Daniel Dvorkin @medigoth@qoto.org
Bioinformaticist / biostatistician, veteran USAF medic and Army infantryman, armchair paleontologist, occasional science fiction author, long-ago kickboxer, oldbat goth, vaccinated liberal patriot.
Joined Oct 2022
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Hello, all. I've been around for a few days but haven't yet made an #introduction post. So here we go.
I'm a #bioinformatics consultant with [The Bioinformatics CRO](https://www.bioinformaticscro.com/) working on a variety of small and large projects ranging from fundamental genomics to clinical decision support. Before that, for several years I was a postdoc and ORISE fellow specializing in high-altitude medicine and physiology at the University of Colorado Altitude Research Center. My academic background is a nearly even mix of #biostatistics, machine learning, and biology.
The ARC* has been sadly moribund for a few years, but thanks to collaborations with other groups, we're [starting to get more active again](https://harcsummit.org/). Hopefully I will have more to say about that in the future. Meanwhile, feel free to ask me anything about #altitude medicine---I think I still remember most of it.
Years before _that_, I was an Air Force #medic (after a brief stint as an Army infantryman) followed by a couple of years as a civilian EMT. My time in patient care informs my approach to science: the numbers I crunch represent human lives.
Otherwise, I'm an armchair #paleontologist hoping to be able to call myself an _amateur_ paleontologist again one of these days---by which I mean actually spending some time in the field and/or the prep lab---a too-occasional science fiction writer, and chronically sleep deprived. Also, my life is the internet: it's cats all the way down.
*Fellow #Primeval fans may recognize the jacket in the picture. My wonderful fiancée found it for me when I was hired at the ARC, for exactly the reason you think.
I understand that when it's time to pay up, he can be a real bastard.
When I am #dictator, everyone who makes a claim "according to #scientific #studies," or similar phrasing, will have one hour to produce their #citations. Those who fail to do so will be used as #study #subjects for whatever comes up.
And *yes*, this message is aimed at least as much at my leftie friends as my right-wing foes. I expect that kind of petty stupidity from them. You? Do better.
No matter who you are, or what else you have to say, if you refer to one of two major #US #political #parties as the "Democrat Party," you're a shmuck and I really don't care about your opinion. There are no exceptions to this rule.
This is very well done, like the rest of the #Dinosauria episodes. Great #animation, impeccable #paleontology—or history of paleontology, in this case—and a story about predator-prey conflict that doesn't end the way you expect. I recommend the entire series. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OH57rtnKCEM
The Crystal Palace #dinosaurs don't look like anything that's ever lived on Earth, but they do look like something that *could* have lived. In retrospect, they're a lot more believable than the upright tail-draggers that dominated #paleoart for most of the following century! So it's good to see them brought to life, even briefly. Somewhere in the #multiverse ...
Send innocent #immigrants to concentration camps. Let mass #murderers off the hook. Par for the course.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy0w1p0wq87o
Note: I cannot prove that Dr. Moore knowingly and wilfully caused the death of even one person, much less the three or more that is part of the legal definition of mass murder in the United States. But I'm as sure of it as I am that the sun will set tonight.
Rick Astley and Trent Reznor must never be allowed to meet. If they do, they'll mutually annihilate in a shower of gamma rays that could wipe out all life on Earth.
Brought out from a discussion elsenet: would Earth now be warm enough to support large, #nonavian #dinosaurs today? This is a fair question, because as bad as global warming is—and it's going to get worse—we're still nowhere near the hottest times of the #Mesozoic.
The answer is, it was *generally* warmer than the present day, but #global #temperatures went up and down considerably, as you'd expect over such a long stretch of time—about 175 million years from the first dinosaurs to the #Chicxulub impact. Dinosaurs as a #clade did fine the whole way through, although of course with plenty of various groups dying out in the meantime.
Also, the planet has always had warmer and cooler regions. Many large dinosaurs lived comfortably in polar regions that had #climates comparable to the cooler parts of the temperate zones today. The idea that non-avian dinosaurs exclusively inhabited steaming jungles or baking deserts has been embedded by generations of paleoart, but it's just wrong. If the impact hadn't happened, they'd still be thriving.
That being said, #sauropods in particular seemed to prefer warmer environments, so their range might be a lot more limited now than it was then, and it's possible the ice age(s) would have finished them off. Other famous giants like #tyrannosaurs, #ceratopsians, and #hadrosaurs would still be widespread, and smaller ones like #dromaeosaurs ("raptors") would be as numerous as coyotes and wildcats are in our world.
"Is it possible that #Sauropods are still living somewhere on the Earth we are not aware of?" The dream that never quite dies.
When I criticize #religious #fanaticism, I am not criticizing all #religion, or all #religious #believers. If this concept makes you uncomfortable, think really hard about why, and what you might be able to do about that. Protip: whining in the comments on #atheists' posts isn't it.
"Yeah but somehow we lost technology we had in the 70s to get past the Van Halen belt and haven't been back since... Give me a break"
"No no, Van Halen is a rock band. Van *Heusen* makes belts."
Best response to #MAGA lunacy ever: "When I want your opinion I'll ask Trump".
"[#NOAA's] mission emphasis on prediction and management seems designed around the fatal conceit of planning for the unplannable." — #Project2025, page 675.
This perfectly expresses what happens when you put government in the hands of people who think everything happens according to divine will.
The currently trendy obsession with being a "#king" is poison.
Buddy, the vast majority of #men throughout human #history—past, present, and future—are not kings. If you think you are, or can be, you don't understand how people function. We're not #knights either. We're #peasants. We're born, we live, we work, we die. Nobody but our friends and families will ever know we existed. When they die too, we will be completely and utterly forgotten.*
The ones who are kings? Or #dukes, or #barons, or knights? Shitheads, by and large. Even the "good ones" turn out to be pretty bad when you look closely. #Rulers need the #people, but people don't need rulers. This is a lesson the world learned through millennia of blood and pain. Those who want to discard that hard-won knowledge are scum.
If that's what you want to be ... okay, thanks for letting us know what you are. We won't forget it.
#Antivaxers love to talk about Protecting The Children, but also think hundreds of dead kids is a "modest number."
From "Crash Landing" (1979) a pleasant little science fiction movie about how the crew of a damaged space freighter work together to repair their ship and get home in time for the third officer's daughter's eleventh birthday.
I'm a #patriot, not a #nationalist, and often get into the weeds trying to explain the difference. This simplified version covers the most important parts, especially the first panel. "Patriotism is pride in who you are, nationalism is pride in who you aren't" deserves to be an internet law.
Bioinformaticist / biostatistician, veteran USAF medic and Army infantryman, armchair paleontologist, occasional science fiction author, long-ago kickboxer, oldbat goth, vaccinated liberal patriot.
Joined Oct 2022
