TheVat

And the termites aren't what? Forming a labor union?

All the angles are deducible from the basic geometry of a triangle, if you start with B angle.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/03/columbia-academic-freedom/682088/?gift=43H6YzEv1tnFbOn4MRsWYvzeCXmbxeZaOYTzbcGazb0&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share (free link) Expresses better than I can how profound is the threat to America's universities. (am traveling this week, so screen time is ltd.)

" However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion. " - G Washington Farewell Address | Saturday, September 17, 1796 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington's_Farewell_Address#:~:text=He acknowledges the fact that,among groups and regions%2C raise

[clutches head, groans, arrrhhhhhgg too many interesting thread topics for me to doomscroll through....] Will try to engage more tomorrow. For now, will just say that fascist takeovers seem to follow a standard set of procedures and that muzzling the press and free speech is usually top of the list. My one hope is that there is something rather oppositional and mistrustful of government in the American psyche, and this is going to ratchet up some real resistance (across party lines and cultures) in the coming months. One enjoyable example, for me, has been reading the comments section which follows articles in the Washington Post, and becoming aware how many readers are angry at Bezos capitulation to pressure from the new regime and/or announcing their cancellation of their subscription.

Never was much doubt 47 & Co. was going to amp up the white nationalist narratives in order to build support for such policies. Just recently he was attacking South Africa, accusing the black majority of discriminating against and killing white people, and warning that it could happen in the US. Scanning the news this morning I saw he has kicked out the SA ambassador and (as usual in the past few weeks) shredding our relationship with a country we were on friendly terms with. Here's a snip from the NYT a couple days ago... Shameless lies, race-baiting, and stoking fears of race war. Just another Monday. The 47 administration has abandoned all pretense of caring about all Americans or wanting a genuine meritocracy.

Not good. Please seek out a mental health professional. Word salad can be a symptom of severe psychiatric disorders or brain trauma. If you can get treatment, you will find your communication with others less frustrating, and it will be easier to pursue your dreams as you can order your thoughts better and focus on what's real.

And that nastiness with Giordano Bruno. And Vesalius got a lot of flack. But yes, that supportive stance seems mostly true of modern mainstream sects. (fundies excepted, as you note) I'm always happy to see the car decals we have in the US that show "Darwin" printed inside a stylized fish outline (for those not familiar, the fish is a common Christian symbol - so the decal is saying "our Christian belief and the science of evolution are compatible") Many noted scientists have expressed that their science and their spiritual beliefs occupy different domains of knowing - those domains don't tend to intersect, so they don't conflict. I don't point a PET scanner or fMRI at my head to meditate, or otherwise tap into whatever intuitions I have on the metaphysical. It would like writing a poem by pushing around alphabet blocks.

Been trying to keep Tr-, erm, 47, out of my head at least one day per week. But here i am, saying at least this: in cultural/digital conflicts, defeat seems to me to be a result of belief, i.e. self-fulfilling only when decent people become passive and escapist (iow, do nothing). I'm leaning optimistic that online restrictions will not succeed too well, but also trying to brush up on my code talk (as Russians and others in dictatorships learn to do) in case it becomes useful to evade gubmint keyword monitoring and such. And as @exchemist notes, Americans are pretty good at getting oppositional on the battlefield of culture, and refusing to toe any given party line. Har! Happening as we speak, but of course there's the whole silo problem with SM, so art and wit are going to need packing into armour-piercing shells.

Tired of shelling out money for nutty roadside attractions. And Marzipan ain't no place to take a kid. Though I am not without almond joy.

Urgk. One confounding factor is that most people have basic inhibitions about consenting to sex with a complete stranger. This is doubly so for women, where there are more fraught consequences, and this underlies the creepiness. And improbability of a yes. (I would be quite concerned for the welfare of a woman who would readily agree to such a random solicitation) The study I can almost envision is an anthropologist conducting a survey, anonymized, on past sexual encounters. And self-report, especially on such an unorthodox sexual encounter, is pretty dubious as data. More locker room boast than factual report. The YouTube that's a vast trove of sensationalism and exploitative crap? That's not science. That's some jerk pestering strangers in hopes of garnering some titillating video clips. If I saw that on the street, I'd put his camcorder way up there where the moon don't shine.

Why can't I permanently eliminate the rust spots in my tub? Apparently rust will go through a lot to survive. Just saying, it's very easy to anthropomorphize processes that are not at all conscious. Natural selection leads to DNA code that preserves and replicates itself very well. That doesn't mean DNA is conscious or has wants. This is an assertion you (Gees)(messed up quote box, sorry) keep making, one which is not supported by any evidence, and would be rejected by most biologists (myself included) as a metaphysical conjecture. Awareness has, in research so far, correlated with a complex neural structure in multicellular animals. You would hope the member understands how the site works by now. And read the posting rules, on providing citations. Given their tenacity and posting length, I found their plea of fatigue unconvincing.

