The Fora: A Higher Education Community

Quote from: the_geneticist on May 09, 2025, 09:48:29 AMA previous colleague of mine who taught microbiology had a 0 tolerance for water bottles in the microbiology lab.  Oh, the student would get their bottle back.  After it went through a sterilizing cycle in the autoclave.  Not sure how they are handling the cell phones.

Why not put them through the autoclave? That should solve the problem.....

This humor is funny, I guess, but the question remains-- what will you do when phones show up?   Anyone who has the answer to this increasing problem gets to go to the head of the class.

If the water bottle or phone infected by a biologic in the lab could be returned to the owner without anyone else getting infected, I would let Charlie Darwin take care of this. However, negative third party effects have to be taken into account.

I know: Give up your bottle or phone upon entering the lab, and pay a fee, a bloody big one. You get your stuff back -- without the fee -- after it has been defanged.

Oh, there is a plan.  It works very well.

"Be prepared to be bored" + plastic baggies

I'll let you figure it out

Dear colleague,
In nearly every meeting, you derail the agenda by bringing in your work and asking everyone else to do parts of it. It's totally obvious to everyone. Stick to the meeting topic and do your own job!

I agree we need to fix the systems and not just bandaid a solution.

Still... 20 minutes into the meeting... does the term "Boil The Ocean" mean anything to you?

If you call a meeting, please have an AGENDA.  And know the context for any materials you want discussed.
We spent 40 minute asking "do we use this spreadsheet or that one?"  "Does this column XX mean the same thing as column YY?"  "What does the highlighting mean?"

Quote from: ciao_yall on May 14, 2025, 01:10:43 PMStill... 20 minutes into the meeting... does the term "Boil The Ocean" mean anything to you?

Well, if you could manage to pull it off, it would sterilize things ever more effectively than the autoclave....

Quote from: apl68 on May 15, 2025, 07:27:06 AM

Quote from: ciao_yall on May 14, 2025, 01:10:43 PMStill... 20 minutes into the meeting... does the term "Boil The Ocean" mean anything to you?

Well, if you could manage to pull it off, it would sterilize things ever more effectively than the autoclave....

Planet wide extirpation of species in NOT Aseptic Technique.

Mods, how about setting out some protocols for responding to posts? When a forumite repeatedly addresses fellow forumites as "Dear Lady" "Dear colleague", "Dear [name of forumite]", "Chère Madame" when the "dear" clearly translates as "you idiotic dumbhead (or something equally disparaging)", said forumite continues to be pampered with responses that are often long and detailed. It's most of us forumites who've been losing patience, rather than the one who claims to be losing patience while at the same time upbraiding other forumites.

Having strong opinions on a variety of academic topics doesn't translate into knowledge about said topics as evident from the discussion on several threads.

Perhaps, perhaps not.  I confess I have noticed over the last few years (really since the debut of the new fora six years ago, when, as I have noted here, several of the stellar, first-rank vets of the old fora simply, for whatever reasons, decided against transferring over here in the first place) a significant decline in the calibre of the posters here, or at least in the calibre of what they say.  As well as a significantly lesser amount of humanists, making the snide sense of academic superiority many STEMers, esp younger ones, often evince, even harder to accept.  And what is even harder is the immature tendency of some people here to do something about me which I have never even considered doing about anyone here, namely to complain about getting their feelings hurt by my expressions of opinion which they dislike.  Regardless of any attempts to understand what I am saying (including a depressing tendency to confuse honest questions with assertions of fact, something unbecoming of academics), or,regularly, to offer evidence to undergird their own fact claims. 

Now I do get that I am decidedly on the humanists' side of the long-recognized academic dichotomy, and I dislike being looked down upon by scientists, who bask in the respect society simply does not show to humanities PhDs (witness, over the years, the endless supply of uselessly insulting exhortations given to me and other humanists, who did not win a coveted humanities ft professorship, to move on and find a good job doing, er, whatever, as if society recognized the inherent value of humanities PhD education in anything remotely resembling the way STEM PhDs are clearly viewed outside of academia).  Even in higher ed, this is true, which is why humanists are paid much less than STEMers, *for doing the same bleeping job*, something which never can happen in public k12 and is very rare even in private k12).  Ah well.   

