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

[User]
ELI5: If humans cannot reach the ocean floor without being crushed by the pressure of the water above them, how do bottom feeders and other deep sea creatures manage to survive down there?

I saw a picture recently of a really fleshy looking bottom feeder, which prompted this question.

Also, I should add that when I say humans I am also including any technology such as subs, suits, and stuff like that.

[Assistant]
Humans have a small problem, they need air (a gas) to breathe. Lungs are large, relatively open space in the chest cavity, and they tend to get crushed under pressure. Same problem with subs.

Organisms that live at that depth have their entire internal body at the same pressure. They don't have hollow spaces. Since the pressure is equalized there is no crushing force.


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

[User] ELI5: How do birds go forward when flying if their wing movement makes it look like they would only go upwards?

[Assistant] The flapping motion itself is generally used to build or maintain height. However, with the angle and shape of a birds wings, a bird can adjust its tilt slightly while flapping or gliding to build forward momentum. The forward momentum builds as the bird tilts forward, and will accumulate as the bird flies through the air. Birds can adjust the angle of their wings to flap with a combination of upwards and forward momentum.


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

[User] [DC] If Martian Manhunter is-arguably- more powerful Than Superman, how did his entire race die out? What makes J'onn special?

[Assistant]
Quoted from wikipedia:

> Ma'alefa'ak (also called Malefic) - The twin brother and archenemy of Martian Manhunter. He was created by John Ostrander and Tom Mandrake. The character first appeared in Martian Manhunter Vol 2 #0 (October 1998). The brother of J'onn J'onzz, Ma'alefa'ak was the only member of the Martian race born without telepathy and a weakness to fire. Feeling ostracized because of his genetic differences, Ma'alefa'ak was the architect of an extinction-level event. This event is known as Hronmeers Curse. Hronmeers Curse was a plague of fire, this curse attacked Martians via their telepathic abilities. Whenever a Martian attempted to use their telepathic gifts or commune with the Great Mind, they would fall victim to the Curse, and ultimately burn to death. With the exception of Ma'alefa'ak's brother, J'onn and himself, nearly all Green Martians on the planet died as a result of Ma'alefa'ak's handiwork.

TL;DR: One green martian was born without telepathy, felt upset at being different and used their telepathy as a weapon against them to kill every other member of his species on Mars with telepathic fire.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does the cable company care how much you use your internet (data cap) but not how much TV you watch?

Doesn't HD on a cable box use pretty much the same bandwidth as HD on YouTube?

[Assistant] It depends on the type of TV you have.  If its regular cable then the cable company just broadcasts all the shows to you all the time so its no concern of theirs how much you watch.  If it's any sort of IPTV like digital cable or a service like U Verse or X Finity or a lot of digital cable offered then the bandwidth for the TV shows is isolated and only used for shows.  So you really have a bigger internet pipe then you think but part of that only allows for tv traffic.


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

[User]
[MCU] Where was everyone else at the Battle of Wakanda?

The only ones at Wakanda were wakandans and the Avengers.  Where were the militaries of the rest of the world?  Thanos is an existential threat to all of humanity.  His troops just made a mess in Manhattan and Edinburgh.  You'd think You'd at least get fighter fly overs or a few Jericho missiles hitting Thanos' troops.  Did no other country see the ships entering Earths atmosphere and heading to Africa?  Did T'Challa tell the US UK and anyone else that had military assets in the area to stay out?  If so how would his people feel about that?  Heck the Helicarrier would hae been nice although that can't move that quickly.

[Assistant] It all happened incredibly quick. If you noticed in the post credit scene, fury and hill get notice of contact in wakanda and then people start vanishing. And theyre the kind of people who know things before other people know things and it went too quick for them to even know what happened. And from the looks of it, they were in New York, probably to check out the site where the event there had taken place. Its literally like a five minute battle before Thanos teleports in, shits on them, and snaps.


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

[User] ELI5: Why don't wireless signals, like text messages, hit in midair and mess each other up?

[Assistant] They can.  Which is why the frequencies that wireless signals run out are heavily regulated so that signals don't interfere with each other.  You know the numbers for the radio stations (e.g. 98.5) that tells you which frequency it is running at.  In the US the FCC will determine who physically close two radio stations with the same frequency can be to each other so they don't interfere.  Things like your home wifi work the same way, except they have a couple of different frequencies they can run on (which they call channels).  When you first turn yours on it will scan for other nearby wifi and choose a channel no one else is using.  Because wifi is so low powered (compared to a radio tower that can project a signal many miles) you can have a lot more of them in a smaller space.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are camera lenses round if photographs are rectangular?

[Assistant] Pobody is right, this owes much to the way glass lenses are ground into their convex shape. Also, the image is subject to aberration at the edges of a lens, and if a round, convex lens is used to focus the image, one can achieve a wide field of view that will fill the square frame, leaving the distorted edges off of the film.


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

[User] [DC] If you're a criminal in the streets of Gotham and encounter Batman, would there be any possible way to avoid getting your ass beat?

[Assistant]
Provided you're not actually hurting anyone, drop your weapons and surrender. He might still handcuff you and leave you for the police, he also might just let you go if he's got higher priorities.

Batman cares about murder and robbery, if you're delivering bootleg liquor, or something else that's illegal but not violent you're not his business unless you have information he needs.


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

[User]
We're only aware of consciousness because we are conscious. Are there similar conceivable phenomena?

I've been thinking about annihilation, and the prospect of eliminating consciousness from the universe. If this happened, there would be an entire universe just sitting there empty (in a sense), waiting to be inhabited by consciousness, perhaps without it ever coming. It was theoretically possible (unless necessitarianism is true) for consciousness never to emerge in the universe at all.

This line of thought led me to wonder if there were any other phenomena, besides consciousness, that are out there waiting to manifest or emerge that no one/nothing is aware of because it doesn't (yet) exist. (Maybe I shouldn't have used "aware", because awareness is the sort of thing I'm talking about, but hopefully you get the idea.)

Am I at a dead end? Has there been any philosophizing done on this topic? Should I give up on trying to conceptualize something this abstract?

[Assistant] Think of it like humor. The concept of humor would seem totally alien to something that didn't have it. But what if there's another emotion called Gnorfy that is equally alien that we do not yet have? And certain things would make you feel gnorfy, but we have no conception of such a thing as of yet.


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

[User]
ELI5: How come some materials like orange peels can work on my touchscreen phone but others won't?

I dropped an orange on my phone and it sent an email.

[Assistant] The touchscreen of your phone is most likely a capacitive one, which creates an electric field in the screen. Your body is electrically conductive, so it distorts that field when a part if it is very close to or especially when it is touching the screen, which is what the screen measures to sense the position of your finger. So, anything with an electrical conductivity at least comparable to that of your body will also work with the touchscreen. This includes most plant matter and meat, since they, like the human body, contain a large amount of water.


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

[User] [Elf] When Buddy meets children's book author, Miles Finch, Buddy mistakes him for a South Pole elf. Is there such a thing as South Pole Elves? Do they have any relationship with Santa's operation in the North Pole?

[Assistant]
South Elves are a splinter group which broke off from the north pole around a century ago following a dispute with their employer/lord, Santa Niclaus. Following irreconcilable differences, Niclaus agreed to a severance package which allowed the group to establish a colony in Antarctica, where they would be far from his operations yet within a climate comparable to their own.

Despite his apparently reasonable response to these issues, relations between Niclaus and the South Pole remain strained, which results in a considerable amount of prejudice against them by the majority of Christmas Elves, who chose to remain with Santa.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] how long was the Empire stable before the Rebellion really gained traction?

I'm assuming there was a period of time in the galaxy where the Empire ruled unopposed. When did the Rebellion become an annoyance or problem?

[Assistant]
The Rebellion was there, day one. Palpatine went back to his office after the speech and a handful of Jedi came to take him down. He got away, then fought Yoda.

Leia was involved in the Rebellion from the time she could talk. Alderan misdirected Imperial resources to their enemies. Other planets did the same, paid lip service to the Empire while working to undermine it.

It took them a decade or three to get enough ships and pilots and so on to really mount a significant challenge, but they were a thorn in Palp's side from the moment he said "Execute Order 66."


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

[User]
[Starwars Legends Clone Wars] What is set first: start of Animated '03 CloneWars or start of CGI '08 CloneWars

So the first few seasons of Starwars The Clone Wars (2003) are all set at the same time, with MANY featuring the Battle of Muunilinst.

The first feature-length episode of Clone Wars (2008) is set at the Battle of Christophsis.

Battle of Muunilinst is said to take place "4 months after the Battle of Geonosis" (According to Wookiepeedia)

Battle of Christophsis is said to take place "7 weeks after the First Battle of Geonosis" (According to Wookiepeedia)

As 7 Weeks < 4 Months, if feels as though Battle of Christophsis (and thus CGI '08 Clonewars) should be set first.

However Asajj Ventress appears in both, and duels Anakin Skywalker in both battles. Her first meeting with Anakin is said to be on Muunilinst not Christophsis.

So I'm confused!

