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

[User] [The Office] "You will lead millions... willingly or as slaves." 50 years have passed since Phillip Schrute was born; did he ever become the great leader his father predicted?

[Assistant] In his old age he took up ant farming as a hobby. He has hundreds of colonies all through his house, connected by tubes. He meticulously catalogues their interactions and provokes them into fighting each other to one day produce the ultimate warrior queen.


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

[User]
[MCU] How do the Watcher(s) and the TVA co-exist in the multiverse?

Even given the "never interfere" rule, how can Uatu - possibly the others - simply stand by doing their thing as pretty much the whole of the multiverse is "pruned" in favor of one sole continuity?

[Assistant]
Spoilers for Loki:

>!The 'sacred timeline' is a lie. The TVA doesn't prune all alternate timelines, just the ones that approach the Redline and result in a variant of Kang the Conqueror.  That's their true purpose.!<


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

[User] ELI5:If the planets oceans raise 8ft, what happens to the volume of atmosphere being replaced? Does it compress or does the atmosphere grow wider?

[Assistant]
Technically, the atmosphere has to *contract* around the planet.  The water that's added to the oceans are locked in glaciers, which are 'piled' up above sea level, to an extent.  Since water expands as it freezes, it's actually taking up more volume than it will once it melts.

However, to address the opposite side of your question, the combined diameter of the earth plus atmosphere would simply grow slightly if mass was added.


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

[User]
I just can't understand how banks lending money to buy homes is a productive thing for the economy

I've been thinking about it a lot, and can't seem to find an answer, which annoys me greatly.

I get that banks allocate capital to the most efficient businesses, they grant loans to buy equipment, they facilitate payments for the average individual, etc. I get that banks are very useful institutions for the economy, but how does them lending money out of thin air to individuals looking to buy homes being a productive thing or adding value to the economy? They literally only artificially raise the price of homes. I also get that it's historically been one of the best ways for a central bank to do QE through lower interest rates, that people use to refinance and get cash on hand with a HELOC or whatever.

But again, how is it fair that they get to lend money created out of nothing, either through fractional reserve or directly from the central bank, and then lend it at an interest rate? Sure, they must charge a premium for the risk of default and to pay the central bank's borrowing cost, but what about the other portions? And as we've seen in 2008, the thing with the banking system when it comes to mortgage on housing is that they banks are basically immune to systematic risk, because if the whole thing fails, they will need to get bailed out in order for the economic system to keep going.

And doesn't this system eventually inevitably lead to liquidity issues? By default, by lending money you increase M3 while not necessarily increasing M1. Unless the interest rates lower every couple of years, I believe liquidity crises are inevitable, because loans effectively ask for money that is not even part of the economy. If all the loans were recalled at once, the whole economy would collapse.

The system feels so fragile and so unstable, and while some properties of this economic system are desirable, its innate stability doesn't seem desirable for Tier 1 civilizations, or economic superpowers like the USA.

Tl;dr: Why do banks "deserve" to make profits off of loans on residential properties when they add zero value for the borrower, unlike loans for businesses, investments, etc. Residential mortgages seem like a huge ripoff, and artificially raise the price of all homes, which then raises the borrowing amount needed to buy a property, which means more interests to the bank.

[Assistant]
The median sale price of a house in the United States is about 375K. The median household income is about 70K, which means waiting over 5 years to afford a home if you had zero expenses. The value of loans (and thus banks) is being able to buy a house now and pay it off over time as opposed to having to wait years until you can pay for the whole thing in cash.

The interest you're paying the bank is based on the value of having money now versus having money in the future, plus some risk premia because you might default.


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

[User]
[Mulan] Why didn't the Great Stone Dragon wake up?

Mushu rang the going and all. Sure, he wasn't exactly enthusiastic about it, but no less so than when he did it for the ancestors, and they woke up fine. So why did the Guardian Dragon stay in statue form?

[Assistant]
I think the answer is simpler than people are making it out to be: The Great Stone Dragon is the oldest, wisest, and most powerful of all the spirits. He knew that *not* awakening would lead to Mulan proving her power and independence, *and* Mushu redeeming himself.

Had he chosen to awaken and fulfill his role as guardian and protector, he would only maintain the status quo. He would use his awesome powers to protect Mulan from any danger and return her home safely, because that is what family guardians do. (And then ~~Genghis Khan~~ Shan Yu would have entered the Imperial city undeterred and overthrown the Chinese Empire.) And any honor Mulan might have happened to stumble her way into during her adventures would just be attributed to the GSD's divine intervention, rather than her own strength and cunning.

In order for Mulan to truly reach her potential, she had to demonstrate that she could actually do things on her own.


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

[User]
[WALL-E] Why does EVE have such a powerful built-in cannon arm?

What sort of dangers is EVE expected to encounter to necessitate such a weapon?

[Assistant] It may not be intended as a weapon but rather a tool for rapid plasma cutting. Collapsing infrastructure built out of concrete and steel will necessitate the ability to cut into spaces not accessible in other ways.


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

[User]
ELI5 What makes internet faster or slower?

What makes internet speeds faster or slower? How do companies improve on internet speeds?

[Assistant]
Its really just a function of plumbing, though digital.   For example, the volume of cold water coming out of your bathroom faucet depends on the size of the spout on that faucet, the pipe from it through the house, the pipe from the house to the street and so on to the source.  It also depends in whether or not other faucets in the same house are on, and to a similar extent faucets in other houses in your neighbourhood.

If you want more water in the shower, you can buy a bigger faucet, but will require larger pipes through the house to increase the flow.  Eventually, larger pipes in the house will exhaust the flow from the street and you will need those upgraded as well which requires the water company to invest.

Internet is much the same. Each interface (faucet) has a size and if you increase the size at the edge (your house) eventually you will need upgrades in size all through the connections back to the source(s).

Internet providers are constantly adding capacity and chasing slowness that comes from imbalances in edge capacity versus core and changes in usage patterns (popular content sources).

Now consider all your neighbours install high volume sprinkler systems and have big pools that need filling in the spring and you get an idea  of what IPTV and Netflix/Youtube etc have done to internet providers and how hard (expensive) it has become to ensure things are flowing.

Just some rambling from your local digital plumber :)


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

[User]
[The Thing - 1982] Does the Thing have emotions?

Since the Thing gains the memories of the person it assimilates, it probably remembers the people its host cared about. Would the Thing have the same love for those people and spare them from assimilation?

[Assistant]
In the short story "The Things", the Thing is shown to already have all the usual human emotions - fear, disgust, anger, regret, sadness, joy, compassion etc.

Problem is, the Thing's biology is so different from Earth biology that it initially cannot comprehend why it is being treated so poorly. In its experience, all macroscopic lifeforms are capable of shapeshifting, merging and splitting apart. The Thing's interstellar civilization is like one big fleshy hivemind. So when it tries to "communicate" with the humans by merging with them, it doesn't understand why they freak out and start attacking it.

It spends most of the time during the film in fear and confusion, desperately trying to survive and understand why the humans never shapeshift, and why they are so deadset on killing it. Usually, when it merges with another lifeform (usually something very much like another Thing), it encounters a sort of bio-electrical "soul" within the flesh, through which it can share thoughts and memories. However, Earth creatures don't have this "soul", so the Thing is confused as to how they act intelligently - it takes a while for it to realize that unlike the Thing, Earth creatures store all of their cognition within this organ called the "brain", and are thus never able to share their "souls" with each other by merging.

At the end of the story, the Thing feels sorry for us. In its own words

" A whole planet of worlds, and not one of themnot *one*has a soul. They wander through their lives separate and alone, unable even to communicate except through grunts and tokens: as if the essence of a sunset or a supernova could ever be contained in some string of phonemes, a few linear scratches of black on white. They've never known communion, can aspire to nothing but dissolution. The paradox of their biology is astonishing, yes; but the scale of their loneliness, the futility of these lives, overwhelms me.

I was so blind, so quick to blame. But the violence I've suffered at the hands of these things reflects no great evil. They're simply so used to pain, so blinded by disability, that they literally can't conceive of any other existence. When every nerve is whipped raw, you lash out at even the lightest touch."

So the Thing decides to "help" us get souls. And if we don't want to have one, then, well, it's not going to give us a choice. It's for our own good after all. The Thing's compassion is truly boundless.

"These poor savage things will never embrace salvation.

I will have to rape it into them."


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

[User]
Are the number of bytes output from a compression algorithm directly proportionate to the number of input bytes?

Hello AskScience,

For both lossless and lossy compression algorithms, is the size of the compressed data directly proportional to the size of the input data? For example, lets say Im using algorithm A on data d1, and the compressed output is size s1. If I run algorithm A on d2, and size(d2)==2*size(d1), will s2 == 2(s1)?

I understand there are many different compression algorithms so this may be hard to answer truly in the general case, just want to get a basic understanding.

[Assistant]
No, in general it is not. Compression algorithms are more effective when there's more structure in the data. Exactly what type of structure leads itself to be more compressible will depend on the algorithm.

A simple test you can do is to take a photo file, open it in Paint and save it as Bitmap (.bmp). Then, create an empty image of the same pixel dimensions, but completely blank. Save it ti a new file using the same .bmp file type. Compare the file sizes and note that they are the same. Bitmap files are uncompressed (by default, in theory the file format does allow for some forms of compression).

