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

[User]
[MARVEL] Exactly how powerful are the Watchers?

They're supposed to be all-knowing beings, right?

 Are they omnipotent?

 Are they watching all universes? Ultimate, 616, MAX, etc?

 Do they exist on a seperate plane apart from all universes or do they exist in each universe like essential people such as Spider-Man and Wolverine.

 Basically, what are they capable of?

[Assistant]
Prior to their ascension to what we know of them as now, they were a humble but brilliant race, like humans,  who after thousands of years of study, discovered a process to turn their entire bodies into pure energy, rendering the need to breath, eat or drink useless and essentially becoming immortal. They didn't gain anything else from the process. No energy beams or mental powers. Arguably, they already possessed the power to teleport (an old scientific invention). They no longer evolved. They grew bored. They determined that they should be a force of good in the universe and assist other, sentient, races in their evolution.

The first planet they visited was a race of lizard men. They taught the lizard men all the good/helpful things there was to know about what nuclear energy could do, then departed feeling fulfilled. When they returned to see how far the race had jumped thanks to the advancements the Watchers taught them, they found a world scarred. Because the lizards had never struggled and studied the dangers of nuclear energy, they used it in bombs and weapons and incited a nuclear winter that killed all their people.

The Watchers, at that point vowed never to interfere again. They would only watch and observe events that could help increase their knowledge of the universe. They aren't all-knowing, all-powerful nor are they mortal. They are vastly intelligent and made of pure energy and can teleport. They are in tune with the universal powers Eternity and Infinity so they know where to go for important events which almost always has to do with Galactus.


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

[User]
Do sea creatures (dolphins, fish, whales) see as well outside water as in it?

And what about, for instance, baluga whales in tanks that can see people through the glass. How well are they seeing them?

[Assistant] The reason we don't see well in water is because it has a different refractive index than air and our eyes can't adjust to it perfectly.  Goggles put air between our eyes and the water, thus allowing us to focus properly.  The tank glass effectively does the same thing.  Because the whales still look through water before they look through the air, they can focus on objects on the other side of the glass as well as they can on objects in the water.


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

[User] Could empirical evidence ever give us a reason to change our logic?

[Assistant] Quine and Putnam (and, for that matter, Poincare and Carnap more loosely speaking) famously thought that the answer was at least in principle yes. Putnam even explored "quantum logic," as did a number of others. Almost every philosopher who has said said that this was an in principle possibility, however, has also argued that in practice it will never happen because we'll almost certainly prefer a much more complex physical (or biological, whatever) theory than a more complex logic.


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

[User]
ELI5: an electron has a 'negative' charge and a proton a 'positive' charge, but what exactly is a 'charge'.

And , if a neutron has no charge,  what is it then?

[Assistant]
Ultimately charge is just a name we have given to a property we have discovered.  We have learned how different values of that property interact with each other and used that to devise a theory that explains their behavior.

Asking what it "is" is like asking what blue is, and why we call that color blue and this one red, and not the other way around.  There's not a satisfying reason, it's just because those are the names we've chosen to describe the properties.


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

[User]
ELI5 why we get tax returns at the end of the year? Why doesn't the government just tax us the correct amount?

I could be absolutely retarded but it never made sense to me. Is the government just acting like a bank and giving you a fun little bonus at the end of the year? Or is there an actual reason for this?

[Assistant]
TL;DR version:

* You are taxed based on how much the government thinks you will make in a year.
* You later figure out how much you really made, and thus how much you owed in taxes. This is what people call "doing their taxes."
* If the government taxed you too much, they give some money back. If they didn't tax you enough, then you have to give them some more.


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

[User] Is it possible for a mutagenic agent to cause a beneficial mutation?

[Assistant]
Theoretically, yes, and this is partly how novel traits emerge over time.

In general though, most mutations are harmful and any agent which introduces many mutations is very likely to have a harmful effect on the organism.


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

[User]
[Marvel] Why is Punisher not chosen to become a Ghost Rider?

He's a perfect candidate. He only goes after the worst of the worst. Why hasn't the Spirit of Vengeance chosen him?

[Assistant]
Punisher became the Ghost Rider in Thanos #16.

In that issue, Thanos killed everyone on Earth. Then Frank Castle swore revenge against him and made a deal with the Devil and became the Ghost Rider.

Then, Galactus came to Earth to seek refuge from Thanos' wave of annihilation and gave Castle Power Cosmic.

Then he became Galactus' herald and became known as the Cosmic Ghost Rider.

After that, he pledged allegiance with Thanos and became his right-hand man, now known as King Thanos, because neither could kill each other.

King Thanos also kept Hulk as his pet by keeping Hulk chained in his basement.

It's a great comic and is a part of the "Thanos Wins" story arc. You should check it out.


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

[User]
ELi5 - Do puffed out cheeks when holding breath actually get used?

In other words, if I jump in a pool and fill up my lungs and mouth with the stereotypical chipmunk cheeks full of air, do my lungs use any of that air in my cheeks as like a reserve?  Or is it only the air that made it into the lungs that gets used?

[Assistant]
The main issue with this is where do you get the pressure to puff your cheeks? There has to be some air pressure pushing your cheeks outward and its not from the outside because then the pressure inside and outside your cheeks would match and they wouldnt puff out. So that air pressure must be coming from you lungs. If youre puffing your cheeks, youre pushing air out of your lungs to do it.
Try this, fill your lungs with as much air as you can, then puff your cheeks, theoretically this is 100% maximum air capacity. But youll find that you can pull the cheek air back into your lungs if you try. Thats because it came from your lungs.


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

[User] ELI5: how do scientists determine the composition of planets many light years away?

[Assistant]
So one of the properties inherent to every material is what wavelengths of light they tend to absorb and emit.

If we look at light bouncing off a distant object and it seems to be absorbing and emitting wavelengths of light characteristic of Hydrogen, we know that the object has hydrogen in it.


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

[User]
If a person/a brain, was somehow born without being able to receive stimuli from the body through the 5 senses, would it still have consciousness?

Not sure if this is the right sub, but I'll explain what I mean by the question a little more. I was thinking the other night after recently reading some articles about how nothing exists until we look at it. This got me thinking, that our consciousness only exists because we have outside stimuli that created that perception. If I was born without the ability to feel, see, hear, taste, and smell. How would I be able to form a thought? Or would I be able to? Would my mind create some other way to perceive the world around it?

[Assistant]
I think for the purposes of your question and the answers you hope to receive, it is important to establish that for Humans, *there are many more than 5 Senses.*

By some estimates, there are 30-70 "senses" through which the Human body can perceive.  Examples include the sensing of: Balance, Temperature, Pain, Familiarity, Time-passing, and dozen and dozens more.

More important to your ability to think, is *Language*.  If you have a limited structure of language, you will not be able to "think" as you understand it.  Humans think with an "inner-voice."

Language is integral to the inner-voice.  For example, with an absence of a spoken language, deaf people "think" by signing in their minds and turn it into a voice to drive inner-thought. Without a vocabulary and grammar to create a condition for thinking and the platform from which to build thoughts, thinking just wouldn't be possible.

It has been demonstrated that a poorly educated person who possesses a limited vocabulary and a limited understanding of grammar often cannot verbalise the ideas of more complex topics, and as such, wouldn't have the ability to deeply consider its nature and effects it may have on them given the limitations of their inner-voice to provide a language for understanding and complex thought.  A rich vocabulary is therefore an integral part of the system required for complex thought.

The senses, all of them, play a lesser extent to the process of *thought*, per se.  Should you have a complete language in your mind, you can lose all other senses but still maintain rich and complex thoughts.

Nevertheless, we are all brains in vats. :) Drink up.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does eating spicy food make my nose run?

[Assistant] Capsaicin is a chemical in some spicy foods like peppers. Allyl isothiocyanate is an oil in some spicy foods like mustard. Both irritate the linings of your nose and lungs. Your body thinks it is being attacked, and does whatever it can to stop the attack. This is why some people sweat, produce tears, produce mucus (snot), or even gag when eating spicy foods.


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

[User]
ELI5: My kid wants to know exactly why she gets dizzy when she spins in circles?

"Is my brain banging around in there?"

[Assistant]
There are little tubes inside of your ear that have water in them. Normally, they help you tell which direction you're turning. Try it! Close your eyes and sit in a chair, and have your parent turn you in a circle. You can tell you're turning, right? Even though your eyes cant see anything, those tubes in your ear with the water sloshing around can tell you that you're turning, all on their own!
When you turn around too much in your chair, the water in the tubes gets a little confused. Even when you stop, the water keeps telling you that you're spinning. Basically, because you were spinning for so long, the water in your ear tubes kept spinning even though you stopped. That's why you get dizzy! Your eyes are telling you that you stopped moving, and your ears are telling you that you're still spinning! You're brain doesn't know who to listen to, and you end up feeling dizzy.


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

[User]
ELI5: What happens when someone consumes too many energy drinks or sodas, either in a short period (as in a day or few hours) or over a long span of time?

I've always wondered since it's traditional for me and my family to consume this stuff especially during the holidays, sodas more than energy drinks.

[Assistant]
In both cases, the person can overdoes on Caffeine. This can be very serious.

