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

[User]
CMV: Banning people on the No Fly list from buying firearms is a horrible civil rights violation

To be clear, I support gun control and don't care about the second amendment. I oppose the bill because the No Fly list is an awful, immoral concept and the bill gives its use further credibility.

I know people on the no fly list. They have Arabic sounding names, "similar to those of known terrorists", and there's nothing they can do to clear their name. If you're charitable, you can call this gross incompetence, if you're not, you can call it racist.

Plus all the ridiculous cases in the news of, say, toddlers on the no fly list.

The No Fly bill doesn't just deny a right to someone, which I don't necessarily have a problem with, it does so in a way that's unfair, oftentimes arbitrary, racist (intentional or not), and non-transparent.

I believe the liberals supporting this are betraying their values by promoting this bill.

I will not change my view on an appeal that the lives saved from gun violence outweighs those are inconvenienced unless you can address my other points. I am aware that my views are based on anecdotal evidence, however, so if you could show me that these cases are rare and/or being addressed, I'd be open to that. Thank you.

[Assistant]
I think the basic problem here is that there's barely any meat to any of the discussion about how this would be implemented.

I mean, if there's no due process, you know that the courts will rule it unconstitutional. The politicians know it. Everyone that knows anything about American politics knows it.

So one of two things is true:

1) The intent is to create due process for the list, at which point your entire argument evaporates.

2) The intent is to pretend to do something about gun violence for political reasons, while knowing that it won't withstand a court challenge. At which point it's not a huge civil rights violation, it's a cynical political maneuver that will have zero practical effect.


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

[User]
[Forrest Gump] Could Forrest cook good shrimp?

Forrest's entire fortune was built upon the foundation of shrimping, even if other factors are what made him a millionaire/billionaire. His best friend besides Jenny told him pretty much everything there could be known about shrimp.

So was Forrest good at cooking it or did he just harvest and sell it?

[Assistant] Forrest is incredibly good at following directions.  Forrest also became friends with Bubba's mother who worked her life as a maid/cook who was good at cooking shrimp (you see her as one of like a dozen people who attended Forrest's wedding).  It's very likely she at some point showed Forrest how to cook shrimp and he would have followed her directions and recipes perfectly.


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

[User] [The Defenders] How did Daredevil completely dominate his fight with Danny Rand?

[Assistant]
Danny is skilled, but so is Daredevil - maybe not to the same level, but skilled enough that he'd be able to tag Danny at least. Daredevil has extensive fight experience in real, life or death scenarios, much more than Danny, which makes a big difference. Daredevil's enhanced senses also give him better indication of what Danny is going to do, an advantage that Danny isn't experienced against, and maybe isn't even aware of.

A small enough skill gap, meets extensive fight IQ/experience, meets 6th sense, it spells disaster for Danny at sackerfice.


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

[User]
Does sweating empty the bladder?

Let's say you have a full bladder, but you hold it.  If you sweat a lot, will your bladder eventually empty?  Can some or all of your urine go back into your body to hydrate you?

[Assistant] Nope. Once you're dehydrated the kidneys will be producing urine that is more concentrated (and lesser in quantity). But the urine that has already been produced and is being stored in the bladder will not get reabsorbed.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is coconut oil considered healthy, even though it is so dense with saturated fat?

I hear so many people say that coconut oil is healthy, but when I look at the macros, this makes no sense to me. Can someone ELI5?

[Assistant]
The saturated fats in coconut oil are in the form of Medium-chain triglyceride (MCT) - this basically means your body burns the saturated fats found in coconut oil in the same way it burns carbs.

Carbs (and the sat. fats in coconut oil) are used directly for energy rather than being stored as fat in your body. However, just like carbs, if you eat more than your body is able to burn then the excess will indeed be stored as fat.


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

[User]
CMV: Mandatory voting is a good thing.

I've seen a couple of posts discussing this, but I'd be interested to see answers in the current context of Brexit and the upcoming US election. From my perspective, if you want the right to have your views as a people represented and implemented (i.e. democracy), you should have the responsibility to vote on them.

In both the EU referendum and the upcoming U.S election I've seen a lot of talk about issues along the lines of "only X percent of young voters, who were supportive of cause Y came to vote". The campaigns of politicians are about getting people that already support them to bother to vote rather than convincing the general populace of the righteousness of their cause.

 One of the most common counterarguments I've come across is that it impedes freedom, but I think that its quite bizarre because many people have given up freedom for far less important causes (e.g. copyright/privacy), even where freedom is best marketed, in the U.S. It has been equivocated to good. Absolute freedom would be anarchy. Even if this is untrue and freedom is sacred, it seems that it is more sacred than democracy. Specifically, your freedom to not vote is more sacred than the government acting on behalf of its people.

Another point I've come across is that it stops people who are too uneducated or disinterested from voting. The problem here is that there is always someone less or more informed than you, and you could go with that point to separate even groups of those that do vote. You don't know where to draw the line, you don't have the ability to and nor should you. It is certainly a flaw in democracy that sometimes it can just be determined by 'mob rule' where the public is generally misinformed, but if you have a problem with that with everyone voting, you will certainly have a problem with it with fewer voters, as people don't necessarily decide to vote based on how informed they really are.

As an Australian, I recognize that my upbringing has certainly helped this bias, but it's hard to see the other perspective given these points. Democracy is a flawed system, and sometimes it doesn't produce the best results, or those you want, but it has done a lot of good, and much has been done to maintain it. To throw it away for a trivial bit of freedom or because of some misplaced sense of elitism seems like a waste.

[Assistant]
Anyone who doesn't want to vote is someone who shouldn't.

Most of them would vote for a joke candidate or the one with the most advertising budget. These are people who don't understand the ramifications of voting or don't care.

A better idea would be to have a bit of political studies in high school to raise awareness.


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

[User] ELI5: why does exerting pressure reduce pain?

[Assistant] There are a couple things like vascular compression and limiting air contact, but the biggie is your brain's input threshold. Think of it a little bit like math. You have lots of different nerves that all give your brain info, but your brain can only pay attention to so much total info from the nerves at a given moment (lets call that number 10). So if you add another sort of nerve signal from pressure it competes with the ouchy signal. If you only have the ouchy to pay attention to it would be 10:10 of what your brain gives attention to. But if you add another strong feeling (pressure with a value of lets say, 3) then the total pain your brain can notice is now only 7:10 and pressure of 3:10.


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

[User] Why does our brain perform complex tasks such as object recognition and language within an instant, but trivial tasks such as 9.342^2 require longer to perform?

[Assistant]
We have hardware for object recognition and language, but no math hardware, so we have to do it slowly in software.

On the flip side, computers have hardware for math, but object recognition and language have to be done in software that we don't even understand how to write.


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

[User]
[Archer] How does Archer perceive Dreamland? Is he watching the whole thing from a third person perspective, or is he participating in it?

The latest season of Archer is taking place in his head, but how does he perceive it? Does he see everything, or just what Dreamland Archer sees?

[Assistant]
It's like a dream state... when he's "present" he's living the scene. When he's not in the scene, he's a disembodied observer who can't act or retain knowledge of events he's witnessed.

Dreams are weird, man. Coma-dreams are even weirder.


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

[User] ELI5 How we can sleep in a position that causes debilitating pain when we wake up, but don't notice at all while we sleep?

[Assistant]
While your body sleeps, it alternates between REM (Rapid Eye Movement) and non-REM cycles. REM sleep is where you dream and the body essentially recuperates from being awake. During this cycle. Your body is paralyzed, which prevents you from feeling pain or discomfort at all, so if your body is at an awkward angle moving into this cycle, you will not wake from the pain, but when you move out of the cycle the pain will likely wake you up.

EDIT: just wanted to say thank you to all the people for the awards, and to remind everyone that every person is completely different, so your personal body very likely does react differently while sleeping, and thats 100% ok!


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

[User]
[Batman] How much does Alfred get paid?

Was watching an episode of *Batman: The Animated Series* (S1e4, "The Last Laugh"), and at the end of the episode, Bruce said he would doc Alfred's pay for a few years to pay off a "priceless Ming vase."

So I wondered how much Alfred was being paid that he would be able to pay it off in just a few years?

[Assistant]
Only Alfred knows. As butler, Alfred is in charge of all matters pertaining to the domestic staff of Wayne Manor, including payroll. Bruce Wayne sure doesn't have time to look into it.

Let's just say that Bruce Wayne is still a rich man. Or at least he thinks he is.


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

[User]
[Fallout] Given the progress/recovery demonstrated across the timeline of the existing games, to what extent could the world be restored closer to its former self in the long-term; how many years would certain achievements take? What features could NEVER be restored?

(The title should contain everything that needs to be established here)

[Assistant]
With fusion becoming popular the energy crisis of old won't be a problem. Civilization can learn from its old mistakes and move forward.

House was planning to leave the planet within the span of 200 years. With the rate the NCR and East Coast Chapter have been restoring it's not unlikely humanity will find a world mostly recovered in a few centuries.


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

[User] What happens to photons of light that only penetrate the open ocean so deep? Why don't they hit the seafloor?

[Assistant] They are absorbed by the water molecules, and as a result the water heats up. If you want to look at it on a photon level, each has a probability of getting absorbed as it propagates, and the probability that it does not get absorbed approaches zero as it propagates deeper and deeper. Multiply this by a bajillion photons and you have a very very small number reaching the bottom.


