There are spoilers contained within this table.

Notes

I've excluded the short stories, and the novel "Ring for Jeeves" (1953) as it doesn't contain Bertie Wooster.

Best realisation so far is the surprising identity of one of the "couples" whom Jeeves and Wooster are assisting. It is mandatory in each J&W novel that J. and or W. will be called on to help a particular couple to get together, despite the hardships of the world presenting untold obstacles. Thus I've listed Couple(s) as a chief property of each novel. The surprising couple is "Chichester Clam & Lord Worplesdon" ("Joy in the Morning") a star-crossed pair of captains of industry who are, I kid you not, hoping to unite Clam's Clam Line with Worplesdon's Pink Funnel line.

In something of a coincidence "Thos's Rubber Cosh" happens to be the name of a notorious highschool punk band that broke up before it got started.

References

• Jeeves - Wikipedia

See also

• Mandala Effect

Nonsense is nonsense. But the study of nonsense? That is a science.
—Saul Lieberman

• Apophenia is when the human mind finds meaning in the meaningless.

A specific well-known special case of apophenia is “pareidolia”: the seeing of human faces in things which do not contain human faces. Like this face on Mars, or Jesus in this piece of toast.

Face on Mars

Jesus in a piece of toast

The problem with confirmation bias is that once you know what it is you begin to see it everywhere.

Joseph Cooney

Apophenia is normal. But when apophenia is increased beyond normal limits, hyperapophenia is achieved.

Apophenia is a risk any time that a "search for meaning" is performed. And searches for meaning, high and low, are performed constantly.

A low example: as I type this on a phone, the phone's software is looking at every word I type, and searching for meaning. If it sees an error it quickly tries to substitute it with the correct word. If it gets it right, we don't even notice. If it gets it wrong, we're frustrated. If the mistake has an accidental second meaning, then it can be funny. It's reminiscent of a Freudian slip.

When there is a motivation, a reward, a series of tantalising clues, then the hyperapophenia is induced.

See blackstar by david bowie

Precursors to Hyper-Apophenia.

• The experience of serendipity is a precursor to Hyper-Apophenia. The feeling of déjà-vu

The Onset of Hyper-Apophenia

• When people are instructed to look for hidden meaning, and particularly if they are incentivized to look very hard for hidden meaning, a bout of hyperapophenia is guaranteed

Case study: hunt for the golden hare

As documented this goes all the way to the queen
People trying to solve a puzzle book
Lost their minds.

Somewhere Richard Feynman writes that when the quantum electro dynamic theory fell upon him he had a vision for a moment that the entire universe might be a single subatomic particle bouncing back and forth through time interacting only with itself. I've never been able to find the place where he wrote. If you know it please write it on a postcard and send it to me here in the penitentiary.

(It is on such a day that I am apt to make one of those haphazard encounters which will alter the course of my life.)

(I have, since, found the quote from Feynman… and lost it again…)

(And found it again!)

See wikipedia:one electron universe

Wherein we read:

I received a telephone call one day at the graduate college at Princeton from Professor Wheeler, in which he said, "Feynman, I know why all electrons have the same charge and the same mass" "Why?" "Because, they are all the same electron!"

Richard Feynman recounts John Wheeler’s free wheeling theory - or rather - a single electron nipping and weaving back and forth through Space and time, in the shape of Richard Feynman, recounts a theory spoken by other times at which that same electron went ducking and weaving backward and froward in time to create the continuous illusion of a John Wheeler

Wheeler’s Theory has never been proven to be true.

You — my friend— are a microscopic cog in his catastrophic plon, designed and directed by just one electron.

The Ram Sees: Ramsey’s Theory

Ramsey's theorem states that

one will find monochromatic cliques in any edge labelling (with colours) of a sufficiently large complete graph.

FPR, or Frank Plumpton Ramsey as he was more formally known, and after whom the theory is named, is also, so it happens, quite by chance, the discoverer of this theorem. Apophenia can be an early sign in the onset of schizophrenia. But it is no sure signal in itself: an ironic eruption of apophenic manifestations can co-occur in numerous maladies of the mind, quite by chance.

And what of people who fail to see the meanings right in front of them? What syndrome have they fallen to?

The opposites of pareidolia is a set that includes items such as “propopagnosia”, a situation whereby, when reaching for your hat you're likely to almost remove from its shoulder's your own wife's head, or so the classics would let us believe, quite by chance. But beyond propopagnosia, what is the more general syndrome of failing to pick up meanings, even when meanings are truly there? Dullness of the mind. Feeling sleepy.

A doctor decides to administer a Rorschach test and takes the cards from his desk, shows them to the patient who — etc — until the patient responds: "You think I'm obsessed with sex? I'm not the one with all the dirty pictures!"

An unmotivated seeing of connections. In the last months of his life, Hemingway was certain the government were following him.

It's the worst hell. The goddamnedest hell. They've bugged everything. That's why we're using Duke's car. Mine's bugged. Everything's bugged. Can't use the phone. Mail intercepted.

Even close friends wrote these off as paranoid delusions. 20 years after he died, the FBI released their Hemingway files. 120 pages. He was watched right up until the end.

just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.

Schizophrenia and Apophenia

• Apart from the obvious (“schizophrenia and apophenia” would be an excellent name for an album), Gwern says the two are very much linked — see Research Ideas: Schizophrenia meaning overload - Gwern.net

Unrelated article of the week

• microtiming in a particular riff of Metallica muster of puppets - this explains everything quite succinctly.

Previously

• Under-fitting and its complement.

External Links

• Wikipedia: Apophenia
• Scientific American: Patternicity
• Wikipedia: The Library of Babel
• Wikipedia: Pareidolia
• Wikipedia: Confirmation Bias
• Wikipedia: 23 Enigma
• Wikipedia: Thomas Pynchon The Crying of Lot 49
• Wikipedia: Borel's dactylographic monkey theorem
• Wikipedia: His Master's Voice (Novel)
• Wikipedia: Illusory Correlation
• Wikipedia: Superstition
• Wikipedia: Blindsight (novel)
• Wikipedia: Freudian Slip
• Masquerade (book)
• The Secret (1982 treasure book)
• 'This Goes All the Way to the Queen': The Puzzle Book that Drove England to Madness Hazlitt 2015
• Masquerade: How a real-life treasure hunt obsessed a nation BBC 2019
• The Extremely Enchanting, Totally Perplexing, Possibly Never-Ending Quest for the Golden Owl
• Wikipedia: The Conversation (1974 film)
• Why we can 'see' the house that looks like Hitler
• The Japanese Museum of Rocks That Look Like Faces
• Fresh claim over role the FBI played in suicide of Ernest Hemingway

See Also

• Red String

If you have a loved one missing, I just want to wish you the best. Research shows how ambiguous loss is so devastating and the grief so unrelenting.

The disappearance of this young software developer, from Queensland, is to me a particularly puzzling event. I didn't know Kathleen but in many ways she is just like any number of my friends and colleagues and family members. I'm certain there is more knowledge out there and I dearly wish to see this mystery solved.

BREAKING NEWS (2025) - SHE HAD A HAT

A crucial piece of evidence had been overlooked, and a fresh appeal for eye witnesses could be issued forthwith.

Kathleen Riethmuller was wearing a floppy black hat, on most of the last day she was seen, as she traversed Sydney, headed north, then west, then east.

FLOPPY BLACK HAT CAN BE SEEN IN PHOTO SEQUENCE ABOVE

None of the existing photos show her wearing this hat, apart from a tiny slither of footage as she enters McDonalds.

That's an example of "the availability heuristic" misfiring. Because the available photos were all taken indoors, after she had removed her hat, it seemed like she was never wearing a hat, when she probably wore it more than half of the day, and at most of the times where people outside (covering a giant area) were available to directly witness Kathleen on that day, as she: 1. Travelled from Bunnings at Atarmon to McDonalds at Parramatta, or: 2. the most crucial time of all: AFTER leaving McDonalds at Paramatta and BEFORE being collected by Shane, running alone with no possessions, over a hill in Riverview.

We know she wore a hat when outdoors because: 1. When she walked into McDonalds she can be seen removing it from her head and carrying it, and 2. She then walks along with it in her hand -- in exactly the same manner she walked into Bunnings at Atarmon -- with the floppy black hat in her hand. 3. She has long sleeves to protect her fair skin, and 4. skin lotions in her backpack, because she was always protecting her skin, and 5. she was wearing a mask, to protect herself and those around her from covid, 6. Her ex-boyfriend Chris indicated in some since deleted social media comments, that she had very strong beliefs about protecting her skin and 7. Her Goodreads account shows she read books about protecting her skin. This lady was never in a million years, walking outside in the sun, in October, without that hat planted firmly on her head.

Until when? I think that's a crucial moment to find. It may coincides with when Kathleen lost her possessions. (I think everything was going to plan, before that. At that moment, and afterwards, I'm not sure.)

What happened to Kathleen Riethmuller?

