Aug 2
do you guys ever think about a really good topic for a research essay and get insanely excited by the prospect of writing it
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do you guys ever think about a really good topic for a research essay and get insanely excited by the prospect of writing it
Screenshots of why you need to doubt your sources and not use AI.
Beyond the whole, AI is a trash fire that guzzle water to try to constantly put it out and hallucinates at a rate that makes you say mercy... AI compresses the mediocre of humanity and results from search engines and then slap dashes it together. So what I'm going to do is show you here search engines failed. Probably will be both frustrating and amusing. Exhibit A: Pulleys.
Search query to Brave: "First Inventor of the Pulley"
Results: Archimedes
Search Query to Start Page: First inventor of the Pulley Results: Archimedes
Search Query to Duck Duck Go: Fist inventor of the Pulley Results: Archimedes.
This, in fact, is wrong, because I actually had an anthropology class that explained right after the wheel the pulley was pretty much invented after that.
So let's change the query: Pulley, first inventor, asked on Startpage (Google's bots work there.)
Oops it's between Ancient Egypt, Old Kingdom and Mesopotamia. I did see, but am not going to link that someone on Reddit was bent out of shape by the Old Kingdom discovery and thought the Greeks had given it to Egyptians, but then the Greeks would have to had a time machine.
Exhibit B: (Funnier) Thomas Clarence is not a Black Supreme Court Justice???
Brave, Startpage and DuckDuckGo agree on this (You can use the same search term: Black Supreme Court Justice or Black US Supreme Court justice). I find it hilarious that after years of Black people complaining that he's not really Black, etc, that he's not first page search results anymore and Ketanji Brown gets first place. If the results were generated by AI, or AI takes it from human knowledge it's too literal in its interpretation of what humans have been saying.
Other results I've corrected: - The first drawers was not invented in the 19th century by some white dude. They were first found likely in China as a way to store medicine.
I basically rewrote the whole story structure articles on Wikipedia. I've corrected Kishotenketsu, Eight Legged Essay, List of story structures, Lester F. Ward's article, Dropped a note on the Death of the Author Article. And corrected Narrative conflict article. I used what? Primary sources.
Generally, you can smell if a fact is wrong. For example, say that you know for a fact that paper was invented in Egypt, but Printing Blocks were in China, and around the Song Dynasty there was a sudden explosion of Literati. And that reinforced paper was invented there. Why didn't Egyptians have the printing press? Because papyrus is too fragile. But Chinese changed over to wood pulp of mulberries and added fabric fiber in around 200CE (I'm doing this from memory. Look, Ma, no hands) such that they could fly paper lanterns, which also traveled to Europe.
WHY then if reinforced paper was invented in China would they not have a printing press? They reinforced paper to make it strong enough fr wood block printing, so wouldn't they fuss with it more? Hole in the logic. Usually new inventions interdependent on other inventions are closer together than further apart. It makes more sense.
Metal movable type was invented in Korea, moved back to China, China worked on it. But China had movable type before then. The distance isn't that far. It would be as ridiculous as saying that grain was domesticated in West Asia, but you know, Roti (Jamaican) was the first instance of bread. Geographically, it's not likely to jump that far. Closer cultures are more likely to tinker and have similar values than far off cultures, thus trade is more apparent.
Therefore, that's why I snerk when internet peeps claim that Greeks had time machines. And Egyptians didn't improve the pulley from the Old Kingdom unil Archimedes came along, like Science has to wait for one great (presumed straight) white(ish) abled man. Do real research... I swear there are plot bunnies to be found. I found out through one of my searches what the first battery was really for. I also found out that this machine existed: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trip_hammer I mean c'mon. Research can be fun.
Submarine history that inspired Little Hearts
This Spanish, foot-pedalled communist utopia coral-harvesting, "fish boat" submarine:
Source
And this steam powered sub designed by an English clergyman/inventor. It had a whole ass furnace with a chimney that heated steam tanks for days before submerging. The machine was unbearably hot and a potential carbon monoxide death trap. A Swedish industrialist came along and funded the project, put his own name on the patent and every boat they built thereafter. He also put torpedoes on them and sold them to the Russians (who refused to pay).
Source
None of these inventors built their own machines. They had teams of designers and craftsmen to fulfil their visions. I truly hate the myth of the sole genius, it's a breeding ground for parasites like Elon Musk and I don't want to perpetuate it in fiction. Even Vegapunk split himself because he couldn't do everything alone. What I'm trying to say is that I disliked the idea of the Polar Tang being the product of one single man so much that I built a plot around it not being that way.
Not gonna say anything more about it though because I need to get to work and the plot is still plotting on Swallow Island.
I went down a crazy rabbit hole today about the smallest dog in the world, LITTLE PEDRO (1923)
S'more Survey
A question that divides every USian household. Every person that chooses the other camp always gets dirty looks for a week after the fire of choice in my experience. People will flat out argue their option is the best while everyone else will call theirs the worst.
Which camp of marshmallow are you with s'mores?
Raw (No effort)
Lightly toasted (white bubbly shell)
light brown (took you forever and multiple marshmallows)
Burnt fireball (nuclear option, minimal effort)
BTW, for those who don't know what a s'more is, it is a graham cracker (A sweet biscuit to those Brits) with a thin wafer of square chocolate and on top is a marshmallow with a closing graham cracker, usually square.
This is the thing people will argue about, say agree to disagree, and then still think you're crazy later. Feel free to comment that too...
Some'more opinions:
The pro mini marshmallow people with s'mores drive me up the wall.
I'm in the camp that says that a campfire with real wood makes them taste the best, complete with the smoke deftly blowing suddenly in your direction.
Everyone is going to hate me for this, but I like dark over milk chocolate in a s'more.
You may argue your opinion in the reblogs if you disagree, but if you do disagree, lobby for your side with a logical reason.
An incomplete list of everything I've done for my writing:
Traveled to DC/Arlington so I could see/do nearly everything Kate & Lucy do in Week 25.
Baked [redacted because it's a spoiler for an upcoming fic].
Worn a heavy coating of perfume to the gym so I could see how sweating changed the scent. Sorry everyone who had to smell me that day! 😬
Measured doorways and bed frames and gotten out a protractor to do some angle calculations and put myself in all sorts of strange positions to see if what I've described is accurate to real life.
Ruined orgasms in an effort to describe them better. Sorry to everyone who has had me space on them in the moment 😬
Watched a ton of horrible movies.
Watched a few ok movies.
Watched a godawful cringefest of a lesbian porno 😭
Drank mushroom coffee 🤢
Spent hours staring at gifs so I could learn facial expressions and body movements and memorize all sorts of other subtle details
Killed a computer because my research and lengthy drafts were too much for it to handle.
Reread a good portion of my law school casebooks and suffered through the embarrassment of paging through my law school notes/papers.
Look at this shit man
Love that feeling when I'm researching and I have a thought about something related to writing, one of those "Is it possible that [x] could happen...?" then I find an actual academic article suggesting the very same possibility. Feel like I'm really sitting on something good. :D