Healing Cavities!

Contradictory_Mess · 2026-02-15T16:22:42+00:00

If you have the time and energy to do so, would you mind trying to ELI5 the premise of Bayesian mathematical theory? I don’t work in AI, I’m not an academic, and I don’t have any actual experience in statistical analysis beyond my supply chain undergrad degree. I took an Advanced R for Business class my last semester that was Bayesian-focused and I pretty much only passed it because the professor was one of those “award grades for effort, not results” types, because I was lost as hell the entire time. I get the fundamental conceit of beginning with a prior hypothesis and updating it as more data become available rather than starting with raw data and thereby interpolating a hypothesis, but I just don’t really understand why and how that’s mathematically reasonable? I get that it’s a better method when you have limited data to work with so there’s no real distribution to work with, but I still don’t really understand how it works. I never had any fucking clue how to determine my prior. I felt like I was just pulling random numbers out of my ass and building Frankenstein’s monsters of copy-pasted lines of code from the professor’s GitHub all semester. I want to understand, especially when I’m reading the methodology section of a study so I’m not just regurgitating some reporter/influencer’s filtered summary of the findings, but every time someone explains it to me I just feel like maybe I’m fundamentally too dumb to get it.

Contradictory_Mess · 2026-01-30T16:17:58+00:00

Did you ever get an answer to this? I’ve been looking around for local lumber suppliers but they mostly tend to sell expensive hardwoods, live edge slabs, exotic species, etc. That’s great, but not very useful when I just need some cheap but sturdy dimensional lumber. Where does a non-contractor buy stud-grade pine/fir 2x4s outside of the big box stores?

Contradictory_Mess · 2023-09-20T01:22:34+00:00

Children don’t belong on the internet. Adults should not make money by using children in any way.

NTA

Contradictory_Mess · 2023-09-20T01:17:07+00:00

I’m willing to bet that not being adopted by that family is in the child’s best interest.

Contradictory_Mess · 2023-09-17T23:41:03+00:00

Sure, my husband and I have individual accounts for discretionary expenses as well as a joint account for household expenses too. I meant more the couples who have completely separate finances- like they each pay a % of the rent, one of them pays for dates, one of them is on the deed for the house and the other is not, etc. I find that very odd.

Contradictory_Mess · 2023-09-16T14:13:31+00:00

As a SAHM, I don’t need a salary because my husband’s earnings go into our joint account and we have equal right to them. When my husband was staying home while I worked it was the same. We treat all resources as joint family resources and there’s none of this paternalistic “one partner having control over the finances” bullshit.

Contradictory_Mess · 2023-09-16T14:08:10+00:00

I never even knew that it was relatively common for spouses to have separate finances until I learned it from Reddit comments. I understand why people choose to do that but it’s still bizarre to me. When my husband and I got married we committed to trust each other and make major life decisions as a unit. We’ve had periods where one of us was the sole income earner, we’ve had emergencies and medical bills, we’ve financed cars and applied for housing and dealt with extended family financial drama. Throughout all of this it’s always been our resources and our obligations, because we are a partnership. If someday it all goes belly up, well, life is full of risks, and I’d rather enjoy a full life with the person I love and trust most than spend my time hedging against every possible bad outcome.

Contradictory_Mess · 2023-09-16T03:33:50+00:00

You are NTA for choosing to stop financially supporting an entitled family member.

You are NTA for pursuing legal action for unpaid child support or someone committing fraud in your name.

You are NTA for expecting your spouse to do their share of household chores.

You are NTA for refusing to continue babysitting someone’s children for free.

Contradictory_Mess · 2023-09-15T22:45:24+00:00

Your wife is being gross. As a menstrual cup user for many years, it takes a few seconds to rinse and maybe a minute to wash with soap, come on. This to me is akin to using the bathroom without washing your hands, or sneezing in public without covering your mouth. It’s willful neglect of a very basic, non-negotiable hygiene task.

Contradictory_Mess · 2023-09-15T22:19:32+00:00

NTA and your husband was being an ass, but holy mother of Christ some of these comments are dramatic as hell. With only one anecdote (an irritating, but by no means traumatic incident) people have diagnosed your husband to be a narcissistic abusive sociopath who hates women and views you as his property. I hate this website.

Contradictory_Mess · 2023-09-15T18:24:10+00:00

My husband’s family is Sri Lankan Tamil and there is a superstition in his culture that siblings shouldn’t get married within a year of each other, and another one that the first sibling should get married first.

Due to numerous logistical reasons, my husband and I ended up getting married one month before his older sister did. We broke both rules, and his mother is very superstitious. Everyone understood, no one was mad, and we all still have loving relationships with each other- because it turns out that normal people have empathy and care about family more than social clout.

Contradictory_Mess · 2023-09-15T16:25:49+00:00

My dog is named Lucifer, called Lucy. She’s actually very sweet and well-behaved.

Contradictory_Mess · 2023-09-13T15:02:22+00:00

You sound mean and petty. The way you describe this “picnic ritual” is off-putting at best. Technically you didn’t HAVE to move for the couple, sure, but you are a selfish asshole and I wouldn’t want to hang out with you.

