dls2016

I did a math PhD at USCB, where grad students are represented by the UAW. I didn’t find any of this to be true, in particular the university would not be able to provide the same level of service without graduate student TAs.

My uncle’s cabin on the Susquehanna River has a rock formation a hundred yards off shore: a low, stacked rock dam with a channel in the middle. As kids we would stand in the channel with minnow nets. Now I learn it was possibly a Native American eel weir (though the eel population is now only a small fraction of what it was prior to the 1950s). It doesn't quite have the classic V-shape, but looks like it may have been a partially natural formation that was then modified.

https://www.bayjournal.com/news/fisheries/dozens-of-ancient-...

Obviously, the (mountains of) circumstantial evidence suggests some sort of intelligence connection, with Maxwell's father having known ties to MI6, Mossad and even the KGB. But I don't think you'd be able to run around bribing billionaires like Leon Black under the guise of "tax advice" without the US authorities' involvement.

Also, Southern Air Transport was a CIA front company.

> How does that work exactly?

Jeffrey Epstein. Do you think it was coincidence that he had power of attorney over Les Wexner, who was involved with the notorious Southern Air Transport? There are many other intelligence connections, for instance Maxwell and her father.

The CIA is really the worst institution in the US government.

> Do we have any evidence that torture actually works?

Most evidence points the other direction.

> Finally, an exhaustive 2014 report by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence analyzed millions of internal CIA documents related to the torture of terrorism suspects, concluding that “the CIA's use of its enhanced interrogation techniques was not an effective means of acquiring intelligence or gaining cooperation from detainees.” It adds that “multiple CIA detainees fabricated information, resulting in faulty intelligence.” https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/we-rsquo-ve-known...

https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/publ...

Not insinuating that I'm a "fabulous" candidate (also totally possible that I am!), but I've been experiencing the opposite. The quickest offers I've received have had the most red flags.

The places I'd like to work seem to move slower and require more preparation. For instance Oxide has applicants put together a lot of written work and another company has a seemingly easy take-home project but which requires unfamiliar (to me) setup that I haven't had time to tackle. Then there are the faang-style interviews with loops scheduled perhaps weeks in the future.

I may send another round of applications soon, but I'm going to be more selective so I can manage the process better.

Thank you, that does help. I thankfully have some flexibility in my search… and I promise the other replies aren’t alt accounts!

Curious... if I'm still in the "triage" bucket after 6 weeks should I assume the ship has sailed? I was really hoping to hear back one way or the other!

A lot of manual labor jobs result in destroying your body. Joints, backs, hearing, etc… it all goes much quicker when you’re lifting all day long and/or in a factory.

Have you heard of CTE?

chop wood, carry water... or maybe the Turing version: read a symbol, move the head

Agreed, the internet is core infrastructure and cloud services will increasingly handle more and more essential services. A union would put the on-call rules/schedules/compensation in the hands of the workers, not left to the whims of an unaccountable manager.

> get us back to being ok again

For some definition of "us".

Not to detract from your wonder, but apples aren't true-to-seed... so each new seedling could potentially produce a named variety (although most end up trash trees either with undesirable fruit or susceptible to disease).

* Manage on-call rotations.

Damn, I let my kids watch Alphablocks as toddlers but I never noticed Numberblocks! At 7 and 8 they're very good readers but the older one gets bored with arithmetic homework very easily. I've failed as a parent and mathematician.

Terence Tao published an idea that one could maybe prove ill posedness of the Navier Stokes equations by modeling a liquid computer… build a machine that focuses energy in such a way that the solution jumps out of a particular function space at a desired point in time.

https://www.quantamagazine.org/a-fluid-new-path-in-grand-mat...

> slave labor force

Remember kids, slavery is still constitutionally enshrined in the US as a form of punishment. No need to "look back" at slavery!

> Perhaps I was wrong to expect mention of explicit discsussion of spectral graph theory?

