Sirona

Adults can also experience night terrors, but it's much less common; I experience night terrors occasionally and have nightmares. Some medical conditions cause adult nightmares such as sleep apnoea or restless leg syndrome and medications like anti-depressants or for blood pressure. I've read that an increase in metabolism can also cause nightmares, especially specific foods. However, it seems the most causes of nightmares are psychological, such as PTSD, anxiety and stress. This article: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3896131/ seems to suggest that a high dose of Prazosin is effective for nightmares caused by PTSD. Image Reversal Therapy seems to show some short-term promise in treating patients with PTSD nightmares, however, it I'm not certain of the therapy costs and how much of it would by covered by health funds. Also, studies show that people are more likely to remember negative dreams rather than positive dreams and there is no way of testing dreams other than to ask people.

Getting your first job out of University is very difficult; I had to move overseas to secure a good job. The best you can do is to apply to as many advertised positions as possible, personalise your application and include a cover letter by clearly addressing the selection criteria. It might also help to call companies directly to see if there are any opportunities. Most people get a job not from an advertisement but through contacts so it may also help to network on social media and at University. It's hard to convince someone to give you a chance to get your foot in the door, but it does get easier once you've got a bit of experience under your belt, so keep persevering and good luck.

+ Ajb Universities expect you to be meticulous when filling out applications and generally won't contact you to let you know you've made a mistake. On their website they usually have application guidelines in PDF format that you can download to make sure you've filled the application correctly and submitted the correct accompanying documentation. This is your responsibility to submit your application correctly. Fellowship applications are very competitive so they're only going to review and consider those who have filled out the documentation to their specification. If you sent it to the incorrect address, it's possible that you also did not apply correctly. If the application date has not closed, you could try sending it again. Good luck.

You might find it interesting to read about about Dr. Joe Tsien's 'Theory of Connectivity'. He points out that filtering information and getting rid of old 'data' is what makes it more difficult to learn as you get older and not your ability to absorb new data.

Again, I think it depends where you are. Communal tables are common in Hong Kong to use up space and increase turn over. If you're alone, you wouldn't expect to have a table to yourself; they will seat other singles with you. I had never seen this practice in Australia, Europe or the US so I was very confused at first. However, other single patrons had no problem with acknowledging each other or talking. After a while I became accustomed to it and had some very nice conversations over the few years I was there. There is generally only communal dining in low end, fast food type restaurants. Medium priced restaurants generally had a seating time (90 minutes usually) to increase their turnover and decrease the wait time whilst maximising their profits. Often even when the restaurants weren't busy and I had a table to myself, locals would invite me to sit with them because they would see me struggling with the characters on the menu (when there were no pictures to accompany the characters, I ended up with some very interesting meals). I have seen an increase in communal dining in Sydney too and a lot of the inner city restaurants are opting for one very large dining table for patrons to mingle with other diners. I really dislike this idea that you're 'odd' or 'weird' if you engage with people you're not acquainted with in public spaces, restaurants or at the shops. I don't like being in places where people are detached and disconnected; I think it goes a long way to acknowledge others and engage in conversation.

If you've not noticed, there is this lovely feature called 'report'. I suggest you use it if you believe I hijacked your thread instead of wasting everyone's time with insults.

Everything you do or say is intended to elicit negative emotional responses; don't turn this into a gender war when it has absolutely nothing to do with gender.

Nothing, that I know of. I was trying to highlight that your question was illogical and therefore not worth discussing.

Firstly, don't tell me what to do; feel free to report me if I've done something wrong though. Secondly, while I may have avoided your question, I was still on topic and chose to focus on the aspect of not worrying about things you cannot control, which I believed to be a logical response and provided an explanation. I personally still don't see any point in answering your question because it's a moot point. I am both somewhat confronted by the idea of death an suffering, yet I know there is not much point in focusing on it unless was faced with it, in which case I would deal with it. I can't predict what tragedies may or may not happen and therefore preparing my emotional response before it occurs is just a waste of time.

Nice, the next time someone is right, I'll use the 'that's what I was getting at' escape too.

