![[dr. bob]](/dr-bob-sm.gif)
Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 27 to 51 of 61. Go back in thread:
Posted by alexandra_k on October 30, 2018, at 19:41:03
In reply to Re: The Witch King of Angmar, posted by beckett2 on October 30, 2018, at 14:58:32
Thanks guys, I didn't know about any of this. It helps make sense of quite a lot... I mean, it's also a kind of con-munications by people who have quite a lot invested in what is con-municated about them, but it is... Affirming, in some way, of how here is this weird blend of being so very far behind / isolated in so many respects, but there also being elements of cutting edge technology...
Apparently we were the first country to have EFTPOS rolled out and people aren't charged bank fees for EFTPOS transactions, typically. The technology means every single purchase (stick of gum, bottle of milk, cup of coffee) appears on your bank statement. Not itemised (but supermarket cards that you need to use for significant price discounts) will have that information).
We fairly much are cashless.
And then the hole in the walls close up. Well, first the bank closes up but leaves the hole in the wall (the ATM). But then the hole in the wall goes away.
And then your login doesn't work...
We're not quite there at that last bit, yet.
Here is a place from which to co-ordinate the end of the world... I suspect we will get bombed, yet. And it will likely be because we're holing up one of these psychopaths. Yeah. They'll have to bomb Wanaka to do it.
It's a country that spawned Rawls...
He's right that there isn't freedom in this country.
I had a friend who wrote a Masters thesis on how there isn't democracy when the people are not educated.
My understanding is that the idea is something along the lines of a society where people vote on the politicians on the basis of their policies with respect ot how the policies serve their (legitimate) ends.
(The ends of the sadist to be sadistic is not a legitimate end).
He wants to say that we aren't free because we are burdened with student debt and because so many of us are on welfare.
I want to say that we aren't free because we are uneducated and because so many of us are on welfare.
Our people aren't learning the things they need to make their way in life. To make a way in life. To contribute meaningfully to life. Welfare... The means to education in this country is what is lacking.
And this is because Universities (the world over) have adopted a corporate model where they see students as cash machines to feed the CEO / chancellor and all their cronies. They don't care whether or not students learn anything or not. They don't care whether or not courses are overcrowded and underfunded. They only care about trying to extract enough money out of them so they can save up for their very own bolt-hole which they will need when the students decide it's time to rise up against them.
He's clearly a smart man. A clever man. But it doesn't look like he is much of a good man.
On the other hand, he's succeeded in bring these issues to our attention.
I have been saying for a while that our start-up company thing is a farce. People aren't free to start-up a company, at all.
In order to start-up a company you need to appply to have a start-up company. That involves your handing over all your information to people who have the money to enact whatever it is that you have been working on.
At that point you are delayed indefinately with paper work and so on...
Meanwhile the people with the money get it done (and profit from it) and you never even get any kinds of shares in the thing at all.
That is the supposed alternative to student debt?
That's no alternative.
You could apply for a job... But most of the job adverts are not for actual jobs. It's just data collection, again.
It's a juvenile strategy.
It's a young male thing, particularly.
It's why animals chase the young males away from the herd. They are forced out and away because they create too much mischief and trouble back home.
The young males band together...
Gain in strength...
Eventually come back and try and take place as elite males there.
All kinds of animals have that social structure.
And some people choose to behave like animals. I mean, why not -- if you can get away with it??
Posted by alexandra_k on October 30, 2018, at 20:01:08
In reply to Re: The Witch King of Angmar, posted by alexandra_k on October 30, 2018, at 19:41:03
It's the infrastructure, too.
It's like they said, the lawns are kept manicured, and so on.
So individual people are labouring to keep the houses / properties in order. Who are the individual people who are labouring to keep the houses / properties in order?
Are they local people, or are they imported?
I'm trying to figure how you would get local people to do that who would get on with the job and not snoop and gossip. I mean, I understand that you could set up security cameras about the place and fire the people who snoop and gossip, but I don't think we have the infrastrure to support that. I think you would fire one only to hire another for a constant stream of people who snoop and gossip...
So who keeps the properties in order?
?
How do the Hollywood celebreties do it, generally? You hire some kind of manager to manage your support staff... Train them up... I see an infinite regress problem here of how you get people who will do the job, already.
Are they other imports?
