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vikingchris.bsky.social
I am a freelance writer with a background in biology (molecular evolutionary genetics to be more specific). I mostly write about brewing beer and gardening. I am an avid grill cook, especially of chicken, and am working at becoming a better cook overall.
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Transgender = Identifying with a sex different from your biological sex Transgenic = Containing genes from another species. These are not the same thing. Not even close. The only similarity is the prefix "trans," meaning different.

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

Bird flu has been around "forever" -- certainly since before humans reached North America. The difference now is that there are highly virulent stains circulating and these stains show a propensity to jump into other species. The virus used to be nearly harmless to native birds.

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

My tomatoes stayed outside last night. The low was only 65 degrees F.

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

I did some actual, honest-to-Odin, gardening today.

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments

Being kind, fair, and trustworthy is far more masculine than being a lying, cheating bully.

submitted 14 days ago • 0 comments

So Trump is making our former allies hate us _and_ he's firing experienced members of our military?

submitted 15 days ago • 0 comments

Fun Fact: Ketamine is a Schedule III drug in the DEA's ranking. The FDA has only approved it as an anesthetic. It is illegal to abuse ketamine.

submitted 16 days ago • 0 comments

I have 79 tomato seedlings growing inside. I hope to transplant ~40 outside in late March.

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

I've been reading lots of gardening websites recently. There's a lot of bad advice out there. I think many websites are using AI to compose their posts and not fact-checking or editing them.

submitted 20 days ago • 0 comments

It's Black History Month. Review the story of how Jesse Owens spoiled the 1936 Summer Games for Chancellor Hitler and how he reacted like a spoiled child to the defeats of his "Aryan" athletes.

submitted 21 days ago • 0 comments

HPAI H5N1 (the most virulent strains of bird flu circulating right now) most likely began as weaker strains that became more pathogenic after infecting a high-density poultry farms.

submitted 21 days ago • 0 comments

There's a good documentary streaming free on Tubi right now called Red Tail Angels: The Story of the Tuskegee Airmen.

submitted 24 days ago • 0 comments

Today's a great day for Vladimir Putin. He finally has an asset at the highest level of US intelligence, and he’s laughing. Tulsi Gabbard, known in Russia as "Putin's Girlfriend", is now in charge of our intelligence apparatus. America is being weakened by Trump and his administration.

submitted 25 days ago • 343 comments

Republican senators sold out national security to kiss Trump's ass.

submitted 25 days ago • 252 comments

Republicans have long supported USAID and the work it does to advance our national security and outcompete China. Foreign assistance has long had bipartisan support and we must remove the politics from this critical instrument of our national security.

submitted 24 days ago • 2 comments

Meanwhile in Russia: state TV host Evgeny Popov says that Trump is doing Moscow's job by ripping apart the Western world — whipsawing right through it, the way Russia always wanted to. Popov says that it's truly amazing. youtu.be/JG29upm5HPE

submitted 25 days ago • 122 comments

Planning a spring garden?

submitted 25 days ago • 0 comments

Keep an eye out for dead birds. They are literally the canaries in the coal mine with respect to HPAI H5N1.

submitted 26 days ago • 0 comments

There are two sides to uncertainty. One is that things may not turn out your way. The other is that things may turn out your way. Assuming the first makes that possibility more likely to happen.

submitted 32 days ago • 0 comments

If someone in 2012 had written a novel that closely followed recent events and asked me to review it, I would have said "The American public is stupid, but not that stupid — and your villains are too cartoonish to be believable."

submitted 33 days ago • 0 comments

They shut them down there. Let’s follow them here. Pass it along. https://bsky.app/profile/altusaid.bsky.social

submitted 33 days ago • 56 comments

"That is not only not right; it is not even wrong" -- Wolfgang Pauli (physicist) I find myself wanting to use this phrase more and more these days.

submitted 34 days ago • 0 comments

Serious suggestion: Think of four or more things you buy routinely. Write them down on a piece of paper and note what they cost. Put the list on your bulletin board or anywhere you (and your coworkers) will see it everyday. Watch how Trump's tariffs affect their cost and availability

submitted 35 days ago • 0 comments

If we destroyed all science books, the laws of nature would remain unchanged, and we would eventually rediscover them. If we destroyed all scriptures, new gods would be imagined.

