Mothra

joined 3 years ago
[–] Mothra@mander.xyz 10 points 6 hours ago

Not sure if this applies to you but maybe you have heard a phrase about you that doesn't make sense fully. In my case, it was "you're intimidating" and that took me a long long time to understand because as a woman who has a lot of insecurities and can't physically fight this is absolutely ridiculous. Then one day I was watching some relationship guru video clip and the guy said "if you're told you're intimidating and can't make sense of it, it means you are hard to impress". That clicked. At least, within dating contexts. I don't know. I think most of the honest feedback I've gotten from potential dates, from boyfriends, from family members (though that required always a difficult argument beforehand and getting feedback was never the goal) and also from teachers who get fed up with your bullshit occasionally. It's never going to come to you from a comfortable source, but you shouldn't be asking your enemies either, because they'll lie too.

[–] Mothra@mander.xyz 2 points 9 hours ago

It doesn't sound fair to me. Why don't they sell the info of the management and higher ups only ,if that's the case? But no. As always, those who are most vulnerable always get hit the hardest and first.

[–] Mothra@mander.xyz 2 points 10 hours ago

Yes I understand "good enough" and that it could just be out of whimsical preference by sexual partners. But what if not? The best answer I found here was that greasy long hair, in those cold climates, was somewhat water repellant. Nobody wants to get wet in the cold.

[–] Mothra@mander.xyz 1 points 10 hours ago

You aren't subject to every pressure every hominid ancestor ever was. Bald today still gets you laid, congrats! And you got hats to keep warm and look fabulous. :) I believe long hair must have presented some kind of advantage at some point though, there are some interesting comments here.

[–] Mothra@mander.xyz 1 points 10 hours ago

Yes, I understand this and it is in my post as part of the question: is it just a showoff feature like peacock's feathers? I also understand traits that don't impact fitness won't be selected against.

But I have the nagging feeling that the body does spend a fair amount of extra resources creating long hair when it could make do with just a fraction. Use it or lose it is a popular trend in the animal kingdom. You can have a very showy coat using a lot less resources, if we're talking about health markers only.

But, fear not, there are theories that support long hair as having an actual practical function that impacts fitness, and people in the comments have posted some.

What I like about these theories is that they aren't mutually exclusive. You can have a variety of factors that mildly favor the same trait, it's not always one single factor exerting clear pressure on things.

[–] Mothra@mander.xyz 2 points 10 hours ago

Aha, this answer is satisfactory. You introduce the concept of greasy long hair. At first I thought, well why not just greasy fur then? Why only on the head? But then I remember humans and probably early hominids like to wrap themselves with things like other creatures pelts and the head is probably the only place you can actually grow hair from. And if greasy it's like a sort of raincoat thing.

I can sleep now thanks

[–] Mothra@mander.xyz 1 points 10 hours ago

Heh that's an interesting consideration. I also wondered about this. It's not mutually exclusive with other theories, so...

[–] Mothra@mander.xyz 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That's an interesting take, agreed. But it doesn't explain why the length... You can still shave hair that doesn't grow too long. And look dangerous to fuck with

[–] Mothra@mander.xyz 2 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Yes, that's very interesting, and I also read about similar studies which explain pubic hair texture as having moisture isolating capabilities. However this doesn't address my question, which is about the apparently excessive length of head hair regardless of texture.

[–] Mothra@mander.xyz 2 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Alright, that's true with the history since long hairs stay for years, good point. I'm not sure I follow with shearing and technological capacity, mind explaining that a little bit more please?

[–] Mothra@mander.xyz 5 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Well... More to my point... That means it's a liability, right ?because that's all fine and dandy when consensual but over the course of history more people have died as a consequence of getting caught by the hair than the offspring such long hair ever facilitated. I mean most military forces cut their hair for a reason. But I'm neither a scientist or a soldier so, I could be wrong too.

[–] Mothra@mander.xyz 2 points 1 day ago

Why do we get an advantage from hairs longer than 60cm? 20cm already does the job, it even covers your neck.

 

Most mammals seem fine with shorter hair (usually denser though). The only other case that comes to mind of very long hair restricted to a specific body area is that of horses manes, which to be fair I'm also not totally sure what purpose it serves. Many equines seem fine with shorter manes and tails that don't have such long hair, like zebras. They swish flies away all the same.

Some animals have long hair but it covers most of their bodies (like llamas or yaks maybe), it's not restricted to a small area. Other animals have denser or longer hair in some areas, like lions, but this serves a purpose (protection of the neck and head) and even then the length ratio between these longer hairs and the rest of the fur isn't as skewed as that of humans.

So, why? I get that hair on the head helps protect it from the elements and sun, but why so long? Some humans can grow hair longer than their own body length, which is remarkable, and without doing any fact check I'd say we are probably among the top 5 species with longest hairs ever. Is it just a showoff feature like a peacock's tail feathers, an indicator of overall health? Or does it serve another function as well?

I didn't mean to type this wall of text..., thanks for coming to my TED talk

 
 

I'm in two DnD campaigns, different people. I've always felt the table in campaign N.1 has a very "American Chopper" energy, maybe the "woman yelling at cat +american chopper" meme mashup could be a great way to describe it. Chaos, mess, heated arguments, flying chairs, unfinished dinners, it's perfect.

It bothers me that I can't find a meme that represents the environment at the other table. So here I reach out to you, dear lemmings, and your meme knowledge.

Campaign N.2 couldn't be more different. Everybody is organized and civilized. There's hardly any arguments, ever, outside of roleplay. Any objects on the table are clean and in excellent condition. There isn't a lot of physical contact though, in spite of everyone getting along well.

Any meme suggestions?

