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

[User] ELI5: How comes some trees have leaves that are pink/red/orange? Do they photosynthesize the same way as green trees do?

[Assistant]
Usually that only happens when the tree is going into senescence for the winter. Photosynthesis slows or even stops as less sunlight is available to the tree and temperatures drop, the leaves change color and eventually fall off. The tree stores the energy from within the leaves in its root system to survive through the winter.

Trees that have red or purple or other colored leaves all the time, like Japanese maple, still have some chlorophyll in the leaves. Those plants just have higher base levels of anthocyanins and carotenoids that make them appear red, orange, purple, or whatever.


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

[User] [Marvel] How would Odin react to a Human being able to lift Mjolnir ?

[Assistant] Well he's met several who have done it already and was basically cool with them.  He's not so dumb as to think no human is worthy and the ones that are, well they're worthy and good people in his reckoning too.


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

[User]
ELI5 when planets orbit their star, what stops them from being sucked into the star from gravity?

I would think that after billions of years, the gravity would bring the planet closer and closer until it got burned up.

[Assistant]
The speed at which they're orbiting.

In movies, you may hear about "slingshot effects" that orbits can take. It was a part of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Armageddon, and Apollo 13. This has to do with Kepler's second law of planetary motion, which states that "a line joining a planet and the Sun sweeps out equal areas in equal times." Said another way, the closer you are to the thing you're orbiting, the faster you go. Unless you're on an intercept trajectory--which is very difficult given how small things in space are and how fast they're moving relative to one another--you'll sweep right by something and get flung out again. It's how comets have predictable orbits around the sun.

Because there are n-body perturbations on all orbits, no orbit is ever stable. Over time, they will eventually fall into the thing they're orbiting (like satellites falling into and burning up in the atmosphere) or they will eventually break the gravitational hold of the thing they're going around and go hyperbolic (like our moon would do if the Sun doesn't blow up first, which it probably will).


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

[User] ELI5: What is the difference between movies and films? Also directors and filmmakers?

[Assistant]
I forgot who said it but .... a movie , you see and forget about in a day or even an hour after leaving the cinema. While A film, is a movie that you see and you think about weeks , months or even years after seeing it and its meaning is still more relevant to you than ever.

A director is a certain specialization of a filmmaker. Like although all directors are considered filmmakers . Not all filmmakers direct. The term filmmakers is more broad while the term directors is specific.


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

[User] Experts, what view is commonly assumed by non-expert philosophers of your field but is taken as implausible in your field?

[Assistant] Moral relativism. Colleagues in other fields of philosophy often hold a very naive position on moral relativism according to which simply observing moral differences between individuals and cultures is sufficient for self-evidently concluding that morality is relative.


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

[User]
[LI5] My daughter has a question about world hunger. Not a joke.

I'm brand new to this whole Reddit thing. My friend showed it to me and I've been browsing it non-stop for the past day or two. Back on track, my eight year old daughter saw me asking a question on this forum earlier and asked what I was doing, I told her I was asking a question to people on the internet.

The day goes on and we're watching iCarly (don't laugh) it goes off and she starts flipping through channels and sees one of those infomercials about people being hungry in third-world countries. She looks at me with a sad face and asks:

"Why can't we just send them our cows and pigs to raise like we do?"

I attempted to answer her but she didn't like my answer and told me to go to the "internet people". So, can you explain it to a eight year old why we can't export our livestock?

[Assistant] We tried that once in a country called Haiti.  We sent them lots of food, and everyone had enough to eat.  But the farmers in Haiti went broke because everyone got food from us, so nobody wanted to buy the food grown in Haiti.  Then one day we didn't send enough food, and people in Haiti were worse off than ever, because their farmers had stopped making any food.


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

[User] [lotr] Are orcs so evil due to nature or nurture? Could a baby orc adopted by great, good parents of another race be raised into a good adult?

[Assistant] In LOTR? Signs point to "Evil by design", though it should be noted that Tolkien actually went back on this designation later in his life, unwilling to write off an entire race as "evil",  though he never really came up with a good explanation for why the entire species acts the way it does. Presumably an Orc that was raised by kind, loving people in a good environment that encouraged peace and gentility would grow up to be a good person, but there is something about Orcs which simply doesn't foster that kind of environment. They are almost all bullies, cowards, treacherous and craven, who fight each other even when there is no reason to fight. They are even portrayed as cannibals, who will gladly descend on each other if the opportunity presents itself. You could claim it was the influence of Sauron on them but even the Goblins of the Misty Mountains act like this, and they answered to no one but themselves.


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

[User] ELI5: How did the gameboy color and the gameboy advance 'know' the colors they had to use for original gameboy games that were black and white?

[Assistant]
The gameboy color contained a small database of known games with ideal color palette for it (chosen between 12 palettes that the gameboy color could offer for uncolored games.)

If a game was not in its database, then it didn't choose. The default was the green-themed palette.

Games are identified with a small, unique number, which uniqueness was ensured by Nintendo attributing them for the right to make cartridges of the game.


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

[User] What kind of impacts do nuclear tests have in general on nature?

[Assistant]
Not much since atmospheric and underwater testing essentially ended in 1963.  (France continued a small amount of atmospheric testing until 1974, and China conducted the world's last atmospheric detonation in 1980.)

The number of underground tests began dropping rapidly in 1988, reaching single digits by '92.

No nuclear tests have occurred outside North Korea since 1998.

However, nuclear fallout is nothing if not persistent. While the short half-lived nuclides all decayed long ago, the primary environmental legacy from those early test days is now Sr-90 and Cs-135, with half-lives of 29 and 30 years, respectively.  Of the radioactive Strontium and Cesium spewed skyward in the 50's, about 25% remains today.


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

[User]
why are camus and satre associated w/ each other?

ive never understood this? camus has said he is not an existentialist and describes existentialism as philosophical suicide; why are they paired and often mentioned in the same sentence?

edit: ive found this quote from camus:

Sartre and I are always surprised to see our names linked. We have even thought of publishing a short statement in which the undersigned declare that they have nothing in common with each other and refuse to be held responsible for the debts they might respectively incur. Its a joke actually. Sartre and I published our books without exception before we had ever met. When we did get to know each other, it was to realize how much we differed. Sartre is an existentialist, and the only book of ideas that I have published, The Myth of Sisyphus, was directed against the so-called existentialist philosophers.

[Assistant]
They wrote at the same time, at the same place, and about the same basic problem of existence - i.e. the ungrounded and meaningless nature from which human experience springs and, as an upshot, the primacy of human experience in making sense of more or less everything.

Also, they both did so through popular fiction and both wrote in the popular press - even in the same forums, like *Combat*, and about the same topics, like socialism, war, revolution, and violence.

Its no big surprise that people both then and now see them as pretty similar - especially when you put them in a broad context were theyre so remarkable dissimilar to other big names.


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

[User]
ELI5:Why does our body react to being sick or having allergies by blocking up our main means of breathing?

Why does our body decide to potentially harm us whenever we're sick or don't agree with something around us? Isn't it not in the best interest of our body to potentially cause asphyxiation?

tl;dr: why does our body ~~inflame~~ congest our noses whenever we're sick or under the weather?

Edit: Wow! Thank you for all of your responses. I didn't expect this to blow up like it did overnight. I would be thrilled if I were a five year old!

[Assistant]
increased mucus production is the body's way of attempting to expel the allergen/virus/bacteria by washing it into the stomach or out the nose/mouth, the latter contributing to the spread of infections

like a too-high fever, this is prioritizing removal of the invader over *everything* else, though you are actually unlikely to asphyxiate on mucus, since you dont produce enough. uncomfortable and annoying, yes, major problem, not so much.

sometimes nasal congestion is from sinus infections, where the infection plugs up the sinuses, which creates the pressure/pain you feel behind and around your eyes and nose.

infections IN the lungs can prevent that mucus from leaving, and draw off fluid from the blood or the surroundings, which can lead to fatal breathing problems (see tuberculosis)


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

[User] ELI5: why are some outlets so difficult to plug things into, while others are very loose?

[Assistant]
Receptacles deliver power to plugs via spring clips. Everytime you plug something in or take it out, the springs take some wear and tear.  They wear out over time and are rated for x amount of timed you can plug/unplug .

Cheaper receptacles are rated for less times while more expensive receptacles are made better/have better materials and are typically rated for a higher amount.

*edit hospital grade receptacles have a much high spring tension
Or You might also be used tamper resistant receptacles and people have issues with the plastic guards retracting if the plug is not inserted properly.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does building muscle work?

ELI5: How does building muscle work?
How does this differ if your exercise is higher reps at lower weight vs. Tons of weight with a 1 rep max?

[Assistant]
Your muscles are made of 2 types of fibers: fast twitch and slow twitch. Working out pulls some of the fibers apart a little, which makes your body add more fibers to repair them. More fiber means more strength or endurance.

Low weight high reps is slow twitch fiber. They dont fatigue as fast, but arent as strong. It builds endurance. High weight low reps is fast twitch fiber. They fatigue much faster. It builds strength.

If your workout is running, then long distance is slow twitch, and sprinting is fast twitch.