Drinking a lot over a short period of time It causes irregular heart rate, hallucination, breathing problems, and convulsions. If the person had a weak heart or an underlying heart condition, it could cause them to have a heart attack, and even death.

The person would also ingest a large amount of sugar, supplements, and vitamins, which cause the body systems to go haywire and cause all sorts of issues. These are the greatest risk for long term consumption.


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

[User]
What radioactive element takes the longest time to decay into something stable? How long is that?

My younger brother asked this, and I'm having trouble finding the answer through google. Any help, please?

[Assistant]
It's hard to say, because after a certain point, the accuracy of our equipment is exceeded, and we need to run century-long experiments with the most sensitive of detectors to prove it. Otherwise, scientists are just relying upon mathematical models, which have their own error bars.

Tellurium-128 is worth mentioning, though. It has the longest *confirmed* half-life, at 2.2*10^^24 years. That's two trillion trillion years.

^^128 Te decays to ^^128 Xe which is considered stable.


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

[User]
[DC] If Superman was turned into a vampire, would he still get powers from the sun?

A Vampire bit Superman and turned him into another vampire (Let's say that Superman was recently exposed to krypronite, so he was weakened enough for the vampire to bite him and pierce his skin) Would he still get his powers from the sun? Would he die if he was exposed to the sun? What would happen?

[Assistant]
He would retain his powers until he used up the charge he already had, it would be impossible to recharge the normal way though. DC vampires combust immediately when exposed to sunlight.

He can maybe recharge slowly from moonlight.


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

[User] [The Incredibles] What ultimately became of Mirage after Syndrome's death?

[Assistant] Likely tried as a coconspirator. She was a willing participant in the deaths of many super heroes. It's possible that Mr Incredible might be able to give evidence that she turned on Syndrome and without her help reaching America Syndromes robot would've caused much more destruction. If she was pardoned or found innocent then she was likely secretly relocated and given a new life under the superhero relocation act.


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

[User]
Are there any real life evidence of drawbacks of privatization?

I finished high school level Economics and learned about benefits and drawbacks of privatization. I was impressed about the pros (I learnt plenty examples on this), but I was not persuaded about the cons.

Can you give any real life examples of drawbacks of privatization and, if possible, what have the policymakers done so far to limit them?

[Assistant]
Russia, after the fall of communism, privatized much of its state owned industry. Their method of doing so ended up with a lot of politically connected oligarchs who ran large companies with little competition.

Privatization works well when there's competition and good incentives by the government. That doesn't always happen.


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

[User]
ELI5 What is the purpose of a NumLock key?

In what world would anybody need to deactivate their numpad?

[Assistant]
NumLock and ScrollLock both exist for those people who are spreadsheet ~~Archmages~~ experts

The number pad is by far the fastest way to punch numbers into a spreadsheet repeatedly, that's why it exists.  Having access to arrow keys on the same hand speeds up navigation of nearby cells while access to Home (go to the left-most cell), End (goes to the right-most cell), Page up, and Page down speed up access to distant points on the sheet.

Scroll lock is another key that exists almost solely for navigation of spreadsheets.  If you are in Excel and you turn on ScrollLock you can use the arrow keys to move the screen without losing the cell that you're in so you can pan up and right to see columns/rows you may be missing but still be able to type in your selected cell.  Again, just a key that exists almost solely for improved navigation in spreadsheet programs

So your next thought is, why do we need keys for this?  You can clearly just use the mouse to move around or click on the cell you want

Except for many years you didn't have a mouse.  Back in the before times, a lot of "computers" were terminals that accessed a mainframe and timeshared, LANPAR was a spreadsheet program for Mainframes back in 1969.  Microsoft DOS didn't support a mouse until 1982, and mice were uncommon until around 1985.  That's about 25 years of spreadsheet programs being in common use without mice being in common use.


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

[User] ELI5: When really angry, why do some people feel better if they do something destructive, like screaming or hitting something, sometimes even to the point of hurting themselves?

[Assistant] It's called redirected aggression. Humans (and other mammals) feel better when scared or angry, if they attack something else. If they can't directly attack the source of their anger or fear, then they attack something else, and that makes them feel better. This has also been demonstrated in the lab among rats. If you do something repetitively stressful to rats, like shock them, and they can't do anything to prevent or control it, they'll get depressed and listless. They'll show signs of stress on their body, too. But if you put two rats in the cage, then one rat will attack the other rat. The attacker will not show signs of stress, while the attacked rat will show more signs of stress, as well as injury. Humans know they shouldn't be attacking people. Some do it anyway, but an alternative is the attack things rather than people.


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

[User]
[DC] Has there been any member of the Suicide Squad who lived long enough to end their sentence or be pardoned?

The main way Amanda Waller is able to convince the prisoners in Task Force X (aside from putting bombs in their heads, coercion, manipulation, or outright blackmail) to do her missions is the offer of getting time off their sentences or even a pardon. Has there ever been a member of the Suicide Squad who managed to live long enough that they were able to outlast their sentence and were freed?

[Assistant]
Waller: Your final mission is sticking this kryptonite suppository up Doomsday's butt... Good luck

Edit: it would be hilarious if that was Waller's go-to final mission. And as a result, Doomsday is constantly on the lookout for random criminals trying to shove kryptonite in his ass.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does a USB hub work?

How do they manage to combine 4 or 6  USB signals into one USB cable?

[Assistant] USB is a packet based communications bus. To send data between the devices the data is gathered into a suitable packet of data and then transmitted over the wires. When the packet have been sent the device will switch over to listening for incoming packets from the other device. As USB was designed with USB hubs in mind each packet have a device ID marker on it so that the hub is able to send it to the correct device. There is also a way for the hub to send a message back to the device when there is an incoming packet saying it is busy with another packet and that the data packet can not be forwarded at this time.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does the body "decide" if it needs to have a fever in order to fight an infection?

Some infections cause a fever while others don't. why?

I'v had flues that made me feel almost dead, but no fever came. And I'v had colds/throat infections that were merely uncomfortable, but I did get a fever. Whats the difference?

[Assistant]
The message to have a fever is released by some cells in the immune system when they see a bug. These messages are in the form of molecules called cytokines.

There are many different types of cells in the immune system, and they all communicate differently. There are a lot of cytokine molecule types, so each player can communicate different things.

If an immune cell that likes to secrete "fever" cytokines finds a bug, it might send a little bit of signal. If it finds a lot of bugs and gets really mad, it might crank the fever signal way up.

Other immune cells might recognize a bug and release little to no "fever signal." This way, the immune system can respond proportionately to the threat.

Edit: It's worth nothing that inflammation helps the immune response - more immune cells show up from the blood to the battle because the blood vessels become "leakier" - leading to inflammation and swelling. However, this inflammation often causes problems when it gets out of control. You can even die from becoming "too inflamed" - it's called septic shock.


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

[User]
ELI5: If Nebulas are giant clouds of dust and gas, how do Nebulas keep their shape?

For instance on the Horsehead Nebula, every picture I've seen over time looks the exact same and appears the nebula has not changed or altered shape.

[Assistant]
They don't. They are constantly expanding and changing shape, it is just that they are so huge, that it takes forever for the changes to be noticeable.

The Horsehead nebula is slightly different now than it was 20 years ago, and in a way that it is just barely visibly notable.


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

[User]
When did human beings start exercising?

From an anthropological standpoint, when did humans start developing and using exercises to improve physical fitness?  When did we discover that repetitive motion + resistance = growth?

[Assistant]
Physical activity for the sake of fitness began when we'd progressed to the point that members of society could survive without significant physical exertion - i.e., when society had reached a point where physically contributing members could support nonphysically contributing members to a degree where a primarily sedentary lifestyle was possible.  Leaders, the aged, artisans and others would fall in this category.

There are references as far back as the early Chinese dynasties recognizing lack of activity as a contributor to ill health, so it's a connection people made pretty quickly.  Remember, in a state of nature fitness is the norm - or you die.  We wouldn't have "developed exercise" so much as we would have noticed an odd phenomenon of sedentary life and developed techniques to address it.


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

[User]
[Wreck It Ralph] This character in Sugar Rush never existed?

Here in my town we like to go play in the arcade, and there's this fun racing game called Sugar Rush. I played the game with a character named King Candy, but the character the next day was gone. He disappeared, poof. I searched on the internet about the characters of this game, but there's no information about a supposed King Candy.

I doubt I could have imagined that. I'm sure there was a character like that. Can anyone give me some information about it?

[Assistant]
Your arcade probably had the machine modded with a hacked rom of the Sugar Rush. TECHNICALLY SPEAKING one shouldn't do that of course, but hey, there are all sorts of pokemon hacks to enhance the challenge and get all the mons, so why not a racing game?

They probably rolled the version back due to glitches. You know, racers clipping through each other and such.


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

[User]
CMV: Microsoft Word is brutally bad

Microsoft Word has been around for what now, decades? And yet, getting some of the most basic functionality to work, such as putting bullet points in the right spot, can be brutally frustrating and time-consuming. What gives? How can such an established product still be so bad at the basics?

