If thou gazest long into the Pit, the Pit will also gaze into thee

Strawkins, I wanted to ask you in particular your thoughts on Peezy's February presentation where he, among other things, takes a big piss on ENCODE as he likes to do: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVZb1B36TDg If you don't want to bother with watching an hour of Myers talking I completely underst...

.... Well as Gabriel and Steers note, there really is no sexual dimorphism any more .... How do you get that from what either I or Gabriel were saying? He at least said "male/female" aren't "things" and I kind of think he has a bit of point. Can you point to a male (or female) without having a set ...

Patient, 60, Says Nurse, 33, Forced Sex On Him

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/ ... uit-785643

#TeachWomenNotToRape

Scare you? I am asking if you honestly believe that a McCain presidency and possible Palin presidency would have been better for the country. Ditto a Romney one. I don't fear a Palin presidency. Cuz without a super-majority, she'd be forced to introduce Democratic-type legislation, amirite? Way I f...

etc etc etc ... these are fairly well established scientific positions now ... the left vs right really does exist ... and there are real differences in the brain between the groups (and the shades of grey in between) The problem with SJWs / GMT conspiracy theorists/ anti-vaxxers ... is essentially...

The right is founded on individualism, the left is obsessed with squashing it. That's why their big tent always falls over. That may be how the right would portray themselves, but the reality is that the right trends to conformity and authority, the left to individualism and anarchy The problem wit...

Shhh. Believe the victim. Miri is victim of apologizing too much, and a victim of being apologized TO, too much. Don't tell women not to apologize or be apologized to too much, tell men not to apologize too much and not be apologized to. Except when they need to apologize to women. Problem? Yep. Te...

Ironic that Miri should report having such trouble with men constantly over-apologizing to her, when women are the ones w/ that reputation. See, for example: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/10417202/The-nine-things-women-cant-stop-saying-sorry-for.html?placement=CB4 Over-apologising am...

I see what you mean. Murder is murder and rape is rape is technically true. However, I believe that is too literal an interpretation of the words. As you say, we judge the circumstances around the crimes. I don't think that it's a stretch to assume that when someone says that, for instance, some ra...

So one common theme in feminism is that women make less money than men because...they're women. It's discrimination, right? I mean, don't they work just as hard as men, on average? Well, the Bureau of Labor Statisitcs (I'm sure just another are of teh Patriarchy), disagrees. Here is the link and as ...

Awww, we should be nice to PZ right now I suppose; he's laid up in hospital with a swollen knee: http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2014/07/16/there-goes-my-pro-football-career/#comments My only knee problems have been related to quadriceps tendonitis, readily alleviated by stretching routines ...

And suggesting that "Oh you can just take the money out of the military's budget" would be a solution, is an indicator of just how little you've seen the government "at work". If it were that simple to convert from "Wartime" to "Peacetime", then yeah, it would be a solution. Unfortunately the convo...

Has anyone come across this before: http://www.vocativ.com/underworld/crime ... -guy-rape/

It is quite interesting.

@eucli Start here: Bodyrecomposition.com I've eaten less than 400 a day for the last 3 months. Get weak and faint sometimes so I refeed once a week 1k calories. Am generally not very hungry eating one can tuna and a handful of almonds per day. I drink lots of diet soda to help with appetite I don't...

piginthecity wrote:
BillHamp wrote: Just to be an asshole, I'm going to point out that the first one is wearing a Tribly ...
Is that what you wear when you listen to heavy metal, Bill ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAF1eELjxzM

Absolutely. That and any time I have tea with the Queen and we listen to metal together.

http://37.media.tumblr.com/95d0e20025d031ddd202ac6ac694aa34/tumblr_n364vz8wqu1ryeto5o1_1280.jpg This did the rounds on a generic (not atheist) anti-SJW tumblr account I keep an eye on. Zinnia really does sound like a hate-filled bigot. The tumblr account owner joked that the tweets were more than a...

Okay kids, help me out here. Because I'm an evil bastard I maintain a online shopping dating profile that, in moments of bored cynicism I tend to tweak. I have found, not surprisingly, that I get more responses the taller and richer I am, everything else being equal. I can get total crickets if I a...

There are also some people who really do believe that 'consent' for sex means 'informed consent' - as in being promised that sex would lead to marriage is their informed consent. If the marriage fails to materialize down the line then the consent they gave was therefore not 'informed' - and therefo...

What's EA? Electronic Arts - perhaps the worst game publisher in the market. The company is reviled by gamers everywhere for draconian digital rights management (DRM), expensive downloadable content (DLC) necessary to play a game through to its end, and creatgin unimaginative games. They are so lar...

What "independent agency"? There's no such thing, it's literally quite impossible to be truly independent. So right there, fail. My point was that if you can get to agencies/groups/people with conflicting objectives to agree on the stats, then you can be more confident that they are accurate. Of co...