I guess one of my friends fairly much always has people staying because she prefers that. More people around. So there's never any bother having people house-sit when she wants to go away. And she gets to know the people real well in virtue of living with them fairly indefinitely. If you have that sort of personality then it's not so much of a problem.
I expect there is a particular service that you ring and they are used to dealing with / arranging such things. It could be good work for people. Light cleaning / household work. Especially if you manage to get people who have been subjugated into thiking that if they don't do that then they can clean public toilets or public toilets in hospitals or whatever.
Maybe they can donate blood to you, too.
Posted by alexandra_k on October 30, 2018, at 20:17:35
In reply to Re: The Witch King of Angmar, posted by beckett2 on October 30, 2018, at 14:58:32
Do you think anyone would be charged with fraud if there was a round 2 of the same thing in New Zealand?
Ignorance and inability to do statistical tests is different from intentionally misleading or falsifying - yes?
She was a front, clearly. Someone... Put her up to it, I'd say.
10 years of no more being a front... I wonder what retirement plan that got her...
They got blood...
Often with research projects / experiments the real work is not disclosed. It's fairly clear (in the way that New Zealand is a caricature) that whatever the person *says* they are doing (which is why their project got the money) is not the same as what it is that is potentially getting someone rich from their project.
Often it's just about their collecting samples of whatever. It's becoming more up-front that the funding is conditional on them sending the samples to a particlar laboratory or whatever (for them to run who knows what tests on).
Obtaining biological tissue samples is a big deal. It is generally... Obtaining foetuses that were aborted. Obtaining foreskins from circumscised infants. Obtaining tumor samples (or other samples obtained during operations)... People will pay for these things... There is a market for them...
I'm curious about how that works in the US. People are paid to donate blood? That is then privately owned?
Posted by alexandra_k on October 30, 2018, at 20:46:04
In reply to Re: The Witch King of Angmar, posted by alexandra_k on October 30, 2018, at 20:17:35
It's an ideal.
It's an ideal many people choose to adopt.
People choose to make such people their heroes and they choose to try and emulate them and their practices. People choose to commit atrocities and so on in order to try and be like them.
Maybe... Maybe that's the marketing.
Then we can see who chooses to act like that and intervene relatively early before they grow in power enough to cause more genuine harm.
Maybe it is people like these...
Maybe it is providing this ideal to New Zealanders in order to assess their genuine merit.
Maybe it is just a test of character.
Maybe it can be used for good. To get some people out.
I guess if psychopathy is marketed as the norm then you see who has enough... Whatever... To go against the norm.
Seeing people behave apprporiately when structures are in place so as to make it easy. Seeing people behave apprpriately when they are well slept and well fed. Doesn't really give you the measure of the person.
I guess we choose to believe...
What's teh alternative?
What if you thought that doing whatever some psychopath says is the thing to do because they are the ones with real power and they are the ones who are most rewarded in life... What if you thought that and so you did awful things... What if then... It turned out... That actually you were wrong. That basically... You just behaved awfully. Because you could. What then does that make you? And you can squirm and so on that you dind't think you had any choice or whatever...
And studies show that most people are like that. Sigh. That doesn't make it excusable. Certainly not aspirational.
Posted by alexandra_k on October 31, 2018, at 19:05:57
In reply to Re: The Witch King of Angmar, posted by alexandra_k on October 30, 2018, at 20:46:04
so just when i was really digging my gym / the pool...
one of the staff (who looked more like a cleaner than a personal trainer) told me to put clips on the bar becuase of 'health and safety'.
(these are .5kg clips that, when on, need to be reset after every dynamic lift because they shift about. nobody trains Olympic Lifting with clips on the bar because you would spend all your life resetting clips and competition clips (only used in competitions) are 2.5kg)).
i said that it wasn't, actually, and asked to speak to her manager. who wasn't there. so i left the gym so i can't get into trouble with not following orders from one of the employees.
i know it seems like a little thing, but my expeirence is that it always starts with a little thing, and then it grows from there. so it's best to curb things early on.
it starts with 'put clips on the bar'. then it becomes 'don't stand your heels on weight plates'. then it becomes 'don't do that lift at all because it isn't safe'. then it becomes 'do it this particular way -- no, stand like this!' then it becomes 'do three of these and then do four of those'...
it's just people being a bully.
