is the blue I see the same as the blue you see

~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

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brin-bellway:

bibliolithid:

brin-bellway:

brin_bellway | Extreme couponing

If we get everyone in on this we can cost them several million dollars!

#possibly hundreds of millions of dollars? Depending on who is eligible #assuming they have hundreds of millions of cheeze-its to sell

“Adult Canadian residents”, give or take, so maybe tens of millions of dollars.

I was going to say “and you have to live somewhere where food prices are low enough to make the math check out, so, like, not Nunavut”, but then I did some checking and…none of the grocery stores in Iqaluit seem to have online catalogues, but there’s a Real Canadian Superstore branch in Whitehorse, Yukon and it claims to be selling Cheez-Its for exactly the same price as the Superstore in Kitchener ($3.39 for one or 2/$5).

(I do kind of wonder if maybe it was too clever for its own good and ignored me asking for Whitehorse data, but OTOH I guess if any food *were* going to be the same price in Yukon it’d be a lightweight non-perishable like crackers. Hmm…okay, a 3L jug of store-brand apple cider is $3.99 in Kitchener and $7 in Whitehorse, so it looks like this is real price data. (Although I was honestly expecting the apple-cider prices in Yukon to be even worse.))

Maybe the main issue is *how many* grocery chains are in your area: the more options you have, the more likely one of them has a good sale on a given week. And since the receipt has to be from a (fairly long, but still) whitelist of specific chains to count, looks like the folks in Iqaluit are out of luck no matter how good a Cheez-It price they get.

#fun fact: I did the math after seeing a discussion of U.S. food stamps recently, #and in 2022 we spent USD$6.16/person/day on food + soda, #(I normally categorise soda under “recreational drugs – caffeine” rather than “groceries”, #~~in order to (not-so-)subtly express my disapproval~~, #but it does in fact contain sustenance), #((it’s USD$6.02 without the soda‚ and yes these two figures *do* count restaurant spending)), #apparently this is substantially less than a food-stamp budget, #but it requires more ability to exploit-sales-to-maintain-stockpiles than someone living paycheque-to-paycheque would have, #some fortnights I spend $350 at the grocery store and others I spend $100: depends on what’s cheap enough to resupply on this week, #(and how many loyalty points I had piled up from previous trips), #(I got over $800 of loyalty points last year‚ which I treat as a discount), #I still feel like we have a lot of room for improvement in our food spending, #(indeed‚ I’ve *made* improvements since 2022: things are shaping up to be cheaper this year), #((and not entirely because I’ve been getting more food as ~gifts‚ though that is also happening)), #but Vimes Boot Theory is nevertheless a hell of a thing, #as are the plans of a sublimated accountant

I *am* wondering now if Brother is obtaining a larger fraction of his own food than I’d realised. But even if 0% of my food spending were for him (*definitely* not true), that would still only be USD$8.21.

Tags:

#reply via reblog #oh look an update #food #fun with loopholes #is the blue I see the same as the blue you see #adventures in human capitalism #our home and cherished land

~ Brin ~ 1 Comment

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maryellencarter:

calware:

how many digits of pi (after the decimal point, so 3.?????? etc) do you have memorized?

pi-memorisation-poll

“anyway I am surprised that 5 is such a popular answer, I can understand 2, but why 5, it’s so lopsided” (via @brin-bellway )

I answered 5! In my case, it’s because I once saw a nerdy math cheer that included those digits – something along the lines of “local math team, we’re so fine, 3.14159” – and it stuck.

Tags:

#conversational aglets #math #pi #the more you know #is the blue I see the same as the blue you see #surveys

~ Brin ~ 2 Comments

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rustingbridges:

a few years back zinc acetate lozenges were doing the rounds and I love a good superstition so I went ahead and incorporated that into my belief system. been a while so I thought I’d check to see if the state of the science on the subject had shifted since then

afaict there hasn’t been much work on the subject in the intervening time, and nothing much to change your mind one way or the other. good work everyone, you may return to your superstition behavior.

some details:

  • one study¹ recently reported a null result, but based on the going theory for zinc lozenges that’s what you would expect (zinc acetate was administered by capsules). also the study was lacking in other ways.
  • another² has a good looking graph and is maybe positive for the concept. haven’t read the fully study yet

that’s maybe about it? my method for researching this research was to search pubmed for “(zinc) AND ((acetate) OR (gluconate)) lozenge” plus some other words instead of lozenge, as there were too many results without an additional keyword for filtering. I am sure there are other places results are published besides pubmed. feel free to catapult relevant studies into my inbox

{{OP’s tags:

#1: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37739466/ #2: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8844493/ #links in tags because I think this evades the thing where tumblr refuses to show your post if it has links in it #idk if that actually works but as previously established I am a superstitious man }}

​

robustcornhusk:

a graph of cold duration in people treated with zinc lozenges vs placebo. notably, the longest colds in the placebo group were 19 days, versus "only" 12 days in the lozenge group.

i assume this is the promising-looking graph in question

you know, i don’t love the idea that colds get dragged out that long. 19 days? some poor assholes get colds for 19 days?

