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

[User]
[The Good Place] Why did the demons care that the humans kept needing to be reset?

I don't really understand why it was a bad thing that the humans kept figuring out it was the bad place if Micheal could just wipe their memories. He successfully tormented the humans for over 300 years. What does it matter that every few months he had to snap his fingers? Surely the reset keeps things fresh and interesting for the demons too; "actors" can be replaced, demons can try out other torture methods and other roles. It doesn't seem to cost time or resources to reset everything. I just don't see a downside to it.

[Assistant] because the torture was being undone. The point of the torture was to continuously torment the humans and drive them to new levels of trauma and pain. By restarting them, they basically undo all that progress to their psyche.


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

[User]
For those who got COVID or had grad students get COVID, how has it affected you or your grad students?

I recently got COVID after avoiding it for nearly two years. Im fortunately able to work from home and have a very accommodating supervisor, but I wonder how it has affected others? Particularly those who have an obligation to be at the university or to interact with students/participants/others in a regular basis?

[Assistant] People have been getting sick before COVID. If you're sick, you usually don't have to work. This is not different for grad students. Your supervisor is not "accommodating" for letting you work from home when sick -- you shouldn't work at all and make sure you recover properly.


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

[User]
ELI5: Explain time signatures in music

I actually understand the "over" number. But in a waltz,

3/4

I don't understand how one derives the 4.

[Assistant] The bottom number indicates the type of notes filling each measure, and the top number represents the type of note the tempo is broken up into. So 3/4 would mean 3 quarter notes per measure, and the conductor would wave his baton 3 times per measure. And 6/8 would represent 6 eighth notes per measure. Also, there is common time, denoted as "C", which represents 4/4. Correct me if im wrong. Hope this helps.


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

[User]
[MCU] [Avengers: Infinity War] How did Dr. Strange surpass the Ancient One in using the Eye of Agamotto

In Dr. Strange, when the Ancient One uses the Eye of Agamotto/Time Stone, she stated that all of her predictions and probabilities led her to the moment before her death, then darkness. In Infinity War, however, Strange uses the Time Stone to peer into 10 Million timelines, in which he saw only one victory. How is it that Strange was able to see that one victory if he was unmade by Thanos' Gauntlet?

[Assistant]
So you answered your own question here.

When the Ancient One used the stone, she was unable to find any solution or reality that did not result in her death. This was likely a result of her avoiding her death hundreds, if not thousands of times that she avoided her death using the stone. Eventually that usage put her into a position where she was unable to avoid dying. This is why no matter where she looked, she could only see up until her death, she couldn't find any reality in which she didn't die.

Dr. Strange does the same thing as she did, he looks at the future and see's the what he can see after that point. In the version where they win, he can still see past the point of his "death" because he is alive after that point. In all of the other versions, he probably couldn't see anything after the point of his death, but in this one single instance he could see events that happened after wards (because he was alive again).


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are "simple fix" patches for games always something like 30 megabytes?

Shouldn't they be very few, due to them not adding anything?

[Assistant] Fixing one line of code may require recompiling a large portion of object files. These object files in turn get linked together into a binary executable. The executable is what is shipped instead of object files or precompiled code.


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

[User]
Why did Milton Friedman think income/wealth inequality was bad? Something with the utility function?

I heard in a secondary source (a YouTube lecture) about Milton Friedman's argument against income or wealth inequality.  It went something like: the more inequality exists, the lower the aggregate is of utility curves... or something like that, I didn't really follow.  I searched for what Fredman wrote but didn't find anything about utility.  Does anyone remember this argument I am referring to?  Thanks and sorry for the lack of sources.

[Assistant]
It's a pretty basic argument. People have diminishing marginal utility for stuff. Someone with $100 to his name benefits more from having $1 more than someone with $1 million to his name. If you were to draw this as a curve, it would basically look logarithmic.

This means that for a fixed amount of things in an economy, the most efficient way of allocating resources is for everyone to have roughly the same amount of things. This assumes that people all have the same utility function - which is a pretty normal assumption in economics.


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

[User]
[Community] How was a zombie-creating biological weapon able to make it to a store where the Dean could purchase it? How was the weapon meant to work?

Presumably, such a thing should be in a secure location. How was it able to make it to an army surplus store where the Dean, mistaking it for taco meat, could purchase it?

Also, what was the army intending to do with the stuff? Feed it to terrorists and hope that they mistook it for taco meat like the Dean did?

[Assistant]
Common shipping error, happens all the time.

And your calling a zombie taco rediculous for the US government? We tried making literal bat bombs and cat spies, we spent billions!!! A zombie virus in a taco is far from the dumbest idea we came up with. And who doesn't love tacos?


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

[User] [Avengers] Would Thanos have been able to do anything if Thor just placed Mjolnir on him when he was down?

[Assistant] Without the gauntlet, Thanos would not be able to lift Mjolnir. However, he might be able to do something like moving the ground away from him and sliding out from underneath before Mjolnir falls back down.


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

[User] ELI5: Why did so many cavalries use curved swords (sabers, scimitars, etc)? What advantage do they give?

[Assistant]
A generic straight sword is good at both stabbing and slashing, can be used two handed for extra power, and can be used against opponents on either side of you.

On a horse, you are basically just slashing, one handed, to one side.  A curved sword is better at slashing, at the expense of stabbing and being useful in both directions, but those are less important on a horse.


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

[User] ELI5 Why does our hair turn grey as we get older?

[Assistant] Hair gets it's color from a pigment produced in the hair follicle. When the cells that produce that pigment stop working, hair grows as grey. The older you get, the more likely those cells are to stop working.


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

[User]
Theoretically would you be able to separate the carbon from CO2 and create a solid chunk "recycling" it?

I was in my shower the other morning just thinking about stuff that we had been talking about in my chem class when i got thinking, if you were able to separate O2 from the Carbon Dioxide molecule would you be able to gather enough of the carbon the create a solid chunk? Because if that were the case you would basically have a clean renewable source of energy since the O2 would be released back into the atmosphere and we would be able to use the carbon for energy once again.

[Assistant]
You can certainly separate CO2 to make C and O2. This process requires an input of energy, since CO2 is chemically a lower energy state then separate C and O2. If you were to combust the C and O2 together again, you would release an amount of heat energy equal to what you put in to separate them. This is essentially a closed chemical cycle, like a battery. You put energy in, you get energy out.

The reason we are able to take advantage of burning Hydrocarbons is because plants convert solar energy into chemical energy by building complex sugar molecules, combining C and H. When we burn Hydrocarbons, we are releasing that stored chemical energy, with the products being low energy state molecules like H2O and CO2. Those products are then converted back into Hydrocarbons by plants using solar energy, and the cycle continues.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why did Palpatine rescue Vader on Mustafar?

I suppose the greater question I'm asking is why did Palpatine feel the need to continue the Sith tradition of keeping an apprentice after toppling the Republic? He knows first hand that people become the Sith Master by overthrowing their master, and he was someone that had overthrown the Republic, implanted himself as the ruler, and more than any other sith master, had the intention and means of living and ruling forever, why would he keep the one tradition most likely to spell his doom? I understand that the idea behind the master and apprentice scheme was because it was usually those two against the entire galaxy, and Palpatine used that principle effectively with Maul, Tyranus, and Vader until the fight on Mustafar, but after that he would presumably have no need of an apprentice after that, and little would have changed. I suppose maybe Palpatine wouldn't want to have to run the Inquisition himself, but that is the biggest change I can see.

Especially considering that Vader getting critically wounded on Mustafar granted a unique opportunity to Palpatine. If there was ever a Force user that could overpower Palpatine, it was Anakin, which is why Palpatine sought to turn him. With Anakin being critically wounded however, Palpatine could have just left him to die and rid himself of the one person in the galaxy that could ever threaten him.

[Assistant]
He wanted Vader because he was useful. The rule of two is that there is a Master with the power and an apprentice to desire it.

While it is true that Palpatine has mixed feelings about this across continuties as he does not desire to truly be overthrown, this does not mean he does not recognize how useful it is to have an underlying

The damage done to Anakin on Mustafar was a blessing in disguise because he lost a lot of midichlorians and as such his connection to the force was diminished. He may've had a chance of surpassing Sidious originally but with the chance brought down, he now had a perfect pawn. Who had nothing left in the galaxy but him.

On top of that, at least in Legends lore he made Vader's suit vulnerable to Sith lightning so he could never truly face him and on top of that he also intentionally didn't teach him everything. Which he is probably doing in canon. You don't teach them everything so they cannot surpass you. Sidious is still a Sith, so he is arrogant. But even with that arrogance he actually has a solid system for keeping Vader in check. And for the most part it did work.

And this is to say nothing of his clone plans or how apparently Sith possess the body of their successors. So even if Vader did kill him, he would just become him and truly carry on the way of the Sith.


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

[User]
[Fallout 4] Well, how did "Mister Bear" get on the floor during the pre-war opening?