((And before you say "One is Canon, One is Not", there was a time not long ago where they were BOTH Canon. So that is irrelevant, it's like refusing to answer any questions on Dark Knight because Batman Vs Superman is now movie-canon.))

[Assistant] *Clone Wars* - the 2D one by Genndy Tartakovsky - starts first. The entirety of *The Clone Wars* - the CGI series - was intended originally to sit in the timeskip in the middle of the second volume of *Clone Wars*. Eventually enough changed that it overruled *Clone Wars* on many subjects, including Grievous' coughing - in *The Clone Wars* he coughs throughout the series due to incompatibility between his biological and mechanical parts, while in *Clone Wars* he coughs because of Mace Windu crushing his chest during his kidnapping of Chancellor Palpatine.


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

[User] ELI5 Why, when the skin can absorb medications and ointments for pain, does soaking in a bath not hydrate the body?

[Assistant] Your skin is quite literally made to be water resistant. This is a very good thing, as the kind of water our skin is likely to come in contact with (rain) is going to be littered with all sorts of nasty things the body doesn't want.


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

[User]
Eli5 why do tattoo machines not cut your skin?

I see it all the time in videos. The tattoo artist pulls a line on the skin, but the needle part needs to be deep into the skin to deposit the ink, so how does it keep pulling the line without cutting the skin?

[Assistant]
Welp im a tattoo artist so i guess i better weigh in here

Technically you are "cutting" (puntcuring is more accurate) the skin every time you tattoo, tattoos are really just fancy wounds with ink deposits when you think you about it. However i get the premise of your question, why doesnt the needle cut the skin like a knife through butter in a line, well the simple answer is, the needle is moving up and down at a fast pace, the needle needs to puntcure the outer layer of skin and insert the ink BUT not go too deep. You arent cutting, you're puncturing.

Basically this is the process

Needle up

needle down

puncture skin

Insert ink

Repeat process

All at a rapid pace, it may look like a line but its really just dots of ink all being connected drop by drop (or more accurately puncture by puncture)

It is VERY possible for someone to get cut or hurt with tattoo needles, which is one of the million reasons why you should ALWAYS get a tattoo done by a professional.


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

[User]
Which is more dense, a black hole or a proton?

A neutron? Electron? What is the most dense thing we know of?

[Assistant]
A proton has a density of about 10^17 kg/m^3 while a stellar black hole has a density of about 10^19 kg/m^3 . However, larger black holes are less dense (because the radius increases on par with the mass), and supermassive black holes have a small density in comparison, of about a million kg/m^3 .

The electron is not known to have any finite size, but if it does, its density must be above 10^35 kg/m^3 .


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

[User] ELI5: If producing meat takes so much more energy than producing vegetables and fruits why is being vegan or vegetarian so much more expensive? Are there government subsidies or other measure that help the meat industry more than generally farming produce?

[Assistant]
* If producing meat takes so much more energy than producing vegetables and fruits why is being vegan or vegetarian so much more expensive?

It's not. It's only more expensive if you mostly eat out or only buy prepared foods. The raw ingredients for cooking vegetarian and vegan meals at home is absolutely cheaper.

It's true that vegetarian / vegan prepared foods are more expensive on average: for example veggie burgers are more expensive than the same amount of ground beef patties.

The main reason for this is supply and demand, and economies of scale. Fewer people eat veggie burgers so they need to charge more to stay in business. A lot more quantity of beef is sold, and there's a lot more competition, so the profit margin is less.

As the number of vegetarians and vegans - or just people who enjoy meatless food on occasion - grows, more competition is likely to drive these prices down.

> Are there government subsidies or other measure that help the meat industry more than generally farming produce?

Yes, that's true too. Meat and dairy get a lot of subsidies that artificially lower the price.


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

[User]
[Aliens/Gremlins] It's been speculated already that Gremlins had an alien origin. If so, could they potentially have been created as a countermeasure against Xenomorphs?

Whether or not the Engineers themselves were involved is debatable, but when you think about it a Gremlin's ability to rapidly reproduce without limit along with their instinctual drive to intelligently understand and emulate other life-forms they encounter in their environment (as evidenced by their somewhat comedic attempts to assimilate human culture - but now apply that to a brutal Xenomorph infestation as their sole influence) we may actually have the perfect bioweapon response right under our noses. The small size of the "larval" Mogwai form may well be below the implantation threshold allowing their numbers to grow exponentially with minimal loss. After gestating to their larger aggressive form they are capable of reproducing directly to the evolved state thereby avoiding the delays of a complete gestation cycle. Even their intrinsic weakness to sunlight could be intentionally engineered - to provide an easy method of eliminating them using solar radiation after their work has been done.

[Assistant]
From the novelization:

"The galactic powers ordered the Mogwai sent to every inhabitable planet in the universe, their purpose being to inspire alien beings with their peaceful spirit and intelligence and to instruct them in the ways of living without violence and possible extinction. Among the planets selected for early Mogwai population were Kelm-6 in the Poraisti Range, Clinpf-A of the Beehive Pollux, and the third satellite of MinorSun#67672, a small but fertile body called Earth by its inhabitants."

Of course, it was later discovered that only 1 in 10,000 of the Mogwai retained their intended benevolent disposition, and (the galactic powers believed) the species was eradicated.


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

[User]
Are economic classes dependent on the type of jobs available? More specifically, to maintain a middle class, do certain types of jobs (manufacturing for example) need to be available.

Its a very vague question so let me explain. Politically, the issue of a shrinking middle class has been a hot one in the US for a long time. Im not sure if thats actually happening or not but because its a mainstream political concern, lets assume its true. The decline in middle class jobs is often attributed to the decline of industry either through globalization/outsourcing or dying businesses(coal mining for example).

What I hear as a common solution to this is to simply create middle class jobs. I hear two different ways of getting their that varies in implementation across political ideologies:

1. Bring jobs back or reevaluate trade agreements with other countries to support domestic production and, by extension, employment.

2. Create middle class jobs out of new and growing industries, such as renewable energy production.

These discussions, in my belief, forms a narrative that a middle class is difficult to maintain without something in between unskilled, low-valued labor that anyone can do but simply doesnt pay very much, and high skilled labor that pays beyond middle class but isnt accessible to everyone.

[Assistant]
The relative pay of a job is dependent on the supply and demand of that job.

Despite what politicians will tell you, there is no way to "bring jobs back" from other countries because most jobs were replaced by technology and capital, not sent over the border. Domestic production is coming back, not because of protectionism or trade agreements but because the technology to fully automate the production of many simple products has become cheaper than even the cheapest labor available. This isn't going to bring back any blue collar manufacturing jobs, just highly specialized technical jobs to maintain the machines.

The problem isn't that there aren't enough 'middle class jobs', it's that the education system isn't keeping up with the economy and giving people the right skills to get the jobs that pay a middle class wage or higher.


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

[User]
[Batman] Batman wants to be an agent of fear and dread to the criminals of Gotham, so why not wear some kind of fangs or set of sharp teeth? Doesn't his mouth just give away the fact he's just a guy in a suit?

I mean he's got glowing eyes and a menacing voice modulator. Why not go the extra mile and cover his mouth with something equally scary. I don't mean a comical Dracula fang, but more like a set of animalistic teeth or something?

I mainly got this idea because in Batman begins when scarecrow is induced to the fear toxin and sees Batman, he looks freaking demonic! Those sharp teeth really do make him completely different.

[Assistant] He fights in the shadows, uses smoke, can seemingly silently teleport using grapples or moving silently, he has two large horns protruding from his head, and makes a habit of sending thugs into comas. Anyone who gets close enough to see his teeth is either unconscious or is a near equal fighter (ie not scared by the tactics)


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

[User]
How has Commissioner Gordon not been assassinated?

Gotham is about as corrupt as can be and most of the police have been bought off. Jim Gordon is one of the few who hasn't. How has this not gotten him killed by the mob or something?

[Assistant] Are you serious, man? Talking about offing Gordon? You really wanna piss off the Bat that badly? Do you have any idea what he'd *do* to you? Do you have any idea what the *cops* would do? Even the dirty ones respect the hell out of Gordon. You might as well slather yourself in barbeque sauce and pick a fight with Killer Croc if you wanna die that bad.


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

[User] ELI5:When in a serious accident and/or near death, why does going to sleep lead to death?

[Assistant] Going to sleep doesn't lead to death, but the inability to wake someone or even get them to respond to pain indicates that something is very, very wrong and may lead to death.  So when someone is injured you make sure they can still wake up or respond in some way.


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

[User] [Hangman] What did that man do to be sentenced to death? Is he a criminal? And why does he get to live if I can guess a word correctly?

[Assistant]
It's less that the hanged man deserves it, and more the fact that the person sentencing him is a bastard. Have you ever considered that maybe it's some sadist who enjoys doing this?

Keep in mind, corrupt or overzealous judges always exist and in the Wild West, judges often bounced between towns to sentence as many people as they possibly could because it paid more. In fact, this is where the name "Kangaroo Court" comes from.

