tingilinde

lack of post-orbital enclosures

At least in non-primate mammals.  Your cat may be annoyed.

a tip of the hat to Bryan

 

 

 

ignorant justices

By blindly following  their internal rules and those of a copper-age religion, the Supreme Court ignores solid science.  Essentially the equivalent of flat-earthers..

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Disregarding science and evidence is a terrible shift for the highest court in the land, which once safeguarded the health of the public in rulings that upheld state vaccine mandates and safe food production. This is in contrast to the way our current conservative justices have viewed COVID restrictions, whether exempting religious groups from bans on group gatherings or barring vaccine mandates for large businesses. Even in decisions that uphold basic public health tenets, conservative justices have spouted misleading scientific claims. In his dissent on the Court’s decision to not take on New York’s vaccine mandate law for health care workers, Justice Clarence Thomas laments that the workers demanding a religious exemption objected to available COVID vaccines “because they were developed using cell lines derived from aborted children,” wording that obscures that the cells were grown in a lab based on elective abortions decades ago, and also are used in the development of routine drugs.

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the covid state of affairs

BA.5 is ramping up in many countries including the US.  I just read that positivity in NYC is nearly 30% 

Mask up!

 

Comments from Katelyn Jetelina

 

a camera in a centrifuge

Some fun videos

 

x-ray crystallomancy

This is so good:-)

a tip of the hat to Roland

 

fairness > inclusion

Triathlon has come down on the side of fairness of competition.  Hopefully other sports will follow.  This seems like a good way to handle it.

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Triathlon has become the first sport in the UK to ban transgender athletes from racing in the female category at elite and grassroots level after deciding that “fairness of competition is paramount”.

Under British Triathlon’s new policy, which kicks in on 1 January 2023, transgender athletes over the age of 12 will now have to compete in an “open category” for “all individuals including male, transgender and those non-binary who were male sex at birth”.

A second “female category” will apply only “for those who are the female sex at birth”. The policy will apply to any race that is timed or has prizes

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a remarkable story

The path June Huh took to become a great mathematician.

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School was excruciating for him. He loved to learn but couldn’t focus or absorb anything in a classroom setting. Instead, he preferred to read on his own — in elementary school, he devoured all 10 volumes of an encyclopedia about living things — and to explore a mountain near his family’s apartment. He quickly became familiar with every corner of it, but he still managed to get lost, one time even ending up in an area that was restricted due to the possible presence of land mines.

He tried his best to avoid math whenever possible. His father once tried to teach him out of a workbook, but rather than try to solve the problems, Huh would copy the solutions from the back. When his father caught on and tore those pages out, Huh went to a local bookstore and wrote down the answers there. “He gave up at that point,” Huh said.

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the paramilitary arm of the republican party

The Proud Boys and Oath Keepers are nearly an arm of the Republican Party at this point.

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Far from reducing violence, the 2020 election and its aftermath heralded a step-change in the mainstream acceptance of violence as a political tool. The FBI arrested Michigan gubernatorial candidate Ryan Kelley this month after he egged on the January 6 crowd in Washington D.C. with cries of “Come on, let’s go. This is it! This is – this is war, baby”. Kelley met this winter with poll workers in Michigan alongside Michigan State Senate candidate Mike Detmer, who suggested in response to concerns about future election fraud: “be prepared to lock and load… If you ask what we can do, show up armed.” Senate candidate Eric Greitens, already facing domestic violence and sexual assault allegations from different women, now has a video showing the former Navy Seal armed and hunting “RINOS.” He encourages his supporters to do the same, given that there is “no bag or tag limit,” as he states, to killing other human beings.

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a tip of the hat to Jonathan

 

fraternity prank machines

Making a business from hazing.

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The DeMoulin Brothers were the leaders in the field of prank devices. Yet fraternal prank machines were only part or their business. They also made furniture, church furniture and pews as well as lodge furniture. They did upholstering, iron machine work and iron forgings, iron, brass and aluminum castings, art and scenic painting. They made swords, jewelry, uniforms, caps and gowns, head gear of all kinds, costumes, regalia, badges and button novelties and much more.

To promote their business they followed the Montgomery Ward model of marketing later adopted by Sears & Roebuck – print and distribute sophisticated, professionally designed, artistic and detailed catalogs. Instead of the radio, TV and Internet advertising of today, DeMoulin sent out catalogs everywhere. For the most popular fraternal societies there were specific catalogs for each order. Then there was the “Burlesque and Side Degree Specialties, Paraphernalia and Costume” catalog for everybody. The first catalog was printed in 1895 for the Modern Woodmen of America. The last prank catalog was printed in 1930.

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something to look for in the summer

At least the xkcd version.