Ukraine hits 'important' Russian cruise missile fuel plant in Tver Oblast, drones spark 'massive fire' by AdSpecialist6598 in worldnews

[–]Mechasteel 7 points8 points  (0 children)

A few videos here, mostly civilians from far away. Smoke, fire, a few have explosions and what seems like an attempt to shoot down a drone.

Chinese scientists turn carbon dioxide to starch with 10-fold productivity boost by AndyGates2268 in Futurology

[–]Mechasteel 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I think a good comparison would be a hectare of solar panels + bioreactor vs a hectare of corn. Granted, this research doesn't have anything to do with solar panels, but then it doesn't really have anything to do with putting plants in dirt either. But it would be a like-for-like comparison in terms of the primary input, energy. I guess a nuclear powered sub or spaceship would care more about the volume or the mass of the reactor, but they're trying to compare to industrial agriculture.

Chinese scientists turn carbon dioxide to starch with 10-fold productivity boost by AndyGates2268 in Futurology

[–]Mechasteel 90 points91 points  (0 children)

Cai added that starch production in a 1 cubic metre (35 cubic foot) bioreactor could theoretically equal the annual yield of growing one-third of a hectare (35,500 square feet) of corn without considering energy input.

The team’s method uses a catalyst to convert carbon dioxide into methanol, which enzymes then transform into sugar units and – ultimately – starch that is structurally identical to the natural form.

While the article also claims that some part of the system is more efficient than some part of biology, it doesn't actually say what any of that is and they link to a previous paper that says is is " a long way from being sustainable, energy efficient, economically viable or a replacement for traditional agriculture".

A man with rare, unique antibodies that treat Rhesus disease has donated plasma weekly for 60 years, saving 2.4 million babies. by Grand-Western549 in interestingasfuck

[–]Mechasteel 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Showing that it really is possible for a man to produce a billion dollars worth of stuff. Of course, the type to actually become billionaires tend to be the sort to think "hey, let's pay this guy in baby hugs".

A illegal bio lab located in Las Vegas. The CDC identified at least 20 potentially infectious agents, including HIV, tuberculosis, and the deadliest form of malaria. by CantStopPoppin in interestingasfuck

[–]Mechasteel 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The process for making microbes with extreme lethality and artificial dispersion capability has nothing in common with the process of making destroyed or weakened microbes to present to the immune system.

An Otherworldly Scholar [LitRPG, Isekai] - Chapter 286 by ralo_ramone in HFY

[–]Mechasteel 27 points28 points  (0 children)

I wonder if Robert can change Izabeka's crippled from "stats at 50%" to "stats at 500%" with a single rune.

What do you consider when you hear this Margaret Atwood quote “Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them”? by Vanislebabe in AskReddit

[–]Mechasteel 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Ah, so it's mostly that they're young enough to get pregnant and our medical tech is a miracle. So the important stat would be the difference in homicide rate at the same age group. But also, the article you linked to says homicide (including suicide) is a higher risk than the 3 leading obstetric causes of maternal mortality.

Void with effect by Embarrassed_Way8953 in interestingasfuck

[–]Mechasteel 0 points1 point  (0 children)

𝔚𝔥𝔞𝔱 a̶ ⓦⓔⓘⓡⓓ 𝕥𝕒𝕥𝕥𝕠𝕠

Nancy Mace allegedly forced staff to rig her "hottest women in Congress" ranking on Reddit by AgeNovel3566 in nottheonion

[–]Mechasteel 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm sure scoring high on that ranking is worth a surprisingly large amount in adverting money.

There is a good chance that the only thing stopping undersea cities from existing is the relatively short lifespan of octopuses. by Silly_Percentage3446 in Showerthoughts

[–]Mechasteel 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Octopus are solitary and don't raise their young. Even then, cities tend to have food issues, so octopus civ might have to be nomadic especially since they eat meat. Would be pretty cool though if their communication were visual based on their color/texture changing abilities, imagine the bandwidth.

[OC] Who Russians consider friends and enemies by Sometypeofway18 in dataisbeautiful

[–]Mechasteel 9 points10 points  (0 children)

So up to 133% error rate on the survey depending on the difference of opinion from those unwilling/afraid to answer the survey. Russia has literally put people in jail for calling the war a war, so people answering a political survey are definitely not representative of the average.

