TheVat

Bar would be set pretty high for probable cause, I'd think.

Well who doesn't get upset when their record collection is taken? (sorry, short notice) Actually, some humor to be found in Trump's reaction: If you are raided and occupied, you cannot by definition be "currently under siege."

Looking at the OP, seems to be asking about the first category, conditions like peanut allergies where the person carries an Epi pen, and can go into anaphylaxis from even a small exposure. Seems to be an interplay of genes and epigenetic effects. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/02/150224112917.htm#:~:text=This study suggests that the,allergy%2C and researchers wondered why. I would speculate that the alleles that predispose toward serious peanut allergy is higher in Old World peoples, since they have only encountered peanuts since Spanish explorers brought them back from South America (where they were native, and long cultivated, and likely some selective pressure had time to work there). I note that the allergy is lower in developing countries generally, and one theory on that involves the hygiene hypothesis, alluded to here already. In westernized nations most insulated from the natural environment, the rates are much higher.

So many allergies seem to be a mix of genetic and environmental factors. Many have been largely latent in humans during 99% of human history because the genes involved were not activated by environmental toxins or dietary choices or modern forms of sequestering children from the dirtosphere. Not clear there's been enough time for significant selection (and modern medicine, e.g. accurate tests for coeliac followed by gluten-free diet options, has largely eliminated selective pressure). And how many women say, "I was going to marry Fred and have babies with him, but then I learned he eats gluten-free. Never mind that he's handsome, strong, and smart, my man has to eat wheat!" If the genes for coeliac expressed consistently, and we were living in an agrarian society utterly dependent on the wheat harvest with no other carb options, then yes they would probably decrease in frequency under real selective pressure as the coeliacs would experience chronic IBS, poor absorption, intestinal lesions and failure to thrive such that they were skipped over as marital prospects. But that sort of society was probably rare, and now nearly nonexistent. There's almost always other options at the market, even in developing nations - millet, rice, cassava, etc.

Thanks. BTW, don't know why your name is above that quote I was reacting to, which was from the Dutiful Greg. I can't seem to edit that out, sorry.

"Let them eat cake!" This guy is hilarious!

What are you, some kind of liberal socialist?

https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-vladimir-putin-sculpture-pops-up-new-york-targeted-kids-2022-8 Public art is wonderful. Especially when kids can pour sand on it and squirt it with water pistols.

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T.Hanks for that!

Travis Taylor, who has a series on the History Channel concerning the Skinwalker Ranch, is apparently who he means by "Travis Trenton," so I think that helps evaluate the overall precision and attention to detail we're getting from the fittingly named Glancer. https://www.simonandschuster.com/authors/Travis-S-Taylor/575640599

I think he's seen the movie about this place... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skinwalker_Ranch According to skeptical author Robert Sheaffer, "the 'phenomenon' at Skinwalker is almost certainly illusory. Not only was the several years long monitoring of 'Skinwalker' by NIDS unable to obtain proof of anything unusual happening, but also, the people who owned the property prior to the Shermans, a family whose members lived there 60 years, deny that any mysterious 'phenomena' of any kind occurred there". Sheaffer says "the parsimonious explanation is that the supernatural claims about the ranch were made up by the Sherman family prior to selling it to the gullible Bigelow". Sheaffer wrote that many of the more extraordinary claims originated solely from Terry Sherman, who worked as a caretaker after the ranch was sold to Bigelow.[10] In 1996, skeptic James Randi awarded Bigelow a Pigasus Award for funding the purchase of the ranch and for supporting John E. Mack's and Budd Hopkins' investigations. The award category designated Bigelow as "the funding organization that supported the most useless study of a supernatural, paranormal or occult".[11]

A larger part of our primal nature is to rant on and on about matters we know very little about.

