thereticent's recent activity

  1. Comment on Website is unhappy in ~tildes

    thereticent
    Link Parent
    It was! I even ended up reading 7 year old drama posts on the tildes sub!

    It was! I even ended up reading 7 year old drama posts on the tildes sub!

    7 votes
  2. Comment on What are your personal crackpot conspiracy theories about the world right now? in ~talk

    thereticent
    Link Parent
    I'm assuming they meant surgeon vs general physician, but I don't know the methodology. PhDs are doctors, too, but they certainly didn't mean that.

    I'm assuming they meant surgeon vs general physician, but I don't know the methodology. PhDs are doctors, too, but they certainly didn't mean that.

    4 votes
  3. Comment on What are your personal crackpot conspiracy theories about the world right now? in ~talk

  4. Comment on What are your personal crackpot conspiracy theories about the world right now? in ~talk

    thereticent
    Link Parent
    Oh, not even close to crackpot. Kevin Dutton has a book from 2012 called The Wisdom of Psychopaths: What Saints, Spies, and Serial Killers Can Teach Us About Success which names the professions...

    Oh, not even close to crackpot. Kevin Dutton has a book from 2012 called The Wisdom of Psychopaths: What Saints, Spies, and Serial Killers Can Teach Us About Success which names the professions with the most and least psychopaths (close enough to sociopath for our purposes here). His answers from combing through the evidence?

    MOST (in order, I think):

    • CEO
    • Lawyer
    • Media (TV/Radio)
    • Salesperson
    • Surgeon
    • Journalist
    • Police Officer
    • Clergyperson
    • Chef
    • Civil Servant

    LEAST (also in order, I think):

    • Care Aide
    • Nurse
    • Therapist
    • Craftsperson
    • Beautician/Stylist
    • Charity Worker
    • Teacher
    • Creative Artist
    • Doctor
    • Accountant

    Some surprises in there! But not many. Power and needed to work with others' feelings seem to be the driving factors.

    7 votes
  5. Comment on What are your personal crackpot conspiracy theories about the world right now? in ~talk

    thereticent
    Link Parent
    My SSN starts one digit off from my area code at the time, and the next 4 digits were the same as the last 4 of my phone number around high school. Always weird--very easy to remember.

    My SSN starts one digit off from my area code at the time, and the next 4 digits were the same as the last 4 of my phone number around high school. Always weird--very easy to remember.

  6. Comment on What are your personal crackpot conspiracy theories about the world right now? in ~talk

    thereticent
    Link Parent
    I don't know about aesthetically, but I did notice that each triple shares the same last digit. For me, when I read them aloud to keep in auditory working memory, that builds on a natural tendency...

    I don't know about aesthetically, but I did notice that each triple shares the same last digit. For me, when I read them aloud to keep in auditory working memory, that builds on a natural tendency to better remember things that rhyme. Not sure about others.

  7. Comment on When did your preferred fighting game franchises peak? in ~games

    thereticent
    Link Parent
    100% on Soul Calibur. We still have a Dreamcast just for that and Toy Commander.

    100% on Soul Calibur. We still have a Dreamcast just for that and Toy Commander.

    2 votes
  8. Comment on Mel Gibson unveils ‘Resurrection of the Christ’ first look, delays release dates for two-part biblical epic in ~movies

    thereticent
    Link Parent
    There are multiple accounts across the various gospels and Acts, but the Homecoming was never necessarily immediate. Acts says 40 days before the Ascension, and there is the Great Commission in...

    There are multiple accounts across the various gospels and Acts, but the Homecoming was never necessarily immediate. Acts says 40 days before the Ascension, and there is the Great Commission in there somewhere.

    2 votes
  9. Comment on The Gen Alpha melody in ~music

    thereticent
    Link
    So Gaga's Bad Romance is Gen Alpha's now? E: Ah. I watched longer (should have done before popping off)

    So Gaga's Bad Romance is Gen Alpha's now?

    E: Ah. I watched longer (should have done before popping off)

    2 votes
  10. Comment on Grief and guilt in ~life.pets

    thereticent
    Link
    I don't think you're seeking pity. I think you don't want to be alone while you're grieving. I hesitate to speak for all Tildepolitans, but we're honored to be here with you. I'm so sorry that...

    I don't think you're seeking pity. I think you don't want to be alone while you're grieving. I hesitate to speak for all Tildepolitans, but we're honored to be here with you. I'm so sorry that happened to you, all of it. Life is rough.

    So much else that needs to be said has already been said here, so I'll leave it there.

    3 votes
  11. Comment on MP3 player recommendations in ~tech

  12. Comment on What was the best job you ever had? in ~life

    thereticent
    Link
    For two summers I delivered pizza at a late night joint in the local bar district, surrounded by recent college grad yuppies/washouts. I had a base pay of almost minimum wage + tip + delivery fee....

    For two summers I delivered pizza at a late night joint in the local bar district, surrounded by recent college grad yuppies/washouts. I had a base pay of almost minimum wage + tip + delivery fee. Free pizzas when made wrongly. Free fountain drinks all the time. I made $300-500 per weekend in tips alone, was fully jazzed on diet coke, and worked my way through the discographies of the Beatles, Pink Floyd, and a couple other bands. I found out that drunk people at 5:00 AM love to over-tip. It was an excellent experience.

