Random Thoughts

[Dreamstalker]

I think I need to switch to water or phasechange cooling. When my 'quiet' computer fans are louder than my desk fan there's something wrong...

[greek_jester]

The first is "There Are Monsters," which has that nice bit of subtly-off atmosphere. A couple of jumpscares, but imo, they work because they build off that unsettling atmosphere.

The second is "Still Life," which is good for those who find mannequins creepy, and evokes the Weeping Angels from Doctor Who, in a way, and the ending changes everything.

Do you have links for either of these, please? Googling returned way too many hits.

The found footage one sounded interesting, but I didn't fancy hugging a toilet bowl again when I got travel sick (kind of breaks the mood a bit).

[Pixelated]

It occurred to me, in retrospect, that "OHMYGAWD IT'S ALIVE!!" is probably not something my neighbours wanted to hear while I was poking through the overgrown back garden ...

[Dreamstalker]

When doing renovation work in a bathroom (the apartment above ours), SOP is to turn off the water for that time or at least inform adjoining units of the exact nature of the work, correct?

Instead mom got home this afternoon to find black water gushing down the wall (the same wall of the electrical outlet oops last year) when they apparently broke a pipe while replacing the floor (the black stuff is likely underfloor mold from the minor flood in that unit last year which trickled down to us). And mom thought my comment of "our renters insurance is paid up right?" upon hearing of the planned work was sarcasm. 8AM-4PM all week this is going on. I wonder if my manager will let me start work early for a few days?

[Jay 2K Winger]

Do you have links for either of these, please? Googling returned way too many hits.

The found footage one sounded interesting, but I didn't fancy hugging a toilet bowl again when I got travel sick (kind of breaks the mood a bit).

There Are Monsters

Still Life

[Pixelated]

When doing renovation work in a bathroom (the apartment above ours), SOP is to turn off the water for that time or at least inform adjoining units of the exact nature of the work, correct?

*snip*

I am absolutely not an expert in home renovations/repairs, but that would seem to me to be a no-brainer.

Although it sounds as if the person(s) actually doing the work did not, in fact, have any brains, or at least weren't using them.

[Pixelated]

Early in the evening, I brewed myself a blend of two teas: one is a blend of white/jasmine green/oolong tea, and I added to that some jasmine white.

What little is left has now cooled to room temperature.

My cat just stuck his nose into the cup and started drinking it.

[Dreamstalker]

I am absolutely not an expert in home renovations/repairs, but that would seem to me to be a no-brainer.

Mom's comment when I told her the same thing: "They weren't planning on breaking the pipe." Doesn't matter IMO...

Management posted notices about the fact that work was going on, but all they would say was "some units" (there are ~27 in this building). The building dates from the 50s and has some infrastructure 'quirks' to begin with as seen by what happened last year--I'd expect the bathroom ceiling was weakened by that--and we recently found more suspect stains on the back hallway ceiling (we think the previous renters would leave trash bags on the floor).

The contractor they tend to use isn't the brightest...the last time the unit above ours was on the market they were painting it at 3AM in clear violation of both building and town quiet hour policy.

[AnaKhouri]

Read a 'feminist review' of Ghost in the Shell (the anime movies). Remind me to never do that again.

[Kittish]

I'm sure everyone here is familiar with the endless memes and jokes about how women are bad drivers. Right? If that's so... why are auto insurance rates lower for women than for men? Across pretty much all age ranges, though the gap is biggest at the younger ranges.

If you start looking at accident statistics, women are notably better drivers than men. Involved in fewer accidents, the cause of fewer accidents and far less likely to be DUI or speeding.

Are male egos really so fragile that they have to insist that (insert much chest thumping and grunting) "I man. I drive gud! You not man, you drive not gud!"?

[Kittish]

That seedling I sprouted last month isn't your typical houseplant, as it turns out....and mom's giving me care-and-feeding advice

Er... then what is it?

[wolfie]

If you start looking at accident statistics, women are notably better drivers than men. Involved in fewer accidents, the cause of fewer accidents and far less likely to be DUI or speeding.

Are they raw statistics, or have they been filtered to account for different driving patterns by men and women (i.e. picking "matched pairs" of men and women with the same driving pattern)? Going by raw statistics (total miles driven by men divided by total fuel used by men, same for women), women get FAR better fuel economy than men - but failing to make a correction renders such a study meaningless. Rule of thumb for personal use of a vehicle is 1000 miles/month, and a typical car gets between 25 and 35 MPG. Rules of thumb in the trucking industry are that a single drives 10,000 miles/month, and an 18 wheeler gets 6 MPG. Roughly 95% of truck drivers are men. See how that can skew the average fuel economy?

[Kittish]

Are they raw statistics, or have they been filtered to account for different driving patterns by men and women (i.e. picking "matched pairs" of men and women with the same driving pattern)?

That's a really good question, and I'm not entirely certain of the answer. Further research is suggesting that the answer may be yes and no, depending on exactly what statistic you're looking at.

For example, per million miles driven between men and women, fatality rates are almost double for men. Men are also more than 3 times more likely to get reckless driving and DUI tickets, in spite of averaging only slightly more than double the total miles driven annually. So, yes, those are filtered.

The overall accident rate often cited by insurers may not be, however, simply stating that women are involved in fewer accidents annually than men. The only apparently filtered breakdown I found was suspect- an earlier comment in the article suggested that the total number of licensed female drivers used to derive the statistic was too low by about two million. Using the numbers given, the accident rate per x number of licensed drivers was close to equal per gender, favoring male drivers by a tiny percentage. If you use the higher number of licensed female drivers, that percentage tilts to favor women.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Are male egos really so fragile that they have to insist that (insert much chest thumping and grunting) "I man. I drive gud! You not man, you drive not gud!"?

Without consulting any real statistics, I can say that "Yes. Yes, Men (as a whole) are exactly that ego-fragile."

Individual cases may be different, but as a whole, our egos are exactly that fragile.

[wolfie]

For example, per million miles driven between men and women, fatality rates are almost double for men. Men are also more than 3 times more likely to get reckless driving and DUI tickets, in spite of averaging only slightly more than double the total miles driven annually. So, yes, those are filtered.

Remember that "statistics skewer" I mentioned? If someone gets in an accident (even a minor "fender bender") on average every 60,000 miles, for an ordinary person that would be once every 5 years. I haven't heard of any insurance companies offering an "accident-free" discount that improves past 4 years, so such a person would be golden. For a trucker, that would be an average of 2 accidents a year - and they wouldn't stay a trucker for long. Also, reckless driving or DUI is a career-ending charge.

From the statistics I quoted above, that would mean that a lot of the total mileage for men is accounted for by people with a lower than average rate of accidents and serious charges - so once truckers are filtered out the stats for men get even worse.