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

[User]
How can fish be so active in cold water when other cold blooded animals like reptiles and amphibians need the Sun to warm up?

I have two fish tanks one half full of water with a turtle. The turtle needs to bask in a heat lamp for at least half the day to have the energy to go "hunting" around his terrarium. In a different cold water tank I have some very active and energetic fish that seem to swim non-stop and only have to eat every other day.

[Assistant] hi, fishy researcher here. there are sooo many adaptations that allow for these behaviours. one is that fishes have a network of veins and arteries called the rete mirabile. the rete regulates blood flow which in turn allows the fish to thermoregulate! in addition, this thermoregulation allows for adjustment of metabolism which affects feeding! i should mention, these are species dependent as other fishes will utilize other adaptations such as natural antifreeze proteins and other enzymes.


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

[User] ELI5: How do sex scenes in movies work?

[Assistant]
They don't really stick it in if thats what you want to know. Its a lot like wrestling, they don't really punch. They kiss and grope but they usually cover up the female genitals, there are lots of way to do that, stringless panties for example.
Body doubles are sometimes used if an actor or actress is not hot enough or if they are not willing to or have too many tats and so on.
Usually on a set, there are lots of people standing around, so its not as romantic and hot as it may seem in the actual movie.


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

[User] How does the water supply network still remain liquid in cities even at very cold temperatures? Why don't the pipes freeze?

[Assistant]
They are buried below the frost line which is a depth where the temperature of the earth doesn't go below freezing. Here in Chicago it's about 48", so.ewhere like Minnesota is more like 55" so it varies by climate. Occasionally in really bad will they will get below freezing but it's really hard to freeze moving water so you're still ok.

Tldr: bury then where the ground stays warm.


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

[User]
What does it mean to say that waves in the electric field move perpendicular to waves in the magnetic field?

The pictures in my textbook show them as two transverse waves, but that doesn't quite make sense to me. Which way is 'up' to the electric field?

[Assistant] The fact that they're transverse just means that the electric and magnetic fields are perpendicular to the direction of propagation. So the electric field, the magnetic field, and the momentum of the light wave are all mutually perpendicular vectors.


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

[User]
What does it mean when physicists refer to several additional "small"  dimensions?

I've just reread a couple of Hawking's books, and I can't figure out how to conceptualize additional dimensions.  Three spacial dimensions plus time as a fourth seem straightforward enough (though obviously not always easy to visualize), but what does it mean to speak of additional dimensions that are "small" or "curled up"?  How exactly are they different from the 4 space-time dimensions?

You can measure a particle's relative position or velocity in space-time.  Does that particle have a coordinate in each of the other existing dimensions as well?

If dimensions are "small", does that mean they are local, or do they exist throughout spacetime?

[Assistant]
>but what does it mean to speak of additional dimensions that are "small" or "curled up"? How exactly are they different from the 4 space-time dimensions?

What we mean by "small" is that the symmetry groups describing translations in those directions are "compact."  What compactness means is that if you go far enough in a compact direction, you get back to where you started.  Rotations of solid bodies form a compact group, because after rotating by 2*pi you're back where you started.  Similarly, directions on the surface of a sphere are compact: if you travel for long enough in a given direction, you get back to where you started.

So the thought to stringy or Kaluza-Klein models is to consider (an) extra dimension(s) which fields or strings are allowed to propagate in, but their "size" (how far you can move in those extra directions) is smaller than around 2*10^-19 meters (1 TeV^-1 ).

>You can measure a particle's relative position or velocity in space-time. Does that particle have a coordinate in each of the other existing dimensions as well?

Classically yes, but from a quantum mechanical standpoint, these other dimensions are so small that particles are kind of smeared through this entire other dimension.  In KK models, for example, typically there's an infinite number of ways they can be smeared out, each having a different amount of energy, which would look to us like, for example, an infinite number of excited electrons each with higher mass than the last.

>If dimensions are "small", does that mean they are local, or do they exist throughout spacetime?

They would exist throughout spacetime, in the same way that the three spatial dimensions we know of exist throughout spacetime.

EDIT: unrelated, but can anyone tell me how to cancel superscripts without putting a space in?


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Orders to TIE fighters deployed after the Millennium Falcon's escape from the Death Star

Since the Falcon was supposed to escape so it could be tracked to Yavin, what were the TIE pilots told to do when pursuing the Falcon? Did they know it was a suicide mission and if so, why were they OK with it?

[Assistant]
No.  They were likely sent out with orders to disable or destroy the ship, just like you'd expect in that situation.
However, there were fewer TIEs deployed than were really appropriate to that kind of mission, and it was expected that the Falcon would be able to escape anyway.  They pilots weren't told that, because they didn't need to know the grand scheme. They only needed to know their specific mission.


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

[User]
[Watchmen] Would it actually hurt to be vaporized by Dr. Manhattan?

Of course the death LOOKS painful (and extremely gory), but would it actually hurt? If your molecules were ripped apart in the space of a second or two, if you felt anything at all I would assume it'd be shock and not pain. All that pain sensory information would be too sudden for your body to process in the very short time it has left.

[Assistant] It'd be instant death. The span of time between your nerves realizing they're being torn apart and the electric impulse needed to reach your brain is too short. Unless he vaporizes you in pieces instead of a whole you'd be dead and scattered over a square mile before you could process a single thought.


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

[User] ELI5: why did android 3.0 honeycomb never gain much market share & popularity?

[Assistant] Honeycomb was developed for the tablet architecture only, but was quickly replaced by the follow up release for the general Android development Ice Cream Sandwich, 4.0, which was designed to specifically create a universal OS for android no matter which architecture standard was being followed.  What that means was Honeycomb was quickly abandoned due to the fact that it limited application support to only those apps which met the 3.0 requirements, where as a 4.0 app can run on a tablet or telephone, along with any app developed for the previous versions of android, this included those apps developed on 3.0 for tablets only, giving a much wider range of available apps to the android devices using it.


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

[User]
Do subliminal messages really work?

I just downloaded a program called "Subliminal Messages."

It claims that by flashin text too fast for me to read it can help me do things like quit smoking, have more confidence, etc.

Is this true?

[Assistant]
Almost certainly not. Subliminal messages are just messages that fall below the human threshold for perception.

People often connect them with their sub-concious, which is wrong. They have no more effect on your subconscious that any regular message you come across. If it did work, it would almost certainly be in commercials, like every other way of subtly manipulating people is.


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

[User]
Can a dwarf planet become a moon?

I was noticing that Eriss orbit bring it close to Neptunes orbit. If the timing lined up would Eris be close enough to become a moon of Neptune? Are there any other dwarf planets that scientists think may become a moon? Lastly are there any know current moons that are theorized to come from the Kuiper belt?

[Assistant]
Eris is too far away from Neptune to be affected by it much even when they are as close to each other as is possible. Even at the point of least separation, there's still something like 8 AUs distances of separation between the two.

To compare: Earth and Jupiter get to about 4 AU of separation, Jupiter is more massive than Neptune, Earth is more massive than Eris, and half the distance means four times the force of gravity, so the fact that we aren't a moon of Jupiter right now is pretty solid proof that Eris won't become a moon of Neptune any time soon.

However, what you are describing probably happened once! Neptune's largest moon Triton (slightly smaller than our own), is very similar in composition to Pluto, and rotates in a different direction than all of Neptune's other moons. For this reason, we consider it highly likely that it's a captured Kuiper Belt object.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does anti-venom work, and is it available for every type of venom?

Just wondering how a paralyzing or flesh eating venom can be stopped in it's tracks with a simple anti venom. Does it just teach our bodies how to deal with it or eradicate it?

[Assistant]
It binds with the venom and allows it to be eliminated from the body safely.

Venom works by interacting with certain receptors and causing them to either stop functioning or be overstimulated.

By binding with the venom, it prevents it from binding to those receptors, and since the venom is now stuck to the antivenom, it just floats around in the bloodstream until it reaches the renal system, where it is removed from the blood and then from the body itself.

Antivenom are antibodies cultivated in animals exposed to small amounts of venom; enough to cause an immune response, but not enough to harm them. There are some venoms that have no antidote because the lethality of the venom is so high that it's not possible to safely produce an antivenom.


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

[User] Is it possible to quantify the impact of Wikipedia the world economy?

[Assistant]
Sure, but probably it can't be done well. Probably, the most reasonable approach to doing something like what you may be asking about would involve sorting out the following:

1. How valuable is Wikipedia to people as a consumption good? That is, how much is it worth as a thing people browse and look things up in for fun or for their hobbies or whatever else?
* How value is Wikipedia as a capital good? That is, how valuable is it to businesses, governments, researchers, etc. strictly as a tool used to help people do work stuff? Probably a good idea to make these calculations net of time people waste browsing it at work.
* How much does Wikipedia cost to create? Think server costs, but also time spent by people editing it.

You can probably do a pretty good job of getting at the cost side of the ledger here, at number (3). But (1) and (2) are the hard part: you can make your own assumptions, you can survey people about what they think they'd pay for Wikipedia if it wasn't free, you can extrapolate from whatever you learn from the select circumstances where you can nail down an answer (e.g. maybe you can run an experiment in some country with limited internet/wikipedia access and randomly give some businesses access to Wikipedia and others not, to see whether / by how much wikipedia recipients perform better), etc. But ultimately, you probably can't get the true number.

