Contramuffin
@Contramuffin@lemmy.world
- Submitted 1 week ago to science_memes@mander.xyz | 5 comments
- Comment on PLEASE bro 1 week ago:
This is a map of signaling pathways in a cell. Essentially, how does a cell detect a stimulus and how does the cell respond to it. Signaling networks are notoriously difficult to parse, in major part because many of the proteins that make up the network are promiscuous (meaning that they target many types of proteins instead of just 1). Think of network as less of a series of defined steps and more of a chaotic mess. It’s so chaotic that most maps will select a theme (ie, hormone detection, stress signaling, infection, etc.) and only show the interactions that are relevant to that theme. Unfortunately, that also means that each map will show a network that’s completely different from the others, even though the proteins are the same.
The joke here is that it’s very tempting to make another map. This map is finally going to solve cell biology, I promise, we just have to make another map. Ignore the fact that we already have so many maps, just one more map is all we need
- Comment on I'm a console gamer so, Why the hate on the Epic Games Store? 2 weeks ago:
It was a while ago, I don’t remember off the top of my head which specific game I’m remembering. Doing a brief search, it appears that this happened to Unreal Tournament and Rocket League, though it appears that the games still work for the people who bought it before the unlisting. I think the concern was losing functionality, especially for server-based or multiplayer games
- Comment on I'm a console gamer so, Why the hate on the Epic Games Store? 2 weeks ago:
Sweeney (the CEO of Epic) says that he wants competition with Steam, but many of his actions point toward that he really just wants to be the guy at the top (ie, he wants to be the monopoly instead of Valve). He’s taken a fair number of anti-consumerist stances, which vary from understandable to clearly anti-competitive.
Epic is known for making exclusivity deals with 3rd party studios in which Epic bribes the studio with money, and in exchange, the studio does not release their game on Steam for 1 year.
At several points, this occurred after a studio already said that they will release on Steam, and the studio would have to walk back and delete their Steam listing.
Iirc, at one point Epic bought out a studio and had them remove the Steam listing for an already-released game, causing the game to be unplayable for people who had already bought the game
The Epic Game Store released in a non-functional state, and development on it is extremely slow. The first impression of the broken store likely still influences many people’s impression of the store. But it’s still missing many features that many gamers want to see in a store.
There were various rumors when the store first launched that it contained spyware. My understanding is that those rumors never fully got disproven, especially since some of the claims were supported by at least some evidence
Epic does not support Linux, and Sweeney has openly said that he does not plan to support Linux until it becomes more popular. He did immediately jump on board with supporting Arm though, which caused a lot of Linux gamers to think that he just doesn’t want to support Linux
Sweeney is a pretty abrasive person and iirc he made a lot of concerning statements on his social media. Several of them (as mentioned above) indicate that he wants to dethrone Valve so that he can be the monopoly instead
Overall, many gamers are in support of more competition in the game store space. Unfortunately, many gamers also think that Epic is an untrustworthy competitor, and they believe that Epic has a serious chance of making the gaming industry worse if they become more popular. As a result, many would prefer for Steam remain the monopoly rather than to take a bet on Epic.
- Comment on Partner has ADD, do I have misophonia? 2 weeks ago:
I don’t think you seem to have any problems, but it sounds like you’re partner may have some things that they’ll need to work out.
People are creatures of habit - while it is true that your partner is being an asshole, I currently don’t have any reason to believe that they’re doing it out of malice rather than habit.
It sounds like your partner may need to seek professional help, because it is their responsibility to manage their ADD/depression, and it sounds like they may be struggling to do that. It is not your responsibility to manage it for them
- Comment on Is your sleep schedule actually messed up, or are you just aligned with a different timezone? 2 weeks ago:
Eating is also a really big factor for the body’s circadian clock. Not sure what your lifestyle is like, but I would try to avoid eating anything when it’s late.
Interestingly enough, autism is also noted to affect the circadian clock, so it seems like medical and psychological conditions can exert an influence too.
And it could be entirely possible that you are simply a night owl. I just find it disingenuous that some people would use the circadian clock as a way to justify poor sleep habits, especially if they have habits that disrupt their circadian clock. It kind of dilutes the struggles of actual night owls
- Comment on Is your sleep schedule actually messed up, or are you just aligned with a different timezone? 2 weeks ago:
Amusing thought, but doesn’t really make sense biologically. Your body doesn’t know your geographical location. It just reads the environmental time using a bunch of different inputs and guesses at what the actual time is. Your body is actually fairly good at guessing the time, but people are just naturally predisposed to sleep later or earlier.
That tendency is influenced by genetics and also changes over time with age, but I also heavily suspect that people are actually just messing up their circadian clocks without knowing it. Try dimming your lights after sunset, you’d be surprised by how early you get tired.
- Comment on if pure water is not conductive why would condensation be an issue for electronics? 3 weeks ago:
Because it is really, really difficult to get pure water. Even distilled water isn’t pure. I’m not even sure you can get pure water outside of an industrial or laboratory setting
- Comment on [deleted] 3 weeks ago:
I find that high school really doesn’t expose you to many of the most interesting fields and careers out there, and the subjects that it does expose to you are typically taught at a very basic, foundational level. To put it simply, I strongly believe that you and many other people in your situation don’t know what they’re passionate about because they don’t even know it exists.
