The Same Earth, Air & Sky

Why Necromancy Doesn't Exist is a fantasy Micro-RPG about magic, taxonomy, and petty academic disagreements. If you like making arguments for the sake of making arguments, compiling evidence to support a clearly ridiculous claim, or having in-depth discussions about fake things that don't matter -- well, that's what this game is about.

Why Necromancy Doesn't Exist will always be free, but if you enjoy it, check out my other games.

Reality and Other Falsehoods compares Illusion and Alteration, which may be what I was imagining, but the example I was thinking of was so specific I don't think I made it up entirely. It was an argument that light was illusion rather than Alteration because plants can't grow under the light produced by magic.

Reminds me of that pianist who sat down to play with an orchestra and realised, as the concert began, that she'd practiced the wrong symphony. And while the orchestra played their opening bars she clearly wants to cry, and is sitting there with her head in her hands. And then it gets to her cue and she turns to the piano -

and plays it beautifully, because while she hadn't practiced it, she's still a classically-trained professional pianist, and "doing her best" means something phenomenal.

wait, which pianist is this? Do you have a video?

I need to share how the IT guy at work greeted my department on CrowdStrike Blue Screen Friday. Never have I seen a man so shocked by the sight of perfectly functional computers

I’ve found it’s very effective to focus on how kids’ behavior affects others, including me, before focusing on their personal risk.

If I tell kids stuff like “stop that because you could get hurt,” common responses are “no I won’t” or “if I do I don’t care.”

I’ve found it’s actually way more effective to bring somebody else’s feelings and responsibilities into the mix so they understand OTHERS better. Examples vary by age but can look like this:

1) I know YOU feel okay dangling from the upper railing, but you are making me feel very scared and nervous. Would you mind stopping so I don’t feel scared and nervous anymore?

2) I realize YOU are willing to face consequences related to opening the fire alarm door, but if you do, I will have to go talk to the camp leader and also do an incident report, which would mean we cannot play mafia during free time today.

and when you absolutely need to slam the breaks on 'no it's not safe to play in the road' or whatever you just say 'i know kids die that way and your mom would be SO MAD at me if you died while i was there. let's play over here. 😢' and they always fold. Mom Will Get Mad At Me is a universal game over.

For a few bucks a month you could become a Triple-A member and yeah, roadside assistance was one of the perks. BUT ALSO you could pick up the phone, call their 1-800 number, and tell the human operator who answered that you were planning a road trip.

They'd get your starting and destination address. Ask a few questions: what kinds of hotels you liked, preferred gas stations, any interest in touristy things?

Then in 7 to 10 days you'd get a thick package in the mail of carefully customized maps. Each map was the size of a paperback book cover, perfect for holding in the passenger's or driver's lap. Each was enumerated starting at #1 and ending at #whatever number of minimaps the trip required, with a hand-drawn highlighter path drawn on the map marking the route from one edge to another; entrance & exit points for that section of the route.

Motels, gas stations, and (if requested) tourist traps were indicated in color coded ink -- again, by hand. Sometimes detours were drawn in red marker, overriding the printed map because AAA kept up to date on road closures & regional disasters.

These maps were customized for your particular trip, and were invaluable since GPS did not exist. Unless you were familiar with the local region, the alternative was buying a map at the next gas station and guessing.

I was told by a taxi driver that in the old days they had to basically memorise the Refidex to pass the Taxi Licence test, since they weren't allowed to use it during the test.

BUT searching for a picture of the 2023 Refidex led me to this!

Brisbane and environs in 1951! Fully digitised with machine readable text and high quality images! I can buy it for 19.50 - nay, I'm GONNA buy it for 19.50! (Although I wish it was $19.51).

Holy cow, they've also got 1926.

London cabbies who hold The Knowledge experience changes to their brains that are explained in every Neurobiology for Babies course. It’s a wickedly difficult skill: rather than the pizza delivery people in the OP, starting in one defined zone (pizza place) and radiating out from there, a cabbie starts a route in any position and has to navigate across a partially-medieval city with no grid pattern, deranged place names, and not many bridges across a very large river. It would be useless to refer to a paper map, so cabbies were required to have all the Knowledge memorized. This means that the paths and optimized routes would have to be at the top of one’s brain, ready for instant access. As a result, the cabbies develop materially different brain regions as they study and use the Knowledge. They have detectable, measurable changes in their hippocampi, with an increase in grey matter forming in those who pass the Knowledge test and use it.

When asked to navigate a route between two points, they describe the mental process as instantaneous and explosive visuals: it sounds as if the map generates itself behind their eyes. (One potential tradeoff, though, is the decrease in associated brain matter in areas associated with other forms of memory.) After retiring, the brains of London cabbies would appear to return to “normal” - when not exercised, the brain region dedicated to holding the Knowledge seemingly rewires itself - which is exciting because it indicates that brains are still capable of rewiring and adaptation even in later life.

That’s all very interesting for neuroscientists, which is why it’s in all the textbooks and underpins a lot of our understanding of brain plasticity (adaptability) especially in old age. After all, it’s only ever adults who go through this process: babies rarely do a PhD in becoming a human Google Maps.

Some science-fiction series, like Dune, have explored the idea of no-longer-human navigators. still, it’s under-explored. Today, researchers are interested in seeing how London cabbie brains could help with Alzheimer’s research, or other progressive brain conditions that deteriorate the hippocampus.