Neo

As a generalization and model for understanding my surroundings, only ... I think pursuing the logic won’t be fruitful. I’ve tried that, and it was never fruitful for me. Frustrated, I pursued the source, instead. There is a Schadenfreude of Les Misérables that is loose in the environment. This ethos is a pathogen as dangerous as any virus to the broader body. It’s been around since the dawn of human history, yet we are not immune and remain at risk. The infection rate ebbs and flows. There have been more cases than usual for the past sixty years and a spike in the last ten. My advice is to fight it. It flees when confronted, crumbles when caught, and dies in the sunlight. I don’t think your mother in law or patient management was the subject of the post you’re questioning.

Saw that. So, in chess, I dabble. I had a forty year break. Fischer - Spassky introduced me. Life and commerce interrupted. I’m a 1440/1500 ELO player at Lichess. Smack dab average. I am beginning to learn the stars and their backgrounds. Great human interest stories with global points of view. There is so much streaming and web content. The talk now is what do do before the world championship. The cancellation is not without controversy. Teimour Radjabov, who I didn't know from Adam a week ago, quit the tournament a few days ago because of the virus and the possibility that he’d be stuck in Russia if he didn’t leave fast. He pleaded for postponement, did not prevail, left and was disqualified. Days later, FIDE changed its position to his. Should he be reinstated? Everyone has a view. I like the streams a lot. Because it’s global, chess is accomplished in streaming technology. You’ll typically get different ages, localities and genders all at once. Perspectives! Lastly, I wrote hear months ago that I was still trying to figure out if chess was a game or a sport. My friends here said game. Web personalities in the chess world are unanimous in calling it a sport.

I think you’re on to something.

For the record .... this liberal arts educated person is all against labeling anything a USELESS major. I am with you. My advice to my kids was “study what you love, commerce takes care of itself”. I would add, though ... “don’t borrow more than you can afford to do it”.

@darksabre ... thoughtful reform. I prefer this to more resources without reform.

Ol’ Carl. A hero, a villain. His is the face I saw when Michael Douglas said, “Greed, is good.” https://www.americanrhetoric.com/MovieSpeeches/moviespeechwallstreet.html

I get what you’re saying, but I am far less likely to stop “nearly all” because of “not all”. One room and five bedrooms are different ends of a continuum. America lives in the middle. You can see something bad at McDonalds. This is a debate between common sense and “I can imagine something going wrong”. The ability to imagine something going wrong is limitless and the instinct to organize 300 million people to avoid it is ... up to each of you.

I am as capable of rationalizing and compartmentalizing as anyone!

I mean ... this is "holy, schmoly" funny!

I am agnostic regarding cameras. They're pieces of plastic, metal and wiring. I am not agnostic regarding their use. That approach applies to any tool or implement I can think of. I'm afraid that school administrators stopped their thinking after your first question.

An informed insider! Let me be clear. I prefer face to face for any interaction. I think we are wired this way. My comments, and I do have my biases, are grounded in cost effectiveness, sustainability and common sense. We've built a system where the end users can't pay for the product. When I see this, I begin to trim the product at its edges until its critical elements remain. You've described critical elements. My criticism of the academy, my prediction that it's trajectory will change, doesn't lie in science classes, professors and TAs interacting, and gatherings for debate and dialogue. It certainly doesn't lie in "lab". I am the last person to say "virtual anything" is better. I'm a salesman. My wife's a hero teacher, like you.

