Bacterial Conjugation - Biology Dictionary

what is conjugation in biology

what is conjugation in biology - win

Your Pre Market Brief for 12/09/2020

WARNING: It is up to you to judge the accuracy and veracity of the below before trading. I take no responsibility for the accuracy of the information in this thread.

Your Pre Market Brief for Wednesday December 9th 2020

Back because I'm having problems finding value plays in this inflated market and need a few good ideas. Will continue until I get exhausted.
You can subscribe to the daily 4:00 AM Pre Market Brief on The Twitter Link Here . Alerts in the tweets will direct you to the daily 4:00 AM Pre Market Brief in this sub.
Other Useful Resources: The Ultimate Quick Resource For the Amateur Trader.
Published 3:41 AM EST / Updated as of 4:00 AM EST
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Stock Futures:
Wednesday 12/08/2020 News and Markets Recap:
Friday August 28th 2020 Economic Calendar (All times are Eastern)
Overnight News Heading into Wednesday December 9th 2020
(News Yet to be Traded 8:00 PM - 4:00 AM EST)
It is up to you to judge the accuracy and veracity of the below before trading. I take no responsibility for the accuracy of the information in this thread.
End of Day and After Hours News Heading into Wednesday December 9th 2020
(News Traded 4:00 PM - 8:00 PM EST)
It is up to you to judge the accuracy and veracity of the below before trading. I take no responsibility for the accuracy of the information in this thread.
Possible Dip Buying Opportunities in the near future (Other suggestions appreciated):
Suggested Dip Trading Strategy
Offering News:
Upcoming Earnings:
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Other Useful Resources: The Ultimate Quick Resource For the Amateur Trader.
Subscribe to This Brief and the daily 4:00 AM Pre Market Brief on The Twitter Link Here . Alerts in the tweets will direct you to the daily brief in this sub
WARNING: It is up to you to judge the accuracy and veracity of the above before trading. I take no responsibility for the accuracy of the information in this thread.
submitted by Cicero1982 to pennystocks [link] [comments]

Contraception, conscience, motherhood and possible spouse: need clarification

Boy that's a long title. To make the context short: girl I'm interested in, who's also converting to the Church, doesn't want to be a biological mother, that is, she wants to be a mother through adoption, but not birth children. (She's open to it if it happens, but will try to avoid it.) The reasoning goes along the lines of "not bringing another soul to the world" "why do it when there are children who already exist and need parents" etc. She's sincere about converting (though not quite the book worm or theology nerd), but just saying "that's not how catholic sexual morality works" wasn't enough.
I thought there was no "catholic way" around this (which was pretty depressing) but some people on discord recommended me this article at Catholic Answers. It says:
Cooperation with a spouse who insists on using contraceptives is considered licit under the following conditions (Vademecum for Confessors Concerning Some Aspects of the Morality of Conjugal Life, 13):
  1. when the action of the cooperating spouse is not already illicit in itself;
  2. when proportionally grave reasons exist for cooperating in the sin of the other spouse;
  3. when one is seeking to help the other spouse to desist from such conduct (patiently, with prayer, charity and dialogue; although not necessarily in that moment, nor on every single occasion).
In plain language, this means:
  1. you do not agree with the contraception
  2. it would be problematic not to engage in the marital act
  3. you should be clear with your spouse regarding your moral stance
I need further clarification that this is correct. The scenario would be something like: I make it clear to her that I do not agree with it and charitably try to correct her. In the meantime, for the sake of the marriage, that cooperation with evil would be licit. Is that a valid "catholic" stance? I know it's not ideal.
Another possible solution which was recommended on discord was NFP. I don't think that was a great ideal because I don't know if NFP is ok if the goal is to permanently avoid pregnancy (at least that would be her case) and just being open in case it does happen. Can anyone confirm?
So to wrap it up, I need to know if contracepting (I think it qualifies as mediate material cooperation with evil, which may or may not cause guilt on the cooperator) would be licit in a catholic marriage with a woman who has not come to fully align her conscience with catholic sexual morality.
submitted by ironicsadboy to Catholicism [link] [comments]

My DD on $ATNM - A Company Making Cancer More Survivable

Intro What is $ATNM and why do I like it? According to it's about page, Actinium Pharmaceuticals is "... a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing ARC’s or Antibody Radiation-Conjugates, which combine the targeting ability of antibodies with the cell killing ability of radiation. " They're currently in a pivotal Phase 3 trial for their new drug Iomab-B that condition's elders with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia for life saving bone marrow transplants. I think Actinium has a product with promise and it's at a reasonable price for a long-term speculative play.
Disclaimer This is not financial advice. I'm just a random guy on the internet. Always do your own due diligence.
The Product with Potential What separates $ATNM from other pharmaceutical companies is their cancer-targeting technology. They call it their Antibody Warhead Enabling (AWE) platform because they "exploit the use of highly selective targeted biological agents such as monoclonal antibodies that can seek out and bind cancer antigens found on the tumor cell surface." Which basically means they modify antibodies with the ability to deliver tumor destroying radiation (the "warhead") directly to the cancer cells. This is in contrast to general chemotherapy that irradiates healthy cells in the process of irradiating cancer cells. The ability to specifically target cancer cells opens the door to life saving treatments for elders who can't endure traditional chemotherapy.
If that sounds too good to be true, then check out the data collected from their ongoing trials. With only 75% enrollment to their Phase 3 trials in December 2020, Yahoo Finance reported on positive results with patients already enrolled. The article goes into detail about the trials, stating "100% (49/49) of patients receiving a therapeutic dose of Iomab-B in SIERRA have successfully proceeded to Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT) compared to 16% (9/56) of patients in the control arm who received physician's choice of salvage therapies... Of the 84% (47/56) of patients that did not achieve complete remission on the control arm, 64% (30/47) of patients crossed over to receive Iomab-B with 100% (30/30) of those patients successfully proceeding to BMT." They provide a helpful chart to help visualize this.
Remember, Iomab-B isn't the cure for cancer, it's the means of conditioning elders to be able to receive bone marrow transplants. It's the bone marrow transplants that save lives, and using Iomab-B significantly increases survivorship. Their page on Iomab-B shows increased survival rates from ~10% in year one to 30% survival in year one and 0% survival in year two to 19% survival in year two. Additionally, Iomab-B lets patients receive bone marrow transplants 12 days after therapy compared to 42 days with chemotherapy according to the chart they provide.
I'm not a doctor, but an increased survival rate of ~20% for year one and two independently seems significant considering the current survival rates. In my opinion, the results from the study point to a new, more accessible cancer therapy that looks prime to be approved by the FDA at the end of Phase 3.
The Company When buying stocks, it's important to remember that you're buying portions of a company in hopes that they can use your cash to generate more profits for you later down the line. The ability for a company to do that is hinged on a few factors, the first factor being the company management. $ATNM provides us with a page of their executive team which includes all of the people who make the company run. The CEO Sandesh Seth seems capable of the position with 25+ years in investment banking, equity research, and most importantly, the pharma industry (to include working for Pfizer [who's currently rolling out Covid vaccines]). He even has several patents related to radiopharmaceuticals. Of course, the doctors on staff at $ATNM are equally as important to take into consideration when developing new drugs. The Scientific Advisory Board (for Iomab-B) is made up of experts in their field from Cancer Centers all over the country; It's worth viewing their extensive credentials.
Another important factor in determining a company's value is their financial statements. I've had some struggle with valuing $ATNM because their financial statements are not like the ones I'm accustomed to reading. Meaning, I don't have much experience knowing if a clinical-trial pharmaceutical company's financials are good or not, but I did my best with what I know. For starters, I looked into the company's ability to pay back its debt, because a company with large, unexplainable debts is a red flag for me. In the case of $ATNM, I noticed that their Quick and Current Ratio were very good (at 1.74 and 1.89 respectively). This means that they have enough assets to pay off well over 100% of the short-term debt they owe. Having learned this, I looked into their assets and liabilities to discover that their current assets, which are mostly in cash and short-term investments, have been steadily draining at a rate of ~$5million annually. This is due to high operating expenses that are mostly in the research and development of their new drugs. I assume that they will simply leverage their low debt to borrow capital if needed. Additionally, although net income and earnings per share are negative, they've been increasing year over year from 2018 and 2015 respectively. I think EPS is going to be positive in the short term if it continues its trend. I used stockrow.com to get financials.
The Valuation So what's $ATNM worth? How much money can you make? Yahoo Finance estimates that $ATNM will hit a price target of $38.74 in one year with a low of $25 and high of $65. I take it with a grain of salt. All I know is that I think the cancer treatment they're developing is outstanding enough to separate it from other treatments already available for AML. The data from their research has earned my confidence in the treatment and I think buying and holding $ATNM long will be rewarding. This is speculative though, so I would only put in money you can afford to lose.
I hope this was helpful!
submitted by StayGoldDonnyBoy to StockMarket [link] [comments]

