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

[User] ELI5: Does stimulating the prostate really lead to a heightened male orgasm? If so, why?

[Assistant]
Depends greatly on the person. Some people love it, some people hate it, some people are neutral.

As for why, the prostate is basically a giant bundle of nerves that's hooked up to your penis. Stimulating it can create a massive direct stimulation of the pleasure circuits in your genitals.


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

[User]
[Batman] Why does Bruce Wayne often refer to himself in the third person?

In many of the more recent Batman films/games/comics Bruce Wayne often refers to himself to the third person, an example would be in Batman v Superman when he says. "Well Bruce Wayne can't break into 'said persons' house". Why couldn't he have just said. "Well I can't break into the mans house."

[Assistant]
When he refers to himself in the third person, he is referring to *Bruce Wayne, Billionaire Playboy*, which is just another mask.

It's a facade he maintains, and by using the third person he maintains a distance from that facade. Bruce Wayne, son of Thomas and Martha Wayne, the Batman, doesn't see himself as a billionaire playboy.


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

[User] [Comic Books] I am just an average human being, but there are plenty of superheroes around me. Is there anyway I can ascend to godhood and outpace them?

[Assistant]
There exist many ways to become empowered, but they are all risky.

Your best bet is likely to become an archeologist and track down a lost item of power. Note that even some of them have side effects (see Fate, Dr - Helmet).


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

[User] [Star Wars] Why was Anakin allowed to be on the Jedi Council?

[Assistant]
The Jedi were attempting to outcraft the crafty. They wanted to spy on Palpatine from the inside, so they allowed Anakin to sit in on the Council and deliver messages from the Supreme Chancellor in the hopes that Anakin would reveal some intelligence from the Chancellor's office.

They wanted Anakin to be a double agent, basically.


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

[User] Do animals that mate for life (eg. Penguins, beavers, etc.) sleep around a bit before mating for life or do they just spend the rest of their lives with the first one they mate with?

[Assistant] Penguins arent entirely monogamous.  Certain species are more likely to return to their same partners, but even in those cases, there will be years where they will pair up with another bird.  Ive even seen a male bounce back and forth between 2 females and try to maintain 2 separate nests for them.  Ive also seen 2 males continually nest together every year.  There werent enough mature females in the colony and they grouped up, even though they never incubated any eggs.  They were actually used to foster an abandoned egg one year and they succeeded in hatching and rearing the chick.  Later on, they went their separate ways when more females became available.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Do spellcasting scrolls like those in D&D or The Elder Scrolls exist?

In D&D and TES, a magic user can make a scroll that basically acts as a one time free use of the spell - you use it, the spell fires, and the scroll is consumed. Does the wizarding world have a similar ability to make one-shot scrolls that let anyone that can read them able to use the spell in question? Like, if you wanted something powerful like a Patronus but never learned in school because you're not Harry Bleedin' Potter and not dealing with dementors on the daily, could you head down to the scroll shop on Diagon Alley and pick up a pre-made Patronus scroll?

[Assistant] It's unlikely, unlike TES or D&D having a wand is a pretty necessary catalyst for spellcasting in Harry Potter (for most people, anyway). There are probably ways to make potions or enchantments that simulate the greater effects of a spell, but  most actual casting seems to have a manual component to it that a scroll wouldn't be able to replicate.


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

[User] [General sci-fi] Why do aliens invade the earth for resources in some movies? Is there any resource on earth besides habitability not found in abundance in every solar system?

[Assistant]
Personally, I've always thought the whole "we're here for your water" is a cover up.  Most races are looking for dilithium crystals.  But, if they show up and tell us that's what they are after, we'll want to know why.  Next thing you know, we'll invent warp drive, phasers and photon torpedos and come after the guys who robbed us.

So, while we're busy trying to stop the aliens from taking our water, they're making off with the good stuff...   :)


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

[User]
ELI5: What is a thread in programming?

As a second-semester computer science student and 5-year programmer, I'm ashamed to say I don't have a firm idea of what a thread is. I understand certain ideas, like if a method has an event listener, that "thread" will stay open until the listener is deleted. But I don't really understand what a thread *is*. Can somebody please enlighten me?

[Assistant] Imagine every thread being a worker under you, that has an individual timetable. A normal program gives you one worker by default, doing the stuff the source code wants it to. Each thread you open "hires" another one, where you can assign work to it, splitting some calculations you need basically at the same time, for better work efficiency (for large projects you might even want to hire and fire multiple workers over the course of the project).


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

[User]
[Jackie Chan Adventures] How does Section 13 always know where magical items and locations, like where talismans or demon portals, are?

Section 13 is cemented pretty firmly in the non-magical, with Agent Black not even believing in magic until the end of the first season. Yet they always know exactly where to send Jackie to retrieve a talisman or where a demon portal is. How do they always get this information? They're so good at retrieving the information that they can get Jackie there at the same time or before the Dark Hand.

[Assistant]
Ubiquitous surveillance and phone tapping allows them to track the operatives of the dark hand and their criminal activity.

Black market sales of artifacts is a common way terrorist cells fund themselves. Tracking such sales requires no magic, just a team effort comprised of long hours of good old fashioned investigative work.


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

[User]
[Marvel] Unable to find any suitable candidates for Project Rebirth, Peggy Carter volunteers to take the Super Soldier Serum. How do events change?

Take your pick between MCU or 616.

[Assistant]
Feeling that the world isn't ready for a female soldier on the front lines, her superiors require her to wear baggy fatigues and a full mask while on missions.  She is the "Unknown Soldier" and manages to save the world from the Nazis.

In her final battle with the Red Skull, newsreel footage captures both of them as their blows destroy each other's masks.  Carter is revealed as a woman.  The world is shocked, but the PR folks for the Allies decide that it's smarter to glorify Carter rather than act ashamed of her gender.  New ad campaigns are launched that prey upon masculine insecurity in order to get men to enlist: "She's man enough to fight.  Why aren't you?"

Some politicians want to bench Carter for the cleanup in the Pacific theater but she, of course, refuses and fights anyway.  Allied media follows her every move because the public is polarized over her.  Some tune in because they want to see/hear a hero in action; others tune in because they are scandalized about a woman wearing pants and throwing punches.  Carter becomes one of the most well-known people in the world, and a new generation of girls grow up wanting to be her.  All of this serves to push Western countries into conversations that they wouldn't have for decades about women serving on the front lines and what gender equality actually means.  Enough people dismiss Carter as a unique fluke that sweeping change isn't immediate, but the timeline for women's rights is still accelerated by decades in Western democracies.

Carter lives a long life and has enormous influence in the post-war intelligence community owing to her capability and powerful connections.  She is too well-known and too politically loaded to initially become director of SHIELD, but over the years she falls out of the public eye, politicians die or forget what they had against her, and she eventually obtains the position.  In that capacity she serves as a through line for 20th century international security and technological development.  She and Fury accomplish much more together than either could on their own, rooting out HYDRA and putting the world on a very strong footing as it entered the 21st century.


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

[User] [MCU] Why didn't Asgard rebuild to some modicum of its former glory in the 5 years since coming to Earth - was there no one left who knew the intricacies of things like Soul Forges, anti-grav chariots, and the Rainbow Bridge?

[Assistant]
First of all: We don't know if the materials needed to build these even exist on Earth, let alone in Norway.

Secondly: The Asgardians are still recovering from the destruction of Asgard and the attack by Thanos, so they prioritize building shelter and creating supply routes over unnecessary pomp.


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

[User] [Star Wars] How does the Death Star's mass not cause great effects on planets it is near?

[Assistant]
First, unlike most stellar bodies, it's mostly hollow. The ship is made up of rooms, corridors, bays, vents, service tubes, and such. While it still has considerable mass, it's not as if it's a solid sphere of metals.

Second, the entire ship has a lot of artificial gravity generators so the inside can be useful to species which are adapted to a gravity environment. You may have noticed in images and videos of either of the Death Stars that the orientation of the interior is not like a sphere, where people walk relative to the core, but is rather up and down, so people are all upwardly justified. This means that the entire station is made up of a massive network of gravity fields. The result is likely that the ship itself has far less gravitational force than it would if it didn't have artificial gravity.

Finally, it would make sense for the engineers to attempt to compensate for any major gravity for the reason you imply, that the station could disrupt the gravitational balance of a system it enters. The Death Stars were designed to destroy worlds using its directed energy superlaser, not to very slowly destroy entire systems by changing the gravitational relationships between large bodies.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do people from, say, the 70's, look significantly different than people from the 60's?

[Assistant] Clothing, accessories, hairstyles, men's facial hair styles, and photography and cinematography techniques and technology have shifted very rapidly over the past century, so it's easy to unconsciously date an image with these little hints.


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

[User]
Eli5: Why does the time you feel like you were asleep for not match how long you were actually asleep for?

There are times I can take a 15min. nap on my break during work and feel like I slept for an hour and be energized for the rest of the day. Yet there are times I can sleep for 8 or 9 hours wake up and feel like I just shut my eyes just couple seconds ago. Why does the mind do this and is there anything we can do to influence or control it?

