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

[User]
[Underworld] Why is there still a war after a 1000 yrs after the lycans became independent? The vampires have no use for them anymore so why are they hunting them? Also why aren't lycans winning the war ?

Lycans literally have the advantage over most vampires physically and have far less limitations as they can live among normal people and eat regular food and other than being immortal and thier weakness to silver they should've spread out and have bred themselves into large numbers by now and should have been able to overwhelm the vampires by now  especially if they got organized and some of them became aristocrats and started gaining shadowed control in the human worlds in the same way the vampires did. yet for some reason the werewolves all live in squalor stoll being hunted down for a war that doesn't even make sense anymore.

[Assistant]
> they should've spread out and have bred themselves into large numbers by now and should have been able to overwhelm the vampires by now especially if they got organized

I suspect this is exactly the reason. The vampires started out with more power and have gone to great effort to retain it. They know that, if the lycans were able to organize and gain power, it would be used against them. It would also risk an outright war, exposing their existence to humans who are, collectively, powerful enough to wipe out both of the factions.


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

[User]
[Culture] What caused the Culture's shift in mentality between the Idiran War and encounter with the Empire of Azad?

I've just begun the Culture Series, and I'm curious why the Culture seems to have such different attitude towards alien civilizations in the 700 years between *Consider Phlebas* and *Player of Games*.  According to the text the Culture tolerated the Idiran's militant aggression for centuries before finally committing to war.  They were described as being slow to rouse, sort of live and let live, unless pushed too far.

But then they discover the Empire and almost immediately enact a plan to destroy it.  At the end, the drone Flere-Imsaho basically says that the Empire was doom to fall anyway, but they really wanted to hasten its demise.  So pretty shortly after first contact (<100 years?), the Culture caused the complete collapse of that civilization.

Why such a difference?  The Empire was perhaps more brutal and dystopian  as a society, compared to the Idirans.  But the Idirans were very much opposed to the Culture's philosophy of life, and they posed a much greater threat.

Alternative theory: Special Circumstances was deeply involved in starting a war in both cases, but they just had a easier time with the Empire?

[Assistant]
Despite its appearance to outsiders as a united blob of action, the Culture is *extremely* fractured internally, and it has almost no checks or balances on what individual actors are able to do.

The Idiran Empire was shockingly close to the Culture in terms of technological level, and they had backing from at least one other equiv-tech civilization which wanted to check the Culture's influence.  Any individual Culture ship, or small group, would have simply been destroyed if it had decided to unilaterally go to war with the Idirans.  The war needed the support of a large majority of Culture individuals, and getting majority support on *anything* in the Culture is like herding cats.

Azad, by comparison, was tiny.  Their technology was so far behind the Culture that it was essentially impossible for an Azadian to detect clandestine operations from the Culture.  A single culture ship could have successfully invaded the entire empire, and destroyed it by force if it decided this was a necessary course of action.

Since unanimous agreement was not necessary, no time was wasted in seeking it.  A small group (maybe even just an individual mind) in Special Circumstances decided on the course of action, and no other minds objected strongly enough to oppose them.


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

[User] CMV: There's no reason to use social media to wish your dad a happy fathers day except for attention.

[Assistant]
I think the simplest rebuttal is that, for some dads, it will make them happy to have the world see how much their child(ren) care about them.  Particularly for some men, this may be something they are very proud of, but would feel uncomfortable bragging about.

Edit: And isn't today all about doing something to make your father happy, whatever it may be?


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

[User]
[Sherlock Holmes] Why is Moriarty "the Napoleon of crime"?

That is, what similarities are there between him and Napoleon Bonaparte?

If we had to substitute a modern figure, who would it beBin Laden? Kanye West? Linus Torvalds?

[Assistant]
In 19th century Britain, Napoleon was popularly characterised as a brilliant man who terrorised all of Europe. Which is accurate, as far as it goes, and applies quite nicely to Moriarty - the criminal mastermind whose schemes spread across all of Europe.

These days a more likely comparison would be, as you suggest, Linus Torvalds or Mark Zuckerberg - a brilliant man with influence everywhere, his tendrils reaching around the globe.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do we get bags under our eyes when we are tired?

[Assistant]
the bags under our eyes are a result of leaky capillaries, combined with the fact that the skin in that area is very thin and more translucent than other areas of the body.

the occurrence of it varies from person to person really. a lighter skinned person who stays up the same amount of time as a darker skin person might look more tired, but they may have stayed up just as long as them.


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

[User]
Are there polynomial equations that are equal to basic trig functions?

Are there polynomial functions that are equal to basic trig functions (i.e: y=cos(x), y=sin(x))? If so what are they and how are they calculated? Also are there any limits on them (i.e only works when a<x<b)?

[Assistant]
It's possible to express these functions as Taylor series, which are sums of polynomial terms of increasing power, getting more and more accurate.

(working in radians here)

For the sine function, it's sin(x)~=x-x^3 /6 + x^5 /120 - x^7 /5040... Each term is an odd power, divided by the factorial of the power, alternating positive and negative.

For cosine it's even powers instead of odd: cos(x)~=1-x^2 /2 +x^4 /24 ...

With a few terms, these are pretty accurate over the normal range that they are calculated for (0 to 360 degrees or x=0 to 2pi). However, with a finite number of terms they are never completely accurate. The smaller x is, the more accurate the series approximation is.

You can also fit a range of these functions to a polynomial of arbitrary order, which is what calculators use to calculate values efficiently (more efficient than Taylor series).


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

[User]
ELI5: Why cant a patients blood be reused in cases of internal bleeding?

Lets assume someone has internal bleeding - maybe a ruptured spleen or some such. Could the internal blood thats escaping be collected, and then used to top up the patients blood supply when the cause of the bleed is corrected?

[Assistant] Yes. It's called a cell saver. The blood is suctioned out of the surgical field; washed, filtered, and centrifuged; then transfused back to the patient. It takes some time to set up, but it can save you using a few units of blood.


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

[User]
[Mad Max Fury Road] Immortan Joe seems to be in control of all the available land, even having established trade routes with Gas Town and the Bullet Farm. So why does he need so many war boys?

As far as I can tell, they were all just sitting around doing nothing, until Furiosa made her move. Are they there simply to elevate his status?

[Assistant]
If you visit a modern military base you might make a similar observation - "all these soldiers are doing nothing instead of fighting wars".  But it's the deterrence their mere presence produces that prevents those very wars from taking place.

Same with the War Boys.  Without them then every petty would-be dictator would be trying to take control of the water supply with his own warriors.  Only by remaining strong can Joe prevent endless battles over his resources.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why people deny climate change? What are their arguments?

With the GBR news on the front page currently, I learnt that Greg Hunt (Australian environment minister) is a climate-change denier. I'm currently 17 and have always accepted climate change and have never really thought about why people deny it.

[Assistant]
It's a very complex bit of science, that requires a background in climate science to truly grasp the studies that prove man made climate change.

Basically, the Earth has been warming and cooling for its whole history, so it's not just enough to show that the world is warming up, as that could be completely natural. You have to show that it's heating up faster than it should be, which involves looking at hundreds of thousands of years worth of climate data, gathered from multiple partial sources, like tree rings, ice cores, and geologic samples. You also need to account for other man made events, such as the heat island effects of cites, and adjust the data accordingly.

So you've got a very complex science, with plenty of places to manipulate the data, either accidentally or intentionally. Combine that with the idea that it's presumably easier to get funding for more research if your data proves climate change, and you can see why someone might be a little sceptical.

Combine all of the above with a general distrust of the left, and you can see why someone might just discredit the entire argument for climate change on the idea that it's just a conspiracy cooked up by the left to shut down oil companies and the like.


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

[User]
[X-Men] How is Magneto's helmet supposed to work?

Can't Charles (or any other telepath) "enter" his mind via the front? Or from the spine for that matter?

[Assistant] It's a Faraday cage. However telepathy works, it acts like lightning and instead of getting to directly contact the mind, the effects are blocked by bouncing around the outsides of the helmet. Same for foil hat wearers, and the Juggernaut bitch.


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

[User] ELI5: Why can't our thumbprint change even if it had a scrape and healed?

[Assistant] Your fingerprint exists in the lower layers of skin. If you only ever damage the surface, it will grow back exactly as it was. However, if you damage the lower layers, your fingerprint will be altered by scar tissue.


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

[User]
Electric Charge. Difference between Coulomb and Q?

I'm having a hard time figured out the exact difference between Coulomb and Q.
I know that a coulomb is a charge of 6,241*10^18 elementary charges and 1 elementary charge is equal to -1,602*10^-19 C.

The amount of electric charge that 1 ampere gives is equal to 1 C/t

But according to what I read in my textbook, then Q = I/t.
But wouldn't that make Q = (C/t)/t?

How exactly am I meant to understand Q?

[Assistant]
> The amount of electric charge that 1 ampere gives is equal to 1 C/t

That should be 1 Coloumb per second.

The difference between a Coloumb and Q is the difference between a meter and length (or l).  One is the unit used to measure a quantity, while the other is the symbol for that quantity.  Q is just "charge" while a Coloumb is 6.24\*10*18 times the elementary charge.

