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

[User]
ELI5 Why don't we call countries by the names they call themselves?

For example, Germany is Deutschland.  Why do we not refer to it as such?

[Assistant]
This is an awesome question...I have ALWAYS been curious about this (specifically in the example you have provided).

Looking at it again, for the first time, it appears to be a situation where the name "Germany" developed for that region LONG before Deutschland became a unified country and they started referring to themselves thusly. The Romans were calling the land area "Germania" when they first visited because that was the tribe that they encountered...the Spaniards were calling it "Alemania" because of the tribe closest to their border.

Looking at the United States, we are called many things that don't really sound like United States:

* Vereinigte Staaten von Amerika (German)
* Sahalat (Laos)
* Estados Unidos de Amrica

With Japan, it is a bastardization of the original name Cipangu...it went through several iterations as it traveled around the world by ship that eventually resulted in "Japan" in English.

(Thanks to MentalFloss.com for the additional information).


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

[User]
[Star Wars] How to Bounty Hunters find people in such a huge galaxy?

I recently finished reading the Darth Vader comic, and I'm now reading the Kanan comic, and it seems way too easy for bounty hunters to find their target considering the size of the galaxy and even the size of each planet.

Even if you somehow find a lead that leads you to the planet your target is on, what do you do then? Assuming they aren't drawing much attention to themselves, how do you even know where on the planet to land? And even if you can pinpoint a city, finding someone within a city can be difficult if they're lying low and going by a different name. What tactics do bounty hunters use that speed things up?

[Assistant]
There's still a lot of old-fashioned legwork, but electronic records exist, and so do slicers. The galaxy is a little smaller for it. And with galactic fugitives, bounties can be very large. This supports an extensive network of informants.

Some bounty hunters are force-sensitive. And droid bounty hunters, with their perfect memories, have been known to pick up random bounties on the street.


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

[User]
[Marvel] Could a person use Spider Man's web slingers without having any of his powers?

I mean use them to sling between buildings without dying.

[Assistant]
A peak human gymnast could probably get around with them, but they would have one or two webs between stops at most, and a rather limited number per day.

Swinging around like that takes serious arm and grip str and endurance.

Most people with super str could manage, but without his reflexes or Spidey sense (or both) they will have to be a lot more careful (or just run into a lot of stuff if they have the endurance to tank the hits).

Without his ability to climb vertically they will have to land better too, or waste webs making climbing rope.


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

[User] [DC] Is Superman's loose hair-lock accidental or on purpose? Does he use some kind of Kryptonian hair gel to hold it in place?

[Assistant]
Normal hair care products work. His hair is incredibly strong, but it doesn't have a lot of leverage to resist styling. It's not like it has any muscles to resist a brush.

The swirl atop his forehead is a fashionable affection.


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

[User]
[Percy Jackson and the Olympians] Why did Luke stop using his teleportation and scorpion-summoning powers after the first book?

They wouldve come in handy a lot.

[Assistant]
We really dont see Luke in combat situations very often. Obviously it only happens once in The Lightning Thief, and he uses the powers. But in Sea of Monsters he only appears in combat one time again, and he had his entire army with him at that point and Percy challenged him to a straight up one on one duel, so there wasnt really a need to use his powers again.

In Titans Curse, Luke was already considerably weaker than he was in the previous two years because of Kronos rising power over him and because he had been holding up the sky for Atlas for a while. The one time we see him fighting in that book he could barely even stand up, and he promptly gets his ass kicked and dropped off a cliff by Thalia, so there wasnt an opportunity for him to use his powers really.

Then in Battle of the Labyrinth, we never see Luke in a combat scenario until his body was taken over by Kronos at the end of the book, and those kinds of powers are pretty far beneath Kronos who can literally control time without trying. He keeps those powers until like a minute before he dies, so no real need for those powers to come up again when Kronos was controlling him.


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

[User]
Given optimal conditions (say room temp, no air currents, no water evaporation, etc), would a soap bubble in water last "forever", or would it eventually burst?

When I see soap bubbles, usually they last for a little while (say, 15-20 minutes), but eventually they blow up. Now, is this because of some disturbance (air current, dust particle, wave motion of the water underneath), or does the soap bubble begin to "wear down" over time?

Now, if indeed they would wear down over time without some outside process, what causes this wear down? Are the components of the soap disintegrating, or is it something else?

[Assistant]
It all comes down to energy in the system.  There is surface tension in a soap bubble.  In order to lower the free energy of the system, the surface of the bubble will break and allow the liquid to pool together in a smaller volume, which would be energetically favorable even under perfect conditions.  Think about a bubble on a table. The upper portion away from the table it's resting on will have a lower potential energy by dropping closer to the table, which will lower the free energy in the system.  Even in zero g, the surface tension of the bubble will be reduced by eliminating the air pocket and reducing the bubble to a droplet of liquid.  So even under ideal conditions, the bubble will eventually burst, but the time it takes could be much longer than your normal observation if the conditions were correct.

TL;DR Bye bye bubbles.


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

[User] ELI5: Why was Pol Pot never prosecuted for war crimes? Why was his government still recognized by the United Nations?

[Assistant] He opposed Vietnam so the US liked him, the Russians and Chinese liked the Communist government, he shut the outside world out while he was massacring people and the US hadn't signed the genocide convention yet. See "A Problem from Hell" by Samantha Power for more information.


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

[User] ELI5: How come a venomous animal is not affected by its own venom?

[Assistant]
Well they don't bite themselves for one, and venom is a protein which is designed to react with cells in a specific way - usually by creating blot clots and melting the walls of cells. Because the venom is specifically developed to work on certain cell structures, the snake just has to store the venom in a cavity made of a different cell shape.

To be honest though, the same thing applies to humans. If you bit someone really hard, enough to rip the skin and draw blood, they could be at risk of a seriously bad infection without strong antiseptic (especially if the biter eats loads of meat).
The bacteria in your mouth is dangerous if introduced into the bloodstream, but it's perfectly safe in your (or anyone else's) mouth.

PS: By the way, there are some interesting properties of venom due to the way it reacts with cells. For example some snakes have venom designed to switch off neurons in your body *and nothing else*. As the venom only works if injected into the bloodstream, some people have been known to drink cobra venom to experience hallucinogenic effects.


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

[User] ELI5: How do scientists detect the DISTANCE of source of radio waves coming from different regions of universe?

[Assistant]
Simply: Light stretches and the further away something is, the more the light stretches

Less simply:

Waves stretch in accordance to how fast an object is moving towards/away from you, called the doppler effect.

To gauge distance, we must first relate the specific waves (as objects emit more than one, this is very important) to an object. The detected wavelengths are then matched to an existing similar object that is not moving relative to earth.

Using the mathematics of the doppler effect, we can form an estimate of how fast an object is moving away from us. From there, it is possible to estimate the distance from you to the object. This is because there is a natural law in the universe where objects are moving away from you faster the further away you are from it.

Also, different light wavelengths stretch by the same amount for a unit of speed, so the detected spectral lines just need translating to the left or right.


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

[User]
ELI5: Is eating food off the ground in any way beneficial to your immune system?

I'm sure we all know the type: someone drops part of their sandwich on the ground, picks it up, eats it, then claims that they are, "strengthening their immune system" by deliberately exposing themselves to whatever was on the floor.

Is there any truth to this? It seems to logically follow that giving your immune system targets to work on will keep it 'up tondate' and active. But do people who do this get sick less than people who don't?

[Assistant]
your immune system is like the borg.  it is very adaptable.  once it encounters one enemy, it'll be able to adapt to it and fight it off next time (assuming, that you survived the first encounter).

being exposed to germs, bacteria, and viruses invoke your immune system.  once your immune system is familiar with a certain pathogen, it can fight it.  but your immune system needs to survive the exposure.  there is a "general strength" of your immune system, the more pathogens it's familiar with, the stronger it's overall response (ie a higher white blood cell count, which is basically your soldiers)

so someone who has lived in a very dirty environment will likely be much more able to fight off a new pathogen vs someone who's immune system has never been invoked (ie living in a clean room.).

one way to artifically strengthen your immune system is by vaccines, which are basically the pathogen but in a much weakened state so the average immune system will have no problem fighting it.


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

[User]
[Alien Universe] How long would a Xenomorph population survive on Earth before killing all other life forms, thus exhausting their sources of host animals?

Once they run out of hosts, do the Aliens die off and become extinct, or do they hibernate in their eggs until some poor saps come along and wake them up?

[Assistant]
We know they can hibernate for centuries at a time in egg-form, presumably they can manage something similar in their regular forms. Humanity would be consumed inside of three years, total extermination could take up to a century - birds aren't hugely easy to kill for Xenomorphs.

Xenomorphs appear to breathe underwater just fine, operate in huge pressures or hard vacuum, so we can say there are no real barriers to their spread. They're the the perfect killing machine - a population starts out in the middle of bumfuck nowhere, Siberia. Reports of strange beasts in the country side spike with disappearances at the same time. Putin blames Obama for deploying his super-special part-animal commandos, since Americans are not real men and require being part black nightmare in order to fight in Glorious Russia.

