleaned in a large-scale molten salt reactor. Any water vapor in the salt will form hydrofluoric acid (HF) which is extremely corrosive. Other impurities can cause non-beneficial chemical reactions and would most likely have to be cleansed from the system. In conventional power plants where water is used as a coolant, great pains are taken to purify and deionize the water to reduce its corrosive properties."

In summary these types of salts can be chemically scary if shit were to go tits up but its hard to say what will happen in practice.  Chemists deal with harsh chemicals all the time but the added nuclear element could make things complicated.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is the inside of the palms always white regardless the skin color or tan?

[Assistant] Melanin which colours the skin is in the lower layers of the skin, the skin on the soles of the feet and the palms of the hands needs to be substantially thicker to protect from wear and damage so there is no melanin close enough to the surface to darken those areas.


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

[User]
CMV: World War 2 actually started in 1937

Many historians believe that World War 2 started when Nazi Germany invaded Poland but in my opinion, that's not when the war started. The precursor to World War 2 started in 1853 when the United States and other Western powers forced Japan out of isolation and invoked unequal treaties. Japan's economy took a hit and Japan desired to be more like Britain, France, Germany, Portugal, and Russia. In 1894 (First Sino-Japanese War), Japan fought a war with the Qing Dynasty to gain a sphere of influence over Korea and won. Later, they tried to take over land in mainland China and western powers did not approve of Japan taking over mainland China at the time.

To me, Japan's desire to invade China in the 1930s was part of Japan's plan to become a colonial superpower just like Britain, France, and Spain. They wanted the western powers to view them as an equal and during the formation of the Treaty of Versailles, the western powers didn't held the same view. In my view, World War 2 started during the Marco Polo Bridge incident when the Japanese and Chinese armies clashed. The reason this is the case is because this conflict led to a massive conflict that impacted not only China but also the United States (colonizer of the Philippines at the time) and Great Britain (colonizer of Hong Kong and Papua New Guinea). The reason historians don't view the Marco Polo Bridge incident as the start of World War 2 is because world history has usually been Eurocentric at its core. In my AP World History class in 2011, most of what I learned revolved around the European powers with some references of North African, Southwest Asian, South Asian, and East Asian civilizations.

According to Wikipedia WW2 ended when Japan surrendered but started when Germany invaded Poland. This doesn't make sense logically. If Japan's incident with China didn't warrant the official start of WW2, then why did WW2 ended when Japan surrendered? Yes, it's true Japan didn't join the Axis powers until 1940, but Japan still played a major role in WW2.

Now, I know that my explanation isn't the best, but please try to counter or refute my view using strong arguments and evidence. Thank you.

[Assistant]
World war 2 started when it was decleared.

You are describing leading up incidents. Ww1 didnt start with franz ferdinands assassination, it didnt start with britian building their navy, it didnt start with britians industrious age. Those are all leading events.

But once something has started, you cant go back. Do you believe that the allies would have decleared war if germany hadnt invaded poland?

We are talking about the pinical action that directly started the war, otherwise we could go a butterfly wing in paris started a war.


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

[User]
Strange contact from fellow PhD student

So this is a slightly odd one. I'm currently a PhD student who's trying to get some tutoring work outside of my studies and as a result have joined a tutoring website where tutees can contact me to organise sessions for help in their studies.

Yesterday I received a message on the website from someone who claimed to be from my university (but a different department on a different campus, I'm at quite a large university). They told me their department, listed extensively their data and problems that they were having and, in very broken English which was quite hard to understand, seemed to suggest that they wanted me to write their results and discussion section for them for an unspecified piece of work.

After chatting to some colleagues they seemed quite concerned by this and some suggested maybe contacting this person's department to let them know that someone is attempting to get others to do their work whilst also disclosing quite a bit of data.

I'm unsure if there is a real issue that needs be reported here or not so any help or opinions would be very much appreciated.

Many thanks in advance!