___
i think the time slot is the primary issue. don't go to the gym around 5pm (after work time). that's when you get the awful people who are there to yak yak yak yak yak primarily and the overweight wealthy-ish people who look the same (or worse) year after year even though their primary goal (according to them) is to lose weight and get in shape...
and the people who know what they are doing can't bear it (and have also been in the gym since around 6a most likely). so... they tell a cleaner that she can mind the gym, or whatever.
i guess i'll need to make more of an effort to train when the kids are there. kids are great.
parents are typically awful.
i mean... you have a bunch of people who prefer to stand around yapping about what other people (their kids) are doing instead of... i don't know... getting in there and doing some work themselves. telling their kids they need to work harder or kick more or whatever...
mind their business?
hmph.
awful people.
Posted by alexandra_k on October 31, 2018, at 19:15:14
In reply to Re: The Witch King of Angmar, posted by alexandra_k on October 31, 2018, at 19:05:57
it really upset me, actually.
because there was an empty section of the gym so i moved into it so i could do my thing.
so then this guy (who is starting to creep me out because he looks at me an awful lot and seems to be looking for an excuse to yak yak yak yak yak yak) and the employee moved into that space and started to yak yak yak yak yak yak yak while looking in my direction.
which sort of creeps me out and puts me off my focus when i'm trying to do pelvic abdominal rolling / activation work...
so i get up and move into a different section of they gym with the primary intention of moving myself away from them.
so they follow me into that space and again yak yak yak yak yak yak. standing around and fairly obviously looking at me.
then she walks over with clips to 'be helpful'
(yeah right)
and when i'm like 'no, thanks' she decides to order me to do it in the name of health and safety.
it is just being a bully. there's nothing more to it than that.
i said i'd speak with her manager today. i don't know what to do. she shouldn't be supervising the gym unsupervised if she can't tell the difference between a genine safety issue and her being a bully. there are pool lifeguards and they need to know the difference between genuine safety issue and people doing legitimate work (e.g, swimming certain distances with breath hold). there are clear rules about those. there are clear rules about the gym, too. and clips on the bar is not one of them
(I don't agree with but will comply with whatever gym staff tell me about footwear in whatever areas because i do need / want to stretch / foam roll my feet).
I think I will say something.
Becuase of the whole it getting worse thing. I don't want to have to leave the gym when she's there and I don't go there to be bossed around.
I'm a grown woman ffs. Where does she get off?
Posted by alexandra_k on October 31, 2018, at 19:23:10
In reply to Re: The Witch King of Angmar, posted by alexandra_k on October 31, 2018, at 19:05:57
not all of them, of course. the kids like to be watched. i remember i used to love it when my father would come and watch me play field hockey. i'd be happy to see him obviously looking proud of me when i did something good. i do get that some people really are there for their kids, and that's great to see.
but there are other parents who are more like owners or slavers of their kids.
yeah.
i don't mind interacting with people in the gym. i do mind it when i can see that people are more interested in interacting with me than in letting me work, though. when people demonstrate that their preference to interact with me is worth more to them than their willingness to let me get on with my ends. those are the people i want nothing to do with. the people who are prepared to bully me to get what they want. i can tell fairly readily who those people are.
there's heaps of shy kids at the gym and they are trying to get good at stuff.. to suppliment their swimming. they are great. because they know how to work. it is nice working with people who are also working. people stop work to yak yak yak yak yak...
in the pool it's great because you can start another length to get away from them. so the awful hangs about in the gym where people can be cornered..
Posted by sigismund on November 1, 2018, at 10:44:13
In reply to Re: The Witch King of Angmar, posted by alexandra_k on October 30, 2018, at 20:46:04
Oh well, life is running this experiment with us. When it fails it will just keep running with something else.
(I have my doubts about mammals. Should have climaxed with mollusca.)
Posted by sigismund on November 1, 2018, at 10:47:32
In reply to Re: The Witch King of Angmar » alexandra_k, posted by sigismund on November 1, 2018, at 10:44:13
What's that crap about climax?
I should know better.
Posted by alexandra_k on November 1, 2018, at 14:40:14
In reply to Re: The Witch King of Angmar » alexandra_k, posted by sigismund on November 1, 2018, at 10:44:13
Molluscks (sp?) are pretty interesting.
