Perhaps I'm missing something - what's wrong with makeup?

But they're people. People can revisit and reconsider the values they live by. They can change things despite the tradition they were born into or even the tradition they helped establish. That allows the society to progress and survive changing conditions. Let's support it.

Yes, what I mean is there's no way to restore it with just one or even a few species.

I think that was directed at the journalists coming up with clickbait, not the scientists.

Circles in the glass of water intensify.

Miserable fat Belgian bastards!

Also there are supposed to be whole probiotic worlds in our gut. One species is nothing.

You buy shoes that are easy to swap - like no need to use hands kind of easy. You can also go barefoot at home, because the floor is clean.

I know and it made me laugh so hard I had to explain it to my spouse! I tried to play along, but I guess text is not the right medium for that :D

And yeah, molecular phylogeny is the source of real drama sometimes ;)

If only Stapelias Ceropegias could talk...

Sorry, I kind of thought it was not as hot. I mean, compared to the whole African vs. Australian Acacia affair - oops!

Also, don't mention they were supposed to become Portulacaceae - very sensitive topic.

The real spagetti monster

Be sure to test your kid, these things seem to be very hereditary.

Sometimes people need to play minecraft with their nephews or nieces. Trust me, it's necessary and very much worth it.

At first I thought the emojis were supposed to stand for "cat" "fr"

Why would you use a plastic spatula? I use wood with teflon - doesn't scratch and isn't floppy!

I don't know, it feels creepy to me. I think she should know.

A cousin is taken as fair game in many countries, health risks in children are low. Better get tested first to make sure. Many cousins are not in close contact through their childhood, so they don't feel sibling-like wierdness.

On the other hand, someone might find it better to die having sex than having cancer or something...

I was talking about toxins in general in reaction to yout toxin comment. I think it's logical to research the possibility of alcohol having some beneficial effects, the world is not black and white.

When it comes to studies of health risks/benefits of alcohol, they unfortunately seem to suffer from the same shortcomings as other health studies: lots of important factors are often ignored, like the type of alcoholic beverage consumed, lifestyle connected to the type or amount of alcohol, previous history of alcohol use... I can, of course, give you a link to a study that finds benefits to moderate alcohol use (although they are far from recomending it). Here's one example from 2023

Personally, I think alcohol probably does more damage than benefit even in moderate dosing, but the truth is we still don't really know and we need much more in-depth studies to find out.