Acids and bases

[https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/periodic-table/png/Periodic_Table_of_Elements_w_Chemical_Group_Block_PubChem.png ] or [https://ptable.com/#Properties ]
If we are going off the Lewis definition of acids as electron pair acceptors and bases as electron pair donors, the problems of ion solubility (mostly H+ and OH- ions) can be appropriately distanced from the actual behavior of hydronium (H3O+) or hydroxide (OH-) complexes in water. In other words, we first ask what species exist in what concentrations in the solution of interest, then what will happen between the different species. However, we cannot completely separate the Brønsted-Lowry and Lewis definitions due to Le Chatelier’s principle, which would state that the presence of the products of dissociation tend to prevent additional dissociation events. However, if product ions start being consumed in other reactions, the effective result is to shift the equilibrium back towards the starting materials, and additional dissociation events will then become energetically favorable. The result of this is that the behavior of chemical reactions is best contemplated holistically and with a full set of executive functionality instead of being taught as a series of disconnected fragments that imply the existence of a much higher level of precision than is actually ever possible and must be stitched together by students working without the benefit of fully developed brains. As I go through the process of writing out this series of posts, I am getting the definite impression that the progress that has been made in our understanding of atoms and orbitals has mostly obsoleted the way that general chemistry is currently taught, and that the current state of teaching is centered around exams to the detriment of the students. My general chemistry education also had far too much emphasis on the Brønsted-Lowry definition of acids and bases instead of treating these as equilibrium problems.
So and before we go any farther, let’s get pH out of the way. A lowercase “p” denotes the mathematical operation of taking the negative log of a quantity for some reason, so pH is actually the negative (base 10) log of H where H is the ionic activity of “H+” in the solution of interest. As it turns out, this is actually the activity of hydronium complexes instead of lone protons, but unless you are trying to visualize what is actually happening in the solution the two can be treated as equivalent. Of course, if you’ve gotten so obsessed with applying equations to chemical processes that you are willing to ignore the three-dimensional picture, you’re probably also not doing anything of value, but anyway. In most cases, pH can be calculated with the concentration of hydronium in moles per liter instead of a more rigorous activity measurement, so in other words pH is mostly equal to -log([H3O+]). [I should also note that the difference between the concentration of hydronium and the concentration of protons is not particularly significant in acid-base problems because the protons in water will either react with other species or form hydronium. If you are calculating the concentration of protons in water at any given time, you are also calculating the concentration of hydronium.] If you’re willing to get pedantic there is a nearly infinite amount of additional complexity that can be brought in here, but I’m not emotionally invested in this and see no reason to care. Proceeding with pH=-([H3O+]), you may notice that we are only calculating the acidity of our solution and not the basicity.
However, due to the spontaneous dissociation/autoionization of water, acidity and basicity are closely related to each other. In a volume of water, the multiplication product of the concentrations in moles per liter of hydronium/H3O+ and hydroxide/OH- is a constant. At 25 degrees Celsius, this constant (Kw) is equal to 1.0x10^-14, and Kw=[H3O+]*[OH-]. In this notation scheme, the square brackets denote concentration in moles per liter, and square brackets are usually but not always moles per liter. In any case, the reason to care is that the assumptions here mostly hold true once we start adding additional chemical species to the volume of water we started with. As the number of ions in solution increase, other issues start to arise, but mostly what you need to remember is that this is a simplified model and not an absolute definition of what is happening on the molecular level. Where this model is valuable is in relating the concentration of hydronium to the concentration of hydroxide (both in moles per liter) in a mostly reliable manner, which means that if we know a value for one at a given time we can calculate the value of the other one. So, if you have a concentration of hydroxide and you want to know the pH, you can use Kw to calculate the concentration of hydronium, then take the negative base 10 log of the result to get to pH. The addition of the logarithm allows the comparison of numbers with vastly different orders of magnitude but also brings quite a bit of confusion. In any case, using these assumptions we can define interrelated pH and pOH scales to measure acidity and basicity as the density of hydronium and hydroxide in solution. You may notice that this aligns well with the Lewis definitions, although we are not considering any other possible Lewis acids or bases.
Once you get into organic chemistry and start trying to do reactions, having a trace amount of ions in your reaction mixture doesn’t get you anywhere, and all of the assumptions as previously defined get thrown out of the window. At high concentrations of ions/high ionic activities (which are mostly equivalent concepts), we get back to the idiosyncratic and non-intuitive behavior that we expect to see in chemistry. These conditions also favor the Lewis definitions, and if it seems like I am being a bit heavy-handed in mentioning the advantages of teaching the Lewis definitions to students as early as possible you would be quite correct. Fully embracing the Lewis definitions will require the more neurotic or tradition-bound individuals among the chemical community to let go of literally centuries of work that turns out not to be valid, but as before I have no particular emotional investment in Brønsted-Lowry and would much prefer to be taught the concepts in a way that actually makes sense.
In my list of topics I am supposed to cover acid-base equilibrium, which in the context of water (aqueous solutions) is how hydronium and hydroxide move into and out of solution. First looking at “HA” or a proton donor, we can either have the acidic proton attached to the conjugate base or not. The Lewis basic strength of “A-” determines how tightly the H+ is bonded and therefore how accessible it is to the surrounding water molecules. If the H+ is bonded too tightly, there is no chance of a water molecule ever removing it, and the compound is probably not going to be participating in any aqueous acid-base reactions. At this point I am really wanting to bring in some more organic chemistry concepts and talk about an example like ethanol (CH3CH2OH) as a compound with three distinct types of protons in three different chemical environments, with the hydrogen on the oxygen end (Eth-OH) as well as the two lone pairs on the oxygen being the most interesting electron pair acceptors and donors, but the current general chemistry syllabus as defined by the American Chemical Society (ACS) prevents this. Moving on to “BOH” in water, the strength of the bond between “B+” and hydroxide is also going to be important. As an example, the hydroxl group on ethanol has essentially no chance of being removed in an aqueous solution unless something quite energetic/violent happens, but the hydroxl proton can be stripped off or another proton can bond to one of the lone pairs on oxygen depending on the reaction conditions.
In the context of this post, I am basically trying to get into a decent position to talk about buffers. These are modeled by the Henderson Hasselbalch equation and are usually a combination of a weakly proton-donating “HA” with the “A-” part of that molecule paired with a positively charged counterion (counter-cation possibly). As an example cation, let’s choose sodium (Na+), which is a terrible electron pair acceptor because it is already in a noble gas valence electron configuration and adding electrons will be destabilizing. So, we can basically ignore the sodium ions unless we are interested in the total ionic activity for some reason, and at the same time the charges all balance out. If we select the correct “A-” and adjust the relative amounts of “HA” and “NaA”, we end up with a mixture that starts out at a pH that can be predicted via calculation. This is normal when adding proton or hydroxide donors to water, but where buffers are different is the ability to absorb proton or hydroxide inputs without the pH changing much. This is because of the presence of both protonated “HA” and deprotonated “A-” and is useful in situations were the molecules under study cannot tolerate large pH swings, which usually means proteins and other biological molecules. Selecting a buffer requires the concept of the constant of acidic dissociation (Ka) and the negative log of the same (pKa), but between this and Henderson Hasselbalch equation you should have plenty of keywords to play with. I am also supposed to be covering titrations here, but since these are as obsolete as Brønsted-Lowry and really shitty to have to carry out in the lab I’m not going to bother.
submitted by FightingForSarah to SpaceXFactCheck [link] [comments]

Chemical bonding and molecular structure

[https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/periodic-table/png/Periodic_Table_of_Elements_w_Chemical_Group_Block_PubChem.png ]
As with literally everything else, the most appropriate way to think about chemical bonding depends heavily on the context. Generally speaking, chemical bonds are when atoms stick together and require a significant energy input to be broken back apart. Lower energy states tend to be more stable, while higher energy states tend to be less stable. Energy is delivered to molecules mostly as heat, which means molecules colliding with each other and exchanging velocity and hence kinetic energy. Photon absorption is another possibility, but the mechanics behind it are more complicated and can only get in the way at the moment. So, chemical bonds can exist at temperatures between 0 kelvin (absolute zero, no atomic movement at all) and the conditions under which all electrons completely dissociate from the nuclei to form plasma. The strength of the bonds in question and the conditions in which they are located will determine the specifics, but obviously some chemical bonds are much more resistant to high temperature than others. Towards one end, you have compounds like hydrogen peroxide that are fully capable of spontaneously dissociating at room temperature and pressure. In about the middle you have substances like wood that will break bonds and combust under ambient conditions if supplied with an ignition source, and towards the other end you have things like concrete or rock that don’t usually burn very well. However and while combustion is a convenient, easily accessible reaction, I should note that many other reactions also exist, most of which are more complicated than applying heat in an oxygen atmosphere.
Before we get there, I should repeat that chemical bonds “glue” positively charged nuclei together with negatively charged electron density. To have a chemical bond, the valence electrons and orbitals of the bonding atoms need to combine. At one extreme, an electron can be completely transferred from one atom to another, resulting in an ionic compound. The most popular example of an ionic compound is table salt, sodium chloride/NaCl/Na+ Cl-. As can be seen, the highly electronegative chlorine atom is able to completely remove one of the valence electrons on the sodium atom, which despite the resulting charges puts both atoms into a noble gas electron configuration and is hence energetically favorable. At the other extreme, we have bonding electron density being split completely equally between the two atoms. This only occurs when two of the same atom are bonded together (H2, O2, N2, some carbon-carbon bonds, etc) and makes intuitive sense because you would not expect either of two identical atoms in identical chemical environments to be more electronegative than the other. In between these two extremes is a spectrum of bond polarization, with electron density skewed to some extent or another to the more electronegative of the two atoms. Please note that the electronegativity values I linked in the previous post do not take into account any other bonds that influence electron distribution and hence the chemical environments around the atoms in the bond of interest, so that table should be used cautiously.
From a bond strength perspective, maximizing the electron density between the two bonding atoms also maximizes the strength and minimizes the length of the bonds. To put it another way, increased electron density shields the positive charges on the nuclei from each other, allowing the nuclei to be closer together. Consequently, ionic bonds are very weak in the sense that the cations and anions can be easily pulled apart, and covalent bonds that distribute electron density evenly between two atoms are much more difficult to pull apart. For the next part, I will neglect the behavior of ionic compounds (also acids and bases, which behave similarly) to focus on covalent bonding. I am also going to neglect the polarization of covalent bonds towards more electronegative atoms because the distribution of the electron probability density inside the molecular bonding orbitals does not affect our understanding of how these orbitals form. With covalent bonds, there are two main bond types that are helpful to think about. In reality, what actually happens is that the atoms and their atomic orbitals combine to whichever state is accessible and lowest in energy, but the process of generating a set of molecular orbitals for each individual molecule is very labor intensive and does not add much to our understanding.
So, to start out with let’s examine the main organic elements: carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, and hydrogen. Hydrogen is easy to deal with because it bonds with the 1s orbital only, and the 1s orbital is a sphere. The remaining three elements have both a spherical 2s orbital and three 2p orbitals that can participate in bonding, which makes things more complicated. In terms of shape, each p-orbital can be thought of as existing in a 3D cartesian coordinate system with the nucleus at the origin. Each orbital then has two lobes parallel to the x, y, or z axes, with a nodal plane (no electron density) oriented in the other two axes. As an example, the p_x orbital will have two lobes parallel to the x axis and no electron density on the yz plane. In practice, the result will look much more like a sphere cut in half than the balloon-shaped lobes usually depicted, but that’s not all that important. I should also mention that opposite lobes have opposite polarizations, and that a + polarized p-orbital lobe on one atom does not have bonding overlap with – polarized p-orbital lobes on other atoms but will have bonding overlap with + polarized p-orbital lobes on other atoms. This becomes important later on when we get into conjugated systems and can explain some oddball bonding behavior much later on.
Anyway, I still haven’t introduced sigma and pi bonding, so let’s do that. Sigma bonds have the bonding orbitals located directly between the bonding atoms are as a result yield the strongest bonds. Pi bonds depend on the bonding overlap of p-orbitals above and below and/or to either side of the axis directly between the two atoms where a sigma bond would form. Pi bonds still put electron density in between the two nuclei and are still bonds, but cannot be as strong as a sigma bond. Since hydrogen has no valence p-orbitals, it cannot participate in pi bonding schemes, but carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen are all fully capable of donating one or two p-orbitals to pi bonds. If three or more atoms in a row all have p-orbitals in the same plane, the potential exists for all of those p-orbitals to combine into one conjugated pi system, which usually offers energy advantages compared to isolated pi bonds. There is quite a bit more complexity along these lines, but this is mostly dealt with in organic chemistry.
Moving back to sigma bonds, I should first note that the number of bonds that an atom can form in most circumstances is equal to the number of unoccupied electron spaces in its valence shell. So, hydrogen can only form one bond before filling the 1s orbital, boron in theory should form five bonds but in practice is only capable of three with a completely empty p-orbital before running out of bonding volume around the small atom, carbon can form four bonds, nitrogen can form three bonds, oxygen can form two bonds, and fluorine can form one bond. During bonding, an atom will usually be thought of as “owning” a number of electrons equal to the number of its valence electrons (hydrogen one, boron three, carbon four, nitrogen five, oxygen six, fluorine seven). Due to orbital overlap, the electrons in the bonds that are in theory “owned” by the other atoms are also thought of as filling out the valence shell of the bonded atom, and in this manner the atoms in organic compounds can achieve electron configurations close to or equaling noble gas configurations despite all of the atoms in the molecule having fewer than the eight valence electrons required to actually be a noble gas or halogen anion. To put it another way, in the absence of bonding all of the atoms in organic chemistry are severely electron-deficient from a valence shell point of view, with bonding the valence shells can (mostly) all be filled without stacking a bunch of extra electrons (that don’t exist in the big picture – the number of protons and electrons is about equal) onto all of the atoms. This would also generate screamingly unstable accumulations of negative charge, so from an energy perspective bonding works out very well for most or all of the atoms involved.
At this point, I have not said anything about how bonds are actually arranged in space around an atom with both s and p valence orbitals. In the 2 shell where most of organic chemistry happens, the 2s and 2p orbitals all occupy roughly the same volume, which brings us to orbital hybridization and lone pairs. With four valence orbitals, we expect to have four bonding/molecular orbitals, each located in a distinct volume. Having a spherical 2s orbital and three p-orbitals at right angles arranged around the same nucleus is not compatible with this, and is not how atoms participate in bonding. Instead, three bonding arrangements are possible: tetrahedral (sp^3), trigonal planar (sp^2), and linear (sp). In the sp^3 case, the 2s and all of the 2p orbitals combine to form four new orbitals, each with one part s-orbital character and three parts p-orbital character. The hybridized orbitals form bonds as far apart as physically possible, resulting in a uniform bond angle of 109.5 degrees and the tetrahedral configuration. Methane (CH4) is an example of a tetrahedral compound – the sp^3 orbitals on the carbon atom bond with the 1s orbitals on the hydrogens, resulting in a perfectly symmetrical arrangement of bonds around the carbon atom. Ammonia (NH3) is also an example of a tetrahedral compound, although you might not expect that on first inspection. More properly, I should write ammonia as :NH3, which is because a nitrogen atom “owns” five valence electrons and can form three bonds. In this case, the open electron spaces are filled by the three bonding hydrogen atoms, with three nitrogen electrons participating in these bonds. The remaining two valence electrons from the nitrogen occupy the nitrogen sp^3 not already bonding with a hydrogen atom, with the absence of another positively charged nucleus meaning that the lone pair will tend to repel the electron density in the N-H bonds, pushing the hydrogens closer together on one end of the molecule and distorting the ideal 109.5 degree bond angles.
In a trigonal planar sp^2 bond scheme, one of the p-orbitals does not participate in hybridization and is free to participate in pi bonds with other atoms. The loss of one p-orbital means that there are only three hybrid orbitals, each with one part s character and two parts p character. The higher fraction of s character means that sp^2 orbitals will be lower in energy than sp^3 orbitals, although whether or not the sp^2 bond scheme is energetically favorable overall also depends on the chemical environment of the remaining non-hybridized p-orbital. Geometrically, the remaining p-orbital will tend to occupy all of the space apart from the nodal plane, pushing the other three bonds into the nodal plane at about 120 degree angles from each other. A linear sp bond scheme is quite similar to the sp^2 bond scheme, but with two p-orbitals not participating in hybridization. The s-orbital and remaining p-orbital generate two hybrid orbitals with one part s character and one part p character, so sp orbitals are the lowest in energy of any of the hybrid orbitals. With two p-orbitals at right angles taking up much of the available volume, the other bonds will default to the volume along the intersection of the nodal planes of both of the p-orbitals. Since the intersection of two planes is a line, linear bonds will tend to be 180 degrees apart.
Once we start getting into larger third row elements or the d and f blocks, things become much more chaotic and complicated. With the organic bonding mostly described here sufficient to form the basis of all biological processes, you can probably imagine the idiosyncrasies exhibited by the heavier atoms, particularly if you view the d and f orbitals as depicted here (https://i.stack.imgur.com/K5EcA.jpg ). If you are wondering why heavy metal poisoning can be so damaging to human bodies, this is much of the reason why.
submitted by FightingForSarah to SpaceXFactCheck [link] [comments]

