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@freemo yes I think altruism is a form of selfishness but can a persons desire for equality for other {race/gender/subdivision} be altruistic?

@freemo Comte employed the term to denote the benevolent instincts and emotions in general, or action prompted by them: the opposite of egoism.

Is ego also an illusion?

@freemo ok, what about scientific/medical discoveries? Why do we even try? Surely not just to bolster the ego. All for fame and social credit?

@freemo at some level it must exist, civilization prides itself (and manipulates others based) on its altruistic aspects. It seems very important to peoples self-image. There are altruistic acts, taking down a gunman, running in front of a car to save an unknown child... acts that occur spontaneously.

To what extent is altruism an expectation?
If any, what is the point of altruism?
Do you practice interspecies altruism?

binsrc :popos: boosted

@darwish I’m trying to develop my understanding of where double membrane organelles originated and really, what came first, the internal membrane or the internal organism?

The linked article has been quite enlightening for me, thank you.

@darwish Cyanobacterium stanieria have the genetic material for photosynthesis but also undergo rapid cytoplasmic fission producing up to hundreds of baeocytes within an extra cellular matrix before it tears open releasing them. I wonder if it’s possible for a baeocyte to become trapped and only express certain genes from that point forward, yet still having enough resources to undergo a binary fission?

binsrc :popos: boosted

@binsrc There's never a stupid question. In eukaryotes the process begins within the cell as the DNA and organelles begin to divide and line up in preparation of mitosis (or meiosis). What you're describing occurs in a form of binary fission within some prokaryotes. Check out: micro.cornell.edu/research/epu

@darwish oh wow, this is incredible. Thank you for your response and linking to that article.

If I were a single-celled eukaryotic microorganism I would be free to swim, mate, hunt, kill and devour other microorganisms as I see fit and I would pay no attention to social norms living freely with gay abandon.

Has a eukaryote ever been observed to mistakenly divide inside of itself?

binsrc :popos: boosted

STEM ≥ scientific data & ukiyo-e 

-e

WHY IS THE SKY PINK IN 'THE GREAT WAVE"?

Although the color has now faded in many of the woodblock prints Hokusai made and sold in the 1830s, art historians confirm that the sky was originally pink in initial prints of "The Great Wave."

We can't know why the artist selected pink, but we do know that Hokusai researched available literature and illustrations before working on his own pictures. -- see "Rare Hokusai woodblock is themed on 1707 Mt. Fuji eruption" (Akihiro Tanaka & Yoshito Watari). Asahi Shimbun. May 6, 2019. asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ20190

The pink sky may be intended to suggest dawn. -- see Metropolitan Museum of Art, "Dawn at Isawa in Kai Province," 1930-32. metmuseum.org/art/collection/s

Or maybe science provides another valid explanation?

VOLCANIC ASH IN ATMOSPHERE. In 1829, Klyuchevskaya Sopka erupted on the Kamchatka peninsula. -- see Wikipedia "List of large volcanic eruptions in the 19th century" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_; and see "Volcanos of Kamchatka"
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcanoe

The magnitude of this Klyuchevskaya eruption was much like the 2011 eruption of Grímsvötn in Iceland. -- see "List of large volcanic eruptions in the 21st century" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_

Like the paintings of J.M.W. Turner after the 1815 eruption of Mt. Tambora, Hokusai's pink skies may simply depict the presence of volcanic ash and dust in the atmosphere. -- see "How Paintings of Sunsets Immortalize Past Volcanic Eruptions" (Sarah Zielinski). Smithsonian. March 25, 2014. smithsonianmag.com/science-nat

Skies more polluted by volcanic ash scatter sunlight more, so they appear redder. -- see "How 19th century art is painting a picture of Earth's polluted past: Turner's sunsets reveal volcanic ash and gas in the sky" (Sarah Griffiths). Daily Mail. 25 March 2014. dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ar

WHAT A GREAT ARTIST SEES? Red-to-green ratios measured in paintings by great masters correlate well with the amount of volcanic aerosols in the atmosphere, regardless of the painters and of the school of painting. -- see Zerefos, C.S. et al. "Further evidence of important environmental information content in red-to-green ratios as depicted in paintings by great masters," Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 2014 14:6, 2016, pp. 2987-3015. atmos-chem-phys.net/14/2987/20,
DOI = 10.5194/acp-14-2987-2014; and see below, compare Hokusai with J.M.W. Turner's "Sea and Sky," c.1820–30. tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turne
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QUESTION: Does the pink sky of Hokusai suggest plausibly accurate and useful environmental observation?
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QOTO = Question Others to Teach Ourselves?

@Iambharani oh wow, the fractals of life! This seems just like an organism under the microscope

binsrc :popos: boosted

A gentle note to our fellow QOTO users. 

@freemo @design_RG

This was a very dense topic. I managed to read most of it, but I'm still having a hard time figuring out the core of the discussion,

I don't think we should invite users to not list posts. We could invite them to not public posts at a 3 seconds rate, but that's it.

Also, about STEM, I'm totally with freemo. I study in a scientific field, I am in a lab most of the week, but when I write here I don't feel like always talking about it.
I just like to know that the people in the instance are somewhat similar to me, as an approach to things, the sense of humor, the sensibility in general. That doesn't mean the ideas, the opinions, the alignment at all, but the approach we can use to talk about it. It's like the coffee machine outside of the lab.

Also I think that posts about etiquette should be shorter, I have a hard time going through all this messages =D

binsrc :popos: boosted
binsrc :popos: boosted

What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make. - Jane Goodall

binsrc :popos: boosted

Support the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots! “Killing in the Age of Algorithms”, a NYT documentary examining the future of artificial intelligence and warfare nytimes.com/2019/12/13/technol @BanKillerRobots

Australia wants to use carbon credits assigned to developed economies under the Kyoto Protocol, a precursor climate accord, to meet its greenhouse gas targets under the Paris accord.

Britain, Germany, New Zealand and others have ruled out such an approach, saying it undermines the spirit of the Paris deal.

@freemo ok agreed, if kids want to strike they should do it in the weekend. That’s a reasonable compromise. I think you’ve just won me over
@shibaprasad

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