And as stated, sometimes the judge just really wanted to hang people they believed as guilty. For example, the man who was trying to hang the protagonists in *O Brother, Where Art Thou?* kept hunting down the main characters even after they were pardoned by the state governor (meaning he was going to commit a blatant murder) because he believed them guilty.

There's also the judge who was one of the victims in the Agatha Christie novel *And Then There Were None* who was trapped on the island with a serial killer called UN Owen; the reason Owen invited him there and is going to kill him is because he had forced a jury into sentencing an innocent man to death just because he was certain the man was guilty. >!The judge was UN Owen; he liked killing people but kept himself restrained due to his sense of justice. Once he had been diagnosed with a terminal illness, he tracked down nine others who got away with murder and killed them all.!<

There's also a famous short story called *The Judge's House*, written by Bram Stoker, about a college student who rents the house of a hanging judge so he can focus on his studies, but he feels increasingly uncomfortable because of a large rat that keeps watching him, which  the student believes is possessed by the ghost of the judge who kept sentencing people to hang. >!He's right, and the judge hangs the student as well.!<


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

[User]
Understanding Node.js

Hey guys,

I'm a junior developer trying to understand Node.js a little better. I use it every day at work with React (in that I use the 'npm run server' and 'npm run client' commands) but I feel like I don't understand it very well. I want to change that.

I've done my share of Googling, and what I've come to learn is that it's a runtime for JavaScript. So then I asked myself "Cool, so what's a runtime?". A runtime pretty much runs code - feed it some code and it will give you an output. My understanding is that browsers have their own builtin runtime, which is why you can still run Javascript without Node.

"So why use Node?" Because is allows you to run your Javascript without a browser, and in a server instead. This makes it possible (or at least makes it easier) for me to give my code to a cloud service provider so I can access my work in the cloud.

What other advantages are brought by using Node?

My next question is, what are the interactions between my browsers runtime and Node?

I know that these are covered in many online resources, but I'm not able to find anything that explains it in a way that makes sense to me. If anyone has any resources that explain the power of Node in a simple way it would be much appreciated. I just feel like I'm overthinking this, which is causing a mental block in my head.

[Assistant]
Your browser runtime (client) and your server should be considered their own little bubble/machines that are trying to talk to each other.  In fact, they don't even have to share the same technology (in the case, they both use JavaScript, but the server could totally use something else, like Python or Php, or even Java or C ++ if you really want to).

They communicate through HTTP web requests, the standard text based communication. Further formats could be placed on top of HTTP, making the content HTML, JSON, XML or just unformatted plain text, or binary data.

Modern web framework will tend to help you with this process to make it easier, more "magical".  But at the end of the day, you can just imagine two people stranded on two islands, communicating to each other through mails in a bottle (requests). Whether the other party understand the message, or even got the message at all, or care to do anything about the mail in the bottle, or misunderstand the message and did something else instead. What they do on their own island is their own business.

It is your job as a developer to keep them in line.  Now imagine one of them is not under your control, it will be really frustrating to understand what the other person is trying to say at all. That's why API is needed, that the other party that you don't control will promise to react to those bottles in a predictable way.


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

[User]
[MCU] How does Ant Man revert to his exact default size?

Maybe I missed it somewhere in the movies, but is there a "default size button" or could Ant Man presumably be 107% or 97.3% his normal size?

[Assistant]
Pym particles operate similar to atomic orbital tracks in that there are a set number of stable sizes.  It takes the active application of the particles to flip you up and over the low stability sizes until you drop back into one of the stable positions.

Your natural, normal height is the most stable track.  Growing or shrinking you bounce along multiple stable points until you get to your desired height.  That's why it looks like a series of different-sized ghost images when you observe it.

The increments are larger than just a few percentage points plus or minus, so 107% would likely be a low-stability point and require active expenditure of Pym particles to maintain.


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

[User] [James Bond] How did James Bond kill 2 people to get a license to kill if he doesn't have the license to kill yet?

[Assistant] M gave him specific targets to eliminate and that grants a single use license to kill valid only for them. Mission completion earns him a full license to kill which means he doesn't need M's permission before killing someone. If Bond kills someone else when using the single use licenses, he could get disciplinary action or prosecuted.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] How would have Anakin vs Obi-wan ended if they fought on a large flat ground throughout their duel? What about Sidious vs Yoda?

It seems that through out both duels, terrain and different heights made a significant contribution to the outcome of the fights (high ground and Yoda falling from the chancellor's podium).  How would've things gone differently if the duels occurred on a large flat arena with no other factors?

[Assistant]
Major differences.

Obi-wan clearly had the advantage in the fight against Anakin, being older, more experienced, and more in control of himself. Obi-wan wins again, no big surprise.

Yoda vs Palpatine would have been quite interesting. They seemed pretty even dueling with lightsabers, but Yoda proved to be slightly more powerful in the force twice: sending the senate podium back at palpatine when he launched it, and redirecting the force lightning back at him. So I'd say that, given a more even playing field, Yoda wins this fight.


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

[User]
[Mass Effect] Is it safe to eat varren meat? What about other animals?

I'm a human moving to a world which is multi-species but essentially in salarian space and I'm wondering - aliens use varren in the same way we use dogs but they also eat them. Well, some cultures on Earth eat dogs, but... how edible are the? Are species from other worlds safe to eat?

[Assistant]
The colonists on Feros ate Varren left behind by Saren's Krogan after the alpha was killed and the pack became less organized. One of the colonists remarked that it tasted awful but kept them alive until more supplies were shipped in.
Eating meat from an alien biosphere is always risky, though. The crew of the Hugo Gernsback found that out the hard way on the planet 2175 Aeia. They suffered from neurological decay from the toxins in all the native plant life. It may or may not be a defense against local fauna, but it had that effect on the Human crew.
A Human can also only draw nutrients from similar amino acids. At best this means that eating Turian  chocolates will give a human the runs, at worst it will cause them to go into Anaphylactic Shock and die.
More metropolitan areas will have species-specific restaurants and menus, but it doesn't hurt to be careful and invest in some sort of a test kit.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are people hating on Target so much for going gender neutral?

[Assistant]
> Isn't it a good thing?

Not to the people who are upset about this. To them, gender roles are important and should be enforced (or at least encouraged). They might not agree that if a boy likes a doll he should be allowed to play with it.


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

[User]
CMV: Pop-Tarts are Ravioli

To be able to change my mind, you might have to provide an alternate definition of Ravioli/Dumpling, or dispute the make-up of a Pop-Tart.

Ravioli are a type of dumpling composed of a filling sealed between two layers of thin pasta dough.

Dumpling is a broad classification for a dish that consists of small pieces of dough (made from a variety of starch sources) wrapped around a filling.

Pop-Tarts have a sugary filling sealed inside two layers of thin, rectangular pastry crust.

inb4 Ravioli is usually served either in broth or with a pasta sauce. Keyword here is *usually,* not always.

Edit - The verdict is in, Pop-Tarts are **not** ravioli, which brings me to my next point: Ravioli, ravioli, give me the formuoli.

Edit 2 - For all those who dont feel like reading the thread, but do feel like complaining about the topic: Yes, as I state several times below, I stole this topic from an image that was on the front page. Yes, I can see the same post that you saw with the eyes in my skull AND agree with it. No, you cannot destroy the Meta-side, but you may join it.

If youre on reddit and not anticipating masturbatory meta posts youre gonna have a bad time.

[Assistant] The distinctions in the type of dough have already been addressed, but there is a specific point that was left out.  While both pastry dough and pasta dough use wheat flour, they typically use different species of wheat.  Pop-Tarts us *Triticum aestivum* while pasta uses *Triticum durum*.  While this may seem insignificant, it results in a pretty dramatic difference in the texture produced in the dough which gives it different properties when shaping the food and a different taste when being eaten.


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

[User]
CMV: The Democratic Primaries weren't rigged.

I've yet to see conclusive proof the democratic primaries were rigged.  I've seen evidence that people didn't like Bernie, discussions of things that they 'may' do, but never any conclusive proof of action taken against him.  I've even seen Bernie say that the process wasn't rigged, just stupid.

Many of the emails seem to be twisted into something they're not, or blown out of proportion.  One opinion piece I read recently that was talking about how there was an email that proves the scheduele was anti-bernie.  The email could only be found through digging through another article they wrote, and it said what sounds like the opposite to me: "6) ensure a format that provides equal time for all candidates and does not give the moderator any discretion to focus on one candidate."

Motivation/ill will alone does not prove collusion.  'Thinking' of doing something is not evidence of wrong-doing (the DWS email about 'ask him if hes jewish' without any follow through where anyone asked him).

Bonus: DWS was incompetent, and people wanted to oust her for awhile.  She was an idiot first, not out and out malicious.

[Assistant] Would you consider the election "rigged" if there was an unfairness that was built-in to the system? Having Sanders win a state with a majority of votes, but come out with less delegates (like in Michigan, Indiana, Rhode Island, Montana) seems like the system was rigged to have a particular candidate win.


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

[User]
[Marvel Movieverse] What would the effects have been had Hammer's 'Ex-Wife' missile fired and detonated properly?

