NielsBohron

NielsBohron , 2 months ago

There are a few surprises here, tbf. I had no idea that Pentagram was Turkish (although, maybe it's a different Pentagram). I kinda remembered that Sepultra that was Brazilian, but I'm not really a fan, so I had mostly forgotten.

NielsBohron , 2 months ago (edited 2 months ago)

I wish this was true for me, but I only have one record shop within 45-minute drive of my house (and their prices and selection are far from competitive), so I wind up buying pretty much all my records online through Discogs. Frequently, the new represses are just flat-out cheaper than the vintage vinyl, especially for a lot of the more esoteric albums I buy. For instance, even though they're not really hard to find, for Black Sabbath's first four albums I paid just as much for mediocre, water-damaged copies of Sabbath and Volume 4 as I did for brand-new represses of Paranoid and Master of Reality. If you actually buy your vinyl to listen to, buying used online can be a pretty big gamble as far as quality, so for the same price, I frequently wind up consciously choosing the new vinyl over the used copy.

Even though I do frequently manage to package one or two cheap used albums with each new album purchased to take advantage of that sweet "media mail" shipping, it's not even close to a 10:1 used:new ratio.

Edit: I suppose now that I think about it, I'm starting from a pretty decent used vinyl collection from my days in the early 2000's as a hipster music snob before used vinyl got nearly so expensive, so my collection overall has much more used vinyl than my current buying habits would indicate (I probably have 200 albums, of which 30-40 were purchased new in the past 3-4 years)

NielsBohron , 2 months ago

Even though weed is legal in Canada the legal stuff is the worst and most expensive.

Give it time. I'm far from a connoisseur, as these days I mostly just partake in edibles 1-2 times per week, but California has some pretty sweet weed prices, at least compared to my college/grad-school days. I saw an ad on a billboard just yesterday for 10 USD Eighths at a pretty reputable shop in my town, and I think I usually pay 35 USD for a pack of 10 2-dose THC:CBD gummies (compared to 40 USD for an eighth of mediocre bud in the early 2000's).

As people get less paranoid about enforcement and local governments ease up on restrictions, the price should come down and the quality should go up (although this probably depends a lot on local government, so who knows, really)

NielsBohron , 2 months ago

What the fuck kind of snakes do you have living around you?

NielsBohron , 2 months ago

I'm all for science, but I don't want to risk her coming back. The safest plan is to use fire and acid. I don't know if it's necessary, but fire and acid will finish off all manner of villains.

NielsBohron , 2 months ago

In his memoir I, Asimov, Isaac Asimov wrote chapters about his contemporaries and apparently Heinlein was notorious for changing his political convictions based on who he was married to/sleeping with at the time. Hence, free-love hippie in Stranger in a Strange World and boot-licking war-hawk in Starship Troopers.

NielsBohron , 2 months ago

Interesting, thanks for the info

No problem! Obviously, I like talking about this stuff. And if you're interested, I'd also recommend reading the whole book. It's pretty fascinating, although in his reminiscing and pontificating, Asimov does get a little "get off my lawn" for my taste at times.

great name! I found a first edition of his in a basement bookstore in Switzerland as a teen. Totally random, I know.

Thanks! And it's not too random, I'd say; we're in a sci-fi forum talking about historical sci-fi writers, many of whom were also trained as scientists, after all.

NielsBohron , 3 months ago

I'm pretty sure it's from from the Latin word for book, liber and has nothing to do with "free"

NielsBohron , 3 months ago

I'm pretty sure it's from the Latin word for book, liber, and has nothing to do with "free"

NielsBohron , 3 months ago

Yes, they just lack morals and empathy.

NielsBohron , 3 months ago (edited 3 months ago)

Need to make a new compound? Use a carcinogen

Liquid/liquid extraction? Carcinogen

Neutralize a reactive compound? Carcinogen

Clean your glassware? Believe it or not, carcinogen.

Chemists have the most applicable skills of any science majors, and it's all because of carcinogens.

NielsBohron , 3 months ago

So much has happened in the 5 decades since the 2016 election...

NielsBohron , 3 months ago

A clear example of Poe's Law at work

NielsBohron , 3 months ago

It's a common problem with lots of classic sci-fi authors. Heinlein, Asimov, Philip K Dick, Larry Niven etc. are all terrible at writing believable dialogue and compelling characters. There are some exceptions, but most of their characters are cardboard cutouts so they have a way to move along a story or give exposition about the ideas.

