Lorindól

You are correct. I majored in educational psychology and this language development in children has always been a special interest of mine.

Baby talk is like beacon to the baby, it tells them that “This is for YOU, pay attention!”. The baby hears and learns the intonations, patterns and the rhythms of the language. It’s importance cannot be downplayed.

A toddler can learn ~50 new words every day, so using normal speech is naturally important as well. But there is no need to try to overdo it. The mind of a small child is a massively powerful and superfocused “learning machine”, although it isn’t often apparent in their behaviour ;)

Reading to children is especially beneficial to language development. It enriches the vocabulary and introduces common patterns and rhythms of expression. And the pictures in books help to create connections between ideas and words.

The pace of language development is highly individual and forcing it is most likely useless. Children will learn what they can, at their own pace.

Every one of my own children were able to use polynomial sentences and past and future tenses before they were three. We never tried to accelerate their learning in any way, they just picked it up. On the other hand, my friend’s kid did the normal baby talk phase and then remained completely mute until the age of four. One day he just opened up and said to her mom in a clear voice: “Mom, could you give me some milk, I’m thirsty.” And he spoke normally ever since.

One advantage of quick language development is it’s effect on memory. A child that learns complex language skills early is more likely to form lasting memories of their early childhood. It may be that the memories can be stored more effectively and recalled more easily when the child is able to bind the experiences to words that can be used to express them.

This is a very fascinating subject.

I remain baffled by this. But since I can barely differentiate red and green in optimal lighting conditions, it does not come as a surprise.

I set X-Wing Alliance up for my 13 year old son some time ago. He absolutely loved it.

“You had games likes this back in the dark ages?!”

True.

I think I’ve reached the age where finding out I’ve been wrong about something isn’t all that bad. Accept and examine the presented facts and you just learn something new. And there’s no shame in that.

This is worse than terrible. Now Trump gets to play martyr and it rallies up his base, even the ones who were in doubt after his conviction.

And as the chaos ensues, Putin is laughing at his throne.

Yep, after comparing both images more closely I am now certain that I was wrong. The structural dissimilarities are simply too great, even for a heavily modified model.

This is a good reminder for me to keep my facts straight before I start claiming truths online, based on just memories from quarter a century ago ;)

Thank you for kindly showing me my mistake!

I did my service in the late 90’s and a gun just like on the picture above was on display at the gun exhibit at the RUK main hall. It was of course heavily modified according to the wishes of the buyer, but built upon the basic RK-95 frame.

Here’s a link that somewhat matches my memories:

https://metsastysjakalastus.fi/sakon-aseaarteet-sako-rk-95-762x39-kultainen-ase/

EDIT:

It is completely possible I am wrong. There are bound to be a large number of gilded AK-variants in the arab courts, everyone probably wanted their own after the first one got them. The picture does match my memory, but it was a long time ago…

That is a gilded SAKO RK-95.

I saw one on display in the late 90’s, they were a special batch ordered by the Royal Guard of the Arab Emirates or Quatar, if memory serves correctly. The image does not give away how mindblowingly cool it was in real world.

EDIT:

I was mistaken. It is not RK-95 but some other AK variant, as OP clearly points out in the comments.

This is without a doubt the best cover version of “Paranoid” I have ever heard.

Oh, the first one is a legendary classic. Finland has got the “do direct covers of all the German hits from the 70’s” - scene well covered:

https://youtu.be/seA8p2tv2S4?feature=shared

I wish they had left the 32nd century as a “Discovery - only”. After the jump to the future it felt like the show had no stakes. Everything felt disconnected.

It feels like an easy excuse for the writers to pull just about anything out of their asses, “because it has been so long” and “tech has evolved exponentially”.

SNW proved that there was a lot more to explore even in the 23rd century. So much could have been done with the fallout of the Dominion War in the 24th.

But it’s all up to the writers. If they’re good the show can be good.

This, definitely.

We got to live our teens and twenties without smartphones and social media - and it was so awesome.

You did something incredibly embarassing last weekend when you were drunk? No need to worry about photos or videos online and nobody would remember or care a few weeks later.

You date someone a few times and things don’t match up? You move on, no need to worry about them stalking or badmouthing you online.

The world seemed to be on a course for the better and the dumbass populist movements were marginal in most countries. Future looked bright and it was easy to be carefree. We got to enjoy our youths.

There were no short or vertical videos. You had to read vast majority of the information available, which made you actually process the info. And someone had put in the effort to write the stuff coherently, because no-one would read the kind of crap that video bloggers are spewing out of their mouths.

By the time we started working, the economic situation was mostly stable and getting a loan for a house or an apartment was pretty much guaranteed.

And so much more. I count myself extremely lucky to have been born in the late 70’s.

I had the same exact approach back in the late 90’s. My friends had several band projects and when they were mixing their demos, I insisted that if the mixes sound good in a standard car stereo, they’ll sound good anywhere.

I strongly dislike rap in general, but this horror was something that was probably home made by the kid himself or his friends. All I remember about the “lyrics” was that they involved some kind of rape fantasy.

That was the breaking point for me.

It’s easier to do when you’re a tall man and happen to look like a bike ganger ;)

A few years ago I regularly took the same morning bus to work. There was this maybe 16-17 year old kid who sat on the back and would listen obnoxious rap at full volume on his phone, while hogging the whole seat row with his stuff.

I had my headphones on but the hideous rap blared so loud I couldn’t hear anything else. In my country we rarely interfere with other people’s business, everyone was just sitting tight looking pissed off.

After few minutes I stood up, walked to the kid and told him to either turn that shit off, use headphones like everyone else or I’d throw his phone out at the next stop. He looked at me for a moment completely dumbfounded but turned the noise off and left the bus at the next stop.

He never took the same bus again.

No, it’s very real. They even sell rank badges, which are apparently sold out at the moment:

https://www.varusteleka.com/en/product/sarma-cottage-rank-insignia/74244