By the time Russia realises what's going on, its too late. Nuking the hives won't work, because one single alien will survive and eventually become a Queen again, starting the process over. At this point, some have boarded ships. Others started swimming. Russia is the epicentre. They enter Greenland and Alaska quickly, spreading through Europe and America almost at the same time. England quickly falls to infection and invasion, the Xenomorphs taking the channel tunnel or following the seafloor lines, having learnt that, hey, those lead to dinner. Eventually Hawaii'i is the only place left, and even it falls eventually as the ravenous xenomorphs swarm, seeking new hosts.


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

[User]
Why has HIV not mutated to be transmitted more easily, say via respiration?  Are we, the human species, just lucky that non-curable deadly viruses happen not to be as easily transmissible as say the common cold?

This has intrigued me for a while.  I feel like if random chance, in the evolution of the HIV virus, had made it more easily transmissible, the human species could have been nearly wiped out over the last 30 years.

Thoughts anyone?

[Assistant]
Viruses respond to selection pressure, sometimes this correlates with opportunity to enhance their means of infection, sometimes it doesn't. Much of the HIV-1 genome is efficiently evolved for infection in macrophages and T-cells (vpx/vif/vpr/nef/vpu). Essentially, HIV-1 would have to undergo numerous genomic alterations including its tropism (which carries implications for its cell entry) and virion stability.

This is highly unlikely to occur because of the sheer number of mutations required and the difficulty of responding to such hypothetical pressures in a coherent and successive manner. HIV-1 is highly evolved to its niche, and it is much easier (probability wise) for it to die off than to morph into something so different so quickly.


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

[User]
I'm sorry, but nobody has actually told me what cryptocurrencies are used for.

Is it purely an investment now?  I, with my limited idea of economics, do not see a reason to keep it except for investing or hobby purposes. I know that it was supposed to replace banks or something, but what does that even mean?

[Assistant] Currently, almost all the value of almost all crypto currencies is based on investor speculation. More materially, the fundamental value of cryptos is the electronic ledger and the ability to privately and securely transact.


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

[User] ELI5 - Why do our stomach's make a grumbling sound when we are hungry?

[Assistant] Basically, when you think of food, your stomach begins to excrete hydrochloric acid and begins to churn in expectancy of food. When no food arrives, the gas pushed around in the stomach from the churning escapes making a grumbling sound. This is also why it doesn't happen immediately, it takes a while for gas concentration to reach that level.


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

[User] [Batman] Is Batman a better fighter than the average League of Shadows member, If so Why?

[Assistant]
Specifically the Nolan films? Yes, for the same reason that Mike Tyson was better than the average boxer: Natural talent, genetic gifts, and a rare focus.

Batman in general? Hell to the Y to the E to the S. Because, in addition to the above, he had vastly more training. Plus a genius intellect dedicated to combat tactics and strategy, which meant that he always manages to fight at an advantage.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are we not able to domesticate bears?

I really want a pet bear.

[Assistant]
We could. There's a guy in Russia who domesticated foxes in a period of just a few generations.

What has to happen though is a number of specimens need to be repeatedly bred. From each litter you select the most docile and only breed those for the next generation.

Some problems exist. First of all, bears are very strong, so interacting with them to determine the most docile is difficult.  Second, foxes (and dogs and cats) reach sexual maturity within 9-10 months, in time to breed for the next season, and an average litter is 4-6 kits. On the other hand, American black bears only reach sexual maturity in 3-5 years and have an average of 2-3 cubs.

And then there's the amount you have to feed bears vs foxes. And the space they require.


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

[User] ELI5: How are bridges tested for how much weight they can hold without breaking the bridge?

[Assistant] It's not like they build the bridge and THEN test it for strength. The architecture of the bridge was designed under the principles of engineering in such a manner that the mathematics and physics behind the design equate to a certain amount of load capacity, above and beyond what the structure will ever be expected to hold during its life. By the time it is actually built the engineers know very well what the limits of the design are.


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

[User] ELI5: How does frequency(Hz) affect loudness(dB)?

[Assistant]
It doesn't, but humans don't have a flat hearing curve so we hear some frequencies louder than others.

Sometimes you see the audio level expressed in dBA which means the A curve was used, giving a closer approximation to actual hearing that raw dB. There's actually many different loudness curves.


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

[User]
[D&D, TES, Fantasy General etc] What *is* in Spell Tomes?

I know this is a very general question, but what exactly is in a spell book?

So let's take TES as an example; in Skyrim you can find say, a Spell Book: Courage, that teaches you the Illusion spell courage, where you create an orb that when it hits a target, forces them to be brave and not run away.

In that spell book, what exactly does it cover? Like how to use magic in general, or will it assume I know how to do that? Potential uses of the spell? How to create the particular effect? And then turn it into something that can be "used"?

I'd welcome any answers from any fictional universes really. I find the topic interesting. Like, I'd love to see what a spellbook looks like in one of these settings.

[Assistant]
This is going to come mostly from a D&D perspective.

The magic that wizards use is very technical in it's nature, manipulating magic requires not just extensive study but also very precise combinations of words, movements and materials. So at a basic level spell books are a Wizard's notebook where they record these details of the spells that they know. These spell books are often very personalized, most wizards develop their own notation system that they use to record their spells and two wizards might use slightly different methods to cast the same spell. So even if two Wizards had exactly the same list of known spells their actual spell books would probably be written very differently.

Now in addition to the personalized notebooks there are other types of spell books around (sometimes referred to as tome or grimoires). These serve the same basic purpose as spell books but tend to be more formalized compared to the general purpose notebook style of the average spell book. Some of these are intended as training aids and are written to be as clear and easy to understand as possible so that students can more easily learn new spells from them. Others are still heavily personalized and are a place where a wizard formally records their spells as cleaner backup than their every-day working notebook.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Had Voldemort ever considered trying to manipulate the Dursleys' hatred of Harry?

We all know that despite being Harry Potter's legal guardians, the Dursley family hated his guts with all their hearts. I wonder though, has Voldemort thought about taking advantage of their hatred for Harry to maybe talk them into turning on Harry completely and throwing him out and straight into the Dark Lord's "loving arms"?

[Assistant] No. Muggles literally don't factor into his thinking at all, except as something to be either purged from the planet or enslaved. The idea that he would need to rely on any to get the job done is unfathomable to him.


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

[User] [Harry Potter] The Battle of Hogwarts is over. Harry finds the mirror of Erised. What does he see?

[Assistant] I mean...his parents are still dead, so they show up. Sirius and Lupin might also appear due to them basically being uncles to him. Harry's main desire is to see his loved ones he never was able to share memories with, and with the war far more loved ones will he left behind on the battlefields and halls.


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

[User] [Star Wars] Which lightsaber form would be most useful for a non-Force sensitive wielder?

[Assistant]
The put-it-on-your-belt-and-pull-out-a-blaster-instead form would probably serve you the best.

Out of the seven Jedi forms, Form III Soresu is right out - it's built around deflecting blaster bolts and unless you're a droid or alien species with beyond-human reflexes and reaction times, that ain't happening for more than a couple of (lucky) seconds of sustained fire. Form VI, Niman, is also designed for using Force powers during gaps, so it's out too. Form VII, Vapaad, also appears to be out as you're meant to use your emotion-enhanced Force to aid your strikes.

Of the remaining, Form IV, Ataru, might work well as it's an all-out attack form that hopefully overwhelms your opponent quickly before the disadvantages of using a short-range weapon that you can't use to block blaster bolts comes into play.

Form I, Shii-Cho, might also be good as it's the basic form and is probably designed to be used by any Jedi of any level of Force ability to utilise.


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

[User]
Why do I have to poop within a minute of drinking coffee?

I understand it's some sort of diuretic, but could it really be that fast acting?

[Assistant]
Ingestion of food e.g. in the morning once it hits the stomach, stomach wall stretches, causes impulses to be sent to the colon (gastrocolic reflex) propels food toward rectum which relaxes, sends more impulses, internal anal sphincter relaxes, you control your external anal sphincter for defecation. Secondly, coffee increases gastric motility giving you less time to reabsorb fluid from the colon (hence may get some diarrhea).  Coffee also inhibits phosphodiesterase preventing breakdown of cAMP which potentiates more Ca2+ release and allows stronger contractions of the heart and skeletal muscle and keeps you focused by a similar mechanism (Caffeine influences many neurotransmitters).  Coffee also inhibits ADH (a hormone of the posterior pituitary gland which normally inserts aqauporin 2 channels into the distal collecting tubule of the nephron (you have about a million per kidney - these are important for concentrating and diluting urine and reabsorbing fluid volume.  Without reabsorbing fluid you pee more (same concept goes for alcohol).

TLDR: coffee increases the rate at which your colon propels feces towards your anus.


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

[User] [Futurama] How did scientists increase the speed of light and what did they increase it to?

[Assistant]
Due to the intervening interplanetary wars (often thought to be caused by this event), records of this era are almost as hazy as those of the 20th century. The early 23rd century is marked by a rapid increase in interaction between alien species, especially from an Earth vantage point. Probably not that coincidentally, this is also the time when Star Trek really began to emerge as a fully fledged religion, later to catalyze the Star Trek Wars.

