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

[User]
ELI5: The different types of gasoline(unleaded, premium, super premium)

I understand they have different octane levels but what difference should a driver experience in terms of performance when driving a "regular car" like a Honda Civic or a Toyota Corolla?

[Assistant]
The others don't seem to be very ELI5 worthy.  Let me try.

When you squeeze something very hard it gets hot.

When you heat up gasoline it explodes.  Your car uses a spark to make it explode, but it also squeezes it a lot to help.  If you squeeze it too hard it explodes before the spark happens.  (In fact truck engines just squeeze it really really hard and don't have any spark!)

When your car is going the pistons are going up and down and squeezing the gasoline and then the spark happens when the piston is in the right place and it explodes and pushes the piston down again.  If the gasoline explodes too soon, then the piston is still trying to move upwards and the explosion pushes it down the wrong way.  This hurts the engine and doesn't make the car move very well!

They make different types of gasoline to make sure it only explodes at the right time.  If you use a type that needs to be squeezed harder, it might not make as much power if you don't squeeze it that much.  But if you use a type that explodes too soon it might actually hurt your engine.

Too much means it hurts the car.  Too little isn't as powerful.  So you always use the type that is made juuuuust right for your car.


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

[User]
How many different 800x600 pictures possible?

If I get a camera that makes 800x600 8 bits (256 colors) pictures and start to randomly fly across the infinitive universe and take photos of EVERYTHING, how many I will take before the photos start to repeat? It sounds crazy but think: There is 480,000 pixels, each pixel display one of 256 colors at any time, there is some maximum number of possible combinations - maximum number of unique photos. I'm bad at math and it's 2am here, can Reddit help me?

[Assistant]
If an algorithm ran that generated all 256^(480000) images, you'd have pictures that would document every single event that had ever happened or could ever happen. For every picture that showed Washington crossing the Delaware, there would be one of Washington and Lincoln in a three-way with your mom. There would be pictures of you and pictures of me, pictures of Hitler wearing the Shroud of Turin, all the frames of a slow-motion video of Queen Victoria dancing on the Dome of the Rock. Anything you can imagine represented perfectly in 800x600 pixels.

Of course, there'd be quintillions of images of noise, but don't let that ruin your imagination.


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

[User]
CMV: It's 2020, so there's no excuse anymore for popular apps to not be available on both iOS AND android phones.

I believe that if an app developer has an app on the App Store, they should also work towards releasing that app on the google play store as well. Obviously if there's a specific reason it's only meant for iOS, then fine. If the app isn't popular enough for it to make sense for them to spend the money to develop the app, then fine. 10 or so years ago it was super common for apps to only be on the App Store. As someone who grew up with android, I felt cheated out of certain apps or games I wanted.

Thankfully, it's become easier in the past decade to create apps and release them to the public. For the most part, apps do have both apple and android versions. However, there are still apps that are only available on iOS that I would like to download (e.g. Procreate) and it just doesn't make sense at this point.

also: please no comments about whether apple or android are "superior" or whatever. both phones have pros and cons.

EDIT: have awarded deltas based on the concept of "opportunity cost" between iPhones and androids, and on the concept that android tablets arent nearly as popular as iPads. My view has not completely been changed. However, a new take that I have is that even if Procreate doesn't make an app for android tablets, they could release a version of Procreate Pocket for android phones, which are about as popular as apple phones. OR another option I'd accept is for them to release a version for windows (due to the wide availability of touch screen laptops from them).

EDIT #2: a lot of comments are from solo/small developers who say that it would be difficult for them to personally make an app for both platforms. that's understandable. my post is more about the larger app companies whose job it is to create/maintain apps. hope that cleared things up.

EDIT #3: someone brought to my attention that the specific company I am talking about in my example (Savage Interactive) is not as big of a company as some sources I've seen make it seem. I awarded a delta to them because I can see why it may take more effort to produce an app for multiple platforms if there aren't many people. they only have 17, but I still think it's a project they should work towards due to the popularity of the app. also they say on their site they are hiring, which means they are looking for more team members and can afford to hire more. imo they should hire people who have android or windows experience.

EDIT #4: omg okay yall i get it, its not something they decided is financially a good decision lol. i've awarded a delta to a user who explained to me that apple users spend more than android users and that the company has decided it's not worth it to develop.

[Assistant]
2020 changed nothing major in the ecosystem for either iOS or Android. There's no reason 2020 is any more likely to have both versions than 2019.

In case you don't know why some companies choose to not make an app for both platforms it's because you have two choices:

1. You choose a agnonistic framework that work on both OSs. This not only requires a completely different skill set than developing to either of the platforms but also comes with several technical limitations.
2. You have two teams, one for each platform. This obviously has a huge cost.

Neither of them is very good.


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

[User] ELI5: why do we only see fog when it is at a distance?

[Assistant] Fog is a collection of tiny water droplets suspended in air at or just above ground-level. They are too small to see individually but they bend light never the less. As you get further away, there are so many droplets bending light that the objects further away from you can't be seen because the light from those objects isn't (entirely) traveling to your eyes.


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

[User] ELI5: When I close my eyes and blow my nose, I feel an air bubble in the inner corner of my eye. Why?

[Assistant]
Your tear duct (nasolacrimal duct) is connected to your sinuses.

There's a flap that's supposed to keep the two separate, but in some people, it doesn't quite seal.

You're trying to blow air through your nose, but because of the pressure, some of the air leaks through your tear duct.

If you're bored, search the internet for "squirt milk from eye". It's a very clear indication of the connection.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does smoking interfere with healing and how does it interfere?

[Assistant] Smoking narrows the bloodvessels which are essential to recovery. Narrow vessels transport less blood, less blood means less O2 and other minerals. In other words, recovery takes longer when you're smoking.


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

[User]
[Final Fantasy VII] How did Shinra become the overwhelmingly powerful political force that it is, when it's supposed to be an electric company?

Is there any backstory on the origins of Shinra? How did they start? When did they start? Did they do anything before they started making Mako Reactors? How did they essentially rise to being the kings of the planet?

[Assistant]
Shinra is based on the Japanese "Zaibatsus". Zaibatsus are basically samurai families from way back in the Meiji era who intermarried with powerful merchants to create powerful families that had both political and monetary power. This meant that when Japan industrialized these families were in the position to both see the changes come and the money to fully exploit it. Said families own the largest and oldest companies in Japan i.e. Mitsubishi. These families also have incredible amounts of political clout and can buy and sell politicians to the point where it makes corruption look like a regular thing. Since they often own crucial parts of industry i.e. fuel, infrastructure development, banks, etc they also have large amounts of influence upon the population directly as well as indirectly via the politicians. They get to this point by diversifying and investing in literally everything, Samsung a Korean version has its fingers in weapons development, banking, construction, technology, entertainment, etc etc. Shinra diversifies following this model almost exactly, gaining more power along the way.

Shinra itself is basically this but in fiction form, many manga and anime also play upon this idea but often in a much more comedic manner. The families in these often have extremely large amounts of power and loaf around but are shown to have the power to make and break nations, Shinra is not so different in that regard.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does mayonnaise act and taste the same as butter if you fry it on a grilled cheese sandwhich?

My grandad taught me this trick when I was like 7 and old enough to make a grilled cheese, and it was like magic to me, and is still really, I just thought about it and I really dont know any food chemistry so naturally brought me to reddit to seek out my tasty answer.

[Assistant]
Mayo is fat + egg.

Butter is fat + water.

The fat does all the work, so you should have a somewhat similar thing here, you're just cooking mostly fat onto bread.

And yes, if you're wondering, you can make homemade mayo, and yes its just oil and egg (although you're welcome to throw some extra stuff in for flavor)


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

[User]
Is it in any way possible to reverse a black hole?

Would it be possible to remove mass from a black hole, making the gravititional pull too weak to "maintain" a singulariry? What would happen?

[Assistant] If they're small enough, they actually do this on their own. We think that quantum fluctuations near the event horizons of black holes cause them to emit mass/energy in the form of Hawking Radiation. For big black holes, this happens really slowly, (many-times-the-age-of-the-universe-slowly) but the smaller they get, the faster they evaporate. Exponentially faster. Eventually, we think they explode, and people are looking for the energy released in such events. In the last second of their life they should emit 100000 times more energy than the largest bomb ever built. We don't, however, have a complete description of the end of a black hole's life, which would need a quantum theory of gravity, which still eludes us.


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

[User] [WARHAMMER 40K] KAN ONE OV YOU GITZ TELL ME WER DA STUFF FOR KRUMPIN N BASHIN IZ FRUM?

[Assistant]
The short answer: Orks just know how to make stuff for war.
The long answer: Orks are an engineered species, the ability to manufacture technology and weaponry is built into their very DNA. In addition to that the gestalt psychic field created by a WAAAGH causes weapons to function without ammo or even competent design. They literally warp reality for the sole intent and purpose of fighting.


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

[User]
ELI5: How can young children become traumatized by something they don't understand?

I don't mean like seeing their mother or father being abused, because the children understand their parent is being hurt, whether or not they know why.

What I mean is something along the lines of walking in on people having sex, or seeing the insides of a body. They wouldn't know what the people having intercourse is actually doing, nor would they know that the insides of a person are what keeps them alive and that they shouldn't be on the outside/visible.