October 28, 2021, Kathleen disappeared. Here's the national missing person's page — though it's light on details and can't even spell her name consistently: Kathleen Riethmuller | National Missing Persons Coordination Centre

Timeline of events

• Thursday October 28, 2021:
• 8am Left the Boulevard hotel, 90 William St, carrying a backpack, a bag, and with a large black suitcase on wheels.
• 9:30am Paid for a budget room at the Elephant Backpacker hostel, Sir John Young Crescent, Woolloomooloo. "I checked her in and gave her the keys, she paid for a budget room, she was jittery and twitchy, that's why I remember her," manager Nick said.
• ~ 10am -- withdrew 4 amounts of money, "almost all of her savings" according to reports. This was made in 3 withdrawals of these amounts: $600, $600, $600 from an ATM. And a withdrawal/transaction of $404.40 which was presumably from a shop, either $400 with a $4.40 fee, or no fee along with a $4.40 purchase? Or some other combo of purchase, fee, and withdrawal.
• 11:40am Captured on CCTV at Bunnings Reserve Road, Artarmon. Blue denim dress, backpack, face mask. Purchased 50 metres of rope. Evidence from receipts found in backpack and subsequent CCTV footage. Cost approximately $20.
• ~12:20am - Capture on CCTV at Paramatta McDonald's -- Blue denim dress, backpack, face mask, carrying the 50 metres of rope and mobile phone in her hand. (Receipt for this found in her bag... according to channel 9/police show... but conflicting info on this I believe)
• ~ 2pm Kathleen’s backpack was found along Centennial Avenue in Lane Cove.
• "Also Thursday afternoon, but later" - Kathleen's phone was found, separately, in Lane Cove North. (There's three different reports of where the mobile phone was located. In the channel 9 missing person's show they say that it was found in the backpack. But an acquaintance states the phone was disabled and found near the bunnings in Artarmon (see Websleuths comment from silly_crockpot and this comment from sow423 -- both of whom joined websleuths specifically to comment on the search for Kathleen.). Elsewhere it's stated that it was found in Centennial Avenue, Lane Cove, by a different person than the person who found the back pack. ^(Where?)
• ~ 2:20pm - Kathleen was seen sprinting along the middle of the street, over a hill in Riverview. Member of the public Shane offered her a lift. I think this was close to the intersection of Taleeban Rd and Wangalla Rd.
• Minutes later - with Shane, while paused at the T-junction of Warrarron Rd and River Rd West, Kathleen hastily exited the vehicle and ran across the road, unperturbed by the danger from 4 lanes of traffic -- cars screeched to a halt etc. She disappeared into the bush. Shane waited briefly -- and she re-emerged soon after -- waved at him -- and resumed travelling with Shane. (Note: We THINK she had no backpack or possession at this time -- but there's no photographic evidence. That comes later.) (One extremely simple explanation that only requires one supposition, is that Shane or his passengers did not take an inventory of the things she was carrying, and when she hopped out of the car and ran across the road -- she ditched these things: her backpack, whatever remained of her hat, her remaining belongings. And because this was witnessed by Many People -- it was soon picked up by someone who inspected the bag the girl had left behind. A few hundred metres up the road, on thinking of what they have done -- they have ditched it. (What ways might they have been heading to see this, collect it, and abandon it ....where?)
• ~ 2:40pm - Shane dropped off Kathleen at the Speedway on the corner of Miller St and Falcon St, Cammeray NSW. Given that she'd said she wanted to be dropped at a park, and this was diagonally opposite a large park, and CCTV showed her to immediately proceed in the direction of the park -- I'd personally invite people to say she was headed toward St Leonard's park. CCTV conclusively shows that at this point she had no backpack, no phone in her hand, no rope, seemingly no possessions at all. No further confirmed sightings.
• 6:30pm (two unconfirmed sightings) - sitting under the hunter's hill underpass on Burns Bay Road

Final Unconfirmed Sightings

From a facebook thread (here):

Aliases?

Vague and mysterious wording from police here... why do they talk like this??

Ms RIETHMULLER is known to use the aliases Amy MUNROE, Kate RIETHMULLER, Margaret RIETHMULLER and Kate MULLER.

— Kathleen Riethmuller | National Missing Persons Coordination Centre

How and in what circumstances were those "aliases" used?

Kate isn't an alias, it's a common diminutive form of "Kathleen" (as is Kat).

Theories

Deliberate change of identity

Achtung! The following was written before I saw extra information available in the channel 9 show "Missing Person's Investigation" episode 1

When initially reading about this case I noticed...

Police have left open the possibility that Kathleen deliberately disappeared. 🤦‍♂️

Before I saw the show "Missing Person's Investigation" I thought the following:

There’s various errors and misconceptions that allow them to think this ... I consider it very unlikely.

And I gave these examples of things which I've possibly seen mentioned in comments at any site (reddit, facebook, websleuths, media reports)

(None of these are "direct" quotes of a specific person. They're more intended to convey "the vibe", or the general hypothesis that some of these comments or reports touched upon.)

E.g.

"Her gumtree items for sale were deleted a week after she vanished… so she must've done that, right?"

— No, it happens automatically.

"Someone with her name created a linked in account 6 months later in Rockhampton!"

(see "Kathleen Riethmuller - designer")

— So what? There are multiple people in Queensland with her exact same formal first and last name, even if different diminutive forms are often employed. It's not hard to find more info about which K.R. in the Capricornia region this probably is. And 90% chance it's them, or 10% chance that, if it's not then its either the K.R. born ~ 2000 in Brisbane, or, perhaps the entirely different K.R. from the Northern Territory has moved to the Greater Rockhampton Area.

Is it the K.R., Data Scientist, born 1993? No, it's not and would fit no theory for it to be her, in any case.

"She was a data scientist, therefore, you know, hackers and the dark web and stuff?"

Sarcastic: She could've disappeared from the grid! Logged out of the "system", she could be living off bitcoin

Knowledge of how to use digital currency without being detected by the five eyes countries: is not a standard Data Science subject.

Data Science is a combination of engineering and statistical mathematics. It does require a high level of skill and cognitive development in particular ways. But a professional data scientist isn't automatically able to perform acts of subterfuge. It's romantic! It would be wonderful if it were true. I desperately WANT it to be true. But this is the fundamental resistance I have to the idea. The idea is itself attractive. That's why we should be careful not to assign a higher probability to it than it deserves on its merits.

Digital currency is both good and bad for anonymity. I don't have the latest facts, or any specific knowledge in the field. Around that time crypto was big news. The market cap of cryptocurrencies had recently surpassed $2 trillion. That's a lot of "Illions" See? Already I am starting to make reasons why she might have wanted to dabble in crypto.

She didn't read books on Crypto. Ok, let's say she did -- but she did not save them on Good Reads. Ok, sure. In that case we're saying she had good -- no perfect -- operational security. Clearly she would've had a long term interest in security, to have developed such high level talents, that even mega successful people such as crypto-criminal "Dread Pirate Roberts" -- and in her entire past, she's had many many interests, but not once has she had an interest in even White Hat security techniques, nor any interest in the history of hacking, of neo-liberal anarchist economics, or any adjacent field.

With a few tiny exceptions. Let's look at those.

I had better look into using an API to download the list of all the books in her many good reads category.

Checking if they have an API, I found:

"As of December 8th 2020, Goodreads is no longer issuing new developer keys for our public developer API and plans to retire these tools."

Never mind. I revert back to an old technique, similar to this old blog post:

• Extracting a Trello board as markdown

And use the dev tools to get the lists of books. I really want the "subjects" of the books, and in this instance I'm interested in the non-fiction books.

(Trail ran cold there. More mentioned below in section on apophenia.)

"She was known to use aliases."

— Yes. A young woman protecting her anonymity on dating sites (for example) means she’s navigating a dangerous world, has nothing to do with fraud/vanishing.

"She was unemployed and may have gone to Melbourne to seek employment."

— Her resume and identity are crucial to that. She wouldn’t leave those!

But on the question of could she restart her careeer with a different name? If we magic away the problem of getting a new identity, and establishing a new identity for banking purposes etc. If we reduce the problem down to this:

Challenge: "Is it conceivable that KAR could've landed a new data science job, in a new city, without a resume, and without relying on any past references?"

Here's the thing. I have to reluctantly say... Yes. It is conceivable. It might've been an interesting challenge. And already I'm starting to fall into the trap of "What if?"

If she did do such a thing -- it would be easier if it was a "purely offsite" role. But not necessarily so. Just easier to avoid re-identification.

"She had a good reads category called fiction-2022 and it has 5 books in it! So she must be alive and still using that account!"

-- No! The last activity on her account was 8th July 2021. The category probably means "fiction I intend to read in 2022".

"She was reading a book called: 'The Million Dollar Mindset: How to Harness Your Internal Force to Live the Lifestyle You Deserve' Obviously.... she decided to change her identity!"

-- No... unless the book was called "How to change your identity" this is just apophenia.

Even if the book was called "How to disappear" you'd have to do a Bayesian analysis of how many people read that book versus how many of them did actually disappear. It's all just reaching.

The "disappeared on purpose" theory must explain the "checked into a hotel" and "bought rope" and "discarded her bugout bag.".

If the theory is extended to say that she did those things to "throw people off her tracks" or "create an impression that she was intending to commit suicide..." it is a very tenuous argument.

Wouldn't it be easier and far more reliable, to create a suicide note?

If we're saying she was acting rationally, in charge of her faculties, and deliberately did these specific things as part of a plan to disappear: you're deceiving yourself. You're arguing she was rational enough to successfully disappear without a trace, but irrational enough to leave behind erratic behaviour with no clear purpose.

Here is what I originally said next:

"The argument defeats itself."

But already, I am starting to wonder.

Am I just another person hooked in by the curse of the intriguing?

(People love to consider strange theories. That’s something I love about humans. What I don’t love is that we then go ahead and believe these strange theories. Here is one example, tenuously related as it pertains to a woman who disappeared in Sydney in 2021: Melissa Caddick disappeared while owing people a lot of money, and several months later her foot (still in its shoe) washed ashore, 500kms away. People hypothesised that she may have cut off her own foot, in order to trick people into thinking she was dead. Ok. Get it together people. While it's a theory worth considering it can be quickly ruled out. It’s a very big price to pay for a single forensic red herring. Having the foot turn up two months later and 500kms away is not the way you want such an expensive red herring be found. A cheaper red herring would've been, for example, to leave a suicide note. No one in their right mind, capable of successfully changing their identity and disappearing without a trace, thinks, "Hmmm, I could write a letter, or, you know what, I might just cut off my foot instead." Later, a coronial enquiry wisely reached the only sensible conclusion: Melissa was dead.)

Abduction by a stranger

(It hurts to even type these things out, as I feel for anyone who knows Kathleen who might read this.)

I believe there is a significant possibility that Kathleen was abducted, either by a stranger, or by someone known to her. I'd consider that to be many times more likely than the "change of identity" hypothesis.

Note in November 2023 -- I am not as confident of the above paragraph now.

Continuing notes from earlier, probably around 2022....

