All of first_fire's Comments + Replies

I spend a fair amount of my time off work either on public transportation or in coffee shops, and have found that how receptive people are to starting conversations varies widely within these settings.

On public transportation, there are observations one can make which can aid with determining whether someone is open to conversation. If they are already engaged in conversation with another passenger and appear either happy or lost, it is more often appropriate (people who are happy tend to have farther to go on their mood spectrum to get to creeped out or a... (read more)

2juliawise
Public transit talkiness varies a lot by city. In Boston, it's minimal. I understand in other cities, conversation is much more normal. It's my experience as a young woman that the only people who try to talk to me on public transit are men. If you're a man, know that young women you try to talk to are probably going to assume you're sketchy because they've been approached by so many other sketchy men before. I veto talking to anyone who is reading. A possible exception might be if you've read what they're reading and ask their opinion of it, or similar.

One possible explanation for finding babies and other small fluffy things cute is their vulnerability; babies are extremely vulnerable, and require protection. A cuteness reaction from caretakers would lead to a better standard of care and higher survivability. The caretakers find babies cute not because of any inherent cuteness of the baby, but because babies need to be taken care of and caretakers need to find ways to not find the caretaking onerous. We know we need babies to propagate the species, and we need to create reasons for ourselves to put up wi... (read more)

3chaosmosis
I agree that cuteness highly correlates with vulnerability, at least for me. I'd also like to note that babies bring my cuteness meter into clash with my ugliness meter. Babies are simultaneously cute and repulsive, because they look like human beings who have been in an accident or who have been deformed. They're more cute than repulsive, though.

It gives you a percentile, which can be correlated.

If you live in a larger city, see if you have an Aveda Institute or Academy. Having your hair cut by a student means it's $25 as opposed to $60 (Canada, cut only, no color), and they'll redo it if the student does something terrible, though this has never happened to me. Also all natural products, which I really like.

As for hair maintenance, scrub your scalp with shampoo. Unless your hair is past your shoulders, you shouldn't need more than about the size of a quarter in your palm. Focus the scrubbing on your scalp and not your hair, as the scalp is where ... (read more)

It's the same knot, but bunny ears result in both loops being on one side of the central knot while the other results in them being opposite each other. While not generally of much note (or importance) in shoelaces, bunny ears result in a neater-looking knot.

Private psychologists will probably perform them, but there is also the convenient option of finding out when your local branch of Mensa is having its next round of testing. One of the cheaper options, plus access to Mensa services such as the Travel special interest group (staying for free with interesting people around the world) if you're above the requisite percentile.

0saturn
I was under the impression that Mensa's most recent test only provides pass/fail rather than an actual IQ score.