Nate, Nora, and Shaun were presumably the only people in the house overnight and only just woke up that morning before the bombs fell. So how did the stuffed bear fall right on top of the little carpet/mat in Shaun's room?

Playing as either Nate or Nora, they are both equally shocked to find "Mister Bear" fallen on the floor with the following shared dialogue: "How did *you* get on the floor, Mister Bear?".

Was it Shaun? Obviously not, he's just a baby and wouldn't have anything close to the leverage or strength required to throw a stuffed bear out of his cot.

Was it Codsworth? I doubt it, he doesn't seem like a clumsy robot and even if he did knock the bear off a cupboard or even out of the cot, I'm sure he'd pick it right back up, clean it and put it back where it was originally sitting. He is a Mr Handy model robot after all.

Here's where it gets a little.. interesting. During the post-war majority bulk of the game, keen-eyed wanderers will spot little "situations" and "scenarios" featuring stuffed teddy bears in complex positions, such as sitting on a toilet reading a newspaper, or threatening some pre-war person with a knife (as implied by the skeletal remains). So, are we dealing with sentient stuffed teddy bears here? Are they malicious like Chucky from the Child's Play films? Are they like the toys from Toy Story? Why did they seemingly stop moving completely post-war? Magic? Technology? Maybe a RobCo or Vault Tec experiment gone wrong?

What are your ideas?

[Assistant]
People like to fuck around. People put bears in funny positions to cope with the nuclear holocaust outside. It's thr little things.

As for Shaun's bear your spouse did it on accident or is messing with you.


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

[User]
[Back to the Future] How does the Delorean actually work?

The basics are always covered, but the actual mechanics of the time machine and, the Time Train?

[Assistant]
The Delorean Time machine is operated from inside the vehicle, typically from the drivers seat. It has three very simple display screens, equivalent to what one used to find in digital watches or clock radios. One screen gives the destination time and date in red, the present time and date in green, and last departure date and time in yellow. These must be set to the desired points. The machine must then be accelerated up until 88 miles per hour, only getting it up to that speed activates the flux capacitor. Past that little is known, Doc Brown built the thing singlehandedly in his own private workshop, he seemed to assume nobody would understand the underlying physics and did not elaborate on what that may be.

The Delorean simply stays in real time a few seconds after the flux capacitor kicks in, is surrounded by an electrical current much like a tesla coil, and disappears into whatever time it is going to. Only Doc Brown understands how it works at any more detailed level than that, and he never told anyone anything else.


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

[User]
Dumb question: What is so special about normal distribution ?

We care about error being normally distributed, For a variety of purposes we prefer normally distributed data. Why is it so ? Is it because at higher count of data values, the distribution slowly resembles normal distribution in nature (law of large numbers) ? If that's the case then is it safe to assume that other distributions are only prevalent in data with sample size less than 30 ?

[Assistant]
The normal distribution has lots of nice properties that not only make certain calculations easy, but makes them possible in the first place.

For example: you mention errors being normally distributed. With this assumption, we can formulate things like linear regression with all of its useful properties.

> at higher count of data values, the distribution slowly resembles normal distribution in nature

This is false. If the underlying distribution is not normal, then taking more samples from that distribution will not suddenly make it look normal. It will still resemble the underlying distribution.

You are confusing data with the Central Limit Theorem, which says that certain *calculations* of data begin to resemble a normal distribution as you feed more data into those calculations (for example, the mean or sum of a dataset).

Often times, people are only interested in the mean or sum of a dataset, so they invoke the CLT - which is where you're seeing references to normality. Note that, in reality, people usually care about a lot more than just the mean/sum, but they don't know how to test for anything else, or are unaware of the limitations/dangers of only looking at the mean/sum.

> is it safe to assume that other distributions are only prevalent in data with sample size less than 30 ?

No.


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

[User] ELI5: How does apps like whatsapp get profit, even when they don't have advertisment?

[Assistant]
**$1 at a time**

In some countries the app costs $1 to download, in others the first year is free and every subsequent year will cost the user $1. And with roughly 700M active users this results in $700M of annual revenue.

However, WhatsApp has been criticized before for not effectively monetizing their app. Other messaging apps like the Chinese WeChat or the Korean KakaoTalk have ads and make more revenue per user than WhatsApp does.

However this might just be a smart strategic move from WhatsApp to expand first and to gain a customer base as big as possible. Afterwards they'll have a much larger crowd to reach out to and it is easier for them to make more money should they change their policies.

Another fun fact: The giant WhatsApp has only **55 employees**.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do all vitamin supplements say that their claimed benefits aren't verified. Do we really not have any confirmation of what vitamins do?

[Assistant]
We have confirmation of what vitamins do.

What vitamins do and what vitamin supplement sellers want you to believe they do, however, are two entirely different things.

Stops your teeth from falling out? That's something vitamins do.

Treats the common cold? That's not something vitamins do.

For people who's teeth aren't falling out as it is, the second one sells better.


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

[User] ELI5: How come that we can live without food for days, but get hungry within a few hours?

[Assistant] Survival is not thriving. Like you can survive on barely enough food for years, proper nutrition means you can maintain a healthy weight, expend energy on non essential things like exploration and procreation, when you have sufficient food your tribe is more likely to expand. So rather than wait till finding food is a matter of life or death, hunger reminds us to eat frequently, which means in times of plenty we are over nourished for the famine when there isn't as much to eat.


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

[User]
[Alien:Covenant] [no spoilers] What was the plans/deal with the Embryos on the colony ship.

The ship contained like two thousand colonists but also a thousand "second generation" colonists that were frozen embryos. But who's Embryos? Are they pre-fertilized members of the crews children screened for imperfections to be re-impregnated into their respective mothers? Are they other peoples kids to add genetic diversity to the founding population and lessen inbreeding?

If this is not the right place to ask this question please tell me somewhere else to ask.

[Assistant] Most likely other people's. AFAIK, the number of people needed to avoide inbreeding problems is around ~120, if you do the math right. But a few thousand allows for people to have a meaningful degree of actual choice in their partners.


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

[User]
[MCU] Can Steve Rogers use time travel incorrectly to become young again?

If you remember, in Endgame, when they were first trying to send Scott Lang back in time, he came back as a baby, an old man, etc. is this something that they could use to make Steve Rogers young again in case Chris Evans wanted to come back at some point?

[Assistant] Yes! That was such a neat accident, especially considering how it happened twice and Scott survived both times. This must be reproducable. It is canonically possible through science to change your age in the MCU. But the machine is destroyed and Bruce got a lecture on screen from the Ancient One about time tampering. If the age machine angle gets explored any further it won't be the good guys rebuilding it.


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

[User] ELI5: Why don't prisons actually try to make people better?

[Assistant]
Because fixing people is *haaaaaard* and really expensive.  And it's incredibly difficult to convince middle-class folks that spending metric fucktons of money on a bunch of low-life criminals benefits them.

Seriously, just look at how many people bitch and complain about prisoners having access to television and playing cards.  A huge chunk of the population believes that Prison isn't for rehabilitation and redemption, but punishment and vengeance.  And asking them to fork over more tax dollars to better prisons (especially when you watch various documentaries and television shows of varying levels of exploration that show prisoners assaulting guards and destroying prison property - things tax dollars paid for) is going to result in the politician asking for it not winning the next election.


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

[User] If I were floating 100 yards away from the Voyager 1 at its current location, would there be enough light for me to see it?

[Assistant]
I think the answer is yes.

Consider your ability to see things at night with a full moon out--it's possible to read the big print on a newspaper and you can see objects around you quite clearly.

Now consider the Sun is about 400,000 times the brightness of the full moon here on Earth at one AU.  Voyager 1 is now about 120 AUs away from the Sun, which means the Sun is about 1/14400 the brightness it is here on Earth (inverse square law), which is still 28 times the brightness of the full moon (400,000/14400  = 28).

If you were 100 yards away from Voyager 1 while being illuminated by an object 28 times as bright as the full moon, I'd say you could probably pick it out pretty easily.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do they need "elite squads of firefighters" to go into these dangerous areas on foot? Why can't they use a plane or a helicopter?

[Assistant]
On foot is the safest way to traverse a fire and get to where you need to be.

Parachuting in is a terrible and extremely deadly option. ONce you get near enough to the fires, parachutes can catch fire and the firefighters fall to their deaths, so Planes are out.

Helecopters, while reliable at a distance, cannot hover well in the torrent of winds whipped by a huge fire, and will loose control on entry, and trying to lower people down with a rope is also case to be made for the winds whipping people back and forth or the rope catching fire. The argument could also be made that the climbing winch is metal cable, but still, the safety of rapelling down to a fire zone is too great a risk.

Generally, going in on foot allows them to clear an escape path, and a known trajectory. The other terrible thing about a helicopter is that while it may be able to execute a well planned drop off.... a pick up maybe not so much. Visibility, wind shear and other factors prevent people from being seen in a fire, and give way to the possibility that even with a well planned out escape route, things will go the fuck wrong.


