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

[User]
What would be the pros and cons of raising the minimum wage?

With President Obama's state of the union address, we learned he wants to increase the minimum wage, what are the pros and cons of this?

EDIT 1: Also, what are the deeper effects of increasing minimum wage, or keeping it the same?

[Assistant] If you're on the minimum wage, you can actually lose hours or even your job. The cost of labour increases when the wage goes up, reducing profit. The business can react by either increasing prices or reducing costs. They might be able to live with one increase without adjusting too much, but what about another in a year, then one the year after.


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

[User] [DC] What crime lord actually holds the most power in Gotham?

[Assistant]
Probably Penguin, now the "normal" ones are gone.

Other villains might temporarily rise or fall, but they have the disadvantage of being insane. Joker has risen to massive power and then lost it all overnight to prank batman. Two-Face's status is literally a coin toss.

But Penguin is (mostly) sane and actually trying to do crime. He's very powerful and, more importantly, he *stays* very powerful. He's a reliable fixture in a way the rest of these buffoons aren't, and that gives him power in his own right.

When the Riddler has sunk his fortune into laser-mazes and Scarecrow's ran off into the woods to hunt teenagers, Penguin will still be here, quietly ruling Gotham.


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

[User]
Is there an unspoken rule that you're not actually supposed to "email ChairOfTheSearchCommittee@institution.edu for additional information about this position" when applying for faculty jobs?

I'm hoping someone can shed some light on my experience today, because I'm thoroughly confused.

I found a position I was interested in, but the advertisement and institution website didn't offer course descriptions publicly, and had little information about the curriculum and enrollment numbers.

I was hoping to learn a little more about the program before applying, so I emailed the chair about the position asking if he would have a minute to answer a couple of questions. Now, the advertisement explicitly says **"Additional information about this position may be obtained by contacting chair[at]institution.edu"**

I received an email back a couple of hours later saying (paraphrasing) "Thank you for your interest. I can't answer any of your questions at this time, and all of the information you need to apply is in the job post."

Though it wasn't those exact words, it was equally short and dismissive.

So, my question is: Did I make a mistake by emailing the chair? Are you not actually supposed to inquire for additional info, and if not, then why would that clause be in the job description?

[Assistant] Asking for a few minutes to answer some questions may sound like you are trying to get a "backdoor interview," where you get to meet and present yourself to the chair without actually being invited to the next round of the search. If you have questions about the job post, just ask the questions, don't ask them for time to answer questions.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do we swing our arms when we walk/run?

[Assistant] humans walk by falling forward and repeatedly catching ourselves before we hit the ground.  But when we land on our left foot, we start to tip to the right and vice versa, so we swing our arms to keep our balance centered over the middle of our bodies.


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

[User] ELI5: how does camera auto focus work?

[Assistant]
There are a few systems, but the easiest to understand is contrast detection. This is very common on any digital camera showing a "live view" of what the sensor sees. The camera searches for parts of the image where color or brightness differ and adjusts the optics until the edges of colors and brightness get sharper. This is why if you try to focus on a featureless area, e.g. snow or a cloud, it will keep hunting as it's difficult to find any well-defined edges.

Since all this requires is firmware (you need the image sensor already...), this is the cheapest. Other systems use specialized, dedicated sensors so the system can compute how unfocused the light hitting the sensors is, and *predict* how to move the optics; this is why the autofocus on a nice dSLR camera will be very fast. This is called phase detection.


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

[User] ELI5: How do Ozone machines affect objects and air around them?

[Assistant]
Ozone is an unstable molecule. Normally oxygen forms molecules made of 2 oxygen atoms, but ozone is made up of 3 atoms, which means it really wants to split into it's nice, stable form of 2 oxygen atoms joined together. However, when it does this it leaves behind a single oxygen atom that's not joind to anything and this is REALLY unstable. A lone oxygen atom really, really wants to bind to something, anything, to make it more stable.

Things like smoke particles and other particles that are smelly and floating around in the air are perfect for that single, lonely oxygen atom to bind to and so when you release ozone into the air in a room it quicly splits into nice, stable O2 (2 oxygen atoms joined) and reactive O (lone oxygen atom) which then quickly binds to those floaty, smelly things like smoke.

Generally things smell because of the shape of their molecules. When O binds to them it changes that shape, and also tends to bind to the parts of smelly molecules that also wants to bind to other things - like the smell receptors in our noses. This makes them less smelly.


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

[User]
[MCU] Why is it that Tony didn't seem to be in as much pain as Professor Hulk and Thanos when [SPOLIER]?

Professor Hulk and Thanos are both arguably some of the most powerful characters in the MCU in terms of raw strength. They were both seen struggling tremendously and even screaming in pain to fight through the pain of simply harnessing the power all 6 stones at once. Why did Tony, a human, seem to take the pain better than them?

[Assistant]
Un-fun fact about burn injuries: They often hurt a lot less than you expect, because all your nerve endings get destroyed. Hulk and Thanos are far tougher than a squishy little human in a metal suit; as such, their nerves probably lasted a lot longer before that part of the pain went away.

Add to that the fact that his suit probably pumped him full of painkillers and adrenaline, and even the internal injuries probably didn't hurt all that much.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do cigarettes contain so much harmful stuff? Why not just tobacco?

[Assistant]
Much of that harmful stuff it the tobacco / what happens if you burn anything.

Some of it is added for for the benefit of the user like menthol to relax the throat and aid in nicotine absorption.  And chemicals to aid in holding an ember so you don't have to keep relighting your cigarettes.


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

[User]
Why are humans so into kissing if it serves no reproductive purpose?

Is exposure to kissing as a way of intimacy the reason we do it or does it "just happen"?

EDIT: For those who keep insisting that I'm doing it wrong
My question narrows down to whether it's more biologically or culturally based.

[Assistant] It actually does (technically) serve a reproductive purpose, in addition to being a secondary erogenous zone, lip to lip contact spreads a LOT of germs. Tons. That in turn increases the body's immune response and helps spread antibodies, leading to an overall better health of both parties.


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

[User]
[star trek] Is there logic behind the design of the ships?

Just curious because it seems like the design would be pretty weak and probably more likely to break when maneuvering.

[Assistant] The Nacelles have to be perfectly aligned, within half a nanometer or so, and a set distance apart to create the warp bubble.  The remainder of the ship must remain within the warp bubble.  Other than that, the rest is mostly aesthetics.  Geordie was constantly realigning those warp nacelles.


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

[User]
ELI5: What is the computer's BIOS and what does it do?

Thanks!

[Assistant]
**B**asic **I**nput **O**utput **S**ystem.

It's the software installed onto a chip on the motherboard that interprets all the hardware signals of the various parts of a computer, identifies those parts, checks everything is order and starts up more complex software (Usually an operating system like Windows) that might make use of those parts.


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

[User]
ELi5: Why does your body produce greenish phlem when you have a cold/flu?

I'm sick right now and I've been coughing up a lot of large green chunks. Is my body creating it to fight off whatever's happening, or is the cold causing the phlem? I'd love to know!

Google didn't help me very much when I asked, it kind of just told me that I either had the flu, bronchitis, or cancer. \_()_/

[Assistant]
After days of hard fighting between your immune system and the invaders, the battlefield is littered with dead soldier cells and other trash, munitions, etc, your body cleans that up and puts it into your phlegm, like taking out the trash. These waste products from the fighting is what makes the phlegm green.

So next time you cough up green phlegm, have some damn respect and give a minute of silence for those fallen troops.

Seriously though, green phlegm means your immune system is kicking ass.


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

[User] ELI5: why do migraines generally only put pressure on one side of the head/ in one eye and not the other?

[Assistant]
The neurovascular theory of migraines suggests that there is some trigger that activate a neuron system. After that, there will be vascular changes, with dilation of brain vessels which will cause pain.

As you know, people that have strokes are usually only affected on one side of the body. That's because the vascular system is very well divided between the left and right brain hemisphere. For the migraine is the same. Only one side will suffer the change of perfusion, thus you only feel pain on one side.


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

[User] How does aphasia (the word salad effect after a stroke) affect a person's ability to understand and communicate in ways other than speaking? Do people who've recovered understand what was going on? Can they write or use sign language even when they can't talk?

[Assistant]
There is not a single type of aphasia, depending on the affected region of the brain.

Motor aphasia for example only affects the ability to form words, but does not impair understanding. Sensory aphasia on the other hand has little effect on the ability to speak, but leads to the patients not understanding the meaning of the words they hear. Wernicke aphasia is a form of sensory aphasia which results in a complete lack of ability to comprehend and express meaningful language.

Depending on the form of aphasia, the patients may be or not be aware of the problems (e.g. Wernicke patients are often not), and there may be or not be ways to compensate (patients with motor aphasia could use other forms of communication).


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

[User]
How should we frame Aristotle's ethics considering that modern biology is non-teleological?

I recently started reading the Nichomachean Ethics because I want to learn philosophy, and this book is on every syllabus I could find. It is clear after reading Book 1 that it is truly brilliant. But I wonder about its validity in the light of modern evolutionary theory. He seems to believe that human beings were created, and that they were created to use rationality well. It seems to me that because the first premise is faulty (we evolved through Natural Selection), then the second falls apart. Does natural selection imply that rationality is limited by survival instinct? If so, what does that mean for the Nichomachean Ethics?

