TheVat

@MigL If you join a website and post the above, then you are going to come across as bigoted in your attitude. Note he could have added "some" before atheists, and then offered specific examples to support the last sentence. My guess is that he didn't back up that remark because it's a straw man. If you post bigoted comments, then where there is free discourse (which you clearly prize, as I do) people will call you on it and you don't get a special safe space where your bigotry is tiptoed around. Then Derp went onto assert: Did he post polls or surveys to support this? Did he offer any quotes from atheist arguments to support his contention of "context negative for accuracy"(whatever that means)? So, another vague attack, without any actual consideration of an atheist perspective, or glimmer of intellectual honesty.

I didn't take a stance. Out of genuine interest, and my usual appetite for scientific evidence, I requested (per this website's SOP) some citation to support your personal anecdotal experience. The topic of the thread is depression, so are you saying that fasting can help depression? Once again, I ask a straightforward question. As for your insults and "you're following me" comment, it sounds like the fasting didn't do much for your paranoid ideation. I'm not following you, I am continuing to follow this thread, which I posted in a few months ago. (Aggressive Aggressive Addendum: fuckhead)

Relationship Tip : do not attempt to seduce your spouse or SO with the "please help me ward off prostate cancer" gambit.

Could you provide some sort of citation, hopefully from peer reviewed research, for your assertions? While I can well imagine the therapeutic potential of psychoactive drugs like psilocybin, I think the water fasting claim is more "out there" and needs some factual backup. Also note the thread topic is treatments which do not involve medication -- dosing with a psychoactive compound would fall under the rubric of medication, seems to me.

A good thread to revisit, with some long and thoughtful postings from Ken. I saw this today, about "nuclear bros," who inhabit the web and seem to get pigeonholed as millennial males, perhaps erroneously. https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/09/30/nuclear-bros-power-activists/ (Will post screenshot link at bottom for those with paywall woes) As the article makes clear, there are a variety of pro-nuke positions, united by their estimations that the depredations of fossil fuel use outweigh the potential calamities of nuke plant accidents. I remain skeptical of the implied either/or of such calculations when we have a gargantuan nuclear fusion reactor pouring 173,000 terawatts on us continuously, and driving air currents easily harvested with a 19th century technology. I think it's a fair point that the more moderates make, that responsible stewards of the atom like France, Germany, California should keep their existing units running a while longer until we can ramp up renewables and battery storage. https://archive.ph/2022.09.30-155236/https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/09/30/nuclear-bros-power-activists/ Or https://archive.ph/sZBww

Stop me before I post again!

And what does the recycling of organic material through an ecosystem have to with a metaphysical theory of spiritual passage? Aside from it being an interesting metaphor, the cycling of carbon and assorted minerals doesn't point to the existence of some ethereal plane of being. The mere fact that some of my phosphorus (if my ashes are scattered) will be absorbed by plant roots and eaten by a grazing herbivore and incorporated into its skeleton doesn't mean my consciousness will persist into some other earthly life. The Eastern theory of transmigration of souls is predicated on a sophisticated system of religious moral laws and related duties ("dharma") and a long series of lives in which many lessons are learned and past actions accounted for (karmic debt). It's a great deal more than "recycling" some "mystical energy force" through the breakdown of corpses. The only science based approach I know of is the investigation of so-called past life memories in order to test a pretty extraordinary claim. To date, those investigations have been beset with procedural errors and inability to rule out other explanations of a more prosaic nature. ETA: and now I see this is the thread with the reincarnation chat we had in February, with Rama denouncing a Sugar Daddy god in the sky and Eternal Rest Home afterlives. Ha, fun times.

Ockham's razor is your friend.

If you heard me make a statement about some other social group, ethnicity, or creed beginning with "the problem with [members of this group]..." and continue on with a blanket statement that betrayed ignorance of said group, you might well conclude that I was a flaming bigot. No need to waste any more time with your ill-informed prattle.

Our inner twelve year olds are thriving today! A great pair of knockers... (Credit: Mel Brooks)

I'll see your boobies and raise you a great tit.

C - of course. Solar panels generate electricity which can crack water to make H. Plenty of sunshine, hardly ever clouds over. Lunar water ice was found at the poles, back in the 70s. B - Probably dozens of alternative lubricants? Boron hydride, silicone, lithium, etc. As the wise frog said, a minor concern. Sealed bearings, you don't need vast quantities. I think space programs have been thinking beyond oil for many decades now. Count me out of any colony where your life depends on a thin sheet of material floating at a Lagrange point. What could possibly go wrong, eh? Ok, maybe the mylar shield is a temp. Cool the ball, sequester all the frozen CO2 ice, then slowly bring the heat up again (scrolling in the shield) as you generate atmosphere that permits maximum IR radiation back to space. Might get a sustainable terrestrial type clime at the higher latitudes?