>  Q = I/t

This is also a typo; it should be Q = I\*t.  So Charge is current multiplied by time, while a Coloumb is an ampere multiplied by a second.  This is like saying that D = v\*t (distance is velocity multiplied by time), or a meter is a meter per second multiplied by a second, or a mile is a mile per hour multiplied by an hour.


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

[User] If I were stabbed in the stomach, would it be a lot worse if I had just eaten?

[Assistant]
Worse in the sense that your stomach is always producing a little HCl/NaCl solution to keep enzymatic function optimal, and produces more of it when you're anticipating/digesting food - -and this would really, really hurt if it started spilling out of your stomach. You have a great deal of mucus and a bicarbonate buffer system to keep your stomach from burning holes in itself - - refluxing that acid up into the earlier portions of the digestive tract is what most people term heart burn.

It would probably suck, certainly, to have gastric juices spilling all around a wound and potentially over the outside of your stomach/intestinal tissue, but it's not clear to me that this would be a distinct pain you would feel short term if someone pierced you with something long and sharp enough to actually go through the abdominal muscles and into the stomach - - that would be excruciatingly painful all on its own.

Food being in your stomach would almost certainly complicate debriding, cleaning, and repairing your tissue for a surgeon and maybe raise your infection risk, but that's something I'd defer to a surgeon to talk about.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do fish oil pills have to be so big?

Like seriously why do I have to practice my deep throating skills every time I take one?

[Assistant]
The reason that people buy fish oil pills is for its omega-3 content, and specifically its EPA and DHA content.  But fish oil is only about 25% omega-3, and of that only about half is EPA and DHA.  That means that only about 1/8 of the fish oil is the stuff that people are actually buying the pills for.

To make matter worse, fish oil pills cause stomach problems in most people and also cause a condition called "fish burps" - which causes people to have smelly, foul tasting burps for an hour or two after taking the pills.  Its possible to prevent both of those problems, but the pills need to be given a coating that prevents the pills from dissolving until after they've left your stomach.  That coating takes up a significant amount of space in the pill.

This means that as you make a fish oil pill smaller a greater percentage of the pill ends up consisting of coating, rather than the actual fish oil.  IE, you can't just take one 1000 mg fish oil pill and turn it into two 500 mg pills because the amount of coating on each of those two smaller pills has to remain the same as the larger, single pill.

So fish oil pill manufacturers have to give you a huge dose of fish oil in order for you to get a meaningful amount of omega-3.  The easiest way to do that is by making two huge pills.  If they made more pills with the same omega-3 dose it would require 5 or 6 smaller pills (or possibly more), which is more than most people are willing to take.

There are omega-3 pills that are more reasonably sized.  The reason that they are more reasonably sized is because they either source the omega 3 from algae (which doesn't cause stomach problems or fish burps, and so doesn't need the anti-dissolve coating) or they've separated the DHA and EPA out of the fish oil so that those are the only things that the pill contains.  Making an omega-3 pill using either of those methods is about 3-4 times as expensive as just using straight fish oil, but that's why there is such a disparity in terms of omega-3 pill cost.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is the hotel industry dominated by international companies (Marriott, Hilton, etc.) but apartments are almost always locally owned/run/branded?

I know this is an overgeneralization, and plenty of hotels are locally owned, but it seems like >50% of my hotel stays are at a national (or international) chain. Yet when I look at apartments, they are all small and independently owned. Why has the hotel industry seen huge consolidation but the apartment industry hasnt? Why do the major hotel chains have a tiny footprint in the apartment industry? For all intents and purposes, they seem like somewhat similar businesses.

[Assistant]
>Why has the hotel industry seen huge consolidation but the apartment industry hasnt?

The hotel industry by and large hasn't seen huge consolidation.  The vast, vast majority of hotels are actually locally owned.

The big hotel companies are mostly just management companies.  They don't own most of their hotels, rather, the actual owner of the hotel has hired them to come in and run the hotel for them.

You'd actually find that the same is true of apartments - most apartments in North America are run by a handful of companies, the same is true of the EU.  Those management companies follow the same model that big hotel chains do in that they don't actually own most of their properties, they just manage them on behalf of the real owner.

The only difference is that apartment management companies tend to brand their managed properties as a local thing because people want to think that the person managing their home is someone who is local and has a vested interested in their well being such that they will provide you with a superior experience, rather than a giant, soulless corporation.

That's a bit different than what most people want with a hotel - which is for it to be run by a giant, soulless corporation that is going to ensure that they have a uniform, acceptable experience regardless of where they stay.


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

[User] What is exotic matter?

[Assistant]
There is a lot about physics that is frustratingly constraining, or elusive. Lightspeed is a rock-solid constraint on things moving in the universe and so far there has not been a truly effective method actually proposed to break through that barrier.

But, the properties of quantum mechanics lead to the discovery of a lot of weird stuff underlying the basic fundamental nature of reality, and it comes down to a list of basically 16 particles. There are ways that this list could be extended, if for instance there existed particles that don't interact with the same set of forces as act on these. Arguably this is what dark matter likely is.

But what if you really wanted to bend the rules?

That's where exotic matter comes in. You build a ring out of it, and then you can start ripping a hole in spacetime because its properties work against the fundamental nature of reality in specific, scientifically consistent if essentially impossible, ways. For instance, in the Xeelee novels by Stephen Baxter, the first wormholes are developed by somehow creating an exotic material that somehow was composed of negative energy (in the opposite way that normal matter is composed of positive, existing energy). To make such matter involves a number of things that just don't make sense. But, give a sci-fi writer a little broken physics and they'll build a world out of it with a wave of their hand.

Of course, with such an unhelpfully generic name exotic matter may well mean different things. You might argue that short lived particles resulting from collisions in particle accelerators or cosmic ray strikes are exotic, in the sense that they are novel and rare.


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

[User] [Doctor Who] Why does the TARDIS always get wrecked when the Doctor regenerates? Surely the Time Lords would have anticipated this event happening and built the TARDIS to be able to resist damage from it?

[Assistant]
Something seems to have changed the Doctor since the Time War.  He used to have nice, peaceful regenerations.  None of this spraying of regeneration energy everywhere.

Perhaps...  The Time Lords once gave the Master extra regenerations.  Maybe there is a source of regeneration energy that used to be spread among all of the Time Lords, and now it's all focused just on the Doctor.


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

[User]
ELI5: What is that split second stomach dropping feeling when we get frightened?

Edit: The specific feeling is like that fight or flight response. Not like the horror movie feeling jump scare, but like if someone pulls a gun on you type feeling. Does anybody else have 2 different feelings/reactions when scared?

[Assistant] That's likely a Sympathetic Nervous System response from a surge in adrenaline. It reduces blood flow to your non vital organs like skin/GI which is what makes you pale/clammy and causes the funny feeling in your gut.


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

[User]
[Super Heroes] What would be one of the worst examples of bad side effects for having a power you've ever seen?

The popular ones are Hulks mindless rage or Iron Man's poison blood, but what other examples of a terrible price for power might not be so well known?

[Assistant] Darwin would be a good candidate. He's part of the X-Men, with the power to survive anything, only he was no control over how he survives things. For instance, he once contracted a disease that attacked his central nervous system. His mutant ability countered this by turning him into a sponge (the underwater type, not the liquid absorbing type) and since he now had no central nervous system, the disease couldn't kill him.


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

[User] If a potato is used as a battery is its calorie content reduced?

[Assistant]
Nope. The potato/lemon/brine you use in this sort of battery only serves as an electrolyte, forming a conductive bridge between electrodes. The electrodes serve as the source of energy.
Regardless, metal ions don't factor into the calorie content of foods.


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

[User]
[Avatar TLA/LOK] What are the scariest things a bender can hypothetically do?

We know waterbenders can bloodbend, and airbenders can suck the air out of a persons lungs but what about the other elements? What potentially scary things could say, a firebender do? Fry a person's brain? Control their muscles? What about earthbenders?

[Assistant] Earthbenders sometimes make an an armor "suit" using rock (or, in some cases, metal). Imagine if they did that to somebody else. Without bending the rock, they'd be unable to move. Now imagine they didn't make air holes.


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

[User]
CMV: it is never okay to steal.

I know, this sounds pretty ridiculous. However, I don't believe it's too much of an unpopular opinion. I'm here to see if I can be swayed, or even just understand the topic from a pro-stealing type of view.

Many young people I know (17-21) enjoy stealing from department stores. I.E: Walmart, Target, whatever... they say that they would never steal from a one (or two) off chain, but multi-million dollar companies are free game. I don't really understand this.

I know that stealing a Chapstick from the dollar store won't necessarily get someone fired, but *it might*.  Unless you've worked at said store, you have no idea what the chain of command is like. I'm thinking about this more recently, because a forum that I frequent has had an influx of people stealing.. certain items. (Or, at least, claiming to steal.) the threads always have people congratulating each other on getting away with it, which really disturbs me, if I'm being honest.

I just don't really understand why it's alright. I stole a candy bar, once, out of peer pressure, and it still bothers me to this day.