[Assistant] Ummm yeah, that raises several red flags. To be honest, it could be a mistake where they didn't ask what they meant due to English being a presumably second language. Ask if they meant what they said, as it's possible they might have been asking for something more innocuous than what it sounded like. If it turns out that they want to send you non-anonymised data to analyse and write the results for, definitely contact their department because that shit is not cool, yo.


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

[User] Why do we have kneecaps but no elbowcaps?

[Assistant] Our legs move in a fairly consistent manner, pretty much just bending one direction at the knee. A kneecap increases the leverage available, and helps aim the leg and knee in the proper direction, helping with this movement. These simply aren't issues with the elbow. Elbows don't need to deal with anywhere near as much force, and benefit from a wider range of motion. Arms need to twist and turn, not just swing.


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

[User]
Ecological philosophy?

Hello everyone,

 Im a conceptual artist working in fields of alchemy, ecology, & displacement. Im here to ask for recommendations of philosophy dealing with ecology, energy, & ideas about nature.

If you know of any texts, books, or authors; that take on these topics, please do tell.

Thank you.

[Assistant] Oh, there are a lot of interesting things going on in that area, and it's a thriving field. Just a few pretty big, but random names: Donna Haraway, Timothy Morton, Tim Ingold, Bruno Latour, Anna Tsing, Lynn Margulis, James Lovelock, Felix Guattari (*The Three Ecologies*), Isabelle Stengers, Arne Naess.


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

[User]
How can a nations exports be greater than its GDP?

Each year, Singapore exports goods and services with a market value of roughly 170% of their entire GDP. But how is this possible if GDP is defined as "the market value of all finished goods and services produced within a country each year"?

My initial thinking was that Singapore could easily import silicon (an unfinished good) with a market value of well over 100% of their GDP (as an example lets say 130% of GDP). They would then use the unfinished goods(in this case, all the silicon) to produce final goods (in this case say computer chips) and then export these final goods at a much higher value than they imported them (at say 170% of their GDP). Thus, the value added through Singapore's trading operations (importing lots of silicon and exporting finished computer chips) would equal only 40% of their GDP. The remaining 60% of their GDP would then be the usual C+I+G for locally produced, consumed and invested goods and services.

My only issue with this explanation is that since the silicon that its importing is not a finished good, it then wouldn't be included in imports since GDP accounting only looks at finished goods. Is this not the case for importing though? That is, are imported unfinished goods subtracted off from GDP?

Any help on this issue would be greatly appreciated!

[Assistant]
> Is this not the case for importing though? That is, are imported unfinished goods subtracted off from GDP?

Hit the nail on the head.

The reason we don't usually count intermediate goods in GDP is to avoid double counting. The price of a restaurant steak already includes the cost of the raw beef which itself includes the cost of the grain it ate. By only counting the value of the final good, we are capturing the value added at each stage (each of which happened domestically).

When goods get imported, we **don't** want to count the value added at the stages before import. So we can take the restaurant steak's price and deduct the value of the raw steak imported to make it. That way only the extra value added by the local restaurant and not the foreign produced meat is counted.

Similarly, when a country exports raw materials or intermediate goods, there's no domestically produced final good to count, but value has obviously been added locally. So when we add net exports to C+I+G it is not limited to exports and imports of final goods and services - we count all goods and services bought and sold across the border.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why and how do caves form inside mountains or rocks?

I understand somewhat that the formations inside these caves are caused by water/creeks and the shapes inside are from droplets where crystals form over thousands of years. But how do some become massive and so open?

[Assistant]
Either running water or magma.

A tiny crack in the rock where water runs down can turn into a massive cave over the course of thousands of years. In volcanic regions hot magma carves caves and tunnels out of the rock.


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

[User] ELI5: What is system32, and why is it so easy to delete if it's so important?

[Assistant]
It's a part of the operating system for a computer.

In particular, it's used by Windows OS.

These days, you can't delete system32 unless you're using a secondary OS, from a boot disk or a flash drive, since you can't delete it while Windows is in operation.


