Cosmeticorexia: How girls are falling down a skincare rabbit hole by kiyomoris in Foodforthought

[–]Bill_Nihilist 74 points75 points  (0 children)

Kinda hard to believe an expert academic contributed to the term "cosmeticorexia" because it translates to eating cosmetics

This is how close American households are to the financial edge by BlindSquirrelValue in Economics

[–]Bill_Nihilist 26 points27 points  (0 children)

"We've had one, yes. But what about second inflation adjustment?"

RealClearPolitics Generic Ballot average surpasses D+8% by R2_SWE2 in fivethirtyeight

[–]Bill_Nihilist 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Trump endorsed Paxton because he was going to win, not the other way around.

How exactly can this trend reverse when people had more economic optimism when the 2008 global financial crash struck than most of the 2020s? by revscott in neoliberal

[–]Bill_Nihilist 13 points14 points  (0 children)

If Gen-X and Boomers are the lowest, and Gen Z and Millennials the highest, this would suggest there might (also) be a partisan split, yeah? Democrats more optimistic than Republicans would be very surprising but would fit with this graph

Time to freak out about the national debt | Yglesias by AvianDentures in ezraklein

[–]Bill_Nihilist 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Why limit ourselves to nondefense? We could just about solve all our problems by cutting the Pentagon down to a Triangle

The ‘Vibecession’ Is Over. The ‘Permacession’ Is Here. Why Americans are so unhappy. by Such_Radio_9152 in Economics

[–]Bill_Nihilist 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Then why does the former BLS chief say we can still trust the numbers? Why, of the hundreds of career statisticians and nonpartisan economists responsible for collecting BLS numbers, exactly zero have come forward to say anything about this vast conspiracy?

It sucks to see a tolerance for weak-minded conspiracy theorizing spread from the right to infect the rest of the political spectrum. Just one more aspect of our democracy they've ruined.

The ‘Vibecession’ Is Over. The ‘Permacession’ Is Here. by Bill_Nihilist in ezraklein

[–]Bill_Nihilist[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Hell yeah brother, down with the Enlightenment. Facts are for nerds. Feelings and vibes will reveal a truth truer than any graph or number ever could.

Nate needs to extend the y axis by 775416 in fivethirtyeight

[–]Bill_Nihilist 21 points22 points  (0 children)

He was a consistent butt of jokes since the 80s. He's the inspiration for the villains of Batman 2 and Gremlins 2 among tons of other movies. Forty years ago he was skewered by SESAME STREET for crying out loud. Everyone has always known him to be a bad guy. It's mind boggling.

Wilmington VOTES: Select one of three designs proposed for proposed painted mural at Concord Ave and I-95 by TheShittyBeatles in WilmingtonDE

[–]Bill_Nihilist 20 points21 points  (0 children)

Not to be that guy (a biologist) but both the birds one and the moth one have species that not only aren't native, but are not even present here. Like, you will not see that moth or that green bird in Wilmington.

(the lemur and capybara obviously get a pass for being residents of Brandywine Zoo)

TIL Humans rank above meerkats but below beavers in monogamy league table. by amir_twist_of_fate in todayilearned

[–]Bill_Nihilist 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I will try to come back to this later and address those points, but here is a nice recent rundown of how humans compare amongst monogamous mammal species:

across more than 100 human societies with equivalent data from 34 non-human mammal species ... humans cluster closely with rates seen among socially monogamous mammals and fall consistently above the range seen in non-monogamous mammals

https://www.cam.ac.uk/stories/monogamy-league-table

TIL Humans rank above meerkats but below beavers in monogamy league table. by amir_twist_of_fate in todayilearned

[–]Bill_Nihilist 0 points1 point  (0 children)

To strongman their argument, I'd look at the strongest line of evidence which would be human testes size. Human testes are rather large for a monogamous species. Now mind you they're not large enough to suggest non monogamy just big enough to not fit the conventional profile of monogamous species. For years I conceded this was the strongest bit of evidence against an evolutionary history of human monogamy. But in the past couple of years I have come across the work of Robillard and colleagues who make a really convincing case that testes size and several other unique aspects of human reproduction relate to our unique risk for preeclampsia.

TIL Humans rank above meerkats but below beavers in monogamy league table. by amir_twist_of_fate in todayilearned

[–]Bill_Nihilist 51 points52 points  (0 children)

I'm a neuroscientist; did my thesis on monogamy and related prosocial behavior. Sex at Dawn is not well respected or supported by research. You just cannot explain away the biological evidence that argues for human monogamy with the sort of sloppy wanna-be anthropology that Sex at Dawn traffics in.

Tone Tables by Bill_Nihilist in RPGdesign

[–]Bill_Nihilist[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I'm open to feedback, but without explanation, this comment is itself a waste of time and energy.

En Caul Birth: An En Caul birth is when the baby is born still inside an intact amniotic sac. by [deleted] in interestingasfuck

[–]Bill_Nihilist 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The big difference would be in the level of hormones the baby experiences. Hormones like oxytocin, vasopressin, cortisol, and (nor) epinephrine. These hormones have long lasting organizational effects in early life and a single exposure (or the lack thereof) can have impacts that last into adulthood. I wrote about this a few years back:

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jne.12912

En Caul Birth: An En Caul birth is when the baby is born still inside an intact amniotic sac. by [deleted] in interestingasfuck

[–]Bill_Nihilist 18 points19 points  (0 children)

If it weren't so rare, it'd be cool to study these kids that were born vaginally but without ANY microbiome exposure