§ɦṛɛɗɗịɛ ßịⱺ𝔩ⱺɠịᵴŧ

“I would rather have questions that can’t be answered than answers that can’t be questioned.” - Rich Feynman

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Joined 3 years ago
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Cake day: March 19th, 2022

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  • It’s not just USAID. The BBC is actually funded by two branches of the US government.

    Last year, the US State Department gave BBC Media Action £280,000.

    The group says it used the $$$ to reach 100 million people in 24 countries with its programmes.

    After covering the BBC’s public relations response, the article then goes on to say:

    That sounds nice, of course. But when you’re aware of the role USAID has played as the ‘friendly face’ of US imperialism, more scrutiny of BBC Media Action is essential.

    What I took away from it is that since the BBC is affiliated with this blatant US corruption, regardless of directly or indirectly, the specifics regarding the association needs to be known by the public.













  • I hear what you’re saying, but I wanted to point out that any living organism is built from the same 20 amino acids, which are put together based on a blueprint (aka DNA). A string of amino acids is called a polypeptide, which is also known as a protein. But both dogs and wolves are omnivores, it’s a common misconception to think they’re carnivorous. Cats on the other hand are carnivorous creatures.

    Additionally, it is not necessarily true that carnivores are more intelligent than omnivores or herbivores as a result of their diet. Instead, predators and prey are in a contest of brain size relative to body size. While carnivores and omnivores have more potential opportunity to develop intelligence, they’d have to be a social species for that to occur. So relative brain size and intelligence aren’t directly associated with diet, but more so a result of social structures and genetics.


  • Not exactly, Homo erectus and Neanderthal’s both ate meat. The consumption of meat by Homo erectus was associated with a reduction in the size of the gut area due to consistently incorporating animal foods into their diet. Neanderthals were known to be skilled hunters as well. The biggest difference between us and our more recent ancestors is the truncation of a GTPase gene in our DNA, which led to the ability to have neurons grow on top of one another. Previously, neuron growth would be stopped when a neuron came into contact with another. So that’s without question the biggest genetic feature that sets us apart.



  • Well, since SearXNG aggregates results from more than 70 search engines and not solely Google, it’s a safe bet they’ll be fine regardless of Googles moves. However, sourcing results from Google may be impacted, but they still have many other options built in aside from Google. Whoogle being a proxy only for Google makes it reliant on Google, so their upstream changes will be very noticeable. This being the case, I’d say switching to SearXNG is going to be the best move as it has redundancy built in making it not dependent on any one engine.


  • When I did 4+ months of research into avian influenza a year ago, most the literature I sourced used variants as the term, but I don’t see why strain wouldn’t work as well. Also, you’re comment about if H5N1 or H3N2 doesn’t cover the fact that the H5N1 variant would likely uptake aspects of H3N2 genome (or whatever was the prior most common variant) into it’s genetic makeup.

    Virology is an insanely intricate field as no two viral families have much in common at all. Viruses are fascinating as while they are truly as simplistic as it gets, they still have highly specific task they each evolve to ensure their future reproduction.

    Fun fact about viral infections, both the human placenta and myelin sheath are results of an ancient ancestor of ours having a retroviral infection!



  • While this isn’t incorrect, it’s also not the full story. Influenza is an intricate virus, with mutations and obfuscation built into it’s reproduction cycle. A virus that kills it’s host is not a good virus, as a virus relies on it’s host to reproduce. This is why the flu is the most deadly when it initially gains a new host species. But over time, it will mutate to become less deadly for the host, allowing it to spread more effectively. Additionally, whenever an organism is infected with two different flu viruses, they can conduct reassortment and generate novel flu variations. So overtime, the flu will become less lethal via mutations, making it different from the orginal. Most flu variations stem from bird flu’s due to the migratory patterns of birds. But they then mutate substantially, otherwise they’ll be unable to infect more host. Meaning, it’s not the same flu, but more so the jumping off point of new variations which can combine with others or mutate by themselves just depending on the specific environment.