So why would it phase young children, but not something like a cub or baby animal?
Unless it really doesn't phase them, just there are typically other circumstances involved I don't understand.

[Assistant]
Fear, and subsequently, anxiety and mental trauma can be the result of an experience that feels so alien to what we normally experience. The lack of an adrenaline rush and positive reinforcement can cause the mind to try to find answers. If no good answer is provided, than our primal instincts tell us that it was something that we must avoid. When it involves our personal space, or own peers, we will try to find ways to avoid the encounter, but also try to find a way to deal with the peers involved.

In other words: if you see your grandma with a face mask on, it can be scary - you don't know what it is, and your mind goes primal. If your grandma (without the mask) then quickly explains that she was wearing a mask, showing you how it works, and lets you try it on, this positive reinforcement will prevent mental trauma.

But: this is also a tool for the "battered wife syndrome", where a spouse provides lots of positive stimuli to make the trauma a "mere unpleasant experience". This leads to cognitive dissonance, etc., etc.

So: explain everything to children, and help them find answers. Never use positive reinforcement for something that is bad. Address a destructive relationship, again, by explaining the situation, offering a better alternative, instead of just pointing out the bad stuff.


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

[User] The eq of electrostatic force is F=kQ1Q2/r2, so in LHC should it be impossible to collide 2 protons together in Synchrotron as r=0 and F=Infinity?

[Assistant] A proton has a radius of about a femtometer, so the energy between two protons at that distance is about 1.5 million electron-volts. If you fire them at each other with that kinetic energy (about 5% light speed), they will repel or strongly scatter off each other. However at the LHC they have over 1.5 **trillion** electron-volts of kinetic energy, over a million times as much.


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

[User]
ELI5: due to the massive amount of neurons in the brain, how is it possible that electrical signals don't crosspost (don't mind if I do) from one axon to another?

Electrical signals are transmitted in the most superficial outer layer of the axon (along the myelin sheath) or, at least, that's what I've been told at school.

Is this (if any, ofc) one of the reasons why human thinking is so complex?

[Assistant]
They sort of do.

A neurone that transmits an electrical signal increase the chance that other neurones will fire.

And yeah, thats another reason as to why were really complex.

An extra tidbit, neurones are not binary; 1 or 0. They are are more like **potentials**. So, when a neurone fires it does not mean that other neurones will fire, it only **increases the chance that other neurones fire.**

Thats probably why humans are so freaking diverse. Aa 0.004 difference in the time it took for a neurone to fire can make a **very big difference** in the result of an action.


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

[User] ELI5: How is it that nearly 20% of all Asians are related to Ghengis Khan? I feel like they mean the mongols, but every article I read says Khan.

[Assistant] Ghengis Khan had a lot of children, and he had them with a wide array of women over a wide geographic area. Not only that, but many of his children ended up in powerful positions that allowed them to have many of their own children. This resulted in his genetics being spread widely in several populations all over Asia.


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

[User]
[DC Comics] Did the Martians have separate genders or is that just part of Martian Manhunter's attempt to blend in?

Considering they're  shapeshifters  would they have any concept of gender  at all? I know Martian Manhunter mentions a wife and daughter, but I wonder if he just uses those  words because it's  easier for our species to  understand. Given that his "true" form, and Miss Martian's as well, are androgynous  it doesn't  seem like a big stretch. It would also fit in with the fact that their public faces are just another disguise  to blend in.

[Assistant] They definitely have genders.  Whether or not they have *sexes* is another question.  Signs point to yes, but we don't know enough about how their sexual reproduction works to know if their shapeshifting goes deep enough that they can change it.  We know that a Martian of one color simply shifting to another is not enough to fool another Martian as there is something different telepathically.  It's possible that sex works the same way and there is a telepathic component to it.


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

[User] If Mars at some point had oceans that were filled with life similar to our own, would there still be oil there despite the harsh Marian conditions and what we know about the planet?

[Assistant]
It is very unlikely. Oil forms when organic matter of the right composition (with as high a H:C ratio as possible so with as little cellulose as possible)  is buried rapidly at a depth where the geothermal gradient will allow the chemical transformation to oil & gas.

There are thus 2 problems with Mars: 1 - While there is still some (but less and less) controversy over whether martian oceans existed, whether they were intermittent and how long they lasted, there is little controversy over the fact that they must have been quite shallow. This is a terrible constraint on the preservation of organic matter, in that storms may agitate bottom sediments and expose them to scavengers, bacteria and oxygen. Sucks for preservation. 2 - No plate tectonics means that basin development was slow, if indeed it was a thing. This makes it hard for whatever organic matter there may have been there to get buried deep enough to reach critical temperatures for the right chemistry to occur.


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

[User]
Why do so many aerosol products use things like propane and butane as propellants? Why not air or nitrogen?

Title pretty much says it all. Why would they use something so flammable?  Is there some reason to not use compressed air?

[Assistant] Propane and butane are liquids when compressed. This allows a lot of the gas to be stored in a small space. Normal compressed air is still a gas, and has to be compressed at much higher pressures to even approach the compact storage of the usual propellants.


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

[User]
Why... haven't sloths died out?

I wondered about this watching sloth videos, how come sloths havent died? How could sloths still exist today, from natural selection, wouldnt the sloth have died, because of their.... slowness?

Do sloths have *any* pros about them? They are slow, fat, not very smart, and they have to pee on a tree.

What would the benefit of being slow be? Not burning Energy?

**EDIT:** Thanks for the answers guys/girls, I didnt know people or so many people had such a passion for.... Sloths.

[Assistant]
All you have to do as a species is reproduce. Anything more is wasted. Slow is good, uses less energy; and most predators go after movement - a slow-moving creature attracts little attention.

Giant Pandas are even stranger: they move slowly, have an extraordinarily limited diet, and reproduce with great difficultly. Yet the species continues.


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

[User]
ELI5: How is "metaverse" different from second-life?

I don't understand how it's being presented as something new and interesting and nobody seems to notice/comment on this?

[Assistant]
It isn't any different. In fact the metaverse concept has been tried many times since the Internet became popular in 1994. A popular concept that never took off in the 90's was a 3D virtual mall. Retailers would have paid more to have their virtual store front closer to the spawn point for users.

The first released software that could be considered a metaverse is ActiveWorlds. It released in 1995 and is still running today. They had limited land, although it wasn't sold, it was just a landgrab where you placed objects to claim cells. They eventually started selling servers and tried to get businesses and universities to use it for virtual meetings.

We have yet to see the original metaverse concept of an infinite 3D virtual multiuser world. Nvidia Omniverse is almost there, but it's made for developers to link different programs that normally can't talk to each other. Nobody has come up with a good reason for a 3D metaverse besides online games and chatting.

The Internet can be argued to be a 2D metaverse however. It fits the metaverse concept except it's 2D instead of 3D.


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

[User] [DC Comics] I'm a small time mobster boss and have a mob/gang committing crimes, what crimes could we potentially do that are technically legal and won't be notice by the superheroes?

[Assistant]
Try this one -

First, you pick a bank and get your gang to apply for jobs, going in undercover.

Then, go back everyday and blend in, carrying out everyday jobs so as not to arouse suspicion.

At the end of the month, you embezzle a small amount of cash from the bank. The great thing is, if you give them your bank details, they'll even pay it into your account!

If you get most of your mob to do this, you'll make a fortune every month and no-one will bat an eyelid because it'll all be above board and the heroes won't have a clue.

The crime part - Your mob steals pens while they're there and you make more cash by selling them on ebay.


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

[User]
[Star Wars 1977] Why did the pilots have to take turns at attacks on the Death Star's flaw? If they staggered, a squad could have ended up behind Vader or at least given Vader more, spread-out targets to hit.

I mean, Luke's squad was waiting around while other trios did their run. Why not make it a big attack of 6-9 ships instead of 3?

[Assistant]
If they'd staggered, they would have been lining up one-by-one for the Death Star's autocannons. Remember that only Vader and his wingmen were in fighters. Tarkin was relying on the Death Star's point defense system.

Given that the thing basically had a big glowing weak point, the Rebellion's plan was basically to group up and make a break for it. The unspoken element of the plan is "Hey, they can't shoot down *all* of us.... right?"


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

[User]
[The Witcher] killing a Witcher, Steel or Silver?

This is a little embarrassing. I'm a Witcher who, do to complicated circumstances, needs to kill and Witcher. Just wondering... should I use my Steel Sword or my Silver Sword? Killing *each other* wasn't taught in my school, but since we're mutated with monster essences, might we share their weak against Silver?

[Assistant]
Steel, all the way.

Witchers are pretty impressive, physically speaking, and can bounce back from some severe injuries, but in the near term they're still pretty human; a severed artery or ruptured organ is a *problem*, and steel will cut a Witcher.

Also, keep in mind that your opponent is armed with a steel sword, and your silver sword wasn't meant to take the abuse of a swordfight. If you have to cross blades, they would be at an advantage, equipment wise.


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

[User]
Why is the smell of smoke strongest right after a candle has been extinguished?

Whenever I put out a candle it produces a strong smokey smell. Why is this present/strongest immediately after a candle has been extinguished.

