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

[User]
[Star Wars] What's the coolest thing Scout troopers/commandos have done?

We've seen stormtroopers pull off near perfect boarding actions and snow troopers take a base that gave nearly every advantage to the defenders in an hour or so. So what have the scouts/imperial commandos done? Let's hear some stories!

EDIT: So I'm guessing from this there aren't any EU novels focusing on the scouts?

[Assistant] Scout troopers were mostly used in reconnaissance, spy work, & assassination. Because their work isn't flashy by nature, they were naturally kept away from the spotlight. What is known however is that every major groundside action involving the Stormtrooper Corps had their groundwork prepped by the Scout Troopers. The Battle of Hoth would not have been a swift victory if the Scout Troopers hadn't found a secondary entrance that allowed Darth Vader and the 501st to infiltrate Echo Base.


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

[User]
Will there be a temperature difference between: hot tea that I let sit for 5 minutes and then add cold milk to, or hot tea that I immediately add cold milk to then let sit for 5 minutes?

I'm speaking in general here, but if you want specifics. Let's say the tea is 10 ounces, and starts at 100C, the milk is 2 ounces at 3C, and room temperature is 23C.

The different scenarios are:

* one in which I immediately add the milk, and
* one in which I wait till the five minutes is up before adding the milk.

In both cases I would take the temperature **after** five minutes have elapsed.

[Assistant]
I would think think the temperature where you add cold milk @ 5 minutes would be colder.

Rate of heat flow is proportional to the difference in temperatures between two objects. Thus, a higher difference results in a higher rate of heat exchange.

Thus, if you don't add the milk you have a temp difference of 77 degrees (tea and RT). If you add milk, this temp difference will be different smaller and thus you'd have a slower heat exchange between the drink and the environment. The greater the heat exchange betwenn the room and your tea, the more it cools.

Though, there coud be an argment made that increasing the volume with the milk could have an additional effect that makes adding milk first result in cooler tea.


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

[User]
Where do Newtonian physics stop and Einsteins' physics start? Why are they not unified?

Edit: Wow, this really blew up.  Thanks, m8s!

[Assistant]
As a rule of thumb there are three relevant limits which tells you that Newtonian physics is no longer applicable.

1. If the ratio v/c (where v is the characteristic speed of your system and c is the speed of light) is no longer close to zero, you need special relativity.

2. If the ratio 2GM/c^(2)R (where M is the mass, G the gravitational constant and R the distance) is no longer close to zero, you need general relativity.

3. If the ratio h/pR (where p is the momentum, h the Planck constant and R the distance) is no longer close to zero, you need quantum mechanics.

Now what constitutes "no longer close to zero" depends on how accurate your measurement tools are. For example in the 19th century is was found that Mercury's precession was not correctly given by Newtonian mechanics. Using the mass of the Sun and distance from Mercury to the Sun gives a ratio of about 10^(-8) as being noticeable.

Edit: It's worth pointing out that from these more advanced theories, Newton's laws do "pop back out" when the appropriate limits are taken where we expect Newtonian physics to work. In that way, you can say that Newton isn't *wrong*, but more so incomplete.


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

[User]
As a star begins to die, what are the effects on orbiting planets before the supernova?

Say an Earth-like planet (read: Earth) is orbiting a star of 1 solar mass that is nearing it's death. At what point does life on this planet cease to exist (read: no longer habitable)? What exactly happens to scour all possibilities of survival? Or would all be well and good until the supernova begins?

[Assistant]
All life on Earth will cease to exist when the sun is still clearly on mainastage. Despite the fact that sun will not become a red giant before 4billion more years, the sun is steadily becomming more luminous. After about 1billion years from now,  the sun is so hot that all life on earth is compleatly impossible. After that the sun becomes a red giant and possibly destroyes the entire planet. After that the sun goes through some up and downs in power (so severe that life at any distance orbiting the sun is impossible.), and then finally shrinks to a white dwarf.

A 1 solar mass star will never explode.

Stars that do go supernova go through phase transitions aswell but MUCH faster, at an increasing rate. One a year before explosion, one a week before and a final one 24h before. So no, one would not be well and good before the supernova. A super nova is just the grand finale of a destructive dance the star performs.


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

[User]
What is the worst thing you have heard an academic say in a highly public, professional setting?

I just want some good stories. Outrageous, blunt, callous, etc.  I think they are hilarious.

[Assistant]
This old professor gave a goodbye speech to his secretary of 30 years, in front of faculty and PhD students. He commented on how in the olden days, her good looks made everyone's work day much happier.

I've never heard a collective cringe as loud as the silence that followed.


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

[User] ELI5: If your stomach acid so acidic that it can melt almost anything, why do other foreign organisms and objects still pass through like nothing happen? Why do tapeworms continue to survive and other bacteria?

[Assistant]
Lots of focus on the acidity of the stomach and too little focus on the tapeworm going on here.

Tapeworm eggs/larvae (can't remember exactly) are inside a cyst, basically a little fatty bubble, inside of meat. When that meat is eaten, the fatty wall of the cyst is broken down in the stomach, but the tapeworm is safe inside it's bubble. It can then move into the intestine, which is a much friendlier environment for a parasite.

For other pathogens, it depends a bit. Salmonella actually is very sensitive to our stomach acid and will not survive it if you just swallowed a solution with it mixed in. However, if that bacteria can hide out in some meat you eat (fat/protein), it can survive the acidity and move on the gut to wreak havoc.


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

[User]
ELI5: With the advancement of driverless cars and other autonomous aspects growing daily, what exactly stops somebody from hacking into the network and controlling it?

I've seen plenty of apocalyptic or otherwise sci-fi movies/games where it all started with a a society core networks being hijacked and otherwise. I also read about the advancement of quantum computers which would really render all current forms of cyber security obsolete due to the amazing processing power they would have to break the security. So really what I'm getting at is if in 10 years we all have driverless cars, all from differing car companies with differing software and some evil genius creates a powerful quantum computer on his own, what's stopping him from taking control of all the cars or similarly disastrous technologies?
Obviously I only read articles on the matter and really as I type this just sound incredibly paranoid but still.

[Assistant] billion dollars industries spend a lot on security. the answer is the same as if you'd have asked "now that all money is digital, how come someone just doesn't hack millions of dollars into their account"


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

[User]
Why does topical alcohol make skin dry?

Hello. I'm  getting into skin care and I was wondering about what makes topical alcohol dry the skin.

Does it make the water in your skin evaporate? Does is dissolve lipids in your skin? Does it make the lipids evaporate? Does it make the water in your skin retreat back into your body? Does it not do anything to the water or lipids in your skin but makes it feel dry because of the damage it does to it? In any case, how so?

Thanks for the help!

[Assistant]
Simpler explanation from a chrmist: Alcohols can dissolve / mix with both water and oils. If you put isopropyl alcohol or ethanol on your skin, it will absorb both oils and water from your skin. If you then wipe the alcohol off, you wipe off the oils and water along with the alcohol.

This can also happen with soaps and detergents in general because they also dissolve both oils and water. This is why hand soaps will normally have moisturizers added to compensate.

Alcohols also easily evaporate, so any alcohol leftover after cleaning will quickly disappearing instead of forming an oily layer like a moisturizer.


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

[User] ELI5: How did the word 'radio' get mixed up in so maybe nuclear-related terms, "radioisotope", "radioactive", "radiologist". Does this imply some direct connection between electromagnetic waves and alpha/beta/gamma rays?

[Assistant] It is the other way around. Radiation or radio comes from the energy going radially out from the source. We use "radio" as a shorthand for electromagnetic radiation under 300GHz but there are lots of different radiation in addition to electromagnetic radiation. Gamma radiation is by the way also electromagnetic but in the 100EHz range. So there is a direct connection between radios and gamma rays and other forms of radiation.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Are spells invented, created or discovered?

Is it tapping in to some basic root programming language of the universe (discovered)? Taking parts of existing languages and applying some sort of rules to them (invented)? Or is just coming up with some nice sounding words and pairing them with the idea (created)?

[Assistant] A little from column A, a little from column B (and C).  Remember the instances of underage magic that we've seen, like Harry blowing up his aunt or making the glass disappear in the zoo?  There are no direct spells for these things, the ability to them does exist in the magic aether though.  Let's say Harry really likes being able to make glass disappear.  He's essentially performing both wandless and wordless magic the first time he does so, which is really difficult and he won't be able to replicate it reliably.  So he comes up with a mnemonic, let's say Avada Speculum.  As he does this repeatedly, he is actually shaping the magics of the universe.  As such, someone down the line might be able to stumble on the spell he created by uttering the words with a basic idea of what the spell does (seen with Sectumsempre).  So, a root programming language of a sort does exist, but it's like binary (discovered).  Applying rules and creating incantation is like creating a program in C++ (invented) and someone later can get lucky wth the right pairing.


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

[User]
ELI5: Can a president in the US run twice if they weren't elected the first time?

For example if a president is assassinated and the Vice President gets the position and then runs for president the following term and wins the election, can that person run the term after that since they technically didn't run the first time?

