As a society, for instance, we tend to think that telling kids that Santa Claus exists is unproblematic, because doing so protects certain values – such as children’s innocence and imagination.

Santa Clause may be a fun myth, especially if kids receive presents from Santa for Christmas. But it does not protect children's innocence and imagination.

Though this raises a question if kids received mischief-enabling presents from Jesus (A Red Ryder BB Gun comes to mind) that might improve their take on their personal Jesus.

Could use more elephants and turtles

I'm reminded of a struggle I had with The Long Dark trying to do basic things (like find a bed in a cabin) in the pitch black dark. IRL, when in similar situations, I could feel around, and had no problem figuring out where up and down were, which is a problem without a field in first-person games.

I suggested a slight gradient in absolute black to indicate poles, or some other kind of artificial horizon, but they said no.

English is not allowed during posting, again.

Irish bainsidhes are old (dead? dying? crazy? reclusive?) members of the family who got the news early that someone is dead and are grieving about it loudly. (In this case, early means before the poor sod has actually died ) Sometimes they can come up from their sobs long enough to give a clue who the recently departed might be.

Mermaiding is the opposite of adulting, which is doing modern survival chores (paying bills, grocery shopping, clocking into work, filing taxes, etc.) It's always tempting to mermaid irresponsibly.

Bansheeing sounds like it's going to be the next big pastime, and I suspect it'll be tempting to Banshee without covering your tracks from law enforcement.

BMW lost any enthusiasm from me when they introduced subscription car features. I think they did it before anyone else.

Now I'm happy to think of BMW as full-throated supporters of the German Reich.

This tells me they are less interested in the well being of the students as they are in intercepting the trajedy and drama that become symptoms of students in dysfunctional circumstances.

Humans don't have the technology to manipulate society to deal with the climate crisis. But then we can't get a four-day work-week in the US because a handful of billionaires oppose it.

So far, we're showing about the impetus that cyanobacteria had when it was their turn to kill off the planet. It would have been better if they could have stopped multiplying but they couldn't help themselves. We can't help ourselves either, just with extra steps to reach the same position.

<Rant>

Windows 11 requires a TPM chip. On some phones, a TPM exchanges a small, memorable pin for a large key with which to unlock your phone, and only allows so many guesses (20 usually) before it locks up...allegedly.

They can be unlocked with an electron microscope, but that's expensive enough that FBI is going to be resistant to do that to any but the most important devices.

However, apparently Microsoft and Intel are releasing TPMs they can access, not to block off outsiders for the users, but to keep the highest tiered access reserved for the OS controller. That being Microsoft. So your Windows 11 computer isn't yours, rather you're borrowing it from Big MS... and eventually any other state or institution that figures out how to hack it open.

It's not like Microsoft hasn't pulled this kind of stuff since the 1990s, trying to lock down control of every computer for its own profit.

</Rant>

The asymmetrical glasses tell me you're a fellow PC looking for group.

Though second on calling other people traveller

University of Missouri, I believe. (Sent to me from there.)

Ty Warner (creator of Beanie Babies) demonstrates excellent billionaire conduct by intentionally staying off of social media, according to a bio on the You're Wrong About podcast. This isn't to say he's a jerk that shamelessly stole the ideas of other people. He did a whole bunch of that. It's just once he got his riches, he shut up and ran his company.

As Elon Musk was considering buying Twitter, a lot of tech wonks examined the situation and came to the same conclusion: to retain his company value, Musk needed to let Twitter do its thing without changing its policy and if possible without commenting from his account. It was already doing the best it could.

Musk didn't and now X / Twitter is worth very much less.

To be fair, I may have stopped getting updates anyway? I suspect what happened is typical, that some Win10 update bugged the update process and I was supposed to either roll it back or get the next one by hand and just... didn't.

It is my intention to start looking at linux distros and have one installed by Summer 25...assuming I haven't immolated in a wildfire or been sent to a detention center by then.

Do you still get laughed out if you call it a Dublin Slammer?

I am not a barhopper, but I'd think what the locals drink would always be a good, if adventurous choice.

Some people started businesses. Some people turned their entire house into a Lego garden.

A [Lego] minifig doesn't hold a gun

A Star Wars lego minifig absolutely holds a gun. It may be a blaster, but it's still a military weapon for killing people.

Disney also has gun wielding pirates and cowboys frontiersmen. Tron: Legacy showed Disney franchises can be about people killing people (without it being Star Wars ) so long as they can sneak it past the parents. And their Atlantis First Person Shooter didn't show even a half ounce of creativity, and just promised it was not really shooting or killing.

They may only allow Mickey to do [brand-safe] things in official games, but in past Disney products they've just found ways to make violence family friendly, rather than making material that had promoted non-violence.

Hah! When I was studying King Arthur mythology, a lot of the scary fae stories were early Christian propaganda about how weird the heathen rites and customs were.

Edited There were a lot of stories like the movie Midsommar where some knights would seek shelter from a storm at a far-removed keep, and the steward would say you can come in, but it's the day of ₮ⱧɆ ₣Ɇ₴₮łV₳Ⱡ which you may not like and it turns out the festival includes mortal-stakes gaming or tourneys to the death or an obligatory feast dining on human meat or something else.

ETA For some reason it feels relevant having watched Trump's town hall meeting turn into a music appreciation show with extra helpings of Ave Maria. Fey were renowned for infiltrating human organizations, gaining high rank and then turning their events into mockeries of themselves. And this was totally that.

I think people are more willing to risk it considering their circumstances.

It's up there with bear selfies and Russian high-risk behavior.

Mushrooms do mushroom things. It's not advertising.

Clarification: The Mouse as in Disney Corporation not as in the thing you use to move your pointer.