For an added layer of complexity, there is the question of Wikipedia vs what. Realistically, you can't credit Wikipedia either all of the benefits or costs of its existence. It is probably true that Wikipedia has displaced some purchasing of encyclopedias and made things tough for at least some information provider / encyclopedia companies. But what that means is that some people and companies receiving benefits from wikipedia probably would have received similar benefits from the encyclopedia britannica, or whatever other company. And, on net, some of the labor we've devoted as a society to making wikipedia has freed up labor that otherwise would have been spent on making encyclopedias for some other company. So, this adds a bonus layer of irritation to efforts at quantifying wikipedia's impact, however defined..


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Is Hogwarts (and the wizarding world in general) ready to admit disabled students? Would wizards even be able to adapt to such a student?

Since I was a child I have asked myself. They can't cure disabilities: Harry, Dumbledore, and other characters still wear glasses and there are people with rudimentary prosthetics.

The books and study materials are written on parchment, which I don't think works for braille. The stairs change places, another nightmare for a blind person. And I doubt anyone knows that sign language exists. Plus there are no ramps, so someone with a wheelchair would have to float. Not to mention mental disabilities, as I understand wizarding society is very, er,  old-fashioned.

[Assistant]
I don't see why not. There are blind people in the Wizarding community and they will adopt Muggle developments if it's low-tech, truly innovative and there's no better option.

They may have braille books but they are specialty orders. Blind people can have spiritual guides who can direct them via words (and since we know ghosts make things colder around them, maybe even silently direct them with a chill on each shoulder to direct them when to turn). Dumbledore is implied to be fluent in several languages so he'd be able to speak BSL, and there are magical quills that can be directed to write for the spoken word so they could be adapted to understand BSL (and a floating notepad, like Looney Tunes cartoons).

And Dumbledore wouldn't turn away students who were less-than mentally stable if it would help them - one, because he knows the dangers of a mentally-abused student and out of regret about what happened to his sister.


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

[User]
Why do we design vehicles to be aerodynamic (laminar?) while dimpled golf balls are designed to create turbulence to get them to travel farther?

Wouldn't inducing turbulent flow on a vehicle reduce drag and increase fuel efficiency?

[Assistant]
The dimples on golf balls were added after golfers noticed that the smooth balls they used went farther after getting cuts and scrapes in them. The uneven surface creates eddies around the ball that act as a cushioning against the air around it while flying.

If you want to get deeper into the aerodynamics, there are two types of flow around an object: laminar and turbulent. Laminar flow has less drag, but it is also prone to a phenomenon called "separation." Once separation of a laminar boundary layer occurs, drag rises dramatically because of eddies that form in the gap. Turbulent flow has more drag initially but also better adhesion, and therefore is less prone to separation. Therefore, if the shape of an object is such that separation occurs easily, it is better to turbulate the boundary layer (at the slight cost of increased drag) in order to increase adhesion and reduce eddies (which means a significant reduction in drag). Dimples on golf balls turbulate the boundary layer.

**TL;DR:**
Vehicles are designed with laminar in mind because laminar flow has less drag overall, while golf balls have dimples that act as a symmetrical turbulent creator that has less drag initially.


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

[User]
Why are train rails usually built on gravel?

Is there any particular reason for this or is it just cheaper than asphalt/concrete/whatever?

[Assistant]
The material that forms the trackbed upon whichrailroad ties are laid is known as **track ballast.** It is packed between, below, and around the ties.It bears the load from the railroad ties, facilitatedrainageof water, and discouragesvegetationgrowth that might interfere with the track structure.  It is typically made of**crushed stone**.

Track ballast typically rests on a layer of smaller crushed stones: the sub-ballast. The sub-ballast layer gives a solid support for the top ballast, and reduces the seepage of water from the underlying ground.

The shape of the ballast is also important. Stones must be **irregularly cut**, with sharp edges, so that they properly **interlock** and grip the ties in order to fully secure them against movement.

In order to let the stones fully settle and interlock, speed limits are often lowered on sections of track for a period of time after new ballast has been laid.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why can't we use materials with lower boiling points to generate power?

My understanding is that water is commonly used in coal-fired power plants and the like, and that water has a rather high boiling point. Wouldn't using something with a lower BP like acetone produce the same amount of energy at a lower temperature, making it easier to generate with heat sources like the sun or geothermal? I also understand that according to thermodynamics more energy can't be gotten out of a system than is put into it, but shouldn't the turbines spin just as fast no matter what gas is being passed through them/what temperature that gas is?

[Assistant]
Water's volume expands 1600-1700 times when it turns to steam. That increase in volume allows the pressure it creates to be used for mechanical motion.

Acetone doesn't expand that much, so it is not as efficient or useful. Acetone is also quite dangerous when heated while water is not.


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

[User]
ELI5: 20 Years ago there was a lot of fear about the effects of China having too many men because of sex-selective abortion. Shouldn't we be seeing the brunt of that now?

In the 1990s and 2000s there was a lot of fear mongering about China having too many men.  Because of the one child policy there were a lot of sex-selective abortions to be rid of girls so families could have their male heir. There was a lot of "what does a nation do when they've got 30,000,000 unmarried adult men but go to war!?!" and similar talk.

Well... it's been 20 years.  Those men are grown up now and looking for wives.  What's going on with that now? Shouldn't we be seeing the brunt of 30+ million unmarried and unable-to-be-married (forever alone) men?

It seems like no one is talking about it... but it, whatever it may be, should be happening now, right?

[Assistant]
there have been much talks about it.    China is the leading male-female disparity country for the young generation age group.     by 2012 census, there are 40 million more males than females.   additionally most people in the under 30 age group are only childs as well.

there already a big gap of unmarried males because of unable to find a partner, whereas almost all females in the 20-30 age group are married.


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

[User]
[Civilization 5] What happened to the civilization that all the ruins belonged to, before they were ruins? Why did that civilization fall?

Do barbarians have anything to do with it?

[Assistant] Old City-States that have collapsed from war, famine, migration or other means. No doubt those who didn't have much success finding new homes were forced into the warlike barbarian factions that dot the lands. Without the stability of an established city with the proper infrastructure for sustainable life people would often resort to raiding others in order to survive and so that is why the barbarian villages seem so desperate.


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

[User] I'm about to see a therapist for the first time due to grad school stress/anxiety. Have you seen a therapist for academia-induced issues? What was your experience like?

[Assistant]
First, congratulations. Making the appointment is the hardest part.

If you're in a college town, your therapist probably sees lots of stressed out grad students. This is good. Try not to rush to judgment after the first session. Go a few times and see if your therapist has the right "feel" for you. Not every therapist will be the right match and that's one of the toughest things to figure out.

The experience is personal for everyone so it's hard to say if anyone's experience will be just like yours. Go with an open mind and the idea that this is supposed to help. Good luck!


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

[User] ELI5: Why are furniture stores always "going out of business"?

[Assistant] because you rarely (once every few years) shop for furniture and have no idea what furniture stores are around until you start to shop.  The going out of business sale creates a sense of urgency and the feeling that you are getting a good deal.


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

[User] When we eat meat, it has cells which have the animal's DNA and RNA. What does out body do to them once they've been digested and broken down into nucleotides? Do our cells use these nucleotides when replicating DNA or making mRNA?

[Assistant] There are enzymes which degrade DNA and RNA (RNAases  and DNAses) in our intestines, along with all other enzymes, to degrade various forms of food such as proteins (trypsin), carbs (amylases), fats (lipases). Then the constituents are taken up by the body.


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

[User] [Star Wars] How come, at 900 years of age, Master Yoda still hasn't got the hang of Galactic Basic sentence structure?

[Assistant]
In Fate of the Jedi (Allston), Ben Skywalker explains Yoda's speech pattern as

> "After nine hundred years, he (Yoda) was sick of hearing the same old things the same old way. Use the same old clich phrases too long and people stop hearing the message."

I think that is the best explanation, because even though he speaks in subject-object-verb most of the time, he also splits verbs, and switches whole phrases around; but on other occasions he speaks with the correct syntax - which supports the idea he speaks the way he does for effect!


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

[User] ELI5: Why does some smartphones get slower with time? Is it a hardware or a software problem?

[Assistant]
Both

On the software side of things not only are newer programs typically more demanding, but newer operating systems are designed with newer/more powerful devices in mind.

As for hardware, the only real thing that degrades over time is the battery. As they age, and go through more charging cycles, batteries tend to be able to store less charge. What's more important for performance though, is that they also can provide less current. As electronics are under more load they draw more current, and if the aging battery isn't able to keep up then that effectively puts a speed limit on the device as a whole.


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

[User]
CMV: Superman is too perfect and because of this his stories aren't compelling

I *know* this is an unpopular opinion, but I don't like Superman. For me, he is literally too perfect, and as such, he doesn't have a personality. I find this to be a huge character flaw, and I just want a character that actually has weakness inside of him. Yes, I realize his "weakness" is Kryptonite, but he has no mortal weakness besides his love for Lois Lane, and that's not a very interesting weakness in the first place. I just want someone to show me how imperfect Superman is and that he actually has a spectrum of emotion.