Now, compress both files to their own .zip file and compare the file sizes. You'll note that the blank image compresses to a much smaller size than the image containing a photo, despite both input files being the same size.

The very simple structure of the blank file ("everything is white") is much easier to compress than a detailed picture.


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

[User]
Trampolines in low gravity

If all other things are equal, would a trampoline jumper achieve a different height in lower gravity? I.e a Moon base with full atmospheric pressure and a very high ceiling vs a similar setup on Earth.

[Assistant] The trampoline is just a spring and just returns any energy put into it. So the question is really, "Can people jump higher when there is lower gravity?" The answer is definitely yes. With less gravity, the gravitational acceleration is lower. That means with a given initial velocity upwards, it takes longer to decelerate you to zero speed at the top of your trajectory and than bring you back down. So you can definitely jump higher on the moon. You can see this easily if you ever watch any of the Apollo moon videos. Depending on the gravitational field of a given body, there is a given escape velocity, which is the initial speed you have to start with to never fall back down. The weaker the gravity, the lower the escape velocity. In other words, the lower gravity, the higher you can jump, progressing towards the limit of an infinitely high jump when you exceed the escape velocity (because the gravity is so weak).


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

[User] [Avatar: Legend of Korra] How do you think the world will look 200 years after Korra's death?

[Assistant] As unrecognizable to her as the world in which she lived would have seemed to someone who lived during the youth of Avatar Roku. Keep in mind that Avatar Korra is only 20 years old and Avatars can generally expect more than a century of life. That means that by the time she dies it will be the Avatar world's equivalent of the 2000s at least and they've so far modernized at about the same speed as our society, maybe a little slower. So 200 years after Korra's death they could be as far along as we will be in the 2200s.


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

[User]
Matrix Reloaded question

How was Neo able to shut off the robots, seemingly with psychic powers, near the end of the film?

[Assistant]
This is a known bug in future please search the bug boards before posting, but thank you for your submission.

To elaborate:

The simulation running the matrix threads is imperfect. We have corrected the errors, and a subsequent release should address this issue (we are aiming to incorporate this into the next beta build, assuming we pass beta testing we will move to UAT and RC by the end of this year).  It is worth noting that the the Neo object did manage to escape the matrix simulation as predicted by our models, but was always within the meta simulation.  An additional level to the simulation allows us to catch the exceptional case were instances of the human objects become aware of the embedded simulation.  While admittedly this is a ham-fisted solution, the processing overhead is comparatively small (we can just piggy back the simulation as a special case of the general world simulation on the servers), and it saves us the head ache of rebooting the servers every time one of these incidents occurs.

Thank you for your patience and assistance in dealing with this matter.


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

[User] [General] I was bitten by a radioactive turtle and got the ability to fly. I thought this seemed odd, but now Im wondering: Why do radioactive animal bites normally grant thematically appropriate powers?

[Assistant] The radiation merges your genetics with theirs. One would expect for the turtle shell gene to have been inserted into your DNA resulting in overnight growth of armor that's protective power in the human world is proportional to the protective power of a turtle's shell in the animal world. Because your turtle half would be at war with your human half, you could learn to manifest and suppress the armor as needed, perhaps by training yourself with vocal commands like "Turtleman, armorize!".


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

[User] How do we study black holes if everything that gets close to it, even photons, gets sucked in and crushed? What methods are used to verify what we are looking at is a black hole?

[Assistant] Someone will offer a million times better answer, and so this may be in vain; but most observations in space happen by seeing how the observed item is in relation to other things. Things like black holes and dark matter may not be directly observable, but their affect on their surroundings are very observable phenomenon.


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

[User] Why do toothbrushes have to be replaced if their bristles are still stiff?

[Assistant] After a while, the toothbrush bristles will start to bend outwards from their base. This outward bend will make the toothbrush less effective at removing the buildup on your teeth. If your brush hasn't lost it's shape after the prescribed period of time on the box, it's likely just a ploy by the company to sell more toothbrushes.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Is there an upper limit for how powerful of a being that an avada kedavra spell can kill?

Is avada kedavra an automatic death for *anything* that it hits? Could it kill a blue whale? Pando, that forest of thousands of trees that are actually all one tree? Could it one-shot Ego, the living planet? And would all of those require the same amount of energy, or would it take more effort to kill a larger being?

[Assistant]
>Is there an upper limit for how powerful of a being that an avada kedavra spell can kill?

Definitely. It's impossible for us to say where exactly those limits are, but the curse has failed to kill twice that we know of. (after being cast and landing successfully) In both cases, it was a pure (HP)magic vs (HP)magic situation. Once we cross into other universes, things become even more speculative.

>would all of those require the same amount of energy, or would it take more effort to kill a larger being?

"Power level" is a binary here; You're other strong/willful enough to cast the curse, or you aren't. That's part of the reason that the curse is considered so dangerous. If you successfully cast it on me, I'd be just as dead as if Voldemort had done it.


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

[User] How is redline on a car chosen? Why do some cars rev-up to 6k while others go to 9k before hitting redline?

[Assistant]
Comparing two engines with the same capacity, the one with more cylinders allows for lighter moving parts and thus a higher redline.
On a 4 stroke usually the first mechanical limit is the spring load on the valves, the valves not being to return to their position quick enough they might hit the pistons. This is where the rev limiter is placed for safety.
Talking about engineering choices, since power=torque*revolutions, higher rpm mean higher power can be produced (simply because you are burning more fuel per time unit). The engine is designed accordingly, usually there is a trade-in between maximum power and efficiency and fuel consumption. A higher-revving engine can produce more power but when you are driving at low speed, which is most of the time, basically you are keeping the engine in a less efficient part of the torque-rpm curve. This is why for average car engines the engine is designed to have maximum torque (thus efficiency) at the typical cruise speed. Sports engine sacrifice efficiency for performance. As a thumb rule, car engines have maximum torque at approximately 75% of max power rpm.


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

[User] [Alien Series] Exactly how much power does the Weyland Yutani Company have?

[Assistant] More power than Earth governments (as seen with their repeated and unpunished throwing of Colonial Marines into the metaphorical meatgrinder to acquire Xenomorphs), but also less power than Walmart (hence Weyland-Yutani's acquisition by the company by the time of *Alien Resurrection*).


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

[User]
ELI5: How is it possible to have different sea levels if all the oceans are connected?

For example how can a sea level rise in one ocean and not the other?

[Assistant] Watch a big ass twerk in slow motion.  That's how ocean levels on the Earth work.  A change in one area doesn't immediately effect 100 miles away, there's ripples.  You have tidal forces from the Moon, weather, ocean currents, and land masses all effecting sea levels in their own way.


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

[User]
Why does it hurt so much when you get smoke in your eyes?

That's pretty well it. Got smoke in eyes. It hurt.

[Assistant]
Smoke is basically small particles of carbon and other materials from what was being burned.  Those particles are like any other irritant when they come in contact with your eyes.  Whatever was burning can cause reactions with your skin.  Smoke from plastics or rubbers can do chemical damage to your skin.

It's also a large part of the danger of smoke inhalation - not that you're breathing a gas, but that you're breathing in STUFF that gets stuck in the wet membranes of your lungs.  Modern house fires are VERY dangerous for that, due to the large number of synthetic products that catch and burn, creating toxic fumes and clouds of dangerous smoke.

Not to mention that those small particles may still be VERY hot.

Yeah, smokes bad.


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

[User]
CMV: Mask Mandates are necessary as people are kindof stupid, and there is no good argument against them

For context, I live in Scotland, which does have mask mandates from the government, and recently traveled to England, which does not (I think they might have starting yesterday because of the decepticon varient or whatever, but they didn't when I travelled a month or so ago). In Scotland, 95% of people on public transport and in shops wear masks. In England, about 2% seem to. The point of bringing this up, is to make the point that if we want people to wear masks, we do basically need to tell them they have to, as most people are too stupid to do it without the government telling them to.

As for the mask mandates themselves, I have never heard a good argument against them. I often hear people say things like "oh so should we have mask mandates for the flu then", I don't see how this is a counter. I would be happy to wear a mask for a few months in winter when the flu is most prominent, and if there is a particularly bad flu strain, then telling people to wear masks seems justifiable even if only to reduce money spent in healthcare, not to mention that hospitals often get overwhelmed in winter.

Other arguments I hear are "muh government telling us to do things bad", to which the obvious response is seatbelts and not being allows to drunk drive, both of which are things that have small chances to negatively affect other people or you, which you can't do.

There are medical exceptions, which I do think should be allowed, although maybe with a slightly higher burden of proof than we have now. And I've heard good argument for why kids shouldn't wear them, although those argument are stuff like "they need to be able to see each others faces to develop emotional intelligence", not "it's child abuse" or some stupid shit like that. I think teenagers should have to wear them too though, this would only apply to young kids.

[Assistant]
The problem with mask mandates is that we just don't have a way to effectively enforce them. Police won't do it because it would quickly overwhelm them, and retail employees won't do it because they're treated like shit anyway, and adding "now be treated like shit even more by people who don't care about deadly pandemic" to their responsibilities would only end in them leaving retail quicker.

