All of Bagricula's Comments + Replies

I up-voted because:

  1. Writing-style gives me a strong internal impression of clarity / comprehension. I enjoy this sensation and think it correlates with understanding, and so am trying to promote more of it.
  2. Blue feels very soothing and I think contributes to the sensation of clarity / comprehension. I up-vote soothing sensation.
  3. I like the possible direction this could take in terms of microeconomic utility, revealed preferences, and so on for understanding human intelligence. So my up-vote is payment for expected future ideas.

Eh. Wouldn't it also be blasphemous to compare the mind of God to the mind of men?

I don't know how Maimonides is viewed among Orthodox Jews, but his whole ineffability of God seems to cast serious doubt on the efficacy of any analysis built out of experience of human writers. Afterall, does anything in Orthodox Jewish belief preclude God from writing in multiple voices, styles, ideological agenda?

I imagine the blasphemy comes in when the authors suggest that the variation was due to variation in the "conduits" or "transmitters" of God's chosen words.

Yes. I'd also love to see follow-ups afterwards to report on what was effective, what wasn't, what form of advice worked best, and what would the relevant known and (at the time) hidden variables.

What can I say, I'm a sucker for tracking.

So far have gotten back responses from two doctors / doctors-in-training. They both strongly suggest seeing a social worker to find out what resources are available vis-a-vie cleaning your apartment, improving your living situation, etc.

They also suggest you might take vitamin B and folate supplements, but you should check with your doctor to see if you have any deficiencies that may be contributing to your chronic pain and tiredness (as you mentioned in the eating vegetables and meat post).

Finally, there are a number of follow-up questions. You don't need... (read more)

Many thanks. Good advice all. The resources you're suggesting are particularly helpful.

I will hopefully have many of those books in the next few weeks depending on shipping to Beijing.

I am hoping that I can get into a program before leaving the country, but regardless I am committed to resigning and moving by middle of next spring.

I am also looking at the terminal masters programs in the U.K. I know Cambridge has some.

0Dreaded_Anomaly
That is a good option to get experience with research and coursework. Also, I think European schools tend to place less emphasis on the physics GRE than US schools, although there's some variation in that.

I've sent an overview of your situation to all my friends who are doctors or training to be doctors. I will let you know their opinion. (I've also included information from your meat and vegetables post).

I strongly suggest you do not wait for them to get back to me and consult with local experts as soon as possible.

Also, if anyone in the LW community has medical training or knows someone who does who would be willing to offer an opinion on this, I encourage them to do so.

4Bagricula
So far have gotten back responses from two doctors / doctors-in-training. They both strongly suggest seeing a social worker to find out what resources are available vis-a-vie cleaning your apartment, improving your living situation, etc. They also suggest you might take vitamin B and folate supplements, but you should check with your doctor to see if you have any deficiencies that may be contributing to your chronic pain and tiredness (as you mentioned in the eating vegetables and meat post). Finally, there are a number of follow-up questions. You don't need to answer all of these, and ultimately what matters is that you see your doctor, but if you want here they are. Feel free to respond by PM. 1. Is the chronic pain a recent or long-term problem? 2. Are the migraines a recent or long-term problem? 3. Are you depressed? Do you have a history of depression? 4. Any history of eating disorders?

Yes. Asking them to drop you on a street-corner with a lot of people probably won't go over too well.

How is your time currently distributed? Is there anything you're currently using your time for that you would be willing to and have the ability to redistribute towards social activities?

Obviously, this is going to subject to cost-benefit considerations, but some sense of how much flexibility you have here will help point towards realizable social activities.

0Armok_GoB
it's complicated, but the end result is equivalent to "yes, but not much"

Three suggestions then:

  1. Enlist the help of your family to ferry you to population centers, friends, or wouldbe friends; eventually you'll have non-family relationships that are strong enough that these new friends can come pick you up on the way elsewhere thus reducing the burden on your family.

  2. Look into activities, hobbies, etc. that involve other people. People often gather around crafting something, music, political activism. You may also find some public debating societies interesting. There are also some public speaking clubs like Toastmasters whic

... (read more)
0Armok_GoB
1. is already my default solution, but there are no friends or wolfbe friends to be shipped TO, and "population centre" is way to vague 2. Don't find things like that interesting and don't have the time for a hobby like that. 3. I don't really think there is anything to know. The word was never made to stand up to any serious scrutiny and is just a kludged pointer in a general direction.

If you're uncomfortable, then you can stop here, right now...also, later. No one should feel they need to reveal more than they want. I will not be hurt if you decide you want to stop.

I'm trying to build a profile so that I can think of ways you can find interesting people nearby.

