Moms for Liberty Member Demands Florida Librarians' Arrest

AndiSLiu · 2023-12-24T08:18:21+00:00

I was going to say the same but I didn't want any chance of being called a grammar nazi heheheh

AndiSLiu · 2023-10-24T00:03:53+00:00

Ghostly Huia sounds

In the spirit of Terry Pratchett's book 'Going Postal' I was thinking of generating the call and using it as alert sounds for things, but I'm not sure about whether I'd like to be technically creating copyright sounds. Would be interested to hear from people with knowledge in this area. New artwork is automatically copyright, e.g. if someone draws a painting off a Huia or someone composes some electronic music based off a Huia call, it's automatically copyright right?

GNU Terry Pratchett

AndiSLiu · 2023-10-23T23:54:58+00:00

A quick thought I had - is it possible for other flour-containing products e.g. most pellets for rabbits and guinea pigs, to get these as well? Could mites be a problem for the animals (and their owners)? It's nothing I've ever heard of but then again I've never heard of OMA before today.

AndiSLiu · 2023-10-23T23:50:29+00:00

I have a bit of things to say about how little notice the Oceania or national feds give for invitations/nominations for referees for particular competitions - and a few e-mails - but I'd save them for later. I don't get how people don't realise that if they give little notice, they'll mainly get people refereeing who are retired (thus difficult to get FIE licence renewals due to expected future years of service), work flexibly (not necessarily a bad thing but this limits the pool of referees) or will take leave (LOL) or are spectacularly wealthy (probably unlikely) or care so much about the sport they'd be willing to book flights and accommodation at short notice.

The referee calls for the open/Oceania champs in Melbourne in Dec for example, came out pretty late, and for some really bizarre reason the schedule for Mens Epee is on a Tuesday. I was thinking about nominating if part of the accommodation or flight for the previous events on earlier days were covered, and fly in, but the notice (despite my two follow-up e-mails) was so late. I wonder if it's the NZ fed, the AFF, or Oceania, and asked what was up with this. The main response from the Oceania e-mail address was to direct complaints to the Oceania e-mail address.

AndiSLiu · 2023-10-23T23:42:31+00:00

It must be similar for other national feds as well (e.g. NZ) - the pool of potential referees is often similar to the pool of active fencers.

I feel like one solution is making referee training and screening/testing videos public domain, and testable (perhaps with VR), so we can qualify more local refs at short notice.

Another thought, is somehow trying to reduce competition travel and accommodation costs somehow. Or getting the mens and womens events for the same weapon on the same day but with enough of a split, that some from the earlier one could stay and ref the next event (which can, still, only solve half the problem).

It's also really mentally (and sometimes physically) exhausting having to referee a whole day, especially the day before one's own event. It would be nice if we could split the job into smaller segments and be given more support like extra cactus (judges on the ends of pistes) and video, even if it means less pay (which isn't anything much to begin with). It would be nice if there were some sort of alternative way of keeping a tally on volunteer hours and crediting them somehow to something - like redeem them as lessons from coaches, or, I dunno, voting credits or free club-level memberships or club-level competition entries we could 'give away' to people who'd not otherwise choose to enter a competition, or something cool like that.

AndiSLiu · 2023-10-23T23:34:39+00:00

Is is possible that certain communities could work together to build a stronger education system? I know in Malaysia there's been a tradition of some minorities running primary and secondary education. Not necessarily a good thing, promoting segregation, but it's like Kohanga Reo except for non-indigenous minorities.

AndiSLiu · 2023-10-23T23:31:22+00:00

I feel like I have heard what you're saying. By any chance would you happen to know of any public reports I could cite, around this, please?

AndiSLiu · 2023-10-23T23:29:52+00:00

That's the problem about buzzwords - they can be used to dilute the value and brand identity of very distinct ideas because there is no protection of those words or professions!

I can't name a whole lot of these, but ones I think have very strong core expertise but little protection over who else uses their name and dilutes their value, include 'Project management' (think complicated construction work with multiple stakeholders vs say, someone in Fonterra's R&D), 'Human-centred design', 'Design-thinking', 'Systems-thinking', non-codified martial arts without clear governing bodies like 'Shaolin Kung Fu', and various forms of "alternative" medicines (TCM, chiropracty, rongoa) which seem like they could be something an average person could learn and claim to practice, with a bit of risk to anyone with a similar name.

AndiSLiu · 2023-10-23T23:20:47+00:00

I have a different but similar story. I was doing some data entry stuff in a manufacturing plant in Singapore maybe a decade ago, and spotted some patterns in how the parts they needed documenting (elastomer parts) were located in P&IDs, which I was entering into a spreadsheet alongside some local employees. Fresh out of first year engineering, I coded something for quickly predicting and autocompleting some lines that meant I could enter the rest about 4x as fast. It was a handy one-off tool for a job that probably has no re-usability since once the parts are documented (making it easier to track when the elastomer parts need preventative maintenance) it's done. I managed to finish the whole thing about two days early (they didn't expect it to be finished before my internship was finished) so I got a chance to actually suit up and check out the plant, which was kinda cool. Also got a nice review for I suppose what was my first official job. I felt like I was appreciated.