Edit: Thanks for all the responses. I had a lot of fun showing people the relighting candle.

[Assistant] Smoke is often a by-product of incomplete combustion. As you begin to smother the flame, smoke emits. After you smother the flame, it no longer has enough heat energy to continue complete combustion. It does however have enough energy to continue smoking and oxidizing until that heat is used up in the exothermic reaction of combustion.


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

[User]
I recently learned that Panpsychism is seeing a renaissance of sorts among some philosophers. What makes this view attractive?

It's really interesting and fun to think about, but it also seems a little strange at the same time. It makes sense that individual minds could exist due to 'mind' being a fundamental property of the universe, but at the same time, most of existence (a star, chair, a tree, a cup of coffee) doesn't seem to have any properties we would associate with 'mind'.

I'm probably completely misinterpreting this, of course.

[Assistant]
> What makes this view attractive?

First, a situation where physicalism had become popular. Then, the spreading opinion that the traditional ways of reconciling what we want to say about mental states to physicalism are untenable.


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

[User]
What are some examples of the Fourth World

Specifically using Wikipedias definition of

Sub-populations existing in a First World country, but with the living standards of those of a Third World, or developing country."

[Assistant] The term "the Fourth World" was coined by Michael Posluns and Chief George Manual in their 1974 book called "The Fourth World". Their argument was that the three world model articulated by Alfred Sauvy in the early 1950s had overlooked another that has been marginalised and dispossessed by the other three. They were writing from a Canadian position, but generally referring to the native nations that continued to exist despite Canada. The term "fourth world" has become synonymous with "First Nations" in Canada and it has spread internationally to include other similarly situated peoples.


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

[User] ELI5: How can someone dream themselves into a complete orgasm without any physical contact?

[Assistant] Well the brain is the main sexual organ and when you dream vividly of sensory input/stimulation the brain can't tell the dreamed up sensory+visual+auditory input from actual external input and hence it's only natural that an orgasm can ensue. Just in the same way it is impossible to elicit an orgasm from someone who is unconscious (the brain is not participating).


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

[User] ELI5: What scientific logic supports the infinite universe theory? How can this be possible or even perceivable?

[Assistant]
Just from a logical point of view, if the universe is finite, what happens when you get to the edge? Is there anything outside it? If yes, then isn't that part of the universe? If no, is the edge some sort of barrier? What would it be made out of? Or does existence just stop once you pass the edge?

An infinite universe seems like a simpler answer, and science favors simpler answers.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why does technology progress so slowly?

In Knights of the Old Republic, which takes place several thousand years BBY, we still see pretty much all the same technology that we see in the Star Wars films.

So why has technological advancement stagnated so much?

[Assistant]
It's not stagnated, it's peaked and plateaued.

Technology in the galaxy as a whole is at such a high level that there's just not that much left to discover or invent.  All the problems that can be solved by technology given the limitations of physics in that universe by and large have been solved.

Artificial gravity is a good example of this.  Artificial gravity is so cheap an ubiquitous that a beat up smuggler's ship has three different gravity zones in it, and it's so efficient that even a scavenger in a backwater desert planet barely surviving has a speeder where it's not worth turning off the AG when she parks it.

Most technology has reached that level.  What looks like technological progression is usually just changes for aesthetics or redeveloping technology that had fallen out of use due to lack of need.


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

[User]
ELI5: How are ocean oil spills cleaned up?

Over the weekend, Southern California had at least 120,000 gallons of oil spilled from an offshore pipeline. How do response services go about cleaning up so much oil from the environment?

[Assistant]
A whole bunch of ways. They contain it with booms (floating barriers) and suck it up. They put what's basically dish soap on it to break it down so it isn't so it's less clumpy and disperses easier. Sometimes they'll set it on fire since the residue is less harmful than the slick and they may not be able to contain it before it spreads out.

For a lot of it though, they don't really do anything. They try, but if the spill starts really deep it may form underwater "plumes" that we can't get to. Some of it will get away from the spill area and escape the booms, sometimes rough seas or wind will spread it out super fast. This oil tends to wash up on shores eventually, the general hope is that it spreads itself so thin before then than it doesn't have much impact. There's an expression in environmental science "the solution to pollution is dilution". Take anything harmful and mix it in with enough seawater and it becomes nearly harmless. There are naturally occuring oil leaks under the sea, there's a TON of small oil leaks from sunken ships, and we really don't notice because it's so diluted.


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

[User] ELI5: What does an e-sport team coach do?

[Assistant] Analyses and organises play and practice. Sometimes plays a minor role as a manager (including PR, travel and lodging arrangement). Basically, like any other coach, they take a birds eye view of their team, take what they see and then delegate roles and improvement strategies on that basis.


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

[User] [LOTR] How Powerful, Exactly is Gandalf?

[Assistant]
As with all "power level" questions - It sort of depends.

Gandalf is a Maiar, basically a low(ish) level Angel.  In terms of the divine heirarchy he plays on the same level as Sauron and the Balrog.  So in terms of raw horsepower... he's about the most powerful thing we see.

However - He's also massively limited by his mission.  His role is not to throw around magic and his power.. it's to help the mortal races of the world face down evil on their own.  So while he could totally go toe to toe with Sauron... doing so would defeat his whole purpose... so in another way he's just a pretty weird guy with centuries of experience and knowledge and a bit of magic.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] How were the residents of Cloud City not baked by gas giant Bespin's lethal radiation belts?

I'm willing to posit there was a layer of 21% oxygen/78% nitrogen around Bespin...

But how does that account for the tremendous waves of radiation that would surely have cooked the "we can totally walk outdoors, here's a few more windows" Bespinites in seconds?  Even regretful suicidals seem immune to any deleterious effects that should surely be bombarding the bottom of the city regularly... what gives?

[Assistant]
Ok, a few things.  First, not all gas giants produce strong radiation.
 Bespin may not be one that does.  Second, of the ones that do, the radiation is produced in the magnetosphere, not internally, so Cloud City would be below the dangerous area.
Finally: Shields, man.  Shields.
We're talking about a civilization that has no qualms about building major industrial installations directly on top of active lava flows.  A little radiation from a gas giant is no big deal.


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

[User] ELI5: Why in most Japanese adult movies women almost cry when they have sex?

[Assistant]
I believe that the impression such scenes (those that aren't violent) are intended to convey is this:

the ideal Japanese woman is shy, delicate and graceful. And now this *manly man* (which the viewer is supposed to identify with) has made her *completely lose her composure*, which makes her cry with embarassment while at the same time she totally enjoys it!


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

[User]
Is it possible for the human brain to "crash"?

With the human brain basically being a biological supercomputer, is it possible that it could form some sort of process failure loop and crash like a desktop? Not in a blood supply/stroke kind of way, more of a "brain.exe has stopped working" kind of way.

[Assistant]
I suppose some seizures would count, for instance photosensitive epilepsy. Absence Epilepsy would too.

Also, some optical illusions are kind of an example.

One could also suggest that some mental health problems would count.

The problem is, it's actually very hard to equate the brain and a computer at this kind of high level. If you were to collect most programming errors into vague groups e.g. division by zero, over by 1, buffer overflow, rounding/precision errors or segmentation fault, none/very few of them have equivalent neural "errors". You would probably find closer analogies if you were to look at analog circuitry, e.g. oscillations (vaguely equivalent to some epilepsies), impedance mismatching (equiv to when region A can no longer drive region B) and simple miswiring.


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

[User]
ELI5 Why are movies sometimes released on Christmas Day? Wouldn't that lead to lower amounts of money?

Les Miserables is being released on Christmas and I wanted to know why.

[Assistant]
Because most everyone in the country has the day off. After you've opened all of your presents that morning you've got some time to kill. Everything else is closed, so, why not go out and see a movie?

Also, the Jews.


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

[User]
ELI5 why do cribs get recalled all the time?

How hard is it to make a safe bed for a baby? Why do manufacturers not know how to do this by now??

[Assistant]
It's easy to make a safe crib. Take hard, dense wood, shape it to fit snuggly, and use high quality fasteners.

The problem is that this is expensive. Given the choice, most people will buy the cheaper option if the product performs the same function. To chase sales, companies have to find ways to make things cheaper.

So companies try to reduce the cost of their products with cheaper materials and labor so they are barely functional. This generates the most profit (cheaper = more people buy it over expensive options and they make more money per sold piece). Often times, this sacrifices safety because they didn't need to test for it (no regulations) or they didn't want to test for it due to cost. For more unscrupulous companies, recalls cost less than the lost profit if they didn't make the product.


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

[User] What determines how a drug is administered (e.g. orally, anally, injected)?

[Assistant]
It is a combination of several factors:

Is the drug broken down by gastric acid and/or digestive enzymes? In some cases that rules out tablet administration, in other cases you can get past it by coating them for release later in the intestines.

First pass metabolism? Drugs absorbed from the intestines (mostly) go through the liver before entering the systemic circulation. For some drugs the liver clears the drug so efficiently from the circulation that you need to increase the dose massively or give it through another route. If it is absorbed through mucosa you can give it nasally, by buccal/subling adm or per rectum. If it is not absorbed mucosally you will need to give it intravenously or intramuscularly.

