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
"Mediocrity" is far too kind, but yes, all of this. I'll add that while #Hegseth's plans are terrible for a #military which is expected to #defend the nation, they're not bad for a military intended to be used *against* the nation. And I'm quite sure that's what he has in his sad excuse for a mind.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/hegseth-headlong-pursuit-academic-mediocrity-100000292.html
Incidentally, there are older versions still on #US #government websites that have the full text, e.g. <https://www.senate.gov/civics/resources/pdf/US_Constitution-Senate_Publication_103-21.pdf>. They're not just scum, they're *sloppy* scum. Which may be the only thing that can save us, really.
Every time I think the vastly misnamed #Republicans can't get any lower, they have to go and prove me wrong. They are now #censoring the #Constitution.
BTW, the pages aren't only missing from the direct links, e.g. https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/article-1/section-9/ , they're also missing from the index of Article I, https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/article-1/ . There's no possible way this is a glitch.
The phrase "foreign and domestic" popped up in my head for some reason.
Making the impossible look effortless is the mark of a great #writer.
I guess I’m just a good writer.
Well, I’m all right.
"It's only #pedantry if you're right. Otherwise it's just sparkling fuckheadedness."
We've been hearing announcements about possible #artificial #blood for as long as I've been in #medicine and #research (over thirty years at this point) and none of them have ever panned out. Sooner or later, presumably, one of them will—and if this turns out to be it, great. But I'm not holding my breath.
Not posted for agreement, if you share from my post please leave my commentary intact, etc. This came up in a #fantasy and #sciencefiction writing group on Facebook. I disagree with it, but it's a worthy topic for discussion.
There's nothing magical about #numbers IMO: like any other part of #worldbuilding, they should be dropped into the story when they're useful and left out when they're not. Give the readers enough to understand the world, without multiple paragraphs of exposition or "as you know, Bob" dialog.
I live in #Colorado and spend as much time as possible in the #mountains. When people are talking about mountains—as the characters in my current work do a lot—they throw numbers around. #Elevation, map #distance, and time all matter a great deal when you're planning a hike. Since they're #explorers in a mostly unmapped world, they need all the information they can get. Qualitative details like #flora, #fauna, and #climate matter at least as much, so they talk about those too.
Number soup is boring, but as a seasoning rather than a main ingredient, numbers can really help add flavor. Readers who know mountains will recognize the way my characters talk, and those who don't will hopefully pick up on the authenticity. Anyone who wants to challenge my numbers at a con is welcome to do so, but I try to make sure they need to bring their A-game.
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.
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
