The Fora: A Higher Education Community

I don't know what we're headed for, but absolutely hate it.  If there's a silver lining in this, I can't yet see it.

One of the worst things is the over-whelming combination of negatives in those involved:  blatant lies, greed, bullying, false religion, incompetence, destructiveness, lack of creativity, overt cruelty, hatred -- I could probably go on, but I just don't want to think about those beasts.

If there is a true God using them as tools, then who am I to complain?  But it looks much more like there is just true Evil behind them - clearly identified by their inability to create, which they try to hide by imitating creativity, and by the glee they show as they cause pain, debauchery, and destruction.

Quote from: Parasaurolophus on June 29, 2025, 11:12:55 PMHatchling 2 has hatched. The Allosaurus superheroically hatched her all alone with the midwife on the phone, because it was all very, very fast once early labour ended, and I was reassuring Hatchling 1 and putting him to bed.

Everyone is well.

Welcome Hatchling 2 & Congratulations to all!

That must have had its nerve-wracking side, though....

Hatchling 2 has hatched. The Allosaurus superheroically hatched her all alone with the midwife on the phone, because it was all very, very fast once early labour ended, and I was reassuring Hatchling 1 and putting him to bed.

Everyone is well.

Students in language and ESL courses are required to give oral presentations. When I taught ESL courses, students would have to present oral book reports which they would subsequently revise and submit as a written assignment. I would also send students to museums; I show them the various collections and also a list of tours for the week. The tours were intended for their oral comprehension skills, whereas the presentations were to showcase their speaking skills. I still recall one of the students pausing in the middle of her presentation on the Greek and Roman section as she was talking about the marble head of Marcus Aurelius, looking slightly embarrassed, as she let the class know that she thought he was so very handsome. The next time I went to the MET, I looked for the head (which I'd seen before) to see why it had such an impact on the student.

QuoteTillis Announces He Won't Run Again as Trump Threatens Him With a Primary
The day after President Trump castigated the North Carolina Republican senator Thom Tillis for opposing the bill carrying his domestic agenda, Mr. Tillis said he would not seek a third term.

Also in today's NYT, an article about whether or not Trump should be added to Mt. Rushmore. NYT, are you out of your fricking mind? I stopped at the headline--refused to read even a line from the article.

Two vents:

Came down with a bug, so have been feverish and tired. I shouldn't really be complaining because the last time I had a fever was about a couple of years ago. How do I know this? Took me awhile to locate my thermometer. The main concern though is that if I continue to be feverish, I might not make it past the receptionist tomorrow for my MRI.

Second vent--CPAP supplies. Changed my CPAP supplier a year or so ago, asked the doctor's office on Monday to reorder supplies, supplier called to confirm my address, and supplies arrived on Thursday. Yesterday or the day before, I get a text from the supplier's local office asking for my address so that they can send me the supplies. Sent a brusque response asking them to contact the main office, and also not to send me any supplies. I'm dreading the potential paperwork and phone calls if they send me supplies as the insurance is not going to pay for the duplicate.

Quote from: MarathonRunner on June 27, 2025, 07:47:31 PMI'm in the health sciences. Students need to be able to communicate with patients, superiors, subordinates, peers, community groups, etc. No surprise that oral presentations are required in our third and fourth year courses. If students can't get comfortable with that, their likelihood of success in our profession is small. Possible? Yes. Unlikely? Also yes. Even had a blind student (legally blind, but some residual vision, needing extremely large fonts and high contrast) succeed. Anxiety about presenting? Refer to student health services. Speech impediment? No problem, no marks deducted for having one. Need notes? No problem, unless you just read off your notes with no audience connection/interaction. I don't need you to memorize your presentation. I don't want you just reading your notes, even if on the autism spectrum, unless you have accommodations to do so. I know autism is a spectrum, but if you can't have basic interactions with others, you are going to fail our licensing exam. I'm trying to prepare you for that exam. (I'm high functioning on the spectrum myself).