The Expanse did a pretty good job with characterization (in the books), and Kim Stanley Robinson is decent (but is still pretty "hit or miss," IMHO), but in general, the weakest part of sci-fi writing is almost universally characterization and dialogue.

NielsBohron , 3 months ago

I think there are some editions of the second book done by Ken Liu, aren't there? I haven't read it yet, but I got a copy from a used book shop, and remember thinking that it was the same translator. At least, I thought I thought it was...now I've gotta go home and check

NielsBohron , 3 months ago (edited 3 months ago)

Magnets...

Edit: I just saw that OP's diagram below actually had a magnet labeled; I'm not sure how I missed that last time.

NielsBohron , 3 months ago

Lordy, I hope there's tapes

NielsBohron , 3 months ago

WHere do you live? I know in the western US, we have lots of hawks that are notably larger than either of these two (but then, I'm not an ornithologist, or even a real bird-watcher, so who knows)

NielsBohron , 3 months ago

Jokes on you, OP's job is parroting things that were scraped off the internet!

NielsBohron , 3 months ago

Now I want to see a character that is essentially Ron Swanson in charge of an inquisition while trying to keep the government/Empire from actually doing anything.

NielsBohron , 3 months ago

As someone with an engineering degree and a science degree, scientists are absolutely nothing like engineers.

NielsBohron , 3 months ago

True, but I mainly mean in terms of their attitude towards research and their level of skepticism and critical thinking when presented with new information.

Engineers are always thinking in terms of "how can I make this work?" and scientists are trained to think in terms of "where does this theory/method break?"

This means that in general, engineers are far more likely to assume one positive result is significant, whereas scientists are far more likely to be looking at and poking holes in experiment methodology. This is a generalization, but in my experience, engineers are far more likely to fall for pseudoscience BS. Granted, my experience is mostly in chemistry and chemical engineering, but this idea in general has been a topic of discussion and research in peer-reviewed literature for years.

NielsBohron , 3 months ago

Definitely. Lots of scientists fall into the trap of letting "perfect" be the enemy of "good"

NielsBohron , 3 months ago

it sounds...faster? So, it's got that going for it (which is nice)

NielsBohron , 3 months ago

Stop him before he got any closer to the embassy. Obviously a gun won't stop him from commiting suicide, but it could easily be the difference between one person dying and a much larger act of terrorism

NielsBohron , 3 months ago

Considering the security forces had no idea whether he was working alone or what was happening, they obviously didn't think they could rely on the metal fence.

Look, I'm all for a free Palestine and I agree that what is happening in Gaza is a genocide. I also think that voluntary membership in any American or Israeli law enforcement makes them complicit in the heinous acts perpetrated by American cops and the IDF, respectively. I don't know you, but I'd guess that you and I agree a lot more than we disagree on these issues. I'm just saying, from the PoV of the security forces at the Israeli embassy, this was a potential threat to the embassy and their job is literally to prevent threats from harming the embassy. Without any further information to go on, their decision to draw guns first and get the extinguisher second is reasonable.

NielsBohron , 3 months ago

If he wasn’t alone what would shooting him accomplish? You still haven’t actually presented a compelling reason he needed to be kept under a gun.

Once Bushnell was on fire and had stopped moving toward the gate/fence, you are correct, he didn't need to be kept under a gun. However, if he had started to move in a threatening way or if he had been working with a larger group, having the guns drawn could have saved crucial seconds if someone else began to act in a threatening way. The security forces simply didn't know what the fuck was happening, and in that situation, it is better to have the guns drawn and to be ready for the worst case scenario.

I think it’s understandable that people untrained for a situation like this would fall back on the default, I know I wouldn’t know what to do, but calling that “reasonable” as if it really makes sense in hindsight is a stretch.

That's fair. I can get behind calling it "understandable" instead of "reasonable"

NielsBohron , 4 months ago

Regardless of the cause, it's still driving while impaired. I don't like or trust cops in the slightest, but it's legal and reasonable for them to give people DWI's for driving while sleep-deprived, on legally prescribed medication, etc., so why would it be unreasonable for them to give a ticket to someone driving while suffering a medical emergency? The only case I can think where this is really unreasonable is if the brain bleed started after she got into the car and she had not yet had an opportunity to pull over and call 911.