[Assistant]
Sleeping for a longer time (8-9 hours) isn't as important as quality of sleep. Sleep cycles are around 1.5 hours, and take about the same amount of time to fall into REM sleep - where all the good rebuilding and restoring happens.

If you wake in the middle of one of these cycles, say at 8 hours, you're going to feel groggy and tired because your body wasn't in a great place to wake up yet. Sleeping for a super short time, like a 20 minute power nap, allows us to rest and shut down briefly without falling into that heavy sleep that's hard to wake from.

You can help this be more predictable by keeping a consistent sleep schedule and shooting for 90 minute intervals. Plan to get 4.5, 6, or 7.5 hours, (leaving time to fall asleep of course,) and base your alarm off of that. It's very tempting to milk every minute of sleep you can by snoozing your alarm or going back to sleep after you've woken up naturally just because you have the time to. Don't do that, trust me, it never helps.


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

[User] Why does steam and hot 'irons' remove creases from clothes so quickly and efficiently, and what is the science behind what's happening on a molecular level?

[Assistant]
Steam is great for transferring heat, much better than hot air (hence why getting scalded by steam is so serious), as is a heavy metal object pressing on the fabric.

Heat beaks down the weak-cross chain bonds in the fabric, allowing creases to be straightened. And then as it cools, those bonds reform and you have something neatly straightened.


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

[User] ELI5: What is actually involved in the process of "hacking" into something, and how is it different to that poorly portrayed in movies?

[Assistant] 98% of the time it means tricking somebody into giving you their password. 2% of the time it means writing software that tricks a computer into giving you information you shouldn't have. 0% of the time it means doing that in real time by furiously typing in green text on a black background.


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

[User] [Back to the Future] Why does Doc not know how to pronounce gigawatt?

[Assistant]
Until the late 80s, the prevalent pronunciation of the "giga" prefix in the USA was with a soft "g" like "giant", but this pronunciation died out gradually in the 90s.

So yeah. That was just how it was said back then.


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

[User]
ELI5: With just my eyes, why can I look totally left, right, cross-eyed but not apart (left with the left eye, right with the right)?

If they can make the movements of far right and far left together, why not separate actions, like a lizard?

[Assistant]
Our eye's aren't wired that way.

We evolved our eyes to give us binocular vision which greatly improves depth perception and is almost always present in predators (of which humans are).

Being able to split focus like that isn't all that valuable because our field of view isn't wide enough.  There's more value in seeing what we can see really well then being able to see a little bit more less well.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does food heated in the microwave taste much worse than food heated through other means?

If I put a slice of pizza in the oven, it comes out delicious, but the same slice of pizza in the microwave is not.

[Assistant] Microwaves work by heating up the water contained in your food, the heat in the water warms all the other matter in your food along with it. So basically it's like boiling the food from the inside.  As you can imagine a boiled pizza is not going to taste as good as a pizza that is dry heat cooked in an oven.


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

[User]
There's nothing wrong with slut shaming. CMV

I find that often times women want to be promiscuous without judgement, but at the same time they look down upon male virgins(especially after a certain age). In fact, when men share unpopular ideas in many of the woman heavy subs, they tend to get called out for their lack of gf/so(have fun jerking in your basement), lack of attractiveness or undesirability(no girl wold ever sleep with you).

Most women would say that they want a man who knows what he is doing and that a lack of sexual relationships after a certain amount of time would be a red flag. Women want to be with men who have experience, which is understandable. Here is the part that confuses me.

Following this logic why are men not allowed to choose partners based on promiscuity. whatever my reasons may be, if i prefer a girl who has had little or no partners, how is that different from preferring an experienced man?

In an askwomen thread a virgin was told by the women there that he should tell future lovers he is a virgin. The same week I saw a thread telling a girl with a promiscuous past to keep it to herself. I think that if women can prefer men with experience without judgement, men should be able to prefer women with less experience if that is what they so choose without judgement as well. Change my view please.

[Assistant] Preferring women who don't have experience is completely different than slut shaming. Do you think you have the right to make fun of a woman or make her feel guilty for having sex with a lot of men? Do you think it's ok to make her feel bad about herself and make her feel like it is wrong to be promiscuous?


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

[User] ELI5: If I would put a family under a dome and every generation I would decrease the oxygen by 1%, in the end could they live without oxygen?

[Assistant]
No, they would die in about 6 generations.

Humans need 15% oxygen in the air (technically partial pressure of O*_2_* of 0.15 atm) in order to breathe, and a few generations of evolution won't change that.

If you reduced it by 1% every million years, you might squeeze out a few more percent.  Oxygen is so fundamental to animal metabolism, you are probably looking at tens, if not hundreds of millions of years to evolve a new anaerobic breathing mechanism.  At that point, you'd be looking at a new kingdom of life, far removed from anything you'd call human.


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

[User]
CMV: Dont talk religion/politics at a party is just an admission that you dont know how to navigate complex topics in mixed company

So Im at a house warming party the other day for some late 20s friends of mine. Theyve made an effort to make it calm and classy, theres smooth jazz and dip and stuff. Were drinking for a light buzz, not a blackout. So Im chatting with a dude I dont know, just small talk,I ask what line of work hes in. He says hes a chaplain in a hospice ward. This piques my interest, Im agnostic but this is a neat corner of spirituality and we dig into the topic.

We talk for a while out on the balcony, like easily 30 minutes, and throughout this time people are filtering in and out of the balcony and the conversation. Most of them come out to smoke cigs, they jump in the convo with ease, chat while they smoke then they go back inside. But two different people, two different times, reacted to the topic like he and I were on the brink of a shouting match. Like visibly anxious. The second one even said pretty soon were gonna have to pull you guys apart.

I find this downright cringeworthy. Its really not that hard to disagree with someone in a cordial way. The fact that these people need conversations kept to the most mundane, nerf topics is embarrassing. Small talk is a means of finding a topic, it does not provide the substance to get to know someone.

Dont talk religion/politics at a party is propagated my poor conversationalists.

Change my view.

[Assistant]
Part of navigating complex topics in mixed company is knowing when to engage in those topics.

Generally this means that everybody on board or listening is comfortable doing so.

There's nothing wrong with talking religion/politics with people who are fine doing so - the rule about parties so to say is because you no longer control this aspect about the potential participants in question.


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

[User]
Eli5: Does all sound travel at exactly the speed of sound? If so why?

Do quieter sounds travel at the same speed but for less distance?

[Assistant]
Yup. So basically, think of air like a lake. When you make sound, youre basically dropping a rock into the lake and making ripples. If you drop a small rock into the lake, youre making pretty small ripples; but if you drop a big rock into the lake, youre making big ripples. Thing is, no matter how big the rock is, the ripples all move at the same speed - some are just bigger so they last longer before smoothing out.

Thats also why its harder to hear quieter things when something loud is happening - when a big ripple hits a little ripple in the lake, the little one is swept up by the big one, and you only end up seeing the big one.


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

[User]
[Animorphs, Beastboy, etc.] How do non-magical shapeshifters keep their memories when they change into animals that would obviously have very different nervous systems.

Also, the electrical data know as your memories aren't even a biological part of you- so if anything, Tobias and Garfield are vegetables.

[Assistant] In Animorphs, the differences of mass are pulled from or pushed to Z-space. It's possible that their original brains are just moved to this extra dimension in their base form and maintain a psychic connection with their tangential bodies, regardless of their new shape or mental circuitry.


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

[User] What if every nation in a China debt trap situation banded together and said, we are just not going to pay, and nullified that debt? Could it happen? Would it? What would be the consequences?

[Assistant] Theoretically it could, but the countries who are accepting loans from the Chinese government are usually for infrastructure development, and they need the money, so any attempt to basically just steal the money from China by not paying it back would likely result in a very difficult future obtaining any additional lending and possible sanctions from China.


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

[User]
[Doctor Strange MCU] Why does Kaecilius need to steal pages from that book?

No knowledge is forbidden. Assumedly Kaecilius knew about the dark dimension before abandoning Kamar-Taj. Did he really need to steal those pages? Why not just quietly snap a picture with your cellphone before leaving for good/announcing your bad intentions? Or just study/memorize it (without practicing) before leaving and starting your own faction.

[Assistant] The point was to leave a message for the Ancient One, and not just to acquire the information. The book was deliberately tossed on the floor to be found, and the pages taken to so that the Ancient One would know that Kaecilius knew about Dormamu.


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

[User] ELI5: What are those white spots at the beginning of the nail? Why do we have/have not them?

[Assistant] The white half-moon shape at the top of your nail is called the lunula. Its part of the nails matrix, aka the root, where new nail cells are formed. If a person doesnt have visible lunula at all, sometimes its because their cuticle grew over it... but other times it can mean that they have a vitamin deficiency and their nails arent growing properly because of it. Your cuticles serve a purpose too - theyre the clear layer of skin over the top of your nail. They protect your newly grown nail from getting dirty or infected.


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

[User]
ELI5: When someone uses these brackets [] in journalism?

Alright so lets say for example

"[He] went to the corner store to get a chocolate bar, it wasn't much later until he realized he didn't have change in his pocket"

Why do they always put a particular noun in those square brackets like that?

