Daniel Dvorkin @medigoth@qoto.org
Bioinformaticist / biostatistician, veteran medic and infantryman, armchair paleontologist, occasional science fiction author, vaccinated liberal patriot.
Joined Oct 2022
THESE ARE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS, PEOPLE!
I keep wondering how people in cyberpunk worlds do laundry. Like do all the glowy things come off their clothes? Do they have to use cyber-shout to...
This is important. Please, try not to put that particular kind of pressure on the people whose job is keeping you alive.
So it has come to this. Whatever our hopes for #peace, the long #war has begun again. Do we really fight against #Christmas anymore? Do our #enemies really fight for it? Or does the war feed on itself, devouring us all for its own ends? None know for sure. Only duty remains.
As a medic in the #Army of the #Left, I have of course prepared my kit with a full complement of #essential #oils, #healing #crystals, and #homeopathic #IV solutions. When my brave comrades-in-arms fall on the battlefield, I will be there to expel #toxins and rebalance their #vibrational #energies. I will spare no thought for personal danger: I must pay any price, bear any burden, unblock any meridian to assure the survival and success of cosmic harmony.
My counterparts on the #Right don't have to carry as much equipment. They just smack their patients on the forehead and shout "By the grace of our #Lord and #Savior you are HEALED! Now rise and fight again!" I'm honestly not sure which approach has better results.
I'm trying to imagine what it would look like if #academic #publishing followed the same rules as #online #arguments.
Paper: "#Harvard did a #study ..."
Reviewer 1: "I am unaware of that study. Please provide a #citation."
Author's response: "LOL #Google it!"
Paper: "#Mathematical #calculations show ..."
Reviewer 2: "There is an error in this #proof."
Author's response: "Don't fall for #BigMath's #woke lies!"
Paper: "#Scientists now believe ..."
Reviewer 3: "The current #consensus strongly disagrees with this statement."
Author's response: "Think for yourself! Do your own #research!"
Ah, well, back to the real world, where I actually have to support my #claims.
The word has been used before in other contexts, but I just coined the usage of #dinosphere for the internet community of #dinosaur enthusiasts. I'm feeling pretty good about that.
Cf. #blogosphere, which I think may be the first such term ... and #manosphere, which unfortunately evokes a lot of the silliness the #dinosphere generates.
Lots of people posting pictures of themselves in #uniform today. Smiling, mostly. I remember many of them when they looked like that, and the ones I don't—well, I still remember *being* them.
Photographic evidence of my #service is oddly thin on the ground. That sounds like it should be much more cool and mysterious than it actually is! "His paperwork says he was in the service. But there are no details. Not even a snapshot."
What it really means, of course, is that I just didn't draw enough attention to get people to want to take many pictures of me, and in the pre-camera-phone era, that was easy. The one picture I have of myself in uniform that I really like is already posted in my Facebook photos, and it's deliberately goofy. As for the rest, there just wasn't usually anyone with a Polaroid around when I was [REDACTED].
No objection to anyone else posting their photos, to be clear. I like seeing us when we were young and strong and pretty.
I also haven't posted my usual annual series of Siegfried #Sassoon poems. There's no reason for that except distraction and exhaustion, which I think he would understand very well. "For the world's events have rumbled on since those gagged days / Like traffic checked while at the crossing of city-ways" ... yes indeed. Life keeps happening, for most of us. Beats the alternative.
Next year the poems will be back, most likely. There's a reason I keep posting them. Sassoon captured the sheer insanity like no one else, which is why #McCrae and #Brooke and yes, even #Owen, are more popular. Cleaner. More palatable.
Those pictures. Sassoon *also* gave voice to the thoughts we're ashamed to admit. Not shame over weakness in the face of overwhelming #horror: that was revolutionary a century ago, but a cliche now. *Craving* the horror, that part is still hard to face. Smiling faces and pressed uniforms and red dreams.
#Binyon: "Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn." That's in every young #soldier's head, and anyone who tells you it's not is a liar. Young and strong and pretty forever. Unlike most of the fantasies, it doesn't go away, after years back on civvie street. I know it's more on my mind with every passing decade, and I bet I'm not alone.
I'm glad I'm still here, and a lot of other people are too. We're not ready to throw the torch from failing hands just yet.
So I won't wish a happy day, nor offer thanks for service. *Congratulations* to all of us for making it this far. Food and showers and beds are just over the next rise. One foot in front of the other. Follow me.
Of course I'll give it a chance, because, well, new #Alien movie. But at this point it's difficult to understand why we're supposed to care what #RidleyScott has to say about ... anything, really.
I've seen #movies you people wouldn't believe. Supposedly brilliant #scientists acting like idiots. Synthetics smirking about blowing and fingering. All those scenes will be lost in time, like celluloid in acetone. Time to watch #Aliens again.
https://screenrant.com/ridley-scott-review-disney-new-alien-movie-good/
Not posted for approval, if you share from my post please leave my commentary intact ... you know the drill.
"A #darkness in the world you're simply not ready to accept."
I think it's the other way around. The world can be very dark, no question—but that darkness is messy and chaotic and caused by a million different things. #Conspiracy theorists desperately want a single explanation for all of it. They feel like if they can identify and name it, that knowledge gives them a measure of control.
What they're not ready to accept is that there *isn't* a single source for all the pain and suffering, and even if you get rid of one, there will always be more to take its place.
The rest of us understand this. We know we'll never solve all the problems, or even most of them. Just do the best we can, with our own little corners of the world, and try to make things a bit better. Accepting that is a lot tougher, but it's worth the effort.
I’m sure more than one #SEAL has posed for the last picture, but hopefully not on a mission.
Hopefully.
https://www.quora.com/What-knife-do-Navy-SEALs-use/answer/Daniel-Dvorkin-3
Tens of millions of #Americans are absolutely convinced that the multiple prosecutions of #Trump et al. are politically motivated, with no basis in actual crimes, and should be thrown out immediately on that basis. Many of them affect to believe that *any* #prosecution of a former #President should be off the table, because it's "bad for #democracy" or "like something out of a third-world country" or some other content-free criticism. Most would of course cheerfully see #Biden thrown in prison for no provable #crime—but we know expecting consistency from them is a mug's game.
Anyway. These people are enemies of the #United #States of #America. We owe their opinions no more consideration than we do the viewpoint of a #malaria-infected #mosquito.
It's kind of cute to watch people around my age carefully parsing the differences between early, middle, and late #GenerationX while talking about #Boomers and #Millennials as undifferentiated masses. And by cute, I mean in the same way as, say, a baby slug.
Human biological #generations are around twenty-five years. Cultural generations are more like five years, ten at most. #Strauss & #Howe have a lot to answer for.
These people have no idea how badass they're making #Biden look. This may be the best #DarkBrandon meme yet. Keep up the good work!
#Philosophy students who fail to answer this question correctly are in danger of having their #livers devoured by #eagles.
Bioinformaticist / biostatistician, veteran medic and infantryman, armchair paleontologist, occasional science fiction author, vaccinated liberal patriot.
Joined Oct 2022
