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PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   1651 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for April 18, 2025

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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I'm not terribly frightened of this hypo. Either, or both, or neither I'll do it myself just for the story. Landing a plane isn't really THAT hard. It's reasonably difficult to do perfectly every single time, without damaging the plane or anything around the plane. I would bet the median mottizen could land an airliner with no serious injuries or fatalities with 98% success or better with radio guidance.

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A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

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