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The Post For Stuff You Wanna Tell People

Started by Parasaurolophus, May 17, 2019, 10:11:39 AM

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Cheerful

Quote from: Parasaurolophus on December 15, 2020, 09:54:00 AM
Got a referee request today from the one specialist journal that keeps on rejecting absolutely everything I send them (including some papers which were accepted, virtually unchanged, in the highest-ranking generalist journals, or the other top specialist journal in my subfield).

I know there's nothing weird about that, but it stings a little. =p

Did you decline the review request?

Parasaurolophus

Quote from: Cheerful on December 15, 2020, 10:01:03 AM

Did you decline the review request?

Couldn't bring myself to, unfortunately. It's the best, least-plagiarized thing I'll read in the whole grading period. Gotta get my kicks somewhere!
I know it's a genus.

Parasaurolophus

I know it's a genus.

apl68

Quote from: Parasaurolophus on January 13, 2021, 04:53:58 PM
New genetic evidence suggests dire wolves weren't actually wolves!

I couldn't access the link.  If they weren't actually wolves, what were they?  A previously unknown family of carnivores?
All we like sheep have gone astray
We have each turned to his own way
And the Lord has laid upon him the guilt of us all

Parasaurolophus

Quote from: apl68 on January 14, 2021, 07:25:52 AM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on January 13, 2021, 04:53:58 PM
New genetic evidence suggests dire wolves weren't actually wolves!

I couldn't access the link.  If they weren't actually wolves, what were they?  A previously unknown family of carnivores?

Just dogs + convergent evolution.
I know it's a genus.

apl68

Quote from: Parasaurolophus on January 14, 2021, 08:43:24 AM
Quote from: apl68 on January 14, 2021, 07:25:52 AM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on January 13, 2021, 04:53:58 PM
New genetic evidence suggests dire wolves weren't actually wolves!

I couldn't access the link.  If they weren't actually wolves, what were they?  A previously unknown family of carnivores?

Just dogs + convergent evolution.

Finally accessed the article after waiting a bit.  So they WERE canids, but turn out to have been a separate genus.  It's pretty amazing how they can now recover DNA from such ancient remains.  That DNA evidence has upended all kinds of taxonomic theories.
All we like sheep have gone astray
We have each turned to his own way
And the Lord has laid upon him the guilt of us all

mamselle

Speaking of animal species: a new rare baby Indian rhino was just born in Wroclaw:

   https://twitter.com/nowthisnews/status/1349756410742018050?s=21

Graphic warning: the birth is the first thing to be seen.

M.
Forsake the foolish, and live; and go in the way of understanding.

Reprove not a scorner, lest they hate thee: rebuke the wise, and they will love thee.

Give instruction to the wise, and they will be yet wiser: teach the just, and they will increase in learning.

Langue_doc

Quote from: apl68 on January 14, 2021, 09:13:44 AM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on January 14, 2021, 08:43:24 AM
Quote from: apl68 on January 14, 2021, 07:25:52 AM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on January 13, 2021, 04:53:58 PM
New genetic evidence suggests dire wolves weren't actually wolves!

I couldn't access the link.  If they weren't actually wolves, what were they?  A previously unknown family of carnivores?

Just dogs + convergent evolution.

Finally accessed the article after waiting a bit.  So they WERE canids, but turn out to have been a separate genus.  It's pretty amazing how they can now recover DNA from such ancient remains.  That DNA evidence has upended all kinds of taxonomic theories.

This reminds me of the dire wolf skull exhibit at the La Brea Tar Pits. There were probably around 500 or so dire wolves excavated from one spot where they had presumably become trapped when they went after prey that were also trapped in the tar. It's a fantastic museum, inside and out. Until my visit, decades ago, I had assumed that dire wolves were the stuff of legend and fairy tales.

polly_mer

Quote from: hmaria1609 on June 27, 2019, 07:07:43 PM
Do whatever you want--I'm just the background dancer in your show!

marshwiggle

Quote from: polly_mer on February 03, 2021, 07:06:17 PM
https://clairepotter.substack.com/p/why-i-wish-i-could-go-to-cpac2021

More humanities folks should act like this.

That is a great article.

