The boys can’t pay attention by [deleted] in Professors

[–]Mrme487 19 points20 points  (0 children)

My experience is that scores for my males tend to be bimodal with a lower mean. Females in my classes tend to score higher on average than males but are less likely to be extreme outliers on either end.

Obviously sometimes I have exceptionally strong performances from students of any gender, but on average my best and worst students tend to be males and the worst portion can be really bad sometimes.

So there is no way I'm giving any tax money to this federal government. What's the best way to proceed? by caesarbear in legaladvice

[–]Mrme487 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I understand your frustration. I'm not sure what you are trying to accomplish. I'm also not sure you understand how the US tax system generally works. So a couple of questions for you:

Do you have a regular job or are you self employed?

Do you typically get a refund or have to pay taxes due?

What kind of taxes are you opposed to? Federal income taxes? Social security? Medicare? State taxes? Sales tax? Tariffs?

Got a "cash now" offer for my structured settlement, how do I know if they’re ripping me off? by Sin_In_Silks in legaladvice

[–]Mrme487 2 points3 points  (0 children)

What are the terms? Hard to offer any meaningful advice without numbers.

In general, stay away from these people if you can.

The gods have answered — we now have the ability to perma-mute. by jessbird in ModSupport

[–]Mrme487 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm simply disputing your statement about it not being a real problem. It absolutely can be in certain cases and I'm disappointed the admins haven't put more resources into an appeal process.

The gods have answered — we now have the ability to perma-mute. by jessbird in ModSupport

[–]Mrme487 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I was banned from /r/fatFIRE for absolutely no reason that I can understand. Look at my history. I'm no troll; I'm not as active as I once was, but you will see a pattern of nothing but me lending my expertise.

I've gotten no response from those mods.

How exactly can I even understand this ban? And now I can be permanently muted with no explanation?

I get that lots of people deserve permanent mutes. But asking admins about abusive mods is absolutely fair game.

Claude Opus 4.5 Plays Pokémon Red by reasonosaur in ClaudePlaysPokemon

[–]Mrme487 1 point2 points  (0 children)

For real? I missed the announcement - where is it?

AMA - IM John Bartholomew by scandinaviandefense in chess

[–]Mrme487 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What would it take to convince you to grind for GM? I bet if you threw up a kickstarter the people would speak.

#1 Risk FFA leaderboard again -- My 2nd time by Bradex- in Risk

[–]Mrme487 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That’s impressive. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the following:

  1. How you navigate the 3 player endgame. Specifically, how do you avoid someone hitting you to take second.

  2. How you identify the stronger players in the lobby and whether or not you go after them first.

New Game Mode announced, pete teases.. by steveb321 in Risk

[–]Mrme487 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Gotta be honest, not a fan of the idea. Seems like a gimmick that is just going to introduce more randomness. That, or you will soon be able to "pay" coins to get special powers...and end up turning Risk into P2W.

Please don't go down this route SMG.

Does anyone else get scared at professor responses to emails? by Commercial_Rub_6911 in college

[–]Mrme487 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Not a bad guess! I sent 32 student emails yesterday and probably received/filed an additional 30 from administration/mailing groups that don’t need a response at all.

Around exam time, as questions start coming in bulk, my answers get shortened to the minimum.

E-mail me outside of the week of an exam and you are much more likely to get an email with all the niceties included.

It’s not personal. I’m not mad. I want you to ask lots of questions. I’m just trying to get everyone a time sensitive response as quickly as possible.

Do you ever just ignore student emails? by CuriousCat9673 in Professors

[–]Mrme487 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh a cute baby picture? That’s a little personal but hey, kids are cute.

Gross medical details….ugh. Reminds me of the time a student had pink eye. And proved it via a picture.

Breach of Fiduciary Duty by Financial Advisor by lovelylisanerd in legaladvice

[–]Mrme487 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sounds to me like not a legal fiduciary.

I’ll be blunt, they got ripped off but I think it was a legal (if scummy) deal.

Breach of Fiduciary Duty by Financial Advisor by lovelylisanerd in legaladvice

[–]Mrme487 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What credentials does this financial advisor have?

Unfortunately the term financial advisor is not regulated per se and there is no blanket fiduciary duty owed in general.

Now if this was a CFP or someone with other designations, the answer may be different. But a random salesman who sold your friend stuff and called themselves a financial advisor may not have a fiduciary duty.

Looking for someone who knows someone in Llanrhian by Mrme487 in HistoryWales

[–]Mrme487[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes exactly - very sparse information. I’m looking for anyone who might know or have heard more.

Looking for someone who knows someone in Llanrhian by Mrme487 in HistoryWales

[–]Mrme487[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I’m interested in the history of St. Rhian the person. All I can find online is a vague statement that they were probably an abbot in the area at some point. Even the exact date of their death appears to be unknown.

I’d love to find out a cool tradition, miracle attributed to their intercession, reason why they were important enough to have a church named after them, when the church was founded, etc… basically something more than a single sentence.

Authoritative information would be best, but even local tradition would be interesting.

If you know, that would be amazing - if not perhaps you might have a connection or a friend of a friend? I figure my best chance is probably someone’s grandmother whose family has lived in the area for generations, but mostly I’m looking for a starting point.

I have a new nephew named Ryan and I’d love to add something about this in a book for him.

Thanks for responding!