There were various kidnappings of adults in 2021 in Sydney, generally related to organised crime. There are also, of course, cases of young women being abducted. At a glance, Kathleen does not look like someone who could fight off a powerful attacker. I think this makes her a potential target to an opportunistic abduction. We know that on her final day she was outside, walking along, vulnerable and was seen by many people. That also increases the likelihood that an opportunistic abduction could have occurred. Sydney is the abduction capital of Australia.

Abduction by a non-stranger

There is also the possibility that she was picked up by someone who knew her, or that she arranged to meet someone she knew, and that meeting ending badly. I think there is quite poor knowledge about her friends and associates in the months prior to her disappearance, so police research on this crucial avenue cannot be complete.

On this topic, it's possible she organised to meet someone wishing to purchase one of the items she advertised on Gumtree. My guess is that the detectives on the case would've explored that avenue thoroughly.

Suicide

The theory that, sadly, has to be considered the most likely, is suicide. Suicide where the body is not found (or is not found within 2 years, say) can happen in the most unlikely of places. In the middle of a busy city it is less likely. But Sydney has quite an impressive harbour, and the last "official" sightings of her, she was walking toward (though several kilometres from) Sydney Harbour. Other unconfirmed sightings, and the locations where her personal belongings were found, place her in the opposite direction, but still close to bodies of water.

I found from her meetup.com account that she was a member of the "Lower North Shore Walking Group". She may have known a lot about the geography of the north shore.

Grim Question

Can a suicide victim remain unfound?

I wonder if there are forensic scientists or some grim category of statisticians who can comment on the likelihood of such a thing occurring.

Here are some comments from strangers, on Kathleen related threads at reddit --

A friend of mine committed suicide in 2017 by hanging himself from a tree, not even particularly high up. It was in a fairly secluded section of a public park with a lot of foot traffic. He was not found for almost eight months

— Comment from Shot-Grocery-5343

Eerie reading that as something SO similar happened in my hometown! Even with a massive search, it took months. His car was even at the park, where they searched many times before locating him.

— Comment from _chumbucket

There is a well-known and astoundingly tragic case of a young man who was missing for almost ten years in Australia, and eventually his remains were located in a narrow crevice underneath or behind his own family house. No foul play was suspected in that case.

Now, over four years after K's disappearance, I believe the only method of suicide that could still result in a missing body is drowning at sea. Kathleen was last seen headed (vaguely) in the direction of water, though she was a kilometre or more from water.

There are some world experts on what happens when a body enters water. Generally, death is caused by asphyxiation, the body will sink at first (clothing affects buoyancy) and will resurface after a period of time, unless it is weighed down or caught up underneath the water. I don't believe there are heavy mangroves in that area, or that Kathleen had any means of attaching a weight, (for example, she no longer had the rope when Shane gave her a lift) and hence she would have resurfaced within days. Given the high population density in the area, I think that while it is possible that Kathleen could've drowned and never been seen again, it is quite unlikely.

Was it a blanket?

In the photos at Bunnings she is carrying items she has presumably just purchased. One of the items looks like it could be a rope. I think it looks just as much, if not more, like a powerboard with an extension lead. Others say it could have been a blanket.

She looks sad and is carrying new blankets that come from the shop in home centre at Artarmon, clearly she was planning on sleeping with blankets somewhere.

— comment at facebook

The different items all change the probabilities on the sad question of suicide. And the blanket theory is perfectly consistent with something else I discovered: a lot of reports of bed bugs at the Elephant Backpacker hostel, Sir John Young Crescent, Woolloomooloo.

Update: we now know that it was two ropes, not blankets. And that she no longer had these items with her when she was last seen near St Leonards Park.

Other Information

Geo-Targeted SMS

Here's an example of the Geo Targeted SMS that was sent out to the Lane Cove Area:

Social media accounts

Instagram

— instagram/kate_anne_r - 458 posts. 0 followers. 66 following. This Account is Private. - "Red Riding Hood - Sydney - Seeking self-aggrandisement & validation"

— instagram/photography_kate_r - 2 posts. 0 followers. 0 following. This account is Private. Kathleen Riethmuller.

— instagram/kate_riethmuller - 31 posts, 657 followers, 25 following. This account is public -- last post August 11 2019.

• personal facebook profile (wait I think this is not the right account, sorry)
• pinterest: katr2909 1 follower, 44 following
• linkedin: Kate Riethmuller — UQ; Data Engineer | Highly Accurate Data and Results.
• Video from panel about startups, from 2018
• Linked in account from when she was younger (before professional work but after commencement of uni) — linkedin: Kathleen Riethmuller
• dropbox — “Kat Rie”
• meetups — member of many groups in Sydney. Was “Assistant organizer” of the Sydney Users of R Forum (SURF) — a group largely coordinated by Dr Eugene Dubossarsky
• goodreads: kat riethmuller -- the nf-summaries category has lengthy book summaries, but I think these are copied (or scraped?) from elsewhere. They seem to have been added in a few batches on a small number of days.
• github: no account identified.

Gumtree Listings

Kathleen placed a number of things for sale on approximately 22nd October 2021.

This is her profile there

Example URL of one of the listings:

• Gumtree listings

That is no longer online... but a copy was saved into archive.org on Nov 1, 2021 (probably by people from Websleuths)

• Archive.Org: Vintage Room divider mustard yellow 70s style | Decorative Accessories | Gumtree Australia Inner Sydney - Sydney City | 1283466595

That listing has this room divider --

Vintage Room divider mustard yellow 70s style

Good condition vintage style room divider. Some melted edging but mostly intact

And at the foot of the page it lists other things by this seller, that were listed at approximately the same time:

• Spanish mosaic framed picture
• Art canvas easel
• Lululemon yoga mat

Regarding Apophenia

Regarding the concept of hyper-apophenia -- situations where you search too hard for meaning, and find false meaning in random data -- there are a few things I want to point out regarding this case.

The amount of that fourth transaction, on the morning Kathleen disappeared, was $404.40. The number "404" is the error code that relates to a "not found" or "missing" response in hypertext. The thought crossed my mind that this was a signal Kathleen was sending that meant she would soon be missing. That's a ridiculous concept, but the thought still occurs. That's the nature of apophenia.

Another thing that created some wild speculation for me was Kathleen's 2022 reading list -- we think these are books she was intending to read in 2022. There are just five books in the list, and they are a strange set!

• V for Vendetta, by Alan Moore
• The Sun and Her Flowers, by Rupi Kaur
• The Complete Stories and Poems, by Edgar Allen Poe
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey
• Memoirs of a Geisha, by Arthur Golden

As a group these deal with revolution, anonymity, sex work, tragedy, death, insanity -- very dark topics. My apophenic mind wondered, is this some strange signal she has left, telling us what state her mind was in, and hinting at what was next for her? Like the masked man in V for vendetta, was she to become a reclusive revolutionary, hidden from society, or had she fallen under the spell of such a figure, etc? Knowing this was likely apophenia I looked further into it, and such theories fell apart as the nonsense they are. Four of these books were added to the list on October 27, 2020, while V for vendetta was added on April 3, 2021. If she had been planning an escape, the period of planning couldn't have commenced as early as that. I believe from her linked-in profile, that she was still working at Ampol in October 2020. And in April 2021, she was still employed at Ernst and Young. If she did begin planning some kind of departure, I doubt it would've commenced until after she finished at EY.

And here again is another example: the intriguing coincidence that four of those books were added to her 2022 list on October 27, 2020, almost 1 year to the day before she went missing. Surely, says the apophenia, that must mean something? While dates, and anniversaries, do play an important part in missing person cases, and particularly in suicides, there's nothing evident here to give any meaning to the date. Given the explanation in the previous paragraph, I refuse to give credence to any hypothesis that this 2022 list is in some way meaningful and related to Kathleen's disappearance. You could for example look at all 454 books that Kate added to her good reads account, and find any pattern you wish. Or if that fails, you could look at every date she posted something to instagram, and extract any pattern you wish from that. This isn't valid theory testing, this just p hacking. No data scientist wants to fall into that trap!

References

• 7 News: NSW Police issue alert for Kathleen Riethmuller after the Lane Cove woman mysteriously vanished — Updated 31.10.2021
• facebook: nsw police - October 31 2021
• facebook: nsw police story - October 31 2021
• Kathleen Riethmuller | National Missing Persons Coordination Centre
• WebSleuths: Australia - Kathleen Riethmuller, 28, backpack found with personal items, Sydney, 28 Oct 2021
• reddit:r/MissingPersonsAus — Nov 1 2021
• reddit:r/UnresolvedMysteries — May 29 2022
• reddit:r/MissingPersonsAus — Aug 1 2022
• australianmissingpersonsregister: Kathleen Riethmuller
• 9 now: Missing Persons Episode 1 — aired August 14 2023.

• Dylan released "the Free wheelin' Bob Dylan" featuring these absolutely hard-hitting protest folk songs:
  • Blowin' in the Wind
  • Masters of War
  • Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall

Aug-Oct 1963

• Dylan records "The Times They Are a-Changin'" album featuring these even more hard-hitting protest songs:
  • The Times They Are a-Changin'
  • With God on Our Side
  • Only a Pawn in Their Game
  • The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll

22 Nov 1963

• JFK is shot dead.
• Dylan writes in his diary, "Holy fucking shit. How can I nope out of this protest bullshit before I become a martyr?"

18 Jan 1964

• The Beatles' "I Want to Hold Your Hand" suddenly appeared on US charts, and by mid January had vaulted to the top of nearly every top forty music survey across the US

10 Feb 1964

• Dylan album "The Times they are a changin'" — recorded before JFK was shot — is released.
• Dylan is terrified, upon hearing himself described as "the spokesman of a generation" and redneck quarterly's "Most Shootable Face"
• Dylan writes in his diary "Fuck me. Oh fuck."

9 Jun 1964

• Bob Dylan records "Another Side of Bob Dylan" in a single session, notably lacking in protest songs, and finishing with:
  • It ain't me babe
    ...which clearly spells out that he's not the guy you're looking for, and he would rather not be shot for your entertainment.
• Fans go wild, don't get it, and as much as ever, still think he'd make an excellent martyr.