Other considerations also come into play. For example for anaesthesia we want to control the pharmacokinetic aspects closely (that is the timing and precise control of drug concentration in the blood stream and CNS) to be able to do this we have to use intravenous access or inhalation (for anaesthetic gasses).

If you are interested in details you can try to get hold of an introduction to pharmacology, which is the field that deals with this in depth.


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

[User]
How does your brain know which of your memories are real and which arent?

Im laying in bed and just woke up from a dream where I placed an order for a new dining table. After I woke up from my dream it took a little bit of time for me to realize that I never actually ordered that dining table. How does my brain know my dream memory of me ordering that table didnt actually happen?

[Assistant] The line between real and fictional memories isn't that clear. Eyewitnesses for example can remember things that aren't true. Every time you remember something you change this memory a little bit. And you can even create false memories by asking questions like: "Do you remember ... we did last summer? Here's a (photoshopped) image." But usually it is possible to detect false memories by searching the context for inconsistencies (e.g. teleportation in dreams).


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

[User] ELI5: Why is it more tiring to stand than to walk?

[Assistant] When you're standing you're not actually resting. Your muscles are constantly making small adjustments with your ankles as the pivot point in order to stop you from falling on your face. Each adjustment isn't very intensive but it does this *alot*.Not only are your muscles doing this work constantly, it's only a small group of them (mainly the calves), which causes them to tire. In comparison walking uses far more muscles and basically spreads the fatigue around. As well walking doesn't work those muscles constantly, on average as you move those muscles are resting about half the time as you move from one foot to the other.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is the U.S. so notorious for using Africans as slaves, when Africans had been using and selling Africans as slaves long before Europeans brought them to the Americas?

[Assistant]
There is more than one type of slavery.

In ancient Athens, conquered people became slaves, but their children were born free. They retired as free people, and it was really more like having your country invaded then being given a job you have to do.

Others like the Romans would keep foreigners as slaves, and you could be born a slave. These slaves were invisible though to society - they belonged to a household and had to do the jobs they were given, but they had time off, sometimes got paid, they fell in love and got married and had families. You couldn't tell if someone walking up the street was a slave or not. These slaves are the ancestors of the European peasant, the common folks. It was only in about the 17th century or so that we got the idea that people should be allowed to say 'no' if their Lord told them to do something.

The American South did not view Africans as human beings, but as animals. They broke up families, they engaged in forced breeding programs where men were beaten until they raped the woman they were told to breed with, they recklessly endangered slaves lives, they did not allow any sort of dignity. 'Chattel' slavery is the most powerfully dehumanizing form of slavery, and it only ever existed in the Caribbean and American South.


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

[User] [Science fiction in general] How easy would it be to get rich in a galaxy spanning empire with trillions of inhabitants? Could sell some product for only one credit and become a trillionaire?

[Assistant]
Same reason you can't sell something today for a dollar and make a billion.

Cost to produce, cost to distribute, cost to advertise, markets you can't sell in, markets who don't want your product, copycats producing the same for .20c less, cost of legal settlements and fighting off patent trolls, cost of physical protection, cost of someone to manage all this...

I mean, in theory it's possible, but there's a whole world out there (or several worlds in your case) full of people trying to take the same bite out of the same pie. The lucky ones pull it off, the rest are just the rest of us.


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

[User]
[Limit definition] Why can't |f(x)-L|   ?

I'm curious. I'm just seeing no problem with (0<|x-a|  => |f(x)-L| ). Why couldn't this be the definition instead?

Also, why isn't ( 0<|f(x)-L|< ) a part of the definition?

Any help is really appreciated!

[Assistant]
Ill answer your second question first. The reason we take the punctured delta neighborhood of x is because if we allowed x-a to be 0 (ie if x=a) the epsilon condition would require the function to be both defined and continuous at a, and for limits we dont want to be so restrictive; we only care what happens arbitrarily close to a. As for why we dont puncture the epsilon neighborhood of f(x), if we did require 0<|f(x)-L|<, then we would be imposing the condition that f cannot take the value of L near x, and this would be unreasonable (constant functions, for example, would no longer be continuous).

For your first question, we absolutely could use the non strict inequalities. This has to do with the (standard/Euclidean) topology on the real numbers. Using the non strict inequalities would result in closed intervals, and we can form the definition of a topology equally well in terms of closed sets. The reason we use the open set formulation (with the strict inequality <) is because in the real numbers, open sets are more well-behaved and are easier to work with than closed sets (every open set is a countable union of open intervals whilst closed sets can get more pathological; see the Cantor set for example).

Heres something for you to think about: would these definitions work equally well if we had strict inequality for the delta term but non strict inequality for the epsilon term (or vice versa)? Why or why not?


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

[User]
would a container with a vacuum in it float?

Theoretically, if you have one solid sphere of glass, one hollow sphere with air in it and one hollow sphere with a perfect vacuum inside. would the  one with a vacuum float better than the one with air? what would happen?

Also say you had a zeppelin that could keep its shape despite there being vaccum inside it, would it float? can a container float in air if there is vacuum inside, it is light enough and strong enough to not implode?

[Assistant] Yes. If you could create a light container with a vacuum inside it that won't collapse under atmospheric pressure, it will experience more buoyancy than helium or hydrogen filled things do. It would be very hard to create that type of container though.


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

[User] [Star Wars] What was the Republic Army like prior to the Clone Wars?

[Assistant]
It didn't have one.

The Republic was an extremely weak government that preferred to let individual planets or other large concerns manage and maintain their own combat and defense forces. That's why the separatists were such a threat, they had been running their own paramilitary companies for years (or decades. maybe centuries) and could easily create a force capable of threatening the galaxy.

That's not to say the Republic didn't have an official "defense force" that was made up of a few ships with a few dedicated military people. We saw one of these dock on the Trade Federation ship at the start of the Naboo drama. However, this "defense force" barely constituted a navy, let alone an entire galactic army. If anything, it was more of a way to pay lip service to old laws and traditions more than it was a legitimate military.


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

[User] Can you trick a tyranid hive fleet into a black hole? Would it stop them?

[Assistant]
Nope. There are a few reasons too.

**All** Tyranids, from tiny Fleshboreer Beetles to massive bio-ships, are biological living organisms. They all have senses similar to that of a human and many more. Additionally all are linked together through the Hive Mind.

Black Holes are escapable, granted you don't cross the Event Horizon. Given the Bioships have the ability to feel the elements of space, including gravity, they'd know when they're getting close to black holes. Chances are they even use them for travel in the form of gravity assists.

Should a ship manage to fall into a black hole, the Hive Mind will immediately know there is danger and steer as many bio-ships away from it as possible. Even that is unlikely to happen because the main fleet sends hundreds of (comparably) tiny scout fleets ahead and check for danger. You know all those Hive Fleets the galaxy's experienced? Yeah, those are the *scouts*.


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

[User]
[Warhammer 40K] I'm a Imperial Guard general who just won a battle against Nurgle forces. What do I do with my surviving forces?

I know what Nurgle's whole theme is, and I'm concerned he might have a surprise waiting for us a week later. Is there a way to cure or at least screen my soldiers for unnatural diseases? I don't like wasting forces; "Life is the Emperor's currency" and all that.

[Assistant]
If you don't have anywhere urgent to be, tell the boys that orders from "up high" are to dig in and be ready in case of counter attack. Maintain all your trench lines, keep *everyone* exactly in place, and switch all resupply to air drops. No one need to know that "up high" equals "you" or that the real reason for maintaining lines is to quarantine the troops without making in obvious.

Anyone tries to leave their post? Shoot them. If anyone asks, it was for deserting their post, which is technically accurate and unlikely to raise any eyebrows.

Any strong points start requesting medical aid? Switch their resupply package out for firebombs.

Nothing happens in 40 days? Start pulling the troops back in small groups, performing mandatory physical exams as they come. Anyone refusing to turn and cough gets shot for disobeying a direct order.


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

[User]
What makes some cancers easier to be cured than others?

I understand a bit about the terrible disease that cancer is, but I am curious as to why certain forms are far less likely to be treated effectively. For example, I know lung cancer is very difficult, if not impossible, to cure, but throat cancer on the other hand has a moderate success rate.

Edit: Thank you all so much for responding so carefully and thoroughly; I really appreciate it, especially those of you posting immediately after coming home from your medical profession!

[Assistant]
Accessibility is the most important thing. Anything that can be easily reached is easier to treat. Skin cancer, for instance, can usually be cut off. Radiation therapy is more productive when tumors are close to the skin, or else the radiation does a lot of collateral damage to the cells in between.

Another issue is how quickly the cancer spreads. It's easy to treat cancer at one site, but not at several different places throughout the body. Pancreatic cancer is extremely dangerous because it metastasizes very quickly. Chemotherapy is a systemic treatment, so the concerns are more focused on how easily the cancer cells are reached and affected by the drugs.


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

[User]
How much radiation would you be exposed to holding weapons-grade plutonium in your hand?

In a movie I saw yesterday there were several scenes of the characters holding spheres of weapons-grade plutonium in their bare hands with seemingly no concern for how radioactive it is.

