CDC encourages testing, but gives no guidance on what to do next.

There is no data on what level of a given chemical would be harmful. There is no data on what levels might be linked to which health conditions. If we did identify a dangerously high level, nobody has any idea what to do about it.

Just running tests is not helpful right now. They would not benefit patients. It would be irresponsible for doctors to run these tests on people without having a lot more information first.

I didn't claim there was a supernatural component.

You are just assuming that free will must be supernatural. There is no reason that has to be the case. That's a philosophical assumption, or maybe a religious one. It's fine if you believe that, but it isn't science, and nothing you base on that assumption could be called science.

Even in philosophy, the supernatural doesn't have to come into it. Compatibilists argue that free will can exist in a purely material universe. Of course there are also incompatibilists, who argue that it cannot. Either way, it's pure philosophy. There is no scientific basis one way or the other.

I remember hearing this same argument discussed in freshman philosophy, more years ago than I care to count. It isn't new and it isn't science.

What he's saying is: We don't see how it's possible for any part of the brain to act in such a way that it creates free will, therefore free will is impossible. And that's nothing but an argument from ignorance.

"Dr. Vopson had expected that the entropy in information systems would also increase over time, but on examining the evolution of these systems he realized it remains constant or decreases."

Yes, because those systems aren't isolated!

This is the same dumb argument that creationists and other crackpots are always making. They look at some biological system, calculate that entropy is decreasing over time, and decide that is some deep discovery that can only be explained by their pet theory.

It's nonsense.

No biological system is closed. We are all powered by the Sun. When you take the *entire* system into account, including the part of the sun that provided the energy to the rest, you see entropy increasing.

If anyone tries to make an argument from entropy, and skips the part about the sun, they're talking garbage.

That's why we use UV lights in forensic examinations. If you use the right

Marsupials are mammals.

The order of mammals comprises three classes: marsupials, placentals, and monotremes.

Jobs that can be done remotely are the easiest to outsource. If your job doesn't need you to be in the office, they don't need you to be in the country either. Your replacement can be somebody from halfway around the world who will do the job for 1% of the cost.

In the much longer term, the jobs that are easiest to remote are going to be the same jobs easiest to replace with software.

There are lots of Reddit apps. A lot of them are free and adless, and have at least as many features as the app made by Reddit itself.

If the official app starts including unblockable ads, that will just encourage people to start using Apollo or Narwhal instead, or one of the other several dozen clones.

Just because two different things are correlated to the same variable, that doesn't mean you can use one to predict the other. It *might* be so, or the two things might affect hippocampus size independently, without any causal link from one to the other.

This is like saying that people who like ice cream tend to gain weight, and people with cancer tend to lose weight, so we can predict whether you like ice cream based on whether you have cancer or not.

We already have technology that does this. We have hand-held devices that shine near-infrared light through the skin and make the veins show up just fine.

They have significant problems, which this system shares. Most importantly, they show *all* veins, including all the ones which can't be cannulated because they are too small, too fragile, or too badly scarred. You have to palpate (feel) the vein to assess whether it's suitable, and if you can palpate it, you don't need to see it at all.

Also, they really only work at all on caucasian skin.

Further, this system is kind of ridiculously expensive. Even though the prices have dropped on commodity displays, microprocessors, 3G and wifi, and all those bells and whistles, it's still a complex piece of gear. We may as well pay for a bedside ultrasound which costs no more, is more precise, and is useful for a lot more than just IV starts.

Perhaps I picked the name because I used to get migraines. Those can come with focal neurological symptoms called "aura," ranging from nausea and vertigo all the way up to hallucinations.

Or maybe I'm a big hippy.

Or else I created the username fifteen years ago, it seeemed to sound good at the time, and I no longer remember the exact reason.

What's the difference?

I didn't say it was a miracle. "Miraculous" as an adjective can mean something looks similar to a miracle. It does not necessarily imply that an event is literally due to the intervention of a supernatural divine force.

But hey, thanks for your input anyhow, Easily Offended Overly Dramatic Atheist Guy Who Takes The Slightest Excuse To Announce His Atheist Atheism. I keep hearing stories about you but it's nice to finally meet you in person.

"Miraculous" should be reserved for things that are difficult to believe, or at least wildly improbable. If the satellite fell out of the sky and hit the guy in the face, but he walked off unscathed, then you could say he "miraculously escaped injury."

But being missed by the debris is not a miracle. It just demonstrates how small a target a person is.

Oh, if we're talking about the UK government, that's even easier. Just mention to a local official that the music contains lots of "sharp" notes. They'll spring into nanny mode, and require that all the speakers be entombed in Nerf so that nobody cuts themselves.

"Youths" don't stay young forever. Before very long they'll be adults, with legitimate reasons to be at stores and train stations and bus stops, but they still won't like the music. Any place that continues to play it will be driving away a whole lot of customers.