News:

Welcome to the new (and now only) Fora!

Main Menu

Recent posts

#11
General Discussion / Re: RIP: To remember those los...
Last post by Langue_doc - March 28, 2024, 12:30:08 PM
Not everyone's cup of tea, but RIP David Breashears.

QuoteDavid Breashears, 68, Who Braved Everest to Capture It on Film, Dies
He risked death on the slopes of the world's highest mountain to produce the highest-grossing IMAX documentary of all time.
#12
General Discussion / Re: What Have You Read Lately?...
Last post by apl68 - March 28, 2024, 12:23:06 PM
I read Into Thin Air some years ago.  It made me wonder why on Earth anybody would ever want to climb Everest.  I've also read his Into the Wild, about a poor, deluded would-be adventurer who wandered off into the Alaska wilderness and starved to death.
#13
General Discussion / Re: Random Thoughts Anew
Last post by apl68 - March 28, 2024, 12:19:05 PM
In today's paper I saw a health-related feature that mentioned that testicular cancer is more prevalent in men.  Who knew?
#14
General Discussion / Re: Re: What Have You Read Lat...
Last post by Langue_doc - March 28, 2024, 12:16:30 PM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on March 28, 2024, 11:49:36 AM
Quote from: Langue_doc on March 28, 2024, 11:41:30 AM
QuoteAlive:  The Story of the Andes Survivors, by Piers Paul Read.  In 1972 an aircraft carrying an Uruguayan college rugby team crashed in a snowy wilderness high in the Andes.  When searchers failed to find them, the survivors faced months of struggling against avalanches, blizzards, and more with nothing like adequate clothing or other gear.  They had no food, and had to force themselves to eat the bodies of their friends who had perished in the crash.  Eventually two of them made a desperate trek out of the mountains to get help.

I recall reading about this book, but didn't have the stomach to actually read it. You might like Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air, an account of the ill-fated 1996 Mt. Everest expeditions.


There was a movie about the Alive story, also called Alive.


On Krakauer: a good counterpoint is Anatoli Boukreev's The Climb. Boukreev is Krakauer's villain, but nobody on his expedition died and he went back several times to save others. Krakauer, on the other hand, (as I recall) refused to share his oxygen.


I read Boukreev's account as soon as it was published, and also Krakauer's postscript addressing the criticisms, several of them valid, in one of the later editions. I like Krakauer's style of writing, so have enjoyed reading some of his other books--Into the Wild, Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith, and Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town.

ETA: If you like reading about mountaineering, you might have seen David Breashears' film on Mt. Everest. Some of his photographs of Everest are on display in the Asia Society's "immersive photography and video exhibition", COAL + ICE. I saw the exhibit just a week before his death, which was around the middle of this month.
#15
General Discussion / Re: Re: What Have You Read Lat...
Last post by Parasaurolophus - March 28, 2024, 11:49:36 AM
Quote from: Langue_doc on March 28, 2024, 11:41:30 AM
QuoteAlive:  The Story of the Andes Survivors, by Piers Paul Read.  In 1972 an aircraft carrying an Uruguayan college rugby team crashed in a snowy wilderness high in the Andes.  When searchers failed to find them, the survivors faced months of struggling against avalanches, blizzards, and more with nothing like adequate clothing or other gear.  They had no food, and had to force themselves to eat the bodies of their friends who had perished in the crash.  Eventually two of them made a desperate trek out of the mountains to get help.

I recall reading about this book, but didn't have the stomach to actually read it. You might like Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air, an account of the ill-fated 1996 Mt. Everest expeditions.


There was a movie about the Alive story, also called Alive.


On Krakauer: a good counterpoint is Anatoli Boukreev's The Climb. Boukreev is Krakauer's villain, but nobody on his expedition died and he went back several times to save others. Krakauer, on the other hand, (as I recall) refused to share his oxygen.
#16
General Discussion / Re: Re: What Have You Read Lat...
Last post by Langue_doc - March 28, 2024, 11:41:30 AM
QuoteAlive:  The Story of the Andes Survivors, by Piers Paul Read.  In 1972 an aircraft carrying an Uruguayan college rugby team crashed in a snowy wilderness high in the Andes.  When searchers failed to find them, the survivors faced months of struggling against avalanches, blizzards, and more with nothing like adequate clothing or other gear.  They had no food, and had to force themselves to eat the bodies of their friends who had perished in the crash.  Eventually two of them made a desperate trek out of the mountains to get help.

