Daniel Dvorkin @medigoth@qoto.org

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.

Read the whole thread. Any #medical #researcher whose work depends on US government funding needs to understand just how bad this is (TL;DR: very bad) and what can maybe, possibly be done in the way of workarounds.

Woe to the land whose king is a child.

You remember that #StarTrek episode where a #planet was about to be #destroyed, and almost the entire population traveled back to previous times in the planet's history where they would live out their lives?

I've been thinking about that a lot lately for some reason.

Ending a post with "let that sink in" is almost always code for "everything above is #bullshit." It's the counterpart to starting with "#technically," which is a nice compact way to say "everything that follows is bullshit."

Huh. I wonder, if you start with "technically" and end with "let that sink in," do they negate each other, or act as intensifiers? Clearly more #research is needed.

New taxonomy just dropped.

†There are reasons to doubt the very worst of the accusations against #MZB, but what we know is true is bad enough.

The screenshot is a post by a friend, who prefers to remain anonymous, from several years ago. It's horribly relevant again, for obvious reasons.

I'd prefer to know, on the whole. Particularly when the artist in question is still alive: I may (or may not) still be able to enjoy their art that I already have, but I want to know whose pockets to avoid lining. Once they're dead, "separate the art from the artist" becomes a lot easier for me.

Of course I'd far rather there were nothing *to* know. I wish with all my heart that Edgar Rice #Burroughs and HP #Lovecraft were not raging racists, that Marion Zimmer #Bradley were not at the very least an enabler of child molestation and perhaps† a molester herself, that Joss #Whedon were a feminist in deed as well as word, that JK #Rowling believed the messages about equality and inclusion she gave a whole generation of children and their parents, that Neil #Gaiman were a kind and decent person who created mythologies to tell thoughtful stories about the human condition. But since they are what they are and were what they were, that's not an option.

There are writers I still regard as role models *as writers* even if I don't care for them much as people. Not monsters, for the most part, just garden-variety jerks. The way they put words together speaks to me, as I want my words to speak to my readers. I'm not in a hurry to give up what they've taught me by example.

Still. I don't have a whole lot of money to spend, and I'd rather that what I do have go to people I don't despise. Knowing is almost always better.

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the security of our #meatballs, at home and around the world.

https://www.politico.eu/article/poland-general-fired-after-missing-anti-tank-mines-were-found-in-ikea

I was there, Gandalf, three thousand years ago ...

Another day, another "LOL #seppos are so dumb, no one else would go #antivax the way they have" argument.

The modern antivax movement was kicked off about thirty years ago by Andrew #Wakefield, who is #British. These days it's #worldwide, and the US is not at all the worst offender: e.g. see https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-31441-x?fromPaywallRec=false

I know it's very satisfying to think 'Muricans are uniquely stupid. People in other countries who smugly believe that are blinding themselves to a lot of homegrown dangers.

We already knew the #US would fall today. Looks like #Canada will too.

Another day, another "it's #scifi, it doesn't need to be realistic!" argument. Therefore, another canned reply.

The first word in "#science #fiction" is "science." As both a scientist and #SF writer, I really appreciate it when writers put as much thought into making their work as credible as possible, and try to do the same in my own. Break whatever rules you need to tell the story you want (faster-than-light travel, #aliens that can cross-breed with humans, whatever) but don't ask readers to *unnecessarily* suspend their disbelief.

Or as the saying goes in fantasy, "If you want me to believe in #dragons, get the #horses right."

... now I suppose I should really get back to either writing science fiction or doing science, because deadlines are absolutely part of the here-and-now.

https://www.quora.com/Why-did-MAGA-billionaire-Vivek-Ramaswamy-slam-Americans-by-saying-American-culture-breeds-laziness-and-mediocrity/answer/Daniel-Dvorkin-3

I'm mostly on Quora for the snark opportunities these days.

It is the #Eternal #Chicken. We can observe the echoes of its hatching as the #cosmic #background #radiation from the Big Bang. Eventually it will grow larger than the #universe itself, at which point everything will collapse into a new #singularity and be reborn in another unimaginable blast of fire and fury. The #phoenix myth reflects our ancestors' dim understanding of this cosmic truth.

With #Trump and #Musk fighting over who gets to be #President, I guess you could say #Vance has been ... couched.