SpudFiles

Is that the Australian comic? Have to watch this later.

Also, why there are more men than women in STEM fields:

I have to disagree - saying that someone's interest in science is non-genuine because they're not a researcher is much the same as saying you're not allowed to enjoy music unless you're a composer or that you can't like military history unless you're a Roman Centurion.

Anyway, on the general note of whether science is interesting:
[youtube][/youtube]

And that comic doesn't really hold up across the board. There tend to be more women than men in anthropology discplines (often biology too) from what I've found and that's more or less reading dense research articles and collecting data here and there. The comic is based on the assumption that women have no interest/patience/intelligence/talent for interpreting research articles and conducting research. Is that the case? Doesn't appear to be. Another hypothesis is required.

I guess people have a tendancy to use a reductionist approach when answering complex problems like this. We want to make sense of the complex; yet the complex, especially when relating to human culture or society, is by no means easily explainable. It's why there are problems with trying to explain a person's beliefs or actions based solely on their so-called politcal ideology. It's why one running-candidate will propose one a solution and his opponent another, while both solutions seemingly make sense even if they are unrelated or somewhat contradictory. There's often no quick fix or one solution to these problems.

In Spud related news, someone left a comment on an Instructable of mine saying a member of a local band was injured by an exploding PVC t-shirt launcher:
NSFW PICTURE IN LINK BELOW (GORE)
https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/1Zs3c

MrCrowley wrote:In Spud related news, someone left a comment on an Instructable of mine saying a member of a local band was injured by an exploding PVC t-shirt launcher:
NSFW PICTURE IN LINK BELOW (GORE)
https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/1Zs3c

I'd note that their main website (http://www.arcanium.info - also NSFW) features a very bloody picture of what's claimed to be a member of the band murdered by a psychopathic internet interviewer - a reasonable assumption might be that they know someone good with practical special effects.

Not to say this is faked (I'd like to have enough faith in humanity to not suspect people of pulling a con fund-raiser using special effects), but I have to be a little more sceptical in light of that.

However, taking it to be genuine, it sounds like it's probably just a fairly "normal" case of dropping a pressurised PVC pneumatic.

jackssmirkingrevenge wrote:Is that the Australian comic?

Ah, yes it was. Classic.

I have to disagree - saying that someone's interest in science is non-genuine because they're not a researcher is much the same as saying you're not allowed to enjoy music unless you're a composer or that you can't like military history unless you're a Roman Centurion.

The popular perception of "science" and actual science are two different things though.



Speaking of space, this was amusing:

[youtube][/youtube]

And that comic doesn't really hold up across the board. There tend to be more women than men in anthropology discplines (often biology too) from what I've found and that's more or less reading dense research articles and collecting data here and there. The comic is based on the assumption that women have no interest/patience/intelligence/talent for interpreting research articles and conducting research. Is that the case? Doesn't appear to be. Another hypothesis is required.

To be fair to the comic artist, it was me who put the gender spin on the piece. The fact that the character making the observation appears to be female could be incidental.

Don't forget about my own personal bias where I rate technological disciplines as being more "valid" than anthropological ones.

In other news, after not having touched one since arriving here, I bought a bicycle today. It's only 5km to the shop, and I need the exercise...

Weather report wrote:Tues. Morning
Variable cloudiness
Variable cloudiness
4°C
Feels like -1
P.O.P: 20%
Wind E 30 km/h
Wind gust 47 km/h
Humidity 81%

Should be fun

edit: I am in much, much worse shape than I thought I was

jackssmirkingrevenge wrote:The popular perception of "science" and actual science are two different things though.

And the Dunning-Kruger effect means that's true for nearly anything.

Still, having more than a passing interest in science does tend to bring with it the knowledge that the "science" appears in the movies or TV is subject to a lot of artistic licence.

Just stumbled upon this
[youtube][/youtube]

seems relevant to discussion on wimin and science

That popped up on Reddit.

Women are statistically the least likely subset of society to suffer violence, yet are the ones most vocal about their worries about suffering violence, and the zeitgeist is built accordingly.

One of GWW's first videos is on the subject, worth watching as always.

