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

[User]
[Avatar TLA/Legend of Korra] Is it mandatory for all Airbenders to become monks or nuns?

In the Avatar franchise with the exception of the Avatars themselves every Airbender is either a monk or a nun. Is it mandatory for every Airbender to go down this path or can they choose their own profession?

[Assistant]
The Air-nation doesn't distinguish its members by profession in the way you suggest.

Most, if not all, Monks have professional skills which they utilize to the benefit of the monastery. This would include your conventional trades of animal husbandry, farming/plant cultivation, carpentry, stonemasonry, medicine, poetry, etc.

What trades/skills an individual air nomad will master, is considered an aspect of their personal development. Unlike the 'profession' model; An Air nomad is free to practice buffalo-tending for several years, before switching to another skill at the monk's discretion.


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

[User]
Why are digital computers so bad at large integer factoring, but quantum computers are supposed to be way better at it? What makes the difference?

Lots of modern encryption - including the ubiquitous RSA standard - is based on the fact that large integer factors are a bitch for digital computers. Apparently products of large primes are particularly hard. Why is that? And why are quantum computers supposed to be way better at it?

[Assistant]
Integer factorization is not solvable in polynomial time. There are sub-exponential algorithms for that, but they are still very slow. This essentially ensures that the problem will not be solvable by normal computers, as a small increase in the input (the size of numbers to be factored, or of the encryption key length in the case of crypto) will lead to huge changes in the computational resources required.

Quantum computers can do it because there's a known algorithm with a complexity of O(log^3 N), which is sufficiently efficient. This algorithm (known as Shor's algorithm) has a part which relies on the effects of quantum superposition (essentially, the ability to be in many states simultaneously). Quantum superposition allows the algorithm to evaluate a function at all points, simultaneously, and that answer can be obtained with a high probability by applying a quantum Fourier transform. The mathematical details of the quantum part of Shor's algorithm and how exactly that works are well beyond me, but that is the idea of why a quantum computer would be much better at this problem.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why did the Romans and Greeks have the same gods, but with different names?

To clarify: I understand that many religions have the same deities but with different names. I specifically want to know when and why the decision was made to have these God's go under different names, and why people agreed to change them and why the names stuck.

[Assistant] They don't exactly have the same GOD'S. There are many differences, with some GOD'S having no analog from one area to the other. However: there were pre existing Mediterranean cultures that traded ideas, folklore, and religion. This resulted in there being many similarities. Then, the Romans were very interested in Ancient Greek culture. They studied it, and their educators and wise men wrote about it. They took GOD'S with similar qualities, such as the goddess of love, which each culture had, and said they were the same, just different names. So Venus = Aphrodite. But in reality, there were very different traditions and stories pertaining to these deities. Most of which we have lost today, so we can't fully comment on differences. Also, while Romans were interested in Greek gods, they adopted Greek stories as their own. The height of ancient Greek civilization was centuries earlier than the height of Roman civilization. So we are getting information mostly from Rome about Greek stuff. The Greek tales we have mostly pre-date the golden age of Rome.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is there so much footage of nuclear bomb tests, etc. from years ago, but no recent or modern footage now? Has the world stopped testing or is it just now made public?

[Assistant]
Most testing moved underground, literally. Specially constructed facilities that sort of resembled bomb shelters, but in reverse, and deep underground.

The footage from those is sort of a "dark place, really dark, blindlingly bright, camera destroyed".

The tapes you are talking about were cameras spaced out from "nearby" to "far away" where the camera might not be destroyed, or at least the camera could get several seconds to a few minutes of footage before being knocked over.


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

[User]
What is the benefit of using telescopes outside of the visible spectrum?

What information can you gather by observing other celestial bodies in radio/microwave/xray etc. that you couldnt in the visible spectrum?

[Assistant] All normal matter (ie not dark matter or dark energy) emits radiation all across the electromagnetic spectrum, and the visible spectrum is only a tiny part of that! The distribution of intensity across different wavelengths tells us a lot of important things about what we observe, and that information is not limited to visible light. There are also plenty of interesting things that are brightest outside of the visible spectrum, if not totally invisible, for example the cosmic **microwave** background, **x-ray** pulsars, **gamma ray** bursts. Looking at longer wavelengths is also essential for observing the most distant objects, since expansion makes distant galaxies that emit visible light appear redshifted down to the infrared and microwave range. Radio astronomy is also very useful because radio waves are easier to use in interferometry, allowing us to make very high-resolution observations like the recent image of a black hole.


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

[User]
[Terminator] why/how do human melee hits stagger Terminators more than gunshots do?

Not shotguns, but handguns, smgs, assault rifles barely make a Terminator flinch. In Terminator 1, 2, and Salvation, you see humans hit T800s and while they dont do damage, it at least staggers T800s more than bullets do.

In Dark Fate, Dani tackles Rev 9s endoskeleton. Sure, it was weakened, but T800s in the older movies were weakened when they got into fights with people yet they werent weak enough to get tackled by a human. Wtf?

[Assistant]
Guns do damage by piercing organs- if they can't pierce the skin, they're just small bits of metal. A terminator can shrug them off.

A human, however, can push. While they can't hurt the terminator, they can shove it off balance without doing do.

Basically, it's the difference between being stabbed with a sword and hit by a 2 by 4- without armor, the sword will do more damage. With armor, though, the 2 by 4 is more likely knock you on you ass.


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

[User]
[Superman] Lex Luthor's killed Santa Claus! Can Superman fulfill all of Santa's duties, delivering presents all over the world, unseen, in a single night?

No allies allowed.

[Assistant] No. Superman is fast, but to get to every child's house on the planet and leave toys behind completely undetected requires a level of speed that is incomprehensible even to the Kryptonian. It's basically a mass instantaneous teleportation multiple times the speed of light. The only reason Santa can do it is because of his inherent magic, which Superman does not have. The Flash MIGHT be able to do it if he messes with the speed force enough, but it would be a hell of a workout.


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

[User]
Is it theoretically possible to change electromagnetic waves? Ex: Manipulating radio waves into x-ray, or visible light into microwaves, etc.

*edit* A few things to look up.  Thank you for the in depth responses.

[Assistant]
Yes. For example, inverse Compton scattering is used to generate very high energy photons for experiments. You start with some synchrotron radiation (the spectra vary, but something like UV or x-ray), and backscatter it off of a high-energy electron beam. This greatly increases the energy of the photon, up to even hundreds of MeV to GeV.

To go from radio all the way to x-ray would be technically very difficult, but not impossible in principle.


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

[User]
Are there any avian species that havent evolved significantly since the Cretaceous mass extinction event?

I know that the cassowary emerged around 60 M.y.a but do you know of any avian species that go back further, preferably pre Chicxulub?

[Assistant]
All species have been constantly evolving. On the molecular level, which is where most biology happens, there have certainly been plenty of changes.

When people talk about certain species being primitive or "living fossils" and so on, they are just talking about some large-scale similarities. The fact is, species like coelocanths or crocodiles have evolved plenty from their ancestors of millions of years ago--they just *look* pretty similar. Cassowarys may resemble their ancestors of 60mya, but that doesn't mean they haven't undergone 60 million years of evolution, which they have.


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

[User]
Why have some animals evolved to lose their sight?

I was watching BBC's *Madagascar*, and they talked about these fish that lived in dark caves. It's so dark, they do not need eyes, and in fact evolved over time and do not have eyes at all. My question is, why did they lose their eyes? It's not like their bodies can tell they don't need them, and don't make them.. what's the deal?

[Assistant] As others have said, it's a surprisingly simple answer. Since the fish had no need for sight, living in such a dark environment, there was no evolutionary pressure anymore on having good sight, so fish with poorly developed eyes would still survive and breed. Normally this would just make a vestigial organ, one that provides no useful benefit but doesn't negatively impact the organism, so it stays. Eyes, however, are very prone to injury, infection, etcetera. So in this case, evolution would pressure against having eyes, because you can't have an infection on an organ you don't have. Eventually, it would become the genetic norm, and their eyes would disappear altogether, as these fish's eyes have.


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

[User]
[Assassin's Creed] Are the Abstergo employees getting assassin abilities due to the bleeding effect, and if not, why aren't they?

It was a major plot point in the original games (AC1 - AC3) that the animus was giving Desmond the abilities of his ancestors by reenacting their lives. This is how he was able to essentially become a master assassin with decades of experience/training in like a month or two.

However, we aren't following Desmond anymore. The modern day story now follows a nameless/faceless employee as he/she relives the lives of various historical assassins (Edward Kenway, Shay, Arno). Is this person gaining all their abilities? Are the other employees as well? I don't think any of the characters have touched upon this, which is rather strange.

[Assistant] One of the random conversations overheard at the Abstergio Entertainment studio has the employees commenting on this. Not only do they limit the amount of time spent in the Animus (three hours is the safety limit); there's also been progress made toward slowing the Bleeding Effect.


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

[User] ELI5 the Chris Kyle Controversy. (American Sniper)

[Assistant] He gave versions of certain events in a couple of books and interviews that have been refuted by other people present. One includes a story where he claims to have punched out former pro wrestler turned politician Jesse Ventura who later brought a defamation suit against Kyle. The discrepancy between his stories and the versions told by others calls his credibility into question and has sparked a debate.


