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What scientific fact blows your mind the most?
  • To be fair, a perfectly fine but dead body is impossible to observe since the process of dying is usually the result or accumulation of injuries or disfunctions. For this experiment you either have to kill somebody without altering their body in the slightest or instantly conjure a perfectly intact body without any life in it.

  • Why would'nt this work?
  • You know what's more crazy. Electrons don't flow at the speed of light through a wire. Current is like Newtons Cradle, you push one electron in on one side and another bounces out on the other side, that happens at almost light speed. But individual electrons only travel at roughly 1cm per second trough a wire.

  • How do you approach a group of people with romantic intent for only one?

    Sometimes you hang out in a bar and you see a group of people (usually a pair) and you maybe want to ask only one of them for their number.

    How do you go on about this?

    I always feel kind of weird, because if I were to hang out with a friend and somebody were to randomly ask them out specifically, surely I'll be happy for them, but especially if this were a regular reoccurrence my own self esteem would probably take a hit from that. I don't want to put somebody else through that.

    Nowadays nobody ever goes out alone, especially not in bars. And if they do, they're usually not in an approachable state. In general there seem to be less and less appropriate places or moments to approach people. Isolating somebody or waiting for them to be alone also feels borderline predatory. I know that it became nigh-impossible for relationships to naturally form out of nowhere, but I really don't want to resort to dating apps or something of that matter.

    Also, what if you're maybe interested in both people. You can't just ask "And what about you, are you interested too?" That'd just be awfull for everyone. But maybe you would've had a better response if you would'be asked the other person first and now you'll never find out.

    I really hate to be somebody who excludes people especially in a conversation but this seems to be the only area were this is actualy unavoidable.

    6
    What's the tallest pyramid we'd be able to build? Can we reach space?
  • That's not really the limiting factor for pyramids. If you were to build a shape of equal height, say a cube, then yes this would be the main issue.

    What are the failure modes for a pyramid?

    • A 45° pyramid can't tip over since it's center of mass is always sufficiently far enough from the bottom edge. So tipping isn't one.
    • I'd say bending through cross winds is also not an issue for a pyramid unless you make it out of jello. So that's also not a failure mode.
    • Crumbling of the bottom layers because of the weight of the top layers is definetly one.
    • Uneven foundation strength can cause the supporting area to be weaker in some spots more than in others, so that's another failure mode.

    I'd say the crumbling and Foundation issues are heavily mitigated by 2 main factors.

    1st:

    The outer edge is always of height zero. As the pyramid grows in height it also gets wider, but the only point that is at risk of imminent collapse is the very center of the pyramid, since it is the only point that will reach a critical supporting mass first.
    Let's say the pyramid reaches a height and the furthes block at the bottom in the center crumbles (let's assume it actually turns into straight up dust). The clumbled block will still support some pressure but will also transfer it laterally into the adjacent blocks (essentialy like a liquid). Now the main question is "How many adjacent blocks does it need to support one crumbled block?". If the answer is ≤1, than you have no problem, because with each new block in height, the pyramid also gets 1 block wider at each side. Similar to water pressure, the lateral force the blocks exhibit will increase linearly with height therefore never outpassing the increase in pyramid width. If it's >1 than you will reach a point where the outer walls of the pyramid will start to collapse from inside pressure, and that will be your limiting factor for height.

    2nd:

    The blocks can be cemeted together, so whatever forces are being transfered laterally will not only be supported by the adjacent blocks, but also blocks adjacent to them and so on, and so on...
    Same thing goes for uneven foundation strength. The local decrease in support will be spread over a wider area because the blocks are merged together. Also Pyramids are usually not build block on block, but with a 50% offset, which will further aid to stabilize the structure.

    Usually, If you look at mathematical calculations for things like sky elevators the form to support the structure looks like a symmetric reciprocal function. This function actually requires way less material to support the weight of the center piece of the structure than a pyramid. So not only could a pyramid essentialy support itself until earths centrifugal forces take over, it would also be way too overkill in doing that.

  • I absolutely LOVE me a good nightmare.
  • My last actual nightmare was maybe a month ago. I don't remember the full extent of the dream but what triggered the nightmare scenario for me was some character on a monitor from a TV or videogame (don't remember exactly) turning their head unnaturaly and starting directly at me as if aware of my presence through the screen. Their natural human eyes instantly turned into big white circles with small black dots as pupils surrounded by growing darkness.

    My blood pressure instantly went through the roof but I usually don't wake up immediately.

    It was around 6 am so when I did finaly wake up there was already some light coming trough the blinds.

