Tag: Tenure
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Anderson and Foy
A Redditor in Europe is complaining that universities are becoming more like secondary schools. Previously the Euro tradition put all the weight on the test. If you aced the final test it didn’t matter whether you attended the lectures. Now they’re requiring attendance at every class. I don’t know if his complaint is valid, but…
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Useful timeline and landmark
Denyse points to this article about peer review. It’s headlined as a call for transformation, but it starts from a fake premise. The authors are puzzled that peer review doesn’t do what it was “supposed to do”. They do show a beautifully exponential timeline of the tenure fraud, and they bring out an important landmark…
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Simpler answer
Denyse notes an article showing that research grants are already being written by ChatGPT: = = = = = START QUOTE: A 2023 Nature survey of 1,600 researchers found that more than 25% use AI to help them write manuscripts and that more than 15% use the technology to help them write grant proposals. Some…
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What for?
Tara Henley, former CBC reporter who turned independent, interviews Eric Kaufmann. He’s trying to set up a School of Heterodox Social Science within an existing British college. He offers a balanced and rational approach to the whole mess of Cancel and Woke and such, recognizing that censorship and orthodoxy are permanent in academia. As I…
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Kellogg and Batya
A Reddit thread about ‘secrets of jobs’ delved into some interesting details about political staff. The fact that staffers run everything is NOT a secret. It’s well known and often discussed, but never mentioned in mainstream media or advertising. Successful politicians start as staffers, then move up to the “elected” role as manager of staff.…
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What’s the diff?
Via NewSuperstitionist: Researchers find that Chat wants to agree with the questioner. = = = = = START QUOTE: This tendency, which the researchers call sycophancy, can manifest as agreement with left or right-leaning political views, thoughts on current affairs or any other topic raised in conversation. In some tests, the team created simple mathematical…
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Worth reading
Denyse at MindMatters points to an eminently wise essay on AI. Denyse: Others are worried that ChatGPT will detract from a “love of learning” and “critical thinking,” according to Bloomberg. The new AI tool has cast a wrench in plagiarism detection and poses even philosophical questions about what education should be FOR. According to college…
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When you’re a peasant
Mattingly at GetReligion is covering the elite/peasant divide with an emphasis on the consequences for journalism. Most of his commentary is fairly realistic. He says one thing that I’m not hearing from other commentators: Christian churches and colleges are not doing a good job of preparing youngsters to ENTER the elite places. I think he’s…
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Massive and instant
The academic side of social science has not produced any good knowledge in at least 100 years. It produces lots of evil (training CIA torturers, assisting NSA surveillers) but mostly churns out trivial and blatantly wrong nonsense. A fine example of the latter is circulating this week. Some “scientist” has declared that most people don’t…
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Boom in quantity = bust in quality
Denyse asks if there’s a rise in dishonesty and cheating in academia. I doubt it. Primarily there has been a huge rise in PUBLISHED UNITS since tenure and grants dominated academia in 1970. Grad students and new profs are required to churn out huge QUANTITIES of papers, and the only way to get there is…
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Dubious, obvious
Three hot decisions by the Supremes today. One is dubious, the second wildly obvious, the third meaningless. = = = = = Dubious: They said Biden couldn’t forgive student loans. There’s no principle involved at all. Student loan programs already include forgiveness when the student meets certain conditions. If you become a teacher in a…
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Two reprints
I get a sense that Google is trying to ‘fade’ some of the old blog by making the images unlinkable. Probably superstition, but still feels like the right time to reprint two old entries together. From 2019 then from 2010. = = = = = START 2019: While brushing teeth last night I happened to…
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Using motion as a sense
This is fascinating! Nematodes charge their bodies to jump by repulsion. They seem to use a bee’s self-created charge as an attraction in the other direction! = = = = = START QUOTE: When some nematode species jump, they tend to bend their body and change their posture before take-off, but C. elegans worms stand…
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More pointless thoughts
Continuing thoughts on the universal dividers. Rulers generate divides to keep the people weak and distracted so every bad event can be symmetrically scapegoated. R blames D, D blames R, nobody blames the permanent Deepstate. A few of the side-makers are controlled by Deepstate, especially the rioters and protesters. A proper riot needs government support…
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Authorship?
Another day, another point-miss. = = = = = START QUOTE: It’s estimated that 500,000 to 1 million books are published each year, and that’s excluding self-published material. The publishing market has become saturated, with the average book selling less than 200 copies. But suppose one person could “generate” not just a few books in…
Polistra's Mill 