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

[User] [Rick and Morty] What weird things would go down if you created a Meeseeks who's task was to live forever?

[Assistant]
The most logical conclusion for the meeseeks isn't to kill you. They only tried to kill jerry because doing so would "take all the strokes off his golf game," without actually knowing it would allow them to die.

No, the meeseeks wouldn't kill *you*, they would after some existential panic and ennui determine that the easiest way to live forever would to be to end **the universe**. If they utterly annihilate the totality of existence, collapse the central finite curve- time will end, and by living until the end of it, they will have fulfilled their purpose of living forever.


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

[User] If I put oil between two flat plates, why is it harder to pull them apart? What is this pressure called?

[Assistant]
If the flat plates are very flat and aligned, and it is hard for air to get in between the plates because of the oil, then the pressure holding together the plates is air pressure and is called "suction" or simply "air pressure". Gravity pulls down on Earth's atmosphere, causing the air to push strongly against all objects it can reach. Usually, air pushes on one side of an object equally as strong as on the other side, so that the force from the air cancels out and you don't notice it. But if you get rid of most of the air on one side of an object and block the air from getting back to that side, then there is nothing canceling the air pressure on the other side of the object. As a result, the object feels a net force from the air pressure.

This is operating principle behind suction cups and vacuum cleaners: remove the air on one side, and air on other side pushes the objects. But for this effect to work, you have to keep air from leaking to the one side and balancing out the air on the other side, i.e. you have to maintain suction. For instance, slide a pin between a suction cup and the wall, and you provide a way for air to leak behind the suction cup, and it will fall off. The key is no leaks, which requires an air-tight seal. The oil between the two plates pushes the air away and then provides a seal for air to not leak back in. In trying to pry apart the plates, you are therefore fighting against about 100 km of air sitting on top of the plate. To best way to get the plates apart is to break the suction by wiggling a knife between the plates at one location to help the air leak in.

There are also molecular forces at play pulling the oil and plates together, but these are very weak compared to air pressure.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are pickled cucumbers 'pickles' while all other pickled things are called 'pickled thing'?

[Assistant]
I understand your puzzlement, but actually there *are* widely used names for other pickled items:
Pickled peppers are know as gauchitos or vinniepeps;
Pickled herring sometimes known as rollmops;
Pickled cabbage is sauerkraut;
The pickled relish known as chow-chow;
Pickled beets are inedible dogshit;
Pickled garbanzo beans are lurzjanni;
and others.
And across the world, in non-English speaking countries, are many more pickled foods with distinctive names.


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

[User]
Do you ever feel too dumb for academia?

I started a job recently as a junior researcher at one of the universities in my state. Its a job made for recent undergraduates which helps someone get either into academia or help them decide if they want to pursue a career in research. Im about two months into my job and Im already struggling with how the people in it make me feel. I work directly under a Post Doc with a supervising professor, along with a few other researches scattered here and there.

My biggest issue right now is that with my supervisor (post doc) I always feel like shes looking down on me and shes told me a few times already she needs me to take more initiative and get things done. My problem with that is that there aint always work for me to do everyday and what we need to get done is never laid out, exactly when she wants to do it and when it should get done. Im grasping at straws and Im trying to keep up with all the information they are telling me about the current study we are doing and Im extremely overwhelmed.

I feel like Im 8 again sitting at the adults table not understanding anything they are asking me or what they are talking about.

My biggest question for you guys is that do you feel this way too in academia? That people think youre too dumb to understand everything or that if you dont get what they are telling you right away its not worth their time to explain it.

[Assistant]
I often find people in academia are really bad at providing guidance, sometimes because they're overworked and busy themselves, and expect you to just know things you have really no way of knowing. And partially because research itself is about learning things you don't know, so it's a general culture to expect you to figure it out yourself because that's what everyone is doing as a literal profession. Plus, in a research group there are often people from different levels of education (undergrad to experts) and people from different disciplines, so they couldn't possibly accomodate everyone when it comes to teaching the content, nothing would get done.

You're not dumb, it's just how things function, you should ask other students in the lab as you learn. Trust me everyone feels like fish out of water when they're new to it.


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

[User]
ELI5:Postmodernism

Please explain what postmodernism is, I'm forever seeing this phrase applied to nearly everything and honestly have no idea what it means...

[Assistant]
It's been used a lot in recent history, so some confusion is understandable.

First, plain old modernism was all about reducing things to their simplest, purest forms. Painting isn't about portraying scenes, it's about paint on a canvas, a chair isn't decorative or symbolic, it's should be a chair, as simply as possible, etc.

Postmodernism began as a reaction to that, questioning everything. "What even is a canvas? What even is a chair?" It has typically involved a lot of deconstruction of things, parodying of things, reference to other work and pop culture and such.

A good example is Andy Warhol's famous Campbell's Soup Cans. He took an everyday object, and by changing it's context (painted, in an art gallery), he encouraged people to think about it differently. He took it a step further by making many copies of the painting, making the "art" as mass produced as the supposedly "artless" can.

If all of that sounds a bit like artsy double-speak... well you wouldn't be alone in thinking that, but there are definitely some postmodernists who have done interesting things.


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

[User]
Does using a graphics card create "wear and tear" on the GPU?

Take a graphics card that is run 24/7 for two years as part of a crypto mining operation. Assume that heat is never an issue because it's sufficiently cooled and that its undervolted like most miners do. What kind of "wear and tear" is applied to the GPU and ram chips through constant use?

[Assistant] Yes, especially modern ones, and it is becoming increasingly problematic. Modern transistors aren't very durable, and they degrade over time (they always have, but that degradation has accelerated). You'll find that a stable undervolted card likely won't stay stable at that voltage for long. How long is a matter of manufacturing variation. Could be months, could be years.


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

[User] ELI5: Why did ancient civilizations that have no connection (e.g. Incas and Egypt), all come to find gold to be valuable?

[Assistant] Probably because gold unlike other most other metals does not rust or tarnish and is very malleable. It is also much rarer than other metals available to them. The fact that you can make items which will not tarnish created a demand for it. This demand coupled with the short supply is why gold was valued by many civilizations and continues to be valued today. Short supply, strong demand.


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

[User]
[LOTR] Why does Gandalf visit the shire in the begging of The Fellowship Of The Ring? Is he visiting due to the ring? Or does he stumble upon it by accident?

sorry for the multipart question.

[Assistant]
He's visiting for Bilbo's birthday.

While he knows Bilbo has a magic ring, he doesn't really suspect it of being the One Ring until some time later, and there's actually a multi-year gap (like, 10 or something... it's been awhile) between Bilbo's Birthday and when he confronts Frodo about the Ring.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] What is the canon limitation of the force (if any)?

I consider myself pretty knowledgeable about Star Wars, but I just thought of this. There's such a huge contrast from the movies to the games/comics/books.

I mean, Starkiller pulls a Star Destroyer out of the sky in the Force Unleashed, but in Episode IV it's a HUGE deal that Yoda is able to pull an X-Wing from the swamp. And if Starkiller is SO powerful, why didn't Vader or the Emperor demonstrate some of that power level in the movies?

[Assistant]
Remember, the Emperor was basically minorly mindcontrolling most of the Empire simultaneously, a significant portion of Vader's efforts were dedicated to just keeping himself in fighting form (Shadows of the Empire deals with him trying to heal himself further, and lacking the focus), and Yoda was near death while on Dagoba, and near a strong locus of dark side power.

Theoretically, there *is* no upper limit on what the force can accomplish. Raw power isn't the only application, either - time travel has been accomplished, and the Aang-Tii monks use the force to teleport capital ships through space instead of using conventional hyperdrives. That said, individual force sensitives certainly have limits on what they are personally capable of. Focus, willpower, talent, need...


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

[User]
ELI5: What is the difference between Marxism and socialsim?

Is Marxism the ideological premise for it? Then socialism is the actual economic structure?

[Assistant] Marxism is a sociological principle created by Karl Marx.  Basically, it's the idea that there are two classes, the proletariats and the bourgeois.  In his theories, it is the bourgeois, who own the means of production, who actively exploit workers and reduce their standard of living.  Marx thought that when the proletariats, who greatly outnumber the bourgeois, would awaken a class consciousness and rebel, collectively seizing the means of production and establishing a completely egalitarian society.  Meanwhile, socialism is an economic and political system in which the public owns a great deal of property, especially the means of production, and the government has an active role in the economy.  Modern European democracies like Denmark are good examples of socialist nations.


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

[User]
Using solar power and water from atmospheric moisture to perform electrolysis, could you theoretically generate enough hydrogen to counteract leakage over time in an airship?

So given a ballpark estimate of the mass of those machines, and the requisite volume of hydrogen required to lift that load, and using solar panels on the portions of the surface area of the airship that will be in sunlight, and moisture collectors to gather water from the air, could such an arrangement absorb enough water and electricity each day to generate enough hydrogen to offset the loss that would occur due to natural leakage?

[Assistant]
Napkin calculations...

One panel at 0.2kW can generate 357BTU of hydrogen per hour. Converted to cubic feet that is 1.32cu ft. and in weight is 0.09lbs of lift.

