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Cake day: June 24th, 2023

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  • Look at what humans have done with breeds of dogs. Before we even knew what genetics was, we understood that if you bred two small dogs, the offspring would be small. Then, if you bred those offspring with other small dogs, they would be even smaller still. That’s how we got from a wolf to a Chihuahua. That is how we manipulate the forces of evolution for our benefit.

    There are countless little “tells” that species evolve. Human skeletons have a tiny tail. All embryonic mammals look virtually identical. Whales have vestigial pelvis bones. Bacteria become resistant to antibiotics after generations of repeated exposure. Sickle cell anemia is an evolutionary adaptation in human populations frequently exposed to Malaria. Moths have been observed becoming darker in color so their camouflage matches trees darkened by pollution.









  • There was a theory a while back that Napoleon died from arsenic poisoning due to the damp Mediterranean climate causing the decay of a green wallpaper using an arsenic based dye. It didn’t end up being entirely true but he may have been slowly poised by environmental arsenic throughout his life. Here is an article about it.

    Arsenic is a naturally occurring element in the Earth’s crust as metallic crystals or combined with other elements. Being a heavy metal, arsenic bioaccumulates. That is, it builds up in the body over time, so slow poisoning is possible.






  • There is absolutely no reason the US government shouldn’t be launching their own public satellite internet.

    Look at North Korea. People get killed for smuggling in flash drives with western media into the country. We could be streaming it from uninterruptible satellites. We could be fighting the global information war on a level most other countries could only dream of.

    On the domestic end, if we get Internet access to every corner of the country, it opens up remote work to every American. That could bring an incredible economic boost to impoverished rural areas.