At least half of men don’t wash their hands before leaving a public restroom. Literally everything is covered in dick stuff. Source: 30+ years of using public restrooms as a male.
Neuroscience shows that rulers will always become evil.
Getting more power actually changes your brain, suppressing your ability to use empathy. The very powerful will always struggle to remember that others are human and don’t want to be hurt.
Humane behavior and hierarchy are mutually exclusive. Heirarchical organization encourages humans to hurt each other.
The data is skewed. All of the functioning systems we use reward concentrations of power.
Thereby, systems of rule must distribute power and contest the concentration of power. It literally takes a village to save us from ourselves.
David Graeber and David Wengrow introduced me to historical examples of non-hierarchical societies in The Dawn of Everything.
The fact that power results in antisocial behavior has been understood for millenia.
Lots of societies have had cultural infrastructure of equality that attempts to mitigate this weakness in our biology and prevent harmful levels of power accumulation. The basque village layouts that Davids Graeber & Wengrove talk about, or the practise of ‘insulting the meat’ of successful hunters.
Which is why I feel that for humanity to succeed we will eventually need an entirely new form of societal governance to replace capitalism & communism, just as those systems replaced feudalism and tribalism. Something like technoism where decisions are made and enacted by machines, incapable of self motivation; or geneticism where leaders’ selfish impulses are either bred or edited out of them. We are still many, many years off from technology being able to accomplish this, but the only way to overcome the human factor is to… well… remove the human factor.
This is why the US needs to switch to metric.
Eyeing my geometry set suspiciously
I think part of it is that when good people gain power they realize that they have also taken on responsibility. And when you are shouldering a lot of responsibility, and the people around you are not, it’s easy to see them as childish or selfish, or not thinking things through thoroughly (because let’s face it: they’re not).
Plus as a responsible party you have to be responsible for everyone and this can mean limiting your beholden-ness to any one party. That can look like distancing or lack of empathy for that person. “Oh now that you have power you’re too big for me, huh?” Pretty much yes, actually.
If you’ve ever been in charge of something you know what I’m saying. And when I see people blindly bitching about people in power I know they’ve never been responsible for anything bigger than a shopping cart.
It’s not a question of “look[ing] like distancing or lack of empathy”, or just “bitching about people in power”.
Scientific studies that look at your brain itself - not your behavior - show that as people get more power the brain’s empathy centers become suppressed and you are chemically less capable of being a good person.
- You have no idea what shape your visual field is
- You’ve never seen your neighbors carrying groceries inside
- Your pinkie is a perfect fit for your nostril
You’ve never seen your neighbors carrying groceries inside.
I’m going to assume that you either don’t have windows, or you don’t go outside.
I see multiple neighbours, multiple times a month, bringing groceries into their house.
Quite a few times this happens while I’m also outside, in passing.
But now I’m super curious how you don’t see your neighbours doing the same! 😂
Sure thing buddy
I never see it but my neighbors have garages lmao.
That might be the difference! None of the houses on our street have them, so groceries get unloaded from the driveway, straight into the front door.
Here’s one more:
Dark Forest Theory as a solution to the Fermi Paradox.
This theory was around long before Lee Cuixin and done much better. Saberhagen’s Berserker series is a much better example, and has the added bonus of believable character development in his books.
Hell, Battlestar Galactica was the same thing done 5 years before TBP came out, and way more interestingly.
I’d read that David Brin reviewed something similar in '83, but I didn’t chase it down to Saberhagen.
In following the links provided in the Wiki article, for the Berserker Hypothesis, there is the following:
The Berserker hypothesis is distinct from the dark forest hypothesis in that under the latter, many alien civilizations could still exist provided they keep silent. The dark forest hypothesis can be viewed as a special case of the Berserker hypothesis, if the ‘deadly Berserker probes’ are (e.g. due to resource scarcity) only sent to star systems that show signs of intelligent life.
So, silence is survival in the Dark Forest. The Berserker Hypothesis seeks and destroys.
e: Nice call on BSG as well! Though, that considered only human and Cylon life.
