You’re back, hooray! About two hours ago I got a time-out, and also a Too Many Requests page. Went to do my exercises, and find time heals everything — or you did, Neo.
I want one. Wonder if they’re any good at herding.
Seems to me odd that the video doesn’t address wild fox (nor selectively “domesticated” for that matter) sociality. That is, in my febble understanding of the respective species wild manners, the wolves are pack animals, whereas with foxes (such is my belief) that is not at all the case. So the “starting” point in alteration is greatly and particularly distinct.
I still have to struggle – sort of – to wrap my brain around the fact that the distant ancestor of, say, a toy poodle or a chihuahua or other small dog is a wolf.
Speaking of dogs, not that long ago and for the very first time , I saw up close and personal an Irish Wolfhound. I was amazed at their size; they are really big dogs.
@JohnTyler, yeah that’s the power of selective breeding, the most basic form of genetic engineering that humans have been practicing for tens of thousands of years. In most species there exists the capacity for significant phenotypcial variation amongst individuals. If certain traits are carefully selected for over even just a few generations you can end up with some pretty extreme morphological variations.
In fact if a population is great enough, such extremes can emerge naturaly. Think about humans. There’s 8 billion of us. The tallest recorded humans have reached well over 8 feet in height while the shortest adult humans are far less than 3 feet.
BREAKING: Trump Administration files Emergency Motion to Vacate TRO which prohibits political appointees from accessing Treasury Dep’t databases. 1/
2/ Main focus is outrageous interference on Executive oversight by political appointees, but also highlights fact that contractors also have access to databases that everyone was screaming would be at risk if Musk had access to.
3/3 Trump asks for Stay if TRO isn’t vacated or at least modified to seek an appeal. Full Motion here: [PDF follows, see link — sdferr]
Via my friend’s FB page engaged the loons again over the weekend. Fascinating to see their perceptions. This time the outrage is Trump cutting science indirect costs on grants. The loons claim he’s shutting down all research.
My first statement was that I had NSF and NASA grants and that the indirect costs are just a slush fund for the school and should be cut. First guy to respond quickly looked at my FB page without looking further and then said, ” Oh yeah, a soccer ref really knows about science!”. I set him straight with links to my credentials.
It then went that they claimed the researcher would not get any equipment or support for the students. I told them that the actual grant which has all that in was unaffected, just the money the school receives which is usually 50% of the grant.
It took several rounds to finally show them the researchers grant is not touched. Well then, they claimed the total indirect costs were needed by the school for overhead. I agree there’s overhead, but 10-15% of the grant would easily cover it. I then told them from my personal experience the school just looks at the ID as a revenue stream and does not use the money back into science. Then we were finally back to “Well you don’t know what you are talking about!”
Closed minds with severe TDS
More news from the department of elections have consequences:
Feb. 10, 2025
“Trump has ordered the immediate dismissal of the Boards of Visitors for the Army, Air Force, Navy, and Coast Guard academies, citing an infiltration by ‘Woke Leftist Ideologues’ over the past four years.”
(https://tinyurl.com/4bpapuat)
An interesting thread (10 parts, though not long parts) on the subject of “Injunction bonds” as a measure to balance the costs of “frivolous injunctions” brought by activists for the purpose of intentionally gumming up the legitimate workings of government: https://x.com/RealDanHuff/status/1888975398299435477
[Part 3]
Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 65(c), judges can issue injunctions “ONLY IF” the suing party posts a bond to cover potential damages if they’re wrong. But guess what? This rule is hardly used! 3/
New York is about to pass a law with the intent of keeping Stefanik’s seat vacant for the rest of the year. The current law requires a special election within 90 days. I hope Trump threatens countermeasures.
Well, Stefanik could delay her resignation until the proper moment 90 days before the next regularly scheduled election. The UN being pointless, we can probably survive with only an Acting Ambassador until then.
New York is about to pass a law with the intent of keeping Stefanik’s seat vacant for the rest of the year. The current law requires a special election within 90 days.
