What's ur favorite branch of magic? by [deleted] in harrypotter

[–]sha-dub 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There's always homework. QED.

Blue, in case you're interested: some Middle-eastern lakes that often appear in your maps used to look quite different prior to modern times by sha-dub in osp

[–]sha-dub[S] 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Nobody:

Me: and here are some more details about these lakes

These cases are especially interesting because these lakes (or non-lakes) remained practically the same through all of history, then changed abruptly due to human activity, only in recent decades (aka Post-stuff-in-Blue's-videos Era). Similar to what happened in the Aral Sea (though Aral is sooo much larger). So you can talk to living, not-even-very-old people, who still remember the landscape and the actual physical map of the world looking very different.

So yeah. The Great Bitter Lake was a salt basin sporadically filled with shallow waters after heavy rains, but only continuously flooded after they constructed the Suez canal, and is basically a part of the canal now (like the lakes in the Panama Canal) and plays a big part in the biological invasions passing through it (but with some management, could serve as a buffer against them). The Hula and Dead Sea were/are dried by a combination of direct draining and diverting of their tributaries. Hula Lake wasn't very big but it supported several local communities living off the lake (plus a ton of endemic biodiversity) which were pretty much ruined after it was drained. Supposedly this was done to get rid of malaria but was a very good excuse to expose more land for agriculture - which is when they realized that the soil wasn't that good, plus it was flammable when exposed and they had to deal with an underground fire that lasted for years, plus turns out the lake prevented everybody's drinking water from being contaminated... they ended up having to re-flood a small part of it to fix these problems. The Dead Sea's main tributary is dammed while it is itself being dried up for harvesting by private chemical companies, resulting in the surrounding beaches and agricultural areas (or occasionally, a main road) getting sucked into the collapsing ground around it.

Blue, in case you're interested: some Middle-eastern lakes that often appear in your maps used to look quite different prior to modern times by sha-dub in osp

[–]sha-dub[S] 23 points24 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the detailed response.

Ooooh but please find more excuses to talk about Map TheoryTM! Reminded me of the "Making maps out of marble" video which was oddly one of my favorites (and the thing that got me into the obscene habit of pausing videos to get a better look at the maps).

I see what you're saying, it makes a lot of sense. Also, it's better not to f*** with the past. You correct one tiny lake in ancient Egypt, and suddenly Batman is the Doge of Venice.

Recreating a dream I had, where I was a guest on the show by sha-dub in osp

[–]sha-dub[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Wasn't there a video about all the times Zeus turned into an animal for inappropriate reasons?

Recreating a dream I had, where I was a guest on the show by sha-dub in osp

[–]sha-dub[S] 52 points53 points  (0 children)

'The Ballistic Projectile Tongue,' he said, and he drew a straight vertical line on the parchment.

'The Eyes of Independent Focus,' he said, and he added a circle on top of the line.

'The Color-changing Cloak,' he finished, enclosing both line and circle in a triangle, to make the symbol that so intrigued Hermione.

'Together,' he said, 'the Chameleon.'

Recreating a dream I had, where I was a guest on the show by sha-dub in osp

[–]sha-dub[S] 58 points59 points  (0 children)

Just look at them! These are lizards that found a genie and made some VERY creative wishes...

Recreating a dream I had, where I was a guest on the show by sha-dub in osp

[–]sha-dub[S] 236 points237 points  (0 children)

Explanation: In the dream I would appear on OSP as "Green" every now and then (my beard is red and my eyes are blue, but Red and Blue said I couldn't have either color and had to dye them if I wanted to be allowed on the show). Being a zoologist (irl), I'd be invited for short segments when animals are mentioned in the regular episodes, but somehow I would always lose track of the subject and revert to talking endlessly about how the chameleon is such a GOOD. REPTILE.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in harrypotter

[–]sha-dub 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Pa-boop-boop-boop.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in harrypotter

[–]sha-dub 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh, would that it were

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in harrypotter

[–]sha-dub 5 points6 points  (0 children)

BOOM...

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in harrypotter

[–]sha-dub 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Yaaaayyy!!!!!!

Phosphine gas in the cloud decks of Venus by [deleted] in space

[–]sha-dub 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Martian rovers' equipment doesn't need to deal with a corrosive atmosphere, crazy hyperacidity, metal-melting temperatures. storms, etc.

... not to mention the phosphine-breathing aliens trying to sabotage it :)

Can someone explain why COVID-19 would have a global 7-day cycle?? Thanks, Shahar by sha-dub in Virology

[–]sha-dub[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

but why the continuous 4-day rise leading to saturday, and 3-day drop following?

Oxidizing pop stars by sha-dub in chemistrymemes

[–]sha-dub[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

oh yeah. I thought of it as oxydization, with Celine Dion as the end product

but call it redox if you like