Let me be clear - I'm not a Microsoft hater (in fact, I love Windows 10), and other products such as Excel do a great job for what I need. But MS Word has a special place in my heart in terms of products whose very existence seems questionable.

[Assistant]
Please don't make me defend word.

> And yet, getting some of the most basic functionality to work, such as putting bullet points in the right spot, can be brutally frustrating and time-consuming. What gives? How can such an established product still be so bad at the basics?

Word is a WYSIWYG program. Which means it's attempting to give you an exact version of the document that will be displayed when PDF'd or printed out. The flipside to this is that it's a graphical user interface built over a program that tells things like a printer or a PDF converter what to do and where to put everything. And not only that, but it has to be comfortable for an inexperienced user. Most people don't need bullets in an exact location, and thanks to tools like the format painter it's pretty easy to set it right once and then carry that over to whatever other bullets you want.

Word is an excellent tool for what it is (word processing), and frankly a rather okay tool for what it isn't (a layout and design program). Sure, you could spring the cash for InDesign and get much better, more consistent results (after you take what's basically a college course in how to use it) for the layout and design of your document but...Becky this is a bake sale for the local elementary school, some clip art and words that have a drop shadow are all we're looking for.

If you're fretting about layout and don't want to pay out the ass for InDesign, then use PowerPoint. PowerPoint: It's not just for presentations!


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

[User]
[Lovecraft] Do cultists know that a Great One isn't going to care about their contributions?

Just wondering, all the Great Ones and Old Ones seem to have some kinds of cultists and followers among the humans, but do these people realize how far below they are really are? From all we know, none of them are going to care enough about a few cultists to spare them from the same fate the rest of humanity gets.

So what do these people think they may gain exactly? Or are cultists basically always already mad and more or less controlled by otherworldly beings?

[Assistant]
Cultists aren't exactly sane, but there's some sense in their actions. It's a given that unspeakable horrors will regard humans as we do ants, but maybe if those ants were really good, they could live in the ant farm? Or at least not be stepped on immediately?

Better odds than doing absolutely nothing, anyways.


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

[User]
What chemical reaction can turn silver a golden colour?

My silver ring turned a gold colour when bathing in  a volcanic spring. Can anyone explain the likely process behind it?  The colour wore off after a couple of weeks, starting with the prominent parts of the pattern within hours. I don't know what minerals were in the spring, but definitely sulphur, from the smell!

[Assistant] It sounds like you're describing tarnishing. Sulphur containing substances from the spring/air around the spring will have reacted with the silver to form a layer of silver sulphide that gives a yellowish look to the metal initially. If it's not cleaned and remains exposed to sulphur compounds then the layer builds and eventually it can turn the silver a lot darker.


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

[User]
ELI5:Why are the cartridges for NES and SNES games so big if they only have to fit a relatively small computer chip.

I saw people making the hard drive holders and was astonished.

[Assistant]
It had to do with the Video Game Crash around the time the NES was released. To make the NES look more pleasing to the US, they turned the Famicom into an "Entertainment System" Much like a VCR or Cable Box. So in turn they made the Game Carts much bigger than needed to resemble something like a VHS Tape. This gave the US populous the illusion of holding something substantial and worth the money they put down for the thing.

By the time the SNES came out, it was the Norm for carts like that, so it stuck. Even the N64 carts are bigger than needed.


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

[User] ELI5 why do 2 note power chords sound good and resonate well on one guitar, but other two note harmonisations sound better on two guitars?

[Assistant] Intermodulation distortion from running an open fifth through a single amplifier is what actually produces the additional 'missing' notes to fill in a power chord. Playing each note through a separate amplifier doesn't allow for intermodulation to happen.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] how much would being a wizard decrease cost of living, assuming you're competent at magic?

It seems like it'd be a pretty significant amount, but is it really? I've been thinking about this recently and it makes me wonder.

[Assistant]
Almost entirely. 'Wizard poor' is nothing like muggle poor. Your cost of living is basically... a tiny amount of food. Then you can duplicate or grow it as much as you like. You can conjure flavouring for it - sauces and whatnot. You can conjure water or wine. You can clean and repair with a word. And there's no land tax, because wizards can create new *space* whenever they want, and live in said space.

So the principle costs that we would regard as an essential cost of living would be travel and clothing, since conjuring clothing requires not just general knowledge but specific knowledge. For travel, you can purchase a broom and get just about anywhere for a single initial cost, or connect your home to the Floo network and pay for powder as you use it (which is cheap enough that the Weasleys can do so), or use the Knight Bus, all assuming you dislike casual use of apparation (or that there are places you need to go that you cannot apparate to).

Now, of course, with magical living come some magical problems, some of which people will typically pay to have solved. Gnome infestations, various unwanted hauntings, etc. But that is comparable to the mundane problems that competent wizards can completely ignore, so it's neutral in the comparison.


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

[User]
Why is rent control a bad thing?

I don't understand economics like I probably should and i'm having trouble understanding why rent control is a bad thing. I live in Saskatchewan if that makes a difference.

[Assistant]
One of the main reason capitalism works is that prices somewhat accurately reflect supply and demand. Rent control takes away this information. As a result, there isn't the same incentive to create new developments. Less new development means less supply, which would increase prices, but they're kept artificially low which compounds the problem. You end up with a situation where the government then has to step in to create new housing, because businesses don't find it profitable.

How disastrous it ends up depends on how out of tune the government rent control is with what the open market prices would have been. This isn't like banking regulations or employment insurance though, it's a reduction of information that never ends well.


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

[User] [ELI5] How does Google Maps get real time traffic information?

[Assistant]
One of the things Google is very good at is acquiring and analysing information, often from a range of different sources.

I believe the real time traffic information can come from two places. The obvious one is that they buy it from another company that specialises in it - say TomTom and just plug it into their own systems.

Another is quite simply using the sheer volume of android devices out there. Your little Android device (and possibly your iPhone with Google maps installed) regularly phones home to Google and reports its position. Google can take all those readings and accurately guess how fast traffic is moving based on how fast each device is moving along a road.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why aren't telephone scams stopped?

I receive the same telephone scams over and over, people using automated tough guy sounding voices pretending to ask for charity for the police, people with Indian accents and American names who say they are working for microsoft calling about my computer,  and I'm reading now that people are getting fake IRS scam calls.

How come these people aren't being caught and do we have any potentially effective means of stopping them?

[Assistant]
Unfortunately it's because telescammers are now very mobile and use technology to both hinder people from identifying the caller and keep law enforcement from using methods to track and prosecute them.

They use techniques like spoofing unknowing peoples phone numbers, or using disposable phone numbers through less than reputable dealers that can be quickly and easily disconnected before moving to the next victim number.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why don't opponents of illegal immigration go after the employers who hire illegal immigrants?

What would be the political/social/economic implications of forcing employers to hire legal workers?  Isn't the basic tenet of economics supply and demand?  If you reduce the supply of jobs the illegal immigrants can obtain, fewer will try to come settle here, no?

[Assistant] Because the rich actually love having a permanent underclass of workers without rights, and have always played on the ignorance and racism of the white working class in order to direct the blame at those beneath them, rather than those at the top.


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

[User] ELI5:Why is every installer called wizard ?

[Assistant]
To understand why installers are called wizards today you need to know what it was like to install big software programs before we had wizards.

Sometimes an installation could be pretty straightforward.  A simple unpacking of compressed files and sub-directories into a specific directory or sub.  You don't need a wizard for that.

But then people started making software that had multiple configurations.  Other people started making software that made changes to how your operating system behaved.  And yet more people started making software that needed to install its own support software first.  And none of this was automatic or easy.  It involved typing in specific commands and manually changing settings in your operating system prior to or after the install...or the software wouldn't work.

Then, someone came up with the idea to create an interactive interface that presented these options and permission requests to the user during the installation.  A few buttons and some check boxes, and PRESTO!  you're complex installation with all the configurations and customization you wanted are taken care of instantly, like magic.

And this step-by-step guideline process could be applied to more than just installations.  It may surprise younger people, but sending a file to a printer and having that printer apply ink to paper in the fashion you expected was not always that easy.  It was made easier with wizards, which hid away all the complicated configurations, asked you about the things that the average user was most concerned with, and then magically made everything work the way you wanted.

So why wizard, and not sorcerer, or warlock, or mage?
Well, before wizards existed to automagically make software work simply and easily, the people who knew how to actually operate computers were often called wizards.

They were called wizards because wizard's specifically are the men and women of fabled stories who read ancient tomes of arcane script and managed to extract the secrets of magic from them.  No common man could simply read a spell-book.  The terminology and symbols were as foreign as different language, and only the most intelligent could decipher them.  Computer wizards read technical manuals and programming books during a time where the assembly language of computers was not a commonly understood or easily readable thing, and they unlocked the secrets of that language to harness the limitless power held within a microchip.


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

[User]
[30k] Why did the Emperor do so little?

I understand he was working on the webway project, but how did he allow Chaos to create the heresy in the first place? He knew about Chaos and had several sons who were clearly unstable such as Angron, but didn't seem to have any back up plans once the heresy took root.

Also, does he have any future sight abilities? Several Primarchs knew it was coming but he seemed to be totally oblivious.