Posted by sigismund on November 1, 2018, at 15:58:30
In reply to Re: The Witch King of Angmar, posted by alexandra_k on November 1, 2018, at 14:40:14
Cuttlefish have beautiful eyes.
Posted by alexandra_k on November 2, 2018, at 20:34:44
In reply to Re: The Witch King of Angmar, posted by sigismund on November 1, 2018, at 15:58:30
oh, my.
i'd only ever seen them in bird cages all white and chalky.
now i'm wondering how the two are related...
birds impress me. i know many people are impressed by octopusses but birds impress me. i think they know rather a lot more than they let on. and i think my ears can't hear the half of what they have to say (in that i can't hear some german sounds kind of a way).
a very pretty voiced bird has made a nest (i think) in the gutter right outside my bedroom window. she (i'm guessing) chatters away. i think maybe she can hear me and when i talk to her about how pretty she sounds she gets louder sometimes... perhaps...
i worry about the gutter a little, but more worry she might get washed away in a rainstorm...
some guy came here earlier to check a bunch of things... mostly it was to check the temperature of my hot water after the power company cut power to my hot water cylander it a predetermined number of hours before (i bet). i bet. if you are going to experiment with such things you probably do it to the state houses where people who live in them are required to let in 'health and safety' inspectors -- right?
i saw his job description was to check the gutters.
i specifically asked him if he needed a hand.
he took the temperature of my water and made a nod to window latches and ran away.
f*ck*ng farce of a country.
cheep.
Posted by sigismund on November 3, 2018, at 13:10:36
In reply to Re: The Witch King of Angmar, posted by alexandra_k on November 2, 2018, at 20:34:44
Anything humans say about animals is full of conflict of interest.
I went mad 30 years ago and planted thousands of trees. When you do this you live to regret it. (It's like cooking,,,,,you never enjoy the food you cook as much as others do.) But new birds are appearing. You of course know that colours are gifted to us by our DNA coincidental with wavelengths. Some of these birds are hallucinatory delights. It is only that we are half dead that we can't see. A little boy was staying, maybe 5? He went outside in the morning and rolled around on the grass, looking at the blue sky and all the greens and said 'I LOVE IT! I LOVE IT!'
That's a good age. With adults I kinda fear I'll end up in an argument about Jordan Peterson, which no amount of alcohol will render painless. Kids just before they can talk. Animals too.
They are related because the white cuttlefish you see is the shell converted into (something like?) a backbone. I didn't eat that cuttlefish. I have learned how to cook squid.
Posted by sigismund on November 3, 2018, at 13:21:50
In reply to Re: The Witch King of Angmar, posted by sigismund on November 3, 2018, at 13:10:36
Alex, you should know about this.
As well as the threat of ending up on Jordan Peterson, the other one is ending up on cultural Marxism.
What do they mean? Adorno, Frankfurt School, Gramsci? Or are they taking about identity politics. I have guessed it is the last. (Possible?) Seperate toilets for whomever it is?
There are a lot of older men who wish to feel young again. That's fine, but ummm, not around me please. But I'm not talking about sex.
Similar to the bloke in Being There, I like to sleep.
Posted by sigismund on November 4, 2018, at 4:44:40
In reply to Re: The Witch King of Angmar, posted by sigismund on November 3, 2018, at 13:21:50
One cannot sufficiently despise all of this. Nietzsche
Posted by alexandra_k on November 4, 2018, at 15:19:57
In reply to Re: The Witch King of Angmar, posted by sigismund on November 3, 2018, at 13:21:50
Yeah, there are a lot of men who wish to be young again. Not about sex, particularly, I get that. I think it is because young guys often feel 9 foot tall and bulletproof, whether they are, or not. Most young guys at the gym often think their are amazing speciments, whether they are, ot not. It's a hormonal profile, or something. How it must feel... That sense of surety and confidence. Of course it means young guys can be really rather intolerable (isn't there someone elses backyard, uh, war you can go play in, someplace else, for a while, and come back later when you have some of that cockiness kicked out of you??)...
Of course that's rather extreme, and I know there are exceptions... But most guys seem to genuniely miss that time of their lives, yeah. I think that was a huge part of the older guys in the gym, thing. And a huge part of the quest... With substances and the like in the attempt to recreate it.