Anyway, despite the spottiness of the records, there is a fair amount of evidence for a theory that this universe-wide change was actually originated right here. Well, not here, specifically, in this room, but, you know, on Earth. It was actually about 400 feet that way, where that other building is over there.

Professor Myra D. Hodgkins and Dr. Finneas M. Delglazier were working on an experiment to shrink things down. Now, you might be thinking, shrinking things by reducing the space between the atoms and/or subatomic particles is nonsensical, as then they'd weigh the same amount. And you'd be right! Hodgkins and Delglazier's miniaturization machine was based on the much more scientifically sound principle of size-vampiric neutrinoes. You see, the neutrinoes would pass through normal matter and suck the bigness, which we also call 'size', right out of them. The neutrinoes ended up being excessively large, which, it was theorized didn't matter because they just pass through everything without any palpable effect. Of course, since these large neutrinoes were still size-vampiric, they just kept passing through things and making them smaller, until within the course of a matter of moments, the entire universe had been shrunk to less than the size of a neutrino, which was of course rather large by this point, but still quite a bit smaller than the universe used to be.

The definition of what a "mile" or a "kilometer" is changed because every frame of reference changed, but the speed of photons, and related cosmic constants, remained the same as it was -- just, it became a larger number of miles because miles became so small.

Also, this happened so fast that hardly anyone noticed any difference. And most of the people who did see something strange, just thought it was their eyes playing tricks on them.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] How was Anakin able to build his Podracer?

A big part of the economy on Tatooine is centred around junk shops and machine parts. So how could a young slave boy afford the leather for his seats, and tailor them to shape the cushion, did he beat the metal into shape for his pod himself? Where did he get the paint for the pod?

I dont believe Watto would give a slave parts for free and it doesnt seem like the sort of materials he would venture into the wasteland to find and drag back.

Where would he get all the electrical components for the engines?

Even if he got paid something for his work, as soon as someone realised he was building a racing pod the price for materials would skyrocket as it is an extremely lucrative sport on the planet and surely his rivals and Sebulba knew he was building it?

[Assistant]
>and tailor them to shape the cushion

he took an old seat off another ship / pod

Watto is going to give anakin parts he thinks he wont be able to sell or cant sell.

Watto also likely has anakin build and repair droids and other things that watto wouldnt be able to sell.

The lucritive parts of pod racing is not in the actual racing. Its the betting and all the industries that sell to consumers of the sport. Merch, tickets to race events etc.

Sebulba is a great racer that has won many racers, but its not like hes stinking rich. Racers arent the ones making all the money, the Hutts are, since they control the gambling scene.

Most people dont podrace because it is an exceptionally dangerous sport, and crashes rarely ever leave a racer intact.


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

[User] [Star Trek] If replication technology exists, shouldn't it therefore be possible for the ships to repair their hulls as long as energy exists to form into matter?

[Assistant]
There's a great debate over whether or not replicators *reconfigure* matter or whether they *create* matter. I've looked at the figures, it makes no sense whatsoever that they *create* matter given the context of how they're treated (in literally dozens of examples) and the figures for power generation, fuel storage etc don't allow for such a system.

When you pee, poop, discard your used dishes or recycle your garments or shoes into a replicator, it breaks it down into a protein/polymer slush. When you replicate your meal, or new shoes, or new clothes, or refresh the air, or replicate a new laptop your replicator takes some of that slush, and applies a carefully-modulated transporter effect, using a synthetic pattern to transform that mass-energy into something else. That's why replicators are slightly limited in quality and diversity, as molecular patterns etc have to be stored on a computer with limited storage space and the replicator occasionally makes booboos and mistakes, and pretty much always introduces compression artifacts into whatever you're making.

As for ship hulls, if the materials can be successfully generated, physical layout quality is adequate and the replicator is big enough, then you can replace hull plates, structural member sections etc and fix them yourself. However this requires an industrial replicator, is relatively slow and puts a significant drain on the ship's resources, with power and replicator mass (which is fairly easy but non-trivial to replace) as well as the extra maintenance etc being problematic. A Galaxy-class ship would have a better setup than a Sabre or Miranda-class for such a task. Also note that landing on a planet, throwing rocks into the replicator, dematerialising them and turning them into self-sealing stembolts probably puts crazy amounts of wear on them, and they'd probably malfunction pretty quickly.

It is also stated that some components are un-replicatable, so even if hull plating could be replaced there would be some things that couldn't be, not without parts and/or a factory.


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

[User] [Back to the Future] When Marty is playing guitar, and his family is fading out, why doesn't he forget who they are, if they don't exist anymore?

[Assistant] In BTTF, the time travellers always remember the original timeline, not the new one. At the end of BTTF1, Marty remembers his family being poor and his sister never being allowed to meet guys.  In BTTF2, Marty remembers his father still being alive in the 1980s, and in 3 Marty remembers Clayton Ravine, not Shonash or Eastwood Ravine.


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

[User]
[Avatar: TLA and LoK] Are avatars always good?

My experience with Avatar amounts to whatever I could catch on-air back in middle school and the first season of Korra, so pardon me if this is a stupid question.

Whenever an avatar, past or present, they're usually portrayed as heroic and selfless: Aang fights tyrants and invaders, Korra fights criminals and terrorists, etc. Even Kiyoshi, though willing to kill, sought to keep the peace. They risk their lives to fight oppressors and protect the weak; they're "good."

We've never seen an avatar who is self-serving or who uses their powers for their own benefit at the cost of others. The different nations could always kill an avatar who made a power-play against them, but we've never even heard of an avatar like that.

Are they born with selfless traits necessarily? Would an avatar who acted "evil" lose their powers?

[Assistant]
It's the same person reincarnated over and over again, so yes, they are all good at the core. In the later seasons of TLOK, you can see how similar Korra is to Aang; deep down they both share the same traits of compassion and empathy.

Avatars however are still part human. They can struggle and make mistakes. They can misjudge or act in error. Their hearts, however, are always in the right place.

Plus it helps that the spirit part of the Avatar is Raava, the Spirit of Light.


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

[User]
If black hole singularities have infinite density and gravity, why don't they have an infinite pull on everything in the universe?

Why don't black holes suck up everything in the universe with an infinite acceleration if they have infinite gravity? Does this have something to do with the speed of light limiting the speed that the force of gravity "travels?" Or maybe the fact that time slows down (for an outside observer I guess) as you approach the center of a black hole? Or does it have to do with the curvature of spacetime as you move away from the black hole? I guess the concept of infinity is just really strange to think about in general.

[Assistant]
They don't have infinite gravity. Recall that the gravitational force due to an object is given by Newton's Law: F = m1 m2 G / r^2 with G a constant and m1 and m2 the respective masses. Hence, the force of a black hole on any given object is finite.

For example, if the Sun were to be replaced by a black hole of the exact same ~~size~~ mass, the Earth would still have the *exact same gravitational force* applied to it. So it would just keep orbiting merrily along as if nothing had happened.

Edit: Fixed. Thanks, Captain Jack.


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

[User]
[The First Avenger] Where did Hydra get all of its soldiers ?

This movie takes place during WW2 so most men where fighting for the Allies or Axis powers so that alone would make recruitment difficult. And judging from the looks of each base or factory, Hydra had hundreds of people operating at those places. How did Red Skull get all of these people devoted to his cause ?

[Assistant] Hydra is theoretically part of the axis war machine - most were probably bog standard soldiers (maybe SS units) assigned to a weapons development team that promised Hitler they could single handedly win the war (and *would* have had Cap not shown up). Once there, they were probably radicalized into believing Red Skull was a better leader than Hitler for the new world order.


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

[User]
[LoTR]: What happened to Saruman and Sauron after they died?

In my understanding, when Gandalf died his soul/Maiar nature went back to the Lands Undying, and he was sent back by Eru, empowered and transformed. What happened to the antagonists' souls/eternal natures? Did they merely cease to be?

[Assistant]
They don't really die. They live on, in the background, as severely diminished and impotent spirits. Gandalf received special treatment from Eru, the god of middle earth.

They don't cease to be, but realistically they are a non-entity on the world stage.


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

[User] ELI5: Cars have an idle speed where the engine still runs even without pressing the gas. What happens when youre pressing the brake and completely still? How is the engine not harmed since its still running?

[Assistant]
Automatic transmissions have a fluid coupling between the engine and transmission that allows the engine to run at low RPM without transmitting much torque to the transmission.  Imagine a propeller spinning, making the fluid spin, then the fluid makes another propeller spin.

Manual transmissions disengage the clutch so there's no connection between the engine and transmission when you push the clutch pedal in.


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

[User]
Advice wanted: salary lowered bc of looming science budget cut ala Trump

TLDR:
...is this something that is common? Are salaries being trimmed for the potential Trump outburst? Also... is 67k a decent salary for running an academic core facility (think along the lines of a screening / genomics / proteomics / imaging / sequencing / cloning / etc... a life sciences speciality facility). All advice is welcomed -- I get the sense that I am being toyed with but genuinely I dont have a clue.

Context:
Hey there. Recently I was officially offered a position in a major east coast city as an assistant director of a small & very productive core facility. YAY. This is something I've actively worked towards since graduate school, so I am beyond stoked for this opportunity.

