[Cyberyeti]

 gwnn, on 2015-July-14, 07:54, said:

Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana.

The old WW2 headline "Monty flies back to front".

[ggwhiz]

Anyone been to Ba Habba Maine?

Went to a tournament in Al bany (and pronounced it that way) and was taken to task so said I guess it's All abama then.

[Al_U_Card]

 gwnn, on 2015-July-14, 07:54, said:

Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana.

Time flies you cannot their flight is too erratic

Make grammatically correct

[cherdano]

I can't stand accusations of hypocrisy any more. Yes, human beings aren't 1000% consistent about taking the actions suggested by their beliefs. That does not prove them wrong.

Yes, some people believe society should attack climate change, and yet get on airplanes. That does not prove that global warming does not exist. Some want society to strengthen the traditional family structure and be less tolerant of other forms of couples/families, yet fail to live up to that standard in their own lives. Well, I hope we have better arguments in favour of tolerance than that. Yes, some are in favour of a smaller government yet get their pay check from government. Yes, some are in favour of higher taxes but use all legally available tax deductions in their annual tax filing. Yes, you can be in favour of campaign spending reform yet still accept all money you can get until such reform has passed. Yup, some care more about terrorist attacks at a place they have visited many times and where they have friends than one in a country they have never been to. Yup, some are in favour of abolishing charter schools yet that's where they send their kids as long as they exist.

Not only does such an inconsistency fail to prove them wrong - some of them aren't even inconsistencies. It can be completely logical and consistent to believe "society would be better off to set incentives for everyone to do X" and yet not do X yourself as long as such incentives aren't in place.

/rant

[barmar]

My pet peeve is the TV promos that say things like "the last episode before the fall finale". In other words, it's the 2nd to last episode in the fall -- nothing special about that.

[Al_U_Card]

 cherdano, on 2015-November-16, 06:17, said:

I can't stand accusations of hypocrisy any more. Yes, human beings aren't 1000% consistent about taking the actions suggested by their beliefs. That does not prove them wrong.

Yes, some people believe society should attack climate change, and yet get on airplanes. That does not prove that global warming does not exist. Some want society to strengthen the traditional family structure and be less tolerant of other forms of couples/families, yet fail to live up to that standard in their own lives. Well, I hope we have better arguments in favour of tolerance than that. Yes, some are in favour of a smaller government yet get their pay check from government. Yes, some are in favour of higher taxes but use all legally available tax deductions in their annual tax filing. Yes, you can be in favour of campaign spending reform yet still accept all money you can get until such reform has passed. Yup, some care more about terrorist attacks at a place they have visited many times and where they have friends than one in a country they have never been to. Yup, some are in favour of abolishing charter schools yet that's where they send their kids as long as they exist.

Not only does such an inconsistency fail to prove them wrong - some of them aren't even inconsistencies. It can be completely logical and consistent to believe "society would be better off to set incentives for everyone to do X" and yet not do X yourself as long as such incentives aren't in place.

/rant

3 point plan:
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Live and let live.
Learn to let go (of that which is unimportant in the grander scheme).
Simple yet effective.

[Zelandakh]

 barmar, on 2015-November-16, 10:44, said:

My pet peeve is the TV promos that say things like "the last episode before the fall finale". In other words, it's the 2nd to last episode in the fall -- nothing special about that.

You obviously haven't been paying attention to the latest trend in series as highlighted by GoT. The penultimate episode is fast becoming the climactic one with the final episode just rounding off storylines and acting as a teaser for the next series. Of course, when that itself becomes too predictable it gets changed up too, as per the last series.

[barmar]

 Zelandakh, on 2015-November-18, 10:16, said:

You obviously haven't been paying attention to the latest trend in series as highlighted by GoT. The penultimate episode is fast becoming the climactic one with the final episode just rounding off storylines and acting as a teaser for the next series. Of course, when that itself becomes too predictable it gets changed up too, as per the last series.

But it's not just the penultimate. Sometimes it's "only 3 episodes before the season finale". The peave is about all these different ways of counting everything except the finale, making it seem like we're closer than we actually are.

[Zelandakh]

 barmar, on 2015-November-19, 14:08, said:

But it's not just the penultimate. Sometimes it's "only 3 episodes before the season finale". The peave is about all these different ways of counting everything except the finale, making it seem like we're closer than we actually are.

Fair enough, I don't watch American TV channels very often so have not seen that myself. It could be worse though - some shows run a 2-part finale, in which case 3 shows before the finale would be 5 episodes to go!

[y66]

Statements like these in stories like this one We're Thinking About ADHD All Wrong, Says A Top Pediatrician:

Quote

Attentional capacity, Christakis says, is chief among a cluster of non-academic skills that education researchers have recently become very excited about: executive functioning, self-regulation, grit. Basically, these involve the ability to delay gratification, manage your time and attention and stay on a path toward a goal.

Quote

Diagnoses of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder are up around 30 percent compared with 20 years ago. These days, if a 2-year-old won't sit still for circle time in preschool, she's liable to be referred for evaluation, which can put her on track for early intervention and potentially a lifetime of medication.

Parents, schools and doctors, he says, should completely rethink this highly medicalized framework for attention difficulties.

The notion that education researchers, in 2016, are just now becoming "very excited" about things like executive functioning is peeving. Ditto for the use of the word rethink in that last sentence which suggests that thinking has anything to do with the current highly medicalized framework.