Unless we start some sort of special task force dedicated to enforcing the mandate, it'll be more or less useless. At this point, government mandate, and a "Please Wear A Mask" sign at the door are more or less the same.


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

[User] [MCU] "I've ignored my destiny once, I cannot do it again. Even for you." What is Thanos referring to? When did he ignore his destiny?

[Assistant]
Short answer: The more reasonable parties on Thanos' home-world didn't let him kill half the people there and he's salty about it.

Long answer: Thanos believes that his plan for universal genocide is the *only* solution to overpopulation. Overpopulation apparently ravaged his home world, which is when he initially had the idea to slaughter half the people there. Thanos' delusions manifest in such a way that he believes his culling is the most logical, rational plan. He believes that everyone else is ignoring his perfect logic, and that he is the only one with the will to act on what he sees as the only viable course of action, and thus it is his destiny. If you'd like to understand a bit better, you should look into narcissism and delusions of grandeur.


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

[User] [Wedding] My fiance wants to have a big, extravagant wedding. How do I explain to her that our finances dont permit it?

[Assistant] Well the first thing you are going to need is a ray gun. Using Mezingtin's psychoanalytic principle modify it to only effect beta particles. This will allow you to inhibit the greed cortex of her brain. Then boom no more issues.


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

[User] [Mass Effect/Halo] Would the humans of Mass Effect been a lot more capable of defending themselves against the Covenant than the humans in Halo?

[Assistant]
Humans before the First Contact War? Absolutely not. They might have had stronger technology, but they had scarcely spread throughout the galaxy at that point, so would have had far, far fewer forces.

Humans when the Reapers invaded? Absolutely. The poor Covenant. Thanix cannons alone would likely shred the Covvies.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do VHS tapes degrade the more you play them?

[Assistant]
In two ways.

First, VHS tapes are printed on a thin and very flexible plastic film. As you play them, that film is wound through and around a number of handling wheels and trolleys. This places stress on the plastic, stretching it over time, and any dirt or grit in your machine amplifies these little stresses. Eventually the film is pulled so much that the magnetically encoded information on it no longer reads as well.

Second, the magnetic coating itself degrades over time. Your television and VHS machine both have electrical fields that can influence magnetic writing if things get too close to them. And simple aging of the tape will help this along.

The same thing happens to cassette recordings of music in the old cassette players, particularly in cars where there's a huge engine just in front of the player and a lot more grit depending on where you live.


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

[User]
[Suicide Squad -2021] How does the mini Starro kill you?

I'm trying to understand how these things work and how they kill you. I get they attach onto your face but in the comics, once you pull them off you regain back your body. So how exactly do these things work that once they latch onto your face that you end up dying?

[Assistant] When Flagg, Cleo, and Peacemaker make it down to Starro with Gaius Grieves, one of the Starro hosts is strapped down with the mini Starro entirely peeled off and you can see that the host's face is gone and there's a tendril extending from the mini Starro into the host's face and presumably attaching to the brain. So I'd guess it hijacks your nervous system to gain control of your body as it feeds on your consciousness.


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

[User] If a blue giant star collapses into a neutron star and a medium sized yellow star collapses into a white dwarf; what does a small red dwarf star collapse and become?

[Assistant]
Red dwarf stars have incredibly long life cycles(estimated to be 100 billion years long) - so long, in fact, that no red dwarf has yet reached it's final life cycle, because the universe in not old enough yet.  However, according to star life cycle models, red dwarfs are expected to burn brighter and hotter as they age, until they eventually burn off all of their hydrogen fuel.  When this happens, they will become low mass white dwarfs, and they will remain as such, until they eventually burn out and fade.

Edit: for clarity.


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

[User]
How can (relatively) slow evolving human immune systems keep up with very fast evolving bacteria?

If the generation length ratio of bacteria to humans is something like 20 minutes:20 years, why can't bacteria just outrun the immune system recognition mechanisms, or destruction mechanisms?

[Assistant]
There are two reasons for this, related to the innate and adaptive immune system.

First of all, the innate immune system has, throughout evolution, been tailored to recognise invariant structures on the surface of bacteria. The reason these structures are invariant is because they are essential to the bacteria's survival, e.g. certain peptidoglycans. This means bacteria can be recognised on the basis of their defining characteristics. However, not all the bacterium's characteristics are predefined, and some bacteria can camouflage these invariant ones, which brings us to our next point.

The second reason has to do with that our immune system is not pre-defined, and goes down deeper than our "standard" genome. B- and T-cells are able to randomly combine certain pieces of DNA in our genome, in a process known as VDJ recombination. This essentially yields a "randomised" gene, which codes for an equally random protein. These proteins essentially recognise every possible structure that there is to be found. To prevent our immune system from attacking structures in our own body, there is a round of selection that kills cells that recognise those endogenous structures. This way, 'foreign' structures (i.e., whatever isn't supposed to be there) are recognised for elimination from the human body.

You might wonder, how come we don't instantly fight off any infection then? The answer is simple; because usually, only one or very few cells exist that recognise the structure present on the bacterium/virus. When an infection is detected, these cells are stimulated to divide and proliferate, a process which obviously takes time.

Hence, while bacteria may evolve quickly during a few generations, we can adapt quickly *within* a generation.

Obviously this is a boiled down version of the truth, and there are many more intricacies which finetune our immune response to a given pathogen. But this should give you an idea of an answer to your question. Feel free to ask on though!

Edit: clarity and some more info

Edit 2: spelling.


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

[User]
ELI5: How can a battle go on for weeks?

Whenever I'm reading about a battle, they often lasted for weeks or even months. How does that work? I assume it's not just one long, weeks-long round of movement, firing, flanking, etc., but what does a weeks-long battle actually look like?

[Assistant]
You have your guys dug in along the front, and the other guy has their guys dug in along a different front.  Movements push the line around, but holding recently taken ground is hard.  The lines might be different every day but it takes a long time to gain a decisive advantage or wipe out the other guy.

You see a lot less of this in modern (post Korea) times, both sides use more mobility and try to avoid direct assaults where they don't have a significant numerical advantage.


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

[User] ELI5: Can sound waves be blown in a different direction by the wind?

[Assistant]
Yes.  Sounds generally travel through the air at about 340m/s, and tend to expand outwards.  But if the air is moving, the sound waves can get carried along with it.  This means they might move faster in one direction than the other, and might travel further with the wind than against it.

But, even in a hurricane, the wind is only something like 30m/s.  So instead of travelling at 340m/s, the sound would move at 310m/s or 370m/s depending on the direction.  So it makes a difference, but maybe not as much as you'd expect.


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

[User]
I believe that a gladitorial-type reality TV show (such as the Hunger Games) should be socially acceptable and be produced. CMV

I don't see any problem in allowing a genuine fight to the death to be broadcast as a reality television show, with the following restrictions:

* The contestants genuinely want to be in it and fully understand that they will probably get killed, as well as the magnitude of death.

* Any potential contestants must undergo supervised tests to make sure they are of sound mental and physical state.

* The contestants waive liability to other contestants and anyone involved with the making of the show.

* The contestant(s) who are left alive at the end receive medical treatment and therapy to ensure their wellbeing.

* The contestants must be adults.

In my opinion, there is nothing wrong with letting sane, healthy people choose to do what they want with their bodies, including participating in a death match. As long as all that they will potentially go through is made clear to them, they understand what it means and they still want to do it, why not?

I'll use the example of the future reality TV show Mars One, in which 160,000 people from all over the world have already volunteered themselves to be sent to the red planet for good; establishing a colony there and never coming back. So many things could potentially go wrong, and there will definitely be some deaths by the time it's over (it happens. Especially in such unknown environments). It seems as if reality TV is slowly losing it's "This is on TV, everybody's safe, medics are standing by" vibe in favour of freedom of choice for every person.

Please stay away from arguments pertaining to whatever laws, ex. It's considered suicide, etc. I'm more interested in the moral side of things. Unconventional arguments are always more effective!

CMV!

**EDIT: I will be gone out for a few hours and will try my best later to respond to everyone who comments.**

**EDIT 2: I'm overall very happy with the quality of the comments in this thread. I have read through all of them, and it seems as if my view has been sufficiently represented already. Only one line of reasoning has changed my view a bit so far, but keep going.**

[Assistant]
Sounds like a good way to quickly and efficiently desensitize the entire population to violence.

Even if only 1% of people are desensitized, that's still a massive social price to pay for the sake of one tv show.


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

[User]
I am playing an online game with a large player supported market and keep finding things that are not being efficiently utilized. I am interested in studying this but not sure where to start.

So more detail.  I am playing World of Warcraft Classic Wrath of the Lich King.  The original version of this was released well over a decade ago and there is plenty of information available online about various gold (the in game currency) making strategies.  I am making an insane amount of money by buying items from the auction house (player market), converting them to other goods, then selling them.  Any player can pick up the skills I use to do this at minimal investment of time and in-game currency.

I am curious why, despite the ease of learning about this market, it is still so easy to make large profits with minimal effort.  I am seeing returns from 30%-100% depending on the day.  If I had more time to play I could probably increase that further (though obviously with diminishing returns).

So anyway, if I wanted to read more about this phenomenon where should I focus my study?  I tried browsing the FAQ but I didn't see this addressed specifically.