Loss of modern airships is only about 0.5-1% per day. Loss attributed to a panel would be at least 18 lbs of lift.

A 0.20 kW panels weighs about 25 lbs. So, it can not even keep itself in the air let alone the rest of the equipment and the ship.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do people throw up after high intensity and strenuous activity such as cardio?

I know that vomiting is a reaction by the body to rid of what it deems toxic or poisonous, but what is the body trying to rid of during an extreme run?

[Assistant]
It's not really a reaction by the body to get rid of something toxic or poisonous.  During an extreme physical event such as running, your muscles need a huge supply of oxygen, and your body responds by decreasing blood flow to your stomach and intestines and other internal organs, and increasing the blood flow to your heart and muscles.  The decreased blood flow to your stomach means that it is not able to digest food as efficiently, so it may try to get rid of the food by vomiting.

This is why serious long-distance runners will try to keep their energy up with those energy gel packs that are easy to digest, because it's basically just carbohydrates.


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

[User]
How long after the big bang did the heavier elements necessary for life form?

Just musing in relation to the Fermi "where is everybody?" paradox:

My understanding is that it takes several generations of supernovae to generate the various heavier elements that are necessary for life as we know it, and it took 4-5 billion years on this planet to get around to intelligent life. The big bang was 13.7b ago, but for how much of that time has there even been the possibility of planets with the necessary elements?

[Assistant] This is the topic of possibly the most famous scientific paper of all time, "Synthesis of the Elements in Stars"  by Burbidge, Burbidge, Fowler and Hoyle - nicknamed the B2FH paper. Just search around a bit, especially under Fred Hoyle's name.


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

[User]
[Super Heroes] Is there any functional or practical difference between someone who can move/think up to twice as fast and someone who can slow time for everything except for them up to 50%?

The time dilation is not local; it is universal (except the user of the power) and cannot be contained.

[Assistant]
Depends but usually the guy moving fast has secondary abilities like being able to withstand a larger amount of kinetic force and ignore environmental conditions such as friction to move. Additionally they tend to possess better reflexes and in the best cases be bullet timers to process the faster inputs which means they are able to "activate" their speed instinctively at higher speeds and react to danger more easily or always be sped up in which case everything is always slow to them.

Time stoppers usually have as weakness the need to know of a threat to activate their abilities and can thus be sneaked upon or sniped. They also lack secondary abilities and probably interact with the world as anyone would (a speedster may atomize things he touches or pack harder punches while a time stopper doesn't).


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

[User]
[DC/Death Note] can superman be killed with a death note?

can someone just write clark kent or superman and just wait for the heart attack? or what if i write superman dies on a car crash? superman is invulnerable

and if someone writes superman but no clark kent will still kill him?

[Assistant]
It explicitly says that it only works on humans.

Edit:
And assuming it is possible to kill Kryptonians, it can only be reasonably possible death methods, although it can control them out of character, but not give them knowledge they didn't know.

So heart attack would probably work.
Car crash wouldn't.
He could fly into a red star until he dies.
He could also fly into the Batcave and eat some Kryptonite.

Also, here's some other rules that might effect it.

His true name Kal-El.
There can only be four spelling mistakes in that name.
If there's six other notes, this won't work.
You'd need to remember probably both his Clark and Superman faces because they both look different because of Kryptonian face muscle control.


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

[User]
[Armor] Why did mankind engage in a full-scale war against the ants without any kind of research into how the species actually works?

Was it because the ants attacked first and we had to make a show of retaliation?  Every mission just seemed woefully under-prepared with little to no intel.  Banshee did not seem to be our first fight against them.

[Assistant]
The ants attacked Earth first. As for intel, what can they do? All the sensors fail constantly. The sand ash is metallic and constantly blowing and sifting. It's geologically very active and the damn bugs live underground. They have no idea what their society is like. They don't even know if there is a sentient leader or if they are a hive mind. Or they could be something else we can't imagine.

They are truly alien. They can reproduce like a factory line and even choose how they make themselves. They had several which were malformed and were like cheap knockoffs, just so they could ambush a base with normal ones.

They even have the hammer. We never get a good explanation of how it works. Is it biological? They they biomechanical? It's likely. So what can we know before dropping on top of them? All the information they really have is from the Earth invasion and that is a much different scenario.


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

[User]
[General] My only power is flight, how can I be a superhero?

I can't really think of ways to fight crime (other than maybe grabbing and dropping bad guys), but what are some other ways I can help people if I can fly?

[Assistant]
Rescuing people from rivers, cliffs, and tall burning buildings.

To fight you can learn how to use a comically undersized bow.  If you wear nothing but tiny fake wings and a diaper you could call yourself Cupid.


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

[User] [ELI5] Why is it fairly easy for large animating companies to create perfectly photo-realistic terrain and animals, but not humans? What really is the difference?

[Assistant] I believe this has to do with an effect known as "the uncanny valley". See, humans aren't particulsrly more difficult than animals to animate, but we as humans notice slight errors in animated humans fsr better than other things. Thus, what you call a photorealistic animal likely has some distinct differences from an actual film of that animal, but our brain is not keyed to detect that. However, if an animated human has a similar amount of difference, our brain picks up on it much, much easier and we think it looks "off"


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

[User]
[Half-life] How do Black Mesa produce such absurd abouts of toxic waste?

I get that the facility is large, and they have many weird experiments, but how do they produce enough toxic waste to have several rivers of it, constantly flowing? This is truly an absurd amout of toxic liquid, and the fact that its constantly flowing means that there is quite a lot being produced at any given time. Some quick goodling says that even a nuclear reactor only uses around 1000 liters per hour, which, sure is a lot, is not enough to constatly supply a rather large river of the stuff.

[Assistant] They've probably been accumulating the stuff since 1945, and have nowhere else to store it or dispose of it. You'd think that inventing a system for doing so would be a priority, but their "customer" apparently believes otherwise and won't pay for it.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] How do blockads work?

**Blockade**

A good example of one is in the Phantom Menace where the trade federation has a ring of Star destroyers in a ring around Naboo. First off, they're only in a single ring. A ship can literally go in any other direction. Second, even with it just being a ring I don't believe they could feasably block a ship considering the relative size of a star destroyer to a planet and it's orbit. Also, why is the blockade legal?

So far as I know there was no shield around the planet like the one in Rogue One.

[Assistant]
Blockade was illegal, thats why they needed to capture Padme to sign a contract or something.

As to how blockades work, there are established Space Lanes that allow ships to go into Hyperspace without fear of running into something.

I guess there was only one or two ways you could leave Naboo going Hyperspeed without running into an astroids field or something, so they just blockaded those space lanes.


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

[User] [BattleStar Galactica] Would a viable tactic be to ram an oppenent then jump away, using the spacial disruptions as a weapon?

[Assistant]
Maybe, but you know what else is an effective weapon? Good old-fashioned nukes and chemical explosives. FTL drives aren't cheap - pre-attack, most Colonial ships didn't even have one (after the attack, obviously only FTL-capable ships made it into the rag-tag fleet). Making a long sublight journey between colonies was actually a better investment than an FTL drive. More conventional ordinance is simply a better investment:

* You can make more of them, so it's less of a loss when one gets shot down.
* Since you can have more, that increases your chances of making it through an opponent's defenses without a pilot.
* An FTL drive is a massively complicated machine; a chemical or even nuclear explosive isn't. There are fewer points of failure on a conventional weapon.
* Conventional weapons do not require complex onboard computers. Computers are a serious weakness against the Cylons (of course, if we're talking about Cylons using these, that doesn't apply).
* Even a small short-range FTL drive (plus the tylium to fuel it, and the computers for jump calculations) adds a lot of weight. This would make an FTL missile slower and easier to shoot down.

As a last-ditch attack, you could do some damage with this, but you'd be better off just retreating. Ramming would cause additional damage to your ship (not to mention the damage you'd sustain from enemy fighters and cannons getting in close); and if your ship is that badly damaged already, it might not survive the stresses of an FTL jump. If your intention is a kamikaze-style attack, then you might do more damage by ramming and setting off your explosives/igniting your tylium reserves.


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

[User] What exactly is an "itch"?

[Assistant]
An itch is caused when a very small object (such as dust, a small bug, a fiber of clothing or hair) comes into contact with your skin. The small object, which need only be a few microns in length for you to feel it, stimulates a small number of pain receptors on your skin. When only a very small number of pain receptors are stimulated, it causes you to have an itching sensation rather than a pain sensation. If a large number of pain receptors are stimulated, it causes you to feel pain. Itching and pain use the same neural pathway but elicit opposite responses: itching causes you to scratch (to remove the stimulus from your skin) and pain causes you to retract from the stimulus (to escape something dangerous).

Nature has crafted an elegant solution if you think about it. Using the same pathway is efficient, and the best way to get rid of very small objects is to remove them from the skin but if a large number of pain receptors are activated, it is likely that the stimulus is too large to remove quickly, so jerking away from the stimulus is a better response.


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

[User] What's the point in creating new elements? Would anything further in the periodic table be stable?

[Assistant]
The point is to learn more about how atomic nuclei work. Some people are not interested in this, some are. Generally there can be practical applications of synthetic isotopes, like in radiation therapy for cancer, or as catalysts in the nuclear industry, but generally not the superheavy ones.

