Daniel Dvorkin @medigoth@qoto.org

You might think #Republicans would understand why the #elected leader of a #republic doesn’t attend the #coronation of a foreign #monarch. Particularly when the republic in question established its existence by breaking away from *that particular* #monarchy. But apparently this is too much to ask.

So a #Russian "diplomat" tried to steal a #Ukrainian flag on what was supposed to be neutral ground, and, uh, it didn't go well.

From the comments on the #Quora post: “Russian flag stealer, go fuck yourself”.

https://onlytruthaboutrussia.quora.com/Russian-delegate-tried-to-take-down-Ukrainian-flag-but-got-a-fist-in-the-nose-VIDEO

Some answers just etc.

https://www.quora.com/Badass-Who-is-the-biggest-fictional-bad-ass-of-all-time/answer/Daniel-Dvorkin-3

Putting this here for my own use as much as anything, as a handy copypasta for anyone who mouths off about #NATO and the #US "#provoking" the #Ukraine #war, or insists that Ukraine must "#negotiate a #settlement" with #Russia. If you like it, feel free to re-use as you see fit.

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Ukraine applied for NATO membership before the war and got turned down. That's pretty much the opposite of provocation on NATO's part.

If Russia were really worried about NATO expansion, they could have taken it up at any time with any of the NATO countries bordering Russia. But nope, somehow invading Ukraine was containing NATO ...

... oops, turns out what it did was make Finland and Sweden abandon their long-standing neutrality and *more than double* Russia's border with NATO countries.

Anyway, back in 1991, they signed an agreement to honor (and indeed, to defend) Ukraine's borders. Since then, they've invaded Crimea, the Donbas, and now the rest of the country. So what *possible* settlement could:

1. Be acceptable to both Ukraine and Russia,
2. Ensure Ukraine's continuing survival as a nation, and
3. Russia be trusted to honor?

I'd really like to know.

Another day, another #moralpanic about Those #Kids These Days and all the #Crazy Stuff They Say On The #Internet.

Forty years ago (!) I was a fourteen-year-old #JROTC cadet, in the last great hot time of the #ColdWar, obsessed with reading #SoldierOfFortune. I was also an early adopter of what's now called social media.

They were called bulletin board systems, or #BBSs for short. Usually somebody's home computer with a few phone lines coming in. You'd dial the number, wait for the screech to come through the handset, slam the handset into the modem's acoustic coupler, and ... magic happened.

On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog. But on BBSs, they sure knew you were a kid—the more so the more you tried to hide it. Not that many of the adults were much more mature, but I digress.

See, kids do kid things. In my case, as the abovementioned 14-year-old SOF-reading cadet, it was the signature I appended to every post: "Dan the Merc."

There. That's a thing you know now.

Can you imagine anything cooler? Anything tougher? Anything more ABSOLUTELY BADASS? Wait, don't answer that. You in the back, stop snickering.

Relax. Kids grow up.

There are two philosophies in #programming toward handling questionable #data. The first is to check the #integrity of the data every time it's used. This takes a fair amount of #programmer time, and depending on the size of the data may also take a fair amount of #computer time. It's a PITA to write, test, debug, and run.

The second is to say "I've already checked this data a bunch of times in the program, it's fine" and skip the integrity checks after the first time. In #scientific programming, this is particularly tempting: the data sets are huge, and writing checks is annoying. The whole thing feels like a waste of time when you're reasonably sure your code will never run on anything except this particular data set which you already see more of than your family and your pets and you just want to get the damned thing done.

About 95% of the time, I take the first approach. Every time I do it, I'm grumbling to myself. Just finish it, already! And I am uneasily aware that those who take the second approach get their work done faster than I do.

Yes. This is true.

They also get a lot of #garbage results—many of which don't look like garbage at all. Here comes the ritual chest-thumping ... in #bioinformatics, and #biomedical #research generally, those mistakes don't just lead to flawed publications, as bad as that is. Garbage results kill people.

I just received a lesson in why the first is a really good idea. Let's be careful out there.

I have been criticized in the past for repeating the observation—not original to me—that the entire #Republican platform depends on persuading people to #vote against their own #interests.

This is #patronizing, I'm told. I just don't understand what their interests *are*. Get out of that #urban #liberal #bubble! Who the hell do you think you are, anyway, telling other people what they need?

