!math !mathematics

This is a relatively quick effortpost on a phenomenon I find interesting. I thought I'd use silly Hollys as well. I hope you enjoy!

In 1892 a man named William Thomas Stead wrote a novel about himself. In this novel, he predicts that he will board a boat that will crash into an iceberg and that he will meet a slow death by drowning because the boat will have insufficient lifeboats. Twenty years later he decides to take a trip on the legendary Titanic ship and well, we can only guess what happened after that…

ESP and all other types of psychic abilities have yet to be proven by science and yet everyday people claim to possess senses that go beyond the boundaries of our normal five senses. Most probably, every one of us reading this has had an experience that they perceived as paranormal or know someone who claims to be psychic. So what causes us to believe that humans have abilities that defy the laws of science? In the next few paragraphs, I will try to explain exactly that.

Firstly we would need to understand exactly what ESP is. ESP stands for Extra Sensory Perception. It refers to any information that is gained, not by the normal senses, but by the mind. These can also be described as Psi which is pronounced as ‘sigh'. There are many branches of ESP such as Telepathy (the ability to read minds), Clairvoyance (ability to gain information on an object through psychic abilities), Precognition (ability to see into the future, an ability that a lot of people believe they have), Retrocognition (the ability to see into the past, e.g. years before they were born), Mediumship (ability to communicate with the dead and spirits) and aura reading (the ability to see energy fields around people and objects). Many also believe that prayer is a form of ESP because you're trying to manipulate reality using your mind. Telekinesis is considered to be the highest psychic ability. Telekinesis is the ability to move objects or change the natural vibrations of atoms using your mind alone. For example, one with telekinesis will be able to move pencils or cause people to levitate simply by focusing their thoughts on the object.

As to how all these powers work, one can only guess. There are several theories and explanations to explain this phenomenon but none have been proven by science as yet. Some ESP believers believe that all people possess these powers but aren't in tune to retrieve them. In other words, their abilities are asleep. They believe that by using more of your brain and tuning in to your spiritual side you can ‘awaken' these powers. Others believe that a chosen few are blessed with these powers, for example, shamans, Buddhist monks etc. There is one theory that says that ESP is another form of energy that science hasn't discovered yet but many scientists are skeptical about that. They criticize this theory because they fail to understand why energy would tell you about a friend dying or tell you about what card will appear next in a deck of cards. Some theories are even crazier, and some claim that ESP is an overflow from alternate universes or that it comes from a great soul in the universe that defies the laws of physics.

For those of you who believe in ESP, you'll be happy to know that there are tonnes of supporters around the world who actively try to prove that ESP is true. Some scientists claim to have proved that ESP is true, but it hasn't been done in secure laboratories. ESP supporters rebuttal this by saying that by nature ESP isn't something that is easily repeatable in a laboratory environment. However, for every ESP supporter there are about ten scientists each with their own reason as to why ESP just cannot be true.

The biggest argument that skeptics have is that ESP simply doesn't make sense. They believe that there are simple scientific explanations for seemingly paranormal events. For example, for everyone who believes that they've had a premonition about something or that they ‘sensed' that something was going to happen, scientists ask you to look at things mathematically. If there are over 6 billion people on earth, each of them have hundreds of thoughts and experiences each day, how ‘psychic ‘ is for at least one of those thoughts to line up with a real event? For example, if we look back at the example of the man who predicted his own death on the Titanic, at first it may seem that ESP is the only possible answer for it. But if we investigate further you would find that he was a former seaman who knew a lot about ship technology, meaning that if anyone was going to predict the sinking of the Titanic, it was going to be him. This shows that the human can intake information subconsciously and form thoughts that you aren't even aware of and this can give us a feeling of having a sixth sense.

Still, the thought of having psychic abilities is a fantasy that many of us would love to become a reality. Think about it; imagine being able to predict how an exam paper would look like or being able to read your friends minds to see what really think about you. Because of this, many people try using exercises such as meditation to try and retrieve these abilities. And for that reason what have what call Zener cards. Put simply, Zener cards are made up of a deck of 25 plain white cards that have five different shapes on them. To use the cards, on has to try and guess what card is next in the deck. This has to be done a number of times to arrive at an average of correct guesses. The average guess for someone who has no psychic abilities is 5 correct guesses per 25 tries (20%). Anything higher than that could be a sign of psychic abilities.

If you manage to score a high enough score you might want to try and contact a man known as Mr. Randi, who is a scientist who is offering a million dollars to anyone who can prove that they have psychic powers (EDIT: the challenge is no longer available.)

In conclusion, I would like to say that although ESP hasn't been proven by science, it doesn't necessarily mean that it doesn't exist. So the next time you think that you have a paranormal activity, there just might be more to it…

Lost friendship over... not leaving my husband?

ETA: I do not consent to this appearing outside of this post in any articles or other forms of media.

TLDR: I tried to vent about a bad day with a friend and she decided to throw every complaint I've ever had back at me and demand that I give her space until I leave my husband because he's a very typical husband of this time.

