Atlas Ministry of Purity Crimes Self-Reporting Thread
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Gustaf
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« Reply #100 on: January 24, 2015, 12:09:18 PM »

Did you already take the GRE Simfan? How much did you get?

No, not yet. I was talking about my plans to take it and preparing.

Well good luck on that! I fear that when I'll know your results it will be another punch in the guts for my ego. I know Foucaulf got an insanely good one (something like 168/170) which made me feel like sh*t, I've no doubt you can do as well. Wink

Well I've taken tips from him so let's hope so. If I can replicate my SAT results everything should be fine.

I took the GRE a few years ago. I think the key is to not make mistakes while still being fast. The math isn't particularly hard in itself but  the time pressure can get to you if you let it.
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Lief 🗽
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« Reply #101 on: January 24, 2015, 12:18:29 PM »

Simfan, please don't waste your mind on this grad school nonsense. Waste it on something sensible, like law school.
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Antonio the Sixth
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« Reply #102 on: January 24, 2015, 12:56:15 PM »

Did you already take the GRE Simfan? How much did you get?

No, not yet. I was talking about my plans to take it and preparing.

Well good luck on that! I fear that when I'll know your results it will be another punch in the guts for my ego. I know Foucaulf got an insanely good one (something like 168/170) which made me feel like sh*t, I've no doubt you can do as well. Wink

Well I've taken tips from him so let's hope so. If I can replicate my SAT results everything should be fine.

I took the GRE a few years ago. I think the key is to not make mistakes while still being fast. The math isn't particularly hard in itself but  the time pressure can get to you if you let it.

May I ask you how much you got? I don't want to look like a hypercompetitive asshole, but the issue is that I'd like to know if the kind of score that I have can give me a shot at the universities I'd like to attend. Tongue
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Nathan
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« Reply #103 on: January 24, 2015, 01:06:27 PM »

Is it morally wrong of me to feel smug for having chosen a graduate program that doesn't require that you take the GRE?
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Nathan
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« Reply #104 on: January 24, 2015, 01:13:29 PM »

I asked if it was morally wrong of me to feel smug, not if it was wrong of me to feel morally smug.
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Gustaf
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« Reply #105 on: January 24, 2015, 01:16:10 PM »

Did you already take the GRE Simfan? How much did you get?

No, not yet. I was talking about my plans to take it and preparing.

Well good luck on that! I fear that when I'll know your results it will be another punch in the guts for my ego. I know Foucaulf got an insanely good one (something like 168/170) which made me feel like sh*t, I've no doubt you can do as well. Wink

Well I've taken tips from him so let's hope so. If I can replicate my SAT results everything should be fine.

I took the GRE a few years ago. I think the key is to not make mistakes while still being fast. The math isn't particularly hard in itself but  the time pressure can get to you if you let it.

May I ask you how much you got? I don't want to look like a hypercompetitive asshole, but the issue is that I'd like to know if the kind of score that I have can give me a shot at the universities I'd like to attend. Tongue

Of course! I took it in the old system though. I got 800/800 in math, 680/800 on verbal and 5.5/6 on the essay style. I don't remember what the transformation becomes in the new system but I think I was about top 5% in all 3 with that score.
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traininthedistance
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« Reply #106 on: January 24, 2015, 01:22:44 PM »

My recollection was that the math portion was easier than the SAT and had something like a 10% or more rate of people getting literally every question right, whereas the verbal portion was chock-full of obscure $10 words that even very literate people may have never heard of, and thus a perfect result was basically completely impossible.

And I saw this as someone who isn't really a math person at all.

The disconnect between the treatment of the two halves was striking, to say the least.

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Antonio the Sixth
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« Reply #107 on: January 24, 2015, 01:38:51 PM »

Wow, so apparently it's a normal thing to get full score on the Math part? Sad I only got in the top 15% (top 5% in verbal), so it looks like I'm far behind.
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traininthedistance
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« Reply #108 on: January 24, 2015, 01:57:25 PM »

I asked if it was morally wrong of me to feel smug, not if it was wrong of me to feel morally smug.

