Everything posted by TheVat
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Who is more scientifically learning, the Left or Right?
This doesn't seem like a difficult question for anyone not in a coma the past decade. Hint: which end of the ideological spectrum is fond of science denial and crackpot conspiracy theories. Guess correctly and you may win a tinfoil hat, an intestinal UV lamp, a can of cooking lard, some turmeric vaccine, and a boxcar of carbon neutral coal!
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Mrs Tilly
Ms Tilly's favorite vacation spot is Chattanooga, Tennessee.
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Vague estimation of an individuals Neanderthal ancestry
You would need to look at research into gene frequencies done in the field of population genetics - and also paleogenetics. I have some knowledge but it's not really my field, so probably time for you to do a literature search and also read up on PG generally. Frequencies of paleogenes in people with mixed ancestries (like your OP fellow who seems to be a mix of East and South Asian) are not easy to predict, and even an expert would find this difficult. Some sequencing companies will provide a Neanderthal DNA analysis of your genome, and also for Denisovan DNA, but you would want to shop around and read reviews done by independent professionals in genomics. Not all of the commercial companies do full sequencing. (if you don't mind disclosing this, were the OP percentages from a commercial sequencing firm?)
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Vague estimation of an individuals Neanderthal ancestry
Starting with research is useful: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3632468/ Higher levels of neanderthal dna found in E Asia populations.
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Iberian Peninsula - Huge Electrical Blackout Blamed on GICs
If a relatively minor geomagnetic storm causes this, just imagine what another Carrington Event would do. https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/space-science/carrington-event-today
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Can we fix Permanent nerve damage
Type "stem cells neuron regeneration" into a search engine. Let us know what you find.
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How to kill a small animal to shorten its suffering?
A framing hammer would seem to have better leverage than a priest, and could be purchased at any hardware store. Also the hammer doesn't make everyone wait while last rites are administered. One method I can't recommend is this one... https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1769869/ I'm sort of inclined to classify this under Research Least in Need of Funding.
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Myrmecological Biotic Resistance within Australia
No worries. I've done that a couple times myself, just by thumb scrolling on a small tablet. I will keep my eye out for more papers on stimulating biotic resistance - it's an interesting topic, and especially important to offering alternatives to the use of toxic chemicals or other "scorched earth" methods of extermination.
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Myrmecological Biotic Resistance within Australia
I was not making a claim. Attempting to offer help, I mentioned the N Australian study that had earlier been posted, as a starting point. If there are other studies that run counter to that one, like the Queensland research on fire ants that you kindly cited, I am certainly interested. Where did I say anything like that?? The native ant species may well be responding, and the study I mentioned only said that the response to the exotic species, based on its observations, had not been robust and had not been successful in suppressing the spread of the invasive African species. As far as I know, biotic resistance to exotic species is often weak. Examples of this are numerous, all over the world. Asian carp, Burmese pythons, Zebra mussels, European starlings, cane toads, etc. Ecological communities are often rather delicately balanced, so an invasive species can easily disrupt this balance and take advantage of an opening. A classic example, also from Australia, are feral cats, who have decimated numerous animal species there. Prey species had longterm adaptations, in terms of evading the native predator species - but these adaptations did not work so well with the newly arrived feral cats. Also, now that I've explained my intentions in my other post, would you mind removing the Downvote? That seems a bit harsh, considering the possibility of a misunderstanding which I tried to point out. Also, here at SFN, we don't usually DV just on the basis of a comment made about a cited study, unless there is a clearcut case of bad faith argument or pseudoscience claims or trolling another member. You can look at our forum guidelines to get a better sense of when the DV usage is more appropriate. Thanks.
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Myrmecological Biotic Resistance within Australia
Did you read the studies of the African ant invasion in N Australia? Sounds like native species are not very resistant and the African species is a major threat to both native ants and to species richness of other invertebrates in the vicinity of infestations. What is your interest? Are you looking at ways to fight these infestations by exotic species?
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How to kill a small animal to shorten its suffering?
I was thinking after reading the OP that one way to euthanize an injured animal on a road, if one had a car, would be to run over its head. I would think death from skull crushing would be instant and painless. But I realize this method would decrease the availability of intact skulls for zoology professors. 😉
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Mrs Tilly
We can add bookkeepers and whippoorwills to the list of what she really likes. As Mrs Tilly remarked after attending a Beatles concert in her favorite state of Mississippi, "Goo goo g'joob!"
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Evidence of Human Common Ancestry
Fossiliferous describes the rocks or strata in which fossils are found. It means bearing or containing fossils. E.g. fossiliferous limestone. Evidence adduced from such strata, however, is usually described as paelontological. Fossiliferous describes the strata or rocks in which fossils are found. E.g. fossiliferous limestone. The evidence gained from such materials is usually described as paleontological.
