A student's grandmother is far more likely to die just before an exam
1–10 of 57 posts
Re: A student's grandmother is far more likely to die just before an exam
#2This is one of the best submissions I've seen on hn. So often these days, people are treating 'SCIENCE' as a completely objective enterprise when it is usually the interpretation of objective observations that is fed to the public, which is a very subjective matter.
Re: A student's grandmother is far more likely to die just before an exam
#3This is one of the best submissions I've seen on hn. So often these days, people are treating 'SCIENCE' as a completely objective enterprise when it is usually the interpretation of objective observations that is fed to the public, which is a very subjective matter.
Agree, excellent submission. I saw this as an great example of drawing important conclusions after spotting interesting data.
Re: A student's grandmother is far more likely to die just before an exam
#4This is indeed a strange and worrying phenomena. I am in fact aware of cases where a student has managed to lose 3 or more grandmothers while pursuing an undergraduate degree. This leaves the student with a negative number of grandmothers. The underlying mechanisms allowing this is highly mysterious and is certainly deserving of further research.
Re: A student's grandmother is far more likely to die just before an exam
#5This is indeed a strange and worrying phenomena. I am in fact aware of cases where a student has managed to lose 3 or more grandmothers while pursuing an undergraduate degree. This leaves the student with a negative number of grandmothers. The underlying mechanisms allowing this is highly mysterious and is certainly deserving of further research.
The author addresses this point, and how it is possible, but why so many grandfathers choose to remarry so quickly is still mysterious.
> As more people go to college, their families find that, for safety reasons, it is wise to increase the number of grandmothers per family. Since there is currently no biological way of doing so (though another grant proposal in preparation will ask for funds to look into the prospect of cloning grandmothers, using modern genetic engineering techniques), the families must resort to in creasing the pool by divorce and remarriage.
Re: A student's grandmother is far more likely to die just before an exam
#6This is indeed a strange and worrying phenomena. I am in fact aware of cases where a student has managed to lose 3 or more grandmothers while pursuing an undergraduate degree. This leaves the student with a negative number of grandmothers. The underlying mechanisms allowing this is highly mysterious and is certainly deserving of further research.
TFA covers this, actually. Divorce and remarriage can help a student have more grandmothers. Also consider the future possibility of cloning grandmothers.
Re: A student's grandmother is far more likely to die just before an exam
#7reminds me of the fmri of a dead salmon (http://prefrontal.org/files/posters/Bennett-Salmon-2009.pdf)
Re: A student's grandmother is far more likely to die just before an exam
#8The sad thing is I actually did lose a grandmother and grandfather a few weeks before exams. :(
ninja edit: this was years ago, to clarify
Re: A student's grandmother is far more likely to die just before an exam
#9This is one of the best submissions I've seen on hn. So often these days, people are treating 'SCIENCE' as a completely objective enterprise when it is usually the interpretation of objective observations that is fed to the public, which is a very subjective matter.
I actually did have a grandmother die 2 days before a final exam. Needless to say, no one believed me. :(
Agreed though that this is a great representation of using educated subjectivity to draw reasonable conclusions from data. That's the one thing that a science degree should be teaching over all other aspects. Remembering equations, careful experimental technique, etc. all pale in to significance compared with critical analysis skills.
Re: A student's grandmother is far more likely to die just before an exam
#10Of course, students have no reason to report deaths of relatives when there are no consequences to missing class. So, deaths most likely only get reported during exams.