Typo.

My recollection was that the math portion was easier than the SAT and had something like a 10% or more rate of people getting literally every question right, whereas the verbal portion was chock-full of obscure $10 words that even very literate people may have never heard of, and thus a perfect result was basically completely impossible.

And I saw this as someone who isn't really a math person at all.

The disconnect between the treatment of the two halves was striking, to say the least.

I did get a perfect score on the verbal section and I only ever missed one or two responses while I was doing practice questions. If I can pull that off - even through sheer luck - I'm sure that there are at least a dozen other regular posters here who can.


I think I got something like 3 of them wrong when I took it, which was good for a 790.  But that was awhile ago, I wouldn't be surprised if they recalibrated things since then so that the verbal was easier and the math was harder in between when the two of us took it.
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Gustaf
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« Reply #109 on: January 24, 2015, 02:00:58 PM »

Traininthedistance, I had the exact same experience. The math was fairly easy which is why, ironically, my perfect math score was actually a worse percentile than either of my two other scores (I think 7% aced the math when I did it).

While I'm no native speaker I consider myself pretty good at English and the verbal was just filled with words I had never seen in my life before. Hardly anyone got above say 750, not to mention getting a full 800.
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Gustaf
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« Reply #110 on: January 24, 2015, 03:31:23 PM »

I remember being annoyed at my math score being downgraded - all the 800s in the old system became less than perfect scores in the new system. Sad
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Simfan34
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« Reply #111 on: January 24, 2015, 05:21:50 PM »

May I ask you how much you got? I don't want to look like a hypercompetitive asshole, but the issue is that I'd like to know if the kind of score that I have can give me a shot at the universities I'd like to attend. Tongue

If you want to know, I took it twice, and got a 800 on the verbal (twice!) and 760 on the math (not twice).

My recollection was that the math portion was easier than the SAT and had something like a 10% or more rate of people getting literally every question right, whereas the verbal portion was chock-full of obscure $10 words that even very literate people may have never heard of, and thus a perfect result was basically completely impossible.

And I saw this as someone who isn't really a math person at all.

The disconnect between the treatment of the two halves was striking, to say the least.

Well in the practice problems there were a few words that legitimately stumped me, and the math did seem better than I expected. But these were a few practice problems.


Well I know what a regatta is, so I must be good. I will actually read that later.
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Simfan34
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« Reply #112 on: January 24, 2015, 05:46:56 PM »

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This is silly. Do people even still use sextants? I have never sailed anything larger than a small dinghy, yet I know this (Age of Discovery, anyone?). This isn't about "privilege", it's about knowing things; "underprivileged minority kids" might not have ever learnt this, but when you're taking a grad school exam it's not the direct fault of privilege or the exam that you don't know but someone else does.

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That's how the English language works. Be thankful you don't speak French, Spanish, or... most other languages really, which have far more ingrained male-preference than English. This has nothing to do with the exam.

What is the purpose of this, King?
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Sol
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« Reply #113 on: January 24, 2015, 11:48:02 PM »

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This is silly. Do people even still use sextants? I have never sailed anything larger than a small dinghy, yet I know this (Age of Discovery, anyone?). This isn't about "privilege", it's about knowing things; "underprivileged minority kids" might not have ever learnt this, but when you're taking a grad school exam it's not the direct fault of privilege or the exam that you don't know but someone else does.

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That's how the English language works. Be thankful you don't speak French, Spanish, or... most other languages really, which have far more ingrained male-preference than English. This has nothing to do with the exam.

What is the purpose of this, King?
IMO, they works much better than he and should replace he in that context, as it has already done in speech.
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angus
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« Reply #114 on: January 25, 2015, 09:16:58 AM »


IMO, they works much better than he and should replace he in that context, as it has already done in speech.


It has done so in some speech, but it is awkward owing to the disagreement in number between the plural personal pronoun and the typically singular antecedent.  I check myself if I find myself ready to create such an awkward construction.  I really don't have a problem with referring to male authors as he, female authors as she, and unknown ones as "he", or "he or she", or, as is done in some texts, s/he or (s)he. 