[Assistant]
Superman is interesting precisely because he is so powerful. In Superman stories the drama rarely comes from whether or not Superman can punch some other guy harder, or fly faster or whatever.

 It's much more likely to be about how this God-like being finds his way in the world. He loves humanity, and in many ways is a human at heart himself. It's about him doing his best to act as a role model for us. To help us but not control us. To make us the best we can be on our own through his inspiration, instead of lesser beings forced to grovel at his feet.

Also, while he is very very capable, and very powerful, he's not omnipotent or omnipresent. Every moment he decides to take time for himself he's allowing dozens, sometimes hundreds to die. Imagine enjoying a walk through the park, a date with your love or just closing your eyes and enjoying the sunshine while you can hear the final screams of those dieing horribly in a fire across the globe (don't question the physics of it, but many iterations of Superman can hear across the globe).

Superman has the power of a God, but he's ultimately still a man, who has to make his own choices and live the life he decides.

Those are just a few of the reasons why he's an interesting character.


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

[User] Why isn't a zip code enough when entering an address, why must I give my State, City AND zip code?

[Assistant] I'd assume it's a 2nd check for incorrect zip codes...  IE: If you're sending a letter to Scruff McGruff in Chicago, IL 60652, and accidentally mix up your 5's and 6's and send it to Scruff McGruff Chicago, IL 50562, (Which is the zip code for Mallard, IA) they can say "Chances are, it was meant to go to Chicago, rather than Mallard, Iowa." And would therefore reduce "return to senders".


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

[User]
ELI5: In a high-smog area, how is staying inside any safer than going outside?

Isn't it the same air?  Wouldn't I be breathing in about the same amount of smog in my house as the air directly outside my house?

[Assistant]
As mentioned by others there is HVAC filtering, but the big reason is that it keeps people from driving and using other polluting forms of transport.

Also, if people don't go to work at construction sites there is less dust kicked up and if they don't run factories that produce particulates at full capacity that also cuts down.

So it's not just staying inside but all the other downstream effects of people not doing things to add more particulates to the atmosphere.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why did the Separatists use piloted tanks?

Almost every member of the Separatist army is a droid, the B1s, B2s, Vulture droids, Hailfire droids, crab droids, ETC. Why do the AATs require pilots? This leaves them open to hijacking by enemy humanoids.

[Assistant]
I assume they weren't built specifically for the droid army, but were a standard design built with organic pilots in mind which the Trade Federation just used with droids. Same reason the battle droids used blasters instead of having guns for arms. Using simple droids able to manipulate tech made for organics allowed them to use all the resources that were already available, as well as making the individual droids more modular.

As time went on and the Clone Wars began we see that the Separatists do adopt a more droid centric approach, from super battle droids with built in weapons, to autonomous vehicles like Hailfire droids, but during the pre-war era when they were blockading Naboo they were just using a cobbled together army of what they had on hand.


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

[User]
What was the very first post-Newton experiment that hinted the universe wasn't as it seemed?

I suppose that Special Relativity was the big point where physics took a sharp turn away from Newtonian physics. But what was the very first precursor observation that suggested that the universe wasn't really just a "box containing lumps of mass that attract each other", and didn't behave in a way that common sense would suggest?

To put it succinctly, what was the first "weird" observation?

[Assistant] The Michelson-Morley experiment was important, but there were some earlier hints. The Fizeau experiment of 1851 was what influenced Einstein, more than the MM experiment. Thompson in 1881 noticed that it was  harder to move fast charged objects than slow ones. The orbit of Mercury was realized to be anomalous in 1859. The discovery of x-rays in 1895 is often considered the start of modern physics, because it was one of the first hints that there was way more to be discovered, rather than just fine tuning and precise measurements.


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

[User] [Avatar] Realistically, how long could you survive if a waterbender froze you in ice?

[Assistant]
Without the power of the Avatar State to help you, or a fire/water bender's resistance to extreme temperatures?

Not very long at all. Frozen up to your neck, you'd be suffering frostbite and hypothermia rather swiftly. As your core temperature dropped, so would your heartbeat. Shivering wouldn't help you, as you couldn't move enough to generate any muscle heat. You'd be lucky to escape unharmed if you were thawed after a few minutes.

It would also be hard to breathe, as the ice would prevent the expansion of your chest to gather air.


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

[User] [Terminator 2] How strong is the T1000 in comparison to the T800?

[Assistant]
Roughly equal. It might be able to produce slightly more force, but it has less mass and therefore less leverage. When they wrestled in the mall, it was a fairly even back-and-forth.

The T1000's real advantage is its polymorphic ability. The T800 sustained damage piled upon damage, whereas the T1000 was at full capacity until the liquid nitrogen caused more systemic trauma. Toward the end of their fight, the T800 was a malfunctioning wreck of a combat engine, but the T1000 was still a corvette.


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

[User]
I just found out that while mars has about 1/10th the mass of earth it has 38% of the gravity. This suggests a non-linear relationship between mass and gravity at the surface. What causes this effect? [Physics]

Follow up question: Does this effect mean that the gravity on the surface of planets that are significantly larger than earth would be survivable for humans?

[Assistant]
Gravity is a function of both the mass of the object as well as the distance to it. The force of gravity is proportional to the mass, but falls of with the square of the distance.

In the case of a planet (or spherical body in general), the "distance" refers to the distance to the center of the planet, so for something on the surface this would be the radius of the planet.

If 2 bodies are made of the same materials and therefore have the same density, then the mass scales with the cube of the radius: M ~ r^(3). So gravity scales with the cube of the radius divided by the square of the radius: F ~ r^(3) / r^(2) or F ~ r.

If you'd take the average density of the Earth and made a new planet with half the radius, but the same density, then this mini-Earth would have 1/8th the mass but still half the gravity of Earth. Note that Mars has a radius that's about half of the Earth's radius. The relative figures for Mars' mass and gravity are fairly close to those of our hypothetical mini-Earth. The discrepancies are caused by the fact that Earth has a higher density than Mars.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is cyanide such a deadly poison?

[Assistant]
Poisons are toxic because they interfere with the body's biochemistry.

Cyanide's toxicity is because it interferes with the way energy is used and generated within the cell. It binds permanently to one of the cells' most important enzymes, preventing it from doing its job in using sugars in the cells. Without energy, the cells cannot do their jobs, and will eventually die.


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

[User] ELI5: how does a private prison operate differently from a state or a federally funded prisons?

[Assistant]
Private prisons have an incentive to cut corners in order to pass the savings on to their investors. This often means less experienced, less-well-trained security personnel, worse food, higher prisoner to guard ratios, less ability to accommodate special needs of prisoners, less maintenance, less investment in prisoner reform programs, less ability to investigate and address crimes committed within prison, etc..

Prisons are already a system which encourages dehumanization and the pressures of doing more with less make it even easier to treat prisoners less humanely. This results in greater harm to people serving time, greater risk to those supervising them, and greater risk of ex-prisoners committing new crimes when they leave.


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

[User] ELI5: Hyperreality.

[Assistant]
There once was a king who hired a team of cartographers to undertake the most exhaustive survey anyone had ever created; he wanted the most detailed map of his empire possible. The map he had the cartographers make was so detailed that the map's scale had a ratio of 1 to 1; the map itself spread out over the actual land that it was meant to represent.

Eventually, this empire began to decline, and so did the upkeep of the map that covers the entire empire. As the map rots away, it intertwines with the actual object it was supposed to represent. What is left is neither the object, nor the symbol that represented it, but something entirely else.

This is hyperreality, when the symbol of an object ends up redefining the object itself. Probably the biggest example of a hyperreal space is Las Vegas-- hotels that are themed to represent different environments that end up influencing how we see those environments.


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

[User]
[Groundhog Day] After escaping the time loop, what does Phil Connors life look like?

He made it back to a normal life, but he still possesses unnatural amounts of knowledge about the town and everyone in it, as well as having mastered more skills than a normal person could in their lifetime. Does this make the rest of his life notably different, especially since he expressed desire to remain in Punxsutawney with Rita?

[Assistant]
He now possesses a nearly perfect knowledge of every single person that was in Punxsutawney on Groundhog's day.

He is master of many different skills, such as Piano playing.

He has lived the equivalent of 50-100 years in a single day.

He probably continues to date the girl he was with, and visits the town every year. He, however, has been humbled by the experience. He lives every day like he'll live that day over and over.


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

[User] ELI5: What really happens when people die of "old age" or "natural causes" ?

[Assistant]
what happens is the family and doctors agree it is not worth determining what the actual cause of death was.

actual cause is often heart failure, but frankly could be almost anything that isn't blatantly obvious from an external inspection.

edit: stroke is another common cause. may actually be even more common that heart attack for "old age" deaths, as it can hit suddenly with less obvious symptoms.


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

[User] [Superheroes]What martial arts would be the most practical for a vigilante to learn?

[Assistant]
The killing type of vigilante, or the non-killing type?

For the killing type, enough judo to put people on the ground long enough to shoot them in the chest and head, plus a solid foundation of boxing for footwork, endurance, and to become accustomed to the sensation of hitting and being hit in return.