[Assistant] It's not about how many times you have run, it is about how many terms you have served. You can only serve two terms as president, and in the case of succession, like an assassination, the cutoff for deciding whether or not a term has been completed is two years. If the VP becomes president the day after halfway through the president's term, then it does not count. The day before halfway, and it would.


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

[User]
[40k/Star trek] Would a Holodeck type simulator work on Orks?

If Orkz were to invade the Trek Verse could the federation use Holo decks to satisfy the Ork warlust? Would the Orkz be happy fighting holograms?

[Assistant]
Orks don't lust for violence, violence is a part of who they are, what they were built to do.

You could easily trick Orks to fight holograms, but the smarter more cunning ones will eventually figure it out and find a way of breaking the simulation. But this isn't going to happen right away, and only after the Orks spend decades or more fighting everything they can find, including themselves.

God help you if the Orks manage to loot the federations technology, while not on the same scale of the stuff you find in the 40K universe it still often has capabilities and functions that totally go beyond what any one from that place could ever dream of.

Matter replication? Warp-less warp drives? Easy access of VERY powerful personal energy weapons? The universe is their oyster if they break free into a waaagh!


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

[User]
[Star Wars] What exactly were the Jedi hoping would happen when the Chosen One showed up?

In Episode I, at the end, the Jedi express surprise that there was a Sith (Maul) running around, believing them extinct.  The Jedi couldn't have been hoping the Chosen One prophecy was about destroying the Sith, then, because they didn't think there were any Sith.

If "balance the force" meant clean up the decadent Jedi Order, couldn't they have tried to reform themselves?  Yoda, Windu, et. al., are quite proficient force users, diplomats, and leaders; I find it hard to believe they couldn't focus some of their time on reforms to the Order. Unless they didn't see themselves as needing reformation, in which case why would they be hoping for a Chosen One that reforms?

Not only that, but the Jedi were basically at the height of their power and influence around the time of Episode I.  The Chosen One couldn't, then, be a great leader who will bring relevance/greatness/influence to the benevolent Order, right?  The Jedi were already the preeminent peacekeepers and renowned diplomats.

So what exactly did they think the prophecy of the Chosen One would bring?

[Assistant] Before Qui-Gon speaks to the Council about Anakin and floats his Chosen One theory (which is immediately dismissed as batshit nuts), he reports that he was attacked by a Sith with a lightsaber. At no point were the Council considering the idea of a Chosen One without also entertaining the notion that the Sith had returned.


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

[User]
ELI5:If nurses have to be so careful not to oversedate patients, why is it so hard for executioners to overdose a prisoner?

What I mean is, why are there so many botched executions? Couldn't be the vein every time, could it?

[Assistant]
A conventional lethal injection protocol consists of thiopentone, pancuronium and potassium chloride. Either of those is pretty much guaranteed to be lethal on its own, as long as it is given intravenously.

Unfortunately, both thiopentone and potassium chloride are extremely irritant and painful when injected into subcutaneous tissue.

They get into trouble in executions because executioners are terrible at obtaining intravenous access. They inject these drugs into an incorrectly placed cannula, so instead of killing the prisoner they give him an excruciatingly painful burn around the injection site.


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

[User]
ELI5: how did the term XXX originate?

Whoops, forgot to specify. I meant pornography.

[Assistant]
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) is responsible for rating movie content in the US -- G, PG, PG-13, R, and so on -- so that people have some idea what they might be getting into. The system has been tweaked over the years, and used to feature an "X" rating.

Some highly acclaimed movies were rated X, including *The Evil Dead* and *Midnight Cowboy*, but over time the rating started to be associated with pornographic films. To attract attention, some of those films would claim to be "XX" rated or even "XXX" rated. No XX or XXX ratings officially existed, but it can be an effective marketing ploy anyway.

The MPAA no longer uses the X rating, but the idea of it remains.


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

[User]
[WH40K] I enjoy sleeping in sometimes. Who is the Chaos god for me?

I'm a Space Marine. I would just like to get a couple hours more sleep some nights and I'm willing to forsake the Emperor to get it.

[Assistant]
Slannesh.
Have all the sleep, ALL OF IT!

Eat enough sleeping pills to put out a Carnifex.

Sleep for so long your muscle decay to nothing.

Heck, go in a dreadnought and sleep for thousands years at the time.

Slannesh is excess.


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

[User]
[Naruto] How is it that most people don't know Naruto's family the Uzumaki Clan the Sister family of the Legendary Senju Clan?

Its one thing if his father was the 4th Hokage and no one knew because it was covered up but the Senju clan literally founded Konoha.

Naruto even wears his clan logo on his attire.

[Assistant] What I'd like to know is how did no one (aside from main characters like jiriyah, kakashi, itachi, 3rd hokage & probably some jonin) know Naruto was Minato's son? He was hokage, so everyone knew who he was, and everyone would have known Kushina was his wife, and everyone seems to understand that Naruto is Kushina Uzumaki's son so do the villagers just not care that he's Minato's son or are they just retarded?


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

[User]
Why was it so much harder for a welder to weld my 2 pieces of Aluminum together than for 2 equivalent pieces of basically any other popular metal?

I recently had something welded for part of a project. 2 pieces of Aluminum. I talked to a local welder who said he wouldn't touch Aluminum but would have welded my design if it was stainless steel and that I needed to find someone else.

Why is Aluminum so much more challenging to weld? What physical properties for Al are different that make it that much harder?

**EDIT: Mine is 6061 Aluminum.**

[Assistant]
It requires a special welding machine. TIG *
(Tungsten Inert Gas).  It requires a shielding gas (Argon).  Aluminum oxide which forms over time on the surface of aluminum melts at a much higher temperatures than aluminum and must be removed with acetone prior to welding. Aluminum also has higher thermal conductivity and a low melting point alowing it to be easily burned through. If aluminum is anodized it becomes even more diificult to weld. Welding aluminum is not more difficult, just different and requires some experience. The welder you brought it to may not have had the proper equipment, or viewed the work as to risky to take on.


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

[User] ELI5: What is the difference between 3G, 4G, and 4G LTE?

[Assistant] That's gonna depend on what part of the world you're in. 2G, 3G and 4G relate to specification of each wireless standard for GSM technology. They indicate generations "G" of the wireless standard. 2G was essential EDGE data and 3G included HSPA and HSUPA, and so forth. However in the USA some carriers, think it was T-Mobile, started marketing 3G HSUPA as 4G for marketing reasons... So when they started rolling out actual 4G technology they had to call it something new... That's where terms like 4G LTE come from.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is it that some of the worlds most caustic chemicals and liquids do not interact with the glass beakers they're contained in while they dissolve pennies like cotton candy in water.

[Assistant]
Glass is not very reactive and thats why it is used to contain those chemicals. There are some chemicals that react with glass and they obviously can't be held in glass containers.

On the other hand metals are strong and heavy but most of them all very reactive for example they oxidate easily (rust). So it actually doesn't take a lot from chemical to dissolve some metals.

Why some materials are reactive with others comes mainly from their electron structure.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do you feel heavy in the chest when you hear loud bass sounds?

[Assistant]
Because low frequency noise is much better at being absorbed by surfaces and transferring energy into solid materials. That heavy chest feeling is literally your body absorbing sound energy and vibrating. Higher frequency sound is more reflective.

This is why when you work with humans and acoustics you don't measure sound in dB, you measure in a scale called dBA, which is like "wind chill" in temperature. It's the way sound makes you feel, vs the absolutely power of the sound.


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

[User]
[META] I believe the desire to have a view changed often reflects a desire to revert to the mainstream and is therefore close-minded and anti-intellectual. CMV

A lot of the posts in CMV seem to begin with a view that rests outside conventional thought. While discussions of these are interesting, I believe that the fact that they are posted in the first place represents a fear of one's unorthodox ideas and that subsequent efforts to 'correct' these positions only serve to reinforce this fear. I'm not saying that all views are equally valid or correct, only that I feel that people wanting their views changed simply because they're uncomfortable holding views that others don't agree with underpins much of this subreddit and that this sort of attitude is not necessarily a good thing. I do find CMV really interesting but this still bothers me. I understand that this post is a bit ironic.

[Assistant]
But the alternative--not wanting to have your view changed--is also close-minded, is it not?

Perhaps people post their views here because they want to know if there's any critical evidence that they've overlooked, or simply want to get a "second opinion", as it were, towards their view.

I think very few people who post here literally want their view changed--rather, they want to see what the, as you admitted, interesting discussion that would follow is.


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

[User] Eli5: why do laptop and PC manufacturers install all of this useless software that slows the computer down so much?

[Assistant]
$$$

You'll notice that a lot of the software has a premium version and it tries to get you to upgrade after the trial period is over.  These software companies pay the OEMs to load the trials onto the prebuilt machines in hopes that a small percentage of those who buy them will buy the premium version when the trial runs out.

HP, Dell, and other OEMs load the software on the machine because it lets them charge less for the machine while still making the same amount of money and lets them move more machines that way.


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

[User]
Filing a complaint against PI for mistreatments of employees

In past I worked for a bad PI. I left the lab without asking for her recommendation. A year later, I am witnessing another employee (a technician) of hers leave the lab after working for 2 years. He asked for her recommendation and she is saying negative things about his work ethics. She is lying. She has lied on multiple occasions in past, for petty things to very serious matters. Should he complain to HR about her in his exit interview? Or is it not worth it? Do they every take any action against PIs? I left without complaining but I want to do so now, so future employees dont suffer. Its been an year since I left. Should I file a complaint?

