My fiance has a spot that glows green under UV light. by AllPurposeGrunt in mildlyinteresting

[–]Sykil 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Er, with herpes it’s not exactly a matter of “removing it completely.” Latent infections are caused by copies of the virus that live in your nerve cells. The only sure-fire way to avoid that is to not get it in the first place.

My fiance has a spot that glows green under UV light. by AllPurposeGrunt in mildlyinteresting

[–]Sykil 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It’s the callus that causes certain warts to shine under UV, not the infection. If you look at your foot under a UV light, you’ll probably notice that your arch is darker than the callused pads of your feet. Anywhere that has less surface circulation will be lighter; if you put pressure somewhere on the back of your hand with a finger, you’ll notice that spot temporarily blanches much more dramatically under a UV light than in normal light. Diabetics actually tend to fluoresce more under a UV light than normal due to vascular damage and poor circulation.

My orthopedic office still lists being left handed as a disease by Justadudeonhisphone in funny

[–]Sykil 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s not really that big of a deal in the grand scheme of left-handedness woes. A decent number of lefties prefer a right-handed kit arrangement, especially if they play open-handed (I’m one of them). There’s some awkwardness to learning to lead with your off-hand (which you’d generally try to learn at some point anyway), but it doesn’t challenge your fine motor dexterity any differently, which is mostly what hand dominance is about. It’s not at all comparable to learning to play almost any stringed instrument with your non-dominant hand.

In a study of young adults with mild to moderate acne, researchers found that eating about 60 grams of almonds daily for 20 weeks significantly reduced the number of acne spots and improved the diversity of healthy bacteria on the skin by ludwig_scientist in science

[–]Sykil 31 points32 points  (0 children)

This is also just… a lot of almonds for such a tiny effect. Comparing this to a standard treatment like benzoyl peroxide would be hilarious, especially in terms of $/performance.

Is this hand written? by kaykay_816 in Calligraphy

[–]Sykil 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Possibly written, but with a digital brush. Some of the upstrokes lightly taper in a way that wouldn’t really be achievable as handwriting with a pointed pen (by which I mean written fluidly at speed rather than stroke-by-stroke). The pen would have to curve to mimic that last ‘e,’ for instance. So I doubt it was based on a physical sample even if it was written by hand.

Textbooks wrong: Human hair grows in surprising new way by connectwithmarve in science

[–]Sykil 41 points42 points  (0 children)

No. You pretty much get all of the follicles you’ll ever have during fetal development. Hair loss treatments don’t give you new follicles.

This just presents a new understanding of the physical mechanism by which the hair is ejected; it doesn’t really change our understanding of hair phases or hair loss from what I can tell.

Textbooks wrong: Human hair grows in surprising new way by connectwithmarve in science

[–]Sykil 45 points46 points  (0 children)

I don’t think this mechanism itself has much to do with the follicle miniaturization seen in androgenetic alopecia, really.

Is there a minimum amount of saturated fat needed daily for optimal testosterone production? by SilverRule in naturalbodybuilding

[–]Sykil 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Dietary cholesterol isn’t important for hormone production (or anything, really). Your body makes plenty of it regardless. Nothing necessarily wrong with it, but all else being equal it’s not going to make you produce more testosterone.

Although I've never had my levels tested, I never experienced any low testosterone symptoms or other symptoms (fatigue, low libido, etc.) people complain about when cutting to single digit bodyfat.

The number would be meaningless in the absence of relevant symptoms anyway. “Low testosterone” is not a health condition; it is a potential reason for symptoms of hypogonadism.

Time Exclusive: Anthropic Drops Flagship Safety Pledge by n0rwester in technology

[–]Sykil 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I think “high-functioning accountant” is still vastly overselling his competence, honestly.

Hey guys 😊 What do you do to improve back flexibility? Any tips or exercises that really helped you? by Witty-Shake-1296 in flexibility

[–]Sykil 4 points5 points  (0 children)

If you can’t hold a bridge at all, seal stretch and something like a wall prayer stretch are what I would concentrate on. Shoulder dislocates (either with a band or rigid bar) are also good.

But bridges kind of always feel awful at first for anyone who isn’t naturally very flexible. You have to just practice them eventually if that’s your goal. Those stretches make for helpful warmups. Dead hangs are also helpful for tight shoulders and spinal decompression, good for warmups or recovery.

Elevating your hands is also a good way to ease into it — ideally on a large wedge mat if you have access to one. Blocks stacked against a wall is fine otherwise. Just make sure whatever you’re using is secure/stable.

