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Cake day: July 4th, 2023

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  • Kovukono@pawb.socialtoScience Memes@mander.xyzparticles
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    1 month ago

    All of this is just going off checking Wikipedia, so it could be wrong. Gluons are a type of particle that can have nine different “color states” depending on the quarks and anti-quarks that comprise them (despite the name, it has nothing to do with literal color). These states are made up of red, green, and blue for quarks, and anti-red, anti-green, and anti-blue for anti-quarks. Depending on the combinations of quarks and anti-quarks, the color state of gluons listed something like “red-antigreen” as “rg”, with the “g” having a line over it to show it’s anti-green, not green. Since you can have a color matched with the anti-version of its color, like I said earlier, you get 9 potential color states.

    Then, of those 9 color states, you have combinations of two gluons of different types of states that combine. If you have a strong, stable version of this state, it’s called a color state singlet. Particles like protons have this state, and it allows them to interact with other particles that also have color singlets. However, gluons can’t interact at long range, that means they also can’t hold a color singlet.

    So, that leaves 8 potential color state couplets that can be formed. I have no idea why there’s only 8 valid arrangements of those 9 couplets that aren’t a stable singlet, but apparently you can only get 8.

    Also tagging @Owl@mander.xyz because I don’t think they’d get notified.

    Edit: Sorry for the reply after it got answered. There was nothing when I started and it just took a while to figure it out.


  • I genuinely enjoyed Arkham Knight, but those mandatory Batmobile sections are easily the most miserable part of the game. If we had those for an entire game, it might not be too bad, but most of the time you just end up using it to get from point A to point B. If you can put up with being stuck for a bit on those sections, you might enjoy it.

    Its big issue is that it has to follow up on Arkham City. It’s not a bad game by any stretch, but it’s following up to one of the best superhero games out there. If you’re not invested in the story, there’s no harm in dropping it. Play something you’ll have fun with.




  • Even with the added costs of owning the home and upkeep, it’s only equivalent or just above rent, and that’s with the condo association fees and insurance. Even while renting I was stuck paying for utilities. And I’m highly aware that the roof needs replacing, given that we’ve got to replace ours within 5 years.

    But if your point is “owning a home is more expensive than renting when you factor in all extra costs,” I want to again point out that most people are barely able to stay afloat. His point was that anyone can buy a house. Mine is that the money he thinks grows on trees literally does not exist for the majority of people.


  • I’m lucky enough to have been financially able to buy a home. I had help making the down payment, but we’ve now got a 30 year mortgage. My monthly payments are less than what I was paying for rent, less than the average rent in the city by almost a third. I got this place with two above-average incomes, and had the good fortune to get it during the COVID housing and interest rate dip, and I still needed extra help.

    If someone is stuck with renting, they’re likely paying more than they would for a mortgage. They can’t save up the money because they’re already lagging behind, and the housing market isn’t coming down in price, and wages absolutely aren’t keeping pace. No one is saying a house would “lock them down,” they’re pointing out they can never afford it because they can’t even come up with the money to show the bank they can save because they’re already paying above the potential mortgage payments every month.

    But you’re saying they won’t, not can’t, so what should they do to come up with the money? Start selling kidneys? 78% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, and that same link shows 71% have less than $2000 in their savings. So where exactly are people supposed to shit out your hypothetical $30,000?





  • I absolutely appreciate all the work done recently, but I was wondering if there was any chance we could get thumbnails that, when clicked, don’t have ?thumbnail=1500&format=webp appended to them. For some posts, it doesn’t make a difference, but for longer posts, or posts with smaller text, it makes the image blurry unless you click into the post comments, and select the image there. It feels like a needless extra step when trying to open an image.









  • High-level overviews of a couple big scandals:

    Sexual harassment/assault cases:

    • One of California’s government’s departments brought forward a case in 2021 detailing that women had unequal pay, were sexually harassed, were subject to retaliation for reporting issues, and were also subject to discrimination if pregnant. Wikipedia article here.
    • Lawsuit also detailed that “frat boy culture” was prevalent and there was no meaningful penalty for sexual discrimination.
    • One woman had nude photos of herself shared, and as a result committed suicide during a company retreat.
    • Multiple other agencies have pursued Blizzard over this. The SEC has had Blizzard pay out $35 million for not having a proper reporting structure, and made a $18 million settlement pool. The pool has been criticized for being far too small.
    • Original lawsuit appears to still be continuing.

    Hong Kong

    • A player in a Hearthstone tournament said “Liberate Hong Kong. Revolution of our age!” He was immediately removed from the tournament, given a 1-year ban, and forfeited all winnings.
    • Two stream casters also had their contact cancelled.
    • Blizzard later stated that they would return the player’s winnings, reduce the ban to six months, change the streamers’ ban to six months, and would ban a team that supported the player’s action for six months, stating his actions violated a contract term that “offends a portion or group of the public, or otherwise damages [Blizzard’s] image.”
    • Blizzard has denied this has anything to do with their financial ties to Tencent.
    • Wikipedia article about this

    Diablo 4 expansion

    The first two were lifted from the controversies section of Blizzard’s Wikipedia page, and they have more information in the linked pages and articles in those pages. For more information, I’d suggest reading there.

    Personally, the way the sexual harassment has been handled has stopped me from touching their games. They’ve shown no remorse aside from being caught, they’ve been accused of shredding evidence during the investigation, and instead of addressing the issues, were instead upset that they weren’t approached privately before the public lawsuit. Instead of showing a willingness to reform, they appear to be entirely concerned with preventing financial damage.