[Assistant] Speaking as a senior administrator, yes, you should complain.  You will get zero satisfaction in the sense that you will never see the impact of your complaints, but good institutions have memory and when the opportunity comes, repeat offenders will be kept from positions of authority and/or pushed out altogether.


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

[User]
ELI5: How can the universe constantly expand with no end?

I'm not sure if text is allowed here but I would love this explained like im five, basically throw it at me in a really simple way.

Surely an explosion cannot continue forever and would have to end at some time, right? So why does it not?

[Assistant]
Firstly, the big bang is **not** an explosion. Nor is the universe expanding like some kind of ball or balloon, getting bigger and bigger, displacing more and more of the atmosphere. Instead, think of the expansion of the universe like the surface of the balloon as it expands. Or hell, skip the balloon part, imagine an infinite plane expanding.

Each point on the universe is expanding away from every other point on the universe, with the rate of expansion proportional to the distance between said points.

>Surely an explosion cannot continue forever and would have to end at some time, right? So why does it not?

This idea is based around a "explosion" model which doesn't reflect reality. The expansion of the universe despite the pull of gravity is caused by dark energy, which causes negative pressure and "pushes" things apart.

Now, you may say, what about conservation of energy? Doesn't this violate that?

Yes, and there's no problem in that. The universe does not conserve energy. The conservation laws come from Noether's theorem. The tl;dr is that if a system is time-translationally invariant (in simpler words, things work the same no matter what time it is), then there is conservation of energy. An expanding universe does not fit this criteria.

The ultimate fate of the universe depends on its curvature. For now, we think it's flat from empirical observations, which means a heat death is in store for us.


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

[User]
[MCU] What was going on that necessitated the existence of an agency on the scale of S.H.I.E.L.D before the events that led up to the battle of New York?

I'm glad S.H.I.E.L.D. was around to protect us during the battle of New York, but before Thor showed up and the found Captain America, S.H.I.E.L.D. had been around for years. What the hell were they doing the whole time? Once weird shit started happening we should have formed an orginization, but we shouldn't have been funding their questionably nefarious actions for years. As a tax payer I think we all deserve some explanations about this.

[Assistant] I would guess they did similar things to other covert organizations like the CIA, but have the additional authority to deal with matters like alien attacks and super-soldiers. Remember, SHIELD came out of the SSR, which Captain America was part of during WWII. They acted much like a normal military unit that also dealt with more unusual things, which is why they created Captain America and went after HYDRA.


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

[User]
[Venture Bros] Why did the OSI think the Guild was gone in the late 80s?

They had such a public presence in the field of costumed aggression. Why did that not used to be the case?

[Assistant] Because they killed most of them and the rest went over to Sphinx or one of the low budget operators. The sovereign and a few others like his were able to keep it going underground until they came back a few decades later.


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

[User] ELI5: Can someone explain who Getty Images is and why their name is under almost every photo online?

[Assistant]
Getty Images, Inc.isstock photo agency, which is also a supplier of stock images for business and consumers.

So Whenever book uses their images they need to give credits.

P.S. *Who is Mr. Page you see in every corner of every damn sheet.*

Edit: Agency's owners name is MARK GETTY.


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

[User] ELI5: How the body knows when to start digesting food and when the food exits the stomach?

[Assistant]
When you eat something, it goes in your stomach. In your stomach, the acids eat away at the food, but not all of your food. Then it gets thrown into your small intestine, the intestines have little things kinda like an antennae which touch the food and go, "We got food in here from the stomach, bring the chisels and the hammers". The stuff that came down now breaks up the food in your intestine. Then tentacle like things grab onto the smashed up food and eat it with smaller tentacle things. What doesn't get eaten goes into your large intestine and water gets taken out, and little bacteria eat the food and poop out other stuff we need. Then we poop out the stuff we don't need. And if you eat a lot of beets, it turns red. So don't eat a lot of beats.

TL;DR eat food, antennae tell body to send stuff to break food, food gets broken up, tentacles eat food, we poop it out.


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

[User] [Tropic Thunder] Kirk Lazarus picks up the role of Simple Jack before Tugg Speedman. Does he go "Full-Retard?"

[Assistant] No. The thing about Lazarus is that he will go as crazy as he has to to execute *his vision* for the character, and his vision won't include going "full". He'd craft an "inspirationally challenged" persona per his conversations in the jungle, and be ready to fight tooth and nail against any attempt to shove him into "full" from the production (and would use all his wits and knowledge to fight that push; he talks a lot of shit about not breaking character until they record the commentary, but he breaks character a *lot* in the jungle). If push came to shove, there's a high chance he'd go full primadonna, storm off the set, lawyer up, or otherwise engage in high profile shenanigans. Instead of becoming an infamous box office flop, Simple Jack might instead become an infamous troubled production as either A) Lazarus wins, Jack is effectively rewritten into a Forest Gump/Rain Man-esque character against the director's wishes (a la Cool World) or B) the director wins, Lazarus gets shitcanned, the "Full Jack" version is made with a different actor at great expense, and people argue forever over which version would have been better (a la Superman 2).


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

[User]
How do twisted pair wires reduce electromagnetic interference?

I've scoured the web and I just keep finding sources that elaborate what a twisted pair is or their history. I cannot find anything that explains how twisting 2 wires around each other insulates them and prevents magnetic fields affecting them. Are they creating their own protective magnetic field? What is happening?

Edit: what a great turnout! Seriously thank you everyone for the replies. Everyone explained it a little differently, but in the end it helped visualize it for me.

[Assistant] The signals are transmitted over both wires in opposing polarity, but the EM interference picked up will have the same polarity. When both signals reach the other end, one is inverted and the signals are summed. What you end up with is noise cancellation of the interference. This happens because both wires will carry a mostly identical interference signal, but by re-inverting the original signal, youve now inverted one of the interference signals. When those are summed, the opposite interference cancels out, while the signal you want to keep gets added together and becomes stronger.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] How does hyperspace work?

Why is it that you can punch the coordinates of your destination and get there safely from anywhere (at anywhere around a certain planet)  Shouldn't you have to make your way to a very specific point so as not to collide with objects?

[Assistant]
You can't just punch in coordinates and go from anywhere. Hyperspace is a separate dimension from realspace that the ship travels through in order to hop over wrinkles in the fabric of realspace. Large objects like stars create mass shadows in hyperspace that you have to navigate around. Since you have to avoid those areas, there are well known hyperspace routes that most people use to get around without having to make new complex route calculations.

This also explains Han Solo's impressive Kessel Run. He was able to make the trip in 12 parsecs. At first glance that statement seems stupid, because a parsec is a unit of disrance, not time. Solo was able to make it in 12 parsecs because he was able to calculate a shorter hyperspace route than the one smugglers normally used, resulting in a much faster trip.


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

[User]
[Walking Dead] Could you use a Walker on wheel or treadmill to generate energy or maybe a mill?

Let's say I capture a few walkers... I cover up their mouths to prevent accidental biting and I cuff them just to be safe.  Could I strap them to something like a waterwheel and have them constantly walking toward a food source (like a goat).  Do they generate enough pull to turn a mill or generate electricity?

[Assistant] I would say yes. And if it's not enough pull you can always add more of them. It's not like they are that rare to find. Just make sure they don't get distracted by other food sources or loud noises and you should be fine.


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

[User]
[Edge of Tomorrow] Why was Major Cage reset to the point of him arriving in the UK after he killed the Omega? Was it an act of good will from the Omega or did his psyche automatically do this when the blood of the Omega touched him?

Something like: you passed the test of defeating me human, here's your life back?

[Assistant]
No, the Omega was wholly inimical to humanity.  It wouldn't reward one for killing it.

The Omega blood was more powerful than the Alpha blood.  When Cage absorbed it he was reset farther back in time than the typical one day that the Alpha blood caused.


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

[User] ELI5: How is blood created in the human body?

[Assistant] Bone marrow, a tissue within your bones, contains special stem cells, These are the cells that can reproduce and then mature into specific types of cells. They form your blood cells and then release them into the bloodstream.


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

[User] [Harry Potter] has anyone ever changed houses? Is there anything special, relating to magic, going on with the sorting hat's method? Like would a squib or even a muggle throw it off or is it looking deeper than magical ability? Do the paintings move around or just the people inside them?

[Assistant]
It's basically just reading your mind (and maybe soul?) and deciding where would be the best fit for you.

It sometimes predicts trouble, but it's unclear if it can actually see something of the future, or if it's just a very clever hat that pieces together what will probably happen.


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

[User]
[Halo] Are Spartans trained with Covenant weapons?

I'm just curious how they can handle some of the functions such as ammo count and weapon loading, despite having just found the freaking things on their enemies' corpses.

[Assistant]
Now, most definitely. The UNSC has no doubt looted thousands of Covenant weapons for R&D and training.

However, Spartans are trained to adapt to a situation in the event there is a new weapon or vehicle present, to avoid it or utilize it against the enemy such as with all of the new Forerunner weaponry.