[Assistant] He did have some backup plans, though they were against threats that he knew existed and they revolved around him not being hardly better than a corpse in a throne. He barely knew anything about the Warp when the Heresy started, and he was betrayed by who he thought was by far his most loyal comrade. All of his plans took a backseat to the webway project, and that was because the webway would have ensured that there would never be a need for a backup plan again. Sadly, we all know how that turned out.


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

[User] [Star Wars] "Once more the Sith will rule the galaxy" - Palpatine: When did the Sith rule the galaxy, and what all do we know of this time period?

[Assistant]
In Legends and in canon, there had been multipl massive Sith Empires millennia in the past.

Their final defeat in Legends came after the Battle of Ruusan, a thousand years prior to Palpatine's rise as Chancellor then Emperor.

In canon, something similar happened,  but we don't know where they were finally defeated; we only know the sole survivor, Darth Bane, created a new Sith Order, based on the Rule of Two (one master, one apprentice, no more Sith beyond that) that ended with the deaths of Palpatine and Darth Vader.


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

[User]
Why do worms come out of the ground onto the footpath when it's raining?

Whenever it rains, the footpaths in my neighbourhood are covered with *hundreds* of worms. Why do they come out of the dirt to lay on these hard wet surfaces?

[Assistant] Worms actually breathe through their skin and they have to stay wet or moist so oxygen can be absorbed. When it rains and the normally dry surfaces are covered in water, it gives them opportunity to go where they otherwise can't.


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

[User] ELI5:Why has Botswana done so well compared to the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa?

[Assistant]
Tiny country with giant diamond reserves and made a deal with DeBeers early on where Botswana gets 70% of the money and DeBeers runs the diamond mines for them.

A lot of African countries kicked all the whites out after independence and that hurt their economies. That wasn't likely to happen in Botswana as their first leader was married to a white woman.

The Tswana tribe that dominates the country is known for having their act together. Most Tswana live in South Africa and their Homelands were the most successful ones during Apartheid.


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

[User] ELI5 : why does saltwater systems in pools kills bacteria and algae, while the sea is full of life?

[Assistant] Because salt water pool systems convert the chlorine ion in salt (a sodium ion with a chlorine ion [NaCl]) into actual chlorine through electrolysis. The chlorine generated kills off bacteria and algae much like a regular pool. This system eliminates the need to dump chlorine into the pool as it is generated from the added salt.


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

[User]
[Stargate] How long would it take to evacuate the Earth through the gate?

My first blush estimate: 7 billion people at 1 person/second gives 7 billion seconds or about 222 years. Not sure how you'd maintain that rate, though. Supplies would have to be sent, too, and there's the 38-minute window to worry about. And not every threat is going to wait for two centuries while you evacuate...

[Assistant]
Trains, that's how. The new maglev being developed to replace the japanese bullet train can hold 1000 passengers and can travel at 310 MPH. The train is about 400 metres long or about .25 miles. That means that one of these trains could cross the event horizon in 3 seconds.

So 333 people per second. (if you have an infinite supply of trains travelling non-stop.

So assuming you have a massive rail network with enough loops to keep these trains at approximately full speed, so you can put them into a holding pattern while the gate spins up and down, lets give a 5 minute safety margin during dial up (don't need one later as gates won't shut down while an object is in transit) let's be generous and say 20 seconds between trains. That's 86 trains through.

By the time the gate has shut down, the first train will have unloaded and be on it's way back. Because these trains are empty, they can go faster and we're also comfortable with cutting the safety margins, so say 12 seconds per train, means all 86 trains can be back in 17 minutes 12 seconds (round it off to 20 to give a safety margin in there) When they return, you've got another 86 trains ready and waiting to go.

Add a minute for each dial up sequence and you're looking at precisely 1 hour for 86,000 people or 23.8 people per second.

With the current world population of 7.4 billion, they'll be through in 9 years, 8 months and 6 days.

You would need 2752 train carriages though. You could also cut the safety margins required by stringing more carriages together but you would need more time to unload and more carriages may slow things down too much.


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

[User] ELI5 - what is the body doing during the "ahhh" phase of "ahh-choo"?

[Assistant] Inhaling. you can't sneeze if you don't have any air in your lungs. When you go "ahhh" you're breathing in as much air as you can so when you go "choo" you have some air pressure to clear out the slime, mucus and irritants your body doesn't like.


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

[User]
[Marvel] What if Peter Parker wasn't a scientific genius?

Let's say Peter was a normal kid with normal grades and had no more scientific knowledge than anyone else at 16 when he got bit. How would things change?

[Assistant]
Honestly he probably wouldn't have attended the scientific demonstration where he was bitten in the first place.

Even if he did, definitely no webshooters, spider-trackers, or other gadgets. So unless this is a Spider-Man who has organic webs, he's going to be a lot less effective. His scientific knowledge is also key to beating a lot of his early villains, so it's possible that someone like Sandman or Lizard has him outmatched early on.


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

[User] What is going on in psychiatric patients with catatonic schizophrenia?

[Assistant]
There is research to suggest that there is a neurological basis for catatonic symptoms for instance motor disturbance is less responsive to treatment in schizophrenic patients, which separates it from the other purely psychotic symptoms.

Research into the presence of catatonia has also found that an earlier age of onset of illness and poorer overall functioning are associated with catatonic symptoms. These findings appear to suggest a developmental neurological basis for catatonia.

There is a case to be made for catatonia to be recognized in its own right separate from schizophrenia, as the same motor symptoms appear in cases of toxic serotonin syndrome, adolescents with autism and delirious mania and is treatable with electroconvulsive therapy and benzodiazepines and recent research suggests the same neurological functions are the ones present in obsessive compulsive disease and a specific form of encephalitis.

>Why does catatonia occur?

Most probably it occurs due to a dopamine blockade. Without activity of inhibatory synapses the interconnections between neurons make the brain unstable, which is why there are GABA excreting neurons in the brain. If this particular chemical is not being excreted or not being received by neurons, there is no inhibition, and that is the cause of spasms and motor distortion - catatonia by itself can be effectively treated with benzodiazepines, barbiturates and ECT.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Just how strong was Yoda compared to his "peers"?

Yoda was the strongest Jedi alive during his years. He trained some of the absolute best Jedi in their ways. And hell, he was even strong enough that The Emperor was going to run away before Yoda cornered him and made him fight.

So just how strong is he compared to someone in "second" like Mace Windu?

[Assistant]
It's hard to quantify that kind of thing, especially in a who would beat who kind of way. Anakin was "stronger" than Kenobi, but who walked away on Mustafar?

Yoda is much wiser and more learned than any other Jedi, owing to his long lifespan having given him a few more centuries of contemplation and study than his contemporaries.

In practical matters, Windu is generally considered to be on par with him in a fight, but it's honestly not inconceivable that a "lower" Jedi like Kenobi or Anakin could have beaten him.


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

[User] [Star Wars] What was Yoda's plan for Anakin after he refused his training? Was he going to send a high strength force user back to a backwater planet and hope he stayed there, or did the Jedi council have a method of humanely disposing of younglings that showed vulnerability to the Dark Side?

[Assistant]
Force-sensitives who go untrained don't develop any major abilities. They just go through life with weirdly positive luck and freaky fast reflexes, hence Anakin being capable of podracing despite being human.

There was no plan when Yoda refused to train him. Anakin would have either been sent back home, or otherwise left somewhere safe for him to grow up but not receive any instruction from the Jedi order.

Also at the time, the Jedi believed the Sith to be extinct, and other dark-side cults were small and confined to very specific planets. So they assumed the likelihood of Anakin being recruited and taught by a dark side user was basically nil.


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

[User]
How will/are human bodies adapt(ing) to increased body fat if obesity continues through many generations?

Is there any evidence of human bodies adapting to obesity?

If it is true that you can be genetically obese then are those humans better adapted for this?

Would the human body be more likely to adapt to automatically store less fat, or to strengthen its organs/structure to be able to cope more easily with increased body fat?

[Assistant]
If being overweight has enough impact on a person's average reproductive success (i.e. total number of children who survive long enough to reproduce themselves), it's not impossible that we'll eventually see human evolution select for people who are less susceptible, perhaps because they retain less fat, have less interest in fatty/high-calorie foods, or are simply more healthy with high body fat. (There are plenty of animals that are perfectly healthy with lots of fat, and would be quite unhealthy without it--look at seals, for example.)

But it is way, way, way too soon to see any evidence of that right now. The "obesity epidemic" has been a thing for a couple of generations at most. Try back in a few thousand years.

(And even that seems like a stretch, honestly. Obesity kills, but it usually kills in middle age or later, after many people have already had kids.)


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

[User] Is it probable that the solar panels from the Mars rover get cleaned by a storm or anything else?

[Assistant] Yes - actually, this happens quite a lot, and this is part of why Spirit and Opportunity lasted for so long. The Martian wind partially cleans the solar panels, so although they quickly became fairly dusty, they still ran fairly decently for quite a long time.


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

[User] [Tunak Tunak Tun - Daler Mehndi] Who are the four magical men and what is their mission on Earth?

