Ominous Positivity

It's always annoying when a work of fiction presents a "revelation" that you didn't even realize was supposed to not be known. In Jennifer Government, there's a bit where this guy is infiltrating the villainous organization having copied the identity of a member of that organization. He meets a guy whose name is the same as his cover name, and a bit later he suddenly discovers that this is the person he's disguised as! In one Ghost in the Shell episode, they're looking through the pictures taken by a murder victim -- in a world where cybernetic implants are common, and which are clearly taken from his eyes rather than a camera -- and then much much later one of these crack professional detectives realizes that there's no camera and this is the key clue he needs to blow open the case. Even if I might buy someone from our time missing that, this guy lives in a world where such things are commonplace! How does he not realize this?

I walk down the city streets, in an unsuspectin' human world. Inhuman in your midst. Well, this world is mine to own.

Some slides we made in class this week. Histology's been treating me well.

Is there a better way to pass the time than collecting fun facts about various fields of science? I don't think so.

NYC Subway Bacterial Petri Dish Art by Craig Ward

it’s interesting how many people have knee jerk scorn towards Ozempic and think it’s almost foregone conclusion to be a Faustian bargain that will cause massive long term health problems in exchange for “cheating to lose weight”. as if suffering and struggling to lose weight is just punishment for being a fatty (smells Protestant). the thing is, this doesn’t even bear out in reality either because glp-1 drugs have the knock-on effect of improving health outcomes across the board for almost everything. tho good litmus test for sussing out the type of guy who tells themselves just-so stories

Today I learned that in pre-Columbian, pre-Hispanic cultures like the Aztec, women and children were frequently sacrificed. Parents often authorized the sacrifice of their own children. Some even ate their own children.

The percentage of people from the world population capable of following a written argument is probably very small.

The trilemma of fast, good, and cheap: you may attain two of these properties, but probably not all three. If it is fast and good, it probably won't be cheap. If it is good and cheap, it probably won't be fast. If it is cheap and fast, it probably won't be good.

Bonus: The concept of "cheap" is context-dependent and may not necessarily pertain to a thing's monetary cost.

You are either committed to science, technology, engineering, and math—venturing deep into the intersection of numbers and philosophy—or you get swallowed by one of the lesser ideologies like communism, makeup, or video game addiction