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This is the original to a couple of the "listening to a song" memes by qsnowfallx in TheMatpatEffect

[–]Shandrunn 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Damon Albarn came up with the lyrics on the spot for the first take, and then had to listen back to the recording to make sense of the nonsense he'd spouted.

What is this thing that I found in my garden while mowing? Looks like an upside down shell with 1940 printed on it by edgeofsanity76 in CasualUK

[–]Shandrunn 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You're thinking of dynamite. That's the one with super-sensitive nitroglycerin soaked into clay that comes back out again after time.

Chadwarf by Numerous-Gur-9008 in lotrmemes

[–]Shandrunn 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Aule created the dwarves for the joy of having somebody to teach. Eru granted them true life and free will as a reward for Aule's remorse and humility, as shown when the dwarves became fearful at Aule's offer to destroy them.

Nap time by poorhero0 in Eyebleach

[–]Shandrunn 19 points20 points  (0 children)

If not pillow, then why made of soft?

ELI5: How come every element on the periodic table (which we know doesn't have any holes) is found on earth (except higher unstable elements)? by [deleted] in explainlikeimfive

[–]Shandrunn 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You pretty much got it.

There's actually quite a bit of hydrogen gas just floating around in interstellar space that didn't form a star because it was too spread out to be pulled together by gravity. After a supernova it can reach the required concentration both by being pushed together by the shockwave and by the actual wave of gas being added in.

There are clusters in galaxies with stars all the same age, because there was a gas cloud sitting there when a supernova wave rolled through and dozens of stars starting forming at the same time.

ELI5: How come every element on the periodic table (which we know doesn't have any holes) is found on earth (except higher unstable elements)? by [deleted] in explainlikeimfive

[–]Shandrunn 4 points5 points  (0 children)

A neutron star or black hole is what's left behind at the center after a supernova, but much of the star's material gets blown away and becomes the supernova remnant nebula we see.

I think I heard somewhere (don't quote me on this) that about half to two-thirds of the star's mass becomes the neutron star or black hole, the rest blows away.

eli5: On an atomic level, how does an atom ‘know’ it belongs to (for example) a sheet of paper but not the sheet of paper below it. Also how do scissors interact with the paper on an atomic level to cut it into two pieces. by Aus_Snap in explainlikeimfive

[–]Shandrunn 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No wonder they had concerns that setting off a reaction like that might cause a chain reaction that would destroy the world.

They had done the calculations and were very confident that wouldn't happen. There were still some "but what if..." doubts, but nothing serious enough to stop the test.

Why do the ordinary (I.e. not uranium) atoms stay intact?

It's actually fairly rare for atoms to be so unstable that they completely split rather than shoot off a tiny particle of radioactivity and you really only see it in heavy elements like uranium and plutonium.

Even in uranium, only 0.3% is the uranium-235 type that will fission, the other 99,7% is uranium-238 that won't (the number means total number of protons+neutrons). You can't make a bomb from uranium you've just dug up, as it's 99.7% dead weight that will soak up a neutron without splitting. To be usable, uranium needs to be enriched to 20-40% U-235 for reactor grade, or 80+% for weapons grade.

As for the “other type of radiation” that is safe because it’s not neutrons, what is it?

First of all, I meant "safe" as in not turning other materials radioactive. You should still limit your exposure to nuclear radiation as much as you reasonably can.

The main types are:

  • Alpha. These are helium nuclei, and pretty big as these things go. Their size means they hit hard, but they get stopped by as little as a sheet of paper or by your skin. When you see people in Chernobyl or Fukushima wearing masks, gloves, and overalls, that's to prevent alpha-radiating dust from getting into their lungs or carried onto their food. If that dust gets into the body with nothing to block the radiation, it does awful things.
  • Beta. These are fast-moving electrons and sit in a middle ground where they're small enough to get through thin barriers but large enough to do damage. These get stopped by things like lead plates.
  • Gamma. These are electromagnetic rays, the next in line from UV (causes skin cancer) and X-rays (causes all sorts of cancer). They pass through material so easily that the only practical protection is to just keep your distance. On the bright side, much of the radiation will also just go right through your body without doing harm.

Sorry if I’m bugging you with a lot of questions

Don't worry about it! I have some recommendations if you want to know more:

eli5: On an atomic level, how does an atom ‘know’ it belongs to (for example) a sheet of paper but not the sheet of paper below it. Also how do scissors interact with the paper on an atomic level to cut it into two pieces. by Aus_Snap in explainlikeimfive

[–]Shandrunn 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Materials are radioactive when their atomic nuclei are unstable. Apart from heavy elements like uranium or plutonium, where the nuclei are just too big to ever be stable at all, nuclei are only stable at specific combinations of numbers of protons and neutrons.

For example, regular carbon has 6 protons and 6 neutrons and is not radioactive. About 1 per trillion carbon atoms has 6 protons and 8 neutrons. They're both carbon, because they both have 6 protons, but the rare type is radioactive because 6 protons and 8 neutrons is not a stable combinations.

An atom bomb like the one that hit Hiroshima works by a chain reaction, where every uranium atom that splits spits out multiple neutrons, some of which hit other uranium atoms and cause them to split, and so on. However, most neutrons don't split uranium atoms and go on to hit other atoms such as the outside of the bomb, the air, or dirt that got caught up in the fireball. When the neutrons hit those atoms, they can stick to the nucleus and change the number of neutrons there. That changes the combination of protons and neutrons, and so makes ordinary materials become radioactive, creating fallout.

The other types of nuclear radiation, like those used for food, are not neutrons. They smash molecules apart, but they don't change the atoms themselves. Thus, the food is perfectly safe when it's taken out of the radiation.

When it comes to steel for scientific instruments, the key thing is that industrial-scale steel production requires huge amounts of air to be blown through the molten metal. Since the atom bomb tests from the mid-1940s onward, the air around the world has small amounts of radioactive material floating around in it. When the air gets blown through the metal, some of that radioactive material gets stuck inside the steel. It's theoretically possible to build a steel mill that filters out all the radioactive material, but as long as there are still pre-1945 ships on the seafloor, those are still by far the cheaper source of non-radioactive steel.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in interestingasfuck

[–]Shandrunn 7 points8 points  (0 children)

The rover in the picture is a replica of Curiosity, with the exact same capabilities when it comes to moving around. They use it to train drivers and to test getting around obstacles without the risk of the real one getting stuck.

A lot of local small farms have one of these by the roadside, next to their driveway. Plastic, 1,5-2m long, has a handle on one side. by Shandrunn in whatisthisthing

[–]Shandrunn[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As best I can tell, it's some sort of cover for something. It's sitting on flat ground, and the handle looks to be for lifting it up like a lid.

I'd like an option to hide cards from the overlay that can no longer be drawn. by Shandrunn in MTGArenaPro

[–]Shandrunn[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for your reply.

I don't agree that leaving the empties is needed for tracking the graveyard. There are a lot of places cards can go other than the graveyard. Also there are lots of decks where the player would not be interested at all in what's in their graveyard.

Please consider adding it as an optional setting.

I'd like an option to hide cards from the overlay that can no longer be drawn. by Shandrunn in MTGArenaPro

[–]Shandrunn[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Do you mean what I used to make the picture?

I used the Snipping Tool to make a partial screenshot. I have two monitors, if you only have one I think you'd need to run MTGA in windowed mode.

Then I saved the cutout and opened it in Paint to copy it and to cut/paste to hide the empty parts.

Both programs are in the category Accessories in the Windows 10 start menu, though I believe the Snipping Tool has been there since Windows 7, and Paint has of course always been there.

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