I hope this makes sense, if not I can provide a link to an article using this...

[Assistant] When you quote someone, sometimes it may not be clear what is being talked about without including other parts of the quote that aren't otherwise needed.  The brackets are used to clarify what is being talked about in a quote while making it clear that the words within are not actually the original speaker's words.


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

[User]
[Deus Ex:HR] What would happen if Adam Jensen would punch someone with his wall-breaking punch?

In the game, you can unlock an upgrade for your cybernetic arms, that allows you destroy weakend walls of reinforced concrete. How screwed is someone, if Adam decides to punch him with this strength?

[Assistant]
Umm... yeah... yuck.

It sort of depends on where he hits the target.  Against an arm or leg you're likely breaking every bone and causing (probably) irreparable damage.  At that point amputation is likely the only recourse... there's simply too much damage.

To the chest?  I'd fully expect massive internal trauma, probably totally destroying organs near the impact point... death (if not instant) will follow shortly.

To the head?  Death.


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

[User] [Toy Story] If Buzz thinks he is the actual Buzz Lightyear, and a real space ranger, why does he act like a toy when Andy comes in? And he doesnt question any of that?

[Assistant]
There's a few possibilities.

The reaction could hardwired into the toys and it takes a lot of effort for them to overcome this instinct.

Buzz thinks he's respecting a local custom as all of the other inhabitants of the planet do it when Andy appears.

Freezing seems to be the best option when Andy appears, he doesn't harm or hurt anyone and eventually goes away, who knows what he'll do if he knows toys are alive/Space Rangers are real.


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

[User]
How does a constantly-running fan collect dust?

Wife and I keep the ceiling fans in our home running 24 hours a day, but we have to clean them regularly because of dust accumulation.  I can see inanimate still objects collecting dust, but an object that is constantly moving?  Is it because of the blades are moving at a constant speed?

[Assistant]
The viscosity of the air is the culprit. When fluid flows around a boundary, viscosity of the fluid demands the so-called *no-slip condition*, which means the fluid at the boundary must be stationary with respect to the boundary. That is, the object literally drags the fluid along with it. (The viscosity is the quantity that then allows the fluid to transfer momentum across streamlines and diffuse vorticity.)

So when the fan blades are spinning, the air that is right on the blade is moving at the same speed as the blade. There is actually a very thin layer of air around the blade (called a boundary layer) in which the speed of the fluid is either exactly or very close to the speed of the blade. So now think about what happens to a dust particle. Dust particles are far too small and too light to have a significant effect on the air flow itself. The path of a dust particle is really just tracing out streamlines in the air flow. (We call such quantities *passive tracers*.) Of course, the dust particle still does get knocked around by the very rare collision with another particle, or by eddy currents flowing around the fan.

Eventually, if a dust particle enters the boundary layer near the fan blades (or if it was already there when the fan was turned on), it will just flow with the blades. Then when the fan is turned off, the dust particle just settles on the blade.

Of course, there are other factors that may make it easier for dust to settle on the blades. For instance, any dust on the top of a ceiling fan blade will tend to stay there until you physically remove it because gravity is keeping it on the blade. Similarly, vertical fan blades might have tiny imperfections that keep a dust particle there. But there is a naive intuition that dust should not settle at all since all of the dust should just get blown away when the fan is on. Viscosity is the reason this naive intuition is wrong.


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

[User] Diseases brought by Europeans devastated native populations in the Americas. Why did diseases native to this region not do similar damage to European colonists?

[Assistant]
Read "Guns, Germs, and Steel".

Everything hinges on farming and livestock. Farming and herding increase population density, and many human diseases got their start as livestock diseases that jumped species.


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

[User]
[Avatar] Questions after seeing sequel. SPOIlERS

Firstly, In the second film we see Stephen Lang return but now he's blue because his memories were downloaded before he left for Pandora.

Wouldn't the same thing have been done for jakes brother seeing as how they spent billions on the avatars, maybe even as a necessary part of the creation process. So why would they need jake in the first place?

Secondly, since humanity has demonstrated the ability to genetically engineer alien hybrids capable of accepting a downloaded human brain it stands to reason that humanity should be able to engineer human clones capable of the same, why do we need the whale  brain goo to live forever if you can just download your brain to a new clone?

[Assistant]
(For the Goo)--It could be because, with a download after death, 'you', still die and the download is just a perfect replica that goes on in your place, so 'you' still would actually end.

Hence wanting to live on forever.


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

[User] What is going on internally when we're hungry to make our stomachs "growl"?

[Assistant] It's muscle contractions along with acid and digestive fluids being released in anticipation of eating. Your body decides you haven't eaten in a while and sends chemical triggers to your brain to trigger your internal desire to eat. Your body then starts preparing to digest the food it believes you will be eating soon.


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

[User] [Star Trek] Why do people always turn around to face the transporter technician before they get beamed to somewhere? Has it even happened once? Someone showing their back to the tech?

[Assistant]
It's kind of like an elevator.

When you walk into an elevator, you turn towards the door you expect to exit.

You might as well ask this question to yourself. Why do you face the door in an elevator?


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

[User]
How does light pass through a transparent object, slow down, then speed up again?

I know that light is both a particle and a wave, and that the refractive index of a material is pretty much a function of its density. How then, does light interact with these particles (slowing them down) and keep a coherent beam/image?

[Assistant] To address part of your question. Light doesn't slow down ever. The photons are absorbed and then retransmitted a moment later that gives the illusion of slowing down. While a photon is on the move it's traveling at c always.


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

[User] [Batman] Has Batman ever defeated an enemy by literally paying him off? Like "Badguy of the Week, I do not have time to stop your planned crime, but here is a cheque for a million dollars as long as you leave Gotham and never come back."

[Assistant]
Yea.

There was a JLA story called Welcome to the Working Week where Batman successfully convinces Weather Wizard to sell a new weather manipulation device to Waynecrop for a huge profit, instead of trying to hold Central City hostage and getting his ass kicked by the Flash for the millionth time.


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

[User]
[Borderlands 2] How does everyone know I'm a Vaulthunter?

So I'm an adventurer that came to Pandora for the sick treasure that is apparently hidden somewhere here. Sure, i have some cool powers that most people don't have, but otger than that i look like a pretty regular dude. However, the second i arrived in Sanctuary, which seems to be a relatively safe place, people greeted me, they even treated my nicer because "I am a vaulthunter." I even watched one guy dying, and all he spoke about was how he is impressed that an actual vaulthunter came to save him. So my question: what is it about me that makes it so easy to tell that i'm not a bandit?

[Assistant]
1: Most of these communities are pretty small, thus they know each other fairly well. Only a complete badass can travel from town to town by themselves, as EVERYTHING can and will try to kill you. Such badasses tend to be either Vault Hunters or from Elpis.

2: Vault Hunters tend to bristle with weapons and gewgaws. Not counting the stuff you have in your SDU, you'll probably have about 3/4 guns openly displayed. Said guns tend to be strange looking, as most run-of-the-mill guns do not work for Vault-Hunters (Tediore excepted, as they are so cheap, they are literally throwaway guns)

3: You probably have some unique thing about you. You might be carrying a portable turret, You might be able to dual-wield guns with little to no difficulty, You might have Siren tats. You might have a pet Rakk/Drone. You might have a throwing shield. Point is, the majority of people don't have these. They mark you as something else.

4: You can use New-U stations. This isn't something anyone else can do.

5: You get strange gifts from something called "SHiFT".


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

[User] Eli5: Why is it almost impossible to use scissors with your less dexterous hand, especially for cutting items such as plastics and rubber?

[Assistant]
>Eli5: Why is it almost impossible to use scissors with your less dexterous hand, especially for cutting items such as plastics and rubber?

Scissors are inherently either right-handed or left-handed by design. If you use right-handed scissors in your left hand the natural direction of the pressure your fingers exert will push the shears **away** from each other instead of pushing them together like in your right hand.

If you want to use scissors with your left hand you need to use left-handed scissors, whether or not the left hand is your dominant one matters little.


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

[User] ELI5: What is the white foamy stuff when you put Hydrogen Peroxide on an infection and why does it become foamy?

[Assistant]
There are enzymes in your blood that attack the peroxide and turn it into water and oxygen. The bubbles are what that looks like.

As a sidenote, though, you should **not** put peroxide on wounds. It kills germs, but it kills everything else it touches, too, including healthy tissue. And since you have a cut you're letting the peroxide in pretty deep. It'll actually impede the healing. Same goes for alcohol, by the way.

Warm water and soap are the best thing for a wound. After that, put some antibiotic lotion on it.


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

[User]
ELI5: So there are dominant and recessive genes.  Why is the recessive gene recessive?

What makes the dominant gene dominant?

[Assistant]
Say that the first version of the gene produces X protein, and the second version does not. If you have any copy of the first version, your body will have some X; the only way you can end up with no X is if you get two copies of the second version.

Now, if your body has some process that doesn't care about how *much* X you have, but only whether or not X is present, the first version will be dominant and the second will be recessive.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why program droids to speak droid and not the common language?