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

[User]
ELI5: How can dry lubricants like graphite work better than liquids? Wouldn't they just cause more friction or wear?

Wikipedia article on the subject was a little too technical, getting into layered molecular structure and non-lamellar structures and such. Hoping this sub can make sense of it.

[Assistant]
Powdered graphite is essentially sand made of graphite.  You wouldn't use sand as a lubricant, so what gives?

Sand is made of silicon in a very stable crystal configuration.  Graphite is carbon in a layered, unstable configuration.  Putting diamond powder into a mechanism would be worse than sand, so it's not the carbon.

Graphite is softer than almost any metal,  Even paper can abrade it, that's how pencils work.  Graphite powder works by forcing graphite into all the little cracks and flaws in the metal surface.  The graphite is so soft that it wears until the surfaces match exactly, and can slide freely.


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

[User]
How are protons and neutrons arranged within the nucleus?

Are there different lattices as with atoms?

Is there only a single stable configuration?

How do additional neutrons (isotopes) affect the arrangement?

[Assistant] Nucleons in a nucleus have a shell structure similar to that of electrons in an atom. For a given nuclide, there is at most one stable state, which is the ground state. Any excited state can decay to the ground state, and often the ground state can decay to a different nuclide.


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

[User]
CMV: The argument "either it's all ok, or none of it's ok" is a bad argument.

I see this argument a lot when it comes to making off-color jokes. Someone will say:

\>You shouldn't joke about x.

And the next person will reply

\>Look, either all jokes are ok, or none of them are ok.

While I agree with the sentiment that we should be able to joke about anything, I think this common argument is very flawed. Let's take the logic to the extreme.

\>Murder is terrible, but self-defense is ok.

\>Look, either all killing is ok, or none of it is ok.

or

\>Rape is inexcusable.

\>Look, either all sex is ok, or none of it is ok.

or

\>Pedophilia is horrid

\>Look, either all love is ok, or none of it is ok.

Et cetera. Basically, this argument tries to create a situation where there's only two options. It's either a) all ok or b) not ok. But for most issues, this is not the case.

[Assistant]
"It's all okay or none of it is okay" can work in scenarios when trying to expose hypocricy.

A simple example is in a classroom, one child brings ina bag of candy. They are the teachers favourite, and it doesn't cause them to become hyperactive when they sneak a piece from their desk from time to time. Well, the other children see this and ask if they can bring in candy too. Of course, these children are not ot as well behaved, and it would cause a disturbance if they were allowed candy.
It isn't fair that one child is allowed candy while none of the others are. There should be a clear cut rule with no exceptions, or else no rule at all.


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

[User]
Say that atoms found in the island of stability were found to be really stable. What could we potentially use them for?

There is something called the island of stability which dictates that it may exist heavy elements that are stable. If we create such elements and their half-time is on the order of years. What could we use this new material for?

[Assistant]
Some things that we need heavy materials for could be improved if we had *heavier* materials. For instance, shielding against gamma radiation. You want something with a high Z so that it's got a lot of electrons which can leech energy from a gamma ray via the photoelectric effect and Compton scattering.

Superheavy elements will have higher Z than anything else currently on the periodic table.

They could also have some very cool chemical properties, because at such high Z, the atomic electrons have to fill higher and higher orbitals. This means that have larger and larger single-particle energy levels, and relativistic effects start to become important. This can actually change the behavior of macroscopic amounts of that material. The band structure can be completely changed by relativistic effects. You could have materials which you'd naively expect to be metals based on their location on the periodic table, which actually behave like semiconductors. Of course this is all theoretical, since we're talking about elements which might not have been produced at all, let alone in macroscopic quantities.

But anyway, there are lots of reasons why we need to pursue this avenue of research and understand the extreme limits of nuclear and atomic physics.


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

[User]
[Iron Man 2] How did Tony get cured of the palladium poisoning?

Starting off yes he got a new core for the arc reactor which stopped further palladium poisoning and prevented his condition from getting worse.

What I'm asking is how he got rid of the rest of the palladium in his bloodstream? Its still extremely toxic and as far as I remember there wasn't anything shown to purge it from his system?

[Assistant] His natural processes would purge it from his system. It'd get cleared out of his blood via the liver, through the kidneys, and then peed out, same as any other metal. It was the continuous infiltration of *new* palladium coming from the reactor cores that was putting him in a bad state, keeping his overall levels too high for health and wellness.


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

[User] [The Santa Clause movies] What happened to the last Mrs Clause after the last Santa fell off the roof?

[Assistant]
It is explained in the series "The Santa Clauses".

>!The current Mrs Claus is the first. Before Scott became Santa previous Santas were etheral beings like the elves, coming into existence as a physical manifestation of Christmas spirit. The previous Santa decided a human Santa would better be able to handle declining Christmas spirit and created the Santa Clause as a way to guide a human Santa to becoming Santa, getting married, and having children born in the North Pole so they would be naturally born with magic themselves.!<


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are more common batteries non-rechargeable? What about them makes them more popular then rechargeable batteries?

From my limited understanding of electronics, the simplest forms of batteries (including the ones you can make in your second grade physics kit from penny's and cloth) are meant to be changed and discharged. What makes common disposable batteries different/advantageous?

[Assistant]
Batteries convert chemical potential into electrical current. With rechargeable batteries, if you reverse the flow of current then the chemical reaction also runs in reverse. Alkaline batteries (the most common non-rechargeables) don't fully reverse their chemical reaction when you try to charge them. This makes them significantly less efficient to charge, which causes heat and can cause buildup of hydrogen gas. Since most batteries are sealed, a build of hydrogen gas can caused them to rupture and explode.

The reason they're more popular than rechargeables is that they are significantly less expensive. Also, they're better at holding their charge when not in use. This is important for very low usage scenarios like your remote control.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Could the Death Star destroy a gas-giant planet?

I think this could be broken up into several separate questions actually. 1) What is in the center of a gas giant, rocky material or compressed gas (that would act like a liquid)? And 2) would it be possible to actually hit the center of it? And 3) would that reaction be able to go and destroy the rest of the planet?

[Assistant] Yes, the Death Star can destroy a gas giant planet.  The reason they did not do so at Yavin was because the planet-destroying weapon, when used on a gas giant, triggers a massive thermostellar conversion - the gas giant doesn't just explode, it explodes in a fashion similar to a supernova.  While that would have destroyed the rebel base, it would have also destroyed the Death Star - the planet-destroying weapon's effective range was less than the expected explosion radius.


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

[User]
[Ghostbusters 1984] If the Ghostbusters hadn't stopped Gozer, would it have destroyed the world?

The Key master gives a list of cultures destroyed by Gozer in the past, but obviously it didn't wipe out all mankind. New York city has a population probably equal to the Nation States that existed in the past, but Gozer WAS summoned to destroy the world. It may be clich, but our world is bigger than the past's.

But, whether it destroys NYC or goes on a world tour, would our militaries be able to stop a 100 foot tall animated pile of marshmallow, or does humanity face a Staypuffalypse?

[Assistant] Gozer doesn't kill everyone and everything. Gozer destroys the major civilization and knocks society back a few centuries or millennia. Had gozer not been stopped they'd have destroyed most of the major population centers and left mankind back in the dark ages if not stone ages before leaving with a belly full of blood stained souls.


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

[User]
Do some people deserve to die ? Any books about death penalty, or righteous killing ?

Ok to elaborate, i was talking with a christian and i told her that whether she accept it or not, god is a killer. And that the argument "God doesn't kill people, people are killing themselves by disobeying" is borderline dangerous when you think about it, like some kind of weird religious newspeak.

And then she told me , ok god kills, but don't you think people deserve to die ?

I said that i had no answer, and that i will think on the matter.

[Assistant]
There are loads of books but your topic is a bit wide.

There are debates of the death penalty and the proper aim of punishment, there are discussions of self-defense, accounts of just war, discussions about the importance of intentions, accidents, luck, culpability, acts/omissions,  balancing competing outcomes, etc.


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

[User]
[Fallout] It's a few months before the war. Does the internet exist? Can I get on Falloutbook and pool some money with friends and family to secure a spot in a Vault?

I was just thinking that despite all the computers everywhere in Fallout, I can't seem to recall a single mention of an internet.

[Assistant]
The computers are actually very basic (compared to a transistor based universe).
 All of the computers you see in businesses or similar places are actually just dummy terminals connected to a very large mainframe hidden in a server room or basement.

Some of the personal computers in houses may be little more than electronic typewriters/diaries.

As for an internet, if it exists (we have no real knowledge of this pre-war), it would be very simple. Probably not much more than our old BBS networks back in the early '90s.


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

[User]
How deep is the Sahara? Is it possible old civilizations are hidden by the sand?  Where did that much sand come from?

I know it's a lot of questions, I've just always wondered!