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

[User]
[DC] Why does Ras al Ghul insist that Batman kill him to become his heir?

Whats to stop the two from making a deal where Ras dies a natural death while Batman takes over and recreates a non-lethal version of the League?  Why is Ras so insistent on Batman being the heir to an international assassin ring when he knows how steadfast Bruces no-kill rule is?

[Assistant]
Because Batman's no-kill rule is an absolute deal breaker for Ra's; as far as he's concerned, it's an essential tool in the League's arsenal.

He wouldn't care if Wayne cut the League's murder numbers as much as 99%, if he could be confident that if push came to shove, during that 1% situation where a bad guy *needed* to die, then the greater good of humanity would be chosen over 1 dude's morals. Batman killing al Ghul with his own hands is an unambiguous demonstration that even if he doesn't want to, even if he'll fight tooth and nail to find another way, when a kill becomes *unavoidable*, he'll follow through.

Until Batman can cross that hurdle, he's useless to the League.


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

[User]
Would a corpse decompose in outer space, or say the surface of the moon, as it does on Earth?

I remembered this scene in Kubrick's adaption of 2001, where HAL kills the astronaut working on the outside of the craft and his body is shown drifting further into space. Would his body decompose over time, while he's in that suit? Would it change if his body were not protected by a space suit?

[Assistant] No the body would dessicate and mummify, similarly to what happens to corpses at very high altitudes. Decomposition is mediated by bacteria which cannot live in a very low pressure, low temperature environment. Even if the integrity of the suit were maintained, temperature would drop below freezing quickly and all biological activity would stop.


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

[User] ELI5: What is the likelihood of the supercollider killing every one on Earth?

[Assistant] 0%. Compared to the size of the earth the supercollider is tiny, the energy involved is tiny and the things we create with it disperse in fractions of a second. Its not going to explode and destroy all life on earth and it wont release harmful particles that kill everyone.


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

[User]
ELI5 why does rubbing an impact injury make it feel better? or is this placebo?

knocked my elbow on the doorframe and immediately rubbed it, and thought about how my mum would always tell me to rub an injury. does this actually make it feel better or is it just a distraction?

[Assistant]
Gate Theory!
Imagine there's a doorway between your brain (which registers the pain) and your elbow. Only so many things can fit  through the doorway at once, right?
Smaller nerves send pain signals, while larger nerves are responsible for things like touch and pressure signals.
Activating those larger nerves (by rubbing the area) will block out some of the smaller nerves, "reducing" the pain you feel.
And as an added bonus, these larger nerves will often trigger the release of endorphins, which do make you feel better, in a way.


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

[User]
Is quantum mechanics truly random or merely unpredictable?

because theres a huge difference

Edit: What im asking is whether we actually KNOW if the universe is not deterministic or whether it might be but we just cant tell. What brought this idea to mind was thinking about the idea of parallel universes and whether randomness is necessary for that to be possible.

[Assistant]
The idea you're looking for is that of *hidden variables*. Einstein disliked the idea that quantum mechanics was non-deterministic so much that he proposed there exists a theory deeper than quantum mechanic that is deterministic but reproduces the seemingly random results of quantum mechanics. These theories also fixed what Einstein saw as a problem with non-locality (faster than light communication) in quantum mechanics.

A decade or two after Einstein died a John Bell showed by contradiction that a hidden variable theory could never produce the results we see in quantum mechanics experiments.  Using the following assumptions,
    1. Experimenters have free will,
    2. Logic is valid way to reason,
    3. Hidden variables exist,
    4. Hidden variables are local,
he derived a set of inequalities. He then found an experiment that violated these inequalities. This means at least one of the assumptions listed above is wrong.

The commonly accepted one is that 3. is faulty and that quantum mechanics is actually random. The idea that hidden variables, an idea specifically introduced to ensure quantum mechanics was local, were in fact non-local would probably upset Einstein much more than the idea of reality not being deterministic.

edit: added the assumption that free will exists, as ichthyic points out as being necessary.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is Japan not facing economic ruin when its debt to GDP ratio is much worse than Greece during the eurozone crisis?

Japan's debt to GDP ratio is about 200%, far higher than that of Greece at any point in time. In addition, the Japanese economy is stagnant, at only 0.5% growth annually. Why is Japan not in dire straits? Is this sustainable?

[Assistant]
Japan is a middle-aged doctor who took out a second mortgage maybe they shouldn't have.  They are still wealthy, still have a great, high income job, so people are willing take more chances loaning them money, even if the debt is starting to pile up.  If worse comes to worst, they can always sell their vacation condo to make ends meet.

Greece is an assistant manager at Kinkos, who lied on a bunch of credit card applications and lived too large for a few years until it all caught up with them.  Even though they owe less than Japan, even as a ratio to their income, their job is much less stable, so the interest is higher and their creditors are much less patient.  They also live in their parents' basement, so they have no house to sell to get them out of trouble.  And most worrying, they haven't assumed responsibility for the mess they made and spend most of their time blaming other people rather than trying to fix it.


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

[User]
What is the problem between Greece and Germany?

I really don't understand the Problem. What kind of money flows where? Why are people burning Nazi flags at a visit of Merkel in Athens?

If someone could put this whole mess in an easy explanation, I would be very thankful.

Edit: Thank you guys for all the answers.

[Assistant]
LI5: Let's say there's a group of friends that call themselves the "EU". One of the kids is named Greece, and he's been spending his allowance like crazy. He spends his money on expensive toys and other things he doesn't need until he's completely broke. Now he can't afford to eat lunch at school.

One of the requirements for belonging to the "EU" is that you help out other friends when they need it. Unfortunately, the friend named Germany is the only one that has enough money that they can let Greece borrow some. Since Greece is in such a tough spot and only Germany can help them out, Germany can set up any rules they want. Germany tells Greece "we'll lend you the money as long as you stop buying all these toys." Greece doesn't like this. They want to borrow Germany's money but don't like the idea of Germany telling them how they must spend it.

LI An Adult: The truth is a bit more complicated. Greece's politicians were the ones who were irresponsible with money, spending it on things they didn't need, stealing it, embezzling it, letting contractors embezzle it, and doing all sorts of other wasteful and corrupt things.

What's happening is that the penalties are "trickling down" onto the middle and lower class. The Greek politicians and government contractors who are/were corrupt or foolish aren't being punished, but the people who had nothing to do with the corruption are going to have their wages lowered, retirement payments lowered, or even losing their jobs (the cuts the government is making are called austerity measures). Germany's requirements on how to spend the money they're lending don't really affect the politicians because politicians are not chasing after the wasted/stolen/embezzled money, they're just cutting government services. The cuts affect the common man and are being decided by the Greek government, but Greek politicians are deflecting some of the blame onto Germany.

That's why some Greeks are mad at Germany. But some Greeks are madder at corrupt Greek politicians.


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

[User]
[Batman] What does Batmans pain management look like?

I cant imagine him on narcotics or opioids.

[Assistant]
He's been shown to use meditation/ mental fortress techniques to dull or numb pain to some degree in the field.

There was an entire episode in the Gotham Knights DTV movie that showed Bruce Wayne in training travelling to India to learn how to shut off physical pain from a guru.


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

[User]
Is the Pauli Exclusion Principle a force?

If an electron has the conditions to occupy a state that is already being occupied by another electron, wouldn't it have to be stopped somehow to not occupy that space? Should there be a force to prevent that, almost like a 'wall' saying 'no, you can't go there'?

[Assistant]
Pauli exclusion itself is not a force, however it changes the way that forces act between identical fermions.

If you have two particles which are not identical to each other and not correlated, you can write the total state as a tensor product of their individual state vectors: |1>|2>.

Then if they interact via some potential operator V, you can calculate the interaction matrix element in this state: <1|<2|V|1>|2>.

This is what you might colloquially refer to as the force between the particles (really its an expectation value of a potential energy).

However if you consider identical fermions, you cant write the state as a product of the form |1>|2>, because the total state vector must be antisymmetric under particle exchange. Instead, you have to write it as: (|1>|2> - |2>|1>)/sqrt(2).

Now if you take the matrix element of the interaction operator in this state, you have more than one term:

<V> = [<1|<2|V|1>|2> - <1|<2|V|2>|1> - <2|<1|V|1>|2> + <2|<1|V|2>|1>]/2.

The terms with positive signs are called *direct terms* and the terms with negative signs are called *exchange terms*, because in the exchange terms, youre calculating matrix elements between terms when the two particles are switched.

The operator which encodes the force between the particles, V, hasnt necessarily changed at all. But fact that we have identical fermions has changed the form of the total matrix element.

So while the Pauli principle is not itself a force, it changes the way that the particles interact, compared to the way they would if they werent identical.

If you go to more complicated systems, like gases of many fermions, you find that the energy stored in the gas is affected by the fact that identical fermions cant occupy the same state. When you go to calculate the pressure of the gas, the standard way youd do so for any system in statistical mechanics, you find that theres degeneracy pressure. The physical interpretation is that the Pauli principle is not allowing fermions to occupy the same state.


