Yes.

However, anyone targeting civilians is a villain, and requires no demonizing beyond what they're already doing themselves. The US government, Russia, Israel, Hezbollah... there's never any excuse to target civilians, full stop.

Great excuse for Democrats to refuse to certify the electors from those states.

There was another thread in this, where someone argued convincingly that the Justice Department has the right, should they choose to enforce it.

My favorite photographer and idol! Nice to see him posted in the wild.

Oh. Yeah, that makes sense.

Trump? Uses a fitness app?

That makes me suspect the whole claim.

Who do I write?

I don't think so; it's title salad, AFAICT from TFA.

From what I can tell, the Palestinian group is demonstrating against UMN's recent (past year) pro-Israel position, which started in June with the whole thing about them withdrawing a job offer to Dr. Segal, who (if you remember) called Israel out over its actions in Gaza and led to some protest resignations. Since then, UMN has doubled down on backing Israel.

This happens to coincide with a planned anti-vaxxer demonstration against Fauci:

An anti-Fauci rally had also been planned by conservative group Action 4 Liberty to coincide with the lecture at the university, but that was moved after the lecture was canceled.

but it doesn't seem that the Palestine protesters are protesting Fauci; they just happen to be occupying the space during a time Fauci was coming to talk.

At least, that's what can glean from TFA. There's no clear link between the anti-vaxxers and the pro-Palestine protesters, other than an overlap in timing.

Cool.

Mammoths, too! Hopefully we can get fully sequenced genomes on those.

I haven't heard of any concrete efforts to re-introduced mammoths, though - is someone working on that?

So I recently learned that, in the Cayman Islands, where they drove green sea turtles to near(?) extinction, they have had a successful re-introduction program. What's interesting is that they collect, incubate, and hatch the eggs in a hatchery, and raise the turtles until they're a year or two old, and then release them. By then, they're too Big for the land predators, and 100% of the turtles make it to the ocean. They've brought the population back to tens of thousands.

At some point, I guess they'll consider the population stable and end the program, and let nature go back to what it was doing with the predators and all, but for now it's nice to know that these turtles, at least, don't have to face that sort of predation. It's the least we could do, as a species.

We're also re-introducing mostly-Aurochs (re-bred, not genetically identical to the originals), and we'll probably see thylacines brought back from extinction.

I don't know if anyone is working on Dodos, or whether there's even enough genetic material to work with, but that's one I'd personally really love to see brought back.

Hey, wow, this one is really nice. 👍

I loved the post, thank you! Like many people, glaucus atlanticus is my favorite nudibranch, although there are many other wonderful sea slugs.

Also: you are usually seeing pictures of their bellies. This is because their bellies have that wonderful blue, while their backs are a more boring silver-grey, so their tummies are more photogenic.

They're colored this way because they live along the air-water surface tension... but from underneath, so they are always belly-up. The blue belly camouflages them from the air, and makes them look like water; their gray backs camouflage them from beneath, making them look like the air.

They live their lives upside-down, the air is their ground, and when they look "up" it's toward the ocean depths.

Such wonderful, fascinating creatures! Glaucus atlanticus is probably the most famous, and for a good reason: they look like beautiful little sea angels.

Sea angels that can kill you. Cute, little, blue, murder-angels!!

Those pattern buffer filters aren't getting any better over the decades, are they?

You know, they should not even let the doors on shuttle craft open in dock, and just beam people in and out of them. That'd solve an entire other vector of infection.

The problem with Star Trek is, and always has been, that writers keep making it harder every episode for later authors to find ways of introducing crisis like these. Every solution closes a plot device door.

Star Trek has a serious Eagles Flying The Ring To Mt Doom problem.

Yes, it's true the two parties fear RCV because it opens the door for a possible third party to eventually get elected.

However, RCV eliminates the spoiler effect; it doesn't exacerbate it. What actually happens in states like MN where RCV has been fairly widely adopted is that parties that mostly align on core planks collaborate, and tend to be more polite. For example, under RCV, Harris would be motivated to cozy up to Stein in the hope that Stein's voters would pick Harris as their second choice - votes she'd then get when Stein is eliminated as a distant third.

In fact, under RCV Stein would probably would get more votes; she might even make it into the double digits, but even so, it is most likely she'd be eliminated in the first round.

You're absolutely right that it's not in the Dem or Repub partys' interest to support RCV, because it does give third parties a chance - one they don't have right now. Even the Tea Party had to give up trying to do their own thing and instead just took over the Republican party like a cordyceps parasite, and they were far stronger than the Green Party.

If we had RCV, we wouldn't have this shit.

To expand on this: Minnesota is very good about making sure people who are eligible to vote can.

Judges will help you register. Basically, you need an ID and proof that you live at your current address. The latter can be a recent utility bill for your address, with your name on it; it can be someone who comes with you to vouch for you.