I would also like to know how existentialist philosophers dealt with this issue. Most specifically I'm interested in Hannah Arrendt's perspective, because I have heard that she was akin to a neo-arostotelian.

[Assistant]
Well, it's infamously unclear whether or in what sense teleology can really be dispensed with in modern biology.

But in any case, the natural course to pursue here would be to argue that the relevant issue of human nature is not a biological matter, in the relevant sense of 'biological'.

> He seems to believe that human beings were created, and that they were created to use rationality well.

I think you may have misunderstood something, since he definitely doesn't think this.

> Does natural selection imply that rationality is limited by survival instinct?

Nope!


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

[User] [Pokemon] What did Amoongus look like before pokeballs were invented?

[Assistant]
They actually evolved to look like voltorbs.

Voltorb primary defence is exploding himself, by disguising as a voltorb, ammongus becomes less likely to be targeted by other pokemon.

Humans realized that the magnetic metals that constitute voltorb body can bond really well, making it the perfect material for a pokeball.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do big commercial airplanes have wings on the bottom and big (US) military airplanes have their wings on top?

[Assistant]
Low wings leave the engines and fuel tanks closer to the ground which aids in maintenance, and keeps them away from the passenger area which marginally increases safety.

High wings keeps the engines and fuel tanks away from the ground which can keep them safer from debris, which is important for a military aircraft that might be operating in areas with poor infrastructure. It also allows the fuselage to be closer to the ground which can make loading cargo easier when there isn't the kind of aid that a commercial airport can offer.


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

[User] ELI5: What does buying a company's stock actually mean for the company?

[Assistant]
It depends on when you buy it.

If you buy stock during an IPO (initial public offering) then you are giving money directly to the company in exchange for them giving you a piece of ownership in that company - represented by shares of stock.

If you buy stock from the stock market (or other private investor) then you are giving an individual owner money for their share of stock - the company isn't involved and gets no immediate benefit from the sale.

Now, those trades in the market help to determine how much the company is worth (called market cap, which is the current trading price of the stock times how much stock exists).  That can help the company in many ways (too numerous to list here).


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

[User]
If you kick a football does it go as fast as your foot?

Or does it go faster because of its bounciness?

[Assistant]
The collision between the ball and the foot would be an elastic collision. Basically most of the energy (minus some friction, heat, and sound etc.) will be conserved in the form of mass times velocity. The masses of the ball and the foot/leg are basically constant, so the velocities of each are in ratio to each other given those masses. It would look like this:

m(leg)*v+m(ball)*0=m(leg)*v'+m(ball)*v'

(Starting velocity of the ball is 0.)

So overall, the ball will probably move faster because it is smaller in mass. The energy is still conserved overall however.


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

[User] Sometimes water decreases friction (like when ice gets wet), and sometimes it increases friction (like using a damp towel to open a sticky jar lid). What determines the direction of this effect?

[Assistant]
Water always decreases friction between two solids, the effect increases as more and more water is added. It only starts to reverse when the water itself becomes a source of friction (imagine wading through water).

I imagine what happens with the damp cloth is you are allowing the material to become more flexible and therefore form a better fit with the jar than a dry cloth would have.

For what it's worth I've only ever used a dry cloth to open jars and never had a problem.


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

[User]
[Contact] At the end of the film, why didn't they just send more people through the machine?

Instead of angrily (why??) grilling Dr. Arroway, why not just send more people through the journey? Would the machine have worked a second time? If not, why?

[Assistant] This has bugged me forever too, good scientists would see a trickle of data supporting her story in the 18 hours of static and would be jumping to send another pilot through. The project might need to be privatised and some crowdfunding sourced to get enough power etc. but almost any scientist would want more data.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] What happened to the padawans that failed to graduate to jedi?

How easily were they integrated back into society? what sort of lives did they tend to lead after leaving? was there a discount jedi order they could join? did any become well known in the galaxy?

[Assistant] In the old Legends, there was a sort of Hufflepuff house for them to join. They got room and board, and they supported Jedi activities throughout the galaxy  peacekeeping, relief work, diplomacy, rescue. Not sure about current canon though.


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

[User] ELI5:If a major company like Google gets fined by a country for breaking say, a privacy law, where does that money go to and what does it get used for?

[Assistant]
That depends entirely on the country doing the fining. In some countries, that money would go to the country's Treasury, to be spent on whatever they need.

In other countries, it goes to the regulatory agencies that issued the fine, and is used on their future investigations.

Lastly, in other countries, the money goes to the victims of whatever violation got the company fined in the first place.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do professional camera-people take single or rapid burst shots of the event theyre photographing, instead of using a high quality video camera and selecting the best frame later in edit?

[Assistant] Because you can better control the quality of a single photo on a photography camera compared to a single frame on a video camera. Additionally, to get a video camera that can record at the same quality as a still camera would cost much more and use huge amounts of memory to save the raw video file compared to even multiple single shots.


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

[User] ELI5: If trees are technically hibernating during winter, how are they continuing to turn our CO2 into oxygen?

[Assistant]
It depends on what kind of trees you're talking about.

Deciduous trees, i.e. those that lose their leaves during the winter, absolutely do not convert CO2 into O2 during the winter months. This is because photosynthesis is required for the carbon cycle, and that is not possible without chlorophyll, which is present only in the leaves. Deciduous trees truly do "shut down" during the winter.

Fir and pine trees, and other evergreen plants, do continue to photosynthesise, but at a much reduced rate due to the low availability of sunlight. So they do convert CO2 into O2, but at a much reduced rate.


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

[User] ELI5: How do OS installers works if there isn't any OS that could manage applications in an empty computer?

[Assistant]
A computer has a thing called the BIOS built into its ROM. One of the jobs this has is to boot the machine--it can do this from the built-in hard drive, or a DVD-ROM, or USB key. Once it's booted from one of those sources it turns over control to whatever code it just loaded and stays mostly out of the way.

So, the OS installer just has to be set up as something the BIOS can boot from and it will then run quite happily.

Once upon a time, in the early days of PCs when you might not even have a disc drive attached, the computer would boot into a ROM-resident version of the BASIC programming language if it didn't find any other boot source, but they removed that a long time ago.


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

[User]
[Dune]What was the point of the "Golden Path"?

In the end its just a breeding program to allow humans to escape precognition. So why did he have to take the golden path transform into a giant worm , and bring a dark age to the galaxy.

You might say because he get to live way more then normal to make sure it happens. But i say even his father could have given precise instructions how to proceed and since he was the messiah his words would have been followed to the letter.

Haven't read beyond book 3  , but found book 4 tiresome , and having great time hanging to suspension of disbelief.

[Assistant] In short, the Golden Path was nothing less than ensuring the survival of humanity. The completion of the Golden Path was a diaspora of humans across the universe, to such a great extent that there existed no possible future where humanity becomes extinct.


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

[User]
[Walking Dead] Given current decomposition rates, how long before 'walkers' are so decomposed they are no longer a threat?

It has been mentioned that the 'walkers' are getting more decomposed as time goes on in this universe. How long would you have to wait, before the 'walkers' are no longer a threat?

[Assistant]
They aren't actually decomposing. It's actually more like wear-and-tear.

Walkers aren't following the rules of biology: If they were, many would have starved to death, bled out after being dismembered, etc. They'd also be picked apart by bugs and microbes within weeks. Instead, they can shamble around for years.

But they do break down. That's because walkers don't heal, so every bump and scrape is permanent. They also have a tendency to horribly "injure" themselves in pursuit of food: Think of the time Laurie was caught in a car and a walker just shaved its head through the glass, scraping off its face in the process.

So walkers will break down, but it could easily take years.


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

[User] ELI5: How does falling asleep actually work; why can you be mid-thought and just conk out?

[Assistant]
Sleep is a specific action your brain does.

It isn't initiated by the part of your brain that you are actively thinking with.

So, falling asleep mid thought just means that the rest of your brain decided the sleep activity was more important, and told your thinking brain to get in on the party.

Notably, it is more likely it is more gradual than you experience, but the memory part stopped encoding memories of the thoughts. So the experience is sudden... because you suddenly no longer have access to the memories.


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

[User]
[harry potter] Why did Voldemort take so seriously a prophecy coming from a talentless witch like Trelawney?

 he had horcruxes, and as long as they existed he couldn't die.

[Assistant] Trelawney comes from a line that had real prophets in there. Also there's a clear difference between that prophecy and Trelawney's usual nonsense. Dumbledore immediately saw it was real and so would Voldemort.


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

[User]
Who decides when a PhD student is ready to graduate? The PI, the thesis committee, university policy?

Hello,

I am a PhD student in genomics/molecular biology and am close to the end of my fourth year. I feel I have achieved majority of the goals that were set for me at the beginning of my PhD. A first author paper based on my work has been accepted at a good journal and so I will soon have demonstrable proof of the progress I have made. However, a 4 year PhD in the US is very unusual and most people in my program graduate in 5 or more years. My PI feels it is unlikely that my thesis committee would agree to a 4 year graduation and I think he has a point. He is proposing I start work on a small project that was not originally a part of my thesis but will help me get one more publication and graduate at the end of my 5th year.

