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Posts by Ethan Cecchetti

This is a favorite strawman of the Religious Right, asserting that the exact phrase "separation of church and state" isn't in the Constitution.

They ignore that there are only three references to religion in the entire Constitution, all three of which work to separate church and state.

6 days ago 2364 647 128 28

This is so, so well-articulated.

2 weeks ago 10717 3901 98 353

“go back to the moon but this time we have really good cameras” was a fantastic idea

2 weeks ago 5399 1122 40 21
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This is my favorite climate change chart. Japanese monks, aristocrats, and emperors kept meticulous records of cherry blossom festivals for 1,200 years and accidentally built the world's longest climate dataset.

2 weeks ago 18114 6864 168 254
Video

Elizabeth Banks

3 weeks ago 14558 4809 246 344
Screenshot of the Mole Miner Max boss battle in Donkey Kong Country Returns. Professor Chops is in the train telling Donkey Kong to "TRY HARDER".
Source: info: reddit.com user "FlashyTie5327", image: screenshot taken by Supper Mario Broth

Screenshot of the Mole Miner Max boss battle in Donkey Kong Country Returns. Professor Chops is in the train telling Donkey Kong to "TRY HARDER". Source: info: reddit.com user "FlashyTie5327", image: screenshot taken by Supper Mario Broth

An obscure functionality of Donkey Kong Country Returns is that if Donkey Kong spends 3 full attack cycles of a boss not damaging it, Professor Chops will pop up telling him what to do, e.g. "BOP NOW!" In the Mole Miner Max battle, the tip is particularly condescending, being simply "TRY HARDER".

3 weeks ago 2485 546 32 21
Worksheet titled: "Evolving from Eel-less Language" and it includes a column titled "Instead of" with a red X, and a column titled "Say this" with a green checkmark. The "Instead of" column includes sayings like "You're doing it wrong" and "Look at those used condoms in the water!" The "Say this" column includes sayings like, "You're grabbing an eel by the tail" and "Hey! Manhattan eels!"

I don't have the space here to list all of them. But each expression in the "Say this" column is a bonafide (read that in a Wharvey Gal's accent) historical eel metaphor. We'd all be better off if we talked more about eels.

Worksheet titled: "Evolving from Eel-less Language" and it includes a column titled "Instead of" with a red X, and a column titled "Say this" with a green checkmark. The "Instead of" column includes sayings like "You're doing it wrong" and "Look at those used condoms in the water!" The "Say this" column includes sayings like, "You're grabbing an eel by the tail" and "Hey! Manhattan eels!" I don't have the space here to list all of them. But each expression in the "Say this" column is a bonafide (read that in a Wharvey Gal's accent) historical eel metaphor. We'd all be better off if we talked more about eels.

We're all trying to be careful with our language, so as not to offend, or not to lose federal funding for talking about paragraph transitions.

To help you out, here's a worksheet to guide you in swapping out troublesome phrases for real, historical eel expressions.
🗃️🧪

1 month ago 324 101 7 6

We need adjustments that make offloading to AI structurally hard, not just against the rules. If using AI is _harder_ than doing the learning, the problem basically goes away. Having In-class exams is an easy example, but those don't work everywhere. It's also a moving target right now, annoyingly.

1 month ago 0 0 0 0
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Pure enforcement is for sure the wrong option. Getting more students to intrinsically value learning is the holy grail here, but I don't think we'll ever get enough students to rely purely on that.

1 month ago 0 0 1 0

For students who are self-motivated to learn (which most faculty were when we were students), just pointing out that you won't learn if you use AI is really effective. But those students are going to be just fine anyway. We need a way to make the degree reliant on learning for everyone else. (3/3)

1 month ago 2 1 1 0

The problem is, the credential is valuable because it means you learned things. If anyone can get the credential without learning, it becomes meaningless. This is why cheating is a problem for institutions, not just individuals.

We have to make learning a prerequisite of a degree again. (2/3)

1 month ago 2 1 1 0

As an instructor, I think about this a lot.

The problem is incentives. Many students are not trying to learn. They want a credential to get a job to make money. The existing system tries to force learning to get the credential, but AI is breaking that and students are skipping the learning. (1/3)

1 month ago 4 2 1 0

I'm constantly trying (/failing) to get this point across.

If you're a trained expert in a field, then it may be worthwhile to question the scientific consensus of your peers.

If you're not, the scientific consensus is absolutely the best you can do and it's arbitrary foolishness to disregard it.

