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Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
This is the lounge. You can discuss anything you want, but you will do it kindly.
Status: Heavily Moderated; Previous thread
I gave a talk here in SLC yesterday, and my first slide established my Utah bona fides by showing pictures of my kids frolicking in the parks and desert. That’s Connlann, who has excitedly discovered something in the rocks. Probably a scorpion.
What? That’s how kids learn!
Yubal, I hope it will turn out to be benign
Portia, good luck.
— — — —
Continents may be a key feature of Super-Earths http://phys.org/news/2014-04-continents-key-feature-super-earths.html
Nice sweater.
OK, this amazes me! PZ Myers in SLC? Wow! My dad used to teach at U of U. I used to do the same thing Conlann is doing except for me it was usually snakes.
Oh, lucky kid. That’s very cool.
I only just this minute noticed the double entendre in the daft pronouncement Ed posted about earlier (the bloke havering on about how “god is literally screaming, ‘I’m coming now!'” with those blood moon eclipses and such). A bit late, but it was a good laugh anyway.
well, we’ve got a “difecta” here in Michigan:
“Pastor” of bogus church registers $600K lakeside vacation home as tax-free parsonage AND he’s a registered sex offender.
http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2014/04/saugatuck_pastor_keeps_parsona.html
http://www.homefacts.com/offender-detail/MIS8448762/Allan-Wayne-Tackett.html
yubal, best of luck with the doctor’s appointment.
I simply cannot believe that it’s only 20 million people who have a problem with going to the bathroom in public. It has to be much higher than that. HAS to.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toilets_in_Japan#The_Sound_Princess
Question:
Do you have sympathy for intellectually slow people?
Let me clarify what I mean by ‘intellectually slow person’. Obviously I am not referring to the person who meets the criteria for an Intellectual Disability (also called mental retardation)…. I am talking about the person who has the ability to learn necessary academic skills, but at a rate and depth below average same age peers. In order to grasp new concepts, this person needs a lot more more time, a lot more more repetition, and often more resources from teachers to be successful. Typically, this person has great difficulty with ‘new and complex reasoning’ which makes new concepts difficult to learn.
A slow learner has traditionally been identified as anyone with a Full Scale IQ one standard deviation below the mean but not as low as two standard deviations below the mean. The cognitive abilities of these learners are too high to be considered for an Intellectual Disability. However, the abilities are usually too low to be considered for a Learning Disability. Consider that a learning disability consists of discrepancies between average abilities and below average academics, coupled with a processing deficit. Schools often look for a discrepancy between a student’s ability and where they are performing. Slow learners tend to perform at their ability level which is below average. Unfortunately, these struggling learners often do not receive special education services.
These individuals are prone to much anxiety and low self image which goes unnoticed by many in society. They often feel ‘stupid’ and begin hating school at an early age. Day-to-day academic life can be very draining and yet many somehow manage to make it through the system and through high school (in the United States)
The psychologist and intelligence researcher Linda Gottfredson wrote a good piece titled Why g Matters: The Complexity of Everyday Life. An excerpt:
“Life is replete with uncertainty, change, confusion, and misinformation, sometimes minor and at times massive. From birth to death, life continually requires us to master abstractions, solve problems, draw inferences, and make judgments on the basis of inadequate information. Such demands may be especially intense in school, but they hardly cease when one walks out the school door…”
http://www.udel.edu/educ/gottfreds…prints/1997whygmatters.pdf
One question:
1. Can you sympathize with a person who says that one of their major reasons for contemplating suicide often is that they just don’t feel competent to handle the mental demands of today’s increasingly complex social environment?
yubal
*hugs* and best wishes. Mysterious ailments suck a lot. Hope it’s benign.
Regarding multiple types of sodomy, from the last thread or the one before, the sort of people who get het up about the topic tend to consider both fellatio and anal penetration to be sodomy, and some expand the concept to include all forms of oral sex, and in extremis any sexual activity whatsoever that isn’t PIV.
Hobby Lobby owner Steve Green is a christian conservative. You’ve heard of him thanks to the pending Supreme Court case in which Green’s lawyers are arguing the corporation itself has spirituality and should have the “religious freedom” to deny contraception to employees.
What you don’t know about Green is that he also created a course of study for Mustang, Oklahoma public schools. This is going to be bad.
Public schools can offer religious history etc. as long as the courses are secular. Historical perspectives are okay, christian proselytizing is not.
Green claims that his lessons adhere to the law, but in an earlier speech he said, ““The history is to show the reliability of this book…. When you present the evidence, the evidence is overwhelming.”
Americans United for Separation of Church and State link.
Conservative legislators in Louisiana want to make the King James version of the Bible the Louisiana state book.
The Advocate link.
Fox News claims there is a war on Easter, make that “The Unholy War on Easter”:
http://mediamatters.org/video/2014/04/18/fox-news-kicks-off-2014-coverage-of-the-unholy/198938
Thanks for the well-wishes. I don’t feel like I bombed the interview. I should find out by Wednesday who got the two open LT spots. I’m proud of myself just for going. Personal victory :)
Good morning, chigau. Did you leave any rohz-ay?
–
Louis:
shirtless would be one way to go…I guess I was asked about how I would increase recruitment….
PZ made some comments recently about the fact that Salon seems to be trying to be HuffPo. Here’s more proof of that trend:
http://www.salon.com/2014/04/19/science_doesnt_disprove_god_where_richard_dawkins_and_new_atheists_go_wrong/
yubal, I missed whatever’s happening, but best of wishes for things to work out from me too.
varady72, what exactly is it that you’re trying to get at? If it’s that we should be easy on people arguing badly, no, people who have cognitive difficulties with certain topics know it and usually don’t insert themselves into discussions where they know they’ll flounder. When we yell at people for being ignorant here, it’s for being a person who leaps in flailing wildly and arrogantly around while not having a good grasp of the concept they claim to be the expert on, not for being a person who just hasn’t learned something yet.
If your concern is what kind of reception someone with suicidal ideation would get here, let’s just say it’s something that an awful lot of us are familiar with, some intimately. If you’re probing for possible support level, you would be among people who understand.
You forgot “white supremacist”. WTF was the point of your comment anyway?
Nick,
White supremacist? Excuse me?
She is one of the leading experts on human intelligence. And here is one of the best primers published in New Scientist:
http://www.newscientist.com/data/doc/article/dn19554/instant_expert_13_-_intelligence.pdf
varady72
*hugs* I absolutely can sympathize with that. Today’s world is incredibly mentally and emotionally taxing on many, many levels, and I don’t think that much of anyone really copes all that well with all of it, and the main variance is what bits trip you up/screw you over.
I’ve been in mental places very like this one myself. A knack for ‘intellectual’ topics is of extremely limited help on that score; knowing parts of the reasons why things are the way they are doesn’t make them any less fucked up or easier to cope with.
varady72 ,
Is that a trick question?
Thanks Scmott guy.
Kind regards.
Portia
Not a drop.
Varady, regarding Gottfredson: please see on the wikipedia page, her argument against “egalitarian fiction” and affirmative action. In addition, follow the link to the Pioneer Fund.
If you are going to argue further in defense of her, please take the discussion to the Thunderdome.
Mormons already own a big chunk of Florida. Now they are buying more:
… I ask because I can’t even consider not sympathizing with that person.
I agree with anteprepro.
The Gottfredson discussion should move before it gets acrimonious.
https://proxy.freethought.online/pharyngula/2014/04/05/thunderdome-47/comment-page-1
Those who don’t remember varady72 – I didn’t specifically, but the nym was vaguely familiar – a sample starts here.
Varady72 is rather reminiscent of the recently banned Nathan Hull, although that could be coincidence.
I think it is, Nick. Varady was here before NH and is now here again. No reason V72 wouldn’t have just posted the crappy “I love genocide” screed of NH under the V72 nym, given the “I hate life” nature of earlier comments.
On a completely separate topic. The Globe and Mail has a new internet ad out, which my little #2 let play. It’s argument is
Buy the G&M.
Gives me the lulz.
From Lynna at msg #16. This is incredibly stupid. Whoever is slaughtering strawpeople en masse. My comments are in bold.
This is just a mashup of god of the gaps, pure ignorance of basic science, and sloppy nonreasoning.
Happy God Is Dead Day.
Oy. So much wrong. How does one write that without one’s brain rebelling in protest?
As for the Hobby Lobby guy, it’s enough to make you long for the business owners who are just concerned with making money and screwing over their workers, rather than adding their back-ass-wards social engineering on top of it.
And as for Louisiana, state symbols are supposed to be things that are unique about your actual state. There’s nothing unique about being yet another locality damaged by that old moldy genocide book. So even if it wasn’t unconstitutional, it would still be stupid.
Gods. I’m just trying to have a nice Saturday morning before I start a new job. Why does everyone have to keep being terrible? It’s not that hard to not be terrible.
Hi there
I really have a knack for turning innocent shirts into jersey scraps. Fortunately I could still turn everything into a 3 for 2. Start out with 3 boring shirts, end up with 2 exciting ones.
*nomnomnom*
Our easter-feast was small meat pastries, salmon, pasta and aspargus in crème fraiche and for dessert it’s fresh strawberries.
I also made Hefezopf. Only that my recipe was obviously not correct, becaue there was way too much milk in the dough. And since you can’t get it out again, I needed to add more flour, so now I have about twice as much as I wanted to make and it tried to push the oven door open from inside.
Ah, I see. Varady72, if you want my hard, cold, unvarnished opinion, step away from the philosophy. Right now. Call me a barbarian or a philistine or an ignoramus if you want, but philosophy can only get you so far before it turns you into a puddled mass of uncertainty and despair. You are here, therefore you have meaning. You have someone, somewhere depending on you for something (even if it’s just your boss depending on you to show up for your shift, even if it’s just your caseworker depending on you to show up to be their client), therefore you have purpose. The beauty in life is what we make of it, and some people get shafted and have terrible lives, and other people have more than they deserve, and the best we can do is to look critically at our own corner of the world and try to make it a better place for ourselves and others to the best of our abilities. If that’s too much of a burden to cope with, there are professionals who can help.
I have zero patience for arguments that advocate that since everyone dies anyway, nothing is worth anything. Or that if someone can’t achieve exactly what they dreamed up as their desired station in life, that they are a complete failure who isn’t worthy of continuing on. Bullshit. People matter because we are a species that has evolved with altruism as a main evolutionary advantage and our successful strategy is that the people who believe that other people matter are the ones who cooperated and shared and formed groups that were successful. I don’t see any need to dig deeper than that. If you’re a person, you matter.
Excellently said, Carlie.
Ok, Carlie. Thanks.
But what about men like Kant, Wittgenstein and Heidegger who often make us feel like intellectual midgets?
Just downloaded the H P Lovecraft Historical Society’s album Ogham Waite and the Amphibian Jazz Band: Live at the Gilman House. The first track is My Slimy Cephalopod
varady72@36,
Speak for yourself – stop assuming that everyone else feels, or should feel, as you do. I focus on the abilities and interests I do have?
If you’re depressed, miserable or feel inadequate, you may well get a lot of support here. If you try to bring everyone else down, which seems to be your thing, you’ll just piss people off.
Excuse the preachiness, because there is a point to make:
Tuesday April 22 is Earth Day. If you really believe in Earth Day and protecting the environment, have one less kid.
The “average” family has about 2 kids. At 25 years per generation, if you have two kids then by 2060 there will be six extra human beings on the face of the Earth, having one kid means three. Every single one of your progeny is a consumer of resources and food.
No amount of “going green” that you do will make up for the extra resources consumed by one kid, never mind multiple generations. Even if you cut your consumption by half and your lone child uses half the average person and doesn’t have a kid, that still barely breaks even. Unless you are so “green” that you are putting more resources back into the Earth than you take out, there’s no way you’re going to reduce waste enough to offset the resources consumed by your extra kids. Conversely, if you have no kids, you could still be a wasteful person travelling twice a year and drive an SUV and still not consume as much resources as six extra people over the course of their lifetimes.
Having fewer kids isn’t selfish. It’s arguably the most unselfish thing you can do.
varady72
They’re useless twits who don’t know shit about shit, and never wrote a word worth reading. They should be ignored with great vigor.
Only if you and your kids reproduce by parthenogenesis!
Please take the nihilism and philosophy discussion to Thunderdome.
There are lots of indications that the tone of this discussion cannot be kept consistent with the tone expected in the Lounge. This is the one place on Pharyngula where people who wish to can escape the harsh arguing.
Don’t ruin it, folks.
yubal:
Wish you the best and hope it’s just a false alarm.
varady72 #10:
You’ve asked two questions, and the answer to the second one is resounding a “Yes!”, I would very much sympathize with someone who is contemplating suicide because they don’t feel competent. In my experience all people who contemplated suicide felt themselves to be incompetent, even though technically their abilities could be very high or low. Obviously someone who is considered to be “sub-par” is more likely to be under such duress, but it’s a feeling that strikes anyone anywhere, “objective” abilities be damned.
As for the first question, in practice, in daily life, I don’t show sympathy for intellectually slow people. Even if the people in question aren’t “slow”, even if it’s my fault I’m being misunderstood or whatnot. As years go by I get better at controlling myself and being more tolerant, but me and people like are definitely the problem.
Crip Dyke@42,
Seconded.
So moved.
CD
Yeah, sorry about that.
Oh for feck’s sake… (a) Well, what about
themyour interpretation of what they wrote; and (b) Who is this “us”, kemosabe ?The presupposition is strong in this troll.
Cheese, MUSHROOMS!, moar cheese, and pea-repellent would be more useful…
So would semicolons;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
Why is this
;
semi?
and this
:
full?
And what is up with this ‘colon’ shit, anyway?
‘rupt again. I have been the victim of a coordinated strike, by both my home and office computers. There has been wailing and gnashing of teeth.
And cussing. So, so much cussing.
–
*hugs with appropriate levels of pouncery and embellishment* where wanted/needed, substitutions of *non-intrusive gestures of sympathy/commiserations/etc.* where wanted/needed. Supplies of *high fives* and congratulations are also available.
–
Forthcoming Grandspawn is diagnosed/predicted to possess male gentalia.
–
Hey, The Lounge!
An exciting thing is happening in my family. My younger brother (and co-heathen, albeit in a much more new-agey, less god-indifferent way than I am) is doing a survey of all the religious beliefs in our immediate family (mostly Catholics). He’s got a pile of questions about belief, faith, morality, and a bunch of other things for us to answer. It’s the opportunity I’ve been waiting for to talk about religion with my family!
I’m trying to keep it simple and not go off on too many tangents, but I’m really excited (and it turns out I have a lot to say).
See Thunderdome.
Yay grandspawn! ^_^
*pouncehug*
*pouncehugback* for David, with *added balloonstorm*
–
Yay balloonstorm! ^_^
*chocolate*
rum?
Not for me :-)
Greetings loungers! I am roughly four moths behind in lounge reading, so I hope all are well, and hugs to all who want them. Yay for US tax season being over! I may even have time to catch up on my reading here. However, tonight I have a practical question. I think a few of you know my background a little bit, but tonight I’m planning on going to the paschal service at my partner’s (and used to be mine, I have been once in the last two years, last pascha, to be precise.) Anywho, I’m kind of dreading it, what are the best ways to enjoy something like that as a cultural experience without having to fake shouting ‘christ is risen’ or something… I don’t want to have a terrible time, and I want to share my partner’s holiday with our son, and be respectful, but I just don’t know. For example, I’ll wear a skirt, as tradition holds, but should I wear white (also tradition), should I cover my hear (also tradition). The people there are a lovely community and have been so kind to me and my family, so I don’t want to be disrespectful. Any thoughts appreciated.
yazikus #59
Go.
Be with family.
Pretend you are an anthropologist.
and
nice to see you
Yazikus,
Personally, the situation appears to require what is called by Sastra as “dinner table diplomacy”. My suggestion, worth only the electrons used to post it, is to wear the traditional white and cover your head, but don’t join in communal prayers/blessings. YMMV.
Thanks chigau & Nerd (and nice to see both of you!). I think it is going to be okay. I’ve set myself to the task of preparing the leg of lamb (my hands smell of rosemary which I am chopping now), and a feast is a feast. Have a great evening.
Speaking of noteworthy new books: Brandon Haught‘s new Going Ape: Florida’s Battles over Evolution in the Classroom has just hit the shelves via University Press of Florida.
Brandon (spokesperson, blogger, and sparkplug for Florida Citizens for Science), tracks Florida creationists from Wm Jennings Bryan on with scrupulous detail.
This book has already outdated itself by provoking the historic reaction of John Stemberger, president of the Orlando-based Florida Family Policy Council, who on the spot created Asteroidogenetic Theory:
[attempted evasion of 2-link rule – wx3. news-journalonline.com/article/20140418/NEWS/140419354/1040?p=all&tc=pgall&tc=ar]
(I think I can get Florida™ discount coupons if I can just squeeze in one more mention of Florida…)
Saw Michel Faber’s new sci fi film Under the Skin starring Scarlett Johannson as an alien. One of the strangest and most thought provoking thoroughly visceral films I’ve seen in a long time. Highly highly recommended if you get a chance to see it. About as good as other great sci fi films from last year like Upstream Color, Her and Gravity if you are a sci fi buff. If it is possible, it is even stranger than those films.
Fullfillment center is getting delayed, not sure of why. Not sure if this will delay my raise- the initial date of raise I was given was our original go-live date, and our HR person was out when we got the news of delay. So we’re not sure if I was in the system for a raise on the specific date, or raise when the fulfillment center went live. I’ve still got the job, just my new responsibilities will come a bit later.
We were pretty much ready on our end, though my boss and I are looking at a couple things we can do to be extra ready. Training alternates, getting some extra supplies in- the delay is annoying but does have its advantages.
Having many Christian relatives is making Facebook rather annoying right about now.
Also, I stayed up about five minutes too late and now I’m fully awake again.
I can relate to that.
–
But not tonight. Tonight I am staying up to drink one more hard root beer. I think that non-alcoholic kind should be call root “beer” and this should just be called root beer. It’s delicious either way.
–
I might be going through some shit.
–
Did I mention I was “jokingly” warned not to use “fancy lawyer words” in my interview this morning? It was one of my good friends who said it, so I wasn’t offended…but it ended up being a worthwhile warning because they would have been displeased if I had had to define “analogous” for them, instead of just using ten words where one would have worked.
Good morning
Dunno about christ, but the Hefezopf rose allright and is very delicious.
The kids went hunting for easter-eggs and goodies outside.
Did you know that public playgrounds are really deserted at 7:30 am?
*pouncehugs all around*
I was just awoken by a mouse running across my bed, then it was trying to carry out a piece of chocolate bigger than it is. i have no traps. Except for the little trashcan by my bed. I don’t think I’m brave enough to just catch the thing. So I guess I’m just awake now. It’s 3:49 am. Good morning!