[Discussion] Hepatic Metabolism of Oral AAS, Hepatotoxicity, and Liver Support

I know this is a long write up, the first half is biochemistry and what happens on a cellular level. The second half is more pertaining to the average AAS user, including a deeper dive into liver functioning tests and liver support. I highly recommend at least reading the second half, especially the Liver Support section.
Hepatotoxicity is a word that is frequently thrown around, everyone’s heard it, everyone thinks they know what it is, but once you ask something beyond surface level, you get a whole lot of conflicting answers. Let’s dive into it.
Overview/Background/General Information/What the fuck actually happens?
Drug Metabolism: The human body identifies almost all drugs as foreign substances and subjects them to various chemical processes to make them suitable for elimination. Drug metabolism is typically split into two phases: Phase 1 (oxidation via Cytochrome P450, reduction, and hydrolysis) tends to increase water solubility of the drug and can generate metabolites. Phase 2 further increases water solubility of the drug, inactivating metabolites, thus preparing it for excretion.
17α-Alkylated Anabolic Steroids. These AAS contain a methyl or ethyl group on the C17α position, allowing for oral activation. This modification allows the drug to survive hepatic metabolism, limiting the amount of steroid that is broken down, allowing for more drug to reach the bloodstream. Without this modification, the drug is completely broken down by the liver, never reaching systemic circulation. This initial process is called First Pass Metabolism.
First pass metabolism: After a drug is swallowed, it is absorbed by the digestive system and enters the hepatic portal system. It is carried through the portal vein into the liver before it reaches the rest of the body. The liver metabolizes many drugs, sometimes to such an extent that only a small amount of active drug emerges from the liver to the rest of the circulatory system. This first pass through the liver may greatly reduce the bioavailability of the drug. Some oral steroids have a very low bioavailability due to first pass metabolism, thus injectable versions may be used to prevent the initial breakdown, effectively increase bioavailability and reducing liver stress.
In short: Oral Steroid (active) -> Hepatic Breakdown -> Metabolite (inactive)
In the case of oral AAS, hepatic metabolism can convert an active drug into its inactive form; C17α methylation prevents this. Why is this modification known to be hepatotoxic? The primary enzyme that normally breaks down hormonal steroids (such as endogenous DHEA, testosterone, estradiol, etc) is 17β-Hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase, 17β-HSD, (and to a minor extent the Cyp450 family) which can no longer break down the methylated drug, thus the liver finds an alternative route for metabolism. The actual specific process is still relatively unknown, but involves a variety of oxidation reactions, inducing an increase of free oxygen radicals within the hepatocytes (liver cells), causing cell death due to oxidative stress.
There is another hypothesis which involves the presence of androgen receptors within the liver. The C17α methylated oral steroid, that is no longer properly broken down, will bind to these receptors, causing a drastic increase of androgenic activity within the liver, leading to hepatoxicity.
In my opinion, it is a mixture of both. Many studies show a direct correlation between the androgenic effect of the oral steroid and the amount of hepatoxicity. The exact link between the two is yet to be determined.
In general, the greater the affinity of C17α methylated oral steroid for the androgen receptor, the more hepatoxicity occurs.
Hepatotoxicity is an overlying term: the specifics related to AAS use are Cholestasis (blockage of biliary flow), Steatosis (accumulation of fatty lipids within the liver), Zonal Necrosis (hepatocyte death within a specific zone of the liver), and Peliosis Hepatitis (vascular lesions leading to liver enlargement).
Cholestasis is a condition where bile cannot flow from the liver to the duodenum. It is the most common condition resulting from oral AAS use. In short, bile is continuously produced but cannot leave the liver, causing build up, backflow, and eventually hepatocyte death. Differential symptoms of cholestasis include but are not limited to pruritus (itchiness), jaundice (yellowing of the skin and whites of the eyes), pale stool, and dark urine.
​
Liver Functioning Tests: What do they mean and why are they relevant?
AST: Aspartate Transaminase: This alone is not a good indication of liver damage. AST is found in abundance within both cardiac and skeletal muscle. An elevated AST value can be caused by something as minor as weightlifting.
ALT: Alanine Transaminase: ALT is found specifically within the liver and is released into the plasma when significant liver stress, including hepatocyte death, occurs. An elevated value is of concern.
ALP: Alkaline Phosphatase: ALP is found within the hepatobiliary ducts. An elevated value is commonly indicative of obstruction and bile buildup, signifying cholestasis.
GGT: Gamma-glutamyl Transferase: GGT is an enzyme that is found in many organs throughout the body, with the highest concentrations found in the liver. GGT is elevated in the blood in most diseases that cause damage to the liver or bile ducts.
5’-nucleotidase: The concentration of 5’-nucleotidase protein in the blood is often used as a liver function test in individuals that show signs of liver problems. ALP can be elevated due to both skeletal disorders and hepatic disorders. 5’-nucleosidase is elevated ONLY with hepatic stress, not skeletal, thus allowing for differentiation.
Putting it all together: Cholestasis can be suspected when there is an elevation of both 5'-nucleotidase and ALP enzymes. Normally GGT and ALP are anchored to membranes of hepatocytes and are released in small amounts in hepatocellular damage. In cholestasis, synthesis of these enzymes is induced, and they are made soluble. GGT is elevated because it leaks out from the bile duct cells due to pressure from inside bile ducts. As hepatocyte damage continues, ALT, AST, and unconjugated bilirubin will begin to rise.
In short: Initial liver stress causes 5’-nucleiotidase and ALP to rise, shortly after GGT rises, then finally AST and ALT rise. Thus, with only AST and ALT values, it is difficult to determine the cause and extent of hepatic damage.
​
Liver Support: NAC/TUDCA/Liv52
NAC: N-Acetyl Cystein
NAC is a prodrug of L-cysteine, a precursor of the biological antioxidant glutathione which is able to reduce free radicals within the body. Free radicals, which as discussed above, are associated with causing extensive hepatocyte damage due to the oxidative breakdown of C17α methylated AAS.
In addition to its antioxidant action, NAC acts as a vasodilator by facilitating the production and action of nitric oxide. This property is an important mechanism of action in the prophylaxis of contrast-induced nephropathy and the potentiation of nitrate-induced vasodilation.
Multiple studies have constantly showed NAC decreasing liver functioning tests and improving liver function and mitigating cholestasis. NAC had the ability to vastly improve markers of kidney function and was actually able to even double the rate of sodium excretion, indicating that NAC is may be useful in preventing water retention.
In short, NAC has a vast number of benefits, including hepatoprotective (liver), nephroprotective (kidney), and neuroprotective (neural), and anti-inflammatory effects that have been constantly demonstrated thru literature. Moreover, NAC can and should be used for year-round support since the adverse effects are incredibly mild. There is absolutely NO reason to not be taking NAC.
​
TUDCA: Tauroursodeoxycholic acid
TUDCA is a bile acid taurine conjugate form of UDCA. As discussed above, during cholestasis, bile builds up, creating backflow and inducing hepatocyte death thru apoptosis. Apoptosis, or programmed cell death, is largely influenced by the mitochondria. If the mitochondria are distressed, they release the molecule cytochrome C. Cytochrome C initiates enzymes called caspases to propagate a cascade of cellular mechanisms to cause apoptosis. TUDCA prevents apoptosis with its role in the BAX pathway. BAX, a molecule that is translocated to the mitochondria to release cytochrome C, initiates the cellular pathway of apoptosis. TUDCA prevents BAX from being transported to the mitochondria, effectively inhibiting hepatocyte death.
Furthermore, TUDCA aids in the processing of toxic bile acids into less toxic forms, resulting in decreased liver stress, further preventing hepatocyte death. Moreover, TUDCA aids in the transport of bile from the liver into the duodenum, effectively unblocking the build up causing cholestasis. Finally, TUDCA has been proven to be an effective treatment for the necro-inflammatory effects of Hepatitis. Study after study has shown that TUDCA greatly improves liver enzyme values.
Why do we recommend only using TUDCA with hepatotoxic oral steroids? The idea is that TUDCA induces liver damage when there is no hepatotoxicity present… but after reading the above, does that make sense? It does not. I could not find any literature showing that TUDCA induces liver toxicity. The recommendation instead is due to the negative effects of TUDCA on cholesterol values. TUDCA has been shown to greatly decrease HDL levels when taken for extended periods of time. The idea is, if you have a healthy functioning liver, there is no reason to take TUDCA for long periods of time since all you’re doing is decreasing HDL values. That being said, after doing the research and seeing the vast benefits of TUDCA (included bellow, not a comprehensive list), I am beginning to change my perspective on TUDCA use with only hepatotoxic oral AAS.
In short, TUDCA prevents hepatocyte death, enhances hepatocyte function, exhibits anti-inflammatory effects on the liver, neutralizes toxic bile, and prevents bile build up that was caused by the alternative metabolism of C17α methylated AAS.
***THERE IS NO EVIDENCE THAT I HAVE COME ACROSS THAT SHOWS THAT TUDCA ITSELF INDUCES LIVER DAMAGE WHEN USED WITHOUT HEPATOTOXIC DRUGS**\*
TUDCA has a variety of other benefits outside the liver, but I will not go into them this time. In short:
Sources
​
Liv52
Liv52 is an herbal liver support. There have been medical studies conducted on Liv.52 in recent years, many of which involve its ability to protect the liver from damage by alcohol or other toxins. Liv52 has been shown to exhibit antiperoxidative function, antioxidant effects, anti-inflammatory, diuretic effects and neutralization of toxic products within the liver.
“The results demonstrated that the patients treated with Liv-52 for 6 months had significantly better child-pugh score, decreased ascites, decreased serum ALT and AST. We conclude that Liv-52 possess hepatoprotective effect in cirrhotic patients. This protective effect of Liv-52 can be attributed to the diuretic, anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidative, and immunomodulating properties of the component herbs.”
“Liv.52 enhanced the rate of absorption of ethanol and rapidly reduced acetaldehyde levels, which may explain its hepatoprotective effect on ethanol-induced liver damage.”
“Liv.52 administration reduced the deleterious effects of ethanol. The concentration of acetaldehyde in the amniotic fluid of ethanol-consuming animals was 0.727 microgram/ml. Liv.52 administration lowered it to 0.244 microgram/ml. The protective effect of Liv.52 could be due to the rapid elimination of acetaldehyde.”
That being said, there is conflicting research on Liv52. The studies either show hepatoprotective function or no effect, positive or negative.
“There was no significant difference in clinical outcome and liver chemistry between the two groups at any time point. There were no reports of adverse effects attributable to the drug. Our results suggest that Liv.52 may not be useful in the management of patients with alcohol induced liver disease.”
In short, Liv52 can be used if you have the additional funds, it is not the end-all-be-all but can be used as an adjunct. It is an incredibly cheap drug that may improve liver function and exhibit hepatoprotective effects. IT SHOULD IN NO WAY YOUR ONLY LIVER SUPPORT MEDICATION, but there is nothing wrong with using it.
submitted by Essindeess to steroids [link] [comments]