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Mrs Tilly
If I have understood the riddle correctly, then she likes yellow of any kind. This is your second post where I've wondered if you got the riddle. Mrs Tilly likes riddles, but not conundrums. I would post a spoiler explanation but cannot find the spoiler option at this new site location.
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Evidence of Human Common Ancestry
paleontological
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Pro’s and Con’s of Elon Musk
Shareholders at today's meet may be thinking, Get back to your factory, First Buddy!" https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/21/business/musk-tesla-investors-call/index.html Like many American manufacturers, Tesla is caught in a bind thanks to President Donald Trump’s trade war. Unlike most of those other companies, though, Tesla has an added wrinkle – its CEO, Elon Musk, sometimes called the First Buddy for the close relationship he’s cultivated with the president. On Tuesday, Tesla reports earnings; that afternoon, Musk will take questions from investors. But there is a catch-22: If Musk continues his close ties to Trump, the company could alienate potential customers, both at home and overseas, who dislike Trump’s policies. If he distances himself from Trump, though, he risks the ire of the White House. It’s a lose-lose situation, and it’s a trap of Musk’s own making. The first quarter saw the company’s largest drop in sales after virtually nonstop double-digit sales growth. But the automaker’s finances are only part of what investors will want to know.
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Political Humor
LMAO. (tears literally running down my cheeks....good god that is outstandingly and hilariously transgressive) And I had been reflecting on the passing of His Holiness today, wondering what sort of karmic structure in a universe would have a champion of the poor and oppressed, an advocate for stewardship of the Earth, a reformer of deep compassion and tolerance.... have JD Vance as his last official visitor. If there's some ultimate being, it has a weird sense of humor.
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What is a clock (split from The Opposite of the Speed of Light)
And a hallmark of phenomena is change. So the only ontic basis we need is that we measure change with other change. (no doubt Swanson or someone else will point out the innate circularity that manifests when we then define "change") A clock is something thet changes in a regular pattern that may be compared with some other change. So a physical description, without ontology, will be a comparison. A rotting head of cabbage could be a perfectly good clock if cabbage rotted at a consistent rate. If this was so (in this gedanken universe), then we could measure the Earth's positional change with cabbage decomposition. Change measuring change - the Earth orbits in 18.32 cabbage rots. Time remains on the bench, an abstraction. (until we are called upon to define "change" and I would pay good money to watch someone do that without using time-y words!)(but perhaps a row of pictures of deteriorating cabbage would serve? B-b-but wait.... weren't the photos chronologically organized? Argh...)
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Mrs Tilly
Mrs Tilly likes to be efficient but not organized. Mrs Tilly likes rabbis but not Jews. Mrs Tilly enjoys a schooner of beer, but not a pint of lager.
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Mrs Tilly
Mrs Tilly likes what glitters, but not what gleams. She likes loons but not ducks. And she adores whippoorwills! (having a giggle here imagining someone using Google translate and then trying to figure out the puzzle hints after they were translated into, say, Polish.) Pani Tilly lubi chichotać, ale nie śmiać się.
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Project to suck carbon out of sea begins in UK
Appreciate your post exploring more thoroughly the absurdity of this than mine did. One wonders what the company mottos would be...marginally raising marine pH while we carbonate slaked lime by the gigaton instead of just making you an affordable electric car and an actual profit!
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Project to suck carbon out of sea begins in UK
Aside from the energy equation (if you have sufficient renewable energy to actually do this at a significant rate....why not just use that RE to replace fossil fuel, thus solving the larger problem with fewer steps?), I have to wonder what processing seawater like this in high volumes would do to the plankton population. Phytoplankton in particular, since it's a key player in the carbon cycle. Oh the face of it, this project looks to be the same sort of greenwashing that big polluters are already doing with air scrubber projects. I. e. they simply won't scale up in an affordable way.
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Messages to the president...
NPRTrump orders coal revival, but market favors natural gasThe president signed four executive orders to reverse the trend away from coal-fired electricity in the U.S., but there's little economic incentive for utilities to bring it back when natural gas i...Tried to post the above with text remarks, but software wouldn't let me. So, post continued: Dear Mr President, are you actually a cartoon villain?
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a question that intrigues me
Seems to be more germane to chaos theory. Lots of ways that butterfly can flap its wings.
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The Official JOKES SECTION :)
I think this hilariously stupid music video qualifies for the jokes thread, especially given that it's lead vocalist was aboard Jeff Bezos suborbital penis flight. A crew member of the member, so to speak.