During the interview a few months back it was expressed that a salary in the mid to upper 70k was within reason. "It is still academia but we can do that" they joked. I'm a postdoc now so my only context was...is Glassdoor which reports anything from 60-120k on average.

However, after getting the offer I was told that Trump's looming 20% science funding cut has made the committee rearrange priorities & that I would now be offered 67k & an opportunity to revisit my pay next year.

For background: job offered is in a great (worldclass/ivy) research institution & affiliate teaching hospitals. Major east coast city (cost of living is $$$). SO is unable to contribute much salary to our 2-person home so consider mine the sole income for us & our dog. We don't plan on living in the city for too long since we feel it is far too expensive but, careerwise, the job could work wonders later on (CV credit)... maybe? Also I'm coming from Europe, if that matters (so I'm already going to negotiate on the personal/vacation time, hahaha)

I am all ears

**EDIT**: commenters brought up some good points so I'll clarify

- won't need a visa (but if you do please read comments below)
- find out if paid via grant (if grant then I may be out of luck & the salary will fall to what the institute wishes)
- because they will match dollar for dollar a 403b up to 10% annual pay this means I will be putting in the full 6.7k allowable... leading to my pretax takehome pay to be **60k** for two people in a major eastern city as an asst.dir
- make sure they have in writing that I can go to conferences! Agreed.

Lastly: Thank you a ton for reading & offering me advice!!!

[Assistant]
Is the position soft money (grant supported)? Because if so, absolutely reasonable, happens all the time. Otherwise, the answer is It Depends.

Whether you get a straight answer out of the people that know, is a different matter.


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

[User] ELI5:Why are SMS text messages limited to 160 characters?

[Assistant] Sms is a weird hack. It wasn't really meant to exist. Your phone and the tower talk back and forth every few seconds to work out things like phone frequencies and power levels and boring network stuff. Part of the message they send was empty 99% of the time so they said "hey, what if we put a little email in there" and they did that and it ended up being a weird size that made no sense for messages but was better than nothing.


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

[User]
ELI5: What exactly are the 'toxins' people talk about getting rid of from your body?

So I've seen a few articles here and elsewhere on the net, as well as heard it mentioned by people I've talked to. Some people seem to talk about doing things or eating certain things to rid your body of toxins. What are they talking about, and is there any science behind it?

[Assistant]
They don't even know. Most of those "toxin flush" programs are nothing more than diuretics with some "all-natural" alternative medicine added. The truth is that the word "toxin" just helps them sell their product to people that are scared of the word "toxin".

Actual toxins can build up in the body, but no OTC pseudomedicine will do anything about them.

Edit for people that are claiming that some all-natural remedies can help: Yes, they can have positive benefits. These benefits have nothing whatsoever to do with toxins. It's telling that of all the people who replied here claiming that "toxin" removal is real and solid science can't even answer OP's question - what are the toxins? Name them.


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

[User] If bruises are from bleeding underneath the skin, where does all the blood go when it heals?

[Assistant]
Part of the leaked blood will coagulate and help to form the clot / scab to stop the bleeding.

Macrophages will come and clean up any "loose" blood, or debris, or old scab material - they take it in, digest it, and spit the digested remains out into the blood stream where it's filtered out in the kidneys.

The iron (I think) attaches to iron-transporting-proteins that are floating around in the blood, and eventually makes its way back to the red bone marrow where it's used to make new hemoglobin.


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

[User] [Young Justice]Why is Wally so much slower than Barry and Bart?

[Assistant] Wally got his powers by trying to replicate the same accident that gave Barry his powers. He didn't get it exactly right so his experiment was only partially successful. Bart inherited his powers from Barry.


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

[User]
CMV: Parents who choose not to vaccinate their children should be treated the same as sex offenders, in that they should be barred from public areas containing at-risk members of the population, and required to obtain written consent of those who live in an area before being allowed to move in.

The issue is that herd immunity is an incredibly fragile thing, as California is finding out with Whooping Cough and Measles outbreaks. Recall, also, that for legitimate medical reasons there is a certain portion of the population that cannot be vaccinated and depend on the herd to be, in effect, the "buffer" between them and the plagues of ages past. Further, vaccinations are not permanent, and many people do not get their boosters on time; we are one idiot parent in the wrong place at the right time away from having a full-blown Rotavirus or Meningicoccal epidemic on our hands.
No. Vaccines should not be voluntary. And those who choose not to vaccinate ought to be barred from public areas, such as schools and playgrounds. At minimum, a choice to not vaccinate your children should be treated like sex offenders: you and your family should be mandated to stay 300 yds away from areas containing at-risk members of the population at all times, and the parent should be required to obtain written consent from all residents of a neighborhood before being allowed to purchase a home in one.

[Assistant]
This needs a little clarification here. You say: "*No. Vaccines should not be voluntary*", and then in the next sentence you say:"*And those who choose not to vaccinate*".

Are you proposing involuntary vaccinations? And if so, how exactly would people still be able to "choose not to vaccinate"?


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

[User] ELI5: Why do airplanes oxygen masks have a bag that may or may not inflate? What would cause the bag to inflate/not inflate?

[Assistant]
You breathe in, pause, breathe out, then pause before repeating when taking normal breaths. Even when you're anxious.

During the exhale and the pauses, the oxygen coming out of a normal oxygen mask is wasted. We don't care so much about this on the ground in a hospital because they tend to have oxygen generators and/or big reserves. Oxygen is literally in the air, we can concentrate it if we have heavy machinery.

The airplane can't afford to carry machinery large enough to concentrate oxygen for all passengers (and if the masks drop it's assumed SOMETHING is broken) so it's important to conserve. So while you exhale, the bag fills up. When you inhale, you breathe the "extra" air out of the bag. This way less oxygen is wasted and the plane can make do with a smaller/lighter oxygen supply.


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

[User]
What happens if a girl takes Viagra?

My sister literally just asked this question ten seconds ago and I don't really know myself. Anybody in the know?

[Assistant] There was a study conducted by Laura Berman, director of the Berman Center and a professor of OB-GYN and psychiatry at Northwestern University in Chicago, and Dr. Jennifer Berman, director of the Female Sexual Medicine Center at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles on this very thing. The results are preliminary, but seems to show a statistically significant improvement in arousal, lubrication, and orgasm.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why did people quickly lose interest in space travel after the first Apollo 11 moon flight? Few TV networks broadcasted Apollo 12 to 17

The later Apollo missions were more interesting, had clearer video quality and did more exploring, such as on the lunar rover. Data shows that viewership dropped significantly for the following moon missions and networks also lost interest in broadcasting the live transmissions. Was it because the general public was actually bored or were TV stations losing money?

 This makes me feel that interest might fall just as quickly in the future Mars One mission if that ever happens.

[Assistant]
Because space travel is not inherently engaging for the vast majority of people. In order to be interested, there must be something novel or dramatic to keep people engaged. Hardly anybody saw the Apollo 13 launch, but as soon as lives were on the line it became an internationally captivating story.

It's similar in many other areas such as public safety. A man shoots up a school with 20 children dead and we have congressional inquiries and wall-to-wall media coverage, and people calling for armed guards in every school, but every year thousands of children are killed in the USA from automobile crashes and hardly anybody bats an eye.

> Was it because the general public was actually bored or were TV stations losing money?

TV stations certainly missed opportunities for paid programming, but would have likely continued if there was public interest if only to maintain good-will among their viewers.


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

[User]
Why does the Earth spin?

Did the collisions of millions of asteroids cause it to start rotating? Was it initially not rotating?

[Assistant] The Earth spins because it formed in the accretion disk of a cloud of hydrogen that collapsed down from mutual gravity and needed to conserve its angular momentum. It continues to spin because of inertia.


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

[User]
ELI5: why can girls orgasm more than once and guys can only do it one time in a sitting?

You read the title... It's something that's been bugging me for a while, and I'm just really curious.

[Assistant]
Contrary to popular opinion, orgasm and ejaculation are not the same event.

Men *can* orgasm as much as women, however, they cannot ejaculate more than every so often, since the system needs time to recover.


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

[User] ELI5: What is happening when you wake up and can't move your neck without extreme pain?

[Assistant] You have likely been laying in an odd position that your head and neck aren't designed to stay in for extended periods. So your muscles can cramp and lock into position causing your neck to hurt to move.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] How do the people on Coruscant breath, eat and drink without any nature left?

Also: Why did they destroy all nature? At least something like the parks in New York should be there.

[Assistant]
A gigantic portion of Coruscant's space and air traffic is the infrastructure that imports and distributes off-world food, water, and other resources. A significant amount of the galaxy's trade and business is done on that one planet alone, and a huge amount of it is the simple buying of food. It's one reason the Separatists attacked and blockaded the planet like they did at the end of the clone wars. They would have very quickly starved the Republic's very core if the battle lasted longer than it did. In legends, the Vong also cut off the planet's trade, and it caused death and suffering on an unimaginable scale.

That being said, Coruscant does have intact ice caps, so it also has significant amounts of native water still present. As well as a few shallow lakes and seas that are either used as farms for sea life, or resorts for tourism and relaxation. There is a single mountain peak that has not been built on, and is the last piece of the planet's visible landmass remaining.