–
Happy Easter, Giliell!
–
Thel ittle fucker just came back and moved the hunk closer to the door before running off again
Portia… you have mice? That’s almost as bad centipedes. Almost.
eeee
Beatrice:
So far, just the one. But yes. Uuuuuuuuuuuugheeeeeeeeeeehgahgeahghaklshgd;alkshdg
And he’s a determined little asshole.
I put the trashcan over the chocolate. Not positioned as a trap, just hoping he’ll go away
I didn’t need more than 2 hours of sleep anyway.
There’s been a light drizzle all morning, so most of the chocolate has washed away. I suspect the local seafood will soon develop a chocolaty flavour. That ruined the plan to get a lot of eggs, cream, butter, flour, and so on, and make a Really Big Chocolate Cake — although I don’t know what They were going to do about the embedded dog poo.
Yesterday, several chefs tried making various smaller chocolaty things, but mostly without success. The chocolate was seawater-logged and tasted terrible. Sort of a anti-chocolate. Food of Teh Worse Nightmares. (No, not the one involving a revolving strip of bacon and an animated doorknob. The other one, with the pencil eraser and two strips of bacon.) So it’s probably a good thing the cake plan is ruined, it’d be inedible. Except in the UK, where they would deep-fry it in rancid oil and queue down the street for a second, third, …, serving.
What I don’t get is why it was shaped like a bison. The formerly-chocolate bartender suggests perhaps one of the Red Cabbage Brigade had a speech impediment, and was trying to order a bivalve, or possibly a bikini. A chocolate bikini-wearing clam on wheels? Yeah, that does seem probable.
He’ll either (a) Climb back up on yer bed and make a complaint — quivering nose to whiskered nose — about you starving his family; or (a) Return with a stick of dynamite to remove the offending wastebasket.
Giliell,
I wikied and saw that Hefezopf looks a lot like pullapitko. What spices do you use for it? Here cardamom is the customary one for pulla, both those long and braided ones (pitko) and for round buns like voipulla.
whimper
Anyone seen a “(b)” running around loose? I seem to have misplaced one…
Teh Mice Shall Inebriate Teh Earth.
I’ll add another *whimper*.
the chocolate wasn’t even in my bed. he was just being a nervy little fucker
All the lights in the house are on. The sun will come up in a little bit. Maybe I’ll be able to sleep then.
Oh, chigau, really! :-)
Hi barnestormer! Hope it goes well – and is actually fun! If the family tendencies are of an xtian flavour, this should be a particularly fun time of year to have the discussion too :-D
Hi yazikus! Anthropology ftw, and if you fancy it you could always write us a report afterwards? Mmm lamb with rosemary … chocolate eggs … eh, looks like we’ll be on omelette and chips tonight, no chocolate :-\ Never mind – last night’s late-night jam session was a good one!
carlie, I really liked what you said about all that Kanting nonsense (ha, if thieves speak thieves’ cant, then pseudointellectuals speak philosophers’ kant :-) ). I want to live round the corner from you! (Also, Granny Weatherwax would approve).
cicely, yay healthy happy spawn and grandspawn – all the good wishes for each generation!
Good morning, Giliell! Morning does not exist yet, I am in fact still asleep and typing in my dreams (last night was very late by my current standards). But I’m glad you enjoyed/are enjoying this fictitious “morning” of which you speak ;-)
David M, now, you are exactly one of those people of whom carlie speaks – i.e. a hell of a lot smarter than I am, for one, but a great illustration of how smart people don’t need to make others feel stupid; on the contrary you make me feel smarter (like PZ, isn’t this what all great teachers do?). If only all intelligent and erudite people were like you, everyone would love learning!
Sorry about the mouse on the bed, Portia. We have a rather fetching photograph somewhere of the one that sat eating crumbs on my desk … (this is an old building, which shares all sorts of cavity walls and suchlike with neighbours; the mouse population moves slowly around, meaning that every household gets inhabited at least every couple of years or so, and we’ve never managed to have a coordinated eradication attempt across all the households. Humans fail, mice win!). And I hope you got the firefighting lieutenant gig, which is definitely analogous to your getting an even bigger and better superhero cape (your actual crimefighting superpowers are independent of the cape, of course).
Good morning Horde, I wish you all a really good day with much better weather than here.
opposablethumbs:
Yup, ooooold house. The mice keep returning :(
Thanks for the commiseration, and the well wishes. :) You make me smile with cape-talk :) I really doubt I’ll get selected for the position, but the idea is out there now.
How is CaitieCat?
Beatrice
I’m guessing you were asking generally, but I haven’t spoken to her lately. : /
…who constructed an ethical system which begs the question (according to the plain English meaning of that phrase), and per his insistence dictates that A) masturbation and B) lying to save someone’s life are wrong.
What about him?
The sun is rising. That was my arbitrary goalpost for allowing myself to go back to sleep.
I guess I need to clean under my bed today. : /
Genghis Khan and Imannuel Kant ::ducks and runs:: What? It’s a really silly day …
Good luck, Portia. The space under the bed here is officially called “the attic” (srsly. We boxed it in and lined it and everything)
Some time ago (ok, it was last weekens), FossilFishy said this about my bike problem:
It’s quick release, I opened it.
“push down to seat the wheel”
Huh?
It doesn’t feel like there’s anywhere to push. It’s obvious that the wheel isn’t sitting well, but it’s not going anywhere either when I push down. It looks like it is seated as it means to be. Except that it’s wrong. :/
Gah, I can’t even follow simple instructions.
Portia, that reminds me of my great uncle. He had a cabin, a chipmunk infestation, a shotgun and a drinking habit. Fun times ensued. Though I don’t think he managed to hit a single animal, but he scared them off.
I treated it like a cat. I clapped loudly every time it returned for the chocolate to scoot or heave it closer to the door.
Slept for fifteen minutes then the fire tones went off – the universe just wants me to rise early – unlike Jesus, the lazy bum.
You’re alright Beatrice, if the wheel didn’t seem to seat itself that will be because it’s already properly seated. This is a good thing. Sorry I wasn’t clear about that.
Neighbor solved the problem. I was just pushing the wheel too weakly. Have I mentioned lately how much I hate being such a weakling?
I hate being such a weakling.
If the cable checks out and the wheel has no wobbles in the rim there’s likely a fairly easy adjustment to pull the brake back to center. Depending on what kind of brake it is.
Oops, cross post. I’m sorry you’re not doing so well Beatrice. I hope I haven’t caused any distress with my poor instructions. This sort of thing is so much easier when I can point at things and say helpful phrases like “Turn that doohicky clockwise.”
FossilFishy,
Nah, the instructions were good, and stress isn’t due to you or the bike. I’m just in a rotten mood today.
Going out to scrape my knees a bit more or alternatively, to start riding the damn bike a bit better. I have to take the unreasonable anger out on something. Might as well learn a skill on the way :)
Portia – on the mouse, I just watched this yesterday – was it something like that? :)
I’m sorry. :( Lots of hugs.
Code switching is a very valuable skill. Speaking of which, NPR started a blog/podcast called Code Switch and it’s been pretty consistently great.
carlie:
Thanks for making me laugh – it wasn’t quite like that :) Somehow the mice in my house manage to be adorable while absolutely repulsing me
*hugs* back – thanks
I never thought of it as codeswitching. That’s definitely the word for it though. I’ve heard pieces from Code Switch when NPR excerpts the podcast – I should listen to it regularly. Thanks carlie.
Ah, that means yer dealing with alien mice. Earth mice haven’t mastered long pig repulsing fields yet, although they have got the trick of cheese & chocolate autolocators (usually it’s the other way around, extraterrestrial miceologists are baffled by this reversal of mouseological chronology).
Try saying “42” at it. The response should indicate whether you’re dealing with an opportunistic invasion or the planet’s owners.
Nakkustoppeli
I only used vanilla, though lemon peel is popular, too.
And raisins. I used raisins.
Sweet yeast dough “breads” are quite common and popular in Germany throughout the year, though there’s a special shape for celebrations as St. Martin’s Day, or St. Nick’s day.
re: Caitie
I received a mail from her like 2 weeks ago (which I’ve meant to answer ever since). She’s fine, but due to monetary problems she was cut off from the interwebs
+++
That Salon thread is a bit like watching Funny Home Videos: You shouldn’t watch, and you shouldn’t laugh, because the things depicted must hurt, but still you do.
I had forgotten/did not know how much is available as free books for kindle or PC, even from amazon.
Not a single fall today. I think I might even be fit to face the street and not just an empty playground next time.
PZ: How do you do it? How can you and others (sam harris, michael mann, dawkins, coyne etc etc etc) be bombarded by relentless and utter idiocy and still fight it and not just snap, or simply go off the grid and live your remaining years in relative peace? What do you all have that I don’t? I’m well educated and honest and a voracious reader (non-fiction) with sound morals and integrity, but I can’t take it anymore…and I’m not a public figure. It’s all shit. Insight?
Go you, Beatrice! That’s good going.
I put pictures on twitter of all of the sex I saw outside today.
*runs away without explaining*
Portia
You have obviously failed to maintain a sufficient quantity of symbiotic predators in your home. I recommend a ferret (you may be able to rent one of these from the man who puts them down his pants, if you have such a performer locally), cat, or if absolutely necessary a small dog. Certain medium-sized reptiles might do the job as well, but they’re not as friendly and can’t cope with cold temperatures as well. More seriously, vermin infestations suck, and you have my sympathies.
carlie: pollen? :-)
opposablethumbs – yes, but also teh animals :)
Kinda ‘rupt, or at least, have forgotten anything I intended to reply to; I may also have been too lazy to log in at various points, though I neither confirm nor deny this.
Since it’s late and I should go to bed, though, I’m just going to dump a pile of *hugs* and *soft things* and cute little animals here.
–
Actually, I might add a bit of a moan, too. I was arguing and slightly fighting with Youngest Sibling this morning before church. My dad, whilst trying to stop it, told us, “If you just let Jesus into your life, you’d notice a change in it and your behaviour.” Which, ugh. (This isn’t the first time I’ve been told this, but it still rankles). Also because I have actually been trying to act like (and/or be) a better person recentlyish, and it has nothing to do with Jesus, and a whole lot more to do with people/things like Captain Awkward, clarifying my own thoughts on humanist ideals, social justice ideas, etc.
Also Middle Sibling is getting baptised next weekend. On the one hand, I’m glad MS is doing something they want to. On the other hand, I slightly fundamentally disagree with the entire thing.
Happy Zombie Jesus Day, everybody!
(Though I still maintain that the J-man is better described as a vampire, or a liche of some sort.)
–
There’s such a thing as alcoholic root beer?
*hugs* for Portia, and support during this time of Going Through Some Shit.
I don’t know from mousies, but the *ticky-ticky-tick* of little hamster toenails as an escapee ran along the baseboards used to wake me up out of a dead sleep, every time.
And the reason I know that it was every time, is that said hamster lived through many such night-time excursions to die of natural causes, despite the keen interest of two Junior Carnivores.
–
Cicely #113
Apparently yes, new about it from Chicago.
Dalillama:
You actually read my mind. It’s one of the only times I want to have a cat in my house
–
Sarahface:
Urg – I know that dilemma “I love you, so I’m supportive, but…not really” : p
–
cicely:
Thanks for the hugs. I give you some back, as many as desired.
There is such a thing, and mine is actually the first brand mentioned in Nerd’s article, Sprecher. Hooray regional commonalities ^_^ I usually buy Sprecher’s NA root beer, and didn’t know until yesterday that they made an alcoholic version.
–
I just used a chemical paint stripper for the first time. Somewhat successful. there’s still a lot of paint on that headboard…
Of course, for alcoholic root beer, one can always add a dollop, or several dollops, of any vodka to any commercial root beer.
On Tuesday at the fire station, we all had a really productive and helpful talk about how to handle experiencing and responding to trauma. The officer who sort of led it just sent out an article to the FD members. It began so well. Ugh.
Huh. Alcoholic root beer.
*shaking head in amazement*
What will they think of next?
–
Oh god, I can’t stop laughing. What a great thing for Easter: Jesus Christ Superstar as Muppets. Some of the voices are better than others (Piggy is probably the weakest), but you’d think the conceit would get old after a song or two but it doesn’t because just as you start to get bored, another character comes in and it’s amazing. Kermit in the Garden of Gethsemane is pretty moving.
So much wrong yet I can’t stop laughing.
cicely:
for you
I just found out that a friend (one of the few I shared sexy fun times with) died recently. We hadn’t talked in a long time, so I had no idea he’d passed away.
That sucks.
Tony:
I’m really sorry. *hugs*
Thank you Portia.
*hugs* Tony.
Thank you chigau.
I just found out from one of his closest friends that his autopsy comes back tomorrow. I’m not sure of the details (and I don’t want to push to find out), but apparently he was found dead in his truck, which had run off the road.
Ugh, Tony!. I’m so sorry.
If there’s more that I can do for you, LMK. You’ve got my e-mail, right?
Seedy.
@chigau, #50:
I see what you did there.
Making my packing list for lesbian camp.
Grey skinny jeans, black skinny jeans, blue skinny jeans
Red plaid shirt, blue plaid shirt, black plaid shirt
Tall boots, short boots, hiking boots
I hardly need to state that it’s lesbian camp, do I?
Tony
*hugs* and sympathies.
*hugs* for Tony
And go Portia!
#1:
*hugs* for Tony
#2: Survived the family scene at Easter dinner. [Held hands around the table, kept my mouth shut when I wanted to say. “Seriously !? Five (other) adults here and they ALL buy into the Zombie Jesus story !!!??? “]
#3: Was sorry to hear about this bit of news: http://www.thewrap.com/rubin-hurricane-carter-dead-at-76
[Not the best source but just trying to convey the basic news.]
#4: Is it wrong of me to think, “Please, please, please find some prosecutable dirt on this asshole…. FINALLY!!!” :http://news.yahoo.com/probe-could-complicate-rick-perrys-prospects-142749844–election.html
Tony, I’m so sorry. That must have come as a shock. Hope you’re OK.
.
Hugs to all who are currently having to survivefamily obsessions with lich-Jesus this long weekend. (Is it my imagination, or is the UK generally making more of a fuss about this nonsense than we used to, nationally?)
Oh Tony!, that is sad news. Hope you are doing ok.
Portia, your mouse tale reminded me of a story I was told while at college: a friend was sharing a house with some other students – it was his first night. The others had played upon the age of the house and it’s ‘spookiness’ to put him in a rather nervous mood.
Late in the night, after lights out, he kept hearing something scrit scrit scritting across the floorboards in his room. It sounded too big for a mouse, maybe a rat? No, not a rat, bigger. Did anyone have a dog in the house? Nope…
The noise got louder and was coming along the floor straight for his bed.
Closer.
He picked up the courage, braced himself, and flicked on the bedside light…
…and there was nothing there. But the sound kept coming closer…
After a terrifying night of no sleep with the lights on, his housemates told him the house had a double floor and possums routinely got into the space.
Meet Palcohol: the powderised alcohol that turns water into rum: “A portable solution for busy boozers who want to drink while going about their daily activities, Palcohol is apparently perfect for a quick-fix cocktail, but definitely not suitable for snorting”,
For Hordelings everywhere, especially those feeling a little (or a lot) down.
I’m now listening to Kermit Zombie Superspooky (see carlie‘s comment above, and (a) Giggling; (b) Looking forward to the fundie freakout (keep in mind some fundies already hate the Muppets for “reasons” I now don’t recall); and (c) Cringed a little bit at the line about associating with a pig of her kind (almost certainly reading too much into it, but it reminded me of the anti-Muslim and anti-semitic tactic of forcing pig products on them).
Here’s the missing “)”, please insert where appropriate.
Or where inappropriate (but only with consent!), whatever takes yer fancy.
I just had a severe giggling fit when Harold sang “…change my water into wine” and I immediately thought of Palcohol…
chigau
I think I know how blf gets those stories, now:
1) The Muppets redoing JCSS, and
2) Palcohol.
Perhaps some experimentation is due.
rq, Are you suggesting the mildly deranged penguin doesn’t like cheese!!?!!1!1
Next you’ll be denying Latvians have a potato fetish and, in particular, don’t make butter (for the bread) out of potatoes.
re: Palcohol
I can think of sooo many reasons that this is a baaad idea.
I want some.
All the *hugs* that Tony! wants; that sucks :(
Yay, Portia!
bluentx I feel you on the religious family front.
I have not mentioned penguins or cheese once today. Where did you get that, blf???
Also, see #136. So I’m not denying that, either.
Yay bluentx for survival! We have survived, too.
+++
‘Kay, I have a couple of car questions, if anyone knows how to answer them:
1) I (let’s pretend) am driving my manual shift automobile at about, oh, say, 100 kph, and I shift to third gear to brake (thus braking with the engine and not my brakes). Can this cause damage to or wear out the engine?
2) Does braking with the engine conserve fuel, and is this action in fact beneficial to the engine?
(Husband had some counterintuitive (to me) ideas about this today. I would like to check my information.)
Oooh, that’s an excellent question rq! I was taught to do that (mumble) years ago when I took driving lessons. I have no idea if it’s a good idea. Hell, you could take all I know about cars, put it in a shot glass, and still have room for a decent snort.
Big hugs to Tony. That’s a hard thing indeed.
This is interesting, because back when I learned driving (not all that ages ago), I was taught that this was not a good idea for your ordinary standard person car. It works a treat on 18-wheelers something something large engines many gears, but it can increase the wear on a regular runabout.
Husband insisted that it’s actually a really good idea to do this, because someone told him so (though he never said who – if it’s someone at the car repair shop, I’m more inclined to believe this view). But that sudden sharp increase in rpm following the shift is painful to my musical ear.
So I’m just wondering if this is true.
And one final bit of nonsense before bed:
We’ve been having a problem with our septic system. The pumps that move the waste water from the worm farm to the sand filter, and from the sand filter to the dispersion field have alarms on them. If they fail a rather obnoxious loud buzzing occurs. Lately the alarm for the worm farm pump has been going off because the electrical plug that powers the pump has been falling out of the socket.
After a couple of weeks of this we’ve finally figured out why.
Our chickens have been climbing up on the power cord where it stretches horizontally above the ground next to the raised tomato bed. From there they jump and flap to peck at the tomatoes. Apparently that extra 10cm height they get from the cord, until it falls out of course, is actually useful. Who knew?
Fair enough rq. I could see it going either way.
As to the musical nature of it, try tapping the accelerator before you release the clutch on the down shift. It’ll match the engine revs more closely to the transmission revs so it won’t scream so much, and if you ease up on the accelerator slowly after the shift the pitch will drop more smoothly.
FossilFishy, Install a trebuchet. Try shooting the tomatoes at the chickens, I suspect that will be easier that the other way around, but perhaps the best approach is two trebuchets, and shoot each simultaneity for a mid-air chicken-tomato tryst.