  13. Comment on What was the best job you ever had? in ~life

    thereticent
    Link
    There are great things about my current job (assoc prof a an academic medical center), but it doesn't come close to my pizza delivery experience around 2004-2005. We were in the college-plus bar...

    There are great things about my current job (assoc prof a an academic medical center), but it doesn't come close to my pizza delivery experience around 2004-2005.

    We were in the college-plus bar district, open for new orders until 3:00a, and had base pay of $6/hr plus 100% tips and delivery fees. Drunk people tip a LOT late at night. Throw in the odd free pizza made wrong and the free fountain drinks, and it's heaven. I spent the summers memorizing so many discographies.

    2 votes
  14. Comment on What is your favorite dinosaur? in ~talk

    thereticent
    Link
    Troodon and ankylosaurus for me.

    Troodon and ankylosaurus for me.

    5 votes
  15. Comment on Am I German or autistic? in ~health.mental

    thereticent
    Link
    Fun! I was "neither," which the quiz said was rare based on those who complete it. But I took it "as" my son, guessing his answers and got "both," with Ludwig Wittgenstein as the example. My son...

    Fun! I was "neither," which the quiz said was rare based on those who complete it.

    But I took it "as" my son, guessing his answers and got "both," with Ludwig Wittgenstein as the example.

    My son then took it at got "autistic but not German," meaning that my personal image of his phenomenology is far too German (and not autistic enough, based on the numbers).

    I'll have to go back through the items with him. Now, to get his mom to answer. :)

    1 vote
  16. Comment on Can plants count? Study suggests they can track the number of events they experience. in ~science

    thereticent
    Link Parent
    And, for humans anyway, on the environment and its demands. See Cognitive Development by Alexander Luria (and the work of his mentor Lev Vygotsky). I would be willing to bet that plant decisions...

    And, for humans anyway, on the environment and its demands. See Cognitive Development by Alexander Luria (and the work of his mentor Lev Vygotsky). I would be willing to bet that plant decisions are similarly affected by environment, especially during development.

    Interestingly, the neural theory of cognition/intelligence is starting to give way to a more whole-organism understanding of cognition. See Looking for Spinoza by Antonio Damasio on embodied emotional processing. And a growing literature on glial cells performing information processing rather than just the traditionally acknowledged "support cell" role.

    Thank you so much for posting this! My whole career has been in neuropsychology. We might need to change that to neurogliopsychology, or corpopsychology, or....

    6 votes
  17. Comment on This eerily accurate ‘LinkedIn Speak’ translation tool will help you sound like an instant thinkfluencer in ~tech

    thereticent
    Link Parent
    Too efficient. You clearly meant "a lot" as "often," but it went with "many." Still accurate, but not exactly the original intention I'm guessing

    Too efficient. You clearly meant "a lot" as "often," but it went with "many." Still accurate, but not exactly the original intention I'm guessing

    3 votes
  18. Comment on Can we talk about rice cookers? in ~food

    thereticent
    Link Parent
    Agreed. I've tested my cheap Sunbeam rice cooker against a Zojirushi, and it works perfectly. Though it automatically switches off "cook" to "warm," I've found its best to turn it off entirely...

    Agreed. I've tested my cheap Sunbeam rice cooker against a Zojirushi, and it works perfectly. Though it automatically switches off "cook" to "warm," I've found its best to turn it off entirely soon after, rather than warm too long. Otherwise, it does everything you've mentioned and does have a steaming rack.

    Aghh: the Sunbeam doesn't appear to be made anymore and is considered "vintage." I formally protest. Now that I think about it, we did buy it 20 year ago or so. I suppose you could look for this at flea markets, garage sales, or auctions. It was 15-20 USD originally.

    3 votes
  19. Comment on Air Canada CEO will retire this year after his English-only crash message was criticized in ~transport

    thereticent
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    To be frank about US culture: no FAA chair or airline CEO based in a highly spanish-speaking region (if that even exists), etc., would ever be dragged for not giving bilingual condolences. I'm not...

    To be frank about US culture: no FAA chair or airline CEO based in a highly spanish-speaking region (if that even exists), etc., would ever be dragged for not giving bilingual condolences. I'm not defending it, just making clear that this is not because it's all private companies. I think it's a distinct difference in expectations of decency between the US and Canadian societies.

    Other thought is that cultural and/or violent genocide should be eradicated. Down here in the US we focus almost solely on enslaved Black populations rather than the much older native population. Is that analogous in Canadian society to focusing on francophone people vs. First Nations? (I'm not asking to accuse or start a fight. Just wondering about the cultural positions of those issues in Canada compared to US).

    9 votes
  20. Comment on What’s something you’re putting up with? in ~talk

    thereticent
    Link Parent
    I hear you, but I didn't complain about the scanner, specifically, initially. I hate all that shit. And it was a metal detector wand, so you used to be able to just hold a hand over the belt...

    I hear you, but I didn't complain about the scanner, specifically, initially. I hate all that shit. And it was a metal detector wand, so you used to be able to just hold a hand over the belt buckle. And it doesn't store a contour of your body, which God knows what might be done with that. Again, I was just giving an opinion, a feeling, about how the whole deal after 9/11 felt. Why does anyone want to correct or reeducate me on this? I'm a grumpy, sort of old man whose opinions I admit are probably just stubborn and which affect literally no one because I comply anyway.

    Edit: just a quick edit to say that I'm not mad or anything, just trying to clarify. I wanted to lend a little purely subjective experience, not objective assertion, to the topic.

    6 votes