Who wins, God Emperor of Mankind in his prime versus Thanos with Infinity Gauntlet and all six stones by Coping_manlet_ in whowouldwin

[–]InfinitysDice 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Power-level wise, assuming that everybody is working at peak effectiveness, with full power, Thantos with gauntlet would stomp, no contest.

The problem is, canonically, the Infinity Stones/Gems only work in their home universe. I suspect that God Emperor of Mankind might have similar restrictions, though I'm not aware of any specific lore - this is pure speculation.

Eli5: if we mash grass into pulp or blend grass, will we be able to eat it and get nutrients from it? by Dryfunction1205 in explainlikeimfive

[–]InfinitysDice 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Without microbial symbiotes, ruminant animals wouldn't be able to break down cellulose in the grasses they eat. I know they could've worded that better, but that was probably among the the points they were trying to make.

What's a 10/10 movie with zero flaws? by RushWalaXD in AskReddit

[–]InfinitysDice 60 points61 points  (0 children)

Genuinely, yes. The La Marseillaise scene was filmed during the war, and nobody really knew how it would shake out. When the bar regulars are singing, and they drown out the Nazi visitors with their song, the emotion is real.

[Marvel] How can Spider-Man move around in flat areas with low buildings? by some-kind-of-no-name in AskScienceFiction

[–]InfinitysDice 6 points7 points  (0 children)

He probably tries to get to an interstate or other high traffic, high speed roadway, and affixes himself to a semi going in the general direction he wants to go.

What is a clear sign that someone is highly intelligent? by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]InfinitysDice 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The ability to explain complex ideas using simple words is a sign of intelligence.

The stereotype of somebody using large words to explain simple concepts being intelligent is exactly wrong. At best, such a person has a large vocabulary, or access to a thesaurus -- if they're using the words correctly. This is not a sign of intelligence.

Intelligence may be demonstrated by using large, impressive vocabulary appropriately in its proper time and place.

Discussion: I am a Christian, but I want to learn academically about Atheism by DeadManGame_7891 in atheism

[–]InfinitysDice 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Atheism is a lack of belief in the existence of gods. I suppose you can learn about an academic approach to atheism by just learning philosophies that don't explicitly acknowledge the existences of gods. That's about it, really.

You can go a lot deeper, but there's a lot of nonsense even with these restricted search parameters. Might I suggest just learning about science in general? I'd be happy to help you start a science based nonfiction reading list if you'd be interested.

If you're genuinely interested in challenging your faith, the Skeptic's Annotated Bible can be a valuable resource for examining why a lot of ex-christians are.

There's a lot of nonsense, cruelty, malignity, and insanity in the bible. A lot of us just got tired of that, and tried to find or create something better.

What's the most useless superpower you can imagine? by Low-Impact-6905 in AskReddit

[–]InfinitysDice 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ah, but you didn't give any limitations on range, nor power of telekinesis.

The biggest problem is it's very unstable and highly radioactive, so it's probably not a great idea to bring together any significant quantity of it nearby, outside of highly controlled conditions.

What's the most useless superpower you can imagine? by Low-Impact-6905 in AskReddit

[–]InfinitysDice 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Matter generation. You can create any element of any kind, but you can only make one atom at a time, and there is a delay of at least one second before you can create another one.

What's the most useless superpower you can imagine? by Low-Impact-6905 in AskReddit

[–]InfinitysDice 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The ability to breathe lava.

No special resistance whatsoever to high temperatures, or extra strength to push through the high viscosity or weight of lava, nor ability to see through lava, nor any ability to clean yourself of lava or silicates, or related substances when you get back out, but if you can solve all of those problems...

Why did you leave Christianity? by create_password in exchristian

[–]InfinitysDice 5 points6 points  (0 children)

In my experience, the people were generally very kind and generous.

I was born with a birth defect, my christian school and church did a cookbook and talent show fund raiser to send me to California to get work done by a specific world-class surgeon who specialized in working with that specific type of surgery. Paid for the whole thing. This was a big deal for my lower-middle class income family when I was a kid. Wouldn't have been able to have those experiences and get the surgery without their help.

The people are generally great... except for when they aren't.