[Assistant]
They are the anthropomorphic embodiments of the Classical Elements, the avatars of Nature itself. Petty dichotomies like good and evil, or light and darkness, are irrelevant to them, as Nature is an impartial and ultimately *amoral* force. Their sole purpose is to keep the natural order of things upon Earth in balance.

Tunak Tunak Tun is an incantation used by earthly priests to channel their energy in nature-magic ceremonies.


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

[User] ELI5: When the sun or moon is reflected on a body of water that has moving waves, the reflection appears as a path leading towards you. Why doesn't it appear simply as an enlarged sun or moon due to it being out of focus due to the waves?

[Assistant]
Because you're essentially seeing a million little curved mirrors, not a big smeared fuzzy one.

Take a hand mirror and stand under a ceiling light so you can see that light above you. Now pivot that mirror to the left and right, or up and down. Sometimes you'll see that light - it'll flash - and sometimes you won't. It's only when the mirror is at the perfect angle that you get that light's reflection. You could get the same effect if you had a bendable mirror instead, and bent it in a curve that included that light's reflection in your point of view.

Now visualize waves instead of a mirror. Small and medium waves are made largely of curved surfaces. (You get a point at the top they're generally big enough to break.) So what you have is a surface like this :

~

but repeated over and over again. Those curves are still mirrors and the right parts of those curves can be at the right angle to you and the sun/moon to reflect the sunlight or moonlight toward your eye, in the same way that the mirror you held reflected the overhead light when at the right angle.

And because the reflected sun or moon is very bright, even the tiniest of patches at the right angle amongst all of those waves sparkle and really shows up against the darker water around it that isn't that perfect angle. That huge contrast causes a series of sharply-defined specks rather than a large blurry spot.


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

[User]
ELI5: What is happening to your eyes (& brain) when you are thinking about something & you stare into the distance, seemingly oblivious to what is happening in front of your eyes?

I don't know if I'm explaining this properly.

I'm talking about when you're thinking about something really intensely and you're not really looking at anything in particular, you're just staring and thinking and not really seeing what is happening in front of your eyes.

I've found myself doing that only to "wake up" and realise I've been staring at someone or something without meaning to, simply because I'm been concentrating so hard on whatever I was thinking about.

[Assistant] Your brain cells require a lot of energy to work at full capacity, and your visual processing center is a fairly large portion of your brain (relative to the amount of space your eyes take up on your body). Put simply, your brain can choose which incoming sensory information is worth dedicating chemical energy to fully process. If you are deep in thought that requires significant frontal lobe usage (for some decision making) or if you're tired and don't have the energy for much of anything, your brain could turn its processing power away from your visual field. You'd still be processing the incoming light waves to an extent, but not much of it would reach your consciousness.


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

[User] What are the main mental disorders associated with a lack of empathy?

[Assistant] As the other commenter said, both narcissistic and antisocial personality disorders are associated with a diminished capacity for empathy. Many individuals with autism spectrum disorder also struggle to empathize with others. Finally, empathy (and other types of emotional experiences) can be diminished in individuals experiencing the negative symptoms of schizophrenia.


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

[User] [DUNE] What's the reason that A.I. and advanced computers are forbidden?

[Assistant]
An event called the Butlerian Jihad occurred approximately 10,000 years before the events of the first book, Dune. Frank Herbert's glossary described it as:

"the crusade against computers, thinking machines, and conscious robots begun in 201 B.G. and concluded in 108 B.G. Its chief commandment remains in the O.C. Bible as "Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind."

Leto II described it as a semi-religious social revolution against "a machine-attitude as much as the machines [...] Humans had set those machines to usurp our sense of beauty, our necessary selfdom out of which we make living judgments. Naturally, the machines were destroyed."


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

[User]
Why do humans prefer cooked meat to raw meat?

Most animals sure don't seem to have a problem with it.

[Assistant]
It tastes better.

The advantage to it tasting better to us is that cooked meat is much healthier.  It gets rid of bacteria and parasites, so it's beneficial to prefer the eating of cooked meat too.

Animals, such as dogs, don't have a big problem with this because their systems can handle different loads.  A dog can eat a bacteria ridden corpse and be fine.  A human cannot.


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

[User]
Is 1000 calories of ice cream the same as 1000 calories in apples?

For example if I was on a CICO diet and I'm restricting to 1000 calories, would I still lose the same amount of weight if I ate unhealthy foods than if I ate healthy foods?

[Assistant]
Yes. For the most part. There are functions of the body that might change based on WHAT you ate. For instance if you were lactose intolerant the numbers may be different, but for the purpose of calculating CICO the results would be the same.

Just be prepared to be REALLY hungry all the time if you're eating calorie dense food.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] How are Hutts "crime lords" when they mostly deal within their own borders?

Isn't Hutt Space its own territory with a legitimate government (the Hutt clans), and presumably don't violate THEIR OWN LAWS? Is it because of their dealings outside there?

(Both Legends and canon answers are fine)

[Assistant] There is not that much dichotomy between states and gangsters; you can be a 'legitimate' autocratic oligarchy and still operate like thugs while also filling your coffers through criminal operations in other people's territory. Hutt Space is like the Galaxy's Tortuga, where you can do nearly everything so long as your grease the tiny palms of the space slugs.


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

[User]
ELI5: why we get nervous and start shaking?

I'm like that.

[Assistant]
From yahoo: Yeah, it's a side effect of the adrenaline and collagen that your body releases during stressful times. Mother Nature didn't intend for us to be put in the kind of stressful social situations that we find ourselves in sometimes, but our body doesn't know the difference.

When you get stressed out, your body illicits the same response that it would if you were being attacked by a grizzly bear. Your body uses adrenaline and collagen to prepare your body for the "fight or flight" response. Basically, it is a way for your body to maximize the use of your muscles in the shortest possible time period.

When you don't use that energy, your body might start to use it automatically, resulting in uncontrolled shaking.

**TLDR: Adrenalin rush**


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

[User]
[GTAV] What would happen if Michael or Trevor were offered the deal of freedom in exchange for killing Franklin?

We all know that Franklin had the choice to get free if he choose to kill either Michael or Trevor. But what if the offer was reversed? If Michael or Trevor were offered the deal but had to kill Franklin, would they? Would they choose option C? Or would they look for another solution?

[Assistant] I think they're even more likely to gun for Deathwish than Franklin is. Michael sees a lot of potential in and genuinely cares for Franklin, and hell, this ain't anything he hasn't done before. Trevor hates the pricks anyway.


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

[User]
[Fallout 3 - Operation Anchorage] After you complete 2 of the 3 missions, banter from one AI soldier says "Never could have thought a savage could do it". What race are you in the simulation?

Is that supposed to mean your Chinese?  Native American?  African American?

[Assistant] It means you're meant to be whatever race General Chase imagined you would be when he started messing with the simulation.  Basically, the Anchorage simulation as it currently exists has little to no resemblance to what actually happened in the retaking of Anchorage.  General Chase kept adding more dramatic and exciting elements to it, which apparently included a minority protagonist.


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

[User]
[LOTR] Where did all the Dwarves go after the Fourth Age?

We know the Fourth Age will bring the dominion of Men. And most Elves have passed to the West. So what about Dwarves? What did they become? Do we know anything?

[Assistant] They died out. Low birth rates, internal strife (often due to the Rings), and war against the forces of darkness doomed the Dwarves to the point of such a small population that surviving was impossible.


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

[User] [Aliens] How on earth were the Company planning on turning an alien creature that kills anything that moves on sight ( friend and foe ) into a biological weapon and for what purpose anyway, what war was Earth fighting that would need such weapons?

[Assistant]
We know there were conflicts because of the existence of the Colonial Marines.  Some of those guys were serious veterans, with many combat missions under their belts.

As far as the utility of the Xenomorphs and Facehuggers -- well, they'd first need specimens in order to evaluate how they could effectively be exploited.  That's why they wanted to acquire them.

Some things probably jumped out to the W-Y board just based on the story Ripley told.  Weapons manufacturers would certainly be interested in molecular acid that can burn through steel.  A species that can paralyze its prey while impregnating it probably also manufactures pretty potent pharmacological substances.


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

[User]
[MadMax] What happened to the world?

In Road Warrior you definitely can tell a cataclysm happened, and I know or assume from nuclear war, as so with Thunderdome. But the first Madmax didn't really feel all that apocalyptic, save for the gang of raiders.

So what events transpired from Madmax to Roadwarrior?

[Assistant] The cataclysm was more of a descent then the result of a single event. Max started off enforcing the law in one of the stable areas, but it was obvious that they were beginning to break down. He then left the stable areas to live in the wasteland. As time went on the last groups of humans gathered around areas with resources and any sign of former civilization was lost.


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

[User]
[Steven Universe] What's the legal situation with Steven and the Gems?

Are the Gems his legal guardians? Does the government even know about alien life?

[Assistant]
It can be assumed so, though his dad is around enough that it might still be legal even if they aren't.

Yes they do. They've been on Earth for thousands of years. Do you think no one ever noticed the Kindergarten? There's even a gem on the dollar bill.


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

[User]
ELI5: Does putting " I do not own any rights " in the description of a youtube video of a music video or a tv clip actually prevent it from being taken down?

