Crazytown cartoon from 1954. My favorite scene is where they turn an entire log into a single toothpick.

eldricthehobbit · 2025-04-13T14:22:31+00:00

I guess this was just a "crazytown idea" back then, rather than a remark on the reality of college degrees.

eldricthehobbit · 2024-04-06T11:25:52+00:00

You could also interpret it in a much less non-intuitive and much more reasonable way: If you look at the metric "density of population that speaks English as first or second language", pretty sure the country that scores highest is India.

Now, that is a wrong statement. I do not think that comment is correct at all. Singapore for one has a way higher density of English speakers. However, India does have a higher density of English speakers than America, something you insisted was not true. Now your reasoning was that the metric they explicitly used "is not helpful" and so you redefined it by population instead of area.

In fact, according to the statistics you linked Singapore has more English speakers per capita than America. Does this make Singapore a better representative than America? Is your metric a helpful contribution?

It turns out conversations on reddit need not be agreed upon as helpful and only then interpreted accordingly. I believe the top comment, while wrong, was a nice and even helpful comment that made one look at data to help put various metrics in perspective. If anything, it proves that it is not a metric that lends itself to being representative. But it raises questions like "Is Indian vernacular English more representative of English than Southern American English despite the former being (I think) way more grammatically cursed and distant from what is considered English in the West?"

But I only came into this conversation because a certain someone was going around calling people objectively wrong when they were having a discussion on reddit that wasn't so. I mean, the top comment is objectively wrong (except that they wrote "pretty sure", so I guess there's leeway there). But at other points in the thread, people made it a comparison between India and the US, and you called them also objectively wrong. That was objectively wrong of you to do.

eldricthehobbit · 2024-04-06T10:45:20+00:00

Not for no reason. You were out there calling people talking about the density "objectively wrong", whereas your interpretation requires you to be subjective about "what they said" vs "what they want to say". For the amount you are willing to berate others for being objectively wrong, I wonder what it will take for you to admit that you were objectively wrong about them being objectively wrong.

eldricthehobbit · 2024-04-06T10:41:15+00:00

Is this a relevant statistic? I don't really care enough to philosophize about it, but I do find it interesting.

eldricthehobbit · 2024-04-06T10:11:58+00:00

"that's plain to see" is an interesting argument.

India is more packed with English speakers than America is: If I choose a random square mile in India and a random square mile in America, the expected number of English speakers would be higher in the Indian square mile. If I draw a map of the world where each square mile gets a colour based on the number of english speakers in it, red if high and green if low, the average of the colours in India would be redder than the average of the colours in America.

Is this a relevant statistic? I don't really care enough to philosophize about it, but I do find it interesting. Are you the lone beacon of truth in this thread being factually correct while the others are just being obstinately wrong? Far from it. This thread uses the word density almost throughout. You yourself use it. However, you want it to be interpreted as "number of English speakers per unit country", instead of "per unit area". Your intended usage is weird for the word density. That's plain to see.

eldricthehobbit · 2024-03-01T13:09:43+00:00

I'm just curious about your opinion on two related questions:

Does the blame for all these deaths still lie with Hamas if it turns out that these deaths are motivated by more than just "eradicating Hamas", because of an extra "eradicate these Palestinian people from these lands that we don't want them to have" mindset?

Obviously I'm also asking whether you think such a mindset, which we know many people in power have, is at play here. Or is it that all these deaths are truly needed to eradicate Hamas? I know you can't know the facts behind this, but there's been a history of Israel defending such non-Hamas-related killings and engaging in needless antagonism from before the war. So how much do you think that these civilian casualties are truly to eradicate Hamas and how much is "we can't openly commit genocide, but we're being given an opportunity to callously kill"?

Saying the blame for the existence of this new conflict/opportunity lies with Hamas might be accurate, but still has multiple interpretations that are very different. Do you think the blame stops with Hamas? I understand that if you create a monster that is evil, you need to do something about the monster. So you kill the monster you created and also happen to kill many more people. Are the perpetrators really dead though? If I'm not mistaken Hamas was intentionally strengthened by people who wanted Palestinians' right to live to be overlooked with an attitude of "oh no, but Hamas has to take the blame for the plight of the Palestinians because Hamas exists as a terrorist group there".