The thing was clearly trying to do something pretty impressive, how should it have worked?

[Assistant]
Because of how Hammer described it, it seemed to be an anti-armor/bunker busting weapon. That means it is designed to rip through armor or fortifications and detonate from the inside (as opposed to detonating on impact), directing more of its energy onto the wearer/occupants.

Had it functioned correctly, it would have ripped through Vanko's armor (and perhaps his chest cavity), *then* exploded, most certainly killing him.


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

[User] ELI5: How do soap and shampoo clean your body?

[Assistant]
At a molecular level, if you were to examine a molecule of soap you would see that it is not symmetrical, in fact it has two different "ends". One of these ends is strongly attracted to water molecules while the other one is strongly attracted to fat molecules.

So when you rub soap on your body, the fat-attracting end of the soap molecules binds to the grease and dirt on your skin. Then when you rinse with soap, the water-attracting part of the soap binds on to the water molecules, and as it gets washed away it carries with it the dirt and grease that it's previously "grabbed".


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

[User]
ELI5: Can A Vacuum Cleaner Work In Space?

If It Can, Why or How So?

[Assistant]
Technically yes.   In space its not a completely vacuum, its just effectively so.   Just like if there's one drop of water on a towel, that makes the towel not "dry",   there's a couple of gas molecules floating around.

So the vacuum motor will spin and move gas molecules around. But there's not enough that the vacuum cleaner will be effective.


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

[User]
[DC] Would Superman sacrifice Lois Lane to save the world?

Would Superman sacrifice Lois Lane to save the world?

[Assistant]
Superman is about doing the right thing, choosing Lois over the world would be selfish and Superman isn't selfish.

He would try his hardest to save both but if its impossible he would sacrifice Lois.


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

[User]
Why do planets in the solar system rotate around the sun in a single plane of reference?

If you look at pictures of the solar system, you see that their orbits around the sun are drawn in a single plane with respect to the sun. Is that drawn that way for simplicity reasons, or is the orbit of the planets around the sun all in one plane? If they are all in the same plane of reference, why is that so?

[Assistant]
There's a little bit of variation, but they're pretty close to the same plane, within a few degrees.

The origin of this is that the Sun formed from a collapsing cloud of gas, which had a little bit of rotation.  As the cloud collapsed, it rotated much faster (think of figure skaters drawing their arms in).  Some of it was rotating too fast to collapse into the central point (the Sun), and because the gas molecules collided with one another, that gas took on the form where the gas molecules collide the least, a disk.  The planets formed out of that disk, and preserved its orientation.


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

[User]
Why did Homo sapiens survive but Neanderthals didnt?

Why did Neanderthals go extinct and we didnt? The oldest Neanderthal remains are about 430,000 yrs old while Homo sapiens are estimated to have arisen about 300,000 years ago at most and 200,000 years ago at least. So this gives Neanderthals a 130,000 yr head start on us but were here and they arent. Not to mention Neanderthals lived in Europe which is a very good place to start a civilization. While Homo sapiens lived in Africa that has deadly flies that can kill you by biting you and very dangerous animals. Not to mention Homo sapiens are physically weaker than Neanderthals. A Neanderthal could probably take 2-3 hits from a mammoth while someone like you or me would die instantly. And they were just as smart as modern humans right? So think about you have a physically stronger equally intelligent species that lived for about 130,000 yrs before Homo sapiens. This doesnt sound very good for Homo sapiens so what happened.

[Assistant]
Short answer is, we don't know.

They went extinct "shortly" after a wave of modern humans arrived, so it seems likely that it had something to do with us.

Could have been climate change, disease, being out competed, interbreeding, all of the above.


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

[User]
[Judge Dredd] I am a sadistic judge. What is stopping me from going on nightly killing sprees against innocent civilians?

Is there any kind of adequate way of reporting judges? Are there futuristic body cams? What's keeping a judge with a penchant for murder from wreaking havoc on the city?

[Assistant] Every judge is subject to investigation on every action taken. May take a little while to find ya but if they determine youre handing out death sentences inappropriately it's straight to a penal colony for ya. And judges have no off time. You work 23 hours a day and rest in a box for 1 hour that feels like 8 hours of sleep.


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

[User] Do quantum mechanical effects have any physiological consequences for how our brains work?

[Assistant]
Aside from quantum effects being at the core of physics and chemistry as per the other comments, there are also some, lets say, less supported, theories.

Roger Penrose, the physicist, proposed that quantum effects are the direct mechanism (that is not via normal biochemistry) that drives consciousness. The consensus is that this is not plausible.

Then there is Deepak Chopra who likes to produce word salad with the word "quantum" thrown in. Complete garbage but hard to argue against - bacause how does one argue against random gibberish.


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

[User]
How many derivatives can you take of a moving object before getting a value of zero?

If the position of a theoretical object was defined by x\^2, then the first derivative would be 2x, the second would be 2, and the third would be 0. How many derivatives can you take of, say, the position of a rocket ship launching into space or a person starting to run before getting a value of zero? Do some things in the universe never reach zero? Do all of them never reach zero?

[Assistant] It depends on how it's moving, but you can easily come up with motions where arbitrarily high time derivatives of the position will not be identically zero. An example is a simple harmonic oscillator, where the motion is described by a sinusoidal function.


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

[User] Why don't people get heart cancer?

[Assistant]
First, the technical nitpick: cancer can arise basically anywhere there are cells, including the heart.

Now, the actual answer: the heart is mostly muscle. Muscular cancers are extremely rare. This is because the vast majority of cancer cases involve carcinomas: malignant growth of epithelial cells, which line body cavities like the bowel, intestines, and lungs. The rest of your cells can be grouped into connective tissue (fibers which keeps your body glued to your bones), nervous tissue (neurons which send and recieve signals), and muscular tissue (which move parts of your body). Cancers of these cells, including primary heart cancers (i.e., not just a common cancer that has metastasized to the heart), are called sarcomas.

For a variety of reasons, epithelial cells are exposed to more sources of genetic damage than the more insulated cells of the other categories. While it's entirely possible that telomere degredation (very small, cumulative shrinkage of your chromosomes) would eventually lead to cancers of muscle, fat, and nerves, it's far more likely you will die of some other cause first.

TL;DR: it's not technically impossible to develop heart cancer, but it's very unlikely, and unless you were specifically trying to contract it, almost anything that could cause sufficient genetic damage would give you a more common form of cancer first.


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

[User] ELI5: If generic brands for prescriptions exist, why do the name brands not get taken off the shelf due to price, or are sold at all?

[Assistant]
Because sometimes there's considerable differences in the brand over the generic brands. One of the ones that comes immediate to mind is Panadol (Tylenol if you're American). You can buy the cheapo generic brands by they are general large, chunky tablets that get easily stuck in your throat, hurt and taste very bad. The brands usually have capsules, or least easier to swallow tablets, and generally have a coating that doesn't make it taste extraordinarily bad.

Another reason is because, although the ingredients are pharmaceutically identical, they may not trust 'generic' versions (after all it is your health you're dealing with). The power of suggestion and especially that more money must equal a better product means that people simply won't settle for a generic brand. Even if it's just a snobby preference.

Lastly, they just may not understand the difference. The doctor might have written a prescription for Panadol, and so that's what they *have* to get. They're Doctor knows best, so they don't want to take the risk.


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

[User]
CMV: all nuclear weapons and bioweapons should be destroyed or permanently disabled

We as a human society with intelligence have been around for a very long time. In the last 70 years we have managed to use nuclear fission to create something terrible. And we have created enough of those things to completely wipe out the entire human race and possibly all life on earth.  What are the advantages of this other that to show we could fuck up an entire country if we wanted?  Shouldnt we be working towards a peaceful utopia like society?  Weve already seen how destructive and deadly these weapons can be through historical events.  And I get that war will still continue on without them.. but to what point should we have and still be producing more of these weapons that bring tragedy, death, and disease?

[Assistant]
Here is your fundamental problems.

First, the technology has been invented. People know how to make them. Even if you got rid of all of them today, all it takes is one state to decide to make them again and they would be an instant superpower status nation. That is the intense incentive to create new ones once all of the existing ones are gone.

Second, international relations is simply slightly ordered anarchy. The most powerful dictate the rules for everyone and then the most powerful don't even have to follow their own rules. There is no check on this. He with the biggest stick wins. As such, there is no possible way to 'destroy' or 'disable' weapons on the worldwide scale.


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

[User]
CMV: It is creepy and simply not okay for gay men to create female profiles in attempts to get straight dates.

This happens in 3 ways (I am not female so I don't know if lesbians do this) and it is just not okay, dating apps give you the ability to know who is straight and who is gay so use it properly, its this type of shit that make it hard to be allies.

**Type one- Using female pictures to get a match and then later coming forward as gay or waiting even longer.** Totally unacceptable it is cat phising and it is a violation of consent, you KNOW the person does not want anything to do with you sexually or romantically so you try and trick them into getting with you.

**Type Two- Having a male profile but putting female so that you are shown on heterosexual male feeds** This is not as bad as one but it's annoying if you accidentally swipe right on them it's lying and should not be a thing. Simple.

