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Post by Little Jack Horner on Sept 23, 2021 14:04:31 GMT
Interesting anniversaries but is there anything that takes place every nineteen years so as to warrant novdecennial? Just asking.
The frequent misuse of biannual and biennial is resolved by my voice recognition software by offering “buy annual” for both!
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Post by Dave Miller on Sept 23, 2021 16:03:16 GMT
Interesting anniversaries but is there anything that takes place every nineteen years so as to warrant novdecennial?
From Wiki: The Metonic cycle … is a period of approximately 19 years after which the phases of the moon recur at the same time of the year. The recurrence is not perfect, and by precise observation the Metonic cycle defined as 235 synodic lunar months is just 1 hour, 27 minutes and 33 seconds longer than 19 tropical years.
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Post by Little Jack Horner on Sept 23, 2021 17:41:13 GMT
OK. Thank you for that, Dave. Well done. But how about 90 years? I still don’t think we need special words for most of these anniversaries. If there are events which take place every 70 or 90 yeas, why can’t we just say every 70 or 90 years? Most of the people with whom we are communicating would be much better served by simpler language.
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Post by Verbivore on Sept 23, 2021 21:14:30 GMT
[…] The frequent misuse of biannual and biennial is resolved by my voice recognition software by offering “buy annual” for both!
Consumerist-oriented software! Is that Siri on an iPad? When I acquired my latest Mac (three years ago) it came loaded with the Siri option, which I experimented with for a week before I consigned it to the 'never again' bin. I found that searches, commands, etc. were faster and less frustrating from the keyboard.
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Post by Verbivore on Sept 23, 2021 23:39:03 GMT
My word of the day: trypanophobia – the fear of needles. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) classes needle phobia as part of a group of specific phobias of blood-injection-injury type. Symptoms are:
* the individual shows marked fear of anxiety about needles
* needles or situations where needles may be used almost always give rise to immediate fear or anxiety
* needles or situations where needles may be used are actively avoided or endured with intense fear or anxiety
* the fear or anxiety is out of proportion to the actual danger posed by the needles, the situation and the sociocultural context
* the fear, anxiety or avoidance is persistent, typically lasting for six months or more
* the fear, anxiety or avoidance causes clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational or other areas of functioning
* the disturbance is not better explained by the symptoms of another mental disorder (panic disorder, agoraphobia, obsessive-compulsive disorder etc). When young(er) I always had a severe dread of needles until one day I went for what was then my quarterly blood test for HIV. As the doctor prepped me for the needle I did my usual 'look away now' – until it occurred to me that I'd just turned 40 and was still acting the scaredy-cat. I decided it was time that I 'grew up', and chose to watch the procedure. To my surprise, I hardly felt the prick. Since then I've had no trypanophobia, though I must confess to preferring having stuff taken out than put in – the latter tends to hurt more. (I'm still waiting for my first Pfizer COVID-19 shot thanks to our laggard, incompetent administrations; it's still three weeks away.)
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Post by Twoddle on Sept 24, 2021 9:27:49 GMT
I've never been bothered by injections or blood donating, except that I can't stand to watch the needle going in. I have to look away at the moment of insertion.
My two main irrational fears are nosocomephobia - fear of hospitals (as Richard Nixon said, "If I go to a hospital, I'm fairly sure I won't come out of it alive") - and acrophobia - fear of heights.
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Post by Verbivore on Sept 24, 2021 9:54:23 GMT
Twod: I share your acrophobia – at least of unsecured heights. Looking down from the top of the Empire State Building was okay because there was a tall fence to reassure me. Being a passenger in an ultra-light aircraft was fun because I felt secured by harnesses. But try to get me above the fourth rung of a ladder – no way: I freeze solid with fear.
As for needles: I find that watching makes the experience far less a bother.
I recently had a sizeable basal cell carcinoma (about a cubic centimetre of flesh) excised from my forearm. The doctor suggested, thrice, that I might prefer to not watch, but I watched the whole procedure. Good anaesthetic made it painless. The doctor was surprised because most patients apparently go all queer at the sight of blood let alone having a chunk of arm removed.
