#scientific comprehension

[annikathewitch]

Okay People, Pop Quiz

I will not be grading on a curve. All of you will receive the same score based on answer that gets the most votes. This quiz is worth 25% of your final grade. Good luck! :)

[markscherz]

I clicked on that wikipedia link you posted for H. fleischmanni and was surprised to see that the section talking about the frog’s natural predators was titled “enemies” instead of “predators.” The word “enemies,” at least to me, seems strange in this context because it seems to anthropomorphize the frogs, which as far as I’m aware is something zoologists try to avoid doing with animals. Is there a scientific reason for “enemies” to be used here, as opposed to “predators”?

Regrettably, a huge number of problems of this kind have been built into Wikipedia by the Wikipedia Education Foundation-supported courses. Students carry out an 'assignment' that involves a dramatic expansion to a given wikipedia page based on any literature they can find. That revised page is then subjected to 'peer review' by their classmates. But because they are unfamiliar with (1) the literature, (2) the contents of other wikipedia pages, and (3) how wikipedia actually works, the resulting pages are often full of misinformation, redundancies, and weird formulations.

You have accurately identified one such idiosyncrasy. 'Enemies' was a very common formulation for 'predators' in the 1800s and early 1900s, but we have largely left it behind, for precisely the reason you say, and hence it sounds jarring to our ears. In this case it is a minor problem (you should have seen how the Paroedura masobe page looked before I cleaned it up), but irksome nonetheless.

[randomness-is-my-order]

yes, i do believe wei wuxian has suffered far more than jiang cheng by the end of the series. yes, i also think wei wuxian is far more well adjusted than jiang cheng at the end of the series. infact, let me go out on a limb and say that wei wuxian has THE most mental fortitude than anyone else in the series, and it’s one of the most impressive story-wide character traits that i’ve seen portrayed so deftly in fiction across all kinds of media.

[valeriefauxnom]

Dev's (C)Leo Biases,

Or,

A Comprehensive History of How Leonidas Became Nearly Everyone's Object of Thirst

So, among the Dragalia Lost team, it was rather well known that they admitted to a strong Cleo bias.

It's pretty easy to see, in anything from Cleo's early spate of alts, like Dragonyule and Summer in quick succession, to the utterly random unique outfits they flaunted in ch.9 that you can just tell they drew for funsies but really liked them and wanted to put them in the game despite it serving no real purpose...

The dev team just really, really loved Cleo and drawing her. But after they apparently used up their Cleo allowance to make Gala Cleo probably the single strongest character in the game at the time, they cooled it down a bit.

However, as much as they were apparently thirsting over Cleo, I would joke that somewhere along the way, some part of the dev team, feeling desperate now that the yearly Cleo Allowance was running dry as they prepared to release Gala Cleo, decided to find a new fixation to quench their addiction.

And since Cleo was off-limits, they turned to the next best thing: crossing out the C in Cleo to find their newest substitute Dev Thirst character.

That's right, we're talking about the one and only Leonidas.

Leonidas had kinda just melded into the background with the rest of the siblings at this point to my observations. Sure, he was a campaign antagonist. People weren't particularly clamoring for him in particular over the other siblings, though. Honestly, I'd wager Emile was more popular at this stage, even in a 'love to hate' sense, just because we'd already seen him so much.

But then, it started. Whether it was art like this being posted on their twitter just a few scant months before G!Cleo's debut...

...They just seemed to have a certain edge in artworks featuring Mr. Curry in a way to make one squint and tilt your head sideways.

For instance:

It's one of those cases where you just kinda get a feeling the artist(s) found x attractive in a way that simultaneously still can give you a moment of self-doubt if that's not just you projecting because there's no blatantly obvious signs, you know? Whether it's something about the posing, or angles, whatever it is, I got this air increasingly whenever they put out any Leonidas art.

Thankfully, they decided to put me out of my misery and just flat out make what's likely the single most suggestive wyrmprint (or honestly art piece in general since Dragalia was thankfully very very very tame) starring none other than, you guessed it, Leonidas.