For the non-killing type, a stick-based martial art like escrima if you're cool with crippling people, or police-style baton work if you'd rather operate via pain compliance. A similar boxing foundation would also be useful.

Also, for both, a shit ton of cardio. On a good day, it'll improve your ability to deliver an ass-whooping at the end of a foot chase. On a bad day, it'll give you a better chance of getting the hell away when things go wrong.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do our eyes click in place when we look around? (ex. looking at a wall and tracing it left and right)

[Assistant]
That's called saccadic masking. When you move your eyes to look around it's less 'real time camera' and more 'individual photos stitched together to make a panorama'. As your eyes move from point A to point B, your brain switches off image processing, making you functionally blind (for up to an hour a day IIRC). Your eyes take a picture of point A, then point B and merges them together, to create the illusion you saw the whole panorama.

Fun fact: you can observe this temporary blindness by looking in a mirror and trying to watch your own eyes move.


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

[User]
Why does an oasis in a desert not just evaporate?

I dont see how it can flourish so damn well.

[Assistant] It does evaporate. Its just that more ground water keeps flowing in to replace it. Bodies of water at the Earths surface can get water from the mantle (via volcanic venting), from rain, from rivers (really mostly rain), and from groundwater. In the desert, water from rain and rivers is minimal. If theres no volcanic vent, then the water for the oasis must be coming from groundwater flow.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do balloons make such a loud noise when they pop?

[Assistant] A balloon is essentially a vessel of compressed air. When the balloon pops, all of the air inside is released instantly and forms a pressure wave as it disperses to return to atmospheric pressure.  You perceive the pressure wave as a loud noise when it strikes your ear drum.


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

[User] How do tree rings form?

[Assistant]
When the Treestump grows, it becomes thicker too. Now because that takes a long time this process has to happen throughout a lot of seasons.
In winter theres less energy for the chemical reaction that is used to grow wood, which leads to a slower growing process, this is where you can see a dark ring on a tree stump.
That is also the reason why counting the rings lets you determine a trees age. It basically lets you count the amount of winters that the tree has grown through! Im sorry i cant go further into the chemical process, but if youre interested there are probably a lot of articles on the internet about wood and treestumps that can explain it better than me :)


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

[User] ELI5: Why are ancient historical ruins (for example Ancient Roman structures) situated dozens of feet below the current "ground level"?

[Assistant] They aren't always, but generally the reason is that before the 19th century we didn't really feel this need to preserve our past, so we built on top of ruins. People would abandon a settlement, then when conditions changed and the area could be repopulated they tended to build a new settlement on the same spot (usually because the original inhabitants chose that spot for a reason, like close to water/food). Multiply this cycle by a few thousand years and there's your answer.


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

[User] ELI5: why does it feel like there is a lump in your throat when you are in the verge of tears?

[Assistant] When you are sad, scared, or stressed out, your body can enter into a "fight or flight" response. Your body is preparing either to throw some punches or run for the hills, and this causes your muscles to tense up. Since your muscles need lots of oxygen to fire, your brain will tell the muscles near your vocal chords to open up and stay open. As you cry, you likely need to swallow more as your nose starts to run. Each time you swallow hard, you are fighting the muscles keeping your throat open and this tension may build into the feeling that there is a "lump" in your throat.


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

[User]
I don't understand "Nuclear Radiation". How does it work and what separates it from other forms of matter/elements in our world that seem to make it so much more dangerous?

I understand that it's 'bad', is most closely related nuclear power plant meltdowns and atomic bombs.  But I don't understand HOW it works.  Are there different types of radiation?  Is the radiation our phones give off the same exact thing, except at a much lower level?

 What is happening to our body when radiation gives us cancer?  Why do we use radiation therapy to cure cancer when it also gives us cancer.

It also seems a property of it is that you can't really stop it - it seems like putting up walls or barriers is not effective unless they are ridiculously thick, and even then it seems like we just do that because we don't really know what else to do and it's better than nothing

Basically just looking for Nuclear Radiation 101 explanation.

[Assistant]
Regular matter is made of atoms. And every atom has a nucleus, made of protons and neutrons. Some nuclei are *unstable*, meaning that they decay. When a nucleus decays, it emits radiation.

There are different kinds of nuclear radiation. Some examples are alpha particles, beta particles, gamma rays, protons, neutrons, conversion electrons, fission fragments, clusters, and more. These are generally *ionizing* radiation, which means that the particles have enough energy to break chemical bonds or knock electrons out of atoms. This is the kind of radiation that can cause cancer. The radiation emitted by a phone or a WiFi router is **not** ionizing.

>What is happening to our body when radiation gives us cancer?

On a very basic level, ionizing radiation damages your DNA. This causes mutations which can lead to cancer.

>Why do we use radiation therapy to cure cancer when it also gives us cancer.

Ionizing radiation can be used to kill cells. If you point your beam of radiation at cancerous cell, it will kill them. We have sophisticated techniques to specifically target the cancerous tissue with beams of radiation. The treatment kills cancerous tissue while delivering a much smaller dose to the surrounding healthy tissue.

>It also seems a property of it is that you can't really stop it - it seems like putting up walls or barriers is not effective unless they are ridiculously thick, and even then it seems like we just do that because we don't really know what else to do and it's better than nothing

You can't stop radioactive nuclei from decaying, but you can certainly shield against radiation. Different types of radiation are easier to stop than others. For example, alpha particles are very easy to stop with a piece of paper, or even just a few inches of air. On the other hand, fast neutrons are much harder to stop.


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

[User]
If light emits a significantly minute force, how much light would it take to crush a human?

Or maybe throw them around.

[Assistant] The main issue is that any light is intense enough to push a human would literally vaporize someone. For a 100 pounds force, you'd need roughly 130 gigawatts focused on someone. A 1-watt laser is enough to cause burns.


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

[User] What does Foucault mean when he says everything is a prison? Does he even say that or is that just a meme?

[Assistant]
Broadly, it's a perspective on power, where power is less directly possessed by people and groups than it is distributed through institutions and their logics of flow. Bodies and statements are organized, shaped and channeled by power, the example of the prison demonstrating how bodies are materially organized into spaces (individual cells, counted and checked, allowed to flow under constrained conditions), with accompanying, collectively-observed expectations for talk and behaviour (defer to the authority of guards, don't talk to each other, etc.). On the meme side of things, the prison example leads people to miss his point here that power is not just oppressive as a result, it's PRODUCTIVE..

Yes, the prison is repressive on the terms of this combination of bodies and statements, but you can analyze a classroom in the same way: materially, bodies are organized in individualized desks, for x number of minutes a week to listen to a lecture, chairs are oriented towards the front of the class. And in terms of talk and behaviour, students usually speak much less than the lecturer, and there's a shared sense that the latter is more authoritative than the former. In other words there's an asymmetry of roles, akin to the prison guard and prisoner.

But in this case students and lecturer each get something out of it, eventual credentialing and knowledge and other things that contribute to driving the productive regimes of a given society. So it's less that "everything is a prison" and more that "every institution has a power diagram that organizes people and things and statements in certain productive ways, and let me use the prison as an obvious (but potentially misleading) example."


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

[User]
Is it possible to construct a trampoline or net that is capable of saving a person from free-falling from 553m (top of CN Tower) ?

If someone were to jump from the top of the CN Tower, is any material durable enough to break the fall at ground level so that the individual could survive?

[Assistant]
Well, let's engineer as if we're falling in vacuum for added safety margins. A fall of that height would take 5.3s leaving the person moving at 52 m/s (116 mph or 187 kph). Now a human can take 10gs or so safely for short periods of time, so we need to slow them down never exceeding 10gs. (Technically humans can survive much higher, 214gs being the record, but keeping it under 10 minimizes the risk of injury, especially as peak g-force may still end up considerably higher) This means the shortest amount of time it can take to slow them down is 0.53s. Now, assuming deceleration of the full 10gs, the person would travel 13.7m while decelerating. So assuming a good springy material/net... the net would need to be able to flex 13.7m, or approximately 3 stories tall.

Bungie cord has a recommended stretch limit of 50%, so a net stretched horizontally. So a net stretched 38.8m horizontally with 13.7m clearance underneath with the jumper aiming for the middle should do the trick. Obviously one would want to add to this a bit for safety margins. Then you just need to tune the thickness of the bungie used based on the weight of the person.


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

[User]
Why has there been a big effect in commercial real estate market one year into the pandemic..with all the closures and work form home situations?

So I find it a bit strange that one year after the start of the shutdowns, the commercial real estate market isnt in deeper trouble.

.I understand many tenant's have longer leases etc.. but if they haven't been paying our went out of business (like many restaurants did) , the lease length is likely irrelevant. ..

I would have assumed financial issues, but looking at popular commercial real estate REITS they seem to be going up with the market.. what gives?

[Assistant]
I work in CRE and can help answer this. A few things:

1) Lending standards are much more strict than they were in 2008, so you are seeing less defaults

2) certain asset classes (mostly hotels and big box retail/malls) have been impacted badly.

3) the effects of the pandemic have been localized. Commercial real estate in Florida is performing much better than in NY. Because Floridas economy has been more resilient due to lighter lockdown policies. You can see this in Texas or Arizona vs the west coast. In short, the covid recession has been more regional level, than it has been nationally. Look at SL Greens stock (New York office REIT), they are down 20+% since pre-covid levels. Now look at MAAs stock (southeast/sunbelt multifamily), they are well above pre-covid levels.