It is thought that there may be an "island of stability" possibly around element 126, but these would likely still be unstable, just more stable than other 100+ elements.


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

[User]
[DC] I'm sick and tired of all these universe ending events, is there anywhere safe?

It feels like every other week we're under invasion by some magical or cosmic beast, Darkseid or Brainiac, or just generic no named monstrosities.  And thats only including the ones we even *know* about.  Everybody I know lost a few days memory a couple months back and rumors are circulating that the entire planet turned into fish people.  What the actual fuck?  I'm so done with this.  Is there anywhere safe I can move?  I'll even move to another planet if possible.

[Assistant]
Earth 33 might be your best bet. There's no superheroes, no aliens, no crazy tech, and the inhabitants can shape the reality of other Earths.

Earth 33 is our Earth, so if you're looking to escape everything in comics, this is the place to live!


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

[User] Eli5: How and why do some banks offer annual interest on the money in your savings account?

[Assistant] Banks make their money on loans and mortgages. In order to sell those, they need money to actually give out. They do this by incentivizing other people to save their money with them, so they can use some of it for loans. In return, the people whos money they use get a little cut of the profit from those loans in the form of interest on their savings account.


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

[User]
[Marvel/DC] does marvel have a central character that's a multiversal constant like superman?

In Doomsday Clock Dr Manhattan tried to stop superman from existing by going back in time but nothing he could do would prevent it from happening. And its revealed that sups needs to exsist. Is there any person from the marvel universe that needs to exsist and will exsist no matter what changes are made to the universe?

[Assistant] I can't believe no one has mentioned Molecule Man. The plot of Secret Wars was completely reliant on the fact that he exists in each and every universe and each of him are just a fraction of the whole person.


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

[User] [D&D] Which is better to summon in a fight, Demon or Devil? Is one easier to control than the other? Are there situations where one is better to have than the other?

[Assistant]
A devil is easier to control, as long as you know its true name. But finding a devils true name is a monumental task in itself, as it's heavily protected. However, summoning a devil is usually the better idea most of the time, as they are lawful creatures and are more than willing to help you, for the right price. Most devils are open to summoning for this reason though, as it helps to expand their holdings.

Demons, on the other hand, are more base creatures, and are just as apt to kill you or help you or do nothing at all. So you really need to make sure you've got your magical controls in place.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why is Thrawn so befuddled by Imperial politics and nepotism?

During the events of the canon novel *Thrawn*, we see Thrawn himself confused about the politics of the Imperial Navy, including the nepotism and general pettiness shown by many of its officers. One specific example we see is his ship being de-prioritized for repairs after a battle he was involved in.

According to the book, this was done to stop Thrawn from getting back in the field quickly, and thus lessening the chances for him to score another victory and show up the other officers.

Considering Thrawn's genius intellect and his tactical skill, why does he lack the most basic political and common sense in this field? Is the Chiss military free from corruption and nepotism?

[Assistant] The chiss are very different from imperial politics. They still have corruption and issues with favoritism but it's not to the scale of the empire. He sees it as cutting off your nose to spite your face. They chiss wouldn't purposefully weaken themselves just to score points in politics. They're sidelining a useful and proven assets during a war just because they don't like him rather than to improve their combat effectiveness or for strategic reasons.


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

[User] It is seen with certain cave-dwelling species like salamanders, lizards, and even mammals that evolved to have blindness due to the lack of light in the environment. Why do fish on the deep ocean floor still have functioning eyes when their environment has no light to begin with?

[Assistant]
Several things:  first, many large eyed deep sea fish are actually midwater fish. They migrate toward the surface at night to feed and have some dim lighting deep in the ocean during the day, so eyes are still useful for seeing in a way they aren't in pitch darkness.  The really deep abysmal fish sometimes do have tiny eyes.

Second, biolumenescence is common in the ocean and rare in caves.  It's useful to have eyes to see it.

But why is this the case?  The huge difference between the ocean and subterranean habitats is that the ocean is a massive open space while most subterranean habitats are networks of tiny, twisting channels (open caves are rare).  Even in the lightless deep ocean, something making a flash of light can be seen from a long way away through the clear water.  But underground, you can't see through rock so biolumenescese isn't as useful. So few things make it and few have reason to look for it.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is it considered a better financial move to lease a car versus buying it with financing?

[Assistant] IDK who you have been talking to but it is generally not. Leasing a car basically allows you to drive a car you cannot afford for a while. If you are more concerned with your image than sustainable and sensible financial practices, then yes leasing that new BMW may be better than buying it. really though, unless you are able to afford such things (hint: if you can really afford it you are paying cash for it.) then the most reasonable thing is to buy a used car, or a less posh new car. At any rate there are lots of reliable cars out there for less than 10-15k leasing or financing a ridiculous car is a sales pitch that is best not to buy into.


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

[User] ELI5: What's making the big loud noise when they turn on the outdoor lights at Sporting Stadiums?

[Assistant]
Its the mechanical sound of the switch engaging. Dealing with extremely high current involves a larger, more robust contact which must engage quickly and forcefully to avoid arcing.

Its like a much bigger version of your circuit breaker engaging, which makes considerably more noise than a wall switch.

Also, if you go by what you hear in movies, etc. it's probably exaggerated.


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

[User] [Alien Isolstion] Is Ripley pursued a little more...earnestly in then beginning than what seems like most other followers were because she was seen as a threat by the alien?

[Assistant]
Spoiler for mid to late game:

Given the 2nd act reveal that Sevastopol isn't infested with just 1 Alien, but an entire colony, it could be inferred that she wasn't being consistently hunted by a single xenomorph, but was running into several different ones as she traveled all over the station.


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

[User]
[Mass Effect: Andromeda] Should the reapers have caught up?

Reaper tech is supposedly superior to everything the current sentient races in the Milky Way have, and I believe their ships are considerably faster. If it took the protagonists 600 years to get to Andromeda, couldn't a Reaper vessel have caught up with them? And why wouldn't they, if they figured out that some of the life they're programmed to exterminate was trying to slip out the back door?

[Assistant]
That's assuming that A) the Reapers knew about the Andromeda Initiative, and B) that they had any intent to follow it, and C) the ending of ME3 allows for them to do so (which it doesn't).

Reminder that the Initiative launched prior to the Reaper invasion and was a secret that only a handful outside of it knew about.

And on top of that, the Reapers aren't concerned about life in other galaxies, their concern is right there in their home galaxy, the Milky Way.


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

[User] ELI5: If principle photography is done AND a teaser trailer is out, why wont the new Star Wars be in theaters until next December?

[Assistant]
Post Production.  This is when all of the CGI, sound mixing, editing, scoring and much much more is done.

Additionally,  they're  will probably be reshoots. Therefore, the one year gap gives them plenty of cushion time.


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

[User]
[General Fantasy] Can the ghosts/demons haunting a house invite a vampire in?

In case of ghosts lets assume they used to live and died in the house. The house is currently occupied by living humans who consider it their home.

[Assistant]
Considering it their home, does not make it their home. Ownership ends upon death, so ghosts cannot invite a vampire in.

If a demon somehow legally purchases a house, they can then invite a vampire in.


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

[User] ELI5: How does the seatbelt know that it's being pulled fast (crash) and stop extending but still extends when pulled slowly?

[Assistant] true eli5: imagine standing in a very small room. Relax your arms and turn slowly. Your arms will stay close to your body. Now turn fast. Your arms will move away from your body and hit the walls slowing you down.


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

[User]
ELI5:Why do we so easily dismiss reality whilst dreaming?

Dreams are often filled with situations and scenarios well outside of the realm of plausibility, so why do we accept these as being nothing out of the ordinary whilst in the dream-state?

[Assistant] There's a part of your brain, lets call him bob. Bob is a very particular fellow, in fact so particular that when he see something he doesn't like he lets EVERYBODY know. Bob only likes things that fit within his view of reality. So if you're playing a game and a graphics glitch occurs, he lets you know, a robot that almost looks like a person but doesn't quite, he lets you know. But when you are asleep, Bob sleeps with you whereas the rest of the brain doesn't.


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

[User] ELI5: what stops someone from bleeding profusely when a surgeon cuts on them?

[Assistant]
Not everything that carries blood is the same size. A tiny capillary may only bleed a few drops (like when you get a paper cut).

  Surgeons know a lot about your anatomy and where they can and cant cut. They avoid cutting into blood superhighways (arteries and major veins) that would cause major bleeding and kill you.

If they do cut into a blood superhighway they have tools to plug it up like clamps

When they cut into very small capillaries that dont bleed much they have tools which can cauterize the wound or you may stop bleeding on your own.


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

[User] ELI5: So I'm running low of gas for the stove and heater so I turned off the gas to the house til they can get here tomorrow. Do I need to worry about carbon monoxide from those sources?

[Assistant] If you're not burning anything then you shouldn't be worried.  Carbon monoxide forms when there isn't enough oxygen to complete the combustion.  If you're really worried you can always pop open a small window on either end of the house to keep fresh air coming in.


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

[User]
[Halo] How do both sides know how to use the other sides weapons?