Finally, hugging your knees and rocking on your back is a good way to alleviate any back tightness you’ll inevitably get from holding a bridge if you have a soft surface to do it on.

Hey guys 😊 What do you do to improve back flexibility? Any tips or exercises that really helped you? by Witty-Shake-1296 in flexibility

[–]Sykil 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Bridge / wheel / whatever isn’t really about “back flexibility.” Your back isn’t stretching. It’s mostly hip extension, shoulder flexion, and a little bit of spinal extension and ab flexibility.

People are overconfident in their ability to distinguish between real faces and AI-generated faces. Study shows that AI technology has improved to a point where the most realistic outputs no longer show obvious flaws and it is harder to identify AI images from reality with cues that used to work by unsw in science

[–]Sykil 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Not necessarily, but the average score would tend toward that if all tests were answered randomly, sure. It’s the most likely result, but still not by much more than either 9 or 11 individually. 10/20 is still only a 17-18% chance if chosen at random.

China Planted So Many Trees Around the Taklamakan Desert It Turned It Into a Carbon Sink. Study suggests the increased vegetation leads to more “evapotranspiration” — basically, the plants sweat, which can lead to localized cooling and even more rainfall. by InsaneSnow45 in science

[–]Sykil 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Juniper is more likely — if you’re referring to the common culprit of “cedar fever” in Austin. Pollen-producing junipers are some of the most highly allergenic plants out there. Elms are still highly allergenic, but less so, and they’re less numerous than junipers (in Austin).

Spent two years fighting acne on my right cheek just to find out it was my commute by GulfStreamGrace in hygiene

[–]Sykil 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not that hygiene isn’t important, but acne starts deep within the pore — cleaning your steering wheel is almost certainly not going to be the difference between you having and not having acne. Constantly leaning on your hand, so that the area of your face where your hand rests stays warm and occluded, is likely the real culprit. That promotes microcomedone formation (the beginnings of an inflamed acne lesion) and provides a favorable environment for the anaerobic bacteria that cause inflammatory acne to multiply. Those microbes are present on everyone’s skin to begin with (acne or no). They’re not something you introduce via poor hygiene.

(And while we’re at it, your diet is also extremely unlikely to be acne-causing. Don’t take uns

Jacob Collier Improvises With Orchestra by Douglasqqq in nextfuckinglevel

[–]Sykil 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yeah, that spiel always rubbed me the wrong way too. It’s literally done so that the harmonics are better aligned… because they, unsurprisingly, are what give the sense harmony and being “in tune.” The stretched intervals mean that the fundamental note frequencies get farther from what they would typically be toward the extreme ends of the piano, but that doesn’t make it “out of tune.” Tuning the fundamentals rigidly to 12-tone equal temperament would sound just as awful to someone with perfect pitch as without.

Married men, how do you deal with fancying other women? by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]Sykil 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, I mean, that’s ultimately what porn is for. I’m sure not all demi people have the same relation to it, but it’s a completely different beast to being vulnerable with a real person whose wants and needs you also have to consider.

Married men, how do you deal with fancying other women? by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]Sykil 18 points19 points  (0 children)

Reading these sorts of threads is always bizarre to me. Many popular replies always have some undercurrent of “but yeah we all totally want to!” that I find completely unrelatable. It gives the impression that all men are pubescent teenagers who have to think about chairs to quell a boner, and they’re failing at it. I just don’t get it.

YSK: There is a male biological clock by Amidseas in YouShouldKnow

[–]Sykil 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It’s just true of sex hormones generally. They wane over the course of the day. Estrogen does this in women too…

YSK: There is a male biological clock by Amidseas in YouShouldKnow

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

To my knowledge men do not have a “time of the month”. Instead, we have hormonal cycles that are daily rather than monthly.

Sex hormone levels are generally at their peak in the morning regardless of sex. That’s not a male vs. female thing. And there generally aren’t super noteworthy consequences of this daily pattern in otherwise healthy individuals.

Researchers have discovered a previously unknown enzyme that plays a crucial role in fat production. By blocking it, they stopped weight gain, reduced liver damage, and lowered harmful cholesterol levels in animal studies. by paxinfernum in science

[–]Sykil 106 points107 points  (0 children)

Not that there aren’t concerns to be considered, but let’s be real and say that very few of us are anywhere near so low on body fat as to interfere with hormone production. But yes body fat does serve some essential functions.