SIFU? STFU!

I'm not that big on data free speculation, and maybe I'm just giddy at the prospect of Pennywise in our past and a vaccine in our future, but I was wondering what others thought about this.
RNA vaccines, like the Pfizer vaccine, require storage at -80C. If this one really is successful, then the era of RNA vaccines will be dawning. And they will need cryo-storage units, ways of keeping track of inventory, controlled dispensing.
That all sounds kind of familiar, doesn't it?
One of the devices critical in stem cell biology, immunology, oncology and other fields of biology is the fluorescence activated cell sorter (FACS). The FACS solves the problem of analyzing millions of cells rapidly by passing cells, in a stream of droplets, past a laser to illuminate dye-conjugated antibodies that label the cells. The fluorescence signal is read on photon-detectors.
When the FACS was first invented, at Stanford over 50 years ago, Becton Dickinson agreed to produce and sell it. The guy who was the head of that project was a real evangelist for this technology, and he thought the world market could be as large as 30 machines.
Soon a FACS was in every hospital and research institute in the world.
Could the patented SIFU technology have a similar future not just for all stem cell products, but for RNA vaccines?
Wouldn't Pfizer be a neat partnership for rapidly funding and deploying that particular technology?
Or maybe I'm just giddy. Ah well. "A girl's gotta dream...."
submitted by stem-no-sell to ATHX [link] [comments]