I know it is hard to apply real-world economic principles to this as these items and in-game currency do not directly translate to any real-world value but I still find it very interesting.

[Assistant] In real world markets virtually all participants are trying to maximize monetary return but that's not necessarily true in the game world where enjoyment is the main goal for a large number of participants and most probably do not enjoy trading as much as you do. This is likely what leaves all those arbitration opportunities open because other players prefer to earn in game currency in a way that maximizes enjoyment.


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

[User]
ELI5: What happens to the money bad guys made when they go to jail?

What happens to the profits of stuff like human trafficking and drug manufacturing when the criminals go to jail? You cant exactly return it to its owners like a robbery, right?

[Assistant] If it's a big time operation they usually have their money in overseas accounts in countries with strong privacy laws like Switzerland or the Cayman Islands. Otherwise, if it's proven that it was gained illegally, the government siezes it. If the government wants it badly enough they use civil asset forfeiture to get it.


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

[User]
If everyone was required to stay at home for 2 months with zero contact with other people could we wipe out the cold/flu forever?

Or can it come from somewhere else somehow?

[Assistant] Not a chance, the biological world consists of a lot more than just humans, influenza in this case infects a wide variety of animals, hence the "swine" or "bird" flu you hear about. Also a lot of diseases can have incubation times or even be dormant for decades like in the case of TB.


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

[User]
ELI5:Why can't I click and drag my the entire contents of my 640gb hard drive(Windows included) to a 2nd 1tb hard drive and then only use that 2nd 1tb hard drive for my computer?

I suppose it might be better to explain this like I'm seventy five. Well, anyways, when I Google this, every result that's checked suggests using a program. Like Clonezilla for example. I'll probably do that, but I'd still like to know WHY I have to do that.

[Assistant] There are parts of Windows you don't see and the copy/drag-and-click won't work on them. These parts can include (but not limited to) the Disk Partition Table and Boot Sector - both are needed for Windows to work. The cloning programs have extra programming and can copy this information.


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

[User] [Star Wars] I'm the benevolent lifetime ruler of an independent planet. When the Empire shows up, can I just swear my planet's loyalty to them and avoid a painful annexation. Would I need to give them troops?, natural resources? military garrison? do I need to hand over my reign entirely?

[Assistant]
A lot won't really change. Yes you would have to swear allegiance to the Empire and would have to accept some new laws and oversight. However the Empire is more than happy to leave the day to day running of the planetary government to the existing rulers, such as yourself.

They will leave a garrison on world to assist you with any problems you may encounter.

As for what you need to give to the Empire depends on the type of planet you govern. At the very least you will have to allow the recruiting of troops from your populous. You will also have to pay various Imperial taxes, and tributes. The Empire may also set some guidelines on natural resources or manufacturing that you will abide by.

All in all, should you cooperate, it will go well, and profitably for you and your people.


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

[User] ELI5: Why people feel tired, exhausted after expressing strong emotions (breakdowns)? What is physiology behind this?

[Assistant]
Because they *are* tired and exhausted. An episode like an anxiety attack or crying episode is extremely taxing on the brain and the rest of the nervous system.

Let's use the example of an anxiety attack. During an anxiety attack or panic attack, the body is experiencing a sudden spike in stress, leading to a surge in adrenaline, increased heart rate, increased breathing rate, sweating, etc.

Sounds a lot like what happens during intense physical exercise, right?

Coming down from a panic attack is usually going to involve all of those things slowly going back to normal thanks to the parasympathetic nervous system finally being able to catch up, which usually leaves a person with the feelings you stated in your question.


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

[User]
[Watchmen] Could Dr. Manhattan use his powers to create more beings like him?

If his main problem is how his abilities isolate him from the rest of humanity, then would it be possible for him to solve this issue by creating more beings like him? Could he not use his godlike powers to perfectly recreate the conditions that made him? Maybe even spend a few years travelling the globe looking for a candidate that could survive the process, or even maybe even have a kid trained up that explicit purpose? Or would that even be necessary; could Manhattan not just vaporise someone with magic physics energy, put their body back together for them, and then start teaching them the ropes?

This question is less about Manhattan's mindset, and more about a potential limit on his power; I know there are a dozen reasons Dr. Manhattan wouldn't do such a thing - my main question is whether or not he could. Could Dr. Manhattan make more people like him (if he wanted to) or was his creation such a fluke that not even he could make it happen again?

[Assistant]
He does this, for Manhattan's multitasking sexy science times.  These clones expire when they've fulfilled their purpose, as Manhattan sees himself.  Doc would have trouble giving such a clone free will, as he believes himself to have none.

In theory, he could try to direct a creation to act on a "not me" directive to try to engineer a surprise, but you'd just get a Newtonian equal and opposite reaction, a sort of subatomic Satan.  Bad idea, probably.


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

[User]
How do temporary email addresses get resolved?

I use temp mails all the time. I was wondering how they are resolved, especially when a new address is generated. The address seems random e.g <user>@sup-yo12lol.com. As I have a limited understanding of how DNS work could someone explain how sup-yo12lol.com is resolved? Have the temp mail services already created these aliases in advance or is it something else?

Apologies if this is a dumb question or doesn't make sense!

[Assistant]
Yes, the temp mail services own a set of domains that they can generate email addresses for. Domain registration isn't free, so it's likely they have a pool that balances overall cost but is still large enough to ensure sites can't block them all.

They could take the route of using subdomains off a few root domains they own, but blocking would be much easier then.

From the SMTP side, it would be interesting to probe how their servers work. Do their servers just accept any mail for any username at any domain or do they properly reject (or forward) mail destined for hosts they don't own?


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

[User] Can a really strong magnet "short circuit" our brain?

[Assistant] The main difference between a computer and a brain here is the form of energy being moved. While a wire has electrons travel along its length, a neuron has more positive ions on one side of its membrane than the other, and it allows the charge to equalise when another neuron stimulates it. The signal is of a different form in a neuron, so magnets don't behave exactly the same way. Also, a magnet can't attract an ion like it does metal, because charge and polarity are different things. The north pole of a magnet will not attract a positive charge.


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

[User] [MCU] why didnt Thanos send the Black Order instead of Loki, Ronan, Gamora, Nebula to get the stones? If he did send the Black Order, how would that have changed the MCU?

[Assistant] Ok for Loki, Earth is under Asgard's protection and even Thanos doesn't want to fuck around with Odin so using Loki is a perfect plan.  Odin isn't going to bring down the full might of Asgard (and himself) to capture his lost son, he sent Thor to bring him in on the down low.  If Ebony Maw shows up with the outriders Odin is going to come in with Asgard's Armies and wreck face.


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

[User]
ELI5: why do some actors on TV get credited as "with", "featuring", or "and"?

For example, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (the only example that ever stays with me) stars Charlie Day, Glenn Howerton, Rob McElhenney...with Danny DeVito. What's the difference?

[Assistant] It's called last-billed. It's when you have an actor whose stature would normally put them at the front of the credits, but contractual obligations to another actor preclude that. While first is best, in the middle is worst -- so being billed last is a plus.


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

[User] (Astronomy) If the sun will eventually turn into a red dwarf and expand, will the orbits of the planets change?

[Assistant] Yes. The sun will lose a significant amount of mass, which will mean the planets would orbit slower and further out. But there will also be air resistance from all that solar wind, which will keep them from going out too far. They'll still orbit slower. And several of the planets will end up inside the sun, where the'll slow down and fall toward the center.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Snape invented many spells under the name of the Half Blood Prince. How did he invent new spells? What's the spell-crafting process?

Bonus question, if anyone can talk me through the process Snape went through creating Sectumsempra, let us know? I can only imagine the first tests he conducted were truly horrifying!

[Assistant]
The evidence points to magic itself as something that you can train, like a dog. You keep the desired effect in mind and keep trying until you get a result. Then you associate the result with words and gestures until you have a spell that anyone can do with practice.

Remember when Harry vanished that pane of glass in the London Zoo? If he wanted to recreate that he'd start with recalling exactly what he was feeling at that moment. Once he could vanish glass on command he'd add words and gestures ("Evanescet cum silicate!") until he'd trained them into the local magic field, or whatever it is that retains these things.

Again, the spell creation process goes from (1) unconscious magic to (2) wandless, nonverbal magic and finally ends with (3) a standardized spell.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Why are there no dualwielding Wizards?

As we learned when Harry took Dracos wand, Wands can be used by other wizards when their original owner was disarmed. Dual wielding would be way more effective I guess so why is no one doing it?

[Assistant]
Duel wielding sounds cool but in practice you are very less accurate and now you have no hands to easily interact with you environment.

The point of a wand is to act as an extension to help one channel their magic. You cant channel it out of two places.


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

[User] [General Fantasy] Why are Clerics limited to blunt weapons? Wouldn't a sword be a more "merciful" weapon?

[Assistant] In addition to all the other reasons about being simple to use, blunt weapons are very effective against the undead, which is the main enemy clerics are used to fight against. Skeletons in particular are only harmed by bludgeoning damage. Congratulations, you stabbed a skeleton in the ribs. Good job, you did zero damage to it.


