Elsewhere (272)
Via Herb Deutsch, Heather Mac Donald on identitarian dogma versus scientific proficiency:
Yale has created a special undergraduate laboratory course that aims to enhance minority students’ “feelings of identifying as a scientist.” It does so by being “non-prescriptive” in what students research; they develop their own research questions. But “feelings” are only going to get you so far without mastery of the building blocks of scientific knowledge. Mastering those building blocks involves the memorisation of facts, among other skills. Assessing student knowledge of those facts can produce disparate results. The solution is to change the test or, ideally, eliminate it. A medical school supervisor recently advised a professor to write an exam that was less “fact-based” than the one he had proposed, even though knowledge of pathophysiology and the working of drugs, say, entails knowing facts.
Note too the claim, by the National Science Foundation, that progress in science requires a “diverse STEM workforce,” seemingly regardless of how this goal is arrived at. And as if the insufficiently “diverse” scientists previously supported by the NSF, and who between them have racked up a mere 200 Nobel Prizes, were somehow under-performing due to antiquated expectations of actual competence.
Also at Yale, this. Because an “emotional support guinea pig” is now a thing that exists.
Noah Rothman on the cost of universities’ administrative bloat:
In the 20-year period from 1985 to 2005, the number of administrators increased at universities by 85 percent while the number of students and faculty increased by only 50 percent. In that same period, the number of administrative staff ballooned by a staggering 240 percent. It is no coincidence that in nearly the same period… the cost of achieving a higher education exploded. Between 1985 and 2011, the cost of a four-year degree increased by 498 percent while consumer inflation rose by just over 100 percent.
And Toni Airaksinen smells more money being burned in the name of wokeness:
The University of California-Irvine Esports programme is looking to help promote “social justice” in the competitive gaming industry.
Consequently, computer-games enthusiasts will be “required to undergo ‘diversity and inclusion’ trainings.”
As usual, feel free to share your own links and snippets, on any subject, in the comments.
Note too the claim, by the National Science Foundation, that progress in science requires a “diverse STEM workforce,” seemingly regardless of how this goal is arrived at.
Japan will be gutted.
A medical school supervisor recently advised a professor to write an exam that was less “fact-based” than the one he had proposed, even though knowledge of pathophysiology and the working of drugs, say, entails knowing facts.
In case anyone was wondering how civilizations ship into extended “dark ages,” it’s stuff like that.
In case anyone was wondering how civilizations ship into extended “dark ages,” it’s stuff like that.
On the upside, we may soon have a generation of doctors who, while not entirely competent or in full possession of the relevant facts, are, on average, browner and more womanly.
So there’s that.
Diversity will soon require recruiting more males as GPs. Lack of female doctors is no longer a problem.
I have increasingly students who arrive in my class at Year 9 never having had a male teacher. That imbalance has been noticed, and regretted, but without a shouty group to push little is being done.
It would be helpful to know what the difference is between ‘administrators’ and ‘administrative staff’…
Consequently, computer-games enthusiasts will be “required to undergo ‘diversity and inclusion’ trainings.”
Which is likely to give the traditional result:
A medical school supervisor recently advised a professor to write an exam that was less “fact-based” than the one he had proposed, even though knowledge of pathophysiology and the working of drugs, say, entails knowing facts.
How much of this crap has to go down before people stop trusting browner and more woman-identifying doctors?
And how is this going to go down in the Real World, at least in the US, that lawsuit-happy society the more progressive countries like to laugh at? When one of these poorly-trained know-nothing “doctors” screws up, and lives are lost or horribly affected – what then?
When one of these poorly-trained know-nothing “doctors” screws up, and lives are lost or horribly affected – what then?
They’ll find some white guy or asian (in the US sense) guy to sue. This is how the progressive game is played. You are assuming some sort of logic, a consistency of rules with faith in the concept of equality before the law. It simply does not work that way with leftists. If it did, this idiocy would never have gotten this far. We lacked the will to stand up to this nonsense and shut it down at the educational level and now it must persist into society as a whole. This idiocy will not be stopped until we refuse to fund it at the academic level. I think I said this before. Like ten minutes ago, but probably more than a few times before that. I’m a dick that way. Probably other ways as well but I’m getting too old to GAF.
