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Comment Re:No worries (Score 1) 90

I studied organic chemistry, microbiology, and biochemistry.
But that was decades ago ...

I tend to agree with you.
How would they create an organism with the entire chain of biochemical pathways that are mirrored? Think about the Citric Acid Cycle, and how complex it is. All the enzymes and their precursors, and pathways that create them need to be mirrored.

But, it has been a while, so anyone with more current knowledge please correct me.

Comment Brandolini's Law ... (Score 3, Interesting) 85

You are perfectly right, unfortunately ...

The observation that is known as Brandolini's Law rings true ...

Debunking misinformation takes a huge amount of time and effort, far more than the misinformation itself.

Misinformation has the advantage of spreading faster, being much simpler, and not needing any facts nor logic.

That is what we are up against ...

Comment Re:About done (Score 1) 109

I am sorry to hear that, and deeply sympathize.

I am curious to know what kind of cancer (their are about 200 different types, with VERY different outcomes), and what stage it was when it was discovered.

The reason I ask is that with screening, certain types of cancer are survivable (e.g. prostate, colon, some type of skin cancers, ...etc)
Other types are killers no matter what, and it is only a matter of time (bile duct, pancreas, glioblastoma, ...etc)

Comment Stay with the ESR releases ... (Score 1) 107

One thing I did a while back on Xubuntu, is uninstall the Firefox snap.
Then uninstall snap itself.
Then use the Ubuntu Mozilla Team repository to install the ESR version of Firefox.


sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mozillateam/ppa
sudo apt update

sudo apt install firefox-esr

That is it!
You don't have updates that are too frequent, and you don't get the bleeding edge features like this AI crap.

Comment Used them for many years ... (Score 1) 26

I have been using Sony phones exclusively for over a decade and a half, since they were Sony Ericsson even.

The flagship phones are good quality, rugged, water proof, and have excellent cameras.
I used to buy them used, so I pay a fraction of the new price.

But that came to an end earlier this year when I could not locate used ones at reasonable prices.

So I went with a Motorola Edge 2024 that was provided free by my carrier (Fido in Canada, a subsidiary of Rogers). It is as good as a Sony. The camera is decent, though it has no telephoto lens (only a normal lens and a wide angle one with macro). There is no focus hunting like my last Sony did (Xperia 1).

They sell them directly, and no carrier provides them. That is why they are on the way to extinction.

Comment Re:hack, refute, repeat (Score 1) 18

I'm not an astronomer, but I recognize a hack when I see one. Dark matter was a hack. Dark energy was a hack on a hack. Now they're hacking the hack to the hack

The article is about Dark Energy, not Dark Matter ...
However ...

Dark matter is not a hack.

It is just like viruses.
When they were discovered (1890s?), they were yet to be seen for decades.
The basic story is that a solution from infected tobacco leaves caused mottling on healthy tobacco leaves. Bacteria were suspected, but the scientists used very fine filters that excluded bacteria, and the leaves were still infected!
They called it virus from the Latin word for poison.
It was not seen, because they were smaller than the wavelength of visible light, and that was what optical microscopes use.
It was only in the 1930s when they were actually seen by electron microscopes.

So Dark Matter says we observe effects of something unseen through its gravity.
It may turn out to be a particle, or primordial black hole, or something else.

Comment RSS Feed Not Working Again ... (Score 4, Informative) 38

Hey Slashdot,

The RSS feeds are not working again.

Right now, the feed looks like this.

There are 6 more stories on the front page, newer than the SoftBank and OpenAI story.
The oldest that is not in the RSS feed is from last 23:30 on July 21st, and now it is 9:15am.

I reported this a few days ago, and was marked 'Troll', and 'OffTopic'.
For those who are hasty with moderation points, how else can someone report a site issue, when Slashdot has no place for it?

Comment Re:Local data (Score 1) 43

Here are some anecdotal data from my backyard weather station (Southern Ontario, Canada).
Absolute values are irrelevant, but it is the comparative values that matter.
Same sensor, same placement ...

2022: highest was 33.9C in June, with 17 days above 30C (2 in May, 6 in June, 6 in July, 2 in August, and 1 in September.

2023: highest was 33.4C in September, and 11 days above 30C (2 in May, 2 in June, 4 in July, none in August, and 3 in September.

2024: highest was 35.2C in June, and 21 days above 30C.

2025: already got 36.4C in June, and 6 days above 30C, with at least 2.5 months left in A/C season.

El Nino did end in early summer of 2024.

If records continue to be broken, then my guess is that we have already started on the runaway warming phase ...

I hope I am wrong about that ...

Comment Re:Viruses (Score 3, Informative) 76

You make it sound like "certain viruses can cause cancer" is hidden knowledge that is being actively suppressed by 'the establishment' for some nefarious reason.

The first virus found to cause cancer was Rous Sarcoma virus in 1911, in chicken. Since then, several cancer inducing viruses (oncoviruses) have been discovered.

They are all covered in virology textbooks. If you have the time, watch the Virology course of Dr. Vincent Racaniello of Columbia University. It is well covered there.

Viruses like Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) causes cervical cancer in women. Others like Hepatitis B and C cause liver cancer. Other common ones are Kaposi sarcoma, HIV, and Epstein-Barr.

All in all, viruses cause around 12% of cancer cases. So they are just one factor, not THE only factor.

There is no conspiracy here.

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