Enaris

weird interaction with a student this week. they kept coming up with weird "facts" ("greek is actually a combination of four other languages") that left me baffled. i said let's look this stuff up together, and they said ok, i'll open a search bar, and they opened... ch*tgpt

and i was like "this is not a search bar" and they were like "yes it is, you can search for anything in here" the thing that made me feel crazy is like. every kid that's using this as a browser is getting new BESPOKE false "facts." this isn't "a widespread misconception about X that stems from how it's taught in schools." each individual kid is now hooked into a Nonsense Machine with the "widespread misconception about X" you can start at a baseline. like, ok, in tenth grade we all talk about X thing from history, and that leaves us with some misguided concepts about X, but we can correct that as students get broader understandings of the world but with this, each child is getting UNIQUE wrong facts they are SURE are correct... because they did what we told them to do! they "looked it up"! they got it from somewhere! it's not a kid making up a belief on hearsay and assumption... it's something they think they LEARNED

this kid was extremely combative with me, and i understood why. i was sitting in front of him and telling him that the internet, a computer, technology, all these supposedly authoritative things... were wrong. and that i, one person, was right. he basically *couldn't* believe me. 8 135 3.8K 97K ... stillorangecrushed @stilloranged. 7h he decided that i was simply a teacher who'd made a mistake. he could check it, after all! he could look it up! he could find the REAL facts. i obviously hadn't done that, i was just an adult who'd decided i was smarter than him. hence the defensiveness. like i said: i understood 5 760 3.2K 82K stillorangecrushed @stilloranged. 7h ... it was so fucking rough. i did my best, but i am one person trying to work against a campaign of misinformation so vast that it fucking terrifies me. this kid is being set up for a life lived entirely inside the hall of mirrors

Well this is grim

One of the common headaches of being in wargames spaces. The occasional infestation of Nazi Apologists (or Glorious Causers).

Well, one less Discord Server on my list.

Not saying being rid of Gaetz is bad, but do realize, there's a risk of getting the little inoffensive guy that looks like an accountant who ends up being frighteningly efficient and utterly loyal.

I wonder if there will be a tariff on Gallows Humor?

The Myth of Military Logic How "military necessity" became the key-stone of militarism

Since there's a lot of us migrating, I figured I should make a thread of some of the better things I've written as an introduction (and of course, self promotion:

Once upon a time, I would say "I cannot tell the difference between a state legislature and an insane asylum."

I quit that realizing what an insult it was to those who are hospitalized.

But, it seems that the contagion has spread to DC at last.

ER didn't make myself clear. I meant "Put themselves in position"... ie, become heir apparent. It's too early in the evening for the brain to be fritzing like that.

Then the fun part begins. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE short of Rudy is going to be angling to be the one to take over the reins of the movement. The infighting is going to be both petty and epic.

Otherwise, always a curiosity and desire to learn new things. Very eclectic in interests, and generally just a bit off.

The Avatar? Don Quixote from the first cast album of Man of La Mancha. I've used it for years in a number of places, and I'm not sure if it means I tilt at windmills or...

So, wargame wise? As I said, I've been with John Tiller/WDS for a goodly number of years now. Lead scenario design on Midway, Seven Years War, Kriegsmarine and Vienna 1683, then helped out on Wolfpack.

wargameds.com

I know using a nom de post is always a bit sketchy. It's just a long, long habit of mine. Having lived "in the fishbowl" for 30+ years, I've always valued having a place where I can be a bit less guarded.

Quite an impressive crowd of "new faces" popping in, which is good. Never connected enough here, and would love to fully migrate off the bird.

As for me, on the military history side, I'm a follower, nothing more. Dabble in some design for Wargame Design Studios, but am here to listen.

Welcome!

Urk! Hope you weren't hurt when the old one died. (I knew someone who utterly wrecked their back that way)

So, start typing into my phone "De Gaulle's height" but before I even finished the NAME, one of the results was "De Gaulle's height 6'5"". Like it knew what I had just read on my Kindle, and the question in my head.

Little bit disturbed. Reading a bio of Walter Bedell Smith, and it mentions that Ike wanted to find a leader for France (in 54) who "wasn't 6'5" and thought he was the heir of Joan of Arc and Charlemagne." So, off to google to see if it was who I thought. (cont)

In fact, thinking more. Putting yourself in a position where the hail mary is an only option is really bad, but considering how necessary it is to get the ring (even with your caveats about using it): the leader of that group should have been Sharkey himself. If you are all in, you're ALL in.

I think once the ring made Rivendell, he was (almost) entirely doomed. If he manages to hide his scheming and Sauron wins, he's still roadkill any time Sauron feels like it. The Uruk-Hai attempt was the only chance. The Strategic Failure point was breaking with the White Council.

At least in the US, the role of the TRS-80 and their Color Computer has long been forgotten as well.

Also the author of Watership Down admitted that a lot of the rabbits - and the emotional arc of their stories - was based on his experience fighting at Arnhem in Operation Market Garden during WW2.

I cannot stand the parodies of modern major general, they're overdone and simply not as good as the original. They've done them about everything, whatever topic, big or small. And when i notice one of them my eyes will always start to roll. The diction's always slurry when they rush the complicated words, and adding many fricatives will turn it so cacophonous. The slanted rhymes are silly and they keep just making more and more, please someone stop the parodies of modern major general. The scanning of the lyrics in the meter is unbearable, they emphazise the syllables in ways that are untenable, in short in matters musical, prosodic and ephemeral, i cannot stand the parodies of modern major general! And when I notice one of the them my

this is sublime

Meme of the day

Interesting. I need to figure a way to watch it some day (I'm so far behind, and the ATV thing is an issue.) One reason I ask is that the book order is odd. There are some prequels that were written much later, and I suspect the series is more based there (at least now) than the original books.

I don't have ATV, but I've wondered about that one. I read the first few books way way way back when.

I used to believe that it was difficult to tell the difference between a State Legislature and the patients in an asylum.

I've since come to the realization that I'm being way unfair to the patients.

Indigestion.

And it has nothing to do with what I've eaten.

At least not physically eaten.

Arrrgh. Rant Rant Rant kick kick arrgggh *incoherent noises*

There are days I feel like I need a punching bag.

Today is one of those days.

Not being a punching bag, that's already the case... but one for me to take MY frustrations out on.

I was never able to make it through that episode. Just too bleaugh.

Argh! Don't people ever look to see how utterly circular what they say is? "What are you being told to be offended by today?"

Don't they see that they're also being told what to be offended by... specifically to be offended that others are offended.

Round and round and round and round and round..

That's exactly where I am. I learn best in reading, but so many things, videos become the only option.

So, if both options are available, great, but I do get frustrated when we're forced into video only.