Jan 1965

• Bob Dylan records "Bringing it all back home" (side one Electric, side two Acoustic) with no protest songs except "Maggie's Farm" which is almost an anti-protest song. He leans into the poetry, surrealism, and drug loving side of the era, and with his harsh new electric sound, steps away from the folk and protest side of the era.

22 Mar 1965

• Dylan album "Bringing it all back home" is released
• An even larger fan base than ever responds to this album, and they notice that it is not a folk album and not a protest album.
• Dylan writes in his diary "I've done it! I've found a way to be popular with chicks without getting shot by rednecks!"

25 Jul 1965

• Bob Dylan performs an electric set to close the Newport folk festival.
• Folk-music fans at this festival are disappointed and boo loudly, because they were really looking forward to cheering him on as a martyr when he was shot.

See also

• Different Points of View (Dylan and Del Rey)
• Brownsville Girl - Song

Mathematics

• A mathematician's lament

External Links

• http://worrydream.com/refs/ — a great cache of computer science pdfs, maintained by Bret Victor.
• Gist: download_pdfs.ps1 — a powershell script that downloads all files from Bret Victor's "refs" page (above)
• Extensive List of free programming books
• 600 online courses for free
• Evergreen Skills for Software Developers

There are n explorers, where n is greater than 5. The Treasure is composed of a mixed set of jewels (for example 100 rubies, 27 diamonds, and so on) as well as various other items (which will be described later). There are q categories of jewel. The n explorers each have their own unique way of valuing the Treasure, for example, one explorer might be able to sell rubies at $100 per gram, while another explorer might be able to sell rubies at $120 per gram.

Not all of the explorers have reached the chamber in which the Treasure was found, and most of the explorers are still distributed throughout the cave system, which forms a complex network of chambers separated by caves. The explorers who have discovered the Treasure can call back to other explorers, who can then relay their messages to the other explorers in the network. Some explorers are temporarily out of ear shot from other explorers and cannot hear messages or reply to messages. Other explorers can hear messages but cannot reply loudly enough to be heard. No explorers know whether they are hearing all messages that are being transmitted to them, though a simple majority of them assume that they are. Some of the explorers will always transmits their messages perfectly. One of the explorers will always reverse the meaning of any message he receives. Most of the explorers will introduce a small number of errors into the messages they transmit, at a rate of x bits per second. At least 2% of the explorers are capable of using Hamming codes for error correction, but a further 12% of the explorers falsely believe themselves to be capable of using Hamming codes for error correction.

A small prime number of the explorers are using portable radios to listen to radio stations that continually broadcast spot prices for various classes of gems, each in different languages, which the radio holders do not understand, but which can be translated by other explorers within the cave system, and each radio station quotes prices in different currencies. Other explorers are listening to radio stations that continually broadcast international currency exchange rates. One of the radio stations is broadcasting faulty currency prices during the bottom half of each hour.

One of the explorers has decided to visit all other explorers in the network, in order to distribute (and later collect) ballot forms nominating preferences amongst proposed algorithms for distributing the Treasure, but wishes to traverse their locations in an optimal order, without visiting any explorer twice. Most of the explorers are able to estimate their distance to any other explorers they are in contact with, within k percent of the true distance, though a subset of the explorers are boastful and will always report numeric values as being k2 percent larger than their initial estimate, while other explorers are overly humble and will always report numeric values as being k1 percent smaller than their initial estimate.

Included amongst the Treasure is a set of rations, including water, which must be distributed amongst the explorers immediately, if all explorers are to survive. Most explorers want all of the other explorers to survive, although one of the explorers is a psychopath who wishes all of the other explorers to die, leaving the Treasure for her alone, while two of the explorers are nihilists, wishing all of the explorers to die, including the nihilists themselves, and two of the explorers are suicidal, though if they live they will still insist on keeping their share of the Treasure. Some of the rations contain allergens to which it is statistically likely that at least 1 of the explorers will have a possibly-fatal reaction. All of the explorers have flashlights with which they can read the ingredients of the ration packs, though at least p of the rations are mislabelled. The rations can only be consumed by using two forks simultaneously, and the explorers only have a total of three forks between them.

Included amongst the Treasure is a map, divided into a prime number of pieces, which allegedly contains directions to a second, much larger Treasure, located further inside the cave system. Each piece of the map contains, on its obverse, a unique prime number of clues. Due to peculiarities of the way the map and code are constructed, any simple majority of the clues will be sufficient to decode the map, provided the decoder also holds less than three of the diamonds and no rubies. A small prime number of the explorers have sufficient cryptographic knowledge to perform the decoding, while the remainder of the explorers believe they can barter with those who do, and have the decoding performed without giving up more than one third of the second (larger) Treasure. The second Treasure does not exist. Only 1 explorer knows this for sure, though 3 others suspect it with a 20% likelihood.

Also included amongst the Treasure are a set of y personal checks, that can only be cashed by the person they are made out to. The largest check, y1, for yc1 dollars, is made out to Big Jim, who is an acquaintance known to z of the explorers, and they each reason that they can sell the check to Big Jim for a fraction of it's face value (f1...fz). Two of the explorers believe they can conspire together to forge Big Jim's signature. If either conspirator gives up the other, then they will be forgiven while the other conspirator will be cut out of their share of the Treasure (resulting in a bigger share for the everyone, including the confessor). If both conspirators confess then both will be cut out of the Treasure. They have been in this situation many times before and carry forward a lengthy, though unknowable, series of grudges, g1..gj. The remaining y-1 checks are similarly constrained.

Although each explorer is keen to maximise their share of the Treasure, they are all constrained by their respective and varying abilities to remove their share of the Treasure. Each explorer has a unique maximum weight that they can carry (the sum of all maximum weights may not be greater than the total mass of the Treasure) and each explorer will carry their share of the loot distributed in 1 or more knapsacks that each have a unique maximum volume.

Question: What is the most optimal strategy that ensures a maximally satisfactory division of the Treasure, that can be computed in no worse than O(n log n k f z j p q) time, assuming that the only computational device available for the task is a 68HC11 microcontroller, with a faulty Y index register, limited battery life and no apparent input device. You also have two matches.

Addendum

From Dr Richard Mason:

In 2016 Dr Bambrick proposed the first NP-Ridiculous problem. Solving it would end up consuming the remainder of his sanity, though very little of this remained after formulating the problem.

External links

• Wikipedia: Fair Division
• Wikipedia: Fair cake-cutting
• Wikipedia: Prisoner's Dilemma
• Wikipedia: Knapsack problem
• Wikipedia: Travelling Salesman Problem (tsp)
• Wikipedia: Byzantine Fault Tolerance
• Wikipedia: CAP Theorem
• Wikipedia: Karp's 21 NP-complete problems
• Wikipedia: Dining Philosopher's Problem
• Wikipedia: Beale Ciphers
• Arxiv: A Discrete and Bounded Envy-Free Cake Cutting Protocol for Any Number of Agents
• How to Cut Cake Fairly and Finally Eat It Too
• Einstein Quiz (plutonian whistling cat)
• Optimization Problems in the Theory of Continuous Trading
• Wikipedia: The Hardest Logic Puzzle Ever
• Even Harder than 'The Hardest Logic Puzzle Ever'
• Wikipedia: Big O Notation
• Wikipedia: 68HC11 Microcontroller
• Wikipedia: Unreliable Narrator
• Wikipedia: Knights and Knaves
• Wikipedia: Instant Insanity (puzzle)

See also

• Dilemma
• Paradox
• In a darkened room
• The Monkey Pirate Puzzle

The only thing we knew for sure about Henry Porter is that his name wasn't Henry Porter

— Bob Dylan and Sam Sheppard, Brownsville Girl

LOAD FACT: 
"Henry Porter" was not the “real name” of writer “O. Henry”

Understood.

LOAD FACT:
"William Sydney Porter" was not the "real name" of writer "O. Henry"

Got it.

Who was "O. Henry"?

• Henry was a musician
• Henry was an artist
• Henry was a writer
• Henry was a master of the short story form

and then again

• Henry was a licensed pharmacist
• Henry was a shepherd
• Henry was a cook
• Henry spoke a little Spanish, a little German
• Henry read the classics
• Henry was a member of the "Hill City Quartette"
  • a group of young men who sang at gatherings and serenaded the young women of the town
• Henry was a bit of a dick.

Cento Disclaimer

Incidentally, many (most) (not all) phrases in this article are copied directly verbatim from the poems, articles, archival material, etc., linked in the references. Individual words may rearranged be, cut-up, ellided, reversed, cte, but always we swear: absolute purity of reference in that which has come before. Any non-linear result is intended to be a kind of bold slap in the face of those who would oppose an antidote to the GPT coated floating world of illusion in which we find ourselves abaft. Sort of thing.

This is indicated by the category tag: "cento" which indicates cento-ific affectations in at least one part of the page.

When is it?

When is it? Who knows? When? When is it?

It is 1887.

It is 1887, and soon we will be entering a time of tremendous social, technological, and political upheaval. For now, the young man exists within a bubble of safety. But soon, bubbles pop.

Henry, our Henry, works as a a draftsman at the Texas General Land Office, earning $100 a month. Equivalent to 14 yak-holograms in today's most popular alternative universes.

Correction.

Henry's friend Richard Hall (not that Richard Hall) became Land Commissioner for the great state of Texas, and offered Henry the job.

The shining patriarchy at work. Weak bonds, however, are easily broken. First bubble for Henry.

the shadows to the marketplace
Merchants and thieves,
hungry for power,
my last deal gone

Inside Job

Draftman by day and by night —

Henry drafts stories

• like "Georgia's Ruling"
• like "Buried Treasure"

— it will be another 10 years and 27 years, respectively, before they are published —

Richard Hall failed in his run for Gubernatorial duties — a new governor was sworn in.

The very next day:

Henry — Our Henry, our, William, O — resigned from the Texas General Land Office.

Without Richard Hall’s cover, Henry had nowhere left to hide. An unprotected draftsman in an open office could easily catch a bullet in a land like that, in a time like that. Henry preferred his torso to be free of bullet holes.

