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Comment Re:Remember when Eich became the CEO of Mozilla? (Score 0) 824

Be careful of what you post on the internet.

Some people looking for that quick quote or soundbite might stop reading your post after the first few lines or the first paragraph and then go yelling fire into their soapbox.

What was it that Pratchett wrote? "A lie can run round the world before the truth has got its boots on." On the internet, that can apply to sarcasm.

Comment Re:Okay (Score 1) 517

If the placebo effect actually is effective, then it should be considered a form of medical treatment. Don't underestimate the placebo effect and human psychology. Sometimes, the symptoms are a result of a psychological issue, which a placebo would be more than sufficient to treat.

If it doesn't work, then it's time to move onto the strong stuff. But why pump your body up with manufactured pills from big pharma with god-knows how many side effects if sugar pills work to the same effect?

Comment Re:Wales full response (Score 1) 517

Unfortunately, chiropractors have this association that makes broad, wild, generally unproven claims about what chiropractics can do for people representing them.

Spinal realignment is actually a part of osteopathy. But nobody (especially academics; they have the worst biases) considers that medicine because they're D.O.'s instead of M.D.'s.

Comment Re:History Lesson:German occupation of Czechoslova (Score 1) 551

Nah, it's not dangerous for Russia at all. Hitler's concentration camps provided a lot of political fodder for other countries to initiate war with Nazi Germany. If Russia doesn't make that mistake, keeps their conquests slow and reasonably managed (i.e. one front), it would not be too difficult for all of the "West", in particular Russian-dependent Western Europe, to overlook their advances into former Soviet territory.

The U.S. is never going to move, as it would lose all of its Asian interests (Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, etc.) if it commits to fighting against Russia. U.S. moving against Russia is going to spell MAD, maybe not nuclear MAD, but MAD nonetheless, and there isn't enough political capital in the U.S. to want to risk that.

Western Europe is by and large going to do nothing, since they're heavily dependent on Russian natural gas (by Russian design). They've pretty much alienated everyone else who can provide them with natural resources, except maybe Turkey. And it would be a long, protracted war, as history has told us time and again, which they aren't going to initiate if they don't feel sufficiently threatened, and which won't happen if Russia only moves against countries in the former U.S.S.R. Hell, some people in the U.S. probably couldn't tell you the difference between Russia and U.S.S.R.

Nobody's successfully taken over Russia except for the Mongolians. The Chinese/North Koreans will not move against Russia without significant concessions, at which time they will take over the rest of East and Southeast Asia first before aiming their guns towards Russia if at all, since Russia is more of an ally to them than any "Western" country. In fact, I'd say that if Russia does move against Western Europe, and the U.S. is dragged into a long and protracted European front, that it will be more likely Russia+China+North Korea vs the West rather than Russia vs. the West+Asia.

Putin knows this, and that's why he's able to move against Ukraine now and other parts of Eastern Europe later. There's almost 0 chance of war, and if there is, it will be Russia vs. Ukraine, and no one else. Maybe when it was still the U.S.S.R. 30 years earlier, there was enough political capital to commit to a war with the Soviets, but the West is war-weary and the "Western" populace in particular is disinterested in fighting someone else's war at this point.

If things go this route, I suspect it'll be Estonia, and Latvia since there's a sizeable Russian population there. I'm pretty sure it'll be Lithuania, and Belarus after that, to make Kaliningrad contiguous with the rest of Russia. Or, we could be hopeful that Putin will stop with Crimea. I wouldn't count on it though.

Comment Re:Anti-Vaxxers? Try Population Density (Score 1) 747

No, that phenomenon is a result of genetic stagnation. Population density is only bad if hygene is poor and social services (*ahem* health care *ahem*) are poor. Otherwise, there's nothing wrong with it.

The H041 outbreak doesn't exist. H041 was one strain found in Japan that was never found again. MRSA is a result of overuse of antibiotics, especially in livestock feed, where much of it runs off into groundwater in minute quantities. And antibiotic resistance transfers between bacteria, so one bacteria that develops resistance can basically "infect" its neighbors to also be resistance.

None of this is due to population density. There are numerous places with much higher population density, without so many widespread health issues. The anti-social behavior of American culture doesn't help either.

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