Signal Received
On the subject of ostentatious hair colouring, Emil Kirkegaard has some thoughts:
For those not into memes: the idea is that poisonous animals advertise their dangerousness by [using] bright colours to scare away predators. Humans appear to do the same, as those who are poisonous — mentally ill — colour their hair in bright, dangerous-looking colours. Since this meme was made in about 2014, we’ve seen a strong increase in the number of people with unnatural hair colours. In the same time, we have seen a rise in mental illness in left-wingers…
Is unnatural hair colour associated with mental illness, or are we being misled by a few prominent people with this hair style who appear very mentally ill? We decided to find out using the venerable OKCupid dataset.
Charts and number-crunching ensue.
The full paper – Blue Hair and the Blues: Dying Your Hair Unnatural Colours is Associated with Depression – can be downloaded here.
Holy crap! I’m the first one here. This has never happened before. Barkeep, a round for my friends! (Basically a round for me).
I’m the first one here.
I don’t usually post at this hour, but I thought the above might amuse some of you.
[ Slides pint of advocaat along bar. ]
As to the post, I have always suspected such a correlation between unnatural hair color and being, to use a technical term, cuckoo-bananas.
Why hello, barkeep.
[ Smiles ingratiatingly. ]
And for those who missed it, on the subject of advocaat.
A recent study (which I did not bookmark, sadly) showed that in countries/places with more economic/social freedom, mental illness went up. My theory is this: making life choices is hard. In places without much freedom of expression, you inherit the family rice farm and you do rice farming. Not much choice of clothing or religion. All of this takes away the need to construct a personal reality, which again, is difficult. The difficulty causes anxiety and also depression, as well as bad life choices, because it is hard.
As a study of Belgium during WWII when their mental hospitals were still functioning found, mental illness admissions went down during the war, probably because everyone knew exactly what they had to do to survive and it focused their attention.
So we have tons of people who have some sort of minimal income (maybe students in college, maybe barristas) with lots of free time who really really want and need structure. So their bad choices lead to clownshows of green hair and protesting everything. They “identify” as oppressed when in reality, the world they protest would be a dream come true for 99% of humanity through history.
[ Smiles ingratiatingly. ]
[ A bin-liner rustles. Rolls single olive along bar. ]
Mandatory Far Side reference.
[ A bin-liner rustles. Rolls single olive along bar. ]
Hey, pst314, how about a nice sausage in a bun?
In the noted study, and I have seen this elsewhere, being physically fit correlated strongly with lack of mental illness and with conservatism. Why? Perhaps because if you are fit you feel in control of your life and don’t need big gov to save you. It may go the other way, that conservative views lead you to become fit because you take personal responsibility.
As an example, at the store yesterday I got my foot caught on something and tripped. As I went down I ducked and rolled on my shoulder and went right back up on my feet. Wish I had video of it. I’m 69. Being fit meant I didn’t sprain my wrist or smash my face and need help. Nothing makes you feel in charge of your own life like pumping iron or a good long run.
Right, I’m off to watch some cheesy TV, then expire.
This week’s batch of Ephemera should materialise in… about two and a half hours.
Play nicely. Use coasters.
in countries/places with more economic/social freedom, mental illness went up
Since such countries are also highly correlated with personal and political freedom, I suspect there’s a survivor bias: sh*tty countries have fewer mentally ill people because the mentally ill people don’t survive.
Also much of what passes for “mental illness” today looks suspiciously like the kind of low-grade PTSD reactions observed in people with underdeveloped amygdala. So there could be something to it; the more comfortable your life, the less likely you are to be exposed to moderate levels of stress as a child which desensitize your amygdala.
being physically fit correlated strongly with lack of mental illness and with conservatism. Why?
Likely because both require self-discipline and a sense of personal responsibility. Which way that arrow points is anyone’s guess, although there is plenty of evidence that regular workouts produce adrenaline and dopamine rushes that mitigate mild depression. So there’s likely a feedback loop.
Daniel,
To expand on what you said: an easy life causes some people to not develop mental toughness or self-reliance. It is like never letting your baby crawl.
An easy life can also lead to aimlessness, and without any real purpose in life people can get depressed and even crazy. It helps immensely to have real goals, real purposes to live for, and real accomplishments no matter how humble to be proud of.
“and without any real purpose in life people can get depressed and even crazy”
Yes, I’m retired. Why do you ask?
Yes, I’m retired. Why do you ask?
Okay, what is your purpose in life? Do you only relax, or do you, for instance, continue to do useful things for your extended family, local community, etc?
For example, although I am retired, I work hard for the condo board. And long-term there are some jobs I have promised to do for the extended family.
“what is your purpose in life?”
Other than oddish posts?
OTOH, I do enjoy crushing the occasional enemy and such…
Other than oddish posts?
I do like being able to take things slow, spend time just doing what I want (which includes oddish posts), and so on.
OTOH, I do enjoy crushing the occasional enemy and such…
See them driven before you and hear the lamentations of their women?
What is my purpose
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3ht-ZyJOV2k
I work hard for the condo board.
But does anyone care? People hate those things. Until they’re not there anymore. Of course they still hate them, they just wonder why everything went to shit.
Personally I spent my retirement day at the casino paying reparations to the Indians (feather not dot) and waiting for HOA insurance attorneys to return at least one of my five phone calls to them since last Friday. I’m looking forward to retirement from this retirement.
But does anyone care?
Some of them do, and say so.
We have only a few grumpy complainers, but the people are mostly okay.
Our biggest problem right now is that some tasks were neglected when the previous key board member took on too many responsibilities, letting the management company get used to not fully doing its job, and then got a fatal illness. But we are well on our way to being better organized and better maintained than ever before. And we have always been financially prudent and proactive.
And for those who missed it, on the subject of advocaat.
Advocaat?? What in God’s name is going on over there?
But it does remind me of comedian Dave Attell’s thoughts on egg nog: I want to get a little buzzed AND I want pancakes.
As an example, at the store yesterday I got my foot caught on something and tripped. As I went down I ducked and rolled on my shoulder and went right back up on my feet.
Recall I went down like a bag of spuds on some steps in Macy’s SF. Coming to rest, I was very quick to inform the ungood Samaritans nearby, “I’ll sue, get me a lawyer.”
But does anyone care?
But, of course, people do not volunteer because they want and expect copious public praise; they do it because they see something that needs to be done.
[ A bin-liner rustles. Rolls single olive along bar. ]
That’s not an olive; it’s a pickled egg.
That’s not an olive; it’s a pickled egg.
[ PTSD intensifies. ]
The word of the day is Aposematism.
Can’t speak for the various arachnids in Australia, but one of the nastiest ones in Texas is the brown recluse which doesn’t do much in the way of advertising.
Those recluses can be the nastiest of all.
Brown recluses, black recluses, white recluses, Asian recluses…