​

rustingbridges:

yeah that sounds fucked up! had no idea that was the case for some people, I always thought of a cold as a 1-3 day kind of thing. but presumably if someone gets 20 day colds they’re probably very glad to cut a week off that

​

brin-bellway:

The third week of a cold sucks a lot less than the first week so, like, maybe only as much as a normal person’s cold, but yeah if there’s a pill for cutting that third week off, I’m interested regardless of whether it helps with the main brunt of the cold. Gonna have to look into this.

​

rustingbridges:

the basic tenets of the going theory are this:

  • you want zinc acetate, or if that’s not available, zinc gluconate. it has to be a lozenge or otherwise dissolve in your mouth, since the theoretical method of action is coating some tissue or receptor or something with ionic zinc. preferably with as few additives as possible. if it doesn’t taste bad and feel astringent, it’s not working. in the US everyone buys the life extension ones. idk about elsewhere
  • it is ideal to start as soon as possible. preferably in the not-sure-if-im-actually-sick-yet phase. starting once the infection is well developed seems to be much less effective
  • tbh I will actually take one prophylactically if I feel like I was in a high exposure environment. this is a not the protocol the research was done on but it seems reasonable and as long I don’t do this every day it is at worst a bad tasting zinc supplement
  • iirc the studies mostly had a protocol along the lines of one lozenge (of varying size and type?) every 1.5-2 hours while awake until symptoms subside. that’s a lot. it seems to produce some effect in the studies. I do not know that anyone has done any real study on taking more or less to compare, so it’s unclear what the optimal amount is, or how long it is worthwhile to persist in taking them

Tags:

#conversational aglets #recs #is the blue I see the same as the blue you see #the power of science #illness tw

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~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

ineffectualdemon:

Has anyone done the “would you fuck your clone” meme as an actual poll on here yet?

No? Yes?

Fine.

Just to make sure.

would-you-fuck-a-clone-of-yourself-poll

*and just get it on with all of them at once because that’s how pro clone-fucking I am.

Tags:

#who would know better how to fuck me than me? #surveys #sexuality and lack thereof #is the blue I see the same as the blue you see #(I am of course using ”clone” here in the colloquial sense of ”fork”) #(since that’s clearly what was meant in context) #(so don’t @ me about it)

~ Brin ~ 1 Comment

rustingbridges:

robustcornhusk:

rustingbridges:

a few years back zinc acetate lozenges were doing the rounds and I love a good superstition so I went ahead and incorporated that into my belief system. been a while so I thought I’d check to see if the state of the science on the subject had shifted since then

afaict there hasn’t been much work on the subject in the intervening time, and nothing much to change your mind one way or the other. good work everyone, you may return to your superstition behavior.

some details:

  • one study¹ recently reported a null result, but based on the going theory for zinc lozenges that’s what you would expect (zinc acetate was administered by capsules). also the study was lacking in other ways.
  • another² has a good looking graph and is maybe positive for the concept. haven’t read the fully study yet

that’s maybe about it? my method for researching this research was to search pubmed for “(zinc) AND ((acetate) OR (gluconate)) lozenge” plus some other words instead of lozenge, as there were too many results without an additional keyword for filtering. I am sure there are other places results are published besides pubmed. feel free to catapult relevant studies into my inbox

{{OP’s tags:

#1: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37739466/ #2: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8844493/ #links in tags because I think this evades the thing where tumblr refuses to show your post if it has links in it #idk if that actually works but as previously established I am a superstitious man }}

8774ad8960e8bcf1d790581033791ade09040ada

i assume this is the promising-looking graph in question

you know, i don’t love the idea that colds get dragged out that long. 19 days? some poor assholes get colds for 19 days?

yeah that sounds fucked up! had no idea that was the case for some people, I always thought of a cold as a 1-3 day kind of thing. but presumably if someone gets 20 day colds they’re probably very glad to cut a week off that

The third week of a cold sucks a lot less than the first week so, like, maybe only as much as a normal person’s cold, but yeah if there’s a pill for cutting that third week off, I’m interested regardless of whether it helps with the main brunt of the cold. Gonna have to look into this.