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

[User]
CMV: If people voted for who they actually wanted to instead of following others, then we'd probably have had much less of a two-party system.

In the last couple times that I've been able to vote, pretty much everyone I know has voted either republican or democrat. Many vote for who they traditionally feel their family goes for, others seem to be very socially influenced by those around them, and a good amount for a republican or democratic candidate because they don't think that the candidate in a party outside of those two would win.

**I'm not so knowledgeable in the political realm, so take it easy lol.** Overall though, I seem to be pretty politically neutral. Maybe I'm wrong, but I feel if everyone actually voted for who they wanted we'd have a president or other elected officials who represent the American people a bit better.

[Assistant]
The two-party system is a consequence of our electoral system. First Past the Post naturally leads to a two-party system. If you want to have multiple parties, you have to change how we conduct elections.

People vote for who they prefer (generally) in primaries. People vote for who they dislike less in the general election.


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

[User]
CMV: libertarians are more logically and ethically consistent than Republicans in general.

Speaking as a Liberal who have been trying to reach outside of my bubble for news and opinions, I have found that libertarians have more consistent political stances that are founded in simple principles. Even if they take them too far sometimes.

From religion, to free speech, to the military and pretty much all policies, they are more consistent. Republican today seem all over the map when it comes to states rights, debt, and  grabbing pussies.

I would love to hear what Republicans actually stand for and provide evidence that it is more consistent with their actions, compared to libertarians in general.

[Assistant]
Ask a libertarian what is libertarian ism and you get an answer. Ask 7 of them and they will give you 7 different answers.

I find when you push people on what libitarianism means to them you often get a wide range of answers.


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

[User]
Do you agree with the sentiment that every student learns and grows at their own pace?

And do you think the current state of academia encourages this type of growth and development?

[Assistant] Students do learn and grow at their own pace, however, their exposure to potential new interests is often external. So academia does play a role in inspiring students, but the learning and growth in that interest is up to the student.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do Solid State Hybrid Drives work?

I don't understand how a regular hard drive can work with a solid state drive at the same time.

[Assistant]
Imagine the sshd (solid state hybrid drive) is a refrigerator.

A few times a day, you come back to the fridge to get a glass of juice. You take the juice out. Pour some in a glass and put the juice back. Presumably near the front of the shelf. Because its at the front of the shelf, you can access it very quickly. But there is not much space on the front shelf, so you only put a few things there.

 Now, its time to make some dinner. You need pickles, which you only use maybe once a week. So they are in the back of the fridge, where there is a lot more space, but its harder to reach them. So it takes a little longer for you to get at them. But you eventually succeed, and put them right back where you found them to be used next week.

Now, to explain how an sshd works, replace the food items above with computer files, front shelf with ssd, and back shelf with hdd.


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

[User] If there is nothing in space, how do spacecraft not constantly overheat when they have nowhere to dump their heat?

[Assistant]
Everything that exists produces radiation caused by its temperature. Radiation is a form of energy, just like temperature, so by producing radiation, which travels away from the thing, it loses energy and therefore the temperature decreases.

So long as it loses energy at the same rate as it absorbs energy from stars or produces energy itself, it won't overheat.


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

[User] ELI5 - What does the Quran actually say about acts of terror against infidels?

[Assistant]
The thing with the Quran, like the Bible, is you can find peaceful parts that utterly condemn any violence and you can find angry parts that preach wars of conquest against nonbelievers. The holy texts don't have a coherent message all the way through. So it's hard to say what conclusions you would come to if you just went by the book, without any outside interpretations or teachings.

Why is Jewish and Christian militant extremism less common? They're older for one thing, they've mellowed out over the centuries. Christianity is about 600 years older than Islam, and if you look at how extreme and violent Christianity was 600 years ago, it's not a pretty sight. Also they're mostly followed by people in more secular countries, where religion plays a more minor role in society. And they're followed by people in richer, freer countries. Jews and Christians live better lives, they don't have as much to be angry about. Muslims in much of the world live under dictatorial regimes, aggressive wars waged by the US and Israel, and they're treated unfairly even when they emigrate to Europe or the United States. This unfair treatment breeds anger and sometimes it causes people to retreat to religion and they become religious fundamentalists and some small minority of religious fundamentalists will become violent people who want to attack others in the name of their religion.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does resetting a router make it magically faster?

What causes it to slow down and seem buggy? And what happens when you reset or turn everything off and back on to make it work better?

[Assistant] Software crashes and bugs occur in any reasonably complex program. While good programming will allow you to minimize disruption to the program, the cumulative effect of those bugs can have an overall negative performance impact. Resetting allows everything to get cleared the software to start fresh, restoring performance to normal.


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

[User]
Why do we feel more details when we touch something with the tips of our finger, than the rest of our body?

Why do we feel more details when we touch something with the tips of our finger, than the rest of our body?

Is this because we have different kind of nerves (sensors) on the tips of our fingers than the rest of our body? Or is it our brain thats somehow causing this to happen?

[Assistant] Your fingers are made to touch! It's useful to be able to get very detailed tactile sensations. Your fingertips have a higher concentration of mechanoreceptors. A popular high school experiment is to place a blindfold on someone and pick a part of their body with two pencils varying distances apart. You'll find that you can distinguish there are two separate points of contact if you do it on your hand, while your back will require them to be much father apart before you can sense two points of contact!


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

[User] ELI5: Art heists. How do the criminals sell their goods when it's obvious they were stolen and whoever buys them will never be able to show them?

[Assistant]
Whoever buys them *in a country with honest police forces and international extradition treaties* will never be able to show them.

Typically stolen art, exotic cars, and artifacts end up in private collections in slightly less than reputable nations.  Yes a billionaire in the US or France can't get away with showing off a dubiously acquired sculpture for very long, but one in Russia or Malaysia can.


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

[User]
[W40k/Star Trek] An Explorator Fleet meets the Enterprise, how many minutes until the federation is conquered?

The Enterprise-D under Picard I should say.

Personally I'd say at least 20 minutes.  After all, they'd probably send every ship the Federation has against this new strain of "Borg"

[Assistant]
An Exploratory fleet isn't big enough to defeat the Federation.

But once a Space Marine Chapter(or God-Emperor forbid, the Black Templars) find out that xenos are camping out on Holy Terra, the Federation is FUCKED.


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

[User] ELI5: Why did nature make us intelligent instead of strong?

[Assistant]
We are actually quite large and strong.  We are not as strong as some other primates, but we have a lot more stamina, and we can run farther (although not faster) than just about any land animal in existence.  While we lack the innate weapons of other large predators, we can still kill many smaller animals with our bare hands or with extremely simple tools.

The theories behind the evolution of intelligence are varied.  One idea is that at some point intelligence became sexually attractive and so increased over time.  A similar theory states that intelligence was used to succeed in complex social environments, and so more intelligent individuals would have more progeny.

So, to answer your question, we are reasonably strong and have incredible stamina and intelligence.  Some scientists have proposed that the shift from strength to stamina (relative to other large primates) occurred when our primate ancestors left the forest and began living in grassland environments.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] How could Voldemort kill a dementer?

I  saw an older post here where someone said Voldemort could kill dementers... But a  cursory look at the wiki implies they can't actually be destroyed?

EDIT:   I stumbled on the original post on this subreddit, researching and wondering why they  fought for him, how he 'controlled' them, during the Deathly Hallows movie.

[Assistant]
He couldn't. Dementors aren't immortal, they're basically magical manifestations of misery and suffering. They weren't alive to begin with. The only known way to fight them is defensively, with the Patronus.

Pure speculation, but it's possible that concentrated happiness/joy/love could unmake them. Certainly any real permanent solution would be outside of Voldemort's power.


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

[User]
Is it technically inaccurate to say that objects different mass fall at the same rate in a frictionless environment? (i.e. bowling ball vs feather on the moon)

I'm not quite sure how to articulate this, however this is something that has troubled me for sometime now. Why is it that a feather and a bowling ball would fall at the same rate on the moons surface? Considering that all objects of mass in a system have gravitational effects on all other objects, wouldn't the bowling ball, having a higher mass than the feather, have a greater gravitational pull on the moon thus causing the bowling ball to impact first?

[Assistant]
Yes, that's exactly right. However, this effect depends on pulling the moon toward the falling object, and because the moon is so much heavier, it doesn't move much. So the difference in falling times for the ball and feather, while nonzero, is very small, and so we observe approximately simultaneous impacts.

It might be interesting to try and calculate the time difference, if you have the math background.

Edit: To people saying that the bowling ball and feather do indeed fall at exactly the same rate, because F = ma: you are missing the point the OP is making. Consider that for a falling mass near the surface of a planet, we know that the mass of the planet affects the rate of acceleration of a falling object. But the laws of physics make no distinction between the planet and the object! So the mass of the object must have some impact on the falling rate (albeit a very small one). As bluebiscuit says,

> Considering that all objects of mass in a system have gravitational effects on all other objects, wouldn't the bowling ball, having a higher mass than the feather, **have a greater gravitational pull on the moon** thus causing the bowling ball to impact first?

Emphasis mine. The answer is yes.


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

[User] ELI5: How does "restoring anticavity fluoride rinse" work?