I dont mind spending another year but I also think my PI has very unrealistic expectations about how long it takes to publish even a small project. If I formally include this project in my thesis, I fear it might take another couple of years to publish it which is unfair given that I have already achieved most of the goals that were set out for me.

I will have my thesis committee meeting in a couple of months and want some advice about how to bring this up. Firstly, given that I have achieved most of my goals, should I insist on a 4 year graduation even if it is unusual in my field/university (I dont think either my advisor or my committee would be happy about this)? Otherwise, if I agree to including the new small project in my thesis can I say that it is something I am happy to work on but it should not be the criteria for my graduation if it takes longer then expected?

I am also not vey clear about who exactly decides when a PhD student graduates. Is it the PI or the thesis committee or the department policy? Who do I really have to convince when it comes to graduation time?

Would appreciate your opinions.

Thanks

Update: Thanks to everyone for all the great replies. As some posters recommended, I think my best bet is to convince my PI/committee that I am ready to graduate but if they feel some extra work on a new project would be helpful for me, I would be happy to stay for some more time. But I would try to have my graduation timeline linked to progress or paper submission rather than publication and ask about the possibility of continuing as a post-doc in the same lab. A few people mentioned f32 grants and NIH fellowships for early career researchers but as an international student I dont think I am eligible for most of them anyway. Also a little bit of a clarification that when I mentioned 4 year graduation, I really meant 4.5 years as even if my committee and PI agree to graduation at my committee meeting, it would still take a few more months to complete the formalities of thesis submission and defense so I would be graduating towards the end of this year.

[Assistant] I would say that realizing that you are done, and making this clear to your PI, is a part of the process. There will always be one more experiment, but you need to be able to both realize that it's time to write it up and negotiating this with your professor.


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

[User]
[40k] How did humnaity travel the warp during the Dark Age of Technology?

If there was no Emperor powering the astronomicon, how did they navigate?

[Assistant] Warp travel used to be a lot calmer, but navigators had to travel VERY well-known routes. There wasn't need to link the entire galaxy like we have now, human worlds could be self-sufficient for the most part and warp travel could be left to very seasoned experts.


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

[User]
[My Hero Academia] Was All Might aware that Izuku using One For All AT ALL in the early arcs was going to practically obliterate his body from the inside-out? And he didn't think to tell him?

If so, dick move. It's established that if Izuku does that too often he'll end up permanently damaging his body and ruining his hero career before it even starts. Plus he's like, 15.

[Assistant] All Might and Deku had significantly different circumstances when they inherited the mantle of One For All. When All Might obtained it, he almost instantly mastered it, able to use it at 100% power with no obstacles, at least according to Gran Torino. Deku wasn't that lucky and had to learn how to control it from the ground up.


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

[User]
What are the velocities of the arms of the milky way?

I'm on a radio astronomy research team with my college, and I'm in charge of finding the velocities of the arms of the galaxy so that when we take data from telescopes we can analyze it (we're using a 40-foot national telescope). Can someone please explain how to do this? I'm having trouble knowing where to start, and my team leader is getting impatient.

[Assistant] Something that you need to consider here is that the arms do not spin like a pin wheel. Rather the stars orbit the center of the galaxy independently of the arms. The arms are like compression waves in a traffic jam. Measuring the speed of the stars will not tell you the speed that the traffic jam is moving.


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

[User]
[Star Wars:A New Hope] Why didn't the rebels evacuate Yavin IV immediately?

So I was just watching a youtube video about the battle of Yavin IV and it caused me to think of the above question. Like I understand they had the plan to destroy the Deathstar but it was a long shot at best. Why not begin evacuating non essential personnel while the battle was taking place? In every other instance of the Empire discovering a rebel base we see the rebels fly into action with already prepared evacuation procedures, why not at Yavin?

Furthermore why take the time for the medal ceremony? How did the rebels know an imperial fleet wasn't going to drop out of hyperdrive right on top of them at any time? For that matter why didn't an imperial fleet follow up the deathstar? Its my understanding that in the original trilogy the main thing keeping the empire from wiping the rebels out was not being able to locate them. With the discovery that they were on Yavin IV you would think every imperial star destroyer in the sector would be bearing down on that location.

[Assistant]
If you buy the idea that the Death Star left a debris field, they might not have been able to immediately. Furthermore, the Imperial Navy might not have *known*. A lot of the fleet probably didn't have a clue about it because the fewer people who *know*, the less people there are to compromise the operational schedule. Also, as they're space fascists and thus prone to grandiose displays of smug superiority, thus sending in the Death Star alone to say "Our one big doomsday weapon took out the entire rebellion alone without support, kneel before our big gray kill boner!" and Tarkin basically *was* the imperial navy command structure. There was probably a round of backstabbing and jockeying for position once the news went out that he was dead.

It probably took a good week or two to get things settled and bring in the destroyers. As for the Rebels, why would they try to evacuate before the Death Star's gone? They'd just get shot down if they failed to take it out. There were a LOT of tie fighters on that thing. The Medal ceremony was basically them saying "We honour *our* heroes. Be like them and we'll be sipping blue milk on Coruscant by Life Day, boys."


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

[User]
ELI5:Why is it that I can feel deathly tired by 8pm some nights and yet here I am at 7am with no sleep yet feeling just fine?

I searched for my question but couldn't find it, if it's been posted before just post the link in the comments.

[Assistant]
Basically, your sleepiness level isn't caused simply by the amount of sleep you had, nor the time spent without sleeping.

Your brain follows the circadian cycle. Basically, it wants to sleep every 1h30, if it's dark, if you usually fall alseep at this hour, and if you accumulated enough sleep hormones during the day.

More light will make it harder to sleep (computer screen, night shifts).
Changing your sleep schedule every day will fuck you up, and reduce your sleep quality.
Sleepiness wave will hit you at regular intervals.
Sleeping until 2pm will make it harder to fall asleep at 11pm.
Having short night over the week will gradually increase sleep hormones in your brain, until you can't work anymore.


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

[User]
Why are iron (Fe) and cobalt (Co) good catalysts for creating hydrocarbon chains?

I've been reading on slurry bed reactors, and i know that cobalt is more power efficient (less heat required) than iron in reactors, but what i don't understand is the mechanism which Co or Fe allow Carbon Monoxide (CO) and Hydrogen (H) to do this:

>(2n+1) H2  +  n CO   Cn H(2n+2)  +  n H2O

I have no chemistry background, so be gentle!

Oh, and if the explanation explains where "coke" comes from in this reaction, that would be excellent, too.

Thank you!

[Assistant] There are at least three possible mechanisms, and which one predominates may depend on temperature, pressure and catalyst. As to why these metals (and nickel and ruthenuim) are good, other metals would give either different, less useful products or nothing at all, or not be stable under the conditions. All these metals absorb CO and H2 well on to their surface, which is a key prerequisite to getting them to react. The precise steps after these two molecules absorb is still being studied.


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

[User] ELI5: How do ingrown nails happen? What stops a nail from growing all the way into the side of your finger/foot anyway?

[Assistant]
as to why nails grow how they normally do, it's because of how they're built. all of the nail you can see is dead. it's created under the skin by a strip of material called the "root", and it's a C shaped channel that build the nail. the nail grows forward because that's the direction the material is drawn.

a common cause of ingrown nails is bad footwear. the pressure pushes the skin and nail together until the obvious happens. trauma is another cause. something damages the toe and the nail gets messed up. as are infections in the toe, as infections can swell tissues. however, a large number of cases have no known cause.

common speculation among professionals is that it's a minor defect in the nail's root. if the channel is misshapen, then the nail can push in the wrong direction. not unlike a defective printer. the rest of your anatomy has some ability to compensate, the Perionychium (the skin around your nail) can callous up and that added hardness can potentially push the nail into proper shape, but sometimes it can't.


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

[User]
[Astronomy] What is happening with Betelgeuse  and how "unique" is what we are currently observing?

Apparently Betelgeuse is about to go supernova  or at least if you believe what non-science media has to say about it. The star has dimmed by a factor of two in the span of two months, and that's all the general public knows (though we don't even know what "dimmed by a factor of two" does indeed mean). What we don't know is whether that's even newsworthy.

So my general question is  just what is happening to Betelgeuse?

 How significant is the dimming? What does "dimmed by a factor of two" mean in the context of Betelgeuse? Can you put that into perspective?

 From the perspective of its giant size, how significant is the speed  the star went so dim *so quickly*, effectively under two months?

 We don't have historical data that goes beyond 300 years back. How likely is the possibility Betelgeuse has been dimmer in the past?

 Is this process observable with naked eye by the general public?

And, most importantly:

 Apart from "about to go Supernova", what might be some processes that can explain the change?

[Assistant]
Dimmed by a factor of 2 just means it is now half as bright as it was.

Bear in mind that the star could go supernova immediately, meaning any time in the next 10,000 years or so. Unfortunately the odds of that happening in our lifetimes are slim.


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

[User] ELI5: What occurs physically that causes a person to foam at the mouth?