Maybe we should concentrate efforts on treating fellow humans and sentient animals better. Have not seen clear evidence that insects are neurologically developed enough to consciously suffer. Not saying such evidence couldn't emerge in further research, or perhaps that consciousness arises in large colonies - a "hive mind," maybe. Perhaps the best argument for humane lab practices is that it furthers the habit of compassion in humans?

Plus one to that. Godwin himself has pointed out that sometimes parallels to Nazi Germany are called for in a discussion. Godwin's Law is observational not proscriptive. My question (why blow things up, etc) was more directed at Stringy asking if the US could have done the deed - and how I didn't see much motive for us. (I should have copy-paste his comment in my post) I agree Russia has possible motives.

So what do you want to discuss? BTW, you know that lactose free milk has been widely available for decades, right? Pretty much solved the problem back in the 70s.

Seems unlikely. Biden and SoS Blinken favor economic crowbars more than military ones when it comes to isolating Russia from energy markets. (And there's that whole WWIII thing, aways an undercurrent) Why blow things up (and possibly leave fingerprints) when Europe is buckling in for austerity and gas boycotts already? And sabotage traced to US or NATO would just feed Moscow's whole grievance narrative, risking even more entrenchment in their aggression. Here's some further coverage, which includes some prelim scientific analysis of methane release, size of explosions, and of course the usual political bristling. I posted a screenshot, too, in case you hit a paywall. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/29/nord-stream-gas-leak-methane-russia/ Screenshot -- https://archive.ph/0fUQ4

No doubt. I was just raising the point as part of wondering about the cost/benefit for a Russian actor to do such a thing, not as someone remotely near an expert on how big a project this kind of pipeline repair is. Maybe it does just involve removing a short length of pipe. In other news, the sham of annexation proceeds.... Lipavsky described the pro-Russia referendums as “theater play" and insisted the regions remain "Ukrainian territory.” Armed Russian troops at went door-to-door with election officials to collect ballots in five days of voting that produced suspiciously high margins in favor of joining Russia. Ukrainian officials said the military escorts also took down the names of residents who voted against annexation. Moscow-installed administrations in the four regions of southern and eastern Ukraine claimed Tuesday night that 93% of the ballots cast in the Zaporizhzhia region supported annexation, as did 87% in Kherson, 98% in Luhansk and 99% in Donetsk. “Under threats and sometimes even (at) gunpoint, people are being taken out of their homes or workplaces to vote in glass ballot boxes,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said at a conference in Berlin. “This is the opposite of free and fair elections,” Baerbock said. “And this is the opposite of peace. It’s dictated peace. As long as this Russian diktat prevails in the occupied territories of Ukraine, no citizen is safe. No citizen is free.” (from ABC news, this morning) https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/kremlin-regions-ukraine-folded-russia-friday-90683980

Z, These were explosions registered around N Europe on seismographs. I would speculate that they blew the bejesus out of those pipes, as the sudden drop in pressure also points to, and repair will be a largish deal. (With small workaday leaks, IIUTC, you can keep the pipeline pressurized and keep seawater out)

Great idea, Steve Anderson!! Request now!! I personally favor the University of Uttar Pradesh! Hurry!

Middle school? Old Man and the Sea. The Red Pony (an accessible Steinbeck to 13 y.o.) The Call of the Wild. Huck Finn. The Secret Garden. Lord of the Flies. Connecticut Yankee, for sure. A Wrinkle in Time. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Etc.

It is confusing, the choice to sabotage pipelines not in use. Why would Russia attack its own infrastructure - "out of spite" seems not a compelling explanation. Especially when Russia could be facing a lot of debt at the war's conclusion and desperately need renewed NG revenue. And if it's a warning to EU, it's a pretty expensive one. I'm no engineer but would guess that seawater filling a gas pipeline is probably not real good for it. That makes a bit more sense, but sure seems like a blunt instrument.

My post made more sense a couple hours ago when there was a bot post before mine. Now deleted. Dim, rest assured that the sex robots are turned off by the idea of you. Joking aside, yes the whole idea is repellent - the term sex robots implying an AI designed for one purpose. But true AGI might not want that purpose or to be limited in its career choices.

The bots are getting prettier. Which reminds me of Asimov's robot novels, which I read in high school. They were an accessible way to talk about bigotry and racism, among other things, employing the standard sci-fi device of using the future to talk about the issues of the present.

Have always liked economist David Graeber's view that debt, and the concept that people have "worth," always tends to lead to slavery in some form. The labor movement has always struggled with this. As the guy says in the folk song Sixteen Ton, "I owe my soul to the company store." Capitalism wants labor to be cheap. Which means somewhat trapped. And it's indebtedness that helps maintain that state. The first slaves shipped to the Americas were debtors. They were held by tribal chieftains to whom they were indebted, or their families were indebted, and their bodies were payments. The chieftain could either work them or sell them to European slave traders. The latter was often the simplest option, with a quick return. Fastest way to end all slavery might be a MBI and cancelling of all debt. But that's another thread perhaps.

If the exclusive mode of decay is electron capture, then the emission is a neutrino, isn't it? So not much impact in radiological terms.