When is it?

It is 1891. A time of tremendous social, technological, and political upheaval.

Henry has found work at the first bank of Austin, which is the very first First Bank of Austin — here, Henry — William, Sidney, William Sydney — works as a book keeper and another thing. I can't recall, perhaps he is a teller. A bank teller? A teller of truths? Of lies?

Henry’s pay at the FBA is, again, $100 a month— or 481 crypto-prisms in tomorrow's patois.

At the heart of every great fortune there is an equally great swindle.

— O.Henry, in “An Unreliable Narration”

The wheels of fate have begun to turn — Henry busies himself. Watch closely. It begins.

Within 3 years — by 1894

When is it?

The times have now changed, and in 1894 it is already in 1894. It is a time of tremendous social, technological, and political upheaval.

The bank unfairly accuses Henry of embezzlement and Henry is fired. The evidence they have is simply due to all the embezzlement Henry has indeed been carrying on. They are at least gentlemen enough to commit the standard cover up operation. His secret is safe. (For how long?)

What does a young man do?

After a successful angel investment round (he has, unofficially, received a sizeable chunk of funding from the first bank of Austin, the very first First Bank of Austin, the FBA) and the world is his oyster for one sparkling instant.

Flush with cash and ready for anything —

What does a young man do?

He splashes out and starts a weekly, humorous newspaper —

“The Rolling Stone”

The name would live on long after the paper itself.

He would name it not just after the song that would later be named after it, or after the band, or the magazine, but maybe after another thing, who knows.

“The Rolling Stone” featured satire on life, people, and politics and included Henry's short stories and sketches. Notable for its absence were photos of a shirtless Iggy Pop or any coverage of the as yet uninvented musical form of Rock' n'or'Roll. Iggy Pop has not responded to a request for comments.

Circulation rose to 1500 people, or approximately 3000 eyeballs by today's metriculation.

Enough? Too many.

When, though, I mean, when is it?

It is 1895! A time of heavy political upheaveal, a time of social upheavel, a time of technological upheaval.

The Rolling Stone shuts down! The presses stopped rolling and a fine patina of moss sprouts out upon them. Gone from history, the thing that was that first Rolling Stone ceased to be. There is no copy of it in a museum, like the ship of theseus - no trace of it left in the world.

The Rolling Stone, despite its commercial failure, got the attention of the Houston Post (a large newspaper-shaped man from Houston, one supposes) who gave Henry Porter his first professional writing job.

Henry Porter — William Porter, Our William Sydney — not for the first time — not for the last time — fore-shadowing — Henry, Our William — has snatched a kind of victory from defeat.

Henry’s new job slinging ink for the Houston Post

Henry’s new job?, slinging ink for the Houston Post, brings with it a pay check — get this — a pay check one quarter of what it had been at each of his last two jobs. According to my rapid napkin-backed calculations, we're talking 25 American yankee dollars per week.

But Henry's Knack

It was soon discovered that Henry

Soon it was widely known that Henry

Henry's audience quickly grew

With the larger exposure the HP (Houston, Houston Post, Houston) provided, Henry's ability to structure an unexpected sequence of words would strike a chord, hit a nerve, cut an artery, strike oil, strike gold, hit a seam of diamonds, did not do too dang bad for itself. Henry, our Henry, was everywhere! Conversations on every street corner, in every lobby of every swank hotel, in every gin joint, out house, hen house, and on the lips of every law maker in the country, a desire to lock that sumbitch up, no-one can quite explain why today, in these timid times, but then, back then, the thought of locking up loudmouth journalist Henry Porter seemed the sensiblest course to take, for any discerning self among the roofbeams.

To The Victor

Which is to say

As his popularity grew, so too did his pay packet. By today’s exacting standards, his pack packet in those days would, by any conservative estimation process, be approximately the size of a Twinkie exactly as big as two school buses, the yellowest ones from the 1950s, or — expressed in 1950s dollars — it would be largely composed of those silver dollars they had at that particular and exacting time.

But dark clouds began to swirl and twirl and generally curl about and get ready to fuck up someone's shit; these dark clouds they were Checkov's dark clouds, and they would soon be back.

Henry gathered ideas

Henry — and aspiring writers should take note of this — this tip alone is worth the price of subscribing to this free online wiki — Henry you see — had a trick, a tip, a way, a notion — Henry, you see, Henry gathered ideas for his column (how did he do it?) He did it by loitering in hotel lobbies and observing and talking to people there. This was a technique he used throughout his writing career.

Time permitting I will conduct an experiment on this front and see if I become a popular writer. The hotel nearest to me, the Salisbury Motel, never looked so promising.

Federal Auditors

While Henry was in Houston, federal auditors audited the First National Bank of Austin and found the embezzlement shortages that led to his firing. A federal indictment followed, and Henry was arrested on charges of embezzlement.

Duck or Run

Henry didn't know whether to flee or fight —
so he rocked back and forth on his
toes and took in the situation,
Henry didn't know
Henry didn't know
Henry didn't know whether to flee or to fight,
...so he fled.

Henry Fled

Henry fled; he fled first to New Orleans and soon, a midnight dash, he fled to Honduras and breathed a long cool sigh of relief.

Honduras in 1896, and no hint of an extradition treaty with the United States.

Henry lived in Honduras for six months,
Henry lived in Honduras until January 1897.

Henry in Honduras, soon became fast friends with Jennings, Al Jennings,

Jennings, Al Jennings — Notrious Train Robber

Henry in Honduras, because fast friends with notorious train robber, Al Jennings --

the same Al Jennings who later wrote a book about their friendship.

The Same Al Jennings Who

Wait. Who was Al Jennings?

Alphonso J “Al” Jennings

The only thing we know for sure about Al Jennings is that his name wasn’t Al Jennings.

Alphonso, born 1863, an attorney in Oklahoma Territory. Later a train robber, and a movie star — but back in 1892 — he was the lead prosecutor for Canadian County “Oklahoma”.

1892 was a time when anyone could become anything — an attorney becoming a train robber? It happened every day. For now though — he was on the other side of the law — not shootin’ and tootin’. Just a-prosecutin’.

By 1895 he joined his brothers Ed and John in their law practice. Ed and John’s Legal Eagles. (I am making an educated guess regarding the name, that is how 23% of historians, and 95% of statisticians, fill any gap)

1895 — a time of tremendous social, technological, and political upheaval — was the kind of time when even regular workaday Joe Schmoe from Kokomo type rival attorneys would engage in deadly shootouts — the grand olde days of the Wilde Weste.

In October of that year Al's brother Mr Edward “Ed” Jennings was killed in a shootout with rival attorney Temple Lea Houston. And their brother John “John” Jennings was seriously wounded, seriously.

Which brings us to:

Temple, Lea, Houston. And Betsy. Good olde “Old Betsy” Betsy.

TEMPLE LEA HOUSTON

Last born child of the first president of the republic of Texas.

Temple Lea Houston carried a Colt revolver,
which he named "Old Betsy",
always strapped to his waist.
Some called him
"the best shot in the West."
He wore buckskin attire
and a sombrero
from Mexico
with a wide brim and a silver eagle.

TEMPLE LEA HOUSTON

The only thing we know for sure about TEMPLE LEA HOUSTON is that his name wasn’t TEMPLE LEA HOUSTON.

Who WAS this Tee Elle Haitch.

TEMPLE LEA HOUSTON

Houston carried a Colt revolver, which he named "Old Betsy", always strapped to his waist.

Well, there was this movie I seen one time about a man riding 'cross the desert and it starred Gregory Peck. Temple Lea Houston strung him up by the neck.

Houston was acquitted— and Alphonso, fearing for his life, did what had to be done.

Alphonso didn’t know whether to hide or to flee, so he fled.

Alphonso took flight

On the lam, Al gained employment in Creek Nation — of what type I do not know — but soon after his arrival, joined an outlaw band instead. Tired of the nine to five, he wanted to set his own hours, be his own boss.

During the summer and fall of 1897 this wild pack of desperados, often referred to as the "Jennings Gang," composed of Frank and Al Jennings, Little Dick West, and Morris and Pat O'Malley, robbed trains, general stores and a post office, with little monetary success. Two of his most publicized robberies were the August 16, 1897, robbery of a Santa Fe passenger train located three miles south of Edmond, Oklahoma and the October 1897 robbery of a passenger train near Chickasha, Oklahoma.

When attempting the Edmond robbery, the gang unsuccessfully attempted to break into a Wells-Fargo safe.

After the dynamite failed to blow up the safe, the gang made their getaway.

No one was killed during this robbery, but Jim Wright, a passenger who refused to surrender his valuables, had part of his ear shot off.

Jim Wright, Train Passenger

It was 1897, a time of tremendous social, technological, and political upheaval

The only thing we know for sure about Jim Wright is that he refused to surrender his valuables and the only thing we know for sure ABout Jim Wrights is that he had part of his ear shot off, and perhaps we'll never know if his never ever was or wasn't Big Jim Wright.

The Jennings gang failed to break the safe — but got away with a bottle of whiskey and — aside -- just pause at this point if you please. The next thing I say, the next thing they got away with: I did not make this up. This is a tortured cento and every word here is copied, before or after re-arranging, from another source -- and, to quoth wikipedia, they got away with:

"a bunch of bananas."

I kid you not.

O. Henry.

In 1904 William Sydney Porter, better known as O. Henry, published the short story "Holding Up a Train," a story inspired by Jennings's career. By some accounts, Al Jennings himself was the actual author of this story.

Jennings became a celebrity.

And Henry Porter? Willian Sydney Henry O. Porter? To this day, the only thing we know for sure about Henry Porter is that his name wasn’t Henry Porter.

References

• Wikipedia: 0. Henry
• Wikipedia: Al Jennings
• Wikipedia: Temple Lea Houston
• Wikipedia: Brownsville Girl
• Wikipedia: The Gunfighter
• Changing of the Guards - Bob Dylan
• Brownsville Girl - Bob Dylan

See also

• Category: cento at wiki.secretGeek.net
• Blackstar
• Red Right Hand
• Category: cento at wiki.secretGeek.net
• Brownsville Girl - Song - a Bob Dylan song arguably not inspired by any of the above but I give it a "Forest Gump was not inspired by Tangled Up In Blue" level of credulitility.