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

[User]
ELI5: What causes some people to throw up or retch if they smell something disgusting like a rotting animal, or experience something very traumatic like witness someone getting badly injured or receive a phone call with highly emotional news?

This seems to happen a lot in the movies - particularly when someone is witnessing a death or an injury, or receiving a shocking phone call - does it really happen that frequently and if so, why?

[Assistant]
Essentially you have a few different mechanics happening here. Smells can cause nausea and vomiting in individuals because the smell causes your brain to assume that you have been exposed to something that is poisonous to you. Horrible smells cause a gag type reflex which suppresses the feeling of hunger, aiding us in avoiding bacteria ridden organic material.

In the event of a traumatic experience or stressful situations, the need to vomit is more attributed to the "fight or flight" response. The response your body has in a stressful situation causes the release of adrenaline which heightens your sense of awareness, speeds up heart rate, and also can cause temporary boosts in strength or ability. The backside of this is that spikes in this body mechanic causes vomiting because your body works better without being weighed down by a full stomach.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do movies cost so much to make? Paying the actors aside how can it cost hundred of millions of dollars sometimes to make a movie?

[Assistant] Logistics is a big part. Building sets, moving costumes. Cars, props, people, supporting staff, etc. Is expensive. Modern movies like to skip practical effects and pay large digital firms to complete CGI elements, which is absurdly expensive. And is the reason some scenes are stripped down for cost.


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

[User]
[Marvel] how does angel fly?

Angel shouldn't be able to fly with his 5 meter wingspan, and would also be too heavy for liftoff. Does he have a secondary mutation that lowers his mass or something similar?

[Assistant]
Among his other mutations, his bones are also hollow (like a bird's), he processes food more efficiently, and doesn't store excess fat like a normal person.

His wings are also insanely strong, being more than capable of breaking limbs or pushing people through walls.

And that's just for his normal, biological wings. His Archangel powers granted by Apocalypse make his wings techno-organic, with feathers that can be fired like flechettes and are capable of piercing steel.


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

[User]
Water that doesn't affect your thirst

If you drink pure water, you're less thirsty. If you drink salt water, you're more thirsty. At some point in-between, it seems to me there must be a type of water with no effect on your thirst. Is there any particular biological significance to this particular salinity? Is this what saline solution you put in blood is?

[Assistant] That's exactly what the IV fluid is. If there is not enough salt, the water will go into your red blood cells via osmosis and cause them to swell, and eventually explode. If there is too much salt, the fluid will absorb all the water from your red blood cells and cause you to be more dehydrated. This is why drinking saltwater is not a good idea.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do magnets get demagnetised? How long does it take for that to happen?

[Assistant]
Magnets depend on the orientation of the atoms in a material.  They will pretty much tend to stay that way.  But there are things that will de-magentize them. It's not simply a matter of a certain amount of time.

Ways to de-magnetize:

(a) Heat the magnet above its "Curie temperature".  That allows the atoms to have enough thermal energy to move into random orientations.

(b) Wait a long time and let regular room temperature thermal energy do the same thing as (a).

(c) Expose the magnet to a magnetic field that is in a different direction than the one it already has.

(d) Whack the magnet with something hard or against something hard, repeatedly.   (Really, this works.)

(e) A combination of the above.


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

[User] ELI5:Why Does a Computer Moniter Still Give Off Light When Displaying a Black Image?

[Assistant] LCD displays have a backlight- without it, the display would be too dim to see. Even when the liquid crystals are as dark as they can get, a little bit of light from the backlight still shines through.


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

[User] ELI5: why are prices for video games sold by services like Steam so much higher in Australia compared to the United States?

[Assistant]
Because of how much they're sold in physical stores in Australia.  The physical stores have told the developers that if the games are sold cheaper online than in the stores that they'll stop selling the games in their stores.  A lot of these companies are run by old farts with their old fart stockholders who still think the internet is a fad and that physical media will make a comeback.

Steam doesn't set the prices it sells games for, the developers do, and so the developers tell Steam to sell the games for basically the same price as they're found in the stores in Australia because they're too scared of the stores like EB.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] how was palpitine not scouted by the jedi order as a child?

 I mean he was one of the strongest fore sensitives to have ever lived. I mean the guy could generate force storms like it was nothing and yet he wasn't discovered until he was a young man by plagueis. It seems to me that any jedi who stepped foot on his hemisphere of naboo would selse him.

[Assistant]
Naboo is a very small world with few reasons to ever visit there. The ONLY reason it became worth noting at all is because Palpatine was born there. Because of his upbringing, he knew the planet and how its government would respond to a crisis, which is just what he needed to get Valorum out of office.

There are very few Jedi in the galaxy. At their absolute peak, their numbers were only a few thousand (maybe ten thousand?), so it could be years, centuries even, before a Jedi visited a tiny world with no problems big enough to warrant attention. Palpatine's family also had no connections with the force or history with Jedi, so nobody he grew up with recognized the signs of his sensitivity.

Plus, Palpatine was already very clever as a child and knew he could use his talents to get what he wanted very early, so long as nobody knew what kind of powers he possessed. Since he successfully hid his force abilities from everyone so young and for so long, he became a master manipulator and very easily fell to the dark side. After that, only Darth Plagueis was the only force user to ever come near Palpatine, and he immediately sensed his power and his strength in the dark side. Had a Jedi visited Naboo on that day, they might have tried to capture or maybe kill him, but they didn't.


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

[User]
[The Expanse] Why is the MCRN so advanced

Coming from just understanding the show and not the books I'm a little unclear about Mar's technological edge.  Just how did they get so far ahead of earth with fewer people and less resources.  Just seems like to me earth would have easily outspent and out produced them once an arms race was started.  Building terraforming technology doesn't seem to lend itself to faster ships and better weapons.

[Assistant]
The UN is dirt poor in this universe since they spend most of their budget on environmental control and one a large unemployed population.

The MCR also have a technological edge because most of their early settlers were scientists and they needed technological superiority to gain their independence.


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

[User]
[Avatar the Last Airbender] Why did team BoomerAng believe the war would be won if Aang defeated Ozai during the eclipse?

They had no idea that Zuko was turning at that point, and Azula might have been a more devastating leader than Ozai!

[Assistant]
The plan was to have Aang defeat the Firelord and capture the castle. They wouldn't have just let Azula take over.

Fire Nation culture is based on honor. The intention was to use that against Ozai and his followers into forcing him to surrender.


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

[User] [Resident Evil] If Nemesis and Mr. X met during the Raccoon City incident, would they have fought each other?

[Assistant]
I don't think so, Mr X specifically had orders to eliminate the survivors of the police station, right? He doesn't kill/destroy other zombies, lickers or other various G-creatures, unless in an incidental fashion (like smashing one out of the way to get to his target), or if assaulted by them. Mr X is also seemingly quite single minded and not that capable of reason, an attack dog that will constantly hunt down their prey, whereas Nemesis is more of a stalker/hunter and possesses more nuance in their methods.

They might have gotten into a fight over the target if they shared one, but Nemesis seems significantly more intelligent, to the point where they can reason/not immediately attack someone (recorded footage from the raccoon city incident shows Nemesis watching survivors from a distance and biding their time rather than immediately assaulting the group) and would more likely let Mr X do the heavy lifting or chase the targets into an ambush where Nemesis would finish them off, using Mr X as a sheepdog.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] A few inconsistencies regarding horcruxes

I have been re-reading the Half-Blood Prince and something seems to be odd for me.

We know that Voldemort has split his soul into seven parts. However, what exactly stops these parts from trying to come to life while Voldemort is alive? After all he doesn't feel anything when a horcrux is destroyed. Could that result in having several Voldemorts being alive at the same time?

[Assistant] Horcruxes are unable to 'come to life' all on its own. A death eater has to perform lengthy and complicated dark magic in order to bring back Voldemort. No one on their right mind would dare to meddle with a Horcruxes, especially with Voldemort in near full power.


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

[User]
Why do we get allergies? Is there an evolutionary reason/benefit for why they exist?

So it seems that with most things with animals, there's some form of reason for why each thing exists or happens. So if we take hayfever for example, is there any reason why this may have come to be so common?

[Assistant]
While it may seem that way, there's actually many examples of traits and behaviours (especially at the individual level) that just *are*. With ~24,000 protein coding genes, approximately double that number of non-coding RNAs and exponentially more regulatory regions - random, disadvantageous mutations will happen. As long as the mutation or other circumstance doesn't prevent the carrier from passing it on (lethality, infertility), it can stay in the population through multiple generations at low or modest frequency. You don't need to be the most fit, or most successful to survive. Many mutations are balanced as well, in that they may be good in one context, but not great in a different one.

Allergies are caused by a hypersensitivity of the immune system.

Your immune system function is controlled by many, many genes, and also an element of both randomness and prior exposure. Immune cells are "trained" in the thymus to avoid self-reactions (autoimmunity), or "trained" by prior exposure (including vaccines, environmental exposure) to react to certain other pathogen antigens. Sensitivity of the immune system is absolutely a good thing, allowing protection against a huge variety of pathogens, including completely new ones that only need to be recognized as "non-self".

