#general knowledge questions and answers​

[minteababe]

In 2018 my husband and I (both trans masc) were arrested in a very small town in Texas for possession of cannabis. My husband passes as masc much better than I do, and so when we were initially being loaded up in the squad car, the cop was on his radio talking to dispatch telling them he had "one male and one female."

Now, my husband has never had his gender marker changed. So when dispatch came back, they were very, very confused, saying, "Uh, we're seeing two females?"

The cop then flipped on the dome light in the back seat and took a good long look at my husband in his rear-view mirror, and said, "Well, damn. Whatever you're doing is working. Good job."

That was it.

When we got to the precinct, in the midst of talking to the cop doing our intake, I said something (I don't remember anymore, but I think it had to do with being surprised at how chill they were with us being trans) and she replied with a big belly laugh, "Oh sweetie, y'all aren't the first trans folks we've had in here and you won't be the last."

They kept my partner in holding for his safety instead of putting him with the men.

Now, because I had long hair at the time and hadn't been on T long, I didn't pass at all. Naturally, they put me in general population with a group of 11 women.

Within the first 24 hours, I had explained to one of the women that I really shouldn't be in with them and it wasn't fair to them, because I was trans. Her face lit up like a kid on Christmas when I asked her to co-sign a letter asking the warden to have me separated. Not because she was malicious, but because in her words, "I knew there was something different about you when I saw you come in."

She asked my permission to talk to the other women and have them sign my letter, too.

Later that day, I found myself seated on a bunk surrounded by women who just had questions. And I had answers! And I was happy to give them those answers, because meeting me was their chance to learn. They asked me everything they could think of about being trans, medical and social transition, etc. Most of them were just in awe, because they had no idea that people like me existed. A few clearly didn't "agree" with it, but still held the sentiment of, "As long as you're not hurting anyone else, do what you want."

Afterwards, one of the women came to me in tears. She thanked me profusely for sitting with them and teaching them about my world. She then told me that her very young kid would often tell her, "Mommy, I want to be a girl when I grow up," and she just...never knew what to make of that before. She didn't know that was an option, and she was so happy and excited to be able to get out and go support her kid with more knowledge and understanding than she had before.

Think about that the next time someone asks you a genuine question. No, you don't "owe" anyone an education - but don't allow your knowledge and experience to become a barrier for others. Let me be clear: personal questions can be deeply uncomfortable, you don't have to answer them. Practice saying, "That question is difficult for me to answer because its a very vulnerable topic for me," instead of reacting in fear, anger, or defense. Being rude or aggressive in your refusal could mean that person never tries to learn about trans folks ever again.

People don't know what they don't know. And they never will know, if you refuse to teach them.

"The trannies should be able to piss in whatever toilet they want and change their bodies however they want. Why is it my business if some chick has a dick or a guy has a pie? I'm not a trannie or a fag so I don't care, just give 'em the medicine they need."

"This is an LGBT safe space. Of COURSE I fully support individuals who identify as transgender and their right to self-determination! I just think that transitioning is a very serious choice and should be heavily regulated. And there could be a lot of harm in exposing cis children to such topics, so we should be really careful about when it is appropriate to mention trans issues or have too much trans visibility."

One of the above statements is Problematic and the other is slightly annoying. If we disagree on which is which then working together for a better future is going to get really fucking difficult.

[youhavethewrong]

Spoiler-free Yuiview: The Hundred Line - Last Defense Academy

Super Mario 64. Undertale. Elden Ring. Every once in a long while, you get a game that makes people smack their head and go "of course! We have the technology to make this, why isn't this the industry standard?". A game whose mechanics, innovation, and use of the medium makes people realize that so much more is possible in video games than what is being currently done. A trend-setter, with lasting cultural impact that inspires people to push quality standards further.

I truly hope people realize The Hundred Line - Last Defense Academy is that game for the current generation.

As I mentioned in the title, this is going to be a spoiler-free review. I won't reveal any of the game's plot points other than the premise, and instead I'll focus on telling you what the game does well. I won't be able to give specific examples for some points, so you'll have to trust me on this one.

(I've earned your trust, right~?)

The protagonist of our game is Takumi Sumino, a teenager from the Tokyo Residential Complex - an underground city people have been living in for so long that they don't remember what the sky looks like. One day, the complex is attacked by The Invaders, monsters that seem intent on killing everyone for no apparent reason. Takumi meets Sirei, a little egg guy who gives him an infuser - a sword that when stabbed directly to his heart, allows him to gain the powers of Hemoanima and fight back.