[Assistant] Fluoride ions bind to enamel and turn hydroxyapatite into fluoroapatite. Fluoroapatite is much more resilient to acids and a low pH environment. Therefore bacteria cannot thrive and demineralize the tooth.


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

[User]
Why is pay as you go retirement not considered a pyramid scheme?

Definition of the former

> In social insurance, PAYGO refers to an unfunded system in which current contributors to the system pay the expenses for the current recipients. In a pure PAYGO system, no reserves are accumulated and all contributions are paid out in the same period. The opposite of a PAYGO system is a funded system, in which contributions are accumulated and paid out later (together with the interest on it) when eligibility requirements are met.

Definition of the latter

> A pyramid scheme is a business model that recruits members via a promise of payments or services for enrolling others into the scheme, rather than supplying investments or sale of products. As recruiting multiplies, recruiting becomes quickly impossible, and most members are unable to profit; as such, pyramid schemes are unsustainable and often illegal.

Life expectancy is increasing due technological progress (or other reasons, but life expectancy is growing steadly), which means a higher number of beneficiaries, and birth per population is decreasing, which means a lower number of entry. It is believed that world population will get older and it will start to decrease at some point.

So, what are the differences between both?

[Assistant] The government can require people to put more money in and reduce outflows. Pyramid schemes collapse because they are unsustainable, *because* they can't recruit without expenditures and *because* they are dependent on inflows that they have to convince people to give. A government pay-go scheme isn't bound by those constraints.


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

[User]
ELI5: What does "Cunt" mean that makes it so much more offensive than other slurs?

I have researched this, looked up the various "askreddits" on this subject and just none of the answers sound reasonable at all. The top ranking google result said it's because it is an anglo saxon word, and short, as opposed to a latin word with fancy syllables. I don't buy this. I heard a woman say once that there is no other equivalent for a man. It might have been Liz Lemon. Still don't get it.

[Assistant]
Interestingly enough, "cunt" comes to us from some related Germanic/Frisian words (kunte, kunton) and ultimately from the Latin "cunnus," which was a slang term for the vulva. (Cf. "cunnilingus.")

"Vagina," on the other hand, comes straight from the Latin "vagina," meaning "sheath" or "scabbard." (The "sword" getting sheathed in this euphemism should be obvious.)

I say "interestingly" because, etymologically, "vagina" seems a lot more offensive than "cunt," since it basically defines the female genitals according to their use by men during the sex act.


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

[User] [ELI5] Why is it ok to eat cheese if it's moldy but not other foods?

[Assistant]
Well, theres two things here.

First, for Cheeses that you are meant to eat moldy, like Bleu cheese, they are very specific kinds of mold that are grown and cultivated like other foods then mixed in/added with the cheese. It isnt just random mold growing on it. These are known to be safe and are used to enhance smell/flavor.

Then, for other cheeses when if you find mold on a block of it you can just cut it off and eat the rest, this is because since blocks of cheese are typically harder/denser. The tendrils and spores of the mold cant spread very deep into the cheese, so you can just cut off the bad area.


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

[User] [Star Wars] Are there any prejudices against interspecies relationships and their offspring?

[Assistant] We haven't seen any so far, but we haven't seen very many interspecies relationships at all in canon (a few offspring thereof, but only one relationship actually shown), to be fair, and only a small number in Legends.


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

[User] ELI5 why are there so many B vitamins?

[Assistant]
B vitamins is just a classification grouping of vitamins. They are only B vitamins because someone decided they fit in that group. Importantly they are water soluble playing roles metabolism and red cell production.

Converting food to ATP is an important and complex process. And being complex has many steps and many needed chemicals to achieve that goal.


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

[User]
Can I separate UV/IR from sunlight with a prism?

If a prism separates all wavelengths from a light source, does this mean that the UV and IR component of sunlight is separated as well? When sunlight is passed through a prism, is UV concentrated next to violet and IR next to red?

[Assistant] Yes, and that was in fact how IR was discovered. Sir Frederick William Herschel did an experiment where put thermometers in the different colors of light separated through a prism. He found that the temperatures increased when going from blue to red, so he put a thermometer right next to the red light, and found that it showed an even hotter temperature than the thermometer in the red light.


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

[User]
[General]what exactly IS a "Death Ray"?

is it just a really big version of your typical disintegrating laser weapon, or is there some unique property of it that actually causes instant death in biological organisms?

[Assistant] I suspect it's an energy weapon with enough output to guarantee that any planet or structure it fires on is completely demolished/disintegrated. It might also be that they considered the name Mass Extinction Event Weapon and went, "nah."


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

[User] ELI5:How does Estonia have relatively low income inequality despite having a flat tax?

[Assistant]
Estonia, and a lot of former Soviet countries have a lot of foreign direct investment, so the insanely rich people benefitting from their economy are in Germany and Sweden.

Also as part of the conversion from Communism, many employees of those countries received shares or other forms of equity or profit sharing in the companies they worked for, helping distribute income.

Estonia also has a land and property tax system which offsets the flat tax on income, so you pay less on income taxes, but if you own rental properties or factories or other things like that, you'll be paying tax, while in some places like the US often large tax breaks are given to encourage that type of thing.

The small size or Estonia also plays some part, with only 1.35 Million people 'The top 1% of the top 1%' is like 100 dudes, and those dudes are very likely to leave the country.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do we feel the urge to keep throwing up even if there is nothing left?

[Assistant]
It's because of the physiological mechanisms involved in throwing up.

When you first start, it's in response to the body trying to expel something. The muscles around your stomach contract and squeeze it to propel the contents out (there are other elements involved, but they're not relevant to the question).

After a while these muscles start spasming despite the fact that the stomach is empty, which is what leads to the continued retching afterwards.


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

[User] ELI5: I hate the taste of raisins. My friend on the other hand, loves them. Are we both experiencing the same 'taste'?

[Assistant] No. There are a lot of things that effect appreciation of different flavors including your own memories, your tongue shape, smoking vs not smoking, nose function and shape, genetics, texture, and way more.


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

[User]
ELI5: When giving CPR, how can you give oxygen to the victim through breaths if what you're breathing out is CO2?

Edit: Thank you everyone for your explanations. It seems that its kind of split as to whether or not you give breaths during CPR. But as many have already mentioned, CPR as taught to lay people are instructed to do just chest compressions while rescue breaths should only be attempted by those who are trained and/or know what they're doing. However, one user pointed out that it really depends on the situations and, like it or not, peoples first instinct when giving CPR is rescue breaths whether trained or not. As for my original question about breathing out CO2, thanks to those that answered that! I didn't expect this to turn out to have so many comments. ALSO if anyone is seeking more information about CPR please see legitimate(while I know some of you are legitimate health care professional, you just never know with others) sources outside of reddit like your local Red Cross!

[Assistant]
About 16% of the air you breathe out is oxygen.

But anyway, you don't need to give breaths when performing CPR.  It actually wastes time.  The chest compressions themselves will cause the lungs to inflate and deflate and thus draw in air.


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

[User] How is having an increased heart rate from caffeine/other drugs different from a cardiovascular workout?

[Assistant] During exercise, the heart rate is not only increased, but the force of contraction is as well. This is necessary to supply your body with oxygen. When you drink caffeine it only increases the rate of your heart, but not the force of contraction.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is the air at night more 'fresh' than in the day?

title, all I can think of is traffic but me and others have experienced it in multiple cities?

[Assistant]
I think it has to do with a change in temperature.  The air cools, especially relative to a hot day, and feels 'fresher.'

Edit: the drop in temperature will also usually reduce the amount of moisture in the air.  High humidity generally feeling 'thick' or 'heavy'.


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

[User]
How small and detailed could we make a Fresnel lens?

Seeing them in the wild, you either look at it from a distance or they're quite grainy, I know they're cheap.

So, probably the image might look slightly like the way insect-vision is portrayed in movies, segmented like, but if we can make the tiny tiny little mirrors and sensors in DLP projectors and smartphone camera sensors, (I don't know if the features are smaller on phone cams or pro 16k cams or what) is there any way, expensive and convoluted it may be, to manufacture a super small scale fresnel lens that would provide a clear picture.

I understand this would likely never be profitable in a smartphone or anything but I just love the idea of a telescope that's much wider than it is long, or a pair of binoculars that's scarcely thicker than some thick glasses.

In case you can't tell I don't know how optics work.. I flaired it for Engineers because I suppose that's closest? Rather than physics?

I also just imagined a microtelescope could be made using a DLP mirror module as the collecting mirror with a little sensor in front of it, the uses however, escape me, aside from proof of concept or just messing about.

[Assistant]
In an ordinary Fresnel lens, the step changes in thickness are not especially damaging to their performance; you can mostly ignore them. But as the steps get closer together, they start to really matter. You end up in a regime where the device would be considered a diffractive optical element (DOE).

The steps should have a height that depends on the wavelength, and on the angle of incidence. A "blazed grating" is an example of a diffractive element that has a simple sawtooth pattern. The main use of such a device is to disperse different wavelengths into different directions, and to do so with a high efficiency into one direction in particular.

