Post your asides here

[aside]

[unrelated]

Why do you hang out here?

[polly_mer]

[unrelated]

Why do you hang out here?

I'm watching the crash occur in an unpredicted way and I want to see what happens.

Ideally, I am providing lesser known data and a different perspective might help people make better decisions before the crash happens where those folks are.

But, mostly, I'm here ready to state "I informed you thusly!" when people fail to use their vaunted critical thinking skills when it mattered for their lives instead of just in an academic sense.

[dismalist]

[unrelated]

Why do you hang out here?

Opportunity cost. :-)

[apl68]

Members of the library staff have received another commodities distribution.  The refrigerator in the staff break room is now half full of yogurt.

[hmaria1609]

Apl68, you should see my chocolate stash I have at the library!  :D

[mamselle]

[unrelated]

Why do you hang out here?

For the cats thread...

M.

[apl68]

Apl68, you should see my chocolate stash I have at the library!  :D

One of our staff members had been putting her chocolate on the bottom of a bowl filled mostly with Nerds and lemon drops and such.  It's there if you dig deep enough...

[mamselle]

I believe there are some forumites around who would forsake the chocolate and go for the Nerds....

(One gave me a few boxes, and I've been spacing them out, but I do indeed see the appeal).

M.

[FishProf]

If it is politics, you want nuance and subtlety, but you insist on a mile-wide paint roller for deceased equines.  Why the disparity?

[polly_mer]

If it is politics, you want nuance and subtlety, but you insist on a mile-wide paint roller for deceased equines.  Why the disparity?

Many politics questions actually don't have a cut-and-dried answer; room exists for much discussion on nuance and subtlety.  Equally informed, intelligent people with differing values could have much to discuss because the facts don't lend themselves to only one logical conclusion.

In contrast, many topics relevant to higher ed really only have a very narrow range of conclusions.  Insisting that we have a discussion on why 2+2=17 would be better is far less useful than repeating the reality is 2+2 can only be a number from about 3 (if the true values are being rounded up from 1.5) to about 6 (if the true values are 2.999999 being truncated to 2).  Even then, focusing on the 3 or the 6 is much less useful in most cases than discussion on the cases between 3.9 to 4.1.

That being explained, as generic advice for those who need it:

* It is a bad idea to go to a graduate program for which the primary expected outcome is professor, even when fully funded.

* Now is the time to get out of adjuncting and into some other professional career that can build to something good.

* Check the finances of your institution and look for the red flags now so you can be on the job market before your job is eliminated.

* Check the enrollments at your institution and compare what you do to what is absolutely necessary to complete those majors.  If you are teaching primarily electives in the general education program, now is the time to be on the non-academic job market as well as the academic job market to be more closely aligned with the mission of an employer.

[Parasaurolophus]

<unrelated> I wouldn't say the bias is implicit. The term is widely overused so that we can coddle shitheads who'll throw a tantrum as soon as they're called on their racist (sexist, etc.) bluff.

[marshwiggle]

<unrelated> I wouldn't say the bias is implicit. The term is widely overused so that we can coddle shitheads who'll throw a tantrum as soon as they're called on their racist (sexist, etc.) bluff.

Explicitly racist (sexist, etc.) or implicitly racist (sexist, etc.) bluff?

[Parasaurolophus]

<unrelated> I wouldn't say the bias is implicit. The term is widely overused so that we can coddle shitheads who'll throw a tantrum as soon as they're called on their racist (sexist, etc.) bluff.

Explicitly racist (sexist, etc.) or implicitly racist (sexist, etc.) bluff?

Explicit.

[marshwiggle]

<unrelated> I wouldn't say the bias is implicit. The term is widely overused so that we can coddle shitheads who'll throw a tantrum as soon as they're called on their racist (sexist, etc.) bluff.

Explicitly racist (sexist, etc.) or implicitly racist (sexist, etc.) bluff?

Explicit.

So like people who say "All white people are racist." It's much easier for someone on the left, even an academic, to get away with that, then for someone on the right, especially an academic, saying anything like "All <members of whatever non-white group> are <any disparaging term>." That would get them fired in a heartbeat.

[Parasaurolophus]

<unrelated> I wouldn't say the bias is implicit. The term is widely overused so that we can coddle shitheads who'll throw a tantrum as soon as they're called on their racist (sexist, etc.) bluff.

Explicitly racist (sexist, etc.) or implicitly racist (sexist, etc.) bluff?

Explicit.

So like people who say "All white people are racist." It's much easier for someone on the left, even an academic, to get away with that, then for someone on the right, especially an academic, saying anything like "All <members of whatever non-white group> are <any disparaging term>." That would get them fired in a heartbeat.

Some universal generalizations are racist. But universal generalization isn't at the core of the concept 'racist'.

I'll refrain from further derailing the thread, however.