Disqus - Latest Comments for Chriswaterguy

Re: Why are delicious biscuits obscure? | world spirit sock puppet

Chris Watkins — Mon, 14 Dec 2020 17:35:45 -0000

I guess you mean simple syrup, as in plain sugar? Golden syrup has a strong raw sugar flavour – but closer to caramel than molasses, I think.

Re: Why are delicious biscuits obscure? | world spirit sock puppet

Chris Watkins — Fri, 11 Dec 2020 19:01:14 -0000

I think you could replace the golden syrup flavour reasonably well by using raw or turbinado sugar instead of regular sugar.
Or maybe some light brown sugar? Though my hunch is that brown sugar and especially molasses will give a stronger sulfur-y overtone to the finished product. I'd probably save between sugar for chocolate cake or other things with that kind of deep flavour.
But I'm curious to hear what works. I'm just about to make some myself – and I'm going to try doing a batch of Indian style cumin shortbread as well (which goes wonderfully with a cup of tea).

Re: The Family That Feels Almost No Pain | Science | Smithsonian

Chris Watkins — Sat, 08 Jun 2019 00:29:15 -0000

How do you control it? Do you just not think about it, and it goes away?

Re: 60 Essential English-Language Works of Modern Indian Literature

Chris Watkins — Sun, 08 Jul 2018 21:01:06 -0000

I'm really surprised that Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy isn't on the list, but I'm not qualified to judge.
But his The Golden Gate is listed, so I'm going to try that.

Re: How To Eat Pussy – A Magical Guide For Evolved People

Chris Watkins — Wed, 20 Jul 2016 07:33:41 -0000

Thank you.

"A man can get off and go to sleep in the same breath and feel no remorse, no sense of loss." I hear that a lot so I assume its often true, but I definitely value post-coital affection. Falling asleep gently, wrapped around each other.

Re: Renewable energy versus nuclear: dispelling the myths

Chris Watkins — Wed, 27 Apr 2016 06:52:46 -0000

Seeing this kind of phenomenon is distressing, of course. To address it properly, George Michaelson's comment takes the right approach – to save lives and save people from conditions such as this, public health requires statistics and hard-nosed analysis.

I also question Chernobyl's relevance. It was an insane design without containment, completely unlike modern reactors (and IIUC, unlike reactors of its own era from outside the USSR).

Re: Renewable energy versus nuclear: dispelling the myths

Chris Watkins — Sat, 23 Apr 2016 11:08:18 -0000

I find the France case a pretty compelling argument for nuclear being a feasible option - the most successful case of decarbonisation in the world, as I understand it.

> the obvious trend with storage is to form micro-grids and distributed networks of renewables to lower the infrastructure costs

It's a trend, sure, but *if* we had centralised, reliable, low carbon energy, how important would this trend seem?

Re: 11 Conspiracy Theories That Proved True

Chris Watkins — Sat, 02 Apr 2016 20:18:14 -0000

References to the terrible toll of the Vietnam War on Americans, while ignoring the vastly greater toll on the Vietnamese... this is still a thing?

Re: Alarm Clock Ultra Is Arguably The Best, Most Comprehensive Android Alarm App Out There

Chris Watkins — Mon, 01 Feb 2016 17:02:40 -0000

Love "Gentle Alarm".

"Ultra" is no more, apparently.

Re: Roko’s Basilisk illustrates the problems with the LessWrong community

Chris Watkins — Sat, 12 Dec 2015 06:56:42 -0000

Interesting. None are anything like 'responding to any mention of global warming with shouts of “politics is the mindkiller!”' No shouting, no incivility - the most extreme was a bit of mild snark - which was actually on point and didn't lead to an argument.

(To be clear, I haven't spent a whole lot of time in the discussions on LW, and I find *some* of the interactions there aversive. But it's the internet, and the same applies to RationalWiki.)

Another example from your links: 'True -- they seem ignorant of the "politics is the mind-killer" phenomenon. A boring research field may yield reliable science -- but once huge sums of money start to depend on its findings, you have to spend proportionally more effort keeping out bias -- such as by making your findings impossible to fake (i.e. no black-box methods for filtering the raw data).

Which climate researchers failed at tremendously.'

You may or may not agree with the comment, but it's not shouts, and it's not shutting anyone down with “politics is the mindkiller!”'

Re: Forget paleo, go mid-Victorian: it’s the healthiest diet you’ve never heard of

Chris Watkins — Fri, 13 Nov 2015 22:12:38 -0000

"The minimum height for infantry was lowered from 5ft 6in to 5ft 3in, then later to 5ft, in just two decades."

Would that be the two decades that included the Great War? George Orwell described seeing the impressive physiques of the marching soldiers being sent off early in the war, followed later by less physically impressive men, and on and on, until weak looking and presumably much shorter men were being sent off.

It seems more likely that the tall men who were initially recruited weren't disappearing due to diet, but being killed off by their generals in the trenches of Europe.

(It's also possible that during this time there was a growing awareness that height was a poor predictor of capability as a soldier - but I'm speculating.)

Not necessarily disagreeing with an otherwise interesting article, just questioning that little piece of the puzzle.

Re: Train Like A Man, But Eat Like A Woman!

Chris Watkins — Wed, 02 Sep 2015 18:25:29 -0000

I've been discussing IF with a female friend, so thanks for the info.