I've put them into categories like this:

• Keeping Track of Time
• Keeping Track of Things Other than Time
• Keeping Track of Thoughts
• Commitment Devices
• Distraction Reduction
  • Fidget toys

Keeping Track of Time

• (See also Keeping Track of Things Other than Time)
• TimeTimer for Time Blindness — this one is very popular with parents of children with Autism/ADHD. I haven't used this product.
• Time Since Last Opened pill bottle -- Not sure if you did or did not take your pill? Memory is a hard thing to trust. The Time since last opened pill bottle lets you know "Sorry dude, it's been 37 hours since you opened this pill bottle... so there's no way in hell you took your pill this morning!"
• Calendars
• Shared calendar apps with partner/family (e.g. Apple/Google)

Keeping Track of Things Other than Time

• (See also Keeping Track of Time)
• Tile - little bluetooth/rfid devices that help you find your lost keys, wallet etc. Oh my god these things are great. I have three of them and need them one or two times per week. Not just because I've misplaced the keys, but also if other people in my family have misplaced the keys or moved my stuff.
• FindMyIPhone (and similar on Android) - the find my iPhone app is great, and too many people don't realize they need it until it's too late. Set it up now!
• Label maker
• a dedicated place to throw your stuff, such as, well, this one
• an "outgoing" basket in each room where you put things that need to leave that room (regardless of which room they should be in)
• more laundry baskets than a normal person needs... lots of little laundry baskets
• All the organizational tools! A continually rotating roster of organizational tools

Keeping Track of Thoughts

• Aqua notes: take notes in the shower — Maybe we have brilliant ideas in the shower precisely because there is no note taking paper available. Or perhaps its the sensory immersion of the running water and the moment of peace away from other people. Use aqua notes to record your ideas and find out for sure.
• Space Pen for writing notes while lying down. In truth I use my iphone for this now. But the amazing space pen was an item I envied for many years, but never quite got around to ordering (it was quite expensive...)
• big whiteboard
• big visible charts
• bullet journal

Commitment Devices

tip Number 1 suggestion here: A barcode alarm clock

Alarmy App — Amazing app, an alarm you cannot ignore.

Alarmy lets you set alarms that are really interesting and impossible to ignore.

For example:

Some people find it very very hard to get out of bed in the morning. They might promise themselves, at night "When my alarm goes off, I will spring out of bed and have a shower." but when morning comes, they Just Can't Do It.

To help them out, they can set an Alarmy alarm that won't stop until they scan the barcode on the shampoo bottle in their shower. Once the person has gotten out of bed and scanned the shampoo bottle in the shower, the chances that they will actually stay up and have a shower are now very much higher than they would have been.

Alarmy has many different "missions" you can set beside scanning barcodes, but the barcode one is very versatile, you can use it to program your future self.

Every night I need to get the dishes done and the kitchen clean. But I procrastinate about starting this task (I'd rather do everything else) and often I'd end up getting it started well after midnight. Now I have an Alarmy mission at 9:30pm that won't stop until I've scanned a bar code I put in a cupboard in the kitchen, next to the dishwasher tablets. The act of going into the kitchen and scanning that barcode is enough to make me very very likely to get the dishes done.

This app, even the free version which I use, is a great procrastination buster. I expect there are other apps on the market that also have the barcode scanning idea, as it’s a powerful and easy to implement piece of code.

• Time Out Padlock — want to make sure you don't eat the cookies until 3pm? Want to make sure you don't touch your phone? Lock it away with a time out padlock. You will also need to have a container that can be locked with a padlock.
• Kitchen Safe Mini: Time Locking Container - A variation on the time out padlock is to have a container with the lock built into the lid. I haven't bought any of the time lock containers or padlocks, but I find the idea fascinating.
• Power switch with a timer, to turn off your XBox at 10pm (for example). A friend swears by this technique, and insists that without it he would continue playing XBox, against his own wishes, until 2am every morning. When he knows it will switch off at 10pm he has the self-control to let-it stop. But he doesn't have the self-control to voluntarily stop it himeself. Fascinating example of "sleep-time procrastination".

Distraction Reduction

• Sleep phones headphone headband you can wear for music or noise while you sleep (without disturbing others) — Some swear by these. If I want to listen to audio books or white noise or meditate or listen to music in bed, I use some very small/soft in-ear headphone. But they do mean you have to lie on your back (which can increase snoring/sleep apnea, if that's a problem you have.) Sleep phones allegedly get around this problem. I know people who swear by them.
• White noise generators
• other apps?
• Audio Books. You might prefer audiobooks over printed books. - I find audio books much easier to get through. When I was young I plowed through written books like a... a plowing machine. But now I find it very hard to find the time, or to stay on task with books. Instead I listen to audio books, that I get for free from my local library (and download via an app, without even visiting the library. I listen to them while I do chores, while I walk, while I exercise, in many little moments here or there. Audio books are fantastic. I haven't joined audible though, as I think amazon do not need any more money.

Fidget toys

If you travel to Greece or Cyprus you may be astounded to see many citizens publicly playing with a specific type of fidget toy, the worry beads or komboloi/kompoloi. Read more in the Wikipedia article on worry beads

There are many types of fidget toy that have crossed over into mainstream society.

• The fidget spinner was a widespread fad around the early 2020s
• “Pop it” fidgets were the next wave of mainstream fidget devices.
• there are countless different toys, often known about by Occupational Therapists, that act as excellent fidget toys keeping the fingers and parts of the mind occupied so you can concentrate on. More important thing.

A dedicated fidgeter will be able to improvise a fidget toy out of absolutely anything. For example, if a gun owner is a fidgeter, giving them a fidget toy (other than their gun) may save a life and it may be your own!

External sources

• Wikipedia: worry beads

See also

• ADHD Inattentive Type which includes:
  • ADHD Self-Assessment - Some reliable tests
  • ADHD Cartoons - relatable art!
  • ADHD Reading - Books and articles
  • ADHD Videos - Short/interesting videos and recommended channels
  • ADHD Social Media

Franz Kafka, getting on his best friend Brod's nerves over whether or not to keep the window open when they share a room at a hotel.

Franz Kafka, at the end of his life, making hand shadow-puppets in the evenings with Diamant.

Franz Kafka in a Miniature city, Meridian Tower, Shenzhen, China

Franz Kafka, getting engaged and not getting married.

Franz Kafka, aged 53, at just seven years of age.

Franz Kafka, on a Smoggy observation deck, Meridian Tower, Shenzhen, China.

Franz Kafka asking his sister, Ottla, to go out and please buy twenty copies of the magazine that has run a Czech translation of his story 'The Stoker'.

Franz Kafka, crying, at the Tropicana, Las Vegas.

Franz Kafka, getting engaged and not getting married.

Franz Kafka, encouraging his father to invest in an asbestos factory and then disappointing his father terribly by not helping to run the asbestos factory, which loses money and goes under.

Franz Kafka, on the corner of Broadway and Ninth, eating chocolate cake in a bag, his brilliance not apparent to everyone it seems.

Franz Kafka, annoyed that his father and mother stay up late playing the card game franzefuss.

Franz Kafka, at a nudist sanatorium admiring the bodies of two young Swedish men.

Franz Kafka, writing to the married translator, whom he has wooed.

Franz Kafka, reading a letter from the tax office asking about capital contributions to the First Prague Asbestos Works, here he is writing back explaining that the factory had ceased to exist five years earlier, and here he is receiving another letter asking what his reply meant as no record could be found of the referenced original letter, and then here he is a few months later receiving a third letter threatening him with charges and a fine if he persists in not accounting for the capital accumulation on the First Prague Asbestos Works.

Franz Kafka, entering a fancy dress ball, dressed as Franz Kafka.

Franz Kafka, getting engaged and not getting married.

Franz Kafka, investigating a Snake spine, London Zoo, London, UK.

Franz Kafka, writing about the women who work at the asbestos factory.

Franz Kafka, getting engaged and not getting married.

Franz Kafka, getting engaged and not getting married.

Franz Kafka, writing a 16-page letter asking for a promotion at the Workers' Accident Insurance Institute.

Franz Kafka, investigating a vending machine priced by grams of fat, Google, San Jose, California

Franz Kafka, the young writer and insurance worker reliably showing up to work every morning at 8:15.

Franz Kafka, confused by a Copyright shop, Fort, Mumbai, India.

Franz Kafka, desperate to write his fiction but setting aside his two-week holiday period to write a very long letter to his father (which he never gives him) in which he explains that his father eats too loudly and too messily and that his father’s large body made Kafka, as a child, feel small and weak when they would go together to the city pool

Franz Kafka, trapped in a datapunk quantified self sensor array 1, Institute for the Future, Palo Alto.

Franz Kafka, relieved by his mortal diagnosis of TB.

Franz Kafka giving a reading in Munich with Rilke, and being reviewed in the paper the next day as 'quite an inadequate presenter'.

Franz Kafka, drinking cold tea in the walled city of Kowloon.

Franz Kafka, asking to be released from his job so he can be a soldier.

Franz Kafka has come unstuck in time.

External Links

• What kind of funny is he?
• A different kafka
• Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge
• Wikipedia: Speech to Song Effect

See Also

• Red String
• In a darkened room

This was a revelation.

I tended to be passive, and I feared that speaking up would be too aggressive. In my mind, there was passive on one side, aggressive on the other, and very little in between.

Someone pointed out to me that there's this big middle-area called assertiveness.

Fantastic stuff! State what you need in a clear manner, and you have a good chance of landing solidly in the middle, no harm done; everybody wins.

So thereafter I worked on employing this 'assertive' business rather than shying away entirely, or being over-rude and landing in aggressive territory. Of course, I failed a lot of times, but that's a separate story. There are books that can assist in helping you achieve this. The most famous is "How to Win Friends and Influence People" which is a very good book.

But there's a catch!

As simple as it sounds, there's a big nasty problem with the advice to "be assertive".

