Spy Games, 6/1

[saveyoulater.livejournal.com]

Sarah started the class by handing slips of paper to Katina, Agnes, Alice, Claire, Edmund, Effy, Griff, Karla and Liir assuming they were all here. "If you get a piece of paper," she announced, "don't read it out loud, don't show it to your neighbor, don't drop it on the floor. Consider it classified information."

The papers said THERE IS CANDY ON THE TOP SHELF OF THE CABINET IN THE BACK OF THE ROOM, so it might not have seemed all that cloak-and-dagger, but Sarah was a spy.

"Anyhow, today we're talking about persuasion and interrogation. It's another basic piece of spywork -- somebody knows something you don't know, and you want to find out what it is. The ideal is to get them to tell you without realizing what they gave away, but that's not always possible. I'm passing out a handout listing off some common interrogation techniques, ranging from direct questioning -- which actually works most of the time -- to 'good cop-bad cop', playing on the other person's emotions, repeating the question until the other person gets bored enough to answer, or lying to convince the subject you already know everything anyhow. I'd recommend you take a few minutes to read through the handout before we move on." She did that, reviewing it herself while the class read.

"As you may have gathered from the start of class, half of you know something now. You're interviewees. The other half don't. You're interrogators. Interrogators, you can use any tactic up to the threat of physical force to find out what was written on the paper. No actual physical force, and if your interviewee seriously tells you to back off, back off. Work in interrogator-interviewee pairs or in small groups. And if you find out what's on the paper, you may put the information to use at the end of class. That goes double for any interviewee who makes it through without cracking."

Civil War Re-Enactment; Monday, Period Three [ 06/01 ].

[civilwarsongs.livejournal.com]

The class was definitely meeting in the Danger Shop this week, especially since Jasper didn't think he'd be able to procure up two Civil War Era ironsides with matching cannons on such short notice. The simulation worked much better, anyway, because that meant the cannonballs weren't real. That could get messy.

"Good morning," he greeted the class from the smaller boat they were all on in between a lot of other boats. "Right now, we're at the sight of arguably the most important naval battle of the American Civil War, the Battle of Hampton Road, commonly called the Battle of the Monitor and the Merrimac. Those," he gestured, "are the Monitor and the Merrimac. The former is a Union vessel, and the latter is Confederate. We're just off of Chesapeake Bay and the battle, notable for being the first clash between iron-clad ships, lasted about two days. The battle between the ships themselves was about three hours....three hours," Jasper grinned, just slightly, "of volleying back cannons and failing to do any substantial damage to each other and then going along their merry ways."

"So why are we bothering with it if nothing really happened? Because it feels like a pretty good metaphor for a lot of these battles in this war. While the war itself and its outcome was incredibly significant, a lot of it was kind of like that. Flinging stuff around to no avail until all the big hitting stuff happened. It also generated a lot of buzz around the world, influencing navies a great deal in developing similar ships.

"I am by no means a navy man, so class today is pretty much target practice. You'll separate into your respective ships and learn how to use the cannon and fire at targets on the opposing ships. Do not aim at your fellow classmates; the simulation will stop the moment you do. Before we get to that, you can take some time to explore the ships a little and see the first examples of these ironside boats which changed naval warfare from that point on."

Blah blah blah, big whoop, but, hey, they're the nerds taking Civil War Re-Enactment, here.

[[ OCD on the way is on a mother f**cking boat! Class Syllabus and Roster ]]