[Assistant]
The foaming is usually caused when there is a lot of saliva in the mouth. For example, when someone has a seizure they can't swallow properly. The saliva builds up and grunting/gargling the saliva this causes it to become foam like.

It's similar in neuro diseases like rabies. Rabies can cause hypersalivation so you salivate more. Rabies also makes it very painful to swallow (this is why people with rabies develop fear of water) since they aren't drinking a lot of water and salivating excessively while also not swallowing the saliva it appears as a frothy foam coming from the mouth.


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

[User]
[The Matrix] Why didn't the Agents take over Neo's body to get to Morpheus

Before Neo was unplugged from The Matrix, why didn't the Agents take over his body when he was talking to Morpheus? Is it always just a major risk to remove someone from The Marix, for the reason?

[Assistant]
Morpheus does mention that most (though not all) people hooked in to the Matrix can become so dependant on it that they will fight to protect it, which allows the Agents to take over them. So it's possible that those few who, like Neo, recognise the 'wrongness' of the Matrix are resistant to being controlled since they actively fight against it on an instinctive level.

It's also likely that Neo was allowed to escape as part of the Architect's grand plan that had been going on for however long. A plan which had worked for numerous 'Ones' and only really started being derailed when Smith grew beyond his programming and Neo exercised his free will and made a difference choice than he was 'supposed' to.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is that technically too much sleep is bad for us?

[Assistant]
Your muscles need stress (exercise/movement) to stay strong. If you stay in bed all day your muscles decide they aren't needed and go away. Same for bone strength. Your bones will literally be easier to break.

Also too much sleep throws off your sleep schedule. Having a consistent schedule is best. Trying to get extra sleep on the weekends doesn't work too well.

If you try to get extra sleep one day you might be in deep sleep (rem phase) where if you wake up in this phase you will feel very tired even if you were asleep for longer than you normally were. This is also the case for naps. If you enter a deep sleep and wake up in the rem phase you will just feel more tired. You need to wake up when you are out of the rem phase.

A consistent schedule will make sure you are out of the rem phase of sleep and you will wake up refreshed.


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

[User] ELI5: How do high blood pressure medicines help reduce blood pressure?

[Assistant]
Couple of ways. High blood pressure mostly comes down to the heart pumping harder/faster, blood vessels squeezing harder (blood vessels have a little lining of muscle), and salt/water balance. The body controls all this in a couple of complicated ways.

Let's cover the most common groups:

* Calcium channel blockers (like amlodipine) stop blood vessels from squeezing down as tight by working on that little lining of muscle.

* ACE inhibitors (like lisinopril) stop part of a signal relay that normally tells blood vessels to squeeze down and tells the kidneys to hold on to salt and water. Angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs, like losartan) are really similar, but work on a different part of that relay.

* Thiazide diuretics (like HCTZ) are interesting. You'll mostly read that they make you pee off salt and water, so you have less blood in your vessels, meaning lower blood pressure. There actually seems to be a lot more to it long-term, but it's not ELI5 (they don't even explain this part well in med school.)

* Beta-blockers (like metoprolol) block signals that tell the heart to beat harder and faster.

* Alpha-blockers (like prazosin) block signals that tell blood vessels to squeeze down. They act on a different part of the same big system as beta-blockers.

* Central alpha agonists (like clonidine) act on the same system as alpha and beta-blockers, but instead of blocking the signal, they trick the brain into not putting it out to begin with.

In general, what we've realized is that blood pressure isn't always the thing to focus on. Some drugs that decrease blood pressure don't make you live any longer, or have fewer heart attacks and strokes. (Alpha and beta blockers are both great for a lot of other problems, but not great if high blood pressure is the only one. Thiazides, calcium channel blockers, ACE inhibitors and ARBs are all cool.)


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

[User] Is it generally accepted by most or mainstream economists that government debt should decrease during good economic times and increase during bad economic times? If the opposite occurs, what are the consequences according to mainstream/most economists?

[Assistant] Countercyclical monetary and fiscal policy is mainstream. Doing the opposite amplifies the natural volatility of the economy, making it hard to plan for the future, increasing the amount of uncertainty, etc.


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

[User]
ELI5:If someone has a respiratory infection, why can't they just breathe in Lysol (which kills 99.99% of germs)?

Why couldn't someone just breathe in Lysol instead of having to be sick for a few days?

[Assistant] Lysol will also kill people cells as well.  If we get a little on our hands, it's not a big deal since we have a protective layer of dead skin cells.  Internally it could cause a lot of damage.  Antibiotics are tailored to interfere with bacterial growth but not impact human cells.  Lysol goes after any living cell indiscriminately.


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

[User]
What would be the ethical implications of cloning a neolithic human?

This is just based on a discussion with my wife. I'm Curious.

[Assistant]
If they learned language and made efforts to join civilized society, wed have a really delicate situation. Bringing an animal back is easier to justify, but a person?

If only by virtue of how different they would appear, the opportunity to lead a normal life of working a job, having a family and kids might not be possible. Theyd be under a microscope by the project scientists, the media, and the government. No parent today knows how to prepare a kid for this kind of life. The Neolithic human would always face the pain that they have no true family, or a community that faces the same struggles.

From the side of genetics, theres the issue that modern humans have evolved resistance to diseases which didnt exist in Neolithic times. Im not sure about other significant changes in the genome.

At the end of the day, any crime/addiction/bad behavior would be picked up by media and trigger an intense backlash against the researchers, no matter how many precautions they took.


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

[User]
Has the English language changed more in the last 80 years (Since 1935) the it had in the previous 80 years (1855-1935)?

I was thinking about this while watching some Three Stooges shorts on TV.

[Assistant]
In what sense? Number of new words? Syntactic changes? Phonological changes? Morphological changes? Semantic changes?

(Language can change in lots of ways, and while it's easy to identify and analyze the differences that took place during those time periods, talking about *more* and *less* isn't super straightforward, even though we might wish it were.)


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

[User]
How did Japanese youth, who was fervently active in youth political movements in the 1930s-1940s, became so depoliticized and passive in 2000s?

It is clear enough that during the fascist Japan era, young people, much like their brothers in Germany, was an active component in maintaining state order. One organization is called *Dai Nippon Seinen-tou*. In the post-war period it went downhill until we see Japanese youth as it is now often depicted: an active consumer, massively depoliticized, and even in some cases, a passive individual.

What happened during 1945-2000 that it formed a depoliticized Japanese youth today?

[Assistant] Post war Japan did not immediately develop into an economic power. In the years after the war, the islands were troubled by political strife. By the 60's, the young Japanese communist movement turned violent. The economy was still getting into shape, and the youth misgivings about the 'defeated' government. In 1971, the Japanese Red Army was founded. They would spend the decade performing horrific acts of violence against various targets, mostly in the name of communism, anti-imperialism, and anti-zionism. By they 80's, two things happened. Firstly, Japanese counter-insurgency (COIN) efforts improved. This was coupled with foreign efforts that hindered their supply lines from other terrorist groups, like the PLFP.  Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, the 80's saw a huge economic boom for Japan. Things were largely looking up for the youth. It will be interesting how Japanese youth react in years to come.


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

[User]
ELI5:Why, if baby formula is basically just fortified powdered milk, does it "go bad" after 1 hour at room temperature or 24 hours in the fridge when reconstituted powdered milk lasts 5 days in the fridge?

Is this all about safety or just a ploy to get parents to buy more formula?

[Assistant] It's a combination of a number of factors.  First, babies have significantly weaker immune systems than grown adults, so a comparatively smaller amount of bacteria can cause them to get sick.  Second, there's no way to know what environment the formula is going to be used in (in particular, how warm), and bacteria grows faster in warmer environments.  And third, babies getting sick is extremely bad news for anyone selling formula, so they tend to be very cautious in what they say is safe.  The amount of extra formula they sell because of this is probably pretty small, especially compared to the risk to them if they get it wrong and their name gets attached to babies being picked up by ambulances.


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

[User]
[GOTG] Why has no one bothered to uplift earth?

The ravagers know where it is, Starlord probably does and has too many issues to go back - so why is the Prime Directive in effect? There are ethical civilizations.

[Assistant] "Have you seen the shit they're doing there? They have super-scientists, Asgardians, leftover Kree weapons called 'Inhumans,' razor-toothed symbiote psychopaths, and they've turned back Galactus more than once! No way is anyone going *near* that place!"


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

[User]
ELI5: why do vaccines contain multiple components, not just the dead virus?

i understand preservatives and all that, but are there other things in the vaccine that will make it more effective? do these components vary from vaccine to vaccine, and are these the reason why vaccines take so long to develop?

and i guess while im here, would simply injecting someone with the dead virus (in solution) be enough to trigger immunity?

[Assistant]
You need the immune system to recognize the vaccine component as a threat, not just trash. If you just inject the dead vaccine, it's possible that your macrophages (essentially trash collectors) will just eat the dead virus and move on.

Instead, if you add components called "adjuvants," the body will actually respond to this new molecule. The T and B cells will respond by making antibodies against that molecule.