Allergic reactions are specifically caused by hypersensitivity of mast cells and basophils which - in allergies - react strongly and specifically to foreign proteins that are actually benign. The cells and pathways being activated however, are exactly the same as those you want activated if you're exposed to a real threat. If you were to dampen these across the board, you risk becoming more susceptible to real infectious threats which have been a huge evolutionary pressure throughout history.

Balancing your immune system between too much and too little inflammation, as well as too much and too little reactivity is at the root of many conditions and disorders, as well as being responsible for differential responses to infection (why some people die when exposed to influenza, tuberculosis, malaria, plague, ebola, etc while others survive and recover). Humanity exists along a continuum. Those with allergies are just tipped a little too high in a particular direction.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is it that you never notice a person (mostly kids) aging when you see them regularly, but when you look back at old photos/videos, you only then realize how much they've grown?

I'll give my cousin as an example. He's in his "puberty" years, so a lot of bodily changes happen then. To me, he's always looked the same  as he did a few years ago. I only really noticed a small change in his voice, but nothing major. Then I look back on old home videos, and saw how truly young he looked before "puberty hit him". I never noticed the change until then. Could someone explain why this happens?

[Assistant]
Day to day things are stored in short term memory. The mundane gets replace a lot. Long term memory is stored elsewhere in the brain. Looking at an old photograph will bring those memories to the short term part of the brain where then the shock process occurs.

Other forms of this happen when you get older, move a lot, or just are away for a long while.
Example, say you live on the east coast of the US and you move to the west coast. You lived on the east for 20 years. While you go about your daily life on the west coast you will see people that look just like people you know from the east coast. If you could put them side by side you would see they usually don't look alike. It is just your brain trying to comprehend the radical changes that took place with the move, and loss of familiarity.
When old people get senile the brain will do the same thing. Trying to place old memories to what it can't comprehend in the short term. Grandma might start calling you by a late relative's name for example.


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

[User]
Does the oxygen content of air differ much between a city and a forest?

Is that what makes forest air so much more refreshing? Or is it less pollutants? Also, would oxygen content differ between a city park and a downtown area?

[Assistant] Forests, plants, trees and even rain forest jungles actually account for far less atmospheric oxygen than most people assume. Atmospheric oxygen at sea level is around 209,460 ppmv (20.946%) and this is fairly evenly distributed around most of the planet. The core of your question seems to be more along the lines of, would there be more atmospheric oxygen near the 'source'? The short answer is yes. Arctic and antarctic regions have slightly higher oxygen ratios due to the abundance of oceanic phytoplankton in those regions. Oxygen saturation is inversely proportional to the temperature of the water and phytoplankton life is abundant in cold waters. The amount of oxygen produced by single cell organisms is way more than that produced by multicellular plants. That's one of the problems with global warming. Geological evidence says that there's less oxygen in general when the Earth is warmer to the point where extinctions are common during the warm periods while biodiversity increases during the cold periods.


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

[User]
CMV: School Children should have a Class Mandatorily exposing Them to Nature

It is part of my view that nature is an integral part to the well-being of a human. There are no cities in the world that do not have any greenery present in their boundaries, as city planners know how important nature is to the welfare of an individual. However, living in a city with greenery does not obligate people to take advantage of that fact.

A stressed New Yorker may not have the time to go to Central Park or the many botanical gardens present in its boroughs, but we can still say with certainty they are exposed to nature at some point in their life.

This view mainly focuses on the economically-disadvantaged. Yes, a child in Manhattan will be able to go to the wilderness of Central Park, but a child in the Bronx might not be as privileged, and will most likely  not be able to experience the grounds of the New York Botanical Garden.  An inherent respect of the natural world can only be provided if one can experience nature. If a person is not able to go out into nature, they are also not garnering a respect for it.

A person in a city might grow up without having respect for nature. As climate change looms over the horizon, we need our children to learn how to care for nature. It is easy to remove an individuals sense of obligation from the world if they arent surrounded by it, or artificially removed from it. What is the difference between that concept and nature?

A class exposing children to different wildlife in their area or even plants would remediate this situation. The only foreseeable issue is funding, but that shouldnt change the fact that children should have an unalienable right to enjoy nature.

If we look at people who destroy the environment with no regard for what theyre doing, potentially this idea of respect implanted as child would remove their apathy of a world theyre killing. A CEO who only cares about profit and not the wildlife theyre killing off with pollution, would maybe instead resort to different policies about the environment if they cared that theyre killing foxes that saw scampering around as children.

I believe that my perspective has been melded by living in an area where nature is readily-available and abundant, and also having been exposed to the works of transcendentalists such as Thoreau and Emerson who argued some of the same concepts I express.

Change my view!

[Assistant]
1. Recess already exists. Outside play after lunch already exists. Just create a park in the school yard.
2. There already isn't enough time to fit in many important academic subjects (e.g., art, music, computer programming, languages)
3. Kids don't need to be forced to go into nature, they do so voluntarily.
4. There doesn't have to be a class. There can just be field trips to parks.
5. There are lots of after school groups and clubs that do this.
6. Parents regularly take kids to parks as children.
7. Classes like biology, physics, chemistry, etc. expose kids to the laws of nature. Nature isn't just greenery and trees. Everything is part of nature, and learning about nature from those perspective is arguably more important than just walking around outside.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do we get morning breath?

Well, I say we. Where does it come from? Bacteria in the mouth?

[Assistant] The bacteria that grows and multiplies in your mouth while you sleep, when they are relatively undisturbed. If you woke up every so often and drank something, that would wash away much of the bacteria (into your belly) and you would have noticeably nicer-smelling breath in the morning.


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

[User]
[Dune] What is The Voice?

I understand the Bene Gesserit have a preternatural ability to get people to do what they want, but what is it precisely? Does their training just give them a command of rhetoric down to the smallest detail?

Or is it more like the subject is being forced to do things against their will? I understand that Bene Gesserit (some more than others) are biologically different from normal humans, so is The Voice a purely biological adaptation that a person could still use to some effect while speaking like an oaf?

[Assistant]
It's simply a command of tonality, inflection, wording, sub-vocalization, and a host of other subliminal cues that acts as a sort of acute neuro-linguistic programming.

Basically, in the same way that "sad" music can evince an emotional reaction in you without you consciously having any reason to actually be sad, or a particular loud noise can trigger a fight-or-flight response, etc, a user of The Voice can use all the details of what they're saying to slip reactions in past your conscious mind. It's not mind-control, exactly, in that it doesn't compel you to do something that is manifestly against your own will; it simply makes you do something that you're not consciously aware of wanting to do, and aren't actively engaged in forcing yourself to *not* do.

IOW, when Jessica tells the ornithopter pilot to remove her son's bonds, it's not that he's being forced against all good judgement to do something that he in no way would ever be willing to do; it's that it feels, deep down, on a subconscious level, like removing the kid's bonds would be a fine and dandy idea right then and there.

edit: also, it should be noted that Bene Gesserit are, very much, biologically the same as "normal" humans; they're not mutants or anything. They've just been trained to control a lot of the things that we would normally never have any conscious access to, much like how an athlete might have much more control over aspects of their musculature or breathing than a "normal" human would ever experience.


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

[User] Eli5 How does bulking make it easier to gain muscle?

[Assistant]
Building muscle costs a lot of energy. Putting on a single kilo of muscle mass costs about 2 days worth of food. So the body is reluctanct to build up extra muscle except in times of plenty.

By bulking (a diet that's rich in calories in general and protein in particular) and exercising (using those muscles!) you're signalling to the body that it's the right time to get that extra musclemass.


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

[User] What if we make a cube of one way mirrors with the reflecting bit in the inside then we keep it in sunlight. Will it keep gathering light inside of it?

[Assistant]
A "one way mirror" is actually just a *partially transparent* mirror. For example, a mirror that reflects half of the light that hits it, and allows the other half to flow straight through.

It becomes a "one way mirror" only in specific circumstances - when the room on one side of the mirror/window is much brighter than the room on the other side. If it is a 50% mirror 50% window, then viewers in each room could see their own reflections (at 50% brightness), plus the transmitted light from the other room (also at 50% brightness). In this case, both rooms see the same image - they both get 50% of the brightness of each room. If one room is much brighter than the other, then that overwhelms the light from the dark room, and both rooms basically only see an image of the bright room. So it looks like a mirror if you're in the bright room, and looks like a window if you're in the dark room. This means that you can break the effect simply by turning off the lights.

So a one way mirror isn't a light "diode" that only allows light to flow one way. Light can escape through the mirror in both directions, and you won't build up light trapped between the mirrors. (And of course, no mirror or window is perfect anyway - light would get absorbed too).


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

[User] [ELI5] In the US, what's the difference between manslaughter and murder? Also, why are there three "degrees" of murder?

[Assistant]
if i understand correctly:

1st degree - you plan to kill someone and you kill them (ex: you find out your wife is cheating on you, so you go the store, buy a gun, hide in the bushes somewhere and kill your wife)

2nd degree - you kill someone in the "heat of the moment" (ex: walk in on you wife cheating, so you pull out your gun and shoot her)

3rd degree - manslaughter, you meant to hurt someone but not kill them, but they die anyway (ex: you confront your wife about cheating, slap her, she falls down, hits her head and croaks)


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

[User]
ELI5: Trick Candles

Well I turned 5 today and these motherfucking things just about ruined it for me. What sorcery plagues these firesticks to never cast my wish?