**Type 3- Not being 100% open on your profile that you are transgender** If you say I am trans on the first line, or you make it clear I will have no problem with you, I might be annoyed that someone who I got replies from is not what I am looking for but over all I will respect you. If you don't say it upfront and pretend to be a biological female and I have to find out later then its when you cross the line.

Over all its about respect, no one has to love you no one has to find you attractive so don't try to trick people into liking you, most straight people support LGBT rights, when they don't affect us, when you lose our support is when you start trying to get straight people to date homosexual or trans people because that is you forcing your way of life on us.

[Assistant] How many people are actually doing this?  Sounds like it would be more of a troll move than a genuine attempt to get you to hook up with them.  Not that it makes it ok, but it obviously works.  Look how worked up you are over this.


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

[User] eli5 how does heat pack activate?

[Assistant]
There's two types of heat packs, reusable and non reusable.

The non reusables are simple, they have some iron in them which oxidises as soon as it comes in contact with the Air. Essentially as soon as you open the air tight packaging and they come in contact with oxygen, it starts to burn really slowly which, like a regular fire, creates heat.

The reusable ones are a bit more complicated, they work based of supercooling a solution. Super cooling means cooling the liquid solution **below** its freezing point. Under certain conditions this is possible, and it leaves the liquid in a very unstable state, since it effectively really desperately wants to freeze solid, but can't. Once you've super cooled that solution (note that this doesn't necessarily mean it has to be cold by human standards. Just that it has to be below freezing for that specific chemical) there is a small metal plate in there which you can click. The click causes a small.but very very sudden excitation of the liquid, which is enough to set it off, and causes it to start freezing.

Due to a property known as latent heat, substances undergoing phase transition will always remain steady at the transition temperature, until they have fully transitioned. In other words, a supercooled liquid will almost immediately heat up to its freezing point once it starts freezing. Since the freezing point of the solution used in hand warmers is about 50-60C, they warm up to that temperature and give off heat.


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

[User]
ELI5: What exactly do people who call themselves Libertarians believe?

My understanding of it is that people should be allowed to do whatever they want assuming that it harms nobody else. But where is the line drawn? I mean, driving a car when drunk can harm somebody else, but so can just driving a car at all and having an accident. Most things in life have an inherent danger that we attempt to regulate and minimise with laws. So to what extent do Libertarians want any regulation at all, and is it just immediate harm, or do they take societal consequences into account, considering they do live in a society after all.

Also, I realise there are degrees to this amongst different people who claim to be Libertarian, but what is the overall philosophy? And what about the fact that famous Libertarians also happen to be quite wealthy and don't require government assistance.

[Assistant]
Your first sentence describes a libertarian manifesto. Some libertarians take it a step further to the nonaggression principle. Although that is more of a individual philosophy than a political ideology.

There's three natural rights, property, body, and mind. These can be thought of as your freedom in the past present and future. Property is the fruits of your labor. Body is your right to liberty. Mind is your right to speech and thought. Only when one of these three natural rights are infringed should anyone have a right to prosecute anyone.

Yelling fire in a crowded theatre could threaten lives therefor it should be illegal to do so.

The income tax is involuntary, you cannot owners without paying it. Therefor it should be abolished. Whereas the gas tax and the property tax, are taxes which you voluntarily pay by using such goods. You don't have a natural right to land or gas. There was no income tax until 1913, and we were fine because we did not have a standing army. We relied on a draft in case of just defense of our soil. Which has only occurred once in us history at pearl harbor which was provoked by rude "diplomacy" to the honourous Japanese.

If a pregnant mothers life is in danger due to her pregnancy, she has a natural right to abort.


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

[User]
[Age of Ultron Spoiler] Why didn't Ironman....

... Use the Hulkbuster armor on Ultron?

[Assistant]
Aside from the fact that it was damaged while fighting the Hulk, it's demonstrably less mobile and has fewer "gadgets". The regular suit has rockets and lasers and stuff, whereas Veronica is built for punching and taking punches.

Tight corners? Precise strikes? Speed? Nope. Just punching.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do bacteria build resistance to antibiotics, but not to things like alcohol, bleach, and boiling?

Why is nobody worried that a new chlorine-resistant bacteria strain will show up?

[Assistant]
Antibiotics work to stop a particular bacterial process - say making proteins or building a cell wall.  This is very specific to the bacteria in question, and will not harm you when you take them.  But that means the bacteria can invent ways to become resistant, such as pumping the antibiotic out of their cells or producing a protein that breaks down the antibiotic outside the cell.

Alcohol, bleach and boiling are non-specific.  They destroy multiple systems in the bacteria.  They also destroy your cells.  So they are not as safe as antibiotics, even though bacteria cannot become resistant to them.


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

[User] ELI5: how did english came to be the "universal language"?

[Assistant]
The UK is arguably the most dominant nation of the past 1000 years, the US over the past 100.

On top of that, the US has been a leader in media, technology, and commerce during the first time in history it has been easy to for the general public to communicate with people around the globe.  That has gone a long way towards making English the preferred international language.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are manhole covers not in the middle of a lane so car tires don't run over them?

[Assistant]
Transportation engineer here. Usually the sewer systems under the road are much larger than you would think. Usually 10-30 ft wide. If you think of a cut-away of this underground sewer (essentially looking at it as though it's a really large pipe so you are thinking of It as a circle in cut-away view), it makes most sense to put the manhole at the top most part of the sewer (top of the circle). Now, roads get re-surfaced all the time. Curbs and lanes change due to the needs of traffic. That sewer system most likely has been there for a long time if there has always been a road there. Even in new construction, there was probably an older sewer system in place for many years. Cost wise, no way are they going to go with the hassle of relocating a manhole when they can just level it as best the can. Sometimes the contractor does a bad job with this and you get your pothole-like manholes. But relocating means a lot more engineering and subsurface work. It would be nice to do, but it's usually just not in the budget for that type of jobs.

Other times during new construction, the contractor putting in the sewer and the contractor putting in the road just miss their mark slightly. Most of the time, they're given basic plan sets with only their part on it. And usually it's different contractors for different aspects.

Hope this helps.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do nails get softer after being in water or easier to cut after taking a shower?

[Assistant]
Our nails are made of layers that make them strong and help them keep their shape. One of these layers has keratin cells, which is a special type of cell kind of like bone. These cells are very thin and let water pass through to keep the nail hydrated and healthy.

If we have a shower or go swimming for a while the nails get over loaded with water and become soft until it can be absorbed.


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

[User]
how to combine philosophy and computer science?

how to combine philosophy and computer science?

[Assistant]
Like, in college? Or in research?

it is fairly common to study both.

In research, there's a few interesting questions, from questions of logic to how AI (edit: and machine learning) works to ethics stuff.


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

[User] [Warhammer 40k/Halo] Do Spartans and Space Marines serve similar combat roles, and which is better used by their governments for their purpose?

[Assistant] Spartans are a precision tool for completing important missions and defending key installations. Space marines are shock troopers meant for frontline duty. While there is overlap tactically between their roles the two forces are deployed very differently. A Spartan is sent to an area where they'll have the greatest impact or be able to do what a 100 soldiers can't. A space marine is sent into the thickest part of fighting to cause as much damage as possible while achieving their objectives. One's a sniper round the other is a bomb. In terms of usage it's debatable since both fight radically different wars but space marines are more easily produced and more widespread in application and effect than Spartans are.


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

[User]
ELI5: If an object is in a shade that we can't see like infrared, what color would it be to the naked eye?

So this question seems like it has a really simple answer, but like how a leaf is green, some objects have got to be in an infrared shade, because there is a giant spectrum of color that we can't see, so if we were to look at the object without any visual help, what would the object look like color-wise?

[Assistant]
An objects color is the sum of the colors of light it reflects as opposed to the light it absorbs. So a leaf is colored green because of chlorophyll which absorbs red and blue light well.  This leaves green light to get reflected back.

If there were an object that absorbed all frequencies of light except those in the infrared which it reflected.  That object would appear black, because no light we can see gets reflected.


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

[User] Eli5, How do they put up those 2000ft tall radio masts?

[Assistant] The base, tower segments, and (sometimes) the transmission line segments are pre-assembled by the manufacturer. Once on-site, they are stacked utilising various methods. They could use a heavy lift helicopter, a gin pole, or a crane. No matter what, they have to utilize a tower crew with Adamantium balls! Seriously, it's a dangerous process.


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

[User]
Are the effects of quantum entanglement instantaneous or are limited by the speed of light?

If two photons are entangled and are separated by a light-year, would it take a year for one photon to show the changes made to the other?

[Assistant] Two entangled particles do not influence each other. They are just correlated in a weird way, that is different from classical correlation, but acting on one half of an entangled pair will never affect the other in an observable way.


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

[User]
ELi5: When everything freezes on a computer, why ist the mouse still functioning and fluidly moving?

Title says it all. Whenever programs and applications freeze completely on Windows or MacOS, the mouse is still responding. Why is that?