You would think that some random marine would have no idea how to use a plasma weapon with it being alien and all. I understand how Spartans know how to use them, they've been trained, but a random marine can use one with no problems? . Likewise, Elites would not only probably not know how to use a human weapon, but if I remember correctly, their code of honor forbids using human weapons, yet in all the times when Elites have been your allies, they can use human weapons just fine. Why is this?

[Assistant]
The games are all set in the last few years of the war (or post-war). When you've been fighting an enemy for two and a half decades, you pick things up.

In games where Elites are allies, they've realized that their whole religion is a scam. The whole code of honour doesn't apply anymore. Their human allies probably showed them how to use them.


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

[User]
[SCP] How much power and authority do the O5 Council members actually have?

Are they heads of state? Could they have super-human abilities?

[Assistant]
it's intentionally unclear.

Certainly, they're *very* powerful. Even in low-power canons, they're heads of a massive global conspiracy with near-unlimited funding, connections everywhere, a private army and supernatural artifacts. Even in those canons where they're mundane humans and the foundation is a relatively normal organisation,they're easily among the most powerful humans on earth.

In terms of supernatural powers. They're almost certainly immortal and skilled at memetics, and can requistion the use of SCP items if needed. In wilder canons, they're anything up to literal gods.

Basically, in a canon, how powerful can a human become? They're that powerful, whether that's pulling th strings of nations or reshaping reality with occult powers.


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

[User] ELI5: How you can figure out what key a song is in.

[Assistant]
Depends on how much information you have. If you just have the audio file, try looking up a chord chart or a lead sheet online, and go from there. If you can't find a chart, you'll have to use your ear to find the chord. The basic rule is whatever chord the song starts on, and ends on is the tonic, and you can use that to figure out the key. For example, if the first chord is an Em7, chances are it is in the key of Em (this rule is quite often broken, depending on the complexity of the arrangement, but it's a good starting point).

If you have the sheet music, then the key signature should be there, and you can easily work it out from that.

Hope this helps.


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

[User]
[Avengers Infinity War] What effect would Iron Man's new armor have if it can be applied on other forms of technology?

After watching Infinity War and seeing Tony Stark's new armor, I was wondering what kind of effect on society and economy would such a tech have if it was on the market. It can obviously fit into a small space and weigh very little since Tony wasn't affected by carrying it around with him, and it can switch into multiple forms near instantly and repair itself by rearranging parts.

Obviously Tony wouldn't sell it as a weapon, and probably would program it so that it can't form a weapon, but the amount of applications seems endless.

[Assistant]
Would be very handy for any job that required a variety of hand tools, like carpenter or mechanic.

Good for safety gear too.  If cars, trains, and airplanes had one of these for every passenger it could greatly reduce injuries and deaths in accidents.


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

[User]
[LOTR] How did the Goblins and the Balrog pass the time in Moria?

Did they work? Play cards? Walk around? Or were they just chillin until something exciting happened?

[Assistant]
Goblins have lives, you know. They hunt, build homes, raise families. They have their own art, their own culture. They're not automatons of evil.

As for Durin's Bane, it was been sleeping for 3000 years before the dwarves woke it up. It had probably been spending time renewing itself, communing with the world, trying to find out current events.


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

[User]
Any way to logically explain how Werewolves can undergo nearly spontaneous metamorphosis?

Werewolves of the Underworld variety or similar. This always bothers me when dealing with Werewolves in fiction. The gain/loss in mass doesn't make sense. Rapid changing of bones, teeth and fur could maybe be possible at the cost of extreme pain if the "materials" were stored somewhere.

[Assistant] Obviously, the sun light, when reflected off the moons full surface, changes in wavelength to induce transformation in the werepeople. The muscles expand by rapid mitosis, also brought onto by a chemical reaction between the moon and the mutated gene in werepeople. The hair comes from the extra protien they store while in their dormant form.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does Alibaba work?

And why is it worth so much money?

[Assistant]
It's sort of like an eBay site except that it's intended to be used by retailers and other companies who are looking to buy products in bulk at wholesale rates.

Lots of suppliers on Alibaba have minimum order commitments (e.g. you must buy at least 50 units at a time). You, of course, get huge bulk discounts by doing this which means that you can make lots of money selling the products individually (if you are a retailer).

Sometimes there are no minimum purchase commitments, but this usually means you won't benefit from any major discounts if you only buy one unit.

But yeah, that's basically the gist of it. It's a site for suppliers to sell products (usually in bulk) to other companies which typically resell the products to customers, or incorporate the purchased items (e.g. electronic parts) into their own products.


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

[User] Xman, how powerful is cyclops in the marvel universe?

[Assistant]
Pretty damn powerful. His eye blasts rank pretty high in terms of raw kinetic damage and they are super fast and accurate to boot. And if he just completely lets loose there isn't much on Earth that can stop them.

In addition Scott himself is a pretty brilliant tactician and a high ranking physical fighter besides. He doesn't have super strength but he's got kung fu chops to make up for it. His only real weaknesses are his physique, which is "merely" peak human (which is peanuts compared to even other X-Men) and his lack of control over his power when his visor or glasses are lost.


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

[User] The big rewrite. You know, that piece of legacy no one wanted to touch.. How did you finally convince management to let you do it?

[Assistant]
You don't. This piece of legacy software has probably lived a while now. It's been tested in battle, bug fixed again and again. Your new shiny replacement will probably have to be battle tested again and bug fixed again, often having defects the old legacy code probably had once in it's lifetime. And then it's gonna be someone else legacy code and the cycle will repeat.

All hope is not lost thought! What you can do is, little by little, everytime you touch that code, just add a few tests here and there. Don't touch the code except what you do need to change and automate tests for that part of the code. What you'll find is that, at a certain point, test coverage will be high enough that this piece of code no one wanted to touch will now be refactorable on a whim. NOW you can refactor it into something good.

This reduced uncertainty by a lot.

For some help and techniques, try Working Effectively with Legacy Code by Michael Feathers. Very informative on the subject.


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

[User]
[Marvel] Can collosus survive a zombie apocalypse?

Because Ive been thinking,since he is metal body wouldnt that mean zombies cant bite him?

[Assistant]
In a non-superhero universe, yes. In the Marvel universe, specifically the Marvel Zombie Universe, no. In Marvel Zombies, superheroes that are bitten retain their powers, they also later eat Galactus and get the power cosmic.

Colossus is turned into a zombie in that universe. It isn't explained how, but of he were somehow forced to revert to his flesh form, he would be infected.


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

[User]
[Spiderman] What's Uncle Ben's job, can they afford that big house in Queens?

Since he died pretty early on, Aunt May doesn't seem to have a job and doesn't Mary Jane have a dead beat dad?

[Assistant] They bought it when prices were much lower. Ben was a military cop, so he probably had retirement money coming in on top of his new job. After he died, Aunt May would have his life insurance payout and Social Security.


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

[User]
Eli5: When people dont wash casserole pots for years to retain the flavour. How do the little particles of food not go bad and make you ill?

Similarly when people dont wash tea pots or Yorkshire pudding trays for the same reason. Im not against it and I know it doesnt make you poorly but how?

[Assistant] The casserole pot is presumably going into the oven every time it's used so it will be cooked at a high enough temperature to kill anything harmful that may still be there after rinsing, A tea kettle is filled with water that is then boiled so it's the same principle.


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

[User] [Rick and Morty] If the Truth Tortoise makes it so that Morty knows everything, then why doesn't he know about Morty's Mindblowers and the fact that Rick was erasing his memories?

[Assistant]
If you truly knew everything, how would you know things you couldn't even conceive of before? Unless something triggered a memory of the knowledge, it would remain buried like a needle in an infinite sized haystack.

After the truth tortoise Morty might have 'known', but he wasn't aware of it even being a thing he could know, so he couldn't recall it and think about it and then remembering, act on that knowledge.


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

[User]
ELI5: What is the best/quickest way to dry clothes, according to science?

My mother and I often have the same argument, in which I argue that the best way to dry clothes is to put them somewhere with good, constant airflow, even if that place is cold. My mother asserts that a warm room with very little airflow would work better.

Which one of us is correct, and why?

[Assistant]
Constant airflow (assuming the air is exchanged with air outside the immediate vicinity of the clothes) will dry clothes faster.

Evaporation isn't really about temperature; it's about pressure.  Specifically, the pressure of the liquid water on the clothes against the pressure of water vapor in the air.  By replacing the humid air around the clothes with dryer air, the water on the clothes will evaporate faster.

Temperature will also have a similar effect, but to a much smaller degrees.  Without air movement, the air immediately around the clothes will become saturated with water vapor that will prevent further evaporation until the air is moved away (or the vapor diffuses naturally through the room).  By circulating the air, you're speeding up the natural diffusion process.


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

[User]
[Star Trek] why didnt Starfleet keep a group of MACOs around?

The MACOs were military personnel and the group was disbanded after the founding of the federation, with a few people getting Starfleet commissions. With the preponderance of military operations that Starfleet engaged in throughout the 22nd, 23rd, and 24th centuries, wouldnt a branch of highly trained and effective Marines be useful to hold in reserve?