==
The current law should be controlling. That, of course, presumes Democratic legislators and Democratic judges have some ethical sense. Which of course they do not.
The terrorist group blames Israel for violating the ceasefire agreement by delaying the return of displaced people and blocking aid and supplies from reaching the Gaza Strip.
***
Of the 251 hostages taken by Hamas on October 7, 73 are still held in Gaza, of which 34 are confirmed by the IDF to be dead.
Israel should send out notice that *ALL* buildings, motor vehicles, and structures (besides tents ‘n porta’s) will be destroyed on Sunday, February 16, 2025 if Hamas fails to return hostages on date set…
Believe it or not, the Russian fox study is extremely controversial among university leftists, especially the Marxists who dominate departments in the Humanities and the Social Sciences. These people have a religious devotion to radical gender theory. To them, chromosomes are trivial. Behavior is determined by environment, not genes. Gender triumphs over sex. Am I gender fluid? Well, of course, who isn’t? Only those living in denial. So say the Marxists.
The rapid change in genetically determined behavior among foxes obviously raises the analogous issue of changes in human behavior through natural selection. Since humans are social animals, how different is our so-called natural selection from that of the Russian fox experiment? What kind of humans were selected for survival on Europe’s feudal estates? What kind in China’s rice fields? How do they differ from those in China’s wheat fields? What about those selected to survive sub-Saharan Africa’s mixture of hunter/gatherer and small scale horticulture. Suddenly we’re on the dangerous ground of human population genetics. So say the Russian foxes.
First, his comments about blank codes, blank comments, and missing or invalid TINs on Treasury payments. It does not take genius coders or AI to spot these. Any data analyst at Treasury knew about these in their first month on the job, there’s not more than a few lines of SQL needed to find blank or missing fields.
His second comment reveals that low-level employees at Treasury DID all know this:
Nobody in Treasury management cared enough before…I do want to credit the working level people in Treasury who have wanted to do this for many years, but have been stopped by prior management…. Everything at Treasury was geared towards complain[t] minimization. People who receive money don’t complain, but people who don’t receive money (especially fraudsters) complain very loudly, so the fraud was allowed to continue.
It’s not that nobody COULD find these things before Musk and DOGE. It’s that until now, nobody in leadership wanted to do anything about it.
@Kate: good idea, and Trump should be able to name an acting ambassador in the meantime. Has Stefanik vacated her seat?
Interesting article over at WUWT about Sabine. It basically says what we’ve discussed: her blind spot regarding climate. The author notes how she applies standard scientific skepticism about everything else. He also notes that she is very slowly making her way towards reality on climate.
It’s amazing to me that Trump has goaded Democrats to defend “waste, fraud, and abuse” as if it were their last stand. The one, and only one, area of government spending cut that an overwhelming majority of citizenry wants to cut, they choose to treat as the literal end of the world.
I guess hate is a powerful thing.
JohnTyler (10:55am)– All the selective breeding has not caused the chihuahua (and related mixes) from still believing they are, in fact, wolves. Still. I’m on my second such creature and must commend God on being able to pack that much attitude into such a small creature. I’ve had bullmastiffs and have had husky-mixes, and they would take second place to the chihuahuas.
[The downsizing of breeds is because of a personal agreement not to have a dog I could not carry, if needed. Age does this to us… ]
Run the phrase ” roman empire 5 bc” thru a Google search. Apparently the Google AI summary thinks 27 BC is after 5 BC.
1) Bauxite
It’s amazing to me that Trump has goaded Democrats to defend “waste, fraud, and abuse” as if it were their last stand.
🙂 Too funny!!! 🙂 Yeah, that’s a record that is going to be difficult to defend next election cycle—‘n after!
Have enough difficulty trying to remember some of President Trump’s cabinet picks, so donors, TikTok’ers ‘n such are not even on my focus list. “Whisperer” caught my attention…
Just learned that the social security database is not de-duplicated, meaning you can have the same SSN many times over, which further enables MASSIVE FRAUD!!