(The cunty red eyeshadow comes free with the outfit)

After saving his friend Karua from the invaders, he suddenly loses consciousness and finds himself at Last Defense Academy, along with other people his age who have the same powers. There, they are tasked with defending the academy from the invaders for a period of 100 days.

From then on the game goes on to weave a narrative filled with twists and secrets. What's the purpose of the academy, and why are the invaders intent on getting inside? What happened to everyone back at the complex? Why were these random kids drafted into a war? And what exactly is behind the Undying Flames that surround the school?

(...but most importantly, what's the point of Sirei working out?)

Hundred Line is the brainchild of Kazutaka Kodaka, writer of the Danganronpa serie, and Kotaro Uchikoshi, writer of the Zero Escape series. In other words, a joint project between two writers with plenty of experience in mystery video games, working together at their prime. And it shows. The way in which the mystery is written in Hundred Line is nothing short of a masterclass. As the story progresses, questions continuously get answered while new ones are introduced. Each time you learn something new, it comes with the knowledge that there's more you don't know. It's a structure that keeps the player engaged, satisfied, and curious to know more throughout the entire game. The desire to unravel what's happening behind the scenes works as an intrinsic motivator that makes you want to keep playing just to find out the game's secrets.

(Why was he even given sweating functionality?)

The main gameplay mechanic is the battles you'll be engaging in every time the school is attacked. It works as a top down tactics game, taking place in a grid. You are given AP (which I can only assume stands for Action Points), which you can spend as you see fit to dispose of the enemy.

Now, keep in mind this is coming from someone who's tried and failed miserably to play multiple tactics games: this game is a REALLY good tactics game. It's easy to understand, and it gives you plenty of tools to master it. It also features some really clever quality of life design choices that help set it apart from other games in the genre.

For example, besides certain attacks doing extra damage to flying units, there's no such thing as weaknesses and resistances. Crucially, it also doesn't feature random chance. You can do an attack that does a specific amount of damage, and covers a specific range - and that's that. This keeps combat really clean, as you have a certainty that your moves will have the desired effect always.

("Damn it Takumi, hit your shots so we can move the plot forward and figure out how the cafeteria chef robots work already!")

Secondly, AP can be distributed however you want. It's not just one move per character. 5 AP allows you to either make 5 characters do 1 action each, or 1 character do 5 actions in a row. This, plus the facts that defeating each big unit gives you 1 AP and that ultimates don't consume AP, allow you an immense amount of freedom in your combat that let you perform absurdly long turns if you play your cards right.

(This player could, for example, heal Takumi so he can defeat more big guys in the long run. Or have Kyoshika use her high ATK damage that stuns her, heal her stun, and have her use it again. Or increase Kurara's movement so she can build more turrets. Or boost Yugamu's damage to defeat enemies around Kurara. Or-)

Each unit does a completely unique, super useful thing. Some specialize in defeating enemies quickly, some snipe, some boost, some build - and you're not even forced to use all of them. For example, I watched my friend Alice playing a mission I had already beat, and learned that we both had completely different playing styles. While I used Takumi to defeat large swaths of enemies at once and then fire ultimates, she focused on Eito's high single-target damage and boosts to loop enemies. Both strategies worked.

(If we get enough people playing this game, we might even find a use for Gaku!)

The non-tactics gameplay will also have you making important, meaningful choices. Will you hang out with characters to find out their secrets, and find out which gifts they prefer, allowing you to increase your grades? Will you spend that time studying? Will you go out and explore to get materials and develop specific characters? Will you train in VR to get more currency to unlock more abilities? For a VN tactics game, Hundred Line gives you an unprecedented amount of freedom to play it however you want.

(However you want, I tell you!)

I'm also a big fan of how gameplay connects with the storytelling. A character is a recluse that avoids fighting? Their gameplay will consist of tanking hits for the rest. Two characters depend on and protect each other? They get buffed when the other's in danger. And it goes beyond that - some of the game's plot twists are foreshadowed by combat abilities. This game is rife with the kind of twist that was staring you on the face since the start.

(For Spoiler reasons I can't show any specific examples of that, so please enjoy this game dialogue instead)

Now, one thing to keep in mind about this game: IT IS STRESSFUL AS FUCK. You know how Animal Crossing and the like are described as cozy games? Hundred Line might be described as a discomfort game. A looooooooot of bad things happen to these characters, and they rarely get any breathing room to relax. I don't think this is a negative, just a byproduct of how much the story hooks you in and makes you care about what's happening. I do, however, think it's worth mentioning, considering how many of the memes around this game revolve around how stressful it is to have free time.