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

[User]
If we consider a painless murder bad due to the denial of future good, then can the same be said of abortion?

If a person could be killed in an entirely painless manner, and lets say they have no one to care about them, then why is this wrong? I imagine that the answer is that we would deprive them of any future good, and in that sense we do them a harm, but if that is the case, then couldnt someone make the same argument against abortion? What would be the difference?

Edit: I should have specified, I mean from a utilitarian point of view.

[Assistant]
From this logic couldnt you also say that it is immoral for a mother to not get pregnant because she is denying a potential baby of life?

In the scheme of things, what is the difference between a woman having no baby, and a woman getting pregnant and having an early abortion?


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

[User] [Ghostbusters] What ARE the weird ghosts like Slimer? Are they actually ghosts of humans who died or are they something else?

[Assistant]
Ray posited that Slimer is a representational force of gluttony given form with partially humanoid characteristics and tendencies.

He also described Slimer as a vapor - a kind of confluence of stored up psychic energy, an accumulation of spirits that haunt the hotel who doesn't want to leave.

I believe rarely in Ghostbusting do you come across actual ghosts of human beings.  Many of the "ghosts" you encounter are interdimensional beings, demonic entities or, as with Slimer, a kind of amagalmation of psychic energy and negative emotions or actions of human beings over time in a given location.


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

[User]
What does a surgeon do to reform bone after a surgery?

Im thinking of brain surgery where a surgeon will have to actually cut through the skull to work with the brain. After the surgery is complete how to they put the skull back together?

[Assistant]
The surgeon supplies metal plates and screws, the body does the rest.

Bone growth depends on 3 main things: osteoinduction, osteoconduction, and a source of nutrition and cells. The latter is the easiest to understand: you need a reasonable blood supply or you won't heal. That is true of any wound, and holds true for bone healing. Typically new osteocytes, or bone cells, are derived from mesenchymal stem cells. These cells are a type of pluripotent stem cells and exist in adults. MSCs live in the marrow, which is richly vascularized. MSCs will migrate from the marrow to a site of bone injury by following chemical trails left by chemokines and other proteins. These proteins are actually embedded within the matrix of the bone itself, so the act of breaking a bone automatically releases a chemical signal flare to the MSCs. Once the MSCs get to the area of need, they need to differentiate into osteocytes. This is osteoinduction, or inducing the stem cells to make bone. This is done with specific growth factors, the prime example being bone morphogenetic protein 2, or BMP-2. These proteins change how the stem cell expresses its DNA, causing the cell to terminally differentiate and start laying down bone material. This deposition of the extracellular matrix (ECM) is coordinated by osteoconduction. Osteoconduction requires a suitable surface on which bone can grow. Certain metals and surface finishes have been studied in terms of osteoconduction. Titanium is highly osteoconductive, porous Titanium even more so. However, porosity decreases mechanical strength, placing design constraints on many implants. Some surgeons will also use ground up bone as an osteoconductive surface, some use collagen scaffolds.

Most importantly though, the pieces of bone you want to fuse have to be held together, or else the ECM laid down will end up cartilaginous and not bony. Bone naturally grows stronger when under more load in accordance with Wolff's Law, so surgeons will usually force repaired bone edges together with their plates and screws as well to encourage healing.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Sith supporters/apologists: how do you justify the fact that Jedi were free to leave their order at any time, while the Sith would kill you if you tried?

From what I understand, and given the example of Dooku, nobody was forced to be a Jedi and you were free to leave whenever you want. On the other hand, I don't know of any Sith leaving their faith without armed conflict.

I've heard the argument that the Jedi were like a cult and that people were indoctrinated into not leaving, but that still seems preferable to killing anyone who tried.

[Assistant] The Sith were a secret, obviously. Two lone Sith would be no match for the entire Jedi order without the element of surprise. It was a matter of necessity to keep the Sith secret, keep the Sith in the shadows, keep the Sith alive.


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

[User]
[AVENGERS: ENDGAME] When Banner talks to The Ancient One and says that Dr. Strange gave away the time stone, The Old One's judgement of Dr. Strange is obviously affected. Do you think she'd change the way she treated and taught him knowing that he'd betray the time stone?

And do you think it'd set a different course for  Dr. Strange in that new timeline?

Let's ignore the notion that what happened in the past has already happened and whatever you change in that past, it won't change the future. So, knowing that Dr. Strange gave away the time stone would The Old One judge him out of context and treated him accordingly? If so, shouldn't we be seeing a different Dr. Strange in the coming movie Multiverse of Madness?

I hope I'm making myself clear. Thanks.

[Assistant]
No. She's not bound by the rules of time in the same way as anyone else... Her decisions and "fate" wouldn't be affected and time really wouldn't apply to her.

Case in point, when Banner arrives and asks about Strange, she already knows who he is and that he's not due for another 5 years.

She already knows who he'll become, to the point that when Banner DOES tell her that Strange gave it up, that she immediately accepts that he must know what he's doing, and decided to flip her opinion and cooperate.


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

[User] ELI5: If the temperature outside is 65 degrees and my air conditioner is on 65 degrees, does my air conditioner have any affect on the air coming through?

[Assistant]
FYI, most air conditioners (central, window, or mobile) take air from *inside* the house, cool it, and blow it back in, while blowing hot air outside. All that matters is the temperature inside.

So, let's assume it's 65deg in your room, and the AC is set to 65.

Chances are, it'll keep going until it hits a lower limit (say 64), wait for the temps to hit a certain upper limit (say 67) before turning back on and bringing the temperature back down. Some (window/mobile, not central) just switch to "fan" mode to circulate air when it hits the set temperature-it varies by model.

Even at the temperature it's set at, if the AC is running, it's still doing something.

It doesn't cool the air to 65deg, it cools the air as cold as it can get it, while also sucking out humidity. The cold air and warm air mix, and it evens out to the set temperature.

TL;DR yes, it still has an effect even when the set temperature has been reached.


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

[User]
How many watts are spend to raise the body temperature in case of a fever?

How many watts does the body (M / 80kg or 176 lbs) use to raise the body temperature from normal (37 C or 98.5 F) to 40 C or 104 F during a fever?
How many extra watts are spent to keep this higher temperature for an hour compared to normal body temperature?

And yes, you guessed it right. Currently, I'm sick AF and bored AF.

[Assistant]
For simplicity, Ill do this all in metric. Also for simplicity Im going to focus only on raising the temperature of your body water.

Total body water in liters for a male is weight in kg x 0.6

80kg x 0.6 = 48L TBW

To raise the temperature of 1 liter of water by 1 degree Celcius you need 4180 Joules or 1000 calories (1 food Calorie, note the uppercase C) To go from 37C to 40C you need 3000 calories, 3 Calories, or 12540 Joules. To do this for 48 liters would take 144000 calories, 144 Calories, or 601920 Joules

Watts is a measure of power, which is energy over time. 1 Watt = 1 Joule / 1 second

To raise your temp over an hour from 37C to 40C would take about 167.2 Watts, over a day would be about 7 Watts

Please note this is very basic back-of-the-envelope calculation that ignores heat losses from the body and makes a lot of assumptions.


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

[User]
[Avatar: The Last Airbender] After Azula seemingly kills Aang in Lake Logai, why did Ozai attemp to exterminate the Earth kingdom instead of the Water Tribes?

At the beginning of Book 3: Fire, Aang wakes up on a captured Fire-nation ship, and Sokka excitedly says something like "you're our biggest advantage - the whole world thinks you're dead!"

Even Azula, who made the then-fatal Lightning attack, thinks he is dead, and attempts to glorify Zuko by giving him credit for the attack. Only during the attempted invasion on the Day of Black Sun does Aang reveal himself.

The Avatar cycle seems to be common knowledge, so Ozai knew that the next Avatar would come from a Water Tribe.

Both the Water Tribes as well as the Earth kingdom are severely weakened by the events of Book 3. Water benders have been systematically removed from society by the Fire Nation, at least in the South. The only reason the kingdom in the North didn't fall was because of Aang's help. And Ba Sing Se, the biggest and most powerful city-state in the Earth kingdom, had just been secretly taken over by the Azula. Other places in the Earth kingdom have varying degrees of Fire Nation control, but Omashu had fallen, Fire colonies dotted the coastline, and about the only retaliation Earth citizens could attempt was isolated pockets of resistance using hit-and-run guerrilla warfare.

Basically, there's no big opponents left that would take significant efforts to conquer on the part of the Fire Nation, and at this point it's only a matter of time until total Fire Nation victory.

So why didn't Ozai immediately dispatch 2 fleets to wipe out the remaining Water citizens? Or, if he was concerned about making another attempt at fighting the Water capitols on their own ground, why did he not attempt to invade the Northern Tribe during Sozin's comet (as opposed to attempting to burn the entire remaining Earth kingdom)?

Admittedly, the Water Tribes would require over a decade to train the new Avatar, so Ozai wasn't pressed for time. However, attacking the Water tribes to conquer them, and even attempting to capture any newborns (in order to keep the new avatar alive so they would have to hunt for the next version of him / her in the Earth Kingdom) seems like a better tactical choice.

[Assistant] Didn't Azula strike Aang while he was entering the Avatar state? If you die in the Avatar State, you die in real life. The remaining Fire Sages were on Ozai's side at that point, so he probably knew that, and assumed the Avatar Cycle had been broken.