Your tax dollars are being stolen.
Is Musk human!?!
Re the indirect cuts on research grants, once they stop lighting their hair on fire, they will realize two things:
1) They can change their accounting of costs and increase the direct costs in the grants,
2) NSF and NIH will have money for more grants, if they’re paying less per grant.
That trail led to staggering discoveries. Programs marked as independent revealed coordinated funding streams. Grants labeled as humanitarian aid showed curious detours through complex networks. Black budgets once shrouded in secrecy began to unravel under algorithmic scrutiny.
By 6 AM, Treasury’s career officials began arriving for work. They found systems they thought impenetrable already mapped. Networks they believed hidden already exposed. Power structures built over decades revealed in hours.
Their traditional defenses—slow-walking decisions, leaking damaging stories, stonewalling requests—proved useless against an opponent moving faster than their systems could react. By the time they drafted their first memo objecting to this breach, three more systems had already been mapped.
Nonapod:
Niketas claims the article is fiction (or “mytruth”) and Liz suggested some of the most common seasoning should be taken with it.
Time will tell.
Now the Feral judges and NGO (No Good Organization) lawyers are fighting for truth, beauty, and the American way; or just for their rice bowls.
Kate, my understanding is that Stefanik has not vacated her seat, and doesn’t need to do so until she is confirmed. Presumably she could stay longer and not begin her appointment, but that would be up to Trump. I was hoping Trump would threaten New York with a cutoff of federal funds if they pull this stunt, and maybe Hochul would veto it.
That would be a good solution, Jimmy. We’ll have to see if New York can be persuaded to behave decently.
Kate, I have a Bridge to Nowhere that I want to sell you
Kate, I doubt it, that would violate one of the basic rules of New York Democrats.
Not buying it, Shirehome. 🙂
I have read that the domesticated foxes are, ” dogs running on cat software. “
@Karmi:the social security database is not de-duplicated, meaning you can have the same SSN many times over
One more item not requiring genius coders or AI to uncover, that every entry-level data analyst working at Treasury knew their first week on the job with four lines of SQL. I’ve certainly seen that every place I’ve had database access, which is why SSNs are worthless for identifying people.
For those with an interest in delving further into the dog–cat comps, see this fun discourse on “Carnivora”; it’s a hoot: https://youtu.be/v-oAwxSV0kQ
It will be good to answer many questions aside from the unanswerable one of what country we would have if our timeline hadn’t been so drastically disrupted.
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You’re back, hooray! About two hours ago I got a time-out, and also a Too Many Requests page. Went to do my exercises, and find time heals everything — or you did, Neo.
I want one. Wonder if they’re any good at herding.
Seems to me odd that the video doesn’t address wild fox (nor selectively “domesticated” for that matter) sociality. That is, in my febble understanding of the respective species wild manners, the wolves are pack animals, whereas with foxes (such is my belief) that is not at all the case. So the “starting” point in alteration is greatly and particularly distinct.
I still have to struggle – sort of – to wrap my brain around the fact that the distant ancestor of, say, a toy poodle or a chihuahua or other small dog is a wolf.
Speaking of dogs, not that long ago and for the very first time , I saw up close and personal an Irish Wolfhound. I was amazed at their size; they are really big dogs.
@JohnTyler, yeah that’s the power of selective breeding, the most basic form of genetic engineering that humans have been practicing for tens of thousands of years. In most species there exists the capacity for significant phenotypcial variation amongst individuals. If certain traits are carefully selected for over even just a few generations you can end up with some pretty extreme morphological variations.