I went to a rather good talk, a while back... The testerone receptor lady... She did one more on start-ups for the science students, and one that was a bit more... Communications... For the Med people... The Med people... Includes the older people in the community with an interest. And frailty... Well... Yeah, people are willing to try most things (except the obvious one of hiring someone who actually knows what they are doing to help them become more mobile and stronger -- prefering to believe there's actually nothing at all that they can *do* but wait for the magical pill that other people are actually going to successfully manage to negotiate their access to (guffaw).
Posted by alexandra_k on November 4, 2018, at 15:27:44
In reply to Re: The Witch King of Angmar, posted by alexandra_k on November 4, 2018, at 15:19:57
Ah... It was about the substances that she managed to find in various food and suppliments that she purchased. Using the test to detect synthetic testosterone... Because it's a banned substance, you see. She found it in a variety of suppliments. From the likely suspects of athletic suppliments (from websites where one might be fairly correct in thinking people ordering from there would be pleased about this) to things like... Deer velvit or whatever. Stuff targeting old people.
The concern is that athletes could be taking this stuff and end up testing positive and losing their athletic scholarships / places on Olympic teams and so on.
Australia has a 'no excuses' drug policy. So that means athletes need to be careful to not eat anything that may be contaminated because they can't plead ignorance.
New Zealand does not. That means that there there no structures in New Zealand to make it really considered awful horrible comtemptable for coaches or for suppliment companies or whatever to put really rather hefty doses in our food products in order to see what happens to the team (or whatever)... And the athletes can just play dumb as they are... The coaches can reccommmend suppliments and the like. That doesnt' happen in Australia everyone is told it is their own personal responsibility to be clean (and so avoid anything that might be contaminated)...
Anyway... She found quite a lot of contamination in our processed food.
I think she's still kicking around...
I have been wondering recently if our 'strong women' phenomenon (particularly Waikato) is something to do with the dairy there. Hormonal. The estrogens or whatever to keep the cows persistently lactating. I don't know if it... In the water supply, or maybe in the milk itself or, I don't know... I wonder if it is... Emasculating, in some way. Or... I don't know.... But I suspect it is something like this...
Posted by alexandra_k on November 4, 2018, at 16:01:06
In reply to Re: The Witch King of Angmar, posted by alexandra_k on November 4, 2018, at 15:27:44
There was a NZ team that was tested positive. Their defence was that they were all taking a particular suppliment purchased over the internet (for 'joint health' or something respectable sounding) on their coaches reccommendation.
I don't remember what happened. Probably nothing. Because everybody plead ignorance about the situation.
But that situation would never have arisen in Australia. Firstly, the coaches would not have reccommended that the athletes take anything that might potentially be contamminated (anything that wasn't reccommended by the Australian Sports Commission, for example). Secondly, the athletes would have been told to not take anything that might potentially be contamminated.
Idiocy is just our mask for sociopathy. I'm reallly starting to see why it is in certain peoples interest to keep as many other people as possible brain damaged / alcohol fetal effects if not full on syndrome / pre-term oxygen deprived... And so on...
I found some stuff about how... Williams Syndrome was thought to be epidemic, here. Now... What is considered within 'normal' range is very liberal, indeed. It would be socially inappropriate (worthy of being murdered in your sleep) to point out how... Uh.... Quite a lot of people (often in rather important positions)... Don't appear to be entirely all there in their cognive functioning...
There is stuff about being able to function fairly well on surprisingly little brain. Depending on where things were at to start with, I guess. If you were at the higher functioning end of the spectrum you can lose really rather a lot of your functioning before anybody (who didn't know you) would know... The Ethics people, here... It's becoming obvious such that nobody can deny but there's been a degenerative thing going on with the people in charge of it for quite a while, now. I'm talking over a period of years and years and years. I know precisely what the thinking would have been : Give them to the Arts, it will take years and years and years and years and years for any of them to even notice something is going on and then social norms will prevent any of them for saying / doing anything about that for years and years and years and years and years and years more still.
I was just contacted to say my application wasn't complete (they want disability information). My application says that I have a disability, you see. So now they will likely harrass me, periodically for information about it and will likely discriminate against me in virtue of that. There's no undoing. I think they can note on my file that I've requested I not be the target of 'special treatment' but that doesn't mean I'm not going to get it.
