The show used examples of toddler helping strangers by picking stuff up that they were reaching ineffectively for. The comparison was inherently flawed, since by the time a human has worked out how to solve the chimp problem (and those chimps were slick) the morality issue would be clouded by so many other variables.

Immoral or amoral? I would tend to think amoral simply because at 8 or 9 do children have moral standards?

Amoral is what I mean.

Well now how are we to discuss the differences between the two and at what age one starts to comprehend societal standards if you're just gonna say, "That's what I meant"? Where's bon bon????

Gloomcookie, read, responded, backflung.

Today is like Monday. But midweek, so even more distressing.

Ha! I'm sorry. I've been trained out of trying to speak intelligently about morality. I figure it's Not My Problem.

Where's bon bon????

No shit.

The show I was watching was conflating cooperation with sentience, and marking chimps down one because they'd only cooperate if there was something in it for them. We're all moralled up because sometimes we'll just help, apparently. Maybe we're just playing a longer game than the chimp.

A co-worked of DH's figured out that he needs to claim 9 to exactly owe nothing and get nothing back on his tax return. I think it took him years to figure it out.

I think this is a little known fact but the IRS has a calculator on their website. You enter information from your most recent paycheck, estimate what your deductions should be (based on last year's tax return) and they tell you how much you should expect to owe/get at the end of the year. Then they tell how to change your W-4 if you want to not be owed a bunch of money at tax time.

ETA: IRS Withholding Calculator

I should do that calculator at home when I have my stuff, but the reality is, I will just make a stab in the dark if this guy calls me back with my current number. I think I might be at 3 now and should go up to 5.

Bah -- I just accepted a meeting for Friday. So much for my day off!

Ignoring the evil plotty children, because I just can't cope with that right now.

Minor, first world grumpus of the morning: We are now on Day 4 of no hot showers. The gas main guy has an "all day appointment" to come by and try to figure out why the pilot light on our water heater gutters out after 90 seconds. I had been settled in, expecting a long, long wait until, say, three or so, when suddenly my phone rang at just about 10; it was the gas guy, saying he'd be here in "a few minutes." At 10:30 he called again, to say he'd been circling the block and there was no parking, so he was going to see someone else first and come back here. It's now 11:30, and no further word from him. I'd be less grumpy if he hadn't faked me out and had just refrained from calling until he was actually at the door.

Sounds like you need to hire a pack of third graders to capture the gas guy.