In fact if a population is great enough, such extremes can emerge naturaly. Think about humans. There’s 8 billion of us. The tallest recorded humans have reached well over 8 feet in height while the shortest adult humans are far less than 3 feet.
https://x.com/ProfMJCleveland/status/1888960451490251110
In response to Trump team’s filing last night: https://x.com/ProfMJCleveland/status/1888815314852364444
Via my friend’s FB page engaged the loons again over the weekend. Fascinating to see their perceptions. This time the outrage is Trump cutting science indirect costs on grants. The loons claim he’s shutting down all research.
My first statement was that I had NSF and NASA grants and that the indirect costs are just a slush fund for the school and should be cut. First guy to respond quickly looked at my FB page without looking further and then said, ” Oh yeah, a soccer ref really knows about science!”. I set him straight with links to my credentials.
It then went that they claimed the researcher would not get any equipment or support for the students. I told them that the actual grant which has all that in was unaffected, just the money the school receives which is usually 50% of the grant.
It took several rounds to finally show them the researchers grant is not touched. Well then, they claimed the total indirect costs were needed by the school for overhead. I agree there’s overhead, but 10-15% of the grant would easily cover it. I then told them from my personal experience the school just looks at the ID as a revenue stream and does not use the money back into science. Then we were finally back to “Well you don’t know what you are talking about!”
Closed minds with severe TDS
More news from the department of elections have consequences:
Sept. 8, 2021
“Biden ousts 18 Trump appointed military academy board members”
(https://tinyurl.com/24s2attf)
Feb. 10, 2025
“Trump has ordered the immediate dismissal of the Boards of Visitors for the Army, Air Force, Navy, and Coast Guard academies, citing an infiltration by ‘Woke Leftist Ideologues’ over the past four years.”
(https://tinyurl.com/4bpapuat)
An interesting thread (10 parts, though not long parts) on the subject of “Injunction bonds” as a measure to balance the costs of “frivolous injunctions” brought by activists for the purpose of intentionally gumming up the legitimate workings of government: https://x.com/RealDanHuff/status/1888975398299435477
[Part 3]
New York is about to pass a law with the intent of keeping Stefanik’s seat vacant for the rest of the year. The current law requires a special election within 90 days. I hope Trump threatens countermeasures.
Well, Stefanik could delay her resignation until the proper moment 90 days before the next regularly scheduled election. The UN being pointless, we can probably survive with only an Acting Ambassador until then.
New York is about to pass a law with the intent of keeping Stefanik’s seat vacant for the rest of the year. The current law requires a special election within 90 days.
==
The current law should be controlling. That, of course, presumes Democratic legislators and Democratic judges have some ethical sense. Which of course they do not.
Hamas cancels all hostage releases until further notice
Israel should send out notice that *ALL* buildings, motor vehicles, and structures (besides tents ‘n porta’s) will be destroyed on Sunday, February 16, 2025 if Hamas fails to return hostages on date set…
Believe it or not, the Russian fox study is extremely controversial among university leftists, especially the Marxists who dominate departments in the Humanities and the Social Sciences. These people have a religious devotion to radical gender theory. To them, chromosomes are trivial. Behavior is determined by environment, not genes. Gender triumphs over sex. Am I gender fluid? Well, of course, who isn’t? Only those living in denial. So say the Marxists.
The rapid change in genetically determined behavior among foxes obviously raises the analogous issue of changes in human behavior through natural selection. Since humans are social animals, how different is our so-called natural selection from that of the Russian fox experiment? What kind of humans were selected for survival on Europe’s feudal estates? What kind in China’s rice fields? How do they differ from those in China’s wheat fields? What about those selected to survive sub-Saharan Africa’s mixture of hunter/gatherer and small scale horticulture. Suddenly we’re on the dangerous ground of human population genetics. So say the Russian foxes.
Two comments by Musk on X, cited in this Fox Business article:
First, his comments about blank codes, blank comments, and missing or invalid TINs on Treasury payments. It does not take genius coders or AI to spot these. Any data analyst at Treasury knew about these in their first month on the job, there’s not more than a few lines of SQL needed to find blank or missing fields.