I've always laughed when people put things like that because It can't possibly do anything to prevent it from being taken it down, but it's everywhere now? Does it actually help?

[Assistant] No. Saying "I don't own this" doesn't give you the right to use something. It's a courtesy if you're posting something that could potentially be mistaken as yours - for example, if you're posting someone else's cell phone video of something, it might be nice to give credit to the person who actually recorded the event, but in the case of music videos and the like... we all know you don't own it, you don't need to tell us.


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

[User]
ELI5:How is donald trump the most popular republican candidate?

He seems to have insulted everyone, including republicans, so how come he is so popular?

[Assistant] Because of his arrogance and wealth, he's been a famous figure for decades... and that grew with things like the Apprentice TV show, his birther craziness, etc. Early in a political race, a lot of popularity is name recognition and lesser informed citizens may know him and his name while not knowing the likes of Ben Carson or Marco Rubio. And some people think it's cool/funny/a "breath of fresh air" that he speaks his mind instead of having every word sound like it was opinion polled before being spoken.


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

[User]
How exactly is memory stored in our brain?

I mean like I know it is stored in specific areas of the brain but at the molecular level,how does it "stay"?

[Assistant] Memories, as far as we know, are not stored on a molecular level. They are stored as patterns in neuron arrangements. Human memory is actually incredibly different from what you're probably used to - computer memory.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is it that when you turn a bunny rabbit on its back, it goes almost completely immobile?

Had a bunny (RIP Turbo) and I used to put him on my lap to rub his belly.
He loved it, but after a minute he would relax and go completely immobile. Stiff as a board.
(Worst part is, that's how I found him dead but that's another story....) Any-who...
His eyes moved and he was still breathing, but the only way to fix it was to turn him back over and he'd snap out of it. Any idea why?

[Assistant]
Rabbits have an ability called *tonic immobility*. It's essentially faking death by paralyzing their muscles, dropping their heart rate, and slowing their breathing. For rabbits, this is automatically triggered when flipped onto their backs.

Colloquially, this is known as "trancing" and a lot of people seem to think it's a good thing. However, when a rabbit comes out of tonic immobility, their heart rate and breathing rapidly increase and they get stressed out. I.e., it's a *bad thing* to casually put a rabbit into this state unless doing so for a surgical procedure.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does American use a Presidential system, rather than a Parliamentary one?

[Assistant]
Because we divide our government into separate branches and use them to limit the other branches. In a parliamentary system the legislative and executive branches are fused into one, which gives it more power, and in most parliamentary systems the judicial branch is partially fused as with it as well giving it even more power. In the US they are all separate and have powers to counter the other two.

We also prefer to have a bit more of a democratic process by voting on who we want our States to vote for as President (electoral college). In a parliamentary system you do not actually get to choose your leader at all, it is chosen by the majority party in your parliament.


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

[User] ELI5: Why don't video game companies use USB drives instead of CDs to install games?

[Assistant]
CDs cost pennies to manufacture, rather than dollars for a flash drive.  So it's mainly an issue of greatly reducing costs on the manufacturing side of things.

Not to mention the fact that it's much easier to copy-protect a CD as compared to a flash drive.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Vader claims that the power of destroying a planet is insignificant next to the power of the force, but throughout the series has that claim ever been backed up?

The most we see Jedi and Sith do with the force is manipulate objects and shoot lightning. We never saw the force bring down a building, let alone destroy a PLANET.

What was Vader even trying to get at? I'm sure the other officers and Tarkin probably took that remark as some BS, but I don't blame them, since when did the force become something so significant? Jedi and Sith barely use it in combat anyways since it requires great concentration and whatnot.

I would mention the only time I felt it was powerful was when in the now non-canon Force Unleashed Starkiller uses it to bring down a star destroyer, but yeah, since its non-canon, I don't see any proof of Vader's claims.

[Assistant]
The Force put Palpatine in charge of the whole galaxy.

He used that power to build the Death Star.

The Force made it possible to destroy that Death Star.

The Emperor built another one.

The Force made it possible to destroy that one too, and kill him.

You completely miss the point if you concentrate on measuring how many watts are released in Force lightning or whatever. The Force isn't only about combat super powers; it controls destiny and shapes the flow of events in a way no ultimate weapon ever could. Weapons are just things. The Force is the hand that moves them.


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

[User] How do Astronomers figure out what the interior of planetary bodies are made of without sending probes there? (Neptune, Uranus, Ceres, etc)

[Assistant]
1. A general idea of the composition of our solar system

2. Specific measurements of the objects gravitational effects

3. Spectrographic analysis of the surface or surface clouds

Taking 1 + 2 + 3 what "mix" best results in that density at that size as best we understand the physics.


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

[User]
How long do we expect the ISS to remain operational? Will its orbit eventually decay and fall to earth like Skylab?

I just remember the scene in Interstellar where they head on up after 20 years to the station/ship, and it's still there operating correctly.
If we left the ISS for 20 years, would it still remain functional and in orbit?

[Assistant] Eventually, anything in orbit will be slowed down by drag or collisions and start falling down to Earth. This is especially true of low-earth orbit, which is still within the Earth's atmosphere (even though the pressure is very, very low). That is why the International Space Station maintains its orbit using the engines of docking spacecraft, and sometimes using booster rockets on one of the modules. Any visiting rockets will lift the ISS up by a few kilometres. If we stop boosting the ISS in this way, its orbit will decay by about 2km/month as it descends to Earth. When it reaches a height of about 160 kilometres, its orbit will start decaying very quickly and cause it to burn up in the atmosphere. Going by the current rate of decay of 2km/month (which will go up as the orbit decays), if we leave the ISS in orbit and no longer boost it, it will fall back down within 10 years. So no, if we stop all maintenance and supply missions, the ISS will not still be there in 20 years. In fact, current plans for the ISS only have it operational until 2024, so it's uncertain whether it will still be there then!


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

[User]
what's the difference between a scalar and a vector?

Do you have any image so I can understand? Any pic?

[Assistant]
Scalars are what you normally think of as "numbers". When you multiply by a scalar, it scales everything by that amount.

Vectors might be more easily thought of as "arrows". They have a magnitude (shown by the length) and a direction (shown by the arrowhead).

The magnitude of a vector doesn't always denote distance. It can be velocity, acceleration, or distance from an origin. This last one is used in computer science to indicate pixels and in data science for certain statistical methods.


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

[User] ELI5: will two baseballs a foot apart in deep space be attracted to each other by gravity? Will it be fast or slow?

[Assistant] Two baseballs any distance apart anywhere are attracted to each other by gravity. In deep space, far from other influences, and very close together, their mutual gravity could easily be stronger than anything else. They would drift towards each other very slowly.


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

[User]
To what extent, if any, is finished concrete such as that found in most urban structures reuseable and recyclable?

Just wondering about limestones as a finite resource for the concrete industry. What are the constraints on the efficiency of the hypothetical recycling of concrete? If it is *technically* possible, what would be the economic constraints on doing so?

[Assistant]
Concrete can be reused and is extensively as a fill material (at least in Europe it is), it is also reused in small quantities as an aggregate in concrete but this is an exception rather than the norm.

Recycled concrete can have the rebar removed and can be crushed to a specific grading curve in much the same way a natural rock can be, thus creating a pretty controlled aggregate that could theoretically act in the same way as a gravel.  Technically this can be reused within a new concrete mix.

The problem with reusing this material however, is that the consistency of the material is very variable due to a few things:  The differing mix designs of the crushed concrete (ie a crushed 10N concrete will not have the same qualities as a 60N concrete) and because the crushed aggregate will contain some particles containing 10mm natural gravel (that was used in the original concrete) and some particles that may contain only cement.  There are many other issues too, but these are the 2 that spring to mind at the moment.

This variability in particles due to source and make-up leaves the end product very variable in strength and other important design parameters that are used for elements containing aggregate.  This variability in quality means that recycled aggregates are generally not reused in concrete mixes where achieving accurate and consistent mixes is what a concrete suppliers reputation hangs on.

Most standard concrete mixes in the UK do have a standard for a maximum percentage of 'recycled Aggregate' that is permitted, however, depending on the concrete supplier, this may be realised or may not.  At the end of the day, the concrete supplier has to shoulder the risk of the mix reaching the prescribed strength therefore they will generally choose to utilise original material and the cost gets passed up the chain to the end client.

Crushed concrete is still utilised extensively as a granular backfill, generally in low risk, low load situations where it is not subjected to cyclical loading. Which is again due to the variability in strength and quality.


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

[User]
How far can we possibly see using a telescope (in terms of time and space)?

Question is basically the title plus a little extra. So I've learned in school that if we use a telescope to observe something that's 1 lightyear away, then what we observe is not the thing as it is today but rather how it was 1 year ago. So the farther away the object of observation is, the older the image we observe of it.

If this is true, and please correct me if I'm wrong, then given that the universe is 13.8 billion years old and infinitely wide (because it's constantly expanding right?) then what happens if we theoretically try to observe something that's 13.9 billion lightyears away or farther?