(You know that feeling when something in your life sucks, but all you can do about it is wait? Welcome to the video game version of that.)

However, as stressful as this game can get, I still think it's one of the most unique experiences currently available in gaming. The tightness of writing, gameplay, and just overall experience are all of the highest caliber. Don't deny yourself a masterpiece of this scope, step out of your comfort zone!

(Oh, right. We haven't talked about the scope yet, have we?)

So, let's talk numbers for a second. The Hundred Line - Last Defense Academy has over 600 CGs, or "cutscene graphics" (those big drawings that cover the screen), over 2000 sprites (the character drawings), and more than 100 endings.

(Why are they like this)

The amount of content-... no, the amount of work put into this game is insane. This might sound absurd to some of you, but I truly believe Hundred Line, with its simple-to-understand gameplay and intriguing storytelling, is one of the highest standards for video games at this moment. It's what happens when development time isn't spent on massive maps, photorealistic graphics, or DLC, but instead to make the base game better and more complete. It's what happens when absurd levels of ambition and creativity meet tight execution and focus.

There's not much more I can add without spoiling what happens in the game, but I will say this: after reaching day 100 you will understand why my friend Alice said this as soon as she beat it

In conclusion, Hundred Line is not only one of the most ambitious but also one of the best games currently available. I heartily recommend it, it's been many years since a game has had me this engaged even when I'm not actively playing it.

If you wanna try it out without commitment, the free demo version of goes all the way up to Day 7, and you can transfer your save file to the full version if you wish to buy it later. It is such a good game that I honestly think denying yourself the experience would be doing yourself a disservice.

(Oh no, don't worry, the darkness is fine. I've just spent so many sleepless nights theorizing about Hundred Line that the light now hurts my eyes :) Wanna join me?)

[illegally-blind-and-deaf]

I don't think that Pippin Took is not intelligent, or smart.

I think he's an incredibly bright, young hobbit with the self-preservation of any 16-year-old human who just wants to know and understand everything.

Going by the books (because I love Pippin in the books), it's fairly clear that he quite clever, just reckless and very, very curious to the point that not knowing something is an irritating itch that he just has to scratch.

To me, Pippin seems like the kind of child who was told that he asked too many questions and needed to sit down and be quiet, which led to him seeking answers himself, regardless of how dangerous it might seem. Hence dropping the stone down the well (who doesn't want to see how deep a very dark pit goes?), touching the palantír (in his defense, he didn't really want to but he felt something pulling him towards it. Whether it was his curiosity or something ulterior in the palantír is up for interpretation in my mind), even joining the conspiracy to uncover what Frodo was really doing when he sold Bag End.

Pippin is just someone who craves knowledge and is unafraid to go and find answers himself, probably because everyone constantly tells him that he asks too many questions and that he can't possibly wish to know everything.

[ladsofsorrow24]

one of the most confusing yet funniest thing that happened in in medalist is actually hikaru's very one-sided beef with tsukasa lol

like damn she really just... hates him huh

but i can understand though, the thing about being kids is that, it takes time for them to understand that everyone have nuance and just because other people have different opinions and ways of doing things from you, doesn't mean they're terrible people...

it's just like rioh and yodaka's whole... thing.

that man literally sees rioh as his own nephew, yet this is the guy who got some of The Most terrible communication skill in the story, and every time he talk to rioh, he just end up hurting that kid... like the beef is so one-sided, i'm glad rioh is able to meet tsukasa and gradually get over his insecurities when it comes to comparing his own success to hikaru herself and yodaka jun lol

also, inori's got her own beef with yodaka too lmao i hope tsurumaikada will let these two confront each other again, maybe without tsukasa to protect her... maybe then we'll see a new side of them 🤔🤔🤔

[redo-rewind-if]

I haven't tried every single possible combination of routes, and you may not want to reveal the answer. But I'm wondering if there's any route where you meet August at the crime scene without having met him at the club in that particular life, but you remember who he is from your past life?

Sorry I'm a little confused with your wording here, it sounds like you're asking if MC can remember the previous timelines? MC remembers anything that they have personally experienced from a particular timeline.

There's a possibility things will become more muddled the more you time travel, and MC might, then, recall things they didn't actually experience themselves. But that doesn't happen for the scene in question.

