TheVat

Thanks, I wondered. So if I run my VPN through Switzerland or Sweden and those countries sign some MoU on IP filtering, then I'm blocked. Unless I move to Gibraltar or Panama or some other haven. Or I'm Ed Norton in Glass Onion and I do all my business through a fax machine. 😀

Wouldn't bad actors just use VPN to step around Geo IP filtering?

Much as I respect the genie/bottle argument I still believe that, since nuclear war could end our species and bring a kingdom of cockroaches, the global goal should remain nuclear disarmament. When nations came to an accord that nerve gas and biological agents should not be used, treaties were made. There are powerful economic incentives for major powers to not engage in massive wars with each other. I believe we can eventually get everyone to the table to agree that a nuclear sword of Damocles over the head of every person on the planet is not a viable instrument of foreign policy and that mutual economic destruction (and don't forget cyber war) is adequate to the task of deterring a conventional WW3. There is also the massive expense of maintaining nuclear arsenals, and thus massive economic benefit of elimination of them. Adding MORE nukes, and more nations to the nuclear club, strikes me as a terrible idea. I would think mass shootings have taught us, on a smaller scale, what happens when a crazy person gets their hands on a mass killing device. We are still here because we've been extremely lucky. And luck has a way of running out. My generation grew up with the threat of nuclear annihilation hanging over our heads. I think some of us would like to see future generations face at least one less catastrophic scenario.

But aren't they the Latin words that were adopted as the formal medical terminology back when Latin and Greek were the languages of scholars? I think of slang as more "street." It has a different meaning from jargon or terminology, forms which tend to be established in a more formal way. Without being snobby, I just think slang has a particular meaning and way it differs from more formal terms. In the US, we might say she's got a bun in the oven and that's slang. She has a fetus in her uterus is NOT slang, is it? Nor is she's pregnant. She wouldn't visit her OB-Gyn and be told "one change you will notice is bigger boobs, and they may be all tingly..." Likely a nurse, PA, or doctor would say "you may notice some breast enlargement and sensitivity..." (not to say there aren't doctors who develop a rapport with a patient by sometimes using humorous slang - that would depend on the patient I expect)

We should have a butcher's, then. (which brings up an interesting feature: removing the original rhyming portion of the slang, rendering it more obscure. So "look" was butcher's hook, then the hook was dropped.) Similarly "berk" was originally Berkeley Hunt, a rhyme for cunt. Berk is not as offensive as cunt, partly due to its full rhyming form being forgotten.

Interesting how pudendal slang carries different weights in different English speaking countries. In the UK, I noticed that c--t was in wide usage and for a vast range of tones and often very casual. Contrast with the U.S. where it is still considered more foul than a lot of the usual suspects. I remember seeing a film where F-bombs and similar dropped frequently, zero audience reaction, but then one character turned to another and called her a "magnificent c--t," and I heard audible gasps from several quarters. It may have been the character who spoke it, partly, who was a mayor at some elegant occasion, so the word is also a sudden reveal about him. If Ray Winstone had said it, perhaps no one would have batted an eye.

Chinese cats tend to say "mao" instead of "meow," for example.

How on Gaia's green Earth is photon emission a form of reproduction? If you want people to not make jokes or get rowdy, then you need to know your subject and supply a set of testable hypotheses that bear some relation to current knowledge. Atoms and subatomic particles are not life; life is composed of complex dynamic structures that are built of atoms bonded in molecules. Theories that particles and atoms are in themselves alive have tended to be in the tradition of a 19th century fad called Vitalism (Bergson called it elan vital, postulating some sort of ethereal life force) - such theories have been discredited for lack of evidence and coherence.

Some conditions, like sensory processing disorder often found in autism, respond to a sensation of pressure on the body. I haven't dived, and I don't know if it produces such a sensation on the body. But it could maybe work like weighted blankets and other methods that supply reassuring pressure. Sometimes called deep pressure therapy (DPT). It supplies proprioceptive input that is helpful. Thanks for cool photo.

Here's a more tasteful fermion pairing that is family friendly. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooper_pair

Please, this is not a bosonic porn website.

Agree on the approaches to opioids (Perdue also deserved a much heavier penalty) and immigration, and I think Biden should have taken the tiller more on immigration rather than handing off to Harris. And the right wing news bubble doesn't help either, as Faux and other Murdochian news outlets have ignored positive things Biden has initiated or spun them negatively. One place where Biden can really shine, in a campaign, is that he can avoid negative atttacks and just sell his positive accomplishments. Old guys are better at not taking the bait (well, some old guys). If he ends up passing the torch to someone else next summer, I hope they are also of that temperament and listen to Joe.

