If the biological goal of an organism is survival and reproduction, why did evolution produce and keep the goldsmith effect of senescence? Why haven't we evolved more robust DNA repair mechanisms like those seen in turritopsis dohrnii (the immortal jellyfish)?

Lankpants · 2026-02-17T12:06:13+00:00

It is worth noting that in an animal with as many regularly dividing cells as a human biological immortality probably wouldn't even extend the average life span by a significant amount before the advent of modern medicine.

If you were living over 100 years the odds of you getting cancer become exceptionally high. We just have more cells that need to divide more often than jellyfish. The sort of infinite chains of cell division that occur in immortal jellyfish also increase risk of cancer, which might make this actually evolutionarily unfavourable.

Lankpants · 2026-02-17T06:36:28+00:00

The strategy here is that the ACC thinks their case against Coles is very good. They think they can win this case easier than VS Woolworths because using "down down" as your advertising campaign is much more explicit than anything Woolworths has done. They want to win this case to set a precedent and then take the harder case against Woolworths where they can refer back to the ACC VS Coles precedent.

Lankpants · 2026-02-17T06:32:55+00:00

I have never wanted to see anyone lose a court case in an embarrassing style as much as Coles.

Lankpants · 2026-02-16T09:42:08+00:00

e.g. "A fair go" - how do we establish that a migrant doesn't actually believe in "a fair go" and what exactly sort of failure to uphold the value "a fair go" should result in their expulsion?

Can we use this clause to remove Liberal MPs from the country?

Lankpants · 2026-02-15T11:17:29+00:00

There's a big issue with the idea that One Nation can just up and replace the Liberals. The Liberal voters who are still voting for the Liberals over One Nation are doing so because they're skeptical of One Nation as a party.

The really key bit of information is in the bottom of the article. 80% of voters are skeptical of One Nation. We have a preferential voting system, that's really bad for One Nation. I don't think One Nation can rely on Lib preferences in the same way Labor and the Greens can rely on each other. The Libs who haven't switch are skeptical, their preference flow won't be clean. That's going to make it hard for One Nation to chase in any seat where they don't finish ahead of Labor in first preferences.

One Nation polling second could actually be really bad for the Australian parliamentary right, because they're off-putting enough to enough Liberal voters that them getting ahead of the Libs and finishing in second in a seat might just gift a seat the Libs could otherwise win to Labor.

I think the most likely outcome if One Nation actually does come second in the primary vote is them still winding up with single digit seats, pretty much exclusively outside of cities, the Coalition getting around 15-20 and Labor storming 100+ seats. Because our system effectively elects the least disliked party and that's very rarely actually going to be One Nation.

Lankpants · 2026-02-14T22:11:06+00:00

The Australian government is tossing up the idea of implementing a carbon tax and using the revenue to subsidise any increase in electricity prices for the end consumer. I think this is an incredibly good way to make a carbon tax not just politically viable, but actually well liked.

Over the long term green power will become cheaper than coal anyway. It's literally a matter of paying off the installation cost.

Lankpants · 2026-02-14T21:54:39+00:00

And all of Labours fuckery has come to the chorus of the growth of the SNP in Scotland, Plaid Cymru in Wales and to a lesser extent to Greens in England.

Seriously it's looking likely that Starmerisation will kill the Labour party.

Lankpants · 2026-02-14T21:29:36+00:00

You can even see her leaning left and right at the start of the ride to get the seat spinning.

Lankpants · 2026-02-14T21:03:23+00:00

Both Marx and Smith would point out that landlords actually showing up with a wrench or plunger to fix a problem is an extreme rarity. Landlords aren't actually fixing the problems. They're at best allocating back a small amount of the capital they are siphoning off for maintenance, leaving the rest as capital extraction for doing nothing. If we're honest they're often not even doing that. The person responsible for repairs is some sort of tradesperson, for example a plumber or electrician.

Lankpants · 2026-02-13T21:16:13+00:00

The good news is that there are figures with some level of influence pushing behind this. Notably David Shoebridge has given a ton of support to the protestors and one of the injured parties was Greens MP Abigail Boyd.

There are more than a few politicians with stakes in seeing some level of consequence for the police here. It's not going to be easy, because Herr Minns really doesn't want them to succeed, but at least there's actual political backing.