1 month ago 3749 846 53 49

every single person writing credulously about "elon will put people on the moon" should have to pin this post to their monitor

2 months ago 4713 1212 51 35

👏 Immigrantion 👏 improves 👏 everyone's 👏 lives! 👏

2 months ago 0 0 0 0
a brown wire-haired pup stands on a wooden deck in a grassy yard. he looks at us with golden eyes and his right ear flipped inside out. he has a pipe-shaped stick in his mouth, giving him the appearance of a sophisticated and dapper gentleman. just give him a deerstalker cap and a cloak, and he'd give Sherlock Holmes a run for his money.

a brown wire-haired pup stands on a wooden deck in a grassy yard. he looks at us with golden eyes and his right ear flipped inside out. he has a pipe-shaped stick in his mouth, giving him the appearance of a sophisticated and dapper gentleman. just give him a deerstalker cap and a cloak, and he'd give Sherlock Holmes a run for his money.

This pup found a stick shaped like an old timey pipe earlier today and has already solved three mysteries. 13/10

2 months ago 20520 3227 340 268
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Highlighting the speaker who stood in front of the Surprise mayor and told him to consider what the Mayor of Ohrdruf must’ve thought before he died by suicide: “He might have thought ‘how is this my fault I had no jurisdiction over this’ maybe he said ‘this site was not subject to local zoning.’”

2 months ago 8782 3825 165 799
The "Large boulder the size of a small boulder" meme. The Facebook post is from 27th January 2020

The "Large boulder the size of a small boulder" meme. The Facebook post is from 27th January 2020

Today is "Large boulder the size of a small boulder" day!

2 months ago 4685 1718 74 155
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“This is not who we are.”❌

“I’m going to speak up and take action to make sure this is not who/what we continue to be.”✅

“We’re acting like [insert region/country/oppressive group outside the U.S.]”❌

“The U.S. has a long history of oppression, discrimination, and harm that informs the present.”✅

2 months ago 286 118 3 4

Let’s talk about abolishing ICE.

Very few people who say “abolish ICE” mean “abandon all immigration enforcement.” Rather, they mean “the structure of immigration enforcement is irretrievably broken and needs to be reorganized, just like we did 23 years ago when we created ICE.”
/1

3 months ago 5495 1240 156 203

The best long-running series (see quoteskeets)

3 months ago 258 49 4 1

the very, very old etymology of two computery terms...

3 months ago 19 9 2 2

The tails on since letters (like A) are going to make decent kerning really hard in the Celtic Script. Even in just "ABC" it's distractingly inconsistent.

The letters on the second font are a bit smashed together for my tastes, but I'm not sure that's as big a problem.

3 months ago 2 0 0 0
King of England on a checkerboard pattern tile floor

King of England on a checkerboard pattern tile floor

Y’all might not appreciate it, but it took him 87 moves and 14 hours to get here

3 months ago 8682 1283 100 62
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Year 1 data on congestion pricing in Manhattan…

* Vehicle traffic: -11%
* Foot traffic: +3.4%
* Storefront vacancy: -0.9%
* Pollution: -22%
* Revenue for mass transit: $548M

So YES this has been a huge success.

3 months ago 8827 2358 92 280
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Reposted b

Bruno J. Navarro @brunojnavarro.b... 4d started / going

TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com

Microsoft CEO says up to 30% of the company's code was written by Al

29 Apr 2025 - Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said that 20% to 30% of code inside the company's repositories was "written by software" meaning...

Next article

Hacker News https://news.ycombinator.com

Microsoft admits almost all major Windows 11 core features are broken

1 day ago - Except it's not totally terrible. What makes it terrible is the privacy invasions and the consent issues Microsoft has with its users, along ...

Followed by 

Endless Screaming @infinitescream... 1m ΑΑΑΑΑΑΑΑΑΑΑΑΑΑΑΑΑΑΑΑΑΑΑΗΗΗΗ H

Reposted b Bruno J. Navarro @brunojnavarro.b... 4d started / going TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com Microsoft CEO says up to 30% of the company's code was written by Al 29 Apr 2025 - Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said that 20% to 30% of code inside the company's repositories was "written by software" meaning... Next article Hacker News https://news.ycombinator.com Microsoft admits almost all major Windows 11 core features are broken 1 day ago - Except it's not totally terrible. What makes it terrible is the privacy invasions and the consent issues Microsoft has with its users, along ... Followed by Endless Screaming @infinitescream... 1m ΑΑΑΑΑΑΑΑΑΑΑΑΑΑΑΑΑΑΑΑΑΑΑΗΗΗΗ H

Sometimes the scroll is startlingly on point.

3 months ago 1473 405 14 14
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“Most of us live off Hope”

Ever true 💔

4 months ago 226 68 10 4

Wins 2025 hands down

4 months ago 2668 560 21 5

There are four types of guys online. No exceptions.

4 months ago 7 2 0 0

Congrats! I have decided to be happy for you despite the existential dread it induces.

4 months ago 2 0 0 0