The size of this "middle ground" is bigger or smaller depending on how lenient the audience is with you. For example, I've witnessed that this middle ground can be razor-thin for women in the software industry. There's almost no room between being "too timid" and being labeled "pushy", "bossy" and other words that are reserved for female aggression. Sometimes the middle ground is even "negative" in size: some audience members will complain that she's bossy at the same time as others are complaining she should've spoken up louder or sooner.

So what I'm saying to my readers, who are historically mostly male, is that if you find yourself deciding someone is not in that middle ground, give it another think and see if you can widen that middle ground. Allow the speaker the same (or more! why not more?) privilege than you readily grant to other people, such as me, when I'm speaking to you.

External references

• No, We Won’t Calm Down — Tone Policing Is Just Another Way to Protect Privilege — Love a good cartoon, this one on Tone Policing.
• geekfeminism: Tone Argument

If you take a wrong (or fortuitous?) turn in L-space, you may stumble upon works such as:

• The Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge
• Principia Discordia
• Codex Seraphinianus
• The Magic Unfinished Spellbook (that could fly)
• Tobin's Spirit Guide
• Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials
• The Voynich Manuscript
• Necronomicon
• Book of Imaginary Beings
• The Illuminatus! Trilogy
• Taiping Yulan
• Demon Dwellings (de Goudge)
• De Vermis Mysteriis, or Mysteries of the Worm
• Orbis Tertius
• The Book of Ultimate Truths - Hugo Rune
• The Octavo
• Index Librorum Prohibitorum
• The Codex Galaxium
• The Mentaculus; a probability map of the universe
• List of Cthulhu Mythos Books
• Libellus de Medicinalibus Indorum Herbis — Latin for "Little Book of the Medicinal Herbs of the Indians"

Consider the dying pings of LES-1

WWHD? (What would H.P. Do?)

Tim Marcoh's Guide on Baking Desserts

After a thousand years lost i a dark forest

a tome was brought forth -- and on it, there were listed, a catalog of catalogs, an archive.org copy of a list of "fictional guidebooks"

Decoded, almost completely lost record, titled "Fictional Guidebooks"

More and better Terminology, Again:

Synonyms worth considering:

Grimoire. Manuscript. Arcana.

• grimoire

If in doubt:

Klaatu barada nikto.

Other terms to include:

Apocrypha, Nachlass, Marginalia, Palimpsest, Almanac

Apocryphal marginalia from a manuscript stuffed inside a grimoire under a pile of almanacs in a forgotten nachlass.

And also

• ephemera - ephemeris
• esoterica

THERE IS very little written about the holy book of bacon

External Links

• lovecraftian tomes
• An abandoned 1960's U.S. satellite recently started transmitting a 'ghostly' signal
• (Deleted) List of Fictional Guidebooks (now on archive.org)

the zahir the zahir the zahir the zahir the zahir the zahir the zahir the zahir the zahir the zahir the zahir the zahir the zahir the zahir the zahir the zahir the zahir the zahir the zahir the zahir the zahir the zahir the zahir the zahir the zahir the zahir the zahir the zahir the zahir the zahir the zahir the zahir the zahir the zahir the zahir the zahir the zahir the zahir the zahir the zahir the zahir the zahir the zahir the zahir the zahir the zahir the zahir the zahir the zahir the zahir the zahir the zahir the zahir the zahir

In idealis"from a veeam are synonymous," and he will simply pass "from a very complex drIn idealistic philosop" In a mixture of despair and resignationhy, "to live and to dream are synonymous," and he will simply pass "from a very complex dream to a very simple dream." In a mixture of despair and resignatio" In a mixture of despair and resignation" In a mixture of despair and resignation" it's the most famous woman you know on the ipad

Others will dream that I am mad, and I will dream of the Zahir. When all men on earth think day and night of the Zahir, which one will be a dream and which a reality, the earth or the Zahir?

there is nothing on earth that does not contain the seed of a possible Hell; a face, a word, a compass, a cigarette advertisement, are capable of driving a person mad if he is unable to forget them."

monsters still under my bed that i could never fight of

the seed of a possible Hell the seed of a possible Hell the seed of a possible Hell

—the zahir

Zahir. Zahir... is a person. Zahir, is a person, or an object.

_Zahir
_Zahir_is
_Zahir_is_a
_Zahir_is_a_person
_Zahir_is_a_person_or
_Zahir_is_a_person_or_an
_Zahir_is_a_person_or_an_object
_Zahir_is_a_person_or_an_object_that
_Zahir_is_a_person_or_an_object_that_has
_Zahir_is_a_person_or_an_object_that_has_the
_Zahir_is_a_person_or_an_object _that_has_the_power
_Zahir_is_a_person_or_an_object_that_has_the_power_to
 _Zahir_is_a_person_or_an_object_that_has_the_power_to_create
_Zahir_is_a_person_or_ an_object_that_has_the_power_to_create_an
_Zahir_is_a_person _or_an_object_ that_has_the_power_to_create_an_obsession
_Zahir_is_a_person _or_an_object_that_hhas_the_power_to_create_an_obsession_in
_Zahir_is_a_person_or_an_object_that_has_the_power_to_create_an_obsesssion_in_everyone
Necrologium
_Zahir_is_a_person_or_an_object_that_has_the_power_to_create_an_obsession_in_everyone_who
_Zahir_is_a_person_or_an_object_that_has_the_power_tto_create_an_obsession_in_everyone_who_sees
_Zahir_is_a_person_or_an_object_that_has_the_power_to_create_an_obsession_in_everyone_who_sees_it

…that has the power to create an obsession in everyone who sees it,

External references

• Ghostbusters wiki: Spates Catalog
• Ghostbusters wiki: Tobin's Spirit Guide
• Ephemeris - Wikipedia

See Also

• musb

• Anxiety and Depression Checklist
• Burns Depression Checklist
• ADHD Psychcentral, ADHD: 3 minute test
• Totally ADD test
• ADHD Self Test for Women and Girls — "This self-test is not intended to diagnose or to replace the care of a health care professional."
• ACE (Adverse Childhood Experiences)
• The Grit Scale
• Need for Cognition Scale
• Big 5 Personality Test
• Clean Sweep Assessment — "Are you ready to clean up your life?" (this is really over the top and I don't recommend it... it is interesting though)
• Purity Test — I definitely don't recommend this.
• Prosopagnosia: Face Memory Test
• Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria
• Are you a psychopath? and wikipedia:psychopath quiz
• Test your creativity
• Sensory Processing Disorder

Other ideas:

• Aphantasia
• Color blindness
• Eye testing
• Hearing test
• Hyper mobility test/scales
• Sleep Hygiene
• Mood inventory
• Bristol Stool Chart

Personality tests (as mentioned by Ray Dalio in 'Principles')

• MBTI (Myers Briggs type indicator)
• Workplace personality inventory
• Team dimensions profile
• Stratified systems theory

Another personality test:

• Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2)

Battery of Psychological Tests test listed in study of psychedelics

Mental Health: Depression and Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS) [69]. The DASS questionnaire measures the severity of depression, anxiety and stress symptoms. We used the 21-item version of the scale. Participants rated the frequency or severity of items such as “I tended to over-react to situations” over the previous week on a 4-point Likert-type scale (from “did not apply to me at all” to “applied to me very much”). We used all three subscale scores in our analyses: Depression, Anxiety and Stress.

Attention: Mind Wandering Questionnaire (MWQ) [70]. The MWQ is a five item, unidimensional scale that measures deviations in attention away from the task at hand. Participants rate their level of agreement on items such as “I have difficulty maintaining focus on simple or repetitive work” on a 6-point Likert-type scale (from “almost never” to “almost always”). We used the mean MWQ score in our analyses.

Wellbeing: Quality of Life Inventory (QOLI) [71]. The QOLI is a 32 item scale that measures life satisfaction across 16 dimensions. Participants rate the importance of each life dimension on a 3-point Likert-type scale (from “not Important” to “important”) and their level of satisfaction with each life dimension on a 6-point Likert-type scale (from “very dissatisfied” to “very satisfied”). Due to a coding error, scores were only recorded for 11 life dimensions: health, self-esteem, goals and values, money, work, play, learning, helping, love and friends. A modified total QOLI score was calculated by multiplying the importance and satisfaction ratings for each dimension and then summing these scores.

Mindfulness: Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) [72]. The MAAS is a 15 item, unidimensional scale that measures the frequency of mindful, receptive awareness of the present moment. Participants rate their level of agreement with items such as “I do jobs or tasks automatically, without being aware of what I’m doing” on a 6-point Likert-type scale (from “almost always” to “almost never”). We used the mean MAAS score in our analyses.

Mystical experiences: Hood Mysticism Scale (HMS) [73]. The HMS is a 32 item scale that measures the degree to which an individual has had experiences that can be considered mystical during their lifetime. Participants rate their level of agreement with items such as “I have had an experience which I was unable to express adequately through language” on a 5-point Likert scale (from “definitely true” to “definitely not true”). We used the HMS total score in our analyses.

Personality: M5P Personality Questionnaire (M5P) [74]. The M5P is a 50 item, freely accessible measure with subscales for each domain of the 5-factor model of personality. Participants rate their level of agreement with items such as “I make friends easily” on a 5-point Likert scale (from “inaccurate” to “accurate”). We used the five personality subscale scores in our analyses: Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and Openness.

Absorption: Tellegen Absorption Scale (TAS) [75]. The TAS is a 34 item scale that measures disposition toward intense imaginative experiences, and a capacity to experience peak-like altered states of consciousness. Participants make true/false ratings for items such as “Sometimes I can change noise into music by the way I listen to it”. We used the TAS total score in our analyses.

Creativity: Creative Personality Scale (CPS) [76]. The CPS is comprised of two parts. General creativity is assessed through 20 items such as “I do unexpected things”, scored on a 5-point Likert scale (from “very inaccurate” to “very accurate”). Specific creativity is assessed through 10 items such as “How creative are you in the area of mathematics”, scored on 5-point Likert scale (from “not at all” to “extremely”). A total CPS score was calculated by summing the general and specific components. This total score was used in our analyses.

