The Academics Thread

[Bazza]

Read it again, still funny. She misunderstands some philosophical terms eg unity of opposites (which h originated with Heraclites),and matter having extension (Descartes), shape of fundamental particles (formal causality), existence (ontology). Mind you his obsession with Hegal is just as hilarious. And I've heard of Fitche and Shelling; do i get bonus points for this? And it could be worse than Hegel, it could be Friedrich Nietzsche. 

 

And if Hegel ruining their relationship, maybe it's time to make things Platonic. 

[Cancer]

Well, to generalize more: each of them are using terms which have more specific meanings in their own fields, and blithely assuming those meanings are forever-and-everywhere-and-for-everyone the meanings.

 

When I got together with my wife -- an attorney -- we rapidly realized that what makes truth, and a standard of proof, in the law is different (and has a different underlying meaning) than what it means in science.  Part of that is because the purpose of each endeavor is different.  The fact that scientists are systematically excluded from juries here indicates how fundamentally different (I will stop short of saying opposed) those purposes are.

[Cancer]

Meanwhile, it's "once more into the breach, lads" time.  First lecture of the term in 15 minutes.

[L. Marcus]

Break legs!

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

[L. Marcus]

Proper science!

[Cancer]

I did an irreverent and entirely anonymous (read: paper response forms) survey in my morning class.  The numbers in the parens are the tallies of hits to each response. (22 responses (24 registered for the course); the prompt said "circle as many as apply" so selection of multiple alternatives did happen.)

 

1.    I feel I already know some stuff about astronomy, space science, and physics.
(1)  Oh yeah
(14) Some
(8)  I’ve heard those words
(1)  Don’t hurt me

 

2.    I’m in this class because
(2)  It’s the only way my schedule can work
(2)  I guessed that this is the <core class designation> that might have the least math
(17) I have no idea; I got put here by someone else
(4)  I explicitly wanted this kind of subject
(0)  I’m gonna drop, but I haven’t been able to find a satisfactory alternate to plug in yet

 

3.    Things I have heard about this instructor
(4)  Nothing at all
(17) Just what’s in his “Personal Trivia” on the Canvas page
(1)  He’s hard
(0)  He’s boring
(0)  He’s terrifying

 

4.    Astronomy is different from astrology!
(12) Yup, and I know the difference
(12) Ummmmm…
(1)  Am I in the wrong class?

 

 

[L. Marcus]

Have you not yet terrified them?

[Old Man]

1 hour ago, Cancer said:

1.    I feel I already know some stuff about astronomy, space science, and physics.
X  Oh yeah
__ Some
__ I’ve heard those words
X  Don’t hurt me

 

2.    I’m in this class because
X  It’s the only way my schedule can work
__  I guessed that this is the <core class designation> that might have the least math
__  I have no idea; I got put here by someone else
X  I explicitly wanted this kind of subject
__  I’m gonna drop, but I haven’t been able to find a satisfactory alternate to plug in yet

 

3.    Things I have heard about this instructor
__  Nothing at all
__  Just what’s in his “Personal Trivia” on the Canvas page
__  He’s hard
__  He’s boring
__  He’s terrifying

X  He's barking mad

 

4.    Astronomy is different from astrology!
__  Yup, and I know the difference
__  Ummmmm…
__  Am I in the wrong class?

X  Scorpio

 

 

 

[L. Marcus]

I'd pick up that course like it was candy on the sidewalk!

[Cancer]

15 minutes ago, Old Man said:

X  Scorpio

 

The assassin in the eponymous movie, the Simpsons villain, one of the General Hospital characters, one of the Marvel supervillains by that name, the professional wrestler, or one of the hip-hop artists?

 

Probably none of the above, rather Sco X-1, the LMXRB.

[Cancer]

BTW, the "terrifying" is the one thing I know I have been called in that class.

[Pariah]

2 hours ago, Cancer said:

I did an irreverent and entirely anonymous (read: paper response forms) survey in my morning class.  The numbers in the parens are the tallies of hits to each response. (22 responses (24 registered for the course); the prompt said "circle as many as apply" so selection of multiple alternatives did happen.)

 

1.    I feel I already know some stuff about astronomy, space science, and physics.
(1)  Oh yeah
(14) Some
(8)  I’ve heard those words
(1)  Don’t hurt me

 

2.    I’m in this class because
(2)  It’s the only way my schedule can work
(2)  I guessed that this is the <core class designation> that might have the least math
(17) I have no idea; I got put here by someone else
(4)  I explicitly wanted this kind of subject
(0)  I’m gonna drop, but I haven’t been able to find a satisfactory alternate to plug in yet

 

3.    Things I have heard about this instructor
(4)  Nothing at all
(17) Just what’s in his “Personal Trivia” on the Canvas page
(1)  He’s hard
(0)  He’s boring
(0)  He’s terrifying

 

4.    Astronomy is different from astrology!
(12) Yup, and I know the difference
(12) Ummmmm…
(1)  Am I in the wrong class?

 

 

 

I'm totally stealing this, and adapting it for ALL of my classes.

[Cancer]

I admit that I ran it past several people to make sure there wasn't too much snark there for baby freshmen in literally their first college class period ever.

[L. Marcus]

It's academics! They have to face the snark sooner or later.

[Cancer]

They do, but 8AM on the very first class day ... we'll spare them the really potent stuff. 

[Ternaugh]

“I don’t believe in astrology; I’m a Sagittarius and we’re skeptical.” --Arthur C. Clarke

[L. Marcus]

17 minutes ago, Cancer said:

They do, but 8AM on the very first class day ... we'll spare them the really potent stuff. 

Friday, then? Fully rested and caffeine-fuelled sarcasm as a parting gift for the weekend. 