Edit:: I do believe that if you're being denied a basic human right (I.e not enough food/healthcare) it is morally okay to do so.

So, Reddit, why is it okay to steal, sometimes?

[Assistant]
What is your opinion on pirating media that is not, and probably never will be, available in your country? Many Eastern Euro, African, and some Asian nations get next to nothing when it comes to legal media distribution, but if you go online in those countries you can be inundated with nothing but talk about GoT or whatever the new hot show is.

Is it OK for them to pirate that content if they would never have the opportunity to watch it legally?


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

[User]
[Interstellar] If corn was the only food crop available, what was the diet like for humans on Earth?

Just before the Lazarus Project launched the Endurance mission to go through the wormhole and explore the candidate planets in the new galaxy, corn and okra were the only two food crops still growing and the okra was succumbing to the Blight.

But what was the diet like for those people? What kind of flavor and variety could be eked out of just one or two crops? I mean, I know we eat plenty of foods that use corn and corn-based sweeteners, but if that's *all* there was, I think I'd probably want to kill myself after about a week of meals. Was there even any meat available?

---

Edit: thinking on it more, I realized I don't know if alternative crops were affected. Was algae killed off by the Blight? If so, it seems like the looming oxygen crisis would be a more pressing matter than raising crops for food. Were fungi affected by the Blight? Mycoprotein is a viable source of food, as is yeast farming, but both of those are more like running a laboratory/factory than running a farm.

[Assistant]
You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it. Dey's uh, corn-kabobs, corn creole, corn gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried. There's pineapple corn, lemon corn, coconut corn, pepper corn, corn soup, corn stew, corn salad, corn and potatoes, corn burger, corn sandwich.

That- that's about it.


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

[User]
[Starship Troopers - movie] Why wasn't Sky Marshal Dienes subjected to corporal punishment following the Battle of Klendathu?

Rico gets one soldier (recruit?) killed during basic training and is whipped for it. Sky Marshal Dienes orders the attack on Klendathu, which results in the worst battle in the history of humankind, but faces no punishment?

For reference: the Battle of Klendathu results in 300,000 casualties, 100,000 of which die in the first hour. Not to mention the losses incurred by the Terran Navy.

[Assistant]
Rico got a recruit killed through his carelessness. He was trying to do something he was not qualified to do, in an extremely hazardous situation, putting a man under his command in unnecessary danger.

The Sky Marshall, on the other hand, was doing his job. He might not have been doing it *well*, but there exists an entire command structure to ensure the best plan possible. The entire command failed to properly assess the capabilities of the Arachnids.


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

[User] ELI5 - Why is microwaving metal objects dangerous?

[Assistant]
Microwaves can induce electric current in metallic (or any conductive) objects. They are, quite literally, antennas. And while normally antennas receive signals of low power, these are high power signals meant for transferring energy.

The effect of these currents depends alot on the object's makeup. "Pure" metal in a smooth shape tends to disperse the current pretty easily. If, however, the metal is mixed with other things, or has sharp edges, or air gaps, this makes it much harder for all the electric forces to equalize and you can get sparking which becomes a fire hazard. The classic example here is that usually forks cause sparking, but spoons do not.


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

[User]
[The Mummy 1 & 2] Is there any downside/sacrifice/cost to using the book of the dead to resurrect someone?

In the Mummy 2 for instance, Imhotep resurrected Anck-su-namun seemingly by reading from it without paying anything. Then Alex resurrected Evie by reading from the same bookagain seemingly without any cost. I reckon Anubis shouldn't let them take souls from the underworld to be resurrected that easily?

[Assistant] Anubis doesn't really care that much about it. The downside to resurrection is they have to earn their place in the afterlife again. It's like being born but they have memories of their prior life. Just none of the sin or good of that prior life. So if they die again without balance the scales Anubis will feed them to the other god that looks like a hippo.


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

[User] Why are Mandelbrot sets so significant? What can they be used for?

[Assistant]
Mandelbrot sets are not actually very mathematically significant in the sense that they don't help us solve many (if any) mathematical or physical problems that arise naturally.  [EDIT: Experts in fractal geometry, please correct me if this is wrong.]

They are mostly famous for historical reasons and because they're really cool: they were some of the first examples of sets that are defined by very simple rules, but have very complex properties.  The discovery of such sets (and also functions with similar properties) spawned the study of chaos theory and fractal dimensions, which have since grown to be extremely significant fields of mathematics (especially the former).  Many similarly complicated sets and functions which can be defined by simple rules have been discovered and intensely studied since the discovery of Mandelbrot sets.  Some of these have important applications/consequences in other fields of math and in the sciences.


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

[User] ELI5: How Quartz Crystal Resonators work?

[Assistant]
They rely on a piezo crystal. These crystals have the useful property that they generate a voltage if you squeeze them, and expand or contract if you apply a voltage. They are commonly used in lighters (squeezing them generates a high voltage, which causes a spark), speakers and ultra sound transducers(a rapidly oscillating voltage contracts and expands the crystal) and kitchen scales (putting a weight on them generates a voltage).

As a resonator, the crystal is tuned like a musical instrument to oscillate at a certain frequency, and combined with a small amplifying circuit. If you turn it on, it starts oscillating at a precise frequency, and never stops. Imagine it like a tuning fork, only that it never stops humming as long as you apply a voltage.


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

[User] [Thor Ragnarok] Why does the girls take picture with Loki present, isnt Loki known as a mass murderer, has his names been cleared since the avengers?

[Assistant]
He is still a war criminal. However the only thing people remember is a dude wearing gold and giant horns. They didnt really get a good look at his face.
Thor however never wore a helmet, and has a glorious mane of hair.
Besides, even if people did know what Loki looked like, anyone standing next to that beautiful pirate angel Thor is basically non existant.


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

[User] Why does necrotic tissue appear black?

[Assistant] It doesn't have to be black; in fact, most types of necrosis found in the body do not appear black grossly. Dry gangrene is usually what people think of when they think of necrosis, but that is only one subtype and that is black usually due to trapped blood in the affected tissue. However, there are various other types of necrosis, namely: coagulative, liquefactive, fat, caseous, gummatous, hemorrhagic, and fibrinoid necrosis. Each type operates by totally different mechanisms and have their own unique appearances.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is it that a covariance of 0 does not imply that two variables are independent?

I'm kind of having trouble with coming up with an example/thought experiment that could explain this. I tried to look around for a simpler explanation but wasn't really able to find any. I do know that two independent variables have a covariance of 0 but why is it that the other way around does not work?

[Assistant] Covariance is a measure of how linearly related two variables are. Independent variables are not related and therefore have a covariance of 0; however, the covariance can also be 0 if the variables are dependent but do not have a linear relationship, for example the points that make a circle. For that reason, you can not assume two variables are independent given that their covariance is 0.


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

[User]
ELI5: If a person was to fall from an extreme height but something very heavy was to hit the water first, breaking the surface tension, would there be a chance of survival? If so how injured?

I heard that falling into water kills you because as a certain height the surface tension is hard as concrete, if this is true, if you were to break that surface tension would you be able to live? If so how injured?

[Assistant]
No. It's true that water is unforgiving when falling from a great height, but there's no such thing as "breaking the surface tension". Surface tension is a property of water, not a thing that "forms" like a film.

Your best bet would still be a high-diver style efficient entry.


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

[User] ELI5 - Why are insects attracted to artificial light?

[Assistant]
(For some insects) they aren't. Some insects navigate during by mantaining the moon at a specific angle, so that way they fly straight, similar to how we can use the northern star to head north.

An artificial light confuses them, since if they try to keep the light on a fixed angle, they end up spiralling towards it. Imagine you are walking forwards and want to always keep a certain post on your right, if you pass by the post then you need to turn right otherwise the post will be behind you, after that you can only spiral around it.

So it's not like their objective is to get as close to the light as possible, they just get confused and spiral into it.

Edit: this is only one hypothesis, there are other possible answers such as insects being confused thinking the light is a flower/food source due to UV light that comes from the light source (since some flowers reflect UV light to attract insects)


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

[User]
ELI5:What the hell do Windows updates actually do?

I'm constantly having to download all these half-a-gig updates but there's no noticeable difference to my Windows experience.

[Assistant]
Windows updates typically fix issues so that you never see them in the first place. A lot of their updates are security related, so the only time you'd see their effect, or lack thereof, is if they failed to protect your computer from a security risk. They do produce minor performance upgrades, but they are typically small and hard to notice.

Edit: If you want a description of what each update is actually doing, try clicking on it, then searching on windows' website to see the details of the update.


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

[User] [ATLA] Avatars tend to have difficulty learning to use one of the four elements because they lack the personality for it. Do normal benders ever go their lives never knowing they can bend because their personality is opposed to their natural element?

[Assistant]
We actually see a personality issue interfering with their natural bending in Zuko.

It wouldn't be that they'd never be able to bend at all, but they'd likely suck if their emotional state just wasn't a match for the method in which they were being taught. *However*, a significant element of bending training is teaching that specific emotional state. Imagine if, from a young age, you had constant training and meditation on how to harness your passions. Or to be grounded and firm, etc. Even non-benders would receive that same cultural "training", and that's why the cultures of the four nations are so interlinked with their bending disciplines: the emotional states that allow for their bending are shared to some degree with everyone who lives there, on a cultural level.