I was going post Real Per Review’s take on this here, only to discover you’be kicked off the whole post with it. But, having gone to the effort of having copied the link, I think I’ll do it anyway.
(Bonus points to anyone who comes up with the appropriate Fraggle-based response to that decision.)
It would be helpful to know what the difference is between ‘administrators’ and ‘administrative staff’…
I’m assuming it’s the distinction between the Departmental Grand Poo-bah of Equity, Diversity and Kitten Glitter™, and her legions of underlings. As seen, for instance, here, where an office of 17 “diversity” underlings is not unheard of. Or considered excessive.
Twenty years from now state medical boards will be licensing shamans shaking rattles.
Tsk. Someone needs a session with the Wokeness Realignment Bonnet.
I can’t legally claim that it’s painless, but it will purge any aberrant opinions.
As seen, for instance, here, where an office of 17 “diversity” underlings is not unheard of. Or considered excessive.
Pikers.
Dear god, not the Bonnet!
David, I didn’t realize you were posting the links to the content over on your GAB feed.
It’s sort of wild and wooly over there, but I urge you all to get on GAB. They don’t let the Clown Quarter police the users or the content.
I didn’t realize you were posting the links to the content over on your GAB feed.
Just links and summaries. I don’t spend much time there, partly for the same reason I don’t have a Twitter account. I’d just end up having duplicate exchanges on multiple platforms about the same posts, but in a truncated form, due to the limited word count.
And I think that might push me over the edge.
Note too the claim, by the National Science Foundation, that progress in science requires a “diverse STEM workforce,” seemingly regardless of how this goal is arrived at.
A fair amount of ‘diversity’ here without any effort, as excellence attracts excellence:
https://www.trin.cam.ac.uk/alumni/famous-trinity-alumni/nobel-laureates/
(Trinity College,Cambridge, has more Nobels than France.)
A fair amount of ‘diversity’ here without any effort,
As so often, these clowns are utterly condescending to students of science and medicine who happen to be female and/or brown-skinned. As if they couldn’t possibly cope unless everything is made fluffier and less demanding.
See, for instance, here.
“The University of California-Irvine Esports programme is looking to help promote ‘social justice’ in the competitive gaming industry.”
As if the entire concept of “Esports” wasn’t insane enough.
(And I’ve been a videogamer for more than 35 years. Then again, I suppose Major Wingfield’s mind would be boggled at how seriously some folk take Sphairistikè these days. It takes all sorts.)
“White women are becoming the new white men”
https://twitter.com/nerkish/status/996189263707410434
They always eat their own.
“White women are becoming the new white men”
With some people it’s poison all the way down.
A medical school supervisor recently advised a professor to write an exam that was less “fact-based” than the one he had proposed…
Note too the claim, by the National Science Foundation, that progress in science requires a “diverse STEM workforce,”
The solution is obvious: if the latter is a fact, dismiss it.
we may soon have a generation of doctors who, while not entirely competent or in full possession of the relevant facts, are, on average, browner and more womanly.
Italians?
Italians?
[ Points to Wokeness Realignment Bonnet. ]
“White women are becoming the new white men”
But does the government pay for the reassignment surgery?
“White women are becoming the new white men”
As the saying goes, you’re going to hate the new rules.
Off-topic: The great LP makes four grand a month being odd. Scroll to just before halfway.
I guess that explains it.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/may/14/patreon-rise-jordan-peterson-online-membership
I have popcorn stocked for the day some SAP [Spoiled American Princess] arrives at a dorm full of same with her emotional support skunk.
I guess that explains it.
I find myself in the unsettling position of agreeing, fleetingly, with Laurie Penny. In that, it does feel odd, the first time you invite your readership to fling cash at you when they don’t have to. It’s a bit of an acid test, in that, if you point to the tip jar and no-one hits it, it would be rather deflating, and deflating in a way that would be hard to fudge or rationalise. But if it works, even somewhat, it’s affirming, motivating, and you can quite quickly get used to it. Shamelessly, as it were. And hopefully your readers will too. It is, after all, the only way that some rickety barges, including this one, stay afloat.
May be relevant.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PdKXTu-er4
‘Zamora’s husband told the teen’s father that his wife had “made a big mistake, but that she loved the kids,” according to court records obtained by the newspaper.’