(Secret Cygames/Nintendo conversation, probably: "As you can see, it's vitally important that we draw this character in a speedo with sparkles around him." Nintendo: "...I'll allow it. This time.")

Even if he puts on some more clothes in the refined version, we're still back to that air I mentioned, as the shot focuses almost entirely on him instead of the wildly popular Chelle or his pet panther (which, yes, seemed to be an actual pet of his):

Even the Ilia-damned funny chibi comics got in on this thirst train as it went on and made quite possibly the raunchiest joke in the entire 400+ comic run featuring Leonidas, even if the exact same joke didn't make the translation overseas, however they tried. You can see a brief breakdown of that in THIS post.

Not content to restrict it to art and comics, Leonidas also dropped this line that is permanently engraved into my mind with just how shocking it was to see anything of this caliber in Dragalia, in his baby brother's story to boot!

At this point, I could no longer deny it: the devs and artists had collectively acquired a new fixation to satiate their once insatiable Cleo appetite in the form of Mr. Currymeister. (Don't worry about Emile there, he's just drowning, he does that all the time in waist-high water)

And this attitude even extends to in-universe, too! People increasingly fawned over the first prince, who very much was filling in the role of 'this prince you know vs. his hotter and more competent elder brother', as virtually represented by my expert skills in Microsoft Paint artistry as such:

Naturally, there was only so much time before the people IRL could succumb to Leonidas Fever (and no, this time we're not talking about all the people who were so devoted to this dude to effectively set themselves into a fatal, firey, steroid-filled death!) at this unrelenting onslaught.

It was hard not to see comments such as these that started pouring in (and yes, all of these were just about Leonidas exclusively):

(I'll attribute the misspelling to being overcome with Leonidas Fever, a grave illness indeed!)

(Another serious symptom: the decline of any self-preservation instinct around Leonidas, who is indeed Very Dangerous and Will Kill You!)

Ahem. You get the picture. Thus concludes the slow, insidious buildup from just another sibling for Euden to probably commit a whoopsie-daisy fratricide in the future to one of the fandom's favorite menaces, all carefully plotted-out by the collective efforts of devs who were the first to succumb to the sickness...Right?

This concludes my professional historical report on this very serious issue that I suspect lingers to this day. The Fever has but been put into remission; it has not faded yet.

Extra:

So a long time ago I commented that some of the royal family seemed to have pointier teeth than normal, which I speculated because they deliberated giving a bit more 'draconic' traits to define dragonblood, and I didn't realize how pervasive this was until I saw Emile's model there. Look at his fang!

...

...How did I forget the weapon skin of Leo's gun is additionally named "Royal Dominator"?

[goodluckbabeheffron]

web’s septum probably deviated as fuck

[anarcho-masochist]

I need to finally admit that I only have so much time to write and thus need to decide & commit to writing one particular thing instead of researching everything forever in the hopes that I will one day have time to write All the things. You have no idea how nuanced my internal discussions on the topic have gotten at this point, though. The next post will be a poll on what to write or post about first.

[alfairy]

“Henry Emily was a good parent” my man built a robot puppet to watch his daughter for him and when she died he then proceeded to make multiple robot replicas of her

[ajournalingtrex]

started a cry counter via a google form bc i cry a lot and the twitter audience said it would be funny to keep track. here are today’s entries and their explanations:

[blessphemy]

There are a very limited number of names for natural features. There’s like 5 names for creeks:

- boulder creek

- deer creek

- bear creek

- horse creek

- white creek

-

[buggbuzz]

taking advantage of my few days off to start really filling in my basic genetics notes since i'm taking a genetics class in the fall

[anauwhere]

When proshippers act like antis with no sources or proofs no no nope honey.