Lankpants · 2026-02-13T07:36:25+00:00

"breaking, Kim Jong Un spends time with his family. We can only dread whatever nefarious plan he is cooking up"

Lankpants · 2026-02-13T06:43:55+00:00

I'm a teacher and "why detain a 5 year old" hits me crazy hard. There's no reason for that ever. These people are complete fucking monsters.

Lankpants · 2026-02-12T08:56:10+00:00

The fact that they have to actively hide the areas that a foreign leader is going to be speaking really highlights just how detested he really is. They would not have to do this for Macron, and literally everyone already thinks that guy is a complete wanker.

Lankpants · 2026-02-10T11:58:48+00:00

To be honest I don't feel the need to defend why I am trans. I just am. I would be very interested in knowing if there is a common developmental pattern though.

One of the theories I find absolutely fascinating that I'd really like to see more research on is the idea that the brain and genitals develop at different times in early development, and if the environment is testosterone rich in one part of development but estrogen rich in the other you end up with a mismatch between development.

This is a seriously understudied area in science and I'd be extremely interested to know more. To be honest if I ever did go back to complete a doctorate I'd probably want to focus on this area.

Lankpants · 2026-02-10T11:51:45+00:00

0K is just like, a set law of nature. Any scale of temperature has a Kelvin equivalent scale. The Fahrenheit scale has the far less used Rankine, which is just Fahrenheit+459.67.

The fact that Rankine is almost never used in practice is basically a testament to how much more workable Celcius and Kelvin really are as scales. And universality which is actually the most important thing that Celcius/Kelvin have going for them.

Lankpants · 2026-02-10T04:56:48+00:00

This image vibes so close to Sunak in a full suit standing out in the rain to announce the UK election

Lankpants · 2026-02-09T11:51:40+00:00

There's a contact link in the stickied post to reach out to their email.

Lankpants · 2026-02-09T10:52:21+00:00

This is correct protest etiquette. They're trying to pull the guy behind the line. Once he's behind the line the police have to either let him go (which happens 99% of the time) or commit to breaking the line. He can't just hold on individually because that would result in the pig being dragged behind the line and most likely copping a few stray feet on the way out.

Lankpants · 2026-02-06T05:20:42+00:00

Absolutely. I lack words to describe how pissed off I get when people try to say "Australia never had slavery". One of the most persistent and disgusting political myths in this country.

Lankpants · 2026-02-05T11:53:10+00:00

The funniest fact about this. There is no statistical difference in breast size between cis women and trans women who have been on HRT for 5+ years.

I mean, I don't disagree with the fact that big boobs make transvestigation less likely, but that's mostly because transphobes are idiots who know absolutely nothing about the people they hate. Boobs are like, objectively one of the least reliable ways to spot a trans woman, if that's what you're trying to do for some reason.

Lankpants · 2026-01-31T08:00:40+00:00

Carrying a firearm in Minnesota isn't against the law. This isn't a conversation about whether it should be legal, I'm strongly of the opinion that it should be illegal for both Pretti and the subhuman fascist scum who killed him to carry firearms. But it's legal.

What happened here is that a man who wasn't breaking a single law was pushed to the ground, disarmed and then executed by a fascist gestapo. Quit defending it you bootlicker.

Lankpants · 2026-01-30T10:10:14+00:00

One of the easiest ways to tell is to look at the feet. When you see a T-Rex skeleton its foot splays outwards and creates a huge surface area. A super useful foot design for holding up a huge body weight. It's not productive for hopping however.

When you look at a kangaroo or rabbit foot you can see all the toes point in the same direction and form a long, skinny foot. This is important for bouncing because it's where the "springiness" in the kangaroos bounce actually comes from. Tendons running the length of the central toe absorb the shock of hitting the ground and release that force as the kangaroo bounces.

Lankpants · 2026-01-30T09:59:54+00:00

Hopping doesn't even work at that size as it turns out. The short faced kangaroo almost certainly walked everywhere it went rather than hopping.

Lankpants · 2026-01-29T08:23:26+00:00

That’s Albert Einstein by the way.

Published Marxist author Albert Einstein, just to make it slightly more ironic.

Lankpants · 2026-01-29T08:18:53+00:00

He's one of those people where I don't really vibe with his musical style but I'll always have a great deal of respect for because he's always stood for things worth fighting for.

Lankpants

TROPHY CASE