Sigh.
I think it means that (if I get an interview) I won't get a 'special' interview. Which is to say I won't get a Maaori political person with the power to 'definite no' me (it seems less racist when Maaori are the ones who get to 'definite no' their own people). And why not let them be the head of equity with the power to 'definite no' anyone seen as a threat to their own people, too. Or just people they percieve to be easy targets.
I can't forgive them for what they did to me, already, last time. Failing me for writing substandard essays because they didn't know what I was talking about because they appointed people with very little brain. That is the situation there. I hope I can fly under the radar...
I think I need to look to trying to publish in some Ethics journals, or something... I've started looking around. There are some *good* ones. Yeah.
I strongly suspect the DOI is just for ease of access. At the end of the day a good piece in something good is the way to go... I'm sure there are many people willing to produce something easy for something bad because of the impact factor or whatever... I think the New Zealand Medical Journal has student pages for precisely this end... I'm pretty certain they would not publish anything from me.. There's a hierarchy thing and I would only be allowed to publish something sufficiently bad that made 'superiors' appear sufficiently good. And that gets mighty hard when you read what 'superiors' actually have to say, a lot of the time.
I need to remember the higher up you go... The better I tend to find the people. And the more they seem to like me. And value me for the things I value in myself. It's the lowest level people who are always the hardest to deal / cope with. Largely because they don't know it when they see it so there's no showing them. I'm sorry they don't have good leaders who enforce good things so their lives are better (for their legitimate ends) but they are only interested in keeping me as their slave so there's nothing much I can do around here...
It is sad... When I first came back here I did try and make friends... But over the years I haven't managed to find people... Sufficiently like me. I really thought I would find more people like me... I didn't realise how rare I was... In these parts... People are better at keeping their heads down.
It's the same reason, isn't it, as to why ward rounds need to be done at 5am or 5.30am. The specialist rounds. Because the only people there, doing the rounds at that time, are the people who are (more likely to be) there for the right reasons. Everyones asleep so the people doing it can hear themselves think and maybe even have a mature conversation about the situation. If you go at another time then you'll get stuck yak yak yakking to the patient and the patients family and friends and relations and the day time staff and... You need to get it done before the world starts to wake up. Like swim training. Or Weightlifting etc.
That just makes living really hard. BEcause ghettos are all about party party party in the ghetto. Whether it is abuot the ghetto being unruly or whether it is about people intentionally doing it in order to drive up property prices everywehre else... And the like... But you need to be able to get to reliable sleep early in order to get yourself up and functional that time of the morning.
I am concerned about accommodation.
There is accommodation. But people always see that I'm a not unattractive female and there's simply no way that some guy isn't going to be sniffing around (making things unbearable for other people)... That's basically the thing. Why it is that I get locked out. People assume I'm the front for some guy fresh out of jail, or similar. Or that there will be a stream of them... And so on... Because of the considerable pressure that Work and Income and the like put on people that actually makes it the case that they would be right about 99 per cent of the time. I mean... In my own life... That's what happened to a lady I actually lived with. X bodyfriend decided to murder her one day because she didn't want to see him anymore. I guess it is like (at some point) when you are male you are expected to have wife and kids otherwise people think you might be unruly in your nest (so locked out of certain neighbourhoods too). I guess because kids need to sleep a lot... So peaceful. That's the idea...
Anyway...
Posted by sigismund on November 4, 2018, at 17:26:00
In reply to Re: The Witch King of Angmar, posted by alexandra_k on November 4, 2018, at 15:27:44
Regardless, just let them take anything. The olympics? Have they no shame at all? Why not spend the money on community playfields? Because all we care about is success, winners and losers.
Posted by sigismund on November 4, 2018, at 17:55:10
In reply to Re: The Witch King of Angmar » alexandra_k, posted by sigismund on November 4, 2018, at 17:26:00
A friend wrote me recently.....the next Hitler will be an incel from Ohio. At leat we'll be medicated and mediated, no need to see into their eyes.
What's this incel business anyway?
The fun thing about Jordan Peterson for me was when he said that women wearing lipstick looked as if they were sexually aroused (and so?) and therefore (somehow) it was unfair (why?) to men who might like workplace equality (why not big codpieces?) and something something something . F*ck me.