    The weird thing is, after I calmed down. I closed my eyes and in a half sleep state I tried "re-dreaming" the same scenario again and my body almost instantly reacted the same way. And then again, and again. But with each time the effect diminshed.

    But I wasn't dreaming in the half asleep state. I was literally just forcefully putting the same image of that character staring at me into my head. And still I got a fright response each time from fairly simple imagery.

    Of course now it doesn't work anymore, I guess because I "exhausted" that source of horror.

    Brains are crazy.

  • I absolutely LOVE me a good nightmare.
  • I'll put the actual description of the event as a separate comment because some people find reading about other peoples dreams boring and I didn't want to clif up the posts text.

    So it was a multi-part dream (as they usually are) and I'm going to skip the sad melancholic first part.

    So there I was at a race track in the evening. Apperently I was part of the pit crew and this was a private test race, only 3 of our own drivers all Mustangs. All 3 drivers turned in for a pit stop, they were all fairly young guys (18-20 maybe). The lead mechanic was a retired race-driver himself. During the pit stop he went off on the drivers about the condition of the cars (body panels were scratched up and came loose) and that the drivers were to focused on instruments. He said "Do the racing first and then when you hit the long straight, then you can check on your lap time, otherwise you're gonna get yourself killed.". Meanwhile the first driver our of the pit manged to spin his car before even leaving the pit area. As he shamefully reversed back to the pit he was cursing and blaming the car for that. The lead mechanic told him to get out, got in himself (together with me) and took the car for a spin on the track. It was bonkers fast to say the least.

    As the race continued the weather worsened by a lot. The cars were pitted and an almost monsoon like downpour quickly flooded the track turning it basically into a lake. So we did what every group rational people would to and got out our windsurfing boards. As we started I weirdly gotten ahead of everybody but due to high winds I actually lifted out of the water and started almost flying away. struggling to keep the sail under control over the track I fairly softly crashlanded right outside the pit area. As I walked to the pit lit I noticed on of the guys lying unconscious and injured in a lounger. I waited for him to come to and asked him what happened. He said that he also got lifted out if the water, but his ceashlanding wasn't as soft. I decided to keep him company and layed down on a lounger next to him looking into the dark night sky.

    Suddenly I was in my bedroom. The light was on (which isn't too weird because I sometimes fall asleep before turning it off). I heard somebody open up the door to our house and through a narrow open crack of my bedroom door I could see the light in the hallway also light up. It was weird because it clearly was late at night and none of my room mates were ever out that late. But I heard keys rustling and somebody undressing so I was somewhat put at ease thinking it truly must be one of my room mates. At the same time I thought about quickly getting up to turn my bedroom lights of so he wouldn't wonder why I was up so late at night. As the light in the hallway turned off the rustling stopped. Usually this I followed by either somebody going up the stairs or somebody entering their own bedroom door, but there was nothing. If felt as if something was watching me out of the hallway darkness through that tiny crack of my bedroom door.

    Suddenly the light in my room turned off.

    At this point I was actually awake and looking around my dark room with my own eyes unable to move. I was laying on my back which was unusual for me. Because I was familiar with what people told about sleep paralisis I was fully aware of what was about to happen. First I could hear this weird almost tribal sounding "GalagaGalgaGalaga... " sound. Then a shadowy figure quickly crept through the door crack moving to my right side, around my back, stopping to my left and lowering its head right above my face. It was a featureless sillouette with a slightly elongated head. The sound it made got slightly louder but not in a way you'd expect as if it was emitting from the figure directly.
    I desperately tried to move, but the only thing I managed was 2 fingers on my right hand and flexing my left arm slightly. Usually the slightest muscle movement would reliably snap me out of a dream, but this time it wasn't working.
    I tried speak but my tounge and lips were paralized. I tried to say "Bitch, fight me" and "Dare to turn the light on." But I managed to say "Bith, fah me" and "Da to the d'lith in" (hopefully my room mates didn't here that, lol)

    Suddenly I gained back my body function but for a brief moment I was bombarded with almost epilepsy inducing flashes of desperate attempts from my brain to rationalize the still glooming silouette in front of me. Withing a second the sillouette flashed into ASCII code, got turned into a cartoon character, then dispersed into a crowd of dancing people in a nightclub with lights disco flashing.

    The whole event took place over maybe 7 seconds.

    And then it was just dark. Darker than usual. Usually if I wake up at night my eyes are used to the darkness of my room and I can see atleast somewhat. But it seamed like those flashes actually affected my eyes and reset my receptors.