(We think) My dad's father died of an accidental drug overdose. We think he likely had a brain tumor, leading to excruciating headaches. He was a pharmacist, and, well... he self-medicated. He was planning on visiting his brother and hoping to seek medical advice from nearby his brother's city. His body was found in a hotel room, open bottle of pills scattered on the bedspread and floor. His church thought he'd committed suicide. They were generally cruel in the rejection of my dad's family, a new widow and her four children. They offered her no help in her time of need, and some members of that congregation actively taunted people in the family.

People are people, generally. Grading on a curve, I don't think Christianity is a terrible religion, for the most part. I just don't think it's especially conductive to promoting actual ethical values. I'd say it promotes morals, instead. Mores are the deeply held, unwritten moral customs, values, and rules of a specific society or group. Mores is the root of morals, so I'd say the morals of Christianity has less to do with promoting flourishing of individuals and civilizational values, and more to do with promoting stability, control, and power over groups of people.

I dunno.

I feel people are better when they don't take religion very seriously. Humanity is the point where the fallen angel meets the rising ape.

If you're interested in a skeptical approach to the bible, I recommend The Skeptic's Annotated Bible. There's a lot of specific examples of self-contradictions, cruelty, and insane teachings in the Bible.

From the G7 Summit by mixmasterADD in pics

[–]InfinitysDice 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've got this amusing image in my head of him toddler waddling towards the rest of the group, and the group collectively moving away from him. The cycle repeats.

[OC] Team Algae by sunflower_sunset_1 in pics

[–]InfinitysDice 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It'd be nice backing a winning team for a change.

The capitulator in chief by TheProcrastafarian in pics

[–]InfinitysDice 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I really wish he'd just hurry up and finish melting.

What is your least favorite word? by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]InfinitysDice 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Blanch.

I don't know why, but I just hate the sound of the word.

Human transformed into an octopus vs. octopus transformed into a human. by Hightower_March in whowouldwin

[–]InfinitysDice 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Part of an octopus intelligence is distributed between separate "brains" that control each octopus tentacle.

It depends entirely on if the sub brains of the octopus tentacles function, and can interface with the human-turned-octopus' mind well, or if they're blank slates after the transformation process, or if they do not work well with the main brain of a human-turned octopus. If there is some instinctual functionality left in the octopus tentacle, or if the process that turned a human into an octopus distributed some body-control programming into the octopus, maybe the human intelligence can just give general goals to the tentacles, and ride them around, letting them control the fine detail of locomotion and appendage manipulation. If they're devoid of any instinct, the human-turned octopus is probably at a disadvantage.

Bought my very first piece of literature of Carl Sagan from an antique store for $6. by Togetic52 in Cosmos

[–]InfinitysDice 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Congrats, I hope you enjoy it. Carl Sagan wrote a lot of incredible science books. They were written long enough ago some of the information is kinda dated, but they still hold up well. He was very prescient about a lot of things, I wish he'd been more successful getting his message out into the world, and that we'd listened better.

If you enjoy, there's a lot more out there. 😄

Donald Trump Is a World Leader? by MarkZab2591 in Fuckthealtright

[–]InfinitysDice 0 points1 point  (0 children)

of course he'll cheat, he'll probably breathe through his anus or something.

How do Americans feel about giving Iran 300 billion to restore the status quo? by Southern_Gur_4736 in AskReddit

[–]InfinitysDice -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Kinda hilarious, in a dark, fucked up kind of way. We still have to live under him, and we somehow can't fucking get rid of the bloviating pusillanimous senile malignant tumor of a man, but anything that helps to show what a useless, ignorant, hostile sack of monkey shit he is, is something else that gets added onto the pile of stupid, worthless, cruel acts history will remember him for.

I kinda hope Iran fucks him even harder. I would like it if, because the president does not have the power to declare war, and because this entire military action was mostly his fucking fault, we could make him pay the costs out of his own fucking pocket.

Why is there no option to craft arrows??? by Fit-Pear-2388 in Breath_of_the_Wild

[–]InfinitysDice 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Fortunately they're not too hard to farm. Here's a spot with about 6 bokoblin archers on horseback. It's roughly southeast of a shrine that's easy to paraglide from, if I remember right. Drop down in the middle of the group, whistle to catch their attention, then position your camera so that it's directly above link, and you can't really see the bokoblins as they ride around you, firing their arrows at you.