Since the universe didn't exist before 13.8 billion years ago, there isn't any light that anyone or anything can pick up and observe right? Or is it that we can only possibly see as far as the universe is currently wide, in which case is it really infinite or is it sort of asymptotically infinite? Is it even theoretically possible to build a telescope that could peer across such astronomical distances?

And tangentially related this is something that's been on my mind for a while and I'm hoping someone can answer it. Say you teleported to some observatory 200 lightyears away and were able to use a telescope to look back at Earth. Say you could also zoom in enough to see cities. Would you then see the world as it was in the 1800s? Or is this idea itself, barring the obvious outlandish conditions, science fiction?

[Assistant]
You can actually see further than 13.8 billion light years because the universe is expanding. Light travels at the speed of light, which is one light year per year. So the furthest distance that light can travel in the history of the universe is 13.8 billion light years. But in 13.8 billion years, the universe has expanded a lot. The object that the light came from can be more than 13.8 billion light years away. So we can see objects that are now further than 13.8 billion light years away. Taking this into account, the furthest object you can possibly see is about about 50 billion light years away.

In practice though, the universe was opaque in very early times, so when we look at very large distances we just see a uniform "wall". This is the cosmic microwave background. Note that you don't need an exceptionally good telescope to see that far - the limiting factor in telescopes is more about brightness than resolution, and this background is fairly bright.

And yes, if you were sitting at a star 200 light years away, you could see Earth as it was 200 years ago, although you'd need a very very good telescope to get enough resolution.


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

[User]
Why does the launch of a geostationary satellite have a launch window?

While watching the scrubbed SES-9 launch the other night this occurred to me. If the ultimate position of the craft is relative to the launch site why would there be time restrictions of the launch?

[Assistant] The launch window is more than the feasibility of launching at that time from an orbital standpoint.  It also has to do with scheduling the availability of government and vendor personell to perform the launch itself.  Even range safety officers have to go home to their families.


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

[User]
ELI5: how can my smoke detector not be set off by my cigarette or fireplace smoke, yet goes off the moment my toast starts burning.

Not sure this has been asked yet. If it has link me to post? Reddits search function is weird...

[Assistant]
Smoke detectors work by having a radioactive substance and a radiation detector inside.  The detector keeps getting the emissions from the substance, and this keeps a circuit open.

Whenever enough particles that can block the radiation get between the emitter and the sensor, the circuit closes and the alarm goes off.

Fireplaces and cigarettes actually burn pretty cleanly, meaning that the smoke they create is made up of very fine particulate matter that the radiation can get through, unless you've got enough present to be difficult to see through.

Burned toast smoke, on the other hand, creates larger airborne creosote-like objects that can easily block the radiation.  This is due to the oxidation reaction being much less efficient, resulting in larger particulate matter being released into the air as smoke.


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

[User]
ELI5: How exactly do vector graphics work?

Here's what I know. Unlike bitmap images, vector images don't pixellate when you zoom in on them. I guess that's because they aren't made of pixels. A friend of mine tried to explain it to me, but it went right over my head.

[Assistant]
Basically, a vector drawing files a list of instructions - draw a line from point a to point b,  draw a line from point b to point c.  Fill the enclosed area with a color, and so on.

Then, when you 'zoom in', the computer - effectively - makes the line sharper to take advantage of the higher resolution.


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

[User]
[Avatar: TLA] What was Iroh's plan if Zuko did capture the Avatar?

Throughout season 1, Iroh only passively assists Zuko in his quest for the Avatar. Even when Zuko meets the Avatar for the first time, Iroh chooses not to help him 'take him in'.

While I think that Iroh never really expected Zuko to capture the Avatar, what would he have done if Zuko had succeeded? Iroh doesn't believe in the divine mission of the imperialistic Fire Nation, so would he have let Zuko deliver the Avatar to his father?

[Assistant]
I imagine try to sway Zuko's conscience. This is a 12 year old, a 12 year old whose family-whose entire race- was murdered by the fire nation. Is it really *honorable* to take him to his death?

He's subtle enough to try it, well, subtly at first. But push comes to shove, he might outright rebel.


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

[User]
[H.P. Lovecraft/Anything] What fictional characters outside of Lovecrafts works could survive using the Necronomicon?

I feel like even using it drives people insane due to its contents. Is there anyone in any fictional universe that would be able to use it to their advantage without going mad? And how dangerous would using it make them?

[Assistant]
Magic is much more approachable in other worlds.

In Marvel and the MCU, for example, there is the Darkhold, which is a Necronomicon-style grimoire, and both Dr. Strange and Wanda Maximoff have used without going (completely) nuts.

On the DC side, John Constantine probably considers the Necronomicon light bathroom reading.


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

[User]
If the moon disappeared, would the earth change its orbit around the sun?

And a follow up question: If the moon was split in two, would the pieces fall towards earth, away from earth or stay in orbit?

[Assistant]
Earth's orbit around the sun would be almost totally unaffected. This is because an orbit around the sun does not depend on the mass of the planet, or the combined mass of the planet and its moon(s), as long as the mass of the planet is much smaller than the mass of sun, which it is for all planets.

Earth and Moon orbit their common centre of mass. The centre of mass is inside Earth and the orbital speed of Earth relative to that point is about 10 m/s. Earth would still have this velocity if you magically make the Moon disappear. Like when a hammer thrower suddenly lets go of the hammer, the hammer keeps on going in the direction it was moving. But since this velocity is only about 10 m/s, adding that to Earth's normal orbital velocity around the sun, about 30 km/s, makes hardly any difference. Earth's orbital velocity around the sun already varies about 1 km/s depending on the time of the year due to the eccentricity of Earth's orbit.


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

[User]
ELI5:Why do bugs like Ticks and other ones not drown when you hold them under water?

Say you have a tick on your arm. What does it not drown when you hold it underwater for 5 minutes.

or does it?

[Assistant]
They will, eventually, but it takes quite a long time. Bugs like ticks and fleas breathe not with lungs, but with little tiny holes in the outer shell that are connected to little tiny tubes that run throughout the inside of the body. These little holes (called spiracles) are so small that the surface tension of the water near them prevents it from flowing inside. If you put a little soap on a flea or a tick, and then hold it under water (the soap destroys the surface tension) they drown pretty quick.
EDIT: This is why Raid and WD-40 are so good at killing insects. Raid is mostly the same stuff as WD-40 is: petroleum distillates. These liquids have no surface tension, and flow rapidly into the spiracles, coat the tube network inside, and the insect suffocates quickly.


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

[User]
Electrons have a mass, so is there a measurable differences in voltage or resistance when you orientate a wire vertically?

So the mass of the electron has to be raised to travel up the wire, and conversely it gains energy on the way down. That could contribute to the potential difference.

*Edit: Most have comments have been about the insignificance of gravity vs. EM force, but an interesting point was made by the pleasantly-named user 'goatfucker9000'. Essentially when you connect an ohmmeter to a vertical wire, you form a circuit, which is a loop. The electrons going 'uphill' through the wire are matched by electrons going 'downhill' through the other side of the circuit. So even if there is a tiny difference, it is cancelled out when you try to measure.  Perhaps the question should focus on static cases rather than circuits.
Not suggesting this is all there is to say on the subject, just that it was worth highlighting that point.

*Edit2: Clearly I've upset a load of shills for big oil who want to stop my perpetual motion machine from being perfected. Just kidding, but the snark could be dialled down somewhat. I appreciate that the effect will be immeasurably small, I just raised the question as I lacked the knowledge to calculate it.

[Assistant]
Your reasoning about the electron gaining or losing energy respectively is good, so let's just focus on your question about measurability. If we imagine a pair of electrons separated by a distance of one meter, we can calculate the net forces acting on the pair. But let's instead look at the ratio of the force of gravity to the Coulomb force, as that provides a good representation of the relative importance of each effect. If their ratio is very large, gravity is the dominating factor, if it is very small the coulomb interaction dominates, etc. The ratio is r=G/k_c (m_e/q_e)^2 where G is newtons gravitational constant, k_c the coulomb constant, and (m_e/q_e) is the mass to charge ratio for an electron. When all is said and done, r=2.4 10^-43. Thus the effects of gravity are not likely to be measurable or important in this kind of context.

edit:formatting
edit 2: Everyone who pointed out that we are talking about the gravitational attraction to the earth is correct. So lets consider the earth as a uniform gravitational field (It's actually a decent approximation for this purpose). Considering a meter length wire with a potential difference between its ends of 12V. The difference in potential energy between the ends of the wire from gravity is U_g=mgh=(9.11 10^-31)(9.81)(1)=8.93 10^-30 Joules. The difference in potential energy between the ends of the wire due to the applied voltage is U_c=e(12V)=1.92 10^-18 Joules. So we've still got an order of size difference of 10^-12 between gravity and the electric field.


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

[User]
ELI5: how does Braille work for languages with complex writing systems like Chinese and Japanese?

How would the people reading Braille distinguish between words with the same pronunciation, but different Hanzi/Kanji?

[Assistant]
Chinese and Japanese both have a romanized alphabet (Pinyin/Romaji). Also Japanese have a alphabet similar to most Romanized alphabet, where there is a set amount of characters and combinations of them makes words, (Hiragana/Katakana) which Japanese school children use before they learn how to read Kanji.

