Renzatic on 11/4/2020 at 15:51
That's Welsh though.
Starker on 11/4/2020 at 16:14
Well spotted! Yes, I was pointing out that England isn't the only place with hard to pronounce placenames.
Though I don't think I'll ever get over Mousehole or Godmanchester. Or even Norwich (rhymes with porridge).
Starker on 11/4/2020 at 17:07
Coronavirus naming alignment chart:
<img src="https://i1.wp.com/media.boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/alignment-corona-scaled.jpg" width="600">
Renzatic on 11/4/2020 at 17:08
RONA! RONA! LET IT BURN! LET IT ALL BURN!
heywood on 11/4/2020 at 17:28
Quote Posted by zombe
The data is quite noisy where many changes happened along the way (combining days to account for combining counting systems / more people seeking for testing / counting fuckups / counts being low enough for individual idiots to have noticeable effect at their random time / etc).
In other words: not sure i would call it a second wave ... the first one has just prevailed. We never really had much of the exponential growth either (1.024 ^ 25 days ~= 1.8 ... ie. have not yet doubled the daily new case counts from the initial event). Still quite worrying (That initial super-spreader incident hurt us bad. We are way worse off than any of our neighbors - but it is relatively under control so far and well below our medical capacity at least. I am still super worried as we have infections in the family).
We have two hot-spots: one is an island (Very bad situation there - over 1.3% of
everyone there is infected. That island alone counts for 38% of all cases in the country) the other is our capitol city (If that decides to explode then we are truly fucked).
I almost forgot to reply. At first it looked like your country did a good job of containing the early cases, and the outbreak might be under control soon there, but then my optimism was disproven. Looking back on it now, the data does look too noisy to really say there's is or was a trend.
What's the culture like there? Is your country more socially distant by nature, or is there a celebratory culture too? That seems to affect how this virus proceeds. I really don't know much about Estonia except every summer there are students from Tallinn University who wander my neighborhood knocking on doors, trying to sell children's educational books for Southwestern Advantage. They're a horrible marketing company that preys on university students. We made a sympathy purchase a couple of years ago and got to talk a little bit about life in Estonia.
Quote Posted by Gryzemuis
I made that joke because in the Netherlands, our worst jokes are always about how stupid the Belgians are. Kinda like how Canadians make fun of New-Foundlanders (I think). In return, the Belgians always make fun of what cheap bastards the Dutch are. Kinda like how the English make fun of the cheap Scottish. Jokes at kid's level.
In reality, as a Dutch guy, I've spend 2 times 3 years working in Belgium. I've spend most of my career as full-time tele-commuter. But if you don't count those years, I've actual worked more in Belgian offices than in Dutch offices. Working in an office is always hell, but I can tell you that Belgian offices have just as many idiots and arseholes as Dutch offices have.
As I said, I spent 10 seconds to find that list via Google. But I have no reason to believe those numbers are false. (Except the usual disclaimer that you can't trust anything on the Internet). Since Reagan the Republicans have been actively working to destroy the US education system. No doubt that has some effect on these numbers. Also there is a very strong anti-intellectual tendency amongst the right half of the US population. So no doubt that has an effect to ("Look at me what a patriot I am ! I didn't finish school and I never read a book ! I'm so proud of myself !").
What surprised me are the average I.Q.s of the countries on the bottom half of that list. 21 Countries where the average I.Q. is between 80 and 85. 25 Countries with an average I.Q. under 80 ! In NL, under 85 is called "zwak begaafd". (Literal translation: very weakly talented. I think it's even a legal term, where judges use low I.Q. as a factor when determining sentences. Translation according to Google: feeble-minded, retarded, weak-minded). I've always understood that IQ is not related to knowledge, memory, or ability. Just how good you are at solving abstract problems. Anyway, I distract. Sorry.
Well, according to this: (
https://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/average-iq-by-country/)
Your average is 100, which is 1 higher than Belgium at 99, and 2 higher than the US at 98. So I guess you're right.
US state averages range from 94 to 104: (
https://worldpopulationreview.com/states/average-iq-by-state/)
I'm not sure how useful IQ testing is anyway. It seemed like a test of language skills & general knowledge more than a measure of intelligence or aptitude. But it's been ages since I took it.
lowenz on 11/4/2020 at 17:32
Quote Posted by heywood
I'm not sure how useful IQ testing is anyway. It seemed like a test of language skills & general knowledge more than a measure of intelligence or aptitude. But it's been ages since I took it.
It's useful in childhood age.
Renzatic on 11/4/2020 at 17:33
Quote Posted by heywood
I'm not sure how useful IQ testing is anyway. It seemed like a test of language skills & general knowledge more than a measure of intelligence or aptitude. But it's been ages since I took it.
If you're taking an IQ test, and it's asking you math and grammar questions, it's not really an IQ test. Real IQ tests are abstract as fuuuhhhkkkk.
Gryzemuis on 11/4/2020 at 18:33
When I applied for my previous job (at a multi-national, with 100k+ employees), they let me do an iq-test. One hour online, via some London-based recruiting company. They called it differently, not an iq-test, can't remember the name anymore (aptitude test maybe ?). But it was (imho) really an iq-test. Lots of pictures you had to rotate, mirror, find the odd-one-out in 4 similar pictures, etc. Pretty abstract puzzles. Not much language-based questions. I was surprised they let me do such a (imho meaningless) test. I have no idea what my score was, but I got hired. :) Is this normal these days, companies letting you do an iq-test before they hire you ?
I've done a few similar tests before. At 17, when being recruited/tested for the (then) mandatory military draft. And again by the military when they kicked me out, after I ran away 2 times. :) I might have done one more test. The weird thing is, they never give you the score. I got a vague idea what my iq is (surprise, it's higher than 100), but I never saw real numbers.