Lets face it, the Earth-Romulan war, the first and second Federation-Klingon war, the Logic Extremist campaign, the Battle of Axanar, the Federation-Sheliac conflict, the battle of the Mutara Nebula, the Federation-Cardassian war, the Federation-Tholian conflict, the Federation-Tzenkethi war, the Maquis insurrection, the Dominion war, the Borg conflict, and several more could have been aided by dedicated military personnel.

Starfleet is definitely a group of scientists, explorers, and diplomats, but they engage in hot conflicts enough that a military organization in the Federation might be useful.

[Assistant]
Because Federation has an allergy to anything that is explicitly and solely for military. You see it in their starship designs and commanding offices. All ships come with science labs/recreational areas/daycares and Captains are often explorers, scientist, or diplomats.

Until Sisko realized this kind of thinking is stupid and created the Defiant.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Hyperdrive can make ships go FTL, but how do live hologram transmissions do the same?

when people communicate through holograms, how can the feed be live even though the transmitter and the receiver are sometimes separated by thousand of light years?

[Assistant]
Holograms are transmitted by hyperwave over the HoloNet - a galaxy-wide network of hyperspace-based transceivers and relays.

It transmits through the same hyperspace that the ships travel through but, being information only, is even faster - near instantaneous.


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

[User] Why is sodium such a good preservative?

[Assistant] You mean salt not sodium. Sodium is a very reactive metal. Sodium chloride is salt. In water, it separates into two particles, sodium ion and chloride ion. So two particles for every salt molecule, and so twice as much osmotic "suck", the negative pressure that pulls water out of cells. 58.5 grams of salt is one mole and in water gives two "OSMOLES'. Sugar, another common preservative, weighs 360 g/mole and only gives one particle in water (non-ionic). So, to get the same osmotic pressure it takes more than 12 times as much sugar by weight. Experiments with bacterial cells show that when the osmotic pressure surrounding the cell exceeds 8 osmolar, cell division stops, and thus does bacterial growth. This happens because water is pulled out, making the cell shrink. When it shrinks too much the DNA replication reaction doesn't have room to spin the DNA strand, necesary for chromosome duplication. Add water back, and the gyrase can work again. Cell not dead, just in suspended animation. Salt leaves food tasting salty, sugar leaves food tasting very sweet. Salt cod vs candied ginger, as familiar examples of foods preserved osmotically. Excess salt promotes high blood pressure and excess sugar promotes obesity. No free lunch, ever.


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

[User]
[Highlander] How much of the head must be cut off to be considered a kill?

The question that got me thinking of it: If Nearly Headless Nick from Harry Potter was an immortal, would he still have died from the executioner's axe?

[Assistant] Think of it like the achiles heel.  They are immortal and heal any injuries except those to the neck.  We actually see an immortal with a thick neck scar from a close call centuries ago that never healed.  So yes, Nick would be dead since such a neck injury would definitely kill a human.


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

[User] [40k] Who is the happiest person in the Imperium?

[Assistant]
Gunner Jurgen, provided he's got a pocket full of sandwiches and a hand full of porno slates.

Any Sister of Battle on November 5.

A techpriest discovering a necron tomb.

But, let's be honest here, it's probably fucking Lucius.


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

[User] What would happen if you mixed all the chemical elements in the Ask Science logo?

[Assistant]
- Most of these elements don't react chemically with each other (neon is a noble gas, so it's very hard to make it react with anything), so you'd just have a mixture.

  - The only except might be iodine which may react with arsenic, potassium, Scandium, and possibly cerium to create various iodides. Pretty boring though.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does the inflation rate get reported at 6% while goods such as, my fast food favorites, have gone up 30%?

[Assistant] The inflation rate is an average measured across the entire economy, not an indication that every single thing for sale has increased in price by 6%. For example, if half the goods sold were to stay the same price, but the other half went up 30%, the average inflation is 15%.


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

[User] Does Alzheimer's merely hinder access to memories through destroyed pathways, or does it destroy stored memories, or is it a mix of both?

[Assistant]
The brains of people with severe Alzheimer disease do actually shrink considerably as the disease progresses, with loss of cortical neurons, enlarging ventricles, etc.

Perhaps a neuroscientist can chime in on how neural pathways actually create memories, but since so many neurons are lost in severe disease, its likely many memories are simply destroyed rather than just suppressed (but obviously earlier in the course of the disease, persons can have more lucid days and surprise family members with things youd thought theyd forgotten).

However, there are no lucid days at the end and its more about helping them to feel safe and comfortable.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is building a fence/wall at the U.S. border considered foolish?

I see this every once in a while.  Why is this a bad idea?

-Non US citizen.

[Assistant]
Because the border is fucking HUGE. Seriously the border of the US and Mexico is almost 2,000 miles; for a comparison the entire border of France is ~1800 miles. Also it is just a fence and people can easily jump it like they do now where fences are in place.

And it will cost a shit ton, not only to build but to maintain.


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

[User]
If Earth's magnetic poles migrate, will the aurora migrate with them?

If, for example, the magnetic north pole shifts so it's under Michigan, would the Midwest have aurora the way the Arctic does now?

[Assistant]
Yes - the charged particles from the Sun follow the Earth's magnetic field lines, which will converge wherever the pole is.

(I wonder if there's actually been any work on the position of the aurorae drifting with the pole's slow movement... To Google!)


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

[User]
ELI5: how do movie budgets work?

When a move has a $1bn budget, does that mean the company give that money over to the director and then it is divided up amongst all their costs?

Is this money paid at the start before production? What happens if they are over/under budget and how does this work logistically?

[Assistant]
The director does not deal with money.  That's the producer's job.

The producer works for the company fronting that budget.  They are in charge of making sure the money is spent in the way intended.  The director is the creative force of the film.  So the director goes to the producer and says "we need all this shit to shoot this scene".  The producer determines how much all that will cost.  They do the same scene by scene by scene, and the producer writes a budget and a production schedule.  Then that budget is presented to the producer's boss, the executive producer.

The executive producer looks at the budget and decides if he thinks the movie is worth it.  Then he approves the budget (sometime with changes, e.g. "Do we really need this?" and argues with the director about why X is necessary and if they can get away with using cheaper Z").  The process takes a *long time* and movies can get stuck in "development hell" where the director, producer, and executive producer are just going back and forth forever.

There is not a lump sum transferred to the producer.  Rather, every cost is given to the producer as an invoice, and it is billed receipt by receipt to the executive producer's company.


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

[User]
How do we know that space/ the universe is expanding and not matter "shrinking" in relation to space?

How do we know that the universe is expanding and not matter "shrinking"? I have no physics background so as far I can see the observable effects would be the same: As matter gets smaller/is shrinking, but space is'nt, it would seem like every galaxy is moving away from us. Also there would be no need for dark energy etc ...
This might be a ridiculous question, but I just could not find an answer myself how we know for certain that this isn't the case.

[Assistant] When observing very distant objects, we observe the phenomena of red-shift, where the light waves from the galaxies and quasars have be stretched as a result of the expansion of the universe. Objects which are further away appear to be moving away much faster than objects which are nearer--the red-shift is more stark. If matter were simply shrinking, the effects of red-shift would come solely from the actual movement of distant objects from us. Nearly everything in the universe is moving away from us and some of these objects are "moving" faster than the speed of light, which would be impossible with the shrinking matter theory.


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

[User] ELI5 Why is torque an important aspect in automobiles, how does it relate to horsepower and top speed?

[Assistant]
Taking a different approach to the other explanations here, explaining it LY5:

You know how inside your car engine, petrol/gas is being burned in lots and lots of big explosions each second?

**"Torque"** is how much one of those explosions is worth. If you were holding it in your hand, how much it would hurt; more petrol exploding is more torque.

For an engine with really big cylinders, each explosion is bigger. For an engine with the *same displacement* but more cylinders, each cylinder is smaller, so each explosion is smaller.

**"Horsepower"** is how many of those explosions you can do every second, multiplied by how strong those explosions are. It's like the total effort your car can do over time, as opposed to how much torque it can deliver instantaneously. That's really all there is to it.

As for **top speed**: first you need to understand air resistance. The faster you go, the more air resistance there is. Like when you're walking, you can't really feel the wind. On your bicycle, you can feel the wind as you go really fast. That's air resistance.

Horsepower is what overcomes air resistance; air resistance is happening all the time while you're driving, so horsepower overcomes it because horse power is in "explosions per second" unlike torque which is "one explosion".

There comes a point, as you go faster, where air resistance and horsepower are the same; horsepower is driving forward, and air resistance is pushing backward, and you stop being able to go any faster. That's your top speed.

When you're pulling tree stumps out of the ground, you don't care how long it takes, you care how hard you can pull each time you drive a little. That's why tractors have lots of torque but no horsepower.

EDIT: And some extra thoughts, LY10:

* For the same displacement, more cylinders means each cylinder is smaller. Because they're smaller, they can spin faster [because there's simply less piston weight to move around]. Talking about motorcycles, because there's lots of good case studies:

* Harleys have two big cylinders. They get lots of torque, but very little horsepower. Those big pistons just can't go very fast [say, redline at 6k rpm]. They make slow "burble burble" noises.

* On the other hand, a four cylinder sportbike delivers very little torque, but you can spin the engine super fast because the pistons are pretty small. That's why sportbikes always ride around sounding like they're ripping the engine out of the casing: they just can't deliver much power to the wheels until you spin them up. [eg, an R6 redlines at 17500 RPM; it's spinning at literally three times the speed of a harley engine].


