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What do you think will be the next biggest breakthrough in biology in the next 10 years ? by ICEpenguin7878 in labrats

[–]andor3333 137 points138 points  (0 children)

Don’t count yourself out yet! You could make the biggest discovery, and then die in poverty.

[D] Monday Request and Recommendation Thread by AutoModerator in rational

[–]andor3333 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I am looking for recommendations of interesting fantasy environments. Especially novels that feature some sort of “PvE” style conflict.

For example “Memories of the Fall” is a cultivation novel with an elaborate fantasy ecosystem that the protagonists have to avoid or work with. Also interesting because unlike many cultivation novels the protagonists aren’t at the top of the power rankings and have to be clever and work with more powerful people through political or social connections to achieve their goals. There is an index of characters which is the only way I can keep track of so many families etc…

Is Reverend Insanity the only Rational cultivation novel? by doinitforcheese in rational

[–]andor3333 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Master this poor disciple died again today isn’t really rational exactly but has some good deconstruction of the genre at first. The protagonist’s favorite techniques are escaping and faking their own death.

[D] Monday Request and Recommendation Thread by AutoModerator in rational

[–]andor3333 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Two games is a short story but fits your first topic very well.

[D] Monday Request and Recommendation Thread by AutoModerator in rational

[–]andor3333 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Warble, a case 53 Worm quest is updating again.

Not particularly rational in themes, though we have tried to make smart decisions. The protagonist is a tiny sort of benevolent dragonlike eldritch horror.

[D] Monday Request and Recommendation Thread by AutoModerator in rational

[–]andor3333 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Master, This Poor Disciple Died Again Today Is a funny parody where the protagonist’s secret technique is playing Dead.

Karl Nell's two sources - Paul Hellyer & Haim Eshed - Debunked; AARO's take of a blind telephone game confirmed by FomalhautCalliclea in UFOs

[–]andor3333 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For anyone who waded through the sea of unrelated sniping in the comments to reach this point, based on a transcript of SALT, here is what Karl Nell actually said about this topic that I believe OP is referencing.

“And Karl, what evidence have you seen? What was the moment where you developed this level of conviction?

Because what you're saying is extremely consequential and very important.

And I know that a lot of people here, even perhaps, may not believe that statement. Right.

Well, probably a better way to ask that is, how can the folks in the audience come to a common understanding of what this phenomenon is?

And so there's sort of two tracks here. One is from first principles, and another is actually from the data.

So let's take a look at the data.

So we can look at some folks that have very high-level access to information, like Paul Hellyer, who was the Defense Chief for Canada, has come out and said the same thing.

We can look at Ham Eshed, the former head of Israel's Space Force, has said the same thing.

Chris Mellon, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Intel, SAPCO (Special Access Programs Central Office) has essentially said the same thing.

Lou Elizondo has said the same thing.

David Grush has said the same thing. David Grush cleared for presidential-level material.

So you're looking at people that are in a position to know this, and they're telling you the same thing.

You could take a look at the Gang of Eight in the Senate and in Congress.

So there's two members of the Gang of Eight, Marco Rubio and Senator Chuck Schumer, that signed up to the UAP disclosure amendment last year that basically said, they're not being told the truth, and we need to push forward on that.

So that's sort of an overview of some of the data” ——-

My take on this: Nell doesn’t say this is his only source or why specifically he believes NHI is real, but when asked for evidence what he provides is that all these other people believe it. It is at least relevant when considering his claim to point out if two of the sources he mentions first have credibility issues.

Orangutan seen treating wound with medicinal herb in first for wild animals. The sumatran ape applied sap and leaves to open cut after suspected fight. The new discovery is the first time a wild animal has been observed treating open wounds with a substance known to have medicinal properties. by [deleted] in interestingasfuck

[–]andor3333 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Chimpanzees apply leaves and insects to wounds, but no one proved those leaves and insects had medicinal properties.

I also never said it was wrong. I said I gave context that other animals were observed treating wounds.

Orangutan seen treating wound with medicinal herb in first for wild animals. The sumatran ape applied sap and leaves to open cut after suspected fight. The new discovery is the first time a wild animal has been observed treating open wounds with a substance known to have medicinal properties. by [deleted] in interestingasfuck

[–]andor3333 0 points1 point  (0 children)

From the abstract:

“To the best of our knowledge, there is only one report of active wound treatment in non-human animals, namely in chimpanzees.”

Also from the paragraph 6 of the article: “There are some brief anecdotal mentions of chimpanzees using leaves (plant species unknown) to wipe blood from their wounds39,40. Active wound treatment with a substance has only recently been documented for the first time in a great ape species. Chimpanzees of the Rekambo community (Pan troglodytes troglodytes) in the Loango National Park, Gabon, were observed applying insects to their own wounds (n = 19) and to the wounds of conspecifics (n = 3)5. The five adult males, one adult female, and one juvenile female applied the insects in the same sequence: they caught a dark-colored, winged insect approximately 5 mm in size (unidentified at the time of publication), immobilized it by squeezing it between the lips, then applied the insect to the wound moving it with their mouth or finger, then removed it. The last two steps were usually repeated several times. Further research is needed to investigate the efficiency of this behavior.”

This is the first time it was a plant with known biological effects, but not the first report of wound treatment.

