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Comment Computer models often better (Score 1) 78

I heard a talk by a researcher from the FDA who worked on computer modeling of drug toxicity. He showed very conclusively that computer models could better predict toxicity in rats better than mouse testing could predict toxicity in rats.
It makes one really question how useful mouse and rat testing is for predicting toxicity in humans.

Comment Have to agree with you. (Score 4, Insightful) 130

Rebuilding the dish is probably not the best way to spend science money. Also building an educational science center out in the remote mountains of PR is probably also not a good use of money. I've been to the observatory. It is at the end of a long narrow winding road. When the observatory is gone, no one is going there.

Comment You are shitty at fear mongering. (Score 1) 401

What the fuck does "ruthlessly audit the middle class" mean? The IRS only has authority to make people pay taxes that they owe by laws of Congress. If you do not want to pay all those taxes, then talk to your congressman, don't go after the people who are implementing the laws of Congress.
The only people who are afraid of the IRS are those who are already cheating on their taxes.

Comment Nice straw man, liar (Score 1) 401

I like how you compared the number of IRS employees to the number of people in one building run by the military. Very deceptive. All those IRS people won't go into one building. And the military employs over a million people in the US, far more than the IRS. The military budget is orders of magnitude larger than the IRS.
Reality: for every $1 we spend on the IRS, the government brings in $5 of Congress mandated revenue, much of which goes to the military.

Comment Re:Background info (Score 1) 263

Yes, behavior can be modified in animals, and like other animals humans have changed some behaviors over time. But if we are wondering why humans have certain behaviors, and those behaviors are the same as all hominids and most other mammals, then there is a very large chance that the origins of those behaviors are the same in all those animals.
At some level our behaviors are governed by our savage nature. Why do we stuff food in our faces? Because of our bodily impulses.

Comment Re:Background info (Score 1) 263

It is all very well citing evidence of differences between men and women, such as variations in ambition, competitiveness, assertiveness, and so on, but how do you know whether these "inherent" differences are the product of social conventions?

Science.
It is well known that aggressiveness and dominance increase when humans and other animals are given higher levels of steroids such as testosterone. Men naturally have ~10x as much testosterone as women. Whom do we think will act more competitively?
Why do men have these higher levels? Because for millions of years hominid females have preferentially mated with males who are ambitious, competitive, and assertive. Therefore modern human males are descended from those assertive males. Look at gorillas, orangutans, and chimps. Females preferentially mate with large, assertive, dominant males, leading to offspring who have those characteristics.
Males have these characteristics not by "social conventions", but by female preference.

Comment The world will certainly not end in 8 years (Score 1) 216

Nobody said the world will end in 8 years including "AOC". But just because the world is not going to end, does not mean we should not do something. If I took a shit on your bed everyday, the world would not end, but you would probably want to do something to keep that from happening.
As a side note, I do not understand why you right wing nut jobs are so obsessed with AOC. She has relatively little influence on policy, yet she lives rent free in your heads permanently.

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