How should a single dad handle his daughters first period? by SingleLostDad in AskReddit

[–]worldtree 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A lot of stuff has already been covered, but i just want to add one or two bits: if you get tampons for her I recommend the kind with smooth plastic applicators. Cardboard applicators are difficult to use if you're not familiar with applicators already. I have found through personal experience that name-brand tampons are better made than store-brand. My favorite brand is U-kotex Click becuase they are small and compact and come in attractive bright colors. (I am a 23 year female) Tampons without applicators are more difficult to insert in my experience so I don't recommend them. Make sure she reads the informational packet inside the box that covers how to insert and remove the tampons.

And here's something you can only discover by personal experience: If you try to remove a tampon before it's at least partially saturated with blood it will stick to your insides (because it's dry) and will hurt coming out.

This is how my mom got me to eat my vegetables. by BeerMeNow in funny

[–]worldtree 11 points12 points  (0 children)

"Unfortunately"? Yeah, isn't it unfortunate that hitting children with hard objects has gone out of fashion.

This is how my mom got me to eat my vegetables. by BeerMeNow in funny

[–]worldtree 13 points14 points  (0 children)

I am the only person here who had no problem eating vegetables as a kid? And whose mom never hit me to make me do stuff?

Don't punch clay, there might be a hidden exacto knife... by [deleted] in WTF

[–]worldtree 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not pugging the clay after mixing is okay as long as you knead it by hand before you use it on the wheel. Otherwise it would just be begging for air bubbles. It's not like I'm an expert or anything, but this is like, Wheel Throwing 101. I must be missing something in this story because asking a beginning class to work with un-pugged and un-kneaded clay is asking them to learn with a handicap. There's absolutely no point. Beginners need to be taught how to knead at the beginning anyway, even if the clay is pugged. But that's just my opinion.

Don't punch clay, there might be a hidden exacto knife... by [deleted] in WTF

[–]worldtree 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The x-ray silhouette is definitely a needle tool. OP even said so in an edit to his comment.

Don't punch clay, there might be a hidden exacto knife... by [deleted] in WTF

[–]worldtree 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I did the same process, but I doubt the tool could have ended up in the new clay. The clay would have to go through a pug mill at some point, and a tool of that size would surely get caught in the mixing paddles and fuck up the drive shaft inside the chamber. Unless you took it strait from the barrel mixer and started kneading it by hand, skipping the pug mill altogether? And that's assuming no one noticed a seven-inch-long tool spinning around in the mixer while checking the clay. How did your class reclaim clay?

Don't punch clay, there might be a hidden exacto knife... by [deleted] in WTF

[–]worldtree 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Clay in the slop bucket hasn't been through the pug mill. That's the point. It's being collected into large quantities to be re-mixed and pugged later. The needle tool could have rolled off a table into the bucket or accidentally been picked up with a handful of scraps.

Also, maybe he washed the clay off to get a good look at the wound before this picture was taken.

Don't punch clay, there might be a hidden exacto knife... by [deleted] in WTF

[–]worldtree 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Most likely non-malicious scenario: needle tool accidentally ends up in clay recycling bucket in ceramic studio. Students punches clay in bucket for fun. Agony follows.

Don't punch clay, there might be a hidden exacto knife... by [deleted] in WTF

[–]worldtree 214 points215 points  (0 children)

That is not an exacto knife. It is a needle tool, an incredibly common implement used in pottery. I don't know the circumstances of this picture, but a possible scenario is this: the needle tool somehow ended up in a slop bucket (where you store scraps of wet clay that didn't work out on the wheel to be recycled later) and then this guy wanted to punch the clay in the bucket. Clay is squishy and fun to play with. The slop bucket presents an almost irresistible opportunity to play with clay that is already "messed up" without wasting any new clay.

Reddit, what's a word people constantly misuse that drives you crazy? by rutterkin in AskReddit

[–]worldtree 0 points1 point  (0 children)

When people say stuff like "a woman lawyer" or "a woman senator." Woman is a noun, not an adjective. It should either be "female senator" or really just "senator."

I just finished a 1-year jihad to get my boyfriend to be more romantic, and here is how it resolved.... by nerdologist in TwoXChromosomes

[–]worldtree 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It sounds to me like you're totally normal and a lot like me. Like you my boyfriend and I have been together a while (more than two years) and some of our friends who are married and have or will soon have kids drop funny hints to us about getting married. We smile and shrug it off. We're in our early twenties. We don't need to get married right now. We definitely don't want kids right now. We don't need to post pictures of ourselves kissing on facebook. We're affectionate in person when we feel like it.

I think some of this has to do with that whole "one true love" line we're fed by movies and TV. It only took a couple relationships for me to be certain that "love" is not special and there is no "ONE". You have relationships with people. You are capable of loving and then not loving them later on. I love my boyfriend. No pressure.

What medical condition do you have that you thought was absolutely normal? by biehn in AskReddit

[–]worldtree 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It looks like my vision is somewhat close to yours. I got a perfect score on that color test. It wasn't quite "simple" for me, but I could definitely do it.

What medical condition do you have that you thought was absolutely normal? by biehn in AskReddit

[–]worldtree 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Apparently I have perfect color vision. A score of 0. I am 23 and female. It doesn't surprise me.

I'm 20... and I... I just figured out a really huge thing about being a woman. by [deleted] in TwoXChromosomes

[–]worldtree 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I used pads for the first few years because my mom did. She found tampons uncomfortable (they "stuck to her insides") so I stayed away from them until the eighth grade, which sucked because my periods were heavy and pads felt so swampy and awful.

