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PaperclipPerfector  9mo ago (text post)   4747 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for February 18, 2024

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Geese really are the worst.

Before pouring any sand, grandpa put landscaping fabric over the whole beach area. At the shoreline, it was weighted down with a concrete and lumber barrier to slow erosion. Despite all this, the sand immediately spread to cover the bottom out as far as you could see or stand. This was a significant improvement over the mud and leaf litter.

I guess what I’m saying is that sand might work better than concrete. Or it might just get disgusting. Who knows?

Sand or gravel will definitely work better at least for the near to mid term future.

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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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