John BS @johnabs@social.cleverlibre.org

@freemo She is 100% the cutest. I will fight anyone who says otherwise 😂

@freemo

I agree with your assessment, but unfortunately she is quite autistic (and, in case it needs to be said, I adore her anyway). I wish it were simply a matter of cultural differences for her, but she is rather dependent on me to function in many situations due to both the autism and the other associated co-morbidities she posesses (severe ADHD to the point she can't drive, dyslexia, and she struggles with empathy as well).

I think that she would do better in places with public transportation, and less dangerous travel methods, hence my desire to move to Holland; my hope is the she may be able to live a "more normal" life there.

I also think she may do better in cultures with flatter, more explicit social structures and direct communication, but I think that's a function of her difficulty with "putting herself in other's shoes". I often have to try to explain things to her, things I had to learn via "random search" and direct observation, which do not come naturally to either of us. Of course, this is exacerbated in countries with implicit social rules (e.g. the US and Japan), but I doubt it completely vanishes elsewhere.

Fortunately, many countries are forgiving of foreigners who are learning the ropes, and while it is neither of our intention's to impose ourselves on the patience of others (especially if we are non-citizens of their country) it certainly helps to have a buffer when learning the how to behave in a new culture, especially when it doesn't come naturally to you in the first place.

@trinsec I'm legitimately looking at future post-doc and tenure track opportunities at different universities in Holland 🤞.

I, fortunately, was able to speak to an undergrad exchange student about his experience, but would you be willing to provide your perspective/suggestions for good universities to work for in the Netherlands?

@freemo My wife was recently diagnosed...which I think explains a lot about me, our relationship, and my childhood lmao

I went on a lovely, hour-long bike-ride with my wife today. Despite being largely sedentary for most of the pandemic (and gaining some weight in the process), and I can gladly say it was totally worth it, and I'm hoping to try to actually commute more this way in the future.

The only problem is all the cars which could mangle my flesh into a gooey pile without a second thought...Ah Holland, how I long for thy safer cycling infrastructure 😩 😂

@freemo "When in Rome" amirite?😂

@barefootstache If you haven't tried it out yet, I heavily suggest trying out RMarkdown. You can use LaTeX/HTML templates with it, and use a vim compiler script (I used to invoke with leader+c) which will auto-compile my rmarkdown all the way to its final pdf/html forms. (Though now I use org-babel, which is also super nice)

@barefootstache I'm glad we agree on allowing and encouraging people to do their own research, but I think you may have misunderstood the crux of my statement (or I am misunderstanding your last point).

My primary concern is with the fact that many (primarily primary care) physicians do not continue reading medical literature after leaving medical school (and who can blame them to be honest, they're incredibly over-worked). Additionally, the article I mentioned in my first post was a peer reviewed study in a medical journal, so it wasn't missed by scientists, but doctors.

It's the science to doctor disconnect that I was primarily trying to hone in on here, which I think can be remedied by helping patients advocate for themselves by bringing peer-reviewed literature to their primary care physician to get their opinion. Hopefully this should aid in reducing the amount of money and hours wasted on ineffectual treatments that may prolong patient suffering. Fortunately in my wife's case, the necessary intervention didn't require medical supervision/inaccessible pharmaceuticals. However, when these become barriers, having a doctor on your side who will take a look at literature you believe may be relevant to your condition (if it has yet eluded diagnosis) may be a patient's best or only chance to get adequate treatment.

@barefootstache Not to be "that guy", but there are certainly instances in which trained medical professionals do not take patient concerns seriously, which leads to situations of informed, scientifically minded individuals taking their health into their own hands and succeeding.

E.g. my wife had fibromyalgia at a very early age. It runs in her family; all her female immediate family members have it. Many doctors dismissed their pain as young children as depression, when in fact, they had every symptom including the tender-points which are practically used for confirmation of diagnosis. Years later, I (a biochemist at the time) found a hidden gem of an article that showed a strong link between non-coeliac gluten sensitivity (a currently under-researched physiological condition) and fibromyalgia. My wife and her mother are both feeling substantially better now after adopting a gluten free diet, and don't suffer with brain fog, confusion, pain, ataxia, etc.

So while I didn't pioneer the study myself, I did find something that is widely unknown by primary care physicians, which may help impact the lives of others with fibromyalgia. I understand this comic is pointed at all the COVID deniers etc. but let's not discount the potential benefit of (even untrained) individuals actually reading into scientific literature.

@freemo @Science The even worse part is that we teach children that math is just basic arithmetic, and have completely divorced logic from the curriculum. I think that honestly explains a lot of what we're seeing now society, and it's unfortunately not contained wholly to any political persuasion. There's also the idea that absolute truth does not exist, which is an even more pernicious and nasty root of societal and cultural collapse.

Ultimately, I think math is an extension of logic, but since we completely ignore the latter and its fundamental utility to living a good and decent life, we turn people off from it from an early age, which leaves them vulnerable to these forms of manipulation.

@freemo @Science Speaking of which, I recently heard of the various false convictions caused by statistical "malpractice" by prosecutors, the FBI, and "expert" witnesses. There's also the work of the man responsible for defending big tobacco against cancer claims and big oil from climate change, and impeding/reversing progress in these areas.

Here are a few examples:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosecutor%27s_fallacy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally_Clark

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucia_de_Berk

@mc @freemo https://xkcd.com/419/ But replace spoons and forks, with plates and boards.

Be warned, you're meddling with smorgas-forces you barely comprehend.

@lucifargundam Same lmao, I honestly just wish people would see how horrible FB is (especially considering all the whistleblowers) and just drop it already, there are so many better (read: non curated, privacy respecting, non spying) alternatives now that there is really no excuse IMO.

@lucifargundam thanks! I agree, but I doubt it's going to happen. There's just too much of a network effect currently, and they keep buying up competitors...it's a nightmare :/

Well it's official, today I delete my Facebook account. Bloody finally lmao

For anyone interested in a super awesome emacs config, I have a channel you may be interested in. I heavily suggest checking out some of these utilities like email, org-mode, the editor, etc. They're seriously excellent, especially with "evil" mode.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aml36yZ-ANc

@freemo There's a lovely local place in Indiana called Triple XXX (or 9 Xs?) which makes both excellent root-beer and surprisingly good peanut butter burgers. Not a combo I thought I would like but it tasted great despite the likely effects on my arteries lmao.

@freemo If you like bass, you'll love Geoff.

https://www.youtube.com/c/GeoffCastellucci

Here's his channel, and prepare your anus. The strength of his base and reverb has been known to cause involuntary bowel movements😂

I am a new, proud owner of an xmonad configuration that behaves like dwm but isn't buggy and regularly forgets to update my clock and other bar related stuff (yay Haskell!).

I tried to include screenshots but it didn't let me 😂.

I'm glad my brain finally kicked in to high gear to understand the world's coolest (and likely toughest) programming language so I could get this wrapped up xD

@GNUxeava @chjara@mk.absturztau.be Thank you, but I actually just figured it out! At least part of it xD