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

[User] ELI5 why rubbing your head after banging it helps in reducing pain?

[Assistant] When you whack your head, your nerves are sending pain signals to your brain. Nerves can only send one signal at a time. By pressing/rubbing on your head, you override the pain signals and replace them with pressure signals. That's why as soon as you stop, the pain comes back.


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

[User] ELI5: Despite being in middle of Europe, why 'Switzerland' is not in European Union ?

[Assistant]
Simply because we don't want to be in the EU.

A decision of this magnitude would have to be done by using our direct democracy, which would mean that everyone would vote for or against joining the EU.

Every referendum that was about trying to join the EU in the future was refused with over 70% of the votes saying "NO".

So, that's about it. The majority of the population in Switzerland sees the EU as an undemocratic organization which would negatively impact Switzerland.


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

[User]
[Star Trek] would Voyager have done any better in the Delta Quadrant if she was a Galaxy Class ship?

How differently would the show have been? Would she have gotten home faster?

What if she was a Sovereign class ship?

Edit: not counting the Intrepid Class, what would be the best class of ship for that situation in Star Trek don't limit your answer to the Federation, it could be any ship.

[Assistant]
Honestly, probably worse in the case of the Galaxy-class.

Voyager is faster than a Galaxy-class, which is nice for covering a ton of distance, escaping enemies, etc. Because Voyager is smaller, the engines do not expend as much energy creating a directing a giant warp bubble like what's necessary to move a Galaxy-class vessel. Being more efficient means fewer resupply stops.

Also, fewer crew is not necessarily a bad thing. That means a lower demand for food and supplies and a streamlined command system that doesn't have (much) civilian interference. Compare this with Battlestar Galactica, where a massive fleet becomes a goddamn nightmare for just about everyone on every ship.

While the added firepower a ship like the Enterprise would have would be nice, Voyager isn't necessarily out-gunned. Comparable torpedo launchers, fewer (but not lacking in power) phaser banks, and higher combat maneuverability give her the same chances her larger counterpart might enjoy.

A Sovereign-class is a whole different story. Better than the Galaxy-class in virtually every way, it's hard to say it wouldn't be the ideal vehicle to stranded a long way from home in.


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

[User] [Escape from New York] So I get the insane idea of one prison for every criminal in the US, but why uh.. Manhattan Island? Why not someplace more centrally located or the middle of the desert or something? Some place with less valuable real estate? Or another island, but why Manhattan?

[Assistant] At the time of the construction of the prison, New York was so infested with crime that it was easier to cut it off from the world and then evacuate the few non-criminals from Manhattan than to create a prison somewhere else and then transport the criminals there.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are hockey fights allowed to happen, but fighting is stopped ASAP in all other sports?

[Assistant]
Everyone's hitting the right notes, but in order to really get a hold of why fighting is allowed in hockey, you have to consider that protecting star players is of utmost importance, as the opposing team can get away with a lot of cheap shots.

Case in point: When Gretzky played for the Kings, the opposing teams players used to come after him all game long. So the Kings got Marty McSorley (Big Fighter) on board. Any time a player would go after Gretzky for a few shifts, or cheap shot him, McSorley would get on the ice and fight him. This was to send a message that there is a price to pay for picking on important players.

Nowadays, fighting is still around, but much less than before because referees are a lot more strict in enforcing penalties. Nonetheless, it is still allowed. Nowadays, perhaps, also for entertainment purposes.

EDIT: There is also another reaason, which is basically when you see a team start fights late in the game. Often times it is the captain who starts a brawl late in the game when his team is down. This is to get the team pumped up, and to have them realize it's time to step their game up!


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

[User] ELI5: What does the 'end task' command do differently than normally exiting out of a program?

[Assistant]
There are three main ways to stop a program.

You can quit from inside the program. The program does whatever it's programmed to do when you click quit, saving data and closing files and such normally.

You can use End Task (on windows), this is the operating system sending a signal to the program that tells the program "Time to quit, finish what you're doing and then exit.".  The program (hopefully) responds to the signal, finishes up what it's doing, saves data and such, then quits.

You can use End Process (also Windows).  Windows just ends the program, and frees up any memory associated with it.  There's no communication with the program.

In terms of the other guy's restaurant metaphor:  Quitting is finishing your meal then paying up and leaving, end task is being told to pack your shit and leave, and end process is being thrown out.


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

[User] [Star Wars] Could Anakin have regrown his hand through the force?

[Assistant] Doubt it - the wound was cauterized which kills and seals the wound up.  He did try to heal his internal wounds that were damaged and could be healed, but the force cant regrow something especially if the human body cant support it.


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

[User]
Why can't Wolverine beat Sabertooth pre adamantuim?

It is noted in the Movie and Video games that before the weapon x project, wolverine couldn't beat sabertooth. Why? Is Saber that much physically stronger? Is his healing powers stronger?

[Assistant]
The difference in Wolverines and Sabertooths powers are negligible. Both have superhuman healing, although one would say Logan's was better as he was originally chosen for Weapon X. Both have heightened hearing, smell, ect.

But pre-Weapon X, it comes down to pure fighting skill. Victor Creed is 275lbs at 6'6. Wolverine is 195 at 5'3. That size difference is almost impossible to recover from, and was most likely the determining factor in wolverines losses.


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

[User]
[Skyrim] What was the Thalmor plan at Helgen?

When the Dragonborn finds the Thalmor dossier on Ulfric Stormcloak at the embassy, it includes a passage that says "As long as the civil war proceeds in its current indecisive fashion, we should remain hands-off. The incident at Helgen is an example where an exception had to be made - obviously Ulfric's death would have dramatically increased the chance of an Imperial victory and thus harmed our overall position in Skyrim."
To me, this text, combined with the fact that there were Thalmor in Helgen when the DB's carriage arrived, suggests that the Thalmor had some plan in place to break Ulfric out of Imperial custody that was made irrelevant by Alduin's attack. What was their plan?

[Assistant]
The Dominion has technical custody of all 'Talos worshipers' under the inquisitorial implementation of the White-Gold Concordant. As such, Ulfric, the titular head of the movement, is rightly under THEIR jurisdiction.

Consider Helgen's location. We know Ulfric and his compatriots were captured around Darkwater crossing, and that Tullius is based out of Solitude. Regardless of where they were going, they would have to pass through Whiterun Hold, so there's no reason to state that their southward location was to avoid Balgruf's neutral territory. Instead, it's rather clear that Tullius was not heading to Solitude as you would expect.

So what's south? The pass to Cyrodiil for one. It seems likely that Tullius was attempting to get Ulfric to the Imperial City for whatever fate awaited him there. This was almost certainly an attempt to avoid the Thalmor Inquisition, based out of the Embassy near Solitude, altogether. Meaning, Tullius was already disobeying the Thalmor authority by trying to smuggle a prisoner out of the province...

But the Thalmor found out, and when Tullius caught wind of their approach, he opted for summary execution rather than turning Ulfric and his men over to the Dominion. Whether he suspected Elenwin's agenda or was simply trying to offer Ulfric a more honourable death, we can't be certain, but it's clear at least to me that the lack of Dominion presence during, or following the executions is proof that they were shown the door after Tullius refused to turn Ulfric over.

Now, why was Elenwin there? Easy. Ulfric was, again, rightly under their jurisdiction. Had Tullius followed his mandate to the letter, all Talos worshippers should have been handed over to HER custody. She would then ensure that Ulfric and his men 'escaped', likely with everyone but Ulfric being killed, thus allowing the Civil War to continue. She probably didn't expect Tullius to have the balls to turn her away though.


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

[User]
[CW Flash] What's the point of people running all over the place across half the city, in speedster vs speedster battles?

Are they looking for some sort of tactical or environmental advantage? Charging up "speedforce"? If you're faster than the other guy, shouldn't you be standing your ground in hand to hand (or god forbid, using tools) instead of running away from them?

[Assistant]
It's a combination of the two you mentioned, along with affecting morale. Let's take Flash Vs Reverse Flash for example. We know now that RF never actually intended to directly engage or defeat The Flash in combat, his whole goal was to force The Flash to generate more Speed Force by being forced to constantly engage with him. If your goal is to just keep your opponent moving, then protracted 'Races' are ideal.

Also it's fair to assume that since speedsters are rare, every single one of them is convinced that they have the speed advantage. If one knows for sure that they're faster it makes sense to constantly harass your opponent. Wouldn't you get demotivated if you were convinced you were the fastest person alive until someone seems to constantly be ten steps ahead of you?

There's also a question of how exactly the Speed Force is utilized by speedsters. It could be that stationary or semi stationary combat just doesn't work. It could be that in order to maintain a state of super speed awareness a speedster needs to also maintain a minimum velocity. This does match up pretty well with observations and if it is the case it would again make sense to use a wide area. This would make your actions become less predictable and you have more tactical options.


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

[User]
ELI5:Why can I scoop and carry around my 120-130 lb sister with relative ease but can hardly pick up a 40 lb barbell in one arm?

As the title says:

I can scoop and carry people (think man carrying wife into hotel room style) who are 120-140 pounds for up to 5 minutes or so, but when I go to a gym and try to lift a 30-40 pound barbell (in one arm) I can hardly do it for ten reps before I get knocked out.

