Dale Fields

I'm grading midterms and a student spelled the planet "Murcury". And my first thought was if we make Mercury great again by restarting its iron core. Maybe we keep those dirty Venusians from coming in and stealing all our mining and solar powered antimatter factory jobs.

A relevant sociology book is Jane Ward's "The Tragedy of Heterosexuality", which could be subtitled "Are the straight women okay?"
Spoilers, but the answer is no, because have you seen patriarchy? I mean, dear gods.
I mean, other than the upcoming cleansing of queer people, we have it easier.

The disgust emotional suite evolved to keep us safe in the era prior to medicine by judging when other humans were "off" enough to be sick. Disgust is behind the Uncanny Valley, when something is just off enough from human that "someone else is ill". The PWE is the Uncanny Valley of agency.

The reason why the Protestant Work Ethic so strongly hits my disgust emotions, is that it is *almost* right. The PWE says that there is meaning in work. Yes. But there is meaning in anything we choose to do. Work *can* be that choice, but it is not the *only* choice.

The shift from being hunter-gatherers to farmers was the single most negative health event in human history. But, as much as it made humans more miserable, it is the event that gave humans more agency over their own lives than any other. That's powerful. The question is was it worth it.

Hegseth said to our generals "Move out and draw fire."
Patton said "Your job is not to die for your country, it's to make the other poor bastard die for his."
When did we lose the ability to know how to military? But hey, I guess since this admin doesn't like veterans his comments are on message.

I laughed at the idea of people organizing their books by size. Then I got to the point I had a lot of board games.

Of course, I can only be talking about traffic. Those who run ahead in a closed lane and then jump in front of others are using their agency to attack the social contract. Those who let them in are using their agency to make it worse for everyone behind them and enable bad behaviour to be viable.

Remember that there are two types of horrible people in the world. There are those who are commit the injury, and there are those who allow the injury to happen.

Bet all those people who said Suetonius was making shit up "because emperors didn't really act that way" are feeling pretty fucking stupid tonight

So folks know, the claims that LLMs are now at "Ph.D." level is more propaganda. The Graduate-Level Google-Proof Q&A test (GPQA) that is the metric...
is multiple-choice.

Movies and TV have one starting state and one end state while video games have one starting state and multiple end states. Therefore, video games have entropy and are thus physical systems.

As a neurodivergent person, I *get* that a large chunk of "communication" is non-lexical exchange. When someone says "how are you?" they don't care, it is just the rote symbol. LLMs also don't (can't) care, but since the importance is the exchange, the text activates the recipient's context anyway

I get that writers (whose job is to be creative and novel) are threatened by the inapplicable use of these regurgitation programs. I agree! But I disagree with the thesis that language has to have illocutionary force.

Socrates was upset at the Sophists who were (pearl clutching!) paid teachers for the upcoming Athenian middle class. Sophists weren't there to make their students into philosophers, but to do practical education. And for that purpose, mediocrity is good enough.

It's not wrong, but I think the mediocrity is part of the point. Anyone using this to think they are writing quality text is delusional, but at the same time, do we need to devote brain power to writing text that is only for mediocre purposes?

A fundamental issue with the marketing for LLM chatbots is that they claim to be able to turn unskilled labor magically into skilled labor when the research is clear that any productivity gain is directly proportional to the original skill.
Sorry students.
Sorry corporate managers.

Catholic Church to excommunicate priests for following new US state law The Justice Department is investigating whether the new law violated the First Amendment.

www.newsweek.com/catholic-chu...

Catholic Church:
Child abusers: not excommunicated
Turning in child abusers: excommunicated

Whoa. They've gotten the modeling uncertainty below the observational errors? That's wild. I'm always amazed with how far astronomy has come since the +-50% days

At the end of the semester, I guess if students get anything from my science class it is that their choices are only as good as the information they're basing them on.

YouTube video by Donelfakih The Boondocks Ed Wuncler, Sr The American Way

Added because it is one of my favorite and most depressing clips:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDPU...

I make my students do an analysis of their exam performance. What worked, what didn't, and therefore what they will do next time, and what they won't do next time. I often get the response that the one thing they did didn't work with the analysis that therefore they need to do it *more* next time.

Takedown notice at the National Institute of Standards and Technology for the webpage: https://www.nist.gov/how-do-you-measure-it/the-cosmos/how-do-you-measure-distance-moon-planets-stars-and-beyond

What used to be:
www.nist.gov/how-do-you-m...
If I remember correctly, the cartoon figures accompanying some of the explanations were not white.

When I was a kid and read archaeology texts about the growth of states, it *always* claimed that specialization and urbanization inevitably led to wealth inequality.

You either die a hero or live long enough to evolve into a stealth archer.

On this day I think to the practice of washing another's feet. Besides the practice of humility, it is also the mammal thing of mutual grooming, or forming bonds with another creature. Beware those who will not connect to the poor and minoritized for they do not consider you a fellow being.

I have a quote from Primo Levi up on my door: "It happened, therefore it can happen again". Listen to people like Takei.

A #squirrel gets gently brushed and clearly enjoys it.
When the scratching stops, it taps for more. This reaction is common in #mammals, as grooming and gentle touch can trigger calming responses and even release endorphins.

"All social justice work is science fiction. We are imagining a world that doesn't yet exist." - adrienne maree brown