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

[User] ELI5: how are different types of cheese made?

[Assistant] All cheese goes through the same basic process.   A starter bacteria is introduced which consumes the lactose and shits out lactic acid.   The rise in acidity causes the two proteins in milk to separate -- the casein and the whey.  Then rennet is introduced which further solidifies the casein and voila you have your curds.   What you do with those curds next is what will determine what kind of cheese you're making.   Fresh cheeses like cottage cheese and ricotta have nothing done to them.   They're salted and most of the whey is drained.  The little chunks are the curds and the liquid is the whey.   Whether you cook the curds, how fine you cut them, how hard you press them, as well as if you introduce any extra mold after they're pressed all determine what kind of cheese you end up with.   Softer cheese keep more of their moisture and are made from larger curds, where as hard cheeses are drier and are made with smaller curds.   Stinky cheeses usually have special molds added to them after this process.


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

[User]
Is there any language which is truly (or almost completely) gender free?

One for which there is no modification of adjectives for gender (like there is in Romance languages), a single gender pronoun, and no assigning of gender to nouns (not only lacking masculine and feminine nouns, as there are in Romance languages, but also lacking nouns which specify for gender, ie, having a single word for "sibling" instead of "brother" and "sister").

If there is, has there been any speculation as to how this has affected the development of gender and sexuality roles in the society?

[Assistant]
The Uralic languages (which include Finnish, Hungarian, Estonian etc.) have very little gender-related grammar. No gendering of nouns, pronouns or adjectives.

Finnish does have gendered kinship terms: sister/brother, aunt/uncle, mother/father and so on. Additionally, there is a feminine suffix  *-tar/tr* for certain nouns that refer to people: *kuningas* 'king' > *kuningatar* 'queen'; *tarjoilija* 'waiter' > *tarjoilijatar* 'waitress'; *perij* 'heir' > *perijtr* 'heiress'. The suffix is, however, very formal in style and no longer particularly productive. It mostly occurs in existing formations only, and indeed words like *tarjoilijatar* appear quite archaic to most speakers.

That's about it, though.


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

[User]
Why are realistic CGI movies so expensive to produce?

Why do movies like avatar, where it's heavily CGI'ed, cost so much to produce? It's much more expensive than movies that use physical props. Where do the chunk of the budget go into? Animators? Actors?

[Assistant]
As with most things expensive; it's difficult, it takes time and it requires a lot of resources.

For one scene of CGI it might be months of work behind it, with everything from motion capture actors (so you need to do everything you would need to actually film the scene but with even more things needed than normal), scrubbing of the motion capture data, creating all the 3D models, painting or creating textures and mattes, staging it over and over again until it's to everybody's liking, hours of rendering and then painstakingly handcrafted finishing polish to create the last touches.


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

[User] [Harry Potter] Harry used three wands to stun Greyback with a triple spell. If that works, why doesn't everybody use many wands? Were the spells each as strong as a single wand would've produced, or did Harry just split the power of one spell into thirds?

[Assistant]
Harry was 17 at the time, and had never paid much attention in his classes. He had three wands available, so he gave it a try, but the number of wands didn't change anything. One wand or three, a spell is only as powerful as the wizard or witch who is casting it. Otherwise, wandless magic would be impossible.

However, since Harry didn't know that, he likely believed that the spell would be stronger. Any student with an OWL in Charms knows that the more you believe in a spell, the more force of will you exert on your magic, the stronger the spell will be.

So it was not the wands that gave the spell triple power, it was Harry, using triple the power that he would otherwise have used.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why didn't Palpatine just stop zapping?

In both III and IX, Palpatine's own force lightning was being deflected back at him and he didn't stop despite it causing physical harm.

I get that dark side powers are caused byand causestrong emotions so he was probably blinded by his own anger/hate while using lightning, but he was also dying and iirc Sith don't believe in an afterlife. Wouldn't the threat of dying force him to try something else?

[Assistant]
The Dark Side of the Force is a positive feedback loop - powerful emotions fuel it, and it fuels more powerful emotions. The strongest Sith lords are constantly riding the line between being world-shatteringly powerful and being torn apart by that same power.

When a Jedi loses control, their power just stops working(see Luke in the swamp). When a Sith loses control, their power runs wild.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do airlines throwaway single containers of liquids containing 100ml or more of it?

[Assistant] In 2006, a group of Muslim terrorists planned to blow up seven long-haul flights from London to the US and Canada using liquid explosives in 500 mL beverage containers. The plot was intercepted and thwarted by Metropolitan Police. For a short time, passengers were not allowed to bring any liquids on airline flights - in some cases, even in checked baggage - before the 100 mL rule became the global standard.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] in A New Hope, why were the Admirals so dismissive of The Force?

In the scene where the Admirals were discussing what course of action to take after the Death Star plans were stolen, why did they so easily dismiss Darth Vader's statement about the power of The Force? They were so patronising to him by referring to him as a "sorcerer" when there are extensive records of his extraordinary feats using The Force in combat and most of them likely served under Jedi before the formation of the Empire that have also likely engaged in extraordinary feats using The Force. Also, it probably wasn't the first time that they've seen him Force Choke a guy out right in front of them, so you'd think they would know not to piss him off.

[Assistant] Vader did kind of antagonize them. The admirals werent just insulting Vader randomly. Vader outright said that the Death Star, the most powerful weapon in history, which many of them have dedicated their entire careers either to building it or fighting to get a posting on it, is irrelevant compared to Vaders ability to lift rocks and swing a laser sword. Of course theyre going to react badly.


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

[User] ELI5: Are dogs and other domestic animals susceptible to mental illnesses such as things like Down syndrome and Autism?

[Assistant] Neither Down Syndrome or Autism are mental illnesses. Could you clarify what you mean by this question? Do you mean disorders such as Down Syndrome or Autism, or mental illnesses, more along the lines of depression or schizophrenia?


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

[User]
[SCP Foundation] How powerful is the Foundation, exactly?

We see the Foundation effectively going up against nigh-omnipotent entities, hyper-infective diseases and all other manners of extradimensional entities practically daily at this point. Is there anything the Foundation *couldn't* contain?

[Assistant]
The designation "Apollyon" is the designation given to the few anomalies the Foundation have absolutely no power over and can simply do damage control. SCP-2317 for example.

Beyond that they also have unfortunately come across several nasty antimemes that have totally wiped out their antimeme division as its very comprehension will trigger mental deterioration.

Lastly  SCP-2718, otherwise known as [DATA EXPUNGED] is currently uncontsined and currently present in XXX% of subjects.


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

[User] Why does smoke from incense or cigarettes not (usually) set off smoke alarms?

[Assistant]
Fire Alarm / Smoke Detector Manufacturer here.

Household smoke detectors (excluding Heat and CO) fall into two catagories, Ionisation and Photoelectric.

Ionisation smoke detectors (the detectors with the radioactive symbol on their label) are designed to detect sub-micron particals of combustion (different to thick smoke). Examples of sub-micron particles are cooking vapours (released from opening a hot oven, for example), vehicle exhaust, birthday candles, lighters, etc. Basically smoke that is the result of something burning, but you can't see. Ionisation smoke detectors in the house react well to fast, flaming fires (flash flame from a pot of oil on the stove, for example).

Photoelectric detectors simple use an infrared transmitter and receiver in a chamber in the detector. As thicker, visible smoke enters the chamber, it blocks the light and the detector registers this change. When the smoke obscures the light to a certain level, the detector goes into alarm. Photoelectric detectors react well to visible smoke (cigarette, burning meat, smouldering natural fibres, etc).

To answer your question, it's very likely you have an Ionisation type installed, and it is not detecting sub-micron particulate in the air (as cigarette smoke is greater than one mircon and the ionisation detector cannot see it).

Please read this: The majority of household fires are caused by smouldering fires (burnt out motors, rats chewing electrical wires, cigatette left on bed or couch). These fires do not immediately show flame, but smoulder away and generate smoke for minutes (sometimes hours) before flaming. In this case, Ionisation detectors are not effective in providing early warning. Photoelectric detectors are far more suitable for this purpose. Please, when you check your battery next, check it's type. If it is a ionisation detector, please consider purchasing a photoelectric as a replacement.

TL;DR - Ion detectors (ones with radioactive symbol) can't see visible smoke. Photoelectric type detectors (stated on product label) do.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does yellow food coloring look red when it's concentrated?

[Assistant]
A dude named Beer made a law about it. It's called "Beer's Law", oddly enough.

Here's the way it works. Say you have a rainbow and a very special pair of filtering glasses.  Without the glasses, you see every colour in that rainbow. But the glasses make the lower part of the rainbow a little bit hidden more than the upper layers. So with them on, you see lots of the upper part (which is reddish) but not quite all of the lower part (which is bluish)... and yellow's in the middle so it's a tiny tiny bit missing but most of it's there.

Now, put on another pair of those glasses so you look quite dorky with two pairs of glasses on. Now almost all of the blue is gone.. and quite a bit of the yellow's gone too.