Agreed... if you're going to write down the Laplacian at least demonstrate the null space <-> connected component relationship.

Edit: looks like maybe an undergraduate paper?

> Some people have even suggested that young people who've grown up with mobile phones struggle with filesystems because they have no experience of file management despite having plenty of experience of computing.

Currently teaching introductory programming at college level, can confirm.

> Common Core is a standard (checklist of abilities students should learn), not a curriculum.

Yes, I understand what CC is... most states already had very similar standards. I should have said "New and Improved! Meets Common Core Standards!".

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/mollyhensleyclancy/pear...

CC was definitely used as an excuse to push unnecessary materials and not just by Pearson (I was using them as a bit of a bogeyman).

Sorry, I'm not sure what point you're making with the Illustrated Mathematics link.

Perhaps I muddled my point by bringing up Common Core (I have no experience at that level, I just expect there's a similar dynamic). And to repeat... my point was that some departments dictate the textbook choice and curricula of their lower division courses (often with good intentions!)... but when they do it's often easiest to standardize courses using a big publisher's materials. Good old fashion vendor lock-in.

I'm just a lowly adjunct, but I sense that one barrier to open textbook adoption is the accreditation process. I don't know exactly the connection, but I get the feeling that the department can check some box if they say that all their lower division calculus courses are taught with Pearson's book, for instance. Sort of a "no one ever got fired for choosing IBM" type situation.

Anyone have any insight to this? I only have a sample size of two... which leads me to believe not all departments worry about this so much.

Edit: see these MAA guidelines: https://www.maa.org/programs-and-communities/professional-de...

One suggestion is "there should be established procedures for periodic review of the curriculum... should include careful scrutiny of course syllabi, prerequisites, and textbooks."

As much as I hate to say it, there are legitimate reasons for carefully controlling the curricula in lower division courses. A big one is: transfer credit. People get pissed when it's difficult to transfer their cheaper CC credits to a larger university.

The easiest way to solve these problems is by dictating curricula. But, unfortunately, the Pearson's of the world feast on the resulting homogenized market.

This is similar to my problem with Common Core. Everything in Common Core is perfectly reasonable. But now we have one giant textbook market where Pearson dominates with their products which now bear a "Common Core approved" label on the cover.

The Schrodinger equation is the heat equation with complex time. Although qualitatively it’s dispersive, not dissipative.

The Unfinished PDE Coffee Table Book https://people.maths.ox.ac.uk/trefethen/pdectb.html

“Natural born citizen” is the technical qualifier. Many natural born citizens aren’t born in the US.

I forget why I went into their building, but I always remember a giant T-rex skull in their entryway. I'm not making this up, am I?

I did find this press release, but it really just raises more questions than answers anything. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ubm-electronics-and...

The AMA is not a union, nor is the American Bar Association, nor is the Society of Actuaries. These are professional organizations. They aren't involved in collective bargaining and they don't call strikes (putting aside for argument's sake the ethical issues with doctors going on strike).

Here's a document from the AMA itself stating their stance on unions (implying they don't consider themselves a union): https://www.ama-assn.org/system/files/advocacy-issue-brief-p...

How are unions responsible for doctors’ long work hours? According to a quick google there are very low rates of unionization and it seems to be a recent phenomenon (I didn’t know there were any.)

Downvotes for asking a Q?

Central PA, it was a busy restaurant next to Hershey Park. I believe dishwashers started at $7.50 or $8... but on a busy Saturday night the managers would have to go around begging someone wash dishes. I doubt they would've let me work full time at that rate, but they let me clock in/out to my advantage when they needed it.

Hosts/busers started around $5.25 or so... I think I eventually worked it up to $7.50 or so, but with tips it was much more. My point is that even then it wasn't worth it to me to work for $10/hr.

If I had to guess, the wages probably aren't much more now than they were then.

What are you talking about? Have you ever been to a restaurant during the day or counted the employees over-50 at Walmart? There always have been adults working these jobs.