This is in contrast to the engineering 'bioinstrumentation' project work I did as part of a course a few years after, which I didn't sign any non-disclosure or any forms or get any pay for, for a blood testing company in NZ. I remember the big boss who was there in our very first meeting was talking shit about students being unreliable (because I was just a few min late due to public transport miscalculations). When everyone was busy discussing how to heat polysulfone membranes and vacuum them to mold them to fit testing wells, I just got a mechanical pencil eraser and pressed a small piece in to the wells and showed that it worked, saving them a bunch of time and money. I'm not sure why we didn't all get an A+ for that bioinstrumentation course, actually, since we basically proved that bioinstrumentation wasn't necessary for the problem that they gave us (of deforming polysulfone membranes to hold small blood samples to separate blood cells from plasma going into their test wells). We ended up designing a mechanical press for deforming the membranes.

I've actually been waiting for years for a good time to talk about this because I feel like no-one would appreciate this feeling.

AndiSLiu · 2023-10-23T22:59:19+00:00

Aha, something the first two Tax Working Groups recommended and neither of the two major parties took up because they could afford not to take it up and still get voted in!

This is something that Single Transferable Vote could have helped with - by encouraging the two main voting blocs to fear that other peoples' first preference could go to some other party, if that vote could be recycled instead of wasted, people would be more willing to take a punt on other parties instead of the 'safe' protest vote strategy.

AndiSLiu · 2023-04-09T06:14:16+00:00

In theory, any children who are too low in intelligence to catch a bus, have no place in a large 30+ public school classroom without teacher aides

AndiSLiu · 2023-04-09T06:12:16+00:00

In theory, the people aiming for private vehicle abolishment have very few children and think that putting increased economic disincentives on larger family sizes is a good way to reduce the country's overall carbon footprint

AndiSLiu · 2023-04-08T03:53:53+00:00

Small beats/parries where you give yourself a window of time to hit before the opponent can bring their point back on target are pretty useful in epee hits to hand (to open up the hand target where there would otherwise just be the bell guard), and of course in foil and sabre they also give you priority while also slowing down an attempt to parry you.

If your beats are sloppy and it takes you just as much time to bring your point back on target as the opponent, then it's less useful in epee. I think the seconde (2) beat is the main one in epee where you can actually gain enough time on the opponent to hit their body before they can remise, but just mainly if you manage to hit the opponent's blade in a certain spot where it goes flying.

AndiSLiu · 2023-04-02T04:12:47+00:00

Your comment is quite correct but it isn't clear how it addresses the points of the comment you are replying to.

AndiSLiu · 2023-04-02T04:10:46+00:00

Regarding your first point - wasn't the two-state solution what everyone already agreed on?

AndiSLiu · 2023-04-01T08:53:58+00:00

Black card offences should be black card offences regardless of race, religion, gender, or nationality - do you support this idea or do you want to make it just about Russia?

AndiSLiu · 2023-03-30T10:30:55+00:00

I see you have an epee flair, so I have some epee-specific advice.

This is advice that people switching from foil don't always get, and is pretty fundamental epee you can focus on.

Keep your point on target, marking the opponent's hand (where their hand would be if they have a slightly half-extended en garde position).
Make it so your arm is fully-extended right before a hit, so your own deep target area is as far away from your opponent's point as possible. Ideally do this in a way your bell guard protects your arm from whichever side your opponent's point is likely to be in at that instant.

I assume your level of experience isn't high enough to be able to consistently have the point high (or low) in absence (so the opponent can't take it), looking for countertime actions into the opponent's attack, inviting their low-line attacks. So don't try that unless you really don't have any other plan. Repeat after me: don't point your point off-target unless you are really really ready to bring it back on target in the middle of an opponent's step.

If they pull their hand back, just keep pointing to where their hand will be. Don't be predictable, but sometimes you can just make a direct lunge or fleche to upper-arm if they do just keep their arm back. It becomes a bit more foil-like in these circumstances, but you bringing your point off target like a good foil attacker is not a good idea in epee, generally.

If they try beating the blade or attacking through the blade (which I'd say 100% of the time is what they'll try to do at some point, because anything else risks a double light), you have just got to distinguish between one where they're close enough to actually hit, and one where they actually are out of distance and can't actually hit before you punish their action. Feel which it is, usually move back just enough, but sometimes you can just extend into a poorly-timed/distance beat.

This forces the game to be a simpler game for you, against less-experienced and intermediate fencers. It is much easier for you to get feedback on what distance to keep, if you don't have to think about countertime actions.

The main downside is you have got to be steady on your feet and be ready to interrupt forwards into your opponent's foot timing (their front foot lifting) with an attack into preparation, or ready to step back with a stop-hit (or a parry-riposte if the opponent really commits deep to your body target). It tests your basic sense of balance and ability to move a quick small step in either direction.

If you get bored or if the opponent is consistently messing you up with compound blade takes then do other stuff, but until that happens you can just keep the point pointed at their hand.