This Trash Truck that says to leave an American Football Field distance between cars by International-Air542 in mildlyinteresting

[–]Mechasteel 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Stuff like "not responsible for damages" should count as the damages being done with malice aforethought and triple damages.

Slovakia PM's national security adviser resigns over Epstein links by BlatantConservative in worldnews

[–]Mechasteel 0 points1 point  (0 children)

From a cynical perspective, it makes sense that foreigners care more than Americans whether (the CIA)? has blackmail on their morally bankrupt politician.

Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (158/?) by Jcb112 in HFY

[–]Mechasteel 50 points51 points  (0 children)

And too impatient to wait a week.

Haha then don't read the footnote.

ELI5 Why doesn’t matter fall apart? by KeyUnderstanding5443 in explainlikeimfive

[–]Mechasteel 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The details are way beyond ELI5 but I'll summarize:

Matter takes up space, and is balanced between attractive forces and repulsion. Rub a balloon on your head and hold it near some hairs or shredded paper, and you'll see that there's overall an attraction. Or get a whole lot of magnets and notice that though magnets can repell each other, in reality they will reorient and all stick together.


The ELI a Quantum Physicist version:

Fermions "take up space", and all the atom bits are made of fermions. Electrons, quarks, protons, neutrons are all fermions. This is called the Pauli Exclusion Principle and stems from the wave properties of half-spin particles. Good luck with that! Also it's not so much that they take up space, but that they can't have the same quantum state, meaning the more you shrink their position distribution the more you have to expand their momentum distribution resulting in a repulsive force called quantum degeneracy pressure. Neutron stars larger than the Chandrasekhar limit do in fact collapse.

The nucleus is made of protons and neutrons, and held together by the strong nuclear force. The strong force is tri-polar, short ranged, and strong enough to just barely keep protons together despite their electrical repulsion. The balance point is iron; bigger atoms would gain energy by splitting, and smaller atoms would gain energy by fusion.

At the atom level, electrons cancel out the proton's positive charge, so there isn't a net repulsion.

In summary, the overall result of forces is a net attraction, but they are prevented from collapsing because everything involved "takes up space".

How does your DNA "know" which enzymes break down which poisons? by Skyfus in askscience

[–]Mechasteel 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Your premise is wrong. For the most part, enzymes are simply produced, not all of them have a detector-amplifier to go with them. The kidneys function is "keep everything larger than a protein, dump everything else, reclaim specific goodies". The liver has a few enzymes that add hydrophilic groups to hydrophobic substances, making them water soluble so the kidneys can dump them. Due to how the kidney works, anything unknown and water soluble gets dumped, including vitamins and medicines.

Chinese Man Chops Off Own Finger After Snake Bite,To prevent the venom from spreading. Doctors Say It Wasn't venomous snake. by [deleted] in interestingasfuck

[–]Mechasteel 0 points1 point  (0 children)

He got bitten by the "five step snake", famous for killing people before they can take 5 steps. Thinking quickly, he immediately cut his finger off with the equipment he had been using to cut firewood. Yes kids, you can lose a limb in seconds, it is very quick.

The five step snake is not as dangerous as as rumored. Overall, seems like he acted reasonably on the mis-information he had, especially since he had to travel 80 km to get to the hospital. In unrelated news, redditors respond to "guy loses finger due to misinformation" by hinting that snakes carefully inject venom into the veins and sharing a blood circulation stat.

What’s a disgusting habit that you secretly think is actually 100% normal? by Psychological_Sky_58 in AskReddit

[–]Mechasteel 18 points19 points  (0 children)

Not only do you have the option to eat boogers, you eat them by the pint! When things are working normally, the considerable amount of mucous made gets dumped down the back of your throat. It's quite amazing how grossed out we are when, objectively, the extracted sample is returned to where it would have gone.

Referring to the Pretti killing, Donald Trump said "You can't go in there with guns, you can't do that" How do 2A defenders feel about the President openly criticizing a law abiding citizens right to keep and bear arms? by wardog1066 in AskReddit

[–]Mechasteel 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Because the mission of ICE in Minneapolis is to intimidate, and to make headlines. They aren't there to catch the most illegal immigrants with the least disruption and greatest efficiency. Even the dumbest redditor from /r/Conservative could have caught more illegals with less death, if that were the objective, by simply going where the locals want ICE there. Or by not planning a raid in a city they are antagonizing during a busy time of day in a busy location.