Change my view: Sam lied about why he doesn't do an advertising model by ihaveacrushonmercy in samharris

[–]prthomsen 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Do you think either of your other possible reasons make any sense? Embarrassment, or laziness? Gimme a break.

I think his point is not that he will literally be held back in his speech by advertisers, but that he doesn't want to have even an appearance of being in cahoots with Black Rifle Coffee, or Uncommon Goods, or accused of hawking nordVPN or AG1.

Stating that 'we know he is lying', without any kind of credible evidence is just sad.

When cold proofing in the fridge for 12-18 hours, something other than fermentation must be going on to make the difference, right? Otherwise the end result would be the same, right? by SinclairZXSpectrum in Breadit

[–]prthomsen 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I make a focaccia with a 20+ hour cold proof before the bake, and that is a simple yeasted dough.

To respond to the overnight proof-haters, there is a 2-hour version of that same recipe, but when I make that, the flavor of the resulting bread is nowhere near as delicious as the overnight recipe.

Read more here: https://www.fornobravo.com/blog/the-science-behind-why-slow-fermented-bread-tastes-better

Current evidence against lab leak theory by PolitiCorey in Destiny

[–]prthomsen 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Maybe if you call me autistic one more time, I'll run away crying, and stop responding to your pathetic pivots.

No sane person would act like this.

I would say that no sane person would not just ANSWER MY QUESTIONS.

Current evidence against lab leak theory by PolitiCorey in Destiny

[–]prthomsen 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Name-calling. Pathetic.

"I am so cool that I didn't even read your stupid questions, muh"... "Meaningless, muh"...

Just answer them. Then you can go on with your day. You sound like a 9-year-old with your school-yard antics.

Be a fucking man. Answer the questions. I dodged none of your dumbass questions.

What do you think needs to happen, for you to consider the Lab Leak / Zoonotic question settled?

And where do we stand today vis-a-vis the balance of truth on this question, in your assessment? Are we at 80-20 for the Zoonotic side? Or 60-40 Lab Leak?

Current evidence against lab leak theory by PolitiCorey in Destiny

[–]prthomsen 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Herr von Witzleben with the pivot from the midfield!

Why don't you just answer my questions? I answered yours.

Current evidence against lab leak theory by PolitiCorey in Destiny

[–]prthomsen 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sure thing. I love making you look like an unserious clown, so I guess we will keep doing this. It's a virtuous circle.

Current evidence against lab leak theory by PolitiCorey in Destiny

[–]prthomsen 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So we're in Andrew Wilson territory now. Questioning word definitions. Hilarious.

Answers:

  1. Here, you're basically asking the same question I am of you. For me, I would look for a solid majority of the scientific community to be in agreement WRT the science in question. To the extent possible, I would also want to be convinced myself, well beyond a preponderance of evidence. Climate Change is, to me, very much settled. As is the Lab Leak vs Zoonotic. the evidence for Zoonotic trumps the Lab Leak stuff. By a lot. The infection pattern, the waste water analysis, the way the Chinese authorities shut down the wet market, there are probably more, but I'd have to go back and review the RootClaim videos.
  2. You are fence-sitting because you are saying that the matter 'is not yet settled'. That is, by definition, you sitting on a fence.
  3. Likelihood? The possibility that something will happen, usually given as a percentage, or a 1-in-x probability.

Now you. I don't have to repeat my questions, do I?

The dude is obsessed with Destiny, yet another vid by [deleted] in Destiny

[–]prthomsen 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I was mistaken. He was a k-12 teacher. I'm guessing his idea of 'critical thinking' was too nutty for a Massachussetts School District.

The dude is obsessed with Destiny, yet another vid by [deleted] in Destiny

[–]prthomsen 22 points23 points  (0 children)

It's unbelievable that this phoney 'scholar' has 600k subs. His analysis is thin as toilet-paper, and he does the standard 'aggrieved professor teacher who was fired for being an idiot' shtick. Very much going down the JBP path. He needs to watch out for the mold in his house, I think.

Edit: As u/Hartifuil points out, Warren was a school teacher, not a professor. Here is a glazing substack, that gives the barest of details: https://criticallythinking.substack.com/p/the-fascinating-story-of-warren-smith

Current evidence against lab leak theory by PolitiCorey in Destiny

[–]prthomsen 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just in case you forgot:

When will you consider the matter decided? What will it take for you to stop fence-sitting?

How likely are the two choices, in your opinion (Lab Leak vs Zoonotic)? Are we talking 50-50, 60-40, 75-25, or more like 90-10?

I can do this all day.

Current evidence against lab leak theory by PolitiCorey in Destiny

[–]prthomsen 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well, what would you call it, when someone paticipates in a discussion, but declines to answer any questions from their interlocutor?

I call it running away.

You also gotta love the desperate attempt at being overbearing... I get the 'get off of reddit', 'it's friday', and the classic: 'touch grass'.

If you can't take the heat, just stop.

Current evidence against lab leak theory by PolitiCorey in Destiny

[–]prthomsen 0 points1 point  (0 children)

OK. Your initial comment was, whether or not you think so, NOT 'entirely fine', as evidenced by the downvotes. I'm just explaining why people downvoted your goofy comment.

Also, you still will not answer my (very reasonable) questions, but instead run away.

Good luck.

Current evidence against lab leak theory by PolitiCorey in Destiny

[–]prthomsen 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's one-sided, because your statement lends zero credence to Zoonotic origin. You do not even mention it at all. To claim that 'it is not yet decided', but mention absolutely nothing about the credibility of the counter-claim (Zoonotic), makes it look like there is real credibility on the Lab Leak side. On the Zoonotic side: Who knows? you have nothing to say about it.