DOEs are very useful devices, and they can be cheaply manufactured. You heat up a soft material, and you press a hard stamp into it - that's a form of nanoimprint lithography (NIL). It's not out of the question to find a DOE in a consumer product. (For example, many credit cards have a plastic hologram.)

Unfortunately there is a catch to making a diffractive lens: the exact shape of the DOE has to be tuned to the wavelength of interest. A DOE that efficiently focusses one wavelength to a tiny point, will be unlikely to focus another wavelength to the same point. So that's a challenge to using them in a colour camera.


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

[User]
If I won the lottery and suddenly invested 95% of my lump sum into a market sector index fund, would it actually be noticeable on any market indicator?

So let's say I won a $800 million dollar jackpot and took the lump sum, giving me about $400 million.  I keep $20million in a swiss bank account just in case something catastrophic happens, so I will at least be relatively ok if the economic apocalypse comes.

Would that $380million I invest all at once make a difference to stock prices?  Let's say I chose the fast food sector or *maybe* IT.

[Assistant]
Yes.

No market would be able to deal with a buy order that big as a single order. So you'd need to buy in multiple tranches, and other market participants would notice there was a lot of money buying and the price would go up.

Exactly how much depends on the size of the fund being bought.

This would raise the fund price above the value of the index, so assuming the fund is an ETF, this is where things get interesting. Various financial institutions would start buying the underlying stocks, to exchange for shares of the ETF to sell at the higher price, essentially arbitrage, but in doing so the price of the underlying stocks of the index would rise to meet the value of the ETF (well, technically they would meet in the middle).

So yes, buying a large amount of an index fund will move the underlying index.


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

[User]
[Diablo series] So the world of Sanctuary doesn't really get better does it?

I mean in the long term. It seems like every generation some new evil crawls its way from the depths to unless death and destruction against humanity. The heroes who manage to avert absolute destruction acts as more of a short reprieve than long term stability.

[Assistant]
I think it's rather the other way around.  Sanctuary being a long lived and relatively stable world.  Not paradise by any means, but people can get by well enough.

This relative stability is occasionally interrupted by short periods of abject horribleness and terror when the war between heaven and hell bleeds over into their realm, with a hero arising to put things right in fairly short order.


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

[User]
Is our solar system self sufficient?

In a hypothetical universe where our solar system was the only thing that happened to form would everything turn out the same?

[Assistant]
*After it formed*, yes, our Solar System is pretty much independent of the rest of the galaxy

But the formation of our Solar System depended on a lot of influence from many sources, with a lot of interaction. Our Solar System formed from the fragmentation and collapse of a molecular cloud, but these clouds are massive and actually collapse into a number of stars, forming a loosely bound "open" star cluster. The biggest brightest stars blow away the remaining gas with their intense light and winds, and then quickly go supernova. With the free gas, the cluster then doesn't have enough mass to be bound together by gravity, and the stars drift apart, until they're across the galaxy from each other. If the solar system formed by itself, it would have to be through a completely different mechanism.

And this molecular cloud has also been polluted by generations of stellar winds and supernovae, which have spread heavy elements throughout the gas in the galaxy. Without this history of billions of years of stars living and dying and expelling their gas into the galaxy, the chemical makeup of the Solar System would be totally different - we wouldn't have rocky planets for a start!

Additionally, supernovae have a role in both triggering and preventing star formation. Basically, they stir up the nearby gas. This can dissipate and blow away the gas, or because the shockwave made some bits a bit denser, it can cause a runaway gravitational collapse. Looking at the elements of our solar system, it looks like we were polluted by a nearby supernova really close to around the time our Sun formed, which makes us suspect that maybe this supernova triggered the collapse of the molecular cloud that formed our Sun.

But after all that is done and the Solar System is formed, there's very little interaction with other stars, or with the remaining interstellar gas in the galaxy. The Sun's wind does impact the interstellar gas and make a little bubble, but all this gas is so thin it doesn't affect very much - we're far more dominated by the Sun's light and wind than anything else. We do get some light and cosmic rays from other stars, but not a great deal. Anything like a supernova would have to be really close to directly affect us. In general, stars evolve by themselves, independent of their environment. This is actually a convenient feature that makes stars easier to understand, because a star's entire life can be predicted just from its initial mass and how much heavy elements it starts with.


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

[User] ELI5 why is it not possible to have a yy chromosome?

[Assistant]
The X chromosome is a sandwich. Two slices of bread, some lettuce, tomato, ham, cheese. Plenty of different parts, that all do different things to comprise the sandwich.

The Y chromosome is a pickle.

If you have half a sandwich, and add a pickle, you have a sandwich with a pickle. If you have two pickles, you have pickles, but theres no sandwich for them to attach to.

You can have a sandwich with or without pickles, but you cant make a sandwich with only the pickles.


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

[User]
Does a double hull on a pressurized vehicle, where the space between two hulls is kept at a pressure halfway between the interior and exterior pressure, actually reduce strain?

To clarify, this is a situation where you reduce the difference in pressure on any one piece of hull by having the inner hull only need to handle some of the difference, and the outer hull handle the other half of the difference. It makes sense to me that it would, but it also seems like one of those really reasonable sounding fallacies, where there's actually a pretty simple reason that it somehow wouldn't work at all. This could be a submarine or a spacecraft, although obviously the pressure strains on a spacecraft are very tame compared to those on a submarine.

[Assistant]
A partially pressurized double hull would indeed reduce the forces on each of the hulls if designed that way. However, most double hulls are there for redundancy, not for reducing the forces involved. Double hulls are complicated to design and manufacture; its practically always easier and cheaper to overbuild one hull than to make one hull inside another.

That double hull is extremely useful for telling if a hull breach has happened. If that intermediate pressure deviates from its set pressure, then that means either the interior or exterior hull has been breached, and they can tell which one failed by the measurement. Even in non-pressurized applications, its useful to tell if underground tanks or other tanks with dangerous materials inside are leaking before the leak actually makes it into the open.


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

[User]
ELI5: How much of a Pixar/Dreamworks movie is actually drawn by a human?

I never really understood what the work of the computer is. Are there algorithms for locomotion, gravity, fluid mechanics, etc., or are these things drawn directly on the scene by an artist?

Basically, is creating a Pixar scene closer to drawing in Paint or designing a video game?

[Assistant]
> Are there algorithms for locomotion, gravity, fluid mechanics, etc.,

Yes!

> or are these things drawn directly on the scene by an artist?

Animators place the 3-D models into scenes and define how they move, then the computer actually animates them.

Some scenes, like characters moving, are practically animated entirely by hand - because there are no algorithms to get across certain movements.

Sometimes the "real" equations for things like, e.g., gravity or magnetism aren't as much "fun". Animators sometimes come up with their own algorithms for these things that look real enough to be believable, but maybe a bit cartoony.

One example is Rapunzel's hair - the animators tried using real gravity and real physics of motion but her hair would have been too heavy and unwieldy. So they gave it physics of its own that looks beautiful even though it's not realistic.


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

[User]
ELI5: How is The Pirate Bay still up and running when all the founders are in prison?

Who is keeping the website running, anonymous contributors? Also where are the servers located that no one has confiscated them?

[Assistant] To answer the latter part of your question: a little while back TPB moved to a highly distributed cloud architecture. You can't confiscate a server that doesn't physically exist, and thanks to the way they designed the system nobody knows which cloud providers are actually hosting the servers (not even the providers themselves know).


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

[User] [Marvel] Can Kurt Wagner stay inside his transitory dimension for a length of time, or does he almost instantly get forced back into ours?

[Assistant] In X-Men Evolution, they used some kind of technology to let Kurt stay in the brimstone dimension for longer. It traumatized him and also somehow keep the portals open long enough for creatures from that dimension to escape.


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

[User] ELI5: What makes things bouncy?

[Assistant]
Oooh, awesome question!

There's a few things, but first, what does it mean for something to be bouncy?
It means that when an object collides with something else (for now, let's imagine a perfectly rigid wall), it leaves with the a lot of the same kinetic energy it had before the collision. A "perfectly elastic" (100% bouncy) is one where the ball has the same kinetic energy it had before and after the collision.
There's a few ways to lose energy, but mainly they are: sound, heat, and deformation.

So when something is super bouncy, it rebounds really well, and doesn't lose a lot of energy doing so. The big item on that list is deformation. Throw a rubber ball against a wall, and it bounces right back. But also, it's still totally ball shaped afterwards. Contrast that with a ball of Play-Doh. It won't bounce, and it will flatten a lot. These things are related--the play doh can't voice because almost all of its original energy went into changing shape (this consumes energy because it has to break a lot of molecular bonds and move a lot of material around).

So some things are not bouncy because they're really squishy and change shape easily, like play doh. Other things aren't bouncy, but are still pretty hard. Metal doesn't bounce much because most metal is made up of tiny crystals. When you deform a metal, these tiny crystals move around a lot, changing the overall shape and using up that rebound energy.

Some things are bouncy though, like glass. Glass is surprisingly bouncy. The reason it is is because it doesn't have a crystal structure, so it can't really change shape the same way metal can. Either the energy goes right back out as bouncing, or it goes into shattering the whole object. This tendency to shatter is part of why we don't normally think of glass as bouncy.