She has fibromyalgia which keeps getting worse as she gets older. Nasty disease. I do not recommend it to anyone. She has constant muscle pain. The Lyrica/Cymbalta combo knocks it down to a reasonable level on most days. She is only at 100% for about five hours a day. If she is active for a full te...

My wife can barely handle two drinks a night (but I also blame the Lyrica she is on). Lyrica is an alpha-2 binding agent, causing dizziness, drowsiness, double vision, ataxia, etc by depressing calcium release in nerves. In other words, it directly mimics the effects of alcohol even though it works...

My wife can barely handle two drinks a night (but I also blame the Lyrica she is on). Lyrica is an alpha-2 binding agent, causing dizziness, drowsiness, double vision, ataxia, etc by depressing calcium release in nerves. In other words, it directly mimics the effects of alcohol even though it works...

You're right, it's not perfect, but on the whole, the problems that local city politics can cause with purely local stats are less of a problem at the state and federal level. I see your point, but I don't think it changes the reliability of the stats overall. Local city politics have problems that...

The federal or state stats tend to be more reliable, as they're looked at more closely by more people. Most federal/state stats are collected directly from local authorities, so I don't think you can make the claim that they are more reliable. The idea that having more hands on it makes it more rel...

Get that, vegans? There's no embryos. There's no murder involved. Female chickens kept away from rapey roosters just routinely shit spit out lifeless protein encased in an enamel shell that they have no use for but that we find tasty. Peezed that for you. Sunder is quite right regarding embryo vers...

Oh fuck off. We give the bitches all the help we can - titty x-rays and cunt probes - and now they tell us that all this free and life-saving screening is sexist. Fuck you, and fuck your titties, and fuck your cervix. (Sorry, Clarence, that wasn't directed at you). http://i.imgur.com/U9mUNpZ.png An...

In other news: Inconvenient questions are inconvenient. https://twitter.com/Ellesun/status/467559440128827392 Yeah, I'd like a citation as well because there is no way to know if this ramdom and untethered factoid is the result of gender bias, because girls talk more than boys, or some other factor...

https://twitter.com/SurlyAmy/status/463400420514086912 Already setting the stage so she can preach about how she was the tough-love friend who tried to intervene on Anders for the inevitable moment that her drinking finally lands her in trouble. That's the power of twitter right there. Even if she ...

Here's how I feel about gun culture in the US: guns are in more abundance in the US than it is in Canada, but the disparity of gun related deaths between the two is through the roof. When the peacekeepers of the nation is unable to control their impulses, where they immediately reach for their fire...

Look, I don't give a shit if trench warfare has evolved or basic NATO training has changed over the past 26 years. I also don't want to be dragged into a pointless "I know more about guns than you, therefore guns are good" non-sequitur. If your argument amounts to denying assault rifles are deadlie...

You cannot have inherited germline mutations without evolution. Everything comes down to the last line you have written. You can have germline mutation without evolution, the key is inheritance, which is what I have been arguing all along. It doesn't matter that the mutations CAN be passed, only th...

OK, back to you. We've agreed that Futuyma's definition is the one we will use in this discussion. Let's stick to this for further discussions and not try to mix it up with other definitions (such as 'Darwinian Evolution' - a more limited theory that modern evolutionary biologists have realized is ...

I won't comment on the group/kin selection question because I tend to slip into a coma just thinking about that topic, but I think I should address questions of whether mutations are the same as evolution. On this question I think most molecular geneticists would agree with windy. As she mentioned ...

Wait. You didn't bother to read the whole thread and now you are Just Asking Questions? FLOOSH. But seriously. As Bill has now admitted, his definition was wrong, because not all phenotypic change is caused by genetic factors (see my dandelion example). Another example is the Flynn effect, or the s...

I told you I was done addressing multiple points in one post, so I'll focus on the last you made. Your citation is from an intro bio class, where they simplify and generalize and never explain the full nuance of concepts. You also conflate two concepts, founder effect and drift, but we'll ignore th...

If anything, this has taught us all that understanding evolution is difficult, at best. Yes, even two of the best, Wilson and Dawkins, have been arguing about it for years now. Before that it was Coyne and Gould, and so on and so forth. They've all been quite nasty at times, but I'll wager that it ...

You are quite correct about the "founder effect" and yet also quite wrong. The error is in thinking that the founder effect makes it possible for negative mutations to become predominant. It does no such thing. It can allow a previously rare allele to become more predominant, but only if it note se...

You may be right about the pub and brew, but I'm inclined to think that Jan is simply angry that I chose to criticize how evolution is explained and referred to by biologists. Rather than argue a concept, Jan simply introduces new terms. Each time I explain why the first term does not, in fact, mea...

Believe only the argument that makes sense. Jan Steen and I have disagreed, at least partially, as a result of trying to address too many points at one time. Jan is write to point out that "a phenotypic change at the population level" is not an accurate defintion of evolution. I wrote that in a hur...