Even volcanoes, usually associated with global cooling events, can sometimes pump water vapor into the stratosphere and achieve a warming effect for several years. This seems to be the case wrt the Tongan blast a few months ago. (just what Earth needs right now, right?) https://www.npr.org/2022/08/03/1115378385/tonga-volcano-stratosphere-water-warming

Seems like the same old Left Strawman emerging here, driven by the same RW talking points. Rather than take the trouble to define what he means by Left policies, he simply goes right to bashing caricatures that appeal to the darkest incidents of historical totalitarianism. I doubt we can actually steer this towards discussing realworld outcomes in various countries, with comparisons of living standards, happiness index, poverty rates, access to healthcare, maternity leave, elder care, etc. Because to go that direction would discover that center-left liberal democracies like Denmark or Japan get the highest marks on these quality of life metrics. When you can't pound the facts, you pound the table.

A, C, K, K2, D, copper, selenium, zinc, and a few other essential nutrients, and you would be short on methionine. This is a terrible diet and would result in multiple deficiencies and eventually severe illness. About the only thing positive I could say is you've got your fiber covered. And subbing potatoes for wheat, while it would mitigate scurvy, would further reduce some of your B complex vitamins and be less of a complementary protein with the chickpeas. Starchy tubers are generally not nutrient-dense.

The meaning of Left-wing, i.e. the specific ideologies, really depends on the location of the Overton Window at a given time and place. You really need to specify where that is and what specific policies you are opposing. Swedish liberal democracy and Stalin really aren't at all the same thing, and are greatly separated on any political spectrum. Here's a wiki definition of Left, to get started: Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy.[1][2][3][4] Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in society whom its adherents perceive as disadvantaged relative to others as well as a belief that there are unjustified inequalities that need to be reduced or abolished.[1] According to emeritus professor of economics Barry Clark, left-wing supporters "claim that human development flourishes when individuals engage in cooperative, mutually respectful relations that can thrive only when excessive differences in status, power, and wealth are eliminated.

This whole will she won't she story has been a snoozefest. Serg's difficulty with identifying Pelosi's gender was amusing, though.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/nichelle-nichols-dead-star-trek-lieutenant-uhura-1235189880/ An interesting obit. I didn't know about her recruiting stint with NASA. Or that MLK was a Trekkie. And talked her into staying on the series when she was planning to leave Knew that she and Shatner broke the interracial kiss barrier on American tv, which required malign telekinetic beings to achieve but hey it was a start. May her hailing frequencies always be open.

Masking tape on the cut line, and a finer toothed blade? Have had pretty good results with that.

Well, better I think. Recall the traditional Jeffersonian idea of democracy was that representation was not just a passive reflection of popular wishes but also an exercise of leadership and wisdom, offering people a broad vision and educating them on a range of issues so they can more clearly see what opposed corruption and fostered civic virtue. This was why Jefferson et al so distrusted aristocracies, which they saw as self serving and prone to corruption.

@exchemist Fantastic paper. Plus one. I like Pigliucci. The Hard Problem does seem like a category error, and it's one called to our attention nearly a century ago by Gilbert Ryle. This is a good response, also, to Frank Jackson's famous thought experiment Mary in the black and white room. Which causes some philosophers of mind to go off on a mystical tangent over qualia (aka "raw feels") and their seeming mystery. Perhaps we can say that qualia are simply how brains appear from the inside. Just as green is how my wife's eyes look from the outside when viewed by a terrestrial hominin with color vision where there is sufficient ambient light. Someone deprived of mirrors isn't going to lecture us on The Hard Problem of My Eye Color.

Kind of a sticking point with "instantaneous" awareness in this chat, given that there's zero evidence of quantum processing in brains (Hameroff claims notwithstanding) and much evidence that human responses take a little time, as do nerve impulses. Things that feel instant, when tested, prove not to be. Our minds paper over time lags and provide an illusion of "instant." Subjective impressions can be deceiving. Emergent phenomena like consciousness may feel holistic and irreducible, but that's not evidence that they are. But that feeling of unity provides a useful narrative for a biological organism that has to survive a challenging environment. As is often noted, the brain is "too hot, noisy, and wet" for quantum processing. Penrose's OR remains hypothetical at this point.

When you come to a four kin the road, take it.

And bacon grease is consistent with veganism, so long as you do it by means of liposuction on free-foraging pigs. The pig is more svelte, you get the great flavor, everyone wins.