To be fair, my research is decades old at this point.

Some slight ramdom paper reading, back in my uni days. Though I’ve ran across it via other sources over the years since. Unfortunately I don’t have any links to hand though.

It might better be described as people put numbers into categories. Most people have a 10-20 category. 19.99 fits. 20.00 gets bumped up to the next box. It’s a sub/semi conscious thing. If we use our higher thought process, we can deal with the numbers. That takes effort however, by default, we chunk. The price just abuses a common rollover point most people share.

It’s a subconscious thing. It’s how our brain is wired. It’s a bit like advertising. Most people don’t like ads. However, when confronted my 2 similar products, we will go with the familiar one. The source of that familiarity is irrelevant, ads make it familiar, just the same as using it, or a recommendation.

It’s possible to override both of these effects, but that requires a level of conscious effort. I can almost guarantee you’ve been caught by both at different times. You just didn’t notice (since noticing would allow you to correct).

Basically, $19.99 is in the category “under $20”. $20.00 is in “over $20”. Without conscious correction, you act on this.

It was originally to force the cashier to open the till.

Say an item was $20. If the customer paid with a $20 note, then the cashier could, intheory, pocket it, without it showing up on the rocords. If it was $19.99 they needed to open the till to get a cent out. This meant it was recorded, and so the till wouldn’t balance.

Most people round down. Their brain locks on to the 1 of 19.99, and approximates it to 10.00. We need to actively counter this to see it as 20.00. It’s a skill most people don’t apply all the time, and a number can’t even do.

Once you can do it reliably, it’s mind-boggling that others can’t, but it’s still a learnt skill, that needs to be applied.

I view it like an over-revved car. Some parts can handle the strain fine, others are over stressed. Depending what aspect you look at, you will get different results.

As the pressure rises, things will start to fail. Some will not cause additional issues, but others will cascade. Predicting when a cascade failure will happen is difficult, however.

If you watch the cooking shows with Gordon Ramsey dealing with kids, you would get half of it. He’s amazing with youngsters, and k ows exactly how to give them positive motivation. He saves his outbursts for the “professionals” who are being complete idiots. He also racks it up for American TV. He’s a lot more relaxed on UK TV.

I personally support this plan. Smoking in the UK has already plummeted. A lot of smokers have moved to vaping. Unfortunately, those left are often the ruder ones. Limiting where they cam smoke, or reduce expire for everyone else is a big dead for me.

Additionally, it’s not banning nicotine, it’s banning cigarettes. Vapes have changes the balance on that one. They are less damaging, and cause far less issues with passive smoking. This acts as a pressure relief valve, rather than a blanket nicotine ban. Also, at no point will an existing (legal) smoker go from legal to illegal.

The vape issue definitely needs fixing. A number have found advertising to younger users is a good money maker. Limiting the options here l, without an outright ban would help reduce the harm to children. It wouldn’t significantly affect ex smokers who moved to vaping.

Both work for protecting humans. However, I believe vaccination is better overall. It also improves the quality of life of the chickens. Unfortunately, it’s also (very slightly) more expensive, so America went the cheap route. The EU mandated to reduce animal cruelty, by vaccination.

It takes some practice to beautify it. You’ll also spend more time doing that than the whole time taken to build the core.

My minion is still too young for that. I plan to wind them up mercilessly however. Right now, dad jokes are the height of humour to them.

• “I’m hungry”
• “Hi hungry, I’m dad!”
• “Nooooooo, I’m not called hungry!”
• “So why did you tell me your name was hungry?”
• …

I’ll be a little sad when it finally gets old.

Don’t bother with a usb key. Flash memory is technically volatile, it just takes a while to blank. Unless you plug the key in every 5 to 10 years, it will start losing data. By the time the time capsule is unearthed, it will likely be blank or corrupted.

I know a few teachers, the “cringy and bad” is the goal, not a mistake. It’s apparently quite therapeutic watching the “cool kids” squirm. How bad can you make them, but not make it obvious what you’re doing?

The fact that it also helps a lot of kids remember it is almost just a bonus.

The ork waaaaaagh requires enough orks to function. It’s sort of an average belief. Even the warpheads (their psykers) just channel the collective waaaaaagh energy.

The matrix power plant hack was the exception. In the movie, it’s just a screen of code flying past. If you slow it down, it’s a legit hack.

Trinity checks the software version, to see it hadn’t been updated. She then implements a real hack that that version was vulnerable to. It resets the admin password to a default, letting her log in as admin.

Simple, stark is a semi latent technomancer. His arc reactors might actually work, but the mini ones don’t. They are effectively conductors for magic. They turn magic into electricity with zero heat output. This also explains the suits momentum damping capabilities, and why they can’t be copied easily.

My head canon, at least with Superman, is his powers. He doesn’t have multiple unrelated powers, but only 1 main one. Instinctive momentum control.

• Flying - Momentum control

• Bullet proof - Momentum stopped at the point of contact.

• Heat beams - Changing the momentum of particles he’s focused on.

• Holding a plane by a thin aluminium sheet - Adjusting the momentum of the plane directly.

• No sonic booms, or massive wind - momentum nulling on the nearby air.

In this case, catching a falling person safely makes complete sense. He just nullifies their momentum before they hit.

Just noticed a slight typo, fixed now. Also, at that point, most of the tests are useless and distinguishing the differences.

It’s also quite weird. To me, it’s completely normal. It actually took significant mental training to match up with how others think. I knew I was quick, but not that quick.

Unfortunately, it’s also a coping mechanism (adhd + autism + a few more quirks). My brain handles certain tasks abnormally. E.g. I can’t read emotions intuitively. I have to brute force it with general intelligence methods. I also have memory issues, again, compensated for with brute calculations.

It’s a bit like being terrified of riding vehicles. You learn to cope. You then get slightly surprised when people complain how hard marathons are. You jog the 15 miles to work and back everyday! It’s not that hard. You develop the skills because you need them.

Intelligence (particularly IQ) is also only a subset of being smart. I know people far smarter than me. Their IQ might not be at the same level, but they can leverage it massively more than I can. I’m a hot rod, amazing on a 1 mile track, crap on normal roads.

1. Yes, I even have the paperwork to back that up. (99.7 percentile)

2. No, I’m also a classic example of the difference between intelligent and smart. I’m a 1000hp engine in a reliant Robin van. Immense power, but limited in my ability to apply it to useful tasks.

3. I’m the main character in my story. I know, logically, that I’m just another speck of humanity to others, but my ego can’t function in that state, so it doesn’t.

Edit: apparent an extra 9 slipped in.

It’s actually part of my point.

Doctors are intelligent, you have to be to absorb the amount of information they are required to learn. However, it’s specialised intelligence. Being smart about medicine doesn’t make you smart about other things.

It’s like we all have a pool of base intelligence. We can then pour it into various moulds. The traditional intelligent professions are often just reliant on a large amount of specialised intelligence. This actually robs them other other forms.

It’s easy, when you can demonstrate high intelligence, in a difficult field, to assume you are intelligent across the board. A stupid person can often know they are stupid and so can compensate. An “intelligent” person can be blindsided by their weaknesses.