This reminds me of one of ALHS's many orthopedists/surgeons at a teaching hospital/my grad institution. The guy was a wizard, and fixed his back very efficiently and far less invasively than anyone else had even dreamed it might be done.

He was about our age, very pleasant, and could make small talk and joke, but when he went into "doctor mode" to examine and poke and prod and explain x-rays and models and such, the man could NOT handle it. It's like someone else took over his body:  he was awkward, inarticulate, and - what we still joke about sometimes - a "close talker" (remember the Seinfeld episode with Judd Nelson? He was THAT guy who would stand nose-to-nose with you while he talked)!

At first, it almost put us off going to him, and I'm glad we stayed with him and got used to him, but he definitely could have used some communications training along the way.

Thanks yet again for the good wishes, everyone. It's a process:  I think I've made peace with it, but I still have moments when I'm not. It is what it is, I suppose.

No vents from here today, though - and that's a good thing!

A robin (couldn't tell if it was a mama/papa, or a young one from one of the earlier broods this summer) and our basset-springer mix Rigby had an interesting morning yesterday. While I was watering flowers in the front yard, I heard a robin cluck and saw the bird in the grass.

Here came Rigby trotting up (she's everybody's and everything's friend, but she's BIG, so we keep an eye on her around other critters, at least at first encounter). Her bobbed tail was about to wag off her back end. She got within a couple of yards of the robin.

Robin:  [hop - hop -hop, never taking its eye off The Monster]

Rigby:  [advanced a few steps, still wagging, and pointing with one front foot raised, staring at the bird and not twitching a whisker]

Robin:  [hop - hop - hop, etc.]

Rigby:  [advanced again, still wagging and wiggling, etc.]

They repeated this for about 5-6 rounds. Finally Rigby gave up trying to play, plopped down in the grass, and just watched the bird look for bugs and worms until it was time to go back into the house.

She's a bench rather than field spaniel, but that nose never stops, and when she's onto something an explosion could go off beside her and she wouldn't flinch. Without any field training at all, she instinctively knows how to track and flush a critter, and she has a bird dog's soft mouth, so we doubt she'd ever hurt something - more likely, she'd put it in reverse, back up, and sit down if she ever got close to it!

She's fearless and approaches any medium or big dogs walking past our house, wagging and ready to play no matter how big or what breed, but she doesn't know what to do with small things, like the neighbor's 4-year-old daughter or their powderpuff Cavapoo - she's completely flummoxed with little people and little critters! (Maybe she's scared she'll hurt them? She's got that long, low basset body and short legs, and weighs a good 60+ pounds.) She gets all bashful and has to be coaxed to engage, until she gets to know the little thing several times and makes friends with it.

At any rate, it was comical watching the dog and the bird! I wasn't wanting another dog when somebody dumped her at Kid #1's house 2 years ago, but now I can't imagine not having her around.

From George Orwell's What is Fascism [1944]:

QuoteIt will be seen that, as used, the word 'Fascism' is almost entirely meaningless. In conversation, of course, it is used even more wildly than in print. I have heard it applied to farmers, shopkeepers, Social Credit, corporal punishment, fox-hunting, bull-fighting, the 1922 Committee, the 1941 Committee, Kipling, Gandhi, Chiang Kai-Shek, homosexuality, Priestley's broadcasts, Youth Hostels, astrology, women, dogs and I do not know what else.

and

QuoteBy 'Fascism' they mean, roughly speaking, something cruel, unscrupulous, arrogant, obscurantist, anti-liberal and anti-working-class. Except for the relatively small number of Fascist sympathizers, almost any English person would accept 'bully' as a synonym for 'Fascist'. That is about as near to a definition as this much-abused word has come.

It is well worth reading the whole very short thing What is Fascism? It is not at all dated. Nothing has changed.

My first conscious perception of a systematic use of the term as a political insult in America, emanating from academia as far as I could tell, was the accusation that George W. Bush was a fascist. I laughed.

ETA: Huey Long is supposed to have said that if fascism ever came to America, it would be called anti-fascism.