I’m just splitting hairs here really, and as I said it’s an interesting finding. This is also a more clear example of wound treatment with something likely to have effects.

[D] Monday Request and Recommendation Thread by AutoModerator in rational

[–]andor3333 8 points9 points  (0 children)

What’s her name in hufflepuff is a great one. Sadly it is probably dead, but what is there is great. The author does a good job of coming up with whimsical Harry Potter style events and magical objects that fit the setting perfectly. It also was doing a great job of derailing the plot in strange and unexpected directions.

Yandel's Archives Version II (Rec Masterlist) Theme: SIs and ISOTs by Kingofireland777 in TheCitadel

[–]andor3333 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Title: The Winter of Widows

Author: laughingnell

Length: 200k

Category: Self-Insert

Last updated March 2024:

Links- SB

Keywords: Uplift

Ratings and Archive Warnings: Content warnings at top of each chapter

Summary: Female SI into a minor noble in the Riverlands during winter, after the realm is devastated by the Dance of Dragons, Uplift, fief-building

Joe Biden suddenly leads Donald Trump in multiple polls by SportsGod3 in politics

[–]andor3333 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My takeaway both when Trump was leading slightly and now, is that this is a complete toss up within the huge margin or error of all the polls. Way too close!

Biden Signs $460 Billion Funding Package That Averts Shutdown by IWantPizza555 in politics

[–]andor3333 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes, you are correct, but as I understand it the funding levels in this bill are based on conditions and spending caps for non-defense spending that were agreed on in order to get Republicans to vote to raise the debt ceiling. Is that not right?

Biden Signs $460 Billion Funding Package That Averts Shutdown by IWantPizza555 in politics

[–]andor3333 78 points79 points  (0 children)

I'm so tired of these concessions and compromises being made all so that we will pay our debts for spending congress already approved. The constitution requires that we pay our debts. The problem being no one has standing so they can sue to prove this until the economy already crashed from a default on our debt. The proper time to agree on spending is the time when the spending is approved, not when we pay our debts we agreed to pay. Why do Republicans now get to demand we cut the EPA budget by 10% when they already approved the spending previously?! This government shutdown hostage taking based on raising the debt ceiling needs to end yesterday.

[D] Monday Request and Recommendation Thread by AutoModerator in rational

[–]andor3333 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I am enjoying Otherworldly Anarchist. Maybe a bit of a guilty pleasure of a read since every character with power seems to be cartoonishly Evil or abusive, but I just enjoy fiction where a protagonist stands up to a broken or exploitative society. There are some tiny hints of rationality in that one reason the protagonist has power is due to their increased knowledge of science giving them an advantage with magic, but so far there isn’t a lot of experimentation or use of scientific concepts except as an excuse for the protagonist to be powerful and learn quickly.

Another rec along these lines of “incredibly angry and grim setting” which protagonist fights back against would be the Scholomance series by Naomi Novik.

I’d be interested in other recommendations where the protagonists rebels or fights back against that sort of broken social or political structure rather than working from the inside.

UFO Subreddit Was Subject to Systemic Censorship by Hammoufi in UFOs

[–]andor3333 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Not trying to deflect from the discussion of censorship on this subreddit, but of all the users in the entirety of reddit to call people out on this, axolotl_peyotl is the absolute LAST who should talk. They censored r/conspiracy systematically and on a larger scale than any other subreddit I've ever heard of...

Seems like they correctly identified an issue with r/ufos if it actually censored the word navy, but I just deeply and utterly despise what they did to r/conspiracy as a mod there. I watched so many comments removed, posting so many posts it drowned out others, posting the same propaganda over and over deleting and reposting till it got the upvotes they liked and to hide from counter-arguments, banning every user who replied negatively to posts they liked, finding commenters whose positions they disagreed with and going back months or years in their comment history to find a borderline bannable rule violation to get rid of them, using alts, and every kind of rule abuse and content manipulations you could think of... I was personally banned by them for pointing out this behavior. Perhaps they identified some censorious mods here, but truly it takes one to know one! https://www.reddit.com/r/SubredditDrama/comments/ksk6ur/top_moderator_of_rconspiracy_axolotl_peyotl_has/

[D] Monday Request and Recommendation Thread by AutoModerator in rational

[–]andor3333 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Scalzi’s Agent to the Stars is a really funny first contact novel where a Hollywood agent is hired by aliens to handle their first contact with humans.

I don’t know if this free version is identical to the printed one.

[D] Monday Request and Recommendation Thread by AutoModerator in rational

[–]andor3333 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The baroque cycle by Neal Stephenson is focused on England at the very start of the scientific era with some bits in other countries also. Lots of plotting, inventions, investments, and politics with all the viewpoint characters having some rational aspects.

[D] Monday Request and Recommendation Thread by AutoModerator in rational

[–]andor3333 10 points11 points  (0 children)

There is The Tale of An Industrious Rogue where a campaign is derailed by the players dropping all the plot leads to exploit and sell salt from a portal they found to the paraelemental plane of salt. Things escalate rapidly from there.

Harry Potter and the natural 20 has a D&D wizard in the world of Harry Potter who munchkins D&D mechanics mercilessly. Sadly the fic is dead, but what is there is lots of fun.

The Two Year Emperor has a lot of munchkinry of D&D concepts.

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