I think it’s the fault of the school system for not working harder to show the intricacies of actual careers, but for now, we just have to deal with what we’re given.
We can try guessing what sorts of things you may like if you tell us a bit more about yourself. What sorts of things are you passionate about (ie, hobbies, obsessions, interests, favorite subject in school), and why do you feel passionate about it?
- Comment on LibreOffice: We still see people on the fediverse recommending OpenOffice, despite it having year-old unfixed security issues 4 weeks ago:
OnlyOffice. Newer and somewhat less features, but the UI is so much better than LibreOffice. I’ve been on a quest to find the best Office alternative and OnlyOffice is what I’ve settled on
- Comment on The key takeaway of science is that observation constitutes the primary reality. 4 weeks ago:
Maybe in the past? Modern science has shifted away from direct observation and more towards targeted probing. Modern science is about setting up intricate systems to answer a very specific question such that no matter what happens, you learn something new
- Comment on Women often take initiative on the food finding 4 weeks ago:
That feels completely contrary to my own experiences
- Comment on Linux help and actual pros and cons 5 weeks ago:
The distro itself doesn’t particularly matter. Unless you’re picking a niche distro or one designed for experts, all of them will have a good level of polish. What does matter is the desktop environment, which is the look and feel of the OS.
Many distros offer various desktop environments, and it can be a good idea to take a look at different desktop environments and see which one you like. I personally enjoy KDE Plasma, since I feel like it resembles Windows 10 the most. A bunch of popular distros like Bazzite and Fedora offer KDE Plasma variants. Alternatively, many people also like Cinnamon, though I personally think it looks somewhat outdated. Cinnamon is primarily offered by Linux Mint.
With the right desktop environment, Linux isn’t actually particularly technical. There’s definitely been a push recently to try to make things more user friendly. From time to time, you might still have to open terminal to do more advanced things, but I find that you can generally get by.
However, the way you do things in Linux is pretty different than in Windows, and it definitely takes a bit of getting used to and building up a new set of muscle memory. You will get frustrated that something isn’t where you think it is. My advice is that you should dual boot and keep a copy of Windows, so that you can switch back to Windows when you just need to get stuff done.
As for gaming, basically everything just works out of the box. I don’t even bother to check for Linux compatibility. Make sure to enable compatibility in the Steam settings and you should be good to go. The only time when games don’t work is if a game uses an anticheat that specifically blocks Linux - if you plan to play online games, it might be worth checking if the anticheat that it uses allows Linux or not. I haven’t tried modding so I can’t comment too much about that
- Comment on Please don't stop horny 1 month ago:
Wait, I don’t remember there being fanservice in Dungeon Meshi, let alone with Senshi. When was this?
- Comment on How long does it take for someone to reach a high level of drawing? 1 month ago:
Depends on how much you like drawing. If it’s something fun for you, then it’s not time wasted and it’s definitely worth the effort.
I will say that while constant practice is definitely important, it’s also important to have structured practice. Practice without structure will just lock in bad habits.
By far the fastest and easiest way to improve quickly is to practice blocking. This is a technique where you simplify an object or a scene into simple geometric shapes - cubes, spheres, rectangles, etc. You draw out those shapes onto the page. Then, you add in the details. This forces you to map out where the objects are in your composition before you start drawing. Not only does it help with spatial awareness, it also lets you notice if the positioning of objects doesn’t look quite right and requires fixing, before you’ve spent a lot of time on drawing that object
- Comment on The unfortunate thing about twins is that they might fight over which one was not planned. 1 month ago:
Welcome to the world of the living, clone
- Comment on 2 Instances are being used for coordinated vote manipulation, and should be defederated. chinese.lol lemmy.doesnotexist.club 1 month ago:
The person being downvoted is the mod of c/conservative. I’m guessing this is a political maneuver to bury his posts/bully him off lemmy
- Comment on [deleted] 1 month ago:
Perhaps not necessarily wrong, but people sometimes don’t like hearing the truth. I don’t agree with the other comments that you should support him - to me, that sounds like bad parenting to not at minimum set up a backup plan when things start to fall apart.
My take on this situation is that you may have to tell him in a more subtle manner. Fortunately, professional athletes are known for being notoriously competitive, where even talented people can lose out on an opportunity simply out of bad luck. This could give you a way to voice your concerns in a way that doesn’t directly imply that he’s not cut out for the job, ie “you still need to be very lucky to go pro. I was very fortunate, but we shouldn’t be counting on luck for your living. You can still try for it, but I really think you should also have some backup options if things don’t work out”
- Comment on Truth 1 month ago:
Looking past the humorous element of the post, it’s important to acknowledge that the post isn’t necessarily true. It’s important to realize that fictional girls are easy to fawn over because they’re designed to present the idea of a person instead of a person in themselves.