Less than a year into her tenure, I guess she did love the kids. Why don’t female perpertrators get shamed like their male counterparts? And why is hubby trying to cover for her?
https://nypost.com/2018/03/26/teacher-allegedly-performed-oral-sex-on-13-year-old-in-class/
I suspect Zamora’s primary mistake was becoming the sort of individual who desperately desires the power to manipulate others. Thus, the sex with a thirteen year old. And the marriage to a gutless idiot. And the teaching position.
it does feel odd, the first time you invite your readership to fling cash at you when they don’t have to.
Like them or not, platforms like Patreon are as much marketing tool as pragmatic fund-raiser. Kickstarter is likewise; think of it as a way to find and entice scores of hundreds of folks who might not otherwise see your product.
They’re marketing vehicles that happen to fund-raise. They tell your audience you’ve taken an important step, and that burnishes your status.
You’ve been at this a long time and you’re good at it, DT. You may wish to consider using the nitwit’s own strategy. Evolve the blogosphere, baby.
God, I want to throat-punch scribbler Alex Hern, right in his neckbeard.
If I were a 13-year-old boy seduced by Brittany Zamora, a 27-year-old teacher, would I consider myself “victimized” or “lucky”?
Face it: Facts are just words. No one word is any better than another.
In fact, the word “fact” is just another word used to privilege other words used by oppressors to coerce compliance from the oppressed, AKA med students.
Anyway, today’s woke med students can just google the answers in tests. For in-depth questions in short answer form, they can copy off Web MD.
The really progressive med schools are ditching tests entirely and replacing them with tweets.
Geezer I reckon all boys in high school always wanted to have the hot teacher. In those more demure times, about 20 years ago for my age bracket, it was a case not unlike the dog that finally caught up with the car. What do we do now? Today it is hypersexualised with social media and more relaxed attitudes to sex. Ms Zemora is indeed attractive but I agree with Squires upthread. She seems the domineering type and the husband a beta male who needs to ask himself why she strayed with a 13 year old kid. And the lad in question might not be the only one courted by Ms Zemora.
It’s great to live in a country where, if you really put your mind to it, you can grow up to identify as anything you choose.
Meanwhile, in the Financial Times.
Readers may wish to draw their own conclusions.
And I’ll just leave this here for no reason whatsoever.
It’s unknown whether all of the allegations were legitimate bias incidents or hate crimes
Would that be like Azhar Hussain? He must have tenure.
http://www.tribstar.com/news/isu-professor-arrested-accused-of-making-up-threats-and-attack/article_c7ca5b60-26d9-11e7-a35a-0f3c7868f652.html
Would that be like Azhar Hussain?
See also this compendium of “hate crime” fabrication and hysteria. The final example – of Kerri Dunn, a psychology professor at Claremont McKenna – is particularly surreal.
I find myself in the unsettling position of agreeing, fleetingly, with Laurie Penny.
*record scratch*
*record scratch*
I should point out, for decency’s sake, that the agreement was brief and confined to a small, very limited point. I doubt we’re on the cusp of being besties or anything.
God, I want to throat-punch scribbler Alex Hern, right in his neckbeard.
As the conventional boomer rightist slowly becomes just a progressive with a different lifestyle obsession, the alt-right, such as it may be, is not only appropriate, it’s probably necessary. The codependent boomer con-right can’t even identify its principles any more. So it stopped trying and now it’s a slow-motion social movement that owes its fleeting existence not to anything it’s ever done but to an Accidental President.
This alt-right thing, whatever it means, is the inevitable slack of the inevitable next thing. They’re already poking around the ashes, looking back at what happened. Somebody has to.
And I’ll just leave this here for no reason whatsoever.
While we are on the topic…
Also in South Carolina, maybe something in the water. Click on the good reverend’s farcebook post on the left, then watch the video – you wanted the rozzers to have body cams, you got body cams. Oops.
Click on the good reverend’s farcebook post on the left, then watch the video – you wanted the rozzers to have body cams, you got body cams. Oops.
Just watched that, what a disgrace. It’s one thing for two parties to get into a heated dispute and have two different accounts, quite another for someone to just invent a confrontation when there is none. Lying little shit.