Also, the argument that nautical terms are racist on the basis that "underprivileged minority kids have never sailed a boat before" is specious at best.  I have never visited Saturn, how can I possibly be expected to know that it has crystalline ammonia in its upper atmosphere?  Or that its surface winds are faster even than those on Jupiter?  (which I also haven't visited) 

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politicus
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« Reply #115 on: January 25, 2015, 09:22:51 AM »
« Edited: January 25, 2015, 09:24:46 AM by Charlotte Hebdo »

Another alternative is to use she as the neutral option. It may seem artificial at first, but there is a certain logic to it. All humans start out as proto-females before some of them become males. The female sex is the basic one, the male a deviation.
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Gustaf
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« Reply #116 on: January 25, 2015, 09:26:49 AM »


IMO, they works much better than he and should replace he in that context, as it has already done in speech.


It has done so in some speech, but it is awkward owing to the disagreement in number between the plural personal pronoun and the typically singular antecedent.  I check myself if I find myself ready to create such an awkward construction.  I really don't have a problem with referring to male authors as he, female authors as she, and unknown ones as "he", or "he or she", or, as is done in some texts, s/he or (s)he. 

Also, the argument that nautical terms are racist on the basis that "underprivileged minority kids have never sailed a boat before" is specious at best.  I have never visited Saturn, how can I possibly be expected to know that it has crystalline ammonia in its upper atmosphere?  Or that its surface winds are faster even than those on Jupiter?  (which I also haven't visited) 



Economics textbooks always have example people who are she. Sweden has gotten a gender neutral pronoun which works pretty well for when you don't know the gender.

The class thing is easy to exaggerate but I guess there is some point to whether questions refer to concepts that are more specific to one group. If it were all rare fruits in Africa or something it might also be harder for someone who has never been there. But I suspect the dominant issue is that those from the upper classes will on average simply have a larger vocabulary.
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Antonio the Sixth
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« Reply #117 on: January 25, 2015, 09:29:53 AM »

Why has nobody ever proposed using "it" as a neutral pronoun? I mean, that's exactly what it is, the singular neutral pronoun! English is lucky enough to actually have it, so why not use it when you're referring to an unspecified person? I guess the reason is that "it" is usually used to refer to inanimate objects and that it has assumed a bit of a negative connotation, but I still think it's preferable to contrived alternatives like "(s)he", or "they".
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politicus
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« Reply #118 on: January 25, 2015, 09:36:08 AM »

Why has nobody ever proposed using "it" as a neutral pronoun? I mean, that's exactly what it is, the singular neutral pronoun! English is lucky enough to actually have it, so why not use it when you're referring to an unspecified person? I guess the reason is that "it" is usually used to refer to inanimate objects and that it has assumed a bit of a negative connotation, but I still think it's preferable to contrived alternatives like "(s)he", or "they".

AFAIK all Germanic languages have neutral pronouns. I would never use the Danish equivalent "det" for a human being. It sounds very dehumanizing as if the person was a thing. Parents to newborn infants typically get very upset if you refer to their baby as "det" (which some tend to do as long as the infant is merely a "crybaby" without a personality). Using it feels equally wrong.
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Cranberry
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« Reply #119 on: January 25, 2015, 09:58:37 AM »

Adding my thing to this debate, in the German language we have had a similar discussion on "gender-ing", though not on the usage of pronouns, more on plural forms (mainly of professions). In German, about every profession has a male and a female form (der Polizist, die Polizistin - the police officer), and a plural in both genders, too (die Polizisten, die Polizistinnen). Now, the usual procedure, also in official use, is to just take a middle way with the so-called "internal I", so to capitalize the "I" while using the femal plural (because you get the male plural if you take away the "in" inside the female plural), which then is die PolizistInnen.
Now that is a debate, because according to some it apparently looks ugly or whatever, and others would prefer if you used male and female forms (then again, some prefer if you take the female first), and so on, and so on... So anyway, this remined me of this here. Consider yourselves advanced to German, as we are still talking about plurals, we haven't even started talking about pronouns Tongue
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politicus
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« Reply #120 on: January 25, 2015, 10:10:47 AM »