The Braille system would be based on the Pinyin (for the Chinese) and Hiragana/Katakana (for the Japanese) similar to how English Braille works.


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

[User] [Doctor Who The Big Bang] How did a single Tardis exploding cause the destruction of the entire universe? Not forgetting hundreds of Tardises were being destroyed every hour in the Time War yet the universe carried on just fine.

[Assistant]
The Type 40 Mk III TT capsule was long out of service before the Time War started, and with good reason: its Heart does not include the fail-safe implosion mechanism that other TT capsules were required to have in order to *prevent* timeline destruction.

When (for example) a Type 56 is destroyed, it makes a supernova-scale bang and some mild local spatial events, but that's about it. When a Type 40 goes up, *everything else goes up with it*.

The only reason that the Type 40 stayed in service for so long was that, back then, the Time Lords had no enemies capable of destroying a TT capsule. Even then, a number of close-calls convinced the Time Lords that something had to be done about the Type 40's fail-deadly Heart. This prompted a partial redesign resulting in the short-lived Mk IV iteration (famously used by the Monk) that included an early automatic imploder among other new features, but the Type 40 family as a whole was rapidly superseded by newer, safer, and more capable models that included the implosion system by default.

**TL;DR** The Doctor's TARDIS lacks a safety feature that all the in-service TARDISes have.


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

[User] [The Expanse] What is the estimated total human population of the solar system?

[Assistant]
Depends who you ask. UN, MCR and OPA all give different answers.

It's broadly agreed that Earth has 30 billion Mars + moons has 9 billion Luna 1 billion. so this first 40 billion is uncontroversial.

Estimates for the belt and outer planets vary an awful lot. The inners put the belt at 50 million, OPA put it at 100 million the inners put the Jovian system at 45 million with 20 million around Saturn. OPA would claim two to three times that number. It's also unclear of the inners count the various minor asteroid groups like the Jupiter Trojans the OPA most certainly would.

There is also an uncontroversial 5k on the triton science base around Uranus which is basically space Antarctica,

All in it's between 40 billion inners and between 100-250 million belters. This is why belters are so marginalised they are a rounding error to the total human population. Mars is only as relevant as it is because they are wealthy and have the best tech.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does audio do that thing where you can only hear it on one side of your headphones?

Obviously, something different has to be done to make it so certain parts of a song or something can only be heard through one side of your headphones/earbuds, but how do they do that?

[Assistant] Think of a stereo recording as two separate recordings. For a sound to be in the middle of the headphones, both recordings are playing at the same volume. For a sound to be all the way over to one side, it's playing on one recording and absent on the other recording. For a sound to be just *somewhere* off to the side, it's playing louder on that side than on the other side.


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

[User]
Why were rabbits so invasive in Australia?

The general answer from wikipedia seems to be a lack of predators and a lack of parasites in Australia?   Is that the case, or is there something unique about rabbits?  Is there an animal that was outcompeted by the rabbit as well?

[Assistant]
Ooh, nice question. It's the result of a long list of factors.

Due to Australia's highly variable weather patterns, the majority of the native fauna exists in boom-bust cycles. Animals will just barely hang on during multiple years of drought, then explode with the rains, unlike European fauna, which is used to breeding regularly every year (or sooner).

Australia had a number of large marsupial predators, but these became extinct with indigenous settlement. By the time that Europeans colonised Australia, the only predators above rabbit-size were the thylacine, the Tasmanian devil, a few large birds of prey, crocodiles, dingoes, and some pythons and monitor lizards, none of which are as rapacious as mammalian predators such as dogs and cats and foxes.

European settlement drastically modified the Australian environment. They dredged nearly all of the watercourses and swamps, logged forests and scrub, and demolished mallee habitat. All of this increased the extent of open grasslands. This was further compounded by the stopping of traditional burning practices, which increased the amount of fuel, which meant that fires spread further and burnt more.

So when European settlers introduced rabbits, their spread was virtually unchecked. Nothing could eat them quicker than they could reproduce. They were well adapted to thrive in grasslands and cropland, unlike the majority of their marsupial competitors, which rely on native bulbs/seeds/leaves/fruits/insects (the exception to this rule is kangaroos, which have also become a pest in these conditions for the same reasons). Marsupials have smaller litters less frequently, but rabbits pump offspring out like it's going out of style.

Just to fuck things up further, the spread of rabbits encouraged the spread of other introduced predators such as dogs, cats, and foxes. These predators are now spread nearly throughout the whole country just because rabbits are everywhere to feed them. However, they also eat native fauna whenever they can-- but while rabbits can shrug off the loss of a litter or two, native fauna are not so numerous, and this artificially inflated predation rate is wiping them out. Rabbits have essentially set predators on their marsupial competitors.

So, yeah. Australia is essentially a slow country full of slow creatures used to just holding on, and rabbits are fast creatures from a fast country used to constant resources. Settlers gave them those resources, and they responded accordingly.


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

[User]
ELI5: What makes a knifes blade sharp?

What is so special about a sharp knifes structure that makes it cut things easily?

[Assistant] Think of it like diving into water vs doing a belly flop. A sharp knife starts very thin down to a microscopic level and gradually gets wider causing matter it comes into contact with to part much like a dive parts the water. If the knife is dull it has flatness to the edge and the knife will resist passing through the matter just like a belly flop resists passing through water.


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

[User] ELI5:If downvote *isn't* a disagree button, what is it exactly?

[Assistant]
Votes are for prominence relative to other posts. Upvote something that should be seen, downvote something that shouldn't or doesn't deserve to be seen for whatever reason.

If you want to label it, I'd call it a "hide" button. As you know, posts under a certain score aren't shown, and posts with low scores aren't featured on the more heavily trafficked front pages.

People will often downvote something they disagree with (even if it's accurate and relevant). If you ask me, they should reply in disagreement, and upvote so others could see what they mean.


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

[User]
Safe to sell an iPhone after a factory reset?

Hey all,

I'm looking to sell my old iPhone 8 as I'm upgrading to a new phone. How safe is this? I use my phone for everything. Email, banking, web surfing, facebook, google authentication, etc. Is a simple factory reset enough to know that whoever I sell it to wont be able to get access to my old data?

[Assistant] A factory reset is completely secure. All data stored on an iPhone is encrypted, and a factory reset wipes the encryption keys clean. Without those keys, theres no feasible way to recover the data. Theres no need to overwrite the entire storage.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] How does a Sarlac Pit reproduce?

Is it asexual?

Does it send spores to other Sarlac Pits miles and miles away?

[Assistant] Yes. It shoots out spores which are able to survive in the vacuum of space, clinging to starship hulls. The spores develop into small, mobile forms of the sarlacc which eventually pick a spot and become the fleshy death pit we all know and love.


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

[User] [General] Whenever Someone one like Thor,Wonder Woman or beings like the New Gods have a fight and it wrecks the City does the insurance case then fall under Acts of God clause?

[Assistant]
Acts of God are ordinarily defined as natural disasters unattributable to human intervention. In *Toy Biz v. United States*, our own universe's US Court of International Trade ruled in 2003 that X-Men and the Fantastic Four, among other Marvel characters, are "non-human" for the purpose of calculating trade tariffs on action figures. Relying on that ruling, an insuree might make a reasonable argument that their skyscraper, destroyed by a supervillain, indeed falls under the Act of God clause.

But the truth is that in universes with metahumans and the like, the insurance policies would have been rewritten long ago to speak precisely to such scenarios. Acts of God clauses would be written to specify that they *don't* cover superhero battles. Separately, superhero insurance would be available for purchase -- at an exorbitant premium, for those living in major cities.


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

[User] ELI5: Just saw that N. Korea is now a "Monarchy". What is the difference between a monarch and dictator?

[Assistant]
A monarch is a hereditary head of state.

A dictator is someone who rules without democracy, usually with total, or near total, say in how the government is run.

In this way an Absolute Monarch, one who doesn't have laws constraining how they rule, could be said to be a dictator.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do you navigate by the stars if the Earth's rotation means they're always moving?

I just finished my ten thousandth watch if Moana with my son, and I do not understand how you can travel by holding your hand up to the starry sky.  It would make sense if the stars were stationary relative to your position, but they're not. A star you measure at 10pm is in a completely different position by 2am.  I understand the Disney version is an oversimplification, but how does the real thing work?

[Assistant]
>A star you measure at 10pm is in a completely different position by 2am.

Except for one. Since the stars *turn* in a circle there's one spot in the sky that doesn't move the center of the circle. In the northern hemisphere, just by coincidence, there's a star almost exactly at that spot. A fairly bright one, too, called Polaris, at the end of the handle of the Little Dipper (the tail of Ursa Minor).

If you can see and identify Polaris you know that that direction is north, which lets you keep the boat pointing in the right direction. But also, if you can measure how far it is above the horizon, *you're that far north from the equator,* in terms of degrees latitude.

If you're in the southern hemisphere, it's harder. There's still a stationary spot in the night sky, but there's no star right on top of it. You can do the same trick by finding the spot where an imaginary star *would* be (by recognizing the stars nearby), but it's harder to get good measurements.