FWIW I think a lot of makeup is llamativo, but hell, if men are pretending to be men, is this the best they can do?
Posted by alexandra_k on November 5, 2018, at 0:01:08
In reply to Re: The Witch King of Angmar, posted by sigismund on November 4, 2018, at 17:55:10
I think that informed consent is probably the way to go...
I mean, cheating is only an issue when it comes to sport.
We do have special duty to children and minors (and people under our care e.g., athletic teams)...
I do have sympathy for the notion of informed consent when it comes to older guys, particularly...
The blurry lines between low end of normal and deficient...
there are concerns about health effects (e.g., if you take 'suppliments' to grow your muscle indiscriminately because you don't actually plan to use it to help you recover but more to do all the work for you) then your heart muscle will also tend to grow which puts you at risk of heart problems...
To weigh pros and cons...We don't have informed consent for... Anything... Here. Just a culture of bullies.
I might be able to find an ethics journal that debates some interesting (according to me) cases...
Leave the people her to their 'controversies' (aka: no brainers).
Jordan Peterson? What about him? I don't know of him... What are you thinking?
Posted by sigismund on November 5, 2018, at 2:37:03
In reply to Re: The Witch King of Angmar, posted by alexandra_k on November 5, 2018, at 0:01:08
Oh, I had a couple of conversations and watched the Majority Report. He is just irritating to me.
Posted by alexandra_k on November 5, 2018, at 14:55:08
In reply to Re: The Witch King of Angmar, posted by sigismund on November 5, 2018, at 2:37:03
I started watching him on something, and he was irritating to me, too. 'Grow up'. Mmm, kay, now I feel all enlightened.
I got some USMLE study prep and I feel like I have a much better idea of what people have been trying to teach me, now. I always did feel like it was a dim copy of... I couldn't figure quite what.
The tables for microbiology that classifies the organisms in useful ways (the sort of activity we were supposed to do ourselves for 'homework' and then would be tested on later -- and so so much time was wasted, trying to seek out accurate information and learning inaccurate information). clear and distinct epidemiology statements with clear and sensible notation...
my mother helped my brother through his uni education so he didn't need to take out loans. i didn't ask her to help me. i wasn't speaking with her, at the time i went to uni. but i have told her that some of this is going to cost a bit... she said something about my inheritence... so... well... i changed the subject... but there we go... she has expressed concern about my age. i am not sure how i feel about it. i think there is nothing i can do about it. there are times when they meet with you so i guess i need to make sure i stay fit and healthy looking, but they aren't officially allowed to discriminate against you on the basis of (though i'm sure that won't stop them). student visas don't seem to be age restricted. work visas may be... charities are probably different... i don't know. i won't worry on it... Sal Khan said something useful... He said that money wasn't about things it was about experiences. It was about freedom to have the experiences you want to have. I want to walk this path. Yeah. So that makes the age thing irrelevant.
There was some clip thing I saw about some guy who was early 40s who just got matched to Plastics someplace in California... Don't get me wrong, I'm sure he was plenty rich (and also a guy), but, there you go...
so, yeah.. c'mon entry... i really am ready to go...
it is annoying, honestly, that the schools aren't better at teaching. that the teachers don't take it upon themselves to convey the content in the simplest way possible i mean. people are just... often unnecessarily confusing. like, intentionally withholding the information you are supposed to learn, confusing. i guess because they never bothered to learn it, themselves. and people always want to try and teach you something that is easier for them. typically about their own research...
anyway... i was feeling before that things felt difficult because it was hard to know what you were supposed to be learning... i guess, now, i have some idea of what that aim is. and insofar as the kids are being rewarded for stuff that was not taught to them let us hope that it was USMLE study prep content.