The reason the Avatar (usually) has such a balls time with their opposite element is because they were still raised within their own elemental culture. The issue is that they've already been vaguely indoctrinated with an OPPOSING emotional style, and have to learn to entirely break that to hold to the new emotions that the opposite bending requires.

It's why Korra was whisked off to the White Lotus training so young: the idea was to bring her up in an entirely neutral environment, preventing her from developing biases that would affect any one element. But as it was the first attempt at such a thing, they clearly failed. Which shouldn't be surprising, really; bringing up a human being as perfectly balanced right from a young age shouldn't have even been expected to work. It was something that took learning and effort once she got older... just as every other Avatar had eventually done it. (That's also why her problem was with Airbending rather than Firebending; her issues were emotional, but her "default settings" didn't come from waterbending culture. The artificially balanced White Lotus training apparently skewed too close to earthbending culture.)


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

[User] ELI5:Why do different engines need different fuels? What is the difference between these fuels?

[Assistant] So, you put fuel into an engine and the engine then also takes in air, and then either the spark plug sparks it, causing the fuel to combust OR with diesel fuel, compressing the fuel causes it to ignite on its own. The difference in octane rating (89, 91, 93 etc) is that the higher the rating, the less it "knocks," or, basically combusts too soon while it's being compressed inside the piston. In higher performance vehicles, the higher octane fuel is needed for "timing" - the turning of the crankshaft in time to the combustion of the pistons as the system turns around. Basically, octane ratings relate to how soon the fuel combusts inside the piston. In real time, we're talking about milliseconds difference, but this timing makes a HUGE difference over the life of the engine. If you ran 89 octane in a vehicle that needed premium, you probably wouldn't see a huge difference immediately, but over time the valves, cams, pistons - everything associated with combustion and timing - would be thrown off and would wear funny. Not only  that, but you would start to get that characteristic pinging or knocking sound that comes from premature firing.


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

[User]
[The Witcher] If Cintra had surrendered without swinging a single sword, during the battle with Nilfgaard, would Nilfgaard still have attacked them?

Given how ruthless they were, would they have accepted their surrender?

[Assistant]
I reckon it also depends on their approach to Nilfgaard, and willingness to give up Princess Cirilla.

Last we saw Nilfgaard interacting with Calanthe, she was *extremely* brutal in deriding Nilfgaard to their faces, leaving them a laughing stock. If she follows suit once more, she at least will face the headsman's axe, unless her being alive holds benefit for Nilfgaard.

The surrender of Ciri to Nilfgaard also is important. If they refuse or cannot give her to Nilfgaard because she's bailed, it won't look favourably for them. Not to say they'll burn Cintra for Ciri hiding, but the surrender will be made much more tense.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does Google constantly redesign the layout of YouTube and Google Search?

I thought it was bad form to arbitrarily change elements that are familiar to your audience, such as the black bar that used to on top of the google.com homepage (and still is for some domains). Is there a Google-specific design doctrine I'm not getting here?

[Assistant]
because that is how middle management proves they are of value.

If the page doesn't change what good are all the analytics and UI guys.

Managers do not win by maintaining the status quo, the relentless drive for growth means it will always be "evolving".


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Are there any wizarding colleges to train all the Magical Nurses and Doctors?

There are wizarding hospitals like Saint Mungos, and nurses like Madame Pomfrey- where were they trained? Were there any classes for health in Hogwarts? Did they go to human universities? Did they just make it up as they went along?

[Assistant] It seems likely that the wizard world still operates on an apprentice system for the most part. Hogwarts has very little job specific training and focuses on general magic. But by the time you graduate you should have a good idea of your proficiencies in magic and your interests. You would then find a job with a master of your chose field and get further practical training. So if you want to be a doctor you head up to St. Mungos and they take you in and train you up if they like you.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do state attorneys work so hard to prosecute in criminal cases (e.g. fight for maximum sentences, portray defendants in negative light)? Why don't they just present the facts of the case as they're known to the state and leave the rest to the jurors?

[Assistant]
Because that's how they're judged, professionally and socially. They're job is to prosecute, so they are measured by the results of that.

Additionally, it's a bargaining tactic. A vast majority of criminal cases are plea bargained. The point of plea bargaining is the defendant gets a lesser sentence and the prosecution doesn't have to spend the time and effort prosecuting the case. In order to offer a bargain for a lesser sentence, you have to threaten them with a harsher sentence. If they refuse the deal, then you have to follow through, or otherwise you lose the power to negotiate in the future.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does David Cameron seem absolutely obsessed with porn?

I think there are more pressing matters which society needs to focus time and energy on. Are these his actual ethical beliefs? Is this party pandering? Possibly cartoonish supervillainy?

[Assistant]
Given that almost all the replies haven't been particularly serious, I'll try to give you an actual answer:

Cameron is a Conservative, and opposition to pornography is typically quite a socially conservative view. Granted, Cameron is quite a liberal conservative, but it doesn't change that he has an opposition to it. In particular, most of his views centre around that it isn't good when children view porn, so he's trying to protect them from it.


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

[User]
Why is it that when you're in a "dark" room and you focus on a really dark spot, everything, even light, will start to fade away?

I know I probably didn't make any sense since it's hard to explain but imagine being in a dark room with nothing but a little red LED light in the center of the room, if you focus on a dark corner you can see how this light will fade away into darkness. Why is that?

[Assistant]
What you describe is an example of Sensory Adaptation. Through the process of sensory adaptation, our sensory systems become less sensitive to constant, unchanging stimuli.

In your scenario, if your eyes remain motionless, what little light is present will continually stimulate the same retinal photoreceptors at the same level.  Sensory adaptation reduces our awareness of such a constant stimulus. In the case, the dim light will seem to fade.  But twitch your eyes just a bit and the perception is restored.

Your other senses exhibit similar adaptations.  You may smell a pungent aroma upon entering a room, but remain there and soon you may be entirely unaware of it.    When you wear a new wristwatch or ring, you may at first be aware of the sensation of pressure on your skin, but after a while you no longer notice it.


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

[User]
CMV: Telling your kids to think about starving children so they would treasure their food doesn't make sense.

When I was young, my mother would always tell me to cherish my food at the dinner table, and when I disliked it and stopped eating midway she would tell me to think of the poor children and families in Africa with nothing to dress and nothing to eat. Therefore, I shouldn't be wasting my food.

While I can get behind the virtues of treasuring resources and not burdening the environment with leftovers that comes with eating the morsel in front of me, I couldn't quite wrap my head behind the notion that my actions would affect those who suffer from poorer conditions. For one if I ditch my food, I won't turn into a starving child, so I don't need to know about the ramifications of such. Also, even if I eat my food, I won't be helping them either, so what's the point of bring them up?

So the main reason for that is to elicit sympathy. But how does my sympathy relate to what I'm chided for? I sympathise with the starving children, so that's why I shouldn't waste my food? There seems to be a missing link here, something I still couldn't resolve after nearly a decade of pondering.

I'm open to deltas, so tell me what I think wrong in a civil manner. Thank you!

[Assistant] I think youre missing the point. Its not that youre directly taking from them or helping them, its just to teach us to be grateful for what we have and basically not waste it. You already stated you understand why treasuring resources is important, so Im not really understanding where youre confused.


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

[User]
ELI5: What happens when cancer "goes into remission"?

And why doesn't it get completely eliminated? What stops cancer from spreading when it goes into remission?

[Assistant] Remission means there are no more symptoms and, possibly, no more cancerous cells. Whether you beat your cancer through surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, or some other method, remission means that the enough cancerous cells have been killed that doctors cannot find any trade of the disease.


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

[User]
What speeds do particles in the center of an atomic blast achieve?

How do they compare to the velocities of particles in an experiment at the LHC?

[Assistant]
The nuclei and neutrons can reach a few percent the speed of light. Everything else is much slower.

Protons in the LHC reach 0.999 999 991 times the speed of light.

Electrons in LEP (same tunnel, previous accelerator) reached 0.999 999 999 99 times the speed of light, the fastest "man-accelerated" particles apart from neutrinos.


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

[User] ELI5:Why do babies throw everything?

[Assistant]
you ever get a new tool and wanna use it on everything? well this baby just learned how to throw and now wants to throw everything. "what can i throw? how far can i throw it? will mommy/daddy bring it back every time i throw it? woah food spreads out when i throw it...look it went everywhere isn't that cool? does this food?"

it's all a process of discovery...babies are just now learning things we have known all our lives.


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

[User]
[The Purge] Why there are no terrorist attacks at the Purge?

Well, I watched the Purge films and also the Show on amazon prime. I asked myself: Why are there no big terrorist attacks? The NFFA watches the whole thing and if there is something going on they try to intervene. But if a group really tried to detonate a big bomb they couldn't stop it. The complete arnachie in the streets would be a shield for them. An NFFA Squad would have to overcome heavily armed psychopaths, street barricades and much more. In my oppinion if a terrorist organisation or even a hostile country would plan it and prepare it right, they could even NUKE a city. And the anti NFFA group could detonate big buildings to harm the NFFAs economy. IT DON'T NEED TO BE A TERRORIST ATTACK. Sorry for the irritating title. But in the Amazon Prime show some purgers used C4 and RPGs. So the possibilitys to burn the whole city down are there. It magically never happened.