Achievement Tip Masterpost

LONGEVITY
Complete a Life Complete a full life
All you have to do for this one is die. You probably have it by now, but if you're super attached to your first Bitizen, you can always save your Bitlife and play somebody else wastefully or hold out until they pass.
Octogenarian See your 80th birthday Nonagenarian 90th birthday Centenarian 100th birthday Super-centarian 110th birthday Mega-centarian 120th birthday
Get on a healthy diet and garden and meditate twice a year. I like Nutrisystem. It's expensive, but I have advice for managing that below...
Strong Genes Achieve a 500-year generation Long Lineage 1000-year generation Living Legacy 5000-year generation
Never don't have kids. I like leaving everything to the youngest child and playing as them, but that won't make your kids happy with you or your heir. Your call. Either way, it helps to have a couple Bitlifes going in case you get tired of living carefully. Sometimes you're gonna want to be more reckless, you know?
WEALTH
Millionaire Become a millionaire My Second Million Achieve a net worth of $2m
Now that we have Royalty and Sports, this is a lot easier. Traditionally, if you're hot (95%+), drop out of high school and get your GED ($1k, you can do that in a couple years of dog walking/freelance gigs) and wait for a singer or actor career. If not, work hard in school and go to the gym often. Check your parents' stats and if they're generous make sure you pass your drivers test (maybe even ask if you can get a nicer one! immediately sell your car, they lose value fast) and take a martial art. It's much cheaper if they pay for it ($1K per tier in some countries) and gets you in good shape. If you're athletic, grind at a sport from middle school onwards. If you're not, try some athletic-adjacent clubs and go to the gym and for walks often. Pets count as additional walks which you can take from age 8+. When you're in good shape you can get a soccer scholarship (which can become a/)or a professional sports contract. More sports tips below, same with other careers. Basically try to get famous, not through politics. Or be hot and marry rich/have rich parents who die/be royal.
Multimillionaire Achieve a net worth of $10m Rich Net worth of $20m Super Rich Net worth of $50m Stinking Rich Net worth of $100m
Get a couple million first, then invest it in real estate. Or do ads if you're famous and it won't ruin your career. Helps to be big on social media for influence on that stuff. Fix up 1M+ houses and flip them when they've hit a value of 2 or 3 million. If you've got great karma or you're a religious figure of some kind, exorcise some mansions. You can do it all that way, or keep grinding careers.
Bitionaire Achieve a net worth of $1b
It's hard to get here from 0. Helps to leave everything to your youngest kid before you die after living a long, fruitful life. You can let your kid "take over" your assets at any time without tax now, that's the best way to do it. Then as soon as they're 18 make them famous/invest in real estate and repeat.
CAREER
Actor Become an actor
Be hot. You can drop out at 16 and get your GED for $1k (ask your parents for money or do freelance gigs for a couple of years). If you're not, go to the gym and for walks often. Pets count as additional walks which you can take from age 8+. Grind at a sport in school if you can to keep your health well and get plastic surgery at 18. Generally if your appearance stats are low it's either a nose job or liposuction that will fix it. Always go to the best plastic surgeon. Marry rich if you have to or work for a couple years if you have to, but start the career as soon as you can. Always work 5 more hours a week than required and compliment your supervisor if their coolness is high. Sleep with people in Hollywood (bosses coworkers etc). Your spouse/parent will generally be mad if you're in rude magazines, so hold off on dating unless they're cool or make them deal with it.
Airplane Pilot Become an airline captain
Grind in school and keep your mental health well. No drugs but drink if you feel like it, just make sure you can go to AA or whatever. Always work 5 more hours a week than required and compliment your supervisor if their coolness is high. If you're rich and you've inherited an airplane or you can afford lessons, take them. Go to University for a science thing that isn't biology lol. Start your Pilot Apprentice job.
At Inner Peace Work 75 years as a monk
Follow my longevity tips above and don't party or drink or do drugs. Always be honest. Meditate. Don't date.
Candywriter Work for Bitlife
Be born in Tampa, United States. Go to university for Information Systems. You'll get the achievement right away when you're hired.
CEO Become a CEO
Go to school for Finance. Get a job. Work hard every year.
Dentist Become a dentist
Go to university for biology, then dental school. Work hard every year.
Doctor Become a doctor
Go to university for biology, then medical school. Work hard every year.
Fire Chief Become a fire chief
Stay in good shape. Work hard every year.
Jack Of All Trades Have 10 careers in one life
Work at retail and food service jobs for less than a year, then go to university to get even more opportunities. Keep going for different paths.
Judge Become a judge Lawyer Become a lawyer
Go to school for english. Go to law school. Work hard every year.
Last Resort Seduce your boss to save your job
Be hot. Work fewer hours than required at your job. Make sure your supervisor is attracted to your gender and low professionalism. When your boss tries to fire you, seduce them.
People Person
Start with your less popular coworkers and work your way up. Pay attention to their stats so you know what they want. Get hard-to-get people with Bitlife Bitizenships ($5).
Combat
Armed & Dangerous Kill someone with a learned martial art move
Get to the top level of a martial art, (especially in prison) pick someone old to attack. Start a fight with them.
Midieval Attack Get attacked with a midieval weapon
Kinda chance. Just keep picking fights. You can get into a lot of fights if you're rude at nightclubs or to people on the street. Sometimes if you attack your loved ones or enemies with a weapon they'll kill you with a sword or something.
No Grasshopper Earn the top belt in a martial art
Each martial art has 10 tiers. They can cost $1k+ if you're an adult so if you've got generous parents take advantage.
Sensei San Earn the top belt in every martial art
Have health above 50% when you take a martial arts lesson. Follow above tips. Parents will probably only pay for one set of lessons, so pay for the other arts yourself as an adult. At $10k per martial art, it will probably cost you $40k-$50k.
Disease
Addicted Sustain 3 addictions at once
Play Blackjack or go to the horse races often with mid-tier mental health. Get addicted to pills or some other hard non-psychedelic drugs. Start drinking last b/c it'll kill your health. Try not to let your Bitizen get depressed or you might die, lol. All addiction is dangerous so it may take a few tries.
Bubonic Plague Contract the bubonic plague
Have low health and luck out. I got it in the UK.
Foam at the Mouth Contract rabies
Try to take home every wild animal you see. One might bite you. If you succeed, take it to the vet. If it doesn't have rabies, release it. If it does, don't treat it! Take it home and bathe it until it bites you.
Sickly Contract 10 diseases in one life
Best if you're not vaccinated, but just have mid-tier health and be really social. All afflictions count.
Successful Rehab Have rehab cured at a rehab center
Go to fancy rehab if you can afford it. Do it from your military deployment to go AWOL.
Witchcraft Get cured of a disease by the witch doctor
Eye of newt and cow tongue are iffy. Always start with health at 100. They've fixed cancer and sickle cell for me.
Entertainment
BitBoi Watch Bijuu Mike on YouTube BTS ARMY Go to a BTS concert
Keep asking friends to watch YouTube/go to concerts every year until you get those options.
Movie Junkie Go to 5 movies in one life Moviegoer Go to a movie
Go to the movies every year. It's good for your relationship if you go with somebody.
Fame
Brightest Star Achieve maximum fame
Actor, model, writer, athlete career path. Keep doing every bonus thing (talk shows, books, pose nude, commercials) and verify on social media.
Centerfold Pose for Wank magazine
Agree to pose nude every time until you get it. I think this one has women mostly but I can't remember.
Endorser Get paid $2m for a commercial
Easy if you're a high paid actor or model doing an international commercial.
K-Pop Become a famous Korean singer
See my wealth advice. Follow it with the "background singer" career and start in Korea.
Fertility
DNA Donor Make 25 sperm donations in one life
This one is hard b/c you can only do it once a year and only until a certain age. So start at 18 and don't stop. I think you have to be American. Maybe UK and Canada too? Not legal everywhere. Try not to miss a year.
Fabulously Fertile Have 10 children in one life Fertile Myrtle Mother 25 children in one life
Meditate every year. Start at 18. You have to be cis. Eat healthy and exercise. Get boyfriends and have unprotected sex with them so you don't get STDs. You can be a mother up until like 51 if you're healthy and lucky. Keep having sex until you get pregnant.
Smart Seed Get artificially inseminated with lawyer sperm
Start at 18. You have to be cis. Be fertile (tips above). Keep pulling up the option to get artificially inseminated until a lawyer comes up. Don't listen to your partner if they don't want you to do it LOL.
Super Sperm Have 100 children in one life
Be a cis dude. Meditate. Be handsome. Have a million girlfriends. Use the dating app to keep dating young women. Don't abandon any kids but leave girlfriends as soon as they're pregnant. Hire every surrogate that will take you if it's legal. Sue them for the max ($200k) if they bail (not miscarry).
Three's Company Have triplets
Sometimes this happens if you're a dude with luck or while you're doing Super Sperm. Sometimes if you're a woman it's luck too or when you do IVF with your partner's sperm or other artificial insemination.
Military
Career Military Serve your full career in the military
Tips for staying alive below. Retire as soon as you can.
General Achieve the rank of general in the military
Be a good Army person. Grind at work like 5x a year. Keep in shape. Be nice to your seargeant.
Admiral Reach the rank of admiral in the military
Be a good Navy person. Grind at work like 5x a year. Keep in shape. Be nice to your seargeant.
Absent Without Leave Go AWOL in the military
Be deployed with an addiction and check into rehab. Whoops.
Excavator Clear 10 minefields
Be deployed, and use a minesweeper solver to not die if you suck at minesweeper.
Pet
Adopt Don't Shop Rescue every pet in the shelter
You gotta have a few houses. Then you're good. You gotta do it all in one year so have like a lot of houses. Like 5 at least. Tips for getting rich above.
Horsing Around Own 50 horses in one life
You gotta have a bunch of ranches. Buy a few horses a year. Tips for getting rich above.
Just Keep Swimming Buy a goldfish and release it.
You can do this one as a kid too if your parent gets you a goldfish.
Natural Selection Rescue every pet in the shelter
This one took forever. Just keep buying dangerous exotic pets and rescuing every dangerous animal you see. It's luck.
No Probllama Buy a Llama
Buy a ranch in Afghanistan. Go pet shopping.
Prison
Aftermath Escape prison in a riot Instigator Prison riot
Get good at Snake. Keep rioting. Works best in low security. Takes a couple tries, kind of luck.
Behind Bars Spend 50 years in prison True Lifer 75 years in prison
Do a murder in a country without the death penalty (Canada). Murder with full health at 18. Get a prison job. Meditate and work out every year. Keep your head down. Try half-heartedly to escape every once in a while so you don't accidentally get parole or something. But if you get out you can always go back. Rob a bank or something. But keep your health and behaviour up in case you get sick and need to go to the infirmary.
Gangsta Join a prison gang
Go to a medium or higher security prison.
Inmating Get a lover pregnant on a conjugal visit
Be a cis man with high fertility. Have a good relationship (80%+) with an 18 year old cis woman. Make sure she isn't on birth control. Do a small crime, get a prison job, and meditate. Request a conjugal visit.
Justice Get freed from prison by appeal
Be rich. Wait a couple years after you're sentenced for something non-violent.
Mercy Me Get granted clemency
Be a nun or a monk for 50+ years. Don't retire. Do a murder. Get a prison job. Meditate, work out, go to the library, and write letters to home. You won't know until the year you're scheduled to die, so hold on.
Midnight Express Get sentenced to Turkish prison
Be born in Turkey. Do a crime.
Theseus Escape a supermax prison
There are a ton of Bitlife prison guides. Do a murder and escape from death row.
Royalty
Executioner Execute 5 people
Be king. Or queen. Top dog, either way. It helps to have enemies or friends to make enemies.
Markle Marry into the royal family
Be a commoner in a country with royals. Be cute. Go on lots of dates. It'll pop up and be part of their name. They could be a viscount or whatever, no member of the royal family is too far removed.
Monarch Become a monarch
Start as prince or princess and inherit the throne.
Napoleon Get exiled to a distant land
Keep executing people. And do a bunch of disservice.
Reign Over Us Reign as monarch for 100 years
In a country where Prince/Princess is top monarch or where your king/queen parents are low health/dying, keep your health up until you're a super-centarian (see above).
Sports
Canton Get inducted into the football hall of fame
Be a great football player. Be famous. Play as long as you can. Keep being famous after football as long as you can. I stopped being famous at 40 and got inducted at 60.
Christiano Win the Ballon d'Or
Be a European soccer player. Keep winning championships (see below).
Full Ride Win an athletic scholarship
Start playing sports in middle school. Become captain of at least one team with a pro league.
Giggsy Win 13 career championships
You can train each stat up twice in a turn if you trade teams, but you'll lose respect, so pick your moments. Grind your whole life. Keep going to the gym. Trade teams when you guys start losing. Stay on top.
Hooker Yell at a leopard
Try out for professional rugby with high athletic stats. Choose Hooker as your position.
Lance Win a championship while doping
It's safest to dope the year after a drug test. Try it for your second or third championship.
Real Estate
House Hunter Make $2m from flipping a house
Buy a $2m house. Leave it to your kid. Sell it. See above.
Mansion Party Throw a party in a mansion Real Estate Mogul Purchase real estate worth $10m combined Trailer Party Party in a trailer
Pretty straight forward. If you're broke start with the trailer party. Then buy mansions. Advice for getting rich above.
School
Brothers Forever Get hired by a frat brother
Be a jock. See sports advice above. When you're in two sports at university, compliment the jocks' leader. Be good looking (plastic surgery if needed, see above) and google the answer to the question if you need it. Google high-level frats and pick one. Then when you get hired after school one of them might hire you!
Earning that A Seduce your teacher
Be really attractive and compliment your teachers who are attracted to people of your gender. Take the opportunity to sleep with them if it arises.
Naughty Child Get expelled from school
Be rude as hell to the principal/headmastedean
Swimming Star
Start swimming as young as you can and stay in shape. "Work harder" every year.
Social Media
Social Media Join social media Social Media Sharer Post Social Media Oversharer Post 5 times Social Media Star Get a million followers Check! Get verified
Join all social media platforms at 13. Be pretty and keep posting. Follow above advice to get famous in any public career to get more followers. Start with Instagram for verification around 100k. By the time you're a lead actosupermodel/etc you'll have 1m followers.
Vehicle
Antiqued Keep a car running for 200 years.
Buy a brand new car. Do maintenance twice a year. Pass it on to your kid (18+) and repeat.
Car collector Assemble a car collection worth $1m Lambo Buy a Lamborghini
Buy a lambo and a bunch of other fancy cars. Who cares. See advice above for money.
Not The Yellow One Buy a submarine
You need $5b for this to show up reliably.
Titanic Trouble Run into trouble on a yacht
Have a shitty yacht or shitty luck. Go for a bunch of rides.
Animal
Animal Rescue Rescue an animal
Helps to have 100% smarts. Read childrens books so you don't have to tap too many pages. It'll only take two or three.
Deaf Leapord Yell at a leopard
Buy a leopard from the exotic animals dealer and yell at it when it misbehaves.
Gorilla and the Fist Get decapitated by a gorilla
I had to buy so many gorillas from the exotic animals dealer to get one crazy enough to decapitate me. Just keep bathing it and letting it attack you every year until it kills you.
Unicorn Find a unicorn
Go for like 10 walks a year. Have good karma.
Hungry Hippo !!! NEEDED !!!
Apparently Egypt is good for this.
Lion Tamer !!! NEEDED !!!
Apparently Kenya is good for this.
Crime
Balcony Buccaneer Steal 100 packages in one life
It's a lot easier to avoid punishment by wielding your title if you're a monarch. This one took me ages as a civiliian.
Burglar Burgle 25 homes in one life
Play Snake well
Cold Killer Kill 10 people in one life Serial Killer Kill 25 people
Start with random homeless people. If you're a royal exert your title to avoid punishment. Keep buying your way out of prison as long as you can. Then start killing other prisoners, start with the oldest and work your way down to the strongest ones. Work out and meditate every year. Pay guards for protection if you can but you probably won't be fucked with if you keep strong and murderous.
Dillinger Rob 5 banks in one life
If you're royal you'll get away with it. Make sure you have a getaway car either way. Clown mask/closest equivalent and handgun/closest equivalent work best.
Scare to Death Scare someone to death
Do a murder but pick scare to death. Works best if they're old.
Bugatti Bandit !!! NEEDED !!!
Going Anywhere !!! NEEDED !!!
LOVE
Black Widow Widow 5 husbands in one life
Start using the dating app when you're 18 and go for old guys. Best if they don't have kids and if they're rich. Propose after you fuck when your relationship is at 100%. I like to be on birth control for this.
Golden Anniversary Be in a marriage for 50 years Diamond Anniversary Marriage for 75 years
Keep seeing movies together and fucking and complimenting each other. Cute as hell. Just marry young and try to both stay alive.
Fake It Propose successfully with a fake ring
Works best if you're rich and they love you and they're dumb.
Family Planner Convince a lover to go off birth control
Be a cis man. Be in a strong relationship with a cis woman. Ask her to go off birth control. Easiest if you're married to her.
Maiden Named Marry a man who takes your last name
Marry a man and don't change your last name. Kind of a luck thing. Make sure your relationship is strong.
Multigamist Get married 10 times in one life
Pre-nups and widowing make this easier but do you. Love them and leave them. If you're a young guy it's really easy to get older women to agree to marry you.
Stud Have 100 lovers in a single life
Hook up like crazy. Date all you can and fuck all of them. Use protection so you can stay alive.
Wedding Planner Agree to an arranged marriage
I did this in India as a woman with wealthy, religious parents.
Bejeweled !!! NEEDED !!!
General
All Along Have a parent who comes out of the closet
Could be luck. Or you can cheat it with a Bitizenship by making both parents gay and unreligious.
Begone Exorcise your own ghost
Be an exorcist. Buy a haunted house. Do what you do best.
Booty Call Have a successful Brazillian butt lift
Be healthy and have good karma. Use the best doctor. Cross your fingers. They still only work 1/3 of the time.
Cliff Diver Go cliff diving Hero Save someone's life Player Perks Accept a casino's hospitality offer Snake Snack Eat a snake ZAP! Get struck by lightning
Random event
Dignified Donor Donate a 1m+ heirloom to charity
Get your heirloom every day. Appraise it. Donate the first $1m+ one you get.
Flamin' Hot Survive 60 years on a Hot Cheetos diet
Get liposuction every couple of years and work out and walk a lot. Have no other conditions. Do your best. Get pets for more walks. Garden. Try to survive. Start at 18.
Flee the Country Emigrate to escape justice
Escape prison and emigrate
Frankenstein Survive 5 botched plastic surgeries
Keep going to the bad doctor. Go for risky procedures like butt lifts. Space them out to get your health back up.
Goat Grabber Join a goat grabbing team
Be athletic and join a goat grabbing team at school in Afghanistan
Human Dictionary Read the dictionary
So much tapping. But eventually it will show up in your books. Be strong.
Hyperthymesia Score 20 sequences on the memory test
The worst part of Bitlife. I did this one by writing 1,2,3 or 4 on a piece of paper according to which # square lit up with my right hand and doing the puzzle on my phone with my left hand. Still took like 5 tries and was really frustrating. Take breaks and come back with a clear head.
Jackpot Win the lottery jackpot
Keep your karma high and buy 10 tickets 5 times a year. You'll get it eventually.
Lowroller Get refused entry to a casino
Bet more money than you have on Blackjack. Once you're out of prison, try to come back. They'll turn you away.
Nightmare Wake up from a nightmare
As a pilot, buy a terrible plane. When it crashes, accept your doom. You might wake up.
Paranightmare Contract PTSD after a paranormal experience
Try to have bad mental and good physical health (a hard balance. Try gardening, dieting, and fighting with friends or loved ones) and then try to exorcise stubborn ghosts.
Perfection Achieve perfect stats
Pretty easy. Work out, get plastic surgery (lipo or nose job to start) and go for walks, read children's books (3 should get you to 100%) and go to the movies or on vacation.
Rich Justice Win a $1m+ lawsuit
Get fired from a really high paying job like CEO and win your lawsuit.
Run Bitizen! Win a bet on Bitizen There's Always Canada Emigrate to Canada Winnipeg, Eh? Visit Winnipeg
Wait until it pops up as an option
Say Goodbye To Hollywood Get deported from the United States
Move to the U.S. without permission. Get caught doing a minor crime.
Skeezy Get called "skeezy"
Be an asshole at nightclubs and in the streets. Fight with your friends and coworkers, insult them and start rumours.
Sweepstakes Win the sweepstakes
Set it up on a day where you'll be by your phone. Sign up every time you can.
Try & Stop Me Violate a restraining order
Stalk your ex. Do it again after they file a restraining order.
Ultimate Betrayal Your spouse leaves you following a gender reassignment
Have a terrible relationship with your heterosexual spouse. Get gender reassignment surgery.
Unethical Bribe a college official
Be rich and have dumb kids.
Roswell !!! NEEDED !!!
Sacrilege !!! NEEDED !!!
​
submitted by 69plasticflowers to BitLifeApp [link] [comments]

