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

[User]
[Game of Thrones] Aegon the Conqueror and a lot of Targaryens practiced incest. Why is it such a big deal now?

Why are people in up and arms about Jamie Lannister have sex with his sister Cersei Lannister? The Targaryen dynasty was reknown for sister fucking in order to keep the bloodlines pure. Can we really blame the Lannisters for imitating the ancient custom of the ruling House?

[Assistant]
Other than the fact that Queen-fucking is high treason, and it produced bastards which illegaly sit on the Iron Trone, there is the fact that people immediately think of Targaryens when they hear of incest, and Targs are really hated by the noble families.

Plus, you know, incest is kinda yucky...


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why does Force Projection kill the user?

So, according to *The Jedi Path: A Manual for Students of the Force*, Force Projection can be used to either project yourself or an object but it doesnt mention anything about the user dying as a result.

Cut to *The Last Jedi* and Kylo Ren mentions to Rey how the effort of a Force Projection would kill the user. Which, as we know, ended up killing Luke Skywalker. So that begs the question, why does this advanced force ability kill the user?

[Assistant] I don't see why the ability would always kill the user.  Luke did, however, greatly extend himself.  He projected himself across the galaxy for a long duration.  This probably overtaxed him, killing him.


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

[User]
ELI5 What was Argentina a believed hotspot for Nazis during and after WWII?

I've noticed this throughout my adult life, but I just don't get it. Why Argentina? What made it stand out to Nazi High Command?

[Assistant]
German speaking people from all over Europe started emigrating to Brazil and Argentina in the 1870s, and continued to do so in fairly significant numbers right up until 1939, and of course after the war.

What makes Argentina kind of different is that a lot of those people lived in enclaves all over the country and continued to speak German and follow German customs, and continue to do so right up to the present day.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do we get crusty stuff on our eyes?

[Assistant]
Found this on google

"the plica semilunaris, which is located around the eye. Was thought to have no function. But lo and behold, eventually it was discovered that this useless organ has an important function after all.

In fact, it is the crusty factory. It secretes a sticky mass that collects any foreign materials such as dust or pollen. All this trash is surrounded by the sticky shit so that it does not scratch the sensitive cornea in your eye. Once the garbage is collected, the plica semilunaris escorts it out of the eye."


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

[User] ELI5: Why are horoscopes still so popular?

[Assistant] The same reason religion is still so popular: people what to find meaning in the things that happen outside of our control.  Some turn to a well-established religion to explain difficult or seemingly unexplained phenomena.  Horoscopes do the same thing but on a much less grandiose and serious scale.


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

[User] eli5 : How did we measure the distance between the sun and the earth?

[Assistant]
You have to start before that. The first distance to be measured with any accuracy was that of the Moon. In the middle of the 2nd century BCE, Greek astronomer Hipparchus pioneered the use of a method known as parallax. The idea of parallax is simple: when objects are observed from two different angles, closer objects appear to shift more than do farther ones. You can demonstrate this easily for yourself by holding a finger at arm's length and closing one eye and then the other. Notice how your finger moves more than things in the background? That's parallax! By observing the Moon from two cities a known distance apart, Hipparchus used a little geometry to compute its distance to within 7% of today's modern value.

With the distance to the Moon known, the stage was set for another Greek astronomer, Aristarchus, to take the first stab at determining the Earth's distance from the Sun. Aristarchus realized that when the Moon was exactly half illuminated, it formed a right triangle with the Earth and the Sun. Now knowing the distance between the Earth and the Moon, all he needed was the angle between the Moon and Sun at this moment to compute the distance of the Sun itself. Aristarchus estimated this angle to be 87 degrees, not terribly far from the true value of 89.83 degrees. But when the distances involved are enormous, small errors can be quickly magnified. His result was off by a factor of more than a thousand.

Over the next two thousand years, better observations applied to Aristarchus' method would bring us within 3 or 4 times the true value. There was still only one method of directly measuring distance and that was parallax. But, finding the parallax of the Sun was far more challenging than that of the Moon. After all, the Sun is essentially featureless and its incredible brightness obliterates any view we might have of the stars that lurk behind.

Enter planetary relational distance and the key is the transit of Venus. Johannes Kepler and Isaac Newton had shown that the distances between the planets were all related; find one and you would know them all. During a transit, the planet crosses in front of the Sun as seen from Earth. From different locations, Venus will appear to cross larger or smaller parts of the Sun. Kind of like a planetary eclipse. By timing how long these crossings take, James Gregory and Edmond Halley (the comet guy) realized that the distance to Venus (and hence the Sun) could be determined.

This presented a small problem though. Venus is only in transit once a generation (though often come in pairs). By the time Halley realized that this method would work, he knew that he was too old to have a chance to complete it himself. So, in hope that a future generation would undertake the task, he wrote out specific instructions on how the observations must be carried out. In order for the end result to have the desired accuracy, the timing of the transit needed to be measured down to the second. In order to have a large separation in distance, the observing sites would need to be located at the far reaches of the Earth. And, in order to ensure that cloudy weather didn't ruin the chance of success, observers would be needed at locations all over the globe.

Despite these challenges, astronomers in France and England resolved that they would collect the necessary data during the 1761 transit. Although not all observers were successful (clouds blocked some, warships others), when combined with data collected during another transit eight years later, the undertaking had been a success. French astronomer Jerome Lalande collected all the data and computed the first fairly accurate distance to the Sun: 153 million kilometers, good to within three percent of the true value!

By the way, the number we're talking about here is called the Earth's semi-major axis, meaning that it's the average distance between the Earth and the Sun. Because the Earth's orbit isn't perfectly round, we actually get about 3% closer and farther throughout the course of a year. Also, like many numbers in modern science, the formal definition of theastronomical unithas been altered a bit. As of 2012, 1 AU = 149,597,870,700 meters exactly, regardless of whether we find the Earth's semi-major axis is slightly different in the future.

Tl;dr: Bunch of guys, over a period of two thousand years, armed with a bit of creative ingenuity and a celestial phenomenon, used high school level trigonometry to figure it out.


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

[User]
CMV: Using the word female to talk about a woman or girl is not sexist/wrong/inappropriate

As a female who was in the military, I call every woman or girl a female when Im talking about them. Or when Im generalizing. Theres nothing wrong with doing this.

However, several times on Reddit Ive been downvoted or called out for this. Im progressive and liberal, so I try my best to speak with groups of people in mind. But this one just makes no sense to me.

Ive never even heard someone use the word female intending for it to be condescending. And Ive experienced plenty of sexism (primarily in the military).

Please, someone, anyone explain to me how this is sexist or inappropriate. Because Im really not grasping it.

[Assistant]
In normal life use of the word female for women and male for men can be unusual and that unusual use of language can just give people pause. Mostly nobody will take any offence, its just unusual.

Online can be a different thing. Online all people can judge you by is words so they place enormous significance on your choice of words, significance that hardly anyone would apply in a face to face encounter. Also you may run into people who have strong opinions about gender theory online and your unusual use of language will mark you out as not complying with their linguistic codes for their belief system. As that is one of the most heated belief systems generating the most online reaction right now it could certainly explain the responses you are getting.

Online people do tend to read into the words you use meanings which you never intended, then take very seriously the meaning that they have inferred. It is just a drawback of the online world. To those who are hypervigilant to use of language that deviates from their beliefs, you can indeed appear 'bad' and that badness will be expressed through descriptions such as sexist/etc.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does hot and spicy food make your nose run?

As in title.

NB- I used the search bar beforehand, and despite this having been asked a few times, albeit in quite different ways, most had been ignored/had half-hearted responses.

[Assistant]
Think of mucous like a force field around your weakest places. It'd be bad if there was a hole in your colon that allowed stuff to leak into your body. It would be bad if there was a hole in your stomach that allowed undigested food to get into your body where it shouldn't be. This could kill you. Bacteria are constantly trying to eat you alive. They want to eat whatever organic matter that they can by spilling digestive juices all around themselves and then soaking up the proteins that they break their environment down into. You are that environment.

Mucous acts like a force field by keeping these bacteria and fungi from being able to latch on to your very sensitive parts that allow you to survive (eyes, nose, mouth, esophagus, lungs, stomach, small intestine, and colon.). These parts not only trap bacteria in the mucous, but they also see them quickly out of that body part by moving the mucous so the invading bacteria can't multiply.

When you eat some poisons, your body's natural defense mechanism is to protect iself by ramping up mucous production like crazy to help see whatever that thing is, out of the body. This is why when you eat certain toxic mushrooms (especially the hallucinogenic variety), your nose runs, your eyes get insanely wet/leaky, and you urinate much more frequently. Your body is doing everything it can to get whatever harmful thing it can out of it.

Now, there are three main compounds that cause the sensation of heat from spicy food. One is found in mustards/horseradish/wasabi, and it's called allyl isothiocyanate. The plants have precursor chemicals that produce this oil when they are combined by the action of crushing the plant. This helps protect the plant from being eaten by animals. Capsaicin is found in many peppers, and pipirine is found in pepper drupes used to make black pepper. Again, these spicy chemicals smell and taste bad to mammals, so they protect the plant. It's just that humans are monsters. We like pain. So we actually breed these plants to be even more repellent to us.

