iNow

Indeed, and worse still when you push back on that concept, they conflate faith with trust or predictability. For example, they often assert "you have faith the sun will come up tomorrow, too" as if that's in any way equivalent to "I have faith that not eating meat on Friday or wearing clothing of different fibers will guarantee me an eternity floating on clouds with half naked angels."

And I might reply to your many questions one day too, just not today

Am I the only one bothered by the question? Believe in religion? Of course religions exist. No belief required. We have evidence of it. I "believe" the question is trying to explore something else entirely, but lacks the type of specificity we require in science.

Every human has biases and processes information through their own various filters. Being self-centered or egotistical is just one type of filter or bias, but there are scores of others. Seems rather arbitrary to focus solely on this one personality trait as if it's in any way more profound or important than others... one might even suggest you're corrupting your own knowledge or losing your own sense of reality.

We've become big fans of possums since learning they eat ticks, but we don't have many. We'd also be totally down with having a few chickens out back (especially given how many eggs we go through), but it's not allowed in our neighborhood.

I wish they’d leave us alone, but every time we’re outside with the kids and/or the dog, we need to do a tick check on everyone before coming back in. I’ve pushed back the tree line quite a bit and cleared lots of brush, essentially reclaiming yard space behind the garden, which has helped, but they will always have the upper hand... especially given the number of deer and foxes and groundhogs and wild turkeys and related wildlife moving through our property.

It’s probably better to view them as opportunistic. Host availability and predictability matter more than just about anything else. They’re also generalists when it comes to global populations, but specialists when it comes to local or regional populations. They’ll bite just about anything, but are better at biting certain things based on their local environment. It seems they’re pretty sensitive to temperature and humidity, and likely respond to chemical signals and similar hormone related outputs bodies generate. I cannot comment on its validity or modernity, but this overview seems comprehensive: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3790072/

More broadly, since repellents like Deet and similar products actually work, it seems rather obvious that ticks can sense and smell things in their environment that serve to alter their response or path... including differences between Person1 and Person2 Ticks also often focus on specific hosts... and will differentially bite deer over dogs or humans, for example.

Yes... and not just aggressive, but flawed. The human capacity for compartmentalization of thought is tremendous. I love sparring with theists (less so now than years ago), but if we're to pretend to have any sort of moral or intellectual high ground as atheists in this discussion then we need to avoid the types of sweeping generalizations and logical fallacies you have currently embedded in your own thinking.

Was your friend wearing Deet?

Deserves its own post here... within a few hours of the first debate last night, Weird Al published this gem:

When someone tells me they’re a Christian, I ask: Classic Jesus, or Republican Jesus?

The right became powerful in Japan upon the formation and dissemination of falsehoods one 2Chan. Then 4Chan came up and some of the boards became extremely popular for peddling conspiracy theories. The board got shutdown and turned into 8Chan where QAnon posted. He’s likely the guy who funded 2Chan and 8Chan, just with bigger Rupert Murdoch sized ambitions. It then grew in the US into something organic and internal just like occurred in Japan. Divide from within then conquer. https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/llhe5nm

No

In order to reach and attempt to "de-program" a QAnon follower, it might be useful to explore the science of getting someone extracted out of a cult. This same approach may also sadly be required to reach a sizable share of ardent Trump supporters.

Fixed That For You. For Fuck's Sake

Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone

Does anyone know which night Putin will be speaking during the Republican National Convention next week?

Better than what?

I'll reiterate the need for the elimination of qualified immunity. The police union is extremely strong and has negotiated for officer protections that have become extremely detrimental to fair and equal justice in the US. It's made harder that police forces are controlled locally at the state level and very few (if any) federal level regulations and guidelines exist.

He's basically skipping Phase 3 of the clinical trial and using ht population as guinea pigs instead

It's mind boggling for many people who've grown up in the US, too

Perhaps a better, more situationally relevant question is: Have we given police too much authority to serve without either check or balance as judge, jury, and executioner? Have we abandoned our constitutional right to due process under the law in favor of quick conclusion at the receiving end of a standard issue field pistol in the hands of an underpaid, undertrained representative of the state?

Interestingly, this too is mistaken. Decades of evidence shows rather consistently that the riots get more out of control and the property damage gets worse the more police are present. From 50 years ago: https://belonging.berkeley.edu/system/tdf/kerner_commission_full_report.pdf?file=1&force=1 From 5 years ago: https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/05/01/when-police-ratchet-up-the-force-riots-get-worse-not-better/ And from 5 months ago: https://www.themarshallproject.org/2020/06/01/why-so-many-police-are-handling-the-protests-wrong