Like, it's not reasonable to cite someone for having a heart attack while behind the wheel, but if you get into a car after having a heart attack and while you still can't function, that's kind of the definition of "driving while impaired."

NielsBohron , 4 months ago

while I don't disagree with you, that's quite a non-sequitur, seeing as I don't think this woman was driving while incarcerated...

NielsBohron , 3 months ago (edited 3 months ago)

I'm not familiar with the specifics of the space weapons treaty, but I do remember learning as a middle schooler that the three classifications of WMDs are nuclear, biological, and chemical, so maybe it's no chemical weapons?

Then again, IMO, putting chemical weapons in the same category as nuclear and biological weapons is a bit like classifying rocks as the same level of danger as assault rifles and handguns, but that's a separate issue

NielsBohron , 3 months ago

Fair point, but I just meant that in general, chemical weapons are not in the same category as biological or nuclear warfare. But to your point about rocks in space, in the BattleTech (aka MechWarrior universe), orbital bombardment of any type is placed on the same level as nuclear warfare, which frankly makes a lot of sense.

I think the US even had a program that looked into the feasibility of using tungsten rods dropped (launched) from satellites (partly to get around the space weapons treaty) that would have been equivalent to dropping a nuke on a city without the nasty fallout or stigma.

NielsBohron , 4 months ago

No because, well, you see...Uh...Because Batman doesn't kill people! So obviously anything that Batman does is by definition non-lethal.

For real, though, anything that I can think of that puts someone in the hospital for 6 months has a better than 50% of just outright killing them.

NielsBohron , 4 months ago

Someone what mentioned Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars trilogy, and that is really good, but his book Aurora is almost exactly what you are describing.

Highly recommend.

NielsBohron , 4 months ago

The idea that humans need the diverse micro ecology of earth in order to not become ill over the course of generations is pretty interesting.

Really pretty well-supported by current science, too. I teach chemistry at a community college, so maybe I'm an outlier, but I read a ton of current research about the importance of diversity in "gut biomes" and the damaging effects of monoculture on global ecology, etc.

It seems pretty clear that even if engineers could solve the physical and chemical issues with a generation ship, the limiting constraints are almost certainly going to be biological and ecological, and KS Robinson's estimates for the upper limits seem pretty reasonable based on current knowledge

NielsBohron , 4 months ago

Because not even his supporters and allies are going to remember him as anything

I'm going to have to disagree. If anything, I think Trump will be remembered as a useful idiot that McConnell and the Federalist Society used to pack the courts, most significantly the federal Supreme Court. Because of McConnell's obstructionism and blatant hypocrisy, Republicans were able to confirm three young SC justices as well as hundreds of federal court judges at lower levels, effectively cementing conservative control of the judicial branch for decades.

That will be the legacy of Mitch McConnell, and we will suffer the effects of that gambit for long, long time to come.

NielsBohron , 4 months ago (edited 4 months ago)

I left my ChemE PhD program "all but dissertation" because of my mental health and funding politics. I took my MS as a consolation prize and upon lots of self-reflection, I realized my favorite times in academia were when I was teaching as a TA.

So, I started looking for teaching jobs and eventually wound up adjuncting at a community college (which eventually led to a FT job). It can still be a little soul-crushing to think too hard about the state of the world today, but I get to spend most of my days talking about cool topics to people that are also interested, so I got that going for me, which is nice.

It might not help you in your position, but when I was feeling like you, I needed to find another job that let me remember what I liked about studying science in the first place. Maybe there's something like that out there for you.

NielsBohron , 4 months ago

Thank you for the kind words! I do struggle with dealing with existing power structures within academia and especially the "for-profit" model that's being encouraged in a lot of small community colleges as a means to stay solvent. Luckily, I work in California at a pretty isolated, rural CC that is pretty well insulated from financial pressures since CA state law (or maybe Ed Code) requires a community college in every county regardless of the population base.

As a result, our departments have a fair bit of leeway to make changes as we see fit (within reason), and the admin don't fight us much on anything we can show increases student access or success (even anecdotally), which really helps me think we're making some incremental progress. Our math, bio, physics, and chemistry departments are almost completely switched over to using open-access textbooks and other free resources, which seems to really help students that would otherwise not be able to afford to come back to school in a STEM field, and there's a fair bit of movement away from the traditional academic pathways, and emphasis on improving mental health among students, so maybe there's a chance that the next generation or two might be able to move the needle away from the current toxic grad-school culture. Although, academia will still likely have the same issue as political power (in the US) and capitalism; the people most likely to find themselves in a position of power are usually the most cutthroat and least suited to enacting benevolent change.

