TheVat

It's important that you understand that most mutations are neutral - deleterious mutation vanish quickly and beneficial mutations are rare. So the majority to be found are neutral. Many neutral mutations are simply codons which will yield the same amino acid. All these neutral mutations are constantly there, rising or dropping in frequency due to genetic drift, and providing plenty of chances for adaptation. A mutation for prolonged lactase production could be in random genetic drift in N Europe, until an environmental change causes widespread protein shortages and a new selective advantage to adults who can digest milk. Feathers were originally a mutation in hair production which first proved adaptive for generating greater warmth. Later, exaptation selected for a function, flight, different from the original adaptation. These changes are not purposeful pre-adaptations, they are just circumstances favoring alleles formerly neutral - in small populations, they might have drifted to either loss or fixation - a stochastic process. There's no "incredible amount of pre-adaptation," just a robust variety of alleles already there and now and then proving to be handy. This happens as a natural thing where you have the genetic diversity provided by neutral mutations in all their abundance.

The overwhelming majority of species on Earth were, and remain, single-celled, and did not eventually evolve into multicellular organisms. This suggests there is no hidden teleology, as some organisms remain single-celled quite successfully adapted to their environments while others experienced pressures towards the cooperative aggregation, chemotaxis, and cell specialization that multicellular forms bring. This article in Science may be helpful in looking at the transitions to multicellularity. https://www.science.org/content/article/momentous-transition-multicellular-life-may-not-have-been-so-hard-after-all There seems to be nothing particularly miraculous or difficult about this transition, given certain conditions, and many single-celled species are in fact already somewhat prepared for it. Genetic comparisons between simple multicellular organisms and their single-celled relatives have revealed that much of the molecular equipment needed for cells to band together and coordinate their activities may have been in place well before multicellularity evolved.

Always like Brubeck, and play a couple of his pieces on my 400 lb. 230 string guitar, partly thanks to hand injuries Brubeck suffered early in his career which caused him to develop a style that is easier to play for those of us with shorter fingers. Adderly very listenable, very much a poet who recites through his sax. That sextet he was in, with Davis, Coltrane, Evans, et al, really had no weak links. OM refers to a type of guitar manufactured by Martin.

Pervasive is the word. My partner, possibly even more an anti plastic zealot than I, still occasionally finds bits of a neighbor dog's toy that was stuffed with poly fill and got run over by a lawnmower several summers ago. Some bits landed in our yard and she finds them while pulling bindweed. Even years later they appear much as they did when they first burst out of the dog toy. Though less of a weeding enthusiast, I have been startled when I do weed at the sheer number of plastic scraps that blow into our yard. And, sometimes, plastic bags caught in the branches of trees (it's quite windy here).

A lot are made from polypropylene or PET or nylon, and the paper ones tend to use plastic fibers as a sealant. The OP paper detailed the release of MP particles from those with PP or nylon. Some companies are switching to bags made only with plant fibers, like sugarcane or paper. Without spamming, I will just say they are pretty easy to google. This also relates to @zapatos question - the natural fiber bags will compost. The ones with polymers, well, there is no good place for them - that's the point. In the landfill, they will leach MP particles. And they don't recycle. ETA: polyester fabric, btw, is PET. So some of the natural tea bag advocates are also big on natural fiber clothing. I'm not quite there yet, but I do limit my polyester content to 40%, on clothes that get frequent washing like teeshirts. Usually a 60/40 cotton/poly blend.

The term is possibly amusing to an American who lived through the 80s and the Game Boy onslaught, as it also breaks down into "Super Mario Nation." 😏 Which onslaught also increased plastic pollution. And the thread is rescued from the dripping fangs of off topic irrelevance as they nearly snap together upon it.

I underappreciated Yes back then, only really discovering them decades later. And Squire is amazing on bass, as in Roundabout. And, as you mention, much of Zeppelin or Deep Purple hasn't really stuck with me, though I occasionally find myself enjoying their instrumental pieces more now, like "Lazy" or "Kashmir." I was on the grassy knoll in Dallas, in 1963. Just some weeds and burger wrappers. Funny how those weird theories get so much traction. There was footage I saw on the news that evening, 9-11-2001, where it was pretty clear where the pancaking started.

They had strings, but also electronics... Supermarionation (a portmanteau of the words "super", "marionette" and "animation")[1] is a style of television and film production employed by British company AP Films (later Century 21 Productions) in its puppet TV series and feature films of the 1960s. These productions were created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and filmed at APF's studios on the Slough Trading Estate. The characters were played by electronic marionettes with a moveable lower lip, which opened and closed in time with pre-recorded dialogue by means of a solenoid in the puppet's head or chest. Thunderbirds is a British science fiction television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, filmed by their production company AP Films (APF) and distributed by ITC Entertainment. It was filmed between 1964 and 1966 using a form of electronic marionette puppetry called "Supermarionation" combined with scale model special effects sequences.

With teabags it actually is just using them. But yes, for sure, any plastic waste that's not processed will be degrading into micro plastics in the environment. The only one of those electronic marionettes series that jumped the pond was Fireball XL5, which I remember our NBC ran on Saturday cartoons. So we were spared the posh Penelope. I discovered this about her - Later, her father was requested by the government to travel to India to organise a tea-growing community. The Indian climate did not agree with Penelope, so she returned without her parents to England, where she was put into the care of a governess... And, more importantly to this thread - She takes tea almost religiously and can communicate with International Rescue via her Regency teapot.