[Assistant]
Some of your hardware, like your mouse, are allowed by the OS to directly access some other hardware components in ways that software (apps) can't. Thus they can "work" even when none of your apps can't. Another example is the monitor itself. Unless it goes dark, the monitor is still painting the pixels dozens of times per second, even after apps have crashed. You know this because if not then you wouldn't see your mouse moving on the screen.

Obviously all this "working" due to low-level hardware access isn't doing you much good during a crash - but it is really important to having fast response times under normal conditions.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] What's up with stun?

Six major documentaries and a stun weapon is only used once (on Leia). Why does a culture historically dominated by Jedi Knights place such a low value on less-than-lethal weapons?

[Assistant]
There are a few problems with stun weaponry that make it very uncommonly used, especially by the people featured in the documentaries.

1. Stun technology is not identical to blaster technology.  Setting a weapon for stun is not as simple as adjusting the power of the beam.  A blaster bolt will always detonate on impact, with the power level only determining the energy release and concussive force of the shot.  A stun shot is a completely different energy emission, and requires its own circuitry and focusing coils to fire.

2. Stun shots are not focused.  Due to the different mechanics of a stun shot, the energy discharge does not remain small and focused like a bolt.  They expand as they leave the barrel, meaning that they dissipate over range, and they are not precise.  The effective range of the stun setting on an Imperial-issue Blastech E-11 is approximately 20 meters.  Anyone further away will feel a slight (or possibly painful) tingle, but anyone struck by the ring before that point will be stunned.  Thus, it is not possible to precisely stun one person in a crowd.  You'll need stun batons for that.

3. The stun effect does not last long.   Depending on the model, it could be as short as 60 seconds or as long as five minutes.  In either event, it does not take a combatant out of the fight for long.  In order to completely disarm an enemy combatant with stun weaponry, the soldiers would have to stop their advance and stuncuff everyone, leaving them vulnerable to attack, and bogging them down with a massive load of stuncuffs.

4. Stun circuitry is either large or expensive.  The most cost-effective stun option on the market is the CS-33 Firespray, which is a rifle in its own right, and completely incapable of lethal fire.  If you want to make a more compact weapon, it gets more expensive very quickly.  In fact, the single most expensive component in an E-11 rifle is the annular stun focusing coil.  Due to the cost, it's not always practical to add a stun setting, especially if it will be rarely used.  The Naboo Royal Guard and the Imperial Stormtroopers are both regularly used as a police force, and thus have a need for capturing people alive.  The Grand Army of the Republic and the Trade Federation Droid Army do not perform police duties, so the cost of adding a stun setting to their weaponry was deemed unnecessary.

To be honest, it's points 2 and 3 that are the most critical.  It is simply not time effective to stun and then stuncuff soldiers in a battle.  That's why droids and clones were so popular in the last days of the Grand Republic; nobody felt bad when a clone or a droid died in a fight.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why it looks like a rainbow of colors when my phone screen is wet and it's a plain slate of color.

Like white. I got sweat on my phone and many colors show up under the sweat. What is happening here?

[Assistant]
A screen is made up of pixels, and each pixel has three parts-red, green, and blue.

By varying how bright each color within a pixel is, any shade of any color can be made (they usually work in 256 steps of brightness per color, 256^3 is about 16.7 Million colors).

When you get water on the screen, the curve of the drop effectively works like a magnifying glass, and makes the tiny pixels you normally can't see very large. This magnifies the red/green/blue enough that you see them separately, and a rainbow effect happens.


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

[User] ELI5: What is the scientific explanation as to why you can feel your chest and stomach tighten when your feelings are hurt?

[Assistant]
You know when you fill your car tires with air and they get harder? Or when a balloon gets old it's a lot easier to poke your finger into it.

When you have a stress response, your body releases chemicals into your bloodstream. These increase your blood pressure which makes your blood vessels just a bit "stiffer" like a filled balloons/tires and you can feel that. You can also probably feel yourself getting warmer for similar reasons. Your stomach and nearby organs are part of a nerve system responsible for digesting the food you eat, and these power down and divert blood flow to other places when this happens - so you feel it most in those places.

The purpose is from olden times when the stress would come from a lion roaring at you, and you needed the extra energy/pressure to be able to respond quickly and run faster (or fight better if you couldn't run). Now when it happens because someone was calling you names, it is just a feeling.

If it happens too often or for too long, it can be damaging. (Imagine poking a balloon until it gets a tear.) If you're going through a rough emotional time, it can be very helpful for your body if you take some time a few times a week to go for walks, runs, or pick up a sport or something to clear out this extra energy.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do cardio machines need two hands to monitor heart rate but smartwatches only need one wrist?

EDIT: I'm referring to gym machines like threadmill, spinning, elliptical machines.

[Assistant]
A smart watch uses light and a sensor to 'see' the blood pulsing through your skin.

A cardio machine runs a little bit of electricity through your body and because your heart uses electricity to beat it can see changes in how the electricity comes back. Because you need to complete a circuit that includes your heart it uses two points on your hands.


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

[User]
How is online gaming possible if there must be some delay?

Online communication always has a delay, especially when people communicating are on opposite sides of the US. If that's the case, then how are fast FPS video games, like Call of Duty, possible to play online?

[Assistant]
Modern games tend to employ two different techniques simultaneously in order to compensate for lag, but players with lower latency will still have a small advantage.

1. **Server state rewind**: You're playing an FPS at home and you pull the trigger.  At that moment, the stuff you see on your screen is already out of date by 20-50ms.  And the command to fire your gun doesn't reach the server for *another* 20-50ms.  But the server knows *when* you fired the gun, so it just rewinds the game to that exact moment to find out what you hit.

2. **Client-side prediction**: Certain actions that you perform in the game (firing, moving, jumping, whatever) don't actually execute until the server receives the command.  But the game would feel terribly sluggish if your client were to wait for official confirmation.  So your client *simulates* the command locally under the assumption that the server will allow the action.  You pull the trigger, and your client immediately plays a gunshot sound and draws tracer rounds on the screen.  You *feel* like it executed immediately... but other players in the game actually don't see your shot until 100ms later.

These techniques allow games to feel responsive and accurate, but they can still cause conflicts.  Sometimes you pull the trigger, but you're already dead on the server (somebody shot you and you don't know it yet) so the action isn't actually performed.  You feel like the game robbed you of a kill because that's what it looked like on your screen.


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

[User] [General Sci-Fi] Why would I want to "ascend"?

[Assistant]
Well if you're worried about a pub... then you aren't ready.

When a civilization is ready to ascend depends largely on what they want to accomplish before they disappear into the ether. The bird people of star cluster U84-356 wanted a naturally grown world tree on each of their planets. U84-356 wasn't ready to go for over two thousand years after they perfected the method to ascend. Diverse populations like the Traiing Collective may never ascend even though they've known how for a millennium. Their work on this plane, whatever it is, may never be done.

For some groups ascension is a part of their religion, and they've been living, studying, and praying for the concept since before there is written record, its just natural for them. Others civilizations destroyed religion eons ago and ascension is like going back to the old ways, and is unthinkable.

Anywho, no population is perfectly aligned and not everyone will pass on. You can stay behind and work that pub. There will be a lot of new people moving into your planets when you're gone and they'd love to hear your civilizations stories over a pint.


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

[User]
When is assembly language needed?

Is assembly language completely obsolete or are there useful purposes for it? What kind of a job would require those skills?

[Assistant]
High level languages expect certain civilized niceties to exist.

For example a stack.

For example the BSS segment to have been initialized.

For example a stack frame to have been created and sane things happen when you "return".

Something has to do that.

If you have a nice OS... most of that will have been magically done for you.

If you don't, or you are writing said OS... then a little bit of assembler is needed.

For example when you have a hardware interrupt... what the CPU does is fairly rude. It's quite common to have a tiny bit of assembler that sets things up so a high level language service routine can run successfully (and return successfully and return to interrupted code).

Many weirder CPU's have insanely weird instructions.

If you're lucky, you have them neatly wrapped and handed to you as \_\_builtin\_XXX() compiler intrinsics.

However, especially on DSP's you have weird highly vectorised and /or pipelined instructions that expect you to set up a data pipeline and stoke that pipeline with data and tear it down with careful handling of boundary conditions.

Sometimes assembler is the only way, but hopefully the vendor of said CPU had packaged it all up as a library routine to do a fft or convolution or whatever.

Conversely you can only really understand what the hell your optimiser is doing with your code by looking at the disassembler listing.

Quite often you get horrid surprises when you do. (Not because the optimizers are Bad, usually they are quite good. But because we're humans are quite bad at understanding exactly what the language standard implies.)


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does my video still lag when the buffer bar says it's buffered up to 5 minutes ahead?

If it's buffered already, why won't it just play smoothly?

[Assistant]
People who don't understand how computers work are way over complicating things here. The real reason is that the video isn't actually ready to play, but the buffered bar is shown to generate a placebo effect for humans. The people who programmed the player make it overstate how much of the video is ready to play because it makes it seem as if the player is working better then it actually is.