I agree. If the restaurant is less than half full, it would benefit the restaurant to have single patrons, even if it means they're spending less. People want to eat where other people are eating because they correlate this with fresh produce (higher turnover), high quality, consistency (less corners are cut when restaurants are profitable) and trustworthiness (return business). When I lived in Hong Kong, my colleagues would choose the restaurants with the longest queue. Therefore, even though they would make less from a single patron, if they are at minimum capacity, they would welcome them. I am personally used to eating by myself and in large metropolitan cities such as Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo and Sydney it's common practice due to long working hours and the convenience and relative low cost of restaurant meals. It is not unusual at all on weeknights to see professionals eating by themselves. These restaurants usually turn over the tables very quickly and you don't get much in the way of service but a lot of apartments in HK don't have kitchens and it makes little economic sense to rent an apartment with a kitchen because space is the biggest cost in HK. To rent an apartment with a kitchen would cost you roughly an extra 4000-5000HKD a month in space and you would struggle to spend half of that in meals and that's not factoring in the cost of your time to shop, prepare, cook and clean. In country NSW, you would pay more than twice for a similar meal than in Hong Kong because most people eat at home and eating out is for special occasions or family outings, therefore, you would look out of place eating alone. In short, it depends where you are, or you could just be brave and not care what others think and enjoy your meal.

You can take some precautions to decrease your chances of dying at any given year, for example the leading causes of death for those aged 15-24 (in Australia) are land transport accidents (motorcycle/car predominately), accidental poisoning and suicide. By not driving and catching public transport you could decrease your chances of death slightly in any given year, however, this might be offset by depression, smoking or drinking excessively. I personally don't see the point in the 'what if' scenarios as there is always that random chance you will be in an 'tragedy/accident with horrible consequences' as you say. I generally support the principle of not worrying about things that are beyond your control, not to mention the health implications which arise as a result of increased stress and anxiety. Also, traveling by plane is a relatively safe mode of transport compare to land vehicles, so the scenarios you've listed above are extremely unlikely and not worth worrying about. You would waste a lot of your intellectual potential if you spent a great portion of time thinking about unlikely 'what if' scenarios. If you were unlucky and did survive a tragic accident, then you would deal with that when and if it happens; what is the point in worrying prematurely about something that only has a small chance of occurring?

Seven mile beach comes to mind, I've had many fond memories there. This wallpaper could be vastly improved if Benedict Cumberbatch could be photoshopped into the background, riding a wave with his British tan.

I've not considered it before, but it's an interesting thought. I ran a quick search and found a few articles, this one http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2000/05/the-war-against-boys/304659/ attempts to use some data from various studies. However, upon researching the writer, it seems she is quite conservative and criticizes modern feminism frequently and with a title such as, 'War against boys' it's obvious her stance is an emotional one and most likely not too reliable. Here is another article: http://ideas.time.com/2013/02/06/do-teachers-really-discriminate-against-boys/ There are several articles and studies around suggesting that there could be bias against boys. I've not yet found a particularly good one, but it does seem like some data does exist.

I understand that, and it's likely that it does exist to some degree and I'd be particularly interested in quantifying it. What about gender bias towards boys? The Australian studies I've read have similar trends; boys perform worse than girls in reading. I'm interested in your perspectives, would you say that English teachers are biased towards boys and perceive them to be less capable compared with their female counterparts? I'm merely playing devils advocate, but do you think it's possible that it's not about gender at all and that people have difficulty in separating preconceived ideas and opinions without looking purely at the evidence in front of them (in this case, when grading exams). It's just another possibility.

It's not that I am skeptical that gender bias exists, I am more interested in attempting to quantify how much of the gap is due to gender bias purely on different point values allocated by teachers. Interestingly, in the NSW HSC and Victorian VCE exams, students don't use their names on any of the exams and are identified only by a student number. The exams are graded externally and therefore, it's very unlikely that the examiners are aware of the students gender; they could of course make assumptions based on the handwriting but it's not likely. However, in specialist mathematics, 76 percent of top achievers were boys and males represented 63 percent of enrollments. There is a pattern of male dominance among the Victorian students who achieved the top 2 per cent of the study score results in each of the maths subjects between 2007 and 2009. http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/girls-still-lag-boys-in-maths-20101114-17seu.html In this case, it's unlikely that there is a gender bias in the grading, however, it seems to be suggesting that the gender bias is a result of lower expectations and confidence in girls in these subject areas. I'm more willing to except this as a more significant impact in girls performing worse. Though, I'm not arguing with you either because even though this might be apart of the problem in Australia, it's not necessarily the same issue somewhere else.