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] ELI5: How does sacrificial protection(i.e. Harry gaining"blood protection" from Lily's sacrifice) work and is it consistent throughout the series?

Okay I've seen people try to explain this but it almost always seems convoluted and makes me think that it's not consistent and people are trying to make excuses for it.

How exactly does this protect Harry? How does this enable him to burn Quirrell? Does he use these powers any other time?

Can someone please give me a simple explanation and tell me if it is consistent? Thanks.

[Assistant]
# How to Grant Love's Protection

1. Be a Wizard.

2. Someone (henceforth called killer) is threatening to kill one or more people you love (henceforth called lovees).

3. The killer gives you the choice to save yourself. Having the choice matters! If you were just going to die anyway, it doesn't count!

4. Choose to die, then get killed by the killer.

# What Exactly Does it Do

1. The killerand only the killercan no longer physically touch the lovees without being destroyed.

2. Spells cast by the killer on the lovees don't work properly. Magical enchantments put on the lovees will be spontaneously dismissed and other spells might bounce off or work at reduced potency.

# Bonus: The Lovees Are Your Blood Relative

1. A third party may cast a special protective charm on the lovees if they are a blood relative of the person who sacrificed him- or herself.

2. This amplifies the original love's protection because blood ties are really important in magic. Even a Killing Curse cast by the killer against the lovees will be fully deflected, with almost little harm to the lovees.

3. To maintain this extra protection, the lovees must live with a shared blood relative. It's ok if most of the time they are somewhere else, but they must spend some time there (e.g., summer break) at least once every year.

4. The killer or any of his or her associates cannot enter the shared blood relative's house.

5. This extra protection is immediately cancelled if either (a) the lovees no longer call the house of the shared blood relative their home OR (b) they reach the age of magical maturity, 17.

6. This special blood protection charm was created by Albus Dumbledore.

# For Dark Wizards: Love's Protection and You

1. There's no counterspell you can use to dispel the protection (whether the base one or the fortified blood relative one).

2. If you happen to lose your body and then recreate it using the blood of one of the lovees, you may affect that lovee as though he or she didn't have the protection.

3. However, even if you use a lovee's blood for resurrection, if that lovee's has the special blood protection, you won't be able to enter the shared blood relative's house.

3. If you use a lovee's blood for resurrection, you might act as a "positive energy Horcrux" for that person, meaning the lovee will not die as long as you live.\*

4. If you use a lovee's blood for resurrection and you have created any number of Horcruxes, your soul can be healed completely if you feel remorse.

---

*^(Further conditions might apply. Please check your destiny is intertwined with the lovee's by word of prophecy and that you're using a legendary wand whose master is the lovee.)


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

[User] [Star Wars] Before Vader betrayed him, how many times was Palpatine's life in genuine danger?

[Assistant] Not many. A handful of times during the Clone Wars, and of course at their conclusion when he fought Mace and Yoda. Maybe once or twice after that. Once he took over as Chancellor and later, Emperor, he really was insulated from any significant danger until he put himself out there to trap enemies.


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

[User]
Do we actually LEARN to walk, or do we ACQUIRE THE ABILITY to walk as our brains continue to develop?

In most(?) species, newborns begin walking right away, so that's clearly not a learned behavior.  I also know that humans are born with a LOT of neurological development still to occur.

So... do human children actually *learn* to walk, or is more accurate to say they start to walk as the necessary neurological wiring matures (i.e.: walking is hardwired, but the wiring isn't complete at birth)?

[Assistant] Humans are born with a walking reflex that serves as the basis for walking behavior. Applying pressure to the bottom of the foot will cause the same leg to extend and the other leg to swing forward. Like many reflexes, this is based on nerves traveling from peripheral sensory receptors through the spinal column and back to muscle effectors.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do cringing memories from the distant past remain so persistent? Do we know what triggers them instead of other memories?

Was just reading in another sub about this, and it seems fairly common for memories of cringing moments of your past to float up to the forefront of your mind when you're trying to get to sleep. They can also trigger an avalanche of similar memories. Why is this? What could be triggering it?

[Assistant]
Your sense of self, and who you perceive yourself to be are extremely important psychologically.

You're probably familiar with cognitive dissonance - when you hold two conflicting ideas in your head.  This is somewhat unpleasant.

I'd suspect that it's your mind still trying to reconcile why you aren't a cringer, despite the fact that you have done a cringe-worthy thing.


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

[User]
[Fallout] Why do Vault Dwellers have regular clothes?

Or for that matter, why do they wear Vault Suits when they have pre-War clothes?

[Assistant] Vault dwellers with pre-War clothes got them from their parents, who in turn got them from their parents and so on back to the Great War, where people brought them with them from outside. Not everyone in the vault still has other clothes after a few centuries of wear and tear, and some of them don't want to wear them anyway. Vault suits were made to be as utilitarian as possible, after all.


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

[User]
[Batman] If Batman had no qualms about killing, who would be six feet under?

We'll say he still has a strong moral compass and doesn't enjoy killing like Punisher, but he isn't hard locked into his "one rule"

[Assistant]
Here's the top ten list of people who would be dead:

1. The Joker.

2. The Joker.

3. The Joker.

4. The Joker.

5. The Joker.

6. The Joker.

7. The Joker.

8. The Joker.

9. The Joker.

10. Joe Chill.


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

[User] ELI5 Why would a policeman not want to wear a body camera?

[Assistant]
I'd make the argument that they're people, and as people, they don't want to deal with the nerves of being monitored constantly for forty hours a week.

Edit: This is NOT saying it's right or wrong, just pointing out that some people would not like to have every word and action recorded. If you work where you ARE recorded, great. That's your choice. Cameras affect people differently, though, and not everyone is going to like being recorded, police officers or whatever.


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

[User]
Is socializing corporate bailouts the new normal?

Can someone please explain to me how this is a thing now?   As soon as there is an economic meltdown, automatically we socialize it and bail companies out.   What ever happened to just letting companies fail and succeed on their own?
Why is this a socialized thing now, ever since 2008?
Anyone else pissed off that we are paying so that corporations can keep on making profits?   If not, please explain it to me.

[Assistant] Corporations are getting loans, not socialized bailouts, the citizens are getting socialized bailouts. And the corporations are getting loans so they can keep making products Americans need and keep employing Americans we need to have jobs so the citizen bailout, which patches the short term problem, is not needed again in the long term.


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

[User] When I lift something is my brain continously sending signals to the muscle to contract or does it send one signal to contract and one to relax?

[Assistant] Continuous signal for continuous muscle work. The signal stops when you will your muscle to relax. The signal itself is in action potentials per second. The neurons firing action potentials on muscle cells telling them to contract can fire more rapidly or slowly, leading to different contractions.


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

[User]
[The Hobbit] Why wasnt there a fight over the ring when Bilbo revealed it to The dwarves after the fight with the spiders

As a refresher, Bilbo and company had just finished fighting back the giant spiders in Mirkwood but during that time Bilbo had to reveal the one ring which he had been keeping secret up till then.

So after the fight the dwarves are all thanking Bilbo for saving them and they of course ask about the ring and Bilbo tells what really happened in the cave with Gollum.

The book never actually says that while Bilbo was talking that he pulled out the ring and showed them but I find it hard to believe that in this scenario Bilbo wouldnt have pulled it out at least to show them. Dwarves in general love gold and jewels. Enchanted rings arent a common thing in a Middle Earth. The dwarves showed genuine interest when they heard about it. All this and of course the ring has a will of its own so I feel it would have made itself purposefuly alluring to the dwarves after they knew that it was in Bilbos pocket and they would have forced him to show them the ring.

So to sum it all up, wtf? maybe the Rings not as powerful as in the LOTR trilogy because Saurons not as powerful at this point?

[Assistant]
Why should there be? The Dwarves of Thorin's company are not such horrible people that they would get into a fight someone who just saved their asses and take something  that does not belong to them.

The Ring can be resisted. Everyone in the Fellowship with the exception of Boromir managed that (including Gimli).


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

[User]
[Stargate] Why does everyone speak English?  Why does Jonas Quinn have an Irish name?

This has really been bugging me lately.  When they first visit Chulak, most people they meet do not speak English; Daniel has to translate.

Teal'c, however, speaks perfect modern English, as does every human and Jaffa they meet from then on.

How is it possible that everyone in the galaxy speaks English?  And even in the Pegasus Galaxy?  How come the Goa'uld and the Wraith speak English, but the Unas do not?

And *even if* I accept that all these people do speak English, how come Jonas Quinn, an alien, is named "Jonas Quinn", both names with clear Earth-based etymology?  Other people from his planet have names like "Noor", "Tomis", "Sevarin", and "Dreylock".

[Assistant] i see you've mistaken the historical re-enactments for the actual events.  In reality the "SG-1 missions" (really a compilation of several teams events dramatized and with certain incriminating or embarrassing incidents glossed over) involved extensive work by translators, often sending at least two or different ones would accompany different teams depending on need.  Most conversations seen on the show were in fact (statistically) originally spoken in gou'uld, which all personnel were trained in due to its extensive use through out this galaxy.