It seems to me that droids all speak the same language - or at least they can understand each other, and several people are able to understand this language as well. Throughout the movies, it is made clear that most droids (for instance R2, or the pit droids) can understand the universal common language, so why not just program them to speak it instead of the beeps and boops of droid?

[Assistant]
Beeps and boops are more information dense than Basic.  They can communicate much more information in a much faster way when speaking Binary.

Humans can understand some of it, which is what we see when R2 or BB-8 talk to humans, but the reality of the situation is that it's a kind of 'baby talk' variant of Binary.  The droid can get a point across easily enough, but the human isn't picking up on near the total level of bandwidth that the language is capable of.  R2 and BB-8 are much more efficient talking to each other, or to an X-wing, for example.


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

[User] ELI5: Why, when you swat a fly mid-flight, it seems unfazed and keeps flying? If an airplane got smacked by a giant hand while flying the plane would be destroyed wouldnt it?

[Assistant] The square/cube law means that bigger things are weaker than small things. Something 10 times longer, wider and higher will be 100 times stronger but it will weigh 1000 times more. That means it will be 10 times worse at supporting its own weight. Thats why fleas can jump massively high but elephants cant jump at all. And when youre as big as a planet, you cant support your own weight at all and the only shape you can be is a sphere.


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

[User]
ELI5:Why don't flies die when they hit windows?

You know when you have a fly in the room and they fly to the window to try and escape. How does the force of them smacking into the glass not shatter their bodies. Especially considering how easy they are to squish with a newspaper.

[Assistant]
The same reason that an insect can fall x40 times the height of it's overall body, but you can break bones by falling x4.

Weight.

A fly is quick but it's also very light, therefore the overall force of impact is substantially lower.


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

[User]
[Ant-Man] So does Ant-Man even need the mask? What does it do? Why can others shrink and not need it?

We see Hank, Hope, Luis etc shrink and drive in shrunken cars. They have no problem breathing. So why then need the mask at all?

It could maybe be to breath in situations where one otherwise couldn't, like under water for example., but I don't see anything resembling air tanks, although they could be there and be super miniaturized.

[Assistant] In the movies shrinking works only when shrinking object is sealed, otherwise people and goats go splat. So it works while suit is sealed, when crate with tiny goat is sealed or when car with people are sealed.


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

[User] ELI5: if strong acids can melt stuff do strong bases also melt things?

[Assistant] Yes. For instance drain cleaner which dissolves hair and other blockages is a strong base. It's not as simple as saying either "melts" things though. They are both highly reactive, but the specific reactions are different. Even among strong acids one may be drastically more reactive than another again a certain chemical.


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

[User]
[DC] Was Superman always super smart? What's his traditional power set? What's Rebirth's?

I've read a couple different comics where Superman reads every book in a hospital 5 minutes before performing life saving surgery, or reading two different planet's history before deciding who to back in a conflict. Has he always been a god-tier speed reader?

[Assistant]
In the Earth One graphic novel it shows that he is insanely smart and uses it to test out what he wants to do with his life before he lands on journalism. He solves a physics equation that a company has been working on for years and they offer him a job on the spot, and he's also seen trying out for work in finance, chemistry, art, architecture and sports too.

The speed reading is of course part of the power set he has but he's inherently intelligent, the House of El on Krypton was made up of the greatest scientific minds in the universe and his father Jor-El had often been described as the greatest.


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

[User]
Why, do Americans put up with bloatware on their Androids?

More; I specified Americans, because a majority of users on this site are Americans and while this question may applies to others, I wouldn't know.

So to further explain my question, why is it that Americans will go and buy their phones from a carrier, which will proceed to dump undeletabale apps as ads all other the phone. I live in China, where phones are locked when you buy them in the mainland, and as such I'll buy my phone whenever i go back to my family, and will bring back an unlocked phone, then pop a simcard in it.

Why don't the rest of you do the same?

[Assistant]
It's easier to buy the phone from the carrier than to research which phones work with which carrier.

Also, carriers often bundle the phones and service together so it looks like you're getting a discount on the phone. Less upfront costs are significant to the majority of americans who don't have even $1000 saved.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do cooked vegetables grow bacteria (and therefore must be refrigerated) but raw vegetables don't?

If I buy a pack of raw bell peppers and tomatoes, I can leave them out of the fridge for a week and they're still ok to eat. When they eventually go bad it's because they rotted, not because there's bacteria on them (I think).

However, we're always told that cooked food, like let's say I fry the peppers and tomatoes, must be refrigerated and if I left that out for a week it wouldn't be safe to eat. Is that true? Why?

[Assistant]
Cooking breaks down the vegetables and exponentially increases the surface area that the bacteria can start working on.

As an experiment, try chopping up some salad into very fine pieces. They'll go bad by the end of the day while the unchopped ones are still good to eat for at least a day or two.


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

[User]
ELI5: "You break it, you buy it". Is this rule legally enforceable in stores?

My understanding of this law is this: when a store puts that sign up, it is creating a unilateral contract which the customer is agreeing to by just walking into the store, even if they don't read it. Would that hold up in court though? Also, stores are legally required to have insurance, which would cover the cost of any damaged item. If I ever accidentally break something in a store, what is my best defense?

[Assistant]
It is unlikely that a court would enforce a "you break it, you buy it" sign as a unilateral contract. If you broke something, refused to pay for it, and the store sued you, you would be sued in tort for damaging another person's property. The exact law governing the lawsuit would vary by state. Typically the question will be whether the person who broke the item was acting negligently, which is usually defined as "not exercising reasonable care." So if you break a statue in a store because you and your friends were playing hide and seek in the store and you ran into it, you were probably acting negligently. If you were just shopping and the store had the statute on a low shelf with a thin piece of it jutting way out into the aisle at foot level and you barely hit it with your foot on accident, you were probably not being negligent. Exactly what is "reasonable care" is usually a question for the jury to decide.

Your best defense would be that you were acting reasonably and that the store acted negligently by storing the item in a precarious position. Also, running into that poorly placed item really hurt you, so now you need the store to pay for your medical bills and mental anguish.


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

[User] [MCU] Does Spiderman Age normally? Does the effect of the spider bite affect the his metabolism and lifespan at all?

[Assistant] Other than general health, there's no indication that it affects his lifespan. And given his activities are regularly extremely strenuous, it's hard to say if his metabolism has changed - he's not shown eating extraordinary amounts of food for someone who gets as much activity as he does, however.


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

[User]
CMV: Abortion should be completely legal because whether or not the fetus is a person is an inarguable philosophy whereas the mother's circumstance is a clear reality

The most common and well understood against abortion, particularly coming from the religious right, is that a human's life begins at conception and abortion is thus killing a human being. That's all well and good, but plenty of other folks would disagree. A fetus might not be called a human being because there's no heartbeat, or because there's no pain receptors, or later in pregnancy they're still not a human because they're still not self-sufficient, etc. I am not concerned with the **true answer** to this argument because there isn't one - it's philosophy along the lines of personal identity. Philosophy is unfalsifiable and unprovable logic, so there is no scientifically precise answer to when a fetus becomes a person.

Having said that, the mother then deserves a large degree of freedom, being the person to actually carry the fetus. Arguing over the philosophy of when a human life starts is just a distracting talking point because whether or not a fetus is a person, the mother still has to endure pregnancy. It's her burden, thus it should be a no-brainer to grant her the freedom to choose the fate of her ambiguously human offspring.

Edit: Wow this is far and away the most popular post I've ever made, it's really hard to keep up! I'll try my best to get through the top comments today and award the rest of the deltas I see fit, but I'm really busy with school.

[Assistant] Youre absolutely correct that there isnt a scientifically precise answer to when a fetus becomes a person. There is however also no scientifically precise answer as to whether anyone is a person, pregnant women included. You cant escape the philosophy and moral discussion.


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

[User]
ELI5: With Atomic bombs, when they are deployed, why are they detonated so high off of the ground?

Hiroshima as an example, was detonated 1,900 feet above the city.

[Assistant]
The air burst is usually several hundred to a few thousand feet (100 to 1000m) above the hypocenter to allow the shockwave of the fission or fusion driven explosion to bounce off of the ground and back into itself, creating a shockwave that is more forceful than one from a detonation at ground level. This "mach stem" only occurs near ground level, and is similar in shape to the letter Y when viewed from the side. Airbursting also minimizes fallout by keeping the fireball from touching the ground, limiting the amount of debris that is vaporized and drawn up in the radioactive debris cloud. For the Hiroshima bomb, an air burst 1,8002,000 feet (550610m) above the ground was chosen "to achieve maximum blast effects, and to minimize residual radiation on the ground as it was hoped U.S. troops would soon occupy the city".[2]

That's from the "Air Burst" Wiki.

Basically, it lowers the amount of residual radiation while increasing the actual force of the blast.  Perfect if you want to wreck a city... but occupy the area afterwards.


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

[User] ELI5- If sound can't travel through a vacuum, how is it we have recordings of the sound of space such as the Sun, and Jupiter?

