TheVat

Which you still have not done, due to your many paragraphs of profuse apologies given as plenipotentiary ambassador of the Vogon League. Still waiting for the research data on growing terrestrial microbes in ammonia.

It's remarkable how many men have, as dedicated practitioners of the scientific method, gathered such impressions through careful and diligent observation. A notable example of "citizen science." I have wondered, as the demographic shift happens in developed countries and family sizes grow considerably smaller, if average breast volume will decrease. Or would the selective effect of a smaller functional role for breasts be counteracted by sexual selection? Part of broader questions about selective pressures for sexual dimorphism decreasing as male/female social roles are less differentiated, I guess. I've never cared much about breast size, personally, and never really understood the obsession some have. Seems kind of puerile. No pun intended, right?

What observations are those? Citations, please. Human metabolism is about chemical energy. Conversion of matter to energy, as in fusion or fission, is not relevant to biochemistry. It doesn't. It breaks down food into amino acids and strings them together into chains called proteins. Chemical energy to achieve this comes from carbohydrates (polysaccharides) broken down into glucose or, with ketosis, breaking down lipids to glucose. Please learn some biochemistry. I doubt this - and you need a clickable link to this study. And a person's weight relates to more than one cause. Faster metabolism can be one, balance of intestinal microflora and efficiency of gut absorption can be another. Autoimmune disorders can also factor in, through inflammatory response in the small intestine and induced lesions. Also, hormone levels, environmental toxins, fiber consumption, sensitivity to fermentable polysaccharides, etc. Where is it? Where's your data?

When clothing reduces the volume of any body part, that's the definition of intensely uncomfortable. Women used to get ill, and even pass out, from the constricting effect of corsets. And those only persisted during the Victorian era due to a pudgy monarch who wore them and started a fashion fad that created that somewhat grotesque aesthetic of the wasp waist. IIRC, in the period after Victoria's death in 1903, accompanied by general momentum in the women's rights movement, there was a massive casting off of corsets. My spouse mentions Laura Ingalls Wilder (of the Little House on the Prairie books) hating the corset her mother wanted her to wear at all times (even while sleeping) and stealthily slipping it off when she was in bed.

Ammonia is a harsh disinfectant. Was this the lab that was also growing microbes in bleach? More 🐂💩 from a LLM. Yawn.

What's cute and fluffy and passed out on the lawn? The ether bunny.

I'm learning so much about biochemistry!

Sounds like the Matrix question, i.e. place people in a simulated environment, conceal the real world, all done without their consent. Seems morally objectionable, much as anything does where one group makes all the decisions on the best interests of another group. It makes the former group both censors of reality and prison guards. And the people trapped in the simulation have committed no crime that would call for deprivation of their freedom. Ignorance is not bliss, it's just ignorance and impoverishment of opportunity. And, a larger point should be made here: when people in the sciences start talking about involuntary experiments on people, it just feeds the present paranoia and distrust of scientists.

It's a confusing title. I think the toucan is just saying it is a bible hawked by Trump, who has been identified as a rapist. It doesn't mean the text has been altered in Exodus to advocate rape.

Perhaps the Trump is a rapist meme has lost its edge, given the general cynicism about wealthy men (especially those born into wealth) and their sexual proclivities. I think Zombie Bible works, given the sort of mindless followers of TFG who would buy it.

Wow. A bit like appointing a fox to head the henhouse department of health. This sort of thing is why I favor noncorporate controlled outlets like The Guardian or NPR.

Given that politics includes moral philosophy, I think one should consider that the actual use of a WMD tends to open up a tactical (and utilitarian) conversation that can drown out the moral one. For example, justification on the basis of saved lives is not always a compelling argument in other aspects of human life. A worldwide totalitarian regime which forced contraception on every person on Earth could save billions of future lives. Worldwide tobacco ban and death penalty for growers would save millions. And so on. Humans are not really utilitarians, for the most part. What is your moral sense of what America became, by using a nuke on civilians, and likely accelerating an international arms race? And based on that, what should we do NOW?

IIRC, WaPo mentioned it. Their coverage was extensive, since DC is close to Baltimore. @swansont posted a wiki article that provided a clear description of dolphins (structural). Dolphins are also used to protect structures from possible impact by ships, in a similar fashion to fenders.[2] A notable example of dolphins used to protect a bridge is the Sunshine Skyway Bridge across the mouth of Tampa Bay. In 1980, the MV Summit Venture hit a pier on one of the bridge's two, two-lane spans causing a 1,200-foot (370 m) section of the bridge to fall into the water, resulting in 35 deaths. When a replacement span was designed, a top priority was to prevent ships from colliding with the new bridge.[3] The new bridge is protected by 36 dolphins: four large dolphins protecting the two main pylons supporting the cable-stayed main span plus 32 smaller dolphins protecting bridge piers for 1⁄4 mi (1⁄2 km) to either side of the main span.[3] The cost of the dolphins was $41 million (approximately $90 million in 2017 dollars).[3]

I found the Dali's electrical problems kind of surreal. (too soon?)

