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

[User] ELI5: If you have cancer in a certain organ (like liver cancer) why can't you just remove the infected organ and be cancerfree again?

[Assistant]
(cancer biologist / oncologist here)

* Cancer likes to infiltrate other areas and where this has happened is not always clear.
* Removing the organ might pose too much risk (e.g. you need your lungs) - this is why chemo and radiation often occur prior to any surgical removal

But yeah generally surgical removal is very effective it just depends on what kind of cancer it is, how far advanced it is, how clear the surgical margins would be, etc.

For example, breast cancer is treated rather aggressively with surgical removal of the effective tissue (so much that in some cases like dcis its considered to have an overtreatment problem)


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

[User]
CMV: Local authorities shutting down childrens stalls such as lemonade stands is perfectly reasonable.

By making an exception for children, it opens up all kinds of loopholes which adults can exploit by taking advantage of children. It would not be difficult for an adult using their child as a salesperson in a street stand to bypass laws that they, themselves would have to adhere to. For a functioning society, it is important for all businesses and products even on the smallest scale to be regulated and monitored. If not then everything becomes unclear. What age is young enough to plead ignorant? What products are and arent allowed to be sold? I do not believe that fines should be issued regarding it and Im not suggesting that we go out actively shutting them down. However if there is a complaint in any way and local authorities are informed then they are obliged to shut them down. Laws are in place for a reason and if certain laws are ignored due to a childs ignorance then we set a precedent which is harmful to society as a whole.
To summarise- We have laws which should be upheld in society and by making exceptions could lead to the exploration of those exceptions.

[Assistant]
Circumstances matter.

I think there's a reasonable compromise here. Let children sell lemonade, who gives a shit. And if there's a suspicion that someone is abusing the system by using children as surrogates to avoid the permitting system, then shut it down.

Cops don't pull *everyone* over every time they are speeding. There's discretion. We should apply discretion here.


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

[User] [Wall-E] How do all those trash towers stay up and how were they made in the first place?

[Assistant]
They were made by the fleets of WALL-E units who worked on Project Reclamation before it went to the dogs, and who kept up at it for centuries after it was abandoned, slowly breaking down one by one. They are stacks of compressed trash blocks.

They stay up because they are very dense and precisely-placed.

They also fall over quite spectacularly when sufficiently disturbed (such as when EVE's ship lands, or The Axiom)


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

[User]
CMV: Psychology should be taught to children as part of an education. This would help to adress abuse or neglect, increase mental health (individual and collective) and enable more healthy relationships (social and romantic)

Newest remark :
My title was incorrect, as psychology isn't completely suited for the things I had in mind, what is probably an mixture of interdisciplinary fields ranging from psychology, to sociology and social work.
Any CMV pros got tips how to proceed as I can't change my title?

Additional Remark:
From the comments it's clear that the term psychology is very polarizing, but I only chose it, to cover a larger area of topics, than are mentioned. It seems most welcome the idea to prepare kids with real life matters, but they would call the subject differently. In the UK there is PHSE (personal, social and health education) under which these matters of the mind could be taught.
End remark

Psychology as a science is a little bit obscure and hard to verify, but with increasing advancement in technology and social science, we are learning more and more about how our mind works and how our and the mindset of others dictates our social interactions.

Children should be exposed to this knowledge in an age appropriate way, as those concepts may help them understand their experiences in life.

It will help them not only to recognize their neglect or abuse, but that of others too. By preparing them with the basic tools to articulate theses matters, we make it easier for them to seek out help.

Also like Sex education is thought for the body, there also should be Relationship education for the mind.

Edit: Yes, psychology is a complex science, like physics or chemistry. All I'm suggesting is creating a subject called psychology, that helps kids adress some challenges in life.

Edit 2: Psychology is probably a too narrow scientific field, since some of my proposed topics are rather covered by sociology.

From Wikipedia:
"Psychology is the science of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, as well as feeling and thought."

[Assistant]
knowing psychology  doesn't change human nature, it might allow them to notice things,  but it more then likely would give them false positives and false negatives as they are not trained in psychology,  (turns out psychology is a field not something you can teach in a few weeks)

the danger isn't no knowledge its a little knowledge that thinks its a lot of knowledge.


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

[User]
[Marvel] how will the punisher feel and react if he killed a framed criminal that is in fact innocent?

Punisher would kill criminals without a blink of eye, but how would he react if he killed a person that he believed to be guilty, but only to later finds out they are actually innocent, and is framed by the actual criminals as a scapegoat for their crimes? Given there are real life cases of innocent people being charged with murder and executed, I am wondering how would he react to killing an innocent and ruining their family, how would he feel and what would he do about the aftermath of his actions?

[Assistant] Every time Punisher has been tricked into believing he killed an innocent person, he immediately shuts down and either lets himself be captured with no intent on ever escaping or goes to put a bullet in his brain. He doesnt try to investigate first, doesnt think twice about it, he stops right then and there unless outside intervention gives him pause to consider it. Frank is no hero, but he draws the line at the innocent and he doesnt make exceptions for himself.


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

[User]
[Star Trek] Why do the Borg bother to announce themselves?

I'm sure in their entire history no species has been persuaded to lay down and willingly be assimilated. Seems like a waste of time and inefficient.

[Assistant]
They give species the opportunity to give up without a fight, without the pain of total war. To some, it probably seems like a much better option to be assimilated than eliminated.

There's no doubt that plenty of species have quickly succumbed, so it has probably been very efficient for them to simply state their objectives at the onset and just get on with it. The Borg aren't remotely blood-thirsty. They have zero interest in war just for the sake of it.


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

[User]
ELI5: How can we "hear" auditory hallucinations?

What causes auditory hallucinations in the brain? For example, when you are sleep deprived, it is possible to hear things very clearly as if they were real. For example, voices of people talking, which some people with schizophrenia experience commonly in their daily lives. But of course there is no input from the ears. So what exactly is happening and how is that possible?

[Assistant]
Normally, when you hear something, the soundwaves travel through your ear and eventually creates signals in your nerves. That signal travels to the brain, gets processed, and you hear it. So, while the ears are how you sense sounds, your brain is doing the actual hearing.

In any hallucination (auditory or otherwise), it's the brain perceiving something despite no actual signal of the thing from your senses.


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

[User]
ELI5: The difference between speaking from the throat and speaking from the diaphragm.

As best I understand it: The best way to project ones voice and, ultimately, orate is to speak from the diaphragm.

How would I know if I was? Isnt it just about vocal cords?

[Assistant]
Here's an easy way to tell the difference.

Try speaking to yourself in a very low volume, mumble like you're almost humming. If you pay attention, you'll notice a sensation like a vibration coming from behind your jaw.

Now, take a deep breath, open your mouth widely, and yell a sound while exhaling forcefully, like "ha" or "hey", as if you want someone far away to hear you in a large crowded area. You may notice that your skull seems to be vibrating less than before. You may also have the sensation that the voice came from deeper within you, instead of your general throat area.

The first one was you speaking from the throat. The second was speaking from the diaphragm.


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

[User]
AskScience AMA: Hi, I'm Stacy Konkiel, ex-librarian and expert on research metrics. Since 2008, I've worked at the intersection of Open Science, altmetrics, and academic library services with teams at Impactstory, Indiana University , PLOS, and now Altmetric. AMA!

Hi, I am Stacy Konkiel, Outreach & Engagement Manager at Altmetric, and Im here to talk about whether the metrics and indicators we like to rely upon in science (impact factor, altmetrics, citation counts, etc) to understand broader impact and intellectual merit are actually measuring what we purport they measure.

Im not sure they do. Instead, I think that right now were just using rough proxies to understand influence and attention, and that were in danger of abusing the metrics that are supposed to save us all--altmetrics--just like science has done with the journal impact factor.

But altmetrics and other research metrics dont have to be Taylorist tools of control. I love the promise they hold for scientists who want to truly understand how their research is truly changing the world.

I especially appreciate the fact that newer metrics allow the invisible work thats being done in science (the data curators, the software developers, etc) can be recognized on its standalone merits, rather than as a byproduct of the publication process. Thats been my favorite part of working for Altmetric and, previously, Impactstory--that I can help others to better value the work of grad students, librarians, data scientists, etc.

Today, I want to talk about better measuring research impact, but Im also open to taking other relevant questions. There will also be some live tweeting from @Altmetric and @digitalsci and questions using the #askstacyaltmetric hashtag.

I will be back at 1 pm EDT (6 pm BST, 5 pm UTC, 10 am PDT) to answer questions, AMA!

UPDATE: THAT WAS A WHIRLWIND OF DATA! THANKS FOR JOINING I'LL BE ANSWERING MORE OF YOUR QUESTIONS OVER THE NEXT FEW WEEKS! I'M OFF TO GET A DONUT! ...

[Assistant]
>I especially appreciate the fact that newer metrics allow the invisible work thats being done in science (the data curators, the software developers, etc) can be recognized on its standalone merits, rather than as a byproduct of the publication process.

Could you please elaborate a bit here? In addition to publication counts, what are some other specific criteria/indicators that you use to quantify the impact of such work?


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

[User] Is there a point when children become sentient? Like, is it just a sudden "I exist", or is it more of a gradual thing?

