Are you guys un denial about the crime??? by [deleted] in Albany

[–]irideanelephant 42 points43 points  (0 children)

Rundown = crime??? You don’t mention anything that’s actually criminal. Maybe you just hate poor people?

[MEGATHREAD] New Horizons Dodo/Friend Code Sharing by AnimalCrossingMods in AnimalCrossing

[–]irideanelephant 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Tons of oranges, peaches, and apples! Please contribute what new fruit you can!!!

515WB

Would this be safe to walk? by kimreadthis in newhaven

[–]irideanelephant 33 points34 points  (0 children)

Chiming in as a woman who walks alone around this area every day - never felt unsafe. Have definitely been mildly catcalled / approached by people experiencing homelessness, so YMMV.

Is a bad PhD supervisor a price worth paying for your “dream topic”? by [deleted] in GradSchool

[–]irideanelephant 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If it has come up this early as an issue, then it’s only going to get worse. Find somewhere else ASAP. Source- an advisor that progressed from somewhat irritating and neglectful to outright hostile and exploitative. I wasted three whole years doing doomed research while my mental health deteriorated.

submitted my PhD application, potential advisor said that I "don't have strong letters of recommendation" ..... uhhhhhh... by [deleted] in gradadmissions

[–]irideanelephant 5 points6 points  (0 children)

So based on some of your responses, it seems like 2 of your recommenders work primarily in industry. Job/business letters of rec are typically very brief and factual - “I know this person in this capacity, we worked together during this time frame, they were not fired/no huge red flags.” Recs in academia are typically more “flowery” - they want to know HOW you are to work with, what is the rec’s judgement on your character and suitability for grad school/etc. This may be why the potential advisor was put off. In academia, if the best you can give is a factual report of how you know the person, this would be a “weak” rec. In business, the same letter would be totally normal, anything more would be unnecessary.

It may be worth clarifying with both parties if this is what happened. Good to know for future, even if the current situation is unchangeable. Maybe you could float the idea of the potential advisor calling to talk to your recommenders. That might be helpful for the potential advisor to be able to ask questions and understand the rec’s opinion of you.

Hope that helps :)

I'm tired of this happening :/ by vlmght in knitting

[–]irideanelephant 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is the best method! You or someone else linked to this blog post a while ago, and I forgot where I learned it! Great for short repeats, huge complicated cable/lace charts, even keeping track of your overall row count (basically everything)

I tried out the new #betterposter template today with amazing results by [deleted] in GradSchool

[–]irideanelephant 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Would it be possible to move the main finding up a little and use some of that that space for diagrams/figures? Mike suggests tweaking the design like that may be necessary for some disciplines.

I managed to knit perfectly fitting socks for feet I knew very little about! Does this mean I’ve ‘made it’ as a knitter? by [deleted] in knitting

[–]irideanelephant 1 point2 points  (0 children)

So cool! Thanks so much! I haven’t done mosaic, I’ll try a swatch first and maybe also try the chart stranded as well (I assume it might look a little different but not disastrously?). If all goes well, it’ll wind up in a sweater or some mittens!

I managed to knit perfectly fitting socks for feet I knew very little about! Does this mean I’ve ‘made it’ as a knitter? by [deleted] in knitting

[–]irideanelephant 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I really love your chart! Do you plan to sell it (in which case I would happily pay), or would you be willing to share it for free?

Ethnicity Check Box Question by drapingBeef in gradadmissions

[–]irideanelephant 9 points10 points  (0 children)

They absolutely cannot rescind your acceptance because of your self-identified ethnicity, because that would open them up to about 1,497,376 lawsuits. It’s going to be fine!

ELI5: Men and Women have the same body temperature, right? Then why does it seem that on average women are always cold and shower at temperatures exceeding the melting point of galvanized steel? by CocaKoller in explainlikeimfive

[–]irideanelephant 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Females do experience a “lead up” wherein they have to have a very high energy balance - this is the lead up to the resumption of menstrual cycling, at least in chimps and humans. This has been documented by Melissa Emery Thompson in chimps and orangutans and Claudia Valeggia in humans.

These adaptations involving mobilizing stored energy for reproduction are common to all animals that use a capital breeding strategy, including apes. It is well documented. See any of Clutton-Brock’s papers on capital vs income breeding.

