The questions-not-worth-their-own-thread question thread VIII

[Cutlass]

A friend of mine who is doing her degree in Childhood Development Disorders and wants to go into Special Education, recently informed me that she is 90% certain that I have dysgraphia.

http://www.wrongdiagnosis.com/d/dysgraphia/symptoms.htm
(If I do have it school and parents really screwed me over on this, I really should sue them for being so negligent)

She tells me I seriously should get it tested. I lack health insurance to do this. What are my options? Also can I sue my elementary school?

Are you in school now? You could go to the health office.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

I have seen some of the most terrible things on the Internet. I will not mention details, but "gruesome" won't even begin to cover it. Why then am I overcome with extreme repulsion with seeing a heavily deformed human (e.g anencephaly)? I do not even have time to analyze the image, I am just seized by a desire to look away in a sort of reflex reaction and a chill down my spine. What is this?

 

[GinandTonic]

I have seen some of the most terrible things on the Internet. I will not mention details, but "gruesome" won't even begin to cover it. Why then am I overcome with extreme repulsion with seeing a heavily deformed human (e.g anencephaly)? I do not even have time to analyze the image, I am just seized by a desire to look away in a sort of reflex reaction and a chill down my spine. What is this?

One argument is that humans define themselves in terms of what they are not. You poo and the poo is revolting and taboo because it is the not-me. Abjection. Also used in a social context whereby membership of a group is marked by not being part of whatever reviled "other" group.

Something that violates the demarcation between I/ us and the other, the not me/ us, is threatening and often experienced as horrifying.

Realworld example - fixing blocked or broken drains very rotten food from a kitchen drain is often more viscerally repulsive than sewage. Sewage is the paradigm of the abject, but wrong-food is more horrifying. Psychobabble example - the fear and loathing of homosexuals in many strongly gender defined cultures is argued to be, to whatever extent, an expression of the horror of their being neither in my gender role nor in the other gender role. They could be in neither or possibly both and as such threaten the boundaries that define the individual in the society. Many would argue that it is this violation of the boundaries that provides the essence of the horrifying in many psychological horror movies.

If you buy into the psychobabble then grossly deformed humans are horrifying because at our instinctive level they dont appear to fit into the us/ other definitions we have around our identities as a human being. We therefore experience the fear and loathing that wrong-food induces or that a homophobe experiences at a wrong-man - but since our identity as a human is more important to us our fear and loathing at wrong-human is all the stronger.

Or it could just be because it's nasty and we empathise, whichever

 

[Brighteye]

I'm quite certain that it's just the distortion from what you recognise.
Evolutionarily, the horror of associating with disfigured people makes sense because they either have disease that you don't want, live in areas where physical disfigurement occurs or have bad genes.
The same applies to rotten food and sewage and the sense of contamination that goes with them.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

Thanks for the answers guys.

They do make good sense. It's just disconcerting encountering something that obviously obstructs your rational thought process. But I guess it is better to recognize the enemy beforehand.

Or it could just be because it's nasty and we empathise, whichever

I'm pretty sure my reaction is the polar opposite of empathy.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

I wish to donate CAD$7.00 to a website using PayPal from my bank account. Are there any fees or other factors I should know about?

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

IIRC, there's a processing fee but it's built-in. Meaning if you give $7.00, the account actually gets something like 6.50 (if the fee is 0.50 cents, don't know exact).

I have a book that says "Copyright MCMLX by [author]." What does this mean?

 

[Ulyaoth]

1960 I think. It's the year.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

IIRC, there's a processing fee but it's built-in. Meaning if you give $7.00, the account actually gets something like 6.50 (if the fee is 0.50 cents, don't know exact).

Huh. Justified, I guess. Anything else that it might do with my bank account? Like charging it fees or giving away information. Just to make sure.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I have a few hardcover books with those paper covers. Where can you get the plastic things to keep them from falling off? You see them on library books.

 

[Yared]

I have a few hardcover books with those paper covers. Where can you get the plastic things to keep them from falling off? You see them on library books.

You could always improvise with paper clips...

 

[Love]

Duct tape is your savior

 

[PeteAtoms]

Why don't you just take the wrapper things off? That's what I always do. Put them somewhere safe until your done with the book and you re-shelf it.

 

[GinandTonic]

It's a dust sleeve. To be put on the book as, well, a sleeve against dust. Remove to read and put back on if you wish to sleeve your book from dust. Or not as the fancy takes you.

1960 I think. It's the year.

The year... Your moma and daddy met? The mau mau were defeated? Kennedy was elected?

 

[Mirc]

The year... Your moma and daddy met? The mau mau were defeated? Kennedy was elected?

This year:

I have a book that says "Copyright MCMLX by [author]." What does this mean?

1960 I think. It's the year.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

If somebody online claims they're a pedophile, then claims they're just joking, should you be worried? (Especially since person in question has a job which involves working with a lot of kids.)

 

[Karalysia]

Welcome to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/:):):):):). Enjoy your stay.

Edit: Eh its censored. I am confused.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

The mau mau were defeated?

Meh, they were done by the end of 1957 after they caught Kimathi; The Emergency just ended in 1960.

 

[PeteAtoms]

If somebody online claims they're a pedophile, then claims they're just joking, should you be worried? (Especially since person in question has a job which involves working with a lot of kids.)

Well on the one hand, why would anyone jokingly claim to be a pedophile? And he works around kids? I'd be somewhat worried.
On the other hand, if he is a complete idiot, and was in fact joking, you could potentially ruin his life by reporting him to the authorities.
It comes down to a judgment call. Do you think he was joking? Do you even know this person in real life, or is it some anonymous contact from some forum?
People lie on the internet. If it is some anonymous contact of yours, take everything they say with a grain of salt.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Well on the one hand, why would anyone jokingly claim to be a pedophile? And he works around kids? I'd be somewhat worried.
On the other hand, if he is a complete idiot, and was in fact joking, you could potentially ruin his life by reporting him to the authorities.
It comes down to a judgment call. Do you think he was joking? Do you even know this person in real life, or is it some anonymous contact from some forum?
People lie on the internet. If it is some anonymous contact of yours, take everything they say with a grain of salt.

It's actually a she. And I haven't met her in real life, but the creepy thing is that she's invited kids she met online to her place.