[Assistant]
Once the can look into a mirror and realize that it isn't another child, but it is themselves. I'd say this is the closest realization to what you're trying to figure out. This is the self-awareness stage.

Lev Vygotsky:

Stage 1 - Differentiation
(from birth)
 Right from birth infants are able to differentiate the self from the non-self. A study using the infant rooting reflex found that infants rooted significantly less from self-stimulation, contrary to when the stimulation came from the experimenter.[27]

Stage 2 - Situation
(by 2 months)
 In addition to differentiation, infants at this stage can also situate themselves in relation to a model. In one experiment infants were able to imitate tongue orientation from an adult model.[28] Additionally, another sign of the differentiation is when infants bring themselves into contact with objects by reaching for them.[29]

Stage 3 - Identification
(by 2 years)
 At this stage the more common definition of "self-awareness" comes into play, where infants can identify themselves in a mirror through the "rouge test" as well as begin to use language to refer to themselves.

Stage 4  Permanence This stage occurs after infancy when children are aware that their sense of self continues to exist across both time and space.

Stage 5  Self-consciousness or meta-self-awareness This also occurs after infancy. This is the final stage when children can see themselves in 3rd person, or how they are perceived by others.

I hope this helps!


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

[User] [mcu] Why would Odin, one of the high father gods, have a fake infinity gauntlet in his treasure vault? Who does he have to impress? And if he knew about the gauntlet why didnt he warn Thor about the stones?

[Assistant]
One fan theory is that Odin sought the Infinity Stones in times past, but he was unwilling to sacrifice Hela to get the Soul Stone.  After that he gave up the quest.

The gauntlet he had was a mock-up for Eitri to use as a template for the real one.


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

[User]
Is there a velocity at which water molecules fail to hold together?

Theoretically, is there a speed at which molecules in general begin to tear apart?

[Assistant]
Yes, but not like you are thinking.

Generally this would be plasma.

But it's not like you can throw water fast enough to make it into a plasma, you just have to heat it up.

When you heat something the molecules in it move faster and faster.


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

[User] [Batman Forever] Comedy aside, how the hell did Batman get a credit card issued in his name and logo that was good... forever?

[Assistant]
Bruce Wayne owns several banks, and can issue a card to himself using whatever name he wants.

The guys in accounting just roll their eyes and roll with it.  Except for the guy with the chemical burns and a purple suit, he thinks the whole thing is *hilarious*.


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

[User]
[LotR] What is contemporary Valinor actually like?

Like, are there cities and villages? Still-living Valar hanging around? Does it have its own economy, politics, etc.?

Is it more like what America is to Europe, or is there all sorts of weird supernatural stuff going on which far surpasses anything on Middle-Earth?

It seems like all descriptions focus on the "ancient" days of the Silmarillion, but I want to know what it looks like as of the LotR timeline.

[Assistant] We don't know, but an educated guess would say that it hasn't changed much. The beings in Valinor are immortal, and in Tolkien's work, immortality comes at the price of stagnation. Evolving, exploring and thinking outside the box are decidedly human traits. Elves are content to remain still. As for the Ainur, they're not interested in evolving. They're present to guard the status quo and fulfill Illuvatar's plans, not to move forward.


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

[User]
[Pacific Rim]What is there to harvest on a kaiju? Who's buying it?

Surely Hannibal Chau's entire income isn't from selling organs to the Jaeger program for study. Who else wants kaiju parts? Wouldn't they be too contaminated with Kaiju Blue to be of any practical value to most people?

[Assistant]
I would imagine that nearly anyone would want materials that are tough enough to let the Kaiju defy the square-cube law.

There might also be some folk medicine stuff going on with the guts, like with rhino horn today.  Or even real medicine - there's probably all sorts of exotic chemicals we've never heard of in their bodies.  Any corporation involved in biotech research probably wants in on that.

Lastly, Kaiju are really big.  Even one "harvest" will keep you in business for a long time.

As for the Kaiju Blue, a hazmat suit is apparently enough to handle it.  It's not like Alien blood where you'll burn your fingers off just by touching it.  Tell your scientists to wear gloves and handle with care.


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

[User]
How did nature evolve insects that look like sticks, or leaves, or even snakes? Am I to understand that was just random mutations and natural selection did all the work?

Bear with me here.  I'm trying to learn the ins and outs of evolution as it was taught only sparingly in my high school biology classes.  I'm just about to finish Richard Dawkins' *The Greatest Show On Earth* and what I feel the entire book is explaining (in between the impossibly frequent and often meaningless tangents) is that random gene mutations and natural selection are pretty well all that has driven the shaping of all modern organisms from our one common ancestor.

So for example, is it true then that nature has, by purely random happenstance, mutated an insect to look more and more stick like over countless generations, thus making them more able to camouflage themselves and survive, that has given us our modern day stick bug?  I've seen them look virtually identical to real sticks, which absolutely astounds me.

Now I don't believe in intelligent design after reading about plenty of evidence that smashes it to bits, so I guess I'm just asking if I'm understanding this correctly? (The aforementioned book has not been the greatest, in my opinion.)

But if that is how it's done... then touch, nature.  Mind = blown.

[Assistant] Yep, natural selection was the guiding process for the development of the amazing camouflage and mimicry abilities within the insects you are referring to.  Mutations occur sparingly within a population, and most are detrimental to the organism.  However, there is the rare occurrence that a mutation will boost the reproductive success of an organism.  This beneficial mutation will spread to the following generations until the entire population acquires this trait.  Keep in mind that insects have been on this planet for quite some time.  There has been ample time for organisms to develop some pretty crazy attributes.


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

[User]
[Marvel] What is the Punisher's opinion on White Collar Crime?

While I understand that the Punisher primarily goes after the seediest and and grimiest of criminals, I'm unsure of his stance towards non-violent white collar crimes that still ruins lives. I can understand that he might not prioritize them, but would he still consider them people on his "Guys I can Kill" list? Similarly, what would be his opinion on con artists running non-violent hustles? I ask because I tend to see Frank being exaggerated to some extent (like killing Jaywalkers/loiterers) so I would like to get a general response.

tl;dr, Would Frank shoot a guy running a ponzi scheme but otherwise has not committed any particularly violent crime (sex crimes included)?

[Assistant]
If its a con artist, he'd probably punch them in the stomach or intimidate them somehow. If he saw them scamming someone with his own eyes he'd definitely shake them up a bit then make them return anything they unfairly won or stole. Or theyd probably be made to donate the unfair winnings to charity if the person left or he's unable to find them.

He normally goes after low lives and scum eg. rapists, pedophiles, murderers, women bashers ect.

Insider trading, tax evasion and skimming a few dollars off employee pay by a shady payroll clerk isn't what he goes after. If he knew about it he might warn them to stop it but that's about it. That's the sort of crime they have dedicated taskforces for in the fbi and other government departments.


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

[User]
ELI5: What stops me from being reinfected with an illness if I stay in the house where I was sick?

Wouldn't I just be breathing the same infected air?

[Assistant]
It can happen, but by and large once youre infected with something, your immune system learns how to deal with it. It begins to make antibodies that are like medicine customized for the exact thing that infected you.

So if you get infected a few days after feeling better, the germs are killed almost instantly upon entering your body and the infection never takes hold.


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

[User]
ELI5 How or where do radio stations get their music?

Do they buy the CD albums? Do they download the music online? How did they get the music in the early days when radio just started?

[Assistant]
Six-year radio station employee here.

Most commercial music stations have an agreement with a programming/distribution company like Dial Global. Every week, your station gets discs loaded with new music that fits your station's format (Top 40, adult contemporary, country, etc.). In exchange for these discs, the station plays what are called "barter" commercials. Their agreement with the distribution company may be 2 minutes per hour of commercial time, for example. The distribution company has sales people that then sell this nationwide airtime to big companies like Pepsi, Home Depot, etc. Every week, the station then gets a list of commercials to play in each of those 2 minutes per hour. This is how the distribution companies make money. The stations, of course, sell the rest of their alloted commercial time to local advertisers, which is how the station itself makes money.

The station's program director likely also has a weekly phone conversation with someone at the distribution company about what songs they're going to add to the station's rotation that week. It's a negotiation process, so that the company can get the songs they want on the air, and the program director can make the station sound the way he/she wants, as they know the local market and what the local listeners want. Record labels and promoters are likely dealing with the guy at the distribution company, not the local program directors across the country. This is why radio station playlists are often very similar across the country.

College radio is a different game. No distribution companies, just a lot of music promotion companies that send CDs and MP3s of new artists to college music directors every week. The promoters then have weekly phone conversations with each station's music director to try to get them to add the music that has just been sent to them to the station's rotation.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does Frodo leave the Shire at the ending of the Return of the King?

[Assistant] Wearing the ring changed Frodo. He can never be truly happy (not in the way we would understand at least) and seeing everything he used to love causes him a lot of pain. Also, note that he leaves Middle-earth, not just the Shire. He is trying to get as far away from any reminders of his life.


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

[User]
[MCU/Marvel] Is there an equivalent to a galactic level internet?

In Star Wars there's the HoloNet, in WH40k there's the Noosphere, does Marvel (and potentially by implication the MCU) have a similar information network?