[Assistant] Its not actually sound. They take readings of radiation that comes off of the object or they take readings of its magnetic field. They then use these electromagnetic radiation readings to create a sound wave. The intensity of the reading corresponds to the volume of the sound and they normalize the frequency of the EM wave so that it falls within the range of human hearing.


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

[User] How fast would the earth have to rotate in order to fling us (or other stuff) off of its surface?

[Assistant]
I'll work from the assumption that we're on the equator, where rotational speed is greatest.

The acceleration due to gravity is 9.8 m/s^(2).  Centripetal acceleration in a rotating system is calculated by a = v^(2)/r, where v is the circular velocity and r is the radius of the circular path.

Let 9.8 m/s^(2) = v^(2)/(6378000 m)

From this we get v^(2) = 6.25 X 10^7, and **v=7900 m/s**. The circumference of the Earth is only 40,000 km, so at that rate it would be completing a full rotation every ~~five~~ **five thousand** seconds. And in order to actually fling things off its surface, it would have to be going slightly faster.

Of course, such a rapid rotation would lead to the Earth quickly distorting and becoming extremely oblate, which would make its equatorial radius even larger and therefore increase the rotational velocity at the equator. This would eventually lead to pieces of the crust flying off of the equator.


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

[User]
ELI5: What is the mechanism that wireless devices use to generate electromagnetic waves, millions per second?

I heard it has something to do with electrons moving back and forth really quickly..how does it do this exactly?

[Assistant]
Electromagnetic waves generated by our current generation wireless technology (what are called "transverse electromagnetic waves" or TEM), are thought to be alternating areas of (relatively) strong electric field followed by strong magnetic field followed by strong electric field, etc. The change of intensity of one type of field leads to the creation of the other type like ripples of water on a pond (this phenomenon was explored by Michael Faraday, and described mathematically by James Clerk Maxwell, Oliver Heaviside etc.)

It follows from their discoveries that charging up a metal conductor (like an antenna) and discharging it rapidly can lead to these TEM waves rippling outwards. Charging and discharging is actually just another way to say "electrons moving back and forth" (though they actually move quite slowly), and every time these electrons change direction, another wave ripples outward.

How do you charge up and discharge an antenna rapidly? Well you need some way to connect it to the positive side and then negative side of a battery (or other source of voltage) millions of times per second. The positive side will suck electrons off the antenna, and the negative side will pump them back on the antenna (this may sound backwards but isn't, electrons are negatively charged and hang out in greater numbers at the negative terminal of a battery).

Modern transistors (essentially electrically controlled switches) can switch on and off millions (and billions) of times per seconds, and so are great for this. To do this switching, they only need a small electrical control signal, which is changing exactly as fast as you want the antenna to charge and discharge. These transistors that do the actual charging/discharging are called "amplifiers", because they amplify the power of the small control signal to give the antenna a stiff charging and discharging with each cycle.

But how do you make a small electrical signal change millions of times per second? For that you need what we call an "oscillator".

In modern radios this is usually a special arrangement of transistor amplifiers put in feedback with each other to create an electrical "ringing". You know how putting a microphone up to a speaker causes a screeching sound? That's what we call feedback. Same idea, just a much higher pitch screech. We can even change the pitch of the screech electrically by using neat tricks. One circuit that does this is called a Voltage Controlled Oscillator (or VCO), and it uses a neat trick with a diode that lets us easily pick different "channels" to broadcast on (you know, all those different spots on your radio dial).

VCOs are not known for making really pure and pitch-perfect tones however, so like a singer before a performance we tune them up. In the radio world, our electrical tuning forks are made from precisely cut pieces of quartz crystal surrounded by yet more transistors. The transistors help keep the fork ringing as long as there is power in the battery. We use precisely cut quartz for this, because when tickled properly it can "ring" electrically with a very pure tone (and pure tones are very important - they help the cell tower pick your phone out from the crowd).

So there you have it. Today's wireless devices start with a pure tone generated by a quartz crystal tuning fork, that is used to tune a screeching-feedback VCO. The (now much cleaner) tone from that VCO is then used to control amplifying transistors, that charge and discharge a piece of metal, that causes ripples of electromagnetism to radiate outwards.


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

[User]
[Back to the Future] If they remade the BTTF trilogy with today as the starting point, going back to 1986 and forward to 2046 respectively how might the classic plot and dialogue be reworked?

I don't think you could ever beat the original trilogy, but if they did decide to remake it in what ways could they rework the script, plot points, gags and dialogue while keeping it true to the spirit of the original?

[Assistant]
**Dr. Emmett Brown:** Then tell me, future boy, who's President of the United States in 2017?

**Marty McFly:** Donald Trump.

**Dr. Emmett Brown:** Donald Trump? The Capitalist??

**Dr. Emmett Brown:** Then who's vice president? Gordon Gekko?


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

[User]
[Predator] Could Earth Ever Declare War?

The Predators have been hunting humans for thousands of years and there is little we humans have done to stop them, except maybe defeat a few individual hunters.

Our technology seems to keep advancing unimpeded. Will we eventually be in a position to properly defend ourselves? Could we meet them in military conflict within the next few hundred years?

Or are the Predators actually so far advanced that if they really wanted to they could just annihilate us like we might soon exterminate mosquitos through genetic engineering?

[Assistant]
Ive heard the Predators are a pretty stagnant society.

They captured most of their tech and spend most of their time hunting shit instead of sciencing. So its a matter of time before humans catch up and begin to pose a real threat.

The real issue isnt so much ground battles, we just throw lead in the air until it stops. The problem is going to be space. They could nuke us from orbit and we wont pose much of a threat to them. As soon as we can stand our own in the air we can mop them up no problem.

I have no idea what their ships are capable of though.


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

[User] What is the function of having 2 bones in our lower arm, radius and ulna, instead of one like the humerus? Same with the legs.

[Assistant] The two bones in the forearm is for more movement. If you hold out your arm with the palm up, the two bones are parallel. Now if you turn your palm to face down, the thumb side bone, radius, is now crossed over the ulna. The two bones add much more movement than one bone. There are two bones in the lower leg, but that has more to do with stabilization for walking.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Is being made a living painting the same thing as making an immortal copy of a given wizard?

It seems that a living painting retains the memories and personality of the person as well as being able to live independently and make decisions and form new memories.

I've always wondered about this; Harry's parents could just have paid for a portrait and they would have been around for him whilst he grew up. Dumbledore was still available to give advice to Harry after his death, if only Harry could have gotten to his portrait (why didn't Dumbledore have a portrait of himself sent to Harry, put in his will or whatever?)

If Lord Voldemort had a portrait of himself made he could have been (more) immortal.

[Assistant]
No. This is explained in Pottermore canon.

Basically, a portrait has very limited sapience. Everything must be taught to it. For example, Dumbledore explained to his portrait his entire plan and everything the portrait needed to do; from that it was able to act after Dumbledore died and picked some of his mannerisms and personality.

So you can't use a portrait to replace a person, because after the person is dead the portrait cannot produce any *new* thought, only parrot what it was taught to say.


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

[User]
Just as light is redshifted by relative motion of source and observer, can gravitational waves also lose energy depending on reference frame?

Gravitation itself is a cause of light to redshift, but could there be an analogous energy reduction for traveling gravitational waves/gravitons which depends on the relative motion of the source and observer (for example by them being separated by "dark energy")? Why or why not? Thank you.

[Assistant] The logic that leads one to derive that light is redshifted or blueshifted due to changes in reference frame, can be equally well applied to gravitational waves, and any type of waves at all, for that matter. So the answer to your question is "yes." If you want to understand why, then look at any derivation of redshift/blueshift, and note what assumptions are made. Generally there is no assumption that the waves must be electromagnetic in nature, only that they are moving at speed c (which gravitational waves do).


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

[User] [Marvel] Does every human being have the capacity to develop a Hulk persona and associated powers if they were exposed to the same gamma accident as Bruce Banner?

[Assistant]
Kind of.

I recall an issue/series where this morbidly obese billionaire captured the Hulk/Banner to duplicate the procedure that created the Hulk. Instead of making him a gamma-irradiated muscle-man, it turned him into a gigantic gamma-irradiated fat man. His heart basically exploded when he tried to walk, and that was that.


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

[User]
[W40k] SO everything that has to do with the 40k universe has happened in the milky way. Whats up with Andromeda or the rest of the universe? Does Chaos even have influence there?

 No novels talk about it having any warp jump points. The Eldar webway doesn't go there. Nor anything ever happening. The nids are the only thing that came from out of the milky way and holy fucking shit did that change a few things. So whats going on there? The warp sorta feels like it has a 1:1 ratio of size to the milky way as well as its usually *just* behind the skin of reality so it isnt omnipresent.

I like to consider my self a 40k buff but this just hit me like a brick.

[Assistant]
If there was sentient life in other galaxies, presumably there would be the warp too. The warp is created by emotions.

What we do know is that the Tyranids came from another galaxy. They had too have been eating something; so there is/was life in other galaxies. It could however just be endless galaxies of plants and microbes unable to feel emotions to create Warp. Another point is that Tyranids have an exception ability to adapt and evolve to any defence or offence. A trait that probably wouldn't be necessary  to eat worlds of grass and amoeba's. *Something* was fighting back against them; presumably with some level of sentience.