But although I love my STEM majors since they're the ones that appreciate the finer points of the more advanced classes, your point about scientific literacy is exactly why I wind up putting far more effort into my intro-level chem courses. For a majority of my students, my Intro to Gen Chem course might be the last science course they ever take, and it's a responsibility I don't take lightly. It's nice to know it's appreciated by others in the science community

NielsBohron , 4 months ago (edited 4 months ago)

I think part of it is that at CC's, teaching is literally the most important part of the job, as opposed to at 4-years, where professors are supposed to be spending the bulk of their time research and teaching a class or two on the side. As a result, at a CC, teaching is the number one qualification hiring committees look for, but universities are usually looking for who has the most potential/publications/funding as a researcher with little to no regard for their ability to teach. As a result, unis get people who care more about research and regard teaching as a distraction (IME).

And I really appreciate that you have an understanding of the plight of adjuncts and other non-tenure-track instructors. There is some movement at the CC level with several big unions actively working to advocate for adjuncts despite the fact that the adjuncts are not explicitly part of the union (generally due to explicit exclusion or an inability to afford dues), so hopefully that gets better soon!

NielsBohron , 4 months ago

Except for the part when he called for his followers to take up swords and abandon their families (Matt. 10:34-36, among other passages).

And the part where he claimed that loving the Father took precedence over treating others with love and respect (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), which opens the door for all manner of inhuman atrocities and hate in the name of "loving God"

NielsBohron , 4 months ago

You can't even move laterally from New Orleans and remain dry

NielsBohron , 4 months ago (edited 4 months ago)

A worthwhile read, especially for those in fields that are jumping on the "decoloniality bandwagon," so to speak. While the author's bias is fairly obvious and somewhat distracting, it is certainly worth remembering that despite the noble urge of decolonization to remove the eurocentrism from academia, there are are actually cases where non-Western civilizations are autocratic and not to be held in a pedestal.

It's nice to be somewhat validated in my thinking that although I support some decolonization efforts, the ultimate conclusion of this approach is as dystopian as what it is replacing if we don't fix or replace the existing structures of power while we're at it.

Edit: the down-votes of both my comment and the OP without any further comment just serves to further illustrate the point of the review that decoloniality has become (or had always been) dogmatic and unwilling to consider criticism.

NielsBohron , 4 months ago (edited 4 months ago)

I can, given that most families did a hell of a lot more baking/cooking themselves instead of going to restaurants, buying processed food, etc.

Edit: plus, I forgot about making their own preserves and canning food, both of which require a fair bit of sugar, too.

NielsBohron , 4 months ago

Well, lots of demand for an extended period of time (ie centuries), plus a crop that grew well in areas that didn't take to traditional cash crops, and sugar was relatively easy to process into a form that shipped well even back in the Age of Sail (molasses and rum).

Frankly, there are a lot of reasons that sugar cane was a popular crop.

NielsBohron , 4 months ago (edited 4 months ago)

One of my very favorite series from that time period (edit: and probably ever). I think I actually have a copy of this on the way as a family member got it for me as a Christmas present. So, I can't speak to the specifics of the omnibus, but you could do a lot worse that starting Planetary for the first time (in fact, I'm a little jealous you get to experience it for the first time)

NielsBohron , 4 months ago

The current book “Outsiders” from DC is an official sequel to Planetary.

That's a good tip, as I love Planetary and was totally unaware of this series (clearly I don't keep up on current DC titles that well!)

Is it any good? I don't see much information about it online after a (very) quick search.

NielsBohron , 4 months ago (edited 4 months ago)

the jla/batman/authority crossovers are also worth tracking down

I believe they're included in the omnibus version.

At the very least, I'm pretty sure I remember some of them being included in the earlier collected editions, so I can't imagine they're not in the omnibus.

NielsBohron , 5 months ago (edited 5 months ago)

Oooh, now we see the violence inherent in the system!

edit: I thought this line and this exchange was funny back when I was a religious, white, male teenager in a conservative part of the US. Now that I've grown up and seen enough injustice and evidence to become an anti-theist socialist living in a different (but still conservative) part of the US, it hits a little too close to home to be truly funny.

NielsBohron , 5 months ago

"[I]t has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time"