[Assistant] With so many factions at war they're going to have planetary nets and protect them from outside (alien) hacking.  Most a multi-star civilizations would have interstellar communications for government and official uses.  FLT coms might not even  be up to an internet.


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

[User]
ELI5:Why is about 10% of my hard drive unusable?

I know you may say it's the os but even with external drives it says 1tb but I can only use around 900 gb. Why do they this?

[Assistant]
Because they lie. If you look on the box it probably says something like "1TB = 1,000,000,000,000 bytes", but that's not how it actually works.

In computers 1kb=1024 bytes. This is because everything in a computer is basically factors of 2. So if you start doubling 1 it goes...

1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024. Then they stop and use kbs.

1Mb = 1024kb
1Gb = 1024Mb
1Tb = 1024Gb

1024 x 1024 x 1024 x 1024 = 1,099,511,627,776

Your computer does it properly and expects 1Tb to be that many bytes. Technically the manufacturer did give you 1Tb, but they just did it differently.


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

[User]
[Cyberpunk] What's the deal with people carrying swords?

This is a world where you can hide cannons in your literal person.  It's also dystopian America, so you can walk down the street and trip on a gun.  And yet, we have katana wielding gangs that somehow haven't been crushed yet by cyborg psychopaths.

When/Why/How did swords make a come back?

[Assistant]
Generally, a few things happen.

First, some sort of tech breakthrough skews the balance between weapons and armor. Either there's a breakthrough on the weapons front (like the ever popular monomolecular edge that lets a sword cut through everything, or hyperfrequency vibrations that turn every blade into a super chainsaw) or armor designs go too far in adapting against ballistics and leave themselves weak against melee (like how a soft kevlar vest can stop a 357 magnum round but be breeched by an icepick) that rebalances the risk/reward math for bringing a knife to a gunfight.

Another factor, the user of the sword may be enhanced. A normal katana might not be able to pop through a level 4 vest, but one wielded by a jacked up cyborg with the strength of industrial machinery and the speed of a hummingbird on meth is a different story.

Third, it may be easier to kill folks with a sword depending on how invasive the surveillance state. Sure, you've got that sweet Area Smartgun in lieu of a forearm, but if every streetlight has a microphone feeding information to an algorithm trained to detect gunshots (note: this isn't hypothetical, several American cities already have it), or if you're in the middle of a quiet B&E and need to liquidate a guard without telling half the block that it's crime time, then a melee weapon is the way to go.

Finally, there's the matter of **style**. Sure, you could just use a box cutter or a claw hammer, but you don't cultivate a reputation on the streets by being boring. So you spend a little extra for the sweet leather jacket, the name brand mirror shades, and the katana made out of orbitally forged steel because you want folks to know that your life is dope and you do dope shit.


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

[User] eli5 How come if highly radioactive radium was on watches that the wearers didnt succumb to radiation poisoning at the wrist?

[Assistant] Even a cheap wristwatch has the clock face encased in metal and glass, which would have provided at least some sheilding. Compare and contrast with the Radium Girls, who had a more direct, prolonged exposure to the radium paint.


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

[User]
[1984] Why collectivist oligarchy? Why the freeze frame?

In the book within the book the hows are discussed rather plainly, but the existence of a why is only hinted at. Why did this self perpetuating hate machine get set up? What possible faith would lead one to willingly create the alienation machine?

[Assistant]
Mr. O'Brien explained it all in the book: Power.

Power, not for luxury. Not for wealth. Nor comfort. Nor sex. Nor material needs. Power for the sake of power itself.

That's what led men to create this new society and philosophy. To create the system. So that a handful of men could rule over the rest, and the pendulum of power balance would swing no more.


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

[User] ELI5: How do the deciduous trees know when autumn begins, and when it's just a cold front?

[Assistant]
Deciduous trees (trees that lose their leaves in winter) aren't actually responding to the cold, they're responding to changes in the quantity of daylight.

These trees have chemicals inside them all the time that break down the chlorophyll in their leaves, and then break down the stems of the leaves so that the leaves fall off the tree.

Light breaks these chemicals down, and the tree has to keep producing more of them.

In each hemisphere of the Earth, summer is marked by a shift of the Earth's axis so that that hemisphere gets more sunlight (days are longer), and the other hemisphere gets less sunlight (days are shorter). As the amount of daylight hours decreases, the amount of these chemicals being destroyed by the light is reduced. When too much of the chemical remains in the tree, it starts to break down the leaves.

EDIT: Fun fact, this is also related to why maple syrup is harvested in the winter and not the summer.

Trees have vein/artery like structures called xylem and phloem that help transport different nutrients, waste, and water through the trunk (this is how nutrients get from the roots to the leaves, for example). Xylem transports mostly water.

Because there isn't a lot more in the xylem other than water, the water would normally freeze in the winter, and the freezing would cause the xylem to explode as the water expands (in fact, you may hear or see this on trees in forests with cold winters, it may appear as a bulge in a tree, or the be source of a loud pop from a tree during cold winter days or nights).

To help prevent this, trees pump other nutrients into their xylem during the winter - primarily sucrose, which helps to lower the freezing temperature of water, meaning it has to get colder before the water can freeze enough to destroy the xylem.

That means the contents of the xylem during winter are mostly a water-sugar mixture which can be boiled down into a syrup (this can be done on more than just maples, but maples tend to put a lot of sugar in their xylem, meaning it requires less boiling to make the syrup - hence, maple syrup).


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

[User]
[MCU] Who pays Captain America's salary?

In Age of Ultron, Sam Wilson asks Steve if he's found a place in Brooklyn yet, and Steve responds "I don't think I can *afford* a place in Brooklyn."

S.H.I.E.L.D. has been disbanded at this point (at least as far as Steve knows), so it seems that he's now just a full-time member of the Avengers. And the Avengers appear to be funded entirely by Tony Stark.

So, what's going on here? Tony doesn't seem like the kind of guy to try to cheat his friends, so how is Steve getting paid so little that he can't afford a one-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn? Who negotiated his salary?

[Assistant]
I suspect Steve was making a joke based on the fact that the last time he had to pay rent the prices were a *lot* cheaper.

It's likely that he is paid by some sort of non-profit division of Stark Industries. The same is likely true of the rest of the Avengers.


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

[User] [stargate] how could Bronze Age Egyptians have possibly mounted a rebellion bad enough to make Ra leave Earth?

[Assistant]
It's gets go a point where the slaves aren't working. So it's either waste time and murder all the humans or just screw it, and go to the next planet and have your first Prime feed you grapes.

It's not like they really had and effective fighting force just rallied enough to make it more trouble than its worth.


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

[User] ELI5: If CD's are just binary what's stopping me typing ones and zeros in notepad and coming up with part of a Dire Straits album?

[Assistant]
It's possible but very unlikely.
There are  4 letters in the word  "Dire". That's 32 bits (8 bits per byte. 1 byte per letter).   By guessing at 1s and 0 s you have a 1 in 4 billion chance of getting "Dire".
And that's just 1 word from the name of the album.
The music itself is made of millions of bytes.


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

[User]
CMV: Min. Wage should be a "Min. Standard of living" not a number.

TLDR:
The min wage should be defined federally not as a number, but in terms of what the "minimum standard of living" should look like for an American. I.e, tell the states "we don't care what the number is so long as it allows your citizens to live the "minimum standard" of life we have defined." This will allow flexibility for varying COL across the country while ensuring FDR's goal of a "livable wage." I'd see some sort of analysis centering around housing costs, food costs, and transportation. Beyond that, perhaps an X% cushion to cover other basics like toiletries, utilities, clothing, etc.This could be applied at state, city, county levels, whatever makes sense for that state.

Details:

Some caveats: I'm leaving healthcare out of it just to keep focused on the concept. Remote workers tend to make over min wage so ignoring this for now. I generally am talking about costs for single adults; companies dont pay people with families more so I dont think min wage is the place to factor in those costs as there are other state/fed mechanisms to support low income families (higher min wage would reduce the need for those benefits, but perhaps not eliminate them.) You could also probably talk me into adding more costs to incorporate (phones, a bit of fun money, extra for savings, tools, cushion for emergencies, etc.) but trying to keep it concise.

For housing costs, rules could be in place dictating that employees must be able to live X miles from their employer, and as such they would have to be able to afford modest housing within that range. I dont think living on your own is a guarantee here, in some urban environments a minimum living situation may very well include roommates to keep costs down. In other environments, small single-family apartments may be the minimum, in others perhaps mobile home or condos/townhomes may be the choice, it really will depend on the area. The biggest key here, is whatever it looks like, someone working full time in the US can afford to live somewhere, i.e. isnt homeless.

For transportation, there wouldnt be an expectation that city-dwellers have to own their own car, so public transportation may be sufficient and that cost would be part of the wage formula. For suburban and urban environments, folks would need personal transportation so a min wage would need to be high enough to cover the costs of modest transportation (i.e. used sedans and such, nothing fancy.) Food costs would be easiest, as formulas already exist for estimating what food costs in various regions for WIC/SNAP benefits so those could be leveraged.

All this analysis is done/approved at state level and the metrics used have to be public. Feds review to ensure law is met both in dollar terms and in spirit.