[Assistant] The NFFA is a highly isolationist government. They have little in the way of international involvements and concerns. Foreign terrorists don't achieve anything by attack the US and domestic ones face heightened security on purge night. Government officials above a certain rank are protected by heavy security forces and likely secure bunkers or facilities. Government buildings are surrounded by defenses and listed as protected sites so anyone coming near them is fired upon without question. It's like trying to burn down a building while it's filled with firefighters and police. Attacking the day after a purge would be far more successful than a day of attack.


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

[User] ELi5: Why do some colleges send mass emails saying something along the lines of, "You have been selected for a prime selection status! Blah blah blah!" Do they not have enough applicants or are they generally interested?

[Assistant]
The more applicants they get, the better. Part of these college rankings is their acceptance rate, with lower being better. For example, if a college aims to admit 1,000 students every year, they'll have a lower acceptance rate if they chose those 1,000 out of 2,000 applicants instead of 1,500.

Elite schools in particular will reject highly qualified students just so they can say "we're so exclusive that we rejected this guy with a perfect GPA, all-state athlete in 3 sports, all state in band, and captain of the debate team".


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

[User]
[Alien] What would happen if Wayland Corp successfully brought Alien back to Earth?

Would they be able to use Alien as a biological weapon or would the Alien escape, or something else?

[Assistant] They'd keep it in containment, studying it.  When it morphs into a Queen, they'd study the eggs and facehuggers.  Then a religious cult that were influenced by the psychic calls of the Queen will storm the facility and purposely get themselves infected.  They will spread across the globe, carrying their cargo to every city on the planet.  Infestations will sprout up everywhere and the Xenomorphs will force Humanity to run to the stars.


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

[User]
[ELI5] How do scientists figure out how much protein, carbs, vitamins, etc. are in a food?

Do they just test the food directly, or do they test your blood afterwards to see how much you've changed from a baseline?  How about vitamin pills-- do they ever do a blood test to determine how much of the vitamins gets absorbed?

[Assistant]
Ok, so first we'll address proteins, carbs, and fats.  Fats, which are like butter, oil, or the white stuff around a steak, can't combine with water.  So, we weigh how much the food weighs at first, then we use a solution called "ether," which is kind of like scientist's dawn, to wash away the fat from the food.  Then we weigh the food again & figure out how much is left.  Then we subtract how much is left to how much we started with & that gives us how much fat is in the food.

Carbs & proteins are trickier since they are both water soluble.  For proteins, we can't directly measure proteins like we can for fat & instead measure a substance called nitrogen, which is another pure element like oxygen & carbon.  We measure nitrogen because all proteins contain nitrogen.  Now, to find the amount of nitrogen in a food, we mix the food with sulfuric acid, which is like the acid that we see on cartoons that eats almost everything it touches.  This sulfuric acid will make ammonia, which is that smell made by cleaning products.  We then measure the amount of ammonia made & that tells as how much nitrogen and, therefore, protein is in the food.

Carbs are fun to measure because we essentially put the food sample into a small washing machine & add different detergents to figure out how many carbs are in the food.  Like when finding fat, we measure how much food we started with, then how much food we ended with, subject one from the other & find out how much of the food was carbs.  (DO NOT PUT FOOD IN THE WASHING MACHINE!)

For vitamins & minerals, there are individual different methods for each vitamin & mineral.  For minerals, we can either do wet chemistries or atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS).  Wet chemistries which is we a scientist will add different solutions to the food till a chemical reaction occurs, like a change of color or a formation of a solid in a liquid solution.  AAS is when we put the ash, or burnt up remains of the food, into water.  We then fire a beam at the water & measure the light bounced out of the water, kind of like a prism.  The color & amount of the light reflects what type & how much of mineral is present.

For vitamins, every vitamin is a bit different.  Often times, though, we compare a solution with a known certain of the vitamin to the food solution & calculate the difference between the two.  Ask me when you're 10 for specifics.

We don't test the blood after we eat a food because there are so many differences between people that it would not tell us how much of something is actually in a food.

For vitamin pills, we do sometimes due "bioavailability" studies,  which essentially looks at how easily a pill is used by the body instead of just getting pooped out again.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why was the Death Star laser so much more destructive than it needed to be to kill all life on a planet?

In Star Wars, the Death Star laser is shown to completely vaporize an entire planet in seconds. Why would the Empire waste resources building such a powerful superweapon that requires a moon-sized ship to operate? Wouldn't it be easier to just put enough energy to kill everything? The crust is incredibly thin compared to the core so creating a ripple of energy that melts it should be insignificant compared to the energy needed to vaporize it. The production of the death Star also was enough to take up a huge amount of resources to create so it wasn't a casual choice to make it more powerful. For example a 40k style exterminatus would be more than enough to achieve their goals.

What was the reason for the laser being so powerful? Was it a show of force? Is there some sort of shield that could block a weaker laser? Is there something bigger than a planet they need to destroy?

[Assistant]
Because theres no kill like overkill. And because they could.

Tarkins Doctrine was to rule through fear. A battle station that could vaporise a planet would quell any uprising or rebellion (in their eyes) once it appears in orbit.


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

[User]
CMV: aiming to be married with kids by 25 affects your ability to build a well rounded life

There's still a lot of learning and growing and figuring things out when you're in your 20s, and that is all effectively stunted when you have kids because it's very easy to have your life revolve around them instead of focusing on yourself, career, hobbies, experiences and interpersonal relationships.

It seems to me that people who have kids young struggle to find their identity outside of their family, and may have crises when their kids finally move away from home.

It also seems that people whose sole purpose is to get married and have kids may not have developed enough interests or purpose outside of this - as if kids will bring meaning to their life. If you have a great relationship with yourself and others, have hobbies and maybe a career you enjoy, wouldn't the idea of having kids that would effectively change your life forever be quite daunting?

EDIT:
From most of the comments it seems like younger parents nowadays, or at least the ones on here, are able to find a balance between raising children and rounding out their lives with other things, which is great to see. The context surrounding my initial opinion is that I have often been surrounded by traditional conservative individuals who seem to jump into marriage and kids and seem to be resentful of their choices or have lost themselves in their roles as parents while simultaneously praising parenthood as their sole purpose in life. I recognise my bias - thank you everyone for your thoughts!

[Assistant]
Anecdotally, people who don't have kids until they're 40 end up being physically unhealthy, spiteful parents and often never get to play with their grandkids (if their children do the same as they did, they'll be 85 by the time their grandkids are in kindergarten).  Your kids move out when you're 58, and you basically can't do anything cool anymore.

In contrast: people who accidentally'd their way into parenthood at 18 ended up being able to enjoy middle age.  Your kid moves out when you're 36 and you're free again to go skydiving and vacationing, etc.  If your kids mimic you, you're playing with grandkids in your 40s and still doing racquetball and whatnot.

Kids deserve healthy, non-spiteful parents and active grandparents.


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

[User]
Why don't atoms get flattened like Galaxies, solar systems etc., do to conserve angular momentum?

I know that galaxies and solar systems etc., are flat to conserve angular momentum. Why not the same for atoms with electrons rotating around them?

[Assistant] Electrons aren't orbiting the nucleus the same way that planets orbit the sun. Thinking of them as small balls is useful in a classical sense, but not accurate on these small scales. At these scales, it's quantum mechanical. Electrons are not particles circling a nucleus so much as they are probabilistic wave surrounding the nucleus. This is known as the electron cloud. Their shape is determined by their energies.


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

[User] ELI5: When and why did Christians stop celebrating Hannukah?

[Assistant] There is a popular misconception that many Jews became Christians. Actually it was pagan Greeks who by and large converted to Christianity. Many Greeks lived in Jewish areas and liked the morality but didn't want all the rules and rituals. It then spread further through pagan civilization. So not many Jews joined the new group and the new group never saw any need to perform all the Jewish traditions.


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

[User]
Do snakes have a fixed number of vertebrae from birth?

How does this work for snakes that get super long? Do they add new vertebrae as they grow? Or do the bones just get really big? Or do the bones spread out?

[Assistant]
Herpetologist here!

Short answer: yes. Unless damaged (occasionally you'll find wild snakes missing parts of their tail from a narrow escape from a predator), they have the same number of vertebrae all their life. Different species vary in the number of vertebrae, and they can have hundreds. This also has the effect of making them very variable in length (since each joint can move a small amount, the cumulative variability in snake length in very high), so they should be measured at least 3 times for a vaguely accurate estimate of length.

Incidentally, they also have the same number of scales in the same locations for their whole life (unless damaged) This means that baby snakes feel incredibly smooth and silky like velvet. This also means that when telling different species of snakes apart that are otherwise very similar, "scale counts" are often used as a key diagnostic tool. Even very closely related species may have a different number of belly scales, or scales across their back, or different places on their head.


