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@mina @photovotary @RickiTarr To those people who value having been hit as a child, I would ask, “Did it work?”

I was an impulsive, adventurous kid. I got into fights, I stole stuff, I broke stuff, I set stuff on fire… I got spanked a *lot*!

I remember many, many times that I did things that were punished with a spanking.

I *don’t* remember thinking, even *once*, “I’d better not do this, I’m going to get spanked!”

I *do* remember conversations:
- The one where my mom talked to me about my experiment with smoking when I was nine. No spanking, just a good argument against it, in terms that made sense to me at the time.
- The one where she sat me down with some pamphlets from the fire department (I was playing with matches and so forth) and talked about her fears for the consequences of my fascination with flame.
- The ones that reminded me of the value of treating other people with respect, love, and empathy.

Spanking, even by caring, compassionate parents that were clearly trying to guide their children to do the right thing, didn’t work. I never felt any kind of resentment against my parents. After the fact, I fully agreed that whatever I had done warranted the punishment. I suppose it helped that my father would always come and talk to me, after I had had a chance to think about it. He would make it clear that it was only about my actions, and not indicative of any lack of love for me. The punishment was compartmentalized nicely.

Oddly, I’m thankful for that lesson, because it guided my own parenting. I realized that *my* urge to spank my kids was all about me, acting rash in the moment, as opposed to any kind of effective strategy to mold young minds. I could only imagine I would feel regret in the aftermath, and not achieved anything other than the possible resentment of me by my kids. To be clear, *I* never felt that resentment for my parents. But I did notice it wasn’t an effective deterrent.

Maybe it works for kids that are less impulsive than I was. But I think those kids would be even more receptive to a conversation than I was. Maybe try that instead.

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@mina @photovotary @RickiTarr To those people who value having been hit as a child, I would ask, “Did it work?”

I was an impulsive, adventurous kid. I got into fights, I stole stuff, I broke stuff, I set stuff on fire… I got spanked a *lot*!

I remember many, many times that I did things that were punished with a spanking.

I *don’t* remember thinking, even *once*, “I’d better not do this, I’m going to get spanked!”

I *do* remember conversations:
- The one where my mom talked to me about my experiment with smoking when I was nine. No spanking, just a good argument against it, in terms that made sense to me at the time.
- The one where she sat me down with some pamphlets from the fire department (I was playing with matches and so forth) and talked about her fears for the consequences of my fascination with flame.
- The ones that reminded me of the value of treating other people with respect, love, and empathy.

Spanking, even by caring, compassionate parents that were clearly trying to guide their children to do the right thing, didn’t work. I never felt any kind of resentment against my parents. After the fact, I fully agreed that whatever I had done warranted the punishment. I suppose it helped that my father would always come and talk to me, after I had had a chance to think about it. He would make it clear that it was only about my actions, and not indicative of any lack of love for me. The punishment was compartmentalized nicely.

Oddly, I’m thankful for that lesson, because it guided my own parenting. I realized that *my* urge to spank my kids was all about me, acting rash in the moment, as opposed to any kind of effective strategy to mold young minds. I could only imagine I would feel regret in the aftermath, and not achieved anything other than the possible resentment of me by my kids. To be clear, *I* never felt that resentment for my parents. But I did notice it wasn’t an effective deterrent.

Maybe it works for kids that are less impulsive than I was. But I think those kids would be even more receptive to a conversation than I was. Maybe try that instead.

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Regarding the pronunciation of “GIF”:

The creator of the format, Steve Wilhite, pronounced it with a soft “g.” Apparently this pronunciation is even specified in the tech specs for the format. He was riffing on a Jif peanut-butter advertising slogan, “Choosy mothers choose Jif,” by saying “Choosy programmers choose GIF.”