[Assistant]
From about 8000-4000 BC, the Sahara was much wetter and looked more like the sahel and savanna now  to the south of it.  We know people lived there and made rock art, and we have found some graves.  Various neolithic cultures lived there, but in terms of civilization you probably wouldn't have seen anything more complex than villages.  It is thought that the drying of the Sahara concentrated people in the Nile valley, helping to kickstart complex civilization there by raising population density.

Sand comes from weathering rocks.  In a place like the Sahara (which is usually desert), you get lots of broken down rocks to form sand over millions of years, but you don't get much organic material in soil (because there are less plants).


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

[User]
[The Expanse] How does Earth control how much water The Belt gets?

Why don't the ice haulers fly directly to the belt, where evidently demand is highest? And why wouldn't Belters make their own water or at least recycle it to near 100% efficiency?

[Assistant]
>Why don't the ice haulers fly directly to the belt, where evidently demand is highest? And why wouldn't Belters make their own water or at least recycle it to near 100% efficiency?

Earth based companies own the planetary rights to mine asteroids and collect water from them.

Earth based companies have legal monopoly, because they payed UN for the rights.

UN uses its armed forces to enforce the monopoly.

The Earth based mega corporations also refuse to provide technology to Belters, which would make them less reliant on Earth. Because then they would have less influence, and their profit margins would decrease.


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

[User] [HP] Without post-Hogwarts education, how screwed are wizards that want to change careers later in life who haven't taken the necessary OWLs/NEWTS for their new fields?

[Assistant]
Outside of the few bureaucratic organizations like the Ministry, OWL/NEWT scores don't really matter that much. For new Hogwarts graduates trying to first make their way in the Wizarding World, those tests are a simple way to demonstrate competence in a subject - but it's like resumes in the muggle world, the further in the past your schooling was, the less anyone cares about it.

If your goal as a student fresh out of Hogwarts is to be a potion-maker, a curse-breaker, or a dragon trainer, then you start writing letters to every potion-maker or whatever you can track down to try and convince them to take you on as an apprentice. If you don't even have a decent NEWT score in Potions, then it's going to be *very* difficult to make them take a second look at you.

As an adult wishing to change careers though, then you do have options generally unavailable to new graduates. You have money to buy private education and schooling from a respected Potions master, and can use that in lieu of a NEWT score. You have an extended network of friends and colleagues who may know a potion maker looking for assistance in their shop. You might have accomplishments, skills, and experience in your current career that can translate into a new career. If you've spent 20 years as a magical janitor, odds are you've spent a lot of time around alchemical agents and have detailed knowledge on the effects of various hexes and curses.

It's not easy changing careers by any means, but then it isn't in the Muggle work either. It pretty much just comes down to convincing someone in the field you want to take a chance on you. In some ways that's easier as a child with a mind full of theory but still able to be molded. In other ways it's easier as an adult with experiences behind you and respected colleagues willing to vouch for you.


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

[User] Protons in a nucleus are held together by nuclear force, but since they are positively charged, must they all be repelling each other as well?

[Assistant] They do, and that's why very heavy nuclei are not stable. All that repelling starts to add up, whereas the binding forces are more local. Eventually, after cramming enough particles in a single nucleus, the electric repulsion becomes too strong, and the whole thing splits apart.


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

[User] In The Matrix Reloaded, when Neo defeats the non-Smith agents, is he killing them or just knocking them unconscious?

[Assistant]
Both!

The interaction between fist and agent models itself as seen in the Matrix; what's actually happening is that this version of the Agent's runtime is being knocked out of the Matrix's active memory. The corpse remains because, well, the damn thing is an AI. It tends to leave a little ruin on the most sophisticated system, even if that ruin is just a stylish corpse.

Now, AI's are an absolute bitch to replicate, even with the advanced science of the Machines and the Six Heavenly Call Centres of India, staffed only with the sweatiest of support workers. Luckily, we're not replicating them; we're just spitting out another runtime. Agents aren't usually at 'full capacity', rather, they're an ever so slightly dumbed down fork of their runtime, spat out by the matrix. This explains the occasional variance in their abilities.

When one gets put to sleep, they experience it as a gap in their consciousness as another fork of themselves is brought online. The gap varies in length, depending on the percentage of idiocy the Fork gets compared to the usual program.

And then you've got programs like Smith, who are the original AI in all its glory that's picked up a few itsy-bitsy bugs.


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

[User] ELI5: Re: Net Neutrality; how exactly is the FCC a standalone entity and why cannot the President tell them to do what he wants? it's part of the executive branch, and the President is the head of the executive branch.

[Assistant] It's classified as an Independent Agency within the Executive Branch. It's to ensure that the President doesn't have too much power over something that is technically supposed to be non-partisan. The President appoints the head of the FCC, as well as the members of the Commission, but that's where his authority ends.


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

[User] How is it that pathogens with very high mortality rate don't go extinct simply by the fact that they kill their victims before they can spread it to others?

[Assistant]
If it still exists it means it was able to find new hosts. Some are very contagious and able to contaminate others before the death, others can spread from cadavers, others can survive in the environment (air, water, ground...) and many have animal hosts.

Rabies have animal hosts, for example. Tetanus survive on the ground, cholera spreads via water, Yersinia pestis (the plague) and anthrax have survival forms wich helps them survive without hosts for decades.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does MS Word open files in "Protected Mode"? Like is there really any threat for a "Protected Mode" to be needed?

[Assistant]
Word documents can contain embedded programs. These programs can do things like respond to clicks, or do things like have drop down lists for forms.

It is a common ploy for hackers to embed viruses and malware into word files.

Protected mode deactivates embedded programs, so prevents any malware activating, until you deactivate the protection.


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

[User]
[DC] How much is Aquaman worth?

Considering he's the king of atlantis and there's tons of gold there.

[Assistant] It's not just gold. Technically as King of Atlantis, and therefore the Ocean, he has mineral rights to about 70% of the surface of the earth, he has salvage rights to any ship sunk, and if he really wanted he could charge tolls for ships passing through his realm.


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

[User]
ELI5:How does a series of 1's and 0's in Binary Code translate to data?

For example, How is the entire game of Halo: Combat Evolved, or any other, just 1's and 0's in a series? How can 1's and 0's be read, if you have to create software to read it, made out of 1's and 0's? How do programming languages translate to binary?

[Assistant]
Technically, yes, everything is stored via 1s and 0s. But it is so much more than that.

Programming has different "tiers" of complexity. Computer hardware at a base level uses 1s and 0s to operate. However HOW it reads the data is a whole monster.

The programmers who built the game most likely used a higher-level programming language, where they can easily interpret the code. An example would be something like "Player.MoveInXDirection(5)", where it is pretty obvious what this does.

The higher level code is then translated into a less complex language, known as an "assembly" language. This language is more generalized, and only contains code that the computer's processor can recognize. That one line of code above could translate into 50 lines of assembly language. However these are not the 1s and 0s you are thinking of. This lower level language is a standard for the processor. An example of this code would be "MOV A B; ADDI B A;" etc.

Once the processor has the assembly language, it THEN translates that into the 1s and 0s. This data is very raw, and moves very fast. The 1s and 0s are used to communicate, store data, and process information.

TL;DR: Programming has different tiers. In between each tier is an interpreter and translator, so that the programmer can use a more "user-friendly" language, and when the code is complete, it will be translated so that the hardware can use it properly.


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

[User]
In a rotating black hole, what is rotating?

Just something that crossed my mind recently, since the horizon isn't made up of anything. What is the rotating. Or is it just a way to allow for the conservation of angular momentum without having to go inside the BH with our current understanding?

[Assistant] The black hole has angular momentum, it may not make sense to speak of anything rotating (at least in a model where you have a 0d point or 1d ring singularity), just like you don't think of electrons as rotating because they have spin.


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

[User] ELI5: How are people in physical professions (eg construction worker) able to grow large muscles but many people recommend to have rest days if you're going to the gym if you're trying to build muscle?

[Assistant]
It's recommended to grow muscles fast and where you want them. If you'd lift every single day for 10 years you'd grow muscles too.

Also construction workers have rest days too, the weekend for example. Or just doing a different work another day.


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

[User]
ELI5: What am I feeling when someone puts a finger close to my forehead, over my "third eye"?

Edit: I am referring to the feeling you get when someone hovers a finger over your nose and more or less between the eyes when they're closed (where some people claim our third eye would be). It is as if you could feel the finger is there without it touching you. If you haven't experienced it, you should try it!

[Assistant] A change in heat, light (even with your eyes closed you can detect changes in light), and ambient sound (stereo hearing can detect objects, try standing one inch from a wall). So many senses besides your eyes work together to help you "see".


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

[User]
Inflation or Price Gouging?

How do economists know for certain that what we are experiencing is inflation, and not widespread, coordinated price gouging?

[Assistant]
Inflation is a sustained increase in the general price level.

Or in other words, if prices go up, *that's inflation*, it doesn't matter *why* prices go up.

Beyond that, "price gouging" isn't a well defined term and often laden with subjectivity. Legal definitions aren't much more consistent, either.


