• 1 Post
  • 11 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
Cake day: June 15th, 2023
  • Specific_Skunk@lemmy.worldtoAsklemmy@lemmy.ml•What human power-ups/power-downs would you choose? Why?
    16·
    1 year ago

    Well now you made me go and google it. Some snippets from the top results:

    Evolution. Most female mammals have an estrous cycle, yet only ten primate species, four bat species, the elephant shrew, and one known species of spiny mouse have a menstrual cycle. As these groups are not closely related, it is likely that four distinct evolutionary events have caused menstruation to arise.

    Also:

    To understand why menstruation evolved, we have to think of it as a by-product of spontaneous decidualisation. In most mammals, decidualisation – the thickening of the uterine wall – is controlled by the embryo: it occurs in response to fertilisation rather than in preparation for it. In menstruating species like humans, spontaneous decidualisation is one way the parent tries to wrest back dominance of their uterus from an increasingly invasive embryo. The uterine lining now responds only to the parent’s hormones rather than the embryo’s, and the parent controls whether or not they get pregnant. They put their defences up preemptively, by sealing off the main blood supply from the endometrium before the embryo implants there. Not content with this, the embryo evolved to burrow through the endometrium until it reaches the arteries, where it tears through the wall and rewires the blood vessels so that it can bathe directly in the parent’s blood. The (arguably) ungrateful parasite pumps out hormones to make the arteries expand around it, and paralyses them to prevent the parent from cutting off its supply. It produces more hormones, which act directly on the parent to maintain pregnancy and increase the availability of nutrients. The parent defends themselves as best they can: their endometrium fights against the embryo’s invasive proteins, their immune system attacks the invading cells, and their own hormones try to counteract those of the embryo. The tug-of-war rages on.

    Well that’s just metal af.

  • Specific_Skunk@lemmy.worldtoShowerthoughts@lemmy.world•Life
    44·
    1 year ago

    Let’s say you break your leg. Your first reaction is usually “HOLY FUCK FUCK FUCK THAT HURTS” and your mind will do anything to try to escape it. But if you turn your attention towards it and focus on it directly, you can start to slightly diminish it by picking it apart. Is it a throbby or stabby pain? Is there an underlying itchy sensation? If you accept the pain and embrace it, it helps reduce it by seeing it for what it is and, more importantly, is not: You are not dying, even though your brain is reacting like you are.

    The Buddhist mindset is kind of like that, but for all of your reality. The zen doesn’t come from running away, it comes from seeing and accepting everything as it is and understanding that the only thing you can control is your mind’s reaction to it.

    Signed, Someone who’s broken a lot of bones and done a lot of meditation (still a shit Buddhist though)

  • Specific_Skunk@lemmy.worldtoAsklemmy@lemmy.ml•*Permanently Deleted*English
    19·
    1 year ago

    Have you seen what the cops here do to handcuffed people already on the ground? You’re fucked either way, may as well try to stay in a defensive posture with the ability to (try to) ward off physical attack.

    Also, police confrontations aren’t known for creating calm environments. People make rash and sometimes unreasonable decisions when they are scared or feel threatened.