Real people have bad habits, they’re annoying or bothersome sometimes, they get tired or groggy, they get irritable, they get lazy. These are crucial human traits, and without any of these, you’re arguably missing a vital human experience. In anime, girls are presented without these traits, or if these traits are present, they’re shown in a way that’s romanticized such that they appear cute or appealing. Take, for instance, a tsundere. If you imagine, truly imagine, that an anime tsundere were real, can you imagine how frustrating it would be to have to deal with their behavior on a daily basis?
To be clear, I’m not necessarily against this sort of caricaturization in media, otherwise I wouldn’t be in this com. I bring this up because I worry that younger people are increasingly not acknowledging this difference between fictional and real people, and are comparing real people to a fictional standard, leading to a variety of toxic and misogynistic behaviors.
- Comment on How much human individuals resemble cells 1 month ago:
The questions you’re asking about already exist. Portguese man-o-war are colonies of multiple organisms. Bees and ants are considered superorganisms.
It’s not going to happen to humans, if that’s what you’re asking. The evolutionary incentive simply isn’t there to form a superorganism physically, though you could definitely make the argument that society and culture can be interpreted as a superorganism
- Comment on Opening Lemmy in the morning and seeing dozens of unread comments in your inbox makes you think: what the heck did I say yesterday? 2 months ago:
Well you can have solar, wind, and hydroelectric without steam, so it’s not like you need steam
- Comment on Opening Lemmy in the morning and seeing dozens of unread comments in your inbox makes you think: what the heck did I say yesterday? 2 months ago:
What’s the att/def on your Nicole? I’ll trade you mine - just pulled a disappearing Nicole. No idea what the att is, but given that it disappeared from my deck, I must imagine the def is wicked high
- Comment on would getting back with an ex be a bad idea? 2 months ago:
Change isn’t necessarily impossible, but it’s really difficult and requires a huge amount of self discipline - if someone changes, they will be a standout exception rather then the norm. I urge you to consider that someone who ghosts you likely does not value you enough to be willing or able to put in the effort to change. Ghosting is deeply rude to do to anyone, and especially toward your significant other.
Take my interpretation with a mountain of salt, because I don’t know the full story. But, from what you said, it seems more likely that he reached out to you because you were a convenient backup
- Comment on [deleted] 2 months ago:
Does me having autism increase your chances of finding a significant other?
- Comment on [deleted] 2 months ago:
What?
- Comment on [deleted] 2 months ago:
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Not really, no. Love and attraction are different things. You don’t need to be attracted to someone you love.
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Unless you find your partner unattractive, I don’t see how sex could meaningfully change
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People are good at picking up social cues. That’s probably what you’re referring to. Humans are social creatures, after all. Also, people are trash at picking up social cues, so you’re probably also missing a lot of cues.
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That sounds like a really bad idea. Your sense of how common those relationships issues occur is warped. People don’t generally go into relationships trying to exploit someone. You’re going to cause issues (moral, logistical, and practical) with your plan, all because of a concern that’s not likely to happen.
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That’s the vast majority of humans. We are a monogamous species, after all. When you see “alpha males” on the internet, just be aware that they’re grifters that want your money. And the best way to make sure you keep giving them money is to make sure that you stay single and unhappy.
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Can’t help you there. I can at least tell you that enacting your plan in question 4 is going to lower your chances of finding a wife to 0.
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- Comment on suggest me some games!! 2 months ago:
Ori is probably going to struggle a bit on a laptop
- Comment on What's easier to shoot, a bow or a firearm? 2 months ago:
People say assuming with bows is easier? What kind of world do they live in?
I’ve shot a decent amount of bows and guns, and guns are far easier to shoot. The difference is that because guns are easier to shoot, there’s a greater expectation of accuracy. Shooting a bow at 30 meters and hitting your target is considered accurate, shooting a gun at 30 meters is considered nothing.
That being said, I still like archery more. There’s just something very personal about the experience of pulling the bowstring and manually making the arrow fly
- Comment on What are the exact ramifications and consequences of the recent meeting with Zelenskyy and Trump/JD? 2 months ago:
Even before Trump and Vance lashed out, it was a shitshow. Every time Zelenskyy brought up security, Trump dismissed it because the the minerals were “more important.”
European leaders were certainly watching, and their main takeaway was certainly that Trump can and will sacrifice the security of American allies for money.
Europe and many of the US’s allies had lower military spending and did not to pursue nuclear programs because there was the expectation that the US would help protect these countries. This was exactly the promise that the US gave to Ukraine that got them to give up their nuclear research.
Now that it’s become clear that the US cannot be relied upon for security, many of the US’s allies are certain to start reconsidering their stance on the military and nuclear weapons. As US soft power crumbles, I expect that new, smaller factions will arise to fill the void, and I expect that China will likely try to expand its influence as well.
- Comment on are "brush" and "blush" really pronounced differently? i pronounce them the same. 2 months ago:
In most native English accents, R is pronounced by curling the tongue very significantly (more than most languages that I’m familiar with). People who aren’t used to this (often people who speak English as a second language) won’t curl their tongues enough, and the partially curled tongue will end up touching the roof of their mouths. This happens to be how you pronounce L, so in these accents, R and L will end up sounding the same.
Try getting into the habit of curling your tongue more when you pronounce R, and you’ll end up hearing a difference