I recall reading about this book, but didn't have the stomach to actually read it. You might like Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air, an account of the ill-fated 1996 Mt. Everest expeditions.
#17
General Discussion / Re: What's your weather?
Last post by Langue_doc - March 28, 2024, 11:31:43 AM
Rain all day, as forecast, but it's going to be a sunny high 50°s all weekend.
#18
The State of Higher Ed / Re: J.D. Vance: "Sanctuary Cit...
Last post by bio-nonymous - March 28, 2024, 10:21:34 AM
Quote from: Langue_doc on March 27, 2024, 04:15:40 PM
Quote from: bio-nonymous on March 27, 2024, 06:33:20 AM
Quote from: Langue_doc on March 27, 2024, 05:27:06 AM
Quote from: Wahoo Redux on March 26, 2024, 02:22:42 PMOhio U.S. Senator JD Vance Introduces Bill to Prohibit Universities from Hiring Illegal Aliens

QuoteOhio U.S. Senator JD Vance (R-OH) and Indiana U.S. Representative Jim Banks (R-IN-03) have introduced a bill that would prohibit universities that receive federal funding from hiring illegal aliens.

The bill, titled the College Employment Accountability Act, would specifically amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to "prohibit an institution of higher education that employs unauthorized aliens from receiving funds from federal student assistance or federal institutional aid"

Institutions of higher education would have to participate in the E-Verify Program, which is a federal program that checks the immigration status of all employees, in order to receive federal funds under the bill.

Do universities hire a lot of "illegal aliens?"



They must be unfamiliar with HR protocols in colleges, private and public, where all potential employees have to provide evidence that they are either US citizens or green-card holders authorized to work in the US. There's a name for these one-page forms. Brains seem to be travelling south along the human spine these days!


I-9 forms--my newest RA just had to turn theirs in to get on the payroll! But the point of the legislation might be that ALL institutions don't use the form and to make a unified requirement?--Giving Vance the benefit of the doubt since I do not know the HR policies of all institutions.

Vance is either grandstanding or an ignoramus. The I-9 form and providing HR with the necessary documentation is a requirement for all institutions and workplaces. This is probably a federal requirement.
Quote from: Langue_doc on March 27, 2024, 04:15:40 PM
Quote from: bio-nonymous on March 27, 2024, 06:33:20 AM
Quote from: Langue_doc on March 27, 2024, 05:27:06 AM
Quote from: Wahoo Redux on March 26, 2024, 02:22:42 PMOhio U.S. Senator JD Vance Introduces Bill to Prohibit Universities from Hiring Illegal Aliens

QuoteOhio U.S. Senator JD Vance (R-OH) and Indiana U.S. Representative Jim Banks (R-IN-03) have introduced a bill that would prohibit universities that receive federal funding from hiring illegal aliens.

The bill, titled the College Employment Accountability Act, would specifically amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to "prohibit an institution of higher education that employs unauthorized aliens from receiving funds from federal student assistance or federal institutional aid"

Institutions of higher education would have to participate in the E-Verify Program, which is a federal program that checks the immigration status of all employees, in order to receive federal funds under the bill.

Do universities hire a lot of "illegal aliens?"



They must be unfamiliar with HR protocols in colleges, private and public, where all potential employees have to provide evidence that they are either US citizens or green-card holders authorized to work in the US. There's a name for these one-page forms. Brains seem to be travelling south along the human spine these days!


I-9 forms--my newest RA just had to turn theirs in to get on the payroll! But the point of the legislation might be that ALL institutions don't use the form and to make a unified requirement?--Giving Vance the benefit of the doubt since I do not know the HR policies of all institutions.

Vance is either grandstanding or an ignoramus. The I-9 form and providing HR with the necessary documentation is a requirement for all institutions and workplaces. This is probably a federal requirement.

https://www.uscis.gov/i-9-central/form-i-9-resources/handbook-for-employers-m-274/20-who-must-complete-form-i-9
#19
The State of Higher Ed / Re: NYT: Harvard Plagiarism Re...
Last post by marshwiggle - March 28, 2024, 09:35:49 AM
Quote from: financeguy on March 28, 2024, 09:11:21 AMTwo things can be true at the same time. If it is the case the plagiarism has occurred but only uncovered due to an outside actor with a different agenda, what do you propose? Let it slide due to the method of discovery?

It's like a child custody case, where one parent accuses the other of child abuse. There's a clear self-interested motivation for the accuser, but if it turns out to be true, then it absolutely needs to be addressed.
#20
The State of Higher Ed / Re: Indiana law requires "inte...
Last post by marshwiggle - March 28, 2024, 09:32:17 AM
Quote from: apl68 on March 28, 2024, 09:21:22 AM
Quote from: marshwiggle on March 28, 2024, 08:17:15 AM
Quote from: Wahoo Redux on March 28, 2024, 07:49:32 AMMore conservative desperation.

Sure, but the fact that it can even be framed in terms of expanding intellectual diversity rather than the much more obvious requirement that they adopt the government approved viewpoint is unprecedented. (For contrast, consider the legislation that has been discussed here to prevent public schools from teaching certain viewpoints. That's the much more "normal" action historically.)


If you're saying the the universities have ceded much of the high ground in intellectual freedom debates, and made themselves into easier targets for those who wish them ill, there's a lot of truth to that.

That's it exactly. You said it more clearly that I did.