My gut says this is a really, really bad idea, but I'm curious just how bad it would be.  How much radiation would you be dosed with if you did that in real life?

[Assistant]
It depends on how much of it youre holding, and whether or not criticality is reached. The common isotopes of plutonium are radioactive to alpha decay, but Pu always comes cladded in other metals, which the alpha particles cant penetrate. Some fraction of the time, it will undergo spontaneous fission instead, which will also result in the emission of neutrons and gamma rays. These will in general penetrate through the cladding and give you a dose.

As long as there is no criticality reached, the dose rate wont be *too* high. People can handle amounts on the order of a few kilograms of weapons-grade plutonium (I personally have done so) without receiving a dangerous dose.

You dont just hold bare Pu in your bare hands though, the Pu is cladded with some other metal (like zirconium), and you generally wear gloves when handling it. The gloves are not very heavy-duty, as theyre not used to shield radiation. Instead theyre used to mitigate the spread of radioactive contamination. When youre done handling the material, your hands will generally be tested for contamination, and once youve been given the all-clear, you remove the gloves and dispose of them.

So its really not as dangerous as you think. The real danger is in criticality accidents, but as long as youre handling less than the critical mass with your given amount of moderation, then criticality cant be reached, by definition. A fun fact about it though is that for kilogram amounts of Pu, the cladding actually feels warm to the touch due to the radiation (most of which doesnt penetrate the cladding).


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why was Millenium Falcon chosen to attack the Death Star II core?

It's a cargo freighter with a souped-up hyperdrive, that hardly seems conducive to intense close quarters dogfighting and tactical bombing. Why not send a Y-wing or A-wing or heck, just send Wedge in alone so that theres one less thing he can crash into by accident.

[Assistant]
The Falcon didn't just have something snazzy under the hood, it also has military grade sensors, shields and weapons along with one of the best pilots in the galaxy (Lando is incredibly good), who also happens to be a general in the attacking force. It would have made more sense to send an attack wing, but the galactic civil war was just as much a war of propaganda as it was anything else.

It wasn't suicidal to send the falcon, given its capabilities, and Lando knew it would be huge for morale.


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

[User]
What is gravity like at the center of the Earth?

So say you were able to reach the center of the Earth, what would gravity be like? Would there be a sense of getting pulled in a direction (down?), or would you be weightless like in space?

[Assistant]
The gravitational field at the exact center of Earth is **0**. (Strictly speaking, this doesn't occur exactly at the center because of the nonuniformity of Earth, but *any* compact mass distribution has a point where the field is **0**. So somewhere near/at the center, the field is **0**.)

So, assuming you were some magical being that could survive the heat and pressure and molten core and also move about without really interacting with anything other than via gravity, you would feel no net force at the center. (You would also feel weightness, but this is because weightlessness is a sensation we get when we don't feel the reaction force to gravity, e.g., the normal force from your chair or ground.)

If you displace yourself a small distance from the center, you will feel pulled back toward the center, then overshoot it because of your non-zero speed, then move out to some maximum, come back to the center, and repeat. Your motion is similar to that of a pendulum or other simple harmonic oscillator. In fact, for an exactly uniform and spherical Earth, any object placed at rest anywhere inside Earth will experience SHO with period T = 2(R*_earth_*^(3)/(GM*_earth_*)), which is about 85 minutes.


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

[User]
[DC Comics] Why doesn't Superman have heat breath?

Normal humans can't blow cold air out of their lungs, but Superman has freeze breath. Normal humans can, however, blow hot air. It stands to reason then that Superman should be able to blow air at insanely hot temperatures. Has this ever been shown?

[Assistant]
Because you can create cold gas by compressing it, the same doesn't go for heating it up.

When Superman uses his freeze breath he simply extremely compresses the air in his lungs lowering its temperature and then breaths it out. Which in fact, is something humans can do.

Breath out air on your hand with your mouth open wide, it will be warm. Do the same but compress the air into a thin stream as if you're trying to whistle with your lips, now the air coming out is cold.

It's called Clapeyron's Law or the Ideal Gas Law and there is no equivalent for heating up a gas that could be easily done.


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

[User]
[40k] What might the galaxy be like if the Horus Heresy hadn't happened, or had been crushed swiftly?

Suppose the Heresy is either entirely averted, or is crushed swiftly and with minimal losses. What's the galaxy like for the next ten millenia and beyond?

[Assistant] The Emperor doesn't spend the next 10,000 years as a rotting corpse on the Golden Throne and isn't falsely deified by the Imperial Cult.  The Imperial Webway is completed without issue, meaning that the IoM can completely avoid Warp travel.  The Space Marine Legions are not broken into smaller Chapters with smaller numbers.


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

[User]
If our government can still run while in huge debt then why do we need taxes?

I'm looking for a more in-depth answer than " people need to believe in money"

[Assistant]
There's a few reasons why taxes may be levied.

* First off, taxes do drive a lot of revenue, in FY 2019, The federal government had $3.5 trillion in revenue, and a $984 billion deficit. The federal government running a $4.5 trillion deficit in a normal year would likely be unsustainable.

* Secondly, the deficit largely comes from treasury bonds issued, not just printing money. While US treasury bonds are in high demand, they don't have infinite demand. Only so many people want them every year. If deficit spending went too high, then the Treasury might need to raise rates, which would increase interest on those bonds, increasing debt further, requiring even higher rates, which increases debt, and thus interest until it's not sustainable.

* And aside from raising money, there are other reasons to issue taxes. Taxes can be used as an important tool for internalizing negative externalities. For example, fuel is taxed because most consumers and producers of fuel don't recognize the ecological and road-wear impact of driving. Cigarettes and alcohol are taxed for similar reasons.


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

[User]
[Pokemon] Team Rocket gets obsessed with the seemingly underwhelming Pikachu because it manages to easily defeat the whole team. Why did they not get obsessed with Ash's Caterpie aswell?

I know it evolved into Metapod that same episode but Team Rocket didnt see that.

[Assistant] because pikachu is an easily visible target. Ash keeps pikachu out at all times and can often be away from Ash. To steal his other pokemon, they would have to steal them on his belt which he rarely takes off. They also dont know which pokeball contains which pokemon, so its a toss up if they even steal the right one. Pikachu, by all rights should be an "easy target" Jesse and James just stink at stealing pokemon.


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

[User]
Why cant you take a pulse with your thumb?

Ive been told that your thumb has its own pulse but I dont understand how that would work could someone please explain?

[Assistant] Like all body parts, your fingers and thumb have arteries supplying them with blood. The fingers have two arteries supplying them from the side,  but the thumb has a single artery running through the middle. When you use your thumb to feel for a pulse, especially one that is absent or weak, you risk feeling your own pulse instead of (or in addition to) the patient's, and you may draw wrong conclusions.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does the ocean have its distinct smell?

Edit: thank you so much for all the responses! You guys are awesome :)

[Assistant]
You're smelling the salt water getting into the air. Whether by crashing up against things or through waves forming and then dissipating, the salt water gets into the air and that is the distinct smell.

I'd imagine other things, like the sand, contribute to it.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does spicy food burn the mouth and tongue but not the throat?

[Assistant] Technically it does, we just have more receptors for pain in our mouths. Because the chemical capsaicin, which is responsible for that, doesnt actually burn, it just uses receptors in your mouth to fool it into believing it is being burned, and they happen to only affect certain receptors. We also know it does cause that reaction the whole way down due to the fact that too much gives you an upset stomach, which will result in the body trying to eject it either by ridding your body of it the usual route by very quickly passing it through your intestines, or vomiting.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does the "Goose Stepping" Style of military marching seem to be universally adopted by dictatorships and non-democratic regimes? (Examples : Nazi Germany, North Korea, Communist China, the Russian Federation).

[Assistant] It originally started in Prussia and quickly spread around Europe, however after it become popular with Mussolini it became mocked by the Allies and abandoned by Western Europe. It stayed in essentially the rest of the world however, not because it's an 'Evil Dictatorship' aesthetic choice but simply because it's a more traditional style of marching. Pakistan, India, Poland, Mexico and various other sufficiently 'democratic' states use the goose step. It's also not uniform, in North Korea for example it isn't an orthodox goose step but a cross between that and a sort of running jump.


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

[User]
Eli5 how does the brain store the meaning of words in your head?

Does it link words to pictures in your mind? So there is a mapping from the word "owl" to a picture of an owl in your head?

Can I also add that I don't think this mapping involves word definitions, so for example the word owl won't map to the word definition of an owl since you need to define words in the definition itself. This causes a never ending chain as you keep having to define words in further definitions.

[Assistant]
You gotta think of your brain like a file cabinet that stores all the words you know and has files on the things that a make a word have a meaning. This includes relationships between words/ideas, sensory info, similar words or things, sounds, usages, and all that. Then theres pathways that form between what you hear/see and where the file is stored in the mind. The word owl would definitely map to the definition of an owl (big, nocturnal, hunter, wise, feathery, bird, bitey, 360 head spin) unless you didnt know what an owl was, in which case youd maybe try and figure out if an owl if something that sounds like the word owl, find a word that sounds similar and maybe come up with a wrong definition and start to build inaccurate files on it.