There's actually a good reason not to buffer far ahead, particularly for internet video. If they buffer the video far ahead, they have to transfer all of that data to you. This costs money for them and for you. People don't always watch the whole video, so if they transfer all of that extra data that doesn't get viewed, they've wasted money. That's why they program the player to lie a little bit. It makes it seem as if the player is doing more than it actually is, while cutting costs for everyone. If the whole video plays smoothly, everyone is happy that it worked so well and the video seemed it was ready ahead of time for them. If it doesn't play smoothly... well, you get this question.

TL;DR: The video isn't actually ready to play, the player lied. The video is the Christmas gift, the player is Santa Claus, and your parents (programmers) told you about Santa.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Were the vehicles in episodes 4-6 invented during that time period?

Episodes 1-3 had no AT-ATs, AT-STs, X-Wings, Tie fighters, Y-Wing, etc.

[Assistant]
A-wing and b-wing prototypes were developed a few years before the battle of yavin, but the rebellion was in its infancy and did not have the means to mass produce them until they became more unified and had access to more industrial resources.

The at-sts and at-ats are evolved designs from the walkers used during  the clone wars. They went through many redesigns to get to their present state. Tie fighters evolved from the jedi starfighters in the same fashion.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does it seem like neat handwriting comes naturally to some people, while others cannot write as neat no matter how slow they write or how hard they try?

[Assistant] Handwriting is partly mental, partly muscular. Some people concentrate more on their writing, or have practiced it more. And some people have a greater degree of fine motor control in their hands and fingers than others. In some cases, practice and even specific exercises can increase your fine motor control; however, for some people, it's always going to be an uphill battle. There's a learning disability (or processing disorder, if you prefer) called motor dysgraphia, in which the dysgraphic person has a markedly reduced degree of fine motor control while writing, and cannot develop it to the same degree as other people. It's reasonably rare among right-handed people, moderately uncommon among left-handers, and very common among mixed-handed people.


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

[User] ELI5:where does water actually come from and where does it go before it reaches my sink?

[Assistant]
Just handling the "last lap" part of it, the part where it enters and leaves your sink, the answer depends on just how rural you are.

**Cities and Suburbs:**

* Where it comes from: usually a nearby river or lake. The water company (or water department) pulls water from the river or lake, filters and cleans it, and pumps it into big pipes that criss-cross the city and surrounding areas (water mains). There's a smaller pipe that runs from the nearest water main to your house, and then smaller pipes that run from there to the sink.

* Where it goes: through a small pipe to a vertical, larger pipe (standpipe) that makes a right-angle turn under your basement floor (usually) and runs out to the sewer main. From there it runs downhill to the sewer treatment plant which filters as much as they can out of it, and pumps the rest back into some river or lake; usually the same one, usually down-stream.

**Outer suburbs and rural:**

* Where it comes from: the pipe runs from your house to a well, which is a pump connected to a deep pipe that runs down to where the ground is so wet that, if you dig a hole, water seeps out (the water table). That layer of water-soaked ground has been there for a very long time; some of that water seeps in from nearby rivers or streams or lakes, but most of it was there when the ground formed and will be gone when it's used up.

* Where it goes: from your sink, it runs via pipes out to a holding tank in your back yard (septic tank). The solids settle out and have to be shoveled out every so many years. The water slowly seeps through the sides of the tank into the ground.


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

[User] ELI5: What happens on the new president's first day, does he undergo a training day?

[Assistant] The President elect already started to get briefings and preparation prior to their actual election. Their "first day" will likely be mostly taken up with preparation for the ceremony to swear them into the office, and the ensuing speeches and events afterwards.


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

[User]
ELI5: Is there a condition that being at home for extended periods of time causes depression or anxiety?

I find my anxiety rising after being at home for 24hrs. Any longer than that then i start becoming depressed. Granted there are a million things that could be done around the house but I get so worked up I find any excuse to go out for at least an hour. Is this a true phobia?

[Assistant]
I think this occurs with most people. It's just the effects of being isolated in a dark building for extended periods of time. You're a social animal. You require social interaction, you require mental stimulation, you require movement, and you require sunlight and the outdoors.

Being cooped up in your house for more than a day is really going to start wearing you down pretty quickly. You need to go outside for at least a little bit to "recharge your batteries".


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

[User] Would a monitor lizard (or other egg loving creature) prefer to eat a fresh laid egg with the yolk or one that was nearly ready to hatch? which would be more valuable as food?

[Assistant] Building complex molecules to make a critter would be anabolism, which takes energy to do and some is lost as heat.  Once eaten, these complex molecules would be catabolized, which takes some energy on the monitor lizards part, like making digestive enzymes, stomach churning, HCl, etc.  It would be more energy efficient to eat a freshly laid egg.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is the US election cycle so long?

Seriously, it feels like I've been hearing about preparations for the next election for over a year. In Australia the PM announces an election, usually around the time they have to do it by but sometimes earlier when it benefits them, then we have a month or so of ads and campaigning and so on and the we cast our votes and it's done. Why does it take so long in America?

[Assistant]
U.S. presidential elections take place every four years; they aren't announced and they can't be "called for." Since everyone knows when the election is coming, they have a long time to prepare.

That said, this year's election is unusual in how early it "started", which is mostly testament to the paucity of good candidates.


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

[User] Why is it that if you try to focus on a retina after-image after glancing at a bright light, it seems to move slowly out of your field of vision. But if you blink, it's right back front and center again?

[Assistant] You're moving your eye in an attempt to follow the image, but when you move your eye the image moves as well (because it's part of your eye), so you move your eye more to follow it.  The same thing happens with floaters.  If you focus on something in the distance that isn't moving then you can keep the image from moving around as long as you don't try to look directly at it.


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

[User] How did the ancients discover the value/concept of Pi? In what ways was it useful to their lives?

[Assistant]
One of the earliest calculations was in ancient Egypt. It was used for things like calculating the areas of fields or the volumes of cylindrical granaries.

One papyrus says "Example of finding the area of a round field with a diameter of 9 khet. What is its area?
Take away 1/9 of its diameter, namely 1. The remainder is 8.
Multiply 8 times, making 64. Therefore the area is 64 setjat."

If you work this out, they approximate pi as 256/81 or roughly 3.16.


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

[User]
[MCU] A question about punching someone with an Infinity Stone

As we saw in Endgame when Thanos was on the verge of being overpowered by Captain Marvel he took the unexpected measure of extracting the Power Stone from the Gauntlet and using it to punch her away. Was using the Power Stone his only possible play, or could he have broken the stalemate by grabbing and somehow using a different Stone in that moment?

[Assistant]
For a nigh-immortal space genius, Thanos really likes to solve his problems via brute force.

He gets clever when he doesn't feel threatened, like turning stuff into bubbles or reducing people to sentient cubes of flesh, but Thanos is, more than anything else, a warlord, and that means his instinct is to rely on violence and raw power, not cleverness.

Assuming you're powerful enough to wield it, holding *an* Infinity Stone makes you one if, if not the, most powerful individuals in the universe. Having more than one puts you pretty close to the "unbeatable" category.

But you have to be smart about it. If your ego gets in the way, if you want to prove that you're the strongest, baddest mother fucker to ever decimate a planet, someone smart will be able to use that against you.

And Thanos is all about ego. He made a big speech about how the universe was ungrateful for his "gift", and how he was going to set things right this time. He is a megalomaniac, and he *needs* to prove that he's the strongest there is.

So when he's faced with someone who might be as powerful as he is? Power Stone. To him, there's no other option.


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

[User] [Eli5] Why does sea salt taste saltier than regular table salt while having less sodium per taste?

[Assistant] If you're eating the salt directly, or eating food that has *just* had salt sprinkled on it, then the shape of the crystals is going to make a difference. Sea salt crystals are typically flat and wide, a shape which dissolves quickly on the tongue providing a sharp spike of salty flavor. Regular table salt, on the other hand, is usually more cube-shaped. This helps it flow much better, but dissolves slowly and therefore won't taste as salty. If you're tasting salt that's already been dissolved (such as by being put onto the food before/while cooking), it'll taste the same. The typical advice is to use kosher salt for salting meat before cooking (it sticks better, again because of the shape), regular table salt while cooking (cheapest), and save the gourmet salt for the table.


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

[User] ELI5:Why does a car door get stuck if the driver unlocks the door at the same time that the passenger is trying to open it?

[Assistant] There's a latch that connects the door handle to the actual opening mechanism.  When the door is locked the latch is disconnected.  If you lift the door handle when unlocking the latch doesn't engage.


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

[User]
CMV: Rubio's plan to expand the EITC is nothing more than a handout to the business community.

After watching Marco Rubio's interview on The Daily Show, I see his plan to expand the EITC as a way to subsidize low wages so that the profit margins of businesses are not impacted by being forced to pay all costs for their employees. This is another plan to socialize the losses and privatize the profits for business in America. How is this not giving companies even more leverage to lower wages even further or simply to not increase wages as necessary, thereby causing the taxpayer to subsidize the profit margins that a company would normally have to cut in order to maintain employees? He goes on to claim that this subsidization will allow companies to put off the (eventual) automation of the business. Why should we put that time off to the future and pay the costs in the meantime? If a company cannot stay in business without being subsidized then is it really a business or just an arm of the government that is being manipulated to pay the executives a higher wage?  Should McDonalds be absorbed as a function of the government? I don't think so, but it seems as though some think it should be supported like it's a part of our national economic security.