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

[User] [WH40K] What if the Imperium of Man got a hold of some FTL technology that doesn't rely on the Warp.

[Assistant]
It would be destroyed instantly and without question.

If found by a Magos who recognized its potential, it would wind up dismantled as an impossible to comprehend theoretical report to be shared along people with the appropriate clearances and forgotten in a decade.

Anyone who made use of it would be killed.

Even assuming none of this is true, the Navigator Guild would destroy it. Their monopoly on FTL travel has been extremely profitable for them, to the point of getting them a free pass out of what would otherwise certainly be a death sentence of a mutation.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do wounds itch when healing, prompting us to scratch and potentially re-damage the area?

Edit:
To sum things up so far, in no particular order:

* because evolution may not be 100% perfect
* because it may help draw attention to the wound so you may tend to it
* because it may help remove unwanted objects and / or remove parts of the scab and help the healing process
* because nerves are slowly being rebuilt inside the wound
* because histamine

Thanks for the answers guys.

[Assistant] Part of the healing process is removing any potential pathogens that may have gotten into the wound, so there is an inflammatory response at the site of injury. More blood flows to the area and more white blood cells are recruited to kill stuff, and in the process release different chemicals that cause you to be itchy, like histamine.


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

[User] ELI5: If electricity travels so fast, why does it take so long to charge a battery?

[Assistant]
You are thinking of charging a *capacitor,* which simply stores electric charge. It's incredibly fast, but doesn't hold a lot of energy per gram of equipment.

By contrast, a *battery* doesn't directly store electricity. Instead, it uses a chemical reaction to deliver electricity, and when recharging it runs this reaction in reverse (using energy to undo the chemical reaction). It's the movement of these chemicals that takes more time -- they don't move at the speed of electricity in a wire.


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

[User]
[28 days later] how come people believed the whole world fell to the rage?

I never got how it's a big reveal that the rest of the world it's ok and it's only the British isles being quarantined.

Specially the Army commander, doesn't he have a simple radio? It must be actually difficult to AVOID getting radio and tv signals from the continent since the UK is so close.

Also, why would they see one single plane at the end? This is a first world country in the middle of Europe, their skies should be jammed with military planes and helicopters tracking the situation.

Hell, the USA alone should have 24/7 surveillance over critical areas such as central London and nuclear reactors in rural areas.

And even if landing is absolutely forbidden, survivors should be getting parachuted supplies all over the UK. And specially radios and cameras so they can tell what exactly is going on to the military.

[Assistant]
Whilst the U.K. is quarantined, theres nothing really keeping people there.

You let them think the whole world fell, and no one attempts to leave the country.

You tell them the rest of the world is fine, and you suddenly have everyone heading for the coast ... possibly infecting the rest of the world.

So, you cut off all contact with them, make it a no-fly zone, and leave the survivors to fend for themselves.


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

[User] Have any extra dimensions been found?

[Assistant]
No. That would be cool, but no.

The idea that there are extra dimensions as large as to be detectable in collider experiments is a very exciting prospect, but it's not the main point of extra dimensions. Theories with extra dimensions (almost exclusively superstrings/supergravity) don't require them to be anywhere near this large.


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

[User]
ELI5: What's happening in Syria?

What's this war over? What does each side want? Why is it happening? I know there's threads about it but they're from two years ago, I'm looking for a more up to date explanation, I didn't follow it as I don't like politics and the depressing news that surrounds us, but you can't avoid hearing about it, I want to know now.

[Assistant]
In 2011, during the Arab Spring, protests began against Syria's President, Bashar al-Assad. Assad was from a minority group called the Alawites--who are Shi'ite Muslim--while the majority of Syria's population was Sunni Muslim. The Assad government was known for being repressive and authoritarian, and as protests spread through the Middle East against similar authoritarian governments (and more importantly *winning* against many of those governments), the Syrian population protested to. However, Assad responded by calling in the military, who proceeded to try and crush the protests with force. However, this only intensified the protests, who began to arm themselves. Units began to defect from the military, and the protest began to take on overtures of an armed rebellion against the government.

The conflict escalated until mid-2012, and government forces attempted to use more and more measures to regain control of the country. This included mass artillery and air strikes against the rebels, who were trying to organise a government and army to fight the Assad regime. However, the rebel groups were not unified. They were a collection of various forces, ranging from pro-democracy forces to elements of al-Qaeda and other extremist groups. This meant that the rebel groups had many different goals, and often times fought each other. While the rebels are numerous, the government's forces are often better equipped, leading to an effective stalemate between the two as they fight over cities and towns.

The war also began to take on sectarian and proxy war tones as it seemed to shift away from 'government vs. rebels' to being a part of the larger Shi'ite v. Sunni divide in the Middle East. Assad began to receive aid from various Shi'ite powers, including Iran, while the rebels received aid from various Sunni powers, such as Saudi Arabia. In addition, while other states have tried to push for a concerted effort to aid the rebels, Russia and China have been using their veto powers in the UN Security Council to block such efforts. The fractious nature amongst the rebels have also hindered efforts by the West to intervene, as many rebel groups have ties to organisations that the Western powers would like to avoid supporting. Not to mention, the Iraq War has soured much of the US populace on the idea of military intervention.

As a result of the fighting, a massive humanitarian crisis has developed as nearly a quarter of the entire Syrian population has fled the country. These refugees have fled to neighbouring nations, and many are trying to make it to Europe. This has led to the current humanitarian crisis in Europe.

This doesn't even go into the roots of the Syrian rebellion, such as the role of colonial era divides imposed by the French and British, the rise of ISIS, the Kurds, and a wide variety of other topics. However, hopefully it's enough of an overview to give you a basic idea of what's going on.

**tl;dr:**
What's this war over?: Originally government forces against pro-democracy rebels, now a proxy war between various powers supporting various groups in Syria
What does each side want? Syrian government forces want to restore their control of the country, Rebel forces vary widely. Some want a democratic Syria, others want an Islamist state. Kurds want their own independent country, etc. etc.
Why is it happening? People protested. Government responded with force. Civil War broke out. Outside powers supported different groups on both sides of the War.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why is Darth Vader's suit technologically inferior to General Grievous'?

The technology existed to create a fully hybrid man/machine with lightning-fast reflexes and superior strength during the time of Episode III. Why wasn't Vader put in a similar suit?

The answer can't be because Anakin would lose access to the Force. Despite having no force abilities at all, Grievous was able to fight and defeat many highly-skilled Jedi.

[Assistant]
Actually, it's entirely because he'd lose access to the Force. Grievous killed quite a few Jedi, but none of them were on Anakin's level. Even as Vader, he was more powerful than most of the Jedi that existed at the time of the Clone War.

As a Force-user, Vader was far more powerful and threatening than Grievous ever was. He was also better equipped to hunt down Force-users that escaped Order 66. Remember, there's more to power than brute strength.


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

[User] [Brooklyn 99] Did Pimento go crazy because of his time undercover, or was he always like that?

[Assistant]
A dozen years serving under the most brutal mob boss since the roaring twenties in New York will do that to ya.

Pimento had to:

* bash in one of Figgis' victims with a croquet wicker until his eyes reached his brains.

* killing a person via bashing him in via fire extinguisher

* watch his then-gf bartender impaled by Figgis.

* Was shipwrecked and lost his sense of smell.

The shit Pimento went through would broken any other person in a gibbering wreck.


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

[User]
[The Walking Dead] What will the world look like 20 years after the outbreak?

Walkers are unlikely to be a significant problem anymore, but as far as we can tell, society has pretty much crumbled.  How quickly can humanity rebuild?

[Assistant] I think that the walkers will die out on their own. The question is whether or not humans can then rebuild. They have no one who can teach how to run a large electrical plant or a refinery. No one to teach surgery or how to run a computer chip fab plant. Lots of technology is going to be lost and hard to get back.


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

[User] [Biology] Are there any other life forms that practise traditions like humans do?

[Assistant]
That depends what you mean by traditions, and even then there is a lot of debate about that. A notable example might be elephants mourning their dead, but the question of whether that's a "Tradition" or just a behavior again, isn't that clear.

What we don't know about the intelligence and lives of animals other than humans is a vast universe we're only beginning to seriously explore. You have to remember that for much of human history, the idea of animal intelligence was ridiculed. Now with Corvids and Dolphins among others showing amazingly high intelligence, not to mention decades of ape and monkey studies, it's harder to ignore.

What's truly interesting is the degree of intelligence being found in "dumb" animals, such as horses.

Still... traditions? We just don't know.


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

[User]
ELI5:Why do Webpages "Bounce" back up to the top when loading the last few images when I have already scrolled down?

I will connect to a webpage that has loaded text but is still trying to load some pages or video. I have scrolled down to read something, and when the images or video finally loads, I am shot right back up to the top of the page. What is happening here?

[Assistant] In JavaScript you can set the "focus" to be on any specific item on the page. It's likely that the focus is set to something at the top of the page. Javascript can be told to run after the page finishes loading, which is why it will wait until after images load. May be more noticeable on mobile since slower download speeds and smaller screen space.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does a million/billion/trillion start at 1000^2 instead of 1000^1?

