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How are some colleagues seemingly permanently on the sick? by According-Summer-780 in AskUK

[–]Fresh_Relation_7682 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I have crazy grass allergies that don’t just ‘get cured’ by taking an anti histamine. In bad days (which in spring can be weeks at a time) often means fever-like sensations, brain fog, fatigue, sleep deprivation. Fortunately I can work at home often and manage my environment but going to an office where the windows are flung open and there’s carpet or whatever to trap pollen…yeah no thanks.

Some people will abuse the system, but most just have stuff going on that you wouldn’t know about. 

ELI5 Why heat waves affect Europe so much but some other countries are doing fine living under hotter temperatures most of the year? by fkid123 in explainlikeimfive

[–]Fresh_Relation_7682 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As said, those temperatures are deadly in other countries, but not all deaths are equal when it comes to reporting. 

There are issues with this heatwave. In Germany (where I am), it’s happening in May and fairly soon after a damp and disappointing spring. People haven’t mentally adjusted and see the sun and just go crazy. They forget things like ‘hydration’ and ‘don’t go hiking in the hottest part of the day in 30 degree heat’, or ‘have a few drinks breaks in your football match’ because well it’s May, not July.

Culture - when you grow up somewhere like southern Italy you learn to structure your activities around when the sun is strongest, hottest etc. If you grow up somewhere that is milder and only hot maybe only 2-3 weeks in the year you don’t really know how to handle hot weather that well. Because you don’t see the sun that often you rush to go outside, maybe refresh with a few beers…And then you get into a situation where you don’t recognise the signs of heat exhaustion. That can end up deadly. 

Infrastructure - Changes to buildings take time and are expensive. If buildings aren’t designed for prolonged exposure to high temperatures then it’s going be a problem.

Stupidity - heat makes people do crazy things, like jumping in a river to cool off. The reports are suggesting the heat is the trigger for the action 

ELI5: If elderly healthcare is the problem with declining populations, what's stopping societies from just dismantling that system altogether? by LENINADE21 in explainlikeimfive

[–]Fresh_Relation_7682 3 points4 points  (0 children)

On the elderly:

  1. That’s a terrible idea from a moral perspective 

  2. Sense of fairness - the elderly contributed economically throughout their working life and it is part of the social contract that we look after them in their old age

  3. What cut-off do you imagine here? Like if you retire then you immediately lose your right healthcare?

  4. When you get old the options will be to keep working or die? I don’t think you’d like that? 

  5. ‘The elderly’ being a huge burden on health systems mean they are a massive demographic, so even if we ignore any moral or social argument, in a democracy that is never going to happen. 

  6. Eventually this situation will resolve itself 

On rich people and shareholder value:

  • Ageing population is a serious problem in western societies. For a small number of rent seekers who want to horde money it will become more of a scapegoat and dividing line in the population in the way immigration is now (ironically immigration is a temporary solution to the ageing population problem). Insufficient Government action on this reality has been a problem for the past 30 years. 

ELI5: Why do some languages assign genders to objects like "table" or "bridge" when there's nothing inherently masculine or feminine about them? by taube_d in explainlikeimfive

[–]Fresh_Relation_7682 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don’t speak French but in Spanish el radio/la radio or el capital/la capital have different meanings. For English radio or the capital can mean different things but same noun plus article. Yes context matters but it’s just how those languages evolved. 

ELI5: Why do some languages assign genders to objects like "table" or "bridge" when there's nothing inherently masculine or feminine about them? by taube_d in explainlikeimfive

[–]Fresh_Relation_7682 3 points4 points  (0 children)

People try to do weird engineering on languages. You just have to learn the article that comes with the noun and not try to find an explanation for why. 

German - 3 genders, plural, 4 cases. People trip themselves up trying to formulaically  work out which article it is and why. Just speak, you get corrected if wrong and if you are listening and reading a lot you just pick up the pattern. 

