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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 11th, 2023

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  • Thanks for the explanation, but I cannot follow on this line

    Since he knows that Bernard doesn’t know given just the row, each ball in that row is in a column that contains more than one ball.

    Why is that? Why couldn’t it be A2 or A3? In this case neither Albert nor Bertrand could tell what row/column this was either, because it would be in a row/column with another ball. How can you exclude any row with overlap with any single-ball columns?





  • From Wikipedia on dopamine:

    The brain includes several distinct dopamine pathways, one of which plays a major role in the motivational component of reward-motivated behavior.

    So it is a neurotransmitter but has many different functions as such. But also:

    Outside the central nervous system, dopamine functions primarily as a local paracrine messenger. In blood vessels, it inhibits norepinephrine release and acts as a vasodilator; in the kidneys, it increases sodium excretion and urine output; in the pancreas, it reduces insulin production; in the digestive system, it reduces gastrointestinal motility and protects intestinal mucosa; and in the immune system, it reduces the activity of lymphocytes. With the exception of the blood vessels, dopamine in each of these peripheral systems is synthesized locally and exerts its effects near the cells that release it.

    So dopamine is important for all kinds of cells to function correctly. So just chugging a bunch of dopamine would do all kinds of stuff to your body…



  • I guess things can have multiple names, too. In German you would also say Waldfrüchte (forest fruits) to mixed berries, but they are still Beeren (berries) as well. If you search for “postre de bayas” or “pastel de bayas” many recipes pop up. And sure, Spanish is obviously a diverse language with the divide between Spanish from Spain and from Latin America.

    Disclaimer: I’m part of the scientific bubble so that’s why I may here more terms that are botanical in Spanish ;)




  • Hm, I was intrigued and looked at the evolution of plants. This made me realize how paraphyletic gymnosperms and angiosperms really are! We just don’t know how angiosperms exactly started out and if they might be monophyletic. And in case of gymnosperms, they are consisting of many very different plant groups that evolved independently.

    So gymnosperms were probably the first plants to evolve seeds and they “include conifers, cycads, Ginkgo, and gnetophytes, forming the clade Gymnospermae”. That doesn’t really give an answer but that’s the best we can do?

    It was previously widely accepted that the gymnosperms originated in the Late Carboniferous period, replacing the lycopsid rainforests of the tropical region, but more recent phylogenetic evidence indicates that they diverged from the ancestors of angiosperms during the Early Carboniferous.[12][13] The radiation of gymnosperms during the late Carboniferous appears to have resulted from a whole genome duplication event around 319 million years ago.[14] Early characteristics of seed plants are evident in fossil progymnosperms of the late Devonian period around 383 million years ago. It has been suggested that during the mid-Mesozoic era, pollination of some extinct groups of gymnosperms was by extinct species of scorpionflies that had specialized proboscis for feeding on pollination drops. The scorpionflies likely engaged in pollination mutualisms with gymnosperms, long before the similar and independent coevolution of nectar-feeding insects on angiosperms.[15][16] Evidence has also been found that mid-Mesozoic gymnosperms were pollinated by Kalligrammatid lacewings, a now-extinct family with members which (in an example of convergent evolution) resembled the modern butterflies that arose far later.

    Wow, so there was already pollination going on before flowering plants even existed??? By scorpionflies who’s ancestors I frequently see? And there were butterfly-like insects long before real butterflies existed? Look how butterfly-like they were! This is wild!!



  • flora_explora@beehaw.orgtoScience Memes@mander.xyzMEN.
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    29 days ago

    Hm, I’d see the joking about men in this case as a way to blow off some steam caused by the frustration of how the people in our society with the most power and who are the most violent continuously refuse to change anything or make concessions. Men not going to therapy and working on their issues results in heightened patriarchal violence. And it is just utterly frustrating how many decades people have fought for systemic change just to see the vast majority of men blocking any change or even pushing back against it.


  • flora_explora@beehaw.orgtoScience Memes@mander.xyzMEN.
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    30 days ago

    I get that it’s hard, I was in the same boat multiple times. Everyone experiences the problems you list and I guess women and non-binary people actually have it worse because of on average greater financial instability and dependence on others.

    But the issue is, for therapy to work you have to acknowledge you have a problem, be willing to reflect upon yourself and change some own misconceptions. I feel like cis men have great difficulty with that and therefore avoid therapy.


  • I’m trying to understand this figure now. So, on the right in grey is the Phytoplasma bacterium that is hitting the plant with its SAP proteins. What I don’t get, if this is a fifty shades of grey analogy, then the plant must be consenting and enjoying this. But the bacterium is a parasite damaging the plant and even apparently benefitting other parasites. This doesn’t make sense!!


  • Just think how inefficient most of what we do is. Most of our modern society is based on indulgence or complex societal norms (very inefficient from an energy perspective!). It is frankly absurd to think we would do anything only based on its efficiency… Similarly, an intelligent alligator society may just eat their young out of fun or because of societal norms.


  • flora_explora@beehaw.orgtoScience Memes@mander.xyzsticky icky
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    1 month ago

    It is in the same family that brought us coffee! Maybe that helps you appreciate it more :)

    There are also other very similar looking herbs in the same genus that are really nice. Like Galium odoratum, which is used for its nice smell and flavor, e.g. in syrups or alcoholic beverages.