The Sixth Stage of Grief Is Retro-computing (h/t Visakan)

ExFatLoss on measurement: a “Regular, Boring Scale” is the best way to measure body weight for weight loss. “All other methods are either less precise, more prone to user error, or too impractical/expensive to do daily. It doesn’t matter which scale you buy. Just get any $20 model from Amazon. No smart/body fat sensing required. All scales are imprecise. Still good enough. Yea, yea, the scale isn’t perfect. Most scales aren’t that accurate. … But everything else I’ve seen is worse. And I’ve tried a lot.”

The Fosbury Flop Changed Athletes’ Bodies – “the coach can impart important principles, but my sense of great coaches is that they also allow — or encourage — some freedom for the learner to experiment and find a personal solution within the bounds of the task. … I think there’s an analogy for coaches or mentors or bosses of any kind: we should all think about how we can use our influence essentially to underwrite smart risk-taking and experimentation, even within the confines of a well-defined goal.”

Most descriptions of sumptuary laws (historical laws that, among other things, limit who can wear what) focus on how these laws keep common people from imitating those of higher status. If we pass a law that only dukes are allowed to wear cloth-of-gold, then rich merchants can’t pretend to be as important as a duke just because they can afford it. But we have this long-standing suspicion that sumptuary laws also kept rich people from pretending to be lower status than they really are. Think of it as a combination of the king wanting to know who is flush enough to tax heavily, and enforcing noblesse oblige, with everyone being able to tell who is fortunate enough to have an especial obligation to the less fortunate. Anyways: You Can’t Even Tell Who’s Rich Anymore

In Turmoil Over Tampons, Scientists See a Need for More Study

Black Women Say Products for Black Hair Are Dangerously Toxic

A forthcoming visual novel “supposedly actually prepares your 2022 US federal tax return through romancing an anime girl.”

Annals of medical ontology: “Ever wondered how many symptoms make up all of adult psychopathology described in the DSM-5? It’s 628! How many do you think repeat across multiple diagnoses? If you answered 231 symptoms repeating a total of 1022 times (median 3 times per symptom, range 2-22), good job!”

Church of Reality: Barbara McClintock on Scientific Mysticism and Plant Consciousness from Gaurav Venkataraman, who describes the piece as, “some notes on McClintock, who is in my view the greatest scientist of all time.”

Are Iranian schoolgirls being poisoned by toxic gas? – BBC News (compare to our recent speculations about gender gaps in chronic illness)

“The spread of cases across the country and the fact it has been predominantly affecting schoolgirls, with fewer boys and adults falling ill, were central to his conclusion, he said. The nature of the symptoms and the fact most patients quickly recovered were also key, he said.”