Now put on a third pair of glasses so you look super dorky. Blue's pretty much not there, yellow's about all gone... and so you largely see red.

The more layers of dorkiness-causing glasses, the more red shows through and the less yellow does. Well, Beer's Law is kinda like those glasses when it come to the liquid in food colouring. The thicker it is, the more it absorbs yellow light and only shows red light, even though the base colour of the food colouring is yellow when diluted.

In very simple terms, the more layers caused by more concentrated liquid that the light passes through, more and more of the reflected light off of it that you see shifts toward red because all of the blue and almost all of the yellow gets absorbed.

But water that food colouring right down or mix it in icing so there's just a tiny tiny layer of light-reflecting stuff at the front, and the yellow now shines through because it's not really absorbed at all.


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

[User]
Why do higher resolutions require more power?

Stupid Question and this might be more related to hardware: Why are things more intensive when you change the resolution? For example, if you have a 1920x1080 monitor, then your screen is constantly showing 2073600 pixels right (unless there's a letterbox)? I don't get how changing the resolution affects the amount of power the monitor needs (or GPU).

[Assistant]
Because the complexity of basically every single rendering algorithm (2d/3d rasterization/3d Ray traced) is a function of the amount of pixels being drawn. The RGB value of every single pixel needs to be set (and calculated) independently by the GPU. If you want to draw a green triangle, a function has to be run for every single pixel to find out wether or not that pixel is inside the triangle. The more pixels, the more times this function needs to be run.

Note that your GPU calculates hundreds/thousands of pixels simultaneously (and does other calculations by mass parallelisation). Still, it can't calculate all the pixels in parallel. The more pixels, more time the GPU will take to calculate their color values.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] How difficult is it learn to pilot the average space ship?

In real life, I assume piloting any sort of space craft is fairly difficult, considering all the training astronauts having to go through, and how they have entire crews and the assistance of some sort of mission control. And yet in Star Wars, not only are their entire militaries of people capable of piloting, but random smugglers, bounty hunters and particular  capable of ot as well. Is it not that hard? Do they just really downplay how active a role their flight systems take in piloting? Is there some sorta night space driving class I somehow missed?

I would like some sort of clarity on the situation..

[Assistant] Apparently, not only is it easy to pilot one, it's easy to build one by doing odd jobs in the sub levels of Coruscant while trying not to lose your rented shop because your sister is an idiot trying to make a buck.


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

[User]
[W40k] I've been recruited into the Astartes, but I have a terrible secret

I'm a 12-year old warrior living on a feral world and I've just gotten word I've been selected as a recruit in the Space Marines! (I've omitted my planet's name as well as the Space Marine chapter name for privacy) It's a tremendous honor on my world and I'm incredibly excited! I know they say Space Marine training is brutal but I'm not afraid because I'm pretty bad ass for my age: I got my first kill when I only 5 and have been fighting ever since. Even at 12 years old I'm bigger and stronger than my peers and I've lost track of how many full-grown adults I've killed in battle. I think I can pass the training, no problem.

But I have a secret that I've been keeping from everyone, something that no one knows, something that I fear would get prevent me from joining the Astartes...

I'm totally gay.

I never been with another guy, but I'm really freaking gay, I just know it. There's even been a few times I hesitated in a battle because I was admiring the glistening chest and abs of other warriors. Just a few months ago I had a Blood Duel with another big kid over a dispute, and while we were fighting I couldn't help but notice how amazing his eyes were. He almost took my head off before I snapped out of it and remembered I had to impale him with my shaft. (no pun intended)

So my question is: how would the Space Marines react if I told them? In my culture being gay is looked down upon... gays are pretty much considered woman and aren't allowed to become warriors. At best, gays are tolerated if they got a useful skill like blacksmithing but *no one* would fight along side them in battle. What should I do?

[Assistant]
GOOD NEWS, RECRUIT!

By the time the Gene-Seed is done with you, Your sex organs may or may not be completely vestigial, if they don't just fall off! Your sex drive will be sublimated into your combat protocols, and Brotherly devotion is seen as just another virtue to the Astartes!

So long as you don't make things weird during your initiation period, your lusts for man-meat will be subsumed by your joy at the righteous and unending murder of anything remotely heretical or even mildly inconvenient for the followers of the Emperor of Mankind!

just...... avoid Slaaneshi heresies. It's for the best.


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

[User] ELI5:Why is Xenon more soluble than other noble gases?

[Assistant]
Lets say you can fly, you're 100 metres in the air and you're holding a ball. You see a basketball net below. The chances of you shooting the ball and getting it in the net is pretty low.

Now imagine below you, there're 1000 basket ball nets. Now the chances of you getting the ball in one of them is higher.

Terrible analogy. xD

The noble gases have a "full shell". It's hard to dissolve them because there isn't a place to bond with them. Helium has 2 electrons so it's super hard to find a place to bond with it. Xenon has 54 electrons, so the chances of one of the electrons moving out of place and another atom bonding with it is higher.

Over-simplified to the max, but that's the basic concept.


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

[User]
CMV: "'Blazing Saddles' Couldn't be Made Today" is a bunch of hooey

I know this is probably beating a dead horse.

But someone please explain to me how, in a decade where Quentin "Dead Ni\*\*er Storage" Tarantino has made, not one, but two movies featuring openly racist white cowboys as major characters (and is about to come out with a movie featuring the frigging *Manson Family* murders), something as campy and harmless (for this generation) as *Blazing Saddles* would be boycotted.

I just don't get it. Especially considering "SJWs" like me are supposed to be big on critically analyzing the hell out of films, why would anyone be dumb enough to not perceive that a movie features nobody but dumb/evil white racists as the bad guys, and a black guy as the protagonist?

[Assistant]
Both of those Tarantino films feature the openly racist white cowboys getting revenged to shit by legendary black actors. Not to mention, those are views espoused by the characters and comedy in a Tarantino film is a side effect, not the aim.

Blazing Saddles is a comedy movie that uses race to comedic effect throughout. Of course it was written by a multiracial team of comedians/writers. Name one comedian/writer besides maybe Norm MacDonald that would participate in such a project. Name one black comedian at the level of Richard Pryor that would dare write those jokes in today's world.


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

[User] ELI5: How does the Quartz in a clock keep accurate time? It's a dumb rock!

[Assistant] Quartz resonates at very regular frequencies when you pass a small current through it. The watch then monitors that frequency and converts it into hours, minutes, seconds. Since quartz crystals of the same size can always be predicted to resonate at the same amplitude regardless of temperature, this makes for very accurate timekeeping.


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

[User]
[GoW and 40K] Kratos becomes the servant of Khorne, where is he in Khorne's hierarchy?

A champion? Maybe around bloodthirsters levels?

[Assistant] I'd say he'd be a Daemon Prince, seeing as he himself has slain actual gods (including a literal War God). Then again, he's been rather indifferent about using magic, and Khorne isn't a fan of that because sorcery is primarily the domain of that dishonorable mollusk Tzeentch.


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

[User]
What is going on in a banana when it becomes ripe?

I imagine that something is going on chemically to make the fruit sweeter. How does it do so on its own?

[Assistant]
The fruit is starting to decompose as soon as it is disconnected from the plant. Enzymes and microorganisms in the fruit are no longer suppressed by the fruits own enzymatic defense, and start to break down the molecules. The sweet taste comes from long carbohydrate chains, fibre, which is not digestible by humans. From there it breaks into shorter chains of carbohydrates, sugars, that we can digest. The shorter the chain, the sweeter the taste. The same thing goes on with the other components, proteins and fats. The breaking down results in new flavors, as the chemical properties change with the molecules getting smaller. And also the consistency and color changes this way.

Tl;dr, it's the decomposition process going on.


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

[User]
ELI5: How many earth-like planets can aliens see in our solar system using our technology?

For example if Aliens lived on a planet around Alpha Centauri, how much would they be able to tell about our planets?

Would they think the probability of life on earth and mars (and venus) are pretty much the same?

Or would they say that mars is "probably" just a rock and earth has water and atmosphere? How many of our planets could they detect? Pluto <3 ?

Could they detect any of our signals (like radio) and know that there must be life?

Edit: Assuming human-like aliens, no livin gas monsters

Edit: Thank you guys!

[Assistant]
On one hand, they would probably have trouble seeing Earth, since we have several gas giants on the outer edge of our solar system; most Human technologies for detecting planets has to do with gravity's effects, and having large gas giants can obscure the smaller gravity wells of the inner planets.

But, if we were a human-like alien, on an Earth-like planet, with Earth-like technologies looking at Earth's solar system from light-years away, and weren't put off by Jupiter and Saturn, they would see three earth-like planets in the habitable zone: Mars, Earth, and Venus.  There's a slight possibility that their math may be inconclusive and detect a 4th planet just inside Jupiter's orbit or mis-measure Mars' size and orbit, due to the asteroid belt, but the asteroid belt doesn't have much mass (less than the moon) so it might not be an issue.


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

[User]
[Assassin's Creed Odyssey] Why didn't Kassandra kill Hitler?

Yeah, yeah, keeper of the staff.

But the Holocaust killed a shitload of people. Surely that's a reason to come out of hiding? She wouldn't even need to. She's a Grecian murder ninja with a few thousand years of training. She's literally older than Jesus. She can turn invisible! She could have stealthily killed Hitler well before the Bolshevik Assassins killed him. He could have been stopped way sooner, especially since he had an Apple. That's justification right there.