And, for my part, Cixin Liu’s second book was a really solid read. The first book, Three Body Problem, suffered all of the hallmarks of the pains taken to establish a story and a world. The last book, Death’s End, while mostly good, also suffered in needing to bring the grand story to a close.
We’re going to have to disagree on those books. I found the first one amateurish and hand-wavy SF with terrible character development, and the second one was just a ridiculous deus-ex-machina plot point that invalidated all the rest of the previous and possible future plot pivot points, with continued terrible character development. I wouldn’t know about the third, by this point I was done giving him any more of my money.
I’m surprised about Brin’s article there, because all his work has been pretty upbeat about galactic species generally getting along, though with its rough points.
Personally, I chalk up the great silence to very short species lifespans after achieving spaceflight. Maybe they all go post-singularity and become undetectable, or run out of resources and go primitive again. Or just die off/suicide, which seems like where we’re headed. If we have a century of relatively powerful transmissions, what’s the chance of anyone being close enough in that short period of time to detect us?
I guess we are going to have to disagree. The writing style and, as I perceived it, motivations within the text were clearly not of the Western tradition. It’s true, in lending the benefit of doubt, I may have enjoyed it more precisely because I disregarded standard writing mores, tropes, and conventions because it was a translated work.
I’m curious: Did you also try Murakami’s 1Q84? I found that I had to suspend expectations there in much the same manner.
I think I’d agree with you wrt. short species lifespans after developing telecommunications, space flight, and highly concentrated energy sources. The leap in capacity for attendant social distortion — and extortion — has brought us to the brink of global destruction many times since Signal Hill in 1901. The Kardashev Scale comes to mind here. The leap from about Type 0.73, ostensibly where we are now, to Type 1.0 is fraught.
As for the communications we have sent, the early ones were low-power and, over a distance of 100 ly, would significantly degrade against background EM radiation. At a range of 50 ly, where our first, more powerful and higher fidelity digital transmissions have reached, there are relatively few star systems — about 1300 (source). This source uses data from 1991, so there may be more, but not many, that are magnitude 6.5 or brighter.
1Q84: never ran across it, but from the wikipedia article:
novel’s excessive repetition, clichéd writing, clumsy styling and unyielding plot.
Which is pretty much where I was with TBP, so I can’t imagine I’ll rush out to read this.
Regarding translation: https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/s3zm9t/the_threebody_problem_is_not_good/izxm5l2/
I’ve read other chinese authors translated by the likes of Ken Liu and I see nothing like that, enjoy them well enough, before and after reading TBP. So the usual “your closed western mind can’t conceive of the Chinese style” argument kinda pisses me off when I get it back in discussions of these books. But I’m used to that reaction, so I don’t take it personally anymore.
Yah, I was thinking of the attenuation issue there, and not to mention that eventually the powerful transmissions go away in order to use low-power, high-bandwidth satellite bouncing instead of blaring away at 1kW to communicate. I imagine we’re already much quieter than we were 20 years ago.
No accusation intended. Related my experience and seeking yours. Thanks for sharing what you have read about it.
Then, help me out if you feel inclined. Point me in the direction of some solid sci-fi, written in another language, with good translation to English. I’m always looking for the next read. I could Google it. But, instead, I’m looking for a recommendation from a strong critical eye. As guidance, I’m a pretty big fan of space epics, political intrigue, and/or social
Also, thanks for the language on attenuation. I’ve done a bit more reading on it, and I’ve seen the math. What I’ve learned is that most regulated radio transmissions in the Western hemisphere are capped at 50 kW. There are several transmitters that are in the 150 kW range, and, back in the 30s, there was that one titanic tower in Florida that kicked out 500 000 kW.
There are about 20 supervolcanoes on earth which each have the capacity to kill billions should they erupt.
I know about the Yellowstone Caldera but I didn’t realize there were that many more
I found this article interesting on Caldera systems…
https://www.usgs.gov/news/caldera-systems-a-worldwide-family-more-just-yellowstone
And suppress global warming for a long time in the process. Yeah, bring it on!
