The Promise and Peril of Liberal Arts Education It's "AI" proof in some ways, but critical thinking still isn't the thing we want it to be

Some rambling thoughts on why the rise of "AI" tools makes the case for liberal arts education even stronger, but also why that's not sufficient on its own: open.substack.com/pub/chadorze...

Facebook memories today includes a QT of somebody saying "99% of all disputes in academia could be resolved by urine and scent marking."

This is going to completely transform my perspective on today's general faculty meeting.

Midnight Run (1988) litmus configuration YouTube video by Anna Zakrevskaya

It’s Charles Grodin’s birthday.
Talk about owning a scene.
‘You get ‘em all the time’
All the business with the old guy at the bar is sublime.
Just ridiculously great comic timing.
Tbf DeNiro’s ‘Litmus configururation’ cracks me ip too.
youtu.be/lHDMn_ogRHU?...

A still viable profession.

I thought it was an appropriate moment to scatter rushes on the floor but I've never known how to reed a room.

(I was given permission to say that the choice has been made, but not to say where, thus the vagueposting...)

Big day in Chateau Steelypips as SteelyKid committed to a college for next year. And yes, this makes me feel old ...

Sports Needs Psychos The NBA is not a place for rational actors

Not-a-weekend-day repost: The NBA tanking problem isn't something you can fix with incentive tweaks, but stems from a violation of the fundamental compact of sports: open.substack.com/pub/chadorze...

One of the greatest streaks in sports history ends today.

4/20/2023 <--- Cody Bellinger homered
4/20/2024 <--- Cody Bellinger homered
4/20/2025 <--- Cody Bellinger homered

Everybody picking the same song about being unique and special is kind of great

Sports Needs Psychos The NBA is not a place for rational actors

Everybody with a blog or a podcast has a technocratic fix for the NBA, but I think the problem is too deep for rule tweaks. They're in a bad place because applying business logic breaks the fundamental compact of sports, which is pretending that any of this matters: open.substack.com/pub/chadorze...

the year is 2026, LeBron James has been given four random players to take into the playoffs for the 23rd season in a row

It's harder to measure but I feel like RFK Jnr shutting down funding for MRNA research is actually up there with DOGE cuts and this latest Iranian war as a contender for Most Evil Things Trump II has done. Accounted properly, this regime is really wracking up 20th-century-dictator kill counts imo.

We got the video of the parachuter at Virginia Tech. They have rescued him at this point and he’s down off the scoreboard. Working to get more info.

If Gunn brings back Zod & pals for the Superman sequel I’ve got some ideas
#SupermanDay

learnt from the very good book on gladiatorial life I'm reading that powerful Roman men generally wanted to be depicted in statues as looking tired and worn because it conveyed them as being hard working and self-sacrificing. which explains all those baggy eyes.

I probably spend way too much time laboring over things like photo selection, but when you have a playground like AIP's Segrè collection it's irresistible. I've always thought young JRO has a Bob Dylan vibe, and this parallel was too good to pass up.

I still like this a lot as a description of the ideal, but its implementation by faculty sometimes pushes me to the edge of despair.

Facebook reminds me that it was eight years ago I came up with my bumper-sticker version of liberal arts education's end goal: "Students should be able to analyze a situation, decide on a course of action, and advocate for their choice."

Today is the start of ramping down the prednisone I've been on, and I can not fucking wait to be off this shit. What an incredibly unpleasant (albeit medically effective) experience.

yeah if you claim AI is what’s going to kill the climate, I will assume you are insane

AI is still a rounding error compared to, like, gasoline. it’s nothing. it’s like maybe an eighth of the carbon emissions of cement

King of Pain There's a little black spot on the sun [god's cattle] today...

I decided to re-read THE ODYSSEY in advance of this summer's movie treatment, and have some scattered thoughts: open.substack.com/pub/chadorze...

I forgot about this one - the Sigur Ros method of having people incorrectly labeling your record as Radiohead songs on Napster

I have not listened to all of this, but I had a fun conversation about "Ghost Murmur" tech last week which is now part of a podcast: pod.link/1571482669/e...

True Detective S5

4-panel SMBC comic update. A woman is teaching a man sitting at a desk. The man says "I get it! You write (equation)* and that tells you the superposition is some amount in the 0 direction and some amount in the 1 direction." The woman replies "now that you've got it, we'll use this easier form" and proceeds to write a much longer equation on the board. The man then says "this is why people become chemists" to which the teacher replies "do not use the c-word in my presence" *equation won't copy properly in the alt-text.

Brought to you by Zach hasn't studied physics in years and is trying to read through the famous Mike and Ike quantum computing textbook.

COMIC ◆ www.smbc-comics.com/comic/easier
PATREON ◆ www.patreon.com/ZachWeinersm...
STORE ◆ smbc-store.myshopify.com

jokerfied every year

It's over 70F before noon. Pour one out for all the middle school teachers whose classes will be running around outside during lunch and then coming to class in a building with no AC.

I'm pretty sick of self-serving essays about how every problem of the modern world would be fixed if only everyone would see the light and embrace the author's area of specialization, I'd like to see some folks saying positive things about stuff they DON'T work on.