[queenofthearchipelago]

Also reminder to the good omens fandom, that writers on shows only get paid for what they write. Like, the actual writing. He gets paid for the script at the end of writing the thing.

Neil will probably not be a showrunner or producer.

Due to how the industry works (which I know a lot about as a life-long follower of John Green, who talks a lot about how this process works on the internet) Neil will not benefit that much from people streaming season 3, should it come out.

[thegreatyin]

question at what point should someone know where parabola is in fallen london?

depends on if you mean lore-wise or gameplay-wise!

lore-wise, i think you can learn about parabola as early as the flit if you pursue the cats and bats plotlines enough. there's also a ton of stuff referencing and relating back to it the more you explore, so you're bound to run into at least one mention of it eventually. it's kind of the neath's worst kept secret. like. to the point where i think we all kinda forget it's a secret in the first place.

gameplay-wise, establishing a parabolan base camp and unlocking the ability to traverse to-and-fro parabola is one of the major milestones to hit in early-midgame and mid-midgame (as odd as that phrase sounds) progression. it's not something you necessarily need to beeline for, but it's definitely something you'll want to put high on your to-do list after becoming A Person Of Some Importance.

the main function of parabola early on is acting as a sort of "advanced skill bootcamp" where you can level your glasswork, APoC, etc, with more functions and goodies unlocking as you upgrade and explore more in-depth with it. you likely won't find yourself heavily relying on it for a good while, but speaking as an endgame player; build your basecamp. upgrade your basecamp. invest in your basecamp. you will thank yourself so much for doing both, Especially the latter. the wounds and nightmares reductions alone are both Super Worth It.

overall though, if you haven't even built your laboratory or gotten a ship yet, Do Both Of Those First. and if you don't even have them as options... parabola is something you shouldn't even be worrying about right now. don't sweat it. play the game at your own pace. it'll still be there when you get there.

[themyscirah]

I have so many Simon thoughts and I can’t believe the one to lick them all off was this: but would he draw the line at pork?

Just saw this ask now so apologies if it's been sitting in my inbox for a while!

Quick mention here that I'm not Muslim myself and most of my (limited) knowledge comes from talking with friends irl and the internet

but i believe Simon wouldn't eat pork. I don't think it's something he's ever really tried, especially growing up and living in Dearborn, which has one of the highest Muslim populations in the US, there wouldn't be a super high presence of it (I'm assuming) or social pressures surrounding eating it from his peers, who im assuming are also predominantly Muslim from what we know of his friendships precanon.

To be honest, I think the religiously prohibited substance he'd be most inclined to/likely to have consumed at some point to be alcohol. I mean when we meet Simon, he's fallen on hard times, like he's lost his job and turned to stealing cars and feels like he's let down his family and community, especially at least after the events that follow with him getting the ring the way he did. I'm not saying here that I think he did drink before we meet him in canon, but I think it's more likely to have happened than him eating pork, especially with the social pressures and societal depiction of alcohol the way they are.

Simon and his relationship with religion is something very interesting to me (that I admittedly know very little about) as there definitely seems to be a contradiction in some of his actions, with Simon quoting the Quran at Guy and talking about how much his religion means to him one page, and then of course having a tattoo that also means a lot to him (but is banned by his religion) at the same time. I think this more complex relationship with religion is something very human about Simon as a character, as people and their relationships with religion are oftentimes complicated and not cut and dry. It does make it difficult for his fans though as theres a lot we dont know, as Simon's relationship with religion is one I think could really use more exploration on page, especially in regard to this contradiction and his relationship with the rules of Islam as a whole.

[yeehawitsjakee]

Thinking about how Mastermind (BBC) is just the autism Olympics

[v4mpirate]

okay here’s my question for the group. if you had to pick three mercs to make a winning trivia team, which three would you pick and why?

[queenlucythevaliant]

Do you think Behemoth and Leviathan were actually real and happened to be dinosaurs? Behemoth was a huge and formidable land dinosaur while Leviathan was a pleisiosaur. Technically, plesiosaurs weren't dinosaurs, but you get my idea?

So I've been sitting on this ask for a little bit because I honestly didn't know what tone to take in answering it. I don't know your background, and thus don't know whether to be more blunt or delicate. Ultimately, I settled on blunt, simply because I could not figure out how to answer this question delicately. That said, I hope you take this in the gracious spirit in which I have written it.

SO. That's a hard no from me, friend. Let's discuss!