Coruscant has been the center of trade and politics for well over 10,000 years. In legends, it was upwards of 30,000. Many hyperspace routes have an exit near the planet, which made it a natural trade hub, and the perfect place for meetings and government to form. With an entire galaxy constantly converging on it, infrastructure had to constantly be built to accommodate it. Over the many centuries it had been the galaxy's beating heart, it was turned into a single huge city out of grim necessity. And then it became tradition that no one dared defy, given how many benefits there are to conducting business on that single world. Soon, it was just a way of life that no one questioned.


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

[User] [The Witcher] I'm back. So I escaped to Novigrad and, long story short, something is eating my neighbors, probably a monster, and everyone wants to pool their resources and hire a Witcher, which, fuck that idea. Do we have any other recourse for help, or is that White haired prick our only option?

[Assistant] You don't need a Witcher in particular.  If its a run of the mill physical monster anyone could kill it, may need a whole posse to go after it and you'll probably lose some people but its still just a physical creature that you can stab to death.  If its a curse or a wraith or something else incorporial you could go to a Sorceress, Peller, Cunning Woman or other magical practitioner to lift the curse.  A witcher is still generally your best choice as they have the knowledge and expertise to take on all manner of creatures and curses and in the long run are probably cheaper then losing knights or half the village trying to bring down a troll.


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

[User] [The Mask] Who would be the absolute worst person to wear the Mask who hasn't already?

[Assistant]
Batman.

Most of the answers in this thread are people who already dont have many inhibitions and would just be slightly more powerful versions of the terrible people they already are.  Batman, on the other hand, knows full well how terrible a person he'd be without inhibitions and has developed an adherence to rules that borders on psychosis, aimed at preventing himself from ever going too far.

Day 1: Joker is dead.

Day 5: there is no more crime anywhere.


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

[User]
ELI5: What is exactly meant when someone says they are a "consultant"?

I often meet people my age (mid/late twenties) who work in "consulting"...usually a male who majored in something like business or finance in college, likes to wear suits out to the bar, we all know someone like this.
Whenever I ask for an explanation of what they actually do, the typical answer includes a lot of words like "synergy" and "facilitating" and "networking between networks" and "accelerating profits", but they can never qualify any of those fancy terms in a "what do you do when you go into work on an average day" kind of way.

So what do consultants actually *do*?

[Assistant] Typically, they look at a specific area of how a company works. They identify what the company is doing right or wrong in that area. Then they write a long report with their findings, and charge the company lots of money.


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

[User]
Eggs are a big investment for birds, so why do chickens lay unfertilized eggs? Why don't they 'hold on' to that investment until it's fertilized?

Come to think of it, don't humans do the same thing every month?

[Assistant] Veterinarian perspective here: we have bred this into chickens, AND eye laying rate is related to nutritional intake. So, we're selecting for the layingest of layers, and feeding them the perfectly formulated feed for maximum production. The average layer hen is actually VERY skinny, because all of their resources are going toward eggs. If they can't keep up with the production, their production levels usually go way down before their health does.


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

[User]
[DC & Marvel] Who can punch harder? Superman or the Hulk?

Who would win in a fight is irrelevant. If you had a strike force impact detector with no upper limit, which one of them could punch it the hardest?

[Assistant]
Superman hits exceptionally hard but he has a finite limit to his strength. The hulk has no limit. If the hulk is sufficiently angered and capable of hitting the target with his full strength then the hulk will hit harder.

If the hulk is not angry enough, then superman hits harder. If the target is not something the hulk is capable of hitting with his full force (say a target in the air) then superman hits harder.


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

[User]
CMV: I don't think reparations for slavery (in the US) would be fair or actually solve anything

First, let me state that I believe that there is still far too much racism in the US, and that slavery is still not recognized as the injustice that it actually was. That being said, I strongly disagree with the idea that reparations should be paid as a result of slavery. I am very interested in hearing opposing arguments though since most people in my circle either agree with me or refuse to talk about it.

If someone were to "pay" reparations, I view it as money being taken from their bank account by the government, said cash being transferred to a central fund, and then all of the combined payments being distributed to people receiving reparations. There are many variations to this process, but as I see it, it is primarily the transfer of wealth from one individual to another. There are many situations where one person pays another some amount of money based on how they've wronged the other person, such as a class-action lawsuit, civil lawsuit, etc...

However, in each case the individual paying the sum of money is the exact person responsible for the wrongdoing. If someone ran a person over with their car, they would be rightfully charged for their action. However, if their great grandfather ran someone else's great grandfather over with their car, it wouldn't make sense to put them on trial. So if no one living today participated directly in the economy that functioned from slavery, to me it wouldn't make sense to charge reparations based on that argument.

I have heard the argument that much of the US's wealth has been produced from injustice, and that people should pay reparations since they benefited from that unjust wealth. But if someone inherits wealth from their grandparents for example, and then it is later found out that their grandparents gained the wealth unethically, they still wouldn't be tried for that. Now they would have a legal and moral obligation to right the wrongs that their grandparents did, just like the US still needs to address the issues resulting from slavery, but I don't see that as a legal grounds for reparations either.

My final argument would be that reparations, if implemented, would not do much to reduce inequality in the US. Wealth inequality is at an all-time high, and many valid arguments can be made that measures should be taken to reduce this. But does it make logical sense to assume someones wealth or economic status based on race? Rather than transferring wealth based on genetic and social inheritance, wouldn't make more sense to approach the issue from a purely economic standpoint? Another argument is that reparations are needed to address racial economic inequality specifically. While they do address this issue, couldn't one rightfully argue that there are may facets to one's economic situation, and that not all of them are the result of history? I feel like the somewhat valid perception of reparations as an economically and socially unbalanced practice would actually be harmful to equality over time.

Again, not trying to come across as biased or misinformed, but I am genuinely curious about the augments for reparations and nobody I know wants to talk about it.

[Assistant]
Reparations were originally planned in a far more direct form. Land was taken from the rebellious southeners and given directly to newly freed slaves so that every freed slave received 40 acres and a mule. Many slaves did, in fact, get their 40 acres, before the government changed their mind, kicked the slaves off the property, and let the white owners come back in.

For some people, reparations are owed based on the fact the government said it was going to do it and started doing it but decided not to in order to cater to the white landowners who rebelled in the first place.


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

[User]
ELI5: How did inorganic matter combine to form the first life on earth, and have we been able to do it ourselves yet?

It seems to me that, providing that life arose spontaneously from elemental chemicals, we should be able to recreate those conditions and do it again, why haven't we?

[Assistant] We have, sort of.  The Miller-Urey experiment attempted to mimic the conditions of early earth, inside a lab, to see if they could recreate the chemical beginnings of life.  They put a bunch of water, methane, ammonia and hydrogen in a test tube and subjected it to heating (like from the earth's interior) and electrical sparks (like from lightning).  They ended up creating 20 or so distinct kinds of amino acids.


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

[User]
[wh40k] At the absolute peak of their power, what race is the most powerful?

Saw the recent post about the most powerful race (Tyranids, apparently). I was wondering if things change if you consider each race at their peak, i.e., Man with a functional Emperor, the Eldar before the fall, etc.

[Assistant] Necrons were able to subvert the C'Tan, star-eating sentient beings. Eldar in their prime forced the Necrons into stasis. Tau have no prime because they are relatively new. Humanity at its prime had technology beyond that of the Necrons and were able to go toe-on-toe with the Eldar Empire. The Orks are currently in their prime. Tyranids need only wait for their main fleet to overwhelm everyone with numbers.


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

[User]
[Marvel] Mister Immortal is said to be "homo supreme", a step above "homo superior" (i.e. mutant). So what does Magneto, an ardent pro-mutant, think of the man?

Magneto is all for the superior species, but Mister Immortal is technically even more superior than the standard mutants. So what does he think of the man?

[Assistant]
You're taking the scientific names too literally.

They're a different sub-species from homo sapiens. The name doesn't actually mean anything other than that.

Homo novissima and homo mermamus follow suite.

Magneto has no personal reason to be bothered or to think about Craig Hollis, unless he represents a threat to mutants.


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

[User]
How are modal logic possibilities known ?

Modal logic is concerned with logical possibilities so it has the broadest set of possibilities.
For example we can imagine a world where there is FTL or a world where thermodynamics doesn't exist. There's nothing non contradictory about those at face but how do we know weather there's something or not  about the light speed constant and thermodynamics that if violated would produce a contradiction ?

[Assistant]
> Modal logic is concerned with logical possibilities

Modal **logic** is concerned with inferences or relations between modal propositions. Asking 'how are specific necessities or possibilities known in modal logic' is somewhat similar to asking 'but how are truths or falsities known in propositional or predicate logic'. A system of logic allows you to evaluate how various propositions relate to each other, you can put something in and get something out. But a certain epistemology in the sense of how we determine truth or falsity isn't built into propositional or predicate logic, and one of how we determine modalities isn't built into modal logic.


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

[User]
[Marvel] Azgardian magic is said to be science that humans haven't discovered yet. Has Marvel ever shown an Azgardian that understands the science behind the magic?