What hopefully results is that anyone working anywhere in the US can live somewhere close(ish), afford basic transportation, stay fed, and cover basic needs. You wont live like a king or queen, but you will have enough to get by without feeling like youre one step away from financial ruin. A setup like this should help employers as well, since those in lower COL areas wont have to eat a comparatively higher wage for their area, which is a big argument against federal min wages.

[Assistant]
Doesnt that remove individual responsibility. How would you address 2 employees that have the same job with same hours but one has 8 kids. Would you pay them more to keep their quality of life the same as the one without kids?

If i was an employer i would fire everyone who had a family. Single people would be cheaper to give that quality of life.


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

[User]
ELI5: where does tennis' scoring system come from?

 I kinda get not using units of 1 (e.g. 1, 2, 3...) and instead using an arbitrary count of 15, 30, but then why 40 instead of 45?!

And also, why not continue adding, 60, 75... instead of going to deuce/advantage?

[Assistant]
One theory is that tennis descended from a French game called  *jeu de paume,* which was similar to tennis but used bare hands instead of a racket.

In  *jeu de paume*, the court was 90 feet in length, with 45 feet on each side.  If a player scored, they moved 15 feet forward; scoring again allowed the player to move another 15 feet forward, but because of the net in the center of the court, scoring a third time only allowed enough room to move forward by 10 feet (thus, 15-30-40).

The popular theory of scoring based on a clock face is considered unlikely, because the first recorded reference to tennis scoring was written in the 15th century, when clocks only measured hours (1-12).  It wasn't until \~1690 that the pendulum escapement was invented and clocks were regularly constructed with minute hands.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do actors alter their credited name slightly between films, often long after they are an established name?

[Assistant]
If an actor wants to join an actor's union (which is basically a requirement if they want to work in Hollywood) they can't use the same name as someone who is already in the union.

Sometimes actors will use a different name on a film in order to avoid certain union rules governing their participation in those films including minimum pay and other union required accommodations.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does "truth serum" (aka sodium pentathol) work?

Was watching "Arrow" and sodium pentathol was mentioned as a means of exacting truth from an individual. It always seems to be the "go-to" method of getting to the bottom of things in all these action/spy dramas. How exactly does it effect the chemistry of the brain and is it similar to the effects of other drugs (such as alcohol)?

[Assistant]
It doesn't.

Thiopental is from the barbiturate class of drugs, generally they are used as general anesthetics. They bind to a class of brain proteins called GABA to slow down brain activity, and eventually put you to sleep.

What is does is that it significantly slows down higher brain functions and makes it harder for the person to form a coherent lie. But because you are basically interrogating a person who is half asleep, it more likely that he will simply parrot back what you say to him.


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

[User]
ELI5: How are new elements discovered/created?

I understand that new elements occur with new numbers of protons, but how are these "discovered" or produced in labs?

[Assistant] They take two smaller atoms and smash them together.  If they can do it with just enough force and hit it in just the right way, then the two atoms will overcome the electromagnetic force, and the strong nuclear force will takeover, and bind all the protons and neutrons into a new nucleus.  So if you take a titanium atom (22 protons) and smash it into a berkelium atom (97 protons) you can end up with a new atom of 119 protons.  The new atoms tend to be highly unstable and often only last a fraction of a second, so detecting them is a lot trickier, what they often do is look at what types of decay the elements underwent (alpha, beta), and verifying those observations against what the math is telling us should happen, and what previous chemistry experiments have taught us.   But once one groups discovers a new element they will need their worked verified by an independent group of scientists to confirm if the results are real or not.


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

[User]
[Witcher Novels] What was the public perception of Witchers like back when the monster population was at its height?

Monsters are pretty rare during the time of the novels, so there's not all that much of a demand for monster slayers. I know what the general public perception Witchers is like during this time period - pretty damn bad.

My understanding is that Witchers majorly culled the monster population. So, back when there were a lot more monsters and therefore a much greater demand for monster slayers, was the public perception of them significantly different?

[Assistant] Always a necessary evil. Mutants and freaks. Abnormal and only tolerated because they weren't the worst things around. People mistrusted magic and those who they didn't see as human like elves and dwarves. Witchers were always stigmatized and people would cross the street to avoid them. If not for their aptitude at hunting monsters they would have been culled in pogroms long before the more recent ones.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does sitting in a car or on a plane for over an hour without standing up put you at risk for blood clots, but laying in a bed for 8+ hours a night is perfectly okay?

[Assistant]
The main difference is that your legs are vertical in a car or plane. It takes a lot of effort to move blood from the legs to the heart, so there are little valves in the returning blood vessels to make sure that moving blood doesn't go back down when it stops moving.

When you move your legs, the muscles help to squeeze the lower blood vessels and force the blood back up through the valves. Without the help of moving muscles, the blood hangs around and pools where it is. When you're lying down, your legs are at a similar height to your heart, so considerably less effort is required to pump blood back.

Which raises the question, why is pooled blood so bad?

Our blood has a few checks and balances to make sure that blood flows properly -- the blood needs to stay liquid when it's in the body, but needs to lock up quickly (or clot) when it leaves the body. To get this to work, a clotting protein is always present in the blood, so that the blood can clot strait away when it needs to. Ordinarily, these clotting proteins are held in check by anti-clotting proteins (also in the blood). When a person bleeds, the anti-clotting proteins degrade, allowing the clotting proteins to do their work and clot the blood. The anti-clotting proteins naturally degrade in blood as well, but are usually replenished by the flow of blood through the body. Pooled blood is blood that is not being replenished properly by fresh blood, and after enough of the anti-clotting proteins degrade naturally, there's a high risk of a clot forming in the pooled blood.

Once you stand up and/or pump a few muscles, the clot gets pushed through the valves, up the body, through the heart, and gets wedged in a small blood vessel in the lungs. This blocks blood flow and causes a rapid unscheduled disassembly of the blood vessel as blood keeps entering in from the heart and having nowhere to go.


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

[User]
ELI5: Do bacteria suffer the effects of inbreeding?

With inbreeding, the chance of harmful genes being inherited by offspring increases, but it's effects usually don't become apparent until several generations of a family inbreed.

Bacteria are asexual, so they pass on a near identical (or identical) copy of their genes to all their offspring. Since this DNA is the same, do bacteria also suffer from the negative effects of inbreeding? Wouldn't this eventually cause an entire bacterial family to die out?

[Assistant] Since there is no breeding with bacteria, there can be no inbreeding.  Bacteria do have a mechanism for exchanging genes but it's very different from sex.  Inbreeding happens with the mother and father both suffer the same genetic defect, but there are no mother and father bacteria.


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

[User] ELI5: Why a water faucet 'spits' after it has not been used for a while?

[Assistant] Pockets of air. All of the pressure from water being turned on "pushes" residual and new water out. You have air and water coming out instead of a steady stream of water. Its like putting water in your mouth and blowing it out. The air pressure from the lungs make it misty or like spitting. Having water pressure push out other water gives you that steady stream like a hose.


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

[User] [The Simpsons] In a recent episode, Bart and Lisa were shocked and surprised by the appearance of a cathode ray TV [opposed to a flat panel TV], despite having been shown watching their own cathode ray TV for countless hours in earlier episodes. Why is this?

[Assistant] The Simpsons reality operates similarly to the Marvel 616 reality in that involves a sliding timescale and any stories which are not explicitly stated t take place in the past take place in the present or fairly close to it.


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

[User]
Can we teraform the moon?

Assuming money was no object. With our current scientific knowledge, could we teraform to the point of a sustainable atmosphere, as well as water bodies and plants?

[Assistant]
No, with no molten core to generate a magnetic field, very little water, and very little gravity, it is beyond the current scientific capabilities of Earth to terraform the moon. Things that would have to be done to terraform it:
-Generate an electromagnetic field to prevent solar radiation from stripping away the atmosphere.
-Create an atmosphere heavy in CO2 to heat up the moon.
-Melt enough water and consolidate it in one place as to create an environment for plants to grow.
-Find plants that can grow in the high silicate, high calcium soil of the moon.
There are million other things that would have to be done on top of this, including finding away to stop the atmosphere from simply floating off the moon (it has 1/20 the gravity of Earth). Interestingly, the soil on the moon, although appearing quite different from the soil of Earth, has a very similar composition. It is slightly higher in silicon and calcium, but definitely similar enough that with the right conditions, a plant could derive nutrients from it.


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

[User]
CMV: Asking the parents (specifically the father) for permission to date or marry is inherently sexist.

Why should I as a man need the permission or another man or adult to date or marry a grown woman? The argument I hear the most is that its about respect. In what way? It's men essentially asking for permission to transfer "ownership" of the woman from her father/parents to her soon to be husband (in the case of marriage).

The other is religion, if the religion requires consent for both sexes then you have more of a point because then it's not sexist, still ridiculous in the 21st century but equal. If the Religon only requires consent of the female partners parents to marry then its sexist.

[Assistant] Isn't your argument a bit tautological? Like there's nothing sexist if both partners ask both sets of parents permission before getting married, but then you clarify if they only ask in a sexist way like only the daughters father then it is sexist.


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

[User]
[LOTR/The Hobbit] Why did Gandalf choose Bilbo for the mission to Erebor?