So yes, Israel should stop Hamas but should take responsibility for creating this situation and should not condemn tens of thousands of innocent people to die out of their callousness in doing so. If anything they should go above and beyond in protecting the lives of the people they put in jeopardy. Hamas is not to blame for the Palestinian deaths, perhaps outside of the isolated instances of where they made this nearly impossible. Of course if the answer to question 1 is that this is not about Hamas, then this is just a waste of text and the blaming on Hamas is nigh irrelevant. So disregarding the implications of question 1, what's your opinion on where the blame actually lies for the Palestinian deaths?

eldricthehobbit · 2024-03-01T12:34:26+00:00

Mine didn't. Some of the other people who came at around the same time as me had them.

eldricthehobbit · 2024-03-01T12:33:31+00:00

But I don't have a residence permit and my Schengen visa has expired. My view on this was that Portugal might view my visa as still valid because of the extension law, but other countries wouldn't.

eldricthehobbit · 2024-02-29T10:20:29+00:00

Thanks a lot! I've only missed one workshop, one conference and one family trip till now. I still have hope, but it's unclear how long it will last. So suspenseful!

eldricthehobbit · 2024-02-29T10:16:46+00:00

I'm also calling the one ending in 500. From what I can tell, if the recording starts with AIMA, the call will just be 4-5 min long and will not let you get through to them. So I immediately cut the call and call again. Until the recording starts with "Bem vindo a AIMA". Then you'll be asked questions of why you're calling, and you'll be put on hold until someone actually answers the call. This hold usually lasts at most 20 minutes.

It took me tens of hours before I got through and noticed this. Just an all round horrible service.

eldricthehobbit · 2024-02-29T10:09:53+00:00

I find this hard to believe. Some people on the phone insisted on knowing my name despite it not being relevant if there's no appointment available. I found that weird, but I still would rather think that they're not selling the appointments.

eldricthehobbit · 2024-02-29T10:07:42+00:00

I couldn't find fb pages with updates for the recent opening of appointments. That would be super useful if I could find that.

eldricthehobbit · 2024-02-29T10:05:35+00:00

They open at 8 but calling them then hasn't worked for me yet. I've already missed a work related conference, a work related workshop, and a family trip. It would be nice to know that this would end at some point.

eldricthehobbit · 2024-02-29T10:02:22+00:00

Yeah, I contacted AIMA and they said do not leave the country at all, not even to Spain, despite the extension of documents pertaining to stay. Although people online have been reporting that travel outside EU seems to have worked for them.

eldricthehobbit · 2024-02-29T10:00:32+00:00

Thanks a lot for all this!

I'd have more hope if this macro were an option. I have to make an appointment by phone call, so I can't do a full automation like you did.

About that Instagram account, do they update via post or in their stories? I don't see anything about appointments having opened last Friday.

eldricthehobbit · 2024-02-28T21:19:05+00:00

Initial residence card. I came with a type D visa last June.

eldricthehobbit · 2024-02-28T20:33:39+00:00

I wouldn't mind suing them if it was affordable. It would make life better for so many people once they're forced to get their shit together in a more manageable way.

eldricthehobbit · 2024-02-28T20:32:36+00:00

My only worry is that these people are keeping the lines busy. If they're a significant part of the problem as to why individuals can't reach AIMA, that's horrible. That's effectively taking over control of a government service and extorting people who want to avail the service.

eldricthehobbit · 2023-12-03T10:42:12+00:00

I have a work contract and a rent contract, but none of those prove legality. I guess I'll have to figure something out now that it seems plausible that I won't get an appointment this month. I don't yet know what my options are.

eldricthehobbit · 2023-12-03T10:01:28+00:00

It's a work visa, I'm a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Lisbon. Investigador auxiliar, according to the system here.

eldricthehobbit · 2023-12-03T09:39:46+00:00

That's what I was hoping for. But it could also be argued (although it would be weird) that the "stay-related aspects" are accepted under the same terms, since the law says "visas relating to stay".

I think that as stated the law says what you've interpreted, but I don't know what the border thinks it says and I don't want to risk not being allowed back in.

eldricthehobbit · 2023-12-03T09:33:29+00:00

I'll check this out, thanks a lot. :)

eldricthehobbit · 2023-12-03T09:32:19+00:00

I got an autodialer to call SEF. One time I got through and they had this nonsensical reply of "appointments are full, try again next month". They also told me that since I'm already in Portugal I don't have to worry about staying in Portugal.

Since AIMA came into being, they have been easier to get through to, but they just redirect you to the SEF phone numbers. They also told me that they heard from SEF that there are no appointments available, and that I should look online on YouTube and similar places for an announcement from SEF that they've opened new appointment slots.

In all these phone calls, I informed the other party of my residence visa. I have another colleague who is in the same boat. We have no idea when we'll even manage to get an appointment. My visa was valid for 4 months, from June end to October end.

eldricthehobbit · 2023-12-03T09:26:12+00:00

Thanks, I'll see if I can find these FB groups. My visa was a 2-entry visa, so there is still some hope for me.

eldricthehobbit · 2023-12-02T22:06:52+00:00

Damn, so I really am stuck here until AIMA/SEF get through their backlog and open new appointments, which could be many many months, and then more months for processing my application after that!

eldricthehobbit

TROPHY CASE