I dont know if this is allowed, but the non ELI5 word for this is psycholinguistic processing and it relates to the way words are stored and retrieved in the mind.


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

[User] [Dragonball Z] Are Fusion Dances/Potara Fusions gender specific? What would happen if a man and a woman tried to fuse?

[Assistant]
The Potara aren't gender specific. Old Kai fused with an old female witch and came out still male but with horrible looks.I believe the consensus here is that the gender and major traits are all relative to the one with the most over shadowing personality. In Vegeta and Goku's case, even though Goku was stronger, Vegeta was a more dominant persona and so thats why not only more of his gi is visible, but also vegeto doesn't finish off Buu when he has the chance. (much like Vegeta did with Cell).

The fusion dance is a bit more specific, IIRC. Not only does the power level need to be similar, but the individuals should mirror each other as much as possible for a successful fusion. This is why Krillin and Piccolo  didn't fuse even though they knew the dance and Piccolo could lower his energy to Krillins level. So a male and a females bodies might be too different to fuse as well this way.


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

[User]
[The Simpsons] Has Homer ever actually show any competence as a Nuclear Safety Inspector whatsoever?

It seems to me that the only reason Homer's still working is exactly because the management at the power plant know that hiring a qualified (or even present) inspector would expose them as an ongoing nuclear disaster. Is there any sign that he's ever found a safety issue at work?

[Assistant]
"C.E.D'oh" from season 14.

Homer takes a class on workplace success and becomes a good employee, although Mr. Burns ignores his concerns.

Later when circumstances make Homer owner of the Power Plant he runs it well/competently although the emotional and physical strain makes him give the Plant back to Burns by the end.


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

[User] [Punisher] What is the biggest and most harmful crime that the Punisher will not kill a person for?

[Assistant]
I can't imagine him objecting too much to a revenge-for-severe-transgression-against-me murder, if it didn't spill over onto any innocents.

He's also demonstrated the presence of mind to let criminals go when it would be excessively cruel. In "Welcome to the Bayou" he is saved from a cannibal redneck family by the assistance of a gangbanger he'd been keeping in the trunk of his car; Frank lets the 'banger go out of a sense of gratitude. In "Archie Meets the Punisher," Frank eventually decides to let his target (who we are told is a very bad man) live, because being in peaceful little Riverdale reminds him of how things could have been if his family had survived, and he can't bring himself to scar the locals by blowing out his brains in front of everyone.


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

[User]
[DC] does superman know how to fight?

Most villains he goes up again he's faster than and stronger than. A few solid hits and they are out. But just punching really hard isn't a fighting style. Like batman knows how to dodge, use his foe's strength against him, counter attack, etc. Does superman know how to do anything of this or does he just use brute force?

[Assistant]
Yes. He's had a lot of training from, among others, Batman himself.

He's obviously not on Batman's level, but if you took away his powers and put him up against some street thugs he could more than handle himself.


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

[User]
How did you determine and refine your research interest to be as specific as possible? What kind of PIs did you reach out to? How did you go about requesting a supervisor? Whats big in the field of neuroscience right now?

Personally, I am interested in looking at neuronal regeneration and how it can be augmented or enhanced (plasticity, enhancing or replacing damaged tissue due to neurodegenerative disease or trauma, looking at factors that play a role in activating latent stem cells etc). Would like to work in a wet lab and look at something on the cellular level (at the synapse/genetic factors).

I'll be reaching out to PI's in order to find a potential supervisor and will try to incorporate some info from there publications into my correspondence. However, could you guys potentially help me with getting my research interest to be a bit more specific (if you feel its too broad), and assist with phrasing my correspondents in the best way possible.

[Assistant] Your research interests are probably as specific as they can be. People get more specific based on when they get their advisor, where the grant money is going, and what they can do someone in the lab isnt doing.


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

[User] ELI5: how can splitting a tiny piece of an even tinier atom create such a vast explosion?

[Assistant] Even though they are tiny, the amount of energy holding those atoms together is really strong (relatively). When the atom is split that energy is released. Lots of atoms get split in an almost instant chain reaction, lots of energy gets released, and boom!


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

[User]
If rice and other high-carb foods are a major factor in causing diabetes and heart diseases over the long term, how come some cultures with rice as their staple diets, such as east Asian, don't have high diabetes rates?

I was reading up on Glycemic Index, low-carb diets, and other related things, and how low GI food lower risk for developing diabetes and heart diseases and vice versa. If this is really the case, then how come Asian cultures, which depend on rice a lot don't have a diabetes epidemic like USA or other western countries?

[Assistant]
Being obese is the real concern. Eating too many calories makes you obese, and the most calorically dense (and cheapest) food around us tends to contain a lot of carbs.

Carbs are not bad. Being chronically obese is.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why don't bugs take fall damage?

I've seen bugs fall from high distances yet they walk away fine, why is that?

[Assistant]
Two main reasons: First, they're very light. The force of an impact is proportional to the mass of the object involved. Insects have very little mass, so they receive comparatively little force. It also means they have a low terminal velocity because the force of gravity pulling them down is more easily countered by air resistance.

Second, they're armored. That doesn't seem consequential when you squish a bug, but on insect-scale the exoskeleton is quite strong, and it helps them minimize the impact of what force they do take from falling.


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

[User]
ELI5: If every country in the world has massive debt ranging from multi billions to trillions of dollars and it is still growing each year, how can any country expect to ever pay it off?

What are the eventual consequences of all this debt buildup and at what point does it mean you must default on that debt (The current Greece situation?).

[Assistant]
No country is expected to pay off their full debt at once. Little parts of that debt come due every day and as long as governments are able to honour the parts of debt that come due + pay interest for all the rest, it's all good.

Greece's big problem is that things put them in a situation where they couldn't keep up with those obligations anymore. If you come to that point, you'll have to make arrangements, but if you cannot or if those arrangements don't save your ass, then you might have to default and deal with the consequences.


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

[User]
What causes the blur that we see over hot surfaces?

I was wondering what that distortion or blur is that we see above things that get really hot, but have no open flame.

[Assistant] The object heats the air around the object and causes convection currents in the air.  This causes fluctuations in the density of the air (hot air is less dense than cool air).  The density fluctuations cause light rays traveling through the affected region of air to bend due to refraction.  The refraction distorts shapes.  Some of the blurriness is due to refraction itself and some of it is due to the fact that air density fluctuates from one spot to another and over time, creating slightly different images (not unlike the twinkling of stars when seen through the atmosphere).


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

[User] ELI5: How does the process work where companies/individuals end up paying less tax by taking out loans? And is this something anyone can do?

[Assistant]
I don't think this works for companies, but it does for individuals.

Let say you are Jeff Bezos.  You have 200 billion in stock in Amazon, but you make a small salary of like 80k (which is what is salary actually is).  But you want to buy a big house, you have two options:

1 - You can sell enough stock to have the cash to buy the house.  However, selling stock makes your income go up a lot.  And then you'd have to pay a lot of taxes on that profit of selling stock.  Lots of taxes.

2 - You can borrow money using the stock as collateral.  You allow the bank to put a lien on a portion of your stock, and they give you the money for the house.  Since you aren't selling the stock, there is no income, there is no tax burden involved.

Anybody can do this IF they have assets for the bank to have a lien against.  Stocks.  Houses.  Etc.


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

[User]
ELI5: My dad's views of Obamacare, and, on a much broader spectrum, socialist healthcare systems in general.

Hi.

So, my dad is a pretty old guy who says that, if Obamacare, or any sort of healthcare system which is socialist in any way, were to be passed, that people like me who have, say, Psychosis, would not be able to choose their own doctors. He says that's because the government would be able to choose which doctors you're able to see, and also because, according to him, the poorest of the poor would all want to see the best doctors, and would be able to because they would be covered, and thus would clog up the system, making it difficult to see great doctors.

Now, I know next to nothing about Obamacare, and as mentioned above, I have Psychosis, so I don't know how Obamacare, or any sort of socialist healthcare system, would affect me. So, could somebody please ELI5?

[Assistant]
True "Socialist" medicine does exist in the U.S. It's called Medicare (health coverage for the elderly) or Medicaid (health coverage for those in poverty). The Affordable Care Act (aka "Obamacare") is *not* socialized medicine. In fact, you might wish to ask your father if he plans to enroll in Medicare when he's of age (if he's not already). If his answer is "yes," then ask him why he supports socialist medicine?

Your father apparently has a spotty memory with respect to how things operated in the health sector prior to the ACA, though this is not uncommon for those who consume large quantities of right-wing "news" media.

The ACA is a mandate and a system for citizens to purchase insurance from exchanges that provide access to policies from private insurance corporations (if such policies are not already provided by the citizens' employers or if they are not eligible for Medicare or Medicaid). These plans are required to cover a spectrum of things, including prenatal visits and birth control that you may not use. **However, the ACA also expands mental health coverage in most plans,** something that you may personally benefit from in your situation.