 

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/28480950

In 2015, Cookie Monster filmed a viral video titled "Simply Delicious Shower Thoughts with Cookie Monster" for the Mashable YouTube channel. In the video, he explores various New York City museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Guggenheim, while pondering deep "shower thoughts" about food.

 

...eat as much [food item 1] as you want, without suffering any unwanted consequences

... always find [food item 2] at a bargain price, discounted or on sale (but you can't resell them)

...eat [ food item 3] and be sure it will always be be of excellent quality, rich and full of flavor

My three items would be chocolate, steak and cheese. Maybe. I'm not too sure about the steak, maybe I should say eggs instead.

What would be your three blessed foods?

 

Basically looking for people's experiences across multiple playthroughs in this game. Tell me all about the unexpected things you found, especially after more than two playthroughs.

I'm currently on my second run, close to the end. The first run I played Tav. I thought myself pretty thorough with map exploration, and by the time I finished I had a pretty good idea of which quests I had left unfinished and which characters I wanted to interact more/less/differently in my next run.

I wasn't expecting the game to feel this different though, and I'm loving it for it. So now on my second run I am playing Durge, I recruited Laezel and Minthara (previously I didn't...) and I made sure to find all pieces of Dribbles. I set myself to antagonize the Emperor in this run, unlike in my previous one. Oh and I made sure to keep the windmill gnome alive in the blighted village, since previously I accidentally pulled the wrong lever and yeeted him away, lol. I thought that was it, that would be most of the missing content I was interested in.

I... didn't expect to find so many different bits and pieces here and there or because of the order in which I did things. I realised I could recruit Scratch, an owlbear, and also an intellect devourer. I was surprised to see that entering the shadow cursed lands from the mountains as opposed to the grimforge would give me the opportunity to join the drider's caravan. Straight to moonrise, skipping the Inn. I rescued the prisoners and Minthara and was surprised, again, to see I could take them all, and myself and the party by boat to the Inn even if I hadn't yet been at the Inn.

I also realised I pretty much sucked exploring the map in Act 3; so many doors left unopened. For example I discovered there are mausoleums one can actually break into and explore in the graveyard. How come I missed that before, I don't understand. There is a mindflayer in the windmill in Rivington, and I should have taken the emperor's advice regarding it. In this run, my companions actually pointed at the shop Jaheira said would be the safe place, so I brought Jaheira with me and oh boy I discovered she actually has content exclusively for her. Her little questline was totally unexpected; previously I just let her tag along at camp but mostly ignored her. Discovering this as Durge I guess added extra flavor.

Etc. I could go on forever, but I want to hear what surprised you. Bring it on, maybe you can inspire me to try something different in my next run.

 

Someone had to ask the questions that matter.

 

So there's this post I saw, and the headline says Meta is now arguing uploading pirated books would be considered fair use.

Is it possible to use someone's use of an argument against them in the future? So for example say in the future, in a different case, Meta argues that someone harmed them in some way by uploading pirated books. Can the other party retort with something akin to "ah but that's not what you said about pirated books three years ago, you only complain if it's unfavorable to you"?

Also I noticed this would be the third post in a row about legal questions. I feel like I'm unintentionally contributing to a pattern/trend here, apologies

 

This morning I found out someone broke into my car and stole some low value junk I had in my glovebox along with a jacket and other stuff. I was home all along and didn't hear it happening. I am usually one to check twice that the car locks when I leave it, and if for whatever reason I don't then it auto locks after a while.

Now I'm a bit clueless with this stuff so I'm wondering 1) how they opened it without triggering the alarm and 2) can I do anything to prevent this from happening again? Any contraption/device I can use ?

TIA

 

I rarely use over 2GB of data per month. Usually most of my data traffic happens over wifi. Curious.

If you want to know why I'm asking:

My phone provider just decided to upgrade my subscription plan some ridiculous amount. I was on a cheap prepaid 18GB every 28 days plan, with data rollover. (I got nearly 900 GB of rollover data just sitting there, accumulated over the years).

Now they increased both their price and data cap about +60%. For me this is absolutely unnecessary. I was already paying for more than what I used.

Then I tried to switch providers, and realized this is the new baseline in the country, at least for monthly prepaid. Eventually I found a few providers that offer something more affordable, but it's only long expiry plans with a lot less data. Works for me though, not complaining.

I'm just surprised with the sheer amounts in most monthly plans, am I some kind of low usage freak?

 

Edit: so far Shuma Gorath (from Marvel's Dr Strange in 1973) is the only example. Know another? Please let us know

According to Wikipedia, the Beholder is a Dungeons and Dragons original creation and it is copyrighted. Its first appearance was in 1975.

In case you are not familiar with these, a beholder is basically a floating eye with tentacles that also have eyes, often able to shoot rays off the eyes. You have probably seen some similar creature type in a myriad other media such as videogames, tv shows and whatnot.

Now I'm really surprised something like this only surfaced in the 70s. Is there anything similar in any type of media or culture prior to the 70's? The only thing that pops to mind is the ancient biblical angels with abstract forms and many eyes, but I'm hoping someone here can show me more and better examples.

Or not. I don't know.

 

I'm a casual gamer so perhaps this has been made hundreds of times and I just ignore it.

So let's say you play your game, things don't go well so you go back and reload a save. Now, with your current knowledge you can get things right and that's usually how it goes with games.

Is there any game that takes this into the plot as something necessary by design (say for example, the main character is supposed to be clairvoyant or something)? You play, your character gets things wrong the first time, but now when you reload your character will obviously do everything right, almost as if they were clairvoyant/psychic/etc because that's exactly what your character is. The only way to beat the game is to explore a variety of outcomes in order to gather information until you get it right, but instead of this being immersion breaking it's actually supported by the plot itself.

Not sure if I'm making sense here or maybe I ate the wrong kind of cookies, you tell me...

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