So when you're choosing what molecule, you need to find something that is:

* unique to the virus (If a very similar component exists in your heart, after the vaccine, your body will destroy that part of your heart. This is called molecular mimicry and is what can happen after you get strep throat. That's why we treat strep throat a little aggressively)

* found in most versions of Covid-19 (Obviously, or this won't be helpful
 This is why the flu virus is hard to vaccinate against. We predict which strains are most likely, but we can guess wrong)

* Safe for humans to be injected with

* Doesn't create TOO strong of an immune response (If people get a fever and feel like shit for a week after the vaccine, they would rather risk getting the actual virus. This is an issue with the flu vaccine (have you heard people say they got flu from the vaccine? They didn't, but they may have gotten too strong of an immune response)).

* Creates a strong enough response in the immunocompromised. (This is a really hard line to walk. People with bad immune systems are high risk to viruses, but they're also harder to vaccinate since their body may not respond to vaccines.)


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

[User]
[Star Wars] What happened to the clones after they were phased out?

 we know that the Empire phased out clones in favor of civilian recruits ,so what happended to the clones that got too old to fight?

Were they killed? did they become civilians if so how come we rarley see any clones outside of duty?

[Assistant]
Some stayed with the Empire and served roles in training stormtroopers, officers, etc...

Others went into private security, or joined militias, soldiering being all they know.

A few joined up with gangs and smugglers, not many, but it would a world where their skills were useful.

And there were a lot that just wanted to live a quiet life, and went off and homesteaded somewhere.

But the one thing that you have to keep in mind is that by the time of the end of the Empire, many had passed on. They were genetically altered with accelerated aging. They would be old men by the time of the events of the OT. Captain Rex was downright ancient when he was on Endor. So ultimately the answer to your question is they eventually died out.


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

[User] I believe the Second Amendment is completely archaic and needs to be either removed or reevaluated for the modern world, and the whole idea of armament as an 'unalienable Constitutional right' is extremely harmful and makes common sense gun control unnecessarily difficult. CMV.

[Assistant]
The phrase "common sense gun control" is a political talking point that ignores the complexities of the topic. Please elaborate on what gun control measures you believe are common sense.

Also elaborate on what sort of reevaluation you're in favor of.


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

[User] ELI5: Would training under increased gravity, be it strength or otherwise, be beneficial to humans once they returned to normal gravity?

[Assistant]
I think it would be similar to training at high altitudes. That is, there would be measurable benefits for awhile, but they would quickly disappear after returning to normal conditions.

Our bodies are remarkable at acclimating to new situations, which is a double edged sword. It means we can adjust to harsher conditions like high altitude and (probably) slightly higher gravity, but then we just go right back when things get easier again.

I would also imagine that, depending on how strong the gravity increase was, prolonged exposure would have serious consequences. Imagine extra gravity pulling on all your internal organs and such, and making it harder for blood to get from your lower body back to your heart, or from your heart up to your brain. The extra exertion would eventually take a toll.


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

[User]
Your IQ value is artificial, meaningless and does not matter, to anyone, whatsoever. This includes yourself. CMV

I believe IQ values are pointless and empty. With all the different potential fields and mental skills and capabilities, trying to combine them into one statistic is impossible, and thus any high (or low) IQ score someone might get in an "intelligence exam" is meaningless.

**"But some people are objectively smarter than others"** yes that's true, obviously gifted people and geniuses are real and can objectively be pointed out as more talented than most people *in some areas,* but not all. What I'm saying is that trying to reduce all of a person's skillsets into one standardized generalized comparable single one-size-fits-all numerical value is impossible. It is trying to measure the immeasurable.

Also, the lack of a world standard for these tests make them all relative anyway and not at all objective, statistical or scientific.

Edit: to clarify my meaning further, I mean that saying "I am smart because a test that I took told me my BrainPower^tm is 156" is ludicrous and childish.

[Assistant]
When you attempt to turn something qualitative into a quantitative value, you are bound to have some degree of error. However, higher iq is correlated with higher intelligence, and lower iq with lower intelligence. A mentally retarded person will, on average, have a lower iq than a meantally healthy individual. A nuclear physicist will usually have a higher iq than Mr Joe Average.

Sure, it's not perfect, but it definitely isn't a meaningless value.


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

[User] Why are animal noses hairless?

[Assistant]
Many warm-blooded animals conserve water by keeping a cool nose. Air in lungs reaches 100% humidity. When this air is breathed out, all the water 'added' to that lung air might be lost -- quickly dehydrating the animal -- unless the water were retained in some way. One way that animals retain this water is by having long cool noses. As the humid air is exhaled through the nose, it cools. This causes the water to condense out, drying the exhaled air and recapturing the water that would otherwise be lost. The recapturing of water is enhanced if the air swirls around a bit in the cool nose before exiting. This swirling is aided by curls of fine bones in the nose called 'turbinates'. The humid air swirls around and around, losing moisture, and finally exits the nose. A lot of the water is kept instead of being lost to the environment.

This is why dogs often have wet drippy noses. The drippy moistness is all the water that is condensing as the humid air from their lungs exits the nose.

It's also why your nose tends to run when it is cold. The runny stuff in your nose isn't actually snot in this case, it's water from your lungs condensing in your cold nose. You should swallow as much of this runny nose water as you can, so you don't dehydrate (really!).

This is also why you see your breath when it is cold. The water added to air in your lungs condenses when the humid air is cooled after you breath it out. This causes a cloud/fog to form. The same thing happens when you breath on a cold window. The window fogs up because the water added to the air in your lungs is condensing as the humid air hits the cold window.

If animals had hairy noses, the noses would tend to stay warmer, and the water from the lungs would condense outside the nose instead of inside the nose. This would increase dehydration. Of course, the animal must balance water loss (which makes noses bald) and heat loss (which makes noses hairy). Life is full of trade-offs.


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

[User] ELI5 Why does some species have special mating seasons but humans don't?

[Assistant]
The mating seasons are an evolutionary adaption. It is better to have babies during certain parts of the year then others. It is very hard to find food during winter so raising a kid during winter may not be possible. So animals who get pregnant in time for birth during the spring have a much higher chance of these growing up and allow these genetic traits to continue.

Animals who live in areas without big seasonal variations however do not have mating seasons as this does not give much of an advantage. Humans evolved in the African jungle and steppes and thus does not have mating seasons either. We have not lived long enough in the temperate areas to have developed mating seasons. Part of this might be that humans are very smart and resourceful and therefore have been able to save food and make comfortable shelters for the winter months, and even do more conscious family planning that does not rely on pure instincts.


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

[User] ELI5: My whole family caught the same nasty stomach bug. Some of us threw up a lot, others only pooped. What was happening in our bodies to cause the different course of actions?

[Assistant] It all depends upon where along the process the bug activates your immune system in your gastrointestinal system. If you are irritated at one end as opposed to the other it's going to affect where it is expelled.


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

[User] ELI5: why do mobile websites load, and load again, and change their spacing again? Oops, and there's an ad. Better jump the screen around a bit.

[Assistant]
Can't speak for other developers, but in order to load some of our ads we need third party code which needs to be downloaded too. These scripts take longer to load than other smaller assets, like text and images. So the content will jump around a bit to account for the ads that have loaded in the meantime.

The jumping around could be resolved by using placeholders of the exact same size as the ads, but we don't always know which banner size we will load ahead of time.


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

[User]
ELI5 why some foods like Chilli Con Carne taste better reheated the next day

As per the title

Also, I'm cooking chilli con carne right now, hence the question.

[Assistant] Some foods get better as the ingredients have more time for the flavors to meld... the meat absorbs more of the spices and other flavors instead of just being coated in them and same for other ingredients.


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

[User]
ELI5: Dyson Swarm

I know the idea of a Dyson sphere enclosing a star to obtain all of its energy output but I have heard a couple of variants of the concept but the one that caught my attention is the Dyson swarm. Can someone explain exactly what it's supposed to be compared to the sphere idea and how it's supposed to be more feasible than the sphere?

[Assistant] A Dyson swarm is a huge number of free floating individual satellites occupying the space a Dyson sphere (or ring) would occupy without the connections between them. This is useful because it still captures a lot of the energy and provides a lot of the benefits of a Dyson sphere, but doesn't have near the engineering challenges and has the advantage that it can be put up/expanded piecemeal much more easily (just launch more satellites!) than a normal Dyson structure could.


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

[User]
Can you drown someone with water vapor?

Is it possible for water vapor to be so dense that a person drowns by breathing it in?

[Assistant]
The maximum humidity at ambient temperature is still only a small percentage, nowhere near close to enough to start displacing oxygen.

You could do it with water *above* its boiling point, but drowning is the least of your concerns then.


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

[User] If helicopter propellors spin smoothly, why do they make percussive "buh buh buh" sounds instead of a more constant hum?

[Assistant]
"Rotor flap" is the correct answer, but it's more complicated than that.

There are two main controls in a helicopter - cyclic pitch and collective pitch.

Cyclic pitch alters the blade's angle of attack depending on where the blade is in rotation. This is controlled by the joystick, and it's what controls tilt/roll in the helicopter - how it moves side to side or front to back.