The warp feels like a 1:1 ratio with the mily way because it is! It's a mirror of our galaxy created by the life within. Other galaxies likely created their own but i doubt they would have the same four chaos gods.


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

[User]
Is it theoretically possible to reverse engineer someone's two factor authentication key if you were to have a list of past codes and timestamps to go with those codes?

If so, how would it work, and what's the n for how many codes/timestamps would be needed?

I'm just curious. I wonder if my employer could potentially figure this out, given that I login with two factor on a number of personal accounts all the time. Not that I think that they would. I guess it's more of a curiosity about the overall security of two-factor in general.

Thanks!

[Assistant]
It's designed to be practically impossible.

It's similar to most other pseudorandom number generators in that the internal state is a large number (64 bits, maybe) but the sequence is only the last few digits.


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

[User]
ELI5: What is the purpose of singles in the music industry?

For a very long time I thought singles were supposed to be previews of an artist's upcoming album. I only just realized that this wasn't the case when two artists I listen to (Macklemore and Linkin Park) released singles off their new albums well after their the albums were released (Can't Hold Us and Castle of Glass respectively). Thanks for anyone who can answer this!

[Assistant]
Purely to make money.

The singles release to great fanfare, get fresh radio plays, people who didn't hear about the album might buy them.

They normally have demos or stuff that didn't make it on the album to persuade die-hard fans to shell out for them.


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

[User]
How does an electric fan cool down a person/room?

I was thinking about it earlier and couldn't work it out.

[Assistant]
An electric fan does not cool down a room. Think about it, if you had a perfectly sealed room with only an electric fan in it powered by electricity, this electricity feeding the fan eventually will get converted into heat.

So the fan does not cool down the room, but it does create a wind chill effect. A wind chill effect refers to how the wind increases convective heat loss. By blowing the surrounding air around your body, it makes the evaporation of sweat from your skin an easier process, this is how your body gets rid of heat.

More air circulation means more evaporation, resulting in a better cooling effect.


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

[User]
[Star Wars/General] Why is history and the old masters always so much more powerful than those today? Why are all these secrets missing and why aren't we developing those today?

I had specifically in mind Jedi/Sith Holocrons and how there are stories of ancient masters who wielded the Force and lightsabers with unparalleled skill. Why don't we have such users today? I guess this question could apply to Harry Potter or LOTR, as well as many others.

What's your thoughts? Specific examples would be helpful.

[Assistant]
The Jedi Order fell into complacency. When the Sith Order went into hiding, most Jedi did not have to deal with other lightsaber users or Force adepts regularly.

So lightsaber combat was geared more towards countering blaster users, and Force techniques were more used in diplomacy.


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

[User]
I don't think that people deserve the day off, or excuses from school because of religion. CMV.

So, a friend of mine was talking about how he thought it would be a good idea to start a religion. Many boring min's later, he goes "and everyone could take Mondays off because that would be our day of worship." and it sparked this idea in my head that, you shouldn't be excused from school or work because of religion. it is a choice to be religious and it should not be something that gets you out of your daily duty's. Now, I left the catholic church because I didnt beleive and it all seemed like a sham to me (im not trying to insult anyone, its just my view). Am I just being insensitive? (sorry if its god awful spelling/grammar, im on a smartphone)

[Assistant]
Your friend's example wouldn't really fly, because the selected day is arbitrary.

Most religious holidays aren't arbitrarily chosen random days, but days with significant importance with historical events that are culturally important.

Denying someone the ability to practice their religion with established rituals grounded in historical events is a much greater injustice than missing a day or two of school.


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

[User] ELI5 How do you use git and github?

[Assistant]
5 year old explanation:

You and Billy decide to draw a picture together with crayons, but you both want to be able to work on it from home. The teacher makes 2 photocopies of what you have started and you both take a copy home (pulling/checking out). You both add more things to the drawing and when you come back to school tomorrow, the teacher cuts and pastes the bits you added / changed and then photocopies that (merging). If you both colored in the same area, someone has to choose which portion to use (resolving a conflict). And since there are photocopies every time something is changed, you can throw away all the new ones if you don't like what you've done (reverting).


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

[User]
Would a Computer Science degree from America be able to be recognized in Spain?

 I'm moving to Spain after getting a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from America. Would my degree be able to be recognized and be valid when I move there? How can I verify my degree?

[Assistant] No, computers over there use a different kind of bits. European bits are three sided, where the US only use 2 sided bits. You can probably find a job but you're likely to need to acclimate to the different bit dimensions.


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

[User]
ELI5 : What happens when a country goes bankrupt?

Recently I just read about Sri Lanka going bankrupt so what happens next?

[Assistant]
This is a very complex thing to describe in an ELI5. Each case will have their own specifics. Countries don't go bankrupt like companies or individuals because they cannot run out of their own currency since they can print as much of it as they choose. A "bankrupt" country is one where the government runs out of foreign currency. Foreign currency is needed to pay debt borrowed and to facilitate trade ie if a country wants to buy stuff from another country, they have to pay in a foreign currency.

What happens next is that, for most countries, the first agency that comes to their aid is the IMF. The IMF gives emergency loans to prevent the local currency from getting out of control. (It is a Monetary Fund). The IMF will help the country renegotiate their debt in return for policy changes (ie the government should not waste the money loaned to it by the IMF).

The next step is usually, but not always, the World Bank or similar. This organization might help out with longer term funding or for certain development projects undertaken by the government usually if there are poverty alleviation projects.

Internally, it is more challenging. Many (democratic) governments that go bankrupt are voted out of office. The citizens don't like governments that go broke. In the best circumstances the new government undertakes economic reform etc etc. In the worst cases, even the IMF cannot do much and the country spirals into violence and civil unrest.

In many cases, the IMF and World Bank (and other aid organizations) try to provide enough funding to avoid outcomes like mass hunger, complete collapse of the economy and/or rapid increases in poverty but that is sometimes only possible after some time in a pretty bad situation. The actual economic steps vary by country.


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

[User]
[Marvel] Did the Hulk exist before Banner was exposed to radiation?

Was the Hulk an entity before Banner was in the accident that "created" the Hulk. He draws his power from another dimension, so I've been told. Was he "alive" or conscious before he became a part of Banner?

[Assistant] The Hulk was a nameless imaginary friend that Banner created to deal with his father's abuse and mother's neglect. Eventually, this turned into a form of schizophrenia and the Hulk literally became a separate entity in his mind, constantly telling him to cause harm or be violent. He eventually managed to suppress it by the time he was an adult, though he came back as a result of the accident.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is it okay to eat under-cooked beef or eggs, but considered too risky to eat under-cooked chicken or pork?

[Assistant]
Unless it is ground up, beef only has bacteria that are harmful to humans on its outer surface.  Look up "Pittsburgh Rare" for the extreme way to have a steak.

Eggs are self-contained, no exposure to the outside so safe to eat.

Chicken and Pork both contain bacteria with the flesh that is harmful to humans.  So you need to cook it all the way through or you'll get sick.


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

[User] Eli5: Why do very salty foods dehydrate you but drinks like Pedialyte and Gatorade, which have a lot of sodium, rehydrate you?

[Assistant]
Electrolyte-rich drinks are typically balanced between their salt and water levels. Salty foods have practically no water of their own, so our pre-existing water content has to counter-balance the salt.

Think of it like: adding plain salt to a pitcher of water will always make it saltier. But adding slightly less-salty water to already-very-salty water can make it less salty overall.


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

[User]
[Warhammer 40k] Is The Imperium of Man back too far gone to save?

As the question says, Is The Empire already dead in the water and just taking it's time to sink or is it possible to turn things around, what would it take to save it?
Edit: Sorry, just noticed a typo in the title, my bad!

[Assistant]
The Imperium of Man is a rotting carcass. It's already dead, and nothing short of sorcery has any hope of saving it.

Unfortunately, tearing it down and rebuilding something better isn't an option either, because the enemies that circle like carrion would pick the galaxy clean before you got a chance to rebuild.

Welcome to Warhammer 40k, where you've already lost and nothing you can do will make it any better. But you fight anyway.


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

[User] [Marvel] Why are so many Marvel villains either green, purple, or in some cases both?

[Assistant] I can't answer as well for green, but purple is naturally associated with a sense of wealth and royalty (There's an interesting anecdote about rare sea snails used for the fabric dye back in the day that caused that association). Most villains tend to be egotists with senses of superiority and i think the purple tends to match that.


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

[User] [DC Comics] Superman could easily defeat a hippo but after defeated by it could he eat the hippo? Preferably in one sitting.

[Assistant] Superman actually does have some pretty ridiculous super-eating feats, such as the time he ate a million hamburgers. So canonically, it would certainly be possible for him, albeit unlikely if he is acting in-character.


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

[User]
How did one who was going to immigrate determine whether the country had a high quality of life before 1990?