The important thing for most people who were uncovered before is that the Affordable Care Act makes available affordable insurance covering a basic level of services and that won't discriminate against someone for "preexisting conditions." This is a big deal, really. It used to be that before the ACA that if one contracted a potentially expensive condition, then one ran the risk of the insurance company canceling one's policy; you then wouldn't be able to get coverage because of these "preexisting conditions." This practice was ruinous for many, as they lost their coverage right when they needed it most. Indeed, medical expenses are still the leading cause of personal bankruptcy in the U.S. Many people felt the need to stay in jobs where they were abused (poor working conditions, frozen salaries, diminishing benefits) purely because they were afraid of losing employer-provided health coverage. (This is one of the major reasons that the business sector is fighting so hard for its repeal--when workers can't afford to leave their jobs, employers have *huge* leverage over the workforce.)

While you can still see any doctor you want, your specific insurance plan may or may not cover your visit. Many plans only cover physicians who are "in network" and don't cover (or don't cover fully) visits to doctors outside of the network. This is a practice that neither started with nor was exacerbated by the ACA. It's simply business as usual for the insurance companies in an ongoing effort to cut costs and maximize profits. Presumably, plans that cost a bit more but allow a larger spectrum of doctors to be seen will have some competitive advantage in the markets, though whether this is truly the case when everything shakes down is yet to be determined (the medical insurance markets are far from efficient in the capitalist sense, as they are effectively state-protected duopolies and thus not subject to the same market forces as, say, a Sears or Walmart).

As for "clogging up the system" with patients, the poorest of the poor already have Medicaid and many doctors, particularly specialists, limit significantly the Medicaid and Medicare patients they see. One reason is that while Medicare compensation is roughly break-even for them in terms of costs, they actually lose money seeing Medicaid patients. This is a separate problem apart from the ACA.

Incidentally, the poor do "clog the system" now with emergency room visits, since it's the law that they be stabilized before being sent on their merry way, with the costs passed along to the paying customers.

The ACA is the right-wing solution to the healthcare problem. It's the plan promoted by the Heritage Foundation (a right-wing think-tank) and implemented successfully by the former Republican Governor Mitt Romney in the state of Mass. The political left wanted a single-payer system but such systems aren't likely anytime soon, save for in a few states like Vermont who are flirting with setting them up on a smaller scale.

Edit: missing word.

Edit 2: Thanks for the Gold!


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

[User]
What did Hegel think of America?

He lived through the American Revolution and he was a thinker who thought quite deeply about history and government. Did Hegel ever express any views on America, the founding fathers, or the US constitution?

[Assistant]
He had some... things... to say about America in the introduction to the *Lectures on the Philosophy of History*. You can read the whole relevant portion near the end of the Introduction, but here are some excerpts of the general idea:

>America has always shown itself physically and psychically powerless, and still shows itself so. For the aborigines, after the landing of the Europeans in America, gradually vanished at the breath of European activity. In the United States of North America all the citizens are of European descent, with whom the old inhabitants could not amalgamate, but were driven back. The aborigines have certainly adopted some arts and usages from the Europeans, among others that of brandy-drinking, which has operated with deadly effect. In the South the natives were treated with much greater violence, and employed in hard labors to which their strength was by no means competent. A mild and passionless disposition, want of spirit, and a crouching submissiveness towards a Creole, and still more towards a European, are the chief characteristics of the native Americans; and it will be long before the Europeans succeed in producing any independence of feeling in them. The inferiority of these individuals in all respects, even in regard to size, is very manifest; only the quite southern races in Patagonia are more vigorous natures, but still abiding in their natural condition of rudeness and barbarism.
>
>[...]
>
>The original nation having vanished or nearly so, the effective population comes for the most part from Europe; and what takes place in America, is but an emanation from Europe. Europe has sent its surplus population to America in much the same way as from the old Imperial Cities, where trade-guilds were dominant and trade was stereotyped, many persons escaped to other towns which were not under such a yoke, and where the burden of imposts was not so heavy.
>
>[...]
>
>As to the political condition of North America, the general object of the existence of this State is not yet fixed and determined, and the necessity for a firm combination does not yet exist; for a real State and a real Government arise only after a distinction of classes has arisen, when wealth and poverty become extreme, and when such a condition of things presents itself that a large portion of the people can no longer satisfy its necessities in the way in which it has been accustomed so to do. But America is hitherto exempt from this pressure, for it has the outlet of colonization constantly and widely open, and multitudes are continually streaming into the plains of the Mississippi. By this means the chief source of discontent is removed, and the continuation of the existing civil condition is guaranteed. A comparison of the United States of North America with European lands is therefore impossible; for in Europe, such a natural outlet for population, notwithstanding all the emigrations that take place, does not exist. Had the woods of Germany been in existence, the French Revolution would not have occurred. North America will be comparable with Europe only after the immeasurable space which that country presents to its inhabitants shall have been occupied, and the members of the political body shall have begun to be pressed back on each other. North America is still in the condition of having land to begin to cultivate. Only when, as in Europe, the direct increase of agriculturists is checked, will the inhabitants, instead of pressing outwards to occupy the fields, press inwards upon each otherpursuing town occupations, and trading with their fellow-citizens; and so form a compact system of civil society, and require an organized state. The North American Federation have no neighboring State (towards which they occupy a relation similar to that of European States to each other), one which they regard with mistrust, and against which they must keep up a standing army. Canada and Mexico are not objects of fear, and England has had fifty years' experience, that *free* America is more profitable to her than it was in a state of *dependence*. The militia of the North American Republic proved themselves quite as brave in the War of Independence as the Dutch under Philip II; but generally, where Independence is not at stake, less power is displayed, and in the year 1814 the militia held out but indifferently against the English.
>
>America is therefore the land of the future, where, in the ages that lie before us, the burden of the Worlds History shall reveal itselfperhaps in a contest between North and South America. It is a land of desire for all those who are weary of the historical lumber-room of old Europe. Napoleon is reported to have said: "*Cette vieille Europe mennuie*." It is for America to abandon the ground on which hitherto the History of the World has developed itself. What has taken place in the New World up to the present time is only an echo of the Old Worldthe expression of a foreign Life; and as a Land of the Future, it has no interest for us here, for, as regards History, our concern must be with that which has been and that which is.


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

[User]
Eli5: I seriously cant wrap my head around the idea of time is relative.

I just dont get how time is faster and slower on planets that arent Earth and how this affects how we age as well.

[Assistant]
Time being relative is a byproduct of the fact that the speed of light in a vacuum is a constant regardless of your frame of reference.

That probably sounded science-jargony and didn't help, so let's take a step back and talk about velocity/speed and frames of reference. There's a classic physics thought experiment where you have a truck going down the highway at 55 miles per hour, and in the back of the truck is an athlete or robot or something that can throw an object out of the back of the truck at 55 miles per hour going the other direction. From the frame of reference of the truck, the ball will be going backwards at 55 miles per hour (because the robot/pitcher/whatever and ball were stationary from the reference point of the truck), but if you're looking at this from the side, the ball will seem to stay right where it was released, because the imparted force that accelerates the ball to 55 miles per hour backwards is exactly cancelling out the forward velocity (from earth's reference frame) that was bestowed onto it by the truck.

Now here's the next part of the trick, and where our intuition fails us: *Light in a vacuum moves at the same speed no matter what you're doing around it.* Let's take our truck and turn it into a rocket that can move at a significant percentage of the speed of light. And let's replace our ball-throwing person/robot and replace it with a flashlight. If this behaved the same way that the ball did, if we took our rocket and accelerated it to 0.5c (or half the speed of light) and from the reference frame of the earth looked at the light from the flashlight (it's a really bright flashlight), it would appear to be moving at 0.5 c as well (since it would be moving at 1c but would have to negate the 0.5c the ship was moving at), but we've tested this and despite it making no intuitive sense, *the light from the back of the rocket will be traveling at 1c (or just c)*. Similarly, if we take the flashlight on that same rocket and point it towards the front, and we take our intuition from the ball experiment, we might expect that light to be going at 1.5c, but it, too, will be going at 1c *no matter where we measure it from.* The ship sees it going at 1c, Earth sees it moving at 1c, Mars sees it moving at 1c... you get the picture.

This is a case of *special relativity* - where velocity will cause time dilation and an increase in mass, weirdly. This is true of all velocities, but it's only really significant once you get closer to the speed of light.

As for gravity, it's the same basic idea; the gravitational force should accelerate anything towards its center of mass, but since light's speed is constant, time in the local area gets distorted by the gravity.

And as weird and alien as this all seems, we've managed to prove this experimentally using nuclear clocks and fast planes. Perfectly synchronized nuclear clocks, one left stationary at sea level and one put into a plane and flown around at a high speed by our standards but low speeds by light's standards, desynchronized as much as Einstein's equations predicted they would in those conditions.


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

[User]
[LOTR] Would Elrond be capable of killing Isildur in Mt. Doom to destroy the Ring?

Isildur obtains the Ring and proceeds up Mt. Doom with Elrond close behind. Elrond stands on the bridge as Isildur stands at edge with the One Ring. Elrond demands that he destroy the Ring. Isildur refuses and starts to walk out.

At this point, Elrond has a chance to destroy the Ring for good, but at a cost: pushing Isildur into Mt. Doom, and possibly losing his own life in the process.

Elrond apparently had no issue allowing other elves to die in a war against the Orcs, and clearly values the greater good enough to sacrifice lives in its service.