Blocking out the sun is good for us only in very specific doses.
live smallpox cultures still exist in american and russian labs.
most people born after 1980 are not vaccinated against smallpox and do not possess the natural immunity boost that would come from environmental exposure to the disease.
in the 1500s the introduction of smallpox into the similarly unprotected peoples of the americas caused an apocalyptic population collapse.
True, but we do have the vaccine and the means to mass-produce and administer. That’s why I’m not worried about smallpox.
Yeah: because getting people to get a vaccine during a pandemic that’s killing millions isn’t going to be difficult.
Thanks to Ed Jenner
I’m concerned that enough people might refuse a vaccine to cause our herd immunity to fail, resulting in many avoidable deaths.
2 weeks to stop the spread part 2, wooo!
Would someone here care to share what they know about prions?
So you know how you have dna? Well dna converts into amino acids and long chains of amino acids are called proteins. Proteins are the real workers in our body.
But you might think, if you knew the dna sequence, you know it all, correct? Not really. You see, dna is only 1 dimensional data. A lot of the information about the functions of a protein comes from its structure.
So really, if you have a correct dna converted into amino acid chain (a protein), it still needs to be in the correct shape or folding in order for it to function.
Prions are incorrect foldings of amino acid which obviously do not work. But whats more is that, when these folded structures come in contact with other functioning proteins, they can turn them into incorrect folding as well.
Since these proteins are still your own (ie they still came from your dna) the immune system doesn’t quite work on them like it would on a foreign substance like bacteria or virus.
I actually read it as “priSons” and I read all the answer wondering how it would get to prisons lol
To add to how scary prions are, you can’t really cure them, and when the prions get on a surface, it’s extremely difficult to sanitize that surface in a way that will destroy the prions. A lot of techniques that kill bacteria or even viruses like alcohol won’t work on them. Heat works but you have to make it extremely hot, much hotter than what’s needed to kill something like a bacteria.
Alternatively, UV light and a some heat should do it pretty quick!! Radical reactions are dope like that
I’m glad someone put the prions in here. As a biology student, there was only one thing more terrifying than retroviruses — prions.
What if proteins were jerks? Prions.
the silverfish from Minecraft are fucking real
Where are you that has no silverfish?
We get those in the UK. They’ll eat anything!
If I lived in the UK, I would also eat anything but British food.
Spoken like someone who hasn’t had a good roast dinner or cottage pie.
Probably never even tried a Yorkshire pudding…
They’ll eat all British food along with: bricks, books, hair, wood, …
A man’s penis is generally cleaner than his hands, because his dick is kept behind two sets of fabric and isn’t used to touch nearly everything.
I always wash my hands before I pee, don’t want to get my penis dirty…
I’ve heard this but I’ve also never heard of hand smegma, so…
Wtf is smegma and why have you heard of dick smegma?
NSFW, literally icky dick pic
Every day is a school day! Thanks
You must have circumcised nails then
deleted by creator
If you managed to hold your hand closed 24/7, you’d get it too. Same thing happens when you get a cast off.
Your tongue knows how something feels even if you’ve never licked it. Most people have never licked a tire but you know exactly how it’d feel if you did.
Here’s a fun one
You know how you go to the public pool and you smell the chlorine keeping the water clean? That’s not chlorine you’re smelling.
Chlorine is a great sanitizer but when dissolved in water it has almost no smell. However, chlorine binds to organic substances like dead skin cells and especially strongly to urea (aka pee), forming chloramine. Chloramine has significantly less sanitizing capability than chlorine, but it has a very strong chloriney smell.
You can get rid of chloramine by ‘shocking’ the pool- adding an oxidizer or increasing the chlorine level very high to what’s called breakpoint chlorination. Shock powder is expensive though so it’s not always used as often as it should be.
So when you go to the public pool and you get that strong chlorine smell, all that means is either the pool water is dirty and hasn’t been shocked in a while, or someone peed in the pool recently.
Enjoy your swim!
nah no way because my town heavily chlorinates the tap water and that shit reeks like a swimming pool… or is someone pissing in the tap???
Chloramines are disinfectants used to treat drinking water. Chloramines are most commonly formed when ammonia is added to chlorine to treat drinking water.