As far as I can tell, Azgardians enchant objects, cast spells, and use "magic" objects such as Mjlnir. Do we know of an Azgardian who understands the physics, chemistry, and/or biology of how all of it works?

[Assistant]
Yes. In The Dark World, it is shown that the techs working on Jane understand the principles of their machine.

> JANE [still curious about the energy field]: Thats a quantum field generator, isnt it?

> EIR: Its a Soul Forge.

> JANE: Does a Soul Forge transfer molecular energy from one place to another?

> EIR [looks impressed]: Yes.

> JANE [quietly to Thor]: Quantum field generator

This is the equivalent of a nuclear physicist getting a scan at the hospital and having this exchange happen:

"That's a radioscopic field analyzer, isn't it?"

"It's an MRI machine."

"Does an MRI machine examine electromagnetic resonances?"

"Yes."

"Radioscopic field analyzer."

Even if the tech can't actually build one, they ought to be trained on what it actually does on a fundamental level, at least to the point where they can operate one. And somewhere in Asgard is the Soul Forge technician, who comes around on the extremely rare occasions when it breaks. Maybe he couldn't design one, but he knows how the parts fit together and what it does enough to be able to generalize repair scenarios. And so on until you work back to the person who invented it whose name is probably Brokkr.

Point is, *someone* knows how it works, but that's certainly not important to the end user (Thor). All he needs to know is what motion controls map to what functions.


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

[User] Is there a certain amount of "real estate" at the a given Lagrangian point? Could we potentially put too many stations, observatories, or other spacecraft there and run out of room?

[Assistant]
Sort of. The further you are from the Lagrangian point, the further your actual behavior will be from the theoretical behavior exactly at the Lagrangian.

At an unstable Lagrangian, that means that the further you are from it, the faster you will diverge from the point. A station that wanted to sit at an unstable Lagrangian would need to periodically make small adjustments to its trajectory to "realign". The further from the actual precise point you are, the more frequent and larger those adjustments would need to be.

At a stable Lagrangian, that means the further you are from the point, the less of a stabilizing effect you will experience; your orbits around the stable point will be larger and less predictable. A station at a stable Lagrangian could do without course-corrections, depending on how much "meandering" you're willing to accept. As you get far enough away, you would realistically need course-corrections in order to avoid other objects (like the other stations).

Both effects are gradual; there wouldn't be a sharp cutoff between "this station is in the 'Lagrangian Zone' and this other one is not."

Edit: Obviously, the assumption is that you have to have some space between the actual objects you're putting up. If you are imagining these stations/spacecraft being literally pressed up against each other, there's effectively limitless (by Earth standards) real estate. But in practice you will want quite a bit of separation.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do they call it a season of television in the US but call it a series in Britain?

[Assistant]
Network TV in the USA has a pretty regimented schedule, running from fall to spring, with around 23 episodes per program, year after year.  With this sort of regularity, it makes sense to call it a season.

In the UK, programming is more irregular.  *Sherlock*, for example, only did three episodes a year, once every two years.   There is nothing really seasonal about that, so series is a better term.


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

[User]
Why is the formula E^2=(mc^2)^2 + (pc)^2 so similar to the pythagorean theorem?

Why is the formula E^2 = (mc^2 )^2 + (pc)^2 so similar to the pythagorean theorem?

[Assistant]
Because it's the same thing, just in a different space.

Instead of a^(2) + b^(2) = c^(2), it's E^(2) - (**p**c)^(2) = (mc^(2))^(2).

c is the length of the vector < a, b > in R^(2). And mc^(2) is the "length" of a four-vector < E, **p**c > in Minkowski spacetime. The minus sign is the difference between the typical R^(n) and Minkowski spacetime.


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

[User] ELI5: How did ancient people figure out that sex leads to kids, since the effects are so delayed?

[Assistant] They observed animals. They noted that women who did not have sex did not get pregnant. Some Neolithic art can be interpreted as showing that they were aware of the relationship.  But we can never know for sure.


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

[User] ELI5: Elements want 8 electrons in their valence shell to become stable. Why do atoms want exactly 8 valence electrons, and why is it impossible to have 9 valence electrons?

[Assistant]
The reason is to do with the quantum mechanics of how an electron bound to a nucleus behaves. The electron's wavefunction has to take the shape of a set of mathematical functions known as a spherical harmonics (you can Google these to see what they look like). The reason it's a spherical harmonic is that is has the right spherical symmetry.

Spherical harmonics are labelled with three numbers, which are conventionally called n, l, and m, where 0 <= l <= n, and -l <= m <= l.

At n=0, the only possible state is n=0, l=0, m=0 (I'll shorten this to (0,0,0)).

At n=1, the possible states are  (1,0,0) (1,1,-1) (1,1,0) (1,1,1).

Electrons have one additional property: spin. An electron can be either spin up (), or spin down ().

You'll hopefully notice at this point that means that for n = 1, there are 8 possible states, the four spherical harmonics * two spins. This is where the number 8 comes from. The 'n' parameter is what chemists would call the number of shells. You'll notice that for n > 1, you'll have even more states available, this is why things start to get more complex. Chemists call l = 0 the 's' orbital, l = 1 is 'p', l = 2 is 'd' and l = 3 is 'f', and the addition of these extra possible states makes chemistry of these things more interesting.

You should also note that this structure of states is what creates the shape of the periodic table, getting wider as you go down it; that's all to do with more spherical harmonic states becoming available.


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

[User]
Is Nietzsche alone in his view on rights?

Nietzsche argues (Im pretty sure its in *The Gay Science*) that a right comes into being when someone who has power over you willingly limits that power. In other words, if you have a right to something, that means that there is some person or institution who could deny you that something, butfor whatever reasonhas agreed to refrain from doing so. Conversely, if you have complete control over some aspect of your life, then you have no rights in that area (and do not need them).

I have always found this view fascinating and thought provoking, but since I know nothing about the philosophy of rights, I dont know whether any other philosopher has a similar conception of them. Is this position completely unique to Nietzsche, or are there others who agree with it?

[Assistant] It's not really absent in any liberal philosophy.  The whole idea of a social contract is that you give up absolute freedom to the social order, and you do so rationally to support your own best interests. Nietzsche is perhaps taking a closer look at that freedom that is given up, but it's not a concept that was completely new to political philosophy.


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

[User]
Can someone explain exactly how Spider Web is stronger then steel?

You always hear that spider silk is stronger then steel but how exactly is this? Considering anyone can break a spider web in half with almost 0 effort, is this based on something to do with equal amounts of spider silk vs steel?

[Assistant]
The reason spiderwebs are so easy to break is that they're just very thin. If you had really thin steel wire, it also breaks pretty easily. If you had a giant mutant spider that could produce a fat cable of spider web, then that would be stronger than a similarly-sized steel cable.

So yes, it has to do with equal amounts.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do you preceive some kind of "pressure" when using noise canceling headphones?

So I was searching for posts concerning noise canceling headphones and I found a few posts about how they cancel out noise.
As I understand, the headphones basically listen for incoming "noise" and send out the "opposite" wave. OK!

Then I was wondering: if the two waves cancel each other out, why you perceive some kind of "pressure" especially when no music is played?

[Assistant] This is a fun one. Our brains react to certain input from our senses based on instinct. When you put on noise canceling headphones they cancel out low-frequency outside sounds (and other frequencies). But that lack of low frequencies is also what happens naturally when there is a pressure difference between your inner and outer ear, and it triggered that feeling. It's an instinct reacting to what normally would be a good time to pop your ears, but its the headphones not climbing a mountain or whatever would normally cause a pressure difference.


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

[User]
[Fiction] So, really, are 'universes' and 'dimensions' two different things? If so, then why people get them mixed up when it comes to the multiverse?

The reason I ask this, is because for the longest now, I've always assumed that 'universe' and 'dimension' are the same thing but are said differently, when talking about characters travelling through the multiverse in fictional stories.

However, apparently, from what I've heard, universe and dimension are actually two different things with different meanings behind them (I can't exactly remember what the meanings are, so if anyone knows, answers would be very nice, thank you). So, if that's the case, if a universe and a dimension are not the same thing, then why is that characters in fiction (or writers of said fiction) get them two things mixed up like they are the same thing? Are different dimensions something that's located within the same universe, or is it just writers not knowing the differences between them? I'm honestly confused, really.

If you know the answer, please provide with some explanations or reasons behind it. Thanks.

[Assistant] When the two terms are used distinctly, a universe usually contains dimensions. Dimensions are essentially different planes or pockets of reality within a singular creation, that singular creation and all that it contains being called a universe.


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

[User] ELI5: When you are fingering a girl, why do some vaginas feel pretty smooth inside while others feel quite rough? [NSFW]

[Assistant]
The vagina is mostly muscular tissue that can stretch enough to accommodate childbirth. All that extra tissue has to go somewhere, so when the vagina isn't stretched out (most of the time) it sort of folds up into wrinkles. The folded wrinkles on an organ are called rugae (other organs have them too, most notably the stomach. Scrotums as well - wrinkled up when cold, let it all loose when warm).

The amount of ridging and where it occurs varies from person to person. The vagina will be roughest/most textured when not aroused and will be smoothest when aroused or in childbirth. Not every woman will be totally smooth when aroused, though. Women whose vaginas feel more smooth are either more aroused at the moment or don't have as pronounced rugae for whatever reason.