This study reminded me that our family's opting to use only loose-leaf tea may have been the way to go. My partner uses a tea ball infuser, I just dump loose leaves in the cup. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-12-commercial-tea-bags-millions-microplastics.html (this website is part of the Science X news network)

(unforeseen page break - this replies @swansont post on previous page which the edit function won't let me access) There could be wall ketchup over Musk at some point, and it's enjoyable to dream of a Trump deportation dragnet which includes Musk. In the America I used to imagine I lived in, Musk's offer to rape Taylor Swift might have been sufficient to motivate Congress to look into him being an undesirable worth purging.

Musk is a US citizen. He is electable to any position except POTUS and VPOTUS. I think he would be a viable candidate for my county's Weed Control commissioner. Though I would likely cast my vote for the opponent who didn't favor using war surplus flamethrowers. Yes. He is, and will remain, a world-class asshole.

US Constitution, Article II, sec. 1. That's where the gratitude may be sent. (not that the legal meaning of "natural born" hasn't been contested several times) (as it happens, my avatar is the noted lexicographer whose definition of natural-born was seen as establishing the meaning used in the Constitution)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_swimming International winter and ice swimming competitions take place around the world with two of the larger organizing bodies being the International Ice Swimming Association and the International Winter Swimming Association. Both organizations have similar competition guidelines including water temperatures typically below 5 °C (41 °F), a 25 metres (82 ft) pool often cut out of frozen bodies of water, and swimmers limited to goggles, one standard bathing suit, and one latex or silicone cap - neoprene is not allowed.

I'll pass thought that along to Dr Moreau.

Good for them. My reply was addressing a different point in another thread, and the cockroach reference was a use of synecdoche. Faster than typing "and several other hardy insect species." Cheers.

A bit confusing since cold immersion also can cause bradycardia, which lowers BP, as in the MDR which @Moontanman mentioned. From the sources cited by @toucana it sounds like the main effect with cold water, however, is raised BP and accelerated heart rate. So I guess the cold shock "wins out" over the MDR. Better be careful, Genady, hehe. Paul Newman used to immerse his face in icy water, which he said kept him handsome.

You kind of lost me with "in case of a very massive nuclear strike from Russia...." In case of a massive nuclear strike, we are all dead, and probably a lot of the planet's ecosystem. And the notion of annihilating a billion people in China who DIDN'T attack us is vicious and insane and would pretty much ensure a clean wipe of all animal species (cockroaches excepted) from the planet. Nations, specifically their governments, making these kinds of threats is one of the worst things about the human race in its tech phase. We might survive, some of us, runaway global warming or other ecodisasters, but a full-scale thermonuclear exchange would end us. As iNow says, absurd.

Looks like cold water on the face effect has been studied. https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/circj/70/6/70_6_773/_article Background Cold-water face immersion (FI) is known to produce physiological changes, including bradycardia, by stimulating the parasympathetic system. However, other factors such as sympathetic activity, intrapleural pressures, and changes in chemical mediators may also contribute to these changes. Methods and Results Eight healthy volunteers underwent a series of experiments designed to observe the effects of FI on heart rate and its variability, as detected using wavelet transformation...

Light seems to be dawning. Here are the answers, for anyone who is curious. Hopefully everyone's base desires are satisfied.

Being son of a cynical journalist (redundant phrase, possibly), I came early to the belief that all those things are quite fragile. Then I witnessed how often religion bends easily in a totalitarian direction unless a sect takes a specific stand against it. (yay, liberation theology) Omnipotent deity and liberal democracy are not concepts that dovetail easily. Nor late stage capitalism and human-centered ideologies generally. Plus one for your whole post, which I sense is doing double duty as both germane comment on the thread topic and some self-introduction. Single issue voters are the bane of democracy, because they are so easily led off a cliff while following that one attractive carrot dangled in front of them.

IIRC, I did reference a previous post which cited gender dysphoria studies. Which post was: Those little footnote numbers take you to specific sources. I will post this and make sure they are active hyperlinks.

Holding breath is a way to focus mind, so it helps mentally to brace oneself and be stoic? People tend to tighten the diaphragm when enduring something - that's why in a crisis people are often reminded to take deep breaths, so they don't restrain their breath too much. Also having a held breath means you have plenty of air for saying AUUUGGGHHHHHH! 😁

Aren't we already arrived at a more complex view? - you are describing artificial selection with domesticated species or what is called gene-culture coevolution in humans, which is not a new concept. Cultural preferences can select for certain traits, from dominant hand preference to food tolerances to mating preferences. The lactase persistence gene was selectively neutral until people shifted from H-G life to pastoralism (herding grazing animals). Genes for reduced melanin were not adaptive until bands of humans decided to migrate to higher latitudes and needed more cutaneous vitamin D absorption. Sexual selection has also been important in humans, and linked to breast shape, penile girth, voice pitch, facial hair, etc. Such preferences can be culturally mediated. (And some cultures sadly have tried to impose more control, with differential treatment and marital opportunities based on superficial physical traits.)