Capscaicin and isothiocyanate are powerful irritants and cause inflammation in your body. They stimulate many of the same responses in the mucous membranes as an infection, and the body triggers its mucous forcefield to go into overdrive to get these oily compounds out of the body as fast as humanly possible. This is why spicy food not only makes your nose run, but also has a tendency to trigger nausea, diarrhea, and extreme aversion behavior in most people. It can irritate the lungs on the way down too, causing fits of coughing, which is mechanical motion to repel irritants. It also stimulates the secretion of gastric acid in the stomach, which can cause heartburn. Again, that acid is another attempt for your body to break down harmful invaders to your body. Your body temperature rises in response to spicy food too. Again, this is because your body thinks it is under attack and is trying to kill off an infection that isn't really there.

TL;DR: Your body thinks capsaicin is hurting you, and wants to get it out as fast as possible. The mucous helps get it out of you.

EDIT: No, just because your body is trying to get it out doesn't mean it's bad for you.


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

[User]
[Farscape/Alien] What would happen if a leviathan from Farscape were infested with a xenomorph?

Could it happen? If so, how would it go down?

[Assistant]
I can't see how it would be possible.  There is simply no 'face' for the facehugger to latch onto and no suitable place to implant the chestburster.  Leviathan biology is just too different from the Xenomorph's typical prey.
I imagine a Pilot could be infested though.  Probably resulting in a very large multi-limbed drone.  It's doubtful such a drone could bond with a Leviathan.


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

[User] ELI5:How do terrestrial ant colonies survive torrential downpours without flooding in and drowning them?

[Assistant]
Water does flood in.  However, ants usually dig colonies at least a foot deep.  That creates a lot of surface area relative to the tiny entrance hole, so the dirt absorbs the rain quickly.  Ants also build chambers at the top of upward sloping tunnels, so water can't flow in.

As a last-ditch effort, some species will form living rafts that can float on top of floodwaters.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does dust build up on fan blades?

From small computer fans to larger desk fans you always see dust building up on the blades. With so much fast flowing air around the fan blades how does dust settle there?

[Assistant]
Air is "sticky"* and clings onto surfaces. This creates a layer* of basically stationary air right at the surface of fan blades. As dust falls into this layer it gets trapped on the surface. And as others have mentioned, dust collects dust and static and what not adds on to the effect.

*Note: viscosity and boundary layer.

Source: Intro to fluid dynamics and fluid mechanics courses during engineering degree

Edit: Forgot to mention why fans seem extra prone to this. Fans are for moving air around hence they generally see more "air movement per surface area" which is why the effect is more pronounced there!


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

[User]
Can electron beams be used as a form of propulsion in space?

To move something in space we have to generate thrust right? So to do that something has to be ejected in the opposite direction? Like gas or jet exhaust?

Old school cathode ray tubes TVs shoot an electron beam, in a vacuum, guided by magnets at a phosphorescent material. These electrons then excite the pixels and produces photons.

So assuming we cut off the display end of a tv and attached it to an item in space could the electron beam be able to move said object.

Electrons are basically massless but if we had enough being shot out would the cumulative effect be enough to generate thrust in the opposite direction?

Im not high Im just not knowledgeable enough to figure it out.

Edit: Hi all, thank you for the replies. The bit about the + charge affecting the spacecraft and attracting what negatively charged particles may be in the vicinity, after a while, I hadnt thought about. Makes total sense of course, additionally I had no idea ION thrusters were a thing. Lots to read up on.

[Assistant]
Yes you could do that. In fact that was suggested by Tsiolkovsky, the grandfather of rocketry, all the way back in the 1900s when "cathode rays" were a new thing. However there would be a couple of potential issues for practical applications which explain why we don't use it.

First there is a general issue with ejecting charged particles. As you start with a neutrally charge spacecraft, ejecting negatively charged electrons means that you spacecraft will charge up positively. At some point the positive charge will be high enough that the electrons will be attracted back, producing no thrust. So you would need a source of positively charged particles (ions) to eject too. And making a source of ions is in general less easy than making an electron source.

The second issue is that it is extremely energy inefficient (in term of power to thrust) to eject light particles. The thrust is proportional to the mass of the particles multiplied by their speed. So to produce large amount of thrust you need high speed with something as light as electrons. However the energy is proportional to the mass times the square of the speed so you end up with crazy high energy requirements for very light particles. So you need very large power sources (solar panels or nuclear reactor or whatever) which ends up making you spacecraft very heavy and very slow to accelerate.


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

[User]
Why does it seem like so many artificial elements are made by combining Calcium with some other element?

I've looked at some synthetic element creation processes, and it seems like a large portion of them produce element X by combining Calcium with element number X-minus-20. Why is this? Why can't they combine Argon with element number X-minus-18? Why does Calcium seem to be the king?

[Assistant]
Are you referring to superheavy elements? The standard way to produce most nuclear species is using fusion-evaporation or projectile fragmentation reactions. These both involve shooting a **stable** beam at some target, and producing a whole bunch of different nuclides. Then you can use a fragment separator to get rid of most of the ones you don't want.

Typical nuclei which are used as stable primary beams are, for example, calcium-40, calcium-48, oxygen-16, argon-40, xenon-124, lead-208, etc.

To produce superheavy elements like 117 and 118, you'd want to use sub-barrier fusion reactions to minimize evaporation of protons and neutrons; you want a product which is as heavy as possible. In the case of element 118 (Onganesson), they used a calcium-48 beam on an actinide target (some isotope of californium).

It comes down to a question of what primary beams are available at your facility, and which beam will give you the best yield of the nuclide you're trying to create.


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

[User]
[Idiocracy]Will the descendants of Protagonists basically end up living as literal Pharaohs ordering the masses to build giant pyramids to honor their God-Kings?

The movie shows us how there is no evolutionary pressure towards intelligence in their society, so everyone becomes dumb.  The protagonist having a few normal intelligence children guarantees those kids for greatness.  The problem however is that, assuming no incest, THOSE kids have children with partners from the rest of society... which will make them dumber every generation.  Given their relative vast intelligence of the kids and grandkids of the Protagonists they will surely come to dominate society.  Given how terribly dumb the rest of society is, by the time of Protagonists grandkids the danger of first-cousin inbreeding is probably less than the danger of severely reduced mental capacity of their children if they have children with anyone else...

So what you probably end up with is an incestuous dynasty of "super intelligent" people constant banging each other.  History has shown, sadly, that people with dictatorial power rarely use it responsibly, so it probably won't be that long until the descendants of Protagonists have the masses building giant pyramids in their honor?  We see in the movie how the masses are supremely gullible, if Protagonists descendants claim to be gods wouldn't they be believed?

[Assistant]
Here's the trick, for every character we see who has visible signs of an actual congenital mental impairment, there are others (like the Doctor that Joe visits) who are probably average or better in terms of cognitive capacity and a few (like President Camacho) who may be of above average natural intelligence, but with the latter two categories severely hamstrung by poor education, health, and other handicaps. The world of Idiocracy seems to suffer more from problems of "nurture" than "nature"; humanity hasn't literally devolved, but society has stopped encouraging and supporting the development of the individual, creating a world where the stupid can thrive (or at least go unpunished and unashamed) and folks with the capacity to be smart are discouraged and unsupported.

With President Not Sure's platform of improving the overall quality of life and education, there's a high chance of their being at least *some* decent candidates for marrying into his family by the time his kids come of age. That, and push comes to shove >!Upgraydd provides another source of a "vintage" genetic legacy, and could buy them a few extra generations before everything goes to shit with careful management.!<


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

[User]
[Gears of War 3] Why do Lambent Locust act like an organized army while Lambent Humans act like generic zombies?

Lambent Locust still use weapons and retain some semblance of organized infantry tactics, while Lambent Humans act like mindless zombies. Most of the Formers were civilians and not soldiers but they should probably still pick up guns and such.

[Assistant] Locusts have slowly evolved with lambent infection from former humans so they're a more "perfect" organism.  Something along the lines of 50% human 50% lambent DNA.  The infected locusts retain higher brain functions and can call upon former memories and such from this slower infection rate.  Formers on the other hand have a more virulent strain of infection that leaves them with little to no remaining human DNA and destroys all higher brain function.  They become more like ravenous animals attacking anything that is not fully lambent yet.  Essentially the entire system is like one large macro organism where lambent locusts are akin to stem cells and fill a specific function carrying the infection throughout the world  as needed and formers act more like antibodies and attack anything that's not a part of the greater organism.


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

[User]
[walking dead] Why was Shane so focused on Laurie?

(Doing a rewatch, I know what happens)

Granted, he had a vested interest in her and Carl (Coraaal). However, after Rick shows up why didn't he go after another girl like Andrea or her sister. It doesn't make sense to me why he'd go so crazy over his friend's wife after Rick comes back into the picture. It's not as if though there was a shortage of women, and Laurie is obviously not going anywhere from Rick, she is thoroughly back with him as soon as he comes to their camp. I guess Shane's character just doesn't make sense to me.

