What was the curriculum you used for them to learn to read?

• Dr. Gil Carvalho, MD PhD Nutrition Made Simple.

No sponsors. Sells nothing. Just an enthusiastic scientist who discusses studies and interviews anyone willing. Truly in it for the greater good.

• Talking With Docs (2 Canadian surgeons).

These guys are cool, entertaining, and informative. No red flags I’ve seen.

Avoid like plague:

• Eckberg
• Berry
• Berg

There’s another guy I can’t remember his name but is so full of hate and vitriol and insults. He’s British. If I recall all indications point to his cardiology background being a total fraud.

Interesting! I have the inverted perception. All subjective of course, and it probably has to do with my being less interested in the gritty thriller aspect of the other two. That said I thought Riddick did a great job blending the two. If you haven’t done so, I highly recommend watching the “Unrated” version of Riddick and the Director’s Cut of Chronicles of Riddick which elevate both films significantly.

CoR had so many big, unique characters and good actors. Lord Marshal, The Purifier, Karl Urban as Vaako, Dame Vaako, Keith David as Imam, Judi Dench as the Elemental, etc. In our house, it’s one of the most quotable movies up there with Sin City. Some of the cinematography is stunning, too.

Yeah nothing as groundbreaking as Blade Runner for instance, but just one of those films that has such high replayability for us.

Mediocre!? Thems fightin’ words!

Chronicles of Riddick is a hall of famer in the sci-fi world building space romps! So many good lines.

I modeled the teacup and put in Riddick’s lines when equipping or striking in Skyrim for my wife lol.

Not necessarily the biggest roles but I’ve always appreciated:

• The narrator in the original Medieval: Total War (intro for example). Set the mood.

• Prophet of Truth in Halo 2.

• Dunmer male voice actor for Morrowind.

The first and last especially set the atmosphere so well.

I can’t speak for Alyx as I never got a chance to play more than 10 minutes and I know the voice actress changed for Alyx. But Episode 2, wow. It’s a treat to play the game with commentary. The end of Ep2 has Merle Dandridge (Alyx) getting emotional discussing the final scene.

The problem is that this has been decades in the making. A lack of education in the likes of civics, us history, critical-thinking skills (fallacies, research and analytics). If such education is a vaccine against false rhetoric (bad propaganda), then to reverse course is going to take an extremely long time.

Neurons take time to rewire no less, and if you didn’t arrive to your worldview by rational means, rational logic will not get you out of that overnight.

The only short-term solution I see is redirection of existing anger to the billionaires, and using mockery and satire as a way to short-circuit people’s preexisting biases. For whatever reason, this breaks barriers like little else.

Then they should be able to accelerate your learning! My sis never played until this year and she’s kicking ass on bass! It’s a drudge for a bit though, no doubt.

There are several tracks of learning musical instruments, at least the way I see it. Learn to play other people’s stuff for fun solo, compose and record your own stuff, or jam with a group of buddies.

I’ll be honest I never got into playing other people’s music but composed in the past. That was nice because you had absolute control but it also limited the creative input and stunted my own growth in music theory that becomes a must when jamming.

This past year I’ve played more than maybe my entire life with jamming with family. It has been by far the most fun. We just make up our own simple shit and grow together.

My daughter around this age loves to draw, dance, dress, up in constumes (dinosaurs and what not). She is definitely interested in science and we have little lab kits and what not. I highly recommend Snap Circuits which should be in your budget. As with most things, important to do it with her at least once to help guide her and create that spark.

People underestimate kids. Whenever possible get them the real real of something, even if more limited. For instance my old man got her a real (cheap) cordless drill and a toolbox and she loved it. Kids know fake from real.

At this age interests come and go and it’s more about breadth / exposure / exploration.

6 is a perfect time to introduce them to a musical instrument. Or music genres themselves! Chess with uncle? Use this chance to both bond and expose her to one of your interests, with mentorship.

Get her Minecraft; set up Scratch programming for her.

Haha, that was a top one for me, too! Also the DK visual encyclopedia and Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia.

Out of curiosity, do those who read quickly type or write more slowly than you?

Hey thanks! I appreciate it! So far do they seem responsive to feedback?

The cost of the gift is frankly irrelevant and completely relative to their own family’s wealth, not yours. That’s for the boy to decide whether the penguin pebble gamble was worth it, and for the boy’s parents to decide how to deal with. Financial power plays to secure romantic relations never bode well.

Good financial lesson for him just the same. If it makes it easier, just give the gift back too.

Hey sorry, just wondering if it’s still possible to get an invite link to Digg? No worries if not, thanks.

Sounds like they wanted to angrily vent, but not also take accountability for what may be their own mistake. People are extremely poor at confrontation, and so often resort to these cheapshot hit-and-run tactics. They MUST have the last word, so they get their little dig in, then block very quickly. I just roll my eyes.

Yeah I have a similar mindset. I honestly have a lot of people tagged on here from some pretty rough debates at times. But weeks, months, years later I still up vote some of their stuff.

Very well said, and I think that’s a reasonable take. A balance between protecting yourself but also not necessarily promoting a self-validating echo-chamber. Temporary blocks are genius.

It’s funny you mention the AI thing. I’m no pro or anything but I am a software engineer and was recently blocked by someone for just noting that AI has its uses in the fight against extremist hate and online discourse and that we shouldn’t necessarily limit our tool box in the fight against fascism — especially when it’s being used against us. That’s actually what spurred my thinking about these knee-jerk blocks.

Honestly, turning inwardly to my family has been great. Especially given the political climate and my general disappointment. Finding “your people” is quite pleasant. Tribalism is sort of ingrained into us at a primate level, I suppose.

Still, I guess I try to strike a balance when all possible because I know the traps of building one’s own silo and the consequences that can have.

There’s such a massive disconnect there, though, isn’t there? I agree the slow deliberative process is key; but there is clearly a missing piece of the puzzle to bridge that gap between experts and laypeople that unfilled leads to well… All this.