Gaashk
1d ago
Apropos cancellations from the right, is there any way to get a professor in trouble for teaching about social justice instead of the content they were supposed to teach? Especially if they are assigning most of the semester grade for writing and talking about social justice, not what's in the course description? Especially if it is a required course, with no option to change sections?
Gaashk
8d ago
Some people buy personal humidifiers, and keep them beside their bed. I grew up in an extremely hot, dry desert, and probably just acclimated. Also, we switch off between an AC unit and swamp cooler. As a kid, we had a swamp cooler in most of the house, and one room with an AC, and my parents were constantly telling us which windows we needed to open or close accordingly.
Gaashk
8d ago
Painting Abstract Landscapes by Gareth Edwards and his daughter Kate Reeve-Edwards. In general, I like it. Somewhat poetic writing, but also straightforward technical suggestions, and nice clear prints. Worth enjoying as a physical object.
Gaashk
25d ago
What is he angry about? Is there an alternative to his current setting that's feasible, and where he wouldn't be angry? Sometimes there isn't, but also sometimes there is. Anger is often meant to spur people into action, to change their circumstances. Teenage boys are often physically stronger than their teachers, and really can't express anger towards them. It will certainly get him fired quickly from many jobs. But, also, the extremely restrictive prison like environment of many schools, where they can't even leave campus for lunch, isn't inevitable.
I went to community college instead of high school -- technically I was "duel enrolled" as a homeschool student, but I wasn't really studying anything in particular other than the college classes. I was angry or shocked a couple of times, so I left, sat under a tree grumping for a while, complained to my parents, and then came back a couple of days later for the next class. As long as I did my work, nobody much cared.
I also taught at an alternative high school in a small town. The teens often just didn't come to class, probably two days a week. If they were angry that day, I wouldn't want them to come to class, they were better off going for a hike in the woods or something.
Gaashk
27d ago
Sure. That's in the drunk college student, but way way faster realm. Nice to have, provides consumer surplus at free tier or $20/month, but probably not $200/month.
Gaashk
27d ago
Word processors already look for typos that are actual words, but don't make sense in the current context, without applying AI. More and better autocorrect is about in line with the original thesis -- they're good at spreadsheet scale tasks, which is useful but not a huge amount of a given person's job. I'm not completely sure what professional editors do, but I think it's probably a bit deeper than looking for typos.
Gaashk
28d ago
Having poked at ChatGPT a bit, I'm not particularly surprised. If I think of a job it could potentially do that I understand, like graphic designer, Chat GPT (the only LLM/diffusion router I've personally tried) is about as good as a drunk college student, but much, much faster. There are some use cases for that -- the sort of project that's basically fake and nobody actually cares about or gets any value out of, but someone said it should be done. "I'll have GPT do that" basically means that it's considered meaningless drivel no matter who does it.
I suppose at some point it'll be able to make materials not only quickly, but also well -- but that day is not today.
Gaashk
28d ago
Yes, but anything hyper local is too much even for my laughably nonexistent opsec.
Gaashk
29d ago
There is a part of me that thinks the people in these social groups are otherwise reasonable, but they are also caught up in the social mania of modern times. I would like to be more social and make more friends, but the social norms of the spaces around me make me uncomfortable and closed-off to people. There don’t appear to be spaces near me without the straight white men are problematic norm for the areas I’m interested in (such as book clubs or running clubs).
The problem with the niche crunchy con book clubs is that they're organized in person, often at churches, so you wouldn't know unless you, say, attended the church or somehow made friends through other means, but I can't think of how. My parents are in a very nice book club that's currently reading some 19th Century Russian intellectual, and previously read Death Comes for the Archbishop, GK Chesterton, CS Lewis, and so on. It was formed through their local Antiochian Orthodox Church. My dad also plays tennis with his church friends, specifically, including from a church he attended 30 years ago, they both changed churches several times since, but they continue to be tennis friends.
You might say that you don't believe in Jesus any more than you believe that white men are still benefiting from unearned privilege, and fair enough. But social groups gain cohesion through either a shared moral narrative, or shared ethnic identity. I suppose an alternative is an ethnic club -- I've still seen Celtic and Greek clubs anyway, perhaps there are others? I've also still seen evidence of current activity from the Elks and Rotary Clubs, I'm not sure what they're like, but they donate eyeglasses to children anyway.
Education, so same issue. (I've taken a decent number of education classes, and they were mostly at least attempting to teach according to the course description)
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