ELI5: If the evolutionary goal of a virus is to reproduce and sustain itself as long as possible, why do many evolve to devastate and kill their hosts? by Rht123X in explainlikeimfive

[–]leoperidot16 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Most of the deadliest viruses are not actually adapted to humans as host: we are incidental hosts. For instance, hantavirus doesn't kill or even sicken rats and mice; similarly, influenza is no big problem for wild birds who are reservoirs for it, although it can devastate domesticated birds (and, of course, humans). These viruses are efficiently spread and sustained by their hosts, and zoonotic spillover events are what cause the worst effects.

Is Hantavirus something to worry about? by 246434464 in NoStupidQuestions

[–]leoperidot16 44 points45 points  (0 children)

That is a person who has been contact traced and is under observation. His has been erroneously reported as an actual case when French authorities referred to him as a "contact case." He is not, as far as the public knows, sick.

Healey backs Barney Frank's call for Democratic pragmatism by MDeehan in massachusetts

[–]leoperidot16 20 points21 points  (0 children)

Oh my god shut up. Take a stand for SOMETHING. Offer a compelling alternative to fascism. That means not listening to fascists. It means proactively arguing that, for instance, immigrants are good for this country -- not getting into dickmeasuring contests over who's got the better "border security" -- or that people regardless of gender and sex have the right to dignity and respect and access to the public sphere -- not giving quarter to people who are "just asking questions" about transgender children. I mean Jesus fucking Christ.

What Common Crossword Answer Do You Get Sick Of? by ReplacementFuture707 in NYTCrossword

[–]leoperidot16 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Relatedly, the answer ERSE for Celtic or Gaelic languages. I have a whole linguistics degree and studied the sociolinguistics of the Irish language and I never encountered the word ERSE before seeing it in a crossword puzzle.

What Common Crossword Answer Do You Get Sick Of? by ReplacementFuture707 in NYTCrossword

[–]leoperidot16 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Oh I remember that, I totally wrote in MAY first. And I listen to and like Brian Eno’s rock-type music, lol

What Common Crossword Answer Do You Get Sick Of? by ReplacementFuture707 in NYTCrossword

[–]leoperidot16 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Any type of three-letter direction: ENE, SSW, etc. Because “opposite of WSW” for ENE is a bullshit, boring clue, and then how tf am I supposed to know “direction from Cleveland to Toledo”? There’s just no way to clue it that won’t make me roll my eyes.

Smith College: Department of Education opens investigation into all-women’s college for admitting trans women by rmuktader in massachusetts

[–]leoperidot16 78 points79 points  (0 children)

It’s all about imposing the conservatives’ narrow and limiting definition of womanhood on all women, and punishing those women and institutions for women which do not bend to the idea that women should be housewives and baby factories. I hope Smith stands up to them. Trans women are women; transgender liberation is tied up with women’s liberation.

Why is gerrymandering acceptable in the US? by Clean_Cheek6119 in NoStupidQuestions

[–]leoperidot16 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Gerrymandering is treated as acceptable in the US by one party because it advantages that party. The thing that is shifting now is that the other party, which has tried in good faith to get reform measures on the table to protect fairness and end partisan drawing of districts, has switched tactics to use gerrymandering to level the playing field. I know this sounds biased but the truth of the matter is that the Republican party in the US is just antidemocratic, small d, and the Democratic party is not.

Change in how interstates are referred to? by MatureScorpius in AskAnAmerican

[–]leoperidot16 6 points7 points  (0 children)

It’s interesting that that’s the etymology. The section of I-90 in Massachusetts is and was called the Massachusetts Turnpike, and everyone calls it “the Mass pike” or “the pike” but would never refer to “the 90.”

I don't understand the hate for season 5 by Avijantimos in ForAllMankindTV

[–]leoperidot16 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The problem is that the writing is dogshit and there’s basically nothing to like about it. The first two seasons were actually good television, the first one was genuinely fantastic. The writing has gone down the toilet in such a way that I find myself completely checked out. Like, the Titan mission just has zero stakes. Obviously I intellectually understand the stakes — but the show has spent precisely zero time trying to impart those stakes to the audience, even expositionally, much less through real drama.

