How do wombats poop cubes? (2021) • Hacker News Board

Re: How do wombats poop cubes? (2021)

#101

Post by arjie » Thu, Jul 02, 2026, 3:55 PM UTC

franciscop wrote: post #16

A bit of a tangent but I've read this phrase almost verbatim in another article[1] today: > "This study is really good," says Sunghwan Jung, a biophysicist at Cornell University who studies the mechanics of animal movements and was not involved with the research. It shows, he says, that the guts of these animals "are very special." The other article [1] quote: > It’s “an impressive step,” said Jack Szostak (opens a n…

Isn't the more parsimonious explanation that science journalists and writers have scientist friends or advisors who they consult when something interesting happens? I imagine their correspondence going something like:

"Hi, Jack, came across this thing where they claim to have created artificial life. Is it real?"

"It's an impressive step..."

"Hey, Jack, there's this new thing called LK-99 that everyone is excited about. Why?"

"It's not real"

Some amount of `site:www.quantamagazine.org "Jack Szostak"` querying on Google seems to indicate this might be the case. Though I have to say it's probably not everyone who has a Nobel laureate on their rolodex for a quick "hi, is this real?"

Re: How do wombats poop cubes? (2021)

#102

Post by hackeraccount » Thu, Jul 02, 2026, 4:37 PM UTC

butlike wrote: post #91

reltnek wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The old toxicology proverb is: "The dose makes the poison"

I like to extend it to: "the portion makes the poison." Beyond getting the alliteration, it also includes food, which I think is important. A glass of water won't kill you, two gallons of water will. An ice cream cone once in a while is nothing; one every day will make the doctor's eyes go wide.

Jesus. I had a colonoscopy. Don't tell me about drinking 2 gallons of water. I won't even get started on an ice cream cone a day.

Re: How do wombats poop cubes? (2021)

#103

Post by nimbleal » Thu, Jul 02, 2026, 4:56 PM UTC

14113 wrote: post #57

jna_sh wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve heard a different reason for their presence in graveyards: because yew kills grazing mammals that eat it, it was cut down everywhere that people grazed animals, which excluded graveyards

My understanding is that churches were built next to yew trees, not yew trees planted next to churches. Pre-Christian religions had many associations with yew trees (they live for a long time, give off mildly hallucinogenic gasses on hot days, discourage animals), and so built their holy sites around them. When Christianity came to Britain, churches were deliberately built on pagan holy sites to overrun the old relig…

The Christmas/ Saturnalia link is a myth.

Re: How do wombats poop cubes? (2021)

#104

Post by vidarh » Thu, Jul 02, 2026, 5:22 PM UTC

mschuster91 wrote: post #58

vidarh wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It takes longer than people tend to think before kids learn to infer things well at all, and so being explicit about causal chains tends to make kids more likely to take advice. E.g "put your coat on" might not lead the child to think it is cold, and even a "put your coat on, it's cold outside" might still not lead the child to realise that means they'll freeze without the coat. A lot of tantrums would be avoided if…

> A lot of tantrums would be avoided if parents were more explicit about why they're giving certain advice. For that, parents would need time . But if we have to spend half of our day with work or work-related tasks (commute, lunch break)... Society (or let's be real, capitalism) forces us to work unhealthy amounts of hours and then wonders why there aren't enough children and of the children that remain, they dumb d…

It saved me a lot of time when my son was little because it meant he argued less with me over the necessity of things at the cost of an extra sentence here and there.

Re: How do wombats poop cubes? (2021)

#105

Post by vidarh » Thu, Jul 02, 2026, 6:04 PM UTC

jonathanlydall wrote: post #80

vidarh wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It takes longer than people tend to think before kids learn to infer things well at all, and so being explicit about causal chains tends to make kids more likely to take advice. E.g "put your coat on" might not lead the child to think it is cold, and even a "put your coat on, it's cold outside" might still not lead the child to realise that means they'll freeze without the coat. A lot of tantrums would be avoided if…

Depends on the kid and their age. Me to my 3.5-year-old boy after evening bath (winter here right now): Your feet are going to get cold, don't you want to put on your slippers to keep them warm? Him: No! And if I put them on he'll take them off as soon as I'm not stopping him from doing so. For putting on warm enough jacket for school I try similar reasoning which has yet to work with any kind of consistency, still m…

Sometimes you just need to let them experience that you are right first, as long they're just making themselves miserable for a bit.