[L. Marcus]

I think I've told the tale about the hand surgeon that held a two-part lecture on the anatomy of the extremities. Oh, the first day he was a bit of a terror. But his daughter was one of us lecurees, and she had Words with him that night. So he starts the second part of the lecture the following day with "I believe I owe you all an apology. I have been told that I came across as unusually unpleasant yesterday. I am sorry for this -- I was just aiming for regularly unpleasant."

[Bazza]

2 hours ago, Old Man said:

4.    Astronomy is different from astrology!
__  Yup, and I know the difference
__  Ummmmm…
__  Am I in the wrong class?

X  Scorpio

 

 X You are right. Astrology works. 

[Cancer]

Re: the Arthur C Clarke quote about astrology ...

 

As someone whose user handle here by design has multiple meanings, including the irony of his classical sun-sign, I have got a way to cure students of astrology.

 

Actually, working up a Western horoscope is an interesting mathematical problem.  You need the time, date, and place of birth of the subject.  That way you can compute the sidereal time at the instant of birth, which is needed to determine the ascendant, which is (supposedly) quite important to the reading.  Then you can go to the ephemerides for the Sun, Moon, and planets and look those up, and if those are tabulated in RA and declination then you have a spherical trig problem to convert them ecliptic longitude and latitude.  Computing the corrections to the location of birth from the geocentric coordinates invariably given by the ephemerides is almost never worth it, and because very few people know their natal time to the actual minute, that is lost in the other uncertainties anyway.  Having got all the planet ("planet" here now includes the Sun and Moon) positions, you can fill out the Thema Mundi (chart) and see the layout of the planets around the ecliptic in that Earth-centered schematic representation, and take note of the separation angles between the planets.  It turns into a nice, flat 2-dimensional geometric diagram.  Once you know the symbols (I do), it is easy to read the chart, and with proper execution it looks kinda cool.

 

But by that time the description of the math parts has made their eyes glaze over and they want to remove themselves from that unhappy m-word.

 

(There's also the overarching questions about how you're going to handle the effects of precession, and describing precession -- an inherently three-dimensional motion, and 3-D reasoning is Hard -- is by itself rather intimidating to someone who isn't all that comfortable with their 2-D triangles-and-circles tabletop geometry in the first place.  Since the Hellenistic era when Western astrology got codified in the main traditions and the textbooks written from those, the vernal equinox has backed up due to precession through the sky quite some distance, so the astrological First Point of Aries is, in fact, no longer remotely close to Aries the actual constellation.  What to do about this?  Depends on which "authority" you read.  To engage in a forward reference, though, that really doesn't matter in the end.)

 

At that point the interesting parts (the ephemerides, calculations, etc.) end and the hooey starts.  There are a bunch of intentionally vague "rules" for the the interactions of the "influences" of the individual planets.  Reading the classical texts, or more modern translations of those texts, was enough to convince me when I looked at his stuff at age 13 or 14 that it's all goo and dribble, nothing but huckster's prattle.  You're best off cold-reading your victimsubject and telling them things they want to believe, giving them comforting but uselessly vague answers to their questions, etc., and hopefully they will pay you more for the nice reading you did for them.

 

So yeah, I've done all this, and while I understand the math and the underlying phenomena better after my college and postgraduate education, that understanding doesn't change the impression I got before I started high school.  The horoscope reading is nothing but hooey.

[Pariah]

Some Breitbart-reading anti-education wanker posted this online today:

 

What is always never stated when talking about teacher's salaries is the fact that they only have 180 to 185 day working contracts. The discussion is always about how much they make per year, when in reality they don't work a full year.  Divide their salaries by .75 if you want to know their true yearly rate.  Also, we are only told what starting teachers are paid but never what a teacher with a masters degree and ten years in is making. Don't get me started....the education system in the U.S. is a waste and a bottomless money pit.  13 years of education with very little to show for it at the end!

 

In response, I posted this:

 

Some observations from a veteran teacher:

 

1) I don't know one single teacher who works 180-185 days per year. Not. One. Teachers take work home with them over weekends. They meet with other teachers over break periods. They often work second jobs during the summer. Et cetera, et cetera. Please stop with the "I wish that I had three months off every year" nonsense. If it were as cushy a gig as you make it out to be, everyone would be doing it.

 

2) Dividing by 0.75 results in a higher number, not a lower number. Probably not the point you were trying to make.

 

3) Teachers with Masters degrees or PhDs still make less than professionals with similar credentials in other fields.

 

4) There is certainly waste and inefficiency in the education system, as there is in any organization. But to characterize the entire thing as a "bottomless money pit" is a jaundiced view at best.

 

5) In my experience, how much of how little any student has to show at the end of their 13 years is a function of what they put in over that time more than of the system itself. Garbage in, garbage out, as the saying goes.

 

6) Being in the education system for 13 years doesn't make you an expert on education any more than being in the hospital for an extended period of time makes you a doctor.

 

There are certainly ways that our education system can be improved. But starting the conversation with half-truths and misrepresentations won't accomplish that.

[Cancer]

I also note he carefully refrained from actually quoting a number, or performing any direct numerical comparison with the compensation of other types of workers, for the salaries he thinks are excessive.

[Bazza]

When big companies fund academic research, the truth often comes last

http://theconversation.com/when-big-companies-fund-academic-research-the-truth-often-comes-last-119164

[Cancer]

I have heard stories like that before.  Isn't a problem in my field (yet) ... part of the glory of astrophysics.

 

The student's advisor ought to bear a bunch of blame here.  It's his/her job to make sure the student *can* complete the degree, including both the research issues and the bureaucratic hurdles.  That person should never be permitted to have another grad student.