[Assistant]
Look at it his way, he was infatuated with her before all of this happened. He wanted what Rick had. Then Rick was "Dead" and he did, sure, shit hit the fan, but he had what he wanted so it wasn't too bad. But then Rick came back, and suddenly that was gone. Then, even more, he saw as Rick usurped everything he was to the group, Lori, and Carl but was doing it *wrong*. He put the work in, he protected them when Rick wasn't around, he deserved them more then him. Granted, this is the thought process of a guy who's world has very literally gone to hell, and Rick just "stole" his reason for surviving. He Became unhinged, probably had some problems before the fall too.

To Shane being with Lori wasn't about getting his Willy wet. It was about fulfilling what he felt he needed and deserved.


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

[User]
Why do certain objects have 'resonant frequencies'?

I accidentally posted this in AskReddit a few hours ago; hopefully I will get better answers here.

So, I realize that small particles like electrons have wavelengths associated with them (deBroglie wavelengths). What I don't understand is how certain larger objects like glasses, bridges and buildings can have 'frequencies' associated with them. Does this have anything to do with deBroglie wavelengths? What causes these 'resonance disasters' I hear about (like buildings falling over, bridges collapsing, or glasses bursting)?

Thanks everyone!

[Assistant]
This answer might be unsatisfying because it involves math.

Anything that restores itself when it's been deformed we can call elastic. The simplest example is a spring, but it could be like the stresses on a bridge or an airplane wing or something. When an elastic object is deformed, it moves back to its equilibrium position. But because objects in motion tend to remain in motion, it keeps going past equilibrium: tension becomes compression. Then, the reverse happens: it gets pulled back to its equilibrium the other way, and keeps going, etc. Through this process it oscillates.

Now the math part: the total force acting on the object is equal to its mass (m) times its acceleration (a), and is also equal to the elastic restoring force (k), which is proportional to distance (x). You can set up an equation to see that a+kx=0. The solution to this equation is a sine or a cosine wave, with a frequency equal to the square root of k/m. That is the frequency. So anything with a restoring force will oscillate at that frequency.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do muscles 'shudder' when lifting weights?

[Assistant]
Each muscle cell is one really long cell that runs the entire length of the muscle. And anyone muscle cell can be either relaxed or flexing, but not any combination of the two.

So in order to modulate how much Force a muscle is generating, we have to change the number of muscle cells that are firing.

But while we are lifting heavy things, inevitably some of our muscle fibers get tired and wear out, so they stopped firing and then we have to have another one jump in and replace it. This means that our brain has to do a lot of work to constantly be compensating for changes in the muscle and which fibers are firing, and that work takes a little bit of time, which makes our muscles wobbly when we are using them near their limits.


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

[User]
I find it hard to value humans above all other forms of life. CMV.

I find it hard to look at all existing animals and place a higher degree of value on a human's life over all else. I believe that all living creatures should be treated with equal weight.

I am a vegetarian, but that does not wholly inform my viewpoint.  I had a childhood history of growing up on a farm, watching, living with, playing with, and inevitably eating all sorts of meats and animals.  I also understand that should events necessitate, the importance of meat in a survival diet.

But, expanding on what I said before, I feel this way primarily from a philosophical and scientific standpoint.  Im not 100% sure where I draw the line however.  I dont feel the same way about plant life or microorganisms, so perhaps I could draw the line at sentient beings.

CMV, AMA or just call me crazy.

[Assistant]
>I believe that all living creatures should be treated with equal weight.

I don't think you believe that.

Thought experiment:

A train is barreling down a track which splits just ahead. On one track is a human toddler. On the other is a cockroach. The lever is currently in an off center position. If you do nothing, the train will derail and kill both. You can either send it to kill the insect or the human. Which do you choose?

Edit: And if you draw the line at sentience, which creatures have that? Would you change your mind if a duck is on the track? A walrus?


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

[User]
CMV: Seasoned Transgender women athletes can't compete with their competitors equally in sports.

I recently was in charge of a competition. A previously well known male competitor had gone through her transition and competed in the female category. This athlete went on to win the comp with a decent gap from 2nd place. This has since left a bad taste in my mouth. I have only talked to a few close friends who tell me its not a big deal. But I cant get over the feeling in my head that this seasoned athlete had a significant advantage over her other competitors. I do not believe this person made this switch to win competitions but I do think it's possible that this athlete will go unrivaled in future competitions.

I don't think it was a fair and if she continues to compete the comps will stay unfair.

Do to the size of our sport and its community I will not disclose the sport or the event.

[Assistant]
1. How long has she been within female hormone ranges?

2. Let's say there was a cis woman who for whatever reason had high testosterone ranges during her early development (now within normal female ranges) and has more masculine bone structure and perhaps even remnants of masculine muscular structure. Would you feel equally as salty about that situation?

3. Do you think this is a matter of categorical exclusion? Or do you think that it should be a case-by-case basis?


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

[User] ELI5 Why are there so many ingredients in mouthwash if there is only one that is active?

[Assistant] there's only one ingredient that kills the bacteria.   the other ingredients do other things.   like ... remove coffee stains, brighten enamel, ~~taste good~~doesn't taste like piss,  lessens the alcohol burn, pleasing color, etc etc.


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

[User]
[General fantasy] There is a prophecy about my unborn child saving the world, I've taken a lot of steps but need helo figuring out true names.

Ok so I'm a blacksmith in a poor village. A great sage visted our village, the same who found the last great hero a 100 years ago in fact, and told us our next child (no word on if they well be a son or daughter ) well be a hero that fights and may kill the next threat to the world. Only ourselves and those we trust know. My wife is with child

Now I night be a blacksmith and not have the most book learning, but I did everything I can to give them the best chance. I fordged some armor and weapons in case it helps, left as much money as I can in case we die and everything.

But something came up. I found a book about the last great hero. Appently thet only beat the dark lord becuse they found hid true name. The book said everything has a true name.. and everyone

I don't know much about true names and haven't been able to find out more. Should I name my kid something random and hard to guess and give them a nick name? Name them something symbolic? Give them a lot of middle names? Should they keep my faimly name? What's the best strategy?

[Assistant]
You're overthinking it. True Names (with capital letters) aren't just what your parents named you. Otherwise people would be going around doing magic on everybody else all the time. Just name the kid something that sounds good with a title in front of it. No apostrophes either.

What you really want to worry about is your last words. If you're lucky, you've got 18 years before the villain's goons show up to murder you. You're going to want to say something inspirational when that happens.


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

[User]
Since the universe is expanding, how do we know if a large portion is not already 'out of sight' and thus put it at a much younger age than it might be?

Science noob here, just wondering.

[Assistant]
As a matter of fact we know that a large portion IS already out of sight.

We can measure the current rate of expansion and use that to extrapolate the age of the universe. Also note that this is just one of several methods of estimating the age of the universe, and they all converge on a similar figure of around 13 billion years.

On another note, we have a definite minimum age of the universe which is based on the distance of the most distant visible thing. We know how long it's light would have taken to reach here, and we know how fast light travels, and so we can use that to give a lower bound on the age of the universe. That thing is only a few hundred million years younger than the estimated age of the universe (and when you consider how long it takes for complex stuff to form, that is quite reasonably consistent with the 13 (or so) billion year estimate.


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

[User]
A friend told me that if the Higgs boson didn't exist, then the mass of our body would not change much as most of it comes from the mass associated with binding energy.

I had a look round the internets but couldn't find anything. So, is he on to anything?

[Assistant] He's somewhat right- A lot of the mass of objects comes from the binding energy of the strong force, which gives most of the mass to the protons and neutrons in your body. Percentage-wise, it's a good enough approximation to say that all of the nuclear mass of atoms is due to this, and the higgs field only accounts for the electron mass, which is about 1/2000th of the mass of an atom. However, without the higgs field, electrons would not have any mass, which would change the chemistry of the universe quite a bit. So while it's true that most of your mass comes from the strong nuclear force as opposed to the higgs field, without the higgs field, it's not clear that you would have a body to speak of.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are there so many tire shops in poorer neighborhoods?

There was one on nearly every corner.

[Assistant]
Has to do with zoning and cost of real estate.

Tire Shops are considered Auto Service Establishment and it can only go into specific appropriately zoned space.

Since they sell items that are purchased once every few years, your location is not critical. You will pick a shop with lowest possible lease with decent access to highways, and try to maximize your profits.


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

[User] To what extent is the rise of the alt-right caused by a crisis in masculinity, if at all?

[Assistant] Establishing causality in real world social psychology is hard. Especially when a key variable in the equation, a purported rise in alt-right sentiment, has not been defined or measured scientifically for very long. So answers are going to be speculative because the science isn't there.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do you need to take many small samples when taking a bloodtest? Why cant they just take one and use small amounts from there?

[Assistant] As blood sits in the tube, more specifically, blood cells sit with serum/plasma, chemical reactions are still occurring. As a  result,  some chemicals we are testing for may be  reduced or increased depending on the specific test.   For all tests and instruments there are specific ranges of time which the blood can be  used for that specific test before it  has been in the  tube too long to match the levels in the body.


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

[User]
Is it best to use "we" or "I" in the PhD thesis?

I am close to being finished with my PhD thesis, but i have been struggling with this issue lately.