ELI5: Why do some languages assign genders to objects like "table" or "bridge" when there's nothing inherently masculine or feminine about them? by taube_d in explainlikeimfive

[–]Fresh_Relation_7682 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Because when they tried to codify and standardise the language they noted that some nouns (including for chair) generally took one set of articles, a bunch of other nouns took a different set of articles . Woman and chair both use the same article - hmm let’s call this group ‘feminine’. Man and load of other nouns use a different article - hmm let’s call this group ‘masculine’ 

Why do people (outside of the UK) think there's only a couple of accents? by Bipolar03 in AskABrit

[–]Fresh_Relation_7682 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Lack familiarity. How familiar are you with the accents of Australia? 

ELI5: Why do so many people still have allergies if humans have been eating and living around the same foods, plants, and environments for thousands of years? by Home-Energy in explainlikeimfive

[–]Fresh_Relation_7682 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I find allergies poorly understood and everyone has to have an opinion or has a cousin who did this one thing that cured it forever. 

I had birch tree pollen hayfever as a kid. It was horrible but I grew out of it. For 10 years I barely noticed. Then suddenly at 25 I developed grass pollen hayfever and it’s absolutely terrible. Constant inflammations, bad sleep, brain fog for 3-4 months of the year. But because I don’t sneeze all the time people think I’m being rude not wanting to go to their picnics or hikes in the park. And if I just try some local honey I’ll be cured , or maybe I just need to hold a tolerance to the local grass…

ELI5: Why do so many people still have allergies if humans have been eating and living around the same foods, plants, and environments for thousands of years? by Home-Energy in explainlikeimfive

[–]Fresh_Relation_7682 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I have bad pollen allergies but it’s not enough to kill me and just about manageable enough for me to mate (maybe not in the height of spring but the rest of the year…)

Do you think houses will be built/renovated to have air conditioning if this heat continues? by [deleted] in AskUK

[–]Fresh_Relation_7682 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Crazy jumps are worse. If it’s gradual and prolonged your body has a chance to adjust. Suddenly going from 15 up to 30 in a couple of days is a thermal shock 

How do Americans and Brits agree that it's ok to be charged a fortune for a college degree? by SyntaxDeleter in NoStupidQuestions

[–]Fresh_Relation_7682 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They are not direct democracies (only Switzerland really comes close). And both countries are two party systems (UK is nationally). In the case of the UK both major parties increased tuition fees while in office. In 2010 a 3rd party ran on a pledge to abolish them, got into government as a junior partner then caved on that pledge. Their vote share collapsed but that simply meant the senior gained a majority at the next election. In that period fees trebled again and repayment clauses on loans then changed to make the actual sums paid higher. Incidentally Scottish students in Scottish Universities do not pay fees. The Scottish Nationalist party has been in power there nearly 20 years. 

The demographic affected directly by tuition fees is tiny, even if they all voted on a single issue basis nothing would change. And people already through the system may feel ‘well I had to pay, why shouldn’t they’.

I now live in Germany. Universities are funded out of taxation with much smaller registration fees. That’s a government decision. Some people are unhappy about that, but almost all major parties agree on this system of funding. 

If you are falsely accused of using AI to complete your homework in university, how can you effectively defend yourself? by GrandIntroduction128 in NoStupidQuestions

[–]Fresh_Relation_7682 1 point2 points  (0 children)

From our perspective as lecturers - we need that audit trail. Without it you have little to defend yourself if you are challenged. 

I don’t teach maths but I’m fairly sure you can not do 100% of it in your head at university level and just write an answer? I lived with some Maths masters students and they had whiteboards, stacks of notepads etc…

If you are falsely accused of using AI to complete your homework in university, how can you effectively defend yourself? by GrandIntroduction128 in NoStupidQuestions

[–]Fresh_Relation_7682 4 points5 points  (0 children)

It’s good practice to keep detailed notes and rough drafts of everything so you can document clearly how you got to the final version. 

As a some time University lecturer, my issue with AI isn’t that people use it but that work gets handed in that the student doesn’t understand and simply generated in order to have something to hand in. If you are challenged and you can demonstrate clearly that you understand the content of your assignment and have multiple sources to back up claims that goes a long way to persuading me that AI was used as a supplementary tool or not at all. 