I heard somewhere that long continuous truss bridges like that will sometimes have their support columns centered on a small artificial island (e.g. a big pile of rock) to serve as a buffer against ship collisions. It's my understanding that nothing will really protect a support column from a container ship, unless it's actually islanded in that way. The ships are just too massive now, averaging much greater mass than in the 70s when construction began.

Sounds like junk science.

Should we keep quick-tempered people in a short fuse box?

Second that. There are a fair number of us neurotypicals (possibly a misnomer in my case) who just aren't much interested in jumping onto the consumerism treadmill or filling our nests with shiny things. I'm married to someone who is more towards the center of the having-stuff-keeping-stuff spectrum, so it's always been something of an adjustment for me to deal with her clutter and Museum of My Life and Heritage. It can be liberating. I also imagine my spinal health if my wife had had my minimalist approach to stuff during our household moves.

$$$, unfortunately . Though in this case, trying to define a joke like that as intellectual property is really reaching IMO.

Having a close friend who is coeliac, I am more aware of research into enzymes that might break down gluten in the stomach (before it reaches the small gut and causes inflammatory havoc). Most are still in a trial phase. I know that some studies of latiglutenase found it effective for coeliacs accidentally exposed to gluten. (they sneak the damned stuff in everywhere - soy sauce, e.g.) AN-PEP is another promising one. Derived from a fungus. I would guess it unlikely these proteases would work on the industrial application you are looking into.

@Markus Hanke remarks were helpful and I agree with his observations, born from more direct knowledge. I hope it is clear I was speaking of support and developing coping skills to further life goals and not a "cure" for neurodivergence. Among staff I worked with, during my brief time working with ASD folk, there seemed to be some varying views on stimming, but I would trust MH's observations. My training pointed me towards looking around at the environment and seeing if stimulation could be reduced so as to ease the felt need for it - and, with some clients, see if they could articulate where a reduction in excess stimulation could be effected. This is what I earlier meant by "finding a path" past stimming - i.e. finding a quiet corner where other engagement could be enjoyed and not suppressing the stimming as something wrong. I recall one client who was overstimulated by the appearance of certain foods and so, enlisting the help of a nutritionist, we helped them develop a nourishing menu where they could look at their plate and eat with contentment (vs finger-flapping and running away from the table).

Now another artist, a London-based artist who operates under the name The Misfortuneteller, says the idea was stolen from him. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2024/mar/25/its-not-banksys-its-mine-artist-says-bristol-plaque-to-adulterer-is-a-copy Who put up the plaque commemorating the “husband, father, adulterer” – which included the payoff line “Roger, I knew” – remains unknown. But while locals speculated that Banksy may have been involved, another artist has now suggested they are the victim of a rip-off. The London-based creator, who operates under the name The Misfortuneteller, said he created a near-identical plaque in March 2020 after wandering around New York’s Central Park and looking at the inscriptions on benches. “Plaques are fine but they’re not really that truthful,” he said. “I wanted to do honest memorial plaques. Bittersweet ones.” He mocked-up a series of images featuring offbeat tributes to the deceased. Some of the designs were sold as real engraved plaques. An ex-girlfriend is commemorated with a real-life plaque reading: “For Barbara – Who was awful when hungry but otherwise pretty solid.” Others took on a life of their own after going viral, often being shared without credit or posted by meme aggregation accounts on Instagram. No one bought his design paying tribute to a “cherished husband, dad and adulterer”, even though the image proved popular online. As a result, The Misfortuneteller said he was surprised to see his original design and phrasing reappear on the Bristol bench this week, prompting him to say: “It’s not Banksy’s; it’s fucking mine.”

The decision is made when a person wants to communicate and relate with others, hold a job, have their own home, pay the bills, travel around unassisted... and has a disability which prevents these. That's what disability means. There were persons I worked with who faced such obstacles and yes, welcomed a path towards surmounting them. Their lives were better for seeing such a path and being able to move past, e.g., flicking their fingers back and forth in front of their faces for hours while spinning a coke bottle on the floor 3000 times while their loved ones silently weep.

Died at 54. From this anecdote I hypothesize that trying to please two women is exhausting and life-shortening.