Posts by Bart Janssen
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waiting for something to turn up that is long overdue, I find it impossible to relax.
Over the years I've slowly learned that service really is a huge part of the restaurant experience. You are definitely not alone in getting progressively pissed off during a meal because the wait staff get it wrong.
It was Richard the previous owner of Bowmans that demonstrated just how good service can and should be - over about 10 years of regular visits there we were spoiled by the quality of Richard's service and the service of the staff he trained. His staff concentrated on the task at hand, for which they were paid in salary and tips. It certainly seemed to us that they enjoyed their job more because they did it well - but those too things are probably not independent.
For a restaurant getting service wrong is a killer. I have friends who will never go back to The Grove despite the quality of the food. I've not had as bad an experience there as they did but the service didn't enhance the food. By contrast, the team at Merediths work as hard as the chefs to get it right.
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we did experiment 2 because we didn't know what the fuck to make of experiment 1 #overlyhonestmethods
We have done exactly that. To be fair we usually don't believe much until we've done it three or more times though. But definitely looked at the first expt and gone WTF!
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Southerly: Gerry Brownlee: “I Like To…, in reply to Stewart,
All I did was fail spelling in a reference to a certain book/movie, you however have damaged my calm!
shudder
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Southerly: Gerry Brownlee: “I Like To…, in reply to Hebe,
Replying to myself is not a habit I wish to start
It's only a problem if you start spending more time in your cupboard playing with your jewelery.
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Hard News: Cultures and violence, in reply to Lilith __,
I’m not a neuroscientist, but surely this is NONSENSE. Brains are plastic. They wire and rewire in response to the purposes for which they’re used.
I don't think we know either way. I think saying it's nonsense is too strong as well. Right now we are learning a lot about how the brain works how memories are established how patterns are established and disestablished in the brain. We know hormones (not just sex hormones) play important roles but we don't know for certain how the details work and the details are very important.
From my reading and it is NOT my field of expertise, I would not be surprised to see a real mixture of regualtory mechanisms in play simultaneously. In short, everyone could be right at the same time.
One thing I will say is that given the speed with which we are developing tools to actually experiment on human brains while people are alive and healthy we are looking at some really rapid advancement of knowledge in the next decade or so. It is entirely possible that we could be using our understanding of brain biology in our schools in a relatively short time.
These discussions, as fun as they are, could actually become informed by data!
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Hard News: Cultures and violence, in reply to Danielle,
So if, statistically, we are more alike than different, why are we so invested in differences?
Because at the extreme ends of the graph, if you see a difference then it is very likely to be genetic. That's why I look at the tails of those bell curves and look for things that stand out. An easy physical example is the speed at which you run 100m, for most of the p[opulation whether you are male or female has very little bearing, it has almost no correlation with sex. But right at the extreme end we see all the fastest 100m runners are male, and for a biologist that like a huge flashing neon light saying hey look here something interesting is occurring probably something genetic and probably something to do with a fundamental difference between males and females.
Now look at a graph of violent attacks and again it's a bell curve and for most of the population gender or race or culture has very little to do with your chance of commiting a violent attack. But out at the end of the curve it's all males. That's why I look at that and thing something interesting is going on here biologically.
I have no problem with addressing most of the bell curve with other methods but if you are talking about the extreme end of the curve there is something very important occurring that is almost certainly biological and I flippantly said it was probably testosterone.
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Hard News: Cultures and violence, in reply to Russell Brown,
That was a really good bike ride! Exactly that feeling for me.
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Hard News: Cultures and violence, in reply to Danielle,
In part that’s because it can feel really quite perilous to do so.
Because… feminists are so mean?
That isn't it for me. For me it can feel like I'm being told my feelings are wrong sometimes. I don't mind being told my facts are wrong. I also don't mind being told things that change my feelings about an issue. The whole privilege thing really messes with my head a lot precisely because it revolves around my white educated male feelings about things.
Not sure that makes sense even to me.
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Hard News: Cultures and violence, in reply to Danielle,
“several women speaking in a non-women’s-only-area on the internet” is… unexpected.
Are you referring to this forum? Because I kind of feel like PAS expects anyone and everyone to speak.
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Hard News: Cultures and violence, in reply to John Armstrong,
But has anyone really said that?
Not here no.
And I also agree characterising it as simply "evil" is disturbing as well.
I just have to wonder if given these mass murderers are so damn rare (out of 300 million in the USA we see how many?) what if none of the things we can rationally think of are anything to do with the decision to go and kill (or harm) as many people as they can? That thought scares me a bit.