[Assistant] The wicks of trick candles have a small amount of magnesium mixed in so that it wont blow out fully when you extinguish the flame. It's still hot enough to reignite the wick each time you blow it out because magnesium ignites at a much lower temperature, and that catches the rest of the wick on fire.


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

[User] [Jessica Jones] If Killgrave commanded someone to forget something, would they actually erase the memory or just repress it until his influence wore off.

[Assistant] Kilgrave can't make a person capable of doing something they would be incapable of otherwise. If he told somone to forget something, they would try but likely fail. People just aren't capable of forgetting on command like that.


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

[User]
[Futurama] Fry lives in Bender's apartment's closet. But How?

Human beings require things such as temperature control, air flow, and plumbing: three things that would presumably not be necessary in a 31st century robot's apartment's closet.

[Assistant]
So Bender's apartment building was originally built for humans, however with the market being what it was they changed over and decided to market it as a robot only apartment building, and renamed it the Robot Arms.

That got a bunch of robots to rent there, however while it was marketed for robots they never actually said humans couldn't live there.  In fact, its against New New York rental codes.  Flip side is that humans and robots don't tend to mix well when it comes to living quarters, but that's another story.

So Bender was shown the renovated apartment, which very small because he didn't need much sleeping space.  The remainder of the apartment was in the closet, which was the size of a full sized apartment.

When Fry moved in again, Bender told fry about the window in the closet and Fry moved into that area.  That 'closet' had a bedroom from the apartment's former days as a human apartment.  Bender also moved into the closet.  There was more space in there and with Fry there was a reason for him to use it.  Though if asked he's still claim to stay in the main part of the apartment, the 4ft by 4ft main section.


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

[User]
Does a binary star system have interacting Goldilocks zones?

Do binary stars have individual planet systems, or do the two share one?
 Would a binary star system have any advantages or disadvantages in terms of potential life formation in the "Goldilocks" zone?

[Assistant] It depends.  If the stars are very far apart, they may have completely separate habitable zones that don't overlap.  But if they're close enough together that their habitable zones partly overlap, then any planets in one star's habitable zone will be in an orbit that comes pretty close to the other star.  This will probably be gravitationally unstable, and the planet is unlikely to last long after the formation of the stellar system, if it forms at all.


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

[User]
[Seinfeld]How were Kramer and Newman going to make money on the bottle deposit scheme?

I don't understand the Bottle Deposit scheme. Like, I get that the bottles are worth a dime in Michigan, but where are Kramer and Newman getting the bottles for under a dime? Kramer's stealing from Monk's, which is free in and of itself, but he's got to be sitting there eating for it to work, which costs money. Newman's even drinking the soda out of new bottles, which implies that they're getting the bottles *with the contents* for under a dime-- how? I understand how robbing the homeless guy is worth it, but every other source seems to either outlay more than a dime per bottle, or else pays almost nothing after considering how much time they're spending on the project. So how is this actually worthwhile? Surely getting an actual job would be more profitable?

[Assistant]
Kramer states that he's gone over the idea a million ways, without ever finding a way to beat the transportation costs. Newman gets around that by using the extra "fifth" truck from the Mother's Day postal service surge that needs to be driven to Michigan. It's insinuated that the USPS will cover the cost of the gas to get to the sorting center there.

With the overhead costs of the truck no longer an expense to them, any bottle or can they find is profit.

You see them grabbing cans/bottles from the dumpster $0.00, from the trash at the diner $0.00, stealing from the homeless $0.00, and lastly we see Kramer encouraging Newman to chug down newly opened bottles of soda. (Cost unknown.)

Since we didn't see them purchase those new bottles, we can infer from the previous scenes that they managed to aquire them for free somehow.

When they congratulate each other in front of the full bags loaded in the USPS truck, it looks like there's 10+ bags, each filled to the brim with recyclables. If each bag has, on average, 50 or so recyclables, that's at least $50 of profit.

Maybe to them that's an excellent money maker!


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

[User]
[Warhammer 40k] what makes adeptus astartes so much better then other series space marines?

I am aware of the extra organs and the training and the age but i need to know more. How can they smash the master chief? How can they rend the empires forces? How can annihilate buzz lightyear so on and so forth. What makes the better then everyone else?

[Assistant] So the God Emperor of Mankind is the pinnacle of human development and psychic power. A being of such tremendous power that even in his current crippled state he is capable of fighting several gods simultaneously. His astartes have the greatest training, equipment, and leadership that could possibly be provided by the vast resources of the imperium of man (similar too but often more advanced then most other sifi space marines.) But more then that they have spliced into their genetics a portion of gene seed from the GEoM himself. Quite literally the power of a god, from which all their other advantages build upon.


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

[User] [Harry Potter] Why did Snape want the Defense Against the Dark Arts professorship so badly, and why did he have such a hard time getting it?

[Assistant]
Who knows?

It could be as simple as personal preference; maybe Snape just LIKED the Dark Arts and how to defend against them.  After all, in addition to having more direct experience than most with the Dark Arts and being an accomplished Occlumens, Snape had an original curse to his name in an era where magical innovation isnt exactly at its peak.

It could be some twisted form of penance; if Snape knew the job was cursed (and its unlikely that he didnt), it would put an end to his suffering.  It would be a chance to go out on something approaching his own terms and put the blame somewhere else at the same time.  Ten points to Snape.

Maybe he just wanted to torment Ron some more.


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

[User]
When and why did Greeks stop being influential in philosophy?

Western philosophy originates with the Greeks and most of the heavyweights you see from ancient times were Greek. Yet, if you look at a list of most influential philosophers of the last 1,000 years you wouldnt see a single Greek. What happened?

[Assistant] The Roman Empire happened. Greece became a providence of the Roman Empire and Athens declined as the intellectual center of thought, whereas Alexandria in Egypt and Rome grew. By this time, the most influential philosophers of the schools of philosophy that were originally Greek, such as neopythagoreanism and neoplatonism, were from various parts of the Roman Empire. Galen, for example of intellectuals at this time, though a Greek born in Pergamon (modern-day Turkey), did most of his work in Rome.


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

[User] [BRIGHT]What are all the different races in the movie[SPOILERS]

[Assistant]
Elves, Men, and Orcs are regularly shown.

Dwarves are mentioned.

Fairies are shown but are implied to have below human intelligence.

You can see one dragon in the skyline but nothing is said about it.

Jackobi says there were 9 armies, but its not clear if each race had its own army, or if some races (like the orcs) were solely on the other side.


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

[User]
If a high-energy neutrino passes through my body and interacts with the atoms within, will it produce light, however fleeting?

I was reading about the remarkable IceCube neutrino detector and considering the high energy neutrinos creating a trail of photons as they pass through everything, including our bodies. Is that accurate? If so, what becomes of such photons? Do they escape?

[Assistant]
Just to be clear, the neutrino itself does not produce any light (or Cherenkov radiation, which is light given off due to a charged particle moving through a medium faster than the speed of light in that medium) because neutrinos are not electrically charged.  But a neutrino's (very rare) interaction via the weak force with another particle can cause *that* particle (and others near it) to give off some light, as it recoils.

Hope that helps.


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

[User]
How did structuralism lead to post-structuralism?

If it did it at all? Thanks :)

[Assistant]
Structuralist like Claude Levi Strauss were interested in discovering laws of human society and behavior. They did this by studying the history and anthropology of the world, especially places and times at deviance with the present moment. Post Structuralists said that these alleged scientific laws about society or behavior were really just hamstrung by the perspective of the structuralists themselves... so the post structuralists criticized the timeless universalist claims of structuralism (which claimed to discover fundamental underlying structures) and tried to show the difficulty of making claims about all of history/humanity without taking a stance on history/the human which was historically parochial (epochal for Heidegger, epistemic in Foucault talk).

Structuralist: Claude Levi Strauss, Althusser, etc.

Post Structuralist: Michel Foucault (though people are claiming he was a neoliberal at heart).

How did it structuralism lead to post structuralism? Well originally people said things like Africans are primitive, structuralists claimed that dynamics of African tribal family structure were indicative of underlying dynamics at work in Western European families too... and then the post structuralists said, the notion of a family as understood as such and of the methods for comparative analysis are fundamentally reflective of a peculiar historical attempt to discover/invent/force comparisons in order to render foreigners knowable and therefore malleable for our power structure. We will assume they really are just like French families, and then we will make it so, and force our way of life on them.

Allegedly... Derrida claimed that this is neither good nor bad so we cannot really criticize it, and this is considered post post structuralist aka deconstructivist. There is a curious parallel mirroring of the original pre structuralist view and the de constructivist one. Deconstructionist claim that they dont take a stance on anything, that they want to show how language forces people to take a stance and be biased when it is used in traditional manner but there can be more inclusive ways to use language that preclude being parochial whereas post Structuralists say it is inevitable to have to take a stance on your present moment and they try to be open-honest about it (disclosing their own biases and identity and such).