Now rubber, that's some cool stuff, and probably what everyone thinks of as bouncy. One thing it has going for it is that its molecules are really long and intertwined. These molecules fold and coil and do all sorts of things, but when stressed, they straighten out and elongate. Basically, rubber is made up of molecular springs. This works differently from the grains of a metal that all shift around permanently. As long as you don't break the chains, the molecules in rubber will bounce back to a similar shape after being stretched or compressed, so the energy from the impact gets released and the material recovers its shape. This is another part of why we think of rubber as bouncy, because it's really good at distributing stress. So when you throw a rubber ball against a wall, the point that hits the wall doesn't break, it instead spreads the load around.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] What was Dumbledore thinking would happen when he hired Lupin?

By *Chamber of Secrets*, it is obvious that something is up with the Defence Against the Dark Arts job. Hagrid guesses that the job is jinxed, and Gilderoy Lockhart is literally the only candidate who applies.

*Prisoner of Azkaban* rolls round and Lockhart has naturally got his mind wiped and Dumbledore needs a new DADA teacher. He settles on Remus Lupin. If *Half-Blood Prince* any indication, Dumbledore had had an idea for a while that Voldemort had cursed the position. In that case, why hire Lupin? Lupin was an old comrade from the first war with Voldemort and would definitely be wanted when he returned, so why put such a valuable man in an obviously-cursed position? What did he think was going to happen?

[Assistant]
He needed a DADA teacher, and Lupin was desperate for a job (it is incredibly hard to get a job as a Werewolf). So they both ended up helping each other.

What else do you think Lupin should have been doing?


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

[User] ELI5: If my cell phone camera supposedly shoots 4k video, why does the "4k" video it shoots look so bad?

[Assistant] One possible reason is sensor size.  The larger the sensor, the better the image.  The Sony a7iii can record 4k, and the physical dimensions of it's image sensor is 35mm x 28mm, while the image sensor in your phone is somewhere around 5mm x 5mm.  The physical dimensions of the image sensor can make a big difference in image quality.


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

[User]
ELI5: How can a heart operate for such a long time without faltering.

It just amazes me how we can have a pumping muscle that barely fails in the space of 50-70 years. I am a missing something obvious to how it can operate for so long?

[Assistant]
Frankly, because it's designed that way. Heart muscle contains more mitochondria than skeletal muscle (arms, legs, etc) which generate energy for the muscle. The heart also gets first go at the fresh supply of oxygen coming from your lungs, so it's literally swimming in oxygen and energy - essentially, the rest of your muscles get the heart's leftovers.

The heart can still falter, however. Long-distance, endurance-type cardio exercise can cause damage to the heart, since it will continue to pump blood, rather than succumbing to muscle failure as skeletal muscles would due to lack of oxygen/energy.

It's also not a good idea to think of the heart like an engine. Engine (and heart) parts wear out over time, but engine parts aren't replaced until they fail. Heart parts (cells) can slowly die and be replaced by new ones, so hearts don't seize up like an engine would.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do they measure internet speeds in megabit/s and gigabit/s instead of megabyte/s and gigabyte/s?

[Assistant] Bytes have no meaning for serial data transfer. First of all, the data is sent one bit at a time. Also, not all of the bits are data - some of them are control information and not always in 8 bit blocks. The control information is usually something like "here comes some data, get ready!". There is no way to measure the bytes per second transferred. The bits per second measurement of digital bandwidth makes sense, because it allows you to compare it against other network media accurately. Throughput (or "goodput") is usually measured in bytes per second - that's the measurement of download and upload speed. Why isn't that measured in bits? Because you can't store one bit at a time in a file - it takes a byte to store one bit, so all files are in bytes.


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

[User]
[Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance] How do cyborgs like Raiden and Sam... live outside of missions? Like, can they relax and enjoy entertainment? Don't all the modifications on their body make it impossible to live a full life outside fighting?

Settings with millitary-focused body modification (Camille from LoL, cyborgs in Metal Gear, things like that) always confused me... as those mods seem to make living a normal life impossible.

[Assistant]
Sam isn't a cyborg, the only cybernetics he has is his arm. He can just take his strength suit off and be a normal dude. He'll still have his cyborg arm but it's not a huge inconvenience.

Raiden' situation is a bit different, he's fully cybernetic except for like...an eye. He does have a wife and child however, so when he's off a mission he just spends time with them. Also Raiden after MGR gets a much more human looking body than the custom cyborg body he had during his fight against world marshal. He can blend in just fine.

But you have to keep in mind. Fighting is their life, they love doing that shit.


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

[User]
ELI5: The "$200 billion rip-off" of the 1990s that was supposed to bring the US high speed networks but never came to fruition.

Was this really as bad as it sounds? If so, why isn't it more well known?

[Assistant]
It wasn't a rip-off in the sense that there were $200 billion worth of checks written for a product that was never delivered.  It was more of a Regulatory Capture situation where the big Telcos basically said "The only way we'll ever be able to build these nice networks is if you pass a bunch of laws that make things cheaper for us, or let us make more money."

So, over time various government bodies did a bunch of stuff that was supposed to make it possible for this really great fiber optic network to be built.  Things like reclassifying easement rights as tax-exempt, elimination of taxes/fees paid on poles in the public right-of-way,   Tariff adjustments that let them charge more for existing services, etc.

Somebody has come along and slapped a $200B price tag as the value of all of those advantages that were granted.


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

[User]
How are complicated mathematical operations like logs, square roots, floating point division, and trigonometric functions performed with primative operations like addition and bitwise operations?

My apologies in advance if my question doesn't make sense or isn't clear.

I'm currently working through Nand2Tetris Part 1 as well as the CS:APP textbook, and it is my understanding that CPU designers generally strive to minimize the hardware complexity as best as they can, since it's relatively expensive to try and fit more units/bus lines/whatever it may be into a chip. For example, instead of having a separate instruction for both integer addition and subtraction, the complier can just convert the number that is subtracting to a negative, then do addition on the two numbers instead. 5 - 8, for instance, can be converted to 5 + (-8). For more complicated operations like the ones mentioned in the title, how does the OS or complier convert this to a series of primative instructions that the processor can then read?

Another example that I hope illustrates my question is a scientific calculator, any regular one you can buy from the store for $20. Its CPU is relatively simple, and I'm assuming it wouldn't have dedicated units for complicated mathematical operations. How does this device break complex expressions into simple instructions?

[Assistant]
Ultimately, the way the computer does it is not, in principle, all that different from the way you would do it by hand.  When you pick up paper and pen and do long division or calculate a square root using Newton's method, what you are doing is exactly "perform[ing the operation] with primitive operations."  The optimal method for a computer might not be quite the same as what you do on paper, but it's basically the same idea.

These are then written as software and made available in the standard library for applications to use.  Or maybe even in the microcode, for important functions like integer division.


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

[User] ELI5: If our atmosphere is blue when sun light hits it, why does the moon look white when its visible during the day and not blue?

[Assistant]
The moon is reflecting a lot of white light directly at you. The atmosphere between you and the moon is just as blue as other bits of sky, but this white light from the moon is also reaching you from that bit. The result is you have a lot of sky with no moon that looks blue, then a bit of sky *which also has the moon in it* which is blue but with a lot of extra white. Compared to the rest of the sky, that bit looks white even though there's just as much blue light coming from it as everywhere else. Your brain just sees it as "relatively a lot more white than anywhere else but still a tiny bit blue" and turns that into "white".

It's sort of like if you had a thin blue cloth but someone was shining a white torch through a bit of it. The bit with the torch would be just as blue as the rest of the cloth, but it would seem white to you because of the very white light shining through it.


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

[User]
ELI5: What makes us fall asleep and why can't we decide when to fall asleep?

I mean we just lay there for 5 to 30 minutes and out of nowhere we just fall asleep. Why can't I decide when to fall asleep?

[Assistant]
There's the physiological "why can't we", and then the evolutionary "why can't we" part to answer.
The physiological answer is, as already noted, that we gradually lose control of our consciousness and our muscles by hormones that we secrete when the time to sleep arrives.  The hormonal secretion also in turn depends on our body's state of excitation and mental state.  So it all kind of has to wind itself down in a recursive manner.

As for the evolutionary reason, that's a really good question.  Given how detrimental sleep deprivation can be to health, you'd think we'd have evolved the ability to just force ourselves to sleep over our worries, overthinking, loud noise, lights whatever.  For many of us insomniacs it would help if we could just push a mental button and send ourselves out to dreamland.
It might be that during most of our evolution, it was more important for your survival to *not* sleep if you had concerns and worries (about hungry animals in the dark, for example..., or enemies attacking).  Maybe this was more important for survival than getting a good night's sleep, so nature made it so that you couldn't just ignore it all and succumb to the desire for shut-eye.


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

[User]
[Lord of the Rings] Are Balrogs sentient?

In the movie, it seemed like little more than an animal. I know it's a corrupted Maiar, like Gandalf. Did the corruption process turn it crazy to the point of being non-sentient?

If it found the ring, would it know what to do with it?

[Assistant]
Yes they were sentient.

Gothmog was a Balrog in the First Age and Lieutenant to Morgoth. He was Sauron's equal in the army of Morgoth.

He was put in command of the siege of Gondolin, which was the source of his master's ire for centuries. Thats not something you put in the hands of an animal.

