Science!! Fucking magnets, how do they work?

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Dandain

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New clues could help scientists harness the power of photosynthesis Eberly College of Science

"Identification of a gene needed to expand light harvesting in photosynthesis into the far-red-light spectrum provides clues to the development of oxygen-producing photosynthesis, an evolutionary advance that changed the history of life on Earth. "Knowledge of how photosynthesis evolved could empower scientists to design better ways to use light energy for the benefit of mankind," said Donald A. Bryant
"Photosynthesis usually ranks about third after the origin of life and the invention of DNA in lists of the greatest inventions of evolution," said Bryant. "Photosynthesis was such a powerful invention that it changed the Earth's atmosphere by producing oxygen, allowing diverse and complex life forms -- algae, plants, and animals -- to evolve."
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hodj

Vox Populi Jihadi
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Sea Peoples hypothesis might be about to be strongly confirmed (or not).

Sea Peoples - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The term Sea Peoples describes a theory in Egyptology that a confederation of seafaring raiders attacked Ancient Egypt prior to the Bronze Age Collapse.[1][2] Since the creation of the concept in the 19th century, the various Sea Peoples have been proposed to have originated from either western Anatolia or from southern Europe.[3] Although the archaeological inscriptions do not include reference to a migration,[2] the Sea Peoples are conjectured to have sailed around the eastern Mediterranean and invaded Anatolia, Syria, Canaan, Cyprus, and Egypt toward the end of the Bronze Age.[4]

French Egyptologist Emmanuel de Roug? first used the term peuples de la mer (literally "peoples of the sea") in 1855 in a description of reliefs at Medinet Habu documenting year 8 of Ramesses III.[5] Gaston Maspero, de Roug?'s successor at the Coll?ge de France, subsequently popularized the term "Sea Peoples"-and an associated migration-theory-in the late 19th century.[6]

Hypotheses regarding the origin of the various groups identifed as Sea Peoples remains the source of much speculation.[7] These theories variously propose equating them with several Aegean tribes, raiders from central Europe, scattered soldiers who turned to piracy or who had become refugees, and links with natural disasters such as earthquakes or climatic shifts.[2][8]
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A huge Philistine cemetery some 3000-years-old has been found in the Mediterranean seaport of Ashkelon. The manner of the burials proves, for the first time, that the Philistines had to have come from the Aegean Sea region, and that they had very close ties with the Phoenician world.

"Ninety-nine percent of the chapters and articles written about Philistine burial customs should be revised or ignored now that we have the first and only Philistine cemetery," says Lawrence E. Stager, Dorot Professor of the Archaeology of Israel, Emeritus, at Harvard University.

The cemetery was found just outside the city walls of Tel Ashkelon, one of the Philistines' five primary cities in ancient Israel.

The cemetery was found to have more then 150 individual burials dating from the 11th to 8th century BCE. The undisturbed graves have shed fresh light on a mystery bedeviling archaeologists for decades: the Philistines' real origins.

"The basic question we want to know is where this people are from," said Dr. Sherry Fox, a physical anthropologist who is sampling the bones for analysis, including for DNA studies, and radiocarbon and biological distance studies.
The Sea Peoples are hypothesized to be a potential source for the Philistines (as well as the original founders of Carthage in modern day Tunisia) due to strong similarities in pottery styles and other cultural practices (like raising pigs for food) that lend credence to the idea that these were peoples who migrated out of the Aegaean Sea region after a large migration from Anatolia into Greece pushed them (the Sea Peoples) out of their holdings there.
 

Aaron

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The thing about the pro/anti-GMO debate is very similar to the pro/anti-vax debate. It's full of hyperbole and half truths onbothsides. For the vax debate since I have looked at this more than GMOs, but the same argument applies. Creating a vax is an astonishingly complex process with lots, and lots of variables. Getting it right so that it works for most is a fucking work of genius. But on the same side, it's an almost impossibility, at least with current technology, to create a 100% safe vax that will work on everybody without any negative side effects. It would take the invention of personalized vax creation to do that, something that is highly sought after now.

Now, for all intent and purposes you could say that vaxes are harmless for about 99,999 out of every 100,000 people. When you look at regular prescription drugs with negative side effects for 1/10 to 1/1000 people this is absolutely amazing! But, that still means, that, say, for the USA with ~300 mill people, a vax like that would still have negative side effects (most likely of varying severity) to about 3000 people. A sizable number, and one that taken out of context can cause alarm: "3000 PEOPLE WHO TOOK ACME INC VAX HAVE TUMBLRISM!!!" Sure makes for a better headline than "299,997,000 PEOPLE WHO TOOK ACME INC VAX ARE SAFE FROM HORRENDOUS SHITPOSTING DISEASE!" You see what I'm talking about here? And so it is easy to cause alarm in people due to fucked up reporting. It's the same principle behind people being afraid of sharks eating them or flying when statistically it's far more dangerous to cross the street.