Tony, please accept my condolences.
FossilFishy
Them chickens are just too smart! (Or your cord just isn’t long enough…)
Alas, Husband’s musical ear isn’t bothered by the sudden transition. Ah well. :)
A Royals story worth some facepalming headdesks. Go, CNN. Go.
Smart chickens … eeeevil smart chickens … don’t give them access to any more technology, FossilFishy.
opposablethumbs
They’re preparing the Evil Chicken Lair. Probably in cahoots with the MDP, really.
Dunno, looks worse than Horses to me.
And then the search led to this. My goose is cooked.
Portia: Indeed!
–
*hugs* for Tony!. I’m so sorry for your loss.
–
rq, though some chickens may be evil, they are not even in the same Evil League (of Evil) as Horses.
cue
–
cicely
They have a lair. That’s enough for me. :)
gobi’s sockpuppet’s meatpuppet
Makes me think of this song
rq#145
1)Yes, yes it can. Don’t do that (The exception being apparently on the downslope of very steep hills, where it’s possible to lose one’s brakes entirely if one relies exclusively on them). Basically, it saves wear on the brake system at the expense of the clutch and gearbox, which are more expensive to fix.
2)No, not really. You save fuel by being in the right gear for your speed, but you can do just as well by manipulating the brake and clutch simultaneously; that’s why you have pedals on opposite sides.
Ahh, Tony! You are not bearing your sorrow alone. For every hello there is a good bye. Sucks but there it is.
rq, yes. Downshifting is economical and saves wear on your brakes. FossilFishy wisely mentioned that it is a good idea to learn to match engine revs to transmission speed while doing so. Your ear will inform you. Experiment and attention and that sort of thing.
Actually, if you are truly one with your car you can play music with it. It is a subtle art that gives reward beyond expectation. =)
Oh, thanx for the little potato picture. I have someone, surviving daughter actually, aka Juan Peanut (don’t ask; the origins are lost in the mists of time and faulty memory) who will soon be delighted and touched when she finds a printed copy that I will put where only she can find it. Will be a small happy.
_________________
To all: There have been some wonderful and heartening things happening here in Wrott World. I’d like to tell you all about it but I need to digest and collate and prioritize and wave hands and mumble to myself for a while first. Perspective is a touchy thing and first impressions are like eyewitness testimony. That is, only approximate.
Lacking details should not impede your doing a small happy dance or raising a glass in my family’s general direction. Just be sure that your alcohol is properly hydrated.
Love,
Crudely
Hi, Crudely Wrott.
I’m going to do some gardening, so I’ll dance later.
hugs
*happy-dancing and raising glass* in the general direction of the Wrott Family.
Also, *hugs* and *smiles*
–
Hi, Crudely – it’s not so much downshifting, it’s going from 6th to 3rd at 100 kph.
I can downshift rather well, without brakes, by simply not accelerating, and adjusting rpms accordingly (as you mention). What I mean is the sudden transition at an inappropriately high speed for the lower gear.
And you’re welcome for the potato picture, I hope it meets with the delight you expect (it sure delighted me!). :)
Here is yet another stupid Republican trick: don’t pay the people you don’t like, Eric Holder for example.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/house-gop-bill-eric-holder-salary
The only problem, well not the only problem but definitely the biggest problem, is that Darrel Issa’s witch hunt in the Fast Furious issue was ridiculous. Holder was held in contempt by a bunch of contemptuous dunderheads.
Republicans are still not done with this moldy bit of unintentionally comic legislative theater, but here’s a Rachel Maddow segment from June 2012 that explains the problem. Raw Story link. Excerpt below:
Anti-gay actions from officials of the Boy Scouts of America:
Scouts for Equality link.
Retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens is 94 years old. In my opinion, he is still way more intelligent than Justice John Roberts.
Talking Points Memo link.
NY Times link. The NY Times story is most comprehensive.
Oh, look, there’s more than one Cliven Bundy type in the morridor. Whole bunches of mormon legislators met in Utah, along with Tea Partiers and Libertarians from other states, to talk about taking over federal lands within their states. They would like for all of the western states to do the same. It’s hard to imagine a worse environmental disaster than having a bunch of Cleon-Skousen-loving, ultra conservative mormons, libertarians, and ultra-conservative evangelicals running our national forests, Bureau of Land Management areas etc. in the western states.
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/politics/57836973-90/utah-federal-lands-states.html.csp
Representatives from the following states were at meeting: Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Wyoming, Oregon and Washington.
Some of the conspiracy theories are:
– The Feds want Bundy’s ranch for a solar plant (not true)
– The “green sector” makes tons of money off federal lands, but other private business make none (not true)
– Liberals have made deals with the Chinese to use our federal lands (not true)
– The Federal Government debt is so high that they cannot care for federal lands (not true)
– Local people like Cliven Bundy take good care of the federal lands they use (not true)
From the comments associated with the Salt Lake Tribune article (link in #167):
http://www.sltrib.com/pages/comments?cid=57836973
What the feck is that about? — huh? I can’t think of anything “yankee” (baseball tream or otherwise) from the NE (of USAlienstan, I assume) known for wearing bright red at around that time.
Revisionist history, a specialty of the ultra conservative right wing.
Pulling “facts” out of your ass, another specialty of rightwing conspiracy theorists.
Anything to pump up the desire to shoot people.
Tony Sorry for the loss of your friend.
blf Isn’t a chicken-tomato tryst just parmigiana? Or a Cobb salad?
Got most of my vegetables and herbs in today. I say most because my daughter is doing a science fair experiment comparing dirt and hydroponics and I can’t move the bean plants until the experiment is over. (I think we screwed up the hydroponics ones a bit — one grew nicely, the other not at all, but the dirt ones were much better — I had the feeling they were supposed to be closer. I don’t think we kept the water touching the bottom of the peat pellet for the hydro ones.) And we may be getting more herbs.
So, heirloom beefsteak, golden jubilee, yellow pear, and roma tomatoes. Serrano, jalapeno, habanero, and cayenne peppers. Red onions. A cucumber (that I hope does better this year than the one I had last year). A zucchini. Some spinach (first time). Radishes. And the herbs are basil (sweet), thyme (German), basil (Thai) and rosemary (ordinary?). The herbs go in containers, not the planting beds. Maybe I’ll take a picture and put it on my flickr to share.
More comments from readers of the Salt Lake Tribune article (see #167 and #168):
Wow. Massive amounts of Crazy. Massive amounts of misinformation.
http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/not-born-rich-out-of-luck-229868611955
Not born rich? Out of luck
Chris Hayes sits down for an extended interview with French economist, Thomas Piketty to talk about his new book, dubbed ‘the most important’ economic writing of our decade.
ajb47
Sounds delicious! I wouldn’t mind seeing a photo or two. :)
Lynna @173: Paul Krugman writes about Piketty’s book here, and talks to Bill Moyers about it here.
rq:
Stressing any tool or machine hastens failure. Again, your ear should tell you. Just like it does when you run a knife or a shovel into a rock.
Play your ride like you would a Stradivarius, if you had a Stradivarius. Most all vehicles made within the last couple of decades have handling abilities beyond the capacities of average drivers. Did I mention that I love to drive? No? Well, I do and V-Ger has the most comfy seat that I sit in these days. Unfortunately at this particular moment, surviving daughter and son in law are out in about in it and I’m left with this crummy five-wheeled chair manufactured for a prole who doesn’t have the clout to complain effectively.
I’m thinking seriously of turning that comfy seat’s twin, the passenger seat, into the seat that I sit in while I do this, sit here and read and on occasion, type. Perhaps my mood would improve if I did!
Still and all, do drive carefully and purposefully. Not fast but quick. See the difference?
This kind of thing really trips my trigger. I seem to have been waiting so long . . .
Life Goal Number umpty ump: to live to see the day that a human foot leaves a trace on Mars. Then I will be able to confidently assume that humanity will be OK without me. Go to, now.. ;^>
rq
Ask, and you shall receive.
I used to claim that I planted “salsa” before, when my first garden was just the romas and a couple hot peppers and cilantro. I have had problems with cilantro in the past (I tend to get it to go straight to coriander), so I don’t plant that any longer. So now we grow both salsa and bruschetta.
Surviving Daughter just did something so cool. Slammed me with three books from out of the blue. They are, in order of introduction:
Into Deepest Space by Fred and Geoffery Hoyle, 1974.
A Pocketful of Prose, vintage short fiction, Ed. David Madden, 2006.
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1925, fortieth edition.
Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen, 2006,
Half of them I have been wanting to read. The other half I didn’t know existed. My desire to read each one is equitable.
That dear girl, she’s a chip off my own shoulder. I love her so. Unannounced surprises full of she is. And throw the horse, over the fence, some hay. =)
Hoping all Hordelings have someone similar in their lives.
Yes, three does equal four.
Well, it if equals 1, why not 4?
My question exactly. Except in certain well defined cases.
Only in passing, like this insanely small bug attempting to bisect my screen, this: Double You (Ooops! the little fellow flew off punctuating his departure with a flawless Immelmann. (Thinks he’s flying with the Blue Angels or something.) double you double you or, if you will, six yous, (pergaps “six yous” will replace the uberedundant “wubble you wubble you wubble you and further streamline speech)
Here on the peneplain of a mid-Atlantic state, one of two who vie for license plate braggadocio concerning heavier-than-air flying machines, their are several radio stations on the air. One of them, http://transition.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/fmq?call=WRQM , is graced with these call letters: WRQM.
I can’t speak for everyone but I think that a radio station with rq in its callsign is a good idea.
. . . I had something whimsical to type now but the larger of the two mancubs just popped in to annouce the dinner schedule and I forgot.
Memory. Sometimes it works, sometimes it don’t.
Here I sit . . .
__________________
For no easily described reason at all I am reminded of an obituary. Byron’s for Viscount Castlereagh. A wiki link is here.
Hi, I’ve commented a few times here millions of years ago, because I am internet shy and you all are somewhat uniformly awesome. And it’s because you’re awesome that I’m wandering by, getting over my internet-shy. I live in GA and we’re way behind the marriage equality party, which is sad because I like the idea of being for realsies married and not needing an accountant for my taxes. We finally have some people trying to do something instead of having multiple press conferences about exploratory committees to consider maybe trying to phrase the right way to ask for basic rights and consideration, but they haven’t had much of a signal boost, which means they don’t have the money to tell people that they need money. So I’m posting a link and smiling broadly like I’m not being obscenely rude. But seriously, I gave them $100, and they called me personally and it broke my damn heart.
I just want someone to help make me married married.
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/louddmouthradio-com-mayday-georgia-marriage-equality-campaign#home
I’ll now much more politely read through the nice thread.
Hypatia’s Girl
I remember you.
I don’t have money but I have solidarity.
Best of luck.
Crudely
We cleaned up a large part of the garden.
I dedicated the clean-up-fire to you and yours.
It was glorious.
Hypatia’s Girl
Welcome
:)
–
rq:
thank you for the tiny potato :)
–
Being dumped sucks. Second Easter that has seen the end of a serious relationship of mine. *something something renewal rejuvenation hope bullshit bullshit*
Thanks chigau, I appreciate that. (Although you may be thinking of Hypatia’s Daughter who did astronomy? Not … Le sigh … Philosophy)
Oh- and –
I GOT THE 2048
Hypatia’s Girl
Maybe.
Welcome in or Welcome back.
Portia
Congatu(fucking)lations.
I’ve managed three 1024s with no way to join them.
Seriously, well done!
Whoa – three of them seems like its own accomplishment.
That’s maddening.
And thankfuckingyou :)
Portia
re 2048: Congrats. Repeats are surprisingly forthcoming once you get it once. Also, it seems far less addictive.
re Endings: That sucks, big time. If you lived close, I’d smoke you a brisket (which I have now done once and it was delicious) or a pork shoulder, or a duck. Yeah, I like to feed people. I’d even smoke you some veggies if that’s your preference (My smoker is new, is it obvious?).
Chigau asserts:
I bet it was. I can picture it, brilliant against a sullen sky. Intense in its glory, basking luxuriously in a brighter light, indulging shamelessly a lack of regard, if only for this shining moment, for anything else at all.
And your little garden. ;^>
Moments like this are best seized forthwith, without preamble or confusing trails of reason. Dealt with. DWRT. Dealt With Right There.
May you munch thereof many times.
ajb47
That’s funny, I couldn’t play another round because I was worried I’d fail at 512 again and ruin the fun. :)
–
Thanks for the commiseration – I’d love a smoked….anything :D
I’m telling myself all the grownup things that I logically know (it’ll be ok, it’s not an indicator of my inherent worth, I’ll be fine, I can find someone else if I want, blah blah) but really all I want to do is drink for a while.
Portia
Well, now I feel silly that I edited out my mention that I always make sure to offer several options for refreshments.
And from where I sit, having only your comments to go by, it ain’t you. Unless, of course, you are anti-hockey, anti-futbol (soccer in the States), or anti-puppy. Then you are on your own — I can’t help you there. There’s only so much a person can take.
I’m laughing because not three weeks ago we had a big hairy fight about him choosing to play multiple hockey games instead of spending some infrequent quality time with me.
But, I appreciate the sentiment. :)
Some of it was me. It couldn’t have not been. But I did all I could do. That’s all you can do.
Portia
All the *hugs* and sympathies. If there’s anything else I can do, you have my email.
Hypatia’s Girl
Welcome in/back, I’m terrible with names so I don’t know if I’ve seen you before. I’m in a similar boat to you on the marriage front, but I’m also entirely skint this month.
Calculus is kicking my ass entirely. I’ve barely managed to get the homeworks done while spending half my days at the tutoring centers the school offers and I still don’t understand above half of it. I’ve got an exam tomorrow morning that I’m wildly unprepared for, and I haven’t even been able to finish the homework. This is not helped by the fact that the book is a piece of shit, and some of the problems e.g. refer to processes that are not, in fact, covered in the damn chapter, or any previous ones, which leaves me wondering where the hell I’m supposed to have learned it, since we sure haven’t covered it in class yet either. Unless we did, but called it something else, which is always possible.
Portia
Yes, this is the generally accepted way to face it. But how are we supposed to commiserate with you without totally tearing him a new orifice? Isn’t that our job? You don’t want us tearing you a new orifice, right? Somebody needs a new orifice out of this. 2nd law of thermodynamics and all.
In a more serious mode, I’m sorry you have to go through this. I don’t offer hugs much for various face to face reasons, but I’d cook something for you, and offer you a variety of drinks, in a heartbeat. That’s how I roll.
Dalillama, Schmott Guy
Which calculus? Alright, at this point (both in your studies and in my removal from my own studies), I can’t really help much. I ran into problems with, in my college days, was Calc 2 – Integrals. They just blew me away. I held on very well in the first half of the course, but just couldn’t wrap my head around the area between two curves.
ajb47:
Food and drink are as welcome as hugs :)
It’d probably be easier if I was angrier – feel free to harrumph where I can’t. I’m sure I’ll be in that place sometime soon. But let’s keep it to dirty looks :) I’m feeling Very Mature about my whole outlook though, so the superiority complex i have going on (“I’m handling this very well, I’m therefore the better person here”) is all I have at this point haha. It’s all very meta.
–
Dalillama:
Thanks, friend. *hugs*
I’m really sorry the test prep is so discouraging. : / That’s a really crappy feeling.
goodnight, Lounge.
ajb47
It’s actually Calc 1. I can’t wrap my head round derivatives, and I’m having a hell of a time keeping the limit laws straight and figuring out how to find a limit.
Dalillama, Schmott Guy
I had my calculus in 1992-93, though I had some pre-calculus in 1984 in my last high school math class. (Holy crap. 30 years? What the heck have I been doing with my time?) And I just checked where I keep my old textbooks and I seem to have gotten rid of my Calculus text. Dangit. I was hoping to help and now I feel like a dope.
Is there any Google response that might explain things in a different way than your prof that makes sense to you?
*hugs* to Portia and Hypatia’s Girl
ajb47
None that I’ve found yet.
Dalillama I’m up for another hour or so. If I can help, I’d be happy to.
Rob Grigjanis
I appreciate the offer, but I’m not even sure how to formulate my questions (or format them, for that matter). One part of my current problem is that I don’t know how to find a limit as x->infinity. At all, for anything; I don’t understand where to start or what process to use.
Dalillama
Someone in a recent thread here provided this link (thanks, whoever you are!)
http://www.elizabethcastro.com/html/extras/entities.html
It’s got some very useful html for math purposes. And the following is a good place to display it;
http://www.play-hookey.com/htmltest/
If you have a sample problem from the text, you could just type it out longhand as well.
Just as an example, say, the limit of f(x)=x/x+9 as x approaches infinity. The answer is apparently 1, but I have no idea why that’s the case, nor how to arrive there.
ajb47
Thanks for the pictures!!
How do you keep your rosemary alive?
Portia
*major hugs* Go you on the 2048! I stopped playing because I got Husband hooked on the game, and then it loses its appeal because it becomes a competition. He gets 2048 regularly now, and I just don’t play anymore.
I think for the first day or week or so, it’s okay to enjoy smoked goodies and drink lots. :) Sort of let the sad settle in and go out and then move along.
I still think he’s an ass, though. And an asshole who couldn’t be bothered to try. And you may not be perfect, but he’s far less closer to the limit of perfect than you are.
*hugs*
Dalillama
Good luck with the calculus! *hugs*
One way to do that would be to write
x/(x+9) = (x +9 – 9)/(x+9) = 1 – 9/(x+9)
As x -> infinity, the second term goes to zero, leaving 1. It’s often a case of isolating terms that remain constant, and terms that go to zero (or infinity!).
Some sample problems, with solutions, here;
https://www.math.ucdavis.edu/~kouba/CalcOneDIRECTORY/liminfdirectory/LimitInfinity.html
I’m on a fic-binge, again. This time it’s Kim Possible. (What, I liked that show…)
Rob Grigjanis
Thank you, I’ll peruse that site.
Maybe a clearer way to do your example would be to divide numerator and denominator by x, giving
1/(1 +9/x)
9/x -> 0 as x ->∞, again leaving 1.
Dalillama,
What you clearly need is crowdsourcing. If you describe a few of the problems you’re having trouble with here (not the concepts – they’ll become clear through the problems), I’m sure people could help – probably not with the immediate exam, but with the longer term. (I hate bad textbooks.) Don’t feel overwhelmed or give up on it – it’s just a temporary roadblock.
(*As a preliminary… Is there anything in which you’re interested – sports, dance, business, nature, art,… – to which calculus might apply?)