So typically when you hear people say that Behemoth and Leviathan were dinosaurs (or dinosaur adjacent), it's in the context of arguments in favor of young earth creationism. It's a fairly big talking point with the Answers in Genesis crowd. Basically, they make the argument that Biblical texts referencing creatures that superficially resemble dinosaurs are evidence that humans and dinosaurs could have lived at the same time.

This works out if the earth is only 6,000 years old, but not if we take paleontology, geology, or human evolution at all seriously. The writer of Job would have had no way of knowing that dinosaurs and plesiosaurs existed because they had already been extinct for many millions of years. Even if you want to argue that maybe God is describing creatures with which Job was unfamiliar, it still doesn't track. God's address to Job treats these creatures as something for which he has a point of reference. It also just doesn't make sense why God would choose this moment to reveal the existence of dinosaurs. Talk about a tangent!

I don't know where you fall on the spectrum of Christian beliefs regarding origins and the age of the earth, but I've written at length on this blog about the case for theistic (old earth) evolution, so I won't rehash that here. Check out my all truth is God's truth tag or shoot me an ask if you want more on that. Regarding Behemoth and Leviathan, however, I think some of the same exegetical skills involved in reading (or misreading) Genesis are involved in the relevant chapters of Job.

When God addresses Job out of the whirlwind, he uses poetic language. He's talking about a real thing (his sovereignty over the universe), but it's something that transcends human comprehension on an overwhelming scale. Much like we can't ever hope to wrap our heads around deep time, we're simply not capable of grasping the extent of God's sovereignty.

When God describes storehouses of hail reserved for the day of battle, are we supposed to literally think that there is a giant building in heaven where God keeps all his hail? Or is it a picture of God's might as both creator and judge of the universe? If we know our Bibles, we see that hail is frequently used as a tool of judgement against God's enemies: Egypt, the Canaanites, apostate Israel, and ultimately the rebellious earth. So when God describes his storehouses of hail, we see the reality of his total control over the arc of history, his ultimate justice, his orderliness.

Likewise, Behemoth and Leviathan use the established language and symbolism of Scripture to convey truths for which plain language wouldn't suffice. Behemoth's description isn't that of any real animal, living or extinct. God paints a picture of a creature that no man could ever hope to tame and expresses that he, God, can.

Leviathan is the longer and more interesting image; it's a mighty creature of the deep that breathes fire and cannot be controlled. We know that in Biblical parlance, water is frequently associated with chaos (too many places to enumerate, but Psalms, the Prophets, and Revelation are good starting places). Leviathan is a picture of this chaos: mighty, rearing, deadly, uncontrollable, terrifying. Then God says to Job, "Can you draw this creature out with a fishhook? Can you make a covenant with him? Will he serve you? Can you injure him? Do you have any means at all of controlling the chaos monster? I do." It's poetry used to express a truth that we humans cannot hope to grasp otherwise: We cannot control the chaos of the world around us. We can't even try. But God can, and he does it effortlessly.

So no. Not dinosaurs. And I think that arguing that they are, especially trying to pick through the text and figure out which ones they're supposed to be and using that to argue for literalistic interpretations of Genesis, really misses the point and the power of what God is saying here.

I think Job's words back to God at the end of the book actually give us a remarkably important principle when it comes to Biblical interpretation: "I have uttered what I do not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know." The whole Bible is too wonderful for us. God condescended in order to give us his truth, and he had the magnificent grace to give it to us in ways that we can begin to grasp.

I think a lot of really literalistic reads on Scripture (Job, Genesis, Revelation, and elsewhere) are a kind of grasping at control. There's an assumption in it that God gave the ancients an exact accounting of things that humans just aren't equipped to fully comprehend.

That doesn't mean we shouldn't try! But it does mean that when we read Scripture concerning the Big Things: the Sovereignty of God, the creation of the universe, the origin of life, eternity, infinity, even spiritual mysteries like the Trinity and the nature of the Incarnation, we have to approach it as something fundamentally beyond our comprehension which God is showing us the edges of. We can see other, different edges of many of those same things through scientific observation (or philosophy, or whatever other disciplines-- not all of the Big Things are scientific in nature.)

It's like Isaac Newton said: "I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me."

[xcziel]

although you may not be able to find out accurate information via a quick google things any longer really

[jayther]

A-Z General Knowledge & Trivia Quiz, 26 Questions, Answers are in alphabetical order. Try to beat 19 via YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KM2DaRAVD8

[hindigktricks]

We provide General Knowledge, Current Affairs for students preparing for Competitive exams like UPSC, SSC, CTET, NDA etc. in Hindi Language.