Collective pitch alters the pitch over the entire rotor disk, and it's what controls the altitude and velocity. This is controlled by the collective pitch stick usually to the left of the pilot. Pull up on that stick and the entire rotor changes pitch, increasing lift, causing the helicopter to go up.

Combine inputs to both sticks by pushing forward on the cyclic joystick, and pulling up on the collective - and with the right mix of inputs the helicopter pitches forward and accelerates forward. The rotor disk tilts and "pulls" the helicopter forward kind of like an airplane propeller, but at the same time it's providing the lift to keep the helicopter up in the air.

When a helicopter rotor isn't under load, and the cyclic and collective blade pitches are neutral - the rotor simply hums and doesn't make that distinctive chopping sound.

The sound also depends on the rotor type and blade count. High performance helicopters often have four, five or more blades in the rotor, spin at higher RPMs and unless under severe load - they produce less of that distinctive chopping sound because they need less pitch to do the same lift/work.

Propellers on airplanes make the same sound but at higher frequencies since they have higher RPM, but smaller rotors.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are towels soft after they're dried in a dryer but kinda crunchy when left to air dry?

[Assistant]
Move a crunchy air dried towel around enough and you'll eventually make it soft. This is because moving unsticks fibers that dried together.

A dryer is constantly moving so fibers don't have much of a chance to stick together. Or if they do they'll eventually unstick.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] How bleak/difficult is life for the average person in the Galaxy? As in, on a scale of Awfulness from 1 to 10 (1 being us, 10 being Warhammer 40K).

Has the answer varied a lot through the different time periods we see, or remained consistently good/bad throughout?

[Assistant]
It depends on the world you live on, and your personal circumstances.

Most people living on Alderaan (before it was blown up) would've been comfortable at worst, decadent at best. It would still have its own pockets of poverty - most planets do - but on the whole it would be better than say... Earth.

If you live on Coruscant, if you live on the surface you're well-off. The further underground you go, the worse you tend towards - with a few exceptions of people who can exert power.

If you live on Tatooine... dude, you're fucked.


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

[User] [Supervillain Weapons] Is there any other character in all of fiction that uses a Glider like the Green Goblin?

[Assistant]
Well, if you count flying surfboards, there are quite a few options, not least of which is the Silver Surfer. The Royal Flush Gang, too, they have big playing cards.

And there is a second-rate Green Goblin called Jack O'Lantern who uses a "pogo-platform." So you maybe see why he's considered second rate.


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

[User]
ELI5: If the Olympics is known to leave a country/city at a loss financially most of the time, then why does anywhere host the Olympics?

I dont understand why anywhere would spend billiins on building the neccessary infrastructure for the Olympics when most of it will have little use after the event and leave then at a huge financial loss.

[Assistant]
The infrastructure isn't always unused. Sydney has managed to make use of most of the stuff they built for the 2000 Olympics.

Beyond that, some cities use the Olympics as a chance to advertise themselves. This is the case in Sochi, which is typically considered a summer destination by Russians. China used the Beijing Olympics in a similar way, to promote themselves to the Western world.

There's also the fact that not everything always goes to plan. The Montreal Olympics famously lost the city a lot of money, they borrowed a lot to build stadiums they couldn't fill after the Olympics left, despite their initial predictions.

Beyond this, many cities are wary of hosting the Olympics due to the potential cost, especially the winter games, where things like the bobsleigh run are expensive to construct and have very little potential for use outside the games.


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

[User]
[Jurassic Park/SPOILER] If Dennis Nedry(Newman) didn't sell out to Biosyn and thus throwing the park into chaos, what would of happened opening day of Jusrassic Park or the days following?

With Jurassic World being created this thought came to mind. Would Jurassic Park really become a success? Would it of been shutdown by different governments? Would John Hammond actually hire more staff to run the park?

[Assistant]
They still would have had dinosaurs get loose during the hurricane. They already had a bug in the tracking software (book-only) which made their security systems fail to recognize dinosaurs escaping their pens, so it's likely that visitors months later would have been attacked by predators. This would have happened after the next round of investor money, and likely after the first really rich tourists came to the park. Yeah, they might have been able to afford better security, but the park was still a deathtrap and having more security officers and tourists present would simply increase the body count.

The backlash from rich celebrities being attacked and/or killed by dinosaurs would have gotten the park sued, investigated, and ultimately sanctioned by multiple governments. With public knowledge of the park being unsafe, very few people capable of buying a ticket to the park would be dumb enough to actually come. Investor money would dry up and Hammond would certainly go bankrupt. He wouldn't even be able to recoup his losses selling dinosaurs to zoos because of the expense of cloning them and the existence of a black market for dinosaurs in South America (book-only).

Of course, (book-only) Hammond gets eaten alive by venomous chicken-sized dinosaurs when he's taking a stroll. He didn't know very much about dinosaurs, he was more of a vision guy. He probably would have gotten himself killed a week after the hurricane.


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

[User]
[A Christmas Carol] Why did Scrooge get a chance at Redemption when Jacob Marley didnt?

Jacob Marley seems to be guilty of greed and selfishness just like Scrooge. Literally chained to it. Presumably he never had an opportunity to travel with the Christmas spirits like Scrooge did.

Did jacob have to make deals with the Christmas spirits to give Scrooge a chance? If so, what did the spirits get out of the deal?

Was Jacob freed from his shackles due to the selflessness he showed in caring about his friends fate?

[Assistant]
The book (though it often gets cut from stage adaptations) confirms Scrooge was the only person who cared about Marley. He was his sole executor, his sole administrator, his sole assign, his sole residuary legatee, his sole friend and his sole mourner. And even then the main emotion Scrooge feels towards Marleys death is smug that he got a good deal on the funeral arrangements.

Bluntly, Marley couldnt be saved. He had no family or old friends who would have welcomed his change of heart, he was too far gone.

Edit: Though its worth noting that Marley is not wholly doomed. Sure hes a chain-toting ghost now, but he pretty clearly states that hes currently paying his penance by wandering the earth in death like he never did in life. Its possible helping save Scrooge has shaved some wandering off Marleys sentence.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do optometrists ask people if they can read better in the red or in the green?

[Assistant] This is actually a way to fine tune your refraction. Red and green focus at different planes in front of, on, or behind the retina. In order to ensure that you will focus clearly at far distance, i.e., for driving, we will often "keep you in the green". If you see the letters in the red better, you may be focused slightly closer than optical infinity, blurring road signs etc, especially at night.


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

[User]
[Star Trek: DS9] How did the Ancient Bajorans get their solar sail craft into space?

Commander Sisko, upon returning from a conference on Bajor, presented his son with a set of blueprints for an ancient solar sail craft that was supposedly used to traverse the Bajoran system and allegedly made it all the way to Cardassia, but the question is, *how?*  If they didn't have the technology to recirculate oxygen, how did they even get the things into space?  Using a photosynthetic plant to recirculate oxygen wouldn't be nearly sufficient to last more than a few hours, if that, and solar sails are hardly durable enough to survive interstellar travel.

[Assistant] We can get things into space without warp, why couldn't they? Also do they say there was no oxygen re-circulation? They could have always brought along tanks of oxygen if they didn't have that technology.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does mixing lights result in a different color than mixing paint?

for example green + red = yellow in lights, and brown in paint. why does this happened.

[Assistant]
Mixing light together is simple addition. Adding red light to green light gives you yellow light, add in blue and get white light.

Paint, on the other hand, is about absorption and reflection. Yellow paint absorbs blue light, and reflects red and green. Red paint absorbs green and blue light, and reflects red. Mix them together and you get a paint that absorbs blue light, absorbs half of green light and reflects the other half, and reflects red: orange paint.


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

[User]
[Infinity War] how does Iron Man get his ass kicked by Cull Obsidian but IM puts up a good fight against Thanos? Why didnt Iron Man or Dr. Strange try their restraining methods earlier?

I think Iron Man held his own against Thanos even after all the damage IM took, but at full health he was getting his ass kicked by Cull Obsidian.?

For the second question, Dr. Strange made many copies of himself and they lassoed Thanos, and Iron Man shot metal that kept Thanoss gauntlet hand open. Why not use those earlier, when the whole team was ready and available?

[Assistant]
Tony was overconfident when he faced Cull.  He thought his armor made him the baddest dude around so he wasn't going all out.  The Black Order taught him the error of his ways.

He kind of made the same mistake with Thanos in the beginning until he realized exactly how tough the guy was.  Once he got serious he started to make some headway, but by then he was alone.

There's a reason for the saying "hindsight is 20/20".  Yes there were a lot of things they could have done differently, but you usually don't have the luxury of time and clarity in the middle of a no-holds bar fight.  You formulate a rough plan, act, then see how it goes.


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

[User] [MCU Doctor Strange, Thor] How would Odin have dealt with Dormamu? He's not going to let him destroy the universe and he's more powerful than Dr Strange.

[Assistant]
Strange could only defeat Dormammu with the use of the time stone, and even then he didn't really beat him - he just annoyed him into going away.

In terms of raw power, Odin probably still couldn't touch Dormammu - the nine 'realms' he rules over are just individual planets, whereas Dormammu has total control of his own dimension.


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

[User]
[General/Superheroes] What are the most interesting superpower interactions between two or more superpowered individuals meeting each other or during combat?