If you insist that “GIF” be pronounced with a hard g, because of some misguided insistence that acronyms must follow the pronunciation of the expanded phrase, missing the joke, AND ignoring the tech specs, for God’s sake, then I will insist that you also use the following pronunciations:

COVID: | ˌkōvīd | (“covyde”), as the “VI” is short for virus, with a long i.
SCUBA: | ˈskəbə | (“skubba”), as the U stands for “underwater,” which is pronounced with a short u.
LASER: | ˈlasir | (“lasseer”), as the A stands for amplfication (short a), the S for simulated (“sss” not “zzz”), and the E stands for emission (usually a long e, but debatable, okay)
YOLO: | ˈyōlwə | (“yole-wuh”) as the final O stands for “once”, with the o taking on a wuh sound.
POTUS: | ‘pätyo͞os | (“pot-use”) as the O stands for “office” (ah) and the U stands for “United” (you).

#GIF #Grammar #PeanutButterJokes #Etymology

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Regarding the pronunciation of “GIF”:

The creator of the format, Steve Wilhite, pronounced it with a soft “g.” Apparently this pronunciation is even specified in the tech specs for the format. He was riffing on a Jif peanut-butter advertising slogan, “Choosy mothers choose Jif,” by saying “Choosy programmers choose GIF.”

If you insist that “GIF” be pronounced with a hard g, because of some misguided insistence that acronyms must follow the pronunciation of the expanded phrase, missing the joke, AND ignoring the tech specs, for God’s sake, then I will insist that you also use the following pronunciations:

COVID: | ˌkōvīd | (“covyde”), as the “VI” is short for virus, with a long i.
SCUBA: | ˈskəbə | (“skubba”), as the U stands for “underwater,” which is pronounced with a short u.
LASER: | ˈlasir | (“lasseer”), as the A stands for amplfication (short a), the S for simulated (“sss” not “zzz”), and the E stands for emission (usually a long e, but debatable, okay)
YOLO: | ˈyōlwə | (“yole-wuh”) as the final O stands for “once”, with the o taking on a wuh sound.
POTUS: | ‘pätyo͞os | (“pot-use”) as the O stands for “office” (ah) and the U stands for “United” (you).

#GIF #Grammar #PeanutButterJokes #Etymology

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Captain America, looking pretty beat up, saying, “I can do this all day.”

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One day, I was supervising a chemistry lab with a grade 9 class, and one of my students was walking along with a test-tube rack, fully loaded. One of the test tubes wasn’t quite nestled in properly – it slipped out, and broke on the floor, spilling the contents.

The student expressed his frustration by giving the test tube rack a sharp up and down jerk, which ended up dropping most of the rest of the test tubes on the floor. A small mess was turned into a significantly bigger one, and put the student that much farther behind because he had to re-prepare more solutions.

Unfortunate, and avoidable.

There are a bunch of messes in progress. The climate catastrophe, COVID, war… We are *not* going to make it better by giving society a shake and electing right-wing politicians. We’re just going to get a bigger mess.

It’s a natural instinct, when things are going to shit, to close in and protect your own. But that just continues the cycle of shit, as we circle the drain. It’s a downward spiral (figuratively, so I can get off the poop metaphors 😄).

Resist that urge. When things are bad, help others. Stop doing the bad things.

Insist that leaders manage the country for *everyone*, not just a privileged few.

Killing innocents is a bad thing, usually a war crime, no matter who does it. Don't tolerate that shit from *anybody*. Don't tolerate leaders that tolerate it.

Don't vote for anyone who uses “Take back ______" as a slogan. People interested in taking will take from you, too.

We can have a just society. But we have to work for it, avoid the easy negative reactions, and force those with power and those who would seek power to work for the better, not for themselves.

#OnPoli #CdnPoli #Politics #ClimateJustice #SocialJustice

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One day, I was supervising a chemistry lab with a grade 9 class, and one of my students was walking along with a test-tube rack, fully loaded. One of the test tubes wasn’t quite nestled in properly – it slipped out, and broke on the floor, spilling the contents.