The Human Development Report is published every year. The Human Development Report 1990 has a list of countries by whether the country has high human development and whether the country has high-income and whether the country is industrial. A country which has high human development and has high-income and is industrial is a good country to live in. One who was going to immigrate could read the Human Development Report 1990 to determine which country to live in or whether the country had a high quality of life. The first Human Development Report was published in 1990. How did one who was going to immigrate determine whether the country had a high quality of life before 1990? Was there a list of countries which had high quality of life before 1990? How did one know that Japan had a higher quality of life and was a better country to live in than Niger before 1990?

[Assistant]
Do you think people were completely ignorant about the world before 1990, when the Human Development Reports were published? Do you think many migrants even read those?

People in migrant-sending countries are not stupid, especially not the ones who have the means migrate thousands of kilometers across the world. They can see in every form of media what the world looks like, what the western countries look like. There's a reason for strong migration links between colonial powers and there former subjects. People prefer to go to what they already know about.

Then, once the first migrants arrive, they create networks between each other in the receiving country and between their folks back home. This in turn creates additional migration from their home country. It makes after all more sense to go to a country where you've got relatives living and working, than to go to one where you don't know anyone.

Some reading on the subject:

* Portes, A. (Ed.). (1995). The Economic Sociology of Immigration: Essays on Networks, Ethnicity, and Entrepreneurship: Essays on Networks, Ethnicity, and Entrepreneurship.

* Granovetter, M. (2000). The economic sociology of firms and entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship: The social science view, 244-275.

* Massey, D. S. (1999). Why does immigration occur?: a theoretical synthesis (pp. 34-52). na.
* Portes, A., & Brcz, J. (1989). Contemporary immigration: Theoretical perspectives on its determinants and modes of incorporation. International migration review, 606-630.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do our taste buds prefer ingredients compiled into a recipe instead of just the base ingredients by themselves?

[Assistant] A meal isn't simply the sum of it's ingredients on a plate. When you mix ingredients, cook food, etc. they undergo chemical reactions that make them entirely different. Of course, there are plenty of things you can throw together that taste bad, so it's not really that the taste buds prefer recipes in general but more like the bad tasting ones don't survive to reach the dinner table. This is more of a chemistry question than biology.


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

[User] Why did we decide to use asbestos and lead in the manufacturing of numerous items?

[Assistant]
Both of these were used because they have beneficial properties, and the extent of their negative properties were not yet known or were not yet fully appreciated.

Asbestos is an incredible insulator, which is why you often find it wrapped around pipes or lining air vents.  It is also resistant to fire, and so was incorporated into a variety of building materials, such as panels and tiles.

Lead has a bit more of an interesting history.  The atomic symbol for lead is Pb, which stands for its Latin name, *plumbum*.  In fact, lead was the Roman plumbing material of choice, prized for its softness and malleability which allowed for relatively easy redirection of water flow.  Somewhere along the way, after the toxicity of lead was recognized, that practice stopped.

Lead was added as a fuel/petroleum supplement because it acts as a lubricant in the internal combustion engine.  This also became less common as it was recognized that the volatilized lead passed through the tail pipe and into the air we breathe, and engines were redesigned to perform without the the leaded gasoline.  Some aircraft still use leaded gas.

Lead was also added to paints because it increased the durability of the paint product and because it provides a lovely shade of white.


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

[User] [DC] I'm a Green Lantern interested in gaining more power. If I were able to stop a ring before it flew off, and had the proper emotions, would I be able to use multiple rings?

[Assistant] It is possible to use multiple rings without them flying off. But if they do, it's not a question of stopping them. The ring isn't some kind of power source that grants you abilities. You're the power source that grants the ring abilities. If it rejects you, then it will try to leave, but even if it can't it's not going to listen to you.


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

[User]
[MCU] Is the technology behind Quill's helmet/mask similar to Tony Stark's nanobot suit?

Rewatched guardians 1 today and I couldn't help but notice how similar Quill's helmet looks to Stark's nanobot suit. Both sort of dissolve in and out of existence at the press of a button, and the visual affect is very similar.

Are they just two different technologies that happen to look alike, or are they the same?

[Assistant] The mask seems to function a little differently with light frames of parts of the mask appearing before the physical parts materialize. Stark's suit has no light show like this; just tiny robots that build continuously rather than in chunks until complete.  The mask also always forms the same way; it appears to not be maleable in the way that Stark's suit is.  All this suggests to me that the mask is either a lower quality of nano technology or it is a different kind of technology.


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

[User]
When space is expanding, what is happening to time? Is time also "expanding"?

Excuse me if this is a silly question, but as far as I understand, space and time are a single continuum. When space expands, does it have any effect on time?

[Assistant]
Yes and no. (I know that's a totally lame answer, but bear with me.)

Time is just a coordinate (like an x or y coordinate on spacetime), and you can choose coordinates where time does or doesn't expand with the spatial dimensions. And the difference between these kinds of coordinates is really only of interest to cosmologists and to grad students, because different coordinates just simplify different calculations!

What this comes down to physically is that **it's a matter of interpretation**. You can look at the Universe as having time ticking normally, with space expanding from one time to the next, or as both expanding together.

For example, photons redshift in an expanding Universe. You can look at this as happening because two successive crests of a light wave arrive at different time intervals as the Universe expands, stretching the wave out. This is a kind of time dilation effect. Or you can look at it as being an effect of the expansion of space pulling those crests apart.

The only really measurable thing is the time a particular clock measures, and a clock at rest in an expanding Universe just ticks along at one second per second, as it should. Whether or not time is "expanding" is really asking whether the clock time is ticking at the same rate as the global or cosmic time, and what you call that cosmic clock is arbitrary.


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

[User] ELI5: How are big-budget podcasts supported so well by advertisers when those ads can easily be skipped?

[Assistant]
Because enough people *don't* skip them.

That's why they all have different promo codes: so that the companies can see who's buying things based on each ad they run.  Then they cancel the ads that don't bring in money.


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

[User]
I believe that racist subreddits are harmful to the overall experience of reddit. And that racist post should be grounds for being blocked from reddit. CMV

Recently I have been noticing an upturn in the amount of racially justified posts. These posts generally miss the point and mislead people. I just read a post about how some guy was stabbed in turkey and the previously top comment was some racist lies that just added to the inaccuracy of the original post.

Also I would like to say that I belive jokes are an exception to the view I posted in that they arent posted as being true.

Also I understand that logistically enforcing such a rule would be incredibly hard but some enforcement is better than none.

Edit: also for an added defining of my view. I define racism as the preconceived notion that one race or group of people are inherently superior or that certain races are inherently different on terms of anything non-physical

Edit 2: okay people be forgetting that this post is specifically about reddit. And reddit already censors people. They censor spam posts. So it is already established that reddit cqn censor you and two that its possible. Also why does reddit stop you from posting if your posts havent been well received.to control quality on the site. So the real question is do we believe that racist posts are less harmful than reposts or spam. Also I agree with those of you who have mentioned that having them out in the open leads to open discussion in sentiment but are we really going to fool ourselves into believing that this happens with even a minutiae of frequency. I mean when was the last time you had a meaningful thought out conversation with someone on the issue outside of this sub.

Edit: since even more people have inboxed me claiming that words dont harm people are we forgetting sunil tripath. One death from WORDS ON REDDIT. An extreme example but proof that words do harm.

[Assistant] You'll enthusiastically support something you don't agree with get censored, but what if your own view will be the minority one day? People used to think slavery was fine, and a small brave minority opposed it at first. You need the racist's free speech so that YOU are heard as well when you're trying express YOUR rights.


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

[User]
How deep can a blue whale fart?

At some depth, would the water pressure be so high that it would be impossible to let one rip? Like are there whales out there swimming around like a mile down and suddenly they gotta fart, and they just feel uncomfortable while holding it in until they can swim up to like 100 fathoms?

[Assistant] Whales do fart and they can still pass gas under water. Unlike submarines where the inside pressure remains lower than the environment, whales, divers, and marine life have the same pressure inside their body as the outside, otherwise they would be crushed. So the volume of gas for the whale to fart would decrease as the dive and the pressure would increase to match the surroundings.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] After the fall of the Republic, why didnt Obi-Wan just raise Luke? Why did he feel the obligation to give Luke to Owen and Beru, and only watch over him from afar, when he would have been able to protect him much better as if he raised him like his own son?

The recent trailer got me thinking. When Owen and Obi-wan were talking about training Luke, Owen is all like hur dur like you trained his father? Its a fair point but still, Owen and Beru wouldnt even have had Luke if Obi-Wan didnt give him to them. Like they wouldnt even have known he existed if not for Obi-Wan, but I digress. Knowing the man Obi-Wan is, I think he would have been a much better parent to Luke than his aunt and uncle. And, Obi-Wan could have easily trained Luke without opposition from Owen. Its been a while since Ive watched ROTS, but I vaguely remember someone (maybe Yoda?) saying he should be with family. But lets be honest, Obi-Wan was more family to Anakin than step-brother Owen ever was. If Shmi were still in the picture, then ok, but shes not. So, why would Obi-Wan give up Luke and become that crazy old wizard on Tatooine?

[Assistant]
Im guessing two-fold:

1) he thought Luke might be better off growing up in a home with two parents

2) Obi wan knew that he himself would likely be hunted by the Empire, so it was for Lukes protection in case Obi was found and killed.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do we go "hmm" or "uuh" when we're thinking?

