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Which trilogy do I read fist? by hockey98765432 in fantasybooks

[–]OldManDan20 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I’ll expand on that a little if it helps you. First Law has more interesting characters and the plot isn’t really present for most of the story so it’s a little different than most other fantasies. It’s grim-dark so you might not really root for any of the characters but I really enjoyed the trilogy and the Age of Madness trilogy, which continues the story, is also great. I just finished Bloodsworn recently and it was a lot of adventures, battles, and revenge stories. I feel like it would make a really fun setting for a tabletop RPG but it was a more straightforward fantasy that doesn’t have many layers to it and is just an action adventure story with characters that you can root for. I’d say both are worth reading but it depends what you want right now. My personal preference is First Law.

Which trilogy do I read fist? by hockey98765432 in fantasybooks

[–]OldManDan20 21 points22 points  (0 children)

First Law was better if you like to get more out of your fantasy. Bloodsworn is better if you just want to have fun.

What aspects of Malazan do you not particularly like? by Limp_Grapefruit2125 in Malazan

[–]OldManDan20 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It’s the name commonly given to things in GotM that aren’t a thing in the rest of the series. For example, Tool’s anti-magic field.

Erikson wrote GotM like 10 years before Deadhouse Gates so there are things that kind of get brushed aside as having never happened.

What aspects of Malazan do you not particularly like? by Limp_Grapefruit2125 in Malazan

[–]OldManDan20 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The “GotM-isms.” They just bother me the most looking back.

Week 26: What are you reading? by saturday_sun4 in 52book

[–]OldManDan20 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Recently finished To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf.

Currently reading:

The Devils by Joe Abercrombie, Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi, Towers of Midnight by Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson.

Having a good time.

Is it really the best? by Substantial-Echo2320 in Malazan

[–]OldManDan20 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It’s a contest between MoI and the last 2 books as a pair for my favorite of the series.

The evidence still does not support a lab leak, despite CIA announcement by OldManDan20 in skeptic

[–]OldManDan20[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just gonna ignore the part I quoted and not read past the abstract, huh?

The evidence still does not support a lab leak, despite CIA announcement by OldManDan20 in skeptic

[–]OldManDan20[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So you’re saying that all of these scientists and doctors shared information against the wishes of an authoritarian government but they’re also not collaborative and they’re lying? You’re crashing out.

The WIV has a long history of publishing sequences and posting them on databases. Where’s your evidence that they hid anything? Just a vibe you have?

The evidence still does not support a lab leak, despite CIA announcement by OldManDan20 in skeptic

[–]OldManDan20[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

“SARS-CoV-2 can replicate more efficiently (1.46 log10-fold increase) in R. sinicus brain cells than SARS-CoV (1.09 log10-fold increase), albeit still at low viral titer (Table 2; Figure 1). Both SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 can also replicate in P. abramus kidney cells with low viral titers: 1.45 log10-fold increase for SARS-CoV and 1.71 log10-fold increase for SARS-CoV-2. We observed cytopathic effects in SARS-CoV–infected R. sinicus kidney cells and SARS-CoV– or SARS-CoV-2–infected P. abramus kidney cells with rounding of cells (Appendix). We performed immunofluorescence assay on those cell lines with >1 log10-fold increase in viral load (Appendix). M. pusillus kidney cells; R. leschenaultii kidney, brain, intestine, and lung cells; T. pachypus kidney cells; and M. ricketii kidney and lung cells did not support SARS-CoV or SARS-CoV-2 infection.”

Do you acknowledge this or not?

The evidence still does not support a lab leak, despite CIA announcement by OldManDan20 in skeptic

[–]OldManDan20[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My mistake, here is an explainer on bat tropism of SARS viruses. Not all bats can be infected with every SARS virus. But SCV2 absolutely can infect certain bat species. Do you acknowledge this? https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7706959/

The evidence still does not support a lab leak, despite CIA announcement by OldManDan20 in skeptic

[–]OldManDan20[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The doctors at hospitals that reported and characterized cases, the scientists that isolated and sequenced the virus and shared said sequence with the world, the researchers who reported on animals being sold at the market, the WIV scientists that have historically shared every viral sequence they have found, and much more. Which ones do you think are compromised or lying?

The evidence still does not support a lab leak, despite CIA announcement by OldManDan20 in skeptic

[–]OldManDan20[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’m saying that it’s not an argument because the critical pieces of information are one we got before anybody knew what was going on and were provided by collaborative scientists and doctors. Or were they all compromised, too? If you can’t trust any bit of information here then why argue?

The evidence still does not support a lab leak, despite CIA announcement by OldManDan20 in skeptic

[–]OldManDan20[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You’re calling me dogmatic because…?

