The Bridge

Sterno

7:00 PM

Star all the things!

SaintWacko

Oh, wow, in this one DF embark, I have Mirthful, Untamed Wilds, and Terrifying

This is in a standard 3x3 embark

This ought to be interesting

Build ALL the traps!

LessPop_MoreFizz

@OrigamiRobot I reiterate: Your state is full of dummies and your inaction in the fight against them is an embarrassment to yourself and all that is good in the world. newsobserver.com/2013/04/04/2801884/…

OrigamiRobot

I couldn't care less.

FEichinger

@OrigamiRobot No, it's "I could care less", dummy! obligatory sarcasm marker

Grace Note

@FEichinger Er, Origami has it right.

Shotgun Ninja

7:06 PM

@FEichinger I've always wondered about this.

FEichinger

@GraceNote That was sarcasm. As "dummy!" should've given away :(

Shotgun Ninja

Also, the phrase "All but dead" still confuses me.

Grace Note

@ShotgunNinja It's "could not care less" because the implication is that the amount of caring you have is so non-existent that there is no lower value.

OrigamiRobot

@ShotgunNinja It depends on the message you're trying to get across.

Ronan Forman

@OrigamiRobot It depends on if you're trying to get a message across at all.

FEichinger

7:07 PM

@GraceNote Precisely.

OrigamiRobot

@RonanForman Your dad is a message.

LessPop_MoreFizz

@OrigamiRobot I gave your mom a message last night.

FEichinger

@OrigamiRobot Your face is your dad!

OrigamiRobot

@LessPop_MoreFizz She's a grown woman capable of making her own decisions.

tiddy

NC is a legislative shithole though.

LessPop_MoreFizz

7:10 PM

@tiddy Yes. Yes it is.

FEichinger

May I ask just what the problem with that law is?

Sterno

Apparently Bioshock Infinite is super-racist if you like seeing racism in everything.

OrigamiRobot

@LessPop_MoreFizz Really, all you're doing is making me want to participate less.

tiddy

Government mandated writing skills?

That no one uses?

OrigamiRobot

@FEichinger The fact that it's a waste of time non-issue.

LessPop_MoreFizz

7:11 PM

@FEichinger Nobody uses cursive for anything.

FEichinger

@OrigamiRobot As is life itself. Congratulations.

LessPop_MoreFizz

It's an archaic and dumb 'skill.'

Lazers

0

Q: Transferring Between Lines

In Cities In Motion 1, you could put two stops from two different lines next to each other and people would automatically know that they can get off at that stop and go to the other line if necessary, for example if line 1 covers the north part of the city and line 2 covers the east part, and som...

cities-in-motion-2

LessPop_MoreFizz

It's a hair above mandating that the schools devote roughly 10-20% of the school day for 5 years to butter churning and heraldry.

tiddy

I was going to say using a washboard

LessPop_MoreFizz

7:12 PM

@tiddy Yeah, that works too.

FEichinger

Paranoia at it's best. Oh, well, go on. Do whatever you think is right. Just stay on your side of the ocean, alright?

OrigamiRobot

I had to learn cursive in elementary school and immediately and purposefully forgot how to soon after.

djsmiley2k

Still not tidying :<

tiddy

Then again, with the biblical references in almost all NC decision making, those mandates aren't too far off

LessPop_MoreFizz

@OrigamiRobot Same. My 6th grade teachers actually docked points from anyone who used cursive. In 5th grade we had been docked for not using cursive.

OrigamiRobot

7:14 PM

@LessPop_MoreFizz We never had anything like that. We learned it and never used it again.

Yawus

@Sterno Eh, note the first sentence of the article. Spectators generally aren't as involved with the story as the players and inevitably skim the surface.

Alternately, she could be catching something that we players didn't, but to each his/her own, I guess.

LessPop_MoreFizz

@OrigamiRobot We learned it and used it from 2nd through 5th grade.

Then in 6th grade my teachers told us to stop because they couldn't read it.

OrigamiRobot

I remember enough to write my first and last name because that's how I signed my name before I just started scribbling like everyone else.

Wipqozn

@FEichinger The point is that it's a waste of students time, and the resources of the school. That time would be much better spent having students study subjects and skills which are actually important.

OrigamiRobot

N[scribbles] W[scribbles]

FEichinger

7:16 PM

Maybe I'm just getting old, but signing documents, taking notes and making annotations is still a very handwriting-heavy activity - and that needs some foundation. Just saying "Yeh, we got TEKNERLUGY!" and dismissing it entirely is stupid.

Yawus

Like a docenal number system.

OrigamiRobot

If I am ever supposed to sign my full name, I am in trouble because I don't know how to write a K in cursive. Instead I just do a curly version of a print K.

FEichinger

@Wipqozn Since it takes you guys so bloody long to learn it, apparently. In Europe handwriting (cursive as well) is mostly a first and second grade kind of thing - a time where "advanced" stuff can't really be taught anyways.

Yawus

It's easy. Take a normal 'k', italicize it, and ignore everyone who says that it isn't cursive.

@FEichinger What "advanced" stuff?

OrigamiRobot

@Yawus Basically what I do.

tiddy

7:19 PM

@FEichinger Cursive is typically taught from 1st-3rd grade in american schools

And since when does not using cursive translate to not knowing how to write

Yawus

Cursive really didn't take that long to teach. My teacher didn't even take a week to go over it.

FEichinger

@tiddy Then what's the bloody problem? There is no waste of time here, unless you want them to study at the age of 14.

OrigamiRobot

@FEichinger It's a waste of time to learn it at all.

