Random Rants LXIV: Who's Acting Like a Child Now?

[JohannaK]

This is true, now and forever.

 

[azzaman333]

I've got two days (probably just under 42 hours to be exact) to find some motivation to write up a significantly sized progress report for my PhD before I'm completely and utterly screwed. So naturally I'm playing Civ5 instead without taking any enjoyment out of it whatsoever because it at least keeps me from actively thinking about how awfully wasteful I'm being.

I really truly despise myself when I start doing this crap and yet I can't stop myself from doing it every mother redacted time.

 

[JohannaK]

Don't worry, I have an essay due in 45 minutes (if not already past the due time) and I don't even know how long it has to be, and I've read less than half the research I wanted to have done before the weekend.

 

[Antilogic]

Rant: Nate Silver is at his best when he analyzes polling information and delivers to you a conclusion based on that data. But he and the shmucks he hired are at their absolute, categorical WORST when they tell you to ignore massive piles of data sitting right in front of your lying eyes in favor of some insipid morsel of common wisdom based on a sample size of 11 or 17. Oh, those hacks, those easily suckered rubes! Harry Enten is like the crown prince of people who have used power tools to self-lobotomize. He couldn't analyze his way out of a 3rd grade math textbook, or an otherwise very analyzable wet paper bag. For month after month, even after the mofo started winning delegates, his go-to Trump copypasta was that it was nigh-impossible for him to be the nominee.

The precipitating event for this long-simmering rant was the moment I saw the following article, again telling me "Hey, don't worry about <snip> like math! It worked out great for Al Gore!" How much is this guy paid?

 

[Ajidica]

Rant: I was filling out a job application for the State Department I sort of qualify for which opened today and only accepts the first 150 applications when I discovered in small print on the last page I need to provide my current supervisors phone number. I have no idea what that is without going into work (which I can't as the building has closed) and the earliest I can get around to following up on the application tomorrow is 5:00 which by then likely will have hit the 150 applications before closure.
UPDATE 5/17: So when I went to finish the application with my supervisors phone number this evening, the application was closed - having received 150 applications the day the posting went live. Moral of the story for anyone applying to the State Department know your supervisors phone number or make one up, blaming the eventual non-working status on "technical changes at work".

So yeah, this:

Link to video.

 

[Lohrenswald]

I needed to do like 6 assignments by Wednesday and haven't even started.

I won't be able to pull it off

I probably won't even try

 

[Commodore]

Woke up today feeling like a movie theater floor for no particular reason. It was weird.

 

[Takhisis]

If I were a Buddhist, I would say it was one of your past lives, Commodore.

 

[warpus]

I gave a car the finger today and I'm not proud of it, but it was in the morning and I like to think they were in the wrong and acting in a dangerous manner.

 

[azzaman333]

Freezing my tits off waiting for a train. Curse you southerly breeze direct from Antarctica.

 

[Mise]

Why do people write/say "delta" instead of "change" these days. Are they stupid? I understand writing the greek letter and mathematical symbol "&#916;" to mean "change", but there's really no reason to write out or say "delta" instead of "change", other than because you're stupid.

 

[Lohrenswald]

Why do people write/say "delta" instead of "change" these days. Are they stupid? I understand writing the greek letter and mathematical symbol "&#916;" to mean "change", but there's really no reason to write out or say "delta" instead of "change", other than because you're stupid.

I'm not familiar with this?

Like they say delta instead of change in everyday speech?
As noun or verb?

 

[Mise]

They say aloud things like "what's the delta?" or "but when you look at the delta it's not that significant" or "here's the delta between the old proposal and the new". They also use it in more formal writing, such as emails and presentations.

 

[Lohrenswald]

I dunno

might just be something about the social circles you're in
though maybe not

 

[Mise]

Yeah I think they're just stupid whereas I am very smart

 

[azzaman333]

They say aloud things like "what's the delta?" or "but when you look at the delta it's not that significant" or "here's the delta between the old proposal and the new". They also use it in more formal writing, such as emails and presentations.

Sounds stupid but I guess if people can understand what they're saying then no harm done.

 

[The_J]

This reminds me....


http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?id=4040

(think we had that at some point in the funny pictures thread...or whatever)

On that matter: If you read it often enough, you'll begin to say it.
I'm beginning to say "randomized" in German, although it's not even a real word there, because I read it often enough in scientific literature. That happens with quite some words (cannot give another example), is subconcious.

 

[Arakhor]

They say aloud things like "what's the delta?" or "but when you look at the delta it's not that significant" or "here's the delta between the old proposal and the new". They also use it in more formal writing, such as emails and presentations.

Well, that just sounds like newfangled business speak. I could understand someone saying delta-p, delta-v or what-have-you, but just using it as a synonym for the word 'change' seems rather silly to me.

 

[Dachs]

now it's time to be the lead in the new movie Searching For My Other Brown Dress Sock: A True Underdog Story

 

[Arakhor]

Do what David Tennant does and buy lots and lots of identical black socks, so that you're never short of a pair or three.