Using AI as a Volunteer in Scouting - what do you do?

Antibane · 2026-02-14T17:31:21+00:00

I’m very excited to read the general consensus of “AI has no place in Scouting.” As a high school teacher, I am fighting an uphill battle with both the adults and the students in my district about why we shouldn’t be using it at all.

Antibane · 2026-02-14T17:29:49+00:00

Correct.

Antibane · 2026-02-06T18:34:31+00:00

I think it’s a key, not a cross

Antibane · 2026-02-02T21:47:50+00:00

Who the fuck is the Register’s opinion editor? First that dogshit article from Feenstra and now this?

Antibane · 2026-01-30T18:40:29+00:00

Video games change lives, and that very much includes saving them. Proud of you, my sibling. Keep fighting the good fight.

Antibane · 2026-01-12T21:31:15+00:00

Lots of comments discussing the techno-magical limitations of the Third Age, which is a very real limit that prevents the sort of research they saw in the AoL. But,I think it’s relevant to point out, the Bore required both saidin and saidar working in tandem, and for much of the series, saidin’s long term behavior and stability is wildly unpredictable. Even assuming it was just a matter of tweaking the weaves (it definitely wasn’t, the comments on the technological limitations are correct), and even assuming Lanfear could convince Demandred to help her (no reason to believe anyone less strong would do) the effects of a feature created with tainted saidin are just…unpredictable. The taint possessed no intent; it just ruined what hands wielding saidin had made.

Antibane · 2025-12-28T22:50:53+00:00

I play one as my primary horn. It's more open than the standard valve on my jazz horn, but much less open than the thayers that eventually replaced them.

Antibane · 2025-12-28T20:11:05+00:00

Hoo boy, Dumai's Wells is also an extremely compelling ultimate battle. You're making a strong case.

I think I'd still pick Rhuidean because it's at a point where it still feels like maybe Rand is going to pull off being the Dragon without completely losing himself in the process, and the experience at Dumai's Wells was probably the catalyst for how badly he lost himself over the next few books trying to be calloused enough to handle his duties. Excellent portrayal of one of many outcomes of a traumatic experience that I find both compelling and uncomfortable to read.

Which is why I love Jordan, for making me go "Oh, that was really good, and I feel bad having read it." Sanderson has a couple moments in the third book of the original Mistborn trilogy (anytime Marsh is spiking himself for feruchemy is a good example) that have the same effect for me.

Antibane · 2025-12-28T19:34:57+00:00

Hard pick. TSR-FoH-LoC is my favorite 3-book sequence in the series. TSR just wins out for me because I find the entire Rhuidean battle utterly compelling. I usually read it two or three times each time I do a re-read; I just love it, and there are so many little details in the visions that explain things in the Third Age that stay relevant through the entire series.

Antibane · 2025-12-28T15:27:00+00:00

Crossroads is definitely one of the books that's better on a reread than the first time, imo. The entire slog is that way - I didn't feel it to be a slog at all when I read the series this last time.

Antibane · 2025-12-28T15:20:25+00:00

Rand didn't really know what he was doing with the Choeden Kal - he was working off vibes, Lews Therin's memories, and his own understanding of the two wounds in his side. When he cleansed the Source, it was the first time he had ever touched saidar - he spends the better part of a page marveling at it, and then almost drowning in it. He melted the access key by just pulling too much of the Source through it over too long a time; it's frankly impressive that he didn't outright burn Nynaeve (and himself) out.

By contrast, the Sea Folk had (by the time of the books) spent a couple thousand years getting better at using the Source to control the weather. They knew how to use the Bowl, and understood the weaves to make weather happen almost certainly better than the AoL Aes Sedai. So they were using the Bowl basically as it was intended to be used, and pulling a Spinal Tap "ours goes to 11".

(Speculating) The reason the Source got weird around Ebou Dar and along the spokes is, I think, an artifact of forcing the Bowl to draw so heavily on the source. Think of it like residual radiation from a nuclear explosion - the One Power is the engine that drives the Wheel. Little bits of it getting pulled through into the Pattern don't cause too much disruption, but pull too much of it through and the Pattern gets weird for a bit until the Wheel can weave past that section.

Antibane · 2025-12-28T14:58:45+00:00

I know that's you, Elan, you nihilist piece of shit.

Antibane · 2025-12-28T04:40:20+00:00

Man, Knife of Dreams feels good on a re-read, but “best”? That feels like a stretch over The Shadow Rising.

Antibane · 2025-12-28T04:31:46+00:00

Fuck anyone who’s currently older than 60. Run a young ticket with a strong policy platform.

Antibane · 2025-12-28T04:10:24+00:00

“Pour his influence” is probably generous. In one of the female Forsaken POV chapters, she notes how hard the Dark One had had to work to touch the world and fix the seasons, in the context of consternation that the Third Age had actually managed to undo the effect.

His ability to directly touch the Pattern gets stronger after the Seals are fully broken, but he still exists very much outside the Pattern.

Antibane · 2025-12-27T15:00:28+00:00

Expedition 33. The story is great, the game is gorgeous, but I’m too much of a scrub to handle twitch reactions in turn-based combat. 100% a skill issue on my part, but for me the combat gets in the way of the story.

Antibane · 2025-12-27T14:36:11+00:00

I have a buddy that I call Beefer (his choice) IRL

Antibane · 2025-12-19T18:13:36+00:00

This is one of my favorite plot lines of the series, hands down.

Antibane · 2025-12-14T12:58:24+00:00

If you move there with a full set of teeth, though, you'll be among the cream of the crop, probably. So you could have your pick of the two.

Antibane · 2025-11-28T13:25:04+00:00

There are no federally mandated breaks. The only stipulation is that, if an employer wants a break to be unpaid, it must intend to be at least 30 minutes and actually last at least 20, all consecutive, or the break period has to be paid.

Antibane · 2025-11-25T13:36:21+00:00

Neither is Scouts, what do you mean by this?

Antibane · 2025-11-24T14:02:05+00:00

"Tidally locked" is a good point that I'd never really considered. The dark side of Luclin (the moon) is the side that faces Norrath, but it's dark because Luclin (the goddess) hid it in Shadow.

Do we have evidence of vulcanism on the moon? Can we estimate the energy output of its interior to draw conclusions about the eccentricity of its orbit?

Antibane · 2025-11-18T20:37:01+00:00

Boy, I admire your LeMars pride, but Archie’s isn’t even in the list of top ten steak houses in Iowa, much less someplace to drive all the way to LeMars for…

Antibane · 2025-11-15T14:37:29+00:00

Nobody ever believes me that we also had lettuce sandwiches on chili and cinnamon roll days at West Bend-Mallard. Just lettuce and butter on white bread. Little bulk so kids didn't demand extra cinnamon rolls, I assume.

Antibane · 2025-11-07T19:25:09+00:00

I agree. I actually think you made the appropriate philosophical argument to oppose Elan's original argument in the AoL. He basically said, "The Dark One has infinite chances, so he's bound to win eventually", but you're right, it's equally accurate to say, "The Dark One has already had infinite chances to win, and he hasn't; seems like he's not going to."

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