SC
It’s allegedly significant in some way to programming, that being the reason it’s on my required course list, but no-one has yet been able to explain how or why. There’s also statistics, many applications of which involve integrals, but my current course of study isn’t leading farther down a statistics track. I’ve about burned through my energy for the day for now, I’ve been wrestling with this since I finished running errands about 11 hours ago with a short break for Linear Algebra class (My exam in that one’s Wednesday; then my birthday’s Thursday, so I guess my first present will be that I’m 1/3 done with my maths exams), so I’m going to try to get some sleep now. Good night all, thanks for the help and good wishes.
OK. Apparently I’m too late (understandably). I’m also not entirely sober and have been away from calculus for a long while. But it seems to me that it helps to think about it visually and by substituting actual numbers in. So, on a graph, you’d go from 0 to 1/10 (x=1) to 26/35 (x=26) to 48/57 (x=48) and so on. As x increases, you get closer to 1. I think plotting it out might help to visualize what’s going on. Am I being dense here?
rq
I water it. In a more serious angle, I have never had trouble with rosemary. In the past, basil has drifted off with too much direct sun with not enough water. But generally, adequate watering with infrequent fertilizer has done well for our herbs. Until a month ago, I thought our rosemary was going to survive from last year. But it didn’t.
And Portia, what rq said:
See? New orifices discussion is almost required. With ice cream (cinnamon bourbon).
Dalillama, Schmott Guy @219
You aren’t taking too many credits in one semester, are you? It doesn’t seem that way, but I just thought I’d check.
Yes, I had to take two semesters of Calc, one Linear Algebra, two of “Mathematical Concepts in Computing” — which ended up being partly about why math works, covering set theory, inductive proofs, permutations and combinations, and basic statistics.
I can’t remember ever using any of it explicitly, but that does not mean I never used any of it implicitly. I got a B.S. in CIS, which probably assumed a path into math and science rather than the possible B.A., which went into the business side. At least as my University had it set up in ’92-’95.
I don’t know if this will help, but as x-> infinity in your problem, the problem becomes that as x get bigger and bigger, the “+9” means less and less. So the fraction in the problem approaches one as x approaches infinity. Yes, I have no math to back it up. I was just hoping that this way of thinking about it would spark a thought.
And it’s bed time here in the eastern USofA.
Exactly. 9 is 9. x can be 3 or a trillion trillion. The bigger it gets, the closer the fraction gets to 1.
Good night ajb47!
L’hopital’s rule. You might look at the khan academy videos. If you have a ratio where the limit if you substitute infinity or zero in becomes meaningless (depending on the lim) then the limit of the ratio of the derivatives of those functions is the same limit as the original limit. So here x/x+9 goes to 1/1=1
Good morning
Well, I did not get a place in the class this morning. But I got one in the same one tomorrow morning.
And I managed to get to the library before it opened.
Drat, I really can’t just listen to something. I have no use for audiobooks. They’re at a level of paying attention I just can’t manage. If I only listen, I drift off. If I do something else (like writing in the Lounge), I don’t pay enough attention to what is said. Right now I ned to listen to a lecture on a soundfile. I have no troubles following lectures where I can look at somebody, but just listening to them? Horror!
Tony
*hugs*
Portia, my honest opinion, fw little iw, is that anyone who at any point got on well enough with you and was compatible enough with you to actually be in a relationship with you and then backed away is to be pitied – pitied because they have missed out on something wonderful, and because they are either incapable for some reason of maintaining a relationship with someone who is exceptionally smart, competent, fun and all-round buena gente, or they are a damn fool.
I’m very sorry you are in this spot at this moment, it’s a horrible spot to be in – but I do honestly and srsly think you are awesome. His loss, very much his loss, even if it doesn’t feel like that right now. Hugs if you would care for any.
Portia
*big hugs*
what opposablethumbs said.
But I suppose it all sounds hollow atm.
We should *encourage* the mormons to buy property in Florida, especially *seafront* property. Also, buy seafront property in Louisian and Texas and Holland. And Bangladesh.
What happens when you routinely give antibiotics to livestock:
“Cow manure harbors diverse new antibiotic resistance genes” http://phys.org/news/2014-04-cow-manure-harbors-diverse-antibiotic.html
.
“Best of Last Week’s Phys org” http://phys.org/news/2014-04-weekconfirmed-earth-sized-planet-twin-paradox.html
Stereotype alert: Finns and their sharp objects!
“Finnish inventor rethinks design of the axe” http://phys.org/news/2014-04-finnish-inventor-rethinks-axe.html
It’s been too many yonks since I learned calculus — and I recall also be flummoxed by limits — but one approach for at least one class of problems, as hinted in some previous replies, is to rewrite until the answer is “obvious”. For instance what is SOMETHING(x) as x→∞ ?
SOMETHING(x) = BLAH(x) + BLAHBLAH(x)
Keep rewriting it until you get a form something like:
SOMETHING(x) = STUFF + MORESTUFF + BARGLE(x)
where none of the …STUFFs involves x, and BARGLE(x) has as few x terms as possible (ideally none(!), albeit in practice, one is the least possible). For instance, a very nice BARGLE(x) is 1/x. Now think about what happens as x gets bigger and bigger. Draw a graph if that helps you.
In this case, 1/seriouslyHUGEnumber is basically zero, and hence that BARGLE(x) “disappears” as x→∞. Now solve STUFF + MORESTUFF, which should be “trivial” since there is now no x, and there’s the solution.
Of course, you might have more than one BARGLE(x) term, and they might do “contradictory” things (like one decreasing without limit and the other increasing without limit), but the critical idea is to simplify, simplify, simplify. And to take this advice with a few grains of salt because it has been so long I since I was doing this stuff that I could be presenting bad advice (apologies if so!).
But birgerjohansson, we’ve been using axes of the same design since the Stone Age (or at least something very ancient)! Why would you want to change the design NOW, since it obviously works juuuuuust fiiiine??????
No, not Holland: The Dutch know WTF they are doing; are willing to plan ahead, adapt, and invest; and whilst seriously inconvenienced by AGW, may just be able to deal with sealevel rising. Assuming they can -pull it off, then the presumably desired effects won’t happen, and the Dutch will be stuck with a bunch of moron cultists. (Besides, there’s some seriously good cheese there!)
And also not Bangladesh: They have enough problems as it is, and invading barbarian conquistadors is about the last thing, I should think, they need. (Apologies if they sounds a bit colonialist or patronizing.)
Elsewhere on the list, fine, Ok, as long as there is no federal (at least) insurance: No reason to “refund” idiots from the common kitty in this circumstance. (And apologies if that sounds a bit liberturdian!)
Yes & No. For some sorts of programming, calculus, or perhaps more accurately, finite methods (which includes, in this context, limits and similar) is critical. Physics models (probably), for instance.
It’s also potentially useful in understanding the problems with “floating point”, and just how hard it is to write reliable floating point code.
It’s useful (in an oblique way) in general: As problem-solving and logical deduction. That is, debugging. And (re-)stating the problem(s) in a solvable form. (This also applies to other sorts of maths.)
I cannot, offhand, think of much (well, none, in fact), direct use or applicability in systems programming (as one example), albeit statistics is of some use here. Broadly, I do systems programming, and in my experience, I’ve used number theory and statistics far more than anything I’d call “calculus” — but that’s only one area / type of programming and certainly doesn’t apply to some other areas / types…
Hi, Hypatia’s Girl! Good to see you again.
Portia, sounds like it’s time for some heavy immersion into some Captain Awkward. Preferably while eating chocolate fudge ice cream.
carlie:
Good idea :) I’ve literally been asking myself the last couple days “What could Captain Awkward say?” ..I might have to get ice cream soon.
–
I just remembered I have four assistants and it’s assistants’ week. I don’t really have four assistants. I have four people who have other priorities and work on my files in their spare time. Soooooon I will have one assistant. At any rate, I’m gonna stop for cupcakes or something on the way to work.
–
opposablethumbs and Giliell:
That means a lot to me, thanks for the support – I’m lucky to have such good friends.
Giliell: On some level, yeah – my jerkbrain is in overdrive. My best wasn’t good enough, so ergo I’m just…not good enough. Sigh. It will pass.
ajb47:
rq has the dubious honor of having listened long and patiently to lots of whining, she’s uniquely positioned to hand out stink eyes :) (No one’s anything needs tearing! You’re making me wince!) Cinnamon bourbon ice sounds great though..mmmm…
rq:
Sigh – you’re right. Thanks for the perfecter compliment :)
Nutmeg:
*hugs*Thanks
Dalillama:
Best of luck!
I think I’m sitting next to Nutmeg right now:
Skinny jeans, short boots, plaid shirt ;)
Hoping to get some visibility on this! (PZ, do your thing!)
After the “investigative journalism” that Mail on Sunday used to “prove” that Trussel Trust (a big UK food bank) didn’t care to check deeply into people claiming to need food vouchers, people have turned that on its head. Instead of calling for UK food banks to close because some jerkass “journalists” accused the needy of gaming the system, people have started donating en masse to the Trust.
As of this moment – donations to Trussel Trust have gone over £57,000 (a bit less than $100,000.)
Well, nutmeg (& mace) is a bit colourful…
Should you think that the “Why are there still monkeys” question is mostly dead or very rare…
Just go follow @takethatdarwin on twitter.
“Why are there still monkeys”
-If multicellular life evolved from single-celled life, why are there still single-celled things? Bacteria proves Darwin was wrong!!!
.
rq, trust Finns to want to improve a tool that is associated with the stereotypical Finn, living in a log cabin in the woods….
They have high-tech companies but for a lot of them, the self-image is still “Crocodile Dundee is a wimp!*”
*”…and we can out-drink God!”
“they don’t have the money to tell people that they need money”
-Has Georgia got any seafront we can sell to mormons? Win-win.
birgerjohansson
Husqvarna‘s Swedish, though. They beat the Finns there.
Must-see cartoon: Fox News on Obamacare and climate change https://proxy.freethought.online/singham/2014/04/21/fox-news-on-obamacare-and-climate-change-2/
.
Arizona company set to release ‘powdered alcohol’ following FDA approval http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/04/21/arizona-company-set-to-release-powdered-alcohol-following-fda-approval/
The way I interpret it, the alcohol molecules must be tied to other molecules that break away and vaporize when exposed to water.
.
Privilege trumps protection: “Saudi Prince Reportedly Killed About 2,000 Endangered Birds In Pakistan” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/21/saudi-prince-hunts-birds-endangered-species-_n_5187319.html
Solar cell freakout:
.
Material scientist exploring ways to improve efficiency of solar cells http://phys.org/news/2014-04-material-scientist-exploring-ways-efficiency.html
Cheaper solar cells: “Researchers achieve higher solar-cell efficiency with zinc-oxide coating” http://phys.org/news/2014-04-higher-solar-cell-efficiency-zinc-oxide-coating.html
Like a hall of mirrors, nanostructures trap photons inside ultrathin solar cells (w/ Video) http://phys.org/news/2014-04-hall-mirrors-nanostructures-photons-ultrathin.html
Stuff like this makes me take courage. Also polishes my being born in such a worthy state where “state” equals both geographic and personal disposition. To a high luster, I deliberately flatter myself.
_______________
Last night I slept on my right side. That is, those parts of me belonging to the rightmost half of my bilateral symmetry were bottom most, performing a supporting role. I’ve done so ten thousand times or more with salubrious results. That is, waking to refreshing renewal and feeling well rested. Why, then, do I wake up lately feeling as though I’d been assaulted by sledge hammer wielding ne’r do wells while I slept the sleep of the innocent?
It’s the “innocent” part, innit? Damn. Thought I’d atoned. Now I’ve got to review a lifetime of guilt assignment and transgression. Don’t you just hate that?
Bribe one of the kids to stand in the front of the living room and pantomime along?
Chart of the Day: Another look at our nation’s stark income growth disparity http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/04/21/1293550/-Chart-of-the-Day-Another-look-at-our-nation-s-stark-income-growth-disparity
.
Let’s talk about checks http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/04/22/1293569/-Cartoon-Let-s-talk-about-checks
So if you discuss your pay, you get fired!!!!
Your country is run bu corrupt scum.
A short bit from the equally tall and equally bald senator from Wyoming. Click on comments and identify the one that most accurately represents your own take. =)
Waves at Lynna across the Tetons. Hi!
*by the way, your website featuring you and your brother is full of awesome — thanks for a touch of home in my exile*
birgerhohanssen:
Neat! Last week I had a conversation with a few guests at work about how cool it would be if ‘powdered alcohol’ was a thing. And here it is!
I’m not sure if this is the right place for this sort of thing, but I’d like to get a signal boost on this if possible:
http://pointstick.wordpress.com/2014/04/22/game-of-thrones-rape-culture-and-bad-adaptation-decisions/
This makes me very angry, and I’m only getting angrier the more I think about it…
Crudely Wrott @250
Waves back at Crudely Wrott.
I am going to have to bite the bullet and update that website. I have a new book coming out in May, so that will probably kick my ass into gear.
eArguing with Niece&Friends over Christianity (by whatever definition) and homosexuality.
*depressed sigh*
–
Hi, Hypatia’s Girl! Welcome In from semi-lurkdom!
:)
–
*hugs&chocolate* for Portia.
You can only do what you can do. Tell jerkbrain to takeahike; it is not possessed of All The Facts.
–
Dalillama, my sympathies for you having Teh Calculus. Get well soon!
–
I was not aware that the third leading cause of maternal mortality in the world is unsafe abortion:
Thanks to Dalillama, Portia, chigau, rq, Giliell, Crudely Wrott, opposablethumbs, ajb47, alexanderz, cicely, FossilFishy, sarahface, gobi’s sockpuppet’s meatpuppet, bluentx, and Crip Dyke* for the hugs and support. It is appreciated.
*CD, I don’t have your email. Mine is freethinker7519 at the gmail thingee.
South Carolina is why we can’t have nice things.
Okay, that’s hyperbole about South Carolina ruining everything, they have a lot of help when it comes to ruining everything.
In this case, they had help from Fox News. I think the rightwing dunderheads have confused Vincent Sheheen with his clients. The rightwing pundits are also outraged that Sheheen got paid to defend various criminals. This is why we can’t have nice things.
Sheheen was not the only victim of this ploy. President Obama’s nominee for Assistant Attorney General, Debo Adegbile, was rejected for the same reason. Fox News called Adegbile a “cop killer coddler.” That ended that. Adegbile was a very nice thing our country should have had. He is an accomplished man who overcame poverty to become a formidable Supreme Court litigator.
Monitor Alert! The recently-banned “Nunov Yuzbiznez” has returned in the I guess I don’t know the right Christians thread.
Tony, thanks for the link @255:
Astounding. And awful. And absolutely preventable.
blf
I think he has gone again.
Much like Jesus who didn’t hang around for long after the resurrection either.
Azkyroth
Good idea, but I was i the college library
Portia
Hey, the best builders in the world can’t construct a house with only sand at their hands
*hugs*
+++
I haz envy
My sister took #1 fossil hunting (and they returned with some very nice ferns)
Mormon Moments of Madness, violating confidentiality category.
Not the first time I’ve heard of this practice. LDS counselors routinely violate the confidentiality of patients and report back to the patient’s mormon bishop.
http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,1247966
This is 2014, right??!
Racial segregation is alive and well in US schools:
*hugs* for cicely
I found a neat fossil over the weekend. It’s tiny, and I’m pretty sure it’s not as fancy as it looks to be, but it’s still fancy. :) Makes me think of the minotaur.
I learned something today!
http://hispanichouston.com/2013/08/07/hispanic-vs-latino-whats-the-difference/
Here’s an update on the libertarian, mormon, off-the-rails rancher in Nevada that nearly sparked a gun battle with federal land administrators. Seems Cliven Bundy was lying his ass off. Surprise, surprise.
http://www.8newsnow.com/story/25301551/bundys-ancestral-rights-come-under-scrutiny
So, yeah. There is some difference between 1877 and 1954. Also, Bundy never had rights, other than leases he or his family paid for, to federal lands. Never. And, no, he has earned rights to federal lands.
Moments of Mormon Madness, Tongan gang category. There was a story a few years back about Tongan gang members curb stomping gay men in Salt Lake City. The gang members were also mormons.
In this latest story of Tongan gang violence, their membership in the LDS church has again come under scrutiny. 4Utah link.
Jesus have moved on from toast as a way to prove He is the Savior. He is now appearing on pancakes.
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/glenn-beck-not-one-doubt-miracle-jesus-pancake
Glenn Beck likes it:
The US is a nation of write-ins:
I confess to having filled out “some other race” in the past. I think that’s largely because I was ignorant of both my ‘race’ and ‘ethnicity’. To be honest, I’m still not entirely certain.
Do I belong to an ethnic group? If so, which group?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_groups
There are obviously people legitimately in this situation. But I think a huge number of the “some other race” folk are white people who have decided, conveniently, that they are post-race. They might write in “Norwegian-British” or they might write in “Bostonian” or they might write in “American”, but the **reason** that they feel that’s legitimate is because “white” is an identity connected to racism, connected to white supremacy. Since whites are no longer supreme, calling oneself “white” is to cling to the past racial system that no longer exists.
It’s an attitude that can be rationalized, but results in real harm, given the continuing existence of racism.
For me it was always motivated more by an absence of any tangible sense of “identify with each other” as mentioned above.
Azkyroth:
I don’t feel like I belong to *any* ethnic group. I don’t see myself as having any common ancestral, social, cultural, or national experiences with any particular group.
Crip Dyke:
I don’t think that is the case with regard to the results of the US Census Bureau report (@ my #268)
I know that being usually perceived as “white” (though somewhat ambiguously – generally not by airport security, for instance) has probably affected my perspective in subtler ways, but I’ve been very conscious, for most of my life, of a profound lack of a sense of common culture or identity, often in distressing and alienating ways. :/
@Tony!:
Which, of course, doesn’t mean that you and I aren’t racialized. I just feel very frustrated because the institutionalization of racial categories is necessary in the sense that to do good science, we need an operational definition of the things we’re studying. For racial disparities, we need to operationally define race. And studying and understanding racial disparity is necessary to learn how to fix those racial disparities that are unjust and when to ignore racial disparities that are not implicated in injustice (if Jewishness is tied to “semitic” race, and if my fellow Jews eat less pork than other races, I couldn’t care less about “correcting” this “racial disparity”).
I get the feeling from too many white people that they don’t want the studies done. Some of these go on to frustrate the studies themselves by making it difficult to compare racialized groups. This frustration of the search for knowledge (whatever the ultimate motivation) when the knowledge is not only good to have because, Hey! Knowledge!, but also because it’s necessary to create a more just society, strikes me as selfish and cowardly. I felt the impulse to record something other than white on standardized forms. I did some thinking, realized that I simply didn’t like being identified with white supremacy, and realized that there were much better ways of rebuffing white supremacy than refusing to acknowledge that on a day-to-day basis I’m racialized as white.
I’m not criticizing you or Az, of course. I’m not criticizing anyone in particular with this rant. But I’ve known people who do refuse to ID as white for what, in my view, are reasons both selfish and based on reasoning from invalid premises.