The g-spot may also have a slightly different feel to it.


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

[User]
[General Space Sci-fi] What's the scariest thing in any franchise/story's setting that is outside of its galaxy?

So in 40k, people theorize that it's more Tyranids, Orks, or something that the Tyranids are running away from. In Halo, if I understood it correctly, you have another Halo ring (or was it a Halo creator?). In Star Wars Legends, there was the Yuuzhan Vong. Mass Effect, you have the reapers hibernating.

What about other sci-fi stories? What's something scary beyond their galaxy's borders?

[Assistant] The time war. Literally rewriting time to use it as a weapon. Billions dying and being resurrected every second. Entire species being being wiped out of history, coming back and only to be wiped out again. You could be living it right now and never no.


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

[User]
eli5: Why are skyscrapers nearly always covered in glass completely in contrast to small buildings?

Like is there a specific reason or is it just a design choice? Or do they have so many tall windows to let as much sunlight in as possible?

It just occurred to me since the futuristic full glass look of skyscrapers really stands out against normal building surrounding them.

[Assistant]
It's for both aesthetic and practical reasons.

Aesthetically it looks stylish, and allows for a lot of options for colors and tinting. It also makes the offices inside more desirable when they have big windows with nice views and lots of natural light.

Practically glass is lighter and easier to install and maintain than a lot of other cladding materials. Skyscrapers also almost always carry their weight on internal support beams so structural strength isn't a big concern for the exterior walls.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does alcohol leave such a recognizable smell on your breath when non-alcoholic drinks, like Coke, don't?

[Assistant]
The smell lingers as long as you're drunk because it's not coming from residual booze in your saliva, it's the smell of your blood itself.

When you imbibe an alcoholic beverage, ethanol (the active ingredient that gets you drunk), is absorbed into your bloodstream. Ethanol is a volatile chemical (it evaporates easily), so when alcoholic blood passes through your lungs, some of the ethanol evaporates into the air that you exhale. It's this process that allows a breathalyzer to measure BAC based on your exhalation.


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

[User]
If a photon experiences no time, could all photons we observe from our reference frame really just be the same photon in every possible position in the universe?

I'm a photon/relativity noob, so please excuse my ignorance. I often wonder about the fact that an object that moves at c experiences no time. Does this not imply that a) from our reference frame the same photon must be at every conceivable point in the universe simultaneously, and that b) there is just one single photon? Could this explain the strange results of the double slit experiment? Just a thought!

[Assistant] Nope. It's pretty trivial to show that a photon propagating along a geodesic trajectory cannot deviate from that trajectory. If it did, then there would exist some inertial reference frame in which the photon, during deviation, was not propagating at *c,* which is prohibited by the principle of covariance.


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

[User]
ELI5: The phantom text, how does the brain feel something that isnt happening? what causes this sensation? And are there other known symptoms of this phenomena?

Surely youve experienced it, you feel your pocket buzz, as if you had received a text message, only to find your phone is not even in your pocket that moment. What causes this sensation? Whatever this phenomena is, are there other examples of it?

Sometimes we feel like we are still wearing glasses when they are taken off, how does the brain feel something that doesnt exist?

Thank you for any answers!

[Assistant]
Your brain has to process a *lot* of sensory input all at once. Way too much for you ever to really handle on a conscious level. To compensate for this, your brain learns to look for patterns in the raw information and then slots new sensory information into those patterns whenever it thinks it fits.

This is why you can, for example, recognize that a chair is a chair without having to take a detailed account of how many legs it has, or check to see if it has a seat or a back or any of the other things associated with chairs. Your brain gets the raw feed, identifies a shape that looks like a chair, tags it as a chair and then passes that up to you with the note This is a chair, no need to waste time thinking about it too much unless you decide you need a chair.

On the flip side, if youre doing something like Wheres Waldo. Theres a lot of chaotic information meant to obscure the relevant patterns that would allow your brain to quickly process Yep, thats Waldo even when you are looking directly at him. But then once you have looked closely enough for that connection to be made, your brain keeps track and you cant *not* see where he is even though you couldnt a second before when looking at the exact same picture.

Sometimes, though, a bit of sensory input is just close enough to an existing pattern that your brain misclassifies it, and so instead of passing along something approximating the raw feed so you can figure out what it is for yourself, your brain says I know what that is! and passes along the tag for buzzing cell phone or your name shouted from far away and so thats what you experience instead of whatever it was that actually happened, which may have been *kind* of like that thing, but not really as much as you experienced it as.


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

[User]
[Batman] How does Bruce explain Damien to the world at large? Especially considering hes had two wards before finding a biological son.

Considering his playboy lifestyle, would there be rumors that he was a pederast or at least had a strange lifestyle related to boys?

[Assistant]
His playboy lifestyle is the perfect way to explain Damien. One of his countless nights spent with beautiful women ended in unsafe sex. And it wasn't until years later that he found out that single act resulted in a son.

And given that Bruce's tragic history is public knowledge, there aren't many people who seriously consider that Bruce does anything untoward with his wards. It seems like it's a perfectly logical thing for a rich orphan to do. Sponsor other young boys with stories like his, give them a chance at a better life through expensive schooling and all expenses paid, and also reap all the media attention lavished on someone trying to save the world in such a small way.


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

[User]
CMV: Politicians should wait in line for medical treatment just like anyone else.

In the US in particular, it's unfair how politicians can get priority treatment over others who are turned away from the hospitals because they have no money or connections to get the treatment they need for the same health condition. I'm not just talking about the current situation, but in any situation where medical attention is needed for the same health condition. When I hear stories on the news how some politician gets access to experimental treatment that others can't get, it shows the corruption of the healthcare system to favour only the rich when access to healthcare should be a right for all.

People might rebuttal that because politicians hold positions of power and make important decisions for the city or state that they must get treatment first. But what about the frontline healthcare workers who literally put their lives on the line to save us? Why don't they get this experimental treatment when they get sick, so they can get back on their feet and help more people? And even if the politician lands in the ICU, isn't that what vice presidents and deputy prime ministers are for?

I guess what in getting at is that the loss of life of one politician or official doesn't impact the decisions made at the top because the power can always be substituted whereas the loss of life of a frontline healthcare worker is devastating to the operational function of a hospital as primary and secondary lives are lost.

[Assistant]
What sort of politicians are you arguing for? Politicians like your local representative or your Prime Minister? Because there are huge ramifications when it comes to the top brass.

People like the PM get first treatment because they are incredibly important to a Country actually functioning and the stability of a nation. If the PM gets sick and dies - that hurts foreign policy because troops and diplomats have to wait for the crisis to settle down - it exaggerates internal division as parties contest who gets to be the next PM or Prezzie, not to mention a while disruption in government process as people figure out how to manage things again.


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

[User]
How does the body decide where to store fat?

In general, females seem to store fat around the hips and thighs, males around the gut.  Why?  How does the body decide where to store fat?

[Assistant] Beyond the generalized sex differences, there are a number of hormones that affect where and how we store fat - for ex. estrogen encourages the more 'classically feminine' fat storage patterns (hips and thighs) whereas stuff like cortisol and insulin production lead more to belly fat. As the latter two, cortisol in particular, are highly stress-dependent, people may even notice different fat storage patterns at different stages of life, depending on things like diet and levels of stress or of sex hormones.


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

[User] ELI5: How come raw eggs are bad to eat now? 20 years ago, I'd put a raw egg in a milkshake and eat the hell out of cookie/cake/brownie batter.  Now if I do it, I get sick.  What happened?

[Assistant] If you are a healthy person with normal immune system, then  raw eggs are just edible as they were before. However people with compromised immune system are more at risk of contracting serious salmonella infection (which is rare, but if it happens it can be life threatening, even on otherwise healthy people). Restaurants and food production companies need to protect themselves from lawsuits, so they need to warn patrons that there might be a danger in eating raw eggs.


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

[User]
[Warhammer 40k]Can you bore a Noise Marine to death?

If I placed a Noise Marine in a completely dark and quiet room, would the sensory deprivation affect them more than a normal Astartes?

[Assistant]
Yes.

Slaaneshi cultists - of any variety - are addicted to sensation.  It's their defining characteristic.  They don't deal well with sensory deprivation.  If you somehow managed to contain a Noise Marine, he would get more and more desperate to feel something, *anything*, eventually turning to self-mutilation, which eventually would lead to death.

It's an interesting thought experiment, but it would be a waste of the Emperor's resources to perform, and counterproductive, because even masochistic death throes feed Slaanesh.  If you have a Noise Marine captured, just quietly and painlessly put him down.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] In the ROTS, did the High Ground give Obi-Wan any actual advantage in the fight vs. Anakin?

When Obi-Wan said "It's over, Anakin!" he implies that just by having the high ground he's automatically won the duel. What was so different about this instance vs. any other time in that fight?

[Assistant]
Fighting uphill is a massive disadvantages in melee. You spend a lot of energy fighting both your enemy and gravity. Meanwhile the one on top has gravity working with him.

You always try to keep the battle at least on even ground. If not you lose all your limbs and fall into a lava flow.