[Assistant] Because it alerts those around you to the fact that you are thinking, and are still requesting their attention, even though you aren't actually saying anything...yet. Otherwise you are opening the floor to other speakers by your lack of communication.


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

[User]
[Ready Player One] Are the Avatars of Players Using Licensed IPs violating copyright?

Does the Oasis get to license characters for player custom avatars, or do lawyers try to take down possible violations? Do players have any protection from lawsuits or copyright takedowns of custom content?

[Assistant] I haven't seen the movie, but in the book there would not be a single company who *wouldn't* license their IP to the Oasis. It's pretty much the one thing there is to do on Earth anymore. If you don't let players show episodes of old '80s shows on their custom TV feeds, no one's gonna watch em.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why am I more active by night while I feel sleepy by day?

Passed 10 or maybe 11 pm, my thoughts get clear, I feel motivated to do even work I wouldn't normally feel like doing by day, and most of the times even my mood improves.

[Assistant] As humans develop, their sleep cycles shift later and later, making the best time for you to be awake also shift later and later. On a side note, though, sleeping all in one block is actually a recent phenomenon and not the natural sleeping pattern for humans.


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

[User] ELI5: If the moon takes most of the asteroids meant for earth, what would have happened if the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs hit the moon instead?

[Assistant] I think op means what would have happened to life on earth if the dinosaurs hadn't been wiped out.  Watch the film Super Mario.  Based in a parallel world where the dominant life form is a humanoid reptile.  Its shit, so don't get your hopes up....


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

[User]
ELI5: The Watergate Scandal

I'm aware it involved President Nixon and obviously the hotel.  I just want to know what happened and the consequences.

[Assistant]
Five people broke into the Democratic National Headquarters, which was located at the Watergate hotel, to do basic spying -- photographing documents and planting listening devices.

They were caught by police, and it slowly came out that they were financially connected to the Republican Party and President Nixon's reelection campaign.

Nixon was alleged to have used the office of the presidency to try to block official investigations into the incident.  He might have succeeded had it not been for the news media, which latched on to the story and made it a giant issue.

Because of the attention that it received, Nixon's efforts to stop the investigations were not successful, and he was more or less humiliated and discredited.  Before things got too far, Nixon was forced to resign.

His former VP, now President Gerald Ford pardoned him, preventing him from ever having to stand trial and face the legal repercussions for what he did.  The unconditional pardon of Nixon is one of the most controversial political events of that era.

The media's role in breaking the scandal was a major event in American culture.  The event was an important one for the baby boom generation  in that it caused a sense of distrust of the federal government and the presidency, and a general "loss of innocence" in America.


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

[User]
ELI5: New Age Healing

What's the deal with power crystals, gurus, pyramids, sweat lodges, and ESP? It all reeks of BS to me, but loads of people buy in to this stuff. What draws people to this stuff?

[Assistant] Did you see Dumbo the movie?  You know how Dumbo needs to hold the feather in order to fly, but at the end realizes that he doesn't?  New Age Healing paraphenelia (crystals and other stuff) are just Dumbo feathers, and the new-agers haven't figured out they don't make any real difference at all.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do unhealthy foods like junk foods taste delicious and addicting while healthy foods like vegetables dont?

[Assistant]
For the vast vast majority of human evolution,  high-calorie energy rich foods were rare and hard to come by. Having a craving to eat as much fat as you could whenever it was available was a very good survival instinct because who knows when the next big meal is coming. And in the meantime maybe there's a flood or fire, or you get sick or hurt, or a drought happens.

When any shit like that goes down, you're more likely to survive if you gorged on that dead animal you found and built up your energy stores.

Only very very recently (evolution wise) did high calorie foods become cheaply and *reliably* available, all the time. So what used to be a useful instinct isn't always suited now, but there hasn't been enough time to re-adapt yet. If humanity lasts another 50k+ years, all the obesity- and heart-related deaths from overeating will possibly push the balance and reduce our craving for junk food. But there's a million years of calories=life to overcome.


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

[User]
ELI5 why does 70 F water feel freezing, while 70 F air feels warm?

I was in the ocean today and it was approximately 69 F.  It felt absolutely freezing.  I always wondered why similarly hot/cold air temperatures feel warmer or more pleasant than water temperatures.

[Assistant]
I had problems with understanding this for a long time, so here goes:

When things "feel cold" what you're feeling the heat leaving your body.  If something feel colder, it's because it's pulling heat away from your body faster.  This is why 50 F air feels chilly, but 50 F water feels WAY colder.  Although they are both the same temperature, the water conducts heat away from your body faster, which is what you feel.

70 F feels warm because it's conducting heat away from you slow enough that your body doesn't really care.  Water of the same temperature takes that heat faster, so it feels colder.


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

[User]
[WH40k] How tall was the God Emperor of Mankind?

If the GEOM was a human, wouldn't he be dwarfed by his Primarchs and Astartes? Would that not affect his reputation in public appearances?

[Assistant] Theres this scene in Dark Imperium where Guilliman is given the Emperors Sword, then quickly realizes that he has no idea how tall the Emperor actually was. In some memories, the Emperor stood eye to eye with him, but in others, the Emperor was only as tall as a regular person (similar to how the Sisters of Silence saw him). In any case, he could influence the way that people perceived him and was also a master of biomancy, so his true height was irrelevant.


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

[User]
Do the nutritional facts on chewing gum assume you swallow the gum?

Had this thought while enjoying a piece of gum.

[Assistant] The process of mastication combined with the secretion of saliva do a fine job of extracting most of the carbohydrates and other soluble compounds that exist in chewing gum. When you swallow, the compounds solubilized in one's saliva go through the same digestive/absorptive processes like any other foodstuff. When all of this is "extracted" one is left with the flavorless, goey lump we associate with gum that has been chewed well beyond flavor. It is likely that this mass is somewhat undigestable or unusable by the body, contributing nothing to caloric content.


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

[User] [Star Wars] Were Sith Lords really Obi-Wan and Anakin's speciality?

[Assistant] Pretty much. Out of all Jedi they had the most experience  fighting Sith (Dooku and Maul several times), as well as fighting Lightsaber wielding opponents (Viszla, Ventress, Opress, and Grievous) more than any other Jedi.


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

[User]
ELI5: How/Why is Russia so big?

I do not understand.

[Assistant]
Over centuries, the principality known as Muscovy (Moscow) expanded territorially--to the Baltic, southwest through Ukraine and Crimea, and east and south. Expansion westward and southward more or less met its end when Russians ran into Poles, Swedes, Germans, Turks, and so forth--organized states/empires who were powerful enough to counter expansion and maintain a border. To the east and southeast, there wasn't much in the way of powerful, organized states. Siberia was sparsely populated by small societies, and the nomads on the steppes in central Asia (what's now the "Stans") weren't able to effectively resist domination from a modernizing imperial power. Russian expansion halted when it met natural barriers (Pacific/Arctic Ocean, mountains) or large power further east (China, Japan). Most of this went on while other European powers (and later the US and Japan) were expanding abroad--European expansion wasn't possible for Britain or France, but their navies and access to the Atlantic/warm-weather ports (something Russia always craved) meant that expansion overseas in the Americas/Africa/Asia was possible, especially after industrialization and power projection capabilities improved.

**tld;dr**The lands east of Moscow are pretty sparsely populated, so there was little resistance to expansion.


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

[User]
ELI5: How can we measure the velocities of the redshift of stars?

Are they measured assuming the earth itself isn't moving or is this somehow taken into account?

[Assistant] You are basing this on a false assumption, movement requires two things, an object and a point of reference, however the most important part is that **these are interchangeable**. It is not a matter of "is the star moving or is Earth moving," because according to physics, both principles are exactly the same.


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

[User]
[40K] Could a sufficiently badass human lead an ork WAAAAGH?

Suppose a really tall muscular human with a strong Cockney accent strolled into an ork camp while wearing green facepaint and punched the Warboss in the nose until the back of his skull fell off. Then the human repeats the process until all the remaining orks are smaller than him, then the human points at the horizon and says "follow me lads, there's some gits over there in need of a good krumping." The human can be a strong psyker with an genetically-enhanced liver if that helps.

Could something similar to this ever work and result in a human-controlled WAAAAAGH?

[Assistant] No.  But, sufficiently badass humans can be kept alive by the WAAAGH's psychic force for long periods of time if they provide a good enough fight. Why do you think Commissar Yarrick has lived for so long?


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

[User]
[ATLA] and [LOK] Would there be opposition to a Trip to the Moon?

Okay, Since we know about the >!Connection between the Water Tribe and the Ocean and Moon spirits!< by the end  of season 1, I assumed that , based on the level of technological advancement in the Legend of Korra, if  there was a future moon mission later on in the Avatar world, there  probably would be backlash from the >!Water Tribe.!<  If there was a story written about this, how do you think it would play out?

[Assistant]
I mean, it's possible there would be backlash *from the moon*.

You're looking at less a trip to a location and more a meeting with a powerful and seemingly sentient entity. It might no like you trapsing all over its face.