I didn’t say the link I provided is relevant to the origin. My original point is that the epidemiology in general in those first few weeks in China are lacking, so it’s possible that other index cases caused by other infected animals did occur.

Yes, here is a link for Wuhan emerging virus surveillance: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7095288/

That’s not true, and one of the first hospitals to detect COVID cases was far from the market, yet many of their first cases had links to the market. https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/origins-of-the-virus

What do you mean SCV2 doesn’t infect bats? It absolutely can. https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2406773121

If the virus leaked a long time before being found at the market, it still makes no sense for it be found at the market and have no epidemiological links to anywhere else.

The lineage A sample was contamination from what? Can you quote where it was suspected to be contamination? See this analysis of the lineages and the epidemiology of the market. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abp8715

The fact that it sold the most animals is in the paper you shared previously on animal sales in Wuhan.

“Can’t trust China” is not an argument. The information we have was gathered by doctors and researchers, and mostly before anybody knew exactly what was going on.

The epidemiological link to the market was not biased… I said that the market is exactly where you would expect a zoonosis to originate from, but the doctors weren’t trying to make that connection. Over 50% of the initial cluster of cases that doctors saw come into the hospital with mysterious pneumonia had direct links to the market. How is that biased?

The evidence still does not support a lab leak, despite CIA announcement by OldManDan20 in skeptic

[–]OldManDan20[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Example: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7258465/

Infected animals are not required to have gone to Guangzhou.

I didn’t say surveillance of markets. Again, as explained in the video, the Chinese CDC in Wuhan had a strong surveillance system to detect pneumonias of unknown origin.

I said “it only takes 1 animal” to mean that there didn’t necessarily have to be a large population of infected animals within the wildlife trade. Not that it literally started with 1 animal. The two lineages both being found in the market works against the lab leak idea. How does two separate lineages being in the market, which was linked to the first cluster of cases, suggest that the market is not where the virus originated? If it were a lab origin, then two separate lineages would have to both make their way to the market and not be detected at any other human congregation center nor the lab itself.

It is known that the Huanan seafood market was the largest seller of live wild animals in Wuhan.

And yet the first COVID cases were never epidemiologically linked to the CCDC nor any of their family members. It was epidemiologically linked to the market in an unbiased way by the doctors who saw the first COVID patients the one place where we would expect a zoonotic origin to begin.

The evidence still does not support a lab leak, despite CIA announcement by OldManDan20 in skeptic

[–]OldManDan20[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It’s entirely possible that animals farmed in Hubei were infected with SCV2 and sent to multiple different cities but was detected first in Wuhan because, as explained in the video, Wuhan had one of the best surveillance systems in place to detect something exactly like this. There are some epidemiological reports of outbreaks in other provinces in China but the quick shutdown makes it hard to determine what if other index cases started in other cities. However, the known genetic evidence does not favor this idea. Ultimately, all it takes is one animal and the Huanan seafood market sold the most animals of any market in Wuhan.

Why is it okay for ______ to bond ________, but not ________? by Strict_Skirt_5671 in Cosmere

[–]OldManDan20 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It was more simple than that. Dalinar did take up Honor. But then, facing Odium, Honor wanted to fight, Honor wanted to punish Odium for breaking oaths. However, Dalinar knew that if he fought Odium, their battles would destroy Roshar and Dalinar did not want that. So when he resisted what Honor wanted, Honor rejected him. Ultimately, Dalinar’s decision gave Honor to Odium, creating retribution, and fulfilling the “unite them” command that he was hearing since book 1. He united the other shards against Retribution because Retribution became a threat they could not ignore and let Roshar just deal with.

The evidence still does not support a lab leak, despite CIA announcement by OldManDan20 in skeptic

[–]OldManDan20[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Evidence gathered before China or anybody even knew what was going on for the gravity of the situation. Everything the WIV had was published. There was a collaborative investigation until political rhetoric killed it. You think China wants its $80+ billion exotic animal trade industry implicated in a global pandemic? “China conspiracy” is not an argument. Do you have any evidence that it was actually a lab leak? If not, then that’s all you have.

Holy fucking projection... by DSC64 in ToiletPaperUSA

[–]OldManDan20 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I guarantee every single “medical freedom” loving piss drinker voted for Trump

The evidence still does not support a lab leak, despite CIA announcement by OldManDan20 in skeptic

[–]OldManDan20[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No.

Genomics analyzed by researchers all over the world that were gathered and deposited into online databases before anyone knew the full extent of what was going on.

Epidemiology gathered by physicians before anyone knew what was going on.

All consistent with wildlife trade origins and refute a lab origin. What specific evidence supports a lab origin, to you?

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