By evaluation process what I mean is...how long do you take to decide whether you want to continue or discontinue talking to someone. In other words, if you meet someone for the first time, when do you know whether they are interesting. By adjusting this process you might be able ... (read more)

0Armok_GoB
1. about most stuff verily so, although I can't count on them to be rational. Think sort of like rationalist!Harry's situation from MoR. 2. very much in favor 3. yes. I don't have any standardised "evaluation process", it depends on the opportunity cost and probabilities of various outcomes for the particular case.

I would like to go to grad school for physics and philosophy.

The Situation:

  1. I did my bachelors in Economics at a very good American university, but I only did moderately well.

  2. I took mechanics, electricity and magnetism, and wave phenomena. I also took theoretical multi-var, linear algebra, and abstract algebra, basic statistics, econometrics. In philosophy I've only taken a course on Kant's ethics.

The Constraints:

  1. I have not taken quantum mechanics, statistical thermodynamics, or any science-relevant philosophy (i.e. metaphysics, epistemology, philo

... (read more)
4Dreaded_Anomaly
Yes, that will be necessary to do well on the test. You should also be prepared to review classical mechanics and E&M. Having a good set of freshman-level physics textbooks is helpful, because many of the problems are at that level. I recommend the two-volume set by Resnick, Halliday, and Krane. You should check out the physicsgre.com forums. You will be able to find a fair amount of advice threads for people in similar situations (lacking the full complement of upper-level physics courses, in need of research experience, etc.), as well as a lot of general advice about the physics GRE test. You can also try starting your own thread on that forum to solicit more advice. The consensus is that going to grad school in physics without the undergrad in physics is difficult and requires a lot of effort, but it's not impossible if one is dedicated and takes the initiative. In general, a career in physics is going to require a lot of self-study. Grad students often end up working on such specialized research problems that the only way to learn about the topic is to read lots of published papers, which are often much more difficult to understand than textbooks. For quantum mechanics, I recommend Griffith's Introduction to Quantum Mechanics. I am not sure why you haven't been working problems all the way through, but if it's because you don't have the correct solutions against which to check your answers, the manual for Griffith's textbook is easy to find. Unfortunately, I really don't know of a good undergraduate-level thermodynamics textbook. For the general GRE test, buy a commercial test-prep book (personally, I prefer Barron's) and go through it cover to cover. Take the diagnostic test, figure out where your areas of weakness are, study them by working through the sections in the book that address them, and then take more practice tests. (Repeat if necessary.) I think you would have an easier time finding a professor who would let you work in eir research group, or a

If your health deteriorates further then you will not be able to complete your planned move, much less do something drastic like move now.

If your environment has toxic fungus, you cannot live for a year there and expect to be in any condition to move, to apply for a visa, or perhaps to be out of the hospital. I am trying not to be alarmist, and would very much like the opinion of better informed readers on the relative danger/safety of your situation, but you need to examine how much you weigh the inconvenience of moving or doing something about the proble... (read more)

8-hours to grow fungus on cooked food seems far too fast.

I am not an expert on this. You should find an expert on this either here or in your local community to look at conditions in your apartment.

My concern is that you may have fungus/mold elsewhere in your apartment (perhaps behind the dry-wall i.e. in the walls) or elsewhere, and that this fungus is releasing spores that're growing in your ramen.

As a preliminary measure, I suggest improving the ventilation by keeping the windows open and maybe the front door to create a cross-breeze.

Do you have access ... (read more)

1saturn
I'm not an expert either, but I think there's enough evidence to be pretty certain there's a problem. I don't know whether the authorities in Hungary are likely to be helpful, or what kinds of cleaning services are available or how much they cost. It might even be worth moving to a different apartment.
1pthalo
Well, it was food left out of refrigeration as well. I've never really thought of ramen as cooked food -- it was heated in the microwave for the required time, though, so I suppose you're right. Humidity has been around 80-90% recently, and the temperature that day was probably no higher than 30. The amount of growth was small -- just a few clusters less than a centimetre in diametre, but black and definitely fungus. I put it on the opposite side of the room where it wouldn't be near me and let it grow a little longer and it was covered within a few days. The building is made entirely of concrete. If you think of a stereotypical cold war era eastern european apartment building, you'll get the idea, though ours has been prettied up (insulated, new windows put in, painted cheerfully) by the city. The walls in this room are hard to the touch, but in my bedroom, the wall is slightly spongy, but not visibly damaged in any way. The sponginess is uniform throughout and feels like I'm pressing against styrofoam instead of concrete. I assumed it was some sort of insulation. I live on the fifth floor with cats and have no fly screens. There are shutters in the bedroom, so I leave the windows open and the shutters closed, so that air can get in, but cats can't get out. The window in this room leads to a balcony, though, which the cats are scared of because they don't like the noises from the street, so I can open the window in here as well if I keep an eye on them. They really like sitting on windowsills, though, so I'm careful about that. The cats aren't allowed in the kitchen (enforced by a closed door), so I can leave windows open there. I can also air out different rooms alternately with closed doors. This is what the fungus looks like that was on my clothes: http://pics.livejournal.com/pthalogreen/pic/0012sbbx I managed to wash it twice yesterday, which decreased the smell and made the spots go away. I want to wash it a few more times before deciding what to do, and I

You've provided a lot of useful information towards coming to possible paths to the goal you've posed.

