[Gerardo]

barmar, on 2022-December-15, 18:24, said:

Unfortunately, not very much.

To draw any significant conclusions from something like this, you need more than one sample to detect a meaningful pattern. Maybe if all Nobel Prize winners, or lots of successful physicists, left their brains to science we could look for something many of them have in common that distinguishes them from the general population. Genetic comparisons might also be useful, although there are so many genes that affect intelligence that I suspect it would be hard to find common factors there.

When thinking about psychopaths and sociopaths, I'm inclined to remember the movie "A Clockwork Orange" (spoilers ahead for this 50-year-old classic). A scientist "cured" Alex, but the process went overboard and turned him into a total wimp who couldn't even defend himself when attacked by his former cohorts. After he wakes from this, he finds that he has reverted to his original self. There doesn't seem to be an in-between, he can't just be "normal". So the question about whether something is an illness is not whether there is a treatment, but whether we can contemplate one; e.g. we don't have a cure for the common cold, but it's not something out of the realm of possibility, and we do have drugs that mitigate the symptoms.

The book has 21 chapters.

The movie is based on the first 20.

[kenberg]

thepossum, on 2022-December-16, 19:08, said:

I always follow discussions of psychopathy with some interest and skepticism
I think there is a lot of misinformation about it but I reckon many of us would know one if we met one
I used to be concerned that I could be one but since I totally lack superficial (any) charm I am relieved to say I am not. Ooops and I'm not cold and callous either. But you can get me on much of the other stuff and some online personality tests have advised me to talk to a professional if at all concerned by the results

But more seriously I have some (not much) semi-professional knowledge on the subject and always get irritated at most discussion on the matter. Apparently approximately 1% of the world (or small subset thereof) are Hare psychopaths. That seems a lot to me

To me its like on any set of dimensions pick the 1% worst on everything kind of method - not people you want to mix with much anyway - just some set of dimensions and draw a line around 1% of them

Just reacquainting myself with some of the criteria. You have to have been caught and get into trouble for something. A bit biased

I think there are many reasons it is not listed as a disorder. So I feel somewhat safe discussing the matter as above. Remember to separate the psychopathy from the person

I certainly agree about the skepticism. And I can understand, perhaps agree, that it is not a mental illness. I was simply quarreling with the idea that an incurable condition cannot be called an illness because it isn't curable. We have moved past that so I won't continue. People are born with traits or at least a strong propensity for traits. How you are brought up has at least some effect, maybe a strong effect. It's hard to work out just what to make of all of this. One of my favorite examples, I have mentioned it before, was a test we all took as high school seniors that was designed to help us choose a suitable career. This was a personality test, not an ability test. For me they suggested aviation or farming, those choices were rated a or maybe A+. Mathematics was rated C or C-.Of course maybe it was right but I ignored it. During my first ten or twelve years I didn't know any adult who had even finished high school, let alone gone to college. Conversation was about sports, fishing, hunting, etc. The preference test I took asked questions about classical music.

I don't think of myself as being at all psychopathic but I have my own forms of weirdness. We all do.

[thepossum]

I learned to love my own psychopathy Ken - certain traits anyway

[Winstonm]

Jan. 6 report committee meeting today for final decisions on criminal referrals.

[pilowsky]

A recent Fiona Hill conversation.

[Winstonm]

What a shock: virtually the entirety of the GOP, including current members of Congress, conspired to defraud a legitimate democratic election because they didn’t like the results.

There is actually a criminal statute that may apply: ConFraudUS

[Winstonm]

Quote

Russian Lawmaker Who Slammed Putin’s War Dies in Window Fall

They really need some safer windows.

[pilowsky]

There's a new Republican competing for attention - he's jew(ish), has been to college and served coffee to someone who might have worked for a bank.
There's a vague truthiness to his claims.

[thepossum]

Winstonm, on 2022-December-27, 16:32, said:

They really need some safer windows.

Or be careful where you stand in a room. There are reasons my favourite place was back to the wall or back to a corner so I could see who was coming

[johnu]

Winstonm, on 2022-December-27, 16:32, said:

They really need some safer windows.

Somebody needs to confirm that Putin himself has questioned the invasion effort. I am prepared to LOL at the cause of Poopin Putin's cause of death. Hopefully it won't be one of the recycled reasons that they have been reported for the last few deaths. Maybe Putin can hire a Fox Propaganda Channel comedy writer as one of his last acts so that he will have a memorable cause of death.

[pilowsky]

Well, when the time does come it might look something like this.

[Winstonm]

DEFENESTRATION, out you go
DEFENESTRATION, don’t flap slow
DEFENESTRATION, elevator’s out so
fly and don’t give Vlad a chance to boast.

[Winstonm]

johnu, on 2022-December-29, 04:07, said:

Somebody needs to confirm that Putin himself has questioned the invasion effort. I am prepared to LOL at the cause of Poopin Putin's cause of death. Hopefully it won't be one of the recycled reasons that they have been reported for the last few deaths. Maybe Putin can hire a Fox Propaganda Channel comedy writer as one of his last acts so that he will have a memorable cause of death.

The Atlantic terms it Sudden Russian Death Syndrome and advises against standing close to open windows.

[PassedOut]

It's starting to look like Donald Trump might be the only candidate for Speaker of the US House of Representatives agreeable to all the republican representatives. He will need a special gavel.

[pilowsky]

Whenever the US political system appears to have descended into utter chaos and hopelessness, a new level of anarchy and disorder is revealed.

[Winstonm]

PassedOut, on 2023-January-03, 15:16, said:

It's starting to look like Donald Trump might be the only candidate for Speaker of the US House of Representatives agreeable to all the republican representatives. He will need a special gavel.

Legally this is a real possibility-Trump, though, would only lease his name to the project for certain..ahem… considerations.

[pilowsky]

Winstonm, on 2023-January-03, 18:41, said:

Legally this is a real possibility-Trump, though, would only lease his name to the project for certain..ahem… considerations.

Well, if it's legal, will Trump be interested?

[Winstonm]

pilowsky, on 2023-January-03, 21:27, said:

Well, if it's legal, will Trump be interested?

I doubt it. It requires actual work.

[barmar]

Winstonm, on 2023-January-04, 07:57, said:

I doubt it. It requires actual work.

They used to say that about the Presidency. I'm sure he could figure out a way to fit it into his golf schedule.

[kenberg]

It's embarrassing. In addition to everything else that can be said, it's embarrassing. I have been critical of Democrats but at least they could elect a Speaker. PBS had a Republican on the Newshour explaining that negotiation is a good thing, and the expression of opposing views is a good thing. Well, yeah. But the election was in November. Did the Republicans just realize yesterday that they have to elect a Speaker? Maybe they could have prepared? Discussed? Negotiated? Sometime before yesterday?
This goes way beyond what I think of Republican positions or Democratic positions. The House is now led, if "led" is even remotely the word, by a bunch of incompetent jerks. Nothing good will come of this. Nothing good for anyone.
We desperately need 218 people in the House who think the future of the country is important. No luck so far.