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

[User]
ELI5: Where do my atoms go when I die?

If matter can be neither created nor destroyed, what happens to the atoms that make up my body when I shuffle off? In a year? In billions of years?

[Assistant] They stay right where they are. At an atomic level there is no difference between a living person and a dead one. Soon your body will be consumed by bacteria and animals, and you become food. In a billion years the atoms that made you up will be spread across the world as various new things.


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

[User]
[DnD in General] So... why Adventurers?

Basically, last few weeks some arsehole Werewolves have been terrozing my town. Yesterday some Adventurers came by and by sunset the Town Guard were forking over gold after being shown the exploded corpses of the beasties.

I thought to myself "why is this how things work?"
Basically that. Now I've never had a problem with Adventurers (aside from them being effin weirdos) but I'm just wondering what kinds advantages this system has over others such as upping our security or defense training for commoners.

[Assistant]
Because it's not a common occurrence in a town not already prepared for it. And adventurers are already trained to deal with those types of situations.

If we jump over to Middle Earth as an example: Hobbiton is not prepared to defend against a, well, orc attack, because orc attacks rarely happen there. Whereas Rohan had to deal with orcs and raiders often, so they were equipped for it and didn't need outside help.


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

[User]
How do felines know when they are fighting or just playing around?

Felines normally play with their siblings or "friends" by scratching and biting, how do they know they are not in danger and how do they know they don't need to fight for their lives?

[Assistant]
Veterinarian here. Playing by biting and scratching is something that is learned at an early age, typically before and around 3 months of age. They learned what is called an "inhibited" bite as kittens.

The proposed process is that if another kitten bites too hard, the bitten cat will cry out in pain and stop playing. This bums out the biting cat as he/she no longer has a playmate due to the bite, so the biting cat will learn to bite less firmly, and vice versa for the other cat.

Kittens who are orphaned or not socialized will NOT have this inhibited play behavior and commonly will bite too hard or scratch too much, which is why socialization is one of the most important aspects of raising pets.

Basically both cats learn how to play with each other over time and learn their limits.

Another perspective is that dogs and cats are born with play instincts as practice for real hunting. When dogs play catch or tug of war, they are actually practicing for what they are bred for - retrievers chase and bring back balls because they were bred to retrieve birds, terriers will play and rip up toys because they were bred to hunt small rodents.

To specifically answer your question, how do they know when it is play time and when it is fight time is based on the autonomic nervous system, and how comfortable or fearful the pet is at the time. It's somewhat complicated but if you've heard of "fight or flight" knowing when they are safe is dependent on the context of the environment and situation. If a cat is in a new environment and feeling anxious or scared, most likely there will not be play behaviors, if they are home, their autonomic nervous system down regulates their fear and their play behavior comes out. If another cat is biting too hard and not doing an inhibited bite, they will respond in kind.

tl;dr - The difference between playing and fighting is contextual and to an extent something learned.


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

[User] [Injustice] What, if anything, could someone have done to prevent Superman's fall after he killed the Joker?

[Assistant]
Three things could have stopped Superman.

The first is to keep the Injustice version of Wonder Woman away from him, unlike the Prime Wonder Woman, she has a much clearer bloodthirsty streak ("explained" by her version of Steve Trevor being an actual Nazi) and she knowingly kept some comforting words from Superman, knowing it might have softened him.

The second, Hand over Harley Quinn, maybe not directly to Superman, but to some from of law, Batman kept her hidden, the knowing accomplice to Jokers Genocide of Metropolis, yet, strangely nobody talks about that, her getting some form of justice might have stopped Superman in his tracks, as then both Lois, Jimmy and Metropolis would be avenged.

The Third is much more simple, but a whole fuckton more finger pointy, Batman, Batman shut himself off from Superman for violating a principle Batman has, no killing, even for a scumfuck who just murdered over 11 million people including Supermans best pal, his wife and unborn child. If Batman had came and comforted his supposed closest friend, who had made a rash choice in a moment of utter despair and anger, Superman might have cooled off, but no Bats had to go all broody and crap.


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

[User]
[Dresden Files] I currently run a rather popular motel in Chicago and I want to keep the dark creatures of the night out of my building. How can a magical newbie (and human) like me protect my clients from the things that go bump in the night

I only just learned that vampires, wizards, and demons are real. Can I just put a sign on the doors of my motel rooms that say "No magical beings allowed", or would that not establish enough of a threshold?

What can I do to protect myself and my clients?

[Assistant]
Sorry, a motel will never have a sufficient threshold. Not unless someone takes up residence in one of the rooms for years and years.

Your own room, if you have one, should be fine.

As for protecting your clients, a threshold would not do this.

A vampire doesn't have to walk in the room to kill them if they really want to. They can get a mortal to do it, or just set the place on fire.

Do *not* put up a sign. It's an insult, and it could be worth your life if the wrong creature read it. You'd only be keeping the polite magical folk away.


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

[User]
[Stargate] When did the Ancients die?

In Stargate SG1 they say the Ancients died from a virus and ascended millions of years ago, but in Stargate Atlantis they say the city was abandoned thousands of years ago.
When did they actually die?

[Assistant]
Most of the Ancients did die or ascend millions of years ago after getting hit with an Ori plague.

The Atlanteans fled the Milky Way instead of dying or ascending, and survived as normal sacks of meat and blood for the Asurans and Wraith (respectively) to antagonize.  They eventually lost to the Wraith, and fled back to Earth, thinking that the plague must have finally been solved over the course of a million years.

The few Ancients left who made it back either lived lives with the primitive humans, or finally ascended.


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

[User]
ELI5:What happens in our bodies during the acclimatization process?

Our bodies constantly adapt to handle temperatures in summer/winter, how does that process work? And can the body adapt to extreme cold and extreme heat at the same time?

[Assistant] Cell membranes are made up of different types of fatty acids. Some fatty acids can be packed more than others, therefore affecting their melting point. Think of butter and oils; butters are mainly solid (compact, saturated fats), while oils are mainly liquid (less compact, unsaturated fats). Now our cell membranes must maintain a proper fluidity to function, so they have the ability to change the types of fatty acids over time. When it is cold, the cell membrane is consists of more fatty acids that compact less. Think of how hard butter is when it is cold; now imagine your cell membranes are too hard! When it is hot, less compact fatty acids create a membrane that is too fluid. This would cause an improper shape, so the membrane begins to incorporate the compact fatty acids. So basically, hot > more compact fatty acids; cold> less compact fatty acids.


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

[User] [Star Wars] How did Palpatine sell the Jedi purge, the cessation of war with the CIS, and reconstituting what was basically a federal government into an empire, to the people of the Republic? Did all the people of the Core Worlds just give a collective shrug and get on with their lives?

[Assistant]
The Emperor had an audio recording of Mace Windu and several other Jedi arriving to arrest him, and activating their Lightsabers.   If it hadn't been for Darth Vader they would've murdered him and taken over the senate.

As for the victory in the Clone Wars, it wasn't exactly a hard sell. The entire CIS leadership was sort of... Dead.

In the aftermath, the much beloved leader was voted to become the Emperor. He had the senate backing him. It was only Palpatine's courage and leadership that buoyed the Republic through the war, and the CIS came about precisely because the Republic was worthless. Everyone was glad to see the back of it.


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

[User]
What is the data on medical marijuana messing with REM sleep?

I saw a bunch of studies and assertions that it ruins REM sleep. But I also saw stuff that says it's a miracle for sleep and anxiety and nightmares. These things don't seem to coalesce into one pattern; if it helps with anxiety, then it can't also not let you get real rest, becuase over time you would get worse anxiety from not being able to sleep. Bad sleep=more anxiety. Ditto nightmares, if you can't get real rest, then you get more nightmares.

So what's going on? Is the data conflicting, does it matter who's being studied and why they're taking the drug, does it matter what particular type of thing they're taking, what ingestion method?

[Assistant] I can't answer all of it, but one of the main reasons cannabis is looked at as a possible treatment for things like PTSD/nightmares/night terrors/REM sleep behavior disorders is specifically *because* it inhibits REM sleep - no REM sleep means no nightmares/acting out dreams in real life/etc. It's not that the data is conflicted there, but instead that these studies haven't been looking at cannabis as the solution in the same way you think they are (improving sleep to reduce nightmares) and instead are taking a different route that takes advantage of a normal effect of cannabis (using it to suppress REM sleep and dreaming altogether to reduce nightmares) with the side-effect of somewhat lower-quality sleep.


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

[User] ELI5: What is happening right now with the US govt shutting down?

[Assistant] I can't imagine government shutting down.  In Australia, if supply (spending) is blocked then all parts of government is sacked and the nation goes to an election, including both houses and the Executive.  In the mean-time the government goes into care-taker mode meaning spending continues for a month based on the policies just prior to the government sacking.


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

[User] If I draft behind an 18-wheeler on the freeway to improve my MPG, does Conservation of Energy mean I'm actually making him less efficient (lower MPG)? Why or why not?

[Assistant] You're taking advantage of work already done by the semi. The semi did a lot of work to push the air out of the way. If you weren't there, this work would have gone to waste - but if since you **are** there, you get to take advantage of it.