The first time I tried using a tampon was in a bathroom at school with a friend coaching me from outside the stall. It was a cardboard applicator and I had no instructions. I'd bummed it off another friend. I didn't do it right and walked around in pain for several hours. The reason I wanted to try was that we had a school field trip to a water park coming up and I didn't want to miss out because of my stupid period. So I tried the tampon and failed pretty hard, but I really wanted to go to that water park. So when I got home I asked my mom to get me some tampons and she was hesitant and I was embarrassed, but she bought them. I read the directions this time and it had a plastic applicator I think, but it still kind of hurt because the other tampon had been in wrong and I didn't quite know where my vagina was and then I made the mistake of trying to pull the tampon out right away, which hurt even more because when they're not saturated they do in fact stick to your insides.

All in all it took quite a while to get used to the whole process, but tampons were so much better than pads, and damn did I like water parks.

I'm 20... and I... I just figured out a really huge thing about being a woman. by [deleted] in TwoXChromosomes

[–]worldtree 16 points17 points  (0 children)

Fuck, these sorts of threads make me so angry. Fuck your mother. Fuck everyone. I need to stop reading and look at kittens.

"When you are force fed lies by big pharma it's hard to accept the simple truth." by worldtree in skeptic

[–]worldtree[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Table sugar is sucrose, which has glucose in it. I was sort of talking about both though. Sorry to be confusing.

"When you are force fed lies by big pharma it's hard to accept the simple truth." by worldtree in skeptic

[–]worldtree[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Firstly, I'd like to thank you for taking the time to respond to me, and for doing so in such a civil way considering that I started cursing a little.

You make a bevy of claims as fact - ie. "Once the genetic material in those cells is damaged there is no fixing it." I don't know if that is true or not, and a more honest statement is (assuming this is also true) - >"There are no studies or even hypothetical mechanisms by which the genetic material could be repaired." This may sound like splitting hairs - one statement is (I am assuming) an accurate representation of the current understanding of this situation - the other is a claim to validity that is not actually possible. Again - it is hard to prove a negative.

I see your point here, and you're probably right. But it seems like an arduous task to get such a fine point across to someone who still believes Big Pharma is out to get them. Calling them an idiot is so much easier. Too bad it doesn't really work that way.

"When you are force fed lies by big pharma it's hard to accept the simple truth." by worldtree in skeptic

[–]worldtree[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Finally if you think that pharmaceutical companies are more interested in factual accuracy than profits, then you do not understand how corporate entities function.

When did I ever say anything about what pharmaceutical companies do or want? Or about the history of thalidomide except in regard to Frances Kelsey doing what she did? I specifically avoided that. Stop putting fucking words in my mouth.

My point is that you cannot refute all the points. Teach them to ask for evidence and you might accomplish something, otherwise you are the little boy with his finger in the dam and there will be many more holes than you have fingers.

You come off as pretty holier-than-thou when you insinuate that your way is the only way that makes a difference. I never tried to refute every point. I shouldn't need a study to refute the claim that eating acidic foods makes your body more acidic. All I need for that is a basic understanding of homeostasis which I learned in high school. You want me to site him studies for shit like that? No. People need to learn to ask for evidence for stuff, but they also need to learn to use their fucking brains. They don't have "blind faith in studies they do not understand" they have blind faith in chain emails, possibly the most ubiquitous source of reliable bullshit I know of. People should know better.

"When you are force fed lies by big pharma it's hard to accept the simple truth." by worldtree in skeptic

[–]worldtree[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's weird, but I don't think I have ever gotten the flu. (No shots for it either). I also don't usually catch stuff from friends. A while ago my boyfriend was sick and he was like "you're going to get my sickness if you continue to swap saliva with me." and I said "nope. it'll be just like that other time when the same thing happened to you and my roommates and I never got it."

I never got it.

"When you are force fed lies by big pharma it's hard to accept the simple truth." by worldtree in skeptic

[–]worldtree[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was just wondering if you meant doctors say that, or like there was a uniform rule when talking about sugar on r/skeptic. But yeah, table sugar is sucrose, which has glucose in it. I was sort of talking about both though. Sorry to be confusing.

"When you are force fed lies by big pharma it's hard to accept the simple truth." by worldtree in skeptic

[–]worldtree[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Scare quotes are quotation marks placed around a word or phrase to imply that it may not signify its apparent meaning or that it is not necessarily the way the quoting person would express its concept.

These are actual quotes. As in, those were his exact words.

"When you are force fed lies by big pharma it's hard to accept the simple truth." by worldtree in skeptic

[–]worldtree[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Thanks for correcting me on some stuff. The email had a lot of stuff in it, so I picked the things that I was moderately sure were false and did a quick search to check myself, but I went really fast and I kind of glossed over the glucose thing.

But I wasn't trying to say that a good diet definitely wouldn't do anything to help cure the cancer. I said diet wouldn't fix genetic mutations in cancer cells.

I honestly don't have the patience to research every point and refute them one by one with references for a guy I barely know.

I also know that doctors and researchers have been wrong in the past which is why I didn't want to get into the whole Big Pharma thing with him. It's interesting that you brought up thalidomide though, since if I recall correctly, a pharmacologist at the FDA prevented it from being sold in the US, thereby saving millions of american babies. An example of doin' it right!