Well-Actually War Trall Actaeon Posted November 5, 2012 Share Posted November 5, 2012 Experience has taught me that this topic is far more polarizing than you might suspect. I have my suspicions as to what the community at large will think, but I'm curious, anyway: to what extent do you feel human behavior dictated by the patterns of the natural world? Do you, like me, feel like taking a nap when a big storm system is moving in? Are increased ER visits and arrests on full moons a statistical coincidence? Do you crave different food in February than you do in July? Could the time of year you were born actually have a bearing on your personality? Are spring and fall times of change for you personally? Is November melancholy everywhere? Is April actually the cruellest month? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Understated Ur-Drakon Callie Posted November 5, 2012 Share Posted November 5, 2012 Big storms make me hyper, especially if there is lightning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Well-Actually War Trall Harehunter Posted November 5, 2012 Share Posted November 5, 2012 Big storms didn't used to bother me until hurricane Ike flooded my house, and then six months later we got flooded again. Now I worry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Easygoing Eyebeast Goldengirl Posted November 5, 2012 Share Posted November 5, 2012 I understand what each of your individual questions means, more or less (although I'm a little unsure by what you mean for "cruellest month" for April) but I'm still confused as to what the general theme you're aiming at. Are you insinuating that the time of the year has a causal effect on behavior? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Well-Actually War Trall Actaeon Posted November 5, 2012 Author Share Posted November 5, 2012 Time of year, phase of the moon, barometric pressure. The whole nine yards. I'm not sure I'd go so far as to insinuate that it effects ALL human behavior. A lot of people I talk to think I'm nuts to even suggest such a thing. Others think it's so obvious it doesn't even bear asking. And not all of the latter are outdoorsy or into astrology or hippies or all three. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Well-Actually War Trall Harehunter Posted November 5, 2012 Share Posted November 5, 2012 Ever wonder where the expression "the whole nine yards" came from? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Well-Actually War Trall Balladeer Posted November 5, 2012 Share Posted November 5, 2012 Do you, like me, feel like taking a nap when a big storm system is moving in? No I like to watch out the window or go tornado chasing. Are increased ER visits and arrests on full moons a statistical coincidence? No, though I consider this more of a social phenomenon than something caused by none of the moon being shaded by the earth. People just thinking that a full moon does weird things to a person will incline those people to do things they would consider weird. Do you crave different food in February than you do in July? Yes, more from the temperature. I like hot foods when I am cold and cold foods when I am hot. Gotta regulate, you know. Could the time of year you were born actually have a bearing on your personality? Eh, I don't buy into this but I suppose it is possible. At least for places that have perceptible changes of seasons. If the first six months of a child's life is spent indoors or swaddled in blankets they may have a different disposition from a child who spends the first six months with more outdoor time in short sleeves. Switch this to the 6-12 month age when kids are starting to walk and gain their freedom of movement, always being bundled up at this age may make for a more subdued child, possibly, or a more cantankerous one... Are spring and fall times of change for you personally? Sort of, it's more revolving around summer though, and again it is a socially based. End of spring means kids stay home from school, big change in schedules and activities. Beginning of fall kids go back to school and the change is reversed and I breathe a sigh of relief. Is November melancholy everywhere? Not for me. Is April actually the cruelest month? Not for me. Though April has been cruel before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Well-Actually War Trall A less presumptuous name. Posted November 5, 2012 Share Posted November 5, 2012 Are increased ER visits and arrests on full moons a statistical coincidence? Self-fulfilling prophecies explain many superstitions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Easygoing Eyebeast keira Posted November 5, 2012 Share Posted November 5, 2012 Alternatively, it's lighter outside because full moon, making people more likely to do stuff outside, and doing stuff makes you more likely to need the ER or get arrested. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnificent Ornk Dikiyoba Posted November 5, 2012 Share Posted November 5, 2012 Are increased ER visits and arrests on full moons a statistical coincidence? Dikiyoba is pretty sure that all "full moon cases more X" are myths. At best, the results are inconclusive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ineffable Wingbolt Mosquito---Slayer Posted November 5, 2012 Share Posted November 5, 2012 I have my exams in both April and November so they are both quite cruel for me , when a storm comes my first reaction is to try to go to the roof avoiding my mom's eyes or else she won't let me. However I do not in general agree with this weather/moon affecting your behavior, our behavior is determined by who we are as a person and what circumstances are we facing at the moment ,as such weather may have an effect on the circumstances , but that's just about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Well-Actually War Trall Cairo Jim Posted November 5, 2012 Share Posted November 5, 2012 Are increased ER visits and arrests on full moons a statistical coincidence? Yes. Do you crave different food in February than you do in July? Since July is in winter I tend to eat more spicier foods than normal. Are spring and fall times of change for you personally? Nope. Is November melancholy everywhere? Late spring and you're melancholy? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnificent Ornk Student of Trinity Posted November 5, 2012 Share Posted November 5, 2012 Moon: I'd go with Dikiyoba on this. In case of weird phenomena, it is usually worth double-checking the fact itself before trying to explain it. If this one did hold up, though, I'd buy Sylae's answer. Spring and Fall are times of change because it's the beginning or end of semester. I like November, but it is a dark month in the Northern hemisphere, without a major holiday. I don't know about naps and storms. I don't often have cravings for foods, but I'm especially unlikely to crave ice cream in February. Too cold. I don't know about the cruelty of April, but the specific charges Eliot laid under that heading were breeding lilacs, stirring dull roots with rain, and removing the blanket of forgetful snow; and the effect of those things, to mix memory and desire. Eliot wasn't talking about April, but about the people for whom those things are cruel. (I hadn't re-read The Waste Land in a long time, and I had forgotten about all the early lines in German, which I guess I never understood before. So I never appreciated the initial viewpoint in the poem, of a Baltic German woman who remembered an aristocratic youth in Tsarist Lithuania but would presumably in 1922 have been in stateless exile, clinging to her identity, remembering the world from a vanished perspective. For an English poem written just after the Great War, this was a beginning with a lot of layers.) Malcolm Gladwell has pointed out that the time of year in which you are born can have dramatic, life-long consequences, because it determines your biological age relative to your peers in school and in sports. A ridiculous proportion of professional hockey players, for instance, have birthdays in the same month (I think it's January). Gladwell argues that this is because that made them the biggest and most developed players in their years, and that edge gave them enthusiasm for the game, and also drew more coaching attention. The origin of the phrase 'whole nine yards' is apparently quite obscure. I've been told that it was the traditional length for a kilt, but this is absurd. Four or five yards would be oodles for a kilt, even with all the pleating. According to a few online sites, including Snopes, the phrase first appeared in print in the late 1950's, in the United States. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hatchling Cockatrice Randomizer Posted November 5, 2012 Share Posted November 5, 2012 Some schools also have students held back for kindergarten enrollment so they will be slightly older than their peers. It gives them a slight advantage for sports for size and supposedly they will do better academically. If you live in the US, then April can be cruel because the tax man cometh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Understated Ur-Drakon Sudanna Posted November 5, 2012 Share Posted November 5, 2012 Actually, if a school has a policy regarding kindergarten enrollment at all, it's usually to prohibit it. Some parents will withhold a child from school for a year, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnificent Ornk Student of Trinity Posted November 5, 2012 Share Posted November 5, 2012 Update: It seems that perhaps "the whole nine yards" may have something to do with kilts after all. The current leading guess as to the origin seems to be that it came from an old bawdy joke that started out with a kilt, and a punchline about there being "eight more yards" of cloth extra, besides what got made into the kilt. According to the 2005 reminiscence of an old US Navy pilot, a garbled version of the joke was current in naval flight school in 1955, with the original premise about a length of cloth that had been more than eight yards in length translated into a scarf that was exactly nine yards in full. This fifty-year-old memory has "the whole nine yards" as the punchline of the garbled version. The full context of the joke also makes it kind of funny, for anyone who has heard the joke, to refer to any impressively long item as 'the whole nine yards'. So it's plausible that the joke could have launched the expression. Conversely, if the expression had already existed at the time the joke was current, it would have kind of ruined the joke. It would be tough to track down hard evidence for an off-color joke from the late 1950s, even if the joke became popular enough for its punchline to take flight as an independent expression. But that is the kind of way expressions get going. One can certainly doubt a fifty-year-old memory, but other than that, this origin theory is the only one that seems to actually fit the time frame to which the expression has been tracked in print. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ineffable Wingbolt Mosquito---Slayer Posted November 5, 2012 Share Posted November 5, 2012 Malcolm Gladwell has pointed out that the time of year in which you are born can have dramatic, life-long consequences, because it determines your biological age relative to your peers in school and in sports. A ridiculous proportion of professional hockey players, for instance, have birthdays in the same month (I think it's January). Gladwell argues that this is because that made them the biggest and most developed players in their years, and that edge gave them enthusiasm for the game, and also drew more coaching attention. Here's another interesting article about the same thing in school performance. http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/3908770/.html While I do not find any fault with the theory in general, I am not totally convinced that this theory is in heart related to Actaeon's question, the thing is that these performance variations are happening due to man made favorable conditions for some and not for others , for example if they somehow changed the hockey age cut off criterion to March 1 then we would expect people born in March to be much more dominant in the sport, so in essence this domination is not a function of when you are born but rather what the cut off for your age is, The real question in my opinion will be that given all man made factors are identical and the differences exist only due to natural sources (like say weather ) will there be a difference in what people manage to accomplish and what their behavior is like and personally the answer for me will be NO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ineffable Wingbolt BMA Posted November 5, 2012 Share Posted November 5, 2012 I don't believe in astrology, basically because I don't know enough about it. But I do occasionally peep into the Your-Fortune columns of the weeklies I've subscribed to, and wow over the coincidences. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnificent Ornk Student of Trinity Posted November 5, 2012 Share Posted November 5, 2012 Astrology isn't the same thing as time of year, though. The planet orbits all have different periods, and the exact motion of the moon is very complex, because it is affected significantly by both the Earth and the Sun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Understated Ur-Drakon The Almighty Doer of Stuff Posted November 5, 2012 Share Posted November 5, 2012 "Hello, this is Lesley Down with the Daily Home Astrology Report. Taurus, contemplate domestic turmoil. Aquarius, abandon hope for future plans." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Understated Ur-Drakon Callie Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 Facebook lets you ignore apps people use. Half the apps I ignore are astrology apps. Get your pseudoscience off my lawn! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Well-Actually War Trall Actaeon Posted November 6, 2012 Author Share Posted November 6, 2012 I think there's a difference between the assertion that the time of year you were born might shape your behavior, and the idea that the position of planets and stars millions of miles away has a day-to-day effect on our behavior. If astrology in the latter sense was true, we'd all be having remarkably similar experiences. Like meeting a three ton Rhinoceros called Desmond. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ineffable Wingbolt Mosquito---Slayer Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 Actually astrology in India sort of includes effects resulting from what time of year were you born, I think BMA was referring to that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnificent Ornk Student of Trinity Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 Hey, you know Desmond, too? Amazing. Give him a whack on the horn from me, will you? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ineffable Wingbolt BMA Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 Astrology isn't the same thing as time of year, though. The planet orbits all have different periods, and the exact motion of the moon is very complex, because it is affected significantly by both the Earth and the Sun. I think there's a difference between the assertion that the time of year you were born might shape your behavior, and the idea that the position of planets and stars millions of miles away has a day-to-day effect on our behavior. But I don't quite understand that. The two aren't mutually exclusive. The time (of birth) itself is a variable to the function which determines the position of the planets on their respective axes. Is November melancholy everywhere? Nope. November is the coolest month of the year; one I always look forward to after the September heat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ineffable Wingbolt Mosquito---Slayer Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 But I don't quite understand that. The two aren't mutually exclusive. The time (of birth) itself is a variable to the function which determines the position of the planets on their respective axes. They certainly aren't exclusive, but basically it's only time which can (or so we are debating in the form) change the life of a person, for example A baby cries after it is born and that is only a function of the fact that she was born at that time regardless of the fact that she being born at that time fixed the position of stars and planets on her/his birth. P.S : @ADoS your signature(posts?) block my access to the forums from my college LAN , what deep and dark secrets do you hide in them that only a firewall can detect? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnificent Ornk Student of Trinity Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 If you're born on December 1st in 1990, the planets are in one set of places. If you're born at the same time of year in 1992, they're in different places. Astrology is about the planets, though I think it probably also cares about the time of year, as one factor among many. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Understated Ur-Drakon The Almighty Doer of Stuff Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 Um... I don't know. It says "Boob" but that's the name of a character from a Beatles movie. If your college's firewall is so sensitive that it blocks the word "Boob" I can't help but fear for your college's students' quality of education. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Easygoing Eyebeast keira Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 P.S : @ADoS your signature(posts?) block my access to the forums from my college LAN , what deep and dark secrets do you hide in them that only a firewall can detect? You can disable signatures on a per-person basis, you know. Also you should really consider ssh tunneling or some other method of encrypting your content stream, sadly it doesn't seem like these forums are chill with https. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ineffable Wingbolt Mosquito---Slayer Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 How is a firewall related to the quality of education? @Sylae how can I do it, will you give me the steps? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnificent Ornk Student of Trinity Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 How is a college that thinks its students can't handle the word 'boob' going to train them to confront any really challenging ideas? Maybe it's legitimate for a college not to want its servers bogging down in the search for porn. I'd like to think that a good college could swing a system sophisticated enough not to confuse these forums with a porn site, though. BMA 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ineffable Wingbolt Mosquito---Slayer Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 Ummm , by teaching them state of the art semiconductor technology and digital design principles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnificent Ornk Student of Trinity Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 And AI that thinks ADoS's signature makes this a porn site? Don't put that part on your resumé. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ineffable Wingbolt Mosquito---Slayer Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 The college doesn't really care about these forums or the fact that I visit them , it's got more important issues to deal with, like say semiconductor technologies and digital design principles plus there is a good chance that documents containing the word 'boob' aren't really related to the studies, and for all I know they certainly aren't essential to studies for an electronics engineer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Understated Ur-Drakon Sudanna Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 Apparently it cares enough to block ADoS's signature. What we're saying is that censorship is bad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Easygoing Eyebeast keira Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 How is a firewall related to the quality of education? @Sylae how can I do it, will you give me the steps? ssh -D 10000 username@server.not.inside.college.net then tell your browser to use a SOCKSv5 proxy at 127.0.0.1 port 10000 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ineffable Wingbolt Mosquito---Slayer Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 What we're saying is that censorship is bad. True, but preventing students from accessing potential porn, sorry that's not all that bad from a colleges side. @Sylae sorry for not making it clear, I meant how can I disable somebody's signature. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ineffable Wingbolt BMA Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 I use Your Freedom to access firewall-blocked websites. it's nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Easygoing Eyebeast keira Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 hover over a signature, then look for the x on the right-hand side of the page Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Understated Ur-Drakon Sudanna Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 True, but preventing students from accessing potential porn, sorry that's not all that bad from a colleges side. I can't see how it's anything a college would be concerned with in the first place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ineffable Wingbolt BMA Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 (Edit : Sniped) Related question : My Chrome seems to be randomly auto-applying a different font and a smaller font size whenever I make a post (but not always). Is it something I'm doing or is it a bug ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ineffable Wingbolt Mosquito---Slayer Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 I can't see how it's anything a college would be concerned with in the first place. If you are using the internet facility provided by the college and they are paying approx. $200,000 for it every year, I suspect they will be very very concerned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Well-Actually War Trall Rowen Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 Are spring and fall times of change for you personally? Now that Daylight savings time has started the sun sets at 4:25ish p.m. in the afternoon. With the time change the University of Idaho's counselling center makes sun lamps available to students to use to help prevent or lessen the effects of seasonal depression. I've been using them since my sophomore year here since I only get about an hour of natural sunlight most days due to my class scheduled. Sunlight makes a slight difference in my daily mood, but a huge difference in my long term perspective during the winter. Seasons can effect you, and there are ways to balance those effects too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ineffable Wingbolt BMA Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 (Edit : Sniped again. I'm so slow.) Isn't it more like the college doesn't want it's students to waste their time away on porn when they could be doing so much more productive things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Well-Actually War Trall Balladeer Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 hover over a signature, then look for the x on the right-hand side of the page Why can't I ignore your siggy, Sy? Not that I'd want to, just sayin the x isn't there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rotghroth Rhapsody The Reverend Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 Isn't it more like the college doesn't want it's students to waste their time away on porn when they could be doing so much more productive things. Like drinking beer? No, I must resist the temptation to turn this into another thread about beverages ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnificent Ornk Dikiyoba Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 Why can't I ignore your siggy, Sy? Not that I'd want to, just sayin the x isn't there. It appears that moderator signatures can't be ignored on an individual basis. Weird, but there you go. Dikiyoba. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnificent Ornk Student of Trinity Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 Woo hoo, the bully pulpit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Well-Actually War Trall Actaeon Posted November 6, 2012 Author Share Posted November 6, 2012 Like drinking beer? No, I must resist the temptation to turn this into another thread about beverages ... Someone should just go ahead and make a dedicated thread. Not me, I don't know a thing about them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Understated Ur-Drakon Tyranicus Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 Someone should just go ahead and make a dedicated thread. Not me, I don't know a thing about them. I'm impressed that you have lived as long as you have without drinking a single thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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