I think body cams are an excellent idea, protecting both the police and the public.
I doubt we’re on the cusp of being besties or anything.
He says, buzz-cutting his hair and buying pink hair dye. Do let me know if you get into polyamory.
He says, buzz-cutting his hair and buying pink hair dye.
If you’ve quite finished. See, now I’m imagining the two of us in some kind of ‘mismatched neighbours’ sitcom.
And I’ll just leave this here for no reason whatsoever.
“I should have studied law instead of political science.” Guffaw.
If you’ve quite finished.
I have, but part of me wishes I was just getting started.
I know it’s only a Facebook post but our president of the NAACP chapter and local pastor driving the Mercedes is borderline illiterate. I think this may tie back in with those falling education standards often mentioned around here.
…quite another for someone to just invent a confrontation when there is none. Lying little shit.
That is what makes zero sense in the case of the “reverend” as he could by rights have gotten a half dozen tickets and his car impounded instead of “make sure your seat belts are on and drive safe.”
What, really, did he expect to get out of his confabulation ? The cop fired for pointing out that Jockomo’s Used Car’s allegedly screwed up the paper work (I am not aware of any place in the US where just switching plates is legit, as anyone who has ever traded a car would know) ? A #BLM crowd stirred up so he wouldn’t have to go to the DMV to get it sorted ? Material for a fiery Sunday sermon ?
I know it’s only a Facebook post but our president of the NAACP chapter and local pastor driving the Mercedes is borderline illiterate.
Why do I get the impression he believed his status in the NAACP granted him powers and privileges his intellect could not secure for him?
Meanwhile, in the Financial Times.
Reading the replies to that tweet…sigh. Not one for the twitter thing so I’ll repeat it here to the choir, homeless people are not homeless because housing is “unaffordable”. There is plenty of affordable housing in the civilized world and even just outside most absurdly real estate inflated major cities. Homeless people are homeless because, for whatever reason, they don’t know how to take care of themselves let alone even a small apartment. I’d change my nic to “Stuck Record” but I’m fairly certain someone here already has it.
What, really, did he expect to get out of his confabulation?
The simple answer is that he knows (as do others who manufacture “hate crimes), that there are many, many people who are so emotionally invested in the “white supremacy, keep the black man down, cops are evil” narrative, that the existence of evidence refuting his allegations will be dismissed as some sort of fabrication. Everything, no matter how contradictory, is evidence of the conspiracy.
Recall l’affaire Ferguson and Michael Brown. The matter was investigated to the hilt by a Democrat prosecutor and Obama’s DOJ. The evidence didn’t support the narrative, but no matter. To this day, there are people in St. Louis who claim that the whole thing is a massive cover-up.
In the meantime, the good reverend increases his visibility and bona fides as a “leader” in the civil rights community.
It’s really a no lose proposition.
It’s no fun at all being the kid the teacher had sex with. It distorts your relationship with your parents. It leaves you both the butt of jokes (and distorted) envy. People see things in you that they would otherwise not.
Imagine trying to go out with a girl you like in the school if she knows you had sex with the teacher.
It’s not necessarily a life-ruining thing, depending on the moral strength of the boy, but it’s not a good thing.
A female teacher next door to me had sex with two of my students. It was not a good time for anyone when it came out. (She was out the door 30 minutes after the Principal was told, and was soon struck off the Register. There is zero excuses that fly for that. Zero.)
How much of this crap has to go down before people stop trusting browner and more woman-identifying doctors?
That.
And how is this going to go down in the Real World,…(w)hen one of these poorly-trained know-nothing “doctors” screws up, and lives are lost or horribly affected – what then?
This.
Some unhappy history.
It’s really a no lose proposition.
There is a large difference, though. In Ferguson the cop was alone in territory generally less than hospitable to ofay 5-0 when it comes to witnesses, vs. The Right Reverend Dufus staring straight into a body cam, and not even getting so much as a warning.
He would have to be, and may well be, dumber than a creosote post without the creosote not to know that the minute he started stirring the burn out barrel the police would release the video and make him look the fool.