Just now reading Tony!’s #272:
Clearly my anecdata was a bad predictor of the breadth of this phenomenon. I guess I’m just frustrated with a small number of people then.
That’s good to know.
Thanks.
Crip Dyke:
To muddle things up a bit more ( :) )…
The Census results are from a study on how Hispanic-Americans report their race. So your comments @269 could very well be true. It’s just that we can’t determine that from this Census report :)
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/4/22/egypt-to-try-firstdoctoronfemalegenitalcutting.html
Lynna (#265)
Wow. I wouldn’t be sad if an actual modern day Indian smacked this guy upside the head with a 2×4.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Tony (#272)
Yeah, it looks like the way the 2010 census form¹ was set up primed Hispanics to use that category by first making their Hispanic origin really salient in question 8 and then failing to offer racial categories that reflect the reality of race in most Hispanic (actually, Latino) countries and communities. If you’ll forgive a HuffPo link, here’s a very brief article on the matter.
……….
¹ Top right page here.
Isn’t this always the way with communication in lesbian relationships?
No?
Just me then?
WHEW.
I am gonna smell like patchouli for three hours after spending an hour with that last client. OMG.
Patchouli definitely falls on my list of odors I find find unappealing (that’s being generous)
When confronted with a blank labeled “race” I normally pencil in “human”. No back draft yet though it’s actually been quite some time since I’ve been faced with such a demand. The situation is most satisfactory.
________
Overdue conga rats to Portia-of-the-court.
Overdue sympathies to Portia-in-real-life.
ajb47 #222
No, only 12. It’s just there’s 2 midterm exams per maths course, plus finals. I didn’t bomb today’s as badly as I was afraid I would, but I didn’t do well. I’d have done better if I’d been allowed notes to keep track of the various theorems.
Tony! #268
Good questions; according to various social science profs I’ve had, everyone’s got an ethnicity because ethnicity describes the culture you grew up in, and everyone grew up as part of some culture or another. The thing is, how finely do you subdivide ‘culture’? How do you determine where one culture ends and another one begins? The answers to these questions in turn depend on what it is exactly that you’re trying to measure. So, the answer is yes, you do belong to an ethnic group, and which one it is depends on the asker and on your personal feeling of belonging to such a group. Personally, as close as I can come to defining an ethnicity is ‘hippie,’ or possibly ‘geek’, but for U.S. government statistical purposes I’m white non-hispanic.
Azkyroth 270
That’s pretty much my take; I haven’t got any more in common, in terms of shared cultural experiences, ideology, religion, etc. with most americans (white or not) than I do with any other group of English speakers randomly selected from around the globe.
CD
This is another big part of where it’s confusing, I think, because racialization is largely something that’s imposed from without in a different way than ethnicity is. For instance, an ex of mine has a pale brown skin tone and dark curly hair. She identifies ethnically as german-american, that’s her cultural heritage etc., but that doesn’t stop people mentally assigning her to the racial categories of ‘black’ or ‘arab’, and behaving based on that.
Innate sex differences between men and women explain some of the gender gap?
So, if anyone is interested or has any care: Ben Radford is having delusions of grandeur again.
From his facebook page which links to the Fox News piece about the Morris incident. Good to see true skeptics as protectors of freezepeach.
*Sigh*
In my defense, I’m only FB friends with him because he once had loose association with a student group I was a part of.
mikeg @285:
Holy fuck. Radford continues that downward plunge (into a pit of slime).
mikeg:
Do you have a link to his page?
And if you’re subdividing it in a way that lumps together kids who got their parents to buy them too-big Tommy Hilfiger jeans and then walked around claiming to be “in a gang,” with kids who were raised to value education and compassion and be conscientious, because they have similar albedos, you are NOT PAYING ATTENTION. >.>
To all the cat lovers out there: http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/shared-table-where-people-can-work-and-cats-can-wander
@mikeg (#285)
Is it really that hard for them to say they hate PZ’s guts but at the same time acknowledge the right wing fuckbags are making shit up? Or, y’know, choose not to comment on it at all?
Oooh, this is even cooler:
Ha Ha Ha!
http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/clif-dickens-honest-slogans
Some of my favorites here
here
and here.
Tony!
I liked the Hallmark one.
https://www.facebook.com/ben.radford.58/posts/10202668545369060?stream_ref=10
The comments he is receiving… little gems. The hypocrisy is real.
Tony
I just wonder how many cats would actually use these toys in the long run… Don’t they all just prefer a small box?
+++
I found some knitwear projects for the Horde. Perhaps uniforms or for those cosy Commune evenings…
Radford’s comments:
(bolding mine)
Really Ben? Give me a link. PZ talks about a variety of topics, but I don’t recall him claiming any expertise in any field other than biology.
rq:
I don’t think any of those clothes work for me. Maybe the ‘Where’s Waldo’ outfit…
OK.
This is my favourite:
More cool stuff:
http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/linden-gledhill-macro-butterfly-wings
Tony (#297)
Suuuuuure, that’s why the chancellor of UMM Morris would never ever publicly disavow support for The NorthStar or any of the fuckers putting it out. Oh wait, she totally did.
Tony @290 and 292
WAAAAAANT! *grabby paws*
*beat*
Wait, they only come in housecat size? *ear droop*
These shots are stunning.
Which makes fucking sense.
Those people already had a racial/ethnic identity before they came to the USA. It’s not like you find a “Hispanic” in Mexcio or Peru. They are not all some homogenous group all over 1.5 continents. It would be interesting to see how this correlates with length of stay: Do first generation immigrants, aware of their “original” category choose “some other race” more often than later generations who have taken the “Hispanic” identity for themselves?
Tony @ 284
Wait, isn’t that a list of things not really settled or with a very low value on Cohen’s d?
WMDKitty:
Could this cat puzzle perk your ears back up?
Ok, I haven’t seen it *all*, but I’m one step closer now.
The Cat in the Hat.
Tony that is so. cool. I wonder what else they have? *off to browse*
Thank you for those Lepidopteran scales, Tony. Truly stunning photography!
To go back to the post Tony linked to:
It’s really nice when people discredit themselves quite early in their argument.
To put those words into numbers
The mean IQ = 100
1 standard deviation = 15
2 above the mean = 130
4 above the mean = 160
Now, here’s the thing: Even if you accept IQ as a useful category and ignore its low predictive value, this doesn’t make sense. There are no tests that can get you any reliable results around/above 130. For IQ tests to give you a reliable meassure, they need to be calibrated with a large group of people. You simply don’t have that amount of people for that group. Any claim of an IQ above 130 is bullshit because you cannot know.
So, to argue that there are almost exclusively male top physicists because in the extremes of the IQ range men are overepresented talking about “4 sd’s above the mean” relies on two very shoddy premises. Not to mention that the whole argument relies on “I think it’s reasonable”. Very top-tier science that is.
If it quacks like a duck… it must be a whale!
Crip Dyke@274,
I couldn’t agree more. Just because “race” is a social category (loosely linked to some biological markers) rather than a biological one, doesn’t make it any less real.
The survey analysts probably wouldn’t go far wrong in assigning all those who refuse to answer, or answer “human” or whatever, to the most privileged racial category among the population being surveyed.
@264 Tony
The definitions used in the US are weird…and quite distorted if you ask me…
There are definitions of “latino” that definitely include spanish people (and italians, romanians, french and portuguese). It is about language, not geography.
I´m also used to seen “hispanic” used to include the portuguese since it comes from Hispania which included the entire peninsula. It´s not about language, it is about geography…
By the “technical” definitions i´m used to i am both hispanic and latino. However, the way the terms are usually used coloquically over here, i´m neither, because both are used interchangeably as synonimous with central/southamerican. That leaves me being just spanish..or european…
I am very comfortable identifying as white, it´s one of the many useful ways to identify myself…i do however refuse to consider white a “race”.
Why?
Chris Hadfield speaks about risk and fear and space. There’s footage of a shuttle launch during the talk – that stuff always makes me cry.
One day I hope to see a real live launch somewhere in the world.
Before Batgirl, weirder than Wonder Woman; lost superheroines in the pre-code era. http://saladinahmed.tumblr.com/post/82626247806/before-batgirl-weirder-than-wonder-woman-lost
Islam: “Media must end its love affair with religious censors” http://www.indexoncensorship.org/2014/04/media-must-end-its-love-affair-with-religious-censors/
“All three, and countless more religious rightists, have sold themselves as commentators, ‘community leaders’ and de facto spokesmen for Muslims (‘men’ is applicable here), grabbing the spotlight neither through skilled writing nor through views polls say are actually widespread.”
@314 Nick
Because i see no reason to. The way i see it the term is of a taxonomical nature and it is being missused when applied to human populations. We have a clinal distribution and the majority of all variation is found inside populations, not between them. On top of that, genetically we are remarkably homogenous.
I prefer to use the concept of ethnicity, which while suffering from many of the same problems of trying to apply a discrete category to a continuum, makes reference to identifiable cultural characteristics and at least doesn´t invent biological boundaries where there are none.
Please skip if so inclined, I just feel like some poetry:
azhael@37,
That’s just a terminological quibble, and entirely irrelevant once it is acknowledged that racial categories are (as I said @311), social categories loosely linked to some biological markers. “Race” has a reasonably clear meaning in the human context – races are generally distinguishable by visible physical characteristics – which is more restricted than ethnicity (whether I’m English, Scottish or British is a matter of ethnicity, but not of race), and “race” is in fact no longer much used in biology, where “subspecies” has replaced it.
@319 Nick
And this is where i disagree. It works well when you look at extremes or idealized averages, but in reality there are no clear diagnostic characteristics. And that without even looking into hybrids of various degrees from so called “different races”.
I agree that the way we usually use the system is fine, because while it is imperfect, it is generally accurate enough to be useful (much the same way as binary gender systems). My problem is that by using the term race it is implied that this classification fits some biological reality, which it doesn´t…
Other concepts like ethnicity, communities, populations, etc, are far more realistic systems to classify human diversity. As i say i´m even fine with using white, black, whatever, so long as it is understood that it is an extremely loose aproximation that doesn´t actually describe a biological reality (something which is compromised by using the term race).
As for the biological concept of race being replaced with subspecies, yes, it is very common, although some people maintain race as a taxonomical rank below subspecies, and this makes the problem very clear, because modern human populations definitely do not fit the subspecies definitions….at all.
Sigh. I am so tired of the snow and cold weather. Our hyacinths have made a valiant effort but the temperature keeps dropping to near freezing. It makes me feel so gloomy.
pHred
I feel ya. My hyacinths are blooming mostly still inside the ground right now (the ones that survived, that is). Hope yours make it!
I love the CATable.
I wrote this response to a comment by hillaryrettig sometime last week. I have an inconsistent internet connection here and my comment didn’t go through. When I went to try again I couldn’t find the comment or the thread (I thought it was here or TDome), which was odd. Anyway,
hillaryrettig:
Here are a few critical takes:
“Reality Denial: Steven Pinker’s Apologetics for Western-Imperial Violence,” by Edward S. Herman and David Peterson (not free of prejudices, but well worth reading)
“Why Steven Pinker, Like Jared Diamond, Is Wrong,” by Stephen Corry
“Pinker, Animals, and Hitler,” by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson (I haven’t yet read the book, but it sounds rather like Pinker’s whole premise is a libel against nonhuman animals: human violence is ultimately rooted in our animalistic impulses – Corry quotes Pinker as describing medieval people/culture as “animalistic” – which have recently been and continue to be “civilized” by primarily white males in Western Europe and the US; I believe Masson talks about Pinker in more depth in his new book, but I haven’t read that yet, either)
Oh, duh – I just needed to google. Here it is. Since that’s an old thread at this point, here is better.
Hi.
Did something new yesterday.
[RECIPE WARNING]
Take a pre-packaged corned beef, rinse it, throw away the seasonings, and dump it in a crock pot with
5 cloves garlic, halved
2 Tablespoons cilantro (optional)
1 12-oz can enchilada sauce
1 12-ounce beer
add enough water to cover the meat.
Turn the crock pot up to high. Cook until the meat is almost falling apart.
Arrange on a large plate:
1/2 onion, finely sliced
1 cup white cabbage, finely sliced
2 tomatoes, finely sliced
1 avocado, skinned, seeded and finely sliced
in a bowl, combine:
1 cup sweet and smokey barbecue sauce
2 Tablespoons chile powder
1 Tablespoon cider vinegar
2 Tablespoons cilantro (optional)
warm 8 medium four tortillas
Remover the meat from the pot. Rinse it. Use your fingers (or a couple of forks) and shred the meat into long pieces, each about 1/4 inch across (give or take) and as long as it happens to be.
To build each taco, smear some of the barbecue sauce on the tortilla, add some meat, some onions, some avocado, some tomato and some cabbage. Add a little feta cheese. Enjoy with a beer.
Oggie
I am very happy to see you.
(the preceeding was a massive understatement, I’m actually overjoyed)
Ogvorbissss!!!
Just when I bought another batch of ribs. ;)
Hi!
I’m with chigau.
It is good to see you Ogvorbis
Ogvorbis! Glad to see you! And that recipe sounds delicious. Other than beer cheese soup on special occasions, I rarely cook with beer these days.
Intriguing.
The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature explicitly does not recognize any rank below subspecies.
Wow. Not having read Pinker’s book, I had no idea he took his claim that far and based it on such bad data.
(Infodump below:)
Noam Chomsky helps explain the ‘Fox Effect’ in upcoming film ‘Brainwashing of my Dad’ http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/04/22/noam-chomsky-helps-explain-the-fox-effect-in-upcoming-film-brainwashing-of-my-dad/
.
The French economist gives the American left a sturdy framework for its economic ideas. http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2014/04/thomas_piketty_capital_how_america_s_liberals_fell_for_a_french_economist.html
Atheists are delusional, says Conservative Party’s chief Satanist,
England on fire as dragons take their revenge. http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/
.
North Korea ‘deeply insulted’ at not being blamed for ferry disaster http://www.newsbiscuit.com/2014/04/23/north-korea-%e2%80%98deeply-insulted%e2%80%99-at-not-being-blamed-for-ferry-disaster/
That trailer is good. I’m looking forward to the film.
Ogvorbis, it’s good to see you!
I’d just like to chime in to support what Tony and Giliell are saying about Larry Summers and his apologists. Summers is just flat wrong. His whole analysis is a misuse of both the concept of IQ and of statistics. Giliell is precisely correct–the extrapolation of Normal behavior in the tails of the IQ curve is not warranted. One could even question whether the very concept of a single metric to measure intelligence is valid.
Summers and his apologists are telling a just-so story to justify the facts they see. What is more, they are ignoring some other very important facts. For instance, the percentage of women PhD physicists is far higher in places like Russia, Italy and Portugal (20-30%) than in the US(~11%). Why? One reason is that these positions are more prestigious and better paid in the US than in Russia, Italy and Portugal.
As to the factors listed:
1. Men, on average, prioritize status, while women weigh status and family equally.
WTF? Sounds to me like we’d lose out on a lot of men here–at least we should
2. Women, on average, are more interested in people; men are more interested in things and abstract rule systems.
Just-so reasoning strikes again.
3. Men are by far the more reckless sex.
This is just stupid and utterly irrelevant. Ferchrissake, do you want reckless people playing around with high-powered lasers. Fuck, just fuck!
4. Men, on average, have a superior ability to do three-dimensional mental transformations.
Cough, Cough…Emmy Noether…Cough…Rosalind Franklin
5. Men, on average, are superior at mathematical reasoning.
Cough, Cough…Emmy Noether…
6. Men have more variability than women across traits, which means that men are over-represented in the upper and lower tails of ability distributions.
Uh, dude, how do you even know the tails of the distribution are symmetric. All Summers is saying is GODDIDIT.
rq Thanks. I am crossing my fingers. We lost the crocuses after only a couple of days and most of the daffodils got wiped out too.
Now I am depressed because I am getting the research presentation posters from my capstone environmental class and they are terrible. I feel like I have accomplished nothing with this group this year. They have been given all the pieces, access to the equipment, access to other data – they have worked all semester on these things (theoretically at least) – and they all look like something that got tossed together last night in less than an hour – bad grammar, typos, mostly blank and all. These are the posters that they are going to stand next to at our school conference in front of the entire rest of the institution. I am just despairing.
Hi Ogvorbis
Ogvorbis! With a recipe!
One of the best combinations to see anywhere on the internet.
+++
So, reading those on Pinker articles, many things have become clear to me.
Like the fact that women are natural resources to be conquered by humans.
And that people killed by “us” don’t count as dead, apparently.
+++
David!
We’re going to Berlin in autumn. Be prepared some time in October.
A. Noyd @278:
By Justin Giles logic, Clive Bundy should give his ranch back to the Paiute Tribe.
On a side note, I laughed when I read the bit about smacking the guy upside the head with a 2×4. That’s exactly the phrase my mother used to use when describing what needed to be done to willfully ignorant people.
But a_ray_in_dilbert_space @335, #2 explains exactly why I love people so much, by which I mean that I don’t love people at all, in fact why it’s one of the reasons I chose to work primarily with dead people, and why I don’t mind the evening/night shift… Heh. Wait, does forensics count as a caring/nurturing job?
And as for #3, well, heh. At least I grew out of it.
pHred
If you think your group is bad, just wait until you see the others…
More seriously, good luck straightening out the worst of it, and may the presentations go well!
+++
So in case anyone’s interested I’m officially in Canada (eastern/southern) from June 8 to July 13, plus an 11 hour layover in Amsterdam on the return flight. Just putting that out there in case of geographical coincidence with anyone who would like to attempt a meet-up.
I finally planted my herb garden, including cilantro. I will soon be ready to take better advantage of recipes Ogvorbis posts.
Thanks, Tony, for the link to butterfly photos @300. It was cool to see all those wing structures up close like that.
Rachel Maddow interviewed Elizabeth Warren last night. Great segment. Link.
Legislators in Georgia (and the Governor) have passed a “Guns, Guns Everywhere!” bill.
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/investigations/arms-georgia-governor-sign-controversial-gun-bill-wednesday-n86941
Coverage on The Maddow Blog, by Steve Benen.
Old kings, old bones, something new to see.
Here is some good news about the Medicaid expansion that is part of the Affordable Care Act:
Nevertheless, Republicans are still fighting Medicaid expansion tooth and nail.
@ Lynna 338
Turns out Cliven Bundy lied about everything.
He was claiming some ancestral right to 500,000 acres of BLM land.
Turns out his family never ranched there. He’s from Arizona.
His family bought the ranch in 1948. They didn’t start grazing cattle on federal land until 1954.
It doesn’t take much to be a rightwing hero. Being a common criminal will do it.