Agency: Sense of Agency Rating Scale (SOARS) [77]. The SOARS is a 10 item questionnaire with two subscales that measure distinct aspects of the sense of agency: Involuntariness, the sense that events that occur are externally generated; and Effortlessness, feelings of actions occurring easily and spontaneously. Participants rate their level of agreement with items such as “my experiences and actions were under my control” on a 7-point Likert scale (from “strongly disagree” to “very strongly agree”). We used the general form of the scale reported in Pritchard, Zopf, Polito, Kaplan and Williams [78]. Involuntariness and Effortlessnesssubscale scores were used in our analyses.

• Also: Hermann's whole brain model ABCD

External sources / Related reading

• Wikipedia:Big Five Personality Traits

See also

• ADHD-Inattentive Type

Answer this quick questionnaire:

1. Did you get a good night's sleep last night?
2. Do you see your friends often enough?
3. Do you have any enjoyable hobbies?
4. Do you exercise or get moving every day?
5. Do you have close, enjoyable relationships?
6. Do you avoid abusing substances like alcohol or other drugs?
7. Do you relax and take slow out breaths?
8. Do you do things for other people?
9. Do you have any awesome pets?

Give yourself:

• 2 points for every "Hell yes!"
• 1 point for every "Almost" and
• 0 points for every "No."

Come back tomorrow and try to increase your score! Even a half-point increase would be a huge improvement to your life.

Here's a few words on each topic....

• sleep routine
• friendships
• hobbies
• daily exercise
• relationships
• substance-not-abuse
• meditation
• altruism
• pets

Sleep routine

The list of benefits from having a good night's sleep are immense. They're covered in depth in the book "Why We Sleep" by Dr Matt Walker.

• Getting to sleep and staying asleep
• Problems arising from lack of sleep

Sleep is so essential that I almost feel like no other problem can be conclusively diagnosed in the face of a sleep deficit. Think you have ADHD? Make sure you're getting enough sleep and then re-evaluate.

My own struggles to get enough sleep demonstrate that sleep is a "capstone" behavior... unless the behaviors under it are correct, you won't be able to get it right. It seems that if anything in my life is out of order, then I get to bed later. If kids stay up, if I drink alcohol, if there are chores to be done, if I haven't done enough exercise, if i exercise too late, if I'm starving, if i'm trying to meet an impossible deadline... any mistake in the rest of my habits/behavior causes less "sleep opportunity". And it's auto-catalytic... because lack of sleep will greatly increase the chance that those other habits/behavior will get out of line.

Hence if you want to ask me one question and from that find out how every part of my life is going just ask:

Did you get a good night's sleep last night?

Sleep is the golden keystone — that stone at the top of the structure that holds the rest together... but can only stay where it is because of the rest of the stones.

Friendships

There's a classic situation where middle-aged married men find they've done nothing to maintain their relationships with friends, and suddenly they don't have any close friends at all.

If you are in that situation I have a simple remedy: buy a trailer.

As soon as you buy a trailer you will find that long-lost friends and relatives will contact you to borrow it every weekend. And not only will they want to borrow it, they will insist on having you accompany the trailer to donate your time and labor, assisting with: moving furniture, hauling yard materials, disposing of bodies etc.

Ok, perhaps the trailer idea isn't for everyone, and isn't the best way to re-establish old friendships. It's just one option.

Sometimes men prefer "structured" or "transactional" friendships, where there's a "reason" to get together. A sports team is a classic example of this, or a bike-riding group, or a book club or a board game group etc.

If you've lost contact with friends it's reasonable to predict that some of your old friends are also in the same situation, with decreasing numbers of active friendships. Re-establishing contact may be easier than you'd expect.

Hobbies

Speaking of structured friendships brings us also to hobbies.

Activities regularly done in leisure time for pleasure. These are shown to assist in developing robust mental health. Everyone has their own unique idea of pleasure and I leave it as an exercise for the reader.

But in general categories we have things like: music-related, sports-related, construction-related (e.g. building miniature trains), collection-related (photographing every blue plaque in the UK) and so on.

A list of hobbies at wikipedia

The categories they have are, and 1 example of each are:

• Indoor (e.g. Baking)
• Outdoor (e.g. Archery)
• Collection (e.g. Comic books)
• Competitive (e.g. Axe throwing)
• Observational (e.g. Gongoozling)

It is worthwhile to give yourself permission to enjoy a hobby. Adults get so busy and serious... it is ok to lose yourself again in playing with Lego, or painting on a canvas, or anything at all if it causes no harm. It brings about calm and flow and a quiet self confidence that helps everyone around you.

Daily Exercise

Bike riding, running, or -- the king of daily exercise -- walking.

What do you do, and when?

My phone tells me how many steps I've taken each day, and I make sure to meet a daily target. This helps me maintain a good walking habit. I feel that every step is good for me and my mind.

There's a popular group called "Park Run" who organize free meetups every weekend in many parks around the world. This ticks the exercise box as well as the friendship box, provided you say hello to a few people while you're there.

For a lot of people bike-riding is a very social activity, and tight little communities form: so it's good for a few points on the checklist above.

Boxing as an exercise activity seems to be very powerful at getting the same mental highs as running. Swimming laps is a tremendous low-impact exercise for any one who has access to a suitable pool, and for anyone who wants amazing shoulders and a great physique.

Relationships

The number and quality of your close personal relationship is a big factor in mental well being. This is not always something we can control, but we can choose to turn toward people instead of turning away.

A very small tweak that can alter the course of our lives is to choose to eat lunch with other people, such as work colleagues, as often as possible. When you eat together with people, you find your barriers are lowered and friendship naturally develops. It's the most uncanny thing!

Colleagues are not enough. Closeness is vital.

A seven second hug is an oxytocin dispenser

A 7-second hug is a literal oxytocin dispenser. Best drug (and route of administration) I can think of 🤗. #hooked

— Dr. Emily Anhalt (@emilyca5) June 30, 2019

It's probably best not to engage your work colleagues in a 7 second hug, any time you need a hit of oxytocin. But get these good hugs whenever you can. (And if there are no hug dispensers in your life right now, see the pets section below! Dogs take a lot of work, but the affection they deliver is astounding, yay dogs.)

Substance-not-abuse

Drinking alcohol is a fairly significant part of our culture and it can help lubricate the wheels of social discourse. But alcohol can have some terrible impacts on our mental health. (See if by whiskey). It impacts the quality of our sleep, depresses our central nervous system, damages our organs, and it can indirectly lead to injuries and damaged relationships: all things that are particularly bad for our state of mind.

The habitual nature of substance abuse means that the negative consequences are multiplied over and over as the consumption continues.

Meditation

Are you someone who knows they need to meditate, but meditation pisses you off? Let me tell you a secret that is designed just for you. (Gurus hate me!)

Meditation is just Breathing!

Long slow out breaths stimulate your vagus nerve.

There are two systems: the sympathetic system and the parasympathetic system. The sympathetic is for raised heartbeat, action time, fight or flight. The parasympathetic is for relaxation, calm times, rest and repair. It is into this second system, the parasympathetic, that the vagus nerve sends it messages.

When you stimulate the vagus nerve, you cannot help but relax.

So do a long slow out breath or two (or fifty) any time you need to improve your calm. Don’t call it meditation, call it SCIENCE.

Pro tip: To do a long slow out breath you first need to do a biggish “in” breath (fast or slow, doesn’t matter). Do this often enough and you make a habit of it. There, now the student has become the master.

Bonus: I've made a simple one page application, just to help you with your breathing:

breath.secretgeek.net

(see twitter thread)

Just keep this secret in mind, and you'll be a zen master:

Meditation is just Breathing!

Altruism

When you help others, you feel better. Being involved in causes that are bigger than yourself help you step out of your own petty life and into the stream of human civilization.

Pets

Keeping pets is generally shown to be good for mental health.

I wouldn't race out and get a pet, in a cynical gesture merely to give my mental health a protective jab. But if I was thinking of getting a pet anyway, I'd be pleased to know that it could be good for the brain.

If you don't have any pets, perhaps allergies or your living situation prevent the possibility, then I recommend getting a jetski instead.

As I read somewhere:

Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy a jetski. Have you ever seen anyone sad on a jetski?

In conclusion

Jetskis aside, these protective factors are a great thing to include in your one life on this miserable planet.

Come back tomorrow and check your scores again. See if they're moving in the right direction.

See also

• Tolerance for Boredom and Pain
• For a successful life

we zigzag our way through the boredom and pain

—pink floyd: pigs on the wing, Animals

To live a successful life you may need to specifically train yourself to tolerate boredom and pain.

Note that tolerance is different to sensitivity.

People who have great endurance are not less "sensitive" to pain. They can tolerate it better, because of their specific training.

The book "Endure" by Alex Hutchinson goes into this more.

Cyclists feel pain as much as anyone.

They tolerate it for longer.

And when they've been doing a lot of endurance training they tolerate it more than they do the rest of the time.

Background:

(I am told) that:

To be a great boxer, at some level you have to like getting hit.

Not just indifferent to getting hit, but encouraged by it. In other pursuits: you often have to like boredom.

Mark Hooper tells me that:

cyclists and runners tell me that at some point you begin to crave the uphill

I did further research and read "Endure". It's more complicated. Definitely pain tolerance is crucial for endurance.

And I think that most things in life are endurance sports. That success can only be achieved through endurance. So such tolerance is crucial.

I read in James Clear's book, Atomic Habits, that a trainer told him that what sets great weights athletes apart is their tolerance for boredom.

I've found mention of these "experiential exercises" --

• Breathing through a straw
• Holding your hand in a bucket of ice water for as long as you can

In "Thinking in Pictures" Temple Grandin talks about a drawing exercise where they had to take 1 hour to draw a shoe. She was amazed the resulting pictures were so good.

And similarly:

• Self compassion - as a treatment for perfectionism

References

• Endure by Alex Hutchinson - Summary at Hustle Escape

See also

• Protective Factors for Mental Health
• A Stoic Reader