With regards to GMOs, again, it's the same. We are tinkering with nature here, and most likely some shit will go wrong and has gone wrong. Add to the mix that companies such as Du Pont and Monsanto are dodgy as fuck and have been documented in doing dodgy shit such as suing innocent farmers for GMO seeds that have blown onto their property and grown there you can see that it's easy to create a lot of easy, bad press around these companies. Now, just as individuals have intolerance to certain foods, it is sure as hell likely that some individuals will have intolerances, or be susceptible negative effects of GMOs. But again, nothing shows that these numbers are greater than regular food intolerances. So, again, the benefits of increased yeild outweigh the negative effects that may come with GMOs.

TL;DR: Vaxes as with GMOs have some negative side effects, but the benefits they bring far, far outweigh these negativities. However, the negativities make for better press so they are blown far out of proportion.
 

ZyyzYzzy

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There isn't hyperbole on both sides. It just happens that one side understands both science and statistics while the other does not.
 

hodj

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No one says vaccines are completely and totally harmless.

What is said is that the claims made about how they harm people and what damage they do (especially in regards to autism) is based on a completely fallacious study whose author is completely discredited and lost his job due to fact that he misrepresented and outright fabricated the data to "prove" his claim that vaccines cause autism, and therefore the anti-vaccine movement, which is ENTIRELY PREDICATED on this faulty link between vaccines and childhood autism cases, is goddamn bullshit.

And it is.

The anti vaxx movement began with a very specific claim which has been completely discredited, so they simply shifted the goal posts and start band wagoning as many "side effects" as their pareidolia deluded minds can jam in now, in a gish gallop of faulty claims for which there is no evidence.
 

ZyyzYzzy

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You know what dipshit anti-vaxers like that dumb terrible mother of a whore who started the whole thing should be concerned about? A botulinum vaccine makes botox treatment useless. Very concerning for superficial insufferable cunts who literally are to blame for disease outbreaks with their retard logic.
 

Palum

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Vaccines cause terrible diseases in the unvaccinated. If we got rid of all vaccines we'd get rid of all diseases. #JadenSmith
 

Eomer

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Good post. I'd plus ya but I can't plus ya again.
Are you fine with this quote in particular, though:

aaron_sl said:
It's full of hyperbole and half truths on both sides.
The rest of the post I take no issue with. And maybe the above was just clumsy. But the hyperbole and half truths are most definitely not on both sides. The anti-vax and anti-GMO sides are basically 99% hyperbole and half-truths, while the pro-vax and pro-GMO sides are 1%. Give or take. Both sides are not bad.
 

Phelps McManus

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The rest of the post I take no issue with. And maybe the above was just clumsy. But the hyperbole and half truths are most definitely not on both sides. The anti-vax and anti-GMO sides are basically 99% hyperbole and half-truths, while the pro-vax and pro-GMO sides are 1%. Give or take. Both sides are not bad.
I approve of using hyperbole to make arguments about how others are using hyperbole.
 

BrutulTM

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Du Pont and Monsanto are dodgy as fuck and have been documented in doing dodgy shit such as suing innocent farmers for GMO seeds that have blown onto their property and grown there
This never happened. They tested the guy's field and the crop was like 98% GMO. He was lying and the "it just blew in" was a half assed attempt to save himself but that doesn't keep hippies from bringing up the case as if it had some merit.
 

Abefroman

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This never happened. They tested the guy's field and the crop was like 98% GMO. He was lying and the "it just blew in" was a half assed attempt to save himself but that doesn't keep hippies from bringing up the case as if it had some merit.
That's right up there with fracking made my water flammable!
 

Aaron

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You guys have more level headed Facebook friends than I do. I have at least three friends there that are so pro-vax that they froth at the mouth at the even hint that someone, sometime, might have had a runny nose due to getting a vax. What is most infuriating is that they are all intelligent and science trained and should know better. That's why I claimed both sides being equally dogmatic. I guess it must be bias, although, to be honest, it was those friends of mine and not anti-vaxers that made me look into weather vaxies truly were 100% safe, or if it was more like 99.999%.
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As for the Monsanto field claim I made, I didn't know it was bogus, hadn't heard about it. But I will say that the GMO industry has some serious PR problems that the pharmaceutical industry has managed to avoid or repair.
 

ZyyzYzzy

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Lol whut? According to any uneducated hippy dipshit the pharmaceutical industry is actively trying to kill you and rape your entire family?
 

Ukerric

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What is said is that the claims made about how they harm people and what damage they do (especially in regards to autism) is based on a completely fallacious study whose author is completely discredited and lost his job due to fact that he misrepresented and outright fabricated the data to "prove" his claim that vaccines cause autism,
You forget (if it's Wakefield you're talking about) the bit about being the patent owner for a different vaccine substrate which, I presume, would have been "perfectly safe to use", and was seeking funds to create a company to exploit said substrate at the time of the Lancet study.