Please change my view, because I'm kinda confused about these types of "solutions".

[Assistant]
The EITC is a subsidy to wages. There is no way to levy a subsidy (or a tax) on an economic transaction such that only one side gets the benefits. Even if you offer the benefits *solely* to one side or the other, the subsidy makes the recipient more eager to accept the transaction and that increases the bargaining power of the other side.

Before there was an EITC there were various programs that phased out abruptly as your income rose. These had the unfortunate consequence that sometimes people who got a job, or a slightly better job/longer hours, ended up with less resources for their family ... in effect, it was an extremely high tax on the poor that discouraged poor people from improving their lives.

If you want to offer benefits to poor people, but you don't want to punish poor people for becoming less poor, you have two choices:

(1) offer everyone a universal basic income, that never phases out at any income level

(2) offer something like the EITC - in effect, a negative income tax or wage subsidy for levels of income below a certain threshold. For every dollar you earn, instead of getting a little bit taken away from every dollar (normal taxation) or a huge hit once you reach a certain income level (traditional welfare benefits), you get a little bit added to every dollar, with the amount going down with each dollar until finally you are paying taxes yourself (wage subsidy)

These are the only two ways. There is very little political support for (1) (outside of Alaska, which actually has a universal income for Alaska natives)

Anyway - does this mean that McDonald's is a branch of the government? Not really. Lots of companies use/build off of federal infrastructure (like highways, the Internet, the space program) or benefit from federal subsidies (charter schools, farmers, solar panel manufacturers) without being part of the government. Deciding whether to subsidize something with tax money and whether it should be run as a public or a private institution are two different questions.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do orchestral musicians (violinists, for example) have to read their music on stage, as opposed to rock musicians who have their parts memorized?

Don't say it's more complicated... think of Rush, etc.

[Assistant]
Two reasons come to mind.

First, yes, the music *is* more complicated. Symphonic music is tightly scored, precisely notated stuff which is deeply dependent on exact precision  and unity across the ensemble. Play a note marcato when it's marked staccato and the world-famous guest conductor with the diva complex might well decapitate youand there's thousands of notes with all sorts of annotation. Rush doesn't compare.

Second, if you're in a professional orchestra, you're generally giving at least one new concert series a week, which means learning at least an hour of this stuff in time to work with whoever is conducting that concert that week, then getting it up to performance standard in just a few rehearsals. This isn't Rushit's being in a cover band that does Rush better than Rush this weekend, Queen better than Queen next weekend, Bon Jovi better than Bon Jovi the weekend after that, and on and on for an eight-month season, all while trying to juggle your private students, solo recording contracts, and whatever else you do to try to keep your family fed. Memorizing the second violin part to every Beethoven piano concerto takes time you just don't have.


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

[User]
ELI5: why are grocery store strawberries (around here we get Driscolls brand) big with a hard white interior? Why are they so different than homegrown strawberries?

Even when overripe/rotten, the insides seem to be white. Compared to homegrown strawberries, they are flavorless. Are they a different variety?

[Assistant] Picked too early.  Strawberries dont ripen after theyre picked.  Smaller strawberries are generally sweeter than the big fat ones.  As a kid growing up in the Willamette Valley in Oregon, spent many early summers picking strawberries back in the late 60s.  Fat ones are only good for strawberry fights.


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

[User]
[TES] The Isle of Artaeum and the Psijic Order return to Tamriel from... Wherever they went. What is the Thalmor response?

So, it looks like the Psijic Order is back. The Isle of Artaeum came with them. I know typically the Psijics don't get themselves involved in political affairs, but those Thalmor have a way of involving themselves with those who'd rather be left alone. So, obviously the Thalmor are going to respond to the Psijic Order just showing up out of nowhere. Would the Thalmor actually try to pick a fight with them?

[Assistant]
I doubt the Psijics would ignore the Thalmor. The whole schtick of the Thalmor is that they want to destroy the Towers that keep time and reality stable in Tamriel. The Psijics, being learned in the metaphysics of Mundus and all that, would likely not stand for any of it.

They would probably try to stop the Thalmor. The Thalmor would probably fight back.


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

[User] Eli5: Are there any negative consequences to smoking pot, if not, why has it been illegal for so long?

[Assistant] In teenagers, pot has been shown to slightly decrease test scores and IQ later in life, though whether there are confounding variables in any test like this is, of course, unknowable. Once the brain is fully developed, though, I've never heard of any significant downsides. It remains illegal in large part due to lobbying by tobacco, alcohol, pharmaceutical, and prison corporations who all want to keep competition off the market (and increase their own business in the case of prisons), and also due to social conservatives who just want to keep everything the same regardless of if it makes sense.


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

[User]
ELI5: What does it mean when a video game company is going to "incorporate NFTs into its game"?

Asking this question makes me feel OLD. I thought NTFs had to do with crypto? Is it some kind of piracy protection?

[Assistant]
Old RPG mechanics:

* You fight a monster until rare equipment drops.
* If you have the equipment, you have it.
* You can trade it with other people.
* The game can provide a trading interface that doesn't allow people to be screwed.

NFT Game mechanics:

* You pay money for rare equipment.
* The company spends enough electricity to power a house for a year and gives you a receipt.
* Now there is a permanent receipt outside the game that proves you are the sole, exclusive owner of a URL to a picture of the equipment.
* You can trade your receipt with other people.
* Each trade uses enough electricity to power a house, but the game developers didn't have to make an in-game trading interface.
* The developers have to write some code to make sure if you trade your NFT to someone else the equipment is traded.
    * But at least they didn't have to write a trading interface!

In short: it's a buzzword for something that's been working in online games for decades. It's a trick to make you think the game has something special. Any game where you can get scammed in player trades is a game that has developers too lazy to write a proper trading interface.


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

[User] ELI5: Why when I pinch the skin on my elbow as hard as I can it doesn't hurt, but when I graze it or cut it, it does?

[Assistant] The nerves which respond to a cut are below the surface of the skin. The elbow is designed to be leant on etc. so has a different distribution of nerves than a more sensitive part of the body than say the fingers.


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

[User] ELI5: What makes people stop crying like children when they are hurt?

[Assistant]
Crying is a way of signalling help from others, specifically parents or guardians.

Evolution has determined there is a time when animals, including humans, can not generally rely on their parents to protect them.  At this time crying can suddenly become counter productive - as it also signals to hostiles that you are weak, vulnerable, easy pickings.  Screaming is totally different, you're showing your teeth and making a scary sound, pronouncing damn clearly you're still alive and conscious and have fight left in you, and you're basically ready to f'kin rumble.  The opposite of crying.

So evolution slowly determined that around the 14 year mark, puberty, the advantages of crying were outweighed by the cons.  There was more chance a hostile would go for your jugular knowing you're already suffering bad, than your mom or pop would step up to save the day.

Crying also made it more difficult to find a mate - as potential mates are often looking for protection, and you are 'advertising' you can't even protect yourself.  Again, helping evolution start stamping it out.

A variable in this equation is your capability at that age to start helping yourself out of situations.


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

[User] ELI5 - Why most of the animals have 2 eyes? Why not 3?

[Assistant] Probably because having two eyes is just enough to perceive depth. The additional eye would not increase the accuracy very much but it would increase the energy consumption as the brain would have to analyse more data.


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

[User] ELI5: How do 20 speed transmisions work? What vehicles use a 20 speed?

[Assistant]
Think of it like a 4-speed transmission hooked to a 5-speed one in series.  The 4-speed gives coarse control and the 5-speed fine tunes between the coarse steps.

I can't imagine anything but a long-haul trick using something like this.  There are a lot of parts, and that costs money.  The precision adjustment would never pay for the parts.  In lighter cars, they use continuously variable transmissions for this sort of thing, so it would have to be a high-torque application.


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

[User]
How Is Digital Information Stored Without Electricity? And If Electricity Isn't Required, Why Do GameBoy Cartridges Have Batteries?

A friend of mine recently learned his Pokemon Crystal cartridge had run out of battery, which prompted a discussion on data storage with and without electricity. Can anyone shed some light on this topic? Thank you in advance!

[Assistant]
Game boy cartridges are mostly read-only memory of some kind, either 'mask roms' (chips that are created in the foundry with data) PROMS (write-once memory that is set by blowing diodes you don't want leaving the data you do), EPROMS (which are PROMS that can be healed and reset, usually by UV light) or EEPROMS (which are proms that can be reset with an electric charge). This doesn't need a battery to keep the data.

But they also contain a small amount of efficient normal RAM, and the battery is used to keep the memory in that RAM live. This is used to store save games and high scores.

These days, this data storage is generally done with 'flash memory', which is the stuff they use in memory cards, usb sticks, and SSD hard drives.