My thesis is based on 4 manuscript of which there are multiple co-authors (with me being first author). In those, we use "we" to describe all our actions and thoughts. No problem.

In my PhD thesis, my supervisor is encouraging me to use "I" instead of "we" in the discussion/conclusion. This feels very unnatural to me as all the findings are based on the results that "we" found in the manuscripts.

This has led me to balance the use of we/I, where I use "I" whenever i describe something only I did (e.g. experiments). And "we" when referring to conclusions. However, i am a bit at loss about what to do.

Any seasoned academics that can offer some advice? (My supervisor is out of office, hence why i post the question here and not to my supervisor directly)

[Assistant] Sometimes we tend to overthink things. It probably doesnt matter how you do it as long as it is consistent. Usually its good to just listen to your supervisor because they are judging your work. You can always change it later if you write a book or publish it someplace else.


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

[User]
Getting better at presenting

Hi all, Im a first year PhD student and I struggle every time I have to present. I get very nervous and I dont really know how to structure my presentations. This is really frustrating and Im trying to look for resources that could help me. Does anyone have any suggestions (paid or non-pay)? I saw a website called tress academic and they offer a 3 days course for presentations but I dont know how good it is. Has anyone taken it? Thanks!!

[Assistant] Best thing you can do is just keep practicing. Also, talk to other PhD students in your research group, talk to your supervisor, and go to other people's talks or conferences and see what works and what doesn't. Everyone has different presentation styles but these will definitely help.


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

[User]
[DC/Marvel] What would these Marvel heroes be like if they were trained by Batman?

The idea is basically that instead of starting off as solo heroes, these Marvel heroes find their way to Gotham and are taught to fight crime by Batman himself. How does it change the heroes' personalities to be trained by the Dark Knight? How does it affect the way that they deal with criminals? How do they develop as detectives, martial artists, and crime-fighters in general? How do they fare with their new gadgets and teammates? Their basic backstories in this altered timeline are outlined below. You can do all of them or pick whichever characters you think are coolest.

Daredevil
______________________________________________________

Abandoned by his mother, Matt Murdock was raised by his father, boxer "Battling Jack" Murdock, in Hell's Kitchen. Realizing that rules were needed to prevent people from behaving badly, young Matt decided to study law; however, when he saved a man from an oncoming truck, it spilled a radioactive cargo that rendered Matt blind while enhancing his remaining senses. Under the harsh tutelage of billionaire superhero Batman, Matt mastered his heightened senses and became a formidable fighter.

Wolverine
______________________________________________________

Born with super-human senses and the power to heal from almost any wound, Wolverine was captured by a secret Canadian organization and given an unbreakable skeleton and claws. Treated like an animal, it took years for him to control himself. Now, he's a premiere member of the Bat-Family.

Spider-Man
______________________________________________________

Bitten by a radioactive spider, high school student Peter Parker gained the speed, strength and powers of a spider. Adopting the name Spider-Man, Peter hoped to start a career using his new abilities. Taught by Batman that he must turn fear against the criminals of Gotham, Spidey has vowed to use his powers to help people.

Your Favorite Marvel Street-Tier Character
______________________________________________________

It's up to you when Batman takes them under his wing.

[Assistant]
Daredevil-His normal bad luck compounds with the fact that he is technically a Robin, and these two cosmic forces conspire to ensure that he is killed off early in his crimefighting career. But because he's a comic book character, he come back with the new codename of Blind Bat after an experiment performed on his corpse by Dr. Kirk Langstrom.

Wolverine-Serves well for a period, but gets increasingly angry that Batman won't let him kill anybody. Eventually stabs Hugo Strange to death (in this continuity, Hugo Strange was part of Weapon X) and parts with Batman on bad terms. Later hooks up with Red Hood.

Spider-Man: Is a good Robin for a long time, and eventually becomes the leader of the Teen Titans. Unfortunately for Batman, all of his villains somehow end up in Gotham.

Moon Knight: Batman is able to transfer Khonshu to Ace the bat-hound, and trains Moon Knight to counter the occult. Unfortunately Moon Knight is still insane, and eventually betrays Batman to Two-Face. Around this time Khonshu manages to escape from Ace and implants himself into Bane. Moon Knight is locked up in Arkahm Asylum.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why was the Hammer and Anvil tactic developed by Alexander The Great so effective?

How was it able to completely destroy the Persian army in the Battle of Issus when Alexander's forces were completely outnumbered 5 to 1?

[Assistant]
In regards to the Battle of Issus specifically, there's a rather easy answer to why it was so effective.

By the time Alexander led his Calvary (the hammer) into the back of the Persian lines, he had already sent the opposing commander Darius fleeing for his life. He was actually trying to chase him down, when he saw his center was in trouble, wheeled his Calvary back towards the battle, and hit the Persian center from the rear.

Also, when he crashed into the Persian center, he was actually attacking a majority of the Greek Mercenaries who had been placed in the center before battle commenced, not just the Persian infantry. Once the mercenaries (and Persians) realized that Darius was fleeing and the battle was lost, they all began to retreat themselves.

Also of note is that historians have revised numbers showing that the Persians had a 2.5 to 1 advantage. Still significant, but not as great as originally thought.

TL;DR version: It worked because Darius had already fled the field, and the Persians and mercenaries realized this about the same time that Alexander unexpectedly hit them in the rear with his Calvary.


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

[User]
If the Colorado River carved the Grand Canyon, is the Mississippi River doing the same?

I always hear about the Mississippi getting shallower, not deeper, in places.

[Assistant] Canyon formation fundamentally requires uplift. This can mean either vertical movement of rock with respect to a fixed reference frame (e.g. sea level) or a drop in the base level to which the river drains. The materials that the river flows over can play a role, with generally more competent (i.e. resistant to erosion) rocks promoting canyon development as steeper walls can be maintained, but without uplift, a canyon will not form. Comparing the Colorado and the Mississippi, the fundamental difference is that the Colorado Plateau, through which the Grand Canyon has incised, has experienced significant uplilft, where as the center of the North American continent is not experiencing significant uplift.


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

[User] [Fullmetal Alchemist:Brotherhood] In FMA:B, its stated that to use alchemy, people draw on the energy of moving magma in the mantle IIRC. Shouldnt that eventually slow down and stop the movement of plate tectonics?

[Assistant] The heat given off is lost anyway; their alchemy is just using it rather than bleeding it uselessly off into space. Plus, each individual transmutation uses so very little that it would take longer to "use up" the planet than it would for the sun to die and consume the planet (assuming Earth-like conditions in all other ways).


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

[User]
[Marvel Comics] Could Forge (X-Men) make a better Iron Man suit than Tony Stark could ever hope to?

Iron Man is so often considered one of the most advanced thinkers on earth and probably the number 1 engineer. But Forge's Mutant power seems to just make Tony's genius obsolete. Forge can invent anything and everything, so does that include a better or even perfect Iron Man armor?

[Assistant]
Alas. While Forge can suss out the inherent potential in any old box of scraps, there are a few hiccups. When he's tinkering he often doesn't do so with any specific plan for what he wants to create; sometimes he doesn't even understand what he's built until after it's already complete.

The fact that Tony completely understands the metallurgy, computer science and electrical engineering that goes into his suit gives him an edge here.


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

[User]
ELI5: Howcome i'm getting hungry after a few hours of not eating, even though my body can survive for weeks without food?

Same goes for water, i get hungry faster than thirsty, even though humans can survive 3-4 days without water but 30-40 days without food.

[Assistant] If you wait until the point where you are about to actually die of starvation and/or thirst, before you try to obtain more food or water, you have put yourself in a needlessly dangerous situation.  In economic terms, it would be the equivalent of deciding that until such time as your bank account is zero and your wallet is empty, there is no reason to seek employment.  Planning ahead will generally give you better results.


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

[User]
ELI5: How come making your heart work extra hard during cardio exercise is considered healthy, but making your heart work extra hard by consuming large amounts of caffeine is considered dangerous and bad for you?

I'll preface this by saying I don't *actually* think this would be a good idea, and exercise obviously has other benefits besides keeping just got heart healthy, but let's ignore those other benefits for a moment.

Aerobic exercise like running, swimming, cycling, etc is considered good for your cardiovascular health because it "works out" your heart, increasing both heart rate and blood pressure.

However, if I increase my blood pressure and heart rate by chugging down a pack of Red Bull, I'm no longer "working out" my heart, I'm "excessively straining" my heart and its considered both dangerous and unhealthy.

So what gives? How come I cant decrease my risk of heart disease by drinking a pot or two of black coffee every morning instead of running on the treadmill for an hour every day?

[Assistant]
During normal exercise the heart beats faster and builds it's vascular infrastructure to deal with the increased metabolic demand of exercise induced hypoxia. The more you exercise over time the more the heart develops its infrastructure to adapt to the demand.

Coffee causes the heart to beat faster due to caffeine's effect as a neurological stimulant. It doesn't receive the normal stimuli to adapt a more robust atheletic vascular infrastructure and cardiac cells are put under abnormal stress because of the lack of said adaptations.


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

[User]
[MCU] Would War Machine be subject to the Sokovia Accords?