Contemporary analytic philosophy and mainstream academic science feels more aligned to structuralism because the notion of discoverable timeless rules and dynamics formed the historical development of most knowledge in their view. At best they will concede that this is a work in progress and we need dissenting views to iteratively clarify our understanding. In which case they end up somewhere like Descartes and Hegel sketched... and Heideggers criticisms of Husserls inside/outside distinction could be levied against them as could later Wittgenstein.


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

[User]
ELI5 Why do some languages have masculine and feminine words for inanimate objects.

For example, when you say "the door" in French, it's feminine;  "La porte" instead of "Le porte". What happens if I use "Le" instead of "La"? Does it change the meaning?

[Assistant]
First, it's important to recognize that, for the most part, "grammatical gender" doesn't have anything directly to do with gender as sex-based roles or gender identity, etc.

In languages that have gendered nouns, it helps provide clarity. For example, take this sentence in English (which does not have gendered nouns):

*I have a cat that is in the house that is mine.*

In English it's unclear whether the "that" is refering to "a cat" or "the house".

In a language that has gendered nouns, like German, it wouldn't be unclear because the pronoun "that" would be different depending on whether it was referring to "die Katze" (the cat, feminine gender) or "das Haus" (the house, neuter gender).

So that's the function of gendering nouns, but it's also important to understand that "masculine/feminine/neuter" genders are not the only way languages grammatically gender nouns. It's common in Indo-European languages, but there are many languages that either:

* don't have any genders for nouns but still have genders for pronouns (e.g. English)
* don't have genders but have noun "classifiers" to indicate things like size and quantity of noun objects (sign languages as well as many Asian languages)
* grammatical gender but around other axes unrelated to sexual gender like animate/inanimate (e.g. Vietnamese)
* many grammatical genders (e.g. many African languages have 10-20 "grammatical genders" ... although linguists tend to call them "noun classes" at that point because they're so far removed from sexual genders).

All of which is to say that grammatical gender is a linguistic construct that only is *tangentially* related to sexual gender in *some* languages and *entirely unrelated* in other languages.


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

[User]
[WH40K] Why are there no more Warp Gods besides the main 4? (5 if you count Malal/Malice)

If the Warp is affected by strong emotions or thoughts, and the Warp Gods are a result of those emotions coalescing and gaining consciousness, then why haven't more Warp Gods formed from other powerful emotions like Hope or Love or even Sadness/Depression? On a side note, why isn't Malal really mentioned in the 40K story anymore?

[Assistant]
There are plenty of minor warp gods. You just don't hear about them as much because they're not as powerful and therefore don't attract as many cultists. Usually this is because the emotions they feed on are not as prevalent among Warp-sensitive races.

Malal is a special case. He feeds off of the power of Chaos antagonistically, and so he's only powerful when they are powerful. If Chaos gains more territory in the galaxy, he may rise in power again.


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

[User]
[Avatar] How did female Avatars learn waterbending in the face of the northern water tribe's customs?

Did the Avatars even learn waterbending from the northern water tribe? Forgive me, my history of the southern tribe is a bit fuzzy so I can't remember if there were a great many masters during Kyoshi's or Yangchen's times.

[Assistant] We actually don't know how recently the tradition against women learning combat bending sprang up. The waterbending Avatar preceding Korra was the male Avatar Kurruk, and the last female waterbending Avatar before him was over a millenia ago. It's quite possible that the tradition simply didn't exist yet at that point.


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

[User]
[Elysium]If curing all disease and injury has become so trivial, why not just give people on the ground access to it?

Its implied that basically everyone on Elysium has access to these wonderful machines that can cure all disease and injuries in a matter of seconds. So I would assume these machines are relatively easy to manufacture and power. You can even see several of them on ships at the end so its not like they require some enormous energy source. Why not just plop a few of them on the ground to make everyone happy? It wouldn't cost them anything.

[Assistant]
The rich on Elysium were intentionally separating themselves from the poor on Earth. It was the ultimate epitome of the 99% vs 1%. You can tell in the documentary that many of them are actually repulsed by the dirty decadents that make up Earth's slums.

Not to mention Earth is staggeringly overpopulated. You really think if a few medbays come down everyone'll be holding hands and singing kumbaya over a campfire? Please.

First of all, now the overpopulation becomes even worse. People aren't dying and instead living to reproduce. There's a population crash in Earths future if it happens.

And second, bring down the pods, and the rest of the world would be torn apart in order to control the pods. Whose to say Spiders gang won't be in the middle of a massive gang war over the local pods?


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Why did the Dementors stay loyal to the Ministry during the First Wizarding War?

Following the return of Voldemort, both he and Dumbledore regarded the idea that the Dementors would defect to his banner as a foregone conclusion. While the reasons they give are sound and they are ultimately proven right, this begs the question of why they remained loyal to the Ministry during the first war. So, what changed between the first war and the second that made the Dementors more inclined to change their allegiance?

[Assistant]
The Dementors don't have an allegiance to any side, they just want to feed on people's emotions. During the first war, they got a steady stream of victims as the cells of Azkaban were filled by Death Eaters, so they felt no need to leave.

When the second war came around, Voldemort freed all the inmates in Azkaban and therefore the dementors left to find new people to feed on.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are people with ADHD given stimulants? Don't they make you more hyper, like coffee does?

[Assistant]
ADHD, put simply, is a deficiency of Dopamine. Dopamine tells the brain which activities are important. Normally certain behaviours cause a rise in dopamine levels to reward or encourage an action.  If the brain sees no point in doing something, no dopamine gets released.

This system thus points our attention to desirable actions. A lack of dopamine consequently leads to a lack of directed attention. Everything is categorised as equally important and no filter is applied to new information reaching the brain. However the brain tries to get a dopamine hit and seeks new stimuli without success.

Stimulants either lead to a direct release of dopamine(amphetamines) or block the processes concerned with breaking down dopamine(Cocaine, Ritalin). This allows people with ADHD to focus on things as their brain no longer seeks new information to trigger dopamine release as enough dopamine is avaliable. The brain is no longer restless by working on finding dopamine triggers all the time, allowing it to rest ironically.


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

[User]
ELI5 where does all the earth come from that covers ancient cities which are found underground? E.g. the Roman forums.

I was watching a programme about Rome and was curious as to how ancient cities are buried underground and where all the earth that covers these cities comes from.

[Assistant] Dirt gets blown by wind, and washed by rain water to cover things. Stone will also sink when the ground gets wet if it is not sitting on bedrock. These three things will slowly bury things over hundreds and thousands of years.


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

[User] [Spider-Man: No Way Home] Who were variants and who was sacred timeline?

[Assistant]
>"The Avengers?! That's great! What is that?"

**Loki Spoilers:**

Preservng the sacred timeline was a ruse to destroy any universes where a variant of Kang might pop up to challenge He Who Remains.

 Given that Spider Tobey and Spider Garfield came from universes without the Avengers or the larger known Marvel Universe, it's likely that their universes were not a risk to the "sacred timeline."


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

[User] If the electrical conductivity of silver is higher than any other element, why do we use gold instead in most of our electronic circuits?

[Assistant]
The corrosion resistance of silver isn't great in any environment (think jewelry). Gold is incredibly non-reactive in many situations, which is why it can be used in the human body, on electrical components, as jewelry, etc.

Additionally, pure gold is more electrically conductive than most alloyed silver, which means the criteria of a project may require gold (as opposed to it being the "fancier" option) or copper, because silver (or other conductors) simply may not meet the required conductance.


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

[User] If you are dehydrated, what part of your body will you start to deteriorate first?

[Assistant] Adrenal gland and kidneys will produce hormones to maintain adequate blood volume so that vital organs will be kept well-perfused. With severe dehydration though, there's only so much this compensatory mechanism can hold off. Without adequate perfusion, kidneys will typically fail first. Eventually, there's so little volume that the heart cannot pump and everything else will fail too.


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

[User] [Harry Potter] Wasnt it counter-intuitive for the locket to try drown Harry? Thats one horcrux destroying another.

[Assistant]
They're not intelligent, they're enchanted. Consider where the locket was (meant to be) hidden - in a cave, on an island surrounded by water filled with zombies.

I bet it just tries to drown everybody whenever it gets the chance.


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

[User] ELI5: How are large public places like amusement parks and stadiums able to enforce bans? Are there not too many people to keep a list going thats effectively monitored?

[Assistant]
They are not designed to block all access, they are designed to give the park grounds for charging them with criminal trespassing if they cause trouble in the future.

But some effort is put into blocking access such as posters of banned people being at the ticket booth or gate, and they use facial recognition programs with surveillance systems in some parks.


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

[User]
Why is Vitamin C not part of the Vitamin B complex?

I don't get how niacin is closer to Vitamin B12 than Vitamin C. Vitamins C and B12 are both cofactors in protein synthesis, while niacin is a redox agent.

[Assistant]
It's because of historical reseasons.