A Minor Breakthrough in the etymology of ‘Oedon’

Greetings Lore Hunters! I’d like to share some exciting thoughts.
First, a brief disclaimer:
The Red Herring details my initial exploration of Oedon’s etymological roots.
The Catch explores why I wasn’t satisfied by my initial findings.
The Epiphany sees me postulate a more fitting etymological derivative for Oedon. And
The Conclusion reflects on its implications.
Onward!
Like many lore hunters, one point of BB lore that has remained for the most part shrouded in mystery for me is the aptly named ‘Formless Oedon.’
First, a quick reference of the Oedon Rune descriptions:
“Human or no, the oozing blood is a medium of the highest grade, and the essence of the formless Great One, Oedon. Both Oedon, and his inadvertent worshippers, surreptitiously seek the precious blood.”
“The Great One Oedon, lacking form, exists only in voice, and is symbolized by this rune. Those who memorize it enjoy a larger supply of Quicksilver Bullets.”
“Writhe" sees a subtle mucous in the warmth of blood, and acknowledges visceral attacks as one of the darker hunter techniques.”
I’d like to take note of the overtly biological imagery present in these descriptions for now; ‘subtle mucous’ ‘oozing blood.’
The Red Herring
When I started long ago to look into the etymology of the word Oedon, back when I was busy compiling a Lore Hunters Starter Kit post for this subreddit’s FAQs, I focused in on the closest Anagramic word— specifically: ‘Odeon’ being the Ancient Greek word for a concert hall or something of the sort.
Naturally I was drawn in this direction by the references to Oedon being “Formless” and existing only in “Voice.” I thought it was a sure connection to this ancient Greek singing hall; after all Oedon is present in the Chapel, and Chapels are built to, among other things, allow the music of choirs and pipe organs to reverberate pristinely.
However, in an attempt to explore this connection to song in other aspects of Oedon, like the obvious effect he has on the Chapel Dwellers, or his innate connection with and search for blood as an ideal medium, I met sort of a dead end.
While I could glean some symbolic connection between song and voice as a way of giving form to the formless, it was more difficult to connect song with actual biological blood.
The closest attempt I made was to ponder some sort of connection between ‘blood echoes’ and song, as ‘echo’ is typically a descriptor for sound.
Arriving at that dead end I then embarked on a study of other areas of the game where sound, and specifically song, appeared important.
I briefly considered the eerie songs of the winter lanterns, and wondered if there could be a connection to Oedon there; but although the lanterns lurk about in Mensis, they also appear in the Frontier, and the fishing hamlet as well, so no direct connection to Oedon seemed likely on that front.
Further complicating the connection of Oedon to ‘Odeon’ is the fact that we encounter the ‘Oedon Writhe’ rune far away from the Chapel when we see Imposter Iosefka seemingly in heat. It can be argued that Imposter Iosefka was the inhabitant of the study below Oedon chapel before running away to the clinic after we defeat Gascoigne, but the importance of a Chapel as a place of song is somewhat diminished when we encounter Imposter Iosefka outside of it in her climax.
Likewise, another carrier of the Writhe rune, the child who leaves her house to seek the chapel never makes it there, so in her case a connection to the chapel as a theater for song is also questionable.
I do still hold the connection between Oedon and Song to be somewhat intriguing, but having found myself at dead ends I mostly filed it away as perhaps relevant, but not definitive to understanding Oedon’s form and motivations.
The Catch:
The itch that I was never able to scratch in my initial attempt to unpack the etymology of Oedon as ‘Odeon’ is this: Oedon is undeniably connected with fertility, and along with his ‘inadvertent followers,’ he seeks blood as a divine medium.
You see this is quite important, because when it comes to Gods and Mortals, it is very rare that we see Gods and Followers who seek the same thing. Usually, followers seek the god and the god seeks followers, it is unique that Oedon and his followers both seek blood as a holy medium.
Upon further consideration, if we take Oedon’s propensity to seek out either Female and/or Nurturing followers (the Chapel dweller exemplifying the exception as a male who is overwhelmingly kind and nurturing— parental) we can see that the relationship is less like a symbolic worshippegod relationship, and more like a MotheFather, relationship; a lovers relationship.
After all, we see a wide variety of archetypical depictions of child-rearing in the Chapel:
It is clear to me that Oedon has a much closer thematic relationship to fertility and impregnation than he does to ambiguous ‘song.’
But alas, I couldn’t find a solid etymological connection between Formless Oedon and fertility, try as I might.
—Until tonight.
The Epiphany:
In a separate thread on the Dark Souls sub, I was discussing the motifs of archtrees and fire keepers throughout Miyazaki’s work.
In my discussion I referenced a particular segment of MatthewMatosis’s Dark Souls Commentary (timestamped at 1hr 45 mins-1hr 48mins for specific passage) which talks about the similarity of the word ‘Estus’ (as in: Estus Flask) to the word ‘Estrous.’
He explains that the word Estrous is most often seen defining the term ‘Estrous Cycle.’
Although I’m not a biologist, a layman’s description of the Estrous Cycle is roughly that it is the process in certain mammals of the female body undergoing cyclical changes beginning at sexual maturity and continuing on through the females lifecycle based on the action of reproductive hormones.
Estrogen being the active hormone triggering the Estrous cycle.
It’s important to note briefly that while they both operate from similar hormones produced by the pituitary, the estrous cycle is distinctly different from the Human Menstrual Cycle.
The key difference is that in the Estrous Cycle, the female resorbs the endometrium if fertilization doesn’t occur; to put it bluntly, estrous cycles don’t include periods. Human females, whose hormonal reproductive systems are Menstrual, expel the ovum if fertilization doesn’t occur; thus, periods.
The biological distinction is stark; an estrous mammal is generally able to conceive only when in heat; it emits pheromones, it voices mating calls, it writhes. But in human menstruation, periods of fertility might have latent expressions, but human females are able to conceive without being ‘in heat’ so to speak; the windows for conception are much wider.
I highlight this rough biology, because, to my utter disbelief, upon researching the ‘Estrous Cycle,’ I found that the Latin word that it derives from is—
Oestrus
And wouldn’t you know it; one meaning of the Latin derivative ‘Oestrus’ is—
‘Frenzy’
Couple that with the fact that the thing that most differentiates HUMAN reproduction from the Oestrus Cycle is the regular discharge of blood and mucosal tissue (known as menses)
Remember when we read the oedon Writhe description of ‘subtle mucous in the blood’?
And, although I am a male and it’s not my place to say, I imagine that the process of discharging Menses is somewhat of a Nightmare when it first occurs for young women.
Do you get my drift?
You see, my initial etymological mistake with looking at ‘Odeon’ as an anagram for ‘Oedon’ ignores the possibility of ‘Oedon’ as a derivative, or conjugation, of a word like ‘Oestrus.’
For in this light there are a wealth of connections between Bloodborne’s (funny name eh? Bloodborne) dark age of Humanity depicted in stark contrast to the age of fire (heat) depicted in Dark Souls.
The connections between Oedon and fertility are much stronger than Oedon and song.
This breakthrough also sheds new light on the Keeper of the Old Lords we encounter in the chalice dungeons. An enemy type that clearly mirrors imagery in Dark Souls of the witches of Izalith and fire shrine keepers.
For in their memory we see the old lords as reproducing via Estrous (or Oestrus) cycles, whereas humanity reproduces Via a Menstrual Cycle; note that while bloody discharge can sometimes occur in Estrous Mammals, It occurs monthly in menstrual mammals, cyclically discharging menses in phases often connected archetypically to the Lunar phases, a sort of Moon Presence. (Note that there is no scientific basis connecting lunar phases and menstrual cycles, but throughout dark ages of human understanding menstruation has often been attributed to lunar cycles simply as a result of the crude nature of early human calendar-keeping.)
Conclusion:
There is a lot to examine and unpack here, but one crude takeaway I have is this:
Given Miyazaki’s recurring motifs of birth, death and rebirth in all of his works, it gives me the idea that Bloodborne tells the story of Human Evolution as a second chapter to early mammalian reproductive evolution depicted in Dark Souls; that Bloodborne is the age of Humanity built upon foundations of the age of fire; our mammalian basis which we have transcended.
I could go on about the significance of the ‘Chalice’ as motif for the womb, and the chalice dungeons as a neurological history of The evolution of ‘womb’ throughout development of life in various ages, but I’ve gone on long enough already, so I’ll leave the discussion here, for now.
Miyazaki’s propensity to inspire this sort of learning and research, regardless of whether it’s intentional to the degree which I’ve outlined, is the thing that I most love about his design philosophy. I’m constantly flabbergasted at its depth and richness.
Hope this has been a fun read, please feel free to discuss, dissent and derive from the info here!
I hope you’re well in the waking world dear hoonter, the dream, as always, awaits you.
//TL:DR- Oedon derives from ‘Oestrus’ or Frenzy; seeking a fertile womb in heat to escape the nightmare of Mences.
/EDITi:
MatthewMatosis video link; added proper timestamped link. Spelling.
//EDITii:
WOW! The classic, go to bed after posting then wake up to find such incredible interest and discussion! I’m overwhelmed and very much look forward to reading and replying to fellow lore hunters! As soon as work allows I’ll get right on it! Added Roman numerals to edits
///EDITiii:
Adding a compendium of replies I’ve made to this post which further defend and characterize my view of Oedon’s relationship to the word ‘Oestrous’
Reply A: Providing my view on the usefulness of etymology in lore hunting, and the trap of grasping too eagerly for absolute understanding where there is none.
Reply B: Providing personal conceptualization of Oedon as possessing traits similar to human and mammalian hormonal impulses; classifying etymology of Runic transcriptions as based specifically in the race it preys upon; in bloodborne’s case Humanity as post-mammalian.
Reply C: Characterizing the difference between grammar and etymology. Noting the etymology of fictional words as possible composites of multiple origin languages. A detailed look into the origin of the Latin ‘Oestrus’ by tracing etymological roots Of conjugated Latin and Greek words beginning in ‘Oed’ and ‘Oe’.
Reply D: This meme I made for u/Traistas who’s words rang with a truth which only the most devoted Whirligig Masters would possess.
Reply E: Exploring theories regarding Oedon’s relationship to the Moon Presence. (Just for fun!)
submitted by elimeno_p to bloodborne [link] [comments]