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

[User] [Invincible] If Monster Girl stopped transforming would she grow to adulthood again? Could this effectively recharge her cap on transformations?

[Assistant]
Yes.

Her comic book origin acknowledges that she would age normally if she didn't use her powers for a length of time. But she has a Spider-Man-esque need to help whenever she can, so she is never able to stick to this.


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

[User] Do kangaroos give birth directly into their pouch, or does the baby have to climb in?

[Assistant]
According to kangaroocreekfarm.com:

At the end of the pregnancy the expectant mother takes up a sitting position and grooms her pouch. The baby emerges from an opening at the base of her tail called the cloaca. The infant is very tiny, only about the size of a lima bean. Its pink and largely undeveloped except for its two front arms that are crucial for its climb up its mothers abdomen to the pouch. The baby, which is little more than a fetus, makes this climb completely unaided and guided only by instinct. Once inside the pouch the baby finds one of its mothers four nipples and takes the end of one in its mouth. The baby doesnt have the muscles to suck at this stage. Instead, the nipple swells inside the babys mouth so that it cant disengage and milk is secreted very slowly into its mouth. Later, once the babys jaw is more developed, it will be able to disengage and suck at will.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is USA Daylight savings time starting tonight when the UK won't see it for another 3 weeks?

[Assistant]
The US government extended DST in 2005 because a dept of energy study said it would save energy.

After the change,  they measured and found energy consumption dropped 0.03% compared to the previous year.  So it wasn't really worth all the bother of being out of sync with the rest of the world.


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

[User]
How do all-purpose cleaners work?

I have a bottle here that lists several ingredients including: decyl glucoside, sodium citrate, glycerin, and a lot of natural oils. How do these ingredients actually clean a surface?

[Assistant]
Molecular magnets!

Some things have an electrostatic charge, some do not.

Charged things like to mix with charged things.

Uncharged things like to mix with uncharged things.

Water is charged, so it can dissolve and wash away material that is also charged.

The problem is with uncharged things, since water can't wash them away.

Oils are uncharged, which is why you can't wash away grease with a little water.

Cleaners contain molecules that are long and have a charged end and an uncharged end.

The uncharged end mixes into the oil, while the charged end allows the water to pick it up and wash the cleaner/oil mixture away.


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

[User]
[Pokemon] Why are Jesse and James so obsessed with Ash's Pikachu?

By now they should have realised that Ash's Pikachu is not special. Why are they spending so much time and money trying to steal that particular Pikachu? And why is their boss ok with this? Why doesn't he fire them for being useless?

[Assistant]
Ash's Pikachu **is** special. It's somehow capable of supercharging itself. In the first episode it gets struck by the lightning storm around the Pokemon center and creates a massive electric bomb. That is exactly the type of thing Giovanni was looking for.

Have they spent too much time on it? Yes. But it is a unique Pikachu, or at the very least, a Pikachu that shows what Pikachus are capable of.


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

[User]
How does raising the interest rate help inflation?

It certainly appears that it only removes lower wage people from accessing loans, lowering the overall spending for the economy.

What am I missing?

[Assistant] Raising interest rates raises lending interest rates from banks, once rates rise this discourages taking loans including credit cards, this slows spending, when spending slows demand drops, when demand drops prices drop. It also encourages people to save money because interest rates are high so people will put money away into savings rather than spending on expensive stuff, and paying down debt to avoid higher interest rates from banks.


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

[User]
[Bleach] So Ichigo has just died of natural (or mundane) causes, what now?

So will he appear in Soul Society with his full powers? If so, would he be able to officially join the Shinigami divisions, as a rookie or directly as a captain? Is the procedure the same for other exceptional living humans like his father?

[Assistant]
If you aren't trapped as a hollow or parakeet or whatever when you die, you show up in Soul Society very shortly thereafter.  Parakeet-kid remembered his mortal life, but this seems to be inconsistent, with other characters (e.g Zaraki) talking about how they just woke up in Soul Society one day with no memory of how they got there.

Keeping your powers seems inconsistent as well, but there are a handful of people (again, Zaraki is the prime example) show do indeed show up in Soul Society monstrously powerful.

So, it's possible, but not guaranteed, for Ichigo to just show up with all his powers and memories intact.


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

[User] ELI5: How long range missiles fly horizontally despite not having any type of "wing" to keep it airborne.

[Assistant] By not pushing themselves perfectly horizontal.  They aim upwards a bit, so their thrust is pushing them mostly forwards but also a bit up.  This counteracts the gravity pulling them down, so they can fly horizontal.


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

[User] [StarCraft] How exactly was Kerrigan transformed into a Zerg?

[Assistant]
She was captured, encased in chrysalis and emerged as zerg. She later infiltrated terran spec ops compound to remove leftover ghost implants.

So it's not like her body was melted and remade butterfly-style, but rather it was exposed to various mutagens and transformed.


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

[User]
[WH40k] How much do the citizens of the Imperium know of the Horus Heresy?

In several of his memoirs Commissar Cain references Horus specifically, however I have yet to see another reference throughout the collective writings of the Black Library or anything else.

As an Emperor fearing citizen obviously studying the Heresy would be, well, heresy, but at what level would the knowledge of the Heresy begin to be taught, and how much would be taught?

[Assistant]
Most Imperial citizens are going to be aware of the Horus Heresy, because it was the pivotal element in the Emperor's ascension to the Golden Throne, but the details, particularly pertaining to Horus' allegiances, would be almost entirely unknown.

To your average bloke, it's a God-Lucifer arangement. The Emperor created the Primarchs and the Legions, and Horus got too big for his britches and rebelled against his rightful master. The involvement of Chaos, and in fact the simple existence of anything living in the Warp, would be almost entirely beyond the knowledge of the average person.


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

[User]
[DC Comics] When Damian Wayne had powers, why did he have heat vision?

The rest of the powers (even flight I guess) make sense, sense they're just stronger natural processes. Yet none of the other heavy hitters have heat vision besides supes, who's has solar power, and MM who is a weird alien. I also don't think Icon can who has lots of similar powers to Supes and some crazier abilities.

It just seems out of place, could he have had teleportation, or ice breath abilities too? What else might he have been able to do?

[Assistant] Given that those powers came from New Gods energies, he could've been omnipotent. Sky's the limit with that stuff. Obviously, those energies would've needed to be sustained to keep those amazing powers up.


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

[User] [Wild Wild West 1999 Will Smith Western Action Comedy] What's up with the henchmen on the giant spider? Did Loveless create a cyborg using steam power and 1860s technology?

[Assistant]
Essentially, yes, in much the same way he created a giant spider mecha using the same.

I mean, consider: Loveless pretty much already *is* a cyborg using steam power and 1860s technology. Not much of a stretch for him to scale up the techniques, both in size(the spider) and in cohesiveness (the henchman)


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

[User] [Mass Effect] How are the Geth powered?

[Assistant]
Varies by platform.  Your typical Geth drone just operates off batteries This works better than you'd think, humanoid forms are *very* energy efficient, and its not as if we're free of the need for food, sleep, or oxygen to keep going, all of which Geth platforms do *not* need.  It logistically simpler than fuel cells since there's no need to carry around oxygen and recharge stations can be kept to a fairly small size even when hundreds of geth need to stay powered for months.

Larger Geth platforms, such as Prime, Armature and Colossus have miniaturized He3 reactors, these both power those platforms and allow them to serve as mobile recharge stations for the less resource intensive drone platforms when away from ships for an extended period.


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

[User]
If differences in human phenotypes such as skin colour, hair colour, etc. are due to clinal adaptation, what clines lead to the development of East-Asian slanted eyes?

Since there is good evidence to suggest we radiated from Africa, I presume that primitive humans did not have slanted eyes, but I guess a possibility is that primitive humans did in fact have slanted eyes, and the change to non-slanted eyes is actually an adaptation. In either case, why/how did this happen?

EDIT: Also, I'm running on the assumption that eye shape is a product of clinal adaptation, when it may very well not be. However, I would expect that it is based on the fact that we have many forms of slanted and non-slanted eyes as you move East-West, and this smooth variation is expected with clines.

[Assistant]
The explantation for epicanthus is that Central Asian steppes, the area where proto-Mongoloids origated, were very dusty with common dust storms and the epicanthus helped them to protect their vision. But it's also possible that it was a random mutation and an example of the founder effect.

Because epicanthus doesn't occur only in Mongoloid-descended populations, but also in some tribes in Africa, like the Sudanese Dinkas and some Bushmen. But the Malagasy people on Madagascar have it from Mongoloids, since the first settlers there were Austronesians who originally came from Taiwan.


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

[User]
[LOTR] What would have happened if an eagle was given the One Ring?

What would the long term effects be for middle earth?

[Assistant]
since Eagles are a very proud race, it'd be corrupted pretty easily by the Ring. the Misty Mountains would basically be impassible because the Eagles would just fuck up whoever was trying to stop them. it'd be a pretty big deal.

i mean, they could be killed even by Men (Lord of the Eagles explicitly states at one point that he wouldn't go near the land of Men because he didn't want to put his Eagles in danger), but they are still very very strong, and the corruption of the Ring would make them stronger.

flair relevant.