Maybe Pinocchio could have reclaimed the title by claiming that he actually won that contest.

I started using the term about ten years ago. Not a coincidence. Aside: I thought Keaton's stunts in The General were more dangerous, overall, but agree the SB Jr stunt was impressive. The locomotive stunts in The General were more dangerous in the sense of depending on Keaton's flawless timing and coordination to not be killed or maimed. The SB Jr stunt depended on simple geometry.

He seems to have missed out on Valar Dohaeris. The usual countersign.

What, you have never heard of a magnetic personality?

The vast majority of restrictions on religious freedom in USA has been on non Christians who have experienced pressure or even coercion to take part in Christian rituals. The manufactured outrages (as @swansont put it) of the RWE et al do seem like people taking to their sickbed over a pimple. If you feel your faith will be trampled by a gay couple who want a wedding cake then don't open a wedding bakery in a secular nation with a commerce clause in its Constitution. The idea of limited freedom is illustrated by the reality that, if your personal beliefs discriminate against others, then you aren't free to enshrine your belief via a public business or via some enforced ritual at a public event. The right to not be discriminated against overrides any right to act from discriminatory beliefs. It's really just another iteration of the nose v swinging arm filter. Constitutional republics err on the side of the nose, recognizing that's where the greater harm occurs. (though one could have gotten a nasty crack on the knuckle swinging their fist at Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, most of whose nose was a prosthetic composed of silver alloy)

My post must have been missing something, due to its hasty typing. I hope I've clarified that I meant the DoI offered a framework with "LLatPOH" that could be expanded to all citizens. No one is disputing the narrow view that men of the 18th century had of what is a citizen. I think MSC caught my meaning with "...the framework for equality was always there, and now that initial framework has been amended to be much more than that, it has made diversity, equity and inclusion, constitutional." For their time the Framers were pretty egalitarian - again, I would never argue that their century provided anything but a myopic view of equality.

The sentence in parentheses that followed the DoI quote clarified my post. I was saying that it took a BoR and Constitution, modified extensively, to articulate a meaning that implies DEI.

I think your definition of "more educated" might need some clarification, given that someone who had, for example, studied the history of Fukushima and Chernobyl, or the ongoing problems with Yucca Flats and other waste disposal options, in the course of their education might develop views that didn't support the hypothesis. I would question if there is a predominant educational track in Western nations that leads towards greater acceptance of nuclear power. It might be useful to differentiate between STEM and humanities majors, for example. Another factor to consider is that less educated (say, high school and no college) may correlate with a stronger tendency to be swayed by charismatic politicians and/or social media misinformation which promotes a propagandistic view backed by industry money.

OSA was enacted into law in October 2023, almost eighteen months ago. Must be moving pretty slowly if we're only now getting marching orders. A friend was pretty happy with LiquidWeb, FWIW. They handle transfers well. From personal experience (with a site that went belly up recently, and we members were not treated well when trying to get information), I would avoid A Small Orange.

DEI is actually stated in our nation's declaration of Independence, which holds that government should secure the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all citizens. (we needed a Bill of Rights and Constitution, with many revisions in order to articulate that to where it could begin to be implemented) It takes a shit-ton of Orwellian Newspeak to obscure this reality. F all these right-wing snowflakes and their whining litany of grievances. If you're stupid enough to believe all this anti-woke garbage, you probably are too stupid to be hired for that job you're whining you didn't get.

What part of "we all answer to the same laws" are you not getting? The law enacts Kant's categorical imperative. We follow a law because there is a morally acceptable outcome (e.g. safe streets, clean water, disease control, less traffic accidents, etc.) when that law is universally applied and followed. Most desirable personal freedoms are secured when we exercise restraint in our actions and respect those freedoms in others fostered by our restraint. Absolute freedom would be anarchy, and no civilization has promoted it. Anarchy, lawlessness tends to result in a lot of violations of personal rights. So we accept some reasonable restraints on our personal actions in exchange for preventing general anarchy. To give a (I hope) clarifying example, imagine being sleepless until 4 AM and then doing poorly at your job the next day as a result, maybe even becoming ill from the stress. Would you accept this outcome in order to preserve the freedom of your apartment neighbor to play his stereo loudly all night? It seems pretty clear that apartment buildings (and more broadly, municipalities) need some kind of code which all must follow for the general good of those who dwell in them. The value of knowing you can sleep at night and not being subject to a bullying inconsiderate neighbor vastly outweighs the childish freedom of being able to make loud noise whenever you feel like it. So apartments have rules. Cities have noise ordinances.

May joy be yours in realms of eternal bliss! Plus one, I mean. Will try the FF posthaste.

65 meters, for both Greenland and Antarctic ice. Around 210 feet. https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/resource/Sea level.pdf Sure, the topic is silly, but let's not confuse metric and English systems of measure.