i know y’all are probably bored of this but

i searched thru many posts and haven’t found the one that would be it so i’m writing my own
it is kind of a new thing for me, to feel different from what i look like biologically. i am AFAB, and have always felt like i didn’t really care about my gender, nor i had the need to think about it. recently tho i made some nb friends and i started to become more and more confused about myself.
sometimes i feel femme, sometimes more masculine and sometimes i just feel like nothing. i like to cross dress (even tho for afab it doesn’t change as much socially?? so idk if i can call it that way). but the “sometimes” doesn’t vary each day or even every few hours like i read online. it’s more like “femme week, “4 days of dude”, “the fuck”. maybe it’s normal, i have no idea bc it’s all new to me. there are so many labels and i’m so lost XD
as to dysphoria, i don’t know if i experience it or is it just my weak ass mental health. am i anorexic? or do i feel like a different gender? i’m writing this post on a full masc day, even tho yesterday i wanted to switch to feminine (i thought my masc week ended but well nope). and almost every time when i look at myself in the mirror i see a body but without parts?? like i was made of play-doh if that makes sense (wtf am i saying). i am from poland so we don’t have “they” form (it sounds just like two people not a different pronoun), i like to text either with “x” instead of gender conjugation word endings or just feminine to not make shit weird for the other person. on femme times life is easy - on every other i have to think a lot.
so ye are there any nice and thicc words or labels or anything i can do bc it confuses me and i just wanna live my gay life pls
submitted by thisisthedollarstore to lgbt [link] [comments]

"Love in the West is consumerist – we choose a partner to give us what we think we need. But Russians do things differently."

Article 'Romantic regimes' by Polina Aronson, a sociologist who was born in St Petersburg and lives in Berlin. Published here: https://aeon.co/essays/russia-against-the-western-way-of-love
​
In 1996 I left Russia for the first time to spend a school year in the United States. It was a prestigious scholarship; I was 16 and my parents were very excited about the possibility of my somehow slipping into Yale or Harvard afterwards. I, however, could think of only one thing: getting an American boyfriend.
In my desk, I kept a precious document of American life, sent to me by a friend who had moved to New York a year earlier: an article about the Pill, ripped from the US girls’ magazine Seventeen. I read it lying in bed, feeling my throat getting dry. Staring into its glossy pages, I dreamed that there, in a different country, I would turn into someone beautiful, someone boys turned their heads for. I dreamed that I would need this kind of pill, too.
Two months later, on my first day at Walnut Hills High School in Cincinnati, Ohio, I went to the library and borrowed a stack of Seventeens that stood taller than me. I was determined to find out precisely what happened between American boys and girls when they started liking each other, and what I was supposed to say and do in order to reach the stage when ‘the Pill’ would prove necessary. Armed with a highlighter and a pen, I looked for words and expressions that had to do with American conduct in courtship and wrote them out on separate cards, just like my English teacher in St Petersburg had taught me.
I soon gathered that the lifecycle of a Seventeen-approved relationship went through several clear stages. First, you developed a ‘crush’, normally on a boy a year or two older than yourself. Then, you asked around a bit to establish whether he was a ‘cutie’ or a ‘moron’. If he was the former, Seventeen gave you thumbs up to ‘hook up’ with him once or twice after ‘asking him out’. Throughout the process, several boxes needed to be ticked: did you feel like the young man ‘respected your needs’? Were you comfortable ‘asserting your rights’ – in particular, refusing or initiating ‘body contact’? How was the ‘communication’? If any of the boxes remained unticked, you would ‘dump’ him and start looking for a replacement, until someone who was ‘good boyfriend material’ came along. Then you would start ‘making out on the couch’ and graduate into a Pill‑user.
Sitting in the American school library, I stared at my dozens of handwritten notes and saw an abyss opening up: a gulf between the ideals of love that I had grown up with and the exotic stuff I was now encountering. Where I came from, boys and girls were ‘falling in love’ and ‘seeing each other’; the rest was a mystery. The teen film drama that my generation of Russians grew up with – a socialist replica of Romeo and Juliet set in a Moscow commuter neighbourhood – was deliciously unspecific when it came to declarations of love. To express his feelings for the heroine, the protagonist recited the multiplication tables: "Two times two is four. It is as certain as my love. Three times three is nine. That means you are mine. And two times nine is 18, and that’s my favourite number because at 18 we will get married."
What else was there to say? Not even our 1,000-page Russian novels could match the complexity of Seventeen’s romantic system. When engaging in love affairs, the countesses and officers were not exactly eloquent; they acted before they spoke, and afterwards, if they weren’t dead as a result of their hasty undertakings, they gazed around speechless and scratched their heads in search of explanations.
Although I did not yet have a PhD in sociology, it turned out that what I had been doing with the copies of Seventeen was exactly the kind of work that sociologists of emotion perform in order to understand how we conceptualise love. By analysing the language of popular magazines, TV shows and self-help books and by conducting interviews with men and women in different countries, scholars including Eva Illouz, Laura Kipnis and Frank Furedi have demonstrated clearly that our ideas about love are dominated by powerful political, economic and social forces. Together, these forces lead to the establishment of what we can call romantic regimes: systems of emotional conduct that affect how we speak about how we feel, determine ‘normal’ behaviours, and establish who is eligible for love – and who is not.
The clash of romantic regimes was precisely what I was experiencing on that day in the school library. The Seventeen girl was trained for making decisions about whom to get intimate with. She rationalised her emotions in terms of ‘needs’ and ‘rights’, and rejected commitments that did not seem compatible with them. She was raised in the Regime of Choice. By contrast, classic Russian literature (which, when I was coming of age, remained the main source of romantic norms in my country), described succumbing to love as if it were a supernatural power, even when it was detrimental to comfort, sanity or life itself. In other words, I grew up in the Regime of Fate.
These two regimes are based on opposing principles. Both of them turn love into an ordeal in their own ways. Nevertheless, in most middle-class, Westernised cultures (including contemporary Russia), the Regime of Choice is asserting itself over all other forms of romance. The reasons for this appear to lie in the ethical principles of neo-liberal, democratic societies, which regard freedom as the ultimate good. However, there is strong evidence that we need to re-consider our convictions, in order to see how they might, in fact, be hurting us in invisible ways.
To understand the triumph of choice in the romantic realm, we need to see it in the context of the Enlightenment’s broader appeal to the individual. In economics, the consumer has taken charge of the manufacturer. In faith, the believer has taken charge of the Church. And in romance, the object of love has gradually become less important than its subject. In the 14th century, gazing at Laura’s golden tresses, Petrarch had called the recipient of his affections ‘divine’ and believed her to be the most sublime proof of God‘s existence. Some 600 years later, another man bedazzled by a different heap of golden tresses – Thomas Mann’s Gustav von Aschenbach – concluded that it was he, not the handsome Tadzio, who was the touchstone of love:
"[T]he lover was nearer the divine than the beloved; for the god was in the one but not in the other – perhaps the tenderest, most mocking thought that ever was thought, and source of all the guile and secret bliss the lover knows."
This observation from Mann’s novella Death in Venice (1912) encapsulates a great cultural leap that occurred somewhere close to the beginning of the 20th century. Somehow, the Lover pushed the Beloved from the centre of attention. The divine, unknowable and unreachable Other is no longer the subject of our love stories. Instead, we are interested in the Self, with all its childhood traumas, erotic dreams and idiosyncrasies. Examining and protecting this fragile Self by teaching it to pick its affections properly is the main project of the Regime of Choice – a project brought to fruition using a popularised version of psychotherapeutic knowledge.
The most important requirement for choice is not the availability of multiple options. It is the existence of a savvy, sovereign chooser who is well aware of his needs and who acts on the basis of self-interest. Unlike all previous lovers who ran amok and acted like lost children, the new romantic hero approaches his emotions in a methodical, rational way. He sees an analyst, reads self-help literature and participates in couples counselling. Moreover, he might learn ‘love languages’, read into neuro-linguistic programming, or quantify his feelings by marking them on a scale from 1 to 10. The American philosopher Philip Rieff called this type ‘the psychological man’. In Freud: The Mind of a Moralist (1959), Rieff describes him as "anti-heroic, shrewd, carefully counting his satisfactions and dissatisfactions, studying unprofitable commitments as the sins most to be avoided". The psychological man is a romantic technocrat who believes that the application of the right tools at the right time can straighten out the tangled nature of our emotions.
This, of course, applies to both genders: the psychological woman also follows the rules, or, rather The Rules: Time-tested Secrets for Capturing the Heart of Mr Right (1995). Here are just some of the time-tested secrets assembled by its authors Ellen Fein and Sherrie Schneider:
Rule 2. Don’t Talk to a Man First (and Don’t Ask Him to Dance) Rule 3. Don’t Stare at Men or Talk Too Much Rule 4. Don’t Meet Him Halfway or Go Dutch on a Date Rule 5. Don’t Call Him and Rarely Return His Calls Rule 6. Always End Phone Calls First
The premise of The Rules is simple: because men are genetically wired to chase women, if women show them even the tiniest degree of empathy or interest, this has the effect of upsetting the biological equilibrium, ‘emasculating’ the man and reducing the woman to the status of a miserable abandoned she-animal.
The Rules has been criticised for an almost idiotic degree of biological determinism. Nevertheless, new editions continue to appear, and the ‘hard-to-get’ femininity that it advocates has become a commonplace of modern dating advice. Why does it remain so popular? The reason surely lies in its underlying message:
"One of the greatest payoffs of doing The Rules is that you grow to love only those who love you. If you have been following the suggestions in this book, you have learned to take care of yourself. […] You are busy with interests and hobbies and dating, and you are not calling or chasing men. […] You love with your head, not just your heart."
In the Regime of Choice, the no-man’s land of love – that minefield of unreturned calls, ambiguous emails, erased dating profiles and awkward silences – must be minimised. No more pondering ‘what if’ and ‘why’. No more tears. No more sweaty palms. No more suicides. No more poetry, novels, sonatas, symphonies, paintings, letters, myths, sculptures. The psychological man or woman needs only one thing: steady progress towards a healthy relationship between two autonomous individuals who satisfy each other’s emotional needs – until a new choice sets them apart.
This triumph of choice is also bolstered by socio-biological arguments. Lifelong captivity in a bad relationship, we are told, is for Neanderthals. Helen Fisher, a professor of anthropology at Rutgers University and the world’s most famous love researcher, suggests that we have outgrown our millennia-long agricultural heritage, and no longer need monogamous relationships. We are now evolutionarily impelled to seek different partners for different needs – if not simultaneously, then at different stages of our lives. Fisher celebrates the modern lack of pressure to commit: we should all, ideally, spend at least 18 months with someone to decide whether they are good for us and whether we make a good match. With the absolute availability of contraceptives, unwanted pregnancies and disease can be fully eradicated; childbearing is fully disengaged from courtship, and so we can take the time to give our potential partner a test-drive without fear of the consequences.
Compared with other historical conventions about romance, the Regime of Choice might seem like a Gore-Tex jacket next to a hair shirt. Its greatest promise is that love needn’t cause pain. According to the polemics that Kipnis develops in Against Love (2003), the only suffering the Regime of Choice recognises is the supposedly productive strain of ‘working on a relationship’: tears shed in the couples therapist‘s room, wretched attempts at conjugal sex, daily inspection of mutual needs, the disappointment of a break-up with someone who is ‘not good for you’. You are allowed to have sore muscles but you cannot have accidents. By making heartbroken lovers into the authors of their own trouble, popular advice produces a new form of social hierarchy: an emotional stratification based on the misidentification of maturity with self-sufficiency.
And this, argues Illouz, is precisely why 21st-century love still hurts. First, we lack the legitimacy of those love-torn duelists and suicides of the previous centuries. They at least enjoyed social recognition based on the general understanding of love as a mad, inexplicable force that not even the strongest minds can resist. Nowadays, yearning for a specific pair of eyes (or legs, for that matter) is no longer a valid occupation, and so one’s love pangs are exacerbated by the consciousness of one’s social and psychological inadequacy. From the perspective of the Regime of Choice, the heart-broken Emmas, Werthers and Annas of the 19th century are not simply inept lovers – they are psychologically illiterate, if not evolutionarily passé. Mark Manson, a relationship coach with more than 2 million readers online, writes:
"Romantic sacrifice is idealised in our culture. Show me almost any romantic movie and I’ll show you a desperate and needy character who treats themselves like dog shit for the sake of being in love with someone."
In the Regime of Choice, committing oneself too strongly, too early, too eagerly is a sign of an infantile psyche. It shows a worrying readiness to abandon the self-interest so central to our culture.
Second, and even more importantly, the Regime of Choice is blind to structural limitations that make some people less willing – or less able – to choose than others. This occurs not only because we have unequal endowments of what the British sociologist Catherine Hakim calls ‘erotic capital’ (that is, some of us are prettier than others). In fact, the biggest problem about choice is that whole groups of individuals might, actually, be disadvantaged by it.
Illouz, a professor of sociology at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, has argued persuasively that the individualistic appeal of the Regime of Choice tends to cast the desire for commitment as ‘loving too much’ – that is, loving against one’s own self-interest. Although enough broken-hearted men are pathologised for their ‘neediness’ and ‘inability to let go’, it is mostly women who fall into categories of ‘co-dependent’ and ‘immature’. Across class and race, they are trained to make themselves self-sufficient – to ‘not love too much’, to just ‘celebrate themselves’ (per the The Rules, above).
The trouble is, a bubble bath cannot substitute for a loving gaze or a long-awaited phone call, let alone make you pregnant – whatever Cosmo might suggest. Sure enough, you can have IVF and grow into an inspiringly mature, wonderfully independent single mother of thriving triplets. But the greatest gift of love – the recognition of one’s worth as an individual – is an essentially social matter. For that, you need a significant Other. You’ve got to drink a lot of Chardonnay to circumvent this plain fact.
But perhaps the greatest problem with the Regime of Choice stems from its misconception of maturity as absolute self-sufficiency. Attachment is infantilised. The desire for recognition is rendered as ‘neediness’. Intimacy must never challenge ‘personal boundaries’. While incessantly scolded to take responsibility for our own selves, we are strongly discouraged from taking any for our loved ones: after all, our interference in their lives, in the form of unsolicited advice or suggestions for change, might prevent their growth and self-discovery. Caught between too many optimisation scenarios and failure options, we are faced with the worst affliction of the Regime of Choice: self-absorption without self-sacrifice.
Where I come from, however, we have the opposite problem: self-sacrifice often comes without much self-examination at all. Julia Lerner, an Israeli sociologist of emotions at Ben Gurion University of the Negev, recently conducted a study into the ways that Russians talk about love. The purpose of her research was to find out whether, as a result of the post-communist, neo-liberal turn, the gap between Seventeen magazine and the Tolstoy novel had finally started to close. The answer is: not really.
Having analysed discussions in various TV talk shows, conducted interviews and done content analysis of the Russian press, she established that, to Russians, love remains "a destiny, a moral act and a value; it is irresistible, it requires sacrifice and implies suffering and pain". Indeed, whereas the concept of maturity that lies at the heart of the Regime of Choice regards romantic pain as an aberration and a sign of poor decision-making, the Russians consider maturity to be the capacity to bear that very pain, sometimes to an absurd degree.
A middle-class American who falls in love with a married woman is advised to break up with the lady and to schedule 50 hours of therapy. A Russian in a similar situation, however, storms the woman’s house and pulls her out by the hand, straight from the hob with stewing borsch, past crying children and a husband frozen with game controller in hand. Sometimes, it goes well: I know a couple who have been together happily for 15 years since the day he kidnapped her from a conjugal New Year’s feast. But in most cases, the Regime of Fate produces mess.
In terms of bulk numbers, Russians have a greater number of marriages, divorces and abortions per capita than any other developed country. These statistics document an impetus to do whatever it takes to act upon emotions, and often at the cost of one’s own comfort. Russian romance is closely accompanied by substance abuse, domestic violence and abandoned children: the by-products of lives that were never really thought through very clearly. Apparently, believing in fate each time you fall in love is not such a great alternative to excessive choice.
But to solve the afflictions of our culture, we do not need to give up on the principle of choice altogether. Instead, we must dare to choose the unknown, to take uncalculated risks and be vulnerable. By ‘vulnerability’ I do not mean the coquettish exposure of weaknesses meant to test the compatibility between you and your date. My plea is for existential vulnerability, for the re-mystification of love into what it essentially is: an unpredictable force that usually catches you unawares.
If the understanding of maturity as self-sufficiency is so detrimental to the way we love under the Regime of Choice, then it is precisely this understanding that needs to be reconsidered. To become truly adult, we need to embrace the unpredictability that loving someone other than ourselves entails. We should dare to cross those personal boundaries and run one step ahead of ourselves; not at a Russian pace, maybe, but just slightly quicker than we are used to.
So. Make loud love proposals. Move in with someone before feeling completely ready for it. Grumble at a partner for no reason and have that person grumble back, just like that, because we are human. Have a child when the timing seems bad. And finally, we need to re-claim our right to pain. Let us dare to agonise about love. As Brené Brown, a sociologist studying vulnerability and shame at the University of Houston, suggests, perhaps "our capacity for whole-heartedness can never be greater than our willingness to be broken-hearted". Rather than obsessing over the integrity of our selves, we need to learn to give parts of those selves to others – and acknowledge, finally, that we are dependent on each other, even if a Seventeen columnist might call it co-dependent.
submitted by A_D_Tennally to limerence [link] [comments]