I'm a guy, and I've started with very moderate fasts, usually around 14 hours, and found significant benefits from that. I'm actually going to scale back to 13 hours for a while (as I don't have a lot of fat to lose, and I'm still adjusting to the new eating patterns). What I'm wondering is, would that kind of short fast be safe for a woman if done regularly?

Re: Enjoying the feeling of agency

Chris Watkins — Fri, 28 Aug 2015 23:27:12 -0000

...and halfway through commenting on a blog post, Guest remembered something they'd avoided thinking about, and immediately went and did it.

Re: A Name Is A Name By Another Name – Don’t Bother

Chris Watkins — Mon, 10 Aug 2015 22:40:11 -0000

I mostly disagree - yes the product is more important, yes you can be successful with a boring name. But a name that intrigues people and suggests something that interests them is more likely to get attention, and be remembered and talked about.
I've found this in setting up the group "Self-Improvement For Nerds" as a way of connecting with people who might be interested in my lifecoaching work (and as a way of meeting interesting people and having a good time). The name really appeals and makes people laugh, and it describes well what we're about. I've mentioned it to strangers and had them join the FB group shortly afterwards. Part of the reason it's become such a lovely and interesting group is, I believe, the name.
Re Amazon and eBay, those are fantastic names - although they're not directly related to the product or service, they're so easy to say and easy to remember. For a large our fast-growing company (unlike my modest sized Self-Improvement for Nerds group) that can expect people to have repeated exposure to their branding, having an easy and recognisable name is more important than a name that explains what they do.
But I'm a life coach, not a business coach. And it's certainly possible to sweat way too much over the name.

Re: Amber Scott Hook Maggie Grown Up Pictures

Chris Watkins — Fri, 17 Apr 2015 12:58:30 -0000

Not knocking her, just that (photoshopped) image.

Re: Amber Scott Hook Maggie Grown Up Pictures

Chris Watkins — Thu, 09 Apr 2015 17:19:35 -0000

Also, the picture shown here is so highly photoshopped that it's deep in "uncanny valley" for me. Not only is physical beauty apparently the most important thing about her (according to this site, which I plan to avoid in future) but her actual appearance isn't good enough. We must be shown a bizarre non-human instead.

I just finished checking out "Strong is the New Pretty", a photographer celebrating her daughter's *as they are*, which gives me hope that we might get past the offensive drivel that refinery29 is using to attract clicks/views/revenue.

(I came to refinery29 to read about Grace Hopper, an amazing person. What a disappointment to then see this article.)

Edit to clarify: I have nothing at all against Amber or her appearance. This is a comment on the media and the artificial images that we're exposed to, and a comment on this specific heavily modified image.

Re: Pomodoro Poker

Chris Watkins — Thu, 19 Mar 2015 16:39:17 -0000

Is this actually Pomodoro Blackjack?

Re: Pomodoro Poker

Chris Watkins — Thu, 19 Mar 2015 16:35:22 -0000

If you have an Android device, "Screen On" or similar apps can also help (but won't help your battery).
Or to display just the current time with minimal impact on battery: "Night Clock".

Re: Tinder burnt my toast

Chris Watkins — Fri, 06 Mar 2015 16:43:52 -0000

Ah, I think I glanced at this and assumed it was the same as the newsletter.
Your list is good. For me, I'd have yoga, a mindfulness practice, swimming, long walks and making sure I get out and connect with people. And balanced eating.

Re: Tinder burnt my toast

Chris Watkins — Thu, 12 Feb 2015 01:06:51 -0000

I was curious about your list - the newsletter version said "Get back to doing the things you know keep you balance (or use my list)" but the link didn't work. I can guess yoga, mindfulness, exercise... but what else are you keeping from us? ;-)

Re: Roko’s Basilisk illustrates the problems with the LessWrong community

Chris Watkins — Sun, 18 Jan 2015 06:45:08 -0000

Which is why I put the "{{citation needed}}" after the quote - my main point was that I hadn't seen evidence of it being used that way. (It may be, but the writer didn't demonstrate it.)
My point that you take issue with was for clarification.

Re: ‘The Satanic Children’s Big Book of Activities’ is actually pretty cute | Dangerous Minds

Chris Watkins — Sun, 18 Jan 2015 06:39:00 -0000

Love it.
One important correction – this is untrue: "who as a “dot-org” appear to be a legitimate non-profit". Actually, anyone can register a dot-org.
But anyway, they're as legitimate as any other religion IMO, whether or not they're officially registered.

Re: Neil DeGrasse Tyson and the Myth of Islamic Anti Science

Chris Watkins — Thu, 11 Dec 2014 04:44:03 -0000

The blogger made a claim about what Wikipedia would make clear in 5 min, so I checked it out. Didn't add up.

Re: Roko’s Basilisk illustrates the problems with the LessWrong community

Chris Watkins — Wed, 10 Dec 2014 23:45:17 -0000

'responding to any mention of global warming with shouts of “politics is the mindkiller!”'{{citation needed}}
While I'm sure there'll be people who use the concept in this way, the intent is not at all that discussion of politics etc is bad. Quite the opposite. From the 'Politics is the Mind-Killer' post: "Politics is an important domain to which we should individually apply our rationality—but it's a terrible domain in which to learn rationality, or discuss rationality, unless all the discussants are already rational."

Re: Productivity through self-loyalty

Chris Watkins — Wed, 05 Nov 2014 06:15:59 -0000

This is one of the sanest things I've ever read. Treating ourselves as being made of parts with different values and goals is common in coaching and therapy, but this is an especially helpful perspective. Thank you.