Let me preface this with my story about last Friday. Last week I had a no good rotten day. I had an appt to get my hair done for the first time in 5 years and was going to have to take my 6 yo with me because school was out that day. As soon as I'm leaving town to be just on time to my appt, my 3 yo daycare calls and they didn't know if she's sick or not and want me to do something. So I show up and decide to take her with me even though she's obviously not sick to minimize any issues and get in some much needed self care. I message my hairdresser, but since now I'm running late she can't take me. I big cried the whole way home because I was so disappointed that I tried to do all those things they talk about and life just thwarted me. It sucked. I was also PMSing, so I moped the rest of the day.

Here's the part that got really shitty:

I messaged an old friend that I talk to every week or so and we complain about general life shit together. She's chronically ill with no kids and I deal with all the same stuff posted here constantly. We vent and offer advice, chat about other stuff, and whatever else. I try to not focus on the negative, but I think that's our dynamic. She never seemed to want to hear the good things as loudly as the complaints.

So, I vented about my no good very bad day and she laid into me unexpectedly about me playing into the patriarchy because I waited 5 years to decide to start doing my hair again (I think?) and basically that she thinks I'm a doormat to my husband because he doesn't pull his fair share with chores (it's a work in progress, and definitely had improved over our relationship), because he doesn't make as much money as I do, etc. I do too much.

Now, didn't get me wrong, I complain about the chores and shit that always needs to be done, probably too much to everyone, but I brag about him too. He's the nicest person I've ever met. He's a wonderful father that really takes 50% of the kid duties, loves me and says it often, thanks me often for things I do that are just regular mom things, s*x is great, I could go on. He's my person.

So anyways, I thought she was a safe space to complain about motherhood and life because that had been our relationship, but she laid into me and read me the riot act dredging up anything I had ever mentioned that was less than stellar, ignoring any good things. I set a boundary that I was getting frustrated and angry about this conversation and needed to step away, since I wasn't feeling heard about the one bad day I wanted to talk about, but she told me I deserved to be pissed and kept going.

I told her that if I wanted to talk about my bad day and have someone rant at me with all the things they think are wrong with my life, I would have called my mom and left it at that for a week.

This week I decided to check in, because I figured whatever happened that caused her rant was a her problem and given the space of a week we could talk and I could apologize for trying to be purposely hurtful and we could maybe have an adult conversation and set some boundaries moving forward to maybe lighten up our dynamic since it seemed to be in some terrible spiral.

Nope.

I got a book for a reply, which from the selected lines I skimmed, doubled down on me being a doormat, accused me of giving her PTSD, and accused me of constantly whining and refusing to do anything about it (maybe fair criticism for her point of view, she doesn't see the daily work and if I mentioned it, it was often overshadowed by her own complaining about life and her advice is often ultimatums and drastic choices that do not make a healthy marriage). The last line was basically to "give her fricking space" until I'm ready to leave my relationship and she unfriended me.

I'm just shocked that someone I've been friends with for almost 20 years would lay into me and throw away our friendship because I didn't take her terrible advice and tear apart my family because I have the same mental load problems that most moms have.

And her marriage isn't perfect, her husband tried to frick me when I was in college (he was 30+ at the time) and we had to sort that all out as adults and were still friends after.

Writing this out I can see how this became an unhealthy dynamic between us in the last year or so and so I'm less surprised.

My grandmother died three months ago in a very strange, almost suicidal way. She had been living in a cabin in Florida with no air-conditioning or kitchen, and what little she did have she'd spend it on alcohol. After ignoring her medical problems for months, it finally turned into sepsis and overwhelmed her immune systems. We were told by some affirmative action hire doctor that we had six months, then the week after she had a month. On Monday, we were told it may happen next week, Wednesday we were told she needed hospice care. That following Sunday morning she was dead. It was strange to see someone who had raised me die scared.

When the hospice nurse came in on the preceding Monday, and asked what was going to happen, it had me floored. The almost profane innuendo of whether my grandmother was ready to die or whether we were going to pay for a risky treatment was insane. When my grandmother looked at me, tired and scared, I had to walk out, and I regret that profoundly. We as a family asked for more time, and we were told we could wait till noon. My mother came out and asked me to sit with my grandmother, and oddly lucid she said she was ready. I don't think she meant it, but I think she wanted to be tough in front of me as best as she could.

I think about her every day.

I am grateful for my grandfather, who reads the Bible with me and is a spiritual guide. I am grateful that my last words were said out of love. I'm grateful I got to blow her a kiss when I last saw her. I pray for her, and I pray I get to see her again. I hope that wherever she is, she is happy, and resting.

I was wondering why I was doing all these no tip orders for diapers and candy (I'm not exaggerating holy shit so much junk food and baby formula) but why are the orders always for a few items but the fee I'm getting is like 8 bucks to drive a few miles? You'd think they'd order more so it's worth the exorbitant fee.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/05/the-surprise-is-not-that-boeing-lost-commercial-crew-but-that-it-finished-at-all/

2. at what point value is created?