The student expressed his frustration by giving the test tube rack a sharp up and down jerk, which ended up dropping most of the rest of the test tubes on the floor. A small mess was turned into a significantly bigger one, and put the student that much farther behind because he had to re-prepare more solutions.

Unfortunate, and avoidable.

There are a bunch of messes in progress. The climate catastrophe, COVID, war… We are *not* going to make it better by giving society a shake and electing right-wing politicians. We’re just going to get a bigger mess.

It’s a natural instinct, when things are going to shit, to close in and protect your own. But that just continues the cycle of shit, as we circle the drain. It’s a downward spiral (figuratively, so I can get off the poop metaphors 😄).

Resist that urge. When things are bad, help others. Stop doing the bad things.

Insist that leaders manage the country for *everyone*, not just a privileged few.

Killing innocents is a bad thing, usually a war crime, no matter who does it. Don't tolerate that shit from *anybody*. Don't tolerate leaders that tolerate it.

Don't vote for anyone who uses “Take back ______" as a slogan. People interested in taking will take from you, too.

We can have a just society. But we have to work for it, avoid the easy negative reactions, and force those with power and those who would seek power to work for the better, not for themselves.

#OnPoli #CdnPoli #Politics #ClimateJustice #SocialJustice

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@RickiTarr Quick answer, I don’t think much has crystallized. I continue to grow, and learn, and refine my outlook on things. A good example is my view on religious belief–I took on my current views only in the last year or so.

When I was very young, I took Bible stories as a given. Lots of good stuff in the Old Testament, and who doesn’t like Christmas?

Almost as soon as I started questioning authority (~7 or 8 years old?), I asked my father about religion. I can’t remember the question, but the answer was “Well, you know how there’s all these different religions? They can’t be all right…?” Boom! Instant atheist!

When Hitchens, Dawkins, et al, were in their heyday, I was the “Religion? Hmph, how can an intelligent person believe those fairy tales?” sort. I didn’t get obnoxious with people, I kept my harshest criticisms to myself, unless asked.

My current philosophy is that we’re *all* deluded, atheist and theist alike. We’re on a spectrum that ranges from perceiving “reality”* just in simple terms of raw input (appearance, weight, smell, etc.); to imagining structure (atoms, fields) not directly observable, but available through reproducible experiments; to imagining the existence of supernatural influences and intentions that are not universally agreed on, and not supported by reproducible observations. *(scare quotes on “reality” because no matter how you look at it, it’s subjective)

Wherever you are on that spectrum, your perceptions produce a model that, if Donald Hoffman et al are right, is optimized for food and reproduction, and has very little semblance to what’s really “out there.” Some physicists are suggesting that even time and space are human perceptions, and are not real.

What I think matters is how you use your model of reality to live your life, and how it influences your treatment of others. I’m not using “matters” in any grand sense, just in the sense that I don’t want you harming people you disagree with.

So, I’ve become personally comfortable with someone having religious beliefs, and don’t need to convince them otherwise. We’re all fantasizing to one extent or another.

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@RickiTarr Quick answer, I don’t think much has crystallized. I continue to grow, and learn, and refine my outlook on things. A good example is my view on religious belief–I took on my current views only in the last year or so.

When I was very young, I took Bible stories as a given. Lots of good stuff in the Old Testament, and who doesn’t like Christmas?

Almost as soon as I started questioning authority (~7 or 8 years old?), I asked my father about religion. I can’t remember the question, but the answer was “Well, you know how there’s all these different religions? They can’t be all right…?” Boom! Instant atheist!

When Hitchens, Dawkins, et al, were in their heyday, I was the “Religion? Hmph, how can an intelligent person believe those fairy tales?” sort. I didn’t get obnoxious with people, I kept my harshest criticisms to myself, unless asked.