Quote
It bothered me as a college teacher and an intellectual that any student would be deliberately humiliated for contrarian political views, however naive and wrong, that fall well short of hate speech. It always has. But over two days, I became persuaded that many of these young activists ended up in radical conservatism because they had been ostracized by their peers and had not been supported and thoughtfully engaged by faculty who might have encouraged them to cultivate their conservatism within more conventional political parameters. In fact, when I identified myself as a liberal professor, these students were surprised that I cared what they thought, much less had sought them out.

That's so sad, but understandable.
It takes so little to be above average.

mahagonny

#340
Quote from: marshwiggle on February 04, 2021, 04:16:48 AM
Quote from: polly_mer on February 03, 2021, 07:06:17 PM
https://clairepotter.substack.com/p/why-i-wish-i-could-go-to-cpac2021

More humanities folks should act like this.

That is a great article.

Quote
It bothered me as a college teacher and an intellectual that any student would be deliberately humiliated for contrarian political views, however naive and wrong, that fall well short of hate speech. It always has. But over two days, I became persuaded that many of these young activists ended up in radical conservatism because they had been ostracized by their peers and had not been supported and thoughtfully engaged by faculty who might have encouraged them to cultivate their conservatism within more conventional political parameters. In fact, when I identified myself as a liberal professor, these students were surprised that I cared what they thought, much less had sought them out.

That's so sad, but understandable.

And that is why I believe the extremely left-of-center composition of tenure track faculty today needs to be seen as a problem, our problem. An individual who has the luxury of changing his environment to get away from intolerance doesn't change the situation. Only for himself he has. Or at the very least, as the author says, liberal professors should be as a fly on the wall and listen to what the conservative-minded are saying to each other in terms of constructive directions for government policy, etc. She could even have put a finer point on it by noting that there is a growing segment of young blacks who liked Trump for the same reasons as the young whites.

bacardiandlime

Quote from: polly_mer on February 03, 2021, 07:06:17 PM
https://clairepotter.substack.com/p/why-i-wish-i-could-go-to-cpac2021

More humanities folks should act like this.

Yes. Academics who say "I don't let my politics get in the way of my teaching" are often kidding themselves, or overlook the extent to which students are acutely aware that none of their profs share their views. I was a right-of-center undergrad back when Bush was Hitler, and while I don't think any of my profs treated me unfairly, walking past offices where ever door had stickers and cartoons showing a particular viewpoint, you get a very clear view of how things stand.

mahagonny

#342
Quote from: bacardiandlime on February 04, 2021, 06:48:37 AM
Quote from: polly_mer on February 03, 2021, 07:06:17 PM
https://clairepotter.substack.com/p/why-i-wish-i-could-go-to-cpac2021

More humanities folks should act like this.

Yes. Academics who say "I don't let my politics get in the way of my teaching" are often kidding themselves, or overlook the extent to which students are acutely aware that none of their profs share their views. I was a right-of-center undergrad back when Bush was Hitler, and while I don't think any of my profs treated me unfairly, walking past offices where ever door had stickers and cartoons showing a particular viewpoint, you get a very clear view of how things stand.

And in fact, our state university, up until recently had 'Black Lives Matter' posted on its webpage, which I think is wrong. As an educator and as a taxpayer. Your office door should not be a billboard for your politics and the University's website should not be billboard for the political views of a subset of that community. When the B, L, M are all capitalized clearly it's an aligning with a political faction. Apparently they have already decided not to include it. I wonder how many complaints they received.

mamselle

These guys sound like they've been reading posts here on this forum:

   https://theconversation.com/graduate-students-need-a-phd-that-makes-sense-for-their-real-lives-150525

I mean, not just the points made, but some of the actual phrasing sounds spookily familiar.

Are we being cited plageriously?

M.

Forsake the foolish, and live; and go in the way of understanding.

Reprove not a scorner, lest they hate thee: rebuke the wise, and they will love thee.

Give instruction to the wise, and they will be yet wiser: teach the just, and they will increase in learning.

Parasaurolophus

I was bushwhacking in the woods the other day, and found several piles of strange scat, a fair hike apart. I wonder what it is? I guess it's probably just really weird deer scat (really quite large, in a soft tower of globules), but I've never seen it like that before (nor so big). It also seems like the wrong season for ruminant scat to look like that, but... I guess the general absence of winter means the vegetation is always kinda wet? Shrug.

I would ask on my community's FB page, but it seems kinda rude to post a picture of weird poo!
I know it's a genus.