$ jlc (10,317)

OH NO - Say it is not SO! NOT Mother Grumpitis!

OK, I do not actually know what "Mother Grumpitis" is, but it is such an excellent term that I existentially feel that I must suffer from it.

It will actually be easier to recover from a sudden catastrophic crash than from a slow dwindling of the spirit, but I fear that the latter is what is and will continue to happen. There is a known personality characteristic in humans that expresses different elements under stress than under normal conditions. A person who is normally a risk-taker may suddenly become risk-adverse in a crisis. I think that if we experienced a catastrophic crash, then people might be shaken out of their ennui. Right now we are seeing a slow erosion of both liberty and the desire for liberty and I regard that as very dangerous.

Jan, suffering now...

I have flagged your post for Administrator attention.

Please be aware that no one on this site will tolerate insulting incoherence.

Jan

Excuse me, but what is the purpose for your comment? kategladstone has posted an article of interest that contains a laudable reference to Ayn Rand and she has answered MichaelA's question.

What does this have to do with "penis envy"? What does this have to do with "left wing wannabe sob sisters crying and moaning"?
Since the women mentioned in the article are/were real people, obviously some of them are in the reference books!

I have marked you down for your rude and irrelevant remarks.

Jan

I like your addition - the committee gets paid only if it produces. And yes again on 'adaptive test'.

Jan

I just looked up The Road. It sounds terribly depressing. Not my thing.

I agree that we are likely to see a gradual decay rather than a sudden crash, which will make it more difficult to deal with.

Jan

People study hard to pass their drivers test - it means something to them. If we had a test that was about that scope and level of difficulty that had to be passed before a person could vote it would improve not just voting but the status of voting.

I can see a way to create a list of questions that 'all sides' would agree on: Allow all parties unlimited vetoes on the questions and a limited amount of time in which to create the test. If it does not get created in that span of time, then dissolve the committee, appoint new people and try again. Do this until a test emerges.

I wounder 'how' this would work, though. Would you have to take the test in the voting booth, concurrent with voting? That would be the only way you could be sure that the person taking the test and the person casting the vote were the same individual.

Jan

Interesting theory. I will keep that in mind. Chimps actually hunt for meat-food, though, so that could be a point of commonality with our mutual ancestor and is also possible.

Jan

Oh. Sorry. Fuzzybutt it is!

I'd give myself a treat if I had to put goo in my eye. (Glad that nothing is wrong with him.)

Jan, gives extra treat

I have not taught my dogs many tricks. They know 'stuff' that makes them easy to live around, but not how to balance a treat on their nose. So your fuzzbottom is way ahead of my pups on that!

Jan

The payment was an aside: My main point is that whole genome - or even whole exome - scans are not being done and will not routinely be done for a while yet. Software that can pinpoint 'the most probably detrimental alleles' from a set of SNPs will still be valuable.

Jan

Actually, we are talking about 15 and 16 year olds who are getting poor grades in school and cannot support themselves. They demanded no parental oversight for their school work, no curfew, free cellphones, free computers (with unlimited access), and free car. All of these were to be paid for by their parents, of course.

Their threat was to 'go to CPS' and tell them that 'their parents abused them' if they did not get these things. CPS would have then taken the kids away from the parents and put them in foster homes. So the parents, who wanted to keep their (worthless) kids, bargained for their taking a bunch of CPS approved courses on parenting so that they could keep their children.

I have no children; do not like or want children. Even I can see that this is wrong.

I describe this in detail so that you do not under-evaluate the extent of the demands or the power of CPS.

Jan

If cost is an issue, we will say, "This person has genes R12 and GPS456 so he has a 70% probability that he will also have M78, which causes people to explode when they drink coffee. We will now specifically order a M78 to see if he has it." This way, the insurance will pay for the test for the M28 SNP.

Jan

Actually, a number of those were pretty funny...!

Jan

I thought you were going to say, "Bless their Heart".

Jan

CPS is a horrible burden on parents. I know of two instances where loving and supportive families were attempted to be blackmailed by their teenage children who said, "Give me everything I want or I will call CPS on you."

Jan

The Liberals are much more intrusive in attempting to control the individual.

Jan

He began as a proponent of AGW...but his research changed his mind.

Jan

But it is not. We are not analyzing whole genomes - which usually amount to just the exome anyway. We are still just analyzing a handful of snips.

Jan

Absolutely. There are many distinct genetic populations in the world. We call these 'races'.

How do you define 'race'?

There are billions of people on Earth who have discrete racial identities - Chinese and Indian subcontinent. One need not rely on self-identity; one can perform matching of key genes. Then, from that, you can develop a probability of other nearby genes being of a particular character, even though they were not actually tested.

Jan

That is a good idea - and a good subject to discuss in general: What books would the Gulch put on the bookshelf for a child?

Jan

Can you prove that? Or do you just state it?

Jan

Ah...ehr...uh...

Maybe not. I think that 'stupid' may be some sort of a Cosmic state.

Jan

But it is a useful distinction. This is why I advocate having several 'base genomes' for reference when we develop a genetics module rather than just one. If you have a person who is of Asian extraction, there is a higher probability that they will have the M blood antigen, for example; if the individual is of European origin (note that I do not say 'lives in Europe') then he is probably N and not M.

Jan

But it is a useful distinction. This is why I advocate having several 'base genomes' for reference when we develop a genetics module rather than just one. If you have a person who is of Asian extraction, there is a higher probability that they will have the M blood antigen, for example; if the individual is of European origin (note that I do not say 'lives in Europe') then he is probably N and not M.

Jan