I know he threw in on that side, anyway, but would he HAVE to? He's a member of the US military, and the War Machine armor is property of the military (as seen in the two Iron Man sequels). So I'd imagine THEY would have a problem with Rhodey taking the armor and flying around punching whoever he wants with it, but would the Sokovia Accords necessarily apply to him?

[Assistant] Yes. It's the fact that the Avengers aren't subject to any oversight that's causing friction, and Rhodey is part of the Avengers. Technically speaking, when he is assigned to his post on the Avengers, he is to follow their lead - if they go into battle without US military approval, he is to follow them (until and unless he gets orders specifically requesting that he stand down).


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

[User] ELI5: What makes a letter a vowel? Is that consistent across all languages?

[Assistant]
A vowel is essentially a letter sound that is generated without constricting the airflow in your throat -- compared to a consonant which involves manipulating or constricting the air in some way.
Think of the three sounds that go into the word "Cat".  You have the C/K sound + the "a" sound + plus the hard T sound.

Say the word slowly -- notice how in the K sound, you have to push a short burst of air over your tongue to the top of your mouth -- in the T sound you do something similar, pushing the air between your tongue and your teeth.

The "a" sound on the other hand, has a nice open mouth and unrestricted airflow in your throat.  That's a vowel.  Notice how much easier and natural it is to hold that "a" sound for a long time compared to the K/T.

Vowels are consistent in that basically all languages have them, because they give your throat and airflow a break from the "work" required in a consonant.  But how the vowels sound, how many there are, and how frequently they are used do vary wildly -- English has just 6 vowel letters, but those letters can make around a dozen different vowel sounds (think of the a in "apple" vs "cape").  Spanish, on the other hand, has just 5 vowel letters and each letter makes a more-or-less consistent sound.


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

[User] [Marvel] Bruce Banner is obviously aware of the Hulk, but is the Hulk at all aware of Bruce Banner?

[Assistant]
Yes. They hold conversations all the times. Sometimes they hate each other, sometimes they tolerate each other, very few times do they cooperate. Overwhelmingly they would separate if given the chance, but they can't.

While the Hulk thinks Banner is pathetic and weak, Banner thinks the Hulk is simply a monster. Ultimately they can't escape one another since they are the same person, just two personas of one man.


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

[User]
Are any physicists skeptical of the Higgs-Boson findings at the LHC?

Considering the skeptical nature of the scientific community and, thus, the peer-review process for published research...I am curious if there are any physicists who have read any of the papers from the LHC at CERN who are skeptical of the results.

If so, why?

[Assistant]
It's at a 5.9 sigma level now. It's pretty much beyond skepticism; something exists there, barring the most incredible fluke in the history of science. And the scientists who made the announcement were careful to state that they didn't know what it was, stating it was 'Higgs-like', not the boson itself. So there isn't THAT much to really doubt.

Edit: For clarity, 5.9 sigma means around a 1 in 300 million chance it's an error.


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

[User]
[mass effect] If Andromeda isn't "reaped" why are the races in Andromeda only as advanced as the races from the milky way?

If andromeda was left alone by the Reaper species or ignored entirely, and intelligent life evolved reliably every million years, Wouldn't the races in Andromeda be a lot more advanced?

It can't be just luck that even without help, the old races just wipe themselves out?

[Assistant]
In the Milky Way technology was much more advanced because it was heavily seeded by the Reapers with advanced tech.

That said, the Jardan were moderately advanced, a bit below the level of the Protheans, but they recently had a galaxy wide catastrophe and screwed up the galaxy, so less advanced technology.

Even without help, yes, the old races do wipe themselves out. It's a major plot point.


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

[User]
[Hercules,Disney Version] How did Hades not know Hercules was still alive?

He is in charge of the underworld, he should know every soul that comes into his domain. Why did he not instantly know that Pain and Panic lied to him? You would think he would want to gloat over a dead babies soul.

Or why did he not hear it from other gods? Yes, he mentions that he does not get out much. You would still think that Zeus's son being stolen and made mortal would be big news. Just like Zeus's son being made mortal and killed would be. One would think he would have gone to Olympus just to see the pain he caused when he thought Hercules was dead.
He only found out 18 years later, in 18 years he never found out he was still alive.

[Assistant]
Hades is spiteful, but he's also fairly lazy (Death is, after all, generally a reactive rather the proactive force)- indeed, assuming he's won rather then stopping to double check is a recurrent flaw in the movie. His servants told him they processed the soul, and he's got no interest in wading through the last 100,000 corpses to check.

Ask anyone working in accounting- between sheer volume, deceitful middle management and a lazy boss, it's amazing how even extremely important things can slip under the radar.


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

[User]
Why are humans able to feel excruciating pain?

I understand that human need to feel pain in order to signal our body that we are doing something hurtful to it. But we the need to have different levels of pain? Would it not be more convenient if a horrible leg break hurt like being pricked by a needle? I would still realize that something is wrong with my leg and try to fix it.

[Assistant]
There isn't a reason, or "why", for evolution. It merely happens by chance and whatever seems to be able to last long enough to be passed on to the next generation, does. To answer your question, though, it may have something to do with nerve endings and cell damage. The more nerve endings and cells that are damaged in a harmful incident, the more signals are sent to the brain to say that something's wrong.

Some injuries have more of an effect on the abilities of an animal than others. If you treated a serious injury, such as breaking a leg, just the same as if you received some small scratch, it wouldn't be as important as if you felt it in a higher magnitude than that small scratch. Therefore, you would perhaps do less to treat it, and you may do less to prevent future occurrences if you do survive the aftermath. Evolution isn't about being convenient and in the better interest of the organism. It may be in some cases, but for the most part only those who responded the most severely to the break, or did the most to avoid that situation, are the ones that survive the most frequently to continue on with the next generation.


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

[User]
How does an object continue to spin on inertia?

It is my current understanding that for matter to change direction, energy is required.
But when an object (e.g. Earth) rotates on a point, the matter is constantly changing direction to follow the curve around the axis.
I would have thought over time, an object would gradually lose energy and eventually come to a halt. Why does this not happen?

Can anybody offer a layman's explanation?
Thank you.

[Assistant]
Energy is required for matter to change speed - not direction.  Force is what is required for matter to change direction (and speed as well).

When an object is rotating, a point on it does require a center-pointing force to change direction in order to keep rotating.  But if the object is rotating about its own center of mass, there is a point on the opposite side which needs an opposite force - also pointing towards the center, but the point-to-center direction is different - to do the same.

In this case, there is no net force required, and the object doesn't lose energy to its surroundings.  All the force is provided by parts of the object pulling on each other.


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

[User] [Marvel] Where are the incredible Hulk's incredible nippes?

[Assistant]
Technically the Hulk was not *born*, which is important in the fact that he never needed to nurse, nor never started as a female in the womb, therefore developing nipples.

The more salient question is *why he has a belly button*.


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

[User] [Blade 2] Blade has body heat while regular vampires do not. What does this say about his & their biology?

[Assistant] He's a half vampire, he's actually alive while they're dead. Blade ages and will eventually die from being too old if a vampire doesn't get him before then as his strength slowly deteriorates. Drinking blood gives him more vampire advantages like strength/speed, which he naturally has elevated levels of in base, but it's currently unknown if he can prevent aging with it or what'll happen with prolonged exposure as just some blood let's him go toe to toe with some pretty powerful dudes.


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

[User] [DC] You're now in charge of thinking up a new Lantern Corps. What color are they and what is their emotion?

[Assistant]
The Nameless Lanterns. Their colour is the Colour Out of Space from the Cthulhu Mythos, a sentient colour unlike any on the normal spectrum which humans can perceive, which lands on Earth in a meteorite and spreads across the land, corrupting all matter it comes across, causing mutations, sickness, and growth in most organisms. Whilst the colour's motives are unknown, it appears to seek the assimilation of all it encounters. Its Lanterns are connected by a hivemind, all seeking the same goal; powered by despair-induced insanity, they wield the power to spread the Colour to their surroundings and manipulate them fully, down to an atomic scale. They can manipulate their own flesh however they please, regenerating from a single cell in times of need, and can mutate and indoctrinate lifeforms into their twisted subordinates. They know no fear, compassion, rage, or reason, and they will not stop until the stars all shine in one united Colour.

*From darkest earth, to stars so bright,*

*Through feeble dreams of day and night:*

*Relent unto our eldritch might,*

*And bathe in ancient unknown light.*


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

[User]
[Assassin's Creed] The assassins can make some incredible high jumps and still be fully okay, but I'm wondering is there an limit to how high they can do this and what does it say about their bodies?

My question is divided in to two parts.

First, we know the assassins can jump from incredible heights and still walk away okay mostly if they land in a stack of hay or something like that but even sometimes without it. Is there a limit to how high a distance they can jump from and still land safely as long as there is something to catch them?

Secondly, we know that the assassins have certain abilities like eagle vision and such but otherwise is human so what I'm wondering is, can all humans do this in their universe if they are trained to or is their something unique about the assassins and their bodies that would allow them to do the "leap of faith"?

[Assistant]
The Leap of Faith feats are generally assumed to be... exaggerated. You're living through memories, and we can often conflate different similar memories or just get them outright wrong if we want to remember them a certain way. Ezio probably did it a few times, and either his mind or the Animus just conflated it with every time he climbed a tall building and made it seem like it was a daily occurrence.