So, Gandalf has been staying a lot with the elves or roaming around Middle Earth since his arrival. When the quest to Erebor begins, why does he decide they need a *hobbit* with them? Has he any experience working with hobbits before? Or was it just a gut feeling that Bilbo was going to have great impact on the story? And, why Bilbo, why not any other hobbit?

[Assistant]
Gandalf had been in and out of the Shire for hundreds of years.

Think of it this way. Of the three wizards who factor directly into the story, each had a primary focus that dictated their study and passion in Middle-earth.

Radagast the Brown was fascinated by birds and wild creatures, so his house was in the woods and he busied himself rarely with people.

Saruman the White went in for Ring-lore, seeking to divine the secrets of the Enemy by studying his greatest and darkest crafts. His abode was Isengard, a sturdy fortress in which he could experiment and theorize and study books innumerable.

Gandalf the Grey loved hobbits. He had no house, but only ever felt truly at home in the Shire. He *knew* the hobbits and their history, better than the hobbits knew themselves. He helped the Rangers protect the Shire and he fostered close relationships with hobbits in every new generation.

It's no surprise, then, that when the time came for the Quest to start, Gandalf felt it pertinent to include a hobbit. Bilbo wasn't the first hobbit to be whisked away by Gandalf on a mad adventure, nor would he be the last.


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

[User] [Marvel Zombies] Why did the zombie heroes retain their intelligence, but not normal zombies?

[Assistant] Honest stab in the dark, maybe the normal zombies didn't eat enough and went insane? Pym was eating chunks of Black Panther every once in a while so that he could stay sharp and control himself. You *can* get over the hunger, it's how the good zombies became good, but maybe the pains drive people without superhuman will feral?


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

[User] ELI5: How were wooden ships made waterproof in ancient times?

[Assistant]
Caulking such as horse hair, clay or cloth was poked between the wooden planks to fill gaps. Pitch or tar was applied to the outside to help waterproofing.

Also boats then, like now, aren't water tight. The bilges would always collect some water. Bailers would use buckets to bail out the bilge water. Today this is done with pumps or stern hatches on some small dinghies/yachts.


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

[User]
ELI5:  Why does proper APA / MLA citation matter so much?

I'm in grad school and I have an entire book on APA citation. In a world with search engines, it seems like citing something so that finding it is easily should be much, much simpler than this crap.

EDIT:  I should clarify, I'm not having any issue with actually doing these citations, I just find the level of rigor in their structure a bit over-specific.  "Oh, there are 5 authors?  List them like this.  There are 6 authors?  Do something different.

[Assistant]
It's not that that *format* matters. It's that being consistent matters. Everybody wants citations to occupy as little space on the page as possible, and that means making them as compact as possible. Because they're written in a really compact form, they're really hard to understand unless you know the format and that requires that everyone be consistent with the format.

In other words, it all boils down to economics. Compact, consistent citations save ink, paper, time and money.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are "native American" casinos a thing.

I assume it has something to do with reservations/land use? As a Brit, my knowledge of these matters is not overly extensive. It seems odd to me that a culture synonymous with tradition and pride would be so entwined with the gambling industry.

[Assistant] They make good money. Someone in the gaming industry figured out that tribal lands were legally sovereign and therefore the gambling laws could be circumvented if you placed your casino on them. They made a deal and the rest is history.


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

[User]
ELI5: live vaccines

My daughter is having her vaccinations soon and it struck me that I have no idea how live vaccines work. I did some research but the information I found was either super simple or way over my head.

[Assistant]
A live vaccine is like a neutered, weakened form of the virus.

Think of it like training someone to fix a car. You don't give them a Rolls-Royce or Ferrari for their first repair job. You give them something smaller, something simpler, so they can get used to it. Once they know how to do it, then you can let them fix the more important stuff.

The live vaccine does the same thing. It gives a weaker form of the virus to the body. Since it's weak, the immune system has the time to recognize that it's a virus and learn how to defeat it (start producing antibodies for the virus) before the body takes much damage. Then, once the real virus comes along, the immune system is ready to fight it off.


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

[User]
[MCU] I'm sitting in my Intro to African History course in college circa 2010. I asked my teacher why Wakanda was never colonized. What is her answer?

Wakanda passed itself off as a rural, isolated, peaceful nation. It didn't have a western backer (like Liberia) or a large population and history of imperial organization (like Ethiopia). All its neighbors, who, at the time, offered little in the way of exploitable resources to Europeans, were colonized anyway. How did Wakanda remain separate?

Edit: A little background on the Scramble for Africa, to put some of these answers in context. At the 1884 Conference of Berlin, European powers effectively split Africa among themselves along relatively arbitrary lines, even for territories that had not really been thoroughly explored yet. At that point, the goal of imperial prestige far outweighed the prospect of material gain, so things like harsh terrain and lack of wealth didn't really matter.

As such, some European power would have staked a claim on the land of Wakanda, without really knowing what was there.

[Assistant]
Ethiopia was not colonized until the Italians invaded in 1935 and even then the Italians never really had full control.  While Wakanda's location varies presumably it has natural defenses/borders like Ethiopia and a clearly had a single unified government without a lot of tribal factionalism that made other parts of Africa easier to colonize. The combination would put it in a situation like Ethiopia, a native kingdom surrounded by colonies.

The Wakandan's had to keep white settlers out from the start. All of them. No Voertrekkers, no traders, no mineral prospectors, no Stanley and Livingston looking for the the source of rivers and the like. With no knowledge of what is going on in Wakanda the justification for invading used for many colonial seizures falls away. They were often to  "protect" settlers or traders in the area already.


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

[User] [Truman Show]Why did they build a giant dome which must have cost... tens of billions of dollars? Why not just build a sufficiently high wall around the perimeter which from the horizon, looks real? Why fake the sun and stars and clouds?

[Assistant]
The creator says it. They wanted everything controlled except Truman. Not to mention the spectacle of it. The spectacle of a structure so large it can be seen from space ensures that everyone on earth will pay attention.

Truman needed to live in the most perfect place. They can't do that without total control. Overcast weather could ruin a moment they had in the plans.


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

[User] [Rick and Morty: Morty's Mind Blowers] How often do Scenarios Three and Four occur and how much does Summer get paid to deal with them?

[Assistant]
Often enough that Summer has seen it before, but not often enough that she doesn't need the instructions to know what to do. Given Summer's reaction to Rick and Morty when they wake up, I'd say it skews towards the high end.

To estimate where exactly that high end is, count the vials. Rick is kind of a moron overall, he's probably never thought *not* to take Morty into the room of memories. Scenario 3 seems to involve Morty losing his mind but Rick not, since Summer asks Rick if it is a Scenario 3, then ignores him when she finds out it's a scenario 4.

Presumably Morty behaves the same way every time he goes into the room. Which means that every time Rick needs to modify Morty's memory, they do the exact same song and dance.


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

[User]
CMV: Average service should receive 3 stars on 5 star ranking

First I personally don't put much trust on crowd sourced reviews unless criteria are outlined clearly. If site or survey don't state what 3 stars means in comparison to 4 stars then the whole system is bit sketchy. But in my view 3 is average (because it is in the middle) and half of establishments should get higher than this and half should get lower than this. Reviews should be equally distributed around 3.

Reviews are useful tool to gauge products quality or value. They become even more useful when you average out lot of reviews. In this way on individuals skewed or unfortunate experiences don't give wrong impression. But all this said it works only if people use even vaguely same scale in things. Like 1 being rubbish, 2 poor, 3 average, 4 good, 5 great.

Someone has told me that 4 is average and 5 above average to nearly perfection. IMHO this is too wide of range. Why do we need 3 different stages of bad but only 1 stage of good? To me place must be above average to receive 4 stars and truly an amazing experience to receive 5 stars. This gives more room to judge.

Now if we give 4 stars (or God forbid 5 stars) to average places that inflates valuations. This wouldn't be problem if we could just give higher ratings for the best but if 4 stars is "ok place" then what do you give for "good" or "amazing" places? 5 stars? But how do you differentiate good from amazing if both have 5 stars? In system like this we strip power from customer because they cannot truly reward the good performance. It just makes the whole system pass/fail. And we already have thumb up vs down for this.

Customers use this system to find products and places to buy. They need to separate good products from the amazing ones. Companies needs this system to improve their quality. If you are told you are best there could be there is no room to improve. Collecting meaningful data is important. Same goes for the workers. Its actually bad for the workers in the company if they are all reviewed as 5 star employees. Amazing worker will not get promoted because their rating is same as good workers. It puts unreasonable stress on employees if they might lose their job for being average. Expecting more than average performance from average employee is dishonest from employer. It doesnt help anyone.

Lot of people are also using argument "but this is how things are deal with it". This is bandwagon argument. This is how things should be not how things are.

[Assistant] The problem with reviews is that they are left by people who absolutely love \[insert thing\] or absolutely hate \[insert thing\], people who are "meh its fine" about \[insert thing\] won't leave a review.


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

[User]
Are there any cases of governments having good relations with their Indigenous populations where the majority of the government is not Indigenous?

Coming from the perspective of North America where indigenous issues are deeply problematic, I wonder if there are case studies in other countries that Canada and the US can learn from. How are the Scandinavian countries relations with the Sami people? New Zealand with the Maori? Taiwan with Taiwanese aborigines? My scope of knowledge is limited to N. America and I would love to learn more about this topic from other countries experiences.