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Post by Dave Miller on Sept 24, 2021 12:21:54 GMT
There’s certainly something odd in our reaction to needles (and injections in particular).
I’ve no problem with injecting myself (recently had do so twice a day for three weeks, after an op ) and would feel confident injecting someone else. I can happily have a nurse, etc, inject me … but cannot stand to watch an injection on TV!
Again, odd with heights. My partner is so averse that he cannot watch a high-up view on TV, yet was just fine in a hot-air balloon, standing in a basket made of nothing more than dried twigs.
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Post by Twoddle on Sept 24, 2021 21:22:17 GMT
Why is it that barriers are so often too low? I'm fine if a barrier's higher than my centre of mass, but if it's remotely possible that I can topple over it I can't go anywhere near it.
I've no problem with looking out of the window of a 'plane that's flying several miles high, but rather like Dave's partner I'll damned nearly poo my pants if I'm watching a scene on TV looking down from a 'plane that flies across the edge of a cliff.
My fear of heights seems to be getting worse as I get older. I try to tell myself that it's actually quite rational, but then I find that when I'm standing thirty feet from a cliff edge and unable to go any nearer to the edge, I'm rationalising my behaviour by telling myself that I could trip and roll (thirty feet?) over the edge or that the cliff could collapse suddenly. It's not just a fear of falling, either: there's a definite demon in my brain that's trying to pull me over the edge.
As to hospitals, a lot of people die in them; and do I really trust a bunch of people I don't know from Adam to cut bits off me when I'm unconscious?
Is that carcinoma finished with, Verbivore? I hope so. You do seem to have been going through the wars lately. I hope you're recovered from your op too, Dave.
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Post by Verbivore on Sept 24, 2021 22:31:25 GMT
[…] Is that carcinoma finished with, Verbivore? I hope so. […] That one, yes, Twod. But there have been others and will be more. Despite my habit of covering up and wearing hats when outdoors (the Aussie sun is harsh and gives my nation perhaps the world's highest incidence of sun-caused cancers, and I've fair skin and red hair) I've had, over the past 10 years, three BCCs ( basal-cell carcinoma) and four SCCs ( squamous-cell carcinoma) cut out and 47 (I think – I'm losing count) actinic keratoses (pre-malignant growths) treated, some by chemo-burning, more by freezing with liquid nitrogen. I no longer consider these ~omas and ~oses a bother; I just have them dealt with during quarterly visits to the doctor. My late mother also had a few dozen such nasties treated. It's a genetic predisposition, and all my four siblings have also had to deal with it. Oddly, I've never had any of those conditions on the only part of me never covered * – the face. * except in recent times by Covid-required masks
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Post by Verbivore on Sept 25, 2021 22:23:47 GMT
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Post by Verbivore on Sept 27, 2021 2:49:28 GMT
That damn YouTube algorithm! I was searching for info on dogs and YT recommended this video. D'uh!
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Post by Dave Miller on Sept 27, 2021 5:13:52 GMT
That damn YouTube algorithm! I was searching for info on dogs and YT recommended this video. D'uh! I’m intrigued: is the soundtrack computer-generated? If so, such generation is getting very close to human patterns. I ask because the accent is fairly neutral British, but the speech rhythms, grammar and word choices are not.
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Post by Verbivore on Sept 27, 2021 7:32:26 GMT
That damn YouTube algorithm! I was searching for info on dogs and YT recommended this video. D'uh! I’m intrigued: is the soundtrack computer-generated? If so, such generation is getting very close to human patterns. I ask because the accent is fairly neutral British, but the speech rhythms, grammar and word choices are not. Do you mean the narrating voice? That's Patrick Foote, a British human who speaks with th-fronting. He's perhaps shy, because not many of his videos show his face, though I have seen him twice or thrice.
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Post by Dave Miller on Sept 27, 2021 16:37:24 GMT
Thanks for that, Vv. I did mean the narration, and I’ll listen again, to see what it was that felt “wrong”.
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