Million is for 1, billion is for 2, trillion is for 3, quadrillion is for 4 and so on, they're off by factors of 1000, but they start at 1000^2 instead of 1000^1 . How come it's like that? I feel like million (being one) would be 1000^1 since it seems like it'd make sense.

[Assistant] They made more sense before we changed their meanings. Originally, a billion was 1,000,000^(2) and a trillion was 1,000,000^(3). Then 1,000,000,000 was just a thousand million, or sometimes a milliard. Then we changed from that "long scale" to the "short scale" meanings that are now more common (at least in English-speaking countries).


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

[User]
[The Usual Suspects] Shouldn't there have been federal task forces and international law enforcement teams involved in Verbal's interrogation?

Like 50 people were killed in a firefight and massive explosion of a tanker worth at least tens of millions of dollars.  There were arms dealers and drug lords and other notorious international criminals involved.

Seems they should have had more than just one local cop involved in the investigation.

[Assistant] The interrogation we see is not the official one, Verbal at that point is just waiting to be released and is pretty much just humoring the detective by giving him the story he had pulled out of his ass. Remember that he only get Verbal talking by threatening to tell prisoners that Verbal gave up someone he didn't.


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

[User]
[X-Men] Does Magneto support the nation of Israel?

It would seem to follow that he supports the idea of a Jewish homeland. What are his thoughts on the Israel-Palestine conflict?

[Assistant] Probably.  He supports the idea of a separate mutant country due to a history of persecution, I'd see him supporting Israel for the same reason, especially being Jewish.  In the grand scheme of things, though, it's still a Homo sapiens issue, not a mutant one.


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

[User]
[Avatar: The Last Airbender] Why did the Fire Nation leave their soldiers surrounding Monk Gyatso?

So when Aang visited the Air Temple ~100 years after his departure, he is chasing Momo under what looks like a big curtain to find his former Teacher surrounded by dead fire nation soldiers.

Considering how meticulous the Fire Nation was in cleaning up the rest of their dead, as evidenced by a lack of other bodies/equipment, why did they decide to leave these 20-or-so soldiers around the man that killed them?

[Assistant]
Two possibilities:

1) The Fire Nation, an intensely martial culture, chose to honour their fallen foe with the bodies of those he had slain.

2) Motherfucker straight-up murdered a room full of elite comet-powered badasses without laying a mark on a one of them. Thats some gangsta shit. Do you want to be the first member of the clean-up crew to set foot within the death zone?


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Why don't Death Eaters open their fights with the killing curse every time?

I'm looking back at the Battle of the Department of Mysteries in the film, where Harry's friends and then the Order of the Phoenix get tangled up in extended duels with Death Eaters, and the sequence ends when Bellatrix casts the Killing Curse on Sirius.

What was stopping her, or any of them, from using it right at the start? They're already deadly wanted criminals, and they probably don't fear the threat of a trip to Azkaban anymore because half of them have already been there. If the Killing Curse is supposed to pierce through defensive magic, why would they bother with anything else?

Obviously they want to leave *Harry* alive to save him for death at Voldemort's hand alone, but Lucius was explicitly threatening to kill the others, and they have no other real reason to spare them.

[Assistant]
Voldemort didn't want to kill wizards. He wanted to rule them. He actually hated killing wizards, especially true-bloods. That was obviously carried over by his followers. Sirius represented a true-blood family that, except for him, were followers of Voldemort. They would prefer he join them instead of killing him.

Bellatrix is just a bit insane, however, and hated Sirius with a passion.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] How painful would it actually be to be eaten by the Sarlacc?

Jabba says that it'll cause you unbearable pain for a millennia, but I'm assuming (and hoping) this is an exaggeration. Obviously it'd be painful, but how long would you be suffering.

[Assistant]
Depends on your idea of painful. In legends the sarlacc will physically bond and merge into it's prey. A meal will be kept alive and fed nutrients for possibly years as the sarlacc uses it's victims to process the raw materials it's "roots" pull in. Once the prey dies of old age the corpse is broken down and recycled through other living prey trapped in the stomachs. Over time the victims become the stomach lining and intestines of a sarlacc processing it's food in a symbiotic relationship of sorts.

While most animals process thoughts and emotions the same as a sarlacc they're only vaguely aware of the true horror that's happening as their body becomes one with the sarlacc. The reason the pain and torture can last a thousand years is because the mind of victims are merged as well as the body. The mind of a victim is pulled into the sarlaccs and becomes a part of the creature.

For a brief time the victim is aware of their body wasting away and being slowly fed to other victims, but they're unable to lose sensation or lose consciousness or "die". The sarlacc slowly feeds of their mind but this process takes a very long time. Usually long after the victims physical body is gone their mind is slowly being torn apart memory by memory as it gets lost in the sarlacc's neural pathways. It's a slow creeping madness as your body wastes away and you feel every nerve dying until all you feel is the beast's own hunger overwhelming every thought of your own. Eventually oblivion overtakes your mind but it could take years or centuries for some species to find release from the agony.

Given a strong will and an appropriate amount a time a victim can momentarily take control of the beast's body and influence it. But it's rare to keep your mind when it's a few drops of rain compared to the ocean of memory and animal instincts that is the sarlacc's mind. It is possible for an old enough sarlacc fed enough sapients to begin approaching sapience itself. Only one was known to come this close and was killed before any tests could be confirmed however.


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

[User]
Is it okay to take a 3 year break between a masters and a PhD?

I'm coming to the end of my masters degree in forensic medicine and I've fallen in love with it. However I would like to take a 3 year break to wait for my fiance to finish his studies (he's a mature student I'm not a cradle snatcher!) so we could live together while I do my PhD. Will this break look bad on potential applications?

Additional info: in those 3 years I will be doing a specific type of teacher training that allows me to get a PGDE and a masters in education while earning a full teachers wage (that will then go towards my PhD). So I'm not just taking 3 years out to do nothing but I'm still worried it'll look odd to go from forensic medicine to teaching then back to forensics again...

[Assistant] You'll more than be welcomed back into a program because there are always programs looking for candidates. HOWEVER, you might find yourself not wanting to come back. Academia has a problem where most people who take a break never come back. They start getting into the real world and make money, and they don't wanna stop that. You definitely can take the break. Just know it might be hard to go back.


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

[User] [ General D&D] I live in a world where multiple planes of existence can be visited, magic is everywhere, and the Gods of the Sun and Moon exist. What happens if I tried to just keep flying towards the moon?

[Assistant]
You meet up with the local Spelljammer community.

Most moons in D&D are livable.  Some even have permanent settlements.  The people living there are remarkably similar to the people living everywhere else.  They just happen to have magic boats that fly fast enough to travel interplanetary distances in a reasonable amount of time.


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

[User]
[Halo] How/Where did the covenant get their super advanced cruisers, carriers, etc.

The covenant had an overwhelmingly large advantage in technology. Am I led to believe that the San 'Shyuum came up with this technology on their own? Did they find it somewhere?

[Assistant] The Engineers (Huragoks) are a biological Forerunner construct, which provided most (if not all) of the current Covenant tech. This is one of the reasons the survivors of the Covenant are screwed because they don't know how anything works, and the Engineers have abandoned them. The Prophets basically prohibited any other species from messing with tech, to tighten their hold on the Covenant.


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

[User] [Transformers] Do Transformers record everything that they see?

[Assistant]
Probably not everything. While likely capable of it, they are also sentient beings and are thus bound by the same rules of common politeness and decency that we are. It would be like a human walking around with a camcorder running 24/7.

That said, as some Transformers are incredibly old and seem to be able to recall events that happened hundreds, if not thousands of years ago, the things that they do choose to remember are likely stored to memory similar to a PC, and can be accessed/recalled with limited error or inconsistency.


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

[User]
ELI5: How in the world is Formula 1 profitable for the teams?

Teams like Ferrari and Mercedez have a budget of over a billion dollars, what the hell? They're losing money in order to compete in F1, right? I can't fathom they'd make it back... It's not that big of a spectator sport in comparison to other sports and so..so much money goes into it. How does that work?

[Assistant]
F1 is actually one of the biggest spectator sports in the world with a viewership of 490 million people. TV channels across the world pay to show the races, and a cut of the money goes to the teams. Theres also a massive amount of ticket sales - 4 million people went to the 21 races last year.

On top of that, the teams themselves sell merchandise and have sponsorship deals that bring in plenty of money - the cars are covered in logos that get seen by all those people.

Finally, the companies that own the teams often see F1 as advertising for their product - Win on Sunday, sell on Monday. The classic example of this is that Ferrari dont run TV/online/print advertising of any kind - their famous F1 team and winning reputation is enough to sell their road cars.


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

[User]
[DC] What if the Joker was good and Batman was a villain?