So did Elrond simply lack the will to kill Isildur? Was he under the sway of the Ring? Did he value his own life too much to risk it to destroy a great evil? Or did Elrond hold back because he thought this was part of Eru Iluvatar's plan for the world?

Why didn't Elrond intervene further?

[Assistant]
Well, the first reason Elrond didn't simply throw Isildur into the fire was the fact that in the book, the two are nowhere near Mount Doom.

Second, Orcs are way less dangerous without somebody leading them, and Elrond wasn't sure if Sauron was capable of returning. He probably suspected something, but was far from certain. Elrond is wise, but not clairvoyant.

Third: Isildur was not only one of the last descendants of Elrond's brother, but with Elendil and Anarion dead, he was the undisputed high king of Arnor and Gondor. You don't just kill somebody like that for a goal that for all you know may be achieved without that sacrifice.


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

[User] [Warhammer Fantasy] I am your average skaven. What is life like?

[Assistant]
As an average skaven you're probably a clan rat. Clan rats get to eat, sleep and shelter in the warrens of a clan hold. The trick to this is that you need to be fit and vicious enough that nobody will consider trying to steal your food or property but no so fit and vicious that someone sees you as a threat to theirs.

Since slaves take care of most of the menial labor, your daily life is spend... well staying alive really. Even without having to do menial labor, there's lots of things you'll want to take care of as a healthy skaven. You want to ingratiate yourself with more important skaven. You want to make sure you grab the best share of food and shelter you can get.

You want to keep ears, eyes and whiskers open. Rumors are valuable. A rumor might warn you of some stupid skaven planning to move against you. A rumor might provide leverage to blackmail a skaven or ingratiate yourself with a superior. You might even plot to insert rumors that inflate your reputation and make sure nobody messes with you. If you're especially ambitious you might even start collecting or spreading rumors that'll help you... dispose of a superior and take his place.

Above all, you want to make sure you don't give anyone they idea they might be able to take you out, socially or in a fight. Clan wars happen all the time and when the clan rats go to war, you want to make sure you're standing in the back with all the smart rats. No pushed to the front with all the chumps.

Unfortunately you do have to fight occasionally, either to defend your social position or to defend the clan. Obviously a skaven of your talent won't die but it could put you on the fast track to becoming a slave yourself. And that won't do at all.


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

[User] ELI5: How was the first operating system created if we didn't have anything to code it with?

[Assistant] you can write code in binary (slowly) and make a low level programming language. With this program you can write progressively more complicated programs so on and so on until you write an operating system which is more or less a program that runs other programs.


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

[User]
[Iron Man] Did Tony just fly from California to Afghanistan, and back, in just the Iron Man suit? How comfortable even is that?

Per Google, commercial flight time from California to Afghanistan is around 15 hours. A 15 hour flight, even with first class amenities, can be exhausting in itself, but imagine flying in a metal suit while primarily in a prone position. Furthermore, the trip back home was after a grueling dog fight.

[Assistant]
According to the novelization, Tony made up an excuse to have a party in Dubai (or somewhere around there), and secretly shipped his armor there.  He then flew from his party venue to Afghanistan.

EDIT: Although he is clearly still in the armor back at home when Pepper catches him and he comments that this is not the worst thing she's caught him doing, so it appears he did manually fly home in the armor afterwards.


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

[User]
What do you do when don't understand a philosophical text?

I'm reading a philosophy book that my mother gifted me. I'm very far of being a "Master" un reading, but I have a personal standard; commonly I can understand "hard texts" or at least I know what are talking about; but this new book it's impossible to read for me, I don't know if the book is really hard or I'm dumber that I thouhgt.

[Assistant] It's probably just hard. Reading philosophy by yourself can be tough since usually at the very least there is a good amount of background that is presumed of the reader. Even people with PhDs in the field, when reading a new text, will read some secondary sources to make orienting yourself to what's going on a bit easier. Don't feel bad that you're having a hard time: it takes a lot of time, practice, and patience to read the stuff. For now though: do some research, read some summaries (there are no spoilers in philosophy), read some background of the book/the philosopher, and read it really, really slowly, while taking notes.


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

[User] ELI5: When you listen to music and you yawn, why is it that the pitch seems to change?

[Assistant]
I would think its because when you yawn you open your Eustachian tube and allow the pressure to equalize in your ear, and the change in pressure causes the eardrum to vibrate slightly differently.

Edit: The Eustachian tube is a tube that connects the inside of your eardrum to your upper throat / back of your nose to allow the pressure inside your ear to change. So it doesn't explode / implode.


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

[User]
[Starcraft] Why is Tychus so vilified?

In the general omniverse (as shown in the "Nexus" through Raynor's helmet cameras, gotta love strides in information transfer), Tychus is generally sided with the big "baddies" of other series and his own. Even in the events leading up to the capture of the "Queen of Blades", he's portrayed as a total monster. I feel this portrayal of the late Mr Findlay is blatant character assassination to enhance the social character of Jim Raynor in comparison. Sure, he was an alcoholic and rattled by PTSD, but these definitely didn't make him a monster in their own right. The end of his life was an attempt to not only free himself of the constraints of his prison suit, but to kill the being who slaughtered millions of innocents, on both the Terran and Protoss side. Raynor holds the babblings of a Protoss stuck in constant phase shift between dimensions as absolute fact, using that as rationale to preserve his ex lover's life. In short, why.

-Anonymous Medic/Historian onboard the Hyperion.

[Assistant]
Why do you think Tychus was released from prison anyway? He was encased in a prison suit, you know who wears those things? Prisoners who agreed to a suicide charge.

He was always working for Mengsk, Arcturus or Valerian. He was sent to trail Jim because they knew Raynor was the only guy crazy enough to charge headfirst into the Swarm to find Sarah and when he found her, thats when Tychus was going to kill her. Probably Jim as well, after he outlived his usefullness.


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

[User]
Midichlorian Count

What's the best way for me to calculate my midichlorian count? I'm unsure how to go about this. Help!

[Assistant]
Same as counting any other microbe in your blood; a simple blood test is all.

Remember, its not the midichlorians that CAUSE your force sensitivity, they are just attracted to force sensitive users in proportion to the amount present.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does my car idle at a higher rpm when its cold?

When I started my car this morning it was -15F and my car was idling at 2,100 rpm then ~10 minutes later when it was warmed up it idled at just under 1,000 rpm. Does the car purposely increase the idle speed to help warm up the engine or is it a mechanical thing that just happens on its own? Its a 1995 honda accord if that helps.

[Assistant]
It's not actually to warm up the engine for the oil, it has to do with combustion.  The requirements are fuel (gasoline), air, and a spark - all under pressure in a precise ratio and timing.  This process happens ideally at warmer temperatures (the "operating" temperature) as this is where the fuel vaporizes naturally.

When it's cold, combustion requires much more fuel in the ratio because it does not sufficiently vaporize from liquid gasoline into a gaseous form (liquid gasoline, for the sake of this discussion, does not burn).  The problem is, too much fuel through the engine at a low speed bogs down the engine as the unburned liquid fuel will kill the spark and cause it to stall.  The RPMs are bumped up to push this fuel out more quickly until a more desirable temperature is attained.  Once warm enough, the fuel vaporizes as it should, the computer dials back the fuel mixture (or the carburetor opens the choke) and the RPMs can come down.

Source: 10 ASE certifications and 7 years as a mechanic to get through college diagnosing/repairing smog and computer systems.


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

[User]
CMV: The Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts should merge together and just become one organization.

I don't have a lot of information, but here's my viewpoint - girls have been allowed into the boy scout oeganization, and boys have been allowed in girl scouts. They both have ways to achieve the highest status, the gold award in girl scouts, the eagle scout in boy scouts.

Instead of having two separate organizations for kids, combine them together so each child involved has the same chance to reach the highest levels and to learn new skills that they cant get in just one of the organizations. This is 2020, not the early 1900s when the scouting organizations were created and times have changed. Because times have changed, so should scouting by combining together.

I know that there should be separate troops of all boys or girls, but there can also be mixed groups depending on the region (if it is a small region, anyone could become a scout.)

Gender should not come into play, because adults are the one who make a big deal about it, saying boys shouldn't be with girls because they will take advantage of girls and that boys shouldn't be learning skills taught to girls. But if boys are taught the same skills as girls, then they will become more compassionate toward the opposite sex instead of not knowing what to do.

[Assistant]
Girl Scouts is run essentially like a business. Boy Scouts in recent years has been run like a religious organization. There is a fundamental conflict between their two missions. What originally started out as organizations based on gender divide has now evolved into two totally different organizations with different goals.

There is no real benefit to be had by merging the two. It would either fail if it worked on exclusivity, or it would lose whatever conservative or religious philosophy attracts people to Boy Scouts. Improvement would not be had by merging the two.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do websites sometimes remember my password, and sometimes not, even after checking the "remember me" box?

[Assistant] Most "remember me" boxes rely upon cookies by storing strings of non-sensitive data to check against their records (database.) If you block or remove cookies this will have an impact on if the "remember me" box works. Also depending on how a "remember me" box is coded, sometimes they may not function well or as expected and will discard the "remember me" information anyways; especially in a world with a wide variety of browsers and platforms that don't always play well with each other.