O Holy Maude. I just saw a troop of missionaries approaching my door. My dogs were barking their lovely heads off, sounding ferocious (they aren’t, they just make a lot of noise) so I opened the door a crack, shouted out “the dogs bite” and closed the door. Said proselytizers turned tail and ran. Hooray.
Everyone on this street is a mormon. Why don’t these fools know this already?
Actually, they probably do know. Mormons make Ward maps that show every household that is mormon, so the non-mormon ones really stand out.
Also, mormons recently increased the army of young missionaries by lowering the eligibility ages for both males and females. These hordes of missionaries really don’t have enough to do. It’s a sad situation. Some of them are sent out to do home visits or home teaching of other mormons. If they are any less than fully active mormon households in your neighborhood they will probably also be harassed.
Tony!, I like the Bounty one best.
:)
–
Ogvoris!
*pouncehug*
–
Good job you have dogs looking out for you, morgan?! :-)
Our dog chased off some proselytisers a little while back (they’re a rarity around here). (We think they were probably JWs).
Good dogs!
Self-portraits in angled mirrors (fourth picture in, there’s a woman with a potato on her head…).
raven @344, yeah, Bundy lied. I saw that at least some media outlets are exposing his lie. Good thing.
Cliven Bundy is not just deluded and weirdly misinformed about laws and land management, he also an out-an-out lier. One more rightwing doofus who gets it all wrong, on every level, including his own family history.
There’s more evidence of him not being a good steward of the land as well (over grazing, etc.)
One of Bundy’s staunchest backers is a former county sheriff who is also a mormon.
The only time I saw Mormon missionaries in our street they didn’t come to our house. Probably because the people in the big 78 flats building aren’t very promising in terms of money, so they only talked to the inhabitants of the more affluent semi-detached houses…
+++
Astrokid in one thread, a pro-lifer in another.
If I needed any more arguments for writing my report, here I have them.
Today would be so much easier if I had lots of alcohol. I shouldn’t be drunk when my niece gets here, though.
SIGH. Being a rational adult is so hard.
Cliven Bundy’s supporters also lied about the feds trying to seize his land for solar panel projects:
http://aattp.org/debunked-cliven-bundy-cattle-not-seized-by-blm-for-fracking-or-chinese-solar-panel-projects/
http://www.thewildlifenews.com/2014/04/14/cliven-bundy-has-no-claim-to-federal-land-and-grazing/
Hi Oggie! *hugs*
I had a dream last night about my brother who died last year. It’s painful to think that I will never, ever see him again, but at the same time I’m kind of thankful it ended.
He was a hopeless alcoholic who made life really awful for just about everyone around him. If I say I miss him, what I really mean is I miss the guy I used to know 40 years ago when we were kids. He was so scathingly funny, and he had a real talent as an artist and a musician, but he drank his life away bit by bit. I’ve tried hard to be creative like him all my life, but I’ve never managed to do it so easily as he did. It just came out as if he didn’t need to try.
I went to my other brother’s house this Easter, to pick up a memento, one of his paintings, so full of life and fun. I think it was an old one from when he lived in France, and could still hold himself together. It’s just a painting of an old house, but so alive, just like he was when he was younger. I just wanted something to remind me of him, but I don’t know where to put it. The poor guy had to put up with this drunk in his house for months because he had nowhere else to go. My wife wouldn’t have him in the house with our young children, so he just came and went between my parents and my brother. Unless he had a girlfriend, of course.
He went from one girl to another, always following the same pattern. I guess he was really romantic, and he would start by charming the pants off some girl who would fall head over heels in love with him, feed her all kinds of bullshit lies, then blow it all by getting shit-faced drunk. By the end he was a real mess. He would go for days without eating, just drinking wine and vodka, then collapsing. He was always having accidents, and my poor mum and dad would be contacted by the police to say he was in hospital. They’re in their 80s, and didn’t need this. A few days later he would be sober, so they would let him out and it would start all over again. The last time I saw him he had bruises all over him from falling over.
He was either up or down, no inbetween. Bipolar, I think you would call it, and they filled him with all kinds of drugs which just seemed to make him worse.
He once told me he thought his life was fated to be like that, and I think that was one of his big problems, believing in destiny. He believed in all kinds of crap – astrology and numbers – you name it. I was worried that he would just disappear and become one of those people living in the streets, and that we would never know what happened to him. It was like he couldn’t stay in an ordinary place with ordinary people, he was always going somewhere.
Anyway, last June I got a call from my dad to say he had been found dead by his new girlfriend. Just lying there on the floor. She was in a terrible state when I met her for the first time at his funeral, and I didn’t know what to say to her.
Sorry to bother you all with this, but I needed to say it.
rq – I am somewhat but kind of not really near the area you may or may not be – if you want we can do the emails to better triangulate and see if we’ll be in visiting distance. :)
pHred – I feel you. You can lead them to knowledge, but you can’t make them think. Or prepare.
johnlee – I’m really sorry about your brother. It really hurts when there’s just nothing that can be done to help someone.
Ever have one of those “anything I say or do makes someone mad” days? I’ve been having one of those weeks. It’s really tiring.
carlie
Oh yeah, right here, although it’s been getting a bit better past couple of days (might be I’m starting to pull back up a bit too).
And for sure, I’d love to at least attempt a triangulation in an effort to wrangle a meeting! You have my email? I think I have yours saved up somewhere at home… But yes, very enthusiastically!
johnlee
Wow, I’m so sorry about your brother. If you accept internet *hugs* from strangers, I have some on offer.
And I hope you find the perfect place to hang that painting – I don’t suppose there’s a chance at seeing it, is there?
johnlee, I’m so sorry. I probably don’t even fully, really grasp how heartbreaking that must be, but I’m very sorry – for all of you. As carlie says, it’s so hard when somebody needs help and yet there isn’t anything you can do that would actually help them.
Just on the off chance – anyone here use samtools? My bioinformatics contact is MIA and I am way out of my depth. Just need to extract some sequences to submit to GenBank, but simple commands keep crashing and I completely lack the ability to troubleshoot this, because I have zero computer science background.
johnlee
I’m really sorry about your brother. Alcohol is a shitty killer. I’m right now watching my mother killing herself drinking step by step and the only thing I can do is to get myself to safety.
carlie
Yes, I’ve had one of them with #1, which I blame entirely on her not eating anything during the day.
*sigh* It’s exhausting. Usually, they sit down for lunch at the daycare and she eats her fair share. But during the holidays they often go on all day trips and I pack her breakfast and lunch. Only that she nibbled the carrots, took two bites from her sandwich and bought an ice cream. All day long. While walking some miles. And when her blood-sugar goes down, her mood does, too.
After dinner she was the best kid around, asking why we don’t fall off the planet when we’re on the downside.
pHred—As the old saying goes, “You can lead a student to grammar, spelling, and composition, but you cannot make ’em knock together an acceptable excuse for a presentation.”
*chocolate*?
–
johnlee, will you accept a *hug, or other, non-intrusive gesture of comfort and support* from a complete stranger? If so, it’s yours.
I’m sorry about your brother.
–
carlie @357
C’mon, carlie! Why’d you have to go and say something like that? I am so ticked off now! Sheesh. :p
(Was that too obvious a reply?)
Giliell @361
<blockquote And when her blood-sugar goes down, her mood does, too.
After dinner she was the best kid around, asking why we don’t fall off the planet when we’re on the downside.
My kids get that way, too. Son especially. He takes three bites of food (after loudly arguing that he’s not hungry) and suddenly he’s all cheery.
Dangit. I had quoted too much and when I cut out what was unnecessary, I seem to have taken the greater than sign with it.
Dangit.
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/04/23/3429744/heres-the-history-of-nypd-abuse-that-turned-its-pr-campaign-into-a-twitter-assault/
johnlee, you have my sympathy. Alcoholism is a constant companion in my family and we have experienced its horrors. I wish you well, and hugs, and understanding.
@johnlee:
Thanks for trusting us with something so personal.
I am very sorry for your loss, even if it happened 40 years ago.
Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy made a statement on live TV that he believes he lives in the “sovereign state of Nevada.” He went on to say that he doesn’t recognize the United States government as even existing.
His own states laws and history contradict him … amply:
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/04/the-irony-of-cliven-bundys-unconstitutional-stand/360587/
Cliven Bundy and his supporters are all over the “Constitution” but are apparently reading different constitutions, none of which resemble the actual U.S. Constitution, nor the Nevada constitution.
Oh, crap. I really messed up my bold tags and my link tags. Sorry.
Giliell
Middle Child is the same way – I can tell by how he walks in the door if he has eaten lunch or not. If he hasn’t eaten, he is unable to apply logic and is all Emotion; once he eats, he is once again his beautiful affectionate *blingbling* self.
*spoiler alert*
This may seem frivolous to some but since it says “you may discuss anything”..fuck it…i was just watching Orange Is The New Black and i´m quite happy about a scene in episode 12. In some of the episodes there are some commentaries of a liberal nature that are rather nice to see. There is also a subplot that involves a religious nutbag and the main character. In the 12 episode this leads to a scene where the main character even does a nice little atheistic speech (where even evolution, Neil deGrasse Tyson and Christopher Hitchens are mentioned). In addition to that, it is not kind in how it presents the christian fundies, which is well deserved.
It reminded me of the progress that has been made in the last decade to put atheism in the public eye and how much not just the american culture, but the world is changing as more and more people join the unbelieving camp.
The examples of atheistic views being displayed in the media keep growing and judging by this particular example, they are getting substantially better. Anyone else seen it? What did you think of it?
johnlee
I fifth or sixth the condolences and sympathies everyone else is giving. They word it better than I would, though.
johnlee
*hugs* and sympathies
Rob Grigjanis @175
Thank you for those links. Piketty seems to be seriously getting on the nerves of right-wingers. They can’t stand the fact that he is reasonable, not a radical, and that he’s right.
So, they have to tear him down. One of dunderheads PZ flagged as ruining the NY Times op-ed pages, Ross Douthat, has decided to brand Piketty as a Marxist. James Pethokoukis chimed in with the same charge on the National Review site.
The rightwing hysteria is built around the idea tate free-market capitalism would not result in unfairness, would not result in undue income inequality. Piketty’s book shows that those very results are supported by the data. He shows a hundred different ways. The rightwing solution to this problem is not to read the book, but to demean Piketty anyway.
the flowers are out
and i am starting to bloom
in all the wrong parts
Good night, all.
And since it is already the 24th, a pre-emptive HBd to Dalillama, with a large stack of *hugs&cake&chocolate ballons* on top.
That quote comes from co-host Ainsley Earhardt of Fox News, Fox & Friends, 4/23/14. Media Matters link.
Okay … Only trouble, dear friends at Fox & Friends, is that the report was written by birthers, anti-muslim activists, and Benghazi conspiracy theorist. In addition to having authors of dubious character and little integrity, the organization for which they wrote the report has a terrible reputation: “Accuracy in Media (AIM) Has A History Of Promoting Conspiracy Theories. The Citizens’ Committee on Benghazi is organized and supported by Roger Aronoff’s fringe conservative group Accuracy in Media (AIM). AIM is responsible for promoting many conspiracy theories over the years, and is also well-known for extreme anti-gay views and hate speech.”
So, yeah, we are not done with Benghazi yet. And if this report fails to make enough rightwing waves, other Fox News hosts are following up with reports that call Hillary Clinton old and that suggest Hillary cannot be fixed up enough to make her presentable in 2016. “I don’t know how far back they can pull her face,” [said] Erick Erickson. Erickson is a Fox News contributor.
And … another favorite rightwing hobby horse bites the dust. Actually, Darrell Issa’s IRS “scandal” bit the dust a long time ago. But it is now biting the dust anew. New records show definitively that the IRS targeted more progressive groups than Tea Party groups. Issa just failed to release that information when he was trying to go after the Obama administration for supposedly directing the IRS to target Tea Party groups. Oops.
See the nice chart at this link: http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2014/04/23/3429722/irs-records-tea-party/
Hey, the blue “Progressive” lines are bigger.
Yea!!! Glad to hear that.
Piketty’s book, Capital is being described as the economics book for the next decade.
Which is sort of like saying The Quantum Chemistry book for the next decade.
I haven’t read it yet. It’s 700 pages. But am getting it soon. From what I can tell, his analysis is sound. His solutions aren’t so great though.
azhael – I was conflicted about that scene. I agreed with everything she said, but the character of Piper annoys me so much that it just made me, well, annoyed. There was so much about it that was deserved, but the way she was so haughty about it, the way she is haughty about everything, left a bad taste in my mouth. I know you’re supposed to feel that way about that character, but gaaaa.
(and have you seen the new official trailer for season 2? I CAN’T WAIT)
In your dreams Raven. LOL.
My library has it on order. I thought to be clever putting a HOLD on it before it even came in. Which I did. I’m 30th in line.
This has never happened before. Usually the line is like 1 or 2 HOLDS for a really popular book.
The columnists might be right. This may well be the economics book for the next decade. And I’m going to come up with a plan B.
For those who are wondering what all the excitement is about. (For some values of excitement):
1. Economic inequality has been increasing in the USA for over one half century. A lot.
2. This isn’t a party issue either. It’s happened under both GOP and Democrats.
3. And it is a serious problem. It’s known that highly inequal societies become politically unstable. We are becoming politically unstable. It doesn’t end well, either a vicious oligarchic totalitarian state or a revolution.
Thomas Piketty shows that it is inevitable in a capitalistic society. The rate of return of capital exceeds the rate of economic growth. So slowly, money flows from the bottom up to the holders of capital, the 1%. Which is what is happening now and 50 years ago.
Although it isn’t quite inevitable. Many societies manage to avoid it one way or another but they have actively address the issue.
Re Piketty’s Capital:
You folks have talked it up so well, I just bought it for my Nook. Since it was out of stock at both Amazon and B&N online. I doubt I’ll understand a lot of it, however.
Thanks for the condolences over the student research projects.
I spent the evening next door to a pack of Daisies (the youngest level of Girl Scouts) listening to them paint bottle caps green to make little turtles, and hearing my daughter announce things like “now I have paint on my elbow!” and “I got paint on my smock and my shirt! Again!” while they chattered. I was so cute! I am feeling a bit better now.
OTOH – tomorrow I have to go in and explain to them all the things that were wrong with their posters, sigh. It is going to be unpleasant.
I do love the study of economics, even if it’s “dismal.” I read a pretty remarkable blog called Worthwhile Canadian Initiative that’s written by five Canadian economics profs. I’m looking forward to a review of Piketty’s book there, although I’m going to buy the book anyway. I might buy a second copy for a friend of mine who is DRW (Decidedly Right Wing), just so we can get into some more heated arguments that end in beer and moose-tipping.
Hey everybody! If you do ASL or like Jonathan Coulton, Stephen Torrence is doing a live youtube/Google+/twitter hangout practicing for his next ASL concert right now. He has some fantastic ASL interpretation songs online. His First of May is amazing. (and he’s practicing that one right now). And if you know ASL, he’s asking for tips. :)
Oof. Long day. There was some mix up when my niece’s appointment was made, so that the ultrasound technician was not capable of doing an ultrasound of the quality capable of diagnosing the syndrome all of their offspring have a 50% chance of inheriting. A “fun” ultrasound was offered in apology for the time wasted, so there was confirmation that the fetus has female genitals, but nothing helpful healthwise at all.
I’m not sure who all here remembers or not, but last year my niece had a stillbirth due to this syndrome affecting the fetus and she had to be hospitalized. It was sad for them to lose a wanted pregnancy, but also terrifying because we could have lost her. She can make whatever choices she wants to regarding her body and having more kids, but I just don’t want anything to happen to her.
I think I’m going to go soak in the tub and eat ice cream. Probably not at the same time, though.
I see no reason not to do them at the same time.
Dang, just got a phone call from my sister. Today is my birthday, tomorrow hers. Hadn’t heard from her for years. She’s talking facebook. Any suggestions and/or warnings?
I seem to remember starting an account once, but stopped for some reason (like I had to set up a page).
Wise of you, carlie. Very wise.
Gr*g, lots of Gr*g (still working on my history of Gr*g, but not ready to publish).
Convection.
Heh. Hello everyone. I just noticed there was a G+ login thingie here. I mostly lurk. I used to post sometimes a while back, pseudonymously. Mostly inane blather and talk about food and other consumables. This blog and Charlie Stross’s, and my trickle of a stream on G+ are essentially my only social notworking. To the extent that lurking and self-important fern pix etc. constitute “social”.
Depends on how fast you eat the ice cream. :) And whether you keep it outside the tub when not actively eating it.
Child 2 did his first full shave tonight. He had a big issue with blades re: dexterity and trepidation, so we had to get him an electric razor. Seemed to do the trick. All the facial fuzz is now gone.
carlie
I didn’t do my first full shave until I was in my mid-20s, as prior to that I hadn’t any facial hair. At all. Gillette did send me a razor on my 18th birthday, though (How they knew it was my birthday I’ve never figured out).
rupt
but
OTG
YOUGUISE. FLAPPY2048
Been away for a bit with Much Stuff, behind on much in life, including Pharyngula and its wonderful visitors, but just dashing in quickly to say a quick few notes.
Tony! at #122:
Heartfelt condolences on the loss of your friend and in your grief, with support and buoying embraces if desired. *stands quietly with*
••••
Crudely Wrott at #160:
Cheers and joy! Hoping this finds you delightfully astonished at good things unfolding for the Wrotts!
••••
Hypatia’s Girl at #184:
Whether posting, lurking, rejoining, reacquainting, or reminiscing, welcome! Also, supportive wishes for you that initiatives and efforts in Georgia soon lead to the married marriage you desire! *stands with*
Portia at #188:
Condolences on the ending of a relationship, with support and hugs of empathy and hope if so desired. From your post at #199:
Indeed. *stands quietly with*
••••
Dalillama at #200 and subsequent:
I wish I could help with your calculus woes, but the most advanced math I ever did was trigonometry and some statistics (the latter with much computer assistance) and I was never strong in it. Study and exam challenges aside, I hope this finds you well, and that your Weird West game is turning out to be even more awesome than the 25-pounds-in-a-5-pound-bag I originally estimated when you first mentioned some details some some time back.
Since it may not be until Thursday when (if) you read this, a hearty happiest of happy birthday to you! It sounds like math struggles are weighing heavily, so I can only hope that a simple recognition of temporal addition on Thursday is accompanied by some good feeling, encouragement, well-wishes, well-loved food or drink, and cheers for many more beautifully experienced milestones in years to come.
••••
johnlee at #355:
Thank you for sharing that story and reflections. Condolences and support to you during this time of grief.
••••
The Mellow Monkey at #386:
Good wishes of encouragement and support for you, your family, and niece during this time.
Nerd at #388:
Happiest of happy birthdays to you, and also to your sister. Sadly, I cannot advise in re: Facebook as it is largely an unknown to me. Regardless, happy birthday, and I hope this finds you and The Redhead sharing loveliness.