At least the bint in the first video had a hint of an excuse for her asininity as through her histrionics she was trying to beat a speeding ticket even though, unless she had recently been dropped on her head several times, and being from Virginia, she knew full well that south of The Line of Mason and Dixon there is no such thing as a two lane rural road with a speed limit of 70, signs or no signs.
Montana and a couple other places out west where there is no traffic but the occasional cow and dead nuts straight roads are different story.
All that “diversity, equity and inclusion” – it don’t come cheap.
Homeless people are homeless because, for whatever reason, they don’t know how to take care of themselves let alone even a small apartment.
Indeed. Homelessness in the west is a function of mental health care, not poverty. Perhaps correctly, we can’t just lock these people in a nuthouse, but the result is they end up homeless.
All that “diversity, equity and inclusion” – it don’t come cheap.
As I’ve argued at my place, most of this is just a middle-class welfare progamme made possibly thanks to the west being incredibly rich.
Made *possible*
most of this is just a middle-class welfare programme
Are you suggesting that “diversity” offices don’t in fact employ the brightest and best, or even the moderately competent, to perform vital labours?
How dare you, sir.
I have, but part of me wishes I was just getting started.
Oh do let me carry the torch, then. I’d certainly like to know where did this come from.
[ Points to Wokeness Realignment Bonnet. ]
The beatings will continue until you win another major…
https://www.sport24.co.za/Golf/PGATour/former-us-open-champs-wife-arrested-20180516
Today’s word is Facebook. Click the image.
Diversity offices exist to employ graduates of Diversity and Intersectional Studies programs so that they can continue burrowing into the daily lives of people just trying to work by devising mandatory “trainings” to brainwash and coerce – I mean educate and inspire – using ever-changing jargon and half-baked notions like white privilege and implicit bias.
In short, Diversity is a protection racket.
Today’s word is Facebook. Click the image.
I hazarding a guess that the ladies pictured don’t reside in Chicago or Baltimore.
I swear, it’s if they have an agenda or something.
I swear, it’s if they have an agenda or something.
And a kind of shameless incompetence. As if they think no-one can see.
There’s a longer version here, by the way.
See also this.
More here.
Meanwhile, in academia:
Apparently, you encourage female students by treating them as inherently incompetent and therefore entitled to cheating and inflated grades.
It’s no fun at all being the kid the teacher had sex with. It distorts your relationship with your parents. It leaves you both the butt of jokes (and distorted) envy. People see things in you that they would otherwise not.
Imagine trying to go out with a girl you like in the school if she knows you had sex with the teacher.
There’s also the lifelong emotional damage and relationship dysfunction that comes from forced early sexualization by an in loco parentis authority figure. Let’s not forget about that.
Farnsworth was the good reverend you mentioned upthread along the LGBTI spectrum? If he/xe/zie was here in Queensland, he/xe/zie would have been in good hands.
https://mypolice.qld.gov.au/centenary/2018/05/17/online-learning-tool-helps-police-engage-lgbti-community/
‘But it’s hard not to see Trudeau’s penchant for penitence as a particularly Canadian form of self-aggrandizement – humble-bragging about how bad you feel. Congratulating ourselves for feeling guilty makes us feel good again, and the praise we lavish on ourselves for our honesty is warmly received – by us. Trudeau is the embodiment of the new man of feeling, who’s not afraid of emotion. He wells up when talking about his father, residential school survivors, Syrian refugees and the death of a Canadian pop star. For some, it’s a feminist victory. For others, it’s exasperating to turn on the TV and see the prime minister with his beautiful face awash in tears, like a My Little Pony glistening with bathwater.’
Um, yeah. Thoughts?
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/may/16/canada-justin-trudeau-apologising-too-much
Particularly Canadian or particularly Leftist? Because an all lot of non-Canucks seem to be in on that act.
The planned grade boosts were part of his own “experiments to understand the attitudinal and motivational factors of female students that explain their success and failures,” Liu said.
Liping Liu’s grasp of gender politics is like his grasp of the English language (“students who missed reporting attendance as long as I can tell”). He’s understood the message perfectly correctly (you’ll graduate more women if you know what’s good for your career), but when he tries to express it himself it comes out wrong.
Here’s how it’s done properly:
If you’re keeping score at home:
* In non-STEM subjects, sassy, whip-smart girls are running rings around their male classmates, because the boys think it’s not macho to take an interest in the subject, keep up with their homework, and participate in class.