As for Eagle Vision, that's a power exclusive to a few bloodlines like Desmond's. All the games up until Black Flag are explicitly playing as one of his ancestors and thus sharing the same bloodline abilities. There are exceptions, like Kassandra for example, but she and her bloodline(as well as Desmond's and others) also possess a higher concentration of First Civilization genes than most other humans which allows them to use these powers.


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

[User]
[DBZ] Why are the fans always stunned at every World Tournament?

I've been coming to these martial arts tournaments for years, and for *years* the audience seems to be stunned at the feats of Z-fighters, as if they somehow forget. How is this anything new?? Do they really have such poor memories? I remember Goku turning into a Giant Ape at one of the tournaments, so how does him lifting off the ground or his friend punching a force-measuring machine into dust really that amazing?

Sure, the fights are always incredible to watch, but everyone else always acts like it's the first time they've ever seen a Z-Fighter use an attack. Once I saw that Goku had a kid, I felt bad for all the kids entering into the tournament, but no one else seemed to expect the Z-Kids to be as good as they were.

How does everyone else forget these things?

[Assistant] Well you've seen fireworks many times in your life. The idea of fireworks doesn't sound that thrilling but when they are going off in front of you you might be a little more excited, and when you add in a factor that you have a slight chance to be crushed into a paste by a giant ape, or have your limbs removed by a laser beam you might occasionally lose your shit every time someone does something.


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

[User]
[Star Trek] If TOS Romulans and TNG Klingons are supposed to follow a strict code of honor, why do they both use cloaking devices?

Isn't stealth one of the least honorable ways possible to fight?

[Assistant]
Simple answer, cultural relativism. What we consider to be honor isn't necessarily what the Klingons or Romulans consider to be honor.

For instance, the Romulans value the ability to be a manipulative and devious politician as the height of political prowess. They celebrate people who arrange for things to work out to their advantage. With that kind of "cloak" and dagger behavior valued in their politics, it makes sense that they would have no problems with ships that you can't detect until they are on top of you.

For Klingons, it is probably more a matter of practicality. Their chief enemy is generally the Romulans. They stole their cloaking tech from them. It was probably a case of: If our enemy is going to use this, then there is no honor in being outmatched.


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

[User]
[Spider-Man movies] How is Peter Parker poor if he's the only one who can get pictures of Spider-Man? He should easily be able to make a comfortable wage off that.

Imagine if you were the only person in the world who could get good pictures of Tom Cruise. You could make a lot of money by being that person.

[Assistant]
He's not the only person who gets pictures of Spider-Man, he's the only person who gets GOOD pictures of Spider-Man. Anyone can take pictures of him, it's not like its hard to point and click while he's in a fight or something. Peter is just the only guy who can get special poses and stuff like that.

He's poor because JJ rips him off, for one, and because despite the quality of the photos Peter is only a freelance photographer. Nobody is going to pay him much for anything when there are plenty of others willing to do the same job for cheaper, even if they have to make do with inferior photos.


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

[User]
[LOTR-Hobbit] How come Gollum doesn't start aging faster after losing the ring?

In the lord of the rings, we clearly see that Bilbo starts aging really quickly as soon as he leaves the ring to Frodo, when the hobbits reach Rivendell, Bilbo is a lot wrinklier. While in The Hobbit, Gollum appears the same as in the Lord of the rings even if he spent 60'ish years without the ring. So why isn't he getting older? (I'm strictly talking about the movies here)

[Assistant]
Presumably because Gollum had the Ring longer the effects take longer to wear away.

This is a movie only explaination though.

In the book we get no reason to believe Bilbo rapidly aged and there is therefore no discrepancy.


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

[User]
Why are text messages still handicapped by antiquated standards?

When will we be able to send ETE encrypted texts with more than 160 characters? Or videos not compressed to 10x10 pixels? It's 2019 and the standards are decades old.

[Assistant]
SMS still exists because it's essentially "free." Your phone is constantly pinging towers, and every time it does that, it attaches any outgoing SMS messages in the free bytes at the end of the packet. It's a good basic communication tool that uses no additional resources, makes no extra network requests, and works even on the most basic 1x connection with no data.

If you want to send big videos and long messages, we have the technology for that as well (3g, LTE, etc) so you can use that too when it's needed. But there's no point in disabling SMS, even if it's old and limited. It's free, works on any phone regardless of whether it's iPhone/Android/2003 flip phone, and it doesn't burn your data or require any apps. Good standard to keep around, for now.


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

[User] [MCU] Falcon and Redwing. Does the falcon have an AI that helps run his suit like ironman? And is redwing a distinct AI that is supposed to be seen as a distinct character from Falcon?

[Assistant]
Nothing shown suggest that Falcon's suit has anything like the conversational AIs JARVIS or FRIDAY, but there are probably a lot of computer systems running in the background to make sure everything works smoothly.

Sam Wilson is an expert pilot, and he does most of the flying himself, but even expert pilots are helped out by automated systems. There's too much happening too fast for a human to deal with all at once, so the computers take his command of "increase elevation" or what have you, and turn that into the actual steps necessary in the current  environment, taking into account speed, drag, humidity, elevation, etc etc.

Redwing seems to be a semi-autonomous drone, with some capability of objective seeking, but again not the kind of conversational AI Tony uses in his suits. Redwing is more comparable to the mechanical arm tony used to help build his earlier suits in *Iron Man I*; very useful for the task it was designed to accomplish, but it isn't going to teach itself how to defend the worldwide internet against Ultron or anything.


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

[User]
This might sound really stupid, but can I still submit abstracts to conferences call for papers after graduating and no longer being a graduate student?

Please forgive me if this is the wrong space to post this. I finished my MA degree a few years ago, and I have been doing work unrelated to my degree since. Today my former second reader professor forwarded me a call for papers for a special conference about a very specific niche, on which I wrote my MA thesis. I really want to be a part of this conference, but I only submitted and presented papers while I was a student, and I no longer belong to an organization or school. Is it allowed for a regular "no-longer-a-student" person to participate? Will they welcome my submission? The call for papers said, "Early career scholars and graduate students are very welcome."

[Assistant]
Go for it.

There's usually no requirement that you have a current university affiliation in order to present at a conference. It's not extremely common for a variety of reasons, but people do present papers and publish as "independent scholars".


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

[User]
CMV: The chain of ownership should be made clear on product labeling so that corporations can be better held accountable

I think that products should be required to display the chain of company ownership on labeling (i'm picturing something like the list of ingredients but for the chain of ownership, but the exact appearance isn't critical for my view). For example, if I buy a 12-pack of San Pellegrino drinks, the packaging should show that it is owned by Nestle. Some products already do this, but many do not. I think that the amount of effort required to find out all the various parent companies is more than most consumers will go through, and that gives companies ways to avoid accountability by taking advantage of the consumers' ignorance/laziness. Since big companies are making a shitload of money, I think they should be held to a high standard of accountability rather than making it difficult for consumers to figure it out. When Nestle gets caught with slaves or something, I want to know that San Pellegrino is part of that system, I don't want to have to search for a chain of ownership for every product I buy.

I recognize there are lots of little details that would need to get worked out. If a company is sold to another company, they'd have to change their labels, but what about their old stock? Maybe add a date so you can differentiate. My view is about the principle of accountability and the reason why we should make it easy for a consumer to understand the chain of ownership. Little practical obstacles like this won't change my view, although a major practical obstacle that I haven't thought of might.

[Assistant] Exactly how far would you carry this? San Pelegrns is owned by nestle waters, a division of nestle which is a publicly traded company with millions or billions of outstanding shares, many of which are owned by other companies.


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

[User]
ELI5: The Koch brothers and their sphere of influence

I so often see mentioned when big political events go on, often under extremely shady and devious circumstances. How do they have so much influence in politics while staying out of the spotlight?

[Assistant] The Koch brothers are, according to Forbes, together the 6th wealthiest people in the world. They are pretty shameless about using that wealth to exert a significant influence on politics, invariably to push forward politicians and legislation that would work to increase their own profits. They are not involved in politics to "make things better for America/the world", but rather to push the system in a direction that makes it easier for them to maintain and increase their own wealth. They've played a big part in promoting right wing extremism in America, and have also done a fair amount to screw over the environment in their pursuit of even greater wealth. They are pretty much the quintessential selfish/evil ber-wealthy capitalists; think Mr. Burns x1000.


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

[User]
ELI5: So if only thing that can cut through diamonds is a diamond saw. How was the first diamond saw made if there was no diamond saw to saw through a diamond to make the first diamond saw?

Wow that was a lot of "diamond saws" in one sentence...

[Assistant]
Diamonds are very difficult to cut but can be easily pulverized. You can crush a diamond with a hammer without trying that hard.

Diamond saws are just saws with a fine grit of diamond dust on the edge to grind through material.


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

[User]
Why can't you refreeze meats?

What is the danger of refreezing meats?
Why is this danger not present when refreezing veg for example?

[Assistant]
Two reasons, though neither will stop the meat from freezing again if you stick it in the cooler...