Also, it works wonders to let them make a choice between two acceptable solutions instead of giving them space to say no.

"Do you want the slippers or the thick socks?"

It doesn't always work, but kids that age are learning to set boundaries, and giving them the illusion of agency often helps.

Re: How do wombats poop cubes? (2021)

#106

Post by vova_hn2 » Thu, Jul 02, 2026, 7:27 PM UTC

ErroneousBosh wrote: post #83

golem14 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hear Yew is uniquely poisonous to horses (I mean, they are especially susceptible to it)

Horses are especially susceptible to *everything*. Millenia of selective breeding to try for the healthiest strongest animals we can, and they're still shit. They'll get ill if they breathe wrong. They'll get ill if they eat a mouthful too much or too little of grass that's ever so slightly too green. They'll get ill if it's too rainy or not rainy enough. How the hell did they even evolve?

Selective breeding for being useful to humans, not for being able to survive on their own.

Re: How do wombats poop cubes? (2021)

#107

Post by type0 » Thu, Jul 02, 2026, 8:01 PM UTC

Kim_Bruning wrote: post #64

taneq wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This reminds me of the old “bats use sonar and can fly super precisely without crashing into each other in pitch black” and then it turns out that they crash into each other all the time .

You have a source or observation for that? All I can find is the exact opposite, that they do just fine even in challenging conditions.

If you watch them fly it always looks more chaotic than birds.

Re: How do wombats poop cubes? (2021)

#108

Post by lisper » Fri, Jul 03, 2026, 12:26 AM UTC

nimbleal wrote: post #103

14113 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My understanding is that churches were built next to yew trees, not yew trees planted next to churches. Pre-Christian religions had many associations with yew trees (they live for a long time, give off mildly hallucinogenic gasses on hot days, discourage animals), and so built their holy sites around them. When Christianity came to Britain, churches were deliberately built on pagan holy sites to overrun the old relig…

The Christmas/ Saturnalia link is a myth.

No, it isn’t:

https://www.academuseducation.co.uk/post/how-saturnalia-beca...

Re: How do wombats poop cubes? (2021)

#109

Post by nimbleal » Fri, Jul 03, 2026, 2:03 AM UTC

lisper wrote: post #108

nimbleal wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Christmas/ Saturnalia link is a myth.

No, it isn’t: https://www.academuseducation.co.uk/post/how-saturnalia-beca...

Yes, it is.

Look at your source — hardly authoritative! And the so-called evidence... Thin, entirely circumstantial, and in places actually wrong.

For example, Saturnalia went — at its longest - until the 23rd, not the 25th. Moreover, Christians likely got the 25th date based on religious calculation[1], not with reference to the one of the ancient festivals Victorian "historians" liked to speculate about.

The article attempts to link gifting verses to writing Christmas cards — a Christmas tradition not popularised until the 19th C and no older than the 17th.

Feasting and exchanging of gifts, much less the greeting "lo saturnalia" — literally the only other "evidence" presented here — need hardly be addressed, given how ubiquitous such things are with regard to festival, and how thin the apparent connection.

There is no positive evidence for this link, hence it not being taken seriously by any modern historian. It is no more than outdated speculation.

[1] https://poj.peeters-leuven.be/content.php?id=3007366&url=art...

Re: How do wombats poop cubes? (2021)

#110

Post by taneq » Fri, Jul 03, 2026, 3:22 AM UTC

Kim_Bruning wrote: post #64

taneq wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This reminds me of the old “bats use sonar and can fly super precisely without crashing into each other in pitch black” and then it turns out that they crash into each other all the time .

You have a source or observation for that? All I can find is the exact opposite, that they do just fine even in challenging conditions.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/bats-crash-into-each-other-a...