iNow

You asked how it was possible. I gave like 6 different ways off the top of my head. I wasn’t advocating for any of them, just answering the question as you posed it.

Brain injury? Narcotics? Sex? Food when hungry. Water when thirsty... All of those things could lead to happiness even in the face of lacking self-worth

Depends entirely on the details of what you're proposing. What details would you like to share so we may have that conversation?

Don't be too hard on yourself. NASA made a remarkably similar mistake a little while back: https://www.wired.com/2010/11/1110mars-climate-observer-report/

Your entire thread is about happiness. How do you define that?

Have you looked into a Likert scale? Sadly, no.

It might be better if you worked on defining your terms. In many parts of life, the way we define things dictates the way we go about measuring them.

Or measuring pupil dilation, or galvanic skin response, or flushing and blood flow across facial muscles, heart rate, breathing rate. How we measure something is largely determined by how we define it. This is why I’ve been asking questions you seem to prefer to evade.

We’re in violent agreement.

What isn’t? Other than self-report, can you think of ways to measure happiness in a reproducible scale? Something we can detect in bloodwork or cerebral spinal fluid, perhaps?

I’d genuinely like you to show me instead of just acting like an ass, but I readily acknowledge that has nearly a zero probability of happening (previously summarized by saying you’re posting in bad faith)

Part of the challenge is it’s perfectly acceptable to discuss the evolution of language and slang without ever involving the ideas of DNA or genetics. Evolution here in this context just means change and selection over time across tribes and social groups, but is unrelated to passing on offspring who are themselves more reproductively fecund.

Not necessarily. I challenge this assumption. It will vary from one person to the next, as already noted.

IOW, please stop erecting strawmen. So what? Even within those buckets distinctions remain Majority of white people used to think black people were inferior. Didn't make it true.

Many things are wrong with me, and sometimes a bad memory is one of them. Kindly please remind me of where in this thread the "clear advantages trans athletes have" was supported in any way beyond speculation and opinion. You'd have to ask them. It's likely because they're trying to exist in a culture where those categories are still so prominently used (despite their obvious flaws and limitations). Nobody here is arguing zero distinctions. The point is there are more than two... non-binary, along a spectrum... distinctions still exist, but they're not representable with just two non-overlapping Venn diagram circles.

It depends a bit on each individuals circumstances and the sport in which they're trying to participate, does it not? I understand you believe your approach is fact based, but that just means you've ignored the biology-focused content our biology and other experts have repeatedly shared here in this thread. You can continue working from a foundational premise that only two genders exist and everything else is some sort of "woke nonsense," but simply repeating a mistake over and over doesn't magically make it correct.

IINM, no evidence of trans dominance has yet been provided. This assumption rests at the heart of your entire position, yet remains unfounded. Maybe one anecdote about one athlete, but anecdotes do not evidence make. More specifically, the categories aren't as hard and independent as you and others keep suggesting. Spectrum, not binary. Literally non-binary. What advantage is that, again? Your self-assured ability to forecast the future is impressive. Can you use this same power of yours to please tell us next weeks lottery numbers?

Statistically? Sure, of course. Morally and ethically, though? Not so much.

The buoyancy also surely plays a role... having relief from the ever present pull of gravity on our muscles and skeleton while floating through water is itself quite stress relieving.

Just looking at that photo makes my adrenaline and cortisol levels decrease!

Does $100 represent total production costs (materials, labor and payroll, property and overhead, shipping, insurance, taxes, etc.), or does it represent only your raw materials costs? If the first, then you don’t have enough info to answer. If the second, then your 20% drop in costs results in your profit going from $25 instead to $45. That represents a 56% profit (up from the original 25% profit earned with the higher materials costs).

Professor Gilden?!? When did you change your first name to Steve? Depends on the nature of the research. For things where harm is unlikely, they only need to be given the opportunity to be informed, but can sign off without first being forced to comprehend. There are usually institutional review boards overseeing such things. Is there a particular problem you have with me? Thanks for the neg rep. Please stop abusing the PM system and instead keep the conversation here out in the open.

The skin suit surely adds to this, much like a thunder coat for dogs who fear lightening storms. There’s a thing called the dive reflex which also results in changes to our blood flow through the trigeminal and vagus nerves: https://dan.org/alert-diver/article/how-the-dive-reflex-protects-the-brain-and-heart/ A whole greater than the sum of its parts…

For someone who uses it so often in his own posts, I find it strange you’re so unfamiliar with hyperbole in those submitted by others.

Sensory deprivation is another potential explanation for the calming effect. While it can cause overwhelming anxiety in some, it can often quiet and soothe raving racing minds in others. I suggest being underwater deprives us of nearly all of the sounds so common in our terrestrial days, and the peace from audio triggers that come from that may be part of the answer here.