1.  Bacteria.  If you warm the meat up to room temperature, you start the process of bacterial bloom on the surface (or inside, if it's ground).  Freezing it doesn't kill the bacteria; it just halts the process.  Allowing a couple of cycles to occur before cooking can result in a much higher bacterial count than would be safely expected.

2.  Crystallization.  Water forms sharp microscopic crystals in cells when frozen.  Repeatedly freezing and thawing a piece of meat destroys its integrity to the point where the texture and even taste end up "off".  This won't hurt you but your guests might pick a new venue for dinner next time.


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

[User] ELI5 why cant they make a quiet MRI machine?

[Assistant]
The forces involved inside an MRI machine are \*enormous\*. Part of the MRI scanner is a ludicrously powerful magnet, and another part creates a very rapidly changing electromagnetic field...the combination causes enormous forces & stress on the coils inside, causing them to expand and contract and make the "banging" noise we associate with MRIs.

The only way to stop it would be to somehow hold the coils so tightly that can't move \*at all\*. And the forces are too large for that to be practical. And if the forces weren't so large, the MRI wouldn't work.

It's kind of like asking why we can't make a quiet jet engine...we can make it quietER, but it's inherent to the machine that you're going to blow thousands of pounds of air through it at nearly Mach 1 and that just can't be silent. MRI is the electromagnetic version.


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

[User]
What coding languages should I use to create this type of web & mobile app?

Hello! I was hoping I could get some direction in which coding languages to use for an upcoming project of mine. I'll try to give some background of what I am trying to accomplish. First off, I want to start developing this application for web, but eventually want to offer a mobile app on both android and apple phones. To preface, I have little experience coding back end applications, but I have over a year to learn / development what I need. I do have some some ok experience in front end, UI/UX development, and PHP so I am familiar with how code works.

The idea of this application is very similar to how crafting works in video games. Essentially the user will create a list of materials that they own, and the app will tell the user what they can make with the materials they have on hand. Eventually it will get more complex by recommending adding additional materials to show what else they can make. For example, it may say... if you add 1 of "x" material you will be able to craft all of this! So I guess there would be two main databases: the inventory of the user, and a list of crafting recipes.

So, the question is really what coding languages should I start to learn/develop this type of application with? I want to make sure its future proof when I start adding more features as I become more experienced. Are there any special front end languages I should take advantage of, as I generally just code in html/css and don't use anything special for website development? What type of database should I use? Whats the best language for the backend; python since I am new to all of this?

Let me know if there are any questions you need answered to help with giving advice. Thank you in advance!

[Assistant]
The easiest approach is to create a responsive web app, with a hi framework like Bootstrap or perhaps a more mobile specific one like Ionic.

You'll need to know HTML, JavaScript, (A JavaScript framework like Angular, Ready or Vue, these all work in Ionic), for the backend nodejS which is again JavaScript.


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

[User]
What is Dostoyevsky saying about existentialism in Crime and Punishment?

I recently overhead a friend of a relative give their take on Crime and Punishment and it has me really confused. They basically said that the book is about Raskolnikov exercising his freedom and trying to create his own meaning and values, rather than accepting what societal norms dictate, but this leads to suffering because he has some some "essence" that he cannot escape. And his freedom, both philosophically and literally, were what caused the catastrophe he found himself in and thus should not be emphasized. They also saw his article on crime as a parallel to Nietzsche's overman, and therefore the book as a criticism of Nietzsche.

Unless I severely misunderstand existentialism, this sounds like a direct criticism of it. Of course this wouldn't make sense because Dostoyevsky himself was an existentialist. I suspect that either Dostoyevsky's brand of existentialism is much different from (my understanding of) Sartre's and Nietzsche's, or there is something specific about Raskolnikov that characterizes him not as an existentialist, but as a something like a nihilist, or maybe a person living inauthentically.

Anyway, what is he actually saying, and how would you respond to the above take?

[Assistant]
I think some, if not all, of this issue is due to the way that existentialism as a movement in philosophy and literature was retroactively applied to Dostoyevsky, just as it was to Nietzsche and others. There just wasn't a thing called existentialism at the time Dostoyevsky was alive, so he could not have been an existentialist or could criticize existentialism *per se*. Rather, Sartre was the first philosopher to identify his philosophical view as existentialism and, following this, earlier philosophers and writers where described as existentialist on the basis that they struggled with the same concerns in similar ways.

Dostoyevsky was an existentialist in this latter sense, and therefore this doesn't entail that Dostoyevsky would endorse every aspect of Sartre's existentialism, which is the specific sense of existentialism as a philosophical view. A similar situation happens with Sren Kierkegaard; while Kiekegaard is often described interchangably as an existentialist, a proto-existentialist, and a foundational figure of existentialism, he almost certainly would have criticized or even repudiated Sartre's existentialism as a philosophical view.

So the differences that you see between Dostoyevsky and other philosophers described as existentialist should be understood as philosophers and authors working in a set of concerns which were later identified with existentialism rather than advancing 'brands' of a philosophical view which just did not exist at the time.


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

[User] ELI5 Stevia is 100+ times sweeter than sugar. How is sweetness/taste measured?

[Assistant]
Taste threshold.

We know that, to detect sweetness, you need about an 0.5% concentration of sugar (or more specifically, sucrose, the sugar you buy in bags at the store) in water. Below that, you won't notice it being sweet; above that, you'll notice progressively stronger sweet sensations. For comparison, a 12 fl oz can of Coca-Cola (listed as 355 mL and thus 355 grams, give or take, since it's mostly water) contains 39 grams of sugar, so coke has a concentration of about 11% sugar (though much of that sugar, at least in the US, is fructose, which is about 1.7x sweeter than sucrose).

Now, imagine you have a new substance you want to test. You try the 0.5% concentration, and people can taste it - so it's at least as sweet as sugar. You try 0.4%, still works. 0.3%, 0.2%, and so on. And finally, at 0.05% concentration, people stop tasting it. Since the threshold is 10x lower than the threshold for sugar, we say this substance is 10x sweeter.


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

[User]
[Deadpool Movie] Does Deadpool exist outside of the X-Men/Fox Cinematic universe and the Marvel Cinematic universe? Or both at the same time? [Spoilers]

Went to go see Deadpool over the weekend.  Now I understand that this movie was produced by fox and exist in the "X-men" world.  However at one point deadpool is fighting on a scrapped  shield helicarrier.   Now it appeared to be at a salvage yard as it was being scrapped and had some damage to it.  It was almost as if this was a set piece from the aftermath of Captain America Winter soldier or the fall of shield.   So does that mean deadpool exist outside of the standard x-men movies.  Is he in both universes?  Im pretty sure the x-man movie universe does not have helicarriers.

[Assistant] He only exists within the Fox universe, but it seems Fox is trying to reference the MCU a bit with the Helicarriers. Bob, Agent of Hydra was also briefly in it (the only soldier Deadpool didn't kill at the Helicarrier, and actually pulled him away to safety after knocking him out), so we might get some half-references to Hydra now as well.


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

[User]
I believe that tax rates should be much higher for people who are extremely wealthy because it won't affect their quality of living whatsoever. CMV

The quality of living for everyone should be the most important thing. Taking money from someone who makes an average amount of money affects their quality of living a lot more than it does to an extremely wealthy person.

[Assistant] This provides a large incentive to move fortunes out of the country, like what has been happening in France. The rich are the ones in the country that fund new ideas and businesses. When an entrepreneur talks about finding investors for an idea, they are referring to rich people. Taking this money and redistributing it means fewer investment can be made. Non-rich people do contribute to the economy by demanding products and buying them, but they are not as good at funding new ideas, since it can be hard to collect a lot of smaller investments and have it amount to enough. The wealth of a nation increases as the economy innovates and makes more with less. This invariably benefits the poor. Look at things like cars, air conditioning, TV, and household appliances. These were once only available to the very rich, but as new ideas and manufacturing techniques were funded and developed these things became much more available to everybody. Redistributing wealth makes things seem more fair in the short term, but it slows innovation in the economy by reducing the amount of capital available to those who would invest it rather than just spend it.


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

[User] ELI5: If modern humans have been around for hundreds of thousands of years, why have we only discovered tools/tech/civilization as we know it relatively recently in that scope of time?

[Assistant] Technology builds on top of itself.  Think about how much we can do now that we have computers that would have been simply impossible to do prior, no matter how smart we were.  Really, though, it seems that the big leap forward occurred when we invented the written word (although there could be some confirmation bias here because we, by definition, have no history from prior to the invention of writing).  Prior to that, someone comes up with a brilliant idea, they try to explain it to other people, who doesn't understand it as well, and when he dies that knowledge is effectively lost (or only preserved in a limited corrupted form).  Once you can write things down you can store them for longer periods of time, and you can copy and transport them to further geographic locations.  This allows knowledge to be shared with people that aren't from the same time and place as each other, which allows people to build on others prior work.


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

[User] ELI5 : What does a record label actually do?

[Assistant] in short, they pay for everything. Recording time, an engineer to record / mix / produce the music and make it sound the best it can. The instruments. In some instances living expenses for the band while recording including rent, transport and food. All of that can be pretty expensive, so the label pays for that with the idea that as the music sells, they will make their money back, and then some.