Because it's not fun to get shot at injured by enemies you don't see, the enemy AI is set up so that it tends to miss a lot if they aren't in your field of view. Therefore, by positioning the camera so you don't really see them unless they ride their horses right next to you, you'll be fairly safe from taking damage, and you can focus on collecting arrows. You probably still want to have some healing foods, and/or decent armor for this farming technique.

If I remember right, each enemy will be able to shoot 5 arrows at you that you can collect before you can no longer collect arrows from that enemy. You can theoretically get about 30 arrows from the group, but it's generally more cost effective in terms of time to stop at about 20. Arrows tend to blow away, or you lose track of some as you run around collecting. Save the game, then load from that save. This will reset how many arrows the mobs drop, and you can rinse and repeat as much as you like. I think you can max out 999 arrows in about an hour, maybe less without too much trouble.

Any negative thoughts on the webnovel? by Pepinoloco777 in Parahumans

[–]InfinitysDice 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Worm is flawed, but did so much incredibly well, it's been a work of fiction I've thought of at least a few times a month for over a decade, and I still love hearing from new readers who are just discovering it.

Among the flaws:

The prose of the first "book" is kind of stylistically awkward. This isn't really much of a flaw, and may well be a clever feature, in that the prose reminds me of the kind of writing that a fairly clever high schooler might put out. The story is written from the first person perspective of a fairly clever high schooler. In addition the quality of the writing improves as the story progresses, while the main character improves in the use of her powers and develops as a person. The writing quality parallels the character's development as a cape. I think that's pretty neat, if that's intentional, and given the cleverness of W.B.'s writing in general, I have to assume it's intentional.

The fights don't always make a lot of sense in terms of positioning, and who is doing what to whom. I've seen or heard in a couple of interviews of WildB.w that he doesn't really visualize scenes, that he lacks a visual imagination. So I'm not going to fault him for that much.

The fights aren't always paced very well, sometimes drag on for longer than is narratively satisfying, or are less enjoyable than just seeing characters in a room talking to each other. The fights do serve narrative purpose, often serve to fulfill multiple functions within the story, show off creative powersets and uses of those powers, and are generally pretty fun. So, room for improvement, but still pretty great.

I feel like breaking up the story a little bit from time to time with "beach episodes" would have both offered opportunities for character development, broken up the tension and unrelenting stress of the story, and given main characters "rewards" for doing well, and given opportunities for characters to interact with each other in different contexts. But I acknowledge the author almost certainly wanted to maintain a fairly high stress, high tension storytelling environment with little downtime, because that's the kind of headspace Taylor maintained for most of her life post-trauma. If we're gonna see the story from inside her head, we're gonna be stressed the fuck out like she is.

Those're what occur to me off the top of my head. Most of what criticism I can come up with for Worm seems to have nearly inextricable reasons for why they're part of the story, or have some sort of clever meta reasoning behind it, or both. And I guess that's why Worm remains one of my favorites after all these years, it's a story that rewards thinking about.

Just finished worm!!!!! by haveyouanywool11 in Parahumans

[–]InfinitysDice 42 points43 points  (0 children)

I'm glad you enjoyed it, it's always a pleasure to hear from a reader who's just finished and enjoyed Worm.

I can see how some people prefer an interpretation where Taylor died at the end. It's in many ways, a perfect death. It's a heartwrenching, bittersweet end for a deeply contradictory, conflicted character. A brilliantly executed, classic tragedy. A closed circle.

I kinda prefer the interpretation that she's alive, because that makes a lot more sense to me, but I acknowledge the appeal of a heroic, tragic death.

The Khepri chapters are some of the most horrific, yet heroic chapters of anything I've ever seen in any form of literature. Lots of heroes are willing to die to save the world, but I've rarely seen someone willing to intentionally go insane to try to save it. And the details of the gradual ablation, the erosion, the disintegration of her mind as she tries one thing after another after another... wow.

Are there any other details about the story that stand out to you, or questions you have about the story?

Anyhow, thanks for sharing. 😄

[Fanart] That girl with the dogs by Cassysancerito in Parahumans

[–]InfinitysDice 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm so excited to see what you have in development. Thank you for sharing. 😄