If you live with someone who pays the bills and so don't have any bills in your own name, the person who pays the bill can vouch for you if they come with you. They either need to be themselves registered to vote, or need to bring an ID and bill in their name. Any registered voter from your precinct can vouch for you. They will have to sign an oath that you do, indeed, live at your address. And, again, they have to be registered to vote in the same precinct as you, but this means your neighbor can vouch for you.

If you live in, e.g., a retirement facility, such facilities will often both bring you to the polls and vouch that you live at the address.

If you moved recently within the same precinct, or have changed your name, you do not have to re-register or prove that you live at your new address - you are still registered to vote within that precinct. You only need to tell the election judge your previous address or name. If you got married recently and changed your name, it's not a problem! Go vote!

If you are a student receiving student aid or live in student housing, all you need is your student ID. Your university is required to attest to the state the addresses of these students.

Students, the elderly, and SO's living with their partners - people who often don't get utility bills directly in their names - are well protected by Minnesota's laws. If you aren't registered, show up, have your ID, and if you have a bill or someone eligible to vouch for you, or you get financial aid, you can register and vote at the same time.

The election judges will do their best to help you register - that's a big part of why they are there! It's literally their jobs (although many are volunteers); don't stress about it, and don't be anxious.

Also: Minnesota mandates an equal distribution of judges from each of the two major parties[^1] at each election place. There will be someone from each party who took an oath to ensure no voter intimidation happens at the polls. If you do see intimidation outside the poll, tell an election judge inside, and they'll deal with it (there will be an experienced chief judge onsite who will know who to call).

I can't stress enough that Minnesota tries very hard to ensure that you can (legally) vote. For example:

• If you are married and you aren't registered, and your spouse won't vouch for you or you are afraid to ask your spouse to vouch for you, you can bring a neighbor who's registered to vote and if they'll vouch that you live at your address, you can register and vote at the polling place in election day.
• If you're a student living at a house with other students and one of the others is paying the bills, bring that person and have them vouch for you and you can register and vote.
• If you're living in an assisted living facility, ask your house manager about getting to the polling place to vote. They will almost certainly not only get you there, but also have someone who will attest and sign the oath that you live there.

There is almost no reason[^2] you can't vote in Minnesota. Do it.

Oh! This year, Minnesota has implemented accessability improvements! If you have difficulty getting into the polling building, you can literally vote from your car! Look for the sign in the parking lot with the telephone number, call it, and a judge will come to your car with a tablet with which you can vote; this includes registering you to vote, if necessary. For everyone who can get in, please do; don't use the parking lot voting option unless you need it - it does add overhead, and judges will be busy this election. However, if you do need to use it, do! You're who it's there for.

[^1] we're a two party system; it's not my fault.
[^2] one of those reasons is if you are currently incarcerated. If you should be in jail, it's probably not a good idea to show up at the polls; they don't let you vote anyway.

Oooo! Oooo! Do Apple next!

The maths you're talking about rank fairness by how many (percentage) of the voters end up with a satisfactory outcome. There's a saying that the only perfectly fair voting system is a dictatorship, because only one person gets to vote, and they always get what they want. All other systems have flaws. As in most things, you are trying to maximize fairness.

The secondmost fair system is the Condorcet method, and in fact other systems are usually ranked by how often the winner is the Condorcet winner. The reason nobody uses Condorcet itself is that it's extremely complicated, and one tradeoff in any election system is whether the voters are able to understand, and therefore trust, the system. The more simple the system, the easier to explain, and the more people trust the outcome. FPTP's singular virtue is that it's stupid simple, and any idiot can understand it. Condorcet is at the other extreme, and other systems fall in between.

Ranked Choice is reasonably simple, and produces more Condorcet winners than FPTP. STAR is a little more complicated, but also a little more fair. And, yes, every system has edge cases where the wrong person - someone other than the Condorcet winner - is elected.

The objective is to get there best outcome for the most people, which includes strategies like reducing motivations for strategic voting, and allowing for compromise. The benefit to nearly every system other than FPTP is that they allow for the election of maybe nobody's favorite, but someone that it's acceptable to 100% of the voters; this is considered "more fair" than 51% getting their favorite, and 49% get someone they actively object to.

As you've found, no system is perfect (except dictatorship), and you can always concoct edge cases where the method fails; but that doesn't mean that some aren't better or worse than others, fairness-wise.

One absolute truth, though, is that FPTP is the provably worst system in terms of producing fair outcomes. In the US, Ranked Choice is slowly replacing FPTP in local elections. It's not the best, but it's better, and it's understandable, could be verified by hand, and doesn't require a computer to produce results within a reasonable time. In this case, Perfect is the enemy of Good, and while we could debate endlessly on the merits of various systems, replacing FPTP with Ranked Choice is a definite improvement.

WHAT? SPEAK UP! I CAN'T HEAR YOU OVER THE OBNOXIOUS NOISE OF YOUR STRAIGHT PIPES! STOP MUMBLING!