Lastly, I confess I do not like the fact that, even as I am 20 years older than I was when I first appeared on the old fora, and many of you who are now here were not old enough to drive then, the disrespect for my age and experience, in essence for my position as an elder to many of you, who are young enough to be my children, is pretty bad.   One might well be forgiven for thinking that it should be clear that many of you younger ones could greatly benefit from my presence here, interacting with me, especially given that my extensive k12 experience in addition to higher ed experience, something almost no one else here has, should greatly increase the value of my participation.

I suppose I am about to be summarily defenestrated.   I do not want to go and do sincerely value my participation here.  But I will not beg to be allowed to remain.  If true, farewell.

Quote from: Langue_doc on May 18, 2025, 08:19:04 AMMods, how about setting out some protocols for responding to posts? When a forumite repeatedly addresses fellow forumites as "Dear Lady" "Dear colleague", "Dear [name of forumite]", "Chère Madame" when the "dear" clearly translates as "you idiotic dumbhead (or something equally disparaging)", said forumite continues to be pampered with responses that are often long and detailed. It's most of us forumites who've been losing patience, rather than the one who claims to be losing patience while at the same time upbraiding other forumites.

Having strong opinions on a variety of academic topics doesn't translate into knowledge about said topics as evident from the discussion on several threads.

A reminder that under account settings there is an "ignore list". I have a pretty high threshold for adding people to it, but just did so. I recommend it! There is no obligation to engage with anyone you find unpleasant for any reason.

Quote from: Langue_doc on May 18, 2025, 08:19:04 AMMods, how about setting out some protocols for responding to posts? When a forumite repeatedly addresses fellow forumites as "Dear Lady" "Dear colleague", "Dear [name of forumite]", "Chère Madame" when the "dear" clearly translates as "you idiotic dumbhead (or something equally disparaging)", said forumite continues to be pampered with responses that are often long and detailed. It's most of us forumites who've been losing patience, rather than the one who claims to be losing patience while at the same time upbraiding other forumites.

Having strong opinions on a variety of academic topics doesn't translate into knowledge about said topics as evident from the discussion on several threads.

Mods, how about making sure that threads are on topic? The teaching threads have degenerated into such chaos, that it's difficult to post/read relevant responses in the "Favorite Student Emails", and earlier this year, in the "...Emails and "Bang Your Head in Despair" threads.

The fora have long held severe opposition to moderation.

I will also say it's a bit off topic to request moderator discussion of norms in threads where that is not the topic of the thread, and then request moderator intervention for making sure threads stay on topic.

Dating back to the old days of the fora was the core idea that threads evolve based on the participants. This showed up in the concept that the original poster didn't get to dictate how the conversation went, and that means that sometimes discussions get off topic. The idea has always been that you can scroll past things that don't interest you.

I can say I have no appetite for being the one to judge when threads are and aren't "on topic".

Quote from: Puget on May 18, 2025, 08:24:01 PM

Quote from: Langue_doc on May 18, 2025, 08:19:04 AMMods, how about setting out some protocols for responding to posts? When a forumite repeatedly addresses fellow forumites as "Dear Lady" "Dear colleague", "Dear [name of forumite]", "Chère Madame" when the "dear" clearly translates as "you idiotic dumbhead (or something equally disparaging)", said forumite continues to be pampered with responses that are often long and detailed. It's most of us forumites who've been losing patience, rather than the one who claims to be losing patience while at the same time upbraiding other forumites.

Having strong opinions on a variety of academic topics doesn't translate into knowledge about said topics as evident from the discussion on several threads.

A reminder that under account settings there is an "ignore list". I have a pretty high threshold for adding people to it, but just did so. I recommend it! There is no obligation to engage with anyone you find unpleasant for any reason.

Thank you for this salutary reminder.