The first vitamins were classified as water or fat soluable with alphabet designation A, B, C, D, E, F, K, H, I, J, K, G etc

While analyzing Vitamin B then designated as Thiamin - Researchers Smith and Hendrick realised that they are dealing with two substances so we renamed vitamin B to Vitamin B1 and B2. Then similar divisions hapenned with other vitamin B's and some older designates like vitamin H or vitamin F were reclassified (H is biotin B7 and vitamin F are EFA's)  and the whole alphabet soup of vitamins went to hell and we are left with todays classificaiton.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why when cooking something on aluminium foil in the oven you can pull it out with your bare hands, but when using a baking pan you would badly burn your hands if you tried the same thing.

Just made jalapeno poppers on aluminium foil, as opposed to a baking tray. Every time aluminium foil is used in the oven, I can grab the foil, pull it out with bare hands, and I don't get burned. Why is this different than a baking tray?

[Assistant] Because the foil is extremely thin, it doesn't hold a lot of heat. Also, because metals conduct heat very well they get rid of heat quickly too. The foil is really hot, but when you open the oven and cool kitchen air hits the foil, it cools the foil very fast. The baking tray is so much thicker that it has a lot more heat to get rid of, so doesn't cool fast enough for you to touch.


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

[User] [Star Wars] What was Luke told about his mother? What was Leia told about her father?

[Assistant]
Owen discouraged any conversation about his parents.  Luke was more interested in his father and it's clear that Owen lied about him about Anakin.

We don't know how much Leah asked about her parents.  We know she knows she is adopted (Bail likely told her - probably not much of a secret anyhow). He likely asked about them but Bail knew that she couldn't find out so they likely told her that her father died during the clone wars and her mother knew Bail from the Senate and placed Leiah in her care before dying.

Both Bail and Owen were told by Kenobi to keep them a secret.

Eventually, they found out the truth of course.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do restaurants/butchers "age" meats for long periods of time without them going bad?

I know that you can freeze meat for a long time without it going bad, but when it's frozen it isn't absorbing the flavor. When someone serves "aged wagyu" or "30-day aged pork loin" what is that process?

[Assistant] They leave the meat hanging off the ground and let all the moisture come out. The meat does go bad and mouldy on the outside, but the pieces of meat that they age are so thick that it's still good on the inside, so they just cut off the outer layers.


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

[User]
ELI5: why dont the bottom of your feet get bruised from walking/running?

That much pressure/impact anywhere else on your body would leave bruises. Especially larger people?

[Assistant]
Because they've evolved to be the bit of the body that gets walked on the whole time so there's thicker skin, fewer blood vessels etc. and a heavier heel and the ball of the foot to help protect it and take the weight. We evolved the foot arch to better support weight and distribute it as well as a strong big toe.

Chimps etc. that do a lot less walking have gripping toes and flat feet, ours have evolved almost entirely to support weight when walking/running.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do some stores such as Sam's club and Costco charge a membership fee just to shop there?

[Assistant]
Costco products are essentially sold at cost-price. The profit comes almost entirely from membership fees.

Sam's Club operates on a slightly different model, but the outcome is the same. The main difference is that Sam's Club is a "warehouse store" for Wal-Mart, so Sam's Club stores are the hubs with Wal-Mart stores as spokes. They can sell things at Sam's Club, and if they don't sell there, they can be broken from bulk and sold individually at Wal-Mart.


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

[User] ELI5: How do dryer sheets remove static?

[Assistant]
When your cloths tumble around electrons can get stripped from one item and placed on another item giving the two pieces of clothing an over all positive or negative charge. If they do differ you get static cling. Since clothes are not good conductors of electricity the charge can last for quite some time.

Dryer sheets are just a fabric sheet impregnated with fabric softener, fabric softener is positively charged.  When the sheet tumbles around the softener comes off and gives the clothes an overall positive charge, preventing opposites and thus cling . This is the same reason many people use fabric sheets to help dust around the house. The positive charge left behind helps prevent dust build up.


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

[User]
ELI5: Where do those extra four minutes go every day?

The Earth fully rotates in 23 hours and 56 minutes. Where do those extra four minutes go??

I know the answer is supposedly leap day, but I still dont understand it from a daily time perspective.

I have to be up early for my job, which right now sucks because its dark out that early. So every day Ive been checking my weather app to see when the sun is going to rise, and every day its a minute or two earlier because were coming out of winter. But how the heck does that work if theres a missing four minutes every night?? Shouldnt the sun be rising even earlier, or later? And how does it not add up to the point where noon is nighttime??

It hurts my head so much please help me understand.

[Assistant] 23 hours and 56 minutes is how long it takes the Earth to make one rotation relative to the rest of the universe. However, while it is doing that, it also makes 1/365 of a revolution around the Sun. In order to face the Sun in the same direction as it did the previous day, it has to rotate for 1/365 of a rotation, which takes 4 minutes.


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

[User]
ELI5: The plot to Bioshock Infinite

I loved this game, and think I have a good grasp on it, but I would love to hear an ELI5 version!

[Assistant]
Let's do this chronologically.

There was a guy named Booker Dewitt. He fought at the Battle of Wounded Knee, killed a lot of indians, and felt really bad about it. After the battle, he found people being baptized in the river. At first he volunteered for the baptism.

Here, the universe splits. It becomes World A, in which Booker does not go through with the Baptism, and goes back to his life and becomes a strike buster. In World B, he becomes Zachary Comstock, remains in the military and goes to Columbia.

Booker in World A eventually has a baby, Anna. Comstock, in world B, is unable to have a baby because of experiments done by Leteuce. Comstock in world B wants to have a baby, and Leteuce thinks that she can get him one from the world of her "brother" (who is really her in the alternate universe, similar to how Comstock/Booker are the same person). Booker has a ton of gambling debts but no way to pay off the debts, so Male Leteuce says he can pay off the debts by giving them his baby. He agrees to do that, and they take the baby, but Booker changes his mind and chases them. Leteuece gets Anna through the rift, but part of her pinky gets cut off and stays in Booker's world, meaning she exists in both World A and World B at the same time. This gives her the ability to open portals between worlds. These rifts can also span across various times (for example, in one early scene Elizabeth opens a rift to NYC, and the theater marquis shows "Star Wars" being played, even though it's only 1912 in the game).

Booker sinks into alcoholism and depression after losing his baby, carves her initials (AD) into his hand, and gets into more debt. Leteuce again offers to wipe away the debts, if he goes to this city and brings a certain girl to New York. He agrees, and they bring him out to Maine, and pass through a rift at some point without him knowing. He goes into the light house and goes up to Columbia, rescues Elizabeth from her tower, they flee the city, etc. Elizabeth is captured by Songbird and brought back to Comstock's house. Future version of Elizabeth brings Booker to the future and shows him what happened as a result of not having stopped Songbird from taking her, then sends him back to stop Songbird. Elizabeth opens a tear to Rapture (from Bioshock 1) and Songbird is killed by the water pressure. Then they go up to the lighthouse. Each lighthouse represents a "World" created by a choice (like, Booker's choice to get baptized or not). Each world branches off from many different important choices. Anna realizes that as long as there is a world in which Comstock exists, there will be a world in which she ends up destroying everyone using Columbia. So, she opens a tear and they go back to the moment where Comstock began: the baptism. There, the many versions of Elizabeth that had all reached the same conclusion meet up and drown Booker before he can become Comstock, thus preventing that horrible future from ever happening, and that's why they all disappear.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is "American Gothic" such an iconic image?

I've seen this painting in cartoons, movies, TV shows and in dozens of homages and sight gags, but I don't know anything about it other than what it looks like, nor do I know anything about the artist. Why?

[Assistant]
Grant Wood First displayed it in 1930, right at the beginning of the depression.

Consider what was happening to art at the time. Ever since film cameras were first developed, and becoming more increasingly common, artists tended to move more and more away from representational works to more abstract works. At the time Grant Wood painted American Gothic, abstract artists in Europe were the talk of the art world.

Grant Wood himself had studied much of this while in Europe, and came back, ironically, with a healthier respect for representational art.

Despite every person and object being so detailed, you can still read plenty into the painting itself. The more you look at it, the more you see, too. For example:

* Why does such a simple farmhouse, with its focus on function, have such an unusually decorative window upstairs?
* Why is the man looking directly at the viewer, while the woman is looking off into the distance somewhere?
* What's the story behind the almost emotionless, straightforward look on their faces?
* In a house that looks like it has never seen an electric light bulb, why is the upstairs curtain closed in the middle of the day?

Part of it's charm is that so much can be read into it. It's been seen as a "comic valentine", as both praise of and insult to life in the midwest, and much more.

It's iconic status really came from being a depiction of straightforward basics, at a time when the country was heading into the Great Depression. It was taken by many as a reminder of the pioneer spirit of days gone by, and the values on which to focus in the coming years.

It's one of those cases of being the right image at the right time, which is what makes a true cultural icon.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are Europe and Asia considered two continents?

[Assistant]
The ancient Greeks first developed the idea of a continent.  They saw that the Mediterranean divided Europe from Africa, the Red Sea divided African from Asia, and with their limited knowledge of geography, assumed the Black Sea divided Asia from Europe.