Believe only the argument that makes sense. Jan Steen and I have disagreed, at least partially, as a result of trying to address too many points at one time. Jan is write to point out that "a phenotypic change at the population level" is not an accurate defintion of evolution. I wrote that in a hur...

I won't comment on the group/kin selection question because I tend to slip into a coma just thinking about that topic, but I think I should address questions of whether mutations are the same as evolution. On this question I think most molecular geneticists would agree with windy. As she mentioned ...

You may be right about the pub and brew, but I'm inclined to think that Jan is simply angry that I chose to criticize how evolution is explained and referred to by biologists. Rather than argue a concept, Jan simply introduces new terms. Each time I explain why the first term does not, in fact, mea...

You're wrong. Did you want to elaborate on that or is this the "assertions without support or evidence stand as facts in and of themselves" argument? If you insist: http://slymepit.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?p=166370#p166370 Argument from authority. Coyne argues that group selection isn't a great way ...

Who do you want a citation from and on what topic? Further, what is your beef with Gould and Wilson? I'd be interested to hear both. I got my cite and about to read it (see above). I do not have a beef with Wilson just dubious (probably related to a lack of comprehension on my part) but Gould was a...

I'd happily concede if I were wrong, as E.O. Wilson did regarding kin selection (not group selection), but so far I haven't been wrong. It happens to me often enough that I know what it looks like to be wrong, I simply am not when it comes to my discussion (which devolved into an argument) with Jan...

I'd happily concede if I were wrong, as E.O. Wilson did regarding kin selection (not group selection), but so far I haven't been wrong. It happens to me often enough that I know what it looks like to be wrong, I simply am not when it comes to my discussion (which devolved into an argument) with Jan...

Just want to take a moment to say that there are so many posts here that I appreciate, whether informative or funny or very pointed or whatnot. It would be nice to acknowledge them all but it would make the 'Pit twice as long (and that "Thanks!" button we tried for a while was a big no-go). Anyway,...

Trigger warning: misogyny What is the deal with women and thermostats? If they are chilly, they turn it up to 90. Then, when they get too hot, they turn it down to 50. We need more women in STEM, so that more of them understand control systems. :cdc: :bjarte: Fuck. My wife and kids are the same way...

Bless your heart, you think they're the only people making CPUs. Ignorance is so cute. ARM (do you own a phone or other embedded device? You have at least one of these) IBM HP Qualcomm many, many others. tsk tsk and I did say x86. Even with these others types and companies Intel still holds 60% or ...

If I write "the sun will rise tomorrow" you are probably going to object. After all, the sun doesn't move, it's the earth spinning around its axis that causes the illusion that the sun moves. Are you an astronomer? Astrophysicist? Cosmologist? If so, I would expect you to be more accurate in your d...

The truth is simpler than that. The BBC is effectively the broadcast wing of the Guardian, with the Guardian being the house organ of the BBC. The two exchange staff and resources at a hideously inbred-rate. Marcotte et al were big chums with the Guardian, and hence now with the BBC... because they...

One of these assholes has a parent, friend, lover, or patron at the BBC. They have to. THe issue simply isn't that big that it warrants the kind of coverage the BBC gives it. What is more, they always go to interview people who are on the fringes of the debate. They never pull in people with real d...

I take it you're not a biologist? B.S. - Biology M.D. "They say things like, turtles developed hard shells to protect themselves from preditors[sic]. You hear this all the time from biology professors and it is dead wrong." It's just a concise way of saying what you claim is more accurate: "The acc...

I've done a lot of work in epigenetics over the years - it's important in cancer development, my main field of study. My first paper published involved a new technique in identifying epigenetic changes/differences and just yesterday I submitted a revised paper to PlosGenetics which involves this to...

I notice Amanda Marcotte's made it into a BBC story: http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-26471629 The hashtag #LiesToldByFemales has topped the trending charts in America - and caused the backlash you might expect. "The topic is... #LiesToldByFemales Lets go!" posted an American on Tuesday night...

Hmm, I was right: http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/06/us/massachusetts-upskirt-ban/index.html Soon as the Governor signs it -which will probably be Friday or Monday - this will be law. Clearly, they have their priorities straight. Massachusetts can't do certain things, like balance the damn transportatio...

Sounds a lot like Epigenetics In biology, and specifically genetics, epigenetics is the study of heritable changes in gene activity that are not caused by changes in the DNA sequence; it also can be used to describe the study of stable, long-term alterations in the transcriptional potential of a ce...

After almost 5 months of quiet, the "Are the moderators here censorious, capricious and biased" thread at A+ forum has erupted again. Nok Lek started it by announcing her departure. She didn't flounce & wasn't banned; she simply left after posting this: Postby Nok Lek Â» Sun Mar 02, 2014 8:36 am I ...

Matt, come on in, the water is lovely this side of the "decency" police, plus the only people reading your tweets from now on will be your fellow slymers, as all the decent human beings will have your hate speech blocked from their precious ears by the glorious cornoolio. Let him stay on that side ...

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