What would happen if the Joker was a Chaotic Good hero defending Gotham, and Batman was a Lawful Evil vigilante terrorising the city? How would this effect things like the Justice League?

[Assistant]
That was partially adressed in Crisis on Two Earths where the Jester (Joker) worked alongside Luthor to stop Owlman (Batman) and the rest of the Crime Syndicate.

Batman would probably be more extreme in his methods and enhance himself and his allies with technology to get the edge, can see him using Venom extensively once he learns of it and using scare tactics to keep control of the mob.

Joker would try to stop him with gimicks but probably end up killed by the more ruthless Batman. He just doesn't have the resources or training of The Dark Knight (unless you also switch their families).


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

[User]
Why do cats bring the small animals that they've killed to their owners?

Is it really a gift? There seems to be a lot of conflicting information on this, i was just curious as to the real behavioral/evolutionary reason.

[Assistant]
The usual theories are:

1. Cats feel we are like kittens and need teaching how to hunt, so they bring us freshly killed prey to practise with
2. Cats bring their kill home because it's a safe place and they know they can eat it without worrying about another predator

The reason we domesticated cats is because they would kill small pests like mice, they stuck around because we provided a steady supply of food and shelter.  If you have a cat and he or she brings home gifts, the best thing to do is praise them and then dispose of it discreetly when they're not looking.


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

[User]
ELI5: If I eat a burger, how long does it take for the cholesterol from it to enter ones bloodstream, and what is the process behind it?

I had a blood test done recently. Beforehand I ate a horrible lunch. My cholesterol was extremely high, but a month ago it wasn't too bad. Was this caused by my lunch?

Thanks ELI5splainers!

[Assistant]
I think it should be pointed out that the cholesterol you ingest from a burger is not the same cholesterol in your blood.

When you eat horrible food it spikes your blood pressure and causes your liver to produce its own cholesterol to reduce inflammation in your arteries.

Very little of the cholesterol you eat is absorbed.


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

[User] [Harry Potter] Does the Statute of Secrecy preclude a wizard from becoming notable in Muggle circles as long as their true nature is not revealed, such as becoming a famous Vegas magician or illusionist?

[Assistant] I think that while it may not be illegal for a wizard to make a living being a stage magician, it would probably be frowned upon by the wizarding communit at large. They would likely find it as tasteless as a regular athlete competing in the special Olympics.


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

[User]
[CW Flash] Who owns the licensing rights for all that Flash merchandise?

Jitters can probably get away with the drink names, but Oliver's kid has Flash action figures and a Flash backpack.

[Assistant]
Possibly no one.  A similar situation arose in Marvel where Spider-man tried to get the rights to his image because of all the people using it, but he failed to get it because it'd require him revealing his identity.

Plus he's a well-known public figure.  Do you need any sort of rights to publish something in the image of Trump or Clinton?


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

[User]
What happens to heavy elements in a star?

I know that stars produce them when they explode, and that's the google result that is hard to dig through for an answer to this, but as the title says; **What happens to heavy elements in a star?** Do they get ejected, do they coalesce and get pushed aside in the core, or what?

Edit: I should clarify, I looked up heavy elements and apparently that means anything over #92 on the periodic table. I really just meant any metals, like gold as an example because it's relatable.

[Assistant]
Heavy elements that are able to form in a star will generally reside in the star for its lifetime. This depends on what you define as heavy elements, as astronomically, anything above helium is generally considered a metal.

Many stars naturally fuse elements from hydrogen to helium through to iron, and these are deposited in the star's core as it progressively collapses. Depending on the star's size, they will remain in the core of a dwarf star, or they will be compressed into something more exotic like a neutron star or black hole.

Elements heavier than iron cant be normally produced by fusion, and are most often produced by extremely heavy stars when their lives end as a supernova. Some of the material of the star is fused by the immense pressures and temperatures of the supernova into much heavier elements, and some of that is blasted into space as the star explodes. The rest will, again, be left in the star's core, but also likely not as recognisable elements.

So, either they stay in the star, or they are blasted into the interstellar medium, where they can end up as part of gas clouds and form part of new stars or planets (like Earth).


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

[User]
ELI5: What happens when there is substantially more value in commodities than there is in actual currency?

I've read a fair number of articles recently about how various nations/companies are thinking about mining asteroids because there are quadrillions of dollars of resources on them.

How would our economy even interact with value on that scale when we don't have nearly enough free-flowing currency for anyone to buy a meaningful percentage of it?

[Assistant]
Supply and Demand

Adding that much raw material to an economy would drive costs down. So a material that costs $50 a pound could get driven down to pennies an ounce.

So that figure of a Quadrillion dollars would drop significantly.

You also have to consider what are we going to do with all that raw material?

Sure it's great to have an unlimited supply of Lithium for example, but we can only manufacture/need so many batteries.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do some dried fruits (raisins, prunes, etc) have their own names while others (dried apples, dried mango, etc) do not?

[Assistant]
Raisins, prunes, etc., are whole fruits that will preserve naturally if dried properly. They also date back to antiquity, along with dates, figs, etc., which don't have nicknames.

Apples, mangoes, etc., will not dry whole, but simply rot. They need to be portioned and dried rapidly, a task made all the easier by using a modern dehydrator.


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

[User] [Star Wars] If Mandalorian equipment evolved with "killing Jedi" in mind, why didn't slugthrowers become part of their gear?

[Assistant]
In legends slugthrowers were a vital part of mandalorian armories. In canon the mandos have had nearly 1000 years of regression as they lose major production of wartime materials to the pacifist majority on mandalore. This leads to a scarcity of mandalorian slugthrowers so high energy blasters were the next best option. We do see a larger than average reliance on explosives and beskar based weapons like the whistling birds.

So TLDR slugthrowers require munitions and supply chains that modern warrior mandos lacked. Slugthrowers became a specialist weapon rather than standard issue.


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

[User] Eli5: what exactly is clay? How is it different from regular dirt or loam?

[Assistant] Clay is formed from very fine particles of certain hydrated minerals, packed together. Loam is primarily organic material thats in an advanced state of decomposition, and dirt doesnt really have a strict meaning.


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

[User] Are there telescopes, available for purchase, powerful enough to see the flag on the moon?

[Assistant] Nope. Even the largest telescopes on Earth couldn't resolve it, even if you completely ignored the atmospheric distortion that can only be removed imperfectly. The E-ELT, at 39 meters wide, will have a diffraction limit at the bluest wavelengths the eye can see of 2 milli-arcseconds, while the flag, if it were the size of a person and laying flat instead of being edge-on from the top, would still only be 1 milli-arcsecond in size from Earth. The biggest research telescopes being *planned* can't see it, even in the absurdly optimistic limit of ignoring the atmosphere entirely. Nothing you can buy for backyard use is even going to be able to see the landing site, much less the flag. In your backyard, you're going to be limited to what the atmosphere allows you to resolve (called the "seeing") which in most decent places on the ground is probably around 2 arcseconds on a good night. If you go up to the top of a mountain in the best places in the world, it can be as low as 0.5 arcseconds with some reliability.


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

[User] ELI5: What's the difference between HAM radios and "normal radios"?

[Assistant] In addition to the other good information here, there is a difference between ham radio and most other radios. On the ham frequencies we are allowed to select our own frequencies on which to operate, as long as it is within a certain range. Our radios usually have a "VFO" or variable-frequency oscillator which will let us tune to any old frequency. Most other radios, including business band, police, CB, marine, FRS, etc., have been restricted to work on certain frequencies, which are designated as "channels". Also, most ham radios are transceivers (2-way, like a walkie talkie or CB), where as most "normal radios" only receive (like am/fm).


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

[User]
Where someone breaks into my house, I believe I have full rights to use lethal force against them. CMV.

  I am of the right age to remember the Tony Martin case, which caused something of a debate about the use of potentially lethal force in defence of property or of yourself.

  However I cannot see any problem in the use of lethal force if a homeowner is dealing with burglars. There is no option in most situations, and especially not in the pitch black night when most burglaries occur, to analyse the situation and decide on a course of action, and it is increasingly common to find that said burglars are often armed, and fully prepared to use their weapons. People have been tortured and even killed in their own homes by invaders. So it can only be reasonable that homeowners have some means of protection.

  So, CMV.

[Assistant]
> There is no option in most situations, and especially not in the pitch black night when most burglaries occur, to analyse the situation and decide on a course of action

Wait, if you're unable to properly analyze the situation and decide on a course of action why do you think permanently killing someone is justified? What if the person in your house is a drunk teenager who wandered into the wrong home? What if it's an altzheimers patient?

I don't think, "in this situation it's hard to tell what's going on so just shoot and ask questions later" is really justified unless the *only* people who could ever possibly be in your home wished you harm.


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

[User] ELI5: How does sleep deprivation eventually lead to death?

[Assistant] It doesn't. Sleep deprivation leads you getting more and more tired. If kept awake, eventually you will start microsleeping no matter how hard you try to avoid it. Now, if you are talking about FFI (Fatal Familial Insomnia), it's not a lack of sleep that kills. It's a symptom of what's killing you, a prion disease that's eating holes in your brain. Insomnia is usually one of the first symptoms, but as the disease progresses people can have hallucinations and all sorts of other brain malfunctions.