They were wrong, but the notion stuck, and has been reinforced by a culture divide that runs roughly along the same lines.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are some meats safe to eat raw and some not?

[Assistant]
all non contaminated meats are safe to eat raw.   problem is....some meats come from the animal already contaminated.

if you had a healthy chicken that was disease and parasite free, you could eat the meat raw if you freshly slaughter it.    but you don't, because you buy your meat the supermarket, where it comes from a slaughterhouse and packing plant at least a week old.   and the chicken comes from a chicken farm where it's packed with other chickens that are contaminated with the bacteria salmonella.

if you had a healthy pig that was disease and parasite free, you could eat the meat raw if you freshly slaughter it.    but you don't, because you buy your meat the supermarket, where it comes from a slaughterhouse and packing plant at least a week old.   and the pig comes from a pig farm where it's packed with other pigs that are contaminated with the parasite trichinosis.

if you had a healthy cow that was disease and parasite free, you could eat the meat raw if you freshly slaughter it.    but you don't, because you buy your meat the supermarket, where it comes from a slaughterhouse and packing plant at least a week old.   but luckily, there isn't a widespread bacteria or parasite that affects cows.   their meat is pretty resistant to random bacteria getting into the inside of the meat.   you would be mostly ok to eat supermarket beef raw.   if you get fresh slaughtered beef, you would be even less risk.


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

[User] Why do mosquito bites itch?

[Assistant]
When a mosquito 'bites' you [it's not really a bite], this is what happens.

She [it is always a she, they only do it to feed their eggs and not to nourish themselves] first injects you with an anticoagulant so the blood will flow without clotting.

After getting their blood, most of the anticoagulant is then sucked back up with the blood.
And this stuff is what makes you itch.

So, if you smack the mosquito while it is still sucking, it will itch a lot more than if you let them take the blood, a miniscule amount, and suck back the stuff that makes you itch.


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

[User]
ELI5: How can I forget something that I was about to say?

Sometimes I want to get this one something out into the conversation but then poof its gone.

[Assistant]
When you thought of what to say, your brain was using its "working memory." That's where you do your thinking. Sadly, it can only hold a handful of thoughts at a time.

Every new thought you have has to take up space in your working memory. Every new perception is going to take up space in your working memory.

New thoughts and distractions can bump that thing you were about to say out of working memory/. And now it's gone.

Also, its signal decays over time, so if you don't keep thinking about it (and boosting its signal) it can die away and poof it's gone.


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

[User] ELI5: Why when people get a traumatic injury the people helping them tell them to "Stay awake" or "Don't fall asleep"

[Assistant] Because a sleeping person cannot report if they anything has changed, and you can't tell if they became unconscious due to their injuries.   Being asleep doesn't make things worse, it makes it harder to treat the injury since the injured person can't describe their symptoms if they're asleep.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does plastic Tupperware take on food stains after a while?

Normally I see this with acidic foods, usually tomato based pasta sauce.

[Assistant]
Plastic is porous.  Meaning, at the micro level (think zoom in with a microscope), the surface of plastic is actually very bumpy, with many gaps.

Stuff like tomato gets embedded into these bumps.

If you microwave your tupperware, it affects the plastic itself (feel how it is easier to bend when warmed in the microwave?).  The plastic's porous surface actually expands a little.  This makes it even easier for the tomato to embed into the plastic.  The tupperware then cools, and shrinks back in... trapping the tomato permanently.


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

[User]
How autonomous are the 12 Fed banks? Are most things they do coordinated with each other?

For example, when the board of governors decides the money supply needs to be increased by purchasing *x* amount of securities, who/what determines which of the 12 Fed banks will purchase these securities and by how much each purchasing bank will purchase?

[Assistant]
The regional banks are better thought of as banking associations rather than fulfilling a government function. It would have confused far fewer people if the Federal Reserve system was called something else.

The Federal agency called the Federal Reserve has staff in each Federal Reserve regional bank to handle regulation and other functions, they are federal employees. The regional banks are federal charter organizations but are not really part of the federal government, most of the staff are not employees of the federal government but of the regional bank itself and the member banks of the region control the regional bank (member banks are required by law to be shareholders, they "own" the regional banks).

> For example, when the board of governors decides the money supply needs to be increased by purchasing x amount of securities, who/what determines which of the 12 Fed banks will purchase these securities and by how much each purchasing bank will purchase?

NYFed has an OMO desk which executes monetary policy. Until 2002 all the primary dealers were located in NYC, and almost all are still part of NYFed, so it made sense to have the desk there.


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

[User] ELI5: How are people with dementia able to have "good days" when they remember people or events that they wouldn't normally recall?

[Assistant]
Your brain is always getting information from the environment around you: what you hear people say, the color of the walls, what you see people do, the feeling of your clothes against your skin, what cards you have in your hand when playing a card game, and so on. Not all of that information is  important. When you're playing a card game with friends, knowing what cards you have and hearing when your friend says it's your turn is useful, but the fact that the wall is white isn't useful information. Luckily, there is a part of your brain that decides what information is important, and filters out the extra info so you can concentrate.

In patients with dementia, that part of the brain has been damaged- it's not completely useless, but it's much weaker than it would be in a healthy person. Basically, these patients are overwhelmed with information, but they have trouble figuring out what information is important and what that information means. They may see white walls and think it means they are in their mother's house, or they may see the cards and realize they need to lay down an ace to win.

There's no way to know for sure when they will pick up on the right information, but scientists do have some ideas of what causes them to be more aware. How aware (lucid) a person is can vary based on tiredness, mood, changes in physical health, what drugs/hormones are in their body, the environment around them, how other people are acting, etc.

For example, let's say Ruby is in the middle stages of dementia and normally isn't aware of where she is. Her in-home caregiver decides to take her on a car ride one morning and accidentally begins to back up too close to the edge of a drop off, and Ruby suddenly shouts, "If you don't pull forward we're gonna die!" This is likely because 1) it is morning and Ruby is not yet tired, meaning the part of her brain that is damaged is not yet worn out from a busy day of trying to make sense of things, and 2) this situation is especially dangerous, meaning that other parts of Ruby's brain would recognize that this is a threat and send out hormones that improves how well the damaged part of her brain works.

In the same vein, being very tired or in a dull environment could cause a person to be less aware.

Many experts believe that a lucid day (good day) happens when the "perfect storm" of these factors occur.


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

[User]
Is terraforming a real possibility?

Is terraforming something being worked on to not only clean up earth but also make places like mars hospitable for human life?

[Assistant]
Yes. It may only take about 100 years to increase the temperature and pressure enough to support plant life.  It would take much much longer to get enough oxygen in the air for us to breathe, but we could walk the surface with just a mask for o2.

Edit: added a source below.


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

[User] If space is primarily empty vacuum, do gas particles such as those in nebulae diffuse into said vacuum?

[Assistant] Yes. Due to the random movement. But that nebulae has mass and therefore gravity which holds the gas in. It the same as asking why air doesn't escape earth's atmosphere. Because it is held by gravity. But some air does escape.


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

[User]
ELI5 Why we don't form scabs inside our mouth if we get a cut/burn

So I got a cut inside my mouth the other day and I was curious why a scab never formed, but it still is healing.

I thought scabs were essential for a wound to properly heal so why dont they show up?

[Assistant] A scab is just the blood that has come to the surface and clots. A cut in your mouth doesn't form a scab because the blood on the surface gets washed away by your saliva. The clots that stops the bleeding are small andare in the inside the cut and therefor don't form a visible scab.


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

[User]
Coders of reddit, I want to start coding, what language should choose to learn and how should I approach it?

Dear Reddit, I want to code stuff, I think its really cool and am prepared to give up some time. The only thing I know that's related to this is translating words to binary. I am thinking of using Ruby on rails; watching tutorials, reading articles, etc. What do you think will be the easiest and help to learn other languages?

Context:
I am a 12 year old boy that wants to learn coding. Now, I know most of you will stop reading this but I think I can do this and I know I wont have a game or a website in a week. I know it will take time. I am very good at learning things, for example, last year I didn't know a thing about computers, reddit or anything but I wanted something to play games on rather than my dads shitty computer which lagged like crazy. So I got into Computer components and started to get what's what and how everything works and what to look for in my budget A few months ago I gathered enough money and built a low-medium spec gaming pc (which I'm pretty proud of). This should tell you i'm serious about this.

P.S I will throwaway this account if get too much hate.

[Assistant]
Java is a great language to learn coding with.

* The syntax has similarities with other major languages, like C or even Javascript or Python. This will give you options for learning other languages.

* It is also quite strict on how you code, which helps you avoid learning bad habits as you start out.

* It's a compiled language,  which means you have to check that your code is written properly before you can run it, which is probably helpful.

* it's multi platform, so you can use the same code on Linux, Windows or Mac, and other people's code will work just the same too.

* there are some great tools (called IDEs) like Eclipse or Netbeans which will help a lot when coding.

* it's popular so there are tons of resources when you get stuck.

* it's flexible so you can try lots of different programming projects with it, and it can interact with other languages like SQL.

* it's object - oriented which is a valuable concept to get your head round early on .