Can be from any movie, TV show, videogame, comic/graphic novel, book etc. I'm just interested in unusual reactions when two seperate superpowers interact or collide somehow.

[Assistant] In an issue of Justice League of America, the League went up against the Shadow Cabinet. (Characters being introduced into the universe because DC had just bought the publisher.) One of the characters is named Twilight. He is described as a living portal to another dimension. That's it. His main use was for his teammates to throw enemies into him to get them out of the fight. So, in a convoluted mess of a story, the League and the Cabinet end up fighting evil shadow versions of themselves. Everyone start a fighting their counterpart, which is kind of fun. Twilight and his counterpart just stand there. They say something about attacking each other would just send them into each other's portal dimension. The good guy asks if the other has a deck of cards to pass the time until everyone else is done fighting. It was dumb, but kind of funny.


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

[User] What does Nietzsche mean by "if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you."

[Assistant]
Reading the quote within it's context makes it's meaning a bit more apparent:

 > He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.

Essentially, it's a warning - Be careful when fighting "evil" that you yourself don't become evil in the process.


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

[User]
Is it possible to strengthen the muscles in your body that you don't have conscious control over?

I realise there are some muscles in your body that you have *indirect* conscious control over like your heart muscles (aerobic exercise = heart workout). I'm not talking about those.

Is there any muscles in the body that you have no conscious control over, direct or indirect (For example, muscles involved in digestion and other internal processes)? Can these muscles be strengthened with steroids, electric pulses ect.?

[Assistant]
The short answer is yes.

First of all there's diet. Improper diet will reduce muscle mass and if you return to a normal diet, the musculature will be able to adapt to "normal" daily activities even without additional exercise.

Second, there's exercise. Even tho you might not have the mental control to lets say flex or pull that muscle individually, it is still capable of performing work like bearing a load. Like the prior point, muscles will stop adapting once they're adapted. Add work and they will have a new requirement beyond normal daily ruitines to adapt to.

The muscles we have good mental control over are muscles that create motion. This is because we have trained our capabilities to move these exact muscles. And most of the time we don't control these well as single muscle, but more so as a muscle group. Like how most of us can only possess the control to flex our abs as one muscle group because all the individual muscles serve more or less the same motion and purpose.

Most muscles play supportive and stabilizing roles, and with training we should be able to single them out from the group. Or atleast single out smaller groups from a larger group. Like how some people can "roll" their stomach. This is because they have achieved the neurological control of down to two abdominal muscles at the time.

However, we are able to activate these supportive muscles even without having mental control over them.  We do this by performing a task in which they are needed. Infact, this is probably a necessary step if you want increased mental control over them. (But then you must try to remove segments from a task or a motion which requires other muscle(groups) too untill you've isolated the desired muscle(s).) If you do an exercise like the plank, you will activate many such muscles. They will bear a load and perform work, which again gives them something to adapt to.  The same thing goes when you do other full body exercises.

The "Kegel exercise" for women is often explained by "stopping your urinal flow". This is a motion, or activity, that you know how to do. If you do it a few times while peeing you'll soon learn to control, atleast the group as a whole, whenever you decide to, allowing you to exercise it.

This even goes for your heart, which is a muscle. You probably cant take mental control over your heart. You cant suicide by deciding that it should shut down. Most of us cant even make it slow down when we're confronted with a cute person of the opposite sex even as it creates awkward situations. But like above, you can do things to make it change. You can think of things that makes it work slower or faster, or do activities which requires it to do more work. It might even make you capable of taking better control over it, perhaps calming it down in stressful or scary situations.
As for strength of the hearth, more work will make it adapt, making it capable of pumping faster, pumping harder(more amount of blood per stroke) and so forth, or in other words; becoming stronger, even without ever having had mental control over it.

Third, there is medicaments, which can cause more work or greater adaptation than normal for the amount of work. Perhaps the biggest problem with anabolic steroids is that the heart too becomes bigger and thicker and therefor clusters up. This is why so many athletes using anabolic steroids, particulary those in high intensity sports, which puts work on the heart, drops dead from heart problems not long after turning 40.
Stimulants puts more work on the heart, and many of the more extreme ones, like amphetamine and efedrin,  are highly connected to hearth problems also.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do bugs seem to always fly towards people / animals when they're around?

I've noticed whenever bugs are around they seem to always feel the need to check out who ever is around them without fear of consequence why is this?

[Assistant]
1. They 'know' that they are more likely to find food near a larger animal. Since a lot of flying bugs are scavengers and can't hunt themselves, they are evolutionary programmed to be attracted to places where a hunting animal is operating.
2.  The bugs that can hunt, like mosquitoes, are attracted to signals that their prey (mammals) put out, such as CO2, heat, or movement.
3.  You only notice the bugs that congregate around you. for the every hundred flies that bother you while camping, there are millions in the area, blindly bumping around, oblivious to your existence. As a human, you just tend to notice t he ones that are all up in your bubble.
4. They do have fear of consequence. That's why flies evolved to be so quick and agile, or why mosquitoes can fly away in the blink of an eye without breaking their schnozzle. Or why they inject you with a painkiller so you don't feel them feeding.
At the end of the day, most mammals can't swat at a bug, so there's little risk to feeding. Between starving and the slight chance that your prey is human, it's a gamble worth taking.


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

[User]
Do we keep our atoms as we age?(more questions inside)

1.Are there any atoms which stay with us for life?
2.How do we loose atoms?
3.We gain atoms from vitamins an stuff from food right?

first time posting here :S
sorry if they are stupid questions or if there is no way of knowing the answer. just i always wondered.

[Assistant]
You are correct in assuming you gain atoms through ingestion, but also through respiration.

There are likely atoms that stay with you for life, or close to it.

An example would be ova (egg cells in women's ovaries) which go into suspended animation in a fetus.  Some of them stay in that state for decades, until menopause after 50 or so (average).

It is imposible to know this for sure, without tagging every single atom in your body with a unique tag of some sort, an impossibility.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is the life expectancy of foxes so short?

It baffles me its only 3-6 years.

[Assistant] Essentially nature is a cruel bastard, and life is hard. In the wild foxes (and other canines) are subject to many diseases, parasites, and competition from other predators cutting their lives shorter than their potential maximum. In captivity foxes live roughly as long as their domestic counterparts, with access to healthcare, food and water.


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

[User]
[Avatar:The Last Airbender] How does Aang support himself now that the war is over? Does the mighty Avatar need to get a job?

Saving the world doesn't pay the bills.

[Assistant]
Aang is pretty ascetic, and doesn't want much. Given he's still dealing with disputes and spirit attacks, and he did save the world, he'll do ok.

Worst comes to worst, he's friends with the Fire Lord, Earth King and the Chief of the Southern Water Tribe. If he needs money, he has plenty of people to turn to.


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

[User]
[Dr Strange] Am i wrong or did Dr strange actually make sure to time his loop just right so while Dormammu could indeed kill him endlessly over and over, he wouldn't have time to Torture him?

I know all those deaths are a big form of torture but I mean he wouldn't try keeping him alive and torturing him slowly to try and break him. Dr Strange seemed to have a really strong will but torture by such an entity would break anyone.

[Assistant]
It's possible, but remember how much bigger Dormammu is than Strange. It may be hard for him to torture something as small as a mortal wizard *without* killing him.

Like trying to 'torture' a fly with a mallet.


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

[User]
ELI5: How are aliens expected to decode the golden record on Voyager 1 and 2?

I understand that an advanced civilization would have to use science to decode them, but how would they be expected to decode something that is based on human-constructed measurements, such as the use of cm, AU, time in seconds, etc.

[Assistant]
The golden record tries to take that into account.  It has a number of aspects of math that are assumed to be universal along side how we notate that in our language.  It then tries to define our units of measure using things we assume to be constant across the universe - eg. the gram is defined based on the atomic weight of hydrogen.

The hope is that an intelligent species would realize the record is from another intelligent species and would be able to decode it; it is accepted that this process will take some effort, but assuming that their laws of physics and chemistry are the same as ours, it would be possible.


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

[User] Why are the solar panels on ISS different from the ones usually seen here on earth?

