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Cake day: June 25th, 2023

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  • ContramuffintoScience Memes@mander.xyzPLEASE bro
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    3 hours ago

    This is a map of signaling pathways in a cell. Essentially, how does a cell detect a stimulus and how does the cell respond to it. Signaling networks are notoriously difficult to parse, in major part because many of the proteins that make up the network are promiscuous (meaning that they target many types of proteins instead of just 1). Think of network as less of a series of defined steps and more of a chaotic mess. It’s so chaotic that most maps will select a theme (ie, hormone detection, stress signaling, infection, etc.) and only show the interactions that are relevant to that theme. Unfortunately, that also means that each map will show a network that’s completely different from the others, even though the proteins are the same.

    The joke here is that it’s very tempting to make another map. This map is finally going to solve cell biology, I promise, we just have to make another map. Ignore the fact that we already have so many maps, just one more map is all we need


  • First, make sure you’re never alone with her. It’s important to have someone be able to vouch for you that nothing bad happened. Even if it’s not her intention, rumors spread and mutate in the most unexpected ways, and you’ll want to make sure you’re in the clear if it ever comes to pass that people start to suspect that you are having a relationship with her.

    Second, you’ll want to speak with her. Make it clear that you are serious and that this is a serious talk. Whenever you see her next, just say something like “we need to have a talk.” Might be cliche, but the cliche aspect of it reinforces the serious nature of it IMO, since most people already associate that phrase with something serious.

    You don’t need to be rude, but you need to be very clear where you stand on the matter. Make it clear that 1) you are not in a relationship with her, 2) you do not wish to be in a relationship with her, 3) you don’t appreciate her saying that you’re in a relationship with her. With talks of this nature, there’s no point beating around the bush. She may be temporarily hurt, but there is a difference between being hurt due to rejection and hurt due to injustice. She will come to appreciate the honesty in time.


  • It was a while ago, I don’t remember off the top of my head which specific game I’m remembering. Doing a brief search, it appears that this happened to Unreal Tournament and Rocket League, though it appears that the games still work for the people who bought it before the unlisting. I think the concern was losing functionality, especially for server-based or multiplayer games



  • ContramuffintoGamesI'm a console gamer so, Why the hate on the Epic Games Store?
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    5 days ago

    Sweeney (the CEO of Epic) says that he wants competition with Steam, but many of his actions point toward that he really just wants to be the guy at the top (ie, he wants to be the monopoly instead of Valve). He’s taken a fair number of anti-consumerist stances, which vary from understandable to clearly anti-competitive.

    Epic is known for making exclusivity deals with 3rd party studios in which Epic bribes the studio with money, and in exchange, the studio does not release their game on Steam for 1 year.

    At several points, this occurred after a studio already said that they will release on Steam, and the studio would have to walk back and delete their Steam listing.

    Iirc, at one point Epic bought out a studio and had them remove the Steam listing for an already-released game, causing the game to be unplayable for people who had already bought the game

    Edit: this apparently happened twice (Unreal Tournament and Rocket League), but it appears that the games still work for the people who bought it. I think the concern was actually that Steam players would lose functionality due to not being supported anymore after the unlisting

    The Epic Game Store released in a non-functional state, and development on it is extremely slow. The first impression of the broken store likely still influences many people’s impression of the store. But it’s still missing many features that many gamers want to see in a store.

    There were various rumors when the store first launched that it contained spyware. My understanding is that those rumors never fully got disproven, especially since some of the claims were supported by at least some evidence

    Epic does not support Linux, and Sweeney has openly said that he does not plan to support Linux until it becomes more popular. He did immediately jump on board with supporting Arm though, which caused a lot of Linux gamers to think that he just doesn’t want to support Linux

    Sweeney is a pretty abrasive person and iirc he made a lot of concerning statements on his social media. Several of them (as mentioned above) indicate that he wants to dethrone Valve so that he can be the monopoly instead

    Overall, many gamers are in support of more competition in the game store space. Unfortunately, many gamers also think that Epic is an untrustworthy competitor, and they believe that Epic has a serious chance of making the gaming industry worse if they become more popular. As a result, many would prefer for Steam remain the monopoly rather than to take a bet on Epic.


  • I don’t think you seem to have any problems, but it sounds like your partner may have some things that they’ll need to work out.

    People are creatures of habit - while it is true that your partner is being an asshole, I currently don’t have any reason to believe that they’re doing it out of malice rather than habit.

    It sounds like your partner may need to seek professional help, because it is their responsibility to manage their ADD/depression, and it sounds like they may be struggling to do that. It is not your responsibility to manage it for them




  • Eating is also a really big factor for the body’s circadian clock. Not sure what your lifestyle is like, but I would try to avoid eating anything when it’s late.