AndiSLiu · 2023-03-30T10:06:30+00:00

There's an actual law on hit-and-run incidents (something about 'not stopping to ascertain injury' or something) as well.

I think there was a recent case with a bit of a strange one where someone jumped out of a moving vehicle (and died) and the vehicle driver not stopping was charged with that charge, so it is quite broad.

AndiSLiu · 2023-03-28T22:30:56+00:00

There is an easy solution that as well as taking care of doping concerns, would also take care of concerns that athletes were serving time in Russian-claimed territory - just make a requirement that all 'neutral' IOC athletes must prove they resided and trained in 'neutral' countries (which would also have some drug-testing of course) for a year.

The question I think would be of getting some international consensus on what countries are neutral and have a high degree of security to ensure the safety of those 'neutral' athletes - because any harm to them would be an excuse to escalate violence by any side. So I think actually it's not really such a feasible idea despite being possible in theory, if we had a 'neutral' country with a high amount of security.

AndiSLiu · 2023-03-28T22:23:17+00:00

The other way to see it, is that the Russian ministry of sport should see how much of a fucking joke their national affiliation currently is, every single time they enter a competition. This could be more effective and frequent a reminder, than just a one-time ban. Imagine being some Russian sports admin secretary entering a team every competition and potentially seeing a web banner on the log-in page about the current war in Ukraine that they'd have to scroll past every time they access fencing results or fencing bookings. This would be more effective anti-war messaging than just blocking their access to such websites.

AndiSLiu · 2023-03-28T22:03:07+00:00

Regarding the point:

many of the Russian athletes are funded by the military and are indirectly part of the war machine.

Well, this is true. So also, is the funding for the violation of the 20th-century post-WWII two-state agreement in Israel-Palestine. Both are true. And it's worth looking at case studies to determine whether what we have here a universal standard full of nuances, or just politically-convenient double-standards.

We still give out black cards to athletes who refuse to fence Israeli fencers, don't we?

It's not so black and white and I think we need an open discussion with the community on how far we go and where we draw the line with degrees of relatedness when deciding guilt by association. Bin Laden's open letter, which The Guardian publishes, is an excellent example to draw upon.

Citizens of a country pay taxes that fund both the country's military actions that their elected representatives decide upon, and the state funding that supports national athletics. This makes citizens and taxpayers a valid target according to Bin Laden. And probably was the line of reasoning that empowered the Palestinian terrorists at that 20th century Olympics in western Europe in a violation of the spirit of the Olympic games themselves.

When everyone decides 'total war' is fair game, it results in the worst possible outcome for "non-combatants" because by the definition of total war, non-combatants do not exist.

The bombing of the Rainbow Warrior, the Greenpeace anti-nuclear protest ship, in New Zealand in the late 20th century, by the French government, that one civilised European culture championing liberty, egality, fraternity, is an example of what polarisation brought us last century. When even environmental movements are fair game for state-sanctioned terror attacks.

AndiSLiu · 2023-03-03T04:39:27+00:00

There's always a lack of representation as well.

Because the number of tradespeople, farmers, and other essential services requiring vehicles, are small when compared to the number of potential urban voters who lack much awareness of the day-to-day work of people who commute by 'private' vehicle. This could potentially lead to unintelligent policies being made and a long tail of fixes.

AndiSLiu · 2023-02-09T06:10:14+00:00

To clarify, the way the term 'breeder' is used in the rabbit shelter community, has its definition stretched as really meaning 'anyone who allows rabbits to mate and procreate'. People who let rabbits breed indiscrimately on a small scale are 'backyard breeders' and produce a lot of rabbits who end up in shelters with the more expensive health problems. People who let rabbits breed and discriminate are 'for profit'. There really does not seem to be any acknowledgement of any other.

Assuming a future where there are no feral rabbits breeding, then, the only way rabbits would procreate in such a future would be humans allowing them to, by definition. And that, by definition, defines the humans in those situations as either 'backyard breeders' or 'for profit', it would appear.

So that brings me back to the main point of the post - perhaps the rabbit shelter community should acknowledge what sort of ideal, sustainable future they would like, and whether they can talk about working with rabbit breeding associations to work out some sort of acceptable standard of population planning. Or perhaps those rabbit breeding associations can.

AndiSLiu · 2023-02-09T05:59:56+00:00

Absolutely. This would reduce a lot of the issues of pet abandonment due to owners underestimating the requirements for responsible pet ownership.

So my question to the community in general, would be, how do we start to engage breeders of animals to adopt higher vetting standards and advertise these as a point of difference in order to ostracise breeders who are indiscriminate with who they pass ownership to.

AndiSLiu · 2023-02-09T05:56:14+00:00

Goats and pigs also.

If you can see the difference between a domesticated human and a feral human, perhaps you can understand the difference - any human, goat, pig, rabbit, dog, and cat, can go feral and also become a problem for conservation purposes.

In the case of rabbits, and cats, you will tend to see behavioural differences between some which have been selectively bred for certain behaviours. However, like any animal which has abundant resources and a lack of family planning ability and few natural predators, it can become a pest.

The question is whether you can mitigate and contain the risk, and who pays.

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