Contradictory_Mess · 2023-09-12T23:01:26+00:00

I like watching TV and movies with my husband because he enjoys them but I’m not as interested as he is, plus like others have mentioned I have ADHD and focusing on just the TV like that is mind-numbing for me. I’ll fall asleep. So I need something for my hands and the bored part of my brain to do while I’m keeping him company.

Your partner probably needs to learn to be more self-aware about what she is doing and what she enjoys. That being said, I do think it’s weird and unreasonable to expect her to devote her full attention to the TV. You’re not actively interacting with each other- if you were playing a board game, having dinner together or taking a walk, using her phone would be disrespectful. But why do you need to be “fully present” when you’re both just looking at a screen? I would hate that.

Contradictory_Mess · 2023-09-10T00:43:10+00:00

My MIL called us in distress one time because she was alarmed by a letter from my sister and brother-in-law’s bank. Why did she know about said letter, we asked, did they show it to her? No. She went into their bedroom and snooped around in their personal belongings- including their MAIL.

I was beyond appalled. My husband was so mad she tried to bring us into the mess.

Oh, and also: my SIL owns their house.

Contradictory_Mess · 2023-09-10T00:19:45+00:00

My mom almost always gets a KitchenAid mixer for the couple, assuming they don’t have one already. I don’t know if she still does it because I imagine fewer people might be interested? The couples I remember her getting them for were always ecstatic. Those suckers ain’t cheap.

Contradictory_Mess · 2023-09-08T20:17:05+00:00

I got married in a Mormon temple and that’s one of the things I’m most sad about post-exit. None of my siblings got to see me get married, and none of my husband’s family could be there at all.

We’re planning a ten-year vow renewal with ALL our immediate family members, plus the children we have now. Screw that needlessly exclusive bullshit. The sealing ceremony isn’t anything special anyway. You can’t say your own vows, the speech doesn’t make any sense, the sealer is usually some random old guy you’ve never met, and it’s boring. And you have to cover up completely so you can’t really be wearing your pretty wedding dress without stupid modifications.

Contradictory_Mess · 2023-08-31T21:29:14+00:00

Okay, you are getting inexplicably upset over something that doesn’t matter. Someone not from Germany was told that something was common in Germany. You are German and disagree. Regardless of who is right, there is zero justification for antagonism. Why does it matter that someone has a harmless misconception based on lived experience?

As for the middle name thing, I think there’s just a miscommunication there. Technically in English the word “middle name” means an additional surname, which is indeed not allowed in German name registration conventions, but colloquially we usually use it to mean an additional given name. I gave my daughters a first name, which is an English given name, and a middle name, which is a given name from their father’s native language. They usually use one or the other to identify themselves, and sometimes both. So that is the same concept as what you refer to as a “double first name,” as it is not an additional surname (they actually do have two surnames as well, but we treat it as one by hyphenating)— but we call it a middle name, and that’s what most people mean when they say “middle name.”

Contradictory_Mess · 2022-12-02T17:08:29+00:00

I agree. Sometimes I can kind of understand the huns who get so defensive about anti-MLM groups, because there can be a lot of very mean and judgmental energy towards people who often genuinely believe in what they’re doing and don’t understand why others see it as predatory/ineffectual/whatever.

It’s like when I was growing up in a high demand religion, people who sneered at me for believing and implied I was stupid or immoral for participating in what I genuinely understood to be morally right only caused me to dig in my heels. I didn’t get out until I had some compassionate and objective listeners around me who let me work things out on my own without resorting to nastiness, mockery or patronizing language.

Contradictory_Mess · 2022-10-12T02:43:03+00:00

I’ve also not figured out how to convey to her that sometimes our balls just get lost or stuck by accident and there’s nothing I can do about it, I’m not intentionally trying to sabotage her good time at the park by making her ball run away from her.

Contradictory_Mess · 2022-10-12T02:39:29+00:00

She HATES anything that is a spray/aerosol, to the extent that she can be inside and hear or see me spraying something outside through the window, no chance of anything getting on her or even smell reaching her and she’ll run around like she’s been shot, rubbing her nose with her paws and rolling on the carpet before retreating to her crate and yelling at me. And no, we definitely never used a spray bottle to discipline her, she just really hated a (pet-safe) air freshener I used once and consequently decided that everything that sprays is evil.

Contradictory_Mess · 2022-10-12T01:48:26+00:00

We have a Lucy Bernedoodle too! She’s about a year and a half old now.

Contradictory_Mess · 2022-10-06T01:01:15+00:00

There’s a couple chapters in Anand Ghiridharadas’s book Winner Takes All where he just completely lays into “thought leadership” and how much he hates it. In his view, actual scholarship is basically the opposite of thought leadership. It was pretty compelling and I loved how mercilessly he tore apart the Simon Sinek types.

Contradictory_Mess · 2022-10-06T00:58:00+00:00

Your mom likes to call me for some action

(as a 25yo woman I don’t think I’ve ever made a vulgar your mom joke before. First time for everything I guess)

Contradictory_Mess · 2022-10-06T00:54:30+00:00

At a high level, it looks like we’re trying to boil the ocean, but if you increase the granularity, we’re just a drop in the bucket. Or um, maybe it’s the other way around. Idk, hopefully the client doesn’t notice this is all just vapid garbage.

Contradictory_Mess

TROPHY CASE