I've a few more questions mainly around the strictness of your constraints that I hope will clarify the space of reasonable solutions.

I'm also trying to point towards a profile for what you consider the boundaries of an interesting person as well as easy heuristics for filtering to find these people.

Regarding (1):

Can you provide some elaboration around what you mean by an "interesting person?"

What heuristics do you currently use to determine wh... (read more)

0Armok_GoB
1) Heuristics: It correlates a LOT with reading LW, and also in general sharing interests and internet-cultural background with me, as well as being generally smart/nice/artistic/a formidable specialist at some specific field. I don't know what you mean by evaluation process. It's more like a hidden property I collect evidence for or against, so I'll hopefully eventually become fairly certain but new evidence can always change my mind. Also the interestingness of people can change as they learn more or I learn more etc. It's not rally a very high grade concept that probably doesn't correspond well to any natural category or predict anything other than my attitude towards someone. 2) #REDACTED# 3) #REDACTED# I'm getting unconformable with how much I'm revealing about myself.

Alternative balance activity:

Just stand on one foot and try twisting your torso from one side to the other or from from to back.

If this is too easy, carry a heavy object like a thick book. If this is unwieldy, try soup cans.

Vary your angular momentum by practicing torso twists with your arms out or your arms in or with varying weights.

Try the same while standing on the ball of your foot.

Try while reaching above your head, to the side, et cetera.

Other options:

Board: Old skateboard (I've found these on the street, should be easy to find in a few yard sales), cutting board (if you've a side you don't use for food preparation and are good about cleaning or use a towel to insulate), cut off part of a 2x4

Pivot: Rolling pin, small rocks (though not pebbles)

Ha. Here you go just piling on additional constraints!

Could you wear a bathing suit that'd provide sufficient modesty?

0Alicorn
I could indeed do that. Hmm. (Not sure if Ade wants to watch me dance in the shower, though.)

What about practicing balance?

You don't need to buy a special balance board or exercise ball for it. You can just use any board on a pivot of some sort...say a plywood board on a solid rubber ball (depends on your weight).

Balance will protect you well into old age and practicing it should strengthen your leg joints, abdominals, and lower back, as well as forcing you to be more aware of your body's position, movement, breathing, etc.

For entertainment, you can listen to music or an audiobook.

As for sweating/comfort it is definitely on the less strenuous side of things and can be done indoors with air conditioning (though this may be an expense you don't want to incur).

1Bagricula
Alternative balance activity: Just stand on one foot and try twisting your torso from one side to the other or from from to back. If this is too easy, carry a heavy object like a thick book. If this is unwieldy, try soup cans. Vary your angular momentum by practicing torso twists with your arms out or your arms in or with varying weights. Try the same while standing on the ball of your foot. Try while reaching above your head, to the side, et cetera.
0Alicorn
Interesting prospect. I don't think I've got any boards or rubber balls lying around, but will keep an eye out for something to jury-rig.

Run the experiment:

For entertainment - try different levels of water flow with your existing speaker setup and see if there's any overlap between the range of "audible entertainment" and "acceptable cooling." The experiment is fast and cheap. Edit: You may not be able to find the right level of cooling without first doing some exercise nearby to heat yourself up.

For safety - Assuming you've found an optimal level of water flow, try dancing at various levels of intensity with a friend present in the bathroom to catch-you/call-an-ambulance/help in case of severe accident. Not quite as fast as the first experiment, but contingent on it and still free and relatively easy - plus amusing for a friend

3Alicorn
Dancing in the shower with someone to catch me? Okay, to be fair, I didn't mention modesty issues in my original post, but I didn't really think anybody was going to suggest something that involved immodesty... (The shower curtain in my home is transparent.)

Dance in the shower?

Even fairly restrained dancing over an extended period can elevate your heart-rate and trigger many of the benefits of exercise.

If you have a shower and live in an area where cold water is provided for free, then there is no cost. Additionally, this should address your sweat issue much like swimming in a pool.

It is indoors which eliminates sunlight.

Vis-a-vie the boredom constraint. Dancing to music by itself may be a varied enough activity to keep you mentally engaged. If this is insufficient you might consider audiobooks or talk radio.... (read more)

0Alicorn
I doubt I could hear anything with content over the shower itself no matter how good my speakers were, and I have pretty terrible balance in general. (I rarely actually fall, but I have to touch walls a lot to make that not happen.)