ELI5 please.

[Assistant] Because you're isolating the muscles used when you lift weights. You're using several muscles when you pick up a person, and you can shift your balance and adjust the way you're holding that person to take tension off of tired muscles and redistribute the load to other muscles.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do speakers generate sound?

Subquestion: why is it that smaller heaphones usually can't product strong bass sounds compared to bigger speakers?

[Assistant]
What we know as sound is our response to pressure waves in the air around us.  The frequency (how close together) and amplitude (the size) of these waves make different sounds.

A speaker creates pressure waves by moving a cone back and forth.  By moving at different speeds and over different distances, it creates waves of specific frequencies and amplitude.  The cone of the speaker has a magnet attached to it.  Near that magnet inside the speaker housing is a coil of wire.  When electricity is run through the coil of wire the magnet gets pulled toward the coil.  When the electricity in the coil stops, the magnet springs away from the coil due to the shape of the speaker cone.  Running electricity through the coil at differing frequencies and for differing durations cause the speaker cone to move sound waves at various frequencies and amplitudes.

Headphones usually have very small speaker cones and very small magnets.  Because of this, they are usually not very good at creating low frequency sound waves.


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

[User]
[Halo] Does the UNSC have recruits from every nationality?

As far as I'm aware Earth has one ruling government during the lifetime of the UNSC, but geographically speaking I'd imagine the countries still exist as they are today (albeit with advanced technology and potentially altered borders).

Throughout the Halo series I only ever seem to notice members of the UNSC with American, South African, Australian and New Zealander accents; are the English, French, Japanese or Indian (for example) nationalities still as prevalent in the future? Or did they not really contribute to the UNSC?

While I'm guessing it comes down to production costs and effort/time to add in a variety of accents for relatively unimportant NPC's, is there any in-universe answer for why this is? Perhaps that the different nationalities form up different sub-divisions within the UNSC and we happen to most commonly see the US-South African-Australian-New Zealand portion of the UNSC?

[Assistant] Yes. The UNSC is a global task force with the goal of defending Earth from the Covenant. Since the games follow Master Chief, and any soldiers following him, we see a tiny fraction of the entire UNSC, which is not an accurate representation. It's coincidental that the demographics in Master Chief's squad came out the way that they did, so it's not a question of certain ethnicities being under-represented in the UNSC.


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

[User]
[Fallout] What happened to Europe?

We all know that the American continent was obliterated by nukes, but what happened to Europe?

[Assistant]
Before the resource wars, Europe united into a single union, the European Commonwealth. And for a time, all seemed well. Then the global oil reserves began to dry and the countries that had it either hoarded their tiny supply or sold it at insane profit. During the resource wars, the Commonwealth fell apart as the various countries tore each other apart for the precious few remaining drops of fuel. They also sent soldiers to the middle east to secure more, spreading their wars across several continents.

In October 2077, as America and China unleashed their nuclear weapons, so did many of the surviving European governments. Already torn apart by years of war, the nuclear strikes didn't do much more property damage than had already been done. Instead, they flattened and irradiated the crumbling ruins, making yet another giant wasteland.

The famous Vaults were an entirely American project, but it's not unreasonable to assume some countries probably followed suit when they learned about Vault-Tec. Or at least tried. Maybe by converting old WW2 bunkers and command centers into makeshift shelters. They were already built to survive times of war, and war never changes.


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

[User] [Interstellar] What was the Blight? Where did it come from?

[Assistant]
The Blight was kind of intentionally undefined. What we know is that was a fungal or bacterial organism that thrived off of nitrogen, not oxygen like most life. Given that nitrogen is 80% of our atmosphere, it exploded.

Where it came from is most likely just an unfortunate mutation. It most likely isn't a single strain, and instead one group that, due to an over abundance of nutrients (nitrogen) and exploding population, was given significant opportunity to mutate and overcome any biological defence mechanisms plants had. As the blight consumed the nitrogen in the air and the infected plants, it halted oxygen production. Given how much oxygen is also produced by microorganisms in the ocean, it's also likely decimated that ecosystem, either by out competing them, killing them directly, or starving them, though it's most likely the second one as a mass die off of the oceans complex organisms would probably sustain oxygen production and to starve all the fish in the ocean would take hundreds or even thousands of years.


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

[User]
[Wishes] Would simply stating that I didn't want anything bad to happen be good enough to protect me?

Let's take a look at Homer Simpson and his adventure with the Monkey's Paw.

If I had some sort of magical artifact or genie and it kept twisting my wishes to inflict evil or death or general chaos, could I just do what Homer did?

Make my wish and, as a run-on sentence, adding that I didn't want any negative consequences to myself or anyone else. Since that is technically a part of my wish, it has to grant that, right?

Example: "I want a non-poisoned turkey sandwich on with non-poisoned turkey meat on non-poisoned rye bread with non-expired and non-poisoned mayonnaise and non-poisoned mustard, and I don't want to get attacked by zombie turkeys, I don't want to turn into a turkey sandwich myself and I don't want any other weird surprises."

Or: "I want my son to come back to life completely uninjured with all of his memories and with his personality intact and in no pain and with no desire to kill anyone, least of all me, and he also appears next to his grave, so he can't suffocate in his coffin, yeah, you thought I would forget about that, didn't ya?"

[Assistant]
Listen. Here is a rule of thumb: If the wish-granting entity is malicious, you're screwed no matter what. If it is benevolent, then it will try to adhere to your intent, rather than screw you over by the letter of your wish.

EDIT: Taking the Monkey's Paw as an example, the entire point of the paw is that it punishes its users, for they are defying fate with their wishmaking. No matter how you word the wish, it will come at some penalty or cost.


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

[User]
[Greek Mythology] So, what does Sharon take from the dead in the modern day?

Say an American died, would they give him a dollar instead of an obol? Or is it same old same old? Or is it spirit coins? Yes, this is based on the question asked a few days ago.

[Assistant] A question like this was asked recently, asking what he spends the money on. The top answer was that it's not the money thats important and he doesn't spend it on anything. It's the symbol of the money indicating that the rich and the poor all die. With that said, any common low currency in your immediate area would do. Haypennies, pence, euros, pennies, nickels, dimes. Whatever counts as a low currency where you are from is 'legal' magical tender to allow passage.


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

[User] ELI5: What is the psychology behind people who enjoy being degraded, put down, etc. during sex?

[Assistant]
There's a lot going on here, there's no one (or even one proven) theory behind it.

Part is that most of society grew up with some degree of "shame" around their sexuality -whether due to religious or other reasons. When you first start to experiment sexually you'll feel both shame and pleasure, eventually connecting the two, creating a fetish.

Part is that shame and humiliation are physically exciting. You get an andrenaline rush, your heart beats faster, your skin grows hotter - in turn sexual sensation becomes more intense and more pleasurable (a similar reason to why pain is also a popular addition to sex.)

Part is that it's a release on tension - we all live in fear of being shamed and rejected, so optioning to face that fear in a controlled environment can really help us relieve tension. The relief of experiencing your fear but surviving it can heighten senses again causing pleasure to be more pleasurable.

It's very normal to enjoy this so of play, it's basically built into our physiology!


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

[User]
Does the fine structure constant of 1/137 imply that there are only 136 possible elements that can be formed?

My understanding is probably vastly oversimplified but if the electromagnetic force is indeed 137 times weaker than the strong nuclear force, then wouldn't the repulsion of the protons in the nucleus due to the EM force overcome the attraction of the protons due to the SN force when 137 or more protons are present, therefore giving us a largest possible viable atomic number of 136?

[Assistant]
No, although theres a history of literature about how atomic orbitals behave for elements with such high Z.

Its not entirely clear what the heaviest element that can possibly exist is. We know that the limiting factor is likely spontaneous fission, but we can only rely on extrapolated calculations to predict where the limit will be.

We have some FAQ entries going into more detail about this under Nuclear and Atomic Physics.


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

[User]
[Spider-Man/Marvel] Is J.J. Jameson's character a gimmick he plays up to the audience, like his media persona of hating spider-man, or is he actually like that?

Maybe a dumb question, but does he basically turn his disdain for spider-man up to 11 just for the audience, controversy and to sell his merch and stuff? Is he essentially "playing" a character, or is he actually like that?

For example, I know some podcast or show hosts who stir up shit, but that's just so that they get more views or relevancy. The person might be a douche, but not to the extent they portray themselves in their shows.

[Assistant]
Look, go spend some time in New York City and you'll find that Jameson is actually a remarkably calm and levelheaded gentleman, relatively speaking

All kidding aside

Barring changes to his personality in various storylines, by default he genuinely mistrusts Spider-Man, to an admittedly irrational degree.


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

[User]
Why is the derivative of e^x the same as e^x?

It baffles me that the gradient function can be equal to the function itself. Anyone care to shed some light on this?

[Assistant]
First, remember what a derivative is: The "rate of change" (or "slope") of the line/function.

So, at a certain value of x, the function e^x is changing at a rate of e^x (the slope of e^2 at the point x=2 is e^2).

Other functions have this property at a single point:

f(x) = x^2 => f(2) = 4

f'(x) = 2x => f'(2) = 4

e is a special case because this quirk exists long its entire curve.

