"why aren't you both on the phone with MIT right now informing them how very very stupid they are and how very very smart you are?"

What if MIT reads this?

"I also thought that Margulis was in danger of becoming a "endosymbiosis solves everything" Cassandra-a-like."

Who's Apollo, who cursed Cassandra in the original myth, and why are you on his side?

What about XOM's 3% dividend yield? Or Franklin BSP Realty Trust at 11.67% according to a web search?

How much does Texas take out of federal block grants for medicaid or whatever to use to further the police state?

Where's the downside of a world where we each get to live in a simulated reality that conforms exactly to what we think it should be, while not impacting anyone else's reality, unless they consent?

Thousands of years ago, how many monks were there having made a vow of satya following the teachings of Mahavir?

Why has the opportunity to reject lying in whatever form it takes decreased as capitalism has ascended? Can you see the perspective where capitalism has just enclosed everything and made us dependent on centralized production to such a degree that we are now largely unable to survive as we once did without capitalism, and that that is a worrisome thing that I personally want to do something about by seeing how much I can wean myself from dependence on markets, starting with not paying rent and living outside on common land?

"you do this all the time. For example, everybody embellishes their own work history and skills when they apply for a job with the expectation that the buyer -- namely those hiring you -- are supposed to realistically be able to judge whether you're even qualified for the job, and if so, how much your labor is worth to them."

What if I don't do this, though? What if I choose to try not to lie as much as possible, and thus don't get hired, or get easily made the fall guy and fired if things go bad on a project or two?

What if jobs are really about how much you lie to make people feel good about your screw-ups?

Why should a person focusing on personal enlightenment through satya (truthfulness) as the Jains prescribe want a job in western materialist society, and why shouldn't such a person be allowed under the law to pursue their religion without having to cooperate with capitalist markets that encourage lying and indeed make it compulsory for participation in society? What is a poor devout Jain devoted to truth-telling, having made a vow of satya, to do in such a capitalist coercive society? Isn't there freedom of religion anymore to choose not to cooperate with the lying encouraged by society and its latest darling tool of coercion, markets?

"Anti-science skepticism isn't amusing anymore."

Whoopsie, did we jump the gun in our zealous attempts to be cool with the in-crowd by attacking anti-science wherever it may possibly be lurking, even if we paint with way too broad a brush as proved by this particular attack, eh?

How "scientific" is it to use the emotion of ridicule and the feeling of being cool as your go-to weapon in your fervent hunt for anything that threatens the status quo?

What's wrong with going back to Triassic temperatures when all that oil thrived as lush green plants all over the globe?

Why does capitalism force us into bad choices like having to lie to make a living?

Not only is the universe stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine.
Sir Arthur Eddington
English astronomer (1882 - 1944)

What if violations of thermodynamics are too strange for your poor brains to imagine, yet?

Does your sig actually say more about you than about perpetual motion machines?

Why does Thermodynamics require humiliation as its last resort, and was Eddington perhaps making a snide criticism of thermodynamics and its ultimately human psychological underpinning?

"unless extraordinary evidence is presented"

What if this is an unavoidably arbitrary and fickle standard that says more about lookism and mood affiliation than actual evidence?

Have you ever watched birds circle upwards on updrafts for as long as they like, merely changing wing angle to keep riding up and down without needing to provide any wing thrust at all?