That would make more sense. I don't well understand "charges continuing distributing" when the device is completely shut off, but assume that's inherent in the battery design.

Some devices have a drain feature* which, after you reach 100% will start to drain the battery in order to prevent overcharge. That's why my tablet, if I forget and leave it on charger all night, will be at 88-95% in the morning. It reached 100% at say 3 am, then started going down. Seems like a better device would just break the circuit at full charge. * maybe bug is a better term

I have not heard about immersion in tropical waters but the Wim Hof method, and others, find correlation between immersion in cold water and improved mental health. Oxygenation seems trickier in its effects - many disciplines use enhanced breathing techniques for health and mental clarity. Higher PP of 02, however, can lead to hyperoxia and impaired cognition, as I am sure you are aware. When I have climbed in the mountains over 7000 ft. I notice sometimes the lower PP of 02 brings a good feeling, but then it goes away above maybe 12000 ft. because it is too low for proper oxygenation and my hemoglobin levels haven't really adapted yet. Then I am more tired and not as sharp. I remember as a child being on top of a 12000 ft. peak with my family, and I got overexcited, running around a lot, then throwing up.

No doubt in the future, if a conscious AI is developed, there will be debate as to whether or not it is alive. And then the AI will be laughing at us.

More powerful tropical cyclones (AKA hurricanes) are related to warming, too. The high winds on Maui were from Dora, which made the fires much worse. Global warming increases atmospheric energy in various ways that can all contribute to more destructive wildfires. Another (non GW) factor in the huge destruction of homes is that the climate has allowed rather loose observance of building codes, especially older homes. We have friends in Hawaii who have mentioned that many older houses were built with basically a wooden shell with siding nailed on. No sheetrock on the interior. No wall cavity (that 14.5 inch space between studs) with fire resistant insulation. Jalousie windows that allow maximum ventilation and don't close enough to seal the interior. Such houses get "grandfathered in" and aren't later brought up to current code.

Beer + t = wc

I would like to think Mac and I were introducing a bit of levity to the chat. I am certainly not advocating treating Windsors with Teutonic dysphoria before puberty and the normal acquisition of tea-sipping skills, and certainly not with radical treatments like shipping them off to Saxony or Coburg or Gotha or surgical removal of the Royal Wave. The worst cases of monarchy, of course, can only be remedied with trips in a tumbrel to a decephalization clinic.

I have seen gambling addiction work destructively on people's lives, and their families, on a par with heroin, meth,or oxycontin. And in a way, casinos are worse because they are built entirely on lies and false promises. They prey upon human stupidity and lack of math skills. And it may help that our cultural norms equate gambling with daring and clever risk-taking. Entrepreneurs are sometimes applauded for taking big gambles (often with other people's money). And there is always a human urge to make easy money. Paul Newman, in The Color of Money says "Money won is twice as sweet as money earned." If it's easier to gain, then most of us figure it's easier to spend. So won money feels like a vacation from responsibility.

The line gets tricky with prions, which can replicate misfolded proteins, but have no other traits associated with life. They seem to be naughty chemistry, rather than organisms.

In US we were taught zero is a rational number, which means it must have a nonzero denominator, i.e. it is 0/1. A rational number cannot have a zero denominator. I have have no idea what 0/0 is, but it cannot be a ratio.

But they have an energy level which corresponds to wavelength. Red would be around 660 nm. Our retina pigments and receptors and optic pathways interpret that wavelength as red. Healthy eyes do this in a consistent way so that ripe apples (that aren't Granny Smith or Golden Delicious varietals) appear red as they reflect light in that wavelength range to our eyes. So, while color is not intrinsic to the surface of an apple, it is real in the sense that our eyes and brain interpret specific wavelengths in a specific and consistent way. So it is not "random" as you were speculating. And my little story of "red" can be applied to a similar understanding of all sense perceptions that have a consistent correspondence to the physical events around us.

But they are former Saxe-Coburgs! Just because they decided one day that they were Windsors instead, why should we accept that? Clearly they are still Germans, who experience some sort of Teutonic dysphoria and imagine they are Brits. What about all these poor non-Germans who participate in beer drinking contests and then trans-Windsors come in pretending to be non-German? These former Saxe-Coburgs will kick everyone's ass!

Funny you call them Windsor, then, which is a name fabricated to allay anti-German sentiment. Really, you should call them Saxe-Coburgs, or in Phillip's line, Oldenburgs. Why would you, by your logic, keep calling them Windsors? Castles can't really father children!