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

[User] When something becomes bleached from the sun, where does the colour go?

[Assistant] The color doesn't *go* anywhere. The high energy ultraviolet radiation in sunlight simply destroys the molecules that give a particular object its color. Those molecules are colored because they interact with light, so they are naturally more susceptible to absorbing too much energy and having some or all of their molecular bonds broken.


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

[User] Is there any difference between the weightlessness experienced while in orbit and in the middle of space?

[Assistant]
Not really, for all practical purposes. Nothing that you could sense, if that's what you mean.

There's a tiny difference in the gravity exerted on your feet versus the top of your head when you float in the station with your feet pointed toward the Earth, but it's imperceptible - and that difference would be vastly less out in interstellar or intergalactic space.


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

[User]
Jedi Vs. Gravity

If two Force users jump off of a high structure could person A levitate person B while person B levitates person A? Could they levitate each other?

[Assistant] Yes, but they might as well just levitate themselves up. And they wouldn't be able to do it for long, levitation is extremely difficult and takes a lot of concentration and energy. That's why Jedi tend to use the Force to boost a jump rather than fly up somewhere.


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

[User] [Fallout] How come It's hard to make new Plasma rifles for the B.O.S in 3, but I can build a laser mini-gun, a Fatman and an Alien Blaster modification in 4?

[Assistant]
The Lone Wanderer was a random teenager, fresh out of a vault, with no real military or engineering experience beyond (maybe) some basic technical know-how. The Capitol Wasteland was essentially *obliterated* during the war, with very few technical documents surviving and even fewer factories still standing.

The Sole Survivor, meanwhile, was in the US Army, receiving actual professional training in a variety of topics, including engineering and firearms operation. With the Commonwealth being much less devastated than the Capitol Wasteland, assembling proper factory tooling is a much more achievable goal, and even then, making an actual functioning arms factory requires a *substantial* pre-existing logistical base.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do our noses clog up with snot/bogies when they are an essential airway?

[Assistant]
The aren't an essential airway, they are one of two in a wonderfully redundant system.

They clog up because they aren't a perfect design (damn you, designer!).  They are an intake mechanism that is _way better_ to get infected than your lungs.  Don't think of it as the blocking of a key airway, think of it as the clogging of your filter that protects all your REALLY key systems.


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

[User] How did scientists estimate the age of Earth before the advent of radiometric dating?

[Assistant]
There were a lot of different attempts that largely relied on estimating the rate of something and then extrapolating that to estimate the age of the Earth, i.e. there is Y quantity of this, it changes at X rate today, we'll assume it started at Z condition has always occurred at X rate and from there we can estimate how long the process has been happening. Some notable examples/categories:

A variety of people used the generations of people discussed in the christian bible and some estimation of the average lifespan to estimate when the world was created (e.g. Kepler, Ussher, Lightfoot). These kind of border on scientific since even though they were based on a religious text, they were applying a form of logic to try to use said text to make an estimate.

A common, more clearly scientific, pre-radiometric dating way to estimate the age of the Earth was from cooling rates. Assuming that the Earth started out molten and knowing something about cooling rates of various materials, you can estimate how long it would take for a body the size of the Earth to cool (with some big assumptions). Notable examples of this were undertaken by Comte de Buffon and Lord Kelvin (and both Newton and Liebniz kind of dabbled in this, but weren't as direct in terms of actually producing a formal estimate of the age).

Another common attempt was using the salinity of the ocean (the so-called "salt accumulation clock"), i.e. we know the salinity of the ocean on average, we can measure the rate at which salts are delivered to the ocean via rivers, and if we assume the ocean started off as entirely fresh water, we can estimate how long it would take to build the salt concentration we observe. A variety of people did these types of calculations, including Edmund Halley (same Halley as the comet), T. Mellard Reade, and John Joly.

There were estimates made based on orbital mechanics and dissipation of tidal friction between the Earth and Moon. George Darwin (son of Charles Darwin) and Lord Kelvin both used these lines of reasoning to estimate the age of the Earth.

The most consistent mechanism across history though was trying to use the thickness of sedimentary rocks to estimate how long it took for them to accumulate. The Greek historian Herodotus presented some estimations based on sediment deposition rates of the Nile. There were a flurry of these types of estimations in the late 1800s with one of the most complex being put together by Charles Walcott. Other notable estimations using this technique came from J.D. Dana and others.

Pretty much all of these estimation techniques missed the mark by at least a few billion years, largely because of incomplete understanding of the processes (e.g. heat from radioactivity dramatically changes the cooling rate of the Earth, non steady delivery of salts to the ocean plus a variety of mechanisms for dissolved loads to be removed / sequestered, or that the sedimentary record includes lots of gaps of erosion and non-deposition, etc). There are lots of sources out there that go through much of this in a lot of detail, the above was mostly taken from the introductory chapter of the "Geochronology and Thermochronology" textbook by Reiners et al.


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

[User]
[A Series of Unfortunate Events] Would Count Olaf's first plan have worked if he just played the nice uncle?

So in the first book, when Count Olaf gets custody of the Baudelaires, he immediately treats them like garbage, which makes the siblings very suspicious of his wedding-theater plan. But would they have caught on if he just pretended to be nice up until the theater day? After all, he is an accomplished actor (and a very handsome man).

[Assistant]
He probably would have gotten as far as marrying Violet. He might have had more trouble killing them. If successful, it's likely the other members of VFD would catch on and he'd be either caught for the murder, or at least have a very difficult time enjoying that money while on the run from the law.

It's also possible that his marriage would be annulled on the basis that Violet didn't know she was getting married. Justice Strauss didn't seem to think that mattered, and the Man With a Beard but No Hair and Woman with Hair but No Beard would have undoubtedly ruled in Olaf's favor, but there's other judges.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do some people throw up when in extreme pain and why do they feel a little better after vomiting?

[Assistant]
You have discovered the Adrenal response!

Have you ever tried to run with a full stomach? If you are in extreme pain you bodies adrenal system thinks you are in danger and starts to ramp up. This means doing all kinds of things, but one of them is to dump anything that would hurt your ability to run away.

(The degree to which the adrenal response causes this varies based on a person's personal body.)

Why do they feel better?
Now we are at the root of it. The way the adrenal system causes you to vomit is by causing spasms in your stomach (not unlike a sneeze). Once you vomit the spasms stop and you feel better.


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

[User] [The Culture]Why was the human population given a vote on whether to go to war with the Idirans? Minds have absurdly greater grasp of all things despite being a minority. Humans could easily choose demonstrably wrong. Isn't that like polling america's Golden Retrievers to determine monetary policy?

[Assistant]
A large chunk of the Culture split off in protest of the war even *with* the vote. Had the Minds just acted unilaterally, it would have damaged the Culture at a fundamental level for centuries to come, and that's assuming the whole thing didn't just fall apart once the humans and drones realized they weren't valued citizens.

Also, the Minds aren't jerks. You don't get 30 trillion people involved in a 50 year war without asking their opinion first.


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

[User] ELI5: With how far weve come with technology, why are computers still made with x64 architecture rather than going to something higher? Whats keeping it at that point?

[Assistant]
There's not really a point. The reason we went from 32 to 64 bit processors was because we started hitting the limit of RAM at 4GB.

This is because processors had to say where in memory they wanted to address in a single instruction, so they were limited by the number of bits the CPU could handle at once.

When we went to 64 bit processors, we can now address up to 16 Exabytes of RAM. When we eventually get close to that, we can look at going from 64 to 128 bit, but we're still a few orders of magnitude short.


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

[User]
[DCEU] Why does Superman care about humans if they've been so harsh to him?

Unlike in most DC canons, where Superman is worshipped as an infallible paragon of truth, justice, and the American way, in the DCEU, things are much harder for him. Ever since he was a kid, people have done nothing but ostracize him and push him around, and when given the opportunity to rebuild his lost home world with Zod and his gang, Superman rejects it and directly and indirectly kills them all, dooming his race in favor of the humans who had shown him little beyond distrust at best and open malice at worst. So why does Superman care so much about humanity after the hell they've put him through. Martha even told him he doesn't have to be a hero and that he owes nothing to mankind, so why does he fight for them?

[Assistant]
Because hes just that kind of guy.

He was raised with humans, by humans and sees us as equals and one of the only other times where he meets a kryptonian is general zod and his gang which lets be honest doesnt paint the best picture of kryptonians.

Sure he was bullied for a long time but people have been so nice to him as well, he even falls in love with a human, Im sure something like that would really make you change ur mind about say a race that you were racist towards, thats the kinda thing thatll make you do a 360 and look past everything theyve done to you.

If so many Jews were capable of forgiving there captors Im sure superman can easily care about people even if theyve bullied him a bit, they never really posed any threat anyways.