    Interestingly enough, autism is also noted to affect the circadian clock, so it seems like medical and psychological conditions can exert an influence too.

    And it could be entirely possible that you are simply a night owl. I just find it disingenuous that some people would use the circadian clock as a way to justify poor sleep habits, especially if they have habits that disrupt their circadian clock. It kind of dilutes the struggles of actual night owls


  • Amusing thought, but doesn’t really make sense biologically. Your body doesn’t know your geographical location. It just reads the environmental time using a bunch of different inputs and guesses at what the actual time is. Your body is actually fairly good at guessing the time, but people are just naturally predisposed to sleep later or earlier.

    That tendency is influenced by genetics and also changes over time with age, but I also heavily suspect that people are actually just messing up their circadian clocks without knowing it. Try dimming your lights after sunset, you’d be surprised by how early you get tired.


  • ContramuffintomemesIt works too well
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    10 days ago

    In the book, it’s fairly clear that he did kill everyone but only got away with it because 1) nobody can tell anybody else apart because everyone looks the same and 2) everybody is so self-centered that even if they did know a murder took place, they didn’t bother to report it.

    It’s very heavily implied in the book that the landlady covered up Paul Allen’s (and multiple other prostitutes’) murder, presumably to maintain the property value of the apartment. Unfortunately, a lot of the clues don’t translate well into a movie:

    1. The apartment only recently became available to rent
    2. Bateman notes that the paint on the walls is still fresh, barely dried
    3. Bateman notes that there’s a lot of potpourri laid out, as though to cover up a smell
    4. Iirc the furniture was also brand new
    5. The landlady immediately knew who Bateman was and asked him to leave


  • Chemistry might not be much better. It’s because scientists generally assume that readers already know how to do the techniques, and so the only information they would care to provide are the ones that wouldn’t be considered obvious. Such as equipment brand, the name of the technique if there’s multiple techniques that do the same thing, or experiment-specific modifications to the technique.

    My understanding is that it’s a holdover from older times, when scientists were charged per word, and so methodology would be cut down to remove anything considered “general enough” knowledge


  • If you’re asking scientists about writing protocols, you clearly don’t know how scientific protocols work. If anything, scientists need to take lessons from recipe writers on how to write protocols. Scientific protocols are notoriously difficult to replicate.

    Here’s a burger recipe written like a scientific methodology:

    Raw beef patties (Carshire Butcher) were prepared on a grill (Grillman) according to manufacturer’s instructions. The burger was assembled with the prepared patties, burger bun (Lee Bakery), lettuce (Jordan Farms), American cheese (Cairn Dairy), and various toppings as necessary. Condiments were used where appropriate. Assembled burgers were served within 15 minutes of completion.







  • You seem to be confusing what you want with gender roles. Nobody said that men must make the first move. Many satisfying relationships start because women make the first move. But by consequence of the fact that you want a relationship, it naturally then follows that you’d have to make the first move.

    IMO using props is a poor move. Might get your foot in the door, but it’ll be obvious that your interest/commitment to the prop is not genuine. People can tell if you’re acting, so I would ignore any comment that tells you to imagine and act out a scenario - doubly so if you’re using a prop.

    The trick is to realize that a cold call almost never works. There is a very low chance that any one person you run into on the street is looking for a relationship, and an even lower chance that they’d be willing to bet on a stranger for that relationship. So you’re facing 2 filters that are lowering your chances that any one person you meet would want to get into a relationship with you.

    You can’t affect the first filter, but you can at least change the second filter - just don’t be a stranger. It’s easier said than done, but it’s possible with concerted effort. To put it bluntly: be amicable and be social. Put yourself in situations where you meet people, and befriend them. And you are by far more likely to run into a potential partner from the people you already know than in a public park. I don’t even mean to pretend to be friends - I mean actually be friends. Socializing has a compounding effect where the more you socialize, the more people you get introduced to. That’s also important because of the fact that you can’t affect the first filter. Clearing the first filter is really a numbers game, to simply know a lot of people.

    You’ll need to learn to maintain a social circle. Based on what I can tell, you seem to either be an introvert or have social anxiety. And honestly, I understand. I can’t say that the process will be easy or that it’s fair that extroverts have a leg up in the process, but the unfortunate reality is that society is built upon the assumption that people are social, and you have to play by those rules. The upshot is that more people are willing to be in a relationship than you’d think, and you don’t really have to expand your social circle that much or maintain it that well before you come across someone who agrees to be in a relationship with you.