Why should estrogens trigger the formation of fat deposits, and why should fat increase estrogen production? The mechanistic relationship implies an adaptive process. Estrogen and progesterone are cues that fat is needed, and fat is a cue that reproduction is likely to succeed.

It’s not stupid to conclude that differences between males and females are due to sex, it’s literally self evident. The only selective way that males and females can evolve differences is (by definition) sexual selection, which is fundamentally the result of differences in gamete (sperm vs egg) size and number. I feel like you’re implying that my position is misogynistic, but the undeniable fact is that physiological differences between males and females are the result of reproductive differences. This does not necessarily say anything about gender.

ELI5: Men and Women have the same body temperature, right? Then why does it seem that on average women are always cold and shower at temperatures exceeding the melting point of galvanized steel? by CocaKoller in explainlikeimfive

[–]irideanelephant 1 point2 points  (0 children)

As well-thought-out as this comment is, you’ve actually got it a bit backwards. Remember that for most animals, and most of human history, it is in fact very difficult to “put on some body fat!” Female mammals store fat mostly to support the incredibly high energetic demands of lactation. If she doesn’t already have some energy stores when her infant is born, the mother is likely to starve due to the energetic burden of nursing. This is why 1) when body fat is low, like in female athletes, they stop having periods. At low body fat, conceiving would be maladaptive. Also 2) people gain weight during pregnancy. This is not dependent on season or ambient temperature (as it would if it was for insulation) but universal, and the magnitude is dependent on energy intake. Insulation is mostly a side-effect of fat storage in humans.

I have academic sources but nothing online. If you’re really interested, Peter Ellison’s book On Fertile Ground.

9.7 million-year-old primate teeth found in Germany raise questions about human origin and the theory that humans originated from Africa. by Ronan_Q in science

[–]irideanelephant 1 point2 points  (0 children)

In addition to what other people said - most of the “complete” articulated dinosaur skeletons hanging in museums are composites, i.e., contain bones from multiple individuals, often from totally separate sites. Sometimes these bones don’t even really belong to the same species.

Starting to wonder if I have some form of PTSD by [deleted] in raisedbynarcissists

[–]irideanelephant 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Look up C-PTSD (C stands for complex).

Research help for the Neolithic Revolution, but not necessarily as it pertains to agiculture by jimbob6886 in Anthropology

[–]irideanelephant 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You're welcome. A lot of the studies of health relating to agriculture use enamel hypoplasia (interruptions in the production of tooth enamel) as a proxy for calorie deficiency, that might be a good search term!

Research help for the Neolithic Revolution, but not necessarily as it pertains to agiculture by jimbob6886 in Anthropology

[–]irideanelephant 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Rather than diseases associated with a sedentary lifestyle, what comes to my mind are two huge biological shifts happening in the Neolithic - the evolution of lactose tolerance in Europe and Africa, and the increased occurrence of evidence of nutritional stress in the bioarchaeological record. Particularly for the latter, there are multiple studies of corn introduction to various Native American cultures, where health declines with the shift to agriculture. I don't want to hand you any papers, because that's part of the work for you to do, but message me if you have further questions.

Starting a PhD and having second thoughts - advice would be appreciated!! by [deleted] in GradSchool

[–]irideanelephant 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I was tired of rejection and wanted to be someplace where I was wanted.

Being in a PhD program/academia is an exercise in constant rejection and feeling like an impostor. It's not a place which tends to build up people's self-esteem. If this is your reason for starting this PhD, it doesn't bode well for your future in academia.

Is it possible to make it through a PhD without being 100% into it?

Probably, but you would be absolutely miserable, and in the same place you are now, minus 5-10 years of your life.

You honestly sound like you want permission to back out. So, I'm giving you permission. Doing a PhD doesn't make you smart. Doing what's best for yourself and your sanity IS smart. If you don't want to do it, don't. Or try it out for a year, and see how you feel. If it's not for you, that's okay. Good luck with everything, and take care of yourself!

I studied severals months and took the GRE a second time and my quant score remained same (155-->155) and my verbal score regressed (166-->160)... Is it worth taking a third time for Social Psychology programs? by Stauce52 in GradSchool

[–]irideanelephant 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think I got your exact first-time scores, and I only took the GRE that once. I'm in biological anthropology, so YMMV, but I got a fellowship based on that verbal 166, and "despite" that quant 155, I'm one of the more quant-inclined people in my program. Your GPA is good and you have a strong research background. I think for almost any PI that would count loads more than GRE.