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

[User]
How do people earn 4 bachelors degrees in their lifetime?

OK, so I recently looked up a professor who was featured in a Great Courses series I have been listening to. The biography stated that he had 4 undergraduate degrees: one in a humanities, one in philosophy of science, one in Chemistry, and the rest I forgot. I think he also had 2 masters degrees and one Phd. The man is around 50-ish years of age. How do people find time to accomplish such a feat and still have a life!? I also know a Professor of Computer Science who managed also to get 4 undergraduate degrees in various engineering fields. I would love to be able to get a few other undergraduate degrees for subjects I'm interested in (I suffer from an acute case of curiosity), but it seems like life and work would just get in the way: not to mention the tuition costs! How do people do this? If there's anyone here which has accomplish such a task, or knows someone who has, feel free to tell your story. I'd like to know how this is done. Thanks.

Cheers!

[Assistant]
They probably quadruple majored at a liberal arts school by taking 6-7 courses per semester plus summer school, taking maybe an extra year or two to graduate, and being incredibly smart and fast working. The two masters and a PhD could also have been gotten in a single stint at a school that grants a masters in the way to PhD.

Their paths may not have been quite that efficient, but it's safe to say that no one applied to and enrolled in 7 different schools to get 7 distinct degrees.


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

[User]
[LOTR] What would've happened if Gandalf were unable to stop the Balrog from passing the bridge?

Imagine a scenario where the Balrog was able to kill Gandalf before he had the chance to shatter the bridge and cast him down.

Would he have chased after the fellowship into Lothlrien? What would have most likely happened?

[Assistant]
At least part of the remaining Fellowship would have been killed, if not all of it. The Balrog probably wouldn't be able to escape Moria, if it did we might see it ally with Sauron or more direct divine intervention to deal with it.

The quest of the Ring would likely fail without more divine intervention, since it was only by the luckiest of coincidences that the Ring was destroyed, and even a small change would spell disaster.


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

[User]
[Avatar: The Last Airbender] How was there one and only one living lemur (Momo) at the Air Temple after 100 years?

If any of the creatures (multiple ones) survived the genocide, then they would have repopulated themselves between then and Aang's return a century later; the place should have been *crawling* with them. And if only one survived, or if all survivors were the same gender and thus couldn't reproduce, then these should have been long-dead by that same point in time.

The only possible explanation I could discern here is for the lemurs to have *extremely* long lifespans; *well* over 100 years, as Momo doesn't even seem particularly *old*.

[Assistant]
There were pockets of lemur populations throughout the air temples, as that is their natural habitat. We didn't see Aang spend too much time around that area and given that we have little information on Momo's past, it could be that he made a brief generalization given that everything else there seemed dead too. Lemurs are also very social animals, so it's possible they lived in lower areas where there may have existed people (for example, Guru Pahtik).

We see more lemurs in the Legend of Korra, having repopulated the air temples due to habitation with by air acolytes..

It could be that Momo's specific lineage was dwindling, and that there were very few of him around anyway or Momo was separated from the rest of his species.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do computers force updates on you at certain points? Like screw whatever youre doing its update time! Kind of thing.

[Assistant] The biggest reason is security. Security researchers (read: hackers) are constantly discovering new exploits which the developers must then patch. If given the option to, many users will just continue to postpone software updates indefinitely. This becomes a security risk for which the software developers are ultimately responsible, hence forced updates.


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

[User] [Star Wars] Anakin is halfway-smart and sides with Mace in Palpatine's office. Palpatine kills Windu, and Anakin throws down with him right there. Who would have won the duel? (pretend Palpatine still has his saber)

[Assistant]
Palpatine is far stronger than Anakin at that point. A straight up duel would end with him losing or retreating, which is essentially the same thing.

This is barring the Force intervening and allowing him an opening to defeat him, achieving his destiny in the process.


