HandwovenConsensus @ HandwovenConsensus @lemm.ee

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10

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139

Joined

2 yr. ago

Well, it comes down to the fact that professional athletes strive to be the best of the best.

Obviously we don't need everyone to practice those skills at that level; if we did, then we'd be out of luck because only a small minority is even physically capable of doing so.

But to say that practicing those sports doesn't have practical benefits is another matter, especially at the amateur level.

Like, you could apply it to any field. If the best chef in the world disappeared, we'd probably be fine. But that doesn't mean that cooking is a useless skill in general.

I just thought of a possible exception: cycling. Being able to ride a bicycle can be a pretty practical skill in some cities.

Edit: Swimming and diving too have practical applications.

Had to think about it, but you're right. It only becomes a sport when it's not needed any more. Before that, it's a skill.

Horsemanship, archery, hand-to-hand combat, fishing, shooting... all practical skills at one time. Then they became sports.

The irony being that Russia would have worked fine if the Right wasn't in their pocket.

Well, I only know of two off the top of my head, but I really doubt they're the only examples: Irish and Mandarin Chinese.

I think some Irish don't even habitually use them when speaking English. If you ask them "Are you ok?" they'd answer "I am" or "I am not."

1:60 = one minute and 60 seconds, or two minutes.

120 would be parsed as one minute and 20 seconds, or 80 seconds.

Took me a bit to get too.

I fixed it lol

I still don't get why it's called that.

That is such a funny mental image.

"Drink" is such a weird word in how it has both a general and specific meaning, but no other word for the general meaning is commonly used.

"Drink your milk! No drinking until you're 21!"

My parents didn't specifically tell me if Santa Clause was real or make-believe. They wanted me to come to my own conclusion, I guess. My dad is a rationalist person, and my mom's from a culture that doesn't traditionally celebrate Christmas.

So what I believed was that the appearance of presents on Christmas was an unsolved mystery, and Santa Clause was just a hypothesis to explain it.

I suspected the real explanation probably involved the tree working as an antenna for some kind of cosmic energy that triggered the appearance of presents. Perhaps in ancient and more superstitious times they discovered this phenomenon by accident and continued to put up the tree ever since.

From what I understand, it was a blanket pardon for anyone who met certain criteria, and this judge just happened to meet them.

What they should do is push for voting reform. There are tons of proposals for voting systems that solve the two party stalemate and the issue of gerrymandering.

If they really wanted to stop the insanity of the Republican party, that's what they would do. Until they do, they are complicit in it.

Unfortunately, that's not true. Dodge vs Ford Motor Co established the precedent of shareholder primacy when Henry Ford was successfully sued for attempting to reduce dividends in favor of reinvesting profits.

Well, I only know how it tends to work in China, where the traditional calendar is used for cultural events such as festivals, while the Gregorian calendar is used for just about everything else, including domestic business. I assumed it's the same in most modern cultures with a different traditional calendar, but maybe I'm wrong.

Is it? I know some cultures have a traditional lunar calendar, but I didn't know there were many that didn't also use the Gregorian calendar for business.

Which cultures have the seven day week without the solar year?

Not quite the same, since in my scenario the player loses everything after a loss while in the St. Petersburg Paradox it seems they keep their winnings. But it does seem relevant in explaining that expected value isn't everything.

I'm looking at the game as a whole. The player has a 1 in 8 chance of winning 3 rounds overall.

But the odds of the player managing to do so are proportionate. In theory, if 8 players each decide to go for three rounds, one of them will win, but the losings from the other 7 will pay for that player's winnings.

You're right that the house is performing a Martingale strategy. That's a good insight. That may actually be the source of the house advantage. The scenario is ideal for a Martingale strategy to work.

Well, they have to start over with a $1 bet.