Your Tap water being dirty is Not an Option? When they chlorine it, there’s certainly a need to get it Clean from e.g. the Pipes or other contaminants
The chlorine does its job, and whatever shit it kills becomes chloramine. Chlorine does have a smaller smell of its own so maybe they just put a shit ton of it in also.
Fun video from Mark Rober about the topic. How to measure how much pee is in your pool
You didn’t mention the important part - sweat does that too. So it might not be pee, just sweaty people getting washed off. Which is better, to be fair.
If you pay attention at the beach you will totally notice people wading in to take a piss and then wading back out of the water. I know the ocean is big and all but there’s something… uncivilized about it.
What do you think all the fishes do when they need a crap?
This is the reason why I don’t want to go to pools anymore.
My wife was so mad at me when I explained this to her. She said the chlorine smell would give her nostalgia and I ruined it.
🤢🤮 oh god why did I read this
The article below this is
Donald Trump says that if wins the White House, he’ll fire special counsel Jack Smith “within two seconds” of taking office.
Imagine a criminal openly admitting he’ll use his power to evade justice, and somehow half the country is still voting for him
It’s the “people are still voting for him” part that terrifies me. Because we can defeat Trump, but you can’t do a whole lot with a rotten electorate.
You gotta fight the dick stuff with dick stuff. At least I know where my dick stuff has been
At birth there are usually more males than females. Around adulthood age they are roughly equal, and around our death there are way more females than males.
Another one, kinda romantic as well. Most life long couples, when one of them dies due to old age, the other one follows soon. Despite women having a longer life span than men.
Another interesting one, most relationships end within 7 years. Once the 7 year period has passed, the likelihood of that relationship lasting till death increases significantly. It’s called 7 year ick.
My marriage is up after exactly 7 years. Granted we were together for more like 11-12, but the marriage 7
9 years going strong I’m in the clear
Hey, congratulations! We just made nine years over here too
Most doesn’t mean all
I wash my hands before I piss because my dick is the cleanest surface in that bathroom. Touch nothing afterward without a paper towel barrier
I have bad news, most (?) paper towels, toilet paper, and even the toilet seat covers are microscopically transparent, meaning there are plenty of gaps for microbes to get through.
Paper towels folded over on themselves absolutely create a barrier between my hand and the door handle. I’m not talking about flushable paper or toilet seat covers
Paper towels are able to absorb water because of cellulose’s natural gaps and spaces:
Most bacteria are about 1 micron, and these gaps range from around 1-10 microns.
Especially if damp, it can be argued that they don’t stop the transfer of bacteria. It’s possible that your bacteria transfers through it and vice versa. This is all before the fact that paper towels can already harbor bacteria on their own.
That being said, paper towels do block some. You just shouldn’t think of them as sterile or a magic blocker for bacteria.
I’d be interested to culture petri dishes off my hand after I use a new paper towel to turn off the faucet vs grabbing the wet handle with my entire hand and shutting it off and then drying off my hand…
‘Was there anything else on the dinner menu?’
‘Vole-au-vents and Cream of Rat,’ said Gimlet. ‘All hygienically prepared.’
‘How do you mean, “hygienically prepared”?’ said Carrot.
‘The chef is under strict orders to wash his hands afterwards.’
The assembled dwarfs nodded. This was certainly pretty hygienic. You didn’t want people going around with ratty hands.
- Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett
You have fewer male ancestors than females ones. Think about it for a moment… there it is. Yes. Now you know.
I don’t get it
Means great^20 grandpa did the deed with great^19 grandma and made a baby
Oh, yikes
…or, more likely, a great^20 grandpa got with multiple great^20 grandmas. All it takes is one harem merging branches somewhere to tip the scales.
Maybe you have ;-)
I was going to argue that it could go the other way, but then I remembered Ghengis Khan.
It never could go the other way, you can’t make a baby using two dads’ sperm. You can get twins (which is incredibly rare). But that just means two people with different fathers and doesn’t matter when you look at a specific one. At best, if there wasn’t any incest, you’d get equal male and female ancestors.
Yeah, I was referring to the incest.
It could - if a woman has a child with her own son.
Now, many many years ago
When I was twenty three
I was married to a widow
Who was pretty as could be…