Help me justify the existence of the shitty speculative organism I invented in high school

Sorry if this isn't the sub for this, I'll move it somewhere else if necessary.
When I was in high school, I wrote a short story with the premise that there had been a civilization of sapient aquatic beings on Earth about 2.4 billion years ago, which descended from anaerobic methane-producing archaea and were destroyed by the Great Oxygenation Event. (A few of these beings managed to survive in stasis until the modern day through a soft sci-fi plot device, but that's not relevant to this post.)
I was thinking of creating a sequel to/expansion of the original idea, but unfortunately, I didn't know much about designing plausible speculative organisms, so when coming up with the "Shoalers" (As I called them.) I mostly just threw together all the cool terms I had learned from grade 11 biology class and by skimming wikipedia pages in order to make them as weird as possible, without concern for how well all the different traits fit together. I still don't really know that much, but I now know enough to know some aspects of the Shoalers' biology are a bit implausible.
Fortunately, my past self's laziness is somewhat helpful, as I didn't define any of the Shoalers' evolutionary history beyond the fact that they descended from methanogenic archaea that had convergently evolved multicellularity, which gives me complete freedom when deciding how they could have plausibly evolved all their implausible traits.
So, I was wondering if I could have some help coming up with broad explanations for why the Shoalers are the way that they are, hopefully with only minimal retconning of the traits I had previously established them as having.
Here's the information about the Shoalers I established in the short story. I'd rather not retcon any of it, unless it's completely unsalvageable:
The following information about the Shoalers isn't explicitly stated in the story I wrote, but I came up with during the process of writing the story or in the years afterwards. It can be retconned away, but it'd be nice to keep it if possible, I guess:
So, I guess my questions would be:
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what is conjugation in biology video

Conjugation in Bacteria - Biology - YouTube CONJUGATION IN Spirogyra - YouTube Biology - What is Binary fission? #5 - YouTube Konjugation – Biologie │EinfachBio - YouTube Conjugation in bacteria in hindi ll biology ll - YouTube Conjugation in paramecium - YouTube Episome genomic DNA and plasmid in conjugation - YouTube CONJUGATION IN SPIROGYRA & PARAMOECIUM:Reproduction in ...

There are two other processes that can lead to horizontal gene transfer in bacteria: conjugation and transduction. In contrast to transformation, these processes “force” DNA into what may be a reluctant cell. In the process of conjugation, we can distinguish between two types of bacterial cells (of the same species). Conjugation, in biology, sexual process in which two lower organisms of the same species, such as bacteria, protozoans, and some algae and fungi, exchange nuclear material during a temporary union (e.g., ciliated protozoans), completely transfer one organism’s contents to the other organism (bacteria and some algae), or fuse together to form one organism (most bacteria and fungi and some algae). Conjugation in the largest biology dictionary online. Free learning resources for students covering all major areas of biology. Definition noun, plural: conjugations (biology) (1) The process whereby two ciliates come together in a temporary fusion to exchange micronuclear material, then separate, each being a fertilized cell. Conjugation is the transfer of a plasmid or other self-transmissible DNA element and sometimes chromosomal DNA from a donor cell to a recipient cell via direct contact usually mediated by a conjugation pilus or sex pilus. Recipients of the DNA transferred by conjugation are called transconjugants. Conjugation is defined as the transfer of DNA in a site- and strand-specific manner from a donor to a recipient cell, which have formed close contacts with one another, that is, a mating pair. From: Encyclopedia of Microbiology (Third Edition), 2009. Download as PDF. Bacterial conjugation is a way by which a bacterial cell transfers genetic material to another bacterial cell. The genetic material that is transferred through bacterial conjugation is a small plasmid, known as F-plasmid (F for fertility factor), that carries genetic information different from that which is already present in the chromosomes of the bacterial cell.

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Conjugation in Bacteria - Biology - YouTube

Conjugation in Spirogyra Conjugation in Paramoecium Moin Leute, in diesem Video erkläre ich euch die Konjugation bei Bakterien, wie genau diese Art der Übertragung funktioniert und welche Besonderheiten es gib... Description In this video, we'll cover:- What binary fission is and which organisms do it- The process of binary fission- An example of a mathematical binary fission que... The conjugation of biomolecules can impart materials with the bioactivity necessary to modulate specific cell behaviors. While the biological roles of partic... Friends you can help me in my life journey through out the paytm my paytm number is 9027282381. Click to get higher Nonchordates vidios for B. SC 1 year stud... This lecture explains what is episome and its relation with genomic DNA and plasmid of bacteria. http://www.shomusbiology.com/Get Shomu's Biology DVD set her... Conjugation is a process where genetic information is transferred from one bacteria to another through pilus. This is horizontal gene transfer process. Direc... This is horizontal gene transfer ...

what is conjugation in biology

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