••••
Many cheerful greetings to rq, carlie, cicely, chigau, Crip Dyke, Ogvorbis, Lynna, Giliell, and all those that I have missed in this all-too-brief-and-insufficient catalog.
Still learning,
Robert
Hello all!
Time to play a bit of catch up.
First though…I thought this was very cool:
You can’t browse the global sounds from the app, unfortunately. You have to visit the website.
Desert Son
The game is going humorously. So far, the party has kidnapped someone to feed them to river zombies in an effort at vigilante justice (he was responsible for the death of one of them), shooting several of the zombies before realizing that there were really quite a lot of them. So they put up a sign that said “No Swimming, extreme hazard from the Walking Dead” and called it a night. The following day they left New Orleans bound for Nuevo Laredo. On the way they set fire to probably a few hundred square miles of scrubland in an effort to get rid of the evil prairie dogs (they failed, and will have to deal with them again when/if they go back east. They don’t know this yet; they think the problem is solved.) After a panicked flight caused by not having let their NPC allies know they were going to do this and giving them a chance to pack up camp before,/i> the prairie fire.
When they arrived in Nuevo Laredo, they learned that people were behaving strangely after dark, including the mayor, doctor, and sheriff. So they proceeded to approach the sheriff, annoy him, shoot him in the leg, tie him up, blindfold and gag him, and then shove him into a rain barrel, where they left him overnight. They then went to the wrong doctor’s place to try to interrogate him (They went to the Chinese doctor, not the American one). While there, the one who was waiting outside saw someone (the mayor’s wife, although they didn’t know that at the time) draped in the same magical darkness as the sheriff, drugging one of the drovers who’d come with them, for some presumably nefarious purpose. So they knocked her down and tied her up, then took her inside while they tried an exorcism. It eventually worked, with the downside that it led to the mayor’s wife coming to tied up in an unknown place surrounded by strangers. When we last left our ‘heroes’, the one who shot the sheriff managed to get himself deputized (because he wasn’t actually seen the previous night), while one of the others has just kicked the sheriff in the leg and fled from kidnapping charges. Their employer will hit town, with the caravan they were meant to be scouting for, in about an hour, game time. He will be unamused. (The caravan also has a bloodthirsty were-jaguar in the attached circus, which they will undoubtedly find out to their dismay at some point, and the fiddler who was providing the entertainment is a perfectly ordinary, garden variety serial killer, with nothing supernatural about him whatsoever; I expect that will throw them for a loop.)
Hypatia’s Girl:
Welcome (back) to the Lounge! Can I offer you a virtual alcoholic beverage?
****
I wonder how thunk and doki (I think that was his nym) are doing…
****
opposablethumbs @228:
Personally, I value the opinions of pretty much all of you (that includes you my friend).
****
from Lynna’s #341:
Hopefully if people choose to bring guns into churches, bars, and government buildings they’re responsible gun owners, rather than the much-more-ubiquitous irresponsible gun owners.
Hmm, now that brings up the question of how responsible it is to even *bring* a gun to a church, bar, or government building….
I know we have Tpyos, but is there a god whom we give offerings of oops-I-failed-to-close-my-tags? (looks up at Dalillama :)
****
johnlee @355:
I’m so sorry for your loss. My condolences.
No apologies necessary for sharing your story with us. We are an understanding and sympathetic bunch. Anytime you feel the need/desire to share your thoughts with someone, this space is always available.
****
azhael @371:
I don’t watch the show, but from what you say, it seems to reflect some of the positive changes in our culture (granted, those changes occur at a glacial pace, but that’s still progress)
****
Dalillama:
I first read that as: I’m going to go soak in a tub of ice cream and I thought to myself, Why not?
Hello, Desert Son!! Nice to see you again! I hope you are well and will continue to be so in the foreseeable future.
Nerd
Facebook wants all your information, which it eats for breakfast lunch and all snacks in between (it has your soul for supper). You can set some privacy settings that allow certain people to see what you post or even see you at all, so there’s that, but it takes some tinkering.
Husband is a Facebook newbie, and had accidentally set all his posts to be visible only to the group of friends associated with his work, and he kept wondering I didn’t see any of his posts. Just have to watch out for little things like that.
I’m not comfortable with how much information FB tries to get out of me regularly, and my profile is still considered incomplete by Them (but hey, it’s got my name and my picture and ‘be nice’ in the religion category, so I’m good!), plus they throw advertising and clickbait around like mad. Good luck with the reconnection!
Go Portia!! See? You’re amazing! I haven’t even gotten 2048. :) Go you!
Apparently I can’t close tags today, either. :P End of April and all.
Portia
Just so you know, that was general Go Portia information. :) My top score is 4 right now.
rq:
That’s not a problem for anyone with more than one pair of shoes.
(bolding mine)
Tony!
I thought the fish was a bit rubbery.
(Sole…?)
All the birthday wishes to Dalillama and belatedly to Nerd. I hope you have (had) cake and presents and the presence of loved ones.
Dumping this here:
Laci Green’s: WHY I’M A…FEMINIST *gasp*.
Go show some support (the MRA/atheist misogynists/antifeminist *skeptics* are already being swamped in comments), also she has a kick-ass atheist channel about sex and relationships!
TW!
Avicenna links to a great post about why dehumanizing perpetrators of violence (i.e., calling them monsters) is a bad thing.
rq
Read that link
It’s seriously heartbreaking (do not read when you need a cheerful message), but one of the best things I’ve ever read on the subject.
+++
Wow, the more I read about Pinker the more of an asshole he becomes…
@379 Carlie
I agree that the main character can be really annoying, but then again as you say, that´s what the character is designed to do. Personally i didn´t find that particular scene of hers to be haughty, i liked that it was the more or less explossive conclusion to having to endure the dangerously insane fundie…that she tried to comply and fake interest so as not to anger the monster but eventually she got fed up and outright stated just how fucking ridiculous the religious ideas are and that even if she wanted to she simply couldn´t believe something that preposterous and silly.
I didn´t agree 100% with every word xD (there is a platitude about the desirability of the comfort provided by religion) but i think it might have been the single best atheistic moment i´ve seen in a non-animation tv-series. Usually it all seems to be going well and you start to think you are actually going to see atheism represented accurately until someone says something that fucks it all up (as so often happens in Family Guy, South Park…)…but this time all i have are minor quibbles :P
The series is by no means perfect, but as well as being enjoyable, it has plenty i really like, not just the atheistic subplot but also possitive exposure to LGBT characters, ridiculization of patriarchal/mysoginistic arseholes…oh, and of course, Natasha Lyonne.
Oh, and i did see the trailer for the second season…it looks like fun xD
I need quick horde-help:
I know that some fonts are better for people with reading problems, like Arial, but I can’t find a source for the life of me.
Anybody?
Hi Giliell!
Not trying to compound the question, but what is the cause of the reading problem? Are we talking cognitive issues etc? Also: are we talking screen or print?
Arial, for instance, was created so that a certain large software company didn’t have to pay royalties to a certain type company – it is a bastardisation of Helvetia and Grotesque (if I remember properly).
Verdana and Georgia, on the other hand, were created to address readability on screen (ironically commissioned by the same software company – atoning for thier typeface sins maybe…)
gobi’s Sockpuppet
Ehm, the question is more: “If you’re preparing a worksheet for students, what fonts should you use so that people with reading issues don’t have a hard time”
I remember that I read that things without serifs are good, like Arial (and Comic Sans, but I can never use that and take myself serious)
Hi again Giliell
The serif or not argument was for screen use as computer monitors didn’t (until recently) have the resolution to render them properly – they became blocky and made the typeface harder to read.
The general guideline was to use serifs fonts for print and san-serif for screen.
Verdana was designed for screen with this in mind – it also has a large ‘x height’ (think of the height of a lower case x) so that the ‘counters’ ( think of the hole in an ‘o’ ) don’t close up at small sizes.
Georgia was designed as a screen readable serif font.
I can’t really give much advice on the print side of things – there are specific easy reader fonts and even fonts designed for those with dyslexia ( though I don’t know how successful they are)
If you want an easy solution for both print and screen with a typeface you probably already have, I would go for Verdana over Arial. Try Georgia if it is more for print than screen.
Comic sans is an easy read typeface … but…. yeah… what you said. :)
Hope this helps!
Hi Giliell,
I haven’t got it to hand or anything, but I think I remember the UK Dyslexia Society having some info on this kind of issue. Worth a quick look online maybe, or see what you think of this:
http://opendyslexic.org/
(it’s a free font, they just ask for attribution).
No idea if this is useful for other types of reading difficulties, though.
::waves from Blighty::
Still catching up after the long weekend.
Commiserations to Tony ,Hypatia’s Girl (and welcome), Johnlee and Portia . Sorry I’m a little late.
Great news Crudely . I’m glad to hear that things a going well.
Happy Birthday to those who qualify. It was my daughter’s birthday yesterday too – she was two. We went to the zoo (ooh rhyming!). She enjoyed herself. However, she has developed a huge dislike for furry animals at close quarters. She’s fine when they’re at a distance. But when they are close and especially when they run past, she freaks out. This was confirmed when we visited friends with cats! We’re trying to think of ways to help her, but if anyone has any suggestions I’d be grateful to hear them
Land-restoration expert cautions: ‘Nature never forgets nor forgives’ http://phys.org/news/2014-04-land-restoration-expert-cautions-nature.html
“Habitable exoplanets are bad news for humanity” http://phys.org/news/2014-04-habitable-exoplanets-bad-news-humanity.html Fermi’s paradox. –is the filter ahead of us?
Blood of world’s oldest woman hints at limits of life http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn25458-blood-of-worlds-oldest-woman-hints-at-limits-of-life.html
Yesterday, my mother became homeless again. Her friends that she was staying with were going into her room and stealing/breaking her stuff. So she got a lock. (she is paying rent and all that.) Well, while she was out during the day, they broke down the door. There was a giant fight about it and they told her to get the fuck out immediately. She found a storage space and moved her stuff into it. She’s coming over today to visit and leave the pets until she finds a place. She has the money now, we were suppose to move into a place together after the school year ends to get away from my Ex. Obviously, plans have changed.
She called in the early afternoon yesterday and was talking about getting a place with her Husbad, she’s seperated from. I told her if she did that we wouldn’t be moving with her. I can’t do that to Little One. No matter how far we moved it wouldn’t be safe. Instead of just being careful about my Fuckface Ex, it’d just be a countdown til her Fuckface Husband loses it again. He’s gone off his meds and on drugs so many times now. I can’t put my daughter in a situation that can easily make us homeless abuse victims tomorrow.
Well, she started crying and said she had to go. It was later that she called and told me about being homeless again. I feel awful about getting loud with her. It’s just so hard because she’s in denial about him.
It was almost midnight when she called again and apologized for missing my b-day. She thought it was today because Little One’s b-day is the 24th. She gets mixed up easily because of her medical issues.
I wish she’d forgotten like everyone else. I hate my b-day. Not because “OMG I’m a woman getting older!” crap society expects, but because it’s just another year wasted in this struggle. I hate it. Reflecting back on everything, the least depressing fact of my life is that I’ve been able to stay in an apartment for 3 years instead of shelters. But it’s been subsidized by the Horde and Roomie. It’s not like I’ve been doing anything. I can barely fucking walk places.
yaaaaaay. another fucking year….
*sigh*
JAL, I am so sorry to hear that.
JAL
*hugs* I’m sorry to hear it.
JAL That must be a horrible situation to be in. *hugs* from me too.
Thank you all.
Wow, reading back on that I made it all about myself. That sounds really bad, but I’m just venting. It’s not like I’m making Roomie or Mom listen to my fuck my b-day rants. It’s only the topic when Mom brings it up and she brings it up because she’s excited about it. She wants to do cupcakes or something when she comes over and do a project with Little One.
Sorry everyone.
JAL
You know you are always welcome to vent here.
Especially if it can help ease tensions in meat-space.
Hi JAL
I’m new here (at least in terms of unlurking) but I wanted you to know that I understand your frustration and pain. My situation is not the same as yours, but the pain is very similar.
For whatever it is worth, you have my support and love, from one human being to another.
JAL
*hugs* and *chocolate*
And a wish for better things soon.
JAL, I’m so sorry. I wish you hugs and chocolate, and if venting here gives you even the least scrap of relief then I’m glad that you should do so.
*Jadehawk’s® Totally Biodegradable Confetti™*
The 200th extant species of caecilian has been discovered! That makes a total of 7,259 extant species of amphibians!
*pouncehug for caecily*
Dean Calahan, Welcome! The grog is someover wheres there (pointing in the general direction of his left, roof, and some of floor inbetween), and peas should be safely disposed of in some other Universe.
Eh? Is there something else to piss, I mean paste, I mean phish, er, write about? Weird…
(Slides gently off the floor whilst reaching to his right for the firkin of grog near the middle foot…)
Urgh. My stomach is either disagreeing violently with something I ate, or my ulcer’s flaring up, or maybe I’ve got some kind of flu again, which means I’m missing class, because I’m in no fit state to ride a bike. For extra fun, it turns out that there was homework due today that I didn’t do yet because it’s usually not due until Tuesday. So now I get to fall even further behind in calc; going to look up the khan academy videos someone recommended later on here, but I’m still missing class, having late homework, and losing more score; this is not going to do any goddamn thing at all for my GPA, glad it’s pretty high as of now.
This was on the radio this morning while I drove in to work:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/is-fetal-tissue-from-b-c-used-to-power-oregon-homes-1.2620375
In brief: Vancouver Coastal Health Authority has a contract to ship all of our biowaste (which includes some human tissue such as amputated parts) to a waste-to-electricity facility in Oregon. Some of the biowaste also includes fetal tissue from miscarriages and abortions. The two commissioners who oversee the facility are Christian pro-lifers, and have put the brakes on.
Beardless heathen! Next you be telling us he does something even stranger like, oh, wearing clothes or something. Or wondering across the lawn…
I tried shaving with a straight razor once. I think I was 18. I was lucky I made it to 19.
Dalillama, Yer not suppose to eat the Calculus textbook, no matter how tempting it seems to chop it up into tiny bits, then sauté them in butter with garlic, MUSHROOMS!, and a dash of port.
You should instead stick it in a noodle- or bacon-slicer and then make Tempura.
Ugh, Dalillama – sorry you’re crook, mate. Hope you feel better soon, and manage to catch up.
The Koch brothers fund Americans for Prosperity. This conservative political advocacy group is spending about $35 million on TV ads the purport to show that Obamacare negatively affects most Americans.
The claims in the ads are false. Here’s a good summary of the lies, along with ample fact-checking.
Democrats have about $40 million to spend on mid-term elections. The National Republican Congressional Committee has about $31 million. This means the Kock brothers’ AFP is as big a player as the two political parties.
The worst factor in all this is that the AFP ads are not just presenting another viewpoint, not just arguing their case. They are deceptive in the extreme. One example. They are presenting an alternate reality to conservative.
How to create offensive and deceptive ads: http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/the-line-even-the-kochs-afp-cant-cross
@430 David
Caeciliaaaan cotillioooons! xDD
Thank you SO MUCH for that link….i´d kiss you in the forehead if i could and you consented to.
I´m going to add this one to my list of zoological songs, next to the Amphioxus song :)
One of my C.pyrrhogaster was staring at the video from his aquarium. I think he aproves of this worthy song for his legless lyssamphibian brethren.
Two hundred species…i wish there were a billiooooon….*happy whistling*
Dear Horde,
I could use some help. I was having a conversation with a good friend on the legalization of same-sex marriage. She is a forceful sort, which I am not, and my cognitive/analytic skills are not what I’d like them to be. She agreed that full legalization of same sex unions is good and proper, but also claimed that all polygamous unions should also be legal. I am instinctively against this because historically such unions have been religiously mandated and that they have reinforced the patriarchy.
What next? Do you think that polygamous marriages will eventually become legal? Should they, or should they not, and why?
Thanks for your help.
*wonders about this*
The world needed more caecilians, and the world provided. Hooray!
Ugh, I’m so terrible lately. Welcome in / Welcome back to the more recent (re)additions to the Lounge. Honestly, I’ll have to do something about this ladybrain of mine.
I don’t have a strong opinion on whether polygamous marriages will become legal, but they certainly present a LOT of objective problems (next of kin decisions, just for one) that gender-neutral, two-person marriages don’t, so it’s really not sensible to equate them. Adam Lee has a longer article about it here, confusingly titled with reference to Polyamory rather than Polygamy.
morgan,
As has plain old heterosexual marriage, so I don’t see that as a good enough reason against legalizing polygamous marriages.
But I also wouldn’t mind turning marriage into a contract between a number of people that makes it possible for them to have some legal rights and obligations in relation to the other(s). Be it a marriage between a poly threesome, two best friends or someone and their second cousin, once removed.
Morgan @440:
Up here in British Columbia, Canada, we’ve had our own problems with polygamous sects. (Google “Bountiful, B.C.” for some background.) Having said that, my thinking is that polygamy or polyandry or polywhatever are probably just fine for what they are. It’s the existing framework of patriarchy that permits the horrifying abuses within.
From my limited understanding of what’s been going on in Bountiful, young women, some as young as 14, are married to much older men who essentially have a harem of wives. Boys who are coming of age in Bountiful are sent into exile from the community, because the few older men who run the town don’t want competition for the young brides-to-be.
So my answer would be that poly-whatever would be fine outside of the framework of patriarchy. How we go about ensuring that is probably worth considering.
Vwls. Hw d thy fckng wrk?
Morgan
I can’t see any ethical case for not allowing more than two people to enter into a marriage arrangement subject to all the usual caveats re: consenting adults ( the problematic instances to which you refer being, of course cases where age/consent are disregarded). As Beatrice notes, though, examples of exactly this type of problem in monogamous heterosexual marriages in places where toxic patriarchy is insufficiently restrained by law.
From a legal perspective, plural marriages are considerably more complex than same-sex marriages between two people. The latter can use the existing legal framework wholesale, removing only references to the sex or gender of the parties involved (which ought to be done anyway, so there’s that). Azkyroth alludes to some of the complications that would arise with more than two people, although I personally suspect that corporate law, particularly the types governing partnerships and co-ops, could be adapted to cover most of it, and the rest would simply have to be specified in individual marriage contracts. I’m in favor, personally.
Of course there would be complications.
Person gets hit by a car, ends up on machines. One husband/wife wants to pull the plug, the other doesn’t. What to do? (I have no idea)
But take the same situation where only two of those people are married. Husband/wife can do whatever they want, legally, other partner doesn’t even have a chance if they can’t agree. Admittedly, it might be better if they can’t turn this into a bloodbath of court battles as the above mentioned couple could, but it sure isn’t simple either way.
Life is complicated. And it sucks.