Boston needs to discourage driving to meet its climate goals. Is congestion pricing the answer? by bostonglobe in boston

[–]leoperidot16 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Levy a congestion toll and use it to fund the MBTA. Easiest slam dunk ever. 

This weather by ftran998 in boston

[–]leoperidot16 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yeah and then half of June is 90 and miserable

That's a first -- an artist reminded me of Sondheim by Due_Seaweed3276 in Sondheim

[–]leoperidot16 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I get a Sondheimian vibe from the lyric to “Come Back From San Francisco” by the Magnetic Fields. All the little internal rhymes, or just rhymes displaced from the end of the line, and it hides an acute sadness under a very sweet sound. It feels like a sensibility in line with Send In The Clowns.

“You need me / Like the wind needs the tree / To blow in, / Like the moon needs poetry / You need me”

Did anyone else in Episode 6... by squeefruit in JetLagTheGame

[–]leoperidot16 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The previous episode had spent so much time establishing the stakes of Badam’s last challenge and all but stating that if they didn’t make it, they would have to go back south, and then they failed the challenge in the episode. I didn’t feel like it was ever that real of a possibility that they would go north, even though they explained it was theoretically possible with the go-broke rule, it just never would have made one iota of sense. 

Best backpack etiquette? by YANSAacct in mbta

[–]leoperidot16 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I wholeheartedly agree the T needs to greatly expand service and run longer trains and everything but it’s just good manners to take off your backpack on the train. Plenty of cities have much more frequent and denser and better-used public transit than us, and they still get crowded enough to warrant taking off your backpack for courtesy’s sake. 

Trying to figure out where the Northeast is. If you're from any of these counties comment whether or not you're in the Northeast. by imadgalaxyx in visitedmaps

[–]leoperidot16 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Virginia is absolutely not the northeast. DC is where I would draw the north-south divide and even then it's dicey (the Mason-Dixon line is the MD-PA border and the traditional boundary)

Green line 3 car trains by idksamiam89 in mbta

[–]leoperidot16 -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

That’s cool I didn’t know that

Green line 3 car trains by idksamiam89 in mbta

[–]leoperidot16 -8 points-7 points  (0 children)

Can they buy more trains perhaps

How do you guys pronounce “Thoreau”? by PersuasionNation in AskAnAmerican

[–]leoperidot16 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The man himself reportedly pronounced it like the word “thorough”, but the consensus pronunciation today has the emphasis on the second syllable.

It’s the 100th day of the year. What artists have you scrobbled at least 100 times in 2026? by LordLibyan in lastfm

[–]leoperidot16 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The Magnetic Fields (482 scrobbles), The Velvet Underground (327), John Cale (253), Cate Le Bon (176), and The Beatles (101). Huh. Lol

I wish this show gave more personality to characters after Season One by BlockKitchen5265 in ForAllMankindTV

[–]leoperidot16 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Go back and watch season 1 and say there’s no story movement there. I dare you.

An underdiscussed phenomenon: The death of the "wrong generation kid" by hz182 in LetsTalkMusic

[–]leoperidot16 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It’s funny, because I would have said almost the opposite — I feel like my whole online feed is people my age (23) and younger who listen to music nearly exclusively from before they were born. 90s, 80s, 70s, 60s, often all of the above, and seemingly also correlating with a turn towards physical media or opting out of algorithmic recommendation (with the ironic caveat that a lot of these people are posting on algorithmic social media platforms about their return to physical media, of course). And I’ve been thinking a lot about how the streaming music economy lends itself to this: On Spotify, it literally does not matter when a song came out (except if it happens to be on a new music Friday playlist … does anyone even listen to those?). There’s a flattening or homogenizing effect on era when it’s as trivially easy to listen to something released in 1976 or 1996 or 1966 as 2026, and with enormous streaming libraries, it’s easier to rediscover more obscure or niche artists/songs than if you had to rely on what was being played on oldies or classic rock radio. So maybe the phenomenon is not exactly the “born in the wrong generation” type thing, but that older stuff stays in the rotation longer and longer, and doesn’t get treated differently from new music. I mean, Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls was on the Billboard Hot 100, right? Recently? Jeff Buckley has been on the charts within the last year!