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

[User]
When in space, can you not be orbiting anything and just float around?

My knowledge of orbit mechanics is not very thorough...

[Assistant]
There will be most likely something that you orbit around.

If you go fast enough (11.2km/s), you can leave earth's sphere of influence, you then fall into the sun SOI. If you go even faster, like Voyager (which had to go faster than 617.5 km/s.) , you can leave the sun's SOI and orbit the milky way's center. (Voyager is now cruising at 17km/s as of 2013)

At that point, you would really need to go fast and for a long time to leave the milky-way. Imagine for a second that we succeed, we left the milky-way, and the local group. We are now going around the great attractor.

So in the end, yes you will always be orbiting something, but at that scale, you would not be able to notice by eye that you are in orbit and it would be like you are just floating around.

Edit : forgot a period . 17 000 km/s and 17.000 km/s are 2 different things.

To clarify, Voyager is now going at that speed, but in order to escape the SOI of the sun, it needed to have a speed superior to 617.5 km/s. Velocity that reduced as the spacecrafts distance from the sun grew.


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

[User]
ELI5: How did the cameras that were used during the moon landing work? How were they able to broadcast relatively clear picture and sound from space, using 1960s technology?

I ask this because there is a group of people who think the moon landing *itself* is real but the tv broadcast was staged. I personally don't believe that the broadcast was fake, but the question piqued my curiosity and I would like to know how it worked.

[Assistant] Basically, the important thing in space communications is not the size or power of the transmitter, but the sensitivity of the receiver. Once you have compensated for local issues like atmosphere, other radio sources, the rotation and revolution of the Earth, etc, then the only thing that affects the transmission is distance, and we have lots of distributed, really sensitive receivers to pick up weak signals.


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

[User] How do multiple members of the same siphonophore species have the same shape if they are just colonies of individual animals?

[Assistant]
The same reason you and other animals have the same shape even though you are just colonies of individual cells (after a manner of speaking).  The colonies grow from each other in a defined pattern, producing a similar final outcome.

Don't imagine that a bunch of individuals clump together in a random mass and then sort themselves out somehow.  Instead, individuals bud off each other to produce the final form.  The colony always grows certain types in certain places.


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

[User]
ELI5: How can incumbent politicians (e.g. Ron Paul, Barack Obama) be able to campaign full time for political office, while still fulfilling the duties of their current office?

To effectively campaign for political office, it has to be 100% full time job. How can a politician who is an incumbent for an existing office be able to spend so much time campaigning, while still fulfilling the duties of his current office?

[Assistant]
This is one of the biggest problems with our system. There's been a shift away from the idea of a statesman, someone who would go to Washington and try to accomplish a given goal on enact a certain policy, but would return home when they felt their job was done. Career politicians dominate now, people whose entire job revolves around staying in office, creating this dilemma.

Essentially, modern politicians can't do all of these jobs. Most Congressman work incredibly hard contrary to popular belief; a freshman member of the House sometime serves on as many as three of four committees simultaneously. But, as they only serve two year terms, House members must spend significant time in their districts campaigning for reelection. It's become such an vital part of the system that the second meeting freshman House members attend is a party-run seminar on how to stay in office.

More and more, Representatives become tied down trying to pander to their constituents instead of focusing on actually leading the country like they're supposed to. This, combined with a whole host of lobbies, special interest groups, and other advocacy organizations vying for their votes, leads to the policy gridlock that has come to characterize Washington as we know it today.


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

[User] When batteries run out in a Gameboy then you turn it back on, it can run for a short while. Why?

[Assistant] While the device is on it is consuming power. Placing an electrical load on the battery causes the voltage to "sag" a little. Once the voltage sags below a certain point, the device detects it as a dead battery. Turning off the device relieves the batteries of the load and the chemical reaction inside the cells quickly recovers the voltage to a point above what the device considers "dead." As soon as you turn the device on again it consumes what little power was generated in the down time and reverts to "dead" status.


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

[User]
[Terminator] What is it "like" to be a T-800?

Does a T-800 have a subjective, first-person view of the world? If so, does it have a complement of emotions or psychological states that are specific to its nature? What do you think?

[Assistant]
When you see things from their POV, they have information being displayed over what they see. If they were just automatons, they wouldn't need that. The fact there's a HUD means that they are making conscious choices, and thus, have subjectivity.

As for emotions, no. From the T2 Terminator's statements, it's ambiguous as to whether or not they even feel pain (at least in a way that we would think of it).


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

[User] [Lovecraft] What do the Deep Ones want? Why are they mating with humans if they are immortal? They don't seem to be interested in taking over the world, even though Zadok suggests that they could if they wanted to so what do they want?

[Assistant]
>What do the Deep Ones want?

In all likelihood, to see the rise of R'lyeh once again from the waves and to resurrect their not-dead-but-dreaming god Cthluhu to rule over the Earth once again, as they had in epochs past.

>Why are they mating with humans if they are immortal?

Well, it's implied that they don't interbreed with one another, or that the process is exceptionally dangerous or impractical for them and so they don't mate with each other often (they are incredibly strong and carnivorous, after all.)  So, while they might be able to live forever, getting mauled to death by your mate caught in the heat of the moment dramatically lowers your chances of mating again.  Especially when those other species they're mating with are more than happy to trade some of their females over for what amounts to trinkets and parlor tricks to the Deep Ones.

>The don't seem to be interested in taking over the world...

Who said they weren't?  Keep in mind that they're immortal.  They literally have all of the time in the world to scheme and move their plans forward without alerting any of the other surface-dwellers.  And when you've got that much time, there's no point in taking steps that could risk your plans being ruined for the sake of a few spare hours/days/years/etc.


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

[User]
When calculating flight paths for potential interstellar crafts, are dark matter & energy factored into equations?

Or do the formulas behind relativity already incorporate these forces?  Would dark matter/energy come into effect if we stay within our galaxy cluster, or are these forces only noticed on the largest of scales?

[Assistant]
It depends on how interstellar we're talking. Heading to our nearest neighbor stars wouldn't require thinking about dark matter or dark energy at all.

On the other hand, if we want to head across the galaxy, dark matter becomes important. Dark matter was first noticed because stars in the galaxy move too fast to be held together without it, and likewise, it only becomes important on galactic distance scales (~tens of thousands of lightyears).

Dark energy is even more negligible, as it only becomes important on *cosmological* distance scales---billions of light years.


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

[User]
[SW] How could Vader block with his hands?

Okay was his hand made of some really bad ass metal (like Mandalorian Ore) or was he using the same trick Yoda used to block Force Lightning with his hands?

[Assistant] The armor isn't ornamental, it's based heavily on traditional Sith Armor from the old days. His armor is generally blaster resistant and only the biggest guns or a lightsaber will work on him, if he let himself get hit at all. Combine that with the Force and you got a nigh invincible boogeyman.


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

[User]
ELI5: How is it legal that Hooters wont let men be waiters?

Isn't that discrimination?

[Assistant] Basically, discrimination is legal - even in terms of protected classes like sex and race - if the company can show that there is a bona fide purpose for the discrimination. Hooters has argued that their servers are entertainers, and the entertainment they provide is a role that can not be filled by a man. Their stance has generally held up in court, although they have reached settlements with some men who sued on the basisof hiring discrimination.


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

[User]
[Westworld] How do the park operators prevent patrons from stabbing each other?

I get that the guns are fake so the patrons can't get hurt or hurt each other, but the knives seem to be real.  Additionally, the guests don't seem to be able to tell who's a guest and who's a host, so what's to stop them from stabbing a guest they assume to be a host?

[Assistant]
There'll be a line in the small print of the disclaimer that they sign when first booking the holiday. It'll say that the company is not responsible for the actions of other guests, guests hurting themselves, guests accidentally falling into a ravine and having their skull crushed by a rock, etc...

Realistically, though, the hosts are also (subconsciously) monitoring what's happening around them, and will no doubt subtly move into a position whereby they can intervene, if at all possible. Teddy, for example, grabbed MIB's knife at the mention of a possible threat.

An earlier person asked why they have over-powerful CPUs; it's because they are most likely multitasking a lot of background stuff like this, as well as "running" their own narrative.

Edit: There's nothing really stopping guests from causing mayhem if they are determined enough and can find an opportunity to do so. But we've already seen that *everything* gets monitored, even when they're asleep or shagging.


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

[User]
[DC Comics] Is the speedforce part of the in-universe explanation as to why a speedster and their "passengers" don't get whiplash? What do other universes use?

Also, can Kryptonians tap into the speedforce or an alternative?

[Assistant]
Basically, yes. The speed force awards a protective aura to those who are able to tap into it, which is what protects speedsters and their passengers from whiplash, dust particles and air friction. One future timeline dealt with how one of Wally West's kids was born without the aura and using his super speed would seriously injure him every time. As for kryptonians, their biology (specifically when exposed to yellow suns) is typically what's behind their feats. However when the feats get beyond extreme the speed force just sort of, helps. Example when superman broke the time barrier and when he used the relative mass punch

As for other universes it just isn't really touched on, but then again they don't have as fast of characters in most universes as in DC. Marcel's Quicksilver for example can only go around Mach 6 after exposure to an enhancement isotope by the High Evolutionary. And while this is very fast it's nowhere near what's reached in DC, the typical reasoning for quicksilver is that as a mutant his body is just built with the ability to function at these speeds, which is why (unlike flash) he finds it annoying to spend large amounts of time around normal people, he can't turn his powers off and so he perceives everyone moving in slow motion 100% of the time.


