Daniel Dvorkin @medigoth@qoto.org

#ScienceFiction fans are weird. I should know: I've been part of organized #fandom since I was too small to see over the tables in the huckster room, as we called it in the days when we printed fanzines on mammoth vellum.

#FlatEarthers are weird. Not fun weird like fen (something something dodged sabertooths uphill both ways). Just boring, depressing, will-you-please-go-away weird. Which to be fair, is the reaction some people have toward fandom, but usually when we encounter those people we let them be.

Flat-earthers who are also SF fans? That strikes me as a deep wrongness in the universe.

I get a lot of mileage out of "This is not difficult to understand, unless you choose not to."

"Why are #atheists so *angry* all the time?"

This.

The smugness, the arrogance, the idea that no one could find any worth in a child's life and well-being other than through #religion. When true #believers show every day, all over the world, how little they value anyone.

This is why.

And, of course, #notallbelievers. Probably not even most. But *enough*.

This incredibly low-effort and unoriginal meme is going around again. Whoever came up with it has never done #science for a living, and I guess neither have the vast majority of people who repost it.

#Questioning *nature* is how you do science, trying to figure out something new about the way the world works. Sometimes, yes, that involves questioning existing science, but not very often. Much more commonly—99% or more of the time—scientists are building on each other's work. Shoulders of giants and all that, without Newton's sarcasm.

In my line of work, for example, I often question whether a particular #mutation in a particular #gene increases #responsivess to a particular #drug in a particular type of #cancer. I don't question whether #chemotherapy in general is worth doing for cancer patients, or whether genes in general influence drug metabolism in general, because I don't have to. Other people have already done that work, and if I want I can go back and read how they did it.

*Very* rarely I think they did it wrong, and I will of course bring that up to my clients. Even then, it will be about specific cases relevant to the mutation, drug, and #tumor type at hand—not about the idea that relations between #genetics, cancer, and the #treatment thereof *exist*. Not because someone's paying me not to, or because I'm afraid of the answers I'd get, or any of that nonsense, but simply because there's no point.

Scientists could spend all our time trying to prove each other wrong, of course. Every once in a while we do, both because it improves our knowledge, and yes, because that's one of the best ways to get a paper published in a major journal. But if that were all or even most of the practice of science, nothing else would ever get done.

Do you want that outcome? A lot of people seem to. When they're lying in a hospital bed dying of something we could have treated if we'd been able to research it properly, I bet they won't.

NËÜRØ STRÏKË TÅRGËTTËD [sic] is my new band name.

This is one of those cool things I feel like I should already have known about, but somehow didn't: a map that allows you to see how #coastlines would change with #sealevel rise or fall, at any scale from local to global. Also mildly terrifying, as such things tend to be.

https://www.floodmap.net/

Bold of you to assume there's any kind of #dinosaur I wouldn't at least give a nibble.

"Fucking mirrors, how do they work?"

"No one knows lol"

"Must be a miracle. [solemn nod]"

"Similar to magnets, I think."

"Well that doesn't help!"

"Sorry that’s all I got."

"Fair enough. I guess it's time to Do My Own Research™."

Every time a group to which I belong congratulates itself on having "zero tolerance for bullshit," I die a little inside.

Naaah, not really. You were horny and did something stupid. We've all been there.

Hi, internet. Whatever your message, scrolling it over a video of you mugging for the camera will not make it more effective. Just thought you might want to know.

TIL that "If you want to know who rules over you, just look for who you are not allowed to criticize" is not from #Voltaire, but from a neo-#Nazi named Kevin Strom. I've always thought the line itself is facile. The origin puts it in a different light altogether.

A somewhat more amusing exchange from my VA visit: "You are #Lithuanian. I am #Ukrainian. We love our #coffee with cream." Stripped of context, that's totally a coded message from a #ColdWar thriller.

After all the sturm und drang, getting my #covid #shot from the #VA turned out to be not that difficult. But there's a tragic backstory.

The tech told me that when the shot clinic first opened for the season, about a month ago, they were only allowed to give #flu shots, not covid. Then after about a week, they were allowed to give both, but covid only to employees. The week after that, they were allowed to give both to everybody, but patients (unlike employees) had to ask for the covid shot—the clinic wasn't allowed to offer it. Finally they were authorized to offer both to anyone who walks in.

In that window, there were #veterans who wanted the covid shot, didn't know they could get it, and died as a result. I have no proof of this, but also no doubt.

Many #government policies have made me angry over the years, and no doubt will for many years to come. None of them have ever summoned quite the same fury as institutionalized #antivax. It is #treason, not to the country but to all humanity, and the #traitors should pay the traditional price for that crime. Knowing they won't, unless the enemy to which they adhere does the job, is icing on the rage cake.

So I guess I'll keep banging the #vaccination drum. Preaching to the choir, for the most part. But if my words are of any help to anyone, please feel free to use them.

This idea a lot of guys have, that the only reason a #man would ever speak up on #women's behalf is because he hopes it will get him laid, says a lot more about them than it does about anyone else.

"Thanks, Coach Collins!"

#Cassidy #vaccines #concerned

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bill-cassidy-hepatitis-b-vaccine-schedule-change/

In fairness, I do blame #vaccines for my gray beard and aching knees.

"What do you *want*?"

"I want #antivaxers to live just long enough to learn what actual research is. And when they realize what idiots they've been, I will wave at them ... like this. Can you and your associates arrange that for me, Mr. Morden?"

@wdlindsy The Christianity of the Gospels has always been liberal. If more Christians are waking up to that, it's entirely a good thing. But I have to say I'll take a lot of convincing that this is more than a blip.

The rescue of the #astronauts stranded on the #Tiangong space station was a smooth, well-conducted, low-drama operation. Predictably, it's bringing out a bunch of #nationalist crap from #Russian and #American #fanboys. "Chinese-made garbage" etc.

I'm still enough of an idealist to cheer *any* successful human #spaceflight. If #China turns out to have built a better and longer-lasting space station than the increasingly rickety ISS, or gets humans back to the #Moon before the #US, or is first on #Mars ... well, maybe I'd rather see the Stars and Stripes than the Five-Star Red, but mainly I'll just be glad it's happening at all.

Every spacefaring nation has had accidents, some fatal. The test is in how they react. It looks to me like China passed this one with flying colors. That's all that matters.