'Drugs are a bet with your mind.' - Jim Morrison

Perhaps you can explain further, Swansnot. I am genuinely interested in possible teacher bias in math purely based on test scores. I will attempt to explain my concern, however do keep in mind my understanding of math is limited to senior high school and therefore I am not arguing or confident in my explanation, I am merely seeking further elaboration. Based on our math exams, there is only a very slight opportunity for teachers to be biased. For example, if you are asked to prove something; you need to start with a premises. Let's say in the geometry section of the exam, you're asked to prove that two triangles are congruent. The student could leave a gap in their proof, or a more complicated proof may be required, or the teacher may expect it to be done a particular way (I have had this problem and needed to argue for an extra mark). Or, the question could ask you to estimate the number of cars in Sydney and provide some methodology and your reasoning; your reasoning can be objective. I suppose the subjectivity comes into effect most when the student has the wrong answer but good reasoning; how do you allocate partial marks in this case and is that where the possible gender bias can come from? How many marks could they lose potentially if the teacher for arguments sake was biased?

I am genuinely interested in this because it's very difficult to test teacher bias based purely on teacher attitude, expectations and treatment compared to looking at teacher bias through grading. Other factors could have an impact, for example, girls may be more sensitive to their teacher's perception of them. I'd like to read some more studies if you are thinking of any in particular. I'm not suggesting teachers don't treat them differently, but how they can accurately test this?

I did well in math during high school but didn't choose to study math or science at University, mostly because I was more interested in social science and humanities. I did have more anxiety when it came to math but it wasn't (to my knowledge) due to gender-bias or low expectations from my teacher, it was because I knew I needed to study harder and learn the content because 'winging it' is not an option in math. Obviously I'm not advocating that the gender bias doesn't exist (I am honestly not able to make a sound judgement at this stage) but I don't believe this was my personal experience. There are a lot of articles in recent years in Australia about gender-bias in math and teachers perceiving boys to be better at math than girls; however, this bias can only potentially affect student confidence rather than bias in grading (which is not a problem in math as it is in the humanities and social sciences). The evidence is not particularly convincing though, even though I don't doubt cultural attitudes contribute, but how are they able to quantify it and if so, how significant a role does it play.

I've been reading through this http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0057988 study which attempts to explain gender differences and it's implication in mathematics and reading performance. The study shows that girls achieve higher results in reading and boys achieve higher in math. However, interestingly, the gap is not linked to differences in gender, but to the social and economic conditions. According to Geary and Gijsbert Stoet, when the social and economic climate of the nation is good, the math gap increases and the reading gap decreases. Contrary to when the social and economic climate is bad, the math gap decreases and the reading gap increases. Geary and Gijsbert Stoet had a large study group of one and a half million fifteen year old students across seventy five different nations and these results were consistent. I found the study on Swedish boys particularly interesting as educational policy and practice creators are consistently interested in Swedish education closing the gender gap in maths, science and engineering, however, they fail to highlight that boys in Sweden achieve lower results in reading compared to other similar developed countries. Ajb mentioned a possible biological implication and this Geary and Gijsbert Stoet study suggests that boys have a greater response to social and economic conditions and this extra sensitivity may be biological.

They're only trying to sell you a drink and a meal; personally, I think there is a big difference between trying to sway one's choice in dining options and one's religious affiliation. Although, food choice can be a major first world problem, I for one really feel the pangs of regret when I waste my daily calorie allowance on a mediocre meal.

Sydney is very multicultural too and if you know where to go, you can find very authentic international food. I have never been a fussy eater, but after living in Hong Kong for years I will pretty much eat anything. If you can stomach stinky tofu and pigs intestines, then I assume you can tackle almost any food (though I'm still skeptical if I could stomach kiviak). I agree. Humans in the past have eaten what is available and preferably what is nutritionally dense and what they ate depended largely on climate, geographical location, season, etc. They had to be flexible and be able to adapt; this idea of choosing what we like and don't like is very modern.

Now, to be fair, we can only see his eye. I'm glad you've learned the correct usage or your vs. you're since your departure. Welcome back.

Hah, I'm exactly the same, Greg. The irony is, I spent a lot of time at the beach doing absolutely nothing but enjoying the sound of the waves and the sea breeze, yet when I have been fishing, I can't relax. I suppose I associate fishing with eating and not a sport/hobby so instead of enjoying it for what it is, I am just thinking, 'I'm going to be having dinner very late tonight!'. No, they're land hermit crabs. We do have freshwater crabs though.