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Also the gall to say women were not as capable of achievement in STEM! I was a biochemistry concentrator at the time, and I have nursed a huge grudge ever since.

What a genius idea!

My eldest couldn't breathe on his own when he was born at 36 weeks. In the hospital, his care was routine, and he was discharged after ten days in the NICU. He would have died if I had had a "natural" birth. I don't think people appreciate the miracle that is modern obstetrics for what it is.

Right, my quibble was that it may actually not be hard to evolve human-like intelligence for all we know; the lack of other occurrences mostly speaks to it not being as much of an advantage as we would like to imagine. Which leads to the same conclusion ultimately: it's not a worthy goal to pursue!

Anyway, I guess the way I would put it is: the jury is still out on whether our brand of "intelligence" is good for species survival, and maybe it isn't, given that it hasn't happened more often.

Especially since we are a fairly recent blip in evolutionary timescales, and all evidence suggests we are quite ready to cause our own extinction.

I completely agree with your overall point but need to quibble a bit here. We are not some evolutionary optimum by any means. Nature doesn't seek to produce intelligence; it seeks to produce survival. The horseshoe crab is probably more of an evolutionary pinnacle than we are.

Again with alt text:

Speakers also urge for people to keep donating to the Midwest Immigrant Bond Fund. Alejandra Oliva, a volunteer with the bond fund, says the amount of money they are trying to raise is "unprecedented" as they try to get hundreds of people out of ICE detention, $1500 per person.