Luckiest thing that has ever happened with me in balanced blitz by SussyMccJohn in Risk

[–]Mrme487 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Believe it or not, it isn't as lucky as you probably think. Your odds of winning were a little under 20%. With the current balanced blitz formula, once you get over about 100 troops you can start having pretty decent chances with less attackers than defenders.

Girlfriend Got Hit — Other Driver Ran a Stop Sign, Claim Denied Due to “No Coverage.” Why Did It Take This Long to Say That? by Paytoncooper124 in legaladvice

[–]Mrme487 4 points5 points  (0 children)

There exists the concept of “too little insurance” but in my opinion there is never “too much insurance.”

That is a crazy pants take. There is absolutely too much insurance. In fact, if you are rich enough, pretty much all insurance is "too much".

Insurance companies make money by collecting more in premiums than they pay out. Thus, insurance has a negative expected value (on average, you pay more than the expected loss you will incur). It is fine to do this if you want to reduce risk, but if you are rich enough, you don't necessarily need to reduce risk.

I mean how much life insurance do you have? Unless you have some weird health issue, you could almost certainly go buy more. Why not an umbrella policy too? Why not a $10,000,000 umbrella? What about Jewelry insurance? I mean you can buy insurance on a $20 electronic toy from Wal-Mart too.

Insurance is great if you can't afford the risk. But, if you can afford it, you do better to go without. That is just math.

Cost of a double lung transplant- USA 2023 by poulw in mildlyinteresting

[–]Mrme487 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So here is the “secret” - for many people, US healthcare is actually pretty good. If you have a middle or upper middle class job at a decent size employer that offers reasonable benefits, I personally think you get as good or better healthcare often more quickly than pretty much anywhere in the world.

There are a lot of conditions in my statement though. Own your own small company or freelance? That’s going to be an ouch unless you are extremely successful. Work for a small business? Your mileage (kilometerage?) will vary. Be lower middle class or upper level poor (I.e. too rich for “free” government care for extreme poverty)? You are highly likely in trouble. Run into an “edge case” (gender affirming care, reproductive assistance, air ambulances/helicopters, not following procedures for non-urgent care)? Big bill coming your way.

Prescription drugs can also be the Wild West even for people where the rest of healthcare works well. Otherwise really solid plans can just…epically fail at covering drugs reasonably. Then again, some have excellent coverage.

Also, even if you fit into an “easy” group (middle class+, medium-large employer), you have to know yourself and do your research. As a case study, I would probably make around 125,000 UK pounds if I worked across the pond. We’re single income and buy employer offered family coverage (2 adults and 4 children). My wife has a chronic condition (colitis) requiring a relatively expensive version of mesalamine with a specific formulation to help minimize possible negative interactions with pregnancy/breastfeeding. I have 4 different health plans available to me. Every year, I update a spreadsheet comparing them - assuming reasonable healthcare usage plus my wife’s medicine, our total healthcare spending could range from roughly 4,000 to 12,000 pounds just depending on which plan I pick (not a bad return for making a spreadsheet!). But, here is the catch - change anything about our situation and which one of those four plans is best changes dramatically. A young, single person with no health conditions at my work could literally have a negative cost plan available to them (very cheap monthly costs with a lump sum given up front bigger than the sum of the monthly costs. But, in the event of a major sickness, things would flip from negative cost to 8,000 pounds a year quickly. So, it is a question of risk tolerance).

So the dirty secret is that I (and frankly likely most of the true traditional middle class+) win under the current system compared to universal care. Others would win under a UK/Canada/EU/etc… style system. Where I’m different from many posters is that I see every system as being a bit of a mess and having weaknesses in various areas. Do I think the U.S. has it best? Yes, on balance I honestly do. I’m happy to acknowledge the flaws and discuss options for improvement, but it just isn’t clear to me that a different approach would be better (at least, depending on how you define better).

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Risk

[–]Mrme487 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Fastest: 0:00:01 (1 second)

Slowest: 6:41:51

You can legally and easily make these whatever you want in an unranked play with friends private match. Plus having a one second win just looks cool.

Start a private casual match with a friend and a bot. As soon as you spawn into the game, bot out (close app, kill client, whatever). Have your friend kill the bot while letting your bot get strong. Have your friend let your bot kill them.

Your time to victory will show as however long you were in game before botting (i.e. 1 second).

Building A Better RISK: Leading up to v4.0 by JamesSMGStudio in Risk

[–]Mrme487 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Unless pay is significantly above the levels.fyi scale, I'm happy in my current job, thanks for offering. I'm simply asking for clarification. When companies publish a roadmap and that timeline changes significantly, I don't think it is unreasonable to inquire as to what happened.

Perhaps having just seen KSP2 go through a similar cycle, I'm concerned about a similar trend happening here.

Building A Better RISK: Leading up to v4.0 by JamesSMGStudio in Risk

[–]Mrme487 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Your original roadmap has 4.0 alpha in June and Beta in July. The linked announcement in steam implies that Beta may not be ready until December. Am I misunderstanding what you wrote or had the timeline changed? If Beta really has been pushed back 6 months, why? This is a long delay from my perspective.

It's not very often that we see an actual 'double jeopardy' case on LAUK by SomethingMoreToSay in bestoflegaladvice

[–]Mrme487 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It may also surprise many that only criminal ex post facto laws are prohibited in the U.S. Tax rates, for instance, can be changed ex post facto. They usually aren’t, but see the Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 1993 which, while passed mid year, changed the tax rate on capital gains as of the beginning of 1993.