The Academics Thread

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

[Old Man]

5 minutes ago, Logan D. Hurricanes said:

 

That got posted on Twitter and Twitter users found the reference in a few hours. 

 

edit: Here.

 

 

Edited June 15, 2023 by Old Man

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

Wow, Twitter is good for something.

[Cancer]

... something in the 19th Century, yes ....

[Old Man]

31 minutes ago, Logan D. Hurricanes said:

Wow, Twitter is good for something.

Was.  That was pre-Musk.

[Bazza]

Still is useful, you just have to know.

 

 

[Cancer]

Complete non sequitur here.

 

How many folks here can (or once could) read a topographic map?  If you can, where'd you learn how? 

 

(For me the answer is yes, but it wasn't something taught in any class I remember; it was something I got out of my time in Boy Scouts.)

Edited June 19, 2023 by Cancer

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

I can, but no memory of how I learned. 

[L. Marcus]

Junior high, orienteering in phys-ed.

[Cancer]

Heh.  Remembering my phys ed teacher in junior high, I doubt he'd be able to do that.  Certainly nothing so useful was in that phys ed course.

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

Now that I think about it, I might have asked someone because I wanted to know what those lines on my DnD map meant. 

[Ternaugh]

My Dad taught me when I was a kid, he had a degree in Forestry.

[Tom Cowan]

5th grade US history, for a map of Battle of Bunker Hill and Breed's Hill.  History, some math for rise v. run, and how to read maps all in one lesson.

[Pariah]

I can read a topographic map, but I don't remember how or when I learned. I do remember being in an EM class and looking at field diagrams. I commented that it looked like a topographic map. The professor responded with, "Well, that's because a topographic map is a diagram of gravitational potential, while this is a diagram of electromagnetic potential." Blew my mind.

[Cancer]

Yeah, that last item is why I asked the question.  It occurred to me that I had no idea how much of the student population (or general population, really) actually knew what a topographic map was and how to read it.  That analogy is universally used in physics textbooks in an attempt to convey the notoriously difficult concept of electric potential, but a number of the authors of physics textbooks are, as hobbyists, dedicated mountaineers and/or hikers, so topo maps are deep in their head canon.  Not so for a lot of students.

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

[Old Man]

It turns out that while doughnuts are fried (which I knew), bagels are boiled and then baked (which I didn't).  Plus doughnuts are a lighter, pastry dough as opposed to bready.

 

You're welcome.

[Pariah]

Some doughnuts are baked. They're basically cake toruses. (Or cake tori. Whatever.)

[Cancer]

Willing to let Bazza know he scored a point

[Bazza]

That bet was foolish as within the scientific paradigm it won’t ever be found, and David Chalmers is not a friend to me, he is just as big a fool. 
 

…but I’ll take the point, because that is where it belongs.  

[Cancer]

Packed everything that matters out of my office, and turned in my university-owned IT stuff.  I'll turn in keys later this week.

 

Getting very close to Alice Cooper time.

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

When my father retired from CSUN as professor emeritus, he had to turn in his parking decal. While in the parking office handing the decal in, he got a parking ticket. You can't make this up. 

[Cancer]

They couldn't get me with that; we're now on a virtual permit system.  Besides, I'm not retired officially until Saturday.

[Pariah]

[Cancer]

IMO it's the first sentence of the 2nd paragraph which makes it funny.