Tags:

#I am very big on Simply Not Getting Sick in the First Place but it’s always good to have more layers in the Swiss cheese #especially when one of your housemates is a line cook #reply via reblog #the power of science #is the blue I see the same as the blue you see #illness tw

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~ Brin ~ 1 Comment

calware:

how many digits of pi (after the decimal point, so 3.?????? etc) do you have memorized?

pi-memorisation-poll

Tags:

#…this reminds me of that post going around with the #”which field do you think normal people know one or two feldspars in (and quartz of course)” #me: ”yeah I know 18 is an unusually large number of pi digits to have memorised‚ most people only know 8” #(I had a specific copy of that post I was going to show you alongside this) #(but guess what! Tumblr just up and banned them last night for no apparent reason!) #(my pile of tabs-to-consider-reblogging is *actively linkrotting*‚ so I guess I’d better get a move on with sorting through them) #((particularly in case Tumblr decides to finish the job they did on me)) #(I still have several lizardywizard posts in my queue‚ and Tumblr claims those reblogs will go ahead as scheduled) #(we’ll see) #((with careful use of the right-click ”bookmark tab” button I was able to save all but one of the URLs)) #((so if they manage to get their account back I might still be able to retrieve those)) #anyway‚ I am particularly surprised that 5 is such a popular answer #I can understand 2 #but why *5* #it’s so lopsided #math #surveys #is the blue I see the same as the blue you see #amnesia cw
~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

hug-necromancer-new:

i must know. toothpaste: does it hurt (when used normally)

toothpaste-pain-poll

rb for sample size pls

Tags:

#I was torn between ”other kind of pain” and ”no?” but eventually went with ”no” #mint toothpaste *is* horribly cold (last I checked) which is why I never use it #I used Tom’s of Maine for ages until Colgate #finally came out with fluoridated toothpaste in fruit flavours #anyway thanks for reminding me to put more Colgate Kids strawberry toothpaste on my grocery list OP #(the watermelon’s fine too) #((also I *do* like mint sweets‚ but toothpaste was way more intense)) #and‚ uh‚ good luck to ~15% of respondents #I strongly recommend that you investigate other kinds of toothpaste #PSA #is the blue I see the same as the blue you see #surveys

~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

sigmaleph:

Do you have a soul?

soul-prevalence-poll

The word “soul” is so semantically overloaded that *all* of the first four options are correct.

Tags:

#I voted for option 3 because I have an unusually stable personality #I am constantly running into people who are‚ like‚ completely different people than they were two years ago #there’s no *core* to them: everything is in flux #those of them I’ve heard discussing it say they like it better that way #(some of them have gone so far as to say it’s morally obligatory) #but it’s really not my style‚ personally #(you’re probably wondering in what sense do I not have a soul but other people do) #(ideally I would answer with a link to that one post by…was it aspire-to-the-light?) #(in which they describe their quale of having a conscience in a thoroughly alien manner) #(but I cannot find it) #reply via reblog #tag rambles #is the blue I see the same as the blue you see #surveys #language

~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

spiralingintocontrol:

feamir:

ms-demeanor:

So I go to the dentist and the appointment I had was not the appointment that I thought I was going to have (normal maintenance vs deep clean) so i warned the dentist “hey heads up I burn through dental anesthetics super quick and also I’d like to use as little as possible because putting the dental anesthetics in my body is the most painful part of the process unless I’m having a root canal or something” and she’s like “Hmm. Okay. Is it just the injection site?” and I was like “no, it will feel like burning on the opposite side of my face and in my nose and eyes and stuff.” And she was like “Hmm. Do you turn really red when this happens?” And I was like “I don’t know, I can’t really see myself when it happens.” And she was like “are you willing to experiment with this a little?” And I was like “sure, no worries” and she injected me with one anesthetic and it hurt like a motherfucker and she and the assistant both went “OOOH” and she was like “Yeah you got really red right away let’s try the other,” and it was the same thing and then she was like “okay I think this is the one that will work” and it hurt a little bit but it was fucking NOTHING compared to the comprehensive full stabbing burning facial pain from the others and long story short the dentist was like “You’re reacting to the epinephrine in these other anesthetics,” which I guess is fairly common for people who have autoimmune disorders.

So I guess this is to say: If you get spreading, burning, stabbing pain when you are being injected with local anesthetics it’s not supposed to do that and you should say something.

………….huh

#file this away under pain i thought was normal but is not#that exactly describes my experience with all local anesthesia injections

can confirm this is not normal!! I have had local anesthesia a few times and it is Not like that!!

Tags:

#is the blue I see the same as the blue you see #medical cw #PSA #(I do not experience this)