Eric J. Korpela @SETIEric@qoto.org

@SETIEric @billseitz @futurebird

Dr. Villain: Your cupcake is toast!!

Prof Sandwich: We've been over this. *rips cupcake in half* You see, it is a s–

Dr. Villain: *shoots the cupcake with a laser*

Cupcake: *smoulders*

Prof Sandwich: I see. Yes, now it is toast.

Does this rag smell like ether to you?

Over the past 6 months, international eyes have understandably been focused on the horrific events in and around #Gaza. But the worsening situation in the #WestBank is worthy of your attention, too.

My Daily Brief:

📰 Read: https://www.hrw.org/the-day-in-human-rights/2024/04/17?story=paragraph-8083

🔊 Listen: https://www.hrw.org/video-photos/audio/2024/04/17/leave-your-home-or-else-daily-brief-april-17-2024

Via Melissa Murray:

She's been saying this for a long time. You're delusional if you think banning birth control is off the table.

Biden-Harris HQ:

Top Trump supporter Marsha Blackburn says Griswold v. Connecticut is “constitutionally unsound”

(Griswold v. Connecticut is the 1965 Supreme Court ruling that legalized birth control)

incel: why do I hate this feeeeemale
terf: bc she has a speech impediment only you can hear, and also bc she did something awesome

@charlesgaba
15 DAY abortion ban!
OTC pregnancy tests cannot confirm pregnancy until about 10 days after conception, but depending on other factors it may take longer. A missed period is often the first indicator, but that occurs about 14 days after conception.
New Hampshire GOP legislators are effectively banning abortions. Vote them out!
#VoteBlue2024

The moment of a Russian missile strike on Chernihiv this morning.

Look at the poor people.

Ukraine needs air defenses!

They want to live!
#AureFreePress #News #press #headline #Ukraine #Russia #MAGA #Trump

Lol. What’s with all the climate deniers saying the Dubai flood was due to “cloud seeding” while simultaneously denying that humans can cause climate change and extreme weather?

I see a lot of people talking about #science as a #religion, or the closely related idea of “#scientism,” the purported ideology that says science is the only way to know things. Oh, I’m not talking about you, they’ll solemnly assure anyone who objects. Naturally you know better. Just … you know … them. Those people, out there. The great unwashed. On the #internet, nobody knows how long it’s been since you took a shower.

You know what I hardly ever see? The phenomenon in question.

There are people who think that way. Yes. Ideologues of science—hardly if ever #scientists themselves—who invoke The #Scientific Method™ (that’s a whole ‘nother rant) as the be-all and end-all justification for whatever nonsense they spew. Such posts and comments have crossed my feed a time or two. But they are vastly outnumbered by those who complain about them, at least where I can see both groups. I have no reason to believe my experience is atypical in this regard.

As a scientist myself, I think science is a very good way to understand certain things. In my field, it’s the best way to know what makes you sick, and hopefully what will make you better. There are other ways to learn these things, sure, and many of them can be useful places to start. If you don’t end up with a #clinical #trial sooner or later, you’re as likely to kill as cure.

To know what we’re seeing when we look up at the lights in the sky. How the natural world around us, of which we’re a part whether we like it or not, changes and how we both affect and are affected by that change. What came before us, and what might come after. The fundamental building blocks of reality. All these require science for real understanding. If you try to puzzle them out any other way, you may learn something, but you’ll also fill your head with a lot of nonsense. Sorting the wheat from the chaff later is a lot harder than doing it right the first time.

Other questions are at least amenable to scientific inquiry, although that process itself may not be enough. What my fiancee does as a #historian looks, to me, a lot like what I do as a #biomedical #researcher. Make observations, construct #hypotheses, gather evidence, test and revise. (And revise, and revise, and …) But #history vanishes every minute. What’s left is always fragmentary, and shaped by the interactions of modern minds with those long since gone to dust. There will never be an objective truth, only the truest story that can be told.

And then there are things beyond any kind of quantitative analysis, or even rigorous qualitative description. We may be able to agree on what makes a true story, more or less, but what makes a good one? That’s inherently personal. A happy marriage, a tasty meal, a satisfying job—only we can define what these goals mean for ourselves. Science may at best, occasionally, provide vague guidelines. Even then, my advice will not determine your experience.

My perspective is unusual in one key way, sure: not too many people do science for a living, at least not compared to other jobs. With regards to the way people talk about science, I think it’s not unusual at all, except maybe that I pay particular attention.

The division above—things that clearly belong in science’s domain, things that clearly don’t, and a whole bunch in the middle—is a whole lot more common than the idea of science as the One True. It’s at least somewhat more common than blanket rejection of science too, but not as much as it should be. That’s also a rant for another time.

Which all makes me wonder what people who never miss a chance to bring up “scientism” and science-as-religion get out of it.

Whoa, the solder king channel is very underrated! Consider spreading this link, maybe give him a follow, as he's always repairing the things most would give up on!
https://youtube.com/@Solder_king

@thepoliticalcat @Barbramon1 @LindaCollins11
I've had cats my whole life. Liza passed in June, and Sid in Nov. They were both 17/18. Betty and Wilma will seem like young whippersnappers. 🤣🤣 Their owner passed away and they've been at the shelter a couple of months. I hope they feel comfortable and safe here, after what they've been through. 😔

If the billionaires don’t like the new capital gains tax, they have two options:
1. We could have an actual wealth tax instead
2. We could eat them
#CdnPoli

The internet is 24/7 Gamergate and the media has learned nothing I fear!

I'm trying to pay my Virginia income taxes online, and they have disabled paste in any field of consequence. Paste in a password? Nope. Your bank's routing number? You're gonna have to hand-key that. Your bank account number? You better believe you're typing that in.

If you wanted to force people to create crappy passwords and cause them to accidentally siphon money out of strangers' bank accounts, this is how you'd do it. And somebody went to extra effort to make it be like this!

@vwbusguy Only if there are registers capable of acting as pointers. Making a 24-bit pointer on the 65816 is really painful.

Heartbreaking.
Zelensky: ""The Tripilska power plant, electricity in the Kiev region depends on it. Eleven missiles were headed towards it. The first seven we took down. Four destroyed Tripilska. Why? Because we had zero missiles. We ran out of all missiles."
#Ukraine

'Comical': Michael Cohen says he can't recall Trump attending any of his kids' graduations https://www.rawstory.com/trump-michael-cohen-2667788377/

As I said a year ago, it’s not enough for Trump to lose. In order for these Republicans to be bitch-slapped back to governing again, he and they have to be crushed by wide margins. Anything less and the can just gets a swift kick down the road.