Recent content by Ophiolite

Choosing not to back someone into a corner is not the equivalent of rendering them untouchable. Why do you think it is? That sounds good, but what does it mean? Intensify the sanctions? Declare and enforce a no-fly zone over Ukraine? Carry out airstrikes on Russian troops? Or, just up the rhetoric?

It is an excellent idea, if you think a nuclear winter is the best antidote to global warming.

As to your comment, my underlying point was that relief of boredom requires novelty and that novelty needs to be quite different from whatever circumstances led to the boredom. Thus having a variety of solutions offers the best chance of finding one that works. The newspaper shredding I ran...

Diversity is the solution. I choose one of the following. Dip into one of my favourite fiction works. Binge on a few episodes of favourite TV comedy (e.g. Black Adder, Big Bang, Red Dwarf) Eat chocolate Take a rolled up newspaper and pound it to shreds on a table top. It is difficult be bored...

My boxing coach told me I would do a lot better if I did more feinting and less fainting.

Ultimately all fiction is about human thought and action, ethics and decisions. The classifications we use are convenient labels to guide us towards styles and backgrounds that will explore these issues in ways that appeal to us, and help us avoid those that don't. Any fan of SF (or westerns, or...

I'm reminded of the distinction between introvert nerds and extrovert nerds: the introvert looks down at their shoes when talking to you, the extrovert looks down at your shoes.

Strawman alert. The GM model does not exclude your interest, it just limits your ability to inflict damage on the rest of society in satisfying it. You seem to favour a return to the situation in the early years of motoring where pedestrian deaths tended to be viewed as the fault of the...

That is an assessment overturned by events each time it is made. Perhaps this time will be different, but I suspect not.

This Wikipedia page purports to list all of the craters with official names. I have reviewed the lists and, unless I made an error, none of the coordinates match your craters'. So, it seems likely that they are unnamed. (Wikipedia notes that "in general, only craters that have a significant...

Indeed. Our civilisation, based as it is upon agriculture, depends upon an array of animals and plants that are - in most cases - dramtically different from their wild ancestors, while many of them would be unable to survive without human intervention. And Darwin, certainly, did not forget...

This article, from Nature Astronomy 2019, seems relevant: Enabling Martian habitability with silica aerogel via the solid-state greenhouse effect. The authors' pertinent conclusion is this: we demonstrate via experiments and modelling that under Martian environmental conditions, a 2–3 cm-thick...

I am at a loss to know how best to answer this, in part because* the answer appears to be present in the link you provide in the post. Environmental factors, in this case maternal behaviour, lead to "increased DNA methylation of the promoter of the glucocorticoid receptor gene, decreased...

But @BillTre has not asserted that natural selection is the only mechanism at work in evolution. Also involved are variation within populations, fuelled by mutations. The genes that survive and prosper are determined via natural selection, sexual selection and genetic drift. Bill, rightly I...

You appear to have ereted a strawman. I'm unaware of any reputable biologist who asserts that "natural selection is the only process that can explain all genetic changes in living organisms". Feel free to correct me by providing an appropriate citation. Genetic drift and sexual selection are...