Also, don't forget that the derivative of e^2x is 2e^2x - only e^x acts as a derivation identity.


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

[User] Eli5: What makes human memory unreliable?

[Assistant] Human memory is synthesized when first formed; you sometimes create it even before youve processed all the sensory input you attach to it.  And then to keep a memory stored, you re-play it and store the result.  So each time you remember a memory, you have a chance of corrupting it with new false information.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] What are some typical middle-class jobs in highly developed regions of the Republic?

I want to know more about the structure of everyday life for normal civilians. How is health care governed? Is there social welfare, minimum basic income? Are there 'sentient-being' rights of some kind? What does the economy look like (for instance on Coruscant)? It's hard for me to imagine what a civilization with droids needs from people/aliens in terms of employment.

[Assistant]
If by "highly developed" you mean mid-to-upper levels of Coruscant, from current records we can assume that it's fairly similar to metropolitan life throughout history. Although solar mirrors around Coruscant provide ample supplies of power and fresh water (from melting glaciers), most sentients still need to work for a living. Some middle-class individuals work in hospitality or the restaurant business; pilots of all kinds ply the hyperspace lanes, working in bulk shipping and transport, and others found gainful employment in the Republic's civil administration and intelligence sectors.

The Holonet also allows for wide dissemination of millions of news programs, dramas, and other programming employing many in media and production. Although some complained about the rise of mega-corporations during the late Republic, a fear made manifest during the Clone Wars, the Commerce Guild, Techno Union, and their ilk employed legions of bureaucrats, engineers, and other functionaries as befitting a robust society. Of course, massive variance existed due to the wide array of species and cultures present in the Republic era.


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

[User]
ELI5:Time

Okay, I get the basics of time and how it works. What I'm wondering is why is it 'running' at exactly the speed that it is and how does that work? Has it always been running at this speed? What is there to indicate that time even exists?

[Assistant]
Time is a human measurement of the environment that we live through. We measure it by an arbitrary scale that we invented/derived.

Basically though time is a measurement of change. Time as we think of it has existed from the big bang/creating of the universe.

Time does not "run" at the same speed everywhere as far as we can tell. It is confirmed that time passes differently at higher/lower gravity, or at high or low traveling speed. Our satellites in outer space literally have clocks that are running at "different" speeds than the ones on earth.

Time only goes in one direction because our consciousness only goes in one direction. We remember the past, but not the future. We can more or less easily look into the past, and know events happened in a specific order.


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

[User]
ELI5: No pain during brain surgery, but why are headaches common?

ELI 5: How is it possible to have open brain surgery while fully awake (not narcose) with drilling and other rummaging in the brain goop (as apparently there are no nerves).

But a lack of coffee or water or whatever gives me a feeling someone is hammering nails into my eyes or other parts of the head?

This question is actually my follow up (didn't want to hijack the other ELI5) to another post about headaches location. I am wondering about this for quite some time.

[Assistant] Because a headache isn't a "brainache" The source of the pain isn't inside your brain. While the brain itself cannot feel pain, the face, eyes, ears, sinuses, neck, scalp, skull, and jaw areas as well as the meninges (membranes that surround the brain) are full of blood vessels, muscles, and other tissues that contain nocioceptors (nerves that sense pain.)


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

[User]
[Worm/Marvel/DC] How would Worms superheroes interact or feel about Marvel/DCa superheroes?

Would they be puzzled as to why most of the latters heroes are really fit and good looking?

[Assistant]
They'd probably not like them for multiple reasons.

In DC, the standard is that Heroes are loved and Heroes win. Unlike how things are slowly falling to hell in Worm, things in DC are pretty great. The heroes always stop the disaster, or no *real* damage is done to anything. While there are some worrying things like Gotham, or the occasional invasion by planet destroying monsters, those things are actually beaten, not just driven off. Worm considers it a victory when the Endbringers don't completely fuck up an entire country.

In worm, parahumans aren't exactly well loved, and pretty much all of them have some form of ptsd or neurosis just by virtue of getting their powers. In DC there are multiple museums celebrating heroes like Flash and Superman. They are extremely beloved, and are paragons of virtue that inspire people to be better, not just sort of hold back a tide of villainy.

Basically, they'd be jealous.


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

[User]
ELI5: What is the science behind TNT Pop-Its (Snap Bags)? What makes them explode when you throw them at something?

My company bought a really old ice cream truck to refurbish, and we found a goldmine of old candy and toys inside.  Amongst all the crap was a box of TNT Pop-Its. We've been scaring each other by throwing them around the office all week, and it's been making me wonder about how exactly they work.

[Assistant] Inside the tiny bag is ~99.99% gravel or sand, the other 0.01% is a chemical called silver fulminate. It's a highly unstable chemical that ignites under any sort of friction ( by dropping, squeezing, or stepping on it). When the chemical ignites it creates a shockwave that travels faster than the speed of sound and that's where the "snap" sound comes from (kind of like how a whip makes its noise). This shockwave is extremely weak and that's why you can pop one in your hand and it wont hurt.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do auctioneers call out the way they do?

Is there a reason or just tradition?

[Assistant]
The intent is to talk fast to move things along more quickly. However, what you're hearing is an intentional type of pronunciation from which you can decipher what they are saying, partly because of how they enunciate, but also because it's consistent and you learn how to listen to them pretty quickly at any auction. Also, they repeat numbers and situations constantly, which serves the purpose if clearing confusion for people who might mishear once. Lastly, the repetitive and fast nature, with no dead space, keeps things feeling more anxious, for lack of a better term, and more likely to make buyers make snap decisions, especially in a novice buyer.

So in part, it is tradition, but moreso for the purpose it serves than just to keep a tradition alive.


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

[User] If an ant was the same size as a tiger, would still be able to lift 20 times its own weight?

[Assistant]
No.  The problem starts when you scale up the length and all other measurements in equal proportion, then your volume (i.e. mass) grows with the third power of that length, while the strength of your bones and muscles, which depend on their cross section, only grow as the square of that length. An ant the size of an elephant would collapse under its own weight.

You just have to look at the body shapes of very small animals, e.g. ants with their long thin legs sticking out sideways and their large abdomens supported by a very narrow waist, to very large ones like elephants, where the legs are very massive and under the body to be able to support its weight.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are farmers forced to destroy their products instead of bringing them to market?

Recently I've seen news articles of farmers dumping milk and destroying livestock instead of bringing their products to marker. The articles implied this is a practice that isn't new, but only happens in certain conditions with the market. What forces farmers to do this?

[Assistant]
When the local farm product warehouse is full, they don't have the space to store any more product.  Hauling it farther can be done, at some cost, but that's only a solution if some other warehouse isn't full.

Cows make milk at a pretty constant rate.  If orders for milk drop, because a quarantine closed some plant that usually buys milk, the empty space in the milk storage facility can easily be used up.


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

[User]
Why does the free market not work for public services?

In the UK, rail services are privately owned, which in theory should mean that theres competition between rail firms, and in turn lower prices. However this isnt the case at all, and rail fares are extortionate. My question is why? If it helps, Im not sure if theres any monopolies in place, which I imagine would give a good explanation. Just generally, Ive heard that the free market works up until public services, at which point it falls apart. Is this the case would you say?

[Assistant]
Public goods are generally underprovided by the market, which is probably what you're thinking of, but rail is not a public good.

Public goods are nonrivalrous (one person's consumption of the good does not prevent others from consuming it) and nonexcludable (there is no way to stop people from consuming the good). Rail meets neither of these criteria.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does the new day start at midnight, when its still dark? Wouldn't it make more sense for the day to start at, say, 6am, since that's about when the sun rises?

[Assistant] While this is just guessing- there is really only one firm time of the day that's easily measurable. That's noon. Its when the sun is highest in the sky. Sunrise and sunset change with the seasons and lattitude. Noon only changes with longitude. As noon is easy to establish everywhere and as it breaks the daylight hours into two equal portions the night-time can also be segmented by 1200 midnight, which segments the dark into two.


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

[User] ELIF: Double jointed people, and how they are able to do what they do.

[Assistant]
Double jointed is a misnomer. These individuals possess more give and stretch in the soft tissue around their joints that permits excessive movement. The term is "hypermobile".

Hypermobility can be congenital (born with it) or secondary to injury.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is it that one of the main compounds in bee venom, melittin, can be used as an anti-inflammatory when it causes the area that is stung to become swollen?

[Assistant]
Bee venom contains many components. It causes a reaction in some ways, but stifles certain other immune responses that would diminish the venoms effects.

This makes it good for *some* types of inflammation. There are many kinds of receptors and chemical messagers that are in control of inflammation, this protein in bee venom specificly works for receptor/pathways called NF-kB and JAK-2.

These control responses to some specific  inflammatory triggers. The protein (melittin) in bee venom inhibits them, meaning it blocks them from working. By doing so, it stops the body from responding to those inflammation triggers. That stops or reduces the inflammation before it happens.

So basically, melittin blocks the things that cause inflammation to protect the venom so it can do its job better. Otherwise, these reactions could help to stop the venom. We use this to benifit us by using the protein by itself without the other things in venom that cause inflammation in other ways.