Adding my thing to this debate, in the German language we have had a similar discussion on "gender-ing", though not on the usage of pronouns, more on plural forms (mainly of professions). In German, about every profession has a male and a female form (der Polizist, die Polizistin - the police officer), and a plural in both genders, too (die Polizisten, die Polizistinnen). Now, the usual procedure, also in official use, is to just take a middle way with the so-called "internal I", so to capitalize the "I" while using the femal plural (because you get the male plural if you take away the "in" inside the female plural), which then is die PolizistInnen.
Now that is a debate, because according to some it apparently looks ugly or whatever, and others would prefer if you used male and female forms (then again, some prefer if you take the female first), and so on, and so on... So anyway, this remined me of this here. Consider yourselves advanced to German, as we are still talking about plurals, we haven't even started talking about pronouns Tongue

Things like that can generate dispute, but it is small fry compared to using it for a human being since that touches on something a lot more basic - the human soul and mind, humanity and possibly also reification.
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angus
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« Reply #121 on: January 25, 2015, 10:11:09 AM »


AFAIK all Germanic languages have neutral pronouns.



The three with which I am familiar all do.  I've worked in Germany and Netherlands and although I have forgotten most of what I have learned, I still remember er, es, sie, etc.  What I don't know about is cultural norms.  We say he, she, and it, but "it" rarely refers to humans.  I tend to call babies "it" and I know others do as well, but once a person is big enough to have an instantly identifiable gender--assuming Nathan doesn't show up here to point out that this is a societal misapprehension and a great cultural wrong in need of correcting, let's agree that by age 2 or 3 it becomes possible with most children to label them "boy" or "girl" with confidence--then we stop calling them "it."  Addressing a university lecture hall, for example, an instructor might say that each student should submit "his or her" exams at a certain time.  

Of course, you do make an interesting point regarding physical development.  Languages have had longer to evolve--even relatively new languages like English--than reproductive microbiology studies.  Maybe one day our languages will catch up with our understanding of science, but for now we still say that "the sun rises" and such.  It doesn't seem to inhibit our understanding of astrophysics when we do that.  Similarly, our choices in personal pronouns needn't inhibit our understanding of developmental biology.  
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Nathan
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« Reply #122 on: January 25, 2015, 02:48:42 PM »

The three with which I am familiar all do.  I've worked in Germany and Netherlands and although I have forgotten most of what I have learned, I still remember er, es, sie, etc.  What I don't know about is cultural norms.  We say he, she, and it, but "it" rarely refers to humans.  I tend to call babies "it" and I know others do as well, but once a person is big enough to have an instantly identifiable gender--assuming Nathan doesn't show up here to point out that this is a societal misapprehension and a great cultural wrong in need of correcting, let's agree that by age 2 or 3 it becomes possible with most children to label them "boy" or "girl" with confidence--then we stop calling them "it."  Addressing a university lecture hall, for example, an instructor might say that each student should submit "his or her" exams at a certain time.  

No, not really. I mean, what else are you going to do, realistically?
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« Reply #123 on: January 25, 2015, 02:50:53 PM »

Another alternative is to use she as the neutral option. It may seem artificial at first, but there is a certain logic to it. All humans start out as proto-females before some of them become males. The female sex is the basic one, the male a deviation.

This is a convention of sorts in much writing in contemporary Anglo-American philosophy, actually.
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Lief 🗽
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« Reply #124 on: January 25, 2015, 02:55:33 PM »

It seems we have our first purity crimes/comedy goldmine double post! 5 death points for this deleted post.

He regularly flirts with Tr'sawn, a 6'2' African American dancer famous around DC circles. Her extreme height help fuel his "I'm an oompa loompa" themed sex kink.

I curtsey and thank the mods for their generous punishment.

With rumblings from The Atlas subforum that the moderators are compiling The List once again, and now this punishment, it looks like your days are numbered old friend. RIP. Cry
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