[Assistant] You might want to read up on Paraguay, where, iirc, the native people are not in the majority, but an aboriginal language, Guaran, has official language status and a majority of the population speaks at least some of it.


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

[User] [Star Wars] Why do Tie Fighter Pilots wear respiration helmets?

[Assistant]
In legends canon, it was because the TIE fighter lacked life support systems.

In current canon, TIE fighters have life support, but wearing a life support suit is still useful due to the chance of a hull breach, TIEs used by the Galactic Empire lacked shields, meaning a single impact could cause decompression. It also adds to uniformity, and helps promote the fact that Imperial troops and pilots were all a singular faceless cog in a machine, and not an individual.


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

[User] [40k] I want to see the Emperor face to face. I have a message that is for him alone and critical to the survival of Mankind. What kind of hoops and red tape do I have to go through?

[Assistant]
This largely depends on your station... If you are a commoner, you better make sure to write it down, so your children's children's children can make it to Terra and maybe speak to a Custodian.

If you are the governor of a planet, you may be able to go through other channels, such as contacting the Administratum. You are still going to wait years, most likely, but if you have enough pull you may be able to get an audience with the Lord Commander of the Adeptus Custodes.

One way or another, though, you will have to plead your case to the Lord Commander. Only he can grant an audience with the Emperor, and even the High Lords are subject to his will. Only the Supreme Grand Master of the Grey Knights gets unrestricted access.

Or you could be a psyker and try to make a break for it during the Soul Binding. Probably get shot though.


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

[User] [LOTR] Even if Middle-Earth fell to Sauron, was Gandalf ever in any real danger, or would Eru have bailed him out no matter what?

[Assistant]
He was in terrible danger. Death is the least of the punishments that would be meted out to the Istari. Sauron could have kept Gandalf alive and in torment for many centuries, using his palantir to show the wizard the results of his conquest. The shire in flames, hobbits enslaved. The burning of the grey havens and the mallorn trees of Lothlorien. The broken dignity of the dwarves as they are forced to bow to Sauron's servants and pay them tribute, their homes stolen away once again to serve as new goblin kingdoms.

**But**, in a sense, the events that occurred were the only ones that *could* occur. Eru set it all in motion at the beginning of time, and nothing could actually change his story. So, from that perspective, Gandalf was always going to end up in the same place.


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

[User]
[DC] Is Rorshach actually afraid of people knowing his identity?

If I'm correct, Rorshach is supposed to be a figure to represent the disconnection from society. He rejects the name and the face that it has given him so he made his own.
Is he actually afraid of people knowing who he is or what he looks like as long as he doesn't have to take off his mask? What would he have to lose?

[Assistant] He doesn't really care that people know who Walter Kovacs is. However, he personally takes issue with the Kovacs persona. Rorschach thinks of himself as Rorschach, and "Kovacs" was just a weakling who was born of and abused by a corrupt and immoral society. Walter Kovacs is just a mask, a disguise he can wear in public. Nobody sees him, no one cares about an ugly bum. If people knew that he and Rorschach were the same person it would be inconvenient, but in actuality who's going to keep tabs on a crazy homeless guy? He lays low for a while, and people will forget all about him.


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

[User]
CMV: Transgenderism has nothing to do with sexuality and LGB should drop the T.

Im not at all advocating for discrimination against either of these groups but it seems like a fallacy to group them together. They arent even closely related. The fact that they are grouped together seems like society is trying to group all people outside of the norm into one category, LGBT+, instead of separating same sex relationships from from instances where people change their gender. If they do equate them, it also implies that transgenders are indeed in same sex relationships, if they are straight after their gender change.

[Assistant]
When the movement started they were all the people who hung out together, they were the people who went to "gay" bars and were pretty equally treated as sexual deviants and gender non-conformists. Basically loving someone of the same sex was seen as a gender issue just as much as wearing the clothes of the opposite sex. The two issues were very intertwined in that culture. And this is where everything started.

To drop the T now would abandon trans people where they were most often some of the people most active in the community. And they continue to be the most vulnerable. The movement started together and will end together.


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

[User] Eli5: Why does the area of insect bites turn warm and hard?

[Assistant]
When your body detects injury it widens the tiny blood vessels around the injured area to let in infection fighting/body repairing cells.
These additional cells causes heat, hardness because of the increased pressure, and redness because of the blood.
A lot of bites like those of mosquitos inject a little bit of saliva. The body treats that saliva ust being there as an injury, so it might be going a bit overboard with the response.


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

[User] If you are swimming on a Star Trek holodeck and pee in the pool, is there a wet spot on the floor after you end the program?

[Assistant]
The short answer is no.

IIRC, holodecks take used biomaterial and teleport/transfer it to the reserves used for the replicators. Same thing goes for if you're gettin frisky with a hologram, your *sample* will be recycled into a nice raktajino!


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

[User] ELI5:Is the electric grid balanced at all times in terms of power plant output and consumption? If yes, how is this achieved? If no, then how are blackouts prevented and how are the excess power dispensed safely?

[Assistant]
For the most part, yes, it's balanced. When something draws current from the grid it actually causes more current to flow out of the generators at the power plant. That in turn causes them to slow down. A change in speed decelerates the physical motor, that takes energy, so it will instantly provide extra power if demanded as it's storing energy by rotating, but it won't last long, and that's where the control systems kick in and provide extra energy after detecting the change in speed to bring it back to where it's suppose to be.

Also, if one motor is spinning at a different speed than a different one on the grid energy will flow out of one and into the other, in effect, they force each other to run at the same speed. The result is that all power plants on the grid operate as one giant motor, and the grid has something like inertia, an instant bump takes a while to actually slow down the grid, and during that timeframe they can adjust the power inputs into the grid. It can cause voltage fluctuations as well, the voltage will drop and it causes many devices to draw less power (making the grid as a whole matched).

There are also power factor correction circuits throughout the grid that will smooth the sub-cycle bumps in current and voltage using capacitors and inductors (which also store energy).

In the end, very short term spikes are met with magnetic and electric fields that store energy small amounts of energy, moderate spikes cause minor changes in grid frequency, and long term they match the overall output by controlling power put into the generators.

If you have really big spikes, like a power line goes down and drops a huge load off the grid, well that bit of the grid will get disconnected, if that results in a power plant getting disconnected they will usually have some way of doing a quick shutdown (a load on site they can transfer all power to while they shut down). That does result in a blackout, but input is still equal to output.


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

[User]
[Guardians of the Galaxy - MCU] Why wasn't the collector more interested in Rocket? (Spoilers)

Almost as soon as he sees him (it?) The Collector is interested in Groot, almost in love with him. But he sees Rocket and just ignores him as if he's just a "pet". But... Why?

I mean, maybe Groot's species is rare in the Galaxy, or maybe he was [Spoiler] interested in a creature that can replicate itself after death [/Spoiler] but... Wouldn't Rocket Racoon be even more rare? Seeing as how he's probably the only talking Racoon in the Galaxy?

[Assistant]
Rocket was also manipulated genetically and cybernetically. The Collector is more interested in artifacts of true historical value and creatures which reflect the wide possibilities of random creation.

Having a crassly tinkered-with creature like Rocket in his home is like bringing a taxidermied jackalope to the Smithsonian.


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

[User]
ELI5: If games partly install by putting all the necessary files onto your computer, why can't one just email someone the entire folder and all the associated files to another person so they could have it for free?

I don't condone pirating I was just curious about why I have never heard of people doing such a thing.

[Assistant]
This is true of most installed Windows applications. The installation process adds an entry to your Windows Registry and puts other files in other places besides the root install folder.

These folders won't run when shared, but the **installer** will run just fine.

Applications that are completely contained in one folder are called **portable** applications. This folder can be shared, including preferences and saved data. *Risk of Rain* is one example of a portable game.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are death row inmates housed separately?

Why are they not placed with general pop.?
The separate housing adds to the cost of the death penalty, but it seems unnecessary.

[Assistant] People care less about obeying rules when they are about to die. At this point what do they have to lose? Did Jerry over in cell D12 make a rude comment about your mother? Maybe Jerry should get stabbed 12 times with a sharpened tooth brush. What are the guards going to do about it? Kill you? lol!


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

[User]
ELI5: iTunes filing system on the iPod Classic

Why are all of my music files given a 4 letter name, and then put into folders called F00 and so on? Please help me understand this phenomenon of Apple's doing like I'm 5.

[Assistant]
Imagine you work in a library which holds millions of books not stored in alphabetical order. One day John, Mary and Bob walk into your library and line up to ask you about the books. John asks for a specific book by it's title, Mary asks for all books by a certain author and Bob doesn't know what book he wants, but he knows he likes the types of books he has been reading, and so he asks for a recommendation.

To deal with John's request you write down his title and then walk around, searching through each book in the library until you find it. This happens again for Mary's request except this time you search through each book by her requested author. For John's request you have to use your intuition on the type of books he has read and the book he is currently reading then, once again, search each book in the library for any matches.

Not only is this slow but you're going to wear out the carpet in your library from walking on it so much! We need to think of something else.

