TheVat

I wonder if it will stay sketchy, due to the skewing factor of self-report. There is so much social weight on how people fit in to a group, and what they tell themselves, that it is very hard to arrive at objective metrics of gender. (unlike metrics of biological sex, like ring finger/index finger ratio, hip/shoulder width, facial proportion, etc) Seems like even subjecting large study populations to PET scans would have skewing problems. The only reliable metric I've found is propensity to put absurdly small amounts of a food in storage dish. JK.

Ev bio has moved past Darwin over a century ago. Epigenetics, selective pressure on improvised behaviors, etc are not new concepts. A desert woodrat isn't "controlling" its evolution when some individual species members try eating poop and it happens to confer resistance to creosote toxins, and therefore an adaptive advantage. That may be NS acting on individuals who incline to less discriminating palates. And epigenetics can play a role. Momma rat lives through food shortages, which stress triggers epigenetic change in the next generation towards coprophagy. We may project direction onto all this, but the woodrats may be following a very simple "times were hard, so when hungry, I'll try anything" algorithm. Remember that NS can affect greater epigenetic plasticity, meaning that environment can induce epigenetic changes in a population, and if those changes provide a phenotypic advantage, NS can favor individuals with those beneficial epigenetic modifications, leading to a more adapted population over time - and one that flips epigenetic switches more easily in future.

Hehe. Well the net we are presently using seems to catch only rumors, hearsay and other unreliable narratives. Not being of the Arcadian persuasion, I can't imagine the skill level needed to deploy physical nets for something high flying but you never know.

He being a politician, I would expect them to be below the belt. I am sorry @TheVat, I missed your remark. I didn't mind. Always nice to find a fellow mind making the same connection. I miss plenty of posts meself.

And it was said!

Yesterday was that day that keeps triskaidekaphobes at home, but perhaps a thirteen lurks in every Friday. How? (it also lurks in Bill Oldfield, for a bonus point)

The NJ congressman blathering about an Iranian mothership in the Atlantic and the "high sources" he got it from (possibly high in a different sense of the word) was pretty funny. In the UK, there was similar speculation about state actors, re drones seen around Lakenheath and other AFBs. While I can see how drones might offer several advantages over spysats (cheaper, closer, meander anywhere), I would think they probably would not have navigation lights on as the Jersey devils seem to. Visually shouting "yoohoo! I'm over here!" is not SOP in tradecraft. (unless it's a decoy) And then there are all the vigilantes posting on SM about bringing one down with a shotgun. What could possibly go wrong with that, right?

😂 Voting so far for the toy horses joke: 2 - aye 0 - neigh

Yup, airborne objects at night are notoriously difficult to size, even by trained observers. I have to wonder if an initial small number of misjudged sightings of hobby drones and aircraft got publicized and then more people started looking up at night and noticing things. Hobby drones especially can be seen as larger than actual dimensions.

I had earlier today seen an AP News report and posted it over at sci forums dot com. Will post here, too. https://apnews.com/article/fbi-drones-new-jersey-0f4aba00748ac464d42270fbe7457733 I love that the official talking about mysterious sightings is named Fantasia! If this was 1938 and the sightings were over Grovers Mills, NJ, I would assume it's Martians. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_of_the_Worlds_(1938_radio_drama)

Pulses+grains usually will get you the 9 amino acids you need. E.g. lentils plus brown rice, or pintos plus a grain. A few plants sources like quinoa and soy contain all 9. But plant sources tend to be low or missing other nutrients, so you will likely need to get supplemental B12, zinc, and the DHA form of omega-3 FA (algal oil is a popular source for that). As with many nutritional issues, "variety" is the basic answer. Personal side note: pure veganism gradually made me feel wretched, and I found that a 5/2 approach was much better - five days vegan, two days wild caught pescaterian. The reality is that most of us ordinary mortals are not trained nutritionists who can perfectly tailor a diet to our particular gut biome and absorption issues (if any). Find animal protein that you are most comfortable with ethically and digestively - wild caught sardines are a good one for vegans to "bend" on, and they are easy to digest, as meats go. And their carbon footprint is small.

Generally, any condition that has been considered a deviation and carried a burden of social shame, will often be suppressed or kept covert by people who experience it. So, for sure, more awareness and social acceptance will lead to higher rates of reported GD. When people can move from "there's something bad and shaneful about me," to "there's something different about me," they become more visible. As my previous post/quote mentioned, the etiology of GD remains unclear, so it's also unclear if there are also environmental toxins (e.g. endocrine disruptors) that could be increasing the incidence of a neurological condition.