    I also got flooded with endorphins and started grining like an idiot.

    So yeah, that's essentially how went. I grabbed my phone after and stated typing this out as long as the memory is still fresh.

  • I absolutely LOVE me a good nightmare.

    Check comments for full describtion

    So I finally had my first case of sleep paralysis and it was freaking awesome. Sure... horrifying... but awesome.

    I've only ever heard people talk about it and always thought that it was just a meme but no, the way people describe it is pretty much spot on. Demon crawling up to you, not being able to move, yadaya, all the good stuff.

    I always thought I couldn't experience sleep paralysis because I'm a side sleeper and this makes it even less likely.

    To say "I don't scare easily." would be an understatement. Sure I get startled sometimes, but that's just instict taking over. I don't think I have experienced true irrational horror since I was a child. I'd say horror in general is just not part of our daily lives anymore. As someone who is into movie making, even horror movies don't really cut it for me, because I'm always thinking about the behind the scenes of each shot instead of actually being scared.

    That's why I am so appreciative of a good nightmare. Its horror from the deepest darkest places of your mind, specifically tailored to you. It's the best private horror show you'll ever going to get. And for someone who's never really scared, that is worth a lot.

    I'm only kinda disapointed of how my paralysis demon looks. I was hoping it would be some cute ghost lady, but it's more like a shadowy humanoid tentacle alien. Kinda like the mindflayer from Stranger Things but without any discernable features, just a shadow silouette.

    Its kinda like finding out your Patronus is a crosseyed possum, I mean it gets the job done sure... but it's kinda not what I was hoping for.

    Also it made a weird tribal "galagalagala" sound while approaching, which gotta say, not exactly the spookiest thing.

    All in all 7/10 experience. Wouldn't recommend it every day, but every once in a while it shirley is fun.

    9
    If all people from the opposite sex would vanish overnight but "only for you". How long would it take for you to notice?

    Everybody else will act normal and all prior evidence of their existence will also persist like normal.

    Edit: For clarification, the people are actually missing but everybody is essentially hypnotized to not notice. Even if specifically asked about the missing people they will pretend like everything is fine. So everybody goes on about their day normaly.

    I guess for most people it would be pretty much immediately if their significant other isn't there in the morning and for some fringe isolated cases it might take forever.

    I guess best case for me would be around 4 hours on a work day during lunch break seeing a big crowd of people when it would finally click.

    Worst case would be probably 5 days when I'm mostly working from home office.

    21
    Humans are notoriously hard to kill on purpose but laughably easy to kill by accident.

    We have people that jumped on grenades, bombed, shot at, cut to pieces and survived but how dare we stumble funny on a curb.

    8
    What are some one liner comments or quotes you read that have stuck with you for years?

    For me, a few come to mind:

    • "You're imagining everybody in this story way more attractive than they actually were."

    It was posted somewhere on one of those spicy subreddits under some affair threesome story. And it sort if clicked with me. Like look around, normal people on the street don't all look like supermodels. And supermodels don't lurk around in reddit comment sections. It really put things into perspective for me.

    • "Life isn't short, it's the longest thing you'll ever do."

    It is a bit uplifting to realize that no matter if you have bad or good period in your life, it is only a short chapter contained in the longest time period possible for you to experience.

    There were a few others that I probably can't remember of the top of my head right now.

    58
    Mod Idea: Resources in Construction Queue

    For years I've been looking for a mod that does a simple thing - showing the resources needed for all placed construction blueprints, ideally in parenthesis on the vanilla resource list next to the corresponding resource.\ \ I'm tired of selecting all the placed floor tiles and then multiplying it by the number of resources per tile by hand. Especially because you can only select a limited number of entities at once. You have to fiddle around with the camera to section of portions of your blueprints if they exceed this limitation. It would save a lot of hassle for larger builds if the number of resources in construction or production queue would be visible at a glance.\ \ Additionally the aproximate amount of days your food will last should also visible on the resource list.

    0
    Every time I hear "Lemmy" this keeps bouncing around in my head.
    youtube.com Lemmy

    🔸 _Stream title_ : RED BUNNY GIRL (male) 🐰🔹 *I AM NOT F1NN5TER*-----------------------------------------------------------------------🔹 *FINNSTER'S OFFIC...

    Lemmy

    I can't help it.

    3
    InitialsDiceBearhttps://github.com/dicebear/dicebearhttps://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/„Initials” (https://github.com/dicebear/dicebear) by „DiceBear”, licensed under „CC0 1.0” (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)LO
    LouNeko @lemmy.world
    Posts 10
    Comments 712