A much better approach would be to have an ordered list of all the books and their locations. This list is easy to search and you don't even have to move off of your seat. However, there is a problem, how do you determine between different books with the same title? We need to give each book a unique identifier for this list to work.

So, now when John, Mary or Bob ask their questions you can very quickly look up the requested titles in your list and grab the book straight away without touching (and therefore damaging) anything else.

Similarly, the iPods (and phones) store all of the song metadata in a database (searchable list) which is updated on every sync. This is much faster than constantly trying to search for song metadata on the fly. Since each entry in the database much be identifiable uniquely, each song must be labelled as such. iTunes ensures that each song file name is unique so that it can be identified uniquely from the database even if all of it's meta data is the same as another song.

This is also why iPods/iPhones have to connect to iTunes to sync, because of the song information database. In exchange for drag and drop you get lightning fast search, snappy user interface, song recommendations and automatic playlist compilation.


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

[User] ELI5: How come when someone tries to open a car door at the same time that someone unlocks the door, it won't open/unlock?

[Assistant]
Does not happen in modern cars.

There's a latchkey in older cars that, if you tension the door lock wire at the wrong time, will cause it to go flaccid - which will result in the door lock not opening. So you press the lock button, it tenses an actual wire, and if the door handle is opened at that exact moment it can't pull any tenser, so it does not unlock.

Modern cars have circuitry to prevent that situation.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do reflexes...work?

Just the title, how does your body know what to do with these stimuli without the signals actually going past your brain?

[Assistant]
Because your brain isn't everything - it's just one part of "the central nervous system", which includes the brain stem (this tends to do basic tasks like how to breathe and how to eat), the higher brain (which does most of the "human-y" bits like knowing how to do 2+2 and being angry about celebrities), and the spinal cord, which is both a big highway of information and a reflex processing centre.

Reflex systems are a bit like wires in electronics. Imagine you have a computer, that does all the standard things a computer does. It also has lights on the box for style value, and it has a separate button you can press to change the light. That button doesn't have anything to do with the circuitry of the computer, it's just one switch on the case that has a wire connected to the LEDs. Flick the switch and the light turns on, switch it again and it turns off - and it'll do this even if the computer is broken, cos it's a really simple light switch system that's just part of the case.

A reflex system is composed of three types of neurones - sensory neurones, which detect the stimulus; motor neurones, which tell muscles to contract; and relay neurones, which act as a bridge between the sensor and motor, and also something that allows the brain to override the signal if necessary. When the sensory neurone detects the stimulus (let's say the pain of touching a hot pan), it sends an electrical signal all the way up your arm and to its associated relay neurone in the spine. The relay neurone sees this message and as long as it's not also getting a message from the brain saying "don't do the reflex", it'll spontaneously send a new message into its associated motor neurone. The signal travels down the motor neuron all the way back down your arm, and at the end, it tells the muscles in your arm to pull back so that you stop touching the hot pan.

There's almost no information processing actually going on here. Reflexes are pretty much completely automatic and they're pre-programmed to know what to do when they receive a signal.


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

[User]
[General Horror] I'm a ghost haunting a house. The human is too much of a drunk to realize he's being haunted. What can I do?

I scared the shit out of the old tenant but the new guy is harder. Pretty much the second he gets home he starts drinking like a fish and he gets so drunk he doesn't recognize it's me. I'm talking stuff like mysteriously knocking stuff over, cryptic writing on the walls,  making the room cold etc.

He can barely two fingers in front of his face to begin with; he trashes the house so much he can't tell what damage I cause; and he seems to have no memory of the previous night. I can try scaring him in the small part of the morning when he's sober but it just looses some of the fun without night you know? Plus he pours whiskey in his coffee before he leaves for work anyways.

[Assistant] You can knock stuff over. Just knock all his booze over and force him to get sober. And hurry. If he's getting drunk before heading out to work it won't be long before you're not the only ghost haunting the place.


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

[User] What is a Turing machine and what is the difference between a deterministic and non-deterministic one?

[Assistant]
A turing machine is a theoretical device to compute algorithms. The basic idea is that you have an infinite strip of tape with discrete memory cells that can move left and right, a read/write head that can interact with the tape and a set of input/output rules, e.g. in form of a finite state machine and an alphabet of symbols that can be on the tape. An input/program for a turing machine is supplied by pre-defining the content of the tape before execution starts.

A transition of the state machine fires if the memory cell the read/write head currently points at has the symbol stored that the transition is waiting for as input. If a transition fires, it can move the read/write head left or right (or not at all) and write a symbol to the cell currently pointed to or pointed to after a move. A program for a turing machine terminates if the state machine reaches an accepting state. The output is the content of the tape after termination.

An input is invalid if it never reaches an accepting state (e.g. because the state machine reaches a state where no transition accepts the current symbol as input).

A turing machine is deterministic if for every state of the state machine, there is at most one outgoing transition for each possible input. This means that for any given input, the machine will always produce the same output, no matter what.

If the state machine has at least one state with two or more outgoing transitions for the same input, the turing machine becomes non-deterministic. This means that for the same input, you can get different outputs, depending on which of the multiple possible paths was taken. In this case, it is sufficient if for a given input, at least one execution path reaches an accepting state in the state machine, to consider the input valid.


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

[User]
ELI5: how do bugs get into your light fixtures?

You know when you turn on the light in a ceiling fan or ceiling boob (you know, ceiling boobs), and then you see the silhouettes of whichever insect(s) have gotten trapped in there- how do they get in if its a closed space? Just saw a video of a guy who had a live scorpion in his bathroom fixture and it got me thinking...

[Assistant] Hi...most bugs are attracted to light. Since they are bugs it's easier for them to fly or crawl into little tiny crevices of your light fixture. This is because most light fixtures have openings so that the heat of the lightbulb can escape. The bugs often get stuck in the light fixture and die from the heat from the lightbulb, thirst and  hunger.


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

[User] If anti-matter interacts with light the same as matter, how do we know that half the galaxies we see aren't made of anti-matter?

[Assistant]
When matter and antimatter meet, they annihilate each other and the mass is converted into energy--specifically, into gamma-rays. If a distant galaxy were made of antimatter, it would constantly be producing gamma-rays as it encountered the matter in the intergalactic gas clouds that exist throughout galaxy clusters.

We do not see any steady stream of gamma-rays coming from any source in the sky. Therefore, astronomers conclude that there are not occasional 'rogue' galaxies made of antimatter. If there is any large amount of antimatter in the universe, it must encompass at least an entire galaxy cluster, and probably a supercluster. Once might postulate the existence of such antimatter superclusters, but then one would be faced with the problem of coming up with a mechanism that, shortly after the big bang, would have separated these now-gigantic clumps of antimatter from the neighboring clumps of mater. No such mechanism has yet been envisioned.


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

[User]
[Halo]Why did the prophets try to get rid of all of the Elites?

In Halo 2, The high prophet of Truth decided to "promote" the brutes, and have them kill all of the Elites. Why did he do this? The Human-Covenant war was going great for them up until that point. And besides, why sacrifice such a large, trained, experienced, well equipped fighting force? Wouldn't that be a terrible tactical decision?

[Assistant]
The Elites had an almost equal standing in terms of politics, they were technically equals. With the Prophets being the religious leaders and the Elites the military leaders.

The Elites never fully embraced the Covenant religion, and so when the Prophets discovered the Brutes, who were just as strong physically but far more devout (and so, easier to control) the Prophet of Truth began making plans for them to replace the Elites (Then the prophets would control the faith and the military). When the High Prophet Regret was killed by the Master Chief, Truth used this as an excuse to change out the Prophets guard. This began the changeover which ended up causing the civil war.

Whether the Prophets overestimated the Brutes or underestimated the Elites, we can't be sure, but we obviously know the Elites didn't exactly leave peacefully and it kind of blew up in Truths face after the flood arrived.


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

[User] [Star Wars] How do ships in Star Wars like the Star Destroyer stay in the atmosphere of a planet without falling?

[Assistant] Repulsorlift engines. Much like smaller craft like speeder bikes, land speeders, and even starfighters, larger vessels--up to and including certain capital warships--are capable of operating in atmosphere, using the same technology that provides for smaller craft. Most starfighters operating in atmosphere do not rely on traditional aerodynamic principles to generate lift or manuver, instead relying on their repulsorlift engines. Of course, using such engines in atmosphere can consume great amounts of energy, making the process difficult. Furthermore, above a certain scale, it's impractical, so it's highly unlikely you'd ever see something like an *Executor* class SSD operating in atmosphere.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are galaxies more or less "flat", rather than spherical?

[Assistant]
Because they spin.

When you have loosely connected matter, like the dust from which galaxies are formed--or, say, pizza dough--as it rotates, it tends to push material away from the axis of rotation. Thus, gravity can compress the matter into a disc-like shape, but the faster it rotates, the harder it is for it to compress into a spherical shape.

This applies to the formation of many objects in astrophysics--it's why solar systems tend to have a 'plane' much like galaxies, and even stars are originally formed from a collapsing disk.

It's also worth noting that there *are* more spherical galaxies, as well as a large central bulge in otherwise 'flat' galaxies. There's quite a lot of variance.


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

[User]
A jellyfish doesn't have a brain, yet they live, move and eat?  Can someone give me a lay mans explanation?