* In STEM subjects, nerds are creating an intimidating macho atmosphere in the classroom by taking an interest, keeping up with their homework, and participating in class.
16-17 May 1943.
We will now return you to our regularly scheduled broadcasting.
Not merely Canadian. Also elevated to near religion in Germany, at least in theatric recognitions of a notional national guilt.
Doesn’t Professor Liu realize he is sabotaging the efforts of those females who are qualified to do the work? Prospective employers/graduate programs will wonder whether a particular student actually earned her grades or was merely the recipient of “mercy marks” and thus avoid all of them.
…and thus avoid all of them.
That, or be forced to hire them because of “diversity” quotas or similar nonsense.
16-17 May 1943.
The Derwent Reservoir, used by the squadron to practise the low-altitude raids, is a few minutes’ drive from Guild of Evil HQ.
He’s understood the message perfectly correctly (you’ll graduate more women if you know what’s good for your career),
Well, if you start from such a dubious assumption – that all statusful spheres of activity should, naturally and by default, result in gender parity, and that any deviation from that conceit must be due to dastardly forces – then errors will tend to follow, and quickly multiply.
That, or be forced to hire them because of “diversity” quotas or similar nonsense.
“Diversity” does not require that anyone hire Professor Liu’s students, however. I know I’m preaching to the choir here, but there are highly qualified women in STEM. As I’ve noted before on these pages, my son’s two favorite STEM professors (Maths & Computer Engineering) have been women, both of whom rose through the ranks of industry and academia before all this diversity nonsense arose. (Both went on emeritus status this year. One is “of color,” as the cool kids say.) Both have reputations of being demanding of their mostly-male students, but they’re also universally praised as being outstanding professors. The professors Liu of this world do such women a disservice.
The professors Liu of this world do such women a disservice.
Absolutely.
I see that the print media is still haemorrhaging readers.
“Diversity” does not require that anyone hire Professor Liu’s students, however.
True indeed, but my dyspepsia is, as you allude, she is far from a N=1.
[M]y dyspepsia is, as you allude, she is far from a N=1.
My advice to you . . .
“Diversity” does not require that anyone hire Professor Liu’s students, however.
Really? Maybe not universally, and maybe not universally yet, but many government contracts either require or favorably lean toward minority and women quotas while at the same time require certain credentials. Professor Liu is in the business of passing out credentials. And the cycle continues.
A few years ago a cousin of my wife died. Her memorial was attended by people from around the world.
She had worked and taught in the field of hard-rock mining, in Colorado, Utah, and elsewhere.
Meeting her it would never cross your mind, at first, that she might be in that industry. She was a petite Chinese lady (maybe 5’2″ ), married to a violinist, with a son in a PhD Space physics program.
Rongyu would have nothing but disdain for prof Liu’s ideas.
The Derwent Reservoir, used by the squadron to practise the low-altitude raids, is a few minutes’ drive from Guild of Evil HQ.
Why aye?
The Derwent Reservoir, used by the squadron to practise the low-altitude raids, is a few minutes’ drive from Guild of Evil HQ.
It’s a shame that the Guild failed to wield an amulet or two yesterday morning. I drove all the way over there and had hiked two miles uphill to Ladybower Dam carrying about 20 kilos of camera gear only to find out that the Lancaster would not performing the scheduled fly-past.
“Be performing”….
Would you be kind enough to provide a source citation (and link) for that assertion?
The Derwent Reservoir … is a few minutes’ drive from Guild of Evil HQ.
Which Derwent Reservoir?
Which Derwent Reservoir?
Weeeelllll, when I click on one of those links I read of a memorial plaque telling of the 617 squadron, so I’m guessing that somehow that particular link and site might be the one . . . .
The Peak District scenery, which is practically on the doorstep, is something I’ve come to appreciate, not least as a mental detox from blogging about wokelings, performance artists and assorted bedlamites.
The Peak District scenery, which is practically on the doorstep, is something I’ve come to appreciate
In ’02 we drove London to Bath to Lake District (Windemere and Grasmere) to Manchester. Lake District was some beautiful country. Peak District looks quite similar.