[wormtiddies]

while i dont think higher education is or SHOULD be required to live life in any capacity, after seeing the shit my family just says and does, i think there needs to be some semblance of more education, but i dont know what that looks like. i just know that when my family cannot comprehend articles or research or even definitions within the basis of context, and instead warps these things in their minds to further push their own narrative.... it just makes me sick and frustrated

[clownboybebop]

if you’re ever in the position to choose between giving up and accepting defeat, and actually trying to fight the ancient unkillable god that is about to peel apart reality like a string cheese, remember this: scientifically speaking, you might as well give it a shot!

1.there were trees at the beginning of the world! there were trees so long ago that they predate bacteria that causes wood to decay. when a tree fell, it would lie there in stasis and there wasn’t any way of breaking down wood xylem on a molecular level in that way.

2. it seems obvious to say, but wood eating bacteria are literally incapable of comprehending what they’re breaking down. It’s just not information conciously available to a microorganism. they don’t know what they’re deconstructing, where it came from, bacteria have no way to even fathom the existence of a tree as a concept.

3. Regardless of the facts above, the world we live in today is a world where wood inevitably decomposes

it is worth fighting the unkillable god no matter how pointless it seems. it is worth taking the risk even though youre trying to accomplish something impossible. the reality in which you live was also once reality in which trees didn’t rot. You live in a reality that allows for existence before the possibility of destruction. you live in a reality where uncomprehending microbes break down matter that is so far beyond the scope of their comprehension that it feels comical to specify something so obvious. you live in a reality that occasionally allows unshakeable physical truths to be altered with no warning.

It is worth fighting the unkillable god because trees are so old they predate the source of their destruction, and it still did not spare them. It is worth fighting the unkillable god because bacteria rots unthinkingly, because there is room in our cosmos for destruction without comprehension on the part of the destroyer. It is worth fighting the unkillable god because now and then reality retracts the promise of immortality without fanfare, and when that happens there is no mercy for the ancient. the unmaking is not softer for the desecrators ignorance. for all things, existence is endless until the exact point where it ends.

so you might as well try to kill the unkillable god. it doesn’t seem likely, but at the beginning of the world, trees didn’t rot. so you never know! you never know

[tired-inyxe]

A few quick things here!

Phytoestrogen is not actual estrogen. It’s chemically similar enough to estrogen to warrant the similar name but they are NOT the same hormone. The studies on phytoestrogen is rather incomplete but what we have found is that well they may weakly bond to estrogen/facilitate estrogen production, they don’t seem to have any adverse effects on testosterone or sperm levels. This means that both soy boys are wrong and that trans women might need to get something with higher doses of actual estrogen

Phytoestrogens may help with many other parts of your body, such as immune system health. They’re still important but not the ultimate transifier

Got some links for you to learn more :3

fun fact: cranberries and strawberries are high in phytoestrogen, so eating them can increase your estrogen levels

[sleepingtime123]

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[xtruss]

A Comprehensive Guide To All 63 National Parks In America

— By Hilary Harty | June 5, 2024

What began in 1872 as a single, protected region called Yellowstone National Park has evolved into the National Park Service which encompasses 429 sites across the country and its territories. Sixty three of the historic areas have been designated as national parks that protect unique lands and ecosystems. The National Park Service is one of the best and most popular resources we collectively have to learn about our country’s history and it welcomed more than 325 million visits last year.

Each one of the national parks has something new to explore whether that be historically, recreationally, or culturally. A number of them have also been recognized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and designated as World Heritage sites — that’s a big deal — for their value to humanity, among other distinctions. The parks are also in flux, as all will be affected by climate change

All this is to say — now’s the year to visit one (or another one). If you’re looking for an off-the-grid experience where the only thing you hear is the squawk of birds and the echo of your thoughts, there’s a park for that. If visiting a national park means sunbathing on sandy beaches before exploring delicate coral reefs while snorkeling, there’s a park for that too.

Before you test-drive your bear whistle, make sure to check the National Park Service website for information about reservations, closures, and special events. Some parks will require timed-entry reservations, though you can stay as long as you’d like.