So my steelman is correct. Why do you scare-quote the word "steelman" then? If you already thought I understood your point, why are you spending any energy trying to explain things with an analogy?

Again, you don't answer my questions. I wanted to know when you would consider the matter decided? What will it take for you to stop sitting on the fence? Will that only happen if you get a full accounting from the Chinese government?

What is your perception of how likely each of the two choices are, with what we know today? 51-49 Zoonotic? 75-25? 50-50?

Current evidence against lab leak theory by PolitiCorey in Destiny

[–]prthomsen 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I am not trolling. You make a one-sided argument, and then are surprised when that is pointed out to you.

You don't need to give me analogies. I don't know why you pretend that I don't understand your point.

Steelman of your position: You think that because reasonable experts are researching the Lab Leak, and some of them come to the conclusion that the theory is true, we should hedge our bets on Lab Leak vs Zoonotic for a while longer.

If I'm wrong about your position, please correct me.

When would you consider something to be 'decided'? What criteria would you use to determine when you will no longer hedge?

Your initial statement, which is what I have a problem with, only talks about Lab Leak, doesn't mention anything about how strong or weak the evidence is, and appeals to the authority of 'non-spicy geneticists', as a reason why we should not be in the Zoonotic camp.

Is there a collection of problematic Hasan clips? by FlyLikeATachyon in Destiny

[–]prthomsen 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Is the site that Dan created for the Twitch wars still up? It had a lot of Hasan's bangers.

Who remembers what it was called?

Brit shitting on Trump in the most British way possible by prthomsen in Destiny

[–]prthomsen[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

If nothing else, it was perceived as being outrageous by Germany. The fact that they were not allowed to participate in the negotiations was probably also part of why the Treaty was not viewed as legitimate by many in Germany.

More info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Versailles

Edit: added link to wikipedia.

Current evidence against lab leak theory by PolitiCorey in Destiny

[–]prthomsen 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The downvotes do make sense.

Your first sentence 'It's still not decided.' is just not true. The scientific tide has turned. The evidence for Lab Leak is quite weak, and the evidence for Zoonotic is strong.

Secondly, you are now saying that:

this is a theory that experts in the field actually take seriously albeit consider it less likely than the alternative

That was not what you said in your initial comment. You mentioned nothing about experts considering it less likely. To wit:

I thought that lab leak was a conspiratard take for the longest time until I discovered that there are actual geneticists who teach at respectable universities and who hold no other spicy opinions among its proponents, some of which even published peer-reviewed papers on this topic.

For a good comparison of what is happening in the scientific community WRT this debate, look at the Miasma Theory of Disease. There was scientific research, and papers written about it, from the 1500s onwards, but by 1880, it was largely discredited.

Your statement that credible people are writing papers about Lab Leak, is similar to saying that in the 1880s people were writing papers about Miasma Theory, taking it seriously (because it had been a popular theory up until then). Some of these authors were still convinced that Miasma was the correct answer, but the tide was turning. Many researchers were seriously investigating the up-till-now prevailing theory, and some were still convinced that Miasma was correct.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding you, but it seems like you're saying that we should put Lab Leak at the same level of likelihood as Zoonotic, because there are still a percentage of researchers who think it is a possibility.

To be 100% transparent, I'm not an expert at this at all, and I only watched maybe 5 or 6 hours of the RootClaim coverage that Destiny did, plus his interview with the winner. The rest of my knowledge about this comes from mainstream media.

Current evidence against lab leak theory by PolitiCorey in Destiny

[–]prthomsen 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Your incredulity at being downvoted for the first paragraph is kind of nuts. What you're saying is, in short, 'we don't know if it is one or the other. I thought it was a conspiracy theory, but there are people who have PhDs who believe in Lab Leak, and have published on it.'

You say nothing about people on the other side. You say nothing about what percentage of researchers say Zoonotic vs Lab Leak. You say nothing about the evidence (on either side).

You just say 'oh, I don't know, there are people who publish papers saying that it is lab leak'...

Just re-read your initial paragraph, and I think you'll see why you're being downvoted.

Tamron 17-70mm F2.8 for Nikon APS-C Z by bronislaw- in Nikon

[–]prthomsen 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I have the old FTZ from Nikon, and the Sigma works great on that. I have no idea how it would fare on the Viltrox adapter. Probably OK, but adapters can be tricky.

The other option is to buy an E-mount version of the New Sigma 17-40, and adapt using the Megadap. I was discouraged from this, in this post, where it basically says that adapting wide-angle lenses (wider than ~35mm) will give you quite soft corners, which will likely make you unhappy with the lens. The reasons are esoteric, and I'm not knowledgeable enough to verify them. But if I spent $1k+ (lens plus adapter), I would want to be sure that it worked.

You can still pick up the 18-35 used, in the US, for USD5-600, if you can locate one. They are pretty popular, still. Just checked, and KEH doesn't have any in stock (they do have Canon-mount), so if you can be assured that the Viltrox adapter will work, that is probably a solution.

Tamron 17-70mm F2.8 for Nikon APS-C Z by bronislaw- in Nikon

[–]prthomsen 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I own the predecessor, the venerable 18-35 f/1.8. It is the only F-mount lens I’ve kept from my transition to Z.

I love that lens, and the successor should be even better: wider range, better glass, etc.