Well, that great success lasted three days. Somehow, in my first post, I missed the menace to life, liberty and happiness posed by the version of community schooling I described. I was blinded by tears and kindergarten shrieks of joy. A parent pointed out to the school district that seeing into homes might lead to, well, something like inadvertently seeing other parents in pajamas, or something worse. Who knows, a bad dad might moon the camera. Thank HEAVENS someone stepped forward to identify a risk and alert the school district to a convolutedly imagined liability! Phewwww, a parent (who shouldn't be) spoke up and pointed out that subtle concept I ignored. That is ... "something could go wrong". Hold on, I need a moment. I'm shuddering. So, a collection of really insightful bureaucrats got together, recognized there was an opportunity to further sanitize, protect, and shelter others from life, er, harm. They passed on the opportunity to respond to the parent with something along the lines of "life happens, get over it". Instead, they formulated rules and regulations. They announced how important the new rules were. They cascaded the new rules to teachers. Virtual learning will now consist of my wife's camera being on, and no one else's camera being on. Five year olds will now see her, only. She'll see no one. There will be no community, no eye contact, no gleeful talking and giggling with one another. Of course, human engagement, perseverance, and resiliency go to hell. The effectiveness of the education decreases immensely. BUT, new rules are in place that protect us. We are sanitized. We are not advanced. If only these bureaucrats had more resources. They could identify every victim, spot any risk, and send out rules for ... well, I was going to say "living", but that doesn't seem like the right word. I am hoping the PTA takes up "pajama parties", which seem to carry a similar risk. Perhaps this is Town Board, and not PTA, jurisdiction. Education doesn't need more resources. It needs a great purging and an enema. I have to go. I'm boarding up my windows lest I see something offensive outside or lest someone outside sees something offensive inside. The latter is more likely than the former. You see, I am handicapped. I was born without an "easily offended" gland. Sigh, if only ...

FIDE Candidates ... I dig Agadmator. 6:40 - “an improved Bong Cloud”! Music analysis on Youtube ... John Bonham getting in with Jimmy Page

Not for me, it isn’t!

I am playing chess with hundreds of people of all races, creeds, ages, genders and nationalities from around the world on Lichess.org.

Oh, man .... wear a helmet. Mrs. Neo and I binged it at the suggestion of a NeoEtte. Disturbingly, much of it took place in Tampa.

Pretty cool watch. Rogie Vachon and Bunny Larocque ... The end is interesting. There’s a panel discussion where Brodeur is selected over Hasek, followed by 5 or so minutes of highlights of each. The highlights would lead anyone unfamiliar with the pair worried about the mental health of the panelists who selected Brodeur.

https://youtu.be/_bqtE9Y_kr8 Richter, Number 37.

I think it was three years ago, tonight ... the second annual ... Modo came. I sat with two NeoEttes and @qwksndmonster. i caught a tee shirt shot out of a gun, memorialized as follows by my son. Anybody have old pics?

Megatrends ... this will accelerate great change. Much was already in the works. 1). China loses big. 2). Any brick and mortar is worth less. The acceleration of middle class mall decline is here. 3). Bloated secondary education is taking it right in the gut. Brick, mortar, dorms with spas, gyms and pools, and curricula that requires debt but can’t repay debt (a cocaine and hookers and meth party that’s nearly two generation old). 4) Bank branches, already on life support, go away (this is, ironically, good for banks and a consumer choice). 5) Automobile sales decline by a similar proportion to the drop in office workers. I’d be interested in the thoughts or observations of others ...

Memory lane .... Sabres fans chanting “Bernie, Bernie, Bernie” while Parent skated the Conn Smythe around the ice. Truly, Buffalo Fan iconic. Sixteen years later, that same group of fans would chant “Scotty, Scotty, Scotty” in the same rhythm in Niagara Square. Two years earlier, they’d chanted “Thank you, Sabres” in the waning seconds of a game six playoff elimination. I always wondered what the likes of Bobby Clark, Moose Dupont, Big Bird Saleski, et al. thought while that was happening. They played in front of Philly fans, a species with different DNA. Tampa has good fans, nice fans. Even they tilt their heads, much like dogs do when they hear a word they recognize in a context they don’t, when I tell these stories.

Brodeur is the only goaltender I consider as Hasek’s peer. I give Dom the nod overall. Dom carried weaker teams and was less protected by system. I recall conversations about NJ and its LWL/ Trap and the depression of scoring chances. True, but Marty was great. Dom is GOAT. I don’t get to Miller as top fifty. I considered him in the bottom half of the top third in the league (5th to 10th) in any given year. A very good goaltender for a long time. I wish he’d stopped Crosby for his sake. How special he was in that Olympics. How dramatic that moment was.

I’m down with D.D.P., yeah, you know me.

Attaboys!