submitted 37 days ago • 19 comments

What I'm doing these days: Looking at the worst case scenario (within reason) then looking at the best case scenario (within reason). The truth is likely somewhere in the middle, although probably not dead center.

submitted 36 days ago • 0 comments

I just started watching (streaming) the TV show Lost. So far I find it interesting.

submitted 38 days ago • 0 comments

Night of the long knives 2.0?

submitted 43 days ago • 0 comments

"You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life." -- Victor Hugo (paraphrased); as written often attributed to Winston Churchill

submitted 46 days ago • 0 comments

RIP Rule of Law

submitted 47 days ago • 0 comments

All I can say today is "plant a garden." Sow something and hopefully reap what you sow.

submitted 48 days ago • 0 comments

Shameful admission: It's halfway through the first month of 2025 and I haven't grilled anything yet. I will correct this in the next couple days. With a god (Odin) as my witness, I will start a fire, click my tongs, drink a beer, and grill some chicken. #DinosaursAreDelicious

submitted 53 days ago • 1 comment

Recent fossil findings show that, before the K/T extinction, mammals diversified more than was previously thought. Interestingly, some paleontologists think that their small size prevented dinosaurs from evolving to be smaller. Mammals were better adapted to being small than dinos could manage.

submitted 53 days ago • 0 comments

I should really get some garden stuff planted today. Will I? That's a great question.

submitted 57 days ago • 0 comments

I'm making chili tonight. A Google search for "chili Colby Mother Earth News" will bring up the recipe.

submitted 95 days ago • 1 comment

I'm not exaggerating: as a historian I consider it to be historical fact that this is one of the most shameful documents in the history of the United States. It's a concession by federal law enforcement that there's no means available to it to punish one of the biggest traitors in American history.

submitted 104 days ago • 641 comments

Food prices are about to soar. Tariffs will instantly raise the prices on imported food (even those which have already been imported, because companies will have that excuse). This will swiftly be followed by domestic producers raising their prices to nearly match. Plant a garden this spring.

submitted 103 days ago • 0 comments

Sail-backed "reptiles," such as Dimetrodon were not dinosaurs. They weren't even reptiles. Pterosaurs were reptiles, but not dinosaurs. Bird are dinosaurs, therapod dinosaurs to be more precise.

submitted 108 days ago • 0 comments

I need to start thinking about my spring garden.

submitted 110 days ago • 0 comments

Non-avian dinosaurs existed from 245 to 66 million years ago (MYA). The first true mammal, known only from its teeth, appeared about 220 MYA. So dinosaurs and (true) mammals existed together for around 150 MY. Mammals began to diversify once the dinosaurs, with the exception of birds, went extinct.

submitted 112 days ago • 1 comment

Synapsids (stem mammals) diverged from early reptiles before the age of the dinosaurs. Throughout that period, they coexisted with dinosaurs and other reptiles, but did not achieve the size and diversity of those groups. The best-known synapsids are the sail-backed mammals such as Dimetrodon.

submitted 112 days ago • 0 comments

The smallest dinosaur ever is alive today. The bee hummingbird, which lives in Cuba and islands in that chain, usually weighs between 2 and 2.5 oz. and is just over 2 inches long. Bird evolved from therapod dinosaurs and hence are dinosaurs.

submitted 113 days ago • 0 comments

The largest mammal in Earth's history is alive today. It's the blue whale. The largest land mammal ever was either _Paraceratherium orgosensis_ (an extinct animal related to modern rhinoceroses) or _Palaeoloxodon namadicus_ (an extinct elephant).

submitted 114 days ago • 0 comments

Lager yeast arose via hybridization of ale yeast and another yeast that prospered at lower temperatures. The best evidence suggests this happened twice, both times within a brewery.

submitted 114 days ago • 0 comments

The Invalid Handle thing is just a glitch. It should just resolve itself.

submitted 115 days ago • 1 comment

Conversations I'm Imaging are Happening Right Now: I'm sorry, sir, but we can't install Hannibal Lecter the director of the FBI. He's a fictional character.

submitted 115 days ago • 0 comments