Sorry. I was temporarily distracted. I'll try to be faster on the draw next time.

I might describe that more as a value. As in, "I value being able to climb," or "I value learning," or "I value being with the people I love."

If Scott Adams told me the sun would rise tomorrow, I'd ask for a second opinion.

I'm really uncomfortable with the word uncomfortable. I feel like it's a half-assed summary word for people who are bad at identifying emotions.

Yes, but it's BYOO.

This is very valuable in many, many fields and endeavors. I have found that, in general, when people come for help, with careful and curiosity-driven questions, one discovers that they actually have an entirely different problem. Keep pushing (gently, of course) until you get to an end goal; it's almost never where…

Every day.

Of course it's a physical process. That doesn't mean that difficulty swallowing pills isn't psychological. The two things are not opposite. Of course a technique to make swallowing easier makes swallowing easier.

I'm glad you worked it out. Difficulty in swallowing pills is psychological, which isn't to say that it isn't real, but is to say that it isn't a physical limitation. It is entirely trainable and is a good thing to resolve before you really need to.

I have found a surprising overlap between people who believe that all women's choices around birth are equally valid and should be supported and those who supported the NYC large sugary drink ban. They seem to experience no cognitive dissonance about this.

My understanding of the research is that cognitive decline is best accounted for by sleep deprivation. So if you take someone who doesn't have a child and deprive them of sleep in the same way, they show the same kind of cognitive effects. So plus and a minus, I guess?

I love everyone who manages to write without run-on sentences.

An extension is that you take yourself with you. People often tell themselves that they will be happy if they only get another job, or break up with that loser, or win the lottery... The truth is, those things matter, sure, but at root, we are the common element across time in our lives.

It's a good point. Many parents are doing what they think is right. Many are also doing the only thing they know. Many are also acting out their own issues. I make no presumptions about who is who.

Even putting aside the question of whether spanking could ever not be abuse; before we get there, it seems like a reasonable question is: does it work? Does it do what we think it does? I know it seems like it works, but does it?

There are indeed lots of different attitudes about it. There is, however, pretty clear evidence about it: the use of pain as a punishment is ineffective when compared to other ways of teaching your kids what to do. So the people who choose to spank either don't know the evidence, don't believe it, or don't care…

Hanging things in plaster can be very, very tricky. (a) plaster - particularly old plaster - is very prone to cracking and crumbling. (b) plaster often isn't over lathe or anything that you expect - in old buildings, it's often over masonry or several layers of other plaster. And if you're going through plaster…

They do and they don't, but as an illustration of why that doesn't really matter - how many dead dolphins do you see on the surface of the ocean? I apologize for phrasing this bluntly, but bodies are food for an awful lot of creatures, big and small. In a very short amount of time, the parts that were left wouldn't…

Do the chip bags in South Korea not have the net weight of the chips inside printed on the bag?

I think there's room on the outrage couch for all degrees of domestic violence. If you believe that a little domestic violence is ok, then that's where we disagree. I realize that sounds simplistic, so I'm guessing that's not really what you mean. If all you mean is that these situations are different, and that one…