I won't say anything... I mean... I checked out the libraries and they only have, like, 1 copy of the 2018 step one First Aid book... There isn't even one on desk reserve. I mean, the copy is currently on loan - don't get me wrong - but it clearly isn't something that they market the hell out of as the way to go (the way it is front stage in the US). I see we can withold our results from the Uni. That's probably the way to go. Otherwise there' sthe possibility that they try and give the kids with high USMLE scores low grades to try and keep them enslaved, here. That wouldn't surprise me. I guess that's why withholding grades is an option. I wonder how many people take the tests in NZ... I wonder when they end up taking them... I'm thinking earlier is better than later... End year 3... I think the study prep books would have helped get me through first year, even. The epidemiology list, particularly, is looking really rather a lot like the list I ended up coming up with, myself. I'm cross, because it would have saved me time (and I would have learned things better) if I had have had the book and learned from that rather than trying to extract hte relevant content (with all the errors that go into that) the way that I did. Of course I understand re-writing in my own words is useful. But I can write out the book myself... I don't need to f*ck*ng derive the book myself... And as for it making more sense in my own words, actually, the words are pretty sensicle. I feel like... Something approximating generations of effort has gone into making the book as clear and distict as people could and they actually ended up with something better than what my mind could do over the course of a couple years.
I guess some people don't know it when they see it...
Whatever...
Sigh.
Posted by alexandra_k on November 5, 2018, at 15:37:31
In reply to Re: The Witch King of Angmar, posted by alexandra_k on November 5, 2018, at 14:55:08
And it's sad because I have some really good memories of studying for Psychology, as an undergrad. Started out where I was helping someone who wanted to study with me. I'd already indepenently learned most of it, so basically, I ended up tutoring him. So I got to show him all the cognitive tricks I used to learn the content and the way I'd rearranged it and so on... We both came out with terrific grades. Kept studying together the next year... He started studying independently, as well, and ended up taking to stuff that was harder for me and so on... We really helped each other through to keep out terrific grades across the range of psychology courses. And then other people (who did alright but a bit worse) who didn't put as much of their independent time in, but kept the group study sessions fun and kept us motived and we learned from them too, yeah.
So when I went back for pre-med I thought I was going to find adult students like that. People who were highly motivated to be high achievers and people who I would be able to work with. But, instead, I found a series of people who were more willing to talk the talk than walk the walk on any of the study... I didn't find people who knew it when they saw it when it came to ways to learn... I didn't find people offering much in the way of those techniques themselves... The formal tutorials were all repetition repetition repetition of words and phrases... To suck all that is living and good...
Maybe if I actually get into Med I'll meet people, again, who are motivated and we can get some group study going on... From what I've heard group study is mostly... People don't know what the hell the project is. They don't know what they are supposed to be learning because lecturing style is often doing a big brain dump of a years worth of content in a lecture, or whatever. Reading lists.
I kinda feel like the USMLE isn't a big secret - right? I mean, everyone in the US and Canada is studying for it. The point of the test and the point of the curriculum is to get people workign through a body of knowledge / content... Only... I think that will be low key, here. It's part of the whole 'there's two ways to get ahead and kicking other people back is a viable strategy'. The thought being that the less people who know to study for it, the better ones own personal chances.
Only, the less people who know to study for it, the more people are wasting time doing other things... And that makes it harder to get a group of people you can study productively with.
I mean... Everyone in the US is on the same page with it, but people still make better or worse use of the study material they've got.
Otherwise... It's like the freaking law students ripping pages out of the statute books so other people can't find the relevant precedent for their (competitive) essays.
To the detriment of the entire law school
...
Something something about 'get with the program'.
Of course I know it's about cheap slave labour. That's what they are going for. But the thing is: If you want people to want to stay for PGY1 and PGY2 and beyond then... You really need to listen to them / treat them better.
But they won't.
Posted by alexandra_k on November 5, 2018, at 15:44:58
In reply to Re: The Witch King of Angmar, posted by alexandra_k on November 5, 2018, at 15:37:31
Anyway.. We will see.
I really hope I do get to do this. And I really do hope that I do get to meeet people 'like me'. Namely, mature students (actually I don't care -- but younger students may be more inclined to try and balance social lives and veer off course with that) who are highly motivated (and a bit bright) to work with for mutual benefit.
I don't see how things are going to work otherwise, actually. Given how we need to do things like take blood pressure and listen to hearts and so on...
I just really don't understand why I haven't found mature students to work with, particularly, since returning, here.
I know the guy I was working with before was pretty unique... But I thought there were more like us...
Fingers crossed there will be. Given the whole 'you have to have a herd to appear in public' and even to have a 'private' study space on campus... And then you want to try and lighten the financial load on hotel rooms and...
C'mon NZ. Done with wasting my life, yet?
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