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

[User] Why cant we feel the earth spinning?

[Assistant]
When you spin around on a tire swing, you feel a force pushing you outward.  This is called centrifugal force, and it results from the fact that your body wants to move in a straight line, rather than in the circular path of the tire swing.

On the surface of the earth, the force of gravity we experience is much greater than the centrifugal force.  So you can't really "feel the earth spinning" because it gets drowned out by gravity.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do internal combustion engines (ICE) get their characteristic sound, if it's only just a bunch of explosions?

I know how engines work, what makes them work etc. but this question has been on my mind for a while. How can a bunch of controlled explosions create the sound characteristic for a specific engine type? For example, a V6 engine sounds distinctly different than a V8 or I4, but how do they get their sound & why can't the sound be different, for example an I4 engine with the sound of a V12?

[Assistant]
think of your exhaust the same as a brass musical instrument. When playing a trumpet or a tuba, the sound is generated the same, however, the output is totally different.

an exhaust system is the same way. Its 'tuned' for performance and sound based on length of the expansion chamber, the diameter of the pipe, the baffles etc....


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

[User]
Why are water molecules curved?

Why don't the charges of the hydrogen repel each other and hold the molecule in a straight line?

[Assistant] The geometry of a water molecule is determined by the outermost electrons around the oxygen. You have two electrons in each of the bonds between oxygen and water, but you also have two pairs of electrons that oxygen holds onto all on its own. If we just had the two electron groups from the bonds you would be right, the hydrogens would be 180 degrees straight across from each other in order to give the electrons as much space as possible, but since we also have those two extra pairs of electrons from the oxygen, we have to make space for those two. This ends up meaning that there is only 109.5 degrees between each of those electron groups. Hope that helps!


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

[User] ELI5: How does a country that drives on the right side of the road transition into a bordering country that drives on the left side of the road?

[Assistant]
It's useful to remember that there are very, very few countries that have borders with a country that drives on the opposite side of the road.  Most of the countries that drive on the left are islands or are geographically isolated eg. Britain, Japan, Australia.

However, there are some that must deal with the problem.

China has to deal with Macau and Hong Kong which both drive on the left.  At the border, there are fairly complicated over/under passes which divert traffic from one zone into the other while also moving them to the opposite side of the road.  The end result is that traffic keeps flowing without stopping (Source: I've been to Macau & Shenzhen).

From some Google research, countries like Thailand have border crossings with a system of traffic lights which serve a similar purpose to the Chinese road passes.  As your lane lights up, you are diverted to the opposite side of the road as you cross the border.

For the Chunnel between England & France, cars are loaded onto trains and delivered to the neighbouring country heading on the correct side of the road.  No lights or road passes needed.  Source: been there too.

Hope that helps.


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

[User] [Marvel] How known is Peter's spider sense? Is it in his Wikipedia page, or just something Nick Fury and Reed Richards know?

[Assistant] Very far from public knowledge. Really only known to close allies or enemies who have studied him long enough to notice how he manages to avoid things without knowing. And the longer they've known him the more likely they are to have figured it out.


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

[User]
ELI5: How badly am I disrupting my lawns' ecosystem every time I mow?

Considering the multiple insect colonies residing in the lawn, I can imagine the mass murder of these little buggers might cause somewhat of a shift of trends in the local ecosystem, also the micro ecosystem (ph, nutrient supply, possible gas spillage into the soil).

**Edit:** Thanks for all of the great responses, Reddit! Much insight and wisdom, as always.

[Assistant] I expect it stays fairly constant because lawns are mowed fairly frequently, so insects and such that need long grass won't live there and most that do are scared off by the mower rather than killed by it. If you leave the lawn for several months, you will cause much more disruption.


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

[User]
[Avengers: Endgame] What ever happened to the woman that blamed Tony Stark for her son's death?

How would she react that not only she's at part responsible for the Avengers falling out but also responsible for Thanos causing the Snap? Especially if the Snap took away any remaining family members or children?

[Assistant]
She wanted Tony Stark to know what happens when he and his costumed buddies go galavanting around.  That normal people have a tendency to become collateral damage when people with superpowers run around blowing stuff up. If the Avengers, as an organization, can't come up with a way to prevent that, or to make themselves accountable for it, then they deserve to fall apart.

As far as Thanos and the snap go, they were, as the guy said, inevitable. Whether the Avengers were united or not, Thanos would have got what he wanted one way or another, sooner or later. She wasn't responsible for Thanos any more than her son was responsible for having a piece of Sokovia dropped on him, and she would have no reason to feel that way. If anything, one might hope that Tony having had to face her pushed him a little further along the road to responsibility that put him in the right position to sacrifice himself to stop Thanos, rather than trying to clever his way out of the situation, like he had for nearly every major challenge that had come his way before. Tony needed to know that normal people regularly paid the price for his actions. That lady helped save the universe.


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

[User]
[X-Men: Days of Future Past] If Magneto was able to lift a hundred-thousand ton stadium, wouldn't he be able to escape prison by affecting some distant metal?

Young magneto can lift a stadium, older Magneto can lift the Golden Gate Bridge, both of which weight several hundred thousand tons.

Even though he was buried deep beneath the Pentagon, can't he attract some metals from the surface or some iron ore inside the soil to escape?

[Assistant]
Can Magneto sense the presence of metal without using any of his natural senses? It might be a focus thing. If he can't see the metal, he can't visualize himself moving it. That's one of the reasons he uses those big arm gestures, at least in the movies. He's not physically lifting anything, but the motion of his arms helps him concentrate on how he wants to manipulate the metal.

Imagine sculpting with numb hands and arms, and a blindfold. It'd be hard enough just finding the clay or the table, to say nothing of actually turning it into anything.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does coke foam so much in a coke float?

[Assistant]
CO2 isn't a stable suspension in atmospheric pressure, but needs sharp edges or rough surfaces to come out, called nucleation points. The net amount of foam in a soda's based on how many bubbles are created versus how fast the bubbles dissipate.

The ice cream is mainly crystalline in structure, which provides a large amount of nucleation points. Along with this the ice cream that mixes with the coke makes it thicker, which means that the bubbles will be more durable and longer lasting than they would be in just coke.

So ice cream both makes the bubbles come out a lot faster, and makes them dissipate slower, making the foam rate high.


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

[User]
ELI5: When trying to regain balance, why do we lean towards the side that is off balance?

For example if you are walking on a curb and start tilting to the left, your body instinctively shifts weight towards the left.  Wouldn't it make more sense to shift weight to the right to counteract the difference in weight?

[Assistant] Your upper body/head/chest seem to move to the left; this is so that your hips/center of mass will move to the right. Your hips/waist/belly easily counteract the tilt. It is impossible, however, to move your waist to the right quickly without moving your upper body to the left. Does that make sense?


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

[User]
Is food digested in the order it is consumed? Or digested like freeway traffic moves, with some food overtaking slower to digest food?

And how does the body decide, if it moves like traffic? Does  everyone have the same 'speed limits' or does it vary per individual?

[Assistant] Different organs are responsible for digesting different types of foods. The pancreas, liver and stomach produce and distribute the vast majority of chemicals required to break down the foods, and they are all broken down and absorbed into the digestive tract where they will be sent to the cells in different parts of the body to be built back up into other molecules. It is a continuous process where certain things do digest faster but the physics side of things like the amount or concentrations of foods determines the order they are digested. Basically, if you consume a ton of sugar and a little bit of fat, the higher concentration of sugar will make the amount of energy needed to break down sugars less meaning the high concentrations tend to break down first since they require less activation energy. So, depending on how much you eat combined with what it is determines what breaks down first.


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

[User]
[Rick and Morty] What if Jerry had just quit golf forever?

In "Meeseeks and destroy", the Meeseeks determine that killing Jerry is an acceptable method of taking two strokes off his game because it "takes all strokes off his game". Wouldn't it be the same if Jerry vowed to quit golf forever? That also takes all strokes off his game, in the same way.
Probably doesn't matter but just something I was thinking about!

[Assistant] They probably could have convinced Jerry to quit golf, but after being alive for several days they were suffering from extreme mental anguish. They decided to kill Jerry because it was the fastest way for them to die.


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

[User]
[Escape From New York] Is Snake so well known because of his crimes or because he's a war hero?

In the deleted opening scene, Snake is captured trying to rob a bank. He references this when speaking to Brain and mentioned it was 4 years prior. Was this Snake's only crime? When Hauk offers him the pardon for taking the mission he says it applies for "all crimes committed in the US" insinuating there's multiple. Someone like Cabbie who has been in NY for 30 years even knows who Snake is. In fact, he was able to recognize him just from the back in a dark theater. Do people think of criminal when they hear the name Snake Plissken or war hero? Hauk also mentions Snake's military record including being the youngest person honored by the president.