[youtube] [/youtube]

POLAND_SPUD wrote:Just stumbled upon this
[youtube][/youtube]

seems relevant to discussion on wimin and science

I'm largely with you guys on this one. I haven't got around to reading the report that figure came from but I was always suspicious of it. Even if it is true, I imagine the figures are inflated by over-representation in minority or low socioeconomic status groups. In which case I think breaking down the rape statistics by meaningful groups is more useful than using a statistic to summarise the whole.

What deep thinkers men are... I mowed the lawn today, and after doing so I sat down and had a cold beer. The day was really quite beautiful, and the drink facilitated some deep thinking.

My wife walked by and asked me what I was doing and I said 'nothing'. The reason I said that instead of saying 'just thinking' is because she would have said 'about what'. At that point I would have to explain that men are deep thinkers about various topics which would lead to other questions.

Finally I thought about an age old question: Is giving birth more painful than getting kicked in the nuts? Women always maintain that giving birth is way more painful than a guy getting kicked in the nuts.

Well, after another beer, and some heavy deductive thinking, I have come up with the answer to that question. Getting kicked in the nuts is more painful than having a baby; and here is the reason for my conclusion. A year or so after giving birth, a woman will often say, "It might be nice to have another child." On the other hand, you never hear a guy say, "You know, I think I would like another kick in the nuts."
I rest my case.

Time for another beer.

Haha, I vaguely recall reading an article that passing certain sized kidney stones is actually more painful (for both men and women) than giving birth.

velocity3x wrote:You never hear a guy say, "You know, I think I would like another kick in the nuts."

I have evidence to the contrary.

Every time I see David Cameron on the television, he's practically begging for a kick in the nuts.

Ragnarok wrote:Every time I see David Cameron on the television, he's practically begging for a kick in the nuts.

I would hardly call David Cameron a shining beacon of virility.

Haha, I vaguely recall reading an article that passing certain sized kidney stones is actually more painful (for both men and women) than giving birth.

Pain is completely arbitrary so I guess such discussions are meaningless. Saying "I can take this much pain" is like saying "this is the heaviest stone I can lift". It applies only to you, and more or less training will affect your lifting abilities.

I remember there were things I was subjected to during a brief affair that hurt enough to reduce me to genuine tears the first time around, but within a few weeks were quite tolerable. The realisation that I was going to need more and more painful things to get the same high was one of the things that led me to stop.

edit: omg LHC webcam! http://www.cyriak.co.uk/lhc/lhc-webcams.html

edit: omg LHC webcam! http://www.cyriak.co.uk/lhc/lhc-webcams.html

Heh reminds me of this
http://hasthelargehadroncolliderdestroy ... ldyet.com/

I'm largely with you guys on this one. I haven't got around to reading the report that figure came from but I was always suspicious of it. Even if it is true, I imagine the figures are inflated by over-representation in minority or low socioeconomic status groups. In which case I think breaking down the rape statistics by meaningful groups is more useful than using a statistic to summarise the whole.

Seriously dude get a freaking keylogger and stop having false ideas about women and stuff.

jackssmirkingrevenge wrote:Pain is completely arbitrary so I guess such discussions are meaningless. Saying "I can take this much pain" is like saying "this is the heaviest stone I can lift". It applies only to you, and more or less training will affect your lifting abilities.

Yeah of course and I don't think the actions of giving birth and getting kicked in the nuts are even close to being similar. For one, you get a child at the end of giving birth (usually). Giving birth is often long and drawn out whereas getting a swift kick to the bollocks is just that. I imagine that both have different kinds of pain too; I don't think the kind of pain you feel when your nuts are assaulted ( ) would be the same as when forcing a large object through a small orifice.
And you said, pain is subjective. Women who had hard time passing kidney stones may have had relatively easy births.

That being said, it's useful to have some arguments to refer to the next time a girl complains about the pains of childbirth

edit:

Seriously dude get a freaking keylogger and stop having false ideas about women and stuff.

Haha I have a sort of long distance thing going on atm but I really don't care much about it or what she gets up to

I honestly don't see how a keylogger would help a relationship unless you're looking to divorce your wife and need some evidence of an affair. If you use a keylogger on a gf and nothing suspicious comes up, you're only going to get more paranoid and assume she's using a mobile/work computer or just hooking up with random guys after a night on the town.