[Assistant]
Space is a very harsh environment. Anything sent into space will likely need to be highly customized in order to function for any length of time.
First is weight. Sending mass into space is expensive, so lowering weight is a high priority. The solar arrays for space missions are made much thinner than cheap-o solar cells you buy at Solar Cells R Us and thus save on expensive fuel.
Second is volume. Solar arrays need large surface areas in order to collect maximum sunlight. Large areas are incompatible with rockets moving at Mach 5+. So the solar arrays must fold into tiny packages to fit into cramped rockets.
Third is radiation. Space, even within the Van Allen Belts, has lots of high-energy particles whizzing around that like to wreak havoc on materials, especially solid-state electronics such as solar cells.  Special cell materials are used, along with redundancy, to give the cells longer life in such a brutal environment.
Fourth is physics.  The solar arrays must deploy remotely, since there is rarely someone present to do it manually. Deployment is usually a one-time action, so many cell arrays are basically designed using springs. Think of your umbrella that opens at the push of a button.    Getting them going is fairly straight-forward, but the lack of air in space means there is little damping like we get here on Earth. The cell array springs out, hit the end and much of that deployment energy bounces back from the end.  It keeps bouncing back and forth until is dissipate as (mostly) heat.  That means that the array support mechanism must be strong enough to handle that shock without transmitting the shock back into the satellite, space station, etc. it is connected to. Transmitting that shock can rattle other things loose and cause other problems.
Fifth, more physics. As the ISS transitions from full sun (in front, on sides of Earth) to darkness (in Earths shadow), the drastic heats differences cause the solar array materials to expand and cools. All the components, including the cells themselves as well as the support structure, must be able to tolerate the expansion and contraction caused by the heating and cooling. This motion is usually exhibited as vibration. Youre no doubt familiar with this as the creaking sounds old houses make in the middle of the night as they cool.  These pops send shock waves down long panels, another factor the matrials and design must handle.
These requirements, plus many more, require lots of custom design and test to make sure they dont fail or worse, cause problems for other parts of the space station.


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

[User] [Starship Troopers] Why did the Invasion of Klendathnu fail? What was the endgame to that plan? What exactly was the new plan and endgame?

[Assistant]
There was no endgame to that invasion plan.  It was always supposed to fail and turn into a large galactic war.  The Federation is the kind of militaristic fascist society that can only remain stable with an active conflict going on.

Hell, the Bugs never send another asteroid after Buenos Aries, its pretty likely that they NEVER sent one in the first place.  The Federation just needed an enemy to unite the people around.


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

[User]
How do eyelash microorganisms get to a newborn?

All people have eyelash microorganisms, but I dont think they are born with them. How do they populate a newborn?

EditI was referring to the mites that exist near eyelashes, but Im also curious about other microorganisms as well! Thank you for all of these detailed and thoughtful responses. The human body is cool:

[Assistant]
If you are talking about the skin microbiome (this is the germs / microbes on all skin and eyelashes) then babies obtain a lot of their microbiome from their mother during birth. They they will have additional colonisation through any skin to skin contact as well as their food. This microbiome is made up of lots of different types of microbes and millions of each and transfer very easily.

If you are talking about eyelash mites, eyelash mites can also live on general skin. These are transferred from people with them on their skin / hairs / eyelashes to the hair / eyelashes on a newborn by touch. Keep in mind that everyone has hair all over so this could be to anywhere on the baby and they can then move. It is also worth noting that not everyone has these mites and the same goes for newborns.


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

[User] [Marvel] Is Dr. Strange still a licensed medical practitioner?

[Assistant] A New York State medical license is issued for life but you do need to re-register every 3 years to actively practice medicine.  So if Dr Strange bothered to fill out the paperwork every three years he maintains his license.  Even if he let it laps he jsut has to fill out a form to be able to practice again.


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

[User]
[Star Wars Cannon] Did Darth Sidious and Darth Vader wipe out all other Sith as well as the Jedi?

Or did they just want the Jedi gone?

[Assistant] There were no other "sith". At this point in history, Darth Bane's Rule of Two was already in place, a practice that allowed for only 2 Sith Lords in the galaxy at any given time to maintain secrecy and prevent unnecessary conflict within the ranks.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why didn't Obi-Wan and Yoda just raise Luke and Leia themselves?

One of Yoda's complaints about training Luke is that he's too old to begin it, and it's established that Jedi begin their training when they're toddlers. Obi-Wan and Yoda were both there when Luke and Leia were babies, so why not take them to Dagobah and raise them to kill Vader and Palpatine themselves? If it was so necessary to separate them, you could have Obi-Wan raise Luke and Yoda raise Leia or visa-versa. So why did they wait until the kids were in their late teens to begin training them?

[Assistant]
Raise them on Dagobah? A swamp world filled with monsters that would look at a growing kid like he's a Endorian Chicken McNugget? Yoda could easily protect the twins but the reason he went to Dagobah is because he needed to cloak his presence from Vader and the Empire. Force users can sense other Force users and Yoda is so powerful and so unique (as far as other Force users go) that he would be like a bright blinking beacon to anyone looking for him. So he parked himself next to the Cave on Dagobah, an incredibly powerful source of dark side energy, effectively drowning his presence out. It wouldn't be good if he had to use the Force to rescue the kids from some monster once a week. He's a powerful Jedi Master with centuries of experience and can probably hold that influence at bay while using it to cloak himself - how would an untrained Force sensitive child like Luke or Leia fare?

Obi-wan isn't as powerful as Yoda, but with the purge of Jedi, he would stand out all the more. That's why, during his hermitage on Tatooine, he spent much of his time in meditation to cloak himself. He still managed to look in on Luke from time to time, but he wouldn't be able to actually *raise* Luke because of that.

Also, look at the logistics: Dagobah is a swamp planet. What happens when one of the kids, with their less-robust immune systems, contracts space malaria? How does Yoda, in a mud hut with no access to Bacta, treat that? How does he take him into space to get treatment? How does he keep his presence hidden? Stick them on Tatooine with Obi-Wan then. But he's meditating much of his time and so he can't raise them. Stick them both with Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen then, but what happens if their farm gets raided by some Sandpeople or attacked by a Krayt dragon or taken by some Imperials? Your eggs are all in one basket and the heroes you're counting on are dead or sold into slavery to some Hutt.

Okay then, stick them underground somewhere and watch over them and provide them food and water and such. Then you end up with socially-stunted agoraphobes, not the next generation of galactic leaders meant to guide the galaxy out of the shadow of the Empire, rebuild the Republic, and return the Jedi Order to glory. Separating them and placing them where they did (Luke with the good, salt-of-the-earth Beru and Owen and Leia with the politically apt Alderaanian royal family) ensured that they got the training and moral groundwork they needed. Jedi training can come later.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] What fuels the hatred of the Jedi for most Sith? Since the Jedi don't know the Sith are still around, they wouldn't be hunting them and so the Sith wouldn't have any bad experiences with the Jedi.

Are the Sith just haters because they have been told at a young aged that the Jedi should be haters? Are they basically racists?

[Assistant]
No, and no. You appear to be unaware of such a thing as ideological hatred. The Jedi are a religious organization. The Sith are a religious organization too, a Jedi heresy in fact. There is an *ideological imperative* for each to destroy the other because their ideals are in complete opposition. They cannot coexist because of their beliefs, not because of their past histories.

A Wehrmacht soldier who marched into the Soviet Union had no animosity towards the locals. But *he's been taught* that Slavs exist to be subjugated, and that they need to be liberated from the Judeo-Bolshevik dictatorship and put into their rightful place, as slaves for the Greater Germany.

Ideology makes you hate people you otherwise have no reason to hate.


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

[User]
[Coco] What happens to Ernesto de la Cruz at the end of the film?

We see him suffer the same fate at the end of the film as that which killed him in the first place, namely, crushed by a giant bell. This is poetic bookending and all, but he's already dead; he can't die again, right? The film draws a line under his character as though that's the end of him, but is it ever established that you can 'die' in the land of the dead through any means other than the Final Death?

[Assistant] He's still around, but trapped under the giant bell unless someone decides to rescue him. And considering his precipitous fall from grace in the eyes of the living and the dead, there's a good chance he rots there until he is forgotten.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do asphalt roads go from dark black when fresh to the dull grey?

I was driving on road that is being renovated and this question popped into my head. Asphalt is black like coal when fresh and I want to know how/why it goes grey.

[Assistant]
Its called *photobleaching*.

Heres why some things are black: their chemical structure absorbs energy from the suns rays. That energy has to go somewhere. Sometimes, that energy gets turned into heat. But sometimes that energy is enough to break apart a chemical bond. The broken bond forms a slightly different chemical that is a different color  so over time, some of the asphalt chemically bleaches to turn gray.


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

[User]
ELi5:why are greens screens always green or blue? Are other bright colours also usable for the same purpose. If not, why not.

Whenever they show behind the scenes clips of movies the parts where CG is added are always coloured a bright florescent green and less often a sky blue colour. Why are these colours significant and are there other options that are more seldom used?

[Assistant] Because blue and green are the least likely to show up in skintones. In the old days ( black and white movies ) they also used red screens. But since red ( and any other color but blue and green ) are commonly found as a shade ( for exaple skintones ) filmmakers opt for blue or green.


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

[User] ELI5: why do we have to take pills by swallowing the thint whole, why can't we chew them or something more comfortable.

[Assistant]
1. Taste. The chemicals in pills taste god awful
2. Many pills are designed in a way that they release the medication in a controlled way. Chewing these pills would break this slow release process.
3. Seriously, pills taste insanely bad. Have you ever chewed one? Gross.


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

[User]
[The Santa Clause] Why did none of the elves seem to care that the old Santa died?

I get that it is part of the job, but nobody seemed to blink an eye that Scott was the new Santa. Now one could argue that the Elves are too busy and don't care but they seemed to care a lot when Scott was arrested the next year.

[Assistant]
If scott is arrested, that's the santa line broken. He's not killed by anyone, he just sits in jail, still santa but unable to deliver toys.

They're used to Santas rising and falling, a new one doesn't phase them, but *someone* needs to be in the big chair.