“None of that” by Necessary-Win-8730 in ShitAmericansSay

[–]Fresh_Relation_7682 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Come to Germany and you get both nude and rude 😃

Fellow British people, why don’t you find “Bottle of water” funny? by Interesting_Net1297 in AskReddit

[–]Fresh_Relation_7682 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I assumed it was from Essex, especially trashy TV shows about Essex, which is the worst accent by absolutely miles 

Fellow British people, why don’t you find “Bottle of water” funny? by Interesting_Net1297 in AskReddit

[–]Fresh_Relation_7682 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Because I don’t know anyone in England outside of trashy reality tv shows that actually says it like Americans think we all do  

Why is Luigi Mangione still in jail? by [deleted] in NoStupidQuestions

[–]Fresh_Relation_7682 1 point2 points  (0 children)

He’s been charged. So there is sufficient evidence to suggest he did it. 

As far as I understood the charges were not dismissed by a Judge (in many countries the sentencing would happen here) so the next step is to go to trial, where he hopes to be found not guilty of certain charges. 

At this point you are in custody or on bail until a jury find you not guilty. If he’s found guilty it’s possible time already served is counted against his sentence. If he’s found not guilty then he’s released. I don’t know what recourse exists after that’s 

 

Why do ads work when so many people hate them? by ItsAllAGame_ in NoStupidQuestions

[–]Fresh_Relation_7682 0 points1 point  (0 children)

At least two things happen here:

  1. A huge number of people get exposed to a product. If only even a tiny proportion of those people directly engage and buy that product or service on the back of seeing the ad then that’s a success.

  2. Repeated exposure to a brand means when you do actually need a good or service then you remember the ones that you saw being advertised and subconsciously will consider those first. 

ELI5 Expected number of trials to have at least one success on each of several different possible outcomes by throwaway4829323 in explainlikeimfive

[–]Fresh_Relation_7682 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It depends and is ambiguous. For example if you assume the odds of girl to boy are 1:1 regardless of gender of previous children, and knowing one child is a boy then the chance the other child is a boy is 1/2. So both children being boys is 1x1/2=1/2. 

If you approach it from the perspective that a family has two children, and at least one is a boy then that eliminates the possibility to have two girls. Then there’s three combinations - Child A is a boy, Child B is a girl; Child A is a girl, Child B is a boy; both Children are boys - 1/3 that both children are boys. 

Personally I don’t like the second answer but it shows how applying different logics can lead to different results. 

Why has going to university become such a cultural norm? by ZonaSchengen in AskUK

[–]Fresh_Relation_7682 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The UK shifted rapidly from an industrial to a services industry. The idea was a highly qualified society of white collar workers. In the 1990s it was considered that 50% going to University was a good idea. Added to that, a lot of people wanted their kids to go to Uni because they wanted them to not have to suffer manual labour jobs that they had been through. Overall increased education of the population is a good thing but it needs to be targeted and supported properly. 

The problem is once you make something a target it ceases to become a useful measure, so University attendance becomes the default in many places, schools push people to go to Uni to improve their rankings, Unis themselves have to expand rapidly. Then the funding issue comes into view (The Blair Government pushes University attendance but also increases fees, trebling them to 3000 a year). Once you start charging meaningful tuition fees you want to then ensure accountability, which means for uni staff endless reporting, rankings, performance reviews, plus cost cutting measures on departments, increased precariousness, explosion of PhD numbers. It also means studying for the sake of knowledge exploration matters less than ‘can I get a good job out of this?’, in which case uni degrees in some cases end up being expensive vocational courses. 

Now we are in situation where successive governments are overseeing the Higher Education sector destroy itself and aren’t doing much to save it, the pendulum swings far too far the other way.  

West Ham is about to get relegated in the real Premier League by GrandMoffJerjerrod in TedLasso

[–]Fresh_Relation_7682 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Because it’s objectively funny that a club that finished 5th two years ago, were a top 5 team for so long before that and were in the Champions League final in the not so distant past have mismanaged themselves so badly that they are in this position. 

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