Iunnrais

Teacher here. (EFL teacher, but phonics are necessary in EFL as well as L1 English classes)

The opposite. Phonics is the only thing that actually works, and any and all attempts to move away from phonics creates long term systemic issues in reading.

The issue is that phonics are hard to learn at first, but the payoff for the early effort is nigh-effortless reading in the future, enabling education to continue and making literally all future self-improvement better.

Alternatives to phonics focus on the “it’s really hard at first” thing. You know, if we skipped phonics and just memorized word shapes, we’d be able to get our 1st and 2nd grade test scores up… and that means more federal funding! And it works!!!

What do you mean our 3rd grade test scores are dropping… I guess we just need to pile on MORE HOMEWORK!!! And 4th grade scores are dropping too? And 5th? And middle schoolers are struggling? And high schoolers don’t read much either, and their writing is nigh-incomprehensible? Ehh… well, must be the kids fault, am I right guys?

Phonics teaches the rules that make English work. It gives you the ability to read and write as well as you can speak, which comes naturally. It gives you the method to learn new words in seconds or at worst minutes, instead of days or weeks. You can’t tell me that isn’t powerful.

Ironically, I think it’s actually rooted in the same cause of what makes trans people exist in the first place. Identity, who you are, is core to… well, who you are. It’s important. And gender is important to who you are. Not being who you are hurts, a lot. It can hurt so much that it can drive someone to suicide. We know this— this is the whole reason that accepting trans people is important, right? Not doing so can literally kill them in this way.

So is it so strange that non-trans people hold the same depth of conviction about keeping their same gender? “Oh, but why can’t they just accept that other people need to align their mental gender with their biological sex?” Because they don’t understand or believe that this is what is happening. Really. You know the thing where not having these thing aligned can KILL you? Well, they view being trans as actively CAUSING this state, deliberately inflicting it on someone. And that social pressure and acceptance of trans people is encouraging and/or driving more people to this horrible state of affairs. It’s killing more people!

It doesn’t help that it’s been hijacked by the culture wars to distract you from the class war and authoritarianism. But it being hijacked doesn’t mean there’s not a core misunderstanding, and it’s not a misunderstanding that can really be corrected or educated by simply saying “trans people exist”. Identity runs too deep, and threats to it are too scary— they can kill you, and kill you in a way far more terrifying than a bullet. Mere words and slogans are not going to cut through that fear. You need a foundational framework of understanding the world.

And that’s where the hijacking and red vs blue political nonsense comes into play. The culture wars doesn’t create the visceral fear of trans people— but it sure as heck makes it harder or even impossible to fix.

No, but you were replying to someone who gave a single specific response that was not bad.

But the AI said that was not a good resting heart rate, and only many for during exercise if you’re young, which is not wrong?

No, your farts are not what propel your poop. Squeezing and relaxing of the tube propels the poop, which is not a pneumatic process.

The color screen used waaaay too much battery life, making it untenable for a handheld console. The game gear’s battery problem was a huge contributor to why it didn’t do very well.

I agree that if what you did works, go for it. But I will also tell you how my mother and grandmother taught me to knead, and see if it helps you any.

1. Take the dough, and fold it in half.
2. Push it down, so that you have a solid mass again with good cohesion.
3. Rotate it 90 degrees, then repeat from step one.

I don’t always get the best crumb this way, and I’m still trying to figure out why, but this is how I was taught, and it does quickly create all the nice long gluten strands you want when kneading dough. And that’s the main idea… pushing and pulling the dough in the kneading process makes long gluten strands. Folding the dough like I was taught stretches it. Pushing it, well, pushes it. Rotating it makes sure that you’re getting at all the dough, not just one portion.

But kneading like a cat does? Well, it does push and pull, which is kneading. The only thing I’d be worried about in your method is that it might not get all the dough kneaded, there may be spots left that didn’t get pulled or pushed, and even if you got everything, it might not be everything evenly.

But again… it it WORKS for you, then do what works.

Agreed. The “it’s not really food” idea came from labeling requirements that to be labeled cheese, it needs a certain percentage of its ingredients to be cheese. Once upon a time, American cheese slices were made from the offcuts of cheddar, but the popularity of American cheese means that there literally aren’t enough offcuts to be economical… you’d have to make cheddar just to turn it into American cheese.

But guess what cheddar is made from? Milk. Turns out, when making American cheese, it’s possible to skip the aging and culturing process and simply go straight from milk into the cheese slice we know, with less than the mandated amount of aged cheddar added. That means they had to write something like cheese product instead of calling it cheese directly.

But it is still food! In fact, it’s still American cheese… skipping a step in the recipe to get a very similar if not identical result doesn’t change what it is! It uses the same raw ingredients, for crying out loud! It’s still the same stuff!

This misconception is widespread enough that I can only think that it is deliberately perpetuated by the ruling class to save them money. The number of people who are convinced that going up a tax bracket could mean you make less total money is astounding, and many of them are like your uncle— utterly convinced to the point that being informed correctly sounds like naivety to them.

As a DM, I’m not asking you to act, I’m not asking you to engage in improvisational theater, I’m asking your approach. I mean, I’m a “fade to black” DM when it comes to spicy roleplay, so I probably wouldn’t for the named situation in this meme, but let’s say it’s somehow relevant beyond the laughs of “horny bard”. Are you being cheesy and trying to get the bartender to laugh? Are you trying to be suave? Are you just socially indicating interest and letting the bartender decide what they think of that? These matter for what kind of reaction will come about from either a success or a failure on the roll, and it’s not my job as a DM to decide for you what approach is best for the situation… determining the approahh ch is the game. You can tell me your approach via ACTING! or just by describing it, but I really need to know what your character is doing.

But really, don’t worry about your own charisma. You don’t need to be suave or charming if your character is. I just need to know what they’re trying to do, not see you do it.

Soap is extremely moldable and formable, which makes it reformable too. All the scraps can EASILY be reused without loss of quality. You can do the same at home— shred the soap ob a cheese grater or food processor, melt it in a cooking pot on the stove, pour it into the mold of your choice, pull it out and you have soap of the same quality as before in a new shape.

Possible, but super tricky. Good luck trying to sell a producer on minimizing dialog!