Daniel Dvorkin @medigoth@qoto.org

@timnitGebru This is horrifying but not surprising. We've always known "plagiarism detection" software was crap, but schools keep using it anyway. "AI detection" software is almost guaranteed to be even worse. I have no idea what to do about this, but I hope the student can get some kind of redress.

#Internet pet peeve #8,467: exchanges of #knowledge that turn into dick-waving contests.

Like most people, I know a lot about a few things, a fair amount about a fair number of things, and a little about a lot of things. When I encounter someone who knows more about a particular thing than I do, I try to #learn from them. When I encounter someone who knows less about a particular thing than I do, and who wants to learn from me, I'm happy to babble at them. You may have noticed.

When I encounter someone who knows a lot about one aspect of a thing we're both interested in, and l know a lot about another aspect ... at its best, that's when magic happens. We each share our specialized knowledge, using it to fill gaps in the other's knowledge, and both walk away knowing much more than when we started.

All too often, though, it turns into an attempt to show which one knows more overall. Never mind that you may know more than I do about one particular part of this thing: I know more than you do about the thing as a whole, so your job is to sit at my feet and learn #wisdom! Or maybe I really don't, but I'm going to make sure I tell you I do, and mock you if you question my superior knowledge in any way.

For all its sins, the internet is the best medium ever invented for people all over the world to share what they know, and to learn what others know. I've lost most of my idealism about it, as has anyone with sense, but there are times when it still sparks that old wonder. When I think I'm in the middle of one of those pure meetings of minds it was always supposed to promise—well, it's no fun to find out I'm wrong.

And yes, it's mostly men doing this. Not completely, but 90% or more in my experience. Dude, just sit at home with your tape measure if that's what makes you happy. There's really no need to tell everyone else about it.

Wonderful!

"So what do we have here, Sergeant?"

"Looks like a eucalyptus deal gone bad, Detective."

"All right. Round up the usual suspects."

Probably the last time I'll bother writing a sincere answer to this kind of question. None of this is deep secret knowledge. Some people may genuinely not understand it, but I think many more pretend ignorance to strike a pose of moral superiority. Maybe my answer will benefit someone. For the lurkers, right?

https://www.quora.com/With-food-prices-so-high-how-do-the-poor-get-so-fat/answer/Daniel-Dvorkin-3

This kind of thing is why I'm still on Quora. I write a lot of satirical answers, but I can only aspire to write one half this good someday.

https://www.quora.com/I-heard-Davy-Jones-from-the-Pirates-of-the-Caribbean-was-a-real-person-but-in-the-movie-they-showed-him-to-have-a-squid-or-an-octopus-face-Does-that-have-any-historical-accuracy/answer/Alex-Cooper-81

Says it all, really. #evolution #creationism #transitional #fossil

Rules for telling other people what to #eat and/or how to eat it:

1. Has this person asked you for a recommendation? If so, go ahead. If not, go to step 2.

2. Is this person a small #child under your care? If so, go ahead. If not, go to step 3.

3. Are you a trained and licensed #dietician talking to your patient? If so, go ahead. If not, you should probably stop talking now.

One of these days, if I can ever afford it, I swear there are a bunch of people I'm going to invite to dinner at a fancy #steakhouse and order well-done for the entire table, just to watch their reactions.

Some magnificent sarcasm from #ISW: "#Russian President Vladimir #Putin awarded the 'guards' honorific to the 8th #Artillery Regiment on June 30, which will not help the regiment dislodge the #Ukrainian forces."

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-june-30-2023

So say we all.

Hah!

@deathhistorian Oh, that's brilliant.

Now I'm hearing the #Belarus deal only applies to #Prigozhin personally, and the #Wagner troops are expected to go back to fighting in #Ukraine. This does not make me any less confused.

Allegedly, #Prighozhin's march on #Moscow has ended in a deal brokered by #Lukashenko, in which #Wagner Group forces will head to #Belarus and ... become Lukashenko's #Varangian Guard, or something? Assuming of course #Putin doesn't wait for them to get strung out on the road and bomb them all to bits.

I can't help but be struck by how antiquated all this feels. The Varangian Guard reference above is deliberate—the whole thing is #Byzantine in both the original and modern senses of that word. Shades of #Belisarius and #Justinian. Yes, I know I'm mixing up periods, and the analogy is inexact in all kinds of ways: history doesn't repeat itself, but sometimes it rhymes.

#Kings and #emperors and shifting personal loyalties, not cold-blooded calculation of national interests. It's not the way #modern states make #war—even though #Ukraine may well be the first modern war of the twenty-first century, through future eyes. Something older, more visceral, rising from ancient slumber.

Hell of a time to be alive. I suppose that's always true.