I have googled it a bit and read the jellyfish Wiki page but I'd just love to hear from someone who knows or cares about this subject :)

[Assistant]
Jelly fish have a nerve net. Bundles of nerves in nodes around the organism that pretty much just react to things. It's not sophisticated, but when your life is to float around and eat things. It's enough.

It works something like this.
Thing hurts me: Nerve net instructs muscles to move away.
Tendrils find food: Nerve net instructs muscles to move toward the food.

It's mostly just reacting. There is some processing, but for the most part it's reacting when you get down to organisms this simple.


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

[User]
[Avatar the Last Airbender] What if Aang has killed Ozai?

So what if Aang just KO'ed Ozai in the final fight (instead of taking his bending away)? Would his friends still see him in the same light afterwards, would anything change? Wpuld6 Aang feel guilty about it forever or just get over it and go an as normal?

[Assistant] Tbh no. Actually his friends also thought the same thing, especially Sokka and Zuko. They both wanted the Firelord dead. Maybe the aftereffects that would have repercussion would be his conflict of conscience afterwards turning him crazy.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] If Emperor Palpatine died (Original Trilogy) who would replace him?

If the Emperor is killed by a Rebel assassin, and the Empire suffers no other significant losses or setbacks, I dont believe that the Empire would automatically collapse. Given their massive military power, I think theyd be more than capable of maintaining control over key systems, even in a time of unrest.

If they had a competent leader.

If Palpatine died, who would replace him? Does Vader take over? Does it go to the senior commander of the Imperial military? What exactly does their succession process look like?

[Assistant]
In Legends, The Empire persisted one way or the other for another 30 or so years, both helped and fractured by Palpatine's reforms with the Moff system allowing regions greater autonomy but under more authoritarian administration.

The first successor was Sate Pestage (one of the guys in the black and purple robes in the throne room) seized power as the Grand Vizier, then he was deposed by Imperial Intelligence who installed a ruling council, who then was deposed again by Imperial Intelligence, this time more directly and the Director of Imperial Intelligence Ysanne Isard declared herself as leader.

This whole time there were power struggles and factional splintering and a lot of senior officers and moffs declared themselves to be independent warlords. There was also a side plot with Palpatine's alleged son trying to seize power but was thwarted by both the New Republic and the Imperial Ruling Council.

After Isard was overthrown by Rogue Squadron, the Empire was leaderless and squabbling amongst themselves until Thrawn returned from the Unknown Regions and reunited a lot of the fractured territories and warlords. Thrawn died in the Battle of Bilbringi, and the Imperials consolidated a bit (they were all attacking the New Republic but not really under one banner) until a cloned Palpatine returned with his Dark Empire.

The Dark Empire was defeated both externally by the New Republic and internally by Palpatine's Head Royal Guard Carnor Jax and a council of Imperial nobles. Jax seized the Imperial throne but was soon killed by a fellow Royal Guardsman Kir Kanos for Jax's betrayal and that was the end of the Empire as a unified political entity.

They were still 'Imperial' with the New Republic referring to them collectively as the 'Imperial Remnant' and had a loose alliance represented by a council of Moffs.

Up to this point was only around 20 years after the Battle of Endor.

Eventually the Supreme Commander of the Imperial Remnant Gilad Pallaeon (who was second-in-command to Thrawn) signed a peace treaty with the New Republic and over the following years and crises were absorbed into the Galactic Alliance.


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

[User] [Avatar: The Last Airbender] Why are Firebenders the only benders to use chi instead of the actual element in the area. What makes it so special and different from the other techniques?

[Assistant] Fire is unique among the elements in that it is itself a form of energy. The other bending arts manipulate the energy within their elements. Firebenders manipulate *their own* energy. In many ways, it is the most basic and pure of the four bending arts. As the Lion Turtle said, "In the era before the Avatar, we bent not the elements, but the energy within ourselves". It's not a coincidence that the first Avatar was a firebender. Firebending is forcefully expelling the chi within a bender as pure energy. This is why firebenders can also generate lightning. It is yet another, far more advanced and dangerous form of energy.


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

[User]
I have a professor who thinks political philosophers and moral philosophers are necessarily not analytic philosophers. Is this an idea people generally entertain or is she just insane?

I argued about this with her at the end of class for about ten minutes. I brought up that political philosophers like Nozick and Rawls as well as moral philosophers like Singer identify as analytics and are in analytic departments but she didn't accept my answer, claiming that moral/political philosophy is just not analytic and no conceptual analysis goes on there, going as far as to say it's no longer an accepted method of doing ethics. Can someone please make sense of this for me or at least back me up in my judgment of her statements?

[Assistant]
Some people use the term "analytic philosophy" to refer to a short historical movement headed by Russell and Moore (amongst others). If that's what she has in mind it half makes sense, provided you're willing to ignore Moore's *Principia Ethica*.

There's gotta be something that she has in mind.


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

[User]
[General] why would these mega-corperations ever think there's a profit in weaponising/creating horror monsters?

While it's understandable how the whispers of demons/daemons into the minds of executives in setting like DOOM or 40K would explain why these companies would even touch these creatures, it makes no sense in settings like resident evil. The only people who would possibly buy a zombie virus are dictators in a handfull of rouge states, and considering the resources needed to produce these monsters often exceeds the GDP of many of these nations, it simply makes no business sense.

[Assistant]
...and yet the ability to animate the flesh of the dead is but the first step toward prolonging life.

These corporations don't usually start wanting to create monsters, they start by wanting to improve humanity.  The monsters are just a byproduct, a failed experiment on the way to the true goal.  But by studying the monster, and figuring out what *makes* it as strong/resilient/whatever compared to a human body, may reveal where the gaps in the research lay.

We experiment on mice and monkeys before we test things on people.  Likewise, we experiment on those horrifying little aberrations before we uplift mankind to it's true potential.


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

[User] [Hitman] Can Agent 47 infiltrate and collect information from the Vatican Secret Archives?

[Assistant] The Swiss guard is no joke, they are elite troops on loan from another country so you'd run the risk of a multinational incident if he screwed up. But besides them the Vatican has very little in terms of state security and they're probably more concerned with assassination than Ecclesiastical espionage, so dressing as a clergyman and blending would be pretty simple given his background.


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

[User] [Warhammer 40k] What do space marines do in their free time? do they have hobbies?

[Assistant]
For the most part, they train, meditate and maintain their wargear, beyond that, it depends on the Chapter.

The Salamanders return to Nocturne, and live amongst their human families and communities, serving as leaders and judges.

The Space Wolves drink, hunt and engage in sport.

The Blood Angels are known to engage in artistic persuits, such as portraiture, sculpture and poetry.

The White Scars raise horses and race.

The Dark Angels sot in the dark and listen go Depeche Mode.


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

[User] ELI5: What is 'Optimistic Nihilism'?

[Assistant]
Basically and without boring details?

Accepting that your life and existence has no defined meaning/purpose at all.

And at the same time accepting that this absence of meaning/purpose is for you to fill up with your own decisions, things that you believe in and want to be. May it be a dream, or a hope.

The Universe is gonna fade into darkness someday according to the laws of thermodynamics, but why would you bother if you'll be long dead before it? Go outside and watch all the stars, you were born in a time they had never burned so bright.

Accept all the painful truths Science can give to you, and make use of it not to "Get sad because life is meaningless", but instead feel happiness for knowing you're free from Dogmas.


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

[User] How and when did dingos arrive in Australia?

[Assistant]
Some clues from wikipedia:

The earliest known dingo fossil, found in Western Australia, dates to 3,450 years ago. However, genomic analysis indicates that the dingo reached Australia 8,300 years ago but the human population which brought them remains unknown. Dingo morphology has not changed over the past 3,500 years: this suggests that no artificial selection has been applied over this period.

The dingo is closely related to the New Guinea singing dog


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

[User]
[DC] Did kryptonions know they became godlike beings under a yellow sun? If so, why stay on krypton?

So, the kryptionions could, under the light of a yellow sun, instantly jump from "normal dude" to "among the most powerful beings in the universe".

Did they know this? They seem more then advanced enough to travel faster then light (in the DC verse, it's not even that hard) and there are lots of yellow suns out there. It only takes one kryptonian to explore some other world and boom, instant physical god.

So why not all move to a planet with a yellow sun? Why stay on the planet where you're a boring person when you can take a short spaceship ride and become tough enough to fight literal gods? Were they all just really lazy? Did they just coincidentally never find another planet with a yellow sun? If we found a planet where living there made us all-powerful we'd go there in a heartbeat. Why didn't they?

[Assistant]
> Did they know this?

Yes, they did. They actually started conquering the universe.

> So why not all move to a planet with a yellow sun?

Some did, but because their religion heavily revered their solar system's sun as a god (it actually was), their leaders and such remained on Krypton.

> Why didn't they [stay offworld]?

Edited your question to better suit the information. So, eventually the religions leaders claimed that their powers were the work of demons and that everyone has to return to the purifying light of Rao (their sun god). Kryptonians that disobeyed were taken down by those who were obedient to the church. Others went into hiding, but it turns out it's super easy for them to develop weaknesses as an offshoot of Kryptonians called Daxomites became weak to lead.