Brava. I like musicians who get to that sort of communion with the piece and invite you in (vs showoffy "look at me play, Ma!" stuff). If you like "ecstasy throughout," also may be seen in many BB King solos.

Groan!

No one is tasked with persuading you of anything. Of course BNW is dystopian. So much so that it is often used as an exemplar of the genre. If you want to keep trolling, perhaps you take on other obvious facts and insist they are wrong. Julius Caesar isn't a tragedy, it's a wacky and farcical comic romp through Rome! Mies van der Rohe wasn't a Minimalist, bur rather a gaudy and ornate retro Victorian! Jackson Pollock was a realist in the baroque tradition of Dutch Masters! Rembrandt was an abstract expressionist! Moby Dick is a sex farce with bathtub toys!

Sorry to say your system sounds totalitarian and one in which only a small elite can vote - and only this elite determines specific metrics for vaguely defined qualities like intelligence or compassion. Also, are you aware that a lot of innovation comes from people who earn more than 2 million dollars and then can invest their earnings in new startups and R&D? Many of the tech devices we are using to have this chat come from entrepreneurs who could reinvest their profits. BTW, if you start a thread you need to read and reply to all the feedback you are getting.

This sort of arms race between user and advertizer does seem to be whats going on. If, as @iNow says, Blike doesn't own SFN and is at the mercy of the web hosting service, then as the opening of Waiting for Godot has it, nothing to be done. Can't help wonder, as @studiot does, how any company can conceive that the full page block format would actually help sell their crap. People loathe ads, Pope discovered to be Catholic, indeed.

Like many users at work or a library, when I am on a shared/public or institutional device, I lack the option of changing browsers or adding blocker apps. I think my previous post made clear why this situation could be off-putting for some users, especially when it BOOTS USERS OUT OF A POSTING BOX MIDWAY THROUGH WRITING TEXT IF THEY CLICK ON ANOTHER TAB EVEN FOR A MOMENT. This latter development is crossing a line from rude ads to hostile ads. It actually punishes users for doing what SFN encourages: going and obtaining citations and/or researching further before posting.

New wrinkle in the full page ad blitzkrieg (still on a browser sometimes where I cannot activate an ad blocker): I am composing a post, switch to another open tab to verify something or grab a citation or whatever, when I return to this tab my editing window is gone, there's a fullpage ad blocking the thread, and I have to scroll down, reopen the editing window, and hope my content is still there. This is not a good vibe for anyone thinking about regularly visiting SFN and participating in chats. Not everyone has admin control over the device they are using (especially at work or a library) that would allow ad blocks, so I think this trend needs to be addressed by the owner/admin.

This thread, perhaps? Nice to see you over here at the dot net. Please don't mention this place to MR? 😃

That is interesting, and could be anomalous, or it could indicate a selection bias - i.e. the intense focus of the campaign on those swing states and motivating frequent nonvoters in those states - "if you don't usually vote, you can just check the box for me and skip the rest. In this state, your vote will matter!"

I'm not the first to make that Mussolini connection. Somewhere on the web there is a video, IIRC, with side by side footage of Trump (a few years back) and Il Duce speechifying - the congruence of tone and body language is eerie.

Misinformation was what tipped it to El Douche. Who needs complex bullet ballot schemes when there's social media and a GOP that has mastered the propagandistic arts? One possible reason there were more bullet ballots is that El Douche energized working class voters who rarely vote and lack time to parse all the downballot races - so they leave those blank. They just wanted the price of eggs to come down and El Douche will fix everything. (don't see gerrymandering being a factor, since 48 states use the WTA system in assigning electoral votes)

I wonder if this would be an analogy...a home-made attempt: Two astronauts joined by a tether can't see other (as they are very far apart). The tether is tensioned such that the heads of any two astronauts so joined will point 180 degrees apart. So when we measure Astronaut 1, we find his head pointed towards galactic north. We instantly now know Astr 2 has her head pointed towards galactic south. Even if measurement breaks the tether, this relation persists. No communication needed.

Gabbard will stick around, if confirmed. Trump likes having Russian assets around. He has applauded her sympathetic takes on Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad and Putin. Her complete lack of qualifications on national intelligence will make Trump feel more secure - easier to mold to his own shape, especially on Deep State loathing.