rjshae

Possible, not probable. The actual odds will always be a matter of debate; ask a Republican and they'll say high because it suits the base to blame China. But they are probably heavily biased.

The first taxpayer-supported public school in the US was established in 1639. It has been around for a while.

Common pesticide may contribute to global obesity crisis

Spending centuries learning that you can't fix stupid...

Japan tests exploding rocket engine for the first time in space Bit of a misnomer there. They're talking about testing a pulse detonation engine.

I could swear that they managed to make Khalid sound even more wimpy and whiny during the Prelude. Perhaps as an attempt at humor? They did include interactions and cut scenes with an NPC from BG2 pretty early on, so that is obviously an attempt to tie the two together.

Says the guy who died slowly and painfully of a stone blockage in the urinary track and wished he did not.

I recognize at least half of those names. What a remarkable group. Richard Feynman belongs in there, but of course he was only 9 at the time.

That many people packed closely together are prime terrorist targets. We need remote scanning technology or something.

I picked up Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear on sale, and I've played a character through Baldur's Gate so I can run him through SoD. I'm still early in the game but it's not bad thus far. Basically more of the same sort of thing, with a few twists here and there. The one issue I've had is that my original party is unavailable, so I've had to recruit several companions who join as first level characters. (Minsc and Dynaheir, for example, who I didn't recruit in the first game just for a change of pace.) The combat has been fairly challenging, and seems to be balanced for a full strength party at the PC's level. Fortunately there are ways to grind through the early battles using items acquired during the first game.

Distrusting the government is not the same thing as being particularly susceptible to conspiracy theories.

I think the Administration did plan for an eventual evacuation. Just not this one. You can tell by just how much they dawdled over extracting the Afghan interpreters. I didn't have an issue with the US decision to withdraw; some President was going to do it eventually. But this now looks like a bureaucratic failure at multiple levels. It may also mean we get stuck with that fool Trump for another term.

This was called a mortsafe. It was designed to keep medical students from digging up corpses for anatomy training. Which... is kind of funny.

Disagreeable people found to be more prone to conspiracy theories Well that's an interesting find. I'm not sure how it helps, but it's interesting.

I suspect you get both. The existing Anime audience is more likely to attend, so you get a helpful bump at the box office that can trigger others to show up through word of mouth.

More Than 80 Cultures Still Speak in Whistles Kind of cool, really.

That's... not really funny.

n/m

The evidence I've heard supporting the lab leak theory amounts to: The lab is located in the same city as the outbreak A few of the lab workers reported getting sick at around that time (during cold/flu season) There were some prior concerns about sloppy safety standards at the lab China did their best to cover up any possible blame All of which is weakly circumstantial. There's a strong element of scapegoating in those who support the lab leak theory, and their arguments tend to be heavily biased. For that reason I tend to scoff at the discussion, which leans decidedly to the sinophobic at times. There is still some debate over whether the COVID-19 has been genetically modified. I've seen at least one paper arguing that it was, and the subject is complex for a lay person like me. But it would seem there is no way to settle that scientifically without an extensive exploration of possible sources. The fact that the virus has natural sources in China explains why the lab could have collected samples from the region, so an accidental lab leak is not entirely out of the question. But the odds seem lower than for other explanations.