(wow, I think I got up on the pessimist side of the bed this morning (my bed it next to the wall, so I always get up on the same side of the bed, so…. it ain’t funny if I have to explain it, I guess))
Having now returned from a rather nice — BUUUURRRRRRPP!!1! — dinner, I was reminded that a Very Good way to prepare Calculus textbooks is to mash them, boil in broth (chicken, buffalo, or if you can get it, alligator), mix with chives, cheese, cream, and salsa, and serve. Remove any strings. The glue makes a nice sauce, and the staples add a tangy, extra sharp, zest, perfectly complementing the salsa.
A Californian Zinfindal works quite well, as do various stouts and Trappist Ales. Serve with Garlic Nan bread.
Dear Horde,
I knew you would come through. Thanks everyone who has responded. You’ve helped me tremendously in clarifying my own thinking on poly unions. Especial thanks to Azkyroth for the link to Adam Lee’s article.
My brain is the equivalent of old cold oatmeal today. My various physical maladies often render the brain worse than useless.
I agree that on moral grounds there is no reason to prohibit plural marriages, but on legal grounds it would be a nightmare without a great deal of further legislation. And currently our benighted country seems not at all able to legislate much fairly or sensibly.
I believe the prospect of legal plural marriage will at some point become politically volatile. It will be interesting to see who weighs in on either side of the argument.
Big thanks.
Dean Calahan @392:
Welcome. Feel free to comment or not comment as you see fit. In the past, some lurkers have expressed a desire not to intrude upon conversations in The Lounge, opting instead to simply read and not comment. Of course that’s completely fine, but I’d like to point out that we do have multiple lines of conversation going on at any given time, and that anyone is free to jump right in. It’s not an intrusion in the slightest, as this space is open to all, and I hope-and think-we Lounge denizens are doing a good job of making new commenters feel welcome.
****
Potentially cool new site (with a name that PZ might find appealing):
http://laughingsquid.com/
Some highlights from that site-
BULBING:
A 3D medical cast prototype called ‘Osteoid’
I don’t like guns, but these high speed photos of bullets cutting through drops of water are coooooool.
My favorite! Illustrated silhouettes of superheroes representing their past and present.
The queer shoop haz a sad :(
This lovely screen print of Buffy the Vampire Slayer by artist Craig Drake IS SOLD OUT.
On a related note, for anyone who clicks on the link, I’m having trouble figuring out if Drake’s image of Buffy is sexualized. I know that images of women in our culture are-on the whole-sexually objectifying, but I think I’m more accustomed to the overt examples. How does this image rate? Is it helpful to substitute a man in place of a woman in images to assist in figuring out how sexualized they are?
Tony @451 re Buffy print
I can understand why you might haz a sad. And, as a hetero male, I do think this might be less overt than most examples, but she does seem to be wearing a Little Black Dress to go hunting vampires. And there is something about the way her hips are set. Still, I second your questions. Always willing to learn to look at things I’m missing.
Also, I should have clicked on that link to the superheroes earlier. Those are fantastic! (See what I did there?)
I would say yes, sexualized.
Look at the protrusion of her butt. It’s way disproportional to that of the actual actor playing Buffy (why does her name slip my mind right now? I can remember Alyson Hannigan…).
You’re right that this sexualization is relatively mild compared to what we see in most images of women celebrities, but I think it’s clearly there.
Compare it with the image of Vasquez on the same page, though, and you see that the artist isn’t incapable of doing non-sexualized images.
A more complicated discussion is about Buffy, Vasquez, queer phobia, misogyny, straight men’s fear of powerful women, and how these two characters are portrayed.
Buffy, in fiction land, kicks butt using superpowers and stays sexy. Vasquez, in a movie that gets its power to terrify by being frighteningly possible, is a more realistic character who uses skill and technological weaponry to kick ass, but is entirely desexualized. She’s not hit on by men. She’s not hit on by Sigourney Weaver. She’s not hit on by Bishop. She doesn’t hit on anyone. The director doesn’t have her take any gratuitously sexy poses.
Is it acceptable that physically powerful warriors, when portrayed realistically, cannot be both women and sexy…they can be realistically powerful men warriors and be sexy. They can be unrealistically powerful women warriors and be sexy. But powerful warriors who are women cannot be both realistic and sexy – as if our culture simply isn’t ready to believe that such women even theoretically *could* exist, several hundred years in our future.
And yet. don’t we need women characters that are powerful – in any sense – and non-sexualized? Does this pattern make sexualization of Vasquez in any way desirable on the part of those interested in social justice?
I don’t think so. I think Vasquez merely calls attention to how relentless this phenom is in media, but that we don’t need a bad-ass Vasquez mobbed in a bar by devoted admirers of whom V picks a select, scantily-clad few to take back to a hotel room during leave. I think, in fact, that we need a lot more non-sexualized powerful women to make such a Vasquez even possible.
And yet, the very fact that straight men seem terrified of a sexual Vasquez makes me wonder if there would be a positive purpose served by such a character in a mega-hit movie.
**If** I believed that such a Vasquez would start a necessary discussion about straight men’s fear of such a character and our culture’s general sense that such a character isn’t “believable” or “realistic”, then I think it might actually be worth having one more sexualized role played by a woman.
It bothers me that I don’t have faith our culture is even ready for the discussion.
Crip Dyke:
Sarah Michelle Gellar is the name you’re looking for :)
Also, thank you for your input. That’s a lot of food for thought (one of the many things I love about this place).
ajb47
Actually, I’m fairly certain that’s meant to be a tank top and close fitting jeans. I say this because I distinctly recall the character wearing exactly that on many occasions in the show. I’d swear I’ve seen her in that pose or one much like it on a poster for the show as well although I can’t find it now (of course that means more levels of objectification, not less). That, of course, says nothing about the degree of sexual objectification, which there’s definitely some. The Leia picture is definitely higher on the scale of sexual objectification, I’d say. The Ghost and Vasquez ones are much better, though. (Those are all from promo posters too)
CD
This is one thing I really appreciated about Zoe from Firefly; she is all about kicking ass, taking names, and generally being an all around badass, but she gets to have a romantic life too.
Crip Dyke
I like your comment, a lot, but I wonder at your statement that the Vasquez print isn’t sexualized. Shoulders back, back arched? Am I looking too closely? Am I just not understanding the body position needed to hold that big honking gun in the correct way?
Again, still trying to learn. I have a daughter and a son I’d like to raise to be better than I am/was.
Also, I just learned that new top level domains have been approved and moved into circulation. So, perhaps, this might get a chuckle or two.
ajb47
I can’t speak for CD, I would be inclined that way myself. That’s a big fucking gun, and speaking as someone who’s not that large, you kind of have to stand that way to balance big shit like that (Jenette Goldstein, who plays Vazquez, is 5’2″, and that gun is 4′ plus*, for scaling purposes).
* the IMFD says it was modified from a German M42, which has a listed length of 4 feet.
Ooooh, I’m apparently the gatekeeper! I wonder what special powers I get…
*a member of the Pullet Patrol™ spins the special powers wheel*
Let’s see, a six month supply of bacon sammiches, ditto for grog or swill to down the sammiches, and a free trip to the train/locomotive museum Ogvorbis works at. If you walk there….*wtf?*
Is there a monitor around? Stassipost in the ‘You cant possibly be surprised’ thread is uttering repetitive non sequitors while not attempting to engage with others.
Yeah, I’m on it, Tony!.
http://gawker.com/man-crushed-to-death-by-giant-crucifix-dedicated-to-pop-1567360301
It’s a miracle!!!!
ajb47 — Bookmarked and shared!
Christopher — I’m going to hell for laughing at that.
Green Heron uses a piece of bread to catch fish
For those who may be able to assist on the calculus front, I find myself stymied once again. It appears that for f(x)=3x^2-7, f'(x)=3. This was somehow obtained (apparently), with the equation lim x->a f(x)-f(a)/x-a. I remain unable to work out where I’m supposed to get the extra variable from or what I’m supposed to do with it.
f'(x) = 6x
Where were you getting f'(x) = 3?
That problem has a solution in the back of the textbook, but no explanation of how they arrived at that number.
Dalillama
What textbook is your class using? Author and edition. And I forget, it’s Calc One, correct? Some of this latest problem seems to leak into integrals, which is where I get left behind.
Calculus, Early Trancendentals 2nd edition, by Jon Rogawski.
Dalillama
Can you write the problem as it’s presented in the text?
Compute f'(x) using the limit definition. f(x)=3x-7
There’s other problems I’m supposed to compute the same way, but I should be able to do that if I can work out how.
I don’t know a thing about calculus, but I’m happy there are people who do, and are willing to help you out Dalillama. Go Horde!
****
http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2014/04/company-defends-fangirls-t-shirt-claims-double-standards/
Here is the link to the Tankhead FB page. Their response:
Some of the comments are good (unlike YouTube comments).
Here is Greg Rucka’s response.
I suddenly have the urge to go buy more of Rucka’s books.
More of Greg Rucka’s righteous response:
Rucka and I have been linked in the past, quite closely, though I don’t mean to imply we were friends. Just deeply involved in some of the same things, and interacting thereby. I wish I could say more, but what I can say is that it was a joy.
Portland, I miss you.
PS: Buy Whiteout, the first of his books. He didn’t have the money to do a full color book, so he thought about how to make an asset out of black-and-white printing. It was amazing. Apparently he had a genuine interest in some of the topics that came out, and in the setting, but it was money constraints that led him to choose these particular things to put it all together in one package…and the constraint fired his creativity. It’s an awesome book (though the sequel wasn’t as good, IMHO).
Really. It’s like the constraints of the sonnet form that brought out Shakespeare’s genius: sometimes your limits are your best friends.
Dalillama
Ah, if it’s 3x -7 that makes sense.
The derivative f′(x) can be defined by the limit as a –> x of
(f(a) – f(x))/(a – x)
‘a’ is just a dummy variable. For this problem;
f(a) – f(x) = 3a – 7 – 3x +7 = 3(a – x)
So the (a – x) cancels out, and f′(x) = 3
——————————————————————————-
If f(x) were 3x² – 7, you’d have
f(a) – f(x) = 3a² – 7 – 3x² +7 = 3(a – x)(a + x)
where we made use of (a² – x²) = (a – x)(a + x)
So
(f(a) – f(x))/(a-x) = 3(a + x)
The limit as a–>x is just 6x.
Bryan Singer has been accused of sexual assault:
Work your way through this page (especially problem 2) and you’ll get the hang of it pretty quickly:
https://www.math.ucdavis.edu/~kouba/CalcOneDIRECTORY/defderdirectory/DefDer.html
Basically you just have to do a bunch of algebra to get rid of the delta-x and avoid getting 0/0.
[Strolls into the Lounge]
O.O
CALCULUS!!!!
[Runs away screaming]
Dalilama: I think the basic problem you’re having is that the way calculus, differentiation in particular, is taught in MATH ### classes is orthogonal to the way humans and other non-mathematicians think, and in particular to the way everyone who actually uses calculus to do work that isn’t academic mathematics understands it. The way it’s taught involves deltas and epsilons and makes no gopherdammed* sense whatsoever. The way I actually learned to do it was the conjunction of two things: an intuitive explanation of what a derivative actually is, and memorizing rules for how to apply them. I wrote this out for you, and I hope it isn’t talking down to you. There’s actually a straightforward solution to this particular problem at the end, but the rest might be helpful for context.
First, the expression you have would be better written as “lim[x->a] (f(x)-f(a))/(x-a)”. Think of f(x) and f(a) as Y values on an X-Y graph of an equation. A derivative is the amount at which Y changes in response to a change in X. For example, for the equation “Y=3”, Y is “3” everywhere on the line; it doesn’t change, no matter what the value of x is, so the derivative of Y with respect to X (written as “dy/dx” in the future) is 0. For a linear equation, like Y=3x+7, every increase of 1 in X causes Y to increase by 3, so the derivative of Y with respect to X is 3, everywhere on the graph.
You’ll probably notice that in this case the derivative of the expression 3x=7 is the same as the “slope” of the graph. In fact, you can take any two points on the graph, and measure the change in Y, and the change in X, between them, and have the slope. However, you can’t really take the “slope” of a curved graph, like your example of 3x^2 – 7, in the same way. In fact, “derivatives” in most cases, including I believe the original ones, are an extension of the concept of “slope” to graphs that aren’t straight. You can’t find the slope of the graph of an actual curve because it’s not the same at every point in the graph, the way it is with a straight line graph like “Y=3” or “Y=3x+7”; the change in Y between 1 and 2 for “Y=3x^2 – 7” is 9 (from -4 to 5), but from 2 to 3 it’s 15 (from 5 to 20). In fact, the slope is different at every x point than at every other x point (at least on one side of the vertex).
This should suggest that while we can’t take the slope as “a number” like with the linear example, or as 0 like with the other examples, maybe we can find an expression for the rate of change of Y with respect to X at any given point, that depends on the value of x at that point. One thing we could do is break the x axis up into segments and take the slope of a line drawn between the Y values of the endpoints of each segment and report it separately, this wouldn’t be perfect, but it’d be closer than taking the slope of a line between two distant points on the graph. In fact, the smaller the segments are, the better our approximation will be. But we can’t make that approximation perfect, because a perfect approximation would require segments of zero width, which makes us divide by 0.
Now let’s look at the expression they gave you. Ignore the “limit” part for a moment; the expression “(f(x) – f(a))/(x-a)” may seem opaque at first, but it’s formulated almost like an average. “f(x)” means “the output of the function f for a given input, x” and is equivalent to “Y” in the “Y=3x^2 – 7” form. To put it another way, “x” in “f(x)” means “the x coordinate of the point along the x axis you’re looking at right now” and thus “f(a)” is not another variable, but rather “a different point along the x axis than the one you’re looking at right now.” Thus, f(x) – f(a)/(x-a) is just the slope of a straight line connecting the x point you’re looking at right now, and Some Other X Point. It’s an approximation to the slope of the graph at that point, but it’s probably a bad approximation, unless we make the distance between “x [of the moment]” and “a” very small. That’s where the “limit” comes in: as we pick “x” values of the moment that are closer and closer to “a”, the slope of the line between the Y values at x and a gets closer and closer to the true slope of the graph. Of course, if x = a, we get division by zero again. This is why the “limit” process is important: it allows us to have “x-a” become smaller and smaller, until it becomes infinitesimal – smaller than literally any other number you can compare it to, but not actually 0, thus giving us essentially the benefits of a zero-width segment without the “undefined” costs. This is something I’m used to seeing expressed as “lim[h->0] (f[x+h]-f[x])/(h), where h is equivalent to x-a in the form you were given; this is usually given as the formal definition of a “derivative” where deltas and epsilons aren’t involved.
Now, how we apply it here: for this problem, f(THING) = 3(THING)^2 – 7. The expression lim[x->a] (f(x) – f(a))/(x-a) is best interpreted as the derivative of f with respect to the variable x at point x=a, which I’ll write as “f'(a)” for the next few lines.
So, f(x) = 3x^2 – 7, f(a) = 3a^2 – 7, and (f(x)-f(a))/(x-a) = ((3x^2 – 7) – (3a^2 – 7))/(x-a).
Of course, since we have a “-7” in each of those inner parentheses, we can cancel them both, leaving us with f'(a) = (3x^2 – 3a^2)/(x-a). (As a side note, f'(x) is one of several ways of writing “the derivative of f with respect to x”).
We can then factor the 3 out, giving us f'(a) = 3(x^2-a^2)/(x-a).
Now, from precalc we should remember that a^2 – b^2 can be factored as (a – b)(a + b), which means that (x^2 – a^2) divided by (x-a) = (x + a). So f'(a) = 3(x+a).
Now the limit part: as “x” gets closer and closer to “a”, 3(x+a) gets closer and closer to 3(a + a), or 6a. In other words, the derivative of f with respect to variable x at point x=a is 6*a, and since a is merely an arbitrary value of x (point on the x axis), this means it’s true everywhere. In the general case, f'(x) = 6x.
…however, after about four or five weeks from now, you will probably have memorized the rule that the derivative of a polynomial term: that is, a term in an expression which has the form of ax^b, where a and b are constants (not necessarily integers) and x is a variable, is equal to (b*a)x^(b-1) – you multiply the constant coefficient of x by the exponent of x and knock the exponent down one. Hopefully that’s a little encouraging.
*the gophers think they’re beavers. THE WORLD HAS GONE MAD D:
…unless that metaphor somehow has racist implications. >.>
Azkyroth @481:
Makes a hell of a lot more sense when a blackboard is handy, i.e. with pictures.
No, it didn’t.
Rob Grigjanis #482
I have not found this to be the case to date.
Azkyroth #481
Thank you for that, it makes sense to me, but it still leaves me wondering what the entire fuck is up with my calculus textbook, and where they got the answer ‘3’ from. Because this is not the first time this has happened, I’ve tried to work things out, gotten a totally different answer from what the book says, and when I check it with someone else, they agree with me, not the book.
Your book sucks. I hate it when that happens. :(
(Actually: “3” would be the answer if it were “3x – 7” instead of “3x^2 – 7.” It probably was in a previous edition, and they were lazy with updating it).
Azkyroth
You just made me realize that I had really good math teachers all along the way. Because you explain it just like they did (mostly she, actually, in high school).
Which means I understand this part of calc again!
Good luck, Dalillama!
And yeah, I’ll agree that all those epsilons and deltas didn’t make much sense on the blackboard – unless the prof (in uni now) was drawing graphs of slices of sphere, it was all a bit murky until explained differently.
O.o
…how the hell did that happen? *shifty*
Ah, the perils of social interaction! For a light morning read.
Also, I had a really good laugh at this. The giggling kind.
Azkyroth
haha, I think you just explain really well. *thumbs up*
+++
So apparently eating yeast before you drink (beer) will make you less drunk. Any comments? Worth an experiment?
Sounds like a frustrated woman with a squeamish boyfriend pulling a fast one?
I think that the vomiting would solve the whole metabolizing alcohol thing.
Also, I’m having a really hard time envisioning a mechanism by which yeast would A) survive in your stomach and B) reduce the metabolizable alcohol in what you drank.
chigau
How much yeast are you eating??
Fiji Bitter!
Not quite how I remember it from 1980something but quite nice.
rq
I am quite sure that a teaspoon of yeast would cause … a reaction.
chigau
Ah, but it’s a teaspoon per drink. I’m sure the teaspoons cancel each other out eventually. *shrug* Hey, Guy On Internet says it works for him in an unsubstantiated anecdote – sounds like science to me!
*remembers eating too much yeasty dough in childhood*
I’ll be over there for a while.
rq
Then there is the whole thing about:
Why am I drinking alcohol if not for the buzz?
—
yeasty dough
damn…
I still do that…
rq @490
That really wasn’t funny. Breastfeeding is nothing more than reducing yourself to a mobile milk machine — degrading, undignified, and disgusting.
As a parent, one should know their baby’s schedule, plan ahead, and bring a bottle.