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

[User]
Case studies are inherently flawed and are ultimately inferior to scientific studies. CMV

So on issues social in nature, the first thing a lot of individuals do is throw down on some case study or other to reinforce their point. I don't find there to be any value in case studies due to the volatile nature of how data is collected from them, even leaving in standard deviation and margin for error, every case study ultimately leaves out any concept that undermines it in favor of enforcing it's goal to the extent that I think it bears no real credibility. That is to say in laymen's terms, it's just really complicated "He says, She says" nonsense.

Some examples of this are the following:

Wage gaps.

Hiring statistics.

The impact of the smart phone on social interaction.

The only thing case studies can glean from such arguments is that people have "motivations for doing something." Which is ultimately common sense.

Scientific studies on the other hand, offer indubitable proof of the matter at hand. Now I know that on issues of a social nature you can't really have a scientific study really comment on anything, but my point is that people pay too much credence to case studies because of emotional attachment to the issue at hand and for no other reason than that.

CMV if you please.

[Assistant]
For the examples you listed, case studies would probably be inappropriate. For other situations, say, an uncommon/complex mental health problem like Dissociative Identity Disorder (formerly "Multiple Personality Disorder"), case studies or other qualitative research methods can add to our understanding of overwhelmingly complicated phenomena. (In cases where the phenomenon of interest is very rare, case studies and similar methods may be the only options!)

Whether you should use quantitative or qualitative research methods also depends on the kind of question you're trying to answer. If you want to ask "How big is the wage gap?", you should use a quantitative study. If you want to know what is it like to be a female engineer in the US, you'll get useful data using qualitative methods. As a side note, case studies can examine multiple subjects so you could interview a handful of female engineers and look for common themes in their experiences.

Qualitative and quantitative methods can complement one another in exploring a topic. However, they sometimes have different purposes. If you want to design educational materials for aspiring female engineers, or write a textbook chapter about sexual harassment in the workplace, qualitative studies will help. If you want to push for a policy change, quantitative is usually the way to go. :)


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

[User]
considering the stomach is highly vascular, does the use of blood thinners and/or beta blockers affect digestion?

(To my knowledge), except for dietary restricitons of some blood thinners, the effect of blood thinners and beta blockers on digestion is not discussed.  Other than heart burn/acid reflux, no other effects are mentioned, but considering how much vascularity is in the stomach, wouldn't digestion be affected by any medications that affect the blood or blood flow?

Edit:  Thank you all for the responses, sorry it took me so long to go through them.

[Assistant] The answer is no. Blood thinner is somewhat of a misnomer as it does not change the viscosity or concentration of any component of the blood, but prevents the coagulation cascade at some point depending on the agent used. Beta blockers do reduce cardiac output, but not close to any degree that would compromise flow to an organ system like the GI tract. Not to mention that the stomach, although vascular like you mentioned, does not really perform a lot of absorption of nutrients. This occurs mostly in the small intestine where the blood supply is essential to take nutrients to the portal system.


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

[User] [V for Vendetta] Why is technology stagnated?

[Assistant]
A lot of people died and Britain turned isolationist.

Fewer people means fewer ideas. Less contact with the outside world means shortages of raw materials. People are using old technology because they can't make new technology in quantity and any new stuff they can make needs to integrate with existing systems.

Norsefire also wants to keep people tired, busy, and unable to organize themselves outside of government channels. Advancing technology would work against those goals.


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

[User] [Alien/Marvel] If Wolverine were to get facehugger'd, would he be able to survive the chestburster? Since the chestburster wouldn't be able to break through his sternum, where would it go?

[Assistant]
It would probably burrow out through his thoracic diaphragm and stomach.  He'd survive.

Another question would be whether or not the chestburster would be able to survive his healing factor.  He was shown to be immune to Brood infection.


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

[User] Eli5: Why does some furniture use Phillips head screws, while other use hex or torx? What are the advantages between the many different types?

[Assistant]
a slot screw can't be tightened with a lot of force, usually you'll slip or snap the bit.
But you'll see it in common things where a lot of hold isn't needed due to being easy to find things to use as a flat head.

Philips Heads are common when needing to screw in multiple screws, but they aren't ideal for things of high hold where you need to make sure they go in tight and have to be removed and reused multple times I.e beds, as the heads can easily strip making them hard to remove or impossible to reuse again.

Furniture will more oftenly use hex because one, Allen keys usually give access to tighten things even in small places and at angels including the lack of need to make sure you apply pressure to the bit when tightening or loosening the screw unlike flat or Philips heads where you need to apply pressure while screwing in a screw, while the hex is also deeper and a lot harder to thred usually finding the Allen key will thred before the actually screw head.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are there airpockets in underwater caves that are clearly under sealevel?

[Assistant]
The caves may have a hidden opening or cracks somewhere to allow air in. If not the air pockets may come from methane or carbon dioxide from degradation of organic matter on the sea floor or some kind of natural gas pocket. It's unlikely that any air pockets in an underwater cave would be breathable since sunlight would be needed for plants or algae to make oxygen.

Another theory could be that the cave was above sea level at some point and the rising ocean could have caused air to be trapped in the cave.


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

[User] Why can a page take forever to load but as soon as I close it I catch a glimpse of the completed page?

[Assistant]
A webpage is made up of a lot of different files. The more complicated the page, the more files there are. This also depends upon the way that the page is designed and coded.

As such, a page typically will not render (display the final page) until ALL files have been received.

Imagine loading a page from the Wall Street Journal that has an imbedded video. The text and style commands (CSS) will go through almost instantly even on a slow connection. However the video may take several seconds. Depending on how the page is coded, it may wait for the video to load (this has nothing to do with buffering and actually playing the video) before rendering the page.

When you close it, the browser stops waiting for whatever file still needs to load and just renders what it already has.

The biggest offenders of this are typically flash animations (adverts or videos) and large image files. Adverts can be the cause for this, which is why some people will say that they experience faster connections when using ad-blocking software.


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

[User] ELI5: What are freckles and how do they form?

[Assistant]
Freckles (also referred to as ephelides) tend to be little flat brown spots which usually are visible on sun-exposed skin, particularly the facial area and arms. Ephelis generally emerge throughout the warm calendar months.Freckles tend to be passed down and grow darker with steady exposure to the sun. Ultra-violet radiation from the sunlight stimulate pigment generating skin cells (melanocytes) to create pigment (melanin). Elevated melanin is demonstrated as darkish or liver spots on the skin.

Skin color depends on the amount of a pigment called Melanin it contains. The more Melanin you have the darker your skin color. Albinos have no Melanin at all in their skin!

Melanin helps to protect you from the harmful ultraviolet rays in sunlight. When these rays hit your skin, the Melanin cells in your skin respond by releasing their chemicals which darken your skin and protect you better from the sun.

In some people, the Melanin tends to "clump" in areas which appear darker than the skin surrounding them. This is how freckles come about. Melanin is regulated by the MC1R gene, and a variant of that gene is believed to determine how freckly you are. When you spend lots of time in the sun, these clumps of melanin are stimulated to produce more pigment thus you get darker, or even more freckles! The tendency to have freckles seems to be inherited.


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

[User] Why is water so hard to find on other planets when it is such a simple compound?

[Assistant]
The other answers here are wrong. Water can be found on literally all the planets in our solar system, just not necessarily in liquid form:

- Mercury: Mostly too hot for water to exist without boiling/evaporating off the planet, but very substantial amounts of water ice exist deep in the permanently shadowed regions of craters at the poles.

- Venus: Definitely used to have lots of water (perhaps even oceans), but most of it dissociated high in the atmosphere and the hydrogen escaped as individual atoms, while the oxygen was likely locked up in CO2. Now only tiny trace remnants of water vapor exist in the atmosphere.

- Earth: Obviously tons of water vapor, liquid water, and ice. Quite a bit of water is locked up as hydrated minerals in the crust/mantle, as well.

- Mars: Lots of water ice just under the surface, especially at the poles. Liquid water may exist briefly, or perhaps for sustained periods deeper down in the crust where the pressure is sufficient.

- Jupiter: Huge amounts of water ice at the core, and the lowest layer of clouds are made of liquid water droplets that produce rain frequently.

- Saturn: Like Jupiter, lots of ice at the core, and a lower cloud deck made of water.

- Uranus: Beneath most of the atmosphere, vast oceans of slushy superionic water mixed with ammonia. Probably lots of water ice at the core, too.

- Neptune: Like Uranus, oceans of superionic water and ammonia. Also lots of ice at the core.

As for moons, most of them have water in some phase:

- Liquid water: Europa and Enceladus both have a substantial amount of liquid water under the ice shell.

- Water ice: Almost all the outer moons have lots of ice - Ganymede, Callisto, Titan, Rhea, Iapetus, Dione, Tethys, Mimas, Hyperion, Titania, Oberon, Ariel, Umbriel, Miranda, Puck, Triton, Nereid, etc. There's evidence suggesting that our own Moon also has ice in the permanently shadowed craters at the poles.

For smaller bodies, Ceres, Pluto, Makemake, Eris, Haumea, Quaoar, etc. all have vast amounts water ice.