Yawus

I'm confused as to why we're arguing about cursive.

Wipqozn

@Yawus Because this is the internet.

OrigamiRobot

7:21 PM

We need something to argue about.

FEichinger

@Yawus Because apparently, it's a "waste of time" to learn it, and states are oppressive and dumb because they push it.

Wipqozn

@FEichinger When did anyone claim the USA government was "oppressive" for making this a law?

Yawus

States are oppressive and dumb by their very definitions. States exist to exercise a measure of control over the population. Whether that control is not enough, enough, or too much is up to you. States are dumb because they are generally composed of a group of people. And groups of people are dumb.

FEichinger

10 mins ago, by LessPop_MoreFizz

It's a hair above mandating that the schools devote roughly 10-20% of the school day for 5 years to butter churning and heraldry.

Wipqozn

@FEichinger Mandating != Oppression

Yawus

7:23 PM

Butter churning is surprisingly useful.

Wipqozn

There is a huge difference between mandating something and oppression.

Grace Note

This isn't a concern about oppression, no one here is crying about being oppressed.

FEichinger

@Wipqozn It's still an "example of forced archaism"

Yawus

@GraceNote Help, help?

Wipqozn

@FEichinger You're twisting @LessPop_MoreFizz words.

Grace Note

7:23 PM

@Yawus ?

Yawus

@GraceNote I'm being oppressed?

Or was it repressed? My sound system was quite terrible when I watched that movie.

Grace Note

@Yawus Oh. Right. Haha!

OrigamiRobot

@FEichinger The archaism is the part people are complaining about, the mandating is just amplifying that complaint.

tiddy

The point here was that a state is requiring schools to teach a skill that is no longer needed, used, or expected in any part of our society

Yawus

Like the customary measurement system?

Grace Note

7:25 PM

A lot more parts of our society actually mandate that you print, rather than use cursive, anyway.

tiddy

Yeah, literally every official american government form requires you PRINT your name

OrigamiRobot

@GraceNote Because most people's cursive is illegible.

Yawus

Most people's print is illegible too...

Judging from my college classes...

tiddy

You could sign it in goddamn elvish if you wanted. No one cares about signatures as far as readability. As long as the sig is consistent

Wipqozn

I sign all my documents with Tortoise shells.

OrigamiRobot

7:26 PM

@Wipqozn turtle*

Grace Note

Signatures are less about a proper form of writing and more about a personal form of writing.

OrigamiRobot

@tiddy My friend just signed his stuff with "butts"

FEichinger

@Wipqozn If the complaint isn't - at least partially - about this being forced, then why the hell complain at all? As I said: There is no waste of time and there's nothing "dumb" about it either. We'll just end up at a point where there's nothing to teach anymore because everything is "archaic" and "replaced by more advanced tech" ... It's just a ridiculous thing to complain about.

Sterno

Let's take that time spent teaching cursive to instead smack kids whenever they text "r u" instead of "are you"

11

Grace Note

@FEichinger The complaint is far less about the issue of it being forced and more about what it is that is being forced.

Wipqozn

7:28 PM

@Sterno I like this proposal.

Shotgun Ninja

Your own unique form of cursive can be used to positively identify you from your writing.

Yawus

@Sterno All of my yes.

LessPop_MoreFizz

@FEichinger I should've stuck with Heraldry as an example.

Shotgun Ninja

That's about the only argument which holds even a drop of water against yours.

OrigamiRobot

@FEichinger This isn't about technology. This is about print vs cursive.

Wipqozn

7:28 PM

@FEichinger ...because of the reasons people have said multiple times already?

OrigamiRobot

Not only is it a waste of time to teach it, it was a waste of time and money to even discuss it.

FEichinger

@Wipqozn Just what do you want to replace this oh-so-horrendous amount of time spent on teaching this totally archaic and useless skill with?

LessPop_MoreFizz

The problem is that the state is establishing a curriculum which does not prepare students for the world. Instead it wastes their time on an archaic skill that has no use. Printing is useful. Cursive is not. We should teach our kids more useful things, and fewer useless things. Especially when those useless things are things that most kids find boring and frustrating and which don't serve other pedagogic purposes

(i.e. allowing kids time to play is 'useful' because it teaches cooperation and communication in ways that pure classroom time does not, even if play is not strictly useful activity. Cursive doesn't even rise to that standard however. It has no such effect.)

Yawus

@FEichinger We did just mention slapping people for textspeak.

Sterno

@LessPop_MoreFizz Like research papers!

Wipqozn

7:31 PM

@FEichinger More Math and Sciences are always a good thing.

FEichinger

@Yawus I'd slap the parents for giving the children access to phones and the Internet to begin with.

LessPop_MoreFizz

@FEichinger I dunno, how about spending more time on science and math? Or maybe using those funds to not cut the music program? Or perhaps we can use the time to teach kids basic civics and enough about how their government works to ensure that some day, they don't elect a pack of slack jawed yokels cum religious fanatics to run their state into the ground?

tiddy

@FEichinger If your argument is that there isn't a better use of time for the young students, then I think that is a mistake

FEichinger

@Wipqozn As if there wasn't enough of that to exceed most children's comprehension yet. I mean, I know American education is terrible, but Europe manages to teach both cursive and a decent amount of Math and Science.

@tiddy I'm saying it's pointless to decide on either. Thus, the time spent removing cursive from the curriculum is just as much of a time wasted.

tiddy

What?

Yawus

7:33 PM

@FEichinger Europe also has a higher regard for the vocation of teaching. Which is a problem in and of itself.

tiddy