[kenberg]

 y66, on 2016-January-10, 08:49, said:

Statements like these in stories like this one We're Thinking About ADHD All Wrong, Says A Top Pediatrician:



The notion that education researchers, in 2016, are just now becoming "very excited" about things like executive functioning is peeving. Ditto for the use of the word rethink in that last sentence which suggests that thinking has anything to do with the current highly medicalized framework.

I like much of what is said in that article. A particular point:

Quote

"If you fall on this side of the line, we label and medicate you," says Christakis. "But on the other side of the line, we do nothing."

People get medicated, and they get classified.

Later:

Quote

Christakis says that, instead, we should be thinking more about a spectrum of "attentional capacity" that varies from individual to individual and situation to situation.

Yes, and this applies to many sorts of difficulties.


Often a young person needs some specific help. Extreme cases may well require extreme measures. But often, some supportive guidance and some strategies for dealing with issues can, I think, keep the child from being labeled and medicated. Most of us are, in one way or another, a bit weird. Some more than others, granted. It's OK. We can learn to cope and maybe even channel that weirdness productively. And yes, sometimes it requires medication. When really needed, give it.

[barmar]

 y66, on 2016-January-10, 08:49, said:

The notion that education researchers, in 2016, are just now becoming "very excited" about things like executive functioning is peeving.

I think this reflects the fact that scientists and educators now treat this as a distinct intellectual activity. As they've come to understand more about how the brain functions, scientists have broken it down into more finely-grained abilities.

[gwnn]

 gwnn, on 2013-August-18, 08:46, said:

I think it makes more sense as an xor relationship, personally (and not an iff)

The place I recently moved in actually has an AND connection between the two light switches in the hallway, which is much stupider than I could ever imagine. Except it's not even an AND because the first one must be up and the second one down. I learned today that this is a "material nonimplication" (or converse nonimplication) which must be the stupidest and least useful truth function, with or without light switches.

[Vampyr]

 gwnn, on 2016-January-25, 04:21, said:

The place I recently moved in actually has an AND connection between the two light switches in the hallway, which is much stupider than I could ever imagine. Except it's not even an AND because the first one must be up and the second one down. I learned today that this is a "material nonimplication" (or converse nonimplication) which must be the stupidest and least useful truth function, with or without light switches.

I have 4 or 5 lights in my house that have two switches. In 8 years I still have not noticed whether the switches are up, down, the same, different. (This is not really relevant to your post but to an earlier one where the poster mentioned that not only did he notice it, but it bothered him.)

You definitely need an electrician to sort out your situation,

[kenberg]

We moved ten years or so ago and had a house inspector look over the house we would be buying. These guys seem to concentrate on trivia and overlook substance. He was very critical of the light witches in our bedroom. The switch by the door turns the overhead light on and off, as does a switch beside the bed. This seemed fine by me. He explained that with the wiring done this way I might turn the switch on at the door and turn it off by the bed, with the result that the light would be off but the switch at the door would be up. Yes? And so? This was wrong, very wrong, he assured me. I paid him his fee anyway.

For some safety deposit boxes (I don't have one but so they tell me), opening them requires a key from the holder and a key form the bank. I can see the purpose. But my bedroom light?

As for the "this but not that" logic, I guess conditional convergence of a series is an example. The series must converge and must not converge absolutely. It converges on the condition that you don't do anything to it, as my long ago calc prof explained it. This is probably what the electrician was thinking of when he wired it up.

[Vampyr]

 kenberg, on 2016-January-25, 07:19, said:

We moved ten years or so ago and had a house inspector look over the house we would be buying. These guys seem to concentrate on trivia and overlook substance. He was very critical of the light witches in our bedroom. The switch by the door turns the overhead light on and off, as does a switch beside the bed. This seemed fine by me. He explained that with the wiring done this way I might turn the switch on at the door and turn it off by the bed, with the result that the light would be off but the switch at the door would be up. Yes? And so? This was wrong, very wrong, he assured me. I paid him his fee anyway.

The most bizarre thing about this guy's thinking is that if you subsequently turned on the light by the bed then the switch by the door would still be up. Apparently the guy felt that you should only use the switch by the door.

[barmar]

 Vampyr, on 2016-January-25, 08:34, said:

The most bizarre thing about this guy's thinking is that if you subsequently turned on the light by the bed then the switch by the door would still be up. Apparently the guy felt that you should only use the switch by the door.

The solution is a push-button toggle, rather than up-down switches. That's what we had in one house: our basement had these switches at the stairway entrance and by the door to the garage at the other end.

[gwnn]

 kenberg, on 2016-January-25, 07:19, said:

As for the "this but not that" logic, I guess conditional convergence of a series is an example. The series must converge and must not converge absolutely. It converges on the condition that you don't do anything to it, as my long ago calc prof explained it. This is probably what the electrician was thinking of when he wired it up.

Well that's a good point. Conditionally convergent series are my favourite thing in maths (well, the Riemann series theorem) and it's true you would need to use an "p but not q" for a compact definition. I still hate this truth function though which I guess says a lot about how much psychological harm these two switches have inflicted on me.

[gwnn]

For the record, I try to keep one of the switches constantly "on" and use the other one. Still it doesn't always work out.

[barmar]

My bathroom has two switches, one for the lights and one for the fan. When I first moved in here, they were opposite each other: the light switch went to the right to turn on, the fan switch went to the left (or vice versa, I don't really remember). I put up with it for about a decade, then I finally got fed up, opened it up, and reversed the polarity of one of them.