Well, here it is, in the starkest possible terms. Republicans are willing and indeed eager to #suffer, as long as they think people they #hate are suffering more. There is no other explanation. None.

https://www.axios.com/2023/04/21/poll-republican-voters-trump-desantis-2024

Some answers just write themselves.

https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-differences-between-a-vampire-and-an-ordinary-person-How-can-we-identify-a-vampire-in-reality-without-its-presence-in-humans/answer/Daniel-Dvorkin-3

There are no surprises here: #conservatives have long ago learned to redefine #liberal language to their advantage. Calling out #racism is racism itself, in their eyes. #Diversity, #equity, and #inclusion somehow become totalitarian in their world, even though the entire concept of #DEI would be considered anathema by any totalitarian government in history. And, of course, anything *at all* they don't like is #woke.

No, no surprises. But still well worth reading, because we can never forget for a moment what our enemies are.

On #research, and #dreams, and what I do all day.

Nearly all of my work consists of using absolutely standard #bioinformatics and #biostatistics techniques. These methods were long ago worked out in excruciating detail by people much more knowledgeable in their subspecialties than I'll ever be. Although I grumble about the quality of #scientific #software (and there's a lot to grumble about) I almost always use mostly-reliable packages rather than writing my own. There are only so many hours in a day, days in a year, and years in a career.

The truth is, that's the way most #science jobs are, at least in #biology and #medicine—I'm honestly not sure about others. #Methodological research, working out entirely new ways to do things, is largely a privilege of dewy-eyed grad students and slightly more cynical but still idealistic postdocs. #Faculty get to do some, but less the higher up the food chain they get: full #professorship is at least half administration and half overseeing other people's research and half #grantwriting, and if you're thinking that's one too many halves, you're right. There are probably a couple of other halves in there I don't even know about.

#Industry scientists like me? The #PhD is an entry-level qualification. We're not paid to come up with new ways to do things better. We're paid to use old ways to do things *faster*. Ultimately, the goal is something new, sure, usually a new #drug for a particular #disease. The process of making that happen is a bunch of painstaking and carefully programmed steps. There's about as much room for creativity as there was when I was in the service—which BTW is more than people often assume, but with pretty sharp limits. And almost always, the clock is ticking. Loudly.

This may all sound kind of bitter. Yes, there's some bitterness, but I know I have plenty of company.

No one goes into science for the money or the prestige: without any false modesty at all, I can say that anyone who is capable of becoming a #scientist is capable of doing lots of other things too, and most of those things pay better and get more respect. We start our long and winding road because we see, or think we see, something at the heart of reality no one else has seen before. We think we can bring that into the light and show it to the world. We can make a difference. We *believe*.

Eventually we come around. It's not just an adventure, it's a job.

My point—I swear I have one—is that we grumble about this, and think back wistfully to the days when we could sink into one project, and recall with tolerant amusement our conviction that we alone could reveal the Truth unto the world ... and mostly accept it. Do the work, be the cog in the machine, and small-t truth *will* be revealed. Not just by us alone, no. By us and by everyone who came before us in the chain and everyone after, and a year or five or twenty down the line, someone who would have died will live. They'll never know our names, and we'll never know theirs. It's okay.

And every once in a while, in the middle of this daily grind, we realize that what we have to do to solve this particular problem, get at this particular small truth, no one else has ever done.

So we do it.

We do it, and go back to the grind. Nobody else may ever know we did it. If they do, it will probably be buried in the methods section of a multi-author article in a mid-tier journal. If ten people in the world ever read it, we'll be pleasantly surprised. A citation, and we'll be over the moon. And there's no guarantee of even that much. Locked away in a tech report gathering e-dust, just as likely.

But we know. And sometimes we dream again, for a little while.

Life may have survived far north of equator during #SnowballEarth
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From a quick scan of the article, they don't mention #geothermal activity. That seems like the most likely explanation for an #oasis like this, but I assume it would show up in the chemical signature. Whatever the explanation, this is impressive if it holds up.

Say it with me now ... "More Research Is Needed!" And funding. That helps. A lot.

https://www.science.org/content/article/life-may-have-survived-far-north-equator-during-snowball-earth

Behind the scenes of cutting-edge, #lifesaving #biomedical #research:

"Got it, thanks. Wow, that's ... uh ... not exactly a masterpiece of organization, is it?"

"ahahahha welcome to my life"

"lolsob"

"My house is a mess 'cause all day I clean up things on my computer, and after I dont have the mind space to clear the space around me."

"I feel that in my bones."

That's just what #scientists are like. Cold, logical, precise. Yep. Positively #Vulcan, we are.

This is #Nobel material.

I'm done trying to educate these shitheads.

#seemslegit