My current philosophy is that we’re *all* deluded, atheist and theist alike. We’re on a spectrum that ranges from perceiving “reality”* just in simple terms of raw input (appearance, weight, smell, etc.); to imagining structure (atoms, fields) not directly observable, but available through reproducible experiments; to imagining the existence of supernatural influences and intentions that are not universally agreed on, and not supported by reproducible observations. *(scare quotes on “reality” because no matter how you look at it, it’s subjective)

Wherever you are on that spectrum, your perceptions produce a model that, if Donald Hoffman et al are right, is optimized for food and reproduction, and has very little semblance to what’s really “out there.” Some physicists are suggesting that even time and space are human perceptions, and are not real.

What I think matters is how you use your model of reality to live your life, and how it influences your treatment of others. I’m not using “matters” in any grand sense, just in the sense that I don’t want you harming people you disagree with.

So, I’ve become personally comfortable with someone having religious beliefs, and don’t need to convince them otherwise. We’re all fantasizing to one extent or another.

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@Mrfunkedude @_
@Mrfunkedude @_ I have a theory, ahem 🦕

There’s a phenomenon in psychology called “mirror neurons” - These are brain cells that fire in similar ways when we do something, or when we see someone else doing that thing. I think the idea is that we see someone doing something, our brain tries to recreate that action, with *ourselves in the starring role*, so we can try it on and understand it. That neural activity extends to a small amount of muscular activity as well.

There's a great experiment (that I can't track down, there's too much interference by a different study in the search results) where they had subjects look at pictures of people smiling, and the subject had to decide whether the smile was real or fake. Normally we're about 60% proficient but some groups with more experience judging emotions do better. Apparently, if you do the same test while clenching a pencil between your teeth, your score drops to random chance, 50%. You've locked up the muscles that your brain uses to "try on" the smile and decide if it feels real or not.

Okay, here's my idea. When your standard troglodyte looks at someone with purple hair, or being gay, or wearing something not made of denim, their brain creates a model where *they* have purple hair, or is gay, etc., and that makes them very uncomfortable. They're not uncomfortable with *you* having purple hair, they're uncomfortable with *them* having purple hair. You are the cause of that discomfort, so they get mad at you. You're causing them deep-seated pain, and you must be punished for that.

I’m convinced, more and more, that this is the cause of almost every reaction that makes you ask, “Why do you care? It has nothing to do with you!”

Hashtags for debate, and so people can correct my layman mistakes 😄
#Psychology #MirrorNeuron #Prejudice #Peace

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@Mrfunkedude @_
@Mrfunkedude @_ I have a theory, ahem 🦕

There’s a phenomenon in psychology called “mirror neurons” - These are brain cells that fire in similar ways when we do something, or when we see someone else doing that thing. I think the idea is that we see someone doing something, our brain tries to recreate that action, with *ourselves in the starring role*, so we can try it on and understand it. That neural activity extends to a small amount of muscular activity as well.

There's a great experiment (that I can't track down, there's too much interference by a different study in the search results) where they had subjects look at pictures of people smiling, and the subject had to decide whether the smile was real or fake. Normally we're about 60% proficient but some groups with more experience judging emotions do better. Apparently, if you do the same test while clenching a pencil between your teeth, your score drops to random chance, 50%. You've locked up the muscles that your brain uses to "try on" the smile and decide if it feels real or not.

Okay, here's my idea. When your standard troglodyte looks at someone with purple hair, or being gay, or wearing something not made of denim, their brain creates a model where *they* have purple hair, or is gay, etc., and that makes them very uncomfortable. They're not uncomfortable with *you* having purple hair, they're uncomfortable with *them* having purple hair. You are the cause of that discomfort, so they get mad at you. You're causing them deep-seated pain, and you must be punished for that.

I’m convinced, more and more, that this is the cause of almost every reaction that makes you ask, “Why do you care? It has nothing to do with you!”

Hashtags for debate, and so people can correct my layman mistakes 😄
#Psychology #MirrorNeuron #Prejudice #Peace