[Assistant] Both, really. Imagine if Audie Murphy came back from WWII and instead of going to Hollywood became a contract killer, or if instead of getting shot down in WWI the Red Baron took his Fokker and started gunning down zeppelins that didn't pay up protection money. Snake is equally famous and infamous, and the contrast between the two halves of his life is part of the legend.


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

[User]
[Stark Trek] Were famine and poverty also eradicated on Vulcan, Romulus and Qo'noS?

In TNG, Picard often times speaks about Earth as an utopian planet free of famine, war, poverty etc. But what about other planets? With Klingons being a warrior race, I can't imagine they got rid of those problems.

[Assistant]
Vulcan is not as much a paradise as Earth because of a few reasons. But it's close. First Vulcan is mostly desert. It's mostly natural (since Vulcans have evolved a few ways to survive extreme conditions, like their eyelids) but their extremely violent past has probably damaged the planet's ecology. With so few resources directly available on the surface, life is hard even with advanced technology. For Vulcans, this is natural, so they devote themselves to their traditions and seclusion. There isn't sickness or poverty in Vulcan society, but life isn't easy, especially for non-Vulcans.

Romulus most certainly isn't a paradise by any means. The environment is probably quite well handled by advanced technology, but Romulans have very troublesome traditions and a martial society that creates much suffering and strife. There's a definite caste system that keeps the military and well connected people on top, while those below live in fear of the Tal Shiar and their neighbors, who may accuse them of treason or sedition for any reason. There are also slaves in Romulan society. Mostly the Remans take up the slave caste, but we know Romulans themselves have been relegated to such status as well.

Qo'nos is as far from paradise as you can imagine. Klingons have done considerable harm to their planet, as you could see in the Ketha province. Huge, abandoned structures choke any kind of plant life. If one province is like that, you can imagine many others are the same. Also, in the late 23rd century, Praxis exploded, creating even more ecological havoc on the planet. Had the Federation not intervened, the planet would have been rendered uninhabitable in a geological instant. Klingons also have a definite caste system, with warriors at the top and everyone else below. (It's been strongly hinted) They also keep slaves, who most likely do not live well.


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

[User] ELI5: how does a Geiger Counter work?

[Assistant]
A Geiger counter is made with a large tube filled with a noble gas like helium or neon, and it's charged with a high voltage.

When incoming radioactive particles hit the gas, it briefly becomes conductive because the gas is briefly *ionized.* The tube conducts an electrical pulse, and that pulse is sent to the processing electronics, which usually results in the audible clicking you associate with radiation.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do we take anti-inflammatory drugs (ibuprofen), when that is our body's healing response?

It just doesn't make sense that people take these drugs - it seems counter-intuitive to fight your body's natural response to damage, and fighting this would only prolong the healing process.

So why are they prescribed or recommended as beneficial?

Thanks in advance smart people.

[Assistant]
Inflammation actually slows the healing process, but usually allows moderate usage of the injured limb for the duration. As early humans couldn't just lay up on the couch for a week, it was beneficial for them to be 75% mobile for a month instead.

Now, we can take that week at 0% and be done with it.


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

[User]
Religious implications of the Indiana Jones movies

Raiders confirms that Judaism is real, because the Ark of the Covenant has powers that destroy evil.  TOD confirms that devotees of the Hindu goddess Kali can make you have visions, hypnotize you, and successfully use voodoo dolls.  TLC confirms that the Holy Grail, and by implication Christianity, is real, because the grail has immense power.

So in the Indiana Jones universe, all religions are real and they have demonstrable powers? Why, then, are there still skeptics? And why is Jones for that matter, who has seen all this crazy shit, still a skeptical man?

[Assistant]
All we *know* is that Dr. Jones has discovered artifacts that have real powers over the physical world.

The trappings around the artifacts are, indeed, religious, but that says nothing about the reality of the religions, only the artifacts.

For all we know, for example, the Ark of the Covenant is a portable wormhole to the vicinity of a gamma ray bursting star, and that's why it has face melting properties without it's containment lid on.

Jones is wise to not make any more assumptions than what evidence is present.

Secondly, the second these items are discovered and returned by Indy they are secreted in a giant warehouse somewhere, so most of the general populace doesn't even know about them.


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

[User] How is the gravitational constant calculated ?

[Assistant]
There are two main methods:

- Literally measure the minuscule gravitational force between artificial objects of known mass. The first determination of G was by this method, by Cavendish in 1798, 71 years after Newton had died. This technique is not precise because the force is extremely small and sources of error are everywhere.

- Use an estimate of the gravitational parameter `[;\mu = MG;]` of a certain astronomical bodies by studying the motion of other objects orbiting around it, and combine it with an independent estimate for the mass of the object based on other physical considerations. This technique is not precise because while `[;\mu;]` can be measured with great accuracy, `[;M;]`is basically most of the time pulled out of someone's ass, since it's not exactly trivial to guess the internal composition of a celestial body at the fifth decimal digit.

So this concludes why there is a large error on current estimates of G.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are there 3 or 4 studios/production companies listed at the beginning of movies? After a major studio there will be several others (ABC Films, XYZ Pictures). Do the major studies need "help" making movies?

[Assistant]
So you've got 5 main concerns regarding any movie project:

Who's actually making the film?

Who hold the rights to the film?

Who's lot/studio are you shooting in?

Who's paying for the film?

Who's distributing the film?

Each of these areas can involve a separate company earning it a production credit at the start of the film.


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

[User] [The Expanse] Why cant railgun projectiles be shot down like missiles?

[Assistant]
Missiles are basically bombs that are strapped to little rockets to carry them over to the target ship. You can effectively neutralize them by intercepting them so that they detonate before they hit your ship- you'll still be hit by a little shrapnel, but it's not a big deal.
Railgun projectiles are dumb matter accelerated to relativistic speeds by their launching mechanism. They've got insane amounts of momentum, so even if you managed to intercept them(itself pretty tricky given how fast they're going) they would just plow through and continue towards your ship. Intercept them with an explosive? Congratulations, now the 2 tons of carbon streaking towards you at 0.02C is red-hot and in five pieces.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why is the dark side hazardous to the user's health?

What is it in particular that causes one to get side effects such as yellow eyes and scrotum face? Is is through being evil or from using certain Force powers? If a Jedi used Force lightning to start a campfire or sterilize some drinking water, would he suffer ill effects? How does the Force know if you are being naughty or nice and why does it punish you for being evil?

[Assistant]
This is an analogy I've used before, but think of the force as a flame.  There are plenty of applications for fire that are quite safe.  Cooking, heating, illumination.  You can also use fire as a weapon, but it's pretty hard to do it safely.
The force is like that.  Because it expresses itself in our reality through the living force, it is fundamentally aligned with life. Creating it, protecting it, fostering it.  To turn it against that purpose isn't exactly *evil*, it's simply inclement to life, and that isn't limited to the person you're using it against.  Using the force to harm is like attacking someone with boxing gloves that you've set on fire.  Fearsome? sure. Effective? Yeah.  Harmful to yourself? No doubt.
The force "punishes" you in the same way you could say a flame would punish you.  Some applications of the force just aren't.. healthy.
Again, there isn't a reason to think that the dark side of the force is intrinsically evil, in the same way that a predator that kills to survive is evil.  it simply appeals to the kind of mindset that we often perceive as malevolent.  Bending reality to your will. Power at any cost.


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

[User]
Faster than light travel of 'non-information' - what does that mean?

I happened upon Wikipedia's page on 'faster than light', when I came upon this:

> Some processes propagate faster than c, but cannot carry information

And then, later, this:

> If a laser is swept across a distant object, the spot of laser light can easily be made to move across the object at a speed greater than c.[7] Similarly, a shadow projected onto a distant object can be made to move across the object faster than c.[8] In neither case does the light travel from the source to the object faster than c, nor does any information travel faster than light.

Can anyone clarify this? I don't have much background here. I think I understand that we, at the source end of the laser, might see that the laser's point travels very quickly across something very far away. What I don't understand is why this doesn't transmit information. What is meant by **non-information**?

[Assistant]
The laser could be carrying information, but that information can only travel *with* the laser light to it's destination.

The spot at which the laser shines may move faster than light, but no information is being transmitted along the path that the spot moves.  For instance, if a laster shines from source S to a point, A, and then the spot moves to point B faster than light, no information from A can be carried to B faster than the speed of light, although both points could have received information from S.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] When Vader says "You don't know the power of the Dark Side. I must obey my master.", what is he trying to imply?

It always came off to me that Vader doesn't WANT to do the bad stuff he does. The darkside compels him. Is that what he's trying to tell Luke? Why does he say he 'must'? Does he not have free will? Does he imply that he knows what he's doing is wrong, but he cannot join the Rebellion because of the dark side?

It almost sounds like a call for pity. Something against his will holding him down.

[Assistant] Vadet feels that he is too far gone. If he were to leave the Empire, he would have nothing. He knows on some level that if he truly comes to the light side, he will have to face the horrible things he has done. Its easier to keep living in denial.