The Academics Thread

[L. Marcus]

Party at the Starlordses!

[Cancer]

On 8/3/2018 at 3:45 AM, Starlord said:

 

1.  Taxes

2.  Health Insurance

3.  Legal Documents

 

I would swap taxes down to #3.  Those change catastrophically every decade or so but are reasonably stable between those.  Health insurance gets changed every year (and new language is inserted every year) to screw you harder.  Legal documents, admittedly depending on the document, are between those two in terms of time variation.

[Old Man]

[Starlord]

My wife will like that one.

[Old Man]

Does she sell textbooks?

[Starlord]

Along with being an engineering teacher herself she just finished her Master's and frequently had to buy textbooks requiring the use of only a chapter or two.

 

PS:  To answer your question - Yes, she sells her old books on eBay.  

[Cancer]

I made the decision not to use a textbook for the astrobiology class I'm teaching next spring.  A number of downloads (all free, either completely free or effectively free via the university library) instead.  That was because I couldn't find a current-enough one with the right level and with adequate treatment of some topics I want to cover.  There are some good books out there, but those good ones are ten years old or older now.

[Pariah]

Funny story: I loved biochem so much I took it twice. Fall semester, it was offered by the chemistry department. I went and bought my hundred-dollar textbook (used) and went to class. When it became obvious I was going to need to take it again, I found out that in the spring it was offered by the biology department. So I sold my hundred-dollar textbook back to the University Bookstore for about $25, and bought the $100 textbook (also used) that the biology Department used. And then, when that was done, I ended up selling it back to the University Bookstore for about $25. Net result, I spend a hundred fifty bucks and ended up with no book.

 

Funny post script: 3 years later, I was in a local thrift store and found the chemistry version of the book on their shelves. For $3.

[Badger]

On ‎8‎/‎8‎/‎2018 at 4:42 AM, Starlord said:

Along with being an engineering teacher herself she just finished her Master's and frequently had to buy textbooks requiring the use of only a chapter or two.

 

PS:  To answer your question - Yes, she sells her old books on eBay.  

 

IN college, I always seemed to be in the class where they were using the textbooks for that one final semester.  

[Cancer]

I kept my old textbooks in my math, physics, & astronomy courses.  A couple of others too, but only a couple.  I burned one.

[Badger]

Did a demon come out when you burned it?

[Pariah]

I kept several of my textbooks from my undergraduate math and science classes. These are all currently on the bookshelf in my classroom, and every so often I'll use one of them for reference.

 

The notable exception was the big, dense, orange covered book from quantum mechanics and thermodynamics. There are times I wish I still had it, but the fact of the matter is that it was, for all practical purposes, unreadable.

 

I kept a few books I found useful from my non-science classes, specifically those pertaining to education. They are all in boxes right now, however, so in the long run I don't know how much difference it made.

 

I'm keeping everything from the current program, of course.

[Old Man]

6 hours ago, Pariah said:

The notable exception was the big, dense, orange covered book from quantum mechanics and thermodynamics. There are times I wish I still had it, but the fact of the matter is that it was, for all practical purposes, unreadable.

 

 

The book alone could make or break any given class.  My Astronomy 100 text was so well written I just read it cover to cover in a week.  My thermodynamics text was filled with English words yet was indecipherable.  My particle physics pamphlet literally cost more than a dollar a page and seemed like it was mostly diagrams.  My Calc IV text was written by the guy giving the class and focused on examples rather than proofs; it may have been the easiest math class I've ever taken.

[Cancer]

10 hours ago, Badger said:

Did a demon come out when you burned it?

 

No; I burned it because it was worthless, not because it was evil.  By "worthless" I mean "devoid of content that might ever be useful by anyone".  It was worth more as firestarter than as book, and I wasn't going to be anywhere I was likely to need firestarter soon enough to justify me carrying it around for that purpose.  So I took a little joy in putting it in the fireplace and letting it throw a few BTUs into the lounge on a December evening.

[Old Man]

Never figured you for the book burning type.  Regular Guy Montag you are.

[Cancer]

I also suspect the book would never had been adopted had the author been anywhere but that department.

[Badger]

9 hours ago, Old Man said:

 

The book alone could make or break any given class.  My Astronomy 100 text was so well written I just read it cover to cover in a week.  My thermodynamics text was filled with English words yet was indecipherable.  My particle physics pamphlet literally cost more than a dollar a page and seemed like it was mostly diagrams.  My Calc IV text was written by the guy giving the class and focused on examples rather than proofs; it may have been the easiest math class I've ever taken.

 

So, your thermodynamics text was written was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne?

 

Note: Had to read The Scarlet Letter as a junior in high school, also had to repeat junior year of English class in high school during summer school,  I will neither confirm nor deny that played a part.

[Badger]

9 hours ago, Cancer said:

 

No; I burned it because it was worthless, not because it was evil.  By "worthless" I mean "devoid of content that might ever be useful by anyone".  It was worth more as firestarter than as book, and I wasn't going to be anywhere I was likely to need firestarter soon enough to justify me carrying it around for that purpose.  So I took a little joy in putting it in the fireplace and letting it throw a few BTUs into the lounge on a December evening.

 

Crap, I was hoping to steal an idea for a math demon villain.

[Cancer]

Trust me, something as useful as a math demon ... is not something I would casually throw away.

[Starlord]

4 hours ago, Badger said:

 

So, your thermodynamics text was written was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne?

 

Note: Had to read The Scarlet Letter as a junior in high school, also had to repeat junior year of English class in high school during summer school,  I will neither confirm nor deny that played a part.

 

Wait.

 

Stop the thread.

 

You can read?

 

[Cancer]

He said "had to", which means the reading was assigned.

 

As every teacher can tell you, it's less than 50% chance he actually read it.

[Badger]

7 hours ago, Cancer said:

He said "had to", which means the reading was assigned.

 

As every teacher can tell you, it's less than 50% chance he actually read it.

 

Coincidentally, I did read 50 percent of it.  On a serious note, while I can appreciate knowing big words that I need to go to the dictionary to find out the meaning of.  It loses a lot, if I have to do that 5 times in paragraph, 3 of which in the same sentence.

[Badger]

13 hours ago, Starlord said:

 

Wait.

 

Stop the thread.

 

You can read?

 

 

Just for that, I bringing the Ewokhunters to visit, and never leave.

[Old Man]

On 8/10/2018 at 7:04 PM, Badger said:

 

So, your thermodynamics text was written was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne?

 

Thomas Hardy.

 

On 8/10/2018 at 7:04 PM, Badger said:

 

Note: Had to read The Scarlet Letter as a junior in high school, also had to repeat junior year of English class in high school during summer school,  I will neither confirm nor deny that played a part.

 

Scarlet Letter wasn't so bad.  Crucible was pushing it.  My literary kryptonite is Huckleberry Finn, which I have attempted to read three times, but I've never made it past chapter four.

[Badger]

Well, the Scalet Letter might have been an interesting plot, but like I said it was hard to read for other reasons.