This also applies to that time Abstergo tried to take over the world and the solar flare was going to knock everything out, but I guess she trusted in Desmond even if he was being manipulated by Juno.

Hell, for that matter, what kept her from guiding her lineage as they created the Hidden Ones and became Assassins?

Surely she left Atlantis for more pressing things than to get a new suit, even if she does rock it well.

[Assistant]
Killing Hitler wouldn't have stopped the war, only delayed it. Remember that this universe has the war being an international Templar plot, with Henry Ford being in on it at a high level.

The other thing is that her role isn't to go use the Staff to intervene, it's to *safeguard the Staff* so Layla can take it. With other Pieces of Eden active, it's entirely possible that she knew there was an unacceptably high risk of her losing the Staff should she intervene.


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

[User]
Does every layer of the atmosphere have the same angular velocity as earth's surface?

By going higher in the atmosphere, gravity decreases but how does that effect atmosphere's angular velocity?

[Assistant]
No.  The convective currents cause the atmosphere to circulate, and drive weather patterns.  Angular velocity varies as a result.

Space does not impart significant rotational drag on the atmosphere counter to the rotation of the earth.  The atmosphere doesn't "lose angular velocity" at altitude, if that's what you're getting at.


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

[User]
How are the sine and cosine functions derived?

I understand that for certain angles, using the relationships between the sides of 30-60-90 and 45-45-90 triangles can be used to find the value of sine and cosine.

But what I don't understand is how those functions are found for different angles, like 11 degrees. In practice you use a calculator, but the calculator's answer has to come from somewhere.

[Assistant] There are a few different ways, but one way is to look at the circle. Take a unit circle in the *x*-*y* plane (i.e. the graph of *x*^2 + *y*^2 = 1). Any point point *p* on the circle forms a right triangle: the three sides of the triangle are formed from the line from the origin to *p* (Line R), the perpendicular line from the *x*-axis to *p* (Line X), and the perpendicular line from the *y*-axis to *p* (Line Y). Define  as the angle between the *x*-axis and Line R. Then, define cos() as the length of Line X and define sin() as the length of Line Y. This is one way of defining sine and cosine.


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

[User]
ELI5: what is being discussed in contemporary philosophy?

Is there something like one common problem that a lot of people try to solve?

[Assistant]
A famous modern philosopher is Zizek, who ponders (among many other things) the philosophical and sociological implications of today's economy - especially regarding capitalism.
It could be argued that some of the more famous economists (Hayek, Keynes) are, in a sense, also modern philosophers. They are polymaths; experts on history, finance, mathematics, sociology and economics. Drawing on their extensive knowledge and observing existing patterns of behavior, they conduct thought experiments and try to best determine what forces are shaping how the economy unfolds and why.
Keep in mind also that slightly more recent philosophers (Nietzsche, Heidegger) lived within the last 100 years - their ideas aren't exactly as old as Plato or Atristotle.


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

[User]
[LOTR] How do the orcs in Moria know that a random noise come from adventurers and not from normal stuff you can find in an abandoned mine?

Do they get worked up everytime there is a noise? What activity are they doing while waiting? Tens of thousands of orcs and a few cave troll must make noise from time to time right?

[Assistant]
They didnt know, as such, and yes, they do react like that to any unfamiliar noise.

Do you have any idea how boring it was, hanging out in Moria? Nobody to fight, nothing to eat, no one to steal from - except each other. Its been decades since Balins group dropped by, and since then its been nothing but friendly knife fights in the dark and a steady diet of lava-roast goblin.

Even the faintest possibility of entertainment is worth climbing up from the fell deep for.


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

[User] ELI5:You know when you have to poop really bad and are trying to hold it in and then you get that kind of bubbly feeling in your bowels and don't have to go as bad anymore? What has physically changed that relieved some pressure?

[Assistant] Contraction of bowel into the anal canal is peristaltic meaning it comes in waves. The first anal sphincter is involuntary so when you need to go it relaxes letting poo to the canal. Then you tense your voluntary one. When the peristaltic wave passes you mo longer feel the urge even though the canal itself is full.


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

[User]
What do ambassadors do? Why are countries removing Syria's ambassadors?

So obviously its a reaction to recent horrible events in Syria. But is this anything more than a token gesture or might the action of removing Syria's ambassadors have genuine results.

I don't really know what ambassadors do in the first place to comment on the effectiveness of kicking one of them out.

[Assistant]
1. Ambassadors present in a country means that you have diplomatic relations of some sort with that country and can communicate directly with it via the ambassador. It generally signals a net positive relationship between two countries.

2. The building the ambassador resides in is considered to be sovereign territory of the ambassadors homeland.  So for instance, the german embassy in australia is technically on german soil.  This is why we have dissidents able to flee to an embassy of another country and not immediately get arrested by their own government - to do so would technically be an invasion of sovereign territory.

3. Embassies are used to help facilitate tourism by giving tourists a safe haven should something go wrong either legally or whatever.

4. If you pull your ambassador out of a target country, you are effectively saying that you are so pissed off that you wont even talk.  This is *sometimes* a prelude to war. Removing ambassadors for any reason is considered a very extreme act because it signals the end of all possible diplomatic discussion.

5. It is extremely rare for a country to kick out ambassadors, but it does happen.  Usually because the embassy was housing spies or doing some other action that was harmful to the target country.


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

[User]
Why are there spiral galaxies?

Shouldn't they all be elliptical because objects orbiting closer to the center of the galaxy move faster and pass up the stars on the end of an arm.

[Assistant]
Most galaxies are formed as disks out of massive gas clouds. These gas clouds have some angular momentum (asking why they are endowed with some spin is a whole other question, one that is be happy to answer...). As the gas cools through a process called "atomic line cooling", the gas generally doesn't want to lose that angular momentum, even though it's being sucked in by gravity. As a result the spinning gas cloud ends up getting flatter. This flattening is a bit of a runaway process as it causes more gravitational pull towards the disk compared with towards the center. As the gas cools more and more the galaxy ends up as a rotating disc.

The spiral arms (and sometimes a bar in the middle) form as a second step due to small density perturbations in the disk. The spiral arms are actually a density wave in the disk. Consider a highway with one lane in each direction. Now imagine a slowly moving truck on one lane (our density perturbation). Cars behind it will get stuck as they need to wait to over take it. As a result you get a higher density of cars behind the truck compared with ahead of it. That's basically what a spiral arm is - a build of stars and gas clouds trying to overtake a transient gravitational sink - and also incidentally why you have stars forming in the spiral arm. The increased density compresses galactic gas causing them to spawn stars.


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

[User]
[D&D] How long has Asmodeus ruled the Nine Hells?

Yeah, I know there's many different interpretations of his origin but just saying. Has he been the supreme lord of the Hells since the very beginning? Or was he a relatively young (by devil standards) fiend that climbed the ranks and usurped the previous ruler of Hell?

[Assistant]
Asmodeus is the one who made evil mortal. Before him there were evil beings in the Nine Hells, but they were the castoffs of creation, eldritch and unnamed by the gods in their paradise.

This garbage dump of the universe proved the ideal place for Asmodeus to consolidate his power, as he with the *consent* of the gods created a planar prison for mortal wrongdoers. And there he reshaped them all flesh and soul, the nameless things, the dead mortals, the plane itself.

Eventually, the gods took notice of how Asmodeus had perverted their bargain. They demanded his surrender. And that is when he pointed to the original contract of their deal, the first demonic pact from whom all others followed, and said:

*"Read the fine print."*


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

[User]
[The Matrix] What was the little bug that smith put in Neo?

Near the beginning of the movie, Agent Smith puts a bug in Neo, and it's heavily implied that it is some kind of tracking device at the time (this being before it is revealed what the matrix actually was). Was it a like a "tag" of machine code that could be used to somehow track Neo's position while in the matrix? What about the device used by Morpheus' crew to extract it?

Why would that be necessary though, Neo is hardwired into it using the machine's own infrastructure - you'd think that they could basically do any kind of tracking they want automatically. Certainly in some way more subtle than the bug chip thing.

[Assistant]
It was a program. Within the Matrix every program a program can't just exist as ones and zeroes, in stead it has to manifest in some sort of physical form. It's how the Matrix reads these objects that interact with the actual flow of data that is ordinarily hidden from all the copper tops.

That tracker was essentially spyware, installed into Neo's personal code that connected him to the Agent program.


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

[User]
[General] I have a bit of a ghost problem. I also have a 4 foot long rod of silver. Could I just beat the ghost into leaving my house?

From what I remember Ghosts and other paranormal forces are generally susceptible to silver.

Now I can see this fucker every so often. With his dumb stupid face and constant extra-dimensional horrors that are comparable to lovecraftian deities. But jokes on him, I'm not getting any more mad.

So if I just pick up this silver rod and smack him with it is it going to affect him? Or am I gonna have to get it enchanted too?

[Assistant] Assuming the rod has the same diameter as the American Silver Eagle you're waving around almost thirty pounds of silver with a market value of about $7,500. Besides being a poor choice of weapons it seems like a strange thing to have around the house. Why are you being haunted again?