Have you heard of it before?

The Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which “people reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices but their incompetence robs them of the metacognitive ability to realize it”. The unskilled therefore suffer from illusory superiority, rating their own ability as above average, much higher than in actuality; by contrast the highly skilled underrate their abilities, suffering from illusory inferiority. [...] “Thus, the miscalibration of the incompetent stems from an error about the self, whereas the miscalibration of the highly competent stems from an error about others.”

(Quotes from Kruger & Dunning, 1999, Source: Wikipedia)

Bertrand Russell had a funny way to put it:

The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.

Now, what does that mean?

Even less sleep for me, I guess.

Sigh.

In comparison to Chile, the 2004 Sumatran earthquake (magnitude 9.1) is estimated to have shortened the length of day by 6.8 microseconds and shifted Earth’s axis by 7 centimeters. It did not have an impact as strong as the one in Chile – JPL research scientist Richard Gross explains why:

First, unlike the 2004 Sumatran earthquake, which was located near the equator, the 2010 Chilean earthquake was located in Earth’s mid-latitudes, which makes it more effective in shifting Earth’s figure axis. Second, the fault responsible for the 2010 Chiliean earthquake dips into Earth at a slightly steeper angle than does the fault responsible for the 2004 Sumatran earthquake. This makes the Chile fault more effective in moving Earth’s mass vertically and hence more effective in shifting Earth’s figure axis.

May you be touched by HIS noodly appendages and have a happy FS-Mas. May HIS INVISIBLE NOODLY GRACE bestow upon you lots of meat-balls. May OUR NOODLY CREATOR take care that the stripper factories and beer volcanos in heaven never run dry.

May you have a blessed holiday!

RAmen.

As has been noted previously in blog discussions, it is possible that Christian usage of the “ball”-type ornament to decorate their holiday trees actually originated as an homage to His divine meatballs and that the garlands or strands of lights used on Christian holiday trees are in fact merely a representation of His noodly appendages.

Lena Schöneborn hat das erste Olympia-Gold für Deutschland im Modernen Fünfkampf seit 72 Jahren gewonnen.

Naja, so modern kann der moderne Fünfkampf ja wohl nicht sein …

Bürgermeister Jens Böhrnsen (SPD):

Die Kandidatinnen und Kandidaten werden bei der Sendung vor einem Millionenpublikum mit Häme, Spott und Beleidigungen überzogen und lächerlich gemacht [...] Sie werden gezielt erniedrigt.

Böhrnsen sagte weiter, die Kommission für Jugendschutz der Landesmedienanstalten sei zu dem Schluss gekommen, dass beleidigende Äußerungen und antisoziales Verhaltung in der Sendung als Normalität hingestellt würden. Die Bremer Bemühungen um eine von gegenseitigem Respekt und Toleranz geprägt Jugendkultur würden durch ein solches Sendeformat geradezu konterkariert.

Schön, dass mal einer sagt, was Sache ist, und den Trend anspricht, den das deutsche Fernsehen seit 5+ Jahren immer weiter verfolgt. Umso trauriger, dass die Leute genau das sehen wollen. Es sagt schon einiges über den Selbstwert von Menschen aus, die gerne sehen, wie andere erniedrigt werden – gemischt mit Sensationsgier, versteht sich. Wenn das so weitergeht, steht in 10 Jahren das erste moderne Colosseum in Europa …

— Quelle: tagesschau.de

Life is about choices, and every choice you make also means not chosing the various alternatives. The human psyche is constructed in a way that, after making a decision, it usually takes care that we don’t doubt a lot. We convince ourselves that the choice we made was the best one, and that the other alternatives weren’t really good options anyway (there is a lot of interesting psychological research to the topic, see this video as an example).

These mechanisms are a bit screwed up in my brain, I doubt a lot, especially regarding choices. About alternatives I could have taken, about other paths I could have chosen – but yesterday night, it felt like there was only one place on this planet to be, it felt like I made the right decision: I was at the Volbeat concert in Augsburg.

Now let me tell you about the Rockfabrik where the concert took place:
an underground labyrinth of small rooms, mostly painted in black, a very tiny stage with an area in front of it where a maximum of … 300 people could stand? Well, the area was as wide as the tiny stage, and around 8 metres deep, so I’d reckon about 60m² maximum. This area had only one small exit, and around the area (a bit like a boxing ring) there were also a lot of people standing and watching.

Volbeat … the band is close to getting their first platinum album, they play a mix of rock’n'roll/heavy metal with some country elements (the singer is a big fan of both Johnny Cash and Elvis), and have their very own genuine music style.
The whole concert was a big “we”, it was a “together” of a great band and great fans. The band treated us as what we are: their everything. We buy their CD’s and merch products, we made them popular, and they appreciated it the whole concert through. The singer thanked us many times very authentically for our support and the great evening.
A few examples of that “together” I’m rambling about: the singer handed out Whiskey to the crowd (and drank from the bottle after it was returned), he made a lot of jokes with us, he invited some people to the stage to sing with him, and even went stagediving himself in one song and kept on singing (I was really surprised when I jumped into someone while dancing, who looked pretty much like the singer, who had a microphone in the hand, who sang … “oooh it’s him!!!”). The guys stayed on stage after the concert for a while to shake hands with every fan who wanted to (which took quite some time), they joined the crowd after the concert to drink some beers together … what can I say, what a great evening.

A few notes on modern heavy metal culture in Germany for those who are not very much into that kind of business:

• My arms are bruised, and I’m afraid my ears will never be the same again.
• It would be extremely irresponsible not to dispose of my tshirt in a nuclear waste facility. And I’m serious about it.
• There are 3 subtypes of fans I wouldn’t miss at concerts:
  The drug-idiot, carrying a full glass of beer and a lit cigarette in an extremely crowded headbanging mob
  The dancing drunk, because there a specific rules you have to obey to when dancing in order to secure everyones safety, and very drunk people just endanger other people dancing around them
  The agressive chicken, too scared to dance himself, but aggressively pushing other people around like crazy.
• Another note about the rules when headbanging: well, the most dangerous parts of bodies really are the elbows, so keep them to yourself and only use them to block other people jumping into you. Keep them at the height where they belong, never dance with elbows in height of other people’s heads. Which leads to the group of people I severely fear at concerts: small girls! Reason 1: I have to take care not to hurt them (my elbows can hit their heads very easily). Reason 2: Their elbows are prone to hurt my manly parts badly ….

Thanks for the great evening!