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

[User] ELI5: On a DVD remote, why is the pause button symbolized by two lines? What about play and stop? (Sideways triangle and square, respectively.)

[Assistant]
The symbols used for play and stop originated with reel-to-reel tape decks. There were forward and reverse directions and the arrow indicated which direction the tape was moving. The square indicated no tape direction because it wasn't moving. Generally, when playing audio tape the tape went from left-to-right, so the symbol pointing from left to right became the play symbol.

On devices that recorded, there'd typically be a little red light above the record button which later was represented with a red circle, and sometimes just a circle.

When cassette tapes were developed, one of the manufacturers (I think they were later bought by Teac), figured that it should be possible to pause a tape while recording. The pause feature would hold the head against the tape and have it ready to go immediately when the pause was released - it also avoided recording a sort of audio noise associated with starting a the recording mid-way through the tape. By that time, the other symbols were well known and widely used and a designer was given the task to develop a symbol for the pause function. Deciding that a pause was "like a stop", they started with the stop symbol and simply decided to break it in two. They used a vertical break rather than a horizontal one because they figured if it looked like an equals sign, people might be confused.

Enter DVDs and media keyboards. Many people haven't seen a reel-to-reel audio tape recorder except in old movies. The notion of a "direction" to the media doesn't even exist anymore. However, the meaning of the symbols for play, record, stop, and pause (and their variants) are still widely used and understood.


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

[User] ELI5: How are special effects/CGI becoming better? Is there a point at which CGI just can't become any better/more realistic?

[Assistant]
The problem CGI is facing these days is called 'the uncanny valley'. It means that, even though you *consciously* are unable to remember exactly where the freckles on the skin of your significant other are placed on their skin, or the way their eyebrows are curved, heck, even the way their hair does look a certain way every morning when they wake up, so anything like those small details, you *unconsciously* still 'know' the way it has to be, in order for them to look 'right'.

Now, obviously you know a person you're sharing a great deal of time with (family, friends, etc) very well, so this comes to no surprise. *But* this effect of subconsciously 'knowing' how a human being has to look, expands to completely unknown people, animals or objects as well. Take "Monsters, Inc." as an example. They needed megatons of animateable hair for all those furry creations they had (most well-known: James P. Sullivan) in the movie. They *invented* new tech just to do that: Render and animate billions of single hair. And yet, even though you obviously never saw a being that looks anything like Sullivan, you still would see that the flow of his fur was a slight bit 'off' as in "That's not real fur!".

Over time, technologie got much better, to the point of some remarkable success in fooling your brain, specifically in fast moving environments and with inanimate objects(Think 'The day after tomorrow' quakes, collapsing houses, crashing cars, etc, all from rather far away - these kind of things work pretty good), but as soon as you get into the area of living things, moreso in closeup shots (e.g., the avatars from Cameron's "Avatar"), the uncanny valley effect kicks in and your brain goes "Now, wait a second, *something's* wrong with that car/tree/cat/person.." and you immediately see through the cgi works.
It will take quite some more effort until cgi can produce a dog or cat (...) that our brains will accept as 'real', even more with a human being. It might happen some time in the future, given new technologies and/or software.

tl;dr: Brains are not easily fooled to consider a cgi 'thing' a real object or person. The more familiar your brain is to a given 'something', the harder it is for CGI to produce said 'something' as lifelike enough, to overlook the fact it *is* CGI - and vice versa, the more foreign or alien (sorry) something is, the more willing your brain is to accept it as real. As of today, the technology is not there, yet, but this may change in the future.

(Edit: spelling, grammar)
(Edit2: More spelling)


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

[User]
[The Lion King] How exactly did Scar's kingship cause a drought??

Did he have a bad environmental policy? Did he order a poorly thought-out dam project?

[Assistant]
I always thought that the lions should have migrated to follow the herds.

But scar was so obsessed with Pride Rock that he wouldn't let the pride leave.

So we see them in the dry season.  It wasn't that Scar made it dry, it was that he ignored the circle of life.