Durin's Bane attacked and destroyed the greatest kingdom of Dwarves, and laid dormant for centuries. Hibernating maybe?

Imagine being woken up from a nap by a group of vagrants, you'd probably be pretty pissy too.

Instinctively everyone knows what to do with the ring, keep it and use it for your own good. While Sauron, Gandalf and the Balrogs were all Maiar its fair to say the Balrogs were a lesser order of them, all but one were unnamed. So while Durin's Bane would be able to claim the ring, it would still be bound to Sauron's Will.


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

[User]
ELI5: The world record for the men's 100m is 9.58s. However, the world record for the 4x100m relay is 36.84s, an average of 9.21s per leg. How is this possible?

This is really confusing me. Either they're running at superhuman speeds in the relay, or I'm missing something about the way these races are run.

[Assistant]
The 100 is a very short race and it has a standing start, so a large portion f the total race time is spent getting up to speed. In the 4x100 only one of the 4 runners has a standing start, the rest are handed the baton at as close to full speed as possible. So the standing start is less of the total time.

If you wanted direct comparison you could look at the first split in the relay. That includes the standing start; you would find it's slower than the 100 runners since you want your fastest sprinter anchoring.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is the average height so much greater in certain parts of the world? Why aren't people in general about the same height?

[Assistant]
Genetically, almost all have similar potential.

But nutrition plays a big part. Nutrition in them, their parents and even grandparents affects height.

Ever notice that second and third generation immigrants to Western countries are usually a lot taller than their first generation grandparents?


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

[User]
ELIF: If viruses like Ebola can devestate the human population (who have knowledge, can take measures to prevent it's spread, and can devise treatment/vaccines) why don't they completely wipe out the animal populations they originate from?

With modern medicine, the ability to comprehend advanced concepts like transmission and prevention viruses like Ebola can still tear through a population and cause mass chaos, death and destruction.   Ebola is said to have been transmitted from animals, who don't necessarily posses these skills.. and who we typically think of as "animals" who eat raw food, never wash their hands, have unproctected sex, and who move freely though the jungle/forest.

How are animals able to avoid being completely wiped out by things like Ebola?  Why don't see hear about complete populations of monkey's dying, dead monkey bodies littering the forest etc.

The only thing I can think of is that due to their limited mobility (no airplanes, cars, etc) the outbreaks naturally "burn out", which makes sense.. however,  they also have a big disadvantage of that, without the knowledge of how the virus works, when a monkey does die, it's left in the forest to rot and be eaten by other animals which I would think would be a possible re-contamination source until it's decomposed and infected tissue/fluids are gone.  I just can't wrap my head around it.  Thanks.

[Assistant]
Because the source of Ebola (we believe that to be Fruit Bats, bus aren't absolutely sure about that) isn't affected the same way. They are carriers, and the effects of the disease in a carrier can be a minor nuisance or even no symptoms at all.

More over, the most successful evolutionary strategy for most diseases is not to be fatal like Ebola, but to let the host live as long as possible in order to spread the infection as widely as possible. If a disease is as infectious and deadly as Ebola, it gets dealt with one way or another. Either the remaining population will be immune, or the population of possible vectors will be extinct and the disease along with it.


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

[User]
CMV: Google is a monopoly and needs to be regulated like a government agency.

# Change My View: Google is a monopoly and needs to be regulated like a government agency.

Google stifles search results to places that are not Google-owned and promotes links to sites that they do own like YouTube.

If there were five options like Google that had a more or less equal share of the market, this would be completely understandable, but there isn't. You have Google, the number one website on the Internet by far. Then you have Bing and Yahoo much, much, lower below in terms of market share.

The effect of this is that when companies like YouTube ban people, they don't have anywhere to go.

I know they have their own websites, but that's BS, and we all know it. Youtube is where things get seen, shared, and responded too.

Think of it this way, how many times, from how many people, have you heard that it would be a great thing if someone would create an alternative YouTube or an uncensored YouTube or just competition for YouTube? Well, where is it?

In anything even close to a fair market, Google and Youtube would have a ton of competitors. But they don't, things like Twitter and Facebook are competitors, and because of that, they're continually improving themselves.

Even when the big sources try to compete with Google it shuts them down. When Facebook try to integrate a video feature to compete with Youtube, it was struck down.

Think about how well Vine did, and that was limited to seven-second videos. They were never going to leave anything but the comedy sphere. That has to show how much the market is demanding a competitor, and yet there's still nothing.

It's like the issue we had with the railroads in the United States, except in a world where the only people allowed to build new railroads are the people who already own the existing railroads. Any time someone does try to make an alternative, it's bought by the establishment. On the rare occasion where it stays independent, Google renders it effectively nonexistent, Suppressing it so even when people search for it, it only shows up on page 3 or 4 of Google. Alternatively, they promote any negative news about it to show up first. So a potential new user must look through 4 or 5 articles about how it promotes racism or hates women or something before finding a link to the site.

I usually don't like the idea of the government messing with the market like this, but I don't think there is another way. Even if you split Youtube and other parts off of Google it wouldn't help, the remaining portion would just start buying new companies and suppressing their competitors. **The only way I think this could be solved is if Google (the search engine) is separated and considered a public utility**.

I've tried to talk about this with people, but every time I get blank looks or hostility. I understand that Google is a cool company, I like them a lot more than most, but that doesn't make me ok with them owning the keys to the internet.

[Assistant] Well Bing makes 500 million a year in revenue, There are also sites like Vimeo, bitshute , liveleak. When the justice department broke up bell telephone in the early 80s you had to use them, there were no other choices at all.


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

[User]
[The Culture]A Mind has to chose between protecting a space habitat with a few billion Culture citizens on it, or destroying an attacking ship which has a universe simulation running with countless sentients in it. What does it do?

The attacker is doing the sort of thing the Culture frowns on, running a universe simulation on "full" accuracy.  So within it are a universe worth of sentients.  The Culture ship can't talk down the attackers or rescue the simulated sentients nor run.  The only option is to destroy the enemy ship in a way which will end the simulation, or, let it's own habitat be destroyed.

What should the Culture mind do?

Let's add another wrinkle.  The attack is apparently of a misunderstanding, alas, one which cannot be clarified or corrected in time.  Not only that but the attacker is "nice", morally clean, has no idea it is killing something sentient and will know what it has done so right after it inspects the wreckage.  It will never be a threat to anyone again when it realizes its mistake.

[Assistant]
We have an empirical answer for this: they would destroy the ship.

Most Culture minds quietly mess around with what the call "Infinite Fun Space", aesthetically-pleasing simulated universes which often evolve life:

>This was the way the Minds spent their time. They imagined entirely new universes with altered physical laws, and played with them, lived in them and tinkered with them, sometimes setting up the conditions for life, sometimes just letting things run to see if it would arise spontaneously, sometimes arranging things so that life was impossible but other kinds and types of bizarrely fabulous complication were enabled.

It's not clear how Minds square this with their usual dislike of overly-detailed simulation - maybe they back up any sentients contained therein, or something. But we see Culture ships fighting each other in *Excession*, and they show no squeamishness whatsoever as long as their cause in the Real is just.


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

[User]
[Witcher] If Geralt decides to kill Whoreson Junior, Dudu later assumes his identity and uses his wealth to start a legitimate enterprise. Why is Dudu not overcome with Whoreson Junior's sadistic urges like when he shapeshifted into Caleb Menge?

Dudu explained that dopplers also assume the personality of the people they shapeshift into. He mentioned in the quest where Geralt frees Dandelion that he felt uncomfortable in Menge's form and was almost overcome with the desire to torture mages. Why didn't the same thing happen to him when he became Whoreson Junior even though he spent a much longer time as him?

[Assistant] Perhaps the willpower of the person affects how strongly their personality imposes on you? Whoreson enjoyed killing women and such, but Caleb's desire to torture mages came from a deep, dark, fanatical place. Dudu may be able to suppress and ignore Whoreson's urges (which Whoreson himself could have done, but couldn't be bothered to because he was a shithead), but Caleb's insanity ran too deep to suppress.


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

[User] In babies and small kids what is the reason of timing vaccines with age? Why can't all vaccines be given at the same age?

[Assistant]
Babies survive initially on their mother's natural antibodies (shared through the placenta and then through breastmilk) until the baby itself has developed an immune system capable of protecting itself. The thymus in particular is an organ that needs to develop for a while before it can handle any vaccines. Otherwise, without a functional immune system, the vaccine can just make the baby sick and won't result in the development of any immunity.

It then comes down to A) whether the vaccine is attenuated, dead, or a toxin vaccine, which each require the developing body to be a certain age/immune strength to be effective.  B) The age of administration of the vaccine is also relevant to the diseases the baby will encounter at that age. Many are given at 6, 12, 18 months etc because babies are very prone to whooping cough, measels, pertussis, polio, with lethal outcomes. On the other hand, the gardasil vaccine isn't really necessary until the child is much older (I think the current age is 12, may soon be 10), because it is unlikely that a 12mo baby will encounter a sexually transmitted virus.

The vaccine scheduled has been refined to make sure the greatest amount of immunity can be achieved at the earliest time possible.