His second comment reveals that low-level employees at Treasury DID all know this:
It’s not that nobody COULD find these things before Musk and DOGE. It’s that until now, nobody in leadership wanted to do anything about it.
@Kate: good idea, and Trump should be able to name an acting ambassador in the meantime. Has Stefanik vacated her seat?
Interesting article over at WUWT about Sabine. It basically says what we’ve discussed: her blind spot regarding climate. The author notes how she applies standard scientific skepticism about everything else. He also notes that she is very slowly making her way towards reality on climate.
Interesting someone else noticed this.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/02/09/sabine-hossenfelder-trump-is-making-us-give-up-on-climate-goals/
It’s amazing to me that Trump has goaded Democrats to defend “waste, fraud, and abuse” as if it were their last stand. The one, and only one, area of government spending cut that an overwhelming majority of citizenry wants to cut, they choose to treat as the literal end of the world.
I guess hate is a powerful thing.
JohnTyler (10:55am)– All the selective breeding has not caused the chihuahua (and related mixes) from still believing they are, in fact, wolves. Still. I’m on my second such creature and must commend God on being able to pack that much attitude into such a small creature. I’ve had bullmastiffs and have had husky-mixes, and they would take second place to the chihuahuas.
[The downsizing of breeds is because of a personal agreement not to have a dog I could not carry, if needed. Age does this to us… ]
Run the phrase ” roman empire 5 bc” thru a Google search. Apparently the Google AI summary thinks 27 BC is after 5 BC.
1) Bauxite
🙂 Too funny!!! 🙂 Yeah, that’s a record that is going to be difficult to defend next election cycle—‘n after!
2) How Charlie Kirk Became the Youth Whisperer of the American Right – ‘Collecting donors, voters, TikTok viewers and high-powered friends on his way into Trump’s inner circle.’
Have enough difficulty trying to remember some of President Trump’s cabinet picks, so donors, TikTok’ers ‘n such are not even on my focus list. “Whisperer” caught my attention…
3) More you look, the worse it gets
Is Musk human!?!
Re the indirect cuts on research grants, once they stop lighting their hair on fire, they will realize two things:
1) They can change their accounting of costs and increase the direct costs in the grants,
2) NSF and NIH will have money for more grants, if they’re paying less per grant.
Interesting.
Nonapod:
Niketas claims the article is fiction (or “mytruth”) and Liz suggested some of the most common seasoning should be taken with it.
Time will tell.
Now the Feral judges and NGO (No Good Organization) lawyers are fighting for truth, beauty, and the American way; or just for their rice bowls.
Kate, my understanding is that Stefanik has not vacated her seat, and doesn’t need to do so until she is confirmed. Presumably she could stay longer and not begin her appointment, but that would be up to Trump. I was hoping Trump would threaten New York with a cutoff of federal funds if they pull this stunt, and maybe Hochul would veto it.
That would be a good solution, Jimmy. We’ll have to see if New York can be persuaded to behave decently.
Kate, I have a Bridge to Nowhere that I want to sell you
Kate, I doubt it, that would violate one of the basic rules of New York Democrats.
Not buying it, Shirehome. 🙂
I have read that the domesticated foxes are, ” dogs running on cat software. “
@Karmi:the social security database is not de-duplicated, meaning you can have the same SSN many times over
One more item not requiring genius coders or AI to uncover, that every entry-level data analyst working at Treasury knew their first week on the job with four lines of SQL. I’ve certainly seen that every place I’ve had database access, which is why SSNs are worthless for identifying people.
For those with an interest in delving further into the dog–cat comps, see this fun discourse on “Carnivora”; it’s a hoot: https://youtu.be/v-oAwxSV0kQ
What? SSN is not a primary key in the SSN system?
Meanwhile,
FBI finds secret JFK assassination records after Trump order
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaHdQXcEqoY
It will be good to answer many questions aside from the unanswerable one of what country we would have if our timeline hadn’t been so drastically disrupted.