Disqus - Latest Comments for MikeW

Re: Talking Turkey: Poetry Edition

MikeW — Wed, 23 Dec 2020 13:44:08 -0000

This is awful, and the fact that it's written in verse makes it obvious that this is not what was actually said.

Re: He Did His Research… But At What Cost?

MikeW — Sat, 14 Nov 2020 15:42:29 -0000

Definitely wasn't paying for these. They were anonymous tests at the university clinic. But it required:

-Make an appointment.
-Fill out a questionnaire.
-Talk to one of the counselors.
-Get blood drawn.
-Make a second appointment
-Come back a week later and talk with a counselor again to get your results.

Since graduating, I've instead just had a blood draw order at a medical lab every 6 months, ordered by the medical professional who prescribed a daily medication to reduce the odds of contracting that virus by 98%. No counseling required.

Re: He Did His Research… But At What Cost?

MikeW — Sat, 14 Nov 2020 15:38:16 -0000

OP here. While I knew I didn't have HIV, I'm also strongly opposed to lying about these things. So I'm going to put the actual date of my most recent test in the relevant field on the various apps, and that means wanting to keep things current or risking getting screened out by other guys who also take these things seriously.

Well, in normal times. I haven't had physical contact with another human since February, because yay pandemic.

This happened back in 2014 or so, but I was reminded of it after reading a story of another made counselor here.. Current CDC guidelines still state: "You should be tested at least once a year if you keep doing any of these things. Sexually active gay and bisexual men may benefit from more frequent testing (for example, every 3 to 6 months)."

Re: A Scan Scam

MikeW — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 20:25:31 -0000

Or....the customer service person could report it to management that the same cashier caused major problems for multiple customers?

Re: Don’t Sit At That (Vege)Table

MikeW — Tue, 18 Feb 2020 11:01:25 -0000

Or....realize that different words have different meanings in different countries?

In the US, what people in the UK call capsicum are called bell peppers. It's a known and recognized difference.

Insisting that another country change their word usage to suit your preferences is a bit ridiculous.

Re: A Special Kind Of Jerk

MikeW — Sun, 16 Feb 2020 11:02:38 -0000

It says the manager slammed her food on the counter as he told her to get out. Sounds like she got her food, so why would she need a refund?

Re: Don’t Sit At That (Vege)Table

MikeW — Sat, 15 Feb 2020 16:35:49 -0000

In what way?

Re: Don’t Sit At That (Vege)Table

MikeW — Sat, 15 Feb 2020 15:59:29 -0000

I'm the original poster. I have problems with nightshades. I will get physically ill from eggplant and any true peppers (bell or chili -- black pepper is fine). Others in my family also can't handle tomatoes, but I seem to have lucked out on those. I do still get a rash from peeling potatoes. Other than the potato rash, it's a GI problem, not a breathing problem, so it's more likely an intolerance, not an allergy. I'm uncomfortable claiming an allergy, because I don't need the cooking implements/surfaces cleaned or anything like that, and it's not life threatening, but I also can't simply pick the bits of those vegetables out. Whatever makes me sick leaks from the relevant vegetables during cooking, so the dish ends up, for lack of a better word, contaminated by it.

You would be amazed at the number of places that seem to think that peppers aren't an ingredient. I know better than to even try virtually any Mexican place, but I've found that most of the south/southeast Asian cuisines are really good about labeling ingredients, so even though I can only eat ~1/3 of the dishes at a Thai place, I'm comfortable going there because I know what's safe for me.

For the record, most of the dining hall employees are not students. Students frequently end up with jobs swiping the ID cards to get in, do some of the dishwashing jobs, and every so often there will be one serving food at a station. But almost everyone serving food at a station is actually a middle aged full time employee, as are basically all the cooks. This isn't an issue of a part time student worker being lazy; it's an issue of the employee not even trying to answer a perfectly reasonable question.

Re: Language Is Fluid

MikeW — Tue, 20 Aug 2019 18:02:36 -0000

On a new patient form at one doctor, they had one chart to fill in about potential allergic reactions: each row was a possible allergen, and the columns were things like "rash", "hives", "breathing difficulties", etc.

Then two pages later there was a chart about possible medications you might be taking, and how often you did so (it was prefaced with "How frequently do you take..."). Each row was a medication, and each column was....copied from the allergen chart.

Instead of declaring that the frequency with which I took aspirin was "rash", I circled the column headers and wrote "You need to proof read your forms".

That same office made me pick my race/ethnicity from a set of options. I walked up to the receptionist and said "It is impossible for me to answer this question correctly. You don't have a choice for White/Caucasian/European or whatever term you want to call it" She said "It's right....hmmm....look at that"

This experience did not engender a lot of confidence in that office.

Re: The Only Thing They’re Grabbing Is A Way To Get Kicked Out

MikeW — Sun, 16 Jun 2019 13:13:31 -0000

Commonly believed, but absolutely not true.

Knowingly giving false negative information can be a crime -- it can fall afoul of tortious interference -- but an accurate but negative statement is essentially always protected, and an opinion generally is as well.

Now there *are* legal protections against retaliation against whistleblowers, but those can be difficult to enforce, as retaliation can be done subtly.

Re: Not Giving You A-Ten-tion

MikeW — Sat, 16 Jun 2018 22:30:14 -0000

That is not how being in the top 10% overall works.

The top 10% overall across years is not calculated by averaging their ordinal placements for each year. It is found by getting their overall cumulative GPA, and ranking those cumulative GPAs.

It IS possible to be in the top 10% overall without ever being in the top 10% in an individual year, but it is quite unusual. For example, a particular student could be in the high 80 percentiles each year, and every year one of the students who had previously been in the top 10% ends up at, say, the 70th percentile for a particular year. But the math shown in these replies of averaging the percentiles across years is just not how the cumulative percentiles work.

Re: Moo-ved By Bonnie’s Plight

MikeW — Fri, 01 Jun 2018 17:31:21 -0000

I fundamentally do not understand why stating that you know you can't get cash back but were hoping for store credit is a red flag for a scam. To me, that just sounds like a customer being reasonable -- it's not like they pitched a fit over being told no or something.

Re: It’s Doctor Grammar!

MikeW — Wed, 09 May 2018 17:13:04 -0000

Being obscure, both English and German get it from French, though ultimately from Latin, where it essentially meant teacher first, and holder of the highest degree offered later on. Which is why we also have doctors of divinity, doctors of law, etc.

Re: It’s Doctor Grammar!

MikeW — Wed, 09 May 2018 16:32:16 -0000

That assumes one is a professor. That's not always the case, even in post-secondary. Sometimes classes are taught by graduate students or postdocs. Some places hire people as "instructors" or "academic specialists", reserving "professor" as a title just for someone on the tenure-track, or sometimes for the spousal hires that aren't tenure-track but are still more secure than adjuncts.

Re: It’s Doctor Grammar!

MikeW — Wed, 09 May 2018 15:24:15 -0000

A lot of it likely depends on the tone and the mannerism. I go by my first name when I'm teaching, since I'm dealing with either graduate students or college students, rather than high school or younger. But I do tell students that if they're uncomfortable calling me Mike, to call me Dr., not Mr. A large number of academics are the same. For me, at least, Mr/Ms/Mrs/Miss are titles granted entirely by what you're born; Dr. is a title granted by something you've earned. It also has the advantage of being gender-neutral and not having to guess at age or marital status.

Re: Does a bigger film production budget result in more ticket sales?

MikeW — Tue, 13 Jan 2015 18:04:15 -0000

A) Interesting.
B) I think your labels are misleading. You've labeled your axes as log(thing), but you didn't actually plot log(thing). You plotted thing on a log scale. If the log of the production budget were at least $1m, that would be one absolutely gigantic budget.

Re: So long, and thanks for all the fish

MikeW — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 11:33:51 -0000

I have to be amused that you go on hiatus with a dolphin reference. No picture of Darwin to join it?

Re: Obama wins Indiana; 19 still alive in contest

MikeW — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 13:52:24 -0000

For what it's worth, Julia, if McCain wins both NC and MO, you're got a decent chance in the tiebreaker. I picked a differential of 4.5, you picked 5.4, Evan picked 6.0, Eric picked 6.1, Ricardo picked 8.0. Therefore, you'd win tiebreaker number 4 if the actual popular vote differential is between 4.95 and 5.7, Evan wins from 5.7 to 6.05, and Eric wins from 6.05 to 7.05. (I actually debated submitting an updated entry where I changed my tiebreaker to a pick of 5.399 just to widen my range of victory conditions, but I chose not to do so). Still, 5.7 is close enough to the current estimate of 5.99 for it to be conceivable that you'd win after the recounts.

Re: Becky's 50th state

MikeW — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 14:04:47 -0000

When Becky starts visiting donkeys, Dane, we'll all be afraid.

Re: http://theoneblog.brendanloy.com/2008/10/enter-my-electoral-college-contest.html

MikeW — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 09:50:20 -0000

I disagree, Dane. There's no particular reason to assume that the final poll is the most accurate--it's still a single poll, and subject to statistical error just like the others. The most rational strategy would be to look at polls over the past several months from several polling outfits and track trend lines of support, taking into account margin or error from each poll in a state by state manner. That's essentially what I did last time; it's not what I've been doing this time, so I expect to be less accurate now.

Re: Apropos of nothing...

MikeW — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 18:38:33 -0000

Aww, I prefer the version involving background singers singing "Key Change"

Re: Wanted: Electoral College Contest beta-testers!

MikeW — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 12:51:41 -0000

That may well be true. I haven't been tracking the state by state polls this year to the level I did 4 years ago. I'm also having a very hard time finding any aggregation of poll data that also includes a margin of error statistic. I feel proper use of the margin of error was key to my prediction last time around.

Re: Six mid-majors still unbeaten

MikeW — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 12:31:51 -0000

And undefeated team #21, from the Pac-10, would be USC. You know, #1 in both polls and your alma mater...

Re: "You're asking Drew Stanton to run the option in Hurricane Katrina!"

MikeW — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 20:02:08 -0000

I believe the phrase is "nyah nyah nah nyah nyah" ;)

Re: "Crisis" on Wall Street; "day of reckoning" tomorrow

MikeW — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 01:29:44 -0